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CollectionsEventually, I gave in and watched the damned thing... Until recently, I thought it was nearly impossible to see this movie but even though it didn't seem to be the case, I didn't think I would watch it. However, I was given a link with a streaming version so I still ended up watching it... Eventually, it was one of the least rewarding watching experiences of my life. Indeed, the copy was terrible, the dubbing was audible but very badly made, the acting was just non-existent and it was just plain and simply a terrible movie. I think the whole thing had some potential but the end-result was just a endless bunch of voice overs. Honestly, even if you are a die-hard Kubrick fan like me, do yourself a favor, don't watch this. Kubrick made it clear that this movie was a mistake and the greatest film maker was after all a human being and I think we should actually respect his wish. Since then, this movie has actually been restored and you can now watch a much better version on Youtube, however, since I didnāt like it at all the first time around, I donāt think I will give it another try, even with a better version. Anyway, to conclude, I believe that watching this flick is a terrible waste of time and it is really not worth a look at all.Ā
A bad movie
Posted : 11 years, 6 months ago on 15 October 2012 07:13
(A review of Fear and Desire)
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A good movie
Posted : 11 years, 6 months ago on 15 October 2012 09:38
(A review of De kleine blonde dood)Since I have been living in the Netherlands, I have always been interested in Dutch movies. Even though this one is completely unknown here in Listal (Iām not the only who rated it so farā¦), it was actually a huge success in the Netherlands when it was released and it even won the Golden Calf of the best Dutch movie of the year. For Antonie Kamerling, who killed himself a couple of years ago, it was a breakthrough performance and everybody was surprised that a guy who only showed in a soap opera could be deliver such a heartfelt performance. I thought it was pretty good but I also thought it followed too much the pattern of similar Dutch movies, patterns which has been set ever since āTurks Fruitā came out (sex, full frontal nudity, drugs, destructive and anti-social characters,ā¦). Still, it remains a heartbreaking story with some terrific performances by Kamerling and by the young boy portraying the title character. To conclude, even though it is not really a masterpiece in my opinion, it remains a very well made drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Dutch movies.
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An average movie
Posted : 11 years, 6 months ago on 15 October 2012 08:24
(A review of The Crazies )To be honest, I wasnāt really expecting much from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, I have noticed that Romero's flicks are a favorite by remakers. Indeed, this is already his 4th movie remade and since the original zombie trilogy have already been remade (sometimes even several times), they are apparently looking now for his more obscure movies. As I mentioned before, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this one but I must admit that I was actually pleasantly surprised. Indeed, I always had a weak spot for this kind of virus themed features and I thought it was actually well made with a few scary moment here and there. Of course, it was still nothing amazing though. The first issue was that there was not much consistency in the behavior of the infected people. Indeed, at first, they acted like some rather standard brainless zombies but, at some point, they started to form gangs, talk and even hunt people. Above all, I thought the whole thing was still too pedestrian and they really didn't add anything new to the whole genre. Still, in spite of its flaws, it remains a well made flick and it is actually worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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A good movie
Posted : 11 years, 6 months ago on 14 October 2012 11:54
(A review of Katie Tippel)I have always been interested in Paul Verhoeven's work and since I have been living in the Netherlands, I had easy access to his older work, his Dutch movies. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of this one but it was pretty neat to see Paul Verhoeven directing a costume drama for a change (at least, you have to admit he is rather versatile). It was Verhoeven follow-up feature after his breaktrough masterpiece 'Turks fruit' and he worked again with the same actors, Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven. Honestly, I thought it was pretty obvious that Paul Verhoeven was not really comfortable with the material. Furthermore, he experienced huge pressure to come up with a worthy follow-up for his critically and commercially successful 'Turks fruit' and he clashed repeatedly with producer Rob Houwer over the screenplay and didn't get the budget to make the film on the epic scale he had intended. He has even been quoted as saying that if he could ever redo one of his movies, it would be this one. So, as usual with Verhoeven, the whole thing is pretty sleazy but I still think it is a well made drama, I really enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Verhoeven's work.
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An average movie
Posted : 11 years, 6 months ago on 14 October 2012 11:47
(A review of War Horse)I wasn't expecting much from this flick but even though I'm not a huge fan of Spielberg, I must admit that his work is always worth a look. Furthermore, my wife is a huge fan of horses (we even used to have 3 of them in the past...) so it was a must see for us. Basically, it was a decent WWI feature but nothing really mind-blowing. I mean, it was visually really impressive but I wouldn't expect less from Spielberg. I also really enjoyed the way they managed to make the horse shows his feelings and communicate with the other characters. I mean, it never felt phony but rather genuine. Still, even though it was pretty uplifting, I thought the story was rather pedestrian. I mean, it was not bad at all but many events were really far-fetched, especially the ending and, to be honest, I never really cared about the whole thing. Furthermore, even though the events took place during the hell of one of the worst wars, there was still some room for a happy ending and some fluffy sentimentality but that's unfortunately a trademark inherent to Steven Spielberg's work. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it remains a very well made war feature and I still think it is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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An average movie
Posted : 11 years, 6 months ago on 12 October 2012 07:46
(A review of Virtuosity)A movie starring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington should be worth a look, right? No, I'm not talking about 'American Gangster' which was definitely a pretty good flick, I'm talking about that other movie they made together more than 10 years before. Back then, Russell Crowe didn't breakthrough yet and it will take him 2 more years, thanks to 'L.A. Confidential', to become a household name. Anyway, it is jsut some pretty average stuff here. Indeed, they tried to mix some Science-Fiction with some action stuff but the end-result was pretty disappointing. Denzel Washington delivers his usual performance and was allright but not really interesting and Russell Crowe was actually not bad at all as the bad guy and it would be interesting to see him play such a part in a better movie. In my opinion, the important thing when you are dealing with SF is that even though you may use your fantasy, it still has to make sense somehow. Unfortunately, this time, the whole thing was pretty idiotic and rather laughable. Without Russell Crowe, I'm afraid it would have been even worse. To conclude, even though it was nice to see those guys together, it still remains a very average flick and it is not really worth a look, I'm afraid.
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A forgotten gem
Posted : 11 years, 6 months ago on 12 October 2012 09:32
(A review of Slam)If I remember correctly, I saw this one when it was released in the theaters. I know it was pretty obscure but not that much actually. Anyway, with this kind of movies (a real Hip-Hop artist portrays a guy who aspires to become a Hip-Hop artist), there is always a risk that the whole thing wonāt work or that it wonāt be taken seriously arguing that there is no actual acting since the actor in question is actually portraying himself. In this case, it never crossed my mind. Indeed, Saul Williams gave a very heartfelt performance and I thought he was very convincing. There were also some pretty amazing rap-poetry battles not only by Saul Williams but also by Sonja Sohn. Furthermore, the directing was also pretty solid. Above all, I thought the grim tone and look really fit the subject and it was also appreciated that they didnāt provide any simple answer at the end. I mean, thatās one of the biggest issues with this genre, is that, coming from the gutter, the main character usually ends up with a record contract and becomes a huge star. Even though it does happen sometimes, most of those aspiring artists remain in the gutter and I think that makes a much more compelling story. To conclude, I thought it was a very good movie, probably the best in this genre, and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Hip-Hop.
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A classic
Posted : 11 years, 6 months ago on 12 October 2012 08:44
(A review of A Man for All Seasons)I wasnāt sure what to expect from this movie but since it won the best picture Academy award, I thought I should give it a try. It is only the 3rd movie directed by Fred Zinnemann that I had the pleasure to watch (following 'The Day of the Jackalā and āThe Nun's Storyā) and Iām more and more impressed every time by his work. I mean, those 3 movies were completely different but they all displayed some fascinating stories, some very solid acting and some expert directing. This time around, I was above all impressed by the dialogues. Indeed, it was basically a play adaptation and even though it was about 2 hours long, nothing much actually really happened but there was a lot of talking, thatās for sure. Eventually, itās a pity that I saw this on the BBC without subtitles and Iām afraid I honestly missed 50% of it which prevented me to enjoy the whole thing even more. Still, it was all very good. I mean, nowadays Iām always surprised about how dumbed down the movies are and after watching Zinnemannās feature, it was even more obvious. Indeed, in this movie, all the characters were so articulate, everything they said made complete sense and instead of getting some loud explosions, or some fancy CGI robots, you get instead an amazing battle of wits. Not only the dialogues were impressive but the acting was also quite amazing. As a matter of fact, it took me several minutes to actually recognize the great Orson Welles. Too bad his character died fairly quickly but I was equally impressed by Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw and (a very young) John Hurt. To conclude, it is an inspiring feature dealing with morals, religion and politics, I really liked it and it is definitely worth a look.
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A classic
Posted : 11 years, 6 months ago on 11 October 2012 12:20
(A review of My Fair Lady)Even though Iām not a huge fan of musicals, since it is a huge classic, I was still interested in this flick. The directing by veteran George Cukor (āA Star Is Bornā, āBorn Yesterdayā, āAdam's Ribā, āThe Philadelphia Storyā) was solid and Audrey Hepburn was also really charming and gave a decent performance even though she wasnāt even nominated at the Academy awards at the time. Hepburn was back then at the top of her popularity and she reprised the role which was originally played by Julie Andrews on Broadway. Eventually, it was a tremendous success and eventually won 8 Academy awards and since then, it has became one of the most beloved musicals ever made. Eventually, personally, I thought it was pretty good but nothing really mind-blowing though. I mean, it is a very well made musical, with some pretty good songs but like most of the musicals, I thought the story was actually pretty weak. I know it is inherent to the genre but I donāt believe it is necessary that musicals should have such fluffy storylines. Still, it remains an enjoyable flick, absolutely. Anyway, to conclude, it is a pretty good classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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An average movie
Posted : 11 years, 6 months ago on 11 October 2012 10:13
(A review of Joy)Since I have been living in the Netherlands, I have always been interested in Dutch movies and since this movie won the Golden Calf of the best Dutch movie of the year, I was really eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I thought it was rather disappointing. Basically, like many Golden Calf winners, I actually wondered why they picked up this movie. I mean, even though a few of those winners were really outstanding (āZwartboekā, āParadise Nowā, āSimonā, āDe Tweelingā,ā¦), many of them are just some terribly boring family features or some really obscure flicks that almost nobody has seen. This movie falls in the last category. I read somewhere on the internet that someone compared the directing to the Dardennes brother style and I thought it was indeed pretty accurate. The acting was also pretty good but, still, I didnāt really like this movie. I mean, it was just so terribly boringā¦ Like the Dardennes brothers, they used an intimate and natural approach to the directing, shooting the characters very closely, almost right in their face but the big difference with the Dardennes work, is that the characters were really not interesting, especially the secondary characters. In this case, since I didnāt care about the story and the characters involved, it was really hard to get into this flick. Still, even though it is a really tedious watch, it remains a well made movie and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Dutch movie.
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