Hotmail
|
|
|
|
|
All reviews by user Date  Helpful Rating 6 out of 6 users found this helpful  Almost GreatPosted: 11/7/2005A review of North Country by Lupus620 Charlize Thereon is worth watching in anything. (They used to say, Id watch her reading the phone book until someone actually did that on Sesame Street.) And Sesame Street brings to mind whats wrong with this film Its so cartoonish it seems directed at kids, though, like that great kids show, it has a lot to teach grown-ups, too.
In this depiction of harrassment of women in a mans workplace, The villains are truly villainous, the heroes heroic, the beautiful are beautiful and the ugly, ugly. Its very hard to take such black-and-white simplification seriously.
These issues have been done better, and in a more nuanced, adult, way by several other movies, notably Coal-Miners Daughter and Erin Brockovich, in which other beautiful actresses showed they could ACT in a good cause.
Nevertheless, the movie is powerful and gripping, and maybe really new to younger members of the audience (which I surely am not).
Thereon is absolutely terrific. Other members of the cast are also very good, especially Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, and the fine actor (whose name I regret forgetting) who plays Therons father.
Bottom line This is a picture worth seeing and worth siding with, even if some of it seems somewhat overwrought. And Charlize Theron alone is worth the price of a ticket! Was this review helpful? Sign In 1 out of 2 users found this helpful  The Absolute WorstPosted: 6/30/2004A review of The Stepford Wives by Lupus620 I wish there were a 0 Star rating, or even a Negative Star class; this unbelievably bad movie should get a Minus 4. <br><br>This was the first time in my life I EVER stood up (in an almost empty theater) and said: "I've had enough." My wife looked at me and said, "I thought you'd never ask!" We left, in a swirl of popcorn and candy wrappers, about an hour into this travesty. In another first, I demanded -and got- my money back, from a theater manager who was not the least bit surprised. (I was tempted to use the armed robber's gag: "I really hated this picture; I want EVERYONE'S money back!" <br><br>I don't really know where to begin: From scene 1, this picture made me uncomfortable; by the time we left, I was writhing in my seat. It captured every stereotype in the book, unfunnily. It took great actors, capable of either funny or serious performances, and squeezed them into awful roles (ghastly Glen, beatup Bette, miserable Matthew; and Christopher Walken: where was Jack Nicholson when we really need him?). Worst of all, I guess, it could ruin a really fine original, which many remakes do.<br><br>I can only hope that like the 2nd "King Kong," and several other spectacular remake flops, this too will sink into oblivion, and spare its participants embarrassment. Was this review helpful? Sign In 2 out of 3 users found this helpful  Cry Your Heart OutA picture to make the deeply moving and depressing "House of Sand and Fog" seem like a laff riot by comparison, "21 Grams" moves majesterially forward to a shattering tragic conclusion of Shakesperian (or Sophoclean)proportions. In other words, it is a monumental downer. Almost everyone in it dies. Or worse.<br><br>But this is not to denigrate it one bit: This is a powerful drama - searing, actually - with multiple performances of Oscar-worthy strength. The structure of the film is too artsy by far - it takes forever for the various strands to intersect, or even make sense. But when the time-lines clarify, and the pervasive aura of doom spills out into violent reality - the hit-and-run death of a father and two young children; the guilt of the recipient of the father's heart (Sean Penn); the even greater guilt of the driver (Benicio Del Toro); the anguish of both the driver's desperate wife (Melissa Leo), and the druggie widow/mother (Naomi Watts) is almost too much to bear.<br><br>Penn, as usual, is teriffic; Del Toro, playing against type, is genuinely affecting in a very unsympathetic role; Leo realizes the potential that any fan of "Homicide: Life on the Street" recognized (she was the tough red-headed sergeant); Watts convincingly falls apart. (Only Charlotte Gainsbourg, as Penn's wife, is merely good.)<br><br>This is not a movie for a good time. It is a great movie for a sobering time. Was this review helpful? Sign In 1-3 of 3 Per Page |
||
