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All reviews by user Date  Helpful Rating 0 out of 0 users found this helpful  The story of a warPosted: 2/8/2007A review of Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience by Charles1030 These stories of heartache, confusion, and anger combine to form a gallery of art that illuminates the conundrums of warfare and testifies to the philosophical instincts of the American soldier. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful  Lives of Others a Tense MarvelPosted: 2/8/2007A review of The Lives of Others by Charles1030 The Lives of Others is a miracle of a film that manages to be both subtle and intense at the same time.Whats even more astounding is that this is the feature debut from German writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who previously had made a few shorts and done some TV work.The international awards and acclaim The Lives of Others has received, along with a well-deserved Oscar nomination in the foreign-language category, should change all that. The movie is a political thriller but also a portrait of unexpected humanity - a marvel of controlled storytelling and mood, with brilliant performances. Then again, Henckel von Donnersmarck gives his actors rich material with which to work. These all feel like real people, flawed people, capable of mistakes and change who can surprise us as well as themselves. The members of the Stasi (the East German secret police) who rule this place - cruelly, arbitrarily, completely - arent caricatures but fully fleshed-out beings who inspire a real feeling of dread. To reveal much more would be a disservice. Well just say there are twists, ones that are both touching and stunning. And afterward they leave you wanting to see more from this filmmaker who clearly has a rare gift. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful  Say no, to NorbitPosted: 2/7/2007A review of Norbit by Charles1030 Norbit his wardrobe changes run the gamut of bad taste, ranging from a hot-pink velour sweatsuit to a fuschia two-piece bathing suit that will sear itself into the nether recesses of your memory. Actually, its not so much the clothes that make Rasputia as it is the mounds and mounds of flesh that surround them. This is a character that literally fills the screen. If you dont appreciate the vulgar pleasures of broad comedy, the ongoing fat joke in Norbit will likely strike you as misogynistic and mean-spirited, which may not be too far off the mark. Unlike the female characters Murphy portrayed in The Nutty Professor and its sequel the nurturing Mama Klump and the perpetually horny Grandma Klump Rasputia is purposely one-dimensional in the way she terrorizes her dweeb husband, Norbit (Murphy again), and everyone else within distance. (Even children and dogs arent safe around her.) While Rasputias blind-rage tantrums can be pretty funny stuff you can tell that Murphy is clearly having a ball, twitching and jabbering prior to one of her tirades theres little here to pull you into the storyline and elicit your sympathies for poor Norbits marital predicament. Consequently, a rekindled romance with his childhood sweetheart (a too thin Newton) comes off as fake, and even more extraneous than the romantic subplots in the Klump movies. As in those films, however, the fun in Norbit is watching Murphy at work the guy has a knack for bringing the physicality of his comic characters to life. He plays three roles here, including Norbits adopted father, a stubborn Chinese immigrant with no sense of political correctness, and theyre all fully realized in the physical sense but sadly lacking otherwise. Its too bad that the script doesnt serve Murphys multi-character talents in the way he deserves. If and when it ever does, he may actually make a comedy for the ages. Thats why i agree with California Dreamin. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful A handsome NotesPosted: 2/7/2007A review of Notes on Marie Menken by Charles1030 Marie Menkens films and paintings reveal a stunning fondness for the rhythms of nature, technology, and human custom. Handsome tribute is paid to the eponymous experimental filmmaker in Notes on Marie Menken, the fourth feature by Austrian docu helmer Martina Kudlacek, who previously made In the Mirror of Maya Deren. I think it should get the best film of 2007 pick of the year. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful Miscasting depite a good performacePosted: 2/7/2007A review of The Last Sin Eater by Charles1030 Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is arguably the most iconic female villain in film history. But the miscasting of Fletcher--still a forbidding screen presence--as a kindly grandmother is only one of many missteps that director Michael Landon Jr. (yes, its his son) makes in The Last Sin Eater. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful Superb and devastatingPosted: 2/7/2007A review of Black Friday by Charles1030 Anurag Kashyaps Black Friday is a superb and devastating piece of cinema that with justification can be compared favorably to Gillo Pontocorvos classic The Battle of Algiers in its dispassionate yet sweeping journalistic inquiry into cataclysmic social and political events. I think that the movie rarely catches fire as an involving human drama, but this is a large cast and complex criss-crossing from past to present. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful A Gambling, Scrambling LifePosted: 2/6/2007A review of Tazza: The High Rollers by Charles1030 Tazza is a Korean word referring to a gambler at the height of his powers. It could be applied to this films writer and director, Choi Dong Hoon, who transforms what could have been another chronology-scrambling time waster into a terrific film about the sensual energy and reckless optimism of youth.
i think that The Rubiks cube narrative includes moments of low humor, romantic yearning and shocking violence, with a detailed appreciation of the tactics of card games. But the films true pleasures are visceral, sensual the curve of a womans naked back as she sits on a bed talking to her lover the star-field glitter of a nighttime cityscape the interplay of color-coded rectangles in Mr. Chois widescreen shots, whose frames-within-frames evoke the Pop Art gorgeousness of early Pedro Almodóvar. Writer-director Choi Dong-hoon, whose grifter dramedy The Big Swindle was an unheralded gem two years ago, considerably ups the ante in his second feature, a long-limbed yarn centered on a bunch of ruthless professional gamblers. But involving characters and devil-may-care tone make the long running time hardly a stretch. The twists and turns continue until the very end of Chois mesmerizing, high-energy romp, whose 139 minutes zip by like a round of speed poker. Bet on Tazza to entertain you cant lose. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful  Burning problemsPosted: 2/6/2007A review of Burning Annie by Charles1030 For those fans of 24, such as myself, that IS the Kim Murphy you are thinking of, if you checked out the Credits section of this review. She appeared as Bridget, Mandys lover in two episodes of the first season. After seeing Burning Annie, Id say she got more out of !@ing face with Mia Kirshner than what transpires here. Thats not to say that shes completely terrible in this movie, but it does lead to the fact that what weve got here is a film thats dead in the water. The real shame of it is that I received the press kit of Burning Annie as well and theres a wittily written section entitled Burning Beginnings The Official Cinderella Story of Burning Annie. Whoever wrote that section should have helped with the script as well.
The entire gang. Now with a group like that, youve obviously got to expect a crapload of dialogue, which is exactly where this film fails. Even with a look at many of these peoples relationship problems, theres nothing remotely interesting to listen to when they talk. In this case, its the fault of the script, which doesnt provide much of anything interesting to keep it going for as long as it does. It gets to the point where a constant look at how far the film has gotten time-wise doesnt help. It just drags.and dragsand drags. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful  Hannibal fallenPosted: 2/6/2007A review of Hannibal Rising by Charles1030 I think that Gong Li is a welcome Japan woman as Hannibals Japanese aunt-in-law-mentor, Gaspard Ulliel isnt a bad young Lecter and Webbers direction is intermittently classy but this is a footnote rather than a film. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful Pipe DreamPosted: 2/3/2007A review of The Pied Piper by Charles1030 Unexpectedly revived thirtysomething years after its theatrical run, The Pied Piper , Jacques Demys 1972 retelling of the Grimms tale, is more affecting than affected. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful Becket returns, its costars oft snubPosted: 2/3/2007A review of Becket by Charles1030 Becket returns to the big screen this week, riding the swell of affection for its spectral star, Peter OToole. Superbly photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth, Becket is most compelling as a cinematic record of two uniquely charismatic actors, OToole and Richard Burton (as the title character), as legendary for their resonant exhalations as for their alcoholic intake. I like Peter Glenvilles staging of the material that is the opposite of cinematic, but the pleasure of these two extravagantly gifted actors at the top of their game - their diction! their conviction! their beauty! - is enormous. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful Messengers Creepy but FamiliarPosted: 2/3/2007A review of The Messengers by Charles1030 The Pang brothers, Danny and Oxide, arrive on American screens with high and horrific expectations, trailing a bloody body of Hong Kong ghost stories (like 2002s The Eye) that the twins have written and directed. A New York Times magazine profile last summer bumped the hype up a notch.
That all this has resulted in The Messengers, a stylish but almost completely generic thriller, is as anticlimactic as the movie itself. Its good for scaring 14-year-old girls and impressing budding cinematographers, and that, friends, is it. You know, this is a textbook, and the course its teaching is HSL Horror as a Second Language.
Its a little sad thats ultimately a good candidate for burial in a toxic waste dump because there are some good elements contained herein. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful Excuse for Moore No Excuse for BecausePosted: 2/3/2007A review of Because I Said So by Charles1030 Like the architectural-wonder cakes Diane Keatons character constructs in Because I Said So, the film is a stylishly gooey piece of work that demands to be oohed and aahed over. With its magazine-spread interiors and pretty dresses, this romantic comedy about a meddling mom and her unlucky-in-love youngest daughter might get what it wants. Using a recipe overloaded with adorable, too reliant on slapstick and spiced up with modern ideas about sex, the movie is as predictable as a crowd-pleaser can get. But crowds are likely to be pleased nonetheless, especially women who connect with its pat observations about the mother-daughter bond.
I thought i give one of the made-to-order romantic comedy so far this valentines day thats based on her performance by Mandy Moore and should do more romantic comedies. So, despite being rooted firmly in chick flick territory (with a high cuteness index), it has the capacity to please to viewers of both genders who appreciate the genre. This is a genre in which Moore shines. This is an appealing performer for Mandy Moore, but ultimately she cant turn Milly, the object of Daphnes pathological concern, into more than a collection of comely pouts and tantrums.
Amongst the cardboard-cutout supporting characters, Lauren Graham brings a welcome deadpan sensibility to the overeager proceedings as oldest sibling Maggie, a wry psychologist. Its too cool and im disappointed! Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful Fired! is not entertaining enoughPosted: 2/1/2007A review of Fired! by Charles1030 The actress and writer, stung by rejection, started by plying showbiz friends for their own humiliating tales. She then put together a stage show. She started writing a book. And now she has made a movie that, while unlikely to set the documentary market afire, is entertaining enough to succeed as a niche theatrical or TV release. Was this review helpful? Sign In 0 out of 0 users found this helpful Pipe DreamPosted: 2/1/2007A review of The Pied Piper by Charles1030 Unexpectedly revived thirtysomething years after its theatrical run, i think that The Pied Piper, Jacques Demys 1972 retelling of the Grimms tale, is more affecting than affected. Was this review helpful? Sign In |
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