i am iron man

Posted : 6 days, 23 hours ago on 8 May 2008 09:35 (A review of Iron Man)

iron man starts off with a bang. meet tony stark he's your average smart ass filthy rich weapons manufacturer played by a wonderful Robert Downey Jr. the first 20-30 minutes of the movie shows tony getting to know our troops in the middle east wich is rather hularious too.then later we see tony get captured by terrorists and build his first suit and makes an escape. Jeff bridges is obadiah stane stark's right hand man whom you won't even recognize in the movie until the credts roll and then you'll remeber that he's the dude without hair. leslie bibb is Christine Everhart the reporter that stark sleeps with also in the first 30 minutes of the movie only to try and down stark industries later in the movie.pepper potts is played by an all to charming Gwenyth Platrow who looks like clare danes in the movie more than anything else. pepper is stark's personal assistant and love interest throughout the movie. iron man is no doubt the best superhero movie we've had since the punisher. i wish i could say that iron man is true to the comics however i have not read them. iron man is truly something good and is very entertaining throughout the whole movie with powerful performances from the cast iron man it well worth the ten bucks.

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La ironía y la comedia

Posted : 1 week ago on 8 May 2008 06:11 (A review of As)

Brillante película sobre la religión, la mediocridad y la posibilidad de reírse sobre uno mismo y sus raíces. Los personajes son entrañables: Fernando Fernan Gómez haciendo de Dios es impagable.

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Strange Days- Dystopian Heaven

Posted : 1 week ago on 8 May 2008 05:01 (A review of Strange Days)

Checklist for the perfect Dystopian movie:

>Riots in the streets
>Plot only develops at night
>Search lights from passing helicopters infiltrate each room
>Soft haze of red lights light every room
>Partial nudity
>1980’s conception of ‘futuristic’ clothing
>Unfamiliar technical jargon
>Black market dealings
>Corrupt cops and Government

Well this film has it all. It’s like it read the manual and threw all the elements together. The result therefore has to be enjoyable and intriguing. The plot is acceptable, the end twist is predictable but still fun to watch it play out, even the shoddy acting from Juliet Lewis can slide due to the OTT nature of the film. It’s the run up to the new years eve of the millennium when Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), a heart-broken dealer of memories and real life experiences, comes into possession of a snuff clip which entangles him in the dark seedy world of murder and blackmail, which runs right up to the highest level. Will all be solved and saved before the bell tolls midnight?

I think the snag that I have with the film comes right at the end. Why do things always have to turn out ok, and why must the love interests always kiss and ruin the tension the whole film has built? I spent the film enjoying the love triangles only to have it ruined in one of the many closing scenes, which must rival ‘Lord of the Rings-Return of the King’ in longevity.

I think I feel so jaded by this because it did have great potential and held together a great many elements of the dystopian genre creating a formidable apocalyptic atmosphere which was just let down in places by a few bad acting sequences and directed moments.



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Hitler the Artist...?

Posted : 1 week ago on 8 May 2008 01:40 (A review of Max)


A concept that I’ve always amazed hasn’t been cashed in on more. This film tells the story of a 30 something Adolf Hitler struggling to find his calling in life after fighting at the front line in world war one.
Hitler (Noah Taylor) befriends a rich Jewish art dealer Max Rothman (John Cusack) who also served in the war and finds a common sympathy for Hitler’s sense of a lack of belonging and frustrations at the world around him in which he can’t quite find a place.
Rothman isn’t overly convinced with Hitler’s art but sees potential in his passion and vision, if only he can manage to harness it and project that onto the canvas.
Ever more frustrated at his inability to express himself visually, and at the Government for so submissively being beaten by the ‘Treaty of Versailles’ Hitler finds himself drawn towards the world of politics and takes instead to the stage to express himself. Of course the rest of the story is now History.

A film that gives a very different insight into the frantic mind of Hitler displaying his nervous frustrated and disjointed cognitive nature which is very different from the polished fervent image we are all familiar with, but its an aspect that Taylor incorporates and develops well as Hitler finds his footing in the arena of anti-Semitic public speaking.


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Action, blood, violence - so see it!

Posted : 1 week ago on 8 May 2008 07:54 (A review of Rambo III)

"God would have mercy. He won't."

With Stallone endlessly reeling out follow-ups to both Rocky and First Blood there is little wonder why he got type-cast, and why interest in both series kept dropping. Personally I find the products of Stallone's sequels aren't as dreadful as the critics seemed to think. Each new Rambo movie is another great addition to the action genre.

Rambo III doesn't deserve all the pasting it received (even by Stallone himself during a recent interview). This film is meant to be part of the action genre. With this objective in mind it succeeds spectacularly. From top to bottom the film is nothing but badass action, explosions and lots of killing. If you want a good action movie, Rambo III definitely delivers.

In this instalment we find the classic troubled Vietnam veteran John J. Rambo (Stallone) living a secluded life in a monastery. His old mentor Colonel Trautman (Crenna) is captured by the Russians and held prisoner in heavily guarded Soviet territory. As a mark of respect for Trautman, Rambo of course takes it upon himself to launch a rescue mission. With the help of some Afghan rebels, Rambo assembles enough ammunition to satisfy a small army and heads into Soviet territory.

From that point on the rest of the movie is nothing but action - guns, explosions, helicopters, tanks, Rambo's bow, Rambo's knife and plenty of ammunition.

Rambo III is probably on par with the second Rambo film. It's just cartoonish violence with little evidence of a plot holding it together. I am a massive fan of the action genre; hence I was very satisfied with the high level of action and violence. Lots of people get killed in creative ways. The final battle in particular is everything we have come to expect from the Rambo series.

Sylvester Stallone was presented with a Razzie Award for Worst Actor. It's entirely your opinion whether you agree with this decision or not. Personally I think the man is underrated. There is potential talent in other genres. For the first Rocky film he was even nominated for an Oscar (two Oscars actually - one for Best Actor, another for Best Screenplay). I find it unfair that the Razzie committee take such pleasure in giving Stallone so much criticism. In this film his performance isn't that bad. I will admit, though, that there's a lot of screaming, a lot of contrived line deliveries and plenty of opportunities to show off his muscular physique. Once again this is an action movie so don't expect an Oscar-worthy performance.

The director was also given a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Director. The directing is standard for the action genre. Action is entertaining, the drama is absurd. Rambo III was also given a very high budget so it looks quite epic at times. The action in particular is on a large scale. Several other Razzie Award nominations include Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay. The screenplay is actually quite terrible. There was an attempt at providing back-story and character development. This failed spectacularly. Much of the dialogue sounds wooden and lifeless. Once again, an action film is expected to contain this content.

Rambo III lacks the intelligence and ingenuity of First Blood; instead this has been replaced with an enormous rack of ammunition and firearms. This is definitely the weakest Rambo movie but it's certainly tolerable and it has an astronomical entertainment value.

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Average teen flick.

Posted : 1 week ago on 8 May 2008 07:41 (A review of Sixteen Candles)

"I loathe the bus. There has to be a more dignified mode of transportation."

Sixteen Candles is one of John Hughes' earliest movies. During the 1980s Hughes was the guru when it came to classic high school comedies that accurately encapsulate the torment and pain of life as a teenager. This film was Hughes' directorial debut. His career immediately took off as he directed such famous iconic teenage classics as Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Breakfast Club among several others.

Sixteen Candles is unfortunately one of Hughes' weakest films. It had all the suitable ingredients, but it was far too stereotypical and unfunny to be anything special. Over two decades after it was released and I still hear comments from people who have nostalgic memories of seeing the film. I'm sure when it was first released it was very popular. Time just hasn't been good to the film at all.

1980's teen favourite Molly Ringwald plays a teenager named Samantha Baker. Samantha's life hasn't been too good lately and wakes up on the morning of her 16th birthday full of promise and high hopes that it will be a special day. But Samantha's sister is getting married in the next few days and it has taken precedence over everything. Because everyone is so preoccupied with the upcoming wedding they all completely forget about Samantha's birthday. To make things even worse, Sam has a massive crush on the most popular guy in school (Schoeffling), and a young geek (Hall) develops an enormous crush on her.

I thought the concept of this movie was extremely good and I figured that it would be in good hands with Hughes at the helm. Despite such promise I found Sixteen Candles to be a teenage comedy without many laughs at all. Instead there's mindless potty humour, some clichéd jokes and a bunch of stereotypical characters. Most teen comedies from the 80s had a selection of stereotypical characters; however the characters presented here are shallow and played out for laughs. In a film like The Breakfast Club the characters are stereotypical, but also a lot deeper.

The script for this film just didn't have enough laughs. I will admit that there were a few decent lines of dialogue; however most of the jokes were crude and bleak (some even outrageously offensive). The filmmaking is fairly standard for the genre. Hughes knows how to direct a movie quite well. It was just the screenplay (that he penned himself) that ultimately doomed the movie.

Throughout the film's duration I blankly stared at the screen, expecting something interesting or funny to occur. No such luck, unfortunately. I don't know whether this can be attributed to my sense of humour or the screenwriter - either way the laughs are still very limited. I also noticed quite a bit of offensive material thrown in here as well (it basically encourages rape at some point). Ultimately, this script could have been a lot better if Hughes had removed the offensive stuff and instead replaced it with actual laughs.

Molly Ringwald's career was built on the 80s teen flicks she featured in. In this film I couldn't find many redeeming features in her character. Because her family forgot her birthday she feels that she has permission to be a bitch to everybody. I didn't find myself empathising with her very much. A very young Anthony Michael Hall plays an interesting young geek. He's quite irritating at times. Even so, he is still given a few good lines to work with.

Sixteen Candles falls strictly in the teen coming-of-age genre. Time hasn't been good to the film at all. The whole thing is clichéd and predictable, with a few too many unrealistic "feel good" moments. The only redeeming feature of this flick would be the limited but occasionally funny gags that are mainly toilet humour or sex-related dialogue. The impressive 80's soundtrack was another thing that I certainly liked. Some of the music is classic and catchy. If you were a teenager of the 80s you'd remember music like this.

Sixteen Candles is a film you can afford to miss. You're not missing anything spectacular. Honestly, it's not worth your time.

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The Strange Tales of Edogawa Rampo

Posted : 1 week, 1 day ago on 7 May 2008 06:20 (A review of Horrors of Malformed Men)

Here's a somewhat legendary Japanese cult film, that I've been wanting to see, ever since I read a review for it in Phil Hardy's "Encyclopedia of Horror" back in the late '80s. It was apparently banned in some countries, and it's still banned in its native Japan. Although, it is a bizarre ride and a bit disturbing, it's not overly gory. The reason for the ban in Japan is actually simpler than that; it's a matter of political correctness. The Japanese word for 'malformed' is considered extremely derogatory towards the handicapped. This, combined with the film's exploitative use of deformed human beings, is the reason for the ban. It's based on the stories of Edogawa Rampo (the Japanese answer to Edgar Allan Poe). The director, Teruo Ishii, originally started out adapting Rampo's "The Strange Tale of Panorama Island"; but fearing this would be the only chance he would get to direct a film using Rampo's work, he decided to add in bits from other Rampo stories like "Ogre of the Secluded Isle", "The Human Chair", "Walker in the Attic", and "The Twins". This of course makes the plot convoluted and has the effect of making the whole movie disjointed; but this only adds to the surrealistic dream-quality of the film, which actually edges into Jodorowsky territory in some scenes. I'm not going to get into the plot too deeply, because as I stated above it's just too much to try and unravel here. Here's the basics: Hitomi, a man seemingly suffering from amnesia, awakes to find himself trapped in a mental asylum (populated by crazed naked women no less). He tries to figure out why he's there, and he remembers something about an island, and a strange lullaby keeps running through his head. He's attacked by a bald man whom he manages to kill; and then he makes his escape by opening a window (apparently it's not a very secure asylum). Once outside he hears a female street performer humming the same strange lullaby which is familiar to him. He confronts the woman, and just as she's about to reveal the location of the island from his memory, she gets knifed in the back. Hitomi is framed for the murder and has to make an escape. While on a train he sees a picture of a recently deceased man named Genzaburo, that happens to look just like him. Hitomi assumes the dead man's identity, fooling Genzaburo's relatives by making them think his death was misdiagnosed (he even manages to get down and dirty with Genzaburo's wife and mistress). He learns that the island from his memory is just off the coast of Genzaburo's home. He also learns that Genzaburo's father, Jogoro, is living on the island and is trying to transform it into an 'ideal community'. Hitomi (still masquerading as Genzaburo) decides to take a trip to the island....and this is when the movie takes a trip into beloved lunacy. Jogoro's island is basically an extremely surreal and psychedelic version of the island of Dr. Moreau; and his 'ideal community' is populated by hybrid surgical experiments that have transformed people into the 'malformed men' of the title. OK, that's pretty much the basics of the plot, because there's plenty of craziness going on between the scenarios I described above; and I haven't even discussed the ending which is completely absurd (in that good kind of way that only the Japanese can seem to pull off). The crazed doctor, Jogoro, is played by Tatsumi Hijikata who is the founder of butoh (a type of performance-art dance). The director, Teruo Ishii, cast him in the role specifically for his butoh dance movements, which are pretty eerie when he's seen twisting and contorting his body crab-like across the rocky shore of the island. This mixed with Ishii's jump-cut editing of Hijikata's movements makes for a very memorable scene. I highly recommend this movie especially if you're into surrealistic films in the style of Alejandro Jodorowsky, or Edogawa Rampo adaptations like RAMPO NOIR and MOJU.

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Classic war drama.

Posted : 1 week, 1 day ago on 7 May 2008 07:53 (A review of Stalag 17)

"Nobody has ever escaped from Stalag 17. Not alive, anyway."

When people look back at the classic World War II movies there is one indisputable fact: most of them are a story about the fighting or being in the trenches. Most Hollywood WWII films are just about the combat and the drama while on the front line. The opening narration states quite clearly that no films are made about the camps that housed the prisoners of war.

Celebrated writer/director Billy Wilder succeeds in creating one of the first movies about the prisoner of war camps that operated while the combat was occurring in a different part of the world. Stalag 17 is a film set in a German POW camp as we follow a cavalcade of fascinating character portrayed by a group of interesting actors.

The American prisoners held captive spend most of their time scheming ways to escape. But after an unsuccessful escape attempt resulting in the death of two prisoners, there is mourning among the Americans who are being treated unfairly by the cynical Col. von Scherbach (Otto Preminger). It soon becomes obvious that there must be a traitor among the prisoners; a mole that is feeding the Germans information regarding plans and the location of hidden items.

Stalag 17 is one of Billy Wilder's earlier movies. This was before The Apartment and Some Like It Hot; films that are even now held in high regard. Despite this being a reasonably early film, Wilder still manages to insert some great black humour and sharp dialogue mixed within all the drama that is also happening.

Like most of Wilder's movies I think the screenplay is exceptional. Realistic dialogue, funny lines, an interesting host of characters and a very engaging set of events. Stalag 17 may be a comedy but it also has a high level of authenticity in its replication of the POW camp. It looks like every last costume, set or prop was manufactured with the uppermost quality in mind. It would be very hard to replicate such a realistic and engaging atmosphere even using contemporary filmmaking technology.

William Holden was awarded an Oscar for his exceptional performance as the cynical, sharp-tongued POW who is deemed suspicious among the prisoners due to the amount of privileges he is awarded by the German soldiers. Holden's character is a slick soldier who isn't as fearful as his fellow prisoners. There was much acclaim towards the other cast members as well. Like I previously stated, each character is in possession of their own distinguishable personality. The result is simply a bunch of intriguing, multi-faceted characters that are excellently conceived and implemented.

Stalag 17 is unquestionably a war movie that is well made and very entertaining. I held my breath during some of the suspenseful scenes during which a daring escape was occurring or a tense situation was unfolding. There is also great emphasis on the dialogue. The script is so well written that there are several clues that can be picked up more easily after seeing the film several times. The script's greatest strength is also its unpredictability. I had no idea what was going to happen next. I was completely in the hand of the filmmakers wondering what was to follow. This is one of the greatest compliments you can grant a film of the war genre.

Before watching Stalag 17 I had seen several episodes of the classic TV sitcom Hogan's Heroes. Of course this film is a lot more serious than the light-hearted classic TV show; however both of them have the common setting of a POW camp.

Stalag 17 is a classic war drama that is unconventional, suspenseful and brilliant. A must if you're a fan of Billy Wilder movies.

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Okay

Posted : 1 week, 1 day ago on 7 May 2008 07:20 (A review of Spider-Man 3)

This is the first spider man movie i have watched. It's alright though. Not a favorite, but not bad either.

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Cute

Posted : 1 week, 1 day ago on 7 May 2008 07:17 (A review of Firehouse Dog)

Cute, light-hearted film.

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