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mdukas
Reviews
Inside Man (2006)
Gigantic Plot Holes
This movie makes no sense at all, there are plot holes big enough to drive enormous NYPD vehicles through. The characters do not act in any plausible way whatsoever. I will put my comments in the chat board, but save your time and money, this is stupid. I can't stand when Hollywood spends millions of dollars on flash bang equipment and uses fancy editing and cool music, and does not bother to have a plot that hangs together at even the most basic level. But it is nice to see Denzel W. prevail over the Man, who comes in 3 flavors, Jodi Foster, Mayor Bloomberg and Capt. Von Trapp. There is even a sweet little kid with a video game who is nice.
Mr. Destiny (1990)
Its a Wonderful Life - Remake
Remember how in Its a Wonderful life, Jimmy Stewart sees how life in Beford Falls would have been without him? In this movie, Jim Belushi gets to see how his life would have been if he HAD hid that home run back in high school. He would have been married to rich prom queen Rene Russo (excellent!!), instead of labor-representative-woman-of-the-people Linda Hamilton (pre-buff era, but still great looking), He would be rich and live in the Biltmore mansion in N. Carolina, instead of working stiff, with unpaved driveway in middle America. Michael Caine is very good as his "guardian angel", Jon Lovitz is the friend, but not enough to do. Great cast, skinny plot. Of course he would rather be poor than rich, rather eat pizza then French Food. He does get to go back, and then appreciate all his poor friends and family. Perhaps the moguls in their Hollywood mansions get a big laugh by their pools about the message in movies that its SO much better not to be rich! (note Sports Illustrated supermodel Kathy Ireland, in small part as Dad's girlfriend).
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Horrible yet Visually Wonderful
The good parts: fantastic visual creativity, Baz Luhrman and his wife (the production designer) went all out to create a no holds barred visual experience, very creative, no expense spared. Its clever that the main characters all have red hair (Nicole Kidman, Jim Broadbent and the Duke) and the "Redness" of the entire production is weird and wonderful. The red blood coughed up by the dying actress (But the dark complexioned writer, Ewan McGregor, stays in the "White Hotel". The weird use of lyrics from old Elton John songs, and other 70's and 80's hits, redone as operatic spectaculars, is creative, but very strained after 5 minutes. Then there is the Australian connection, it was filmed in Australia, Nicole is Australian, it was made by Fox, owned by Australian Rupert Murdoch, and something tells me Baz Lurhman must be an Aussie.
The bad parts: cynical use of the same plot from Romeo and Juliet (already done by Baz) and "Titanic", you know beautiful young lovers, evil capitalist with gun-toting henchman ready to "whack" the beautiful boy. How about the "American Beauty" shot of the dying actress in the rose petals? The music is lip-synched, badly. The principals don't even appear to be trying to look like they are singing in some numbers, the actors and the songs are poorly synchronized, they just ran out of time and money evidently.
This is a train wreck of a movie, but fascinating in the way that train wrecks are fascinating. It has some sort of family connection to Baron Munchausen and Topsy Turvy. Its hard for me to understand that Baz didn't somehow have something to do with those movies, since the look is so similar. This director is probably very good at making 2 minute music videos, visually arresting, with lip synched lyrics, but will the public accept MTV-the two hour movie? Time will tell.