boc Reviews

Powaqqatsi (1988)

Hang on a minute...

[10 May 2003]

I see a lot of reviews here directly comparing Powaqqatsi with Koyaanisqatsi. Why, they say, is Powaqqatsi not more of the same..?

The answer is simple. Powaqqatsi is another chapter. It develops the idea. The three panels of a tryptich painting (take 'The Garden Of Earthly Delights' by Bosch, for example) are not identical copies. They do, however, pursue the underlying concept and evolve it. They are dissimilar yet contribute to the whole.

Alone they are still works of art.

Powaqqatsi can be viewed fresh, without Koyaanisqatsi. It stands alone very well without any excuse.

What we have here is a visually brilliant thing. The shots come together so well to create the whole. The Glass score is beautiful and relevant. If I had to have music to describe the double helix then Glass would be my first choice. Here he does just that.

Please see this movie. See it and see Koyaanisqatsi too.

This is very very powerful celluloid.

Save the Last Dance (2001)

MTV/Film Four

[15 January 2003]

Perhaps MTV care about movies, dammit.

Perhaps what we have here is the trans-Atlantic equivalent of the British Film Four movie.

Not relying on Megastar billing or CGI we have a STORY again.

Remember them..?

Just a simple movie with a start, middle and an end (the 'story' bit, folks) told without contrivance or distraction. And as that it is very entertaining too. Decent performances all round. A well mixed and balanced soundtrack. Nothing very exciting in the cinematography but, again, enough effort to get the job done. A neat reflection of the opening sequence in the ending too.

Well worth a look at this one if you happen by it.

8 out of 10 easily (with popcorn... obviously).

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

Three points...

[20 August 2002]

1... Alan Rickman gets a lot of good press here and he deserves it. Beyond the villainy he portrayed so well in 'Die Hard', his sheriff is the ultimate pantomime baddie. And he steals every scene he is in.

2... Don't knock Costner. In any version of Robin Hood (including the Disney cartoon) Robin is the least interesting character. The cast assembled around him are the people we remember. Even Flynn (memorable because he was Flynn) was victim to this. (Rathbone, again, was a villain par none).

3... This is a very, very enjoyable movie. Yes it has little faults. The secret is just sit down, watch it, get into it and have a great time. One to watch again and again.

Rat Race (2001)

Totally Brilliant!

[15 August 2002]

A really very very funny film. I didn't think they could make movies like this any more. Some great set pieces and unexpected twists. Brilliant cast.

Ten out of ten!

And interesting too to see all this quality fun from a film which abandons the 'genitalia/superglue' school of comedy which has worn a bit thin now.

My whole family was in stitches watching this one.

Lucky Break (2001)

Please...

[15 August 2002]

Please stop comparing this film to The Full Monty. The comparison is irrelevant. It is not, and never intends to be, a sequel to Monty.

Please do have a look at this film as it is, actually, very good, with some well observed and interesting performances. Some reviews on here give the impression the film is unfunny. Not so. It works well as a light comedy/romance.

Worth seeing too as an example of good British cinema. I wonder what Hollywood would have done with the script..? (On second thought... Let's not go there).

Well done (again) Film Four.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

The Directors Cut

[24 May 2002]

The Directors Cut of this movie on DVD is magnificent.

Finally the huge score and incredible visuals are allowed to work fully together. The movie has never really been seen in as good a form as this before. It is truly worth another look (Agent10... give it a go!).

I know this has always been a controversial Star Trek movie and one, it seems, a favourite to trash. Perhaps it would have been critically better recieved if aired originally in this version, instead of being rushed to the screens.

Please do give it another chance.

I have to give it an 8.5 out of 10.

BoC.

The Gift (2000)

Buddy...

[25 October 2001]

Watch out for a really tremendous performance from Giovani Ribisi in the role of Buddy Cole!

Not the movie I thought I would get from director Sam Raimi when I rented it. There was a restraint in the direction here I was not expecting, but which worked for me.

I would imagine trimming a few minutes from this movie would make it a lot more accessible.

BoC.

Out of Sight (1998)

Sorry but....

[25 October 2001]

Everything looked OK on paper for this one. Decent cast. Decent director. Plot summary interesting. Good IMdB rating.

Sorry but I got so bored with this movie I couldn't even get to the end! The plot never seemed plotted at all. There were some plot devices so preposterous that even if I suspended my disbelief from high tensile steel cables I still couldn't live with them.

How this movie got so high a rating on the IMdB I will never know. The emperor's new clothes.

BoC.

Manhunter (1986)

Cinematography.....

[7 October 2001]

One of my fave movies ever.

Cox is excellent as Lecter. A different, less desperate, Lecter than the Hopkins portrayal but still, here is the sly, cunning, manipulating Lecter writ in the pages of the Harris book. Cox brings him to life and I believe him when he does so. He is scary. He is Lecter. I am also a fan of Hopkins and his interpretation of the character but I do not fall into the 'which Lecter is the real one' trap. These are different movies, styles, actors and that is a good thing. Cox is comfortably insane.

Tom Noonan is a memorable and deeply unsettling villain as Dolarhyde. He manages to get a sense of the sympathy the author gave the character in the book, even though the scope to do this is limited given the amount of condensation the book had to go through to end up at at movie length. Noonan is worryingly insane.

Joan Allen is believable and works well in the movie. Credit to her and her realistic grasp of a normal woman who just happens to be blind.

The cinematography, however, is the thing this picture scores with for me. A combination of the obsessive Michael Mann and the genius of Dante Spinotti, every scene is a visual masterpiece. The use of colours, lighting and even the objects on a table are all major players in this movie. Look at the use of the bars in the Graham/Lecter scenes. Who is behind those bars? The camera position and lighting are critical. Look at the use of the colour purple as we pan across Lecter's cell.

When, in a movie, has the use of green light through glass bricks ever had such an impact.

The opening scene pans down from a blue sky to Graham and Crawford sitting on a branch on the sand. Freeze frame that. It is a perfect composition. A Vettriano image. This respect for composition is echoed through the movie. There are so many opportunities here to see the visual, the lighting, the camera all coming together. Yes, it is a 1980's pic. It was made in the 1980's and is a tribute to the look and feel of the time.

See this again please.

BoC.

Vampires (1998)

Bubblegum....

[10/10 · 13 February 2001]

The line "C'mon padre... My nuts are on fire here!" is a killer. It even beats the bubblegum line in 'They Live'.

Woods is great in this. I am willing to bet he had fun with the role.

Carpenter does what he does best and that is tell a story.

This is a new slant on the vampire legend and only Carpenter could have done it so well.

Lots of swearing, lots of gore.

The Carpenter soundtrack is good too.

As entertainment I have to say this film did it for me!

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Plot

[1 February 2001]

Mission Impossible..... Plot Unfathomable.

The action sequences were very well done and when the film got into gear it did deliver. However I did sit in the cinema wishing for a pause button so I could have a minute or two, here and there, to get the plot straightened out in my head.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Watch it again....

[1 February 2001]

A classic without doubt. A film most people discover or remember from television. However, if you get the chance to see this on the big screen then I urge you to do so. See a good print and you will feel the power this film had when it was released and, indeed, still has today.

Titanic (1997)

*** Spoiler In Here ***

[30 January 2001]

I'll tell you what bugs me about this film.

DiCaprio's pals were Irish. The dancing was Irish. The music was Irish or had an Irish feel.

I just got the nagging feeling that the DiCaprio character was supposed to be Irish too (but they chose a popular 'pretty' face for the male lead just in case). This nagged at me all through the film. It nagged me again when we watched the video....

Anyway... enough of this. Here is the spoiler....

It sinks.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

But....

[22 January 2001]

See this and you will never watch a historical / fantasy / armour wearing film the same way again. Boorman's Excalibur trembles when Holy Grail is in the neighbourhood!

Breath of fresh air.

Chapman excels.

This Island Earth (1955)

Encapsulation...

[18 January 2001]

This movie encapsulates the best of the 50s sci-fi in a wonderful, oddly coloured, experience. Go there, without the sad protection of CGI effects, and see how you fare.....

See you there...!

Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

Sword Fight

[4 December 2000]

I almost had a serious laugh induced medical emergency during the parody of the sword fight on the castle stairs (the shadows on the wall bit... seen the Errol Flyin/Basil Rathbone original)

Look... this is a very funny film and it should have a health warning on it.

I have just watched this movie again for the umpteenth time and still have to wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes as I write this.

Watch 'Prince Of Thieves' and 'The Adventures Of' and then sit down to this.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

Rickman

[4 December 2000]

A great film. Let's not get bogged down with criticisms about who did what accent and all that. Get the popcorn out and have a really enjoyable couple of hours of film. Alan Rickman went and stole the show as the nastiest, most booable baddie of all time here. He really should have been billed above Costner y'know. The Rickman scenes make this film a must see. Eleven out of ten for sheer entertainment.

The Bone Collector (1999)

We enjoyed it.....

[25 October 2000]

We sat down to watch this film slightly worried after reading some of the comments on the IMDb.

We thoroughly enjoyed the movie!

Listen, just suspend disbelief and sit down with your popcorn and go for it! Yes there are stereotypes and predictable moments but the acting was fine (Washington was on his best form and in the best Poitier way) and the story kept moving and the atmosphere was kept nice and tense.

This is a good nights entertainment without a doubt. Don't expect 'Silence Of The Lambs' or 'War And Peace'. Take it at face value. We do go to the movies to have a little fun, don't we?