Haydeck Reviews

The Crossing Guard (1995)

Kept counting the cliques until I fell asleep

[15 July 2003]

Oh my...what a bad movie. I really think very highly of Sean Penn, he is my favorite actor but as a director he simply sucks! This movie is so bad I kept rubbing my eyes not wanting to believe all the cliques he kept bringing on. Parents losing their child, father seeking revenge...hello we have seen all that, the prisoner coming out in a pathetic way, being all good and soft. Must say that Nicholson and Houston were way too old for being parents to those little kids (I kept asking myself what was she...55 when she gave birth or what?!). I also never quite understood what the role of Mr.Penn's wife in this movie was. Ah, the sex scene probably. Otherwise the whole "relationship" they managed to establish in just one day is so improbable it hurts your feelings. I read about the final scene...just what I expected (and feared). Luckily I fell asleep somewhere near the end when the revenger and the victim were running to the graveyard (the climax or something) and was spared the sugar boosting ending. Great actors really wasted their talent in this movie.

3/10 and I am being generous.

Southern Comfort (2001)

A thought provoking real life drama

[10/10 · 4 February 2003]

This has to be the best documentary I have ever seen. Just a matter of time when someone will do a movie about Robert Eads, the most extraordinary southern cowboy. This documentary could have been mediocre if it wasn't for him, his incredible wit, optimism and intelligence. A real man from head to toes who ironically died of a widespread ovarian cancer, primarily because no doctor wanted to treat a transsexual. It is a marvelous real life drama that doesn't preach, it simply delivers the story that deeply touches you, points out the stupidity of prejudices and inhumanity of American health system and rises questions about what gender really means.

Jude (1996)

A naturalistic tragedy of immense proportions

[10/10 · 21 January 2003]

I started watching this movie after having read the viewers' comments, so I was prepared for the depression inducing effect everyone kept talking about. Seems like you are never prepared enough for this movie. Sadness and tragedy are in the air right from beginning, you can feel them all the time, even when things start getting better for the two protagonists you know it can't last...because they are doomed, losers, not meant to be happy together. And yet the love they share is the purest and most devoting love I have ever seen on screen; it stunned me how true Jude was to Sue, and how brave Sue was, accepting Jude jr. as one of her own, no questions asked. Many people might find the scene of Sue giving birth and being watched by Jude jr. disturbing, yet it is essential to understand his later deeds, at least partly. The climax of the tragedy is so emotional and so immensely cruel it rips your heart out. I felt the theatre was falling into pieces and so were we, watching this emotional tornado, weeping like possessed. The experience of this movie will make you ponder life, love and death, it will make you understand how important it is to teach your children well and never make them feel undesired. It will make you realize how important it is to always think twice before commiting yourself, even in the modern world flooded with divorces. It will show you what it means to really love, completely and uncompromisingly. I highly recommend this masterpiece, a tale of two beautiful, unfortunate heros ahead their time, doomed by cruelest fate imaginable. 10/10

Humanity (1999)

150 minutes of suffering, only for stubborn art movie fans with high boredom-threshold level

[1/10 · 22 July 2002]

I can't remember when was the last time I have been so terribly disappointed by any movie. Probably I expected too much happening (in a way you can expect action in dogma style movies of course). But there is just nothing going on in here. Luckily I was watching it at home and could switch channels whenever the silence and dumb/numb faces started to kill me. And that was very often! It really isn't too much of a pleasure watching ugly people who don't talk and move slowly, stroke pigs and french kiss men, not to mention ugly bodies having explicit sex. If only it made any sense... the whole murder situation is ridiculous; seems like it was only created to show one more vagina since zero characters are capable of actually solving the crime. Having only four pseudo developed characters and a movie going nowhere it is pretty soon obvious whom the director picked as a killer. And that makes no sence either. Despite all the boredom and suffering I must admit that it somehow touched me in an unexplainable way. Maybe you should check it out yourself though I don't recommend it.

Life Is Beautiful (1997)

I really wanted to like that one

[1/10 · 4 March 2002]

After all the fuzz and compliments about this movie I thought it was going to impress me big time...it did, but in a negative way. Okay, I can't say it fails completely at making you feel some beauty of life, but it's way too superficial, childish and pretty unbelievable...besides, "The Father" is simply too annoying doing his pretending game. It's just too much sugar in this movie...diabetics rather stay away.