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Reviews
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)
Great Entertainment
I LOVED this movie, absolutely laughed my head off, though the kids will not get most of the humor. It certainly helps to see the first museum film of course to understand the basic premise but kudos to the writers and to Azaria, he never disappoints.
The concept delivers big time and the research that must have been done to write the dialog is impressive. I especially love the museum interiors in both films and in the first one especially, I would have sworn it was actually filmed inside the Museum of Natural History.
Will Stiller try a third one? I cannot imagine how he would be able to follow this one, but they are all so clever, I will be there with my grandchildren once again if they do.
Gomorra (2008)
I don't think so
I really disliked this movie, the camera work, the setting. It was confusing, harsh, disturbing, ugly. Unlike a Slumdog Millionaire, I felt that if I moved to a Neopolitan slum, brought a camera, I could film this film or close to it. Much of it had to do with the culture of the region, the dialect,the Neopolitan mannerisms...the rest might easily have been filled in from Camorra legend and Wikipedia. So you have a tailor, you have a couple of kids, you have a "big boss" who fills fields with toxic waste, you have a good guy, etc.,etc...if we have to see these guys and we do in this film, we have to view them in too brutal a setting, like a documentary, there is no redemption allowed -it also depicts Neopolitans as low-lives, crude, uneducated. When the two kids were killed, all I could think was, they'll be back in their next lifetimes doing the same thing... zero lessons learned here. That is very, very difficult to take on film because it is reality there... the Camorra and the Mafia keep the Mezzogiorno, poor and ugly- everyone knows about it and like the Mexican drug cartels and gangs, the government allows it to sustain.
Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven (2007)
Insight into a true Italian family
I love this documentary and having come from an Italian family, I got more than a few smiles from watching it. The whole Maccioni family is lovable..I especially want to give Egidiana, the mom, a big hug, she is a prize! Plus, the Italian language sounds lovely even with a few colorful expressions thrown in.
I have never been to LeCirque, and I wonder how many of my executive friends have been there, probably not many. I think we may have imagined it, subconsciously, to be intimidating, I don't know, I never thought about it.
NYC is full of exciting eating places but now, I am tempted to give LeCirque a whirl next time I'm in town.
Nothing Is Private (2007)
A surprising movie
At the end of the day, this is a very absorbing film. As it began, I thought the dialogue to be artificial, maybe it was the delivery, not sure, but I did not think some of what was said was "natural" or true to life, let me put it that way. I soon became uncomfortable watching, the sexual abuse scene was tough to take.
I tried to think back to what it was like at that age. Adults really do shape our lives when we are young-especially when we are pubescent. And the combination of naiveté's and curiosity is dangerous in the case of Jasira. However, I found it hard to believe that later in the film, this young lady would let her neighbor "rape" her. Somehow, she was smarter than that or at least she knew enough to be frightened. Was she that brave where she was willing to experience sex with a much older man? I cannot imagine such a sheltered kid being so. In any case, it is a good film if not shocking in its own way.
I take exception to the viewer/commenter who said that the father was a hypocrite,a Muslim who drank alcohol with his girlfriend. The father was a Catholic as most Lebanese happen to be and the fact was driven home in the film more than once a number of ways.. A Sign of the Cross by the father at dinner? Daughter telling her neighbor her father was a Christian? And wasn't the Virgin statue on the man's dashboard a clue in the movie early on?
Doubt (2008)
Not as profound as I had hoped
I was not happy with the ending of the film, a contrite Sister Aloysious was not real to me and I "knew" her in 1963 very well.
I thought the acting of this film superb.. The acid test for me was when Meryl Streep opened her mouth and out rolled the "Bronx Irish Catholic" (or BIC as we called it) accent of the Sisters of Charity of NYC. The filming of the interior scenes at the College of Mount St. Vincent in Riverdale was very appropriate and slammed me right back there with the college chapel all done up in Pre-Vatican II style. Yikes! The RC Church was a dreary place back then and I am sure the nuns who were there in the Mother Seton habits of the day, feel the same seeing it all again. The S of C Community was strict and unforgiving; the Sisters who were the strongest, were tyrants in the convent as well as the schools. Living that way was hard, and may still be, but at least they may have a sip of wine now and then as other Orders of nuns do, and of course they are out of the silly attire.
Now, I am not so sure a young nun would have had her suspicions raised as readily as this young one did in the film. Afterall, what did any of us know about sex abuse back then? She may have suspected corporal punishment of the child by the priest but I cannot imagine she would have guessed more. I may be wrong, but this nun was especially child-like.. but of course, she may have been a victim herself and in that case,it would be understandable.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Excellent whether an Indian movie goer or otherwise
This film offers something not seen on screen before now, a lovely presentation of fantasy and love mixed with the reality of slum living in India and the juxtapositions of democracy and criminality in local government.
This might have been a Bollywood production with its moments of love and fantasy, the vibrant color.. The end dance with the film's cast and production crew is so lovely-genuinely Indian. I loved it and will continue to recommend it above all others this year including Milk and certainly above Doubt. I am not surprised that most viewers agreed with me if for different reasons.