Change Your Image
robinandlynne
Reviews
The Four Feathers (2002)
Offended I was
In all the other versions of this old story, the part of our hero's savior and native friend has been an Arab. While the main story was as anti-war as the old films, the director seems not to have been able get a sympathetic Arab past the studio. So this time it's some huge African American with chalk all over him.... ala Gladiator. I found the infusion of "old negro wisdom" to be painfully out of it.
Oh... and i want to tell you i am a Grandmother because of what i'm going to say next: At the end of this essentially anti-war film the hero's best friend has a speech in which he rapturously says that nothing matters in the heat of battle except the guy next to you.
Hmmmm. I think this means there will be war until boys can kiss and love each other. Because ... Generation after generation of boys truly love their pals, but then they have to grow up and love women too. It is inviting to go have a war "adventure" in the company of the people you really love. Think about it. For heaven's sake, kiss each other instead of having such a misplaced need for meaning that old farts can talk you into such adventures. Make love, not war. You can love men in youth and then women. It does not make you "queer". Read some history, get some insight and stop falling for this old man's game of war.
Jolly regards
The Emperor's New Clothes (2001)
What's not to like? *Spoiler?*
Ian Holm can just stand there and be terrific and in this movie he has a lot to chew on too. We loved it here. Wonderful, beautiful, costume drama/comedy with a great, big, open heart. Anyone is redeemable... amen. What a great theme!
The Anniversary Party (2001)
The Kliens are delightful **Spoilers**
I have been to Hollywood parties and believe me this is a pretty good picture of one....alas. A more self-absorbed buch of pin-heads you would never want to meet. As i said in the summary: the Kliens seem to have insight and a sense of humor about themselves... but scenes with Kevin, Pheobe and their cute kids are too few. The way the nieghbors are treated is the real deal and for a moment you think some insight might be forthcoming.... but no... i think the writers really do find anyone outside of Hollywood boring.
BTW, these are the WORST kind of dog owners. Sentimental and vapid. If i saw them do ONE thing for their dog besides drool over the poor thing, i would've felt different about the whole movie. Thank God she got an abortion.
Vapid and self-absorbed. Where's Altman when you need him? Watch the Big Chill again for a better treatment of pals at a party.
Insomnia (2002)
Suspense!
At last! A film that knows the difference between dread and suspence! All performances good. Pachino has such an accomplished agent that he doesn't even have to act anymore... He just gets "Al Pacino type" roles. I like him. The camera likes him and he is an intelligent actor... What's not to like? Robin Williams is okay too, i suppose, but i never for a minute ever forget it's Williams playing someone creepy. Swank is a dish and the camera loves her. She sort of plays her real intelligent self. (Bellingham, Washington grows good, wholesome girls!)
But the real star here is the director (last film Memento) and the story which really IS Hitchkokian. I know everyone is always claiming that for a film, but this one really is. An eight out of ten.
And, hey, you get to look at Alaska without going there. All to the good, my dears.
Jolly regards
Unfaithful (2002)
Dreadful= Spoiler
Dreadful as in : Full of Dread which is NOT the same thing as suspense. More and more Hollywood can't seem to care about the difference. Is it a spoiler if i tell you a movie called "Unfaithful" is a movie about adultry? So the first third of the movie is waiting for it, the second, dreading the consequenses, and then third part of the movie really turns out to be the most interesting because it deals with the ethics of owning up.... or not. This is not suspense.
Ya know... i have problem with movies that try to better me, but, on the other hand, if this date movie gets the youngsters talking about betrayal and the consequences of betrayal, i suppose it's all to the good, if more than a little patronizing.
Lane was nominated for best actress by the Golden Globes for this performance. I suppose she is fine. Fine. Gere is fine. The young French lover is fine. So Ho is fine. The young kid is fine. Ho Hum.
American Pie (1999)
American men ARE evolving!!!
I liked this. I put off seeing it for years because i assumed (naughty me) that it would be like Animal House or Porkeys. That is... i assumed it would have nothing but contempt for women. Shows you how much i know.
American Pie is more like Diner than Porkeys or Animals House. As in Diner, the boys in American Pie gotta grow up and go beyond boy friendship to get what their hearts truely desire. Do you remember the story about the Princess and the Glass Mountain? The knight has to figure out how to go up a glass mountain to win the Princess's heart.
Hey.... it's an old story and as valid today as ever it was.
All the actors are charming. Eugene Levy is genuinly touching as a dad who tries to steer his son towards wholesome happiness. I did wonder where mom was....but that's okay... this is a BOY coming of age story and like i say at the top... They are evolving. It actually seems to be okay to like girls. Thumbs up.
Jolly regards
The Good Girl (2002)
Cold
The more i think about this movie the worse it gets. Hollywood loves to feel superior to "flyover" country. Hello! You can't make a "heartfelt" movie if you hate the people. And this had no sense of place unless it was some kind of watered down Walmart Land.
Jennifer is ok, but i kept thinking how much better the movie would have been with the young Holly Hunter. You had to CARE about this girl to care about the movie. She just comes off as cold rather than depressed. (Just one little mistake in a host of mistakes: Jennifer should have been packed in make-up like the funny Zooey Dischanel , not plastered in pancake in some kind of misguided attempt to make her look plain... Look Jennifer might be America's sweetheart, but she's plenty plain enough and this depressed girl working at a make-up counter would've been packing the make-up on) I knew the film was in deep trouble when Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson) stole every scene he was in.
I did not care what one other character was up to.
Go see About Schmidt if you want to see a rather depressing movie that has a real genuine sense of place. Go see the interesting failure The Salton Sea.... another real sense of place. This movie is cold and contemptuous of its characters... How can we care if the movie does not love them?
Ask Holly Hunter for some funny scripts, Jennifer.
The Salton Sea (2002)
Dreadful
I mean dreadful quite literally as in: full of dread. Dread is not the same thing as suspense. I felt like throwing up. This whole thing would've gone down better with an audience if they knew early on what Val's deal was with the bad cops. The actors are great...it's not their fault. The editing breaks this movie. You know when you are more worried about the captive, hungry badger than you are about your hero's balls, that the movie has a real problem with tone.
Phooey! Too much sadism even though the violence happens mostly off screen... like beer commercials drink off screen. It's worse really.
Too bad. A waste of good actors and probably a good director too. Some really good sequences. The history at the beginning. The tweaks silly rip-off scheam. Funny stuff. Like i said... a problem with tone.
Ah well, an interesting failure.