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stefano76
Reviews
The Repairman (2013)
Fresh, witty, entertaining
The Repairman is a fresh, entertaining, original movie.
It's a debut feature (for which I'm being a little bit generous in vote!), but very refined, with a super nice cinematography (by David Rom, a really promising talent) and a very sensitive, delicate touch.
First of all, it's funny and entertaining - a few big laughs, and a lot of giggling scenes; but it's also touching and the characters have the required depth to get attached to them.
The northern-Italian setting come with a lot of local culture and character, and it's an interesting part for itself - and some locations are beautiful; for an Italian leaving abroad, as I am, it comes with a somehow nostalgic feeling: but it's probably even more interesting for not- Italians, to discover an often unknown area (yes, each Italian region comes with a lot of peculiarities!)
There also are a real story and some deeper themes, of course; but the whole movie is told with no judgment, a sort of light detachment that let the viewer make his own opinion, helped by a rhythm fast enough to keep the story interesting, yet slow enough to let her (the spectator) explore the details, rather than rushing through it as if only the end had a meaning, and only sudden events and crazy surprises could keep a watcher interested.
The acting is just and authentic and intense, too, and successfully bring to believable life characters real and three dimensional, yet a little stereotyped, in a way that remembers more the "commedia dell'Arte" rather than the loud, all-out American style.
If you are looking for something different and well done, you won't be disappointed!
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
yet another nicely done blockbuster..
i just had the chance to watch the movie at the Cannes opening, and being in the company of the crew in such an amazing room usually puts you in a positive mood. I was interested, also, because I think i'm one of the few ones that have not read the book! Hey, I do like reading, but tried a few pages and it's really not my style. I thought this little introduction was necessary.
So, what about the movie, now? Cinematography is quite stunning - camera movements and sceneries are just beautiful. Editing is slightly conventional, but feeds a good rhythms. Acting is not overwhelming, with the exception of maybe of Bettany - but that's because of the nature itself of the story - a running puzzle-solving thriller. Surprises are frequent (at least if you have not read the book, i guess), only sometimes easy to anticipate. So far, quite good.
What really did not impress me, then? Well, the plot is slightly weak - the "codes" are not very amazing (actually i found the "code" part very disappointing). The history about Opus Day and Priory of Sion (not going to reveal anything about that) is interesting, but the film does not manage to pin it down to its real value, as the action is taking away too much of the attention. The characters are onlt OK, missing some deepness, lacking moments of weakness, ambiguity; really not all-round.
All in all, a couple of hours of entertainment, a theory about Church which is worth listening (but please, it's only a movie, don't make too much noise out of it!!!), deceiving enigmas which are more of an excuse to show different nice locations, good actors a little underexploited by only OK characters.
Ying xiong (2002)
how could you enjoy it? and i thought i was open to oriental culture...
Take Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (CTHD), remove most of the delicate love story, get rid of any character deepness, leave only:
- oriental-way choreographic combats, including the usual flying people (but here totally unnatural and not always beautiful)
- self-pleased examples of oriental wisdom, logic, and ideals including honor: hardly understandable to an occidental person - self-pleased plot which is not really as such
- aspects of oriental culture which i had found more deeply analyzed in other Asian movies
- dialogs which, at least in their English translation were not very exciting
- acting pushed to the extremes of inexpressiveness (can't blame the actors)
BTW. Why the "moral" is from Machiavelli's Principe???? Is it supposed to be the oriental interpretation of European medieval age thoughts? The inner soul of the movie is that violence can be the best solution for peace? Did USA sponsor it??
I used to think i was very open-minded, i loved CTHD, I adore Kar Wai Wong, I enjoyed Dolls and like most work of Takeshi Kitano; got in love with Drunk on Women and Poetry, without forgetting Kurosawa, etc.etc.
But probably I was wrong, and apparently I just can't get into the deepness of the hong-kong/Chinese way of thinking: this must be why i am one of the very few ones who did not like this movie. I am just left with the question: WHAT FOR? I did not get any compelling photography, no extraordinary special effects, no interesting analysis of oriental culture. I yet have to see the house of flying daggers, maybe Zhang will conquer me when he gets lower IMDb ratings?