erixal Reviews

Le rose del deserto (2006)

Not as bad as it could seem

[7/10 · 19 January 2007]

Although to an unprepared viewer this could seem a cheap movie, with weird acting and poor script, I think that reading it trying to get in the director's mind, with his intention clear, it deserves more respect, and at least 7 out of 10 stars.

Sure, the acting could be defined unrealistic, sometimes almost in bad taste, as some directing choices, like accelerating the appearance on screen of some characters but they also depict very well a kind of spirit of fascist Italy, the so called "Italietta", in which every Italian (officially) was proud to export his democracy and way of life and the cult of the Duce, not realizing (always, officially) that the lack of means and ideologies made him only ridiculous. This, obviously, refers also to the foreign policy of the U.S. nowadays, but i think the movie is best seen not thinking about modern politics, as it is already a nice, light, but yet profound picture of Italy seventy years ago.

21 Grams (2003)

Best movie ever seen, why aren't all like this one?

[10/10 · 10 July 2005]

Really, i've never watched a movie like this. It is outstanding how it can be perfect in all of its components, from the soundtrack to the plot, from the photography to the casting. Sean Penn can be a great actor, but men, in this movie he makes you scream of appreciation. While the plot -in a weird circle- builds itself up, one beholds this strange stream of consciousness that is 21 grams. The structure of the narration is similar to the one seen in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, with separate stories coming up to form a One, but this time it's outrageously magnificent the work of art that cam out of this technique. I couldn't say more without spoiling the plot, however this movie it's absolutely a must-see, touching, deep, great. The definite movie at all.

3-Iron (2004)

A pleasant surprise: great movie

[9/10 · 18 January 2005]

I must say that in general I am quite skeptical about Asian movies: I usually find them horrendously boring in the best case, and obnoxiously weird in the worst. In particular the last one, 2046, kept me agonizing in the theater while unconnected images -even though wheel shot and poetical- ran through the screen, so I was pretty scared when I entered the theater this time. Especially after a friend of mine told me it was a dramatic/romantic movie with almost no dialogs. Instead, i was surprised by how charming, touching and pleasant is this movie. The plot is about a guy who enters in empty houses and puts them in order, repairs things, does the washing (manually) and stuff like this. The photography is absolutely awesome and added to the skill of the actors supplies to the almost complete absence of dialogs. We assist to this platonic form of platonic love between the protagonists, while they live their absurd lives as they were the most normal people in the world. The end is a bit mystical and gives a lot of meaning to a movie that could seem nonsense. 9/10

Phantoms (1998)

Not the awful movie everybody says

[6/10 · 15 December 2004]

First of all a consideration: you are in a town besieged by an unknown entity, you are not a cop, but a girl. You hear a noise in a room that should be absolutely empty. Do you turn around slowly and slowly go to look what made that noise? HELL NO! You run away screaming like hell, find a fire weapon and annihilate anything you see. Said this, let's talk about movie.

The concept is really cute and the casting is good, but the characters are "thrown" in the story with no background and this can be a fault... The scaring parts are really predictable: music slowly increasing, than stops like "hm everything's alright" then "BAAAW!" someone or something pops out. I could turn the volume down every time there was a scary noise part in time :-)

The ending is also a bit poor and with the classic "I'll be back!" style.

However, not less than 6/10

Donnie Darko (2001)

Terrific movie, a surprise.

[10/10 · 27 November 2004]

SHORT SUMMARY OF THE PLOT: Donnie Darko is a boy with mental problems who lives in the small town of Middlesex. He starts to see a giant black rabbit and from that day his life, and the ones of people around him are changed. The all story seems to be connected in its deployment with time traveling.

When I went to theater to watch this movie I expected a tale about a super-hero (because of the stupid Italian trailer, in which there are no rabbits, can you believe it??). However I was expecting something like this, a movie without a concrete plot and some special effects. What i actually got was instead an amazing tale about a boy affected by strange (dreadful in my opinion) visions of a giant rabbit and strange worms coming out of people. The movie gains a complete and effective meaning only at the very end -but i suggest that you search on the Internet for more info, because some very interesting aspects of the plot are not explained at all in the movie - and during the whole film you get a sense of drama , awe and complicity. The ending is a surprise, too, and concludes in a magnificent way what can be defined as one of the best movies I have ever seen. Absolutely unmissable. 10+/10

Immortal (2004)

A good movie with interesting techniques

[8/10 · 21 November 2004]

I didn't read the comic books that inspired this movie (but I am going to do so as soon as i can), but I loved it all the same. The plot is not as simple as it seems and not as complicated as the Gods wanted to make us think. Of course it doesn't go "beyond our human understanding"! However it's well structured and really interesting and original. The most noticeable aspect of this movie is the graphic: most of the characters are in fact realized in computer graphic, with a few "real" actors. To be honest the computer graphic for the human characters is not the best I have seen on the market, however the final effect is really astonishing and pleasant. What you get when you are in the theater is a great comic book with advanced animation and very few negative aspects. 8/10

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Great movie, faithful to both parents.

[8/10 · 21 November 2004]

I didn't like the Alien series, I liked pretty much the Predator movies, and of course I loved the Alien Vs Predator video game. I think the idea is great, because these two "cult" monsters are seriously the most powerful, evil and effective creatures seen on the screen in these years. The plot is also very well thought and interesting, putting a background on the history of mankind as connected with the one of the Predators. The tagline, as you can discover by yourselves watching the film, is completely misleading: mankind can survive depending by the victory of one party over the other, you can imagine which one has to die :-) The cast is good, thanks also to the able acting of the Italian Raul Bova. 7.5/10

2046 (2004)

The last Asian visionary movie

[6/10 · 17 November 2004]

Before seeing this movie, I was very skeptical, since all "high level" Asian movies I had seen ended to be a big mess with an unclear, visionary plot. 2046 was no exception. I'm not saying it was bad, it sure has a good direction and a lot of poetry, but it doesn't get to the point. They say "2046" a lot of times, repeat things, depict surreal situations and the plot itself is not very clear: is the main character remembering his past and imaging his future? Is he living them in real time? Probably the inconsistence of this movie is due to the dubbing too, as a script written in an Asian tongue can't be rendered faithfully and smoothly in a western one in my opinion, however I found this movie pretty boring after all.

Godsend (2004)

Illogical thrilling, it could have been better...

[12 September 2004]

When you see the trailer of this movie, you expect something between the thriller and the horror, with a nuance of exoticism... What you actually get is a strange thriller about cloning and two hysterical parents. The cast is saved only by the presence of de Niro, as the main character, the child, is awful (perhaps also because of the Italian dubber), while the parents are scared for nonsense things for example:

(**spoiler**)

the wife is sleeping, she gets up and sees her son standing in front of her, just looking, and she jumps away screaming. What the hell was that? Now a mother sees her son in front of her bed and screams? Come on! The father too, looks in the cupboard, it's empty, his son arrives from behind and he screams frightened as hell... I mean, with such a mood, that child will have mental problems for his whole life.

(**end spoiler**)

The plot starts from a good idea but it's pretty inconsistent and scientifically unstable. De Niro is wasted for this role and the rest of the cast, as i said, is mediocre. Not a horrific movie, after all, but of course it's not worth 7 euros!!!