DaveB1972 Reviews

The Treatment (2006)

Warm film with clever dialogue. A smart romantic comedy.

[8/10 · 22 August 2006]

"The Treatment" is a very well acted romantic comedy that relies on clever dialogue rather than outlandish set-pieces to deliver the laughs.

The story is simple enough - Teacher Jake befriends the young widowed mother of a student and then falls for her. Things are complicated by their different social standings, the fact that Allegra is still grieving for her recently dead husband, and Jake's visits to his psychoanalyst.

The lead actors are all excellent, but Ian Holm's character gets all the best lines in the movie as a nasty psychoanalyst trying to 'help' Jake Singer (Chris Eigeman) stop undermining his own relationships.

Famke Janssen is very, very good in this movie and her performance was my favourite of the piece. Considering the other works I've seen her in I was blown away to discover she was such a good actress.

This is a warm, funny movie that I could happily watch again.

The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

Tired, formulaic horror

[5/10 · 21 August 2006]

I have watched and enjoyed a lot of horror movies over the years and was looking forward to this remake after the excellent way the new "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was handled. Sadly, I found this movie to be over long and formulaic by comparison.

The characters in the new "Hills Have Eyes" were almost all completely unsympathetic, with the possible exception of the mother and older sister. To sit through and enjoy a survival horror movie it is important to care about (at least) some of the characters and hope they survive, but I found myself caring more about the dogs than anyone else. At times, I even found my mind wandering off to other movies as I watched this.

Sadly, with a new generation of less-demanding movie-goers we can probably look forward to several more inferior remakes of old horror movies, and this may even end up being one of the Aces in the pack.

Neo Ned (2005)

Simple, touching love story

[9/10 · 20 August 2006]

At it's heart this is just a simple tale of star-crossed lovers given a new twist, and depending on it's actors to pull you into the movie. Luckily for all of us the managed to get two incredible actors in the lead roles.

The performance of Jeremy Renner in this movie is incredible, bringing an innocent charm to a very misguided neo-nazi called Ned. Even when he's spouting racial epithets towards Rachael (Gabrielle Union in a terrific part) early in the film it comes through in the performance that he's interested in her rather than hateful towards her, but just doesn't know how else he should behave. It's a difficult thing to describe, and deserves to be seen. Gabrielle Union is particularly good in some of these early scenes.

There are some incredibly funny moments in the movie with a number of them purely visual plays on the happy couple walking around together. One of my favourite comedic scenes takes place in the hospital where Ned tells Rachael about what he'd like to do once the great racial war has split America into quadrants. It's in moments like these where you really see Ned for what he is - lonely, and desperate for human connections.

While the ending of the movie may be no great surprise, the final scene with Ned is an uplifting and touching moment of comic genius.

Seeing this at the Edinburgh Film Festival we were lucky enough to see a Q&A with the Director Van Fischer, Jeremy Renner, and one of the producers, Mark Borman. The movie does not have a distribution deal yet, and Mark Borman believes most of that is that distributors aren't sure how to market the movie. It's an understandably difficult sell, but one I hope some brave distributor will run with.

I look forward to the release on DVD.

Apart from That (2006)

Awful

[1/10 · 18 August 2006]

This is one of those movies where I wish I had just stayed in the bar.

The film is quite frankly boring. What story there is is very flimsy and you pretty much have to guess at it. The film indulges itself with pretentious camera techniques that seem intent on causing migraines and makes it look like a student film. Did I say it was boring already? If all the characters had suddenly died at the end of the movie I would not have cared less as I had no emotional attachment to any of them.

There are about 4 good minutes in this movie, but that was about it. This is the first time I have ever considered walking out of a cinema during a performance, but I held on believing that it had to get better. I was wrong.

The sort of film you could threaten naughty children with.

Holly (2006)

Compelling film.

[8/10 · 17 August 2006]

After seeing the movie last night I was left with a sense of the hopelessness faced by organisations trying to tackle the problem the film portrays. The scale of the prostitution seems so large that it's hard to see how it can be defeated without major governmental changes in Cambodia.

Anyway, on with the review.

Although it is a sombre movie with an uncomfortable central relationship this is a very compelling film, and I'd even go so far as to say it was enjoyable. The film was well edited for the running time and the performance by Thuy Nguyen was excellent. I also felt Ron Livingston played a very difficult role well.

It would have been nice to have a little more insight into why Patrick feels he has to help Holly, but maybe the reason is a simple as he explains to Chris Penn's character. I won't explain it here - go see the movie.

This is a good, thought-provoking film with obviously good intentions. I hope it gets a wide enough release to reach a decent sized audience and gain more support for the K-11 Project.