mr_diken Reviews

Napoleon (2023)

Would a master chef blender a lobster?

[6/10 · 24 November 2023]

You have a great story, presenting a huge potential for a great movie. Moreover, you have a talented star cast, especially J. Phoenix as the lead role. And you come up with such a pallid piece.

Success is relative. So, as a movie it is more than ok, but with respect to what the producers were after and what they were provided with to achieve it, it is a gross failure.

Was it because of the time limit of 2.5 hours? No, for there are deliberate preferences to spend some valuable minutes towards wasting the potential. So, the culprit is R. Scott, who could have done a quite different opus with these same ingredients.

Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

A political story with an excellent script

[8/10 · 7 September 2020]

Obviously has deficiencies in terms of the preferences regarding the political stance of the writer, but the movie has an extraordinary script full of wit and insight, thus promising an immensely entertaining time. Sorkin, the writer, has won my admiration with those ingeniously crafted fine details (despite my reservations on the bias & now-familiar perception manipulation issues.) And of course there is the unforgettable performance of the great P. Seymour Hoffman.

Endgame (I) (2009)

A manual for regime-change

[9/10 · 5 June 2020]

At first, I didn't want fellow IMDb users miss invaluable lines from this script and started to enter a few quotes into the database. However, from a relatively early moment on, I had to quit that attempt for I figured that there were lots of quote-rate lines waiting for me in coming moments throughout the movie. I, as a humble IMDb contributor, salute the screenwriter(s) for revealing so much of the innumerable parameters of a political process of this magnitude. (The relatively low score of the movie is I guess it is so realistic and pure-truth that, with its documentary-like touch, it will not "entertain" ordinary human being to a degree of an ordinary 7 or 8.) This is a handbook-like case-study of crisis-management in a nation-scale political environment (By the way, a nation with four castes) Let's recategorize it as a well-acted documentary.

Traffic (2000)

All aspects of an ugly reality

[9/10 · 6 June 2018]

One could mention many positive points about this movie but for me the most important attribute is its wider approach to the phenomenon. It tells the stories of almost all sides of the "business" so that one can get the vantage points of all sides. Moreover, it stands equidistant to those. I don't know any other example of this.

Babel (I) (2006)

On our prejudices

[9/10 · 6 June 2018]

Among the movies I've ever seen (>1K), this is the best one on prejudices. The movie from which on I began to respect Brad Pitt as an actor.

Captive (2016)

Very realistic, but slo-mo and strongly biased

[5/10 · 22 February 2018]

It is informative albeit the info is too selective as I will describe below. Its low pace make you bored sometimes. Besides, the transition periods are kept longer than needed and this increase the feeling of boredom. Its reenactments are very realistic and needs to be appraised. However, there is a very strong bias implicit in the selection of incidents. I am normally not and don't want to be a politically-driven critic but here, the producers seem to act politically-driven. Please look at all the episodes -- All are "muslim"-driven atrocities. I, like most muslims would do, condemn these acts. Yet, making such a documentary but selecting events with solely one-type of perpetrator casts doubt about the intention of those producers. This at least funs the flames. I protest.