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Reviews
Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs (2007)
IMAX to the max
I'm usually bored by this kind of movie aimed at a science center crowd, but this one had me taking it all in.
Visually stunning but full of substance too. Great use of IMAX in the desert and tombs. Weaves stories of discoveries old and new together with amazing shots, and scientific information.
Makes complicated science easy to understand, and thrills with the story of the Rasul brothers. I would like to learn more about the DNA experiments and how they can help today.
Great timing with the King Tut exhibit in Philadelphia. Looking forward to any follow-ups on the subject.
Kissing Jessica Stein (2001)
My favorite NYC movie this side of Annie Hall
When I first went to see this movie I could not laugh, I was in the shadow of the fallen Twin Towers. Then we got the DVD, just before an impending move to the Desert Southwest. Boy, was I impressed. The movie is hilarious, granted, half the jokes bite hard when you're a Manhattanite and may not play well west of the Hudson, but it's definitely the best romantic comedy of the last two decades. In exile, I watched the movie so many times, absorbing the Upper West Side neighborhood that was my home, and ended up lip-syncing the dialogue (including the deleted scenes and sometimes the actresses' commentary). They got the pace right, their relationship, like a shark, never stops moving. It's really refreshing to see someone actually grow up out of the relationship, instead of dissolving into mush. Bottom line, the characters could be our friends, and our New York friends sometimes (all the time?) sound like the characters.
PS/ Half of us would like them to be together, the other half thinks "that's life, and as long as they're happy..."
Alexander (2004)
pretty fantasy, but excruciatingly boring
Bad, but not bad enough to be funny (unlike Troy, which was so bad one had to laugh). Bad mediocre. As a movie, it flops from lack of an overarching story, sluggish pace, and plain lethargy. Maybe broken into 28-min bits it might work, a sort of "Look what happens to Alexander" weekly series. Alexander is a legendary man of mythical stature, yes human, but also a hero remembered to this day throughout the lands he razed and conquered. What, then, to make of this man that can barely carry his armor? And what of the awkward flashback device, generating flashback-within-a-flashback moments?
And then there is the homophobia. Why is it okay to show 5 minutes of sex with Rosario Dawson, but not okay to show one kiss between Alexander and Hephaistion? This says more about the calculations from the director and producers than about the motives and emotions of Alexander. As with other recent movies (Batman Begins comes to mind), the fight scenes are too confusing to deliver a punch. Yes, maybe that's what soldiers actually feel like. But this is a movie, not boot camp, we're supposed to feel moved (or claustrophobic, or frightened) by the battle, not frustrated to the brink of walking out. The accents are grating and, depending on one's point of view, Angelina Jolie is either an embarrassment or the comic relief that makes the movie watchable.
And for all the historians out there, the library of Alexandria was not founded until Ptolemy II. Cleopatra did a better job at re-creating the site. Kudos for the Macedonian lancers, and for the gates of Babylon, though.
In sum, not worth the time/money of this viewer.