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The Game (1997)
Very mysterious thriller
First I need to say that if you haven't watched this movie yet
you should be very careful not to read some of the other comments, as some of them reveal the whole plot, which is really monstrous (even without telling there's a Plot Spoiler). The adventure Michael Douglas gets involved in is truly worthwhile to watch, a "rollercoaster ride", so to speak. When it's all over you're left with lots of questions but it's
a disgrace that some of the viewers have "answered" them all with their comments. The end may be a strange one but that's why such movies are being made.Life is already predictable enough. The fun part of this movie is that you're left to find yourself the answers to the questions it raises. How wonderful that there ARE movies like this one, a thriller like none ever made before. Watching this movie a second or more times after you know the end is also still worthwhile, unlike other thrillers. And that's ALL that should be said about it.
Music of the Heart (1999)
Music and movie that makes you cry your heart out!!
Having read some of the previous reviews I notice this is a film which one either loves or hates and the Dutch are
really heartless creeps. One little horrible moviemagazine here rated this movie as the only one that "can be missed". It makes you cry even more than the movie itself. No, this movie made me cry more than any before (except
"The bridges of Madison County" and "Sophies choice", but these are not surprisingly also with Meryl Streep). The climax of the movie is a real tearjerker, but what's wrong with that? If movies are an indicator for the heartlessness in our present society (I think they are) then it is only VERY GOOD that these kind of movies are still being made.I cried my heart out and had the greatest time in a month or so. The story itself looks quite unbelievable.I myself would never have believed that this was a true story, if it weren't really true (a few years ago already a documentary was made about this, but this movie is better). This movie is a really redeeming one for music-lovers (REAL music, not popmusic) but also for people interested in racial matters. It's quite rare in movies to see black people being portrayed as really nice people ("Grand Canyon" is another such wonderful film in that respect). Meryl Streep should have won the Oscar again.Makes you realize once more what a totally overrated movie "American beauty" is. A really great but very surprising delight (I knew nothing about the story) was to see some of the greatest violinists of our time in this movie (Perlman and several others,see cast) playing as themselves. If ever there was a movie that makes you wish it lasted 5 hours it must be this one (but then there's always still the book). I cannot recommend any other movie more than this one!!
Perfumed Garden: Tales of the Kama Sutra (2000)
Tales of the Kama Sutra (one, that is)
This movie on video interested me because it's shot in India, particularly Khajuraho and Jaipur, cities I will visit myself. It's a story about an American couple who have some Indian friends. The man is impotent but that doesn't bother his girlfriend even so very much. He goes to India to work at the famous erotic sculptures of Khajuraho.She goes with him.They meet a mysterious Indian lady (a role by a well-known Indian actress who played in "Little Buddha") who makes them acquainted with the Kama Sutra. This same actress is the main figure in a Kama Sutra story that is set 1000 years earlier. There she is a courtisane at the King's court. What this story of sex and broken vows has to do with the Kama Sutra does not become clear. There are some nude scenes, a total of 10 minutes of nudity (naked breasts of 4 women and only a few seconds full frontal nudity) but filmed in a highly esthetic way, that does not become vulgar. Nevertheless it's a disappointing film.It doesn't even show much of India or these temples in Khajuraho. It's not awfully boring but leaves you with a lot of questions.
Serengeti Symphony (1998)
Wonderful portrait of the Serengeti with only classical music and no commentary
This was Hugo van Lawick's last project before he broke up his permanent tented camp at the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It's like his other movie for cinema,"The Leopard Son", but this time no story but just pictures of animals and landscapes with classical music, a lot like the acclaimed "Fantasia" 1940 and "Fantasia/2000", the difference of course being that this is no animation but reality.The film only lasts 81 minutes which is disappointingly short but probably just long enough for a child's attention span. It shows animals, thematically grouped together like small animals, birds, predators. The classical music is of a lighter variety than in both "Fantasia"'s. In the beginning even too light, but gradually it becomes quite enjoying for concertgoers. The highlight is a scene where a lion attacks a buffalo, whereafter the herd marches together to come to the rescue,all accompanied by Tchaikowski's great "Overture 1812". The film is suitable for young children as no animals get killed and Serengeti looks like an animal's paradise where all animals live peacefully together, except for one or two short hunts. This is a real Eden. It seems as if it didn't take much trouble shooting this film, but when you know Hugo van Lawick's dedication and also know how few animals one gets to see as a tourist, it's obvious that this took quite some time to make. Watch "The Leopard Son" if you prefer the kind of animal- films-with-a-story, but this one if "Fantasia" is more your kind of movie.I rate it an 8/10.
Magnolia (1999)
Absolutely AWFUL!!! Don't watch it.
All Dutch movie-experts, writing reviews in magazines and newspapers rate this with 4 or 5 stars out of 5, so I went to see it. After all, it also won Tom Cruise an award and the Golden Bear of Berlin. Well, movies seem to be "very good" if there's nothing
beautiful in it, nothing uplifting, just a big mess of weird people and no sense whatsoever in the whole film. Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I can only consider 7 Dollars
a well-spent amount (or 3 hours) if there's anything to enjoy like beautiful music, a romance, something that educates or just entertains. The first 3 persons do nothing but using the F-word ALL THE TIME and if that deserves this film a 40th place in the top-250 than I would say there 's something wrong in present-day society. Do yourself a favour and avoid this product of a madman's brain.
We the Jury (1996)
"12 angry men" revised
This is like watching the great classic "12 angry men" but then quite the opposite way.Possible SPOILER: In "12 angry men" 11 jury-members are convinced a man is guilty, but one man manages to prove the others of their wrong. In "We the jury" we see a suspect who seems to be quite innocent, but one jury-member doesn't think so. She has got the task to convince the others that she is guilty.It's all done less gripping than in "12 angry men" but there are some quite wonderful roles here, like McGillis and the Latino who was the one who votes for "guilty" from the beginning and is the one to persuade the others to change their verdict.I don't find some of these characters very believable.Weird jury-system you've got in America is this is how it goes. Well worth watching, especially if you know "12 angry men" and can compare these two.
Killing Zoe (1993)
If you like throwing away your time and money....
This film was on TV and having thoroughly loved Julie Delpy in "Before Sunrise" I was curious what she had done the previous year in THIS movie. Well, most of the time I had to shut off the sound and watching the subtitles made me sick already. It starts interesting, American arrives at the airport and the taxidriver puts him into contact with a student who needs to earn something extra, but doesn't think she's a prostitute because she chooses who to sleep with. Then that French lunatic throws her out naked and from then on this film becomes totally unbearable,with the most stupid, senseless, violent scenes ever filmed and this being a European film makes it all worse because European films seem more realistic then American movies in which you can ALWAYS see that it's being acted. This is to warn you to go rent or see Julie Delpy in films like "Before Sunrise" or "Warszawa" or Kieslowski's Golden Bear (Berlin)-winning "Trzy kolory-biale", but to forget about this one unless you're a lunatic too.
Before Sunrise (1995)
The most realistic looking romance movie ever made
SPOILER WARNING:the following review might contain information that readers could interpret to be a spoiler, although the ending is not revealed of course.
This is unquestionably the greatest love-story ever made, a movie without action, entirely dedicated to the development of a love between 2 students from USA and France during their 13 hours in Vienna, walking and talking. According to another Internet film-review site this is the best "remake" of the classic movie "Roman holiday" and any further attempts for remakes could not be better.
The only things that interrupt their talks are very short meetings with people in the streets, but luckily these are very short, as they do not contribute much interesting to the film.I liked the parts where people speak German to eachother, not those that speak English to our couple. It doesn't seem realistic, compared to the rest of the film. The greatest merit of this film is that they talk like in reality.We start to believe we are with them as friends.Also the photography and editing (long shots) contribute to this feeling. A lot, if not all other romance-movies are made according
to the same predictable story-line: people meet, get attracted, but always there's some dramatical event upsetting their relationship before everything ends well. Fine examples of other films filmed in Europe are "French kiss", "Only you" (1994) and "Romance on the Orient Express". But "Before Sunrise" positively differs from these in that the story-line is far more realistic and it doesn't look like a promotionfilm for these countries like these others. Actually we get to see little of the largest tourist attractions of Vienna. This film entirely depends on the chemistry between the 2 actors and they play their most realistic roles. Ethan Hawke's role compares with "Great expectations" in which he also falls in love with a woman who seems to be beyond his reach (played by Gwyneth Paltrow there).Celine seems to be the more mature and intellectual person of the two. The story is highly gentle, passionate but without music so it's not as immediately evident that something great is happening here between these two.The topics of their talks match with the locations. The film looks realistic but when watched closer one would notice several facts that show that this is still a story that could not have taken place this way in reality. The director (who is the co-writer) makes them travel all over Vienna in a way a normal couple could or would never do and there are some factual errors.Just to mention a few (you can easily spot more): when they arrive at the station the clock shows it's 8.30, yet they meet 2 men who tell them the museums are closing.Celine says in the train that she is terrified of flying yet she has studied in Los Angeles. The church where they go is not open in the evening, but THEY get in. They travel a total of some 35 miles if you calculate the distances between each of the locations and they travel twice a few miles south after a visit to the centre. Also strange is that they only once talk about something they see during their walks, as if Linklater didn't know where he would film this story when he wrote it or he wanted us only to concentrate on the story. Remarkable is their tendency to compromise and reach an agreement on a subject. There's no big conflict, just the mutual acceptance of eachother and their vulnerabilities. This also doesn't seem terribly realistic to me when you see how different their background and characters actually are and given the fact that they only have 13 hours (so why would 2 people try so much to do what it normally takes to develop a relationship?).But what IS believable is that they at first hide certain things and then change their stories when they see they can let go all fear For me the best parts are at the pinballmachine,as you can see this was partly improvised (you can't write a script in which you know how the balls will roll) and the narrow alley where Celine says my favourite line "If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something". This also explains the above-mentioned willingness to compromise. The end is not very believable and in contradiction with the maturity they have in the whole film. I don't think many people would do what they do at the end. This film tries hard to be realistic and unrealistic at the same time. Nevertheless it is a film I keep watching over and over again as there are no others with such depth in the talks and such sympathetic characters. My only objection against the characters is the profanity Celine has in her talking (but just 3 times).Quite strange,you'd expect that more of this American man, but he is more thoughtful in his use of words.This rates 10/10 for me because of how addicted I get to watch this film again and again and my longing to see the places where they walked.
The Secret Garden (1993)
Deeply moving experience to be never forgotten
I watched this film in Poland, the fatherland of Agnieszka Holland, after being attacked and robbed in a dark alley earlier that holiday-trip. I had to watch it with one eye closed because of broken glasses, but this wonderful fairytale deeply moved me, brought many tears to my eyes nd transcended me in a happy world where everything is fine. At once I knew this was going to be forever the most memorable visit to the cinema. The story will be well-known.The end is fairly incredible, but that's what fairytales are usually like.What made this film so great was the wonderful music by Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner.Listen to the music alone and you'll know why this movie moves you.It's available on CD, like a lot of other filmmusic of this composer too ("Trois couleurs","Dekalog" and "At play in the fields of the Lord" to mention some).
Gordel van smaragd (1997)
Excellent portrayal of 10 years of Dutch de-colonisation
This story shows in gripping style how the Dutch lost control of Indonesia between 1938-1948.It's divided in 10 parts,one for each year,preceded each time by a few minutes of actual history. The casting is perfect and this film is surely a must for anyone wanting to know something about the Dutch in Indonesia.A love-story between a native-born Dutch-Indonesian woman and a Dutch colonizer forms the main part of the film and it all looks like a documentary.The film did not become a hit in Holland- a real shame.
L'appartement (1996)
Highly captivating thriller, to watch many times
This is a wonderful thriller I watched many times and never can get enough of.It's all about the obsessive love 5 people have for eachother in Paris, (un)lucky coincidences, false identities.The music makes it really gripping.There are hardly any flaws in the characters,just the end is not very credible,but a definite "must-see" still.
The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
This film makes me cry each time I see it
I watched this wonderful movie 3 times in cinema and a few times at home and it still makes me cry each time, because the story sets a rare example of how more important it is to keep a marriage intact rather than following your heart, which is usually not in the best interest of everyone involved. It's Meryl Street's best role, for me.