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bithok
Reviews
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
Too "clean"
On the one hand, it's really well played and there are loads of beautiful pictures. On the other hand, I'd tell here the same thing as about "Gangs of New York": It is far too clean. They want us to feel the dirt of Grenouille's life but it's as authentic as a stone-washed 501... Too clean: There's a big difference between a nice Clearasil'ed skin covered with brown makeup and an ugly skin. The difference lays in the way the character will watch at his surrounding universe: The "Authentic" will have some suffering as well as some resignation, the other, the Hollywood-esquire will just look like a liar. I also hated the special effects, with the huge synthesizer-chords each time something smelly happens. There was also too much political correctness in the sex party scene, at the end: We don't get to see any penis (not that I was looking for, anyway) and the few homosexual intercourses only imply women which is quite a pity, in 2006... Be realistic, and, at least, suggest that it could happen too when a hundred of fellow subitely lose their inhibitions and jump on one another. So, well, we're in the middle of something excellent and overrated. I'll be indulgent and rate it at about 6.3/10. Had it been filmed the same way that Eastwood filmed Mystic River, I'd have given this movie an 8.5. Easily.
Star Wars (1977)
Awful
Most people give this movie a 10 out of 10 because they don't consider the movie but rather how happy they were to discover it as a child but now, in 2005, it has become obviously outdated, the script is quite bad and the acting is even worse. Alec Guinness himself asked Lucas to get killed at the end in order to get rid of the awful dialogs and the bad acting. I am sorry I cannot just keep on lying about this movie: this is for your kids but in now way should it be put among masterpieces. IMDb is a web site about movies, not about cult and self-proclaimed nerds or geeks. You have to determine how good is a movie according to artistical criteria, neither to your gregarious instinct nor to your "attitude".
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Lame
Most people give this movie a 10 out of 10 because they don't consider the movie but rather how happy they were to discover it as a child but now, in 2005, it has become obviously outdated, the script is quite bad and the acting is even worse. Harrisson Ford obviously should have worked his acting better, which he happily did since that movie. I am sorry I cannot just keep on lying about this movie: this is for your kids but in now way should it be put among masterpieces. IMDb is a web site about movies, not about cult and self-proclaimed nerds or geeks. You have to determine how good is a movie according to artistical criteria, neither to your gregarious instinct nor to your "attitude".
Dogville (2003)
Worth the top mark
Unlike what user "colcam" said, this excellent movie was not anti-American. Stop thinking everybody hates you because it just happen not to be the proof. Here, in Europe, we just found it was typically describing our grandparents villages. I think this movie deserves a 10 on 10, especially because of its end which doesn't even imply a normal human should forgive SUCH treatments. Favourite quote ? "I think the world would be better without Dogville". At least we've got some movie which typically reflects the Danish sense of tragedy... A movie following a 100% modern Hamlet vein. LVT promised his movies would not lie, this one is not pain but rather truth incarnated. Definitely worth owning in DVD.
Les choristes (2004)
Perfect
200 people were attending this movie in the theater, when the light went back after the movie was finished, nobody had moved, all the eyes were red. When Jean-Baptiste sings, it just takes you by your guts. The story is fantastic, the music is magic, Jugnot is expectedly grandiose... The picture itself is made "à la" 50s, it's very special but truly desserves the highest awards. I cannot give anything below 10 here. I swear you'll love this movie, if you don't, get back to your pop corn bucket and go and watch that Riddick sh1te, at least you'll get what you desserve.
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Too dense
Though the filmmaking was excellent, and the music... FANTASTIC ! I think the story was too fast. I have not read the book, nor I have read any HP book, BTW, but I think this desserved to last at least 90 more minutes. Many events such as the quidditsch match or HP adoptive family have been neglected. Actually, there were lenghty moments as well, like the bus ballad or Harry flying across the lake but I can accept these part were that lenghty (not long). So, the perfect Harry Potter would be as dense as the second one, as magic as the first (which benefitted from the surprise effect) and as intimate as this one. I also loved the fact it didn't have a real climax but rather soemthing really cleverly put together instead, I won't spoil around but I liked the way Harry could get two views of the same scene. Anyway, it was good enough to get a respectable 7.
Les triplettes de Belleville (2003)
Tati meets Django meets...
OK, I'll make it short. I just watched this anime on my plasma screen. I consider it the most original movie ever created and I am somehow happy it comes from someone else than the usual suspects (Pixar, Dreamworks, Disney...). The picture is flawless, the music is perfect, the story is anti-hero-esque but poetic at most. It Les Triplettes do not get oscarized, I then consider the Oscar as bullsh*t lobby-esque self promotion.
Glen or Glenda (1953)
So modern and delicate
I bought this movie after watching Tim Burton's biography "Ed Wood (1994)". I expected something quite clumsy and was delighted with the result : The questions that are being asked and answered are really interesting and Ed Wood dealt with these a very artistic way. Of course, one could argue this is gross and that the topic lacks subtility but you have to envision yourself back in 1953 and I guess you'll suddenly realise how prophetic this movie was. I gave it 10/10 : I'll watch it again and again.
Ying xiong (2002)
Full
A wonderful story, beautiful pictures, ballet-esque fights... From the first scene to the last, the authors deploy all their obstination in order to make this movie the masterpiece this indeed is. Forget the puny blockbusters of 2003, should I remember only 5 2003 movies, these would be "Ying Xiong", "Catch me if you can", "Adaptation" "Chicago", and "The 25th hour". I can't wait to view this movie again on my Plasma screen, it has to be the fullest movie experience I ever had.
Ed Wood (1994)
Decisive
I love the way Tim Burton turned this loser into a passionate film maker. Ed Wood now appears as an inspired but money-lacking story-teller. He's quite touching and actually makes me feel like it's better to try and film some idea than just slandering other's films. Ed Wood has appeared on my DVD shelf a few weeks ago, it has become a permanent part of my top 10.
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)
Lacks a consistent storyline
I am a great admirer of CA1 and was happy to go and see CA2, I am however seriously disappointed : This movie gives more humour, more charm, more action than CA1 but it lacks a consistent storyline. It is so buggy that I wonder if somebody actually proof-read its script. (I am not gonna spoil anything but I'd say that skilled people will at a moment or another be in difficulty as if they never had the required capability which we however see them demonstrating previously). I also hated the way the scenarist has "destroyed" many interesting characters. For this reason, I'd rate this movie the same way I rated "Austin Powers In Goldmember".
Adaptation. (2002)
Nicolas Cage is an actor !
I mean, until the moment I saw this movie, I thought he was only the big muscle guy who's making Con Air that... uh... dull.
In this movie, he's the absolute opposite : he's a bald fat and intellectual loser who dictates his twin brother the way he should not write a scenario.
Even the other characters are likeable and delicious : first idealized by NC, they slowly reveal their nasty, nmaughty and dirty personalities, for our greatest pleasure.
Definitely worth a watch but not easily DVDable : there are too many surprises to make this (excellent) movie worth a second watch.
Avalon (2001)
Beautiful but shallow and slow...
This could have been an incredibly good movie but (and *not* because of the lack of action scenes) it remains some eye/ear candy : The story itself is boring and lacks a good plot. It ends like a Fastbinder movie : i.e. it doesn't really end. The music is excellent, so are the visual effects but, hey ! something is missing. That's it.
Birthday Girl (2001)
Good introduction to Ben Chaplin
Ben Chaplin is amazing in this film : shy and reserved in the beginnign , he suddenly becomes ironic and actually funny. The story in itself is difficult to comment as I would not like to spoil this jewel that got me forgetting the boring Spiderman and his mibII friends. It is just a pity that some scenes feel so looooooooong but maybe is this comment just dictated by that hardcore voice inside my head... :-(
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
Warm !
Though this is supposed to occur in Canada, and though I saw it during the Summer, it was just let me with a really warm sensation, as if the place didn't matter.
There are just these really likeable characters, like the grandmother who keeps escaping and the father with his Windex bottle (we even see him bathing his elbow in the blue mixture to cure some pain at the beginning).
The very end of the movie (5 years later) also features a really funny surprise that actually got everybody in the movie theater to sit back, laughing.
If you need some "warm freshness", then, you need to see this movie.
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001)
Magic
It is quite interesting to discover a movie based on some Team sport that even non sport-addicts may like. There's some kind of magic in this film, a plethora of different characters each interesting in his own way and, my God ! music. During the scene in which the people expect the rain to come, you'll just adjust your heartbeat to the drum. It is quite a marvellous experience to hear this music again and again so that I may conclude that, like the Fiddler on the Roof, this movie is definitely DVD-able (ie. worth the cost and the ethical constraints of buying it on DVD). 10/10, no less.
Spider-Man (2002)
Disappointingly far from the original thing
This is not the spiderman which adventures I used to read, 15 to 20 years ago, this is just another american block buster. Despite an outstanding music (you just can't deny Danny Elfman's talent), you will wait a long time until something funny or breathtaking happens... And it won't. This Peter Parker is not half-nerdy as the one I read about was, he spends a long time learning his own skills instead of going out to save lives, he fights against his college friend Flash Thompson while the original one would just hide his powers. He refuses MJ's love at the end while Peter Parker was just dying for her... So what ? They modified the plot, the hero, even Aunt May is not the same kind as in the original books : she's strong and red-blooded while the original one was thin and sweet. Spider-Man is IMHO not DVD-able, I can't risk wasting 2 hours one more time in front of such a bad movie. But if you loved the X-Men movie, you may then adore this one.
La cité des enfants perdus (1995)
masterpiece
There are few details that would actually need to be corrected in this movie and even so, it might endanger its unique feeling. I once met JC Dreyfus in Paris and we spoke about it. he told me he was unhappy that most peopl focussed on the special effects rather than the tale in itself. I would have agreed with him if I had known somebody who had actually focussed on such effects which was not the case.
The Matrix (1999)
Astounding special effects but...
The Matrix is an outstanding visual entertainment. However, its plot is quite buggy (scenarists are confused between Watts and Volts, Agents may "teleport" and "track" anybody but need to bug Neo to follow him...) and not that original (Stanislas Lem's Futurology Congress, Total Recall, Ghosts in the Shell...) so, well, The Matrix can't be enjoyed more than twice because after that, it will lose its appeal... What a pity...
Gandhi (1982)
Truely... true !
This movie deals with issues such as oppression, colonization, and most of all : non-violence in a way that i quite unique. There is much more action in this film as there is in The Matrix which indeed appears monotonous and boring after several times. it is not a matter of watching exploding helicopter but rather hearing and seeing a small poor man making the English shale in their boots after they realize how wrong their Civilization Dogmas are. I guess Gandhi is much underrated as most disturbing films might be. Concerning the actors, Ben Kingsley is actually astonishing and, until I sawthe beginning of this film, then "Dave", I seriously thought he was around 60 years old. That also goes for the make-up artists. Gandhi is one of my all-time favorites and truely desserves to be broadcasted in School in order to teach children how far from the truth their education leads them.
Charlie's Angels (2000)
he he he
Loved it. Loved the way they had fun of the Matrix (dodging bullet, wearing leather clothes, playing prodigy songs, etc.) Loved this cross between Austin Powers and Matrix. This is a funny action movie. A wonderful moment.
Lola rennt (1998)
Epileptic
Even in the matrix we didn't have such a view of reality and unreality, here we've got three versions of the same fait divers which are quite different and passionating. The little plus is that the utopic one appears to end the film hence letting the viewer with a peaceful impression despite how much his nerves have been treated during the whole film. IMHO, this film is to techno what Saturday Night Fever was to disco (I don't mean the facts but the ambiance itself).
The World Is Not Enough (1999)
The one that came after "tomorrow" : Average and almost boring.
Difficult to be next to "Tomorrow never dies", even more difficult when you decide to hire Sophie Marceau who is definitively not a world class actress. After a real bad guy as played by Jonathan Pryce, we have a girlie that would like to make a million Dollars (put your little finger in your mouth and you'll look like Dr Evil, BTW) and to maim James Bond for an old oil story. Not really convincing but The only advantage to this film is that the next one will definitively be better.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
True Magic
Perfect. Scenario, picture quality, music, anything. But please : don't even try the French speaking version. Prefer the subtitles along with Dany Elfman's singing. OK, I have not seen it for one week. Time to please myself again and again... :-)