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Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
Fantastic beasts and where not to find them
This movie is so full of plot exposition that there's hardly time for anything else. Newt gets to ride a seaweed dragon for no reason at all, and that's all the fantastic beasts you'll see. The rest of the movie does't make any sense. Characters can teleport at will when the plot requires. The plot is full of superfluous characters and endless explanations, but it's totally incomprehensible. Worse, it's just not interesting. The feeling of magic is completely gone.
Asoka (2001)
romantic war drama, one of shah rukh's best performances
Asoka is loosely based on the story of prince asoka who became a great but cruel warlord around 100BC. After realising the terror his wars had caused among the indian population he became a buddhist and lived a peaceful life.
the film uses this story to portray shah rukh khan in one of his best performances ever. the film is beautifully shot, all aspects of the movie have gotten supreme attention, from the scenery, the swordfights, the gigantic battles to the story. The story has all kinds of twists and turns and shows very believably how the young asoka turns from a wise traveller to an evil overlord after losing everything he loves.
The movie can be compared to kurosawa's 'RAN' which also portrays gigantic battles being fought over personal intrige at the court. Asoka's battle scenes are fantasticcally shot and the costumes are really great, looking very detailed and breathing the mood of the time when india was divided into many independently ruled states.
Some bollywood movies require some patience and understanding of indian culture to sit them out (almost all bollywood movies take at least 3 hours of your time) but Asoka keeps you intrigued for the full 150 minutes even if you're not into Bollywood movies at all !!!!
As you may have guessed i think 'asoka' is one of the best bollywood movies ever made, and also a great introduction to the genre if you've never seen a bollywood movie before.
a 10 out of 10 !!! at least !!!!
Almost Famous (2000)
sugary sweet and out of focus
this is actually a very weird movie. it seems to be about the seventies (so you would think when you hear all the very good music) but the story is too sweet and nice and really isn't about anything else than kate hudson who smiles cutely into the camera 98 percent of the whole movie. the other 2 percent some things may have happened but they are filmed entirely without interest or perhaps ability to make it seem significant.
for example the whole scene where penny lane is traded for a crate of heineken......what's so terrible about it??? it doesn't come across at all!
stillwater is funny though, especially the singer who doesn't get enough attention.
this movie is clearly a VERY romantic depiction of the seventies, and is so dreamy that you feel like you're sleepwalking out of the cinema after it ends.
Three Kings (1999)
fast moving coolness but flawed by incredible stereotypes in the end
Three kings starts off as an original high-adrenalin fast moving film, with original screenshots, great slowmotion shots, and cool characters (ice 'they dont care whatz goin' on in the hood' cube). also, the bunkers full of coffee machines and microwaves are very funny.....
the movie's problems start when all the cool characters and camera tricks have had their impact and the story starts to kick in: there is no story. at least, not a story that doesn't make you feel like you're watching a seventies world war 2 movie where heroes like clint eastwood and telly savalas are fighting the ultimately stereotyped 'germanz'.
especially the scenes where we learn that not all iraqis are pure evil, but have their human side too, are just too mind-crunchingly bad to watch. just when you think it can't get any worse, all war-movie-cliches from the past 20 years are put into the last 20 minutes: refugees are saved, bad guys are killed and the US high army commanders are being totally unreasonable about it.
personally i like movies that are shot like videoclips and i don't understand why the director didn't keep it up the whole film......
Unbreakable (2000)
a smart but slow movie
Unbreakable tries to use the same way of storytelling as the Sixth Sense, but fails. This is because the 'secret' of the movie is more guessable so less hints are given throughout the movie. To get the movie to still last long enough, the director made every scene very long, with silent and staring people thinking about when they have last been sick.
The acting is great, the plot itself too, but it's just TOO LONG.......maybe M.Night just watched a few Jarmusch or Kitano films or something ?
Bennie.