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Reviews
Revolutionary Road (2008)
Disturbed but Absolutely Incredible
I was absolutely haunted and troubled after watching Revolutionary Road. I thought it about all night and thus didn't sleep much. The story is troubling since it can very well be something you or someone you think wouldn't, could be actually going throughthe Special family.
The movie starts off harsh and you know it's not good to be begin with. When they rally around their hopeful thought of escape via Paris, you want to think that it will turn out well for them or at least they'll rekindle that some happiness again. Of course that was temporary but you wouldn't think how gruesome it would end.
I was thinking about who to blame, and I lean towards April. She's closed off and temperamental. Though they are both unfulfilled in their lives, she has the hardest time because she has nothing going for her that she wants. She tried being an actress and failed. She's been domesticated and she has hated ever moment of it. Experimenting with herself with the high degree of risk means she get out of the "can't leave, can't stay" conundrum that she's faced with. It's such a tragic fate for her, but it was her only option.
Frank tried to the best that he can. When he finally was presented with his purpose, he was happy to stay where he was and open to his promising future. I think he's like most men during that era working, family oriented and fine with the "ordinary" day to day life. I don't think April needed Paris, but she needed to find her purpose. The crazy guy provides the vocal narration and while I do agree with his comments, his frankness was a bit over the top that made the film too much. A dab of his smart jabs would have been enough.
April's final scene with her back turned to the audience against the beautiful sunny day and the blood forming on her skirt! Simply anguish!!! This is the vision that made a lasting and distributed impression of the movie. Very well done.
Twilight (2008)
Twilight
I'm an avid Twilight reader and stalker (yes I went to Hot Topic tour.) I can't remember a time when I was SO anxious and excited to see a movie. I just saw Twilight at a screening in San Francisco on 11/17. I left the theatre feeling
..indifferent.
First of all, I knew the movie was not going to be based exactly to the books but at the same time it kind of hurts me to say that it just wasn't good. ~sigh I felt that the director Catherine tried to bring her indie elements into the Hollywood style movie that just didn't work. The opening scene with the deer was alright, but I was just about to laugh out loud when the movie got to Edward and Bella finally acknowledging what Edward truly was. This was the biggest issue I had. I didn't think viewers were able to experience the intensity of Bella and Edward relationship. I wouldn't believe that Bella was ready to place her undying pledge to go vamp at the end. The scene was so choppy, where it felt like the scene was full of greatest hits of one liners all cram into this one scene. It wasn't the turning point as where it should have been. The movie was clearly not based on romance, which is the ultimate theme of the book. The movie hastily breezed through the courtship development to finally get to the lingering action sequence.
I like Robert but he just couldn't pull off a convincing Edward. His reaction to Bella in Biology class was just laughable. Again Catherine trying to pull the artsy camera cuts--- silly, silly. Jasper's reaction was humorous also.
Edward's showing Bella who he was in the sun was not remarkable. His body hardly glisten. Couldn't they get Britney's Swarovski body suit from her "Toxic" video? The movie nicely brought out Rosalie's dislike for Bella. Alice was very convincing and good. Carlise was attractive and fitting.
I was surprised by the diverse student body of Forks. I liked Jessica a lot. It was hard to see her as the small minded character as how she was written in the book.
All in all, this movie wasn't made for fans of the book, but to lure moviegoers into (hopefully) the film franchise.
Little things that could have been included in the movie to make the readers happy wasn't included. Such as why couldn't Bella wear the blue V neck sweater when meeting the Cullens for the first time? Why couldn't Bella attack Edward on the onset of their first kiss? Why couldn't Edward's couch be black? Why did James bite Bella on her forearm and not her hand?
As a Twilighter, I think I may go see it again just to see if my reactions change, but I wouldn't recommend this film to any non-Twilighters.
East Broadway (2006)
Great to see Asians but a not so good film overall
Well what I can say about this movie is that it's great to see so many Asian faces. What I didn't like about the film was that it was full of stereotypes of what typical racial characters would do in their role. The Asian girl without confidence who has to play someone else to get ahead, the white guy infatuated with Asian culture and chooses to leave his white world behind for the land of yellow and the "keeping it real" black cab driver. Plus all the coke, shanghai tang and dunkin donuts product placement was a bit too obvious. The story plot itself was fun but pretty much how I thought the story would unravel. Then again when watching romantic comedies you can't expect much but then again I would have been wanted to just be surprised at least once. The parents are the best part of the flick.