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amblinalong
Reviews
The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (2007)
If you must watch, bring toothpicks for your eyelids
This was obviously made with the sole intention of becoming a video game. Many scenes were perfect cut scenes for a game. Dialogue was delivered as if narrating instructions for achieving each level, as well as reminding the player of the time limit for finding each sign, with other tips and reminders dropped along the way. Much the way 3-D movies were filled with visual exaggerations of camera directed action, a movie made to be a video game is presented as just described, not usually this badly. Excellent story, but told very quickly, without the substance and depth of a real adventure, nor even the melodrama of overacting. Deadpan underacting if any at all. It would be a great game if the movie had been good enough to get people looking forward to it. I am picturing the game writers burying their dead and looking for a new project.
2 out of 10 because it really is a good story, but not worth the watching.
Mr. Jones (1993)
How high can you go?
The most poignant point in this movie, for me, was not whether doctors should have relationships with patients (of course we know this happens, we know it is wrong, we know it doesn't usually happen, and we should all be horrified at the thought), it was not that people who have bipolar are people, too, and it was not how well Gere portrayed his character.
It was the fact that his character was unwilling to take his meds because his euphoric highs were what made his depressive lows tolerable, and even worth it. And those euphoric highs were amazing, a huge bite into life that many of us only wish we were brazen enough to chew. But, of course, his illness prevents the wise knowledge of how high to go.
Imagine this yo-yo approach to life - for a lifetime - I can't. Next, imagine someone suffering the lows to the same degree Gere's character suffered the highs. Suicide, anyone? This movie slams home the emotional roller coaster which courts of law and some medical establishments are incapable of approaching correctly.
I wonder if locking Mr. Jones up for grand theft would have been a good thing - nah, not really, c'mon think about it. As for the unprofessional behavior of the doctor - well, I guess she fell in love. Shame on her. Of course, she should have withdrawn from his case. I wonder who would have been in charge of his treatment, and what treatment he would have received. D'oh, this was her major concern, for this particular storyline. The doctor who would have taken over was quite undesirable.
Although most medical facilities are professionally compassionate regarding the illness, this movie used a plot with an antagonist - necessary for a climactic story, but seldom available in real life. It's just to remind us that sometimes exceptions can be allowed and punishments waived for human errors. I never got the impression that this movie was encouraging unprofessional behavior.
Un tè con Mussolini (1999)
My cup of tea
A fantastic portrayal of English ladies in Mussolini's Italy before and during the American participation in WWII. Another poster states Cher was out of place in 1930's Italy, to the contrary. She played the part of a Rich American Jew, in Italy, no less. Of course she was out of place. English Ladies vs. Vulgar Americans join forces, however reluctantly, and triumph. Pleasurably satisfying to find it is based on true events. World War II's effects on those lucky enough to be outside the camps of Germany, Russia, etc., were not as tragic, but poignant, nonetheless. Presented with a curious artistic flair of charm and drama, comic relief, and the tenacity of a motley selection of characters, from the perspective of a boy who learned appreciation of art, life, love and honor through their eyes and hearts.
So, what happens when one has a spot of tea with Mussolini?
The Cross and the Switchblade (1970)
More than a Spiritual Movie
I saw this movie when I was 13 years old, while first released at the theaters. It has stayed with me ever since. I am not a religious person, and the heart of this movie is not in my memory for spiritual reasons. It is the true story of the heartbreaking struggles of a few, then dozens, then hundreds of streetkids. It is the true story of the bitter-sweet survival, recovery, success of one after another. And the utter sadness in the loss and waste of those lost to drugs, crime, and/or prison. What moved me wasn't as much the tenacity and courage of the preacher who gave up his comforts to live and work among those of the street, which was enormous, but the fact that these kids were found, or found someone, to pull them out, to fight for them until they finally became capable of fighting for themselves. There is both humor and drama in this story of kids who learned through the efforts of one single man, constantly, unrelentlessly, with creativity and iron testicles, that they can overcome.