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OliverT
Reviews
The Dark Knight (2008)
Very good movie, but lets stand back and take another look. {Spoiler}
What fantastic set pieces(the escape in the Chinese office building was as good as you'll see) and stunning performances all round, also visually brilliant but I thought that the plots were over cooked, there were just too many twists and turns for my liking, to me it seemed like the quantity of twists and turns would give it more merit in the eyes of the director. It almost seemed like two or three movies rolled into one, yet there was no great plot. There was a very rushed character development of Dent to two face.. just up out of his hospital bed straight into a killing spree really. The movie was two long, the pacing was a little scattered at times and some of the dialog seemed old hat to me, I thought it started to lean more toward a Tim Burton take on the franchise, I did love the Burton movies but I loved what Nolan was doing too, his raw back to basics model added grit and a very dark reality. It bothered me that it was borrowing heavily from the James Bond "Gadget Demo" scenes when they were inspecting the gadgets and Bruce accidentally sets off the device is told "It would help to read the instructions master Wayne" rings very much of "Be careful Bond" to me, what's next.. X-Ray specs?... and remember this is what the Bond Franchise themselves moved away from. I did of course think it was well worth seeing but disappointing after the hype I suppose. We really didn't get to spend any time with Bruce Wayne himself. Also Christian Bales Batman voice, it sounded waaay to put on, laughable in fact. All this said I'm simply trying to put into focus what I've seen, it is very good but not the greatest film ever made. Thanx, OTCii.
Du rififi chez les hommes (1955)
Pure gold standard...
This film is a work of pure class from start to finish, for a moment forget the famous 28 minute no dialog heist, forget that it's set in Paris and forget it's Noir. The film itself, the premise and the execution make this a pure gold experience.. it's sharp intelligent and thought through in great detail, just like the heist itself. It portrays real characters that are not only believable but whom you empathize with. It's a film that doesn't glamorize the notion of a robbery but shows it for what it is.. theft. It shows that a heist is hard work and ultimately not worth doing. Now all things considered put on top of that a daring 28 minute sequence with not a word spoken and set in gorgeous Paris with truly great attention to detail and fantastic cinematography and that last scene ...when you look up and see those trees... wonderful use of raw and basic filming techniques... it is a master piece in my view and I'm glad to have seen it.
Wimbledon (2004)
You cannot be serious!!!
This is one of the worst romantic comedies I've ever seen. Strictly for chicks and at that, only chicks with bad taste. It's predictable to the extent of torture. I really pity all the boyfriends who were dragged along to watch this corn-fest and thought it might not be so bad. John McEnroe makes a cameo and I wonder if he wrote and directed it too. The only thing this film served up was bad taste. No doubt it was a big hit with the Titanic-loving brigade. The writing was bad bad and the service from the actors was enough to make you cover your eyes and ears. The film seemed to out do itself in every following scene with how corny it could get. This film makes Jackass look like Shakespeare, How this has gotten the score that it has on IMDb I'll never know, I guess it must be English people loving all the flag waving during the matches(guys ye have got to stop giving your home grown stuff 10 out of 10 as it then becomes impossible to sort the wheat from the chaff)...but I can't be sure.
Pity the rain didn't stop play on this one, game set and match to bad film making.
Babel (2006)
Lots of good points but far, far, far too depressing for me.
I watched this film after seeing the Oscars and therefore I expected quite a lot. In many ways I think it is a good film - great acting & cinematography, the roles are well cast and all scenes are realistic and believable. My problem with the film was that I expected that at some stage in the film I would get the point, that moment when you say "Oh yeah, now I see what this is all about!", but for me that moment never happened - of course, I know all the scenes are interconnected but but I don't think the connection is particularly meaningful. Each story did have a beginning and an end, but each was so depressing that I really wondered what the whole point of the film was. Was he trying to say that guns are bad? Was that the whole point of the film? That would account for the moral of all stories but the Mexican one. Maybe the point is that guns & drink driving are bad? I don't know. Its not that I desperately need the Hollywood happy ending but throw me a bone here - the Japanese girl has to go on dealing with being a mute adolescent who saw her mother shot through the head, the Moroccan family lost a son and their lives are ruined, the Mexican nanny was deported and lost everything she worked the last 16 years for. Only Brad & Kate had a glimmer of happiness as they seemed to come to terms with their child's death and move forward in life. In short, not really my cup of tea but obviously I'm in a minority!
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
What a delight...
Its not very often you come across a movie like this, in fact it's very seldom. Its a looong time since I've laughed out loud so much at a film. The casting for starters was excellently done. The movie flowed effortlessly along punctuated by quality scenes and earned jokes. It really felt like you were with them on the journey, given the fact that yes there were some cliché and slightly predictable scenes ...but this did not matter one little bit, in essence this is an art house film for the masses. Go see it, if not because I think so then for the grandfather with Nazi bullets in his leg. 3% clichés, 2% predictable, 95% enjoyable. Oliver T.
An American Haunting (2005)
Straight from the horror manual..."Horror flicks for Dummies".
Its hard to know where to start with describing just how poor of a horror flick this is, actually its poor right from the opening scene to the very end. Its all cheap tricks repeated over and over, attempted clever camera work and poor set pieces coupled with unpalatable scenarios. It just all felt wrong, the acting was for most part diabolical and looked like even Donald Sutherland couldn't be bothered. It was the sort of horror flick that just tried to tick all the boxes/clichés, things that we have all seen a million times before: (1)Little girl in nightdress screaming- check (2) Glimpses of a dead girl in mirror - check (3) Fog, Fog and lots more Fog - check (4) Something running around in the attic - check (5) Meet little girl in field and when said girl lifts her head her face is scary - check (6) Rolling eyes back in head - check (7) Tense moment and a hand is placed on shoulder from behind - check
OK consider this, the parents rush to the Childs room to see her been thrown around and actually find some of her hair on the floor that has been pulled out and then proceed to LEAVE her in the room after they calm her down, I personally would make sure to get her out of that room as quick as possible. Also when the girl herself hears voices in the room and the bed covers are pulled down off her (another cliché) she sits up looks around, then pulls the covers back down and tries to get more SLEEP!!, are you joking me!, ones natural instinct is to get away from that space, not try to get back to sleep!!. At the end we're given flashbacks to fill in the almost non-existent plot as if we're so thick as not to get it. The problems I have mentioned above are just some of them, believe me there are many many more and unless this is your first horror flick you like many of the people I attended it with will be laughing as it was so bad. OK I admit that the premise was at least original but it was all done soo poorly it was painful.Its an antiquated style of horror movie and has no business in the movie listings of today, go away back to making movie adaptation of video games or come back with something original. Stay in and rent yourself a decent horror flick and save yourself 10 Euro.
The Sweetest Thing (2002)
Poor comedy, Cheap gags.
This is not where its at, this is in fact a failed attempt to reprise the brilliance of Something About Mary genre. Its trying to regenerate the same brand of humor and shock value, but falls dramatically short of the mark. The script certainly shows flashes of some almost clever scripting, but these are all to few, the bargain bin writers seem to have laid the gags out at intervals where they know your about the leave the cinema. The characters were impossible to empathize with let alone actually like, the set pieces felt so manufactured that they get 10 out of 10 for effort, but then again so does Eddie the Eagle.
I think this is Nancy Pimentals first attempt at a feature,.. "come again Nancy".. and no, their is no innuendo intended Sweetest Thing fans.
The Film is not without its moments, its one liners, it timing, but the very premise is an advertisement for recycling....there's nothing new here, its just veiled behind pretty girls, shock value and that old chestnut looking for Mr Right.
I give it a generous 4/10.