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French Immersion (2011)
Anti-Québec propaganda at its worst
One can approach "French Immersion" in two ways : either you can brush it off as a harmless comedy and laugh at its stereotypical fantasies, or you can shiver in anger at all the horrible propaganda it tries to inundate your mind with.
First and foremost, there is no way a small french immersion school set in a remote and economically striving Lac-Saint-Jean village could financially save such a community. The number of employees shown is too small for that, and the townspeople involved are mostly unpaid volunteers.
The most insulting part, however, comes from the cast. On one side, the Canadian students look like a cast of supporting actors straight out of a Sex and the City episode : thin, sexy, sober, intelligent.
On the other one, the Québécois cast, more realistic, is filled with more diversified - physically and psychologically - characters : some are bizarre-looking, some are opportunistic, brash, narrow-minded, gay & effeminate (whereas the Canadian gay is more composed), exaggeratedly curious or religious zealots.
Have the writers really experienced Québec? The local priest looks like from the 1910-1950s, walking the streets fully robed and with its thurible (incense-spreading tool), blessing the out-of-the-ordinary things and events happening around the village. There is no way such a character could really exist nowadays, and not even 6 years ago, as Québec has been plunging during the past 50 years on the path of secularization.
The relationships between the Québécois volunteers and the Canadian students are also awkward. Most volunteers act like mentally challenged people - humorist Peter McLeod is horrible in such a role -, while their Canadian counterparts, looking calm and open minded if a bit puzzled, do their best to adapt to the situation. The catholic grandmother feels out of place, especially when she fears its Jewish guest's soul will be damned to Hell. Nobody cares about that in Québec anymore.
What disgusted me the most, however, is when she learns from her granddaughter the Jewish man is circumcised. Really!? Everybody knows that, this is no mystery. Then the women enter their guest's bedroom and try to see for themselves. The grandmother is pleased, but quickly evacuated from the room as consensual sex ensues. Yeah, right : just try to reverse the roles - two man peaking and a woman peak at - and this will be called "rape". So why is it okay for a male to become a sexual object? The list goes on and on. The county is supposedly nationalistic, but everyone in the movie seems okay with manipulating a possibly future prime minister of Canada to get what they need. "We all voted for René Lévesque back in the days" they say, like if it was trivial. Let's go all back to ethnic survival, bending knees and kissing federal asses to get the money we send to Ottawa, at least a bit of it, back.
*SIGH* There is not enough space in here to fully criticize the movie, but it feels good to point a few of its fatal flaws on the screen. Bottom line : avoid this movie if you can. If you cannot, take it for what it is : a piece of anti-Québec propaganda.
Les amours imaginaires (2010)
Hispter and bourgeois
« Les amours imaginaires » sums about everything I despise about some of the younger generations in Québec : shallowness, love of costly material (clothes) and food, lack of true political engagement, use and abuse of English words and songs (for no real reasons), the senseless pursuit of pleasure and the utter absence of any real life-building plans.
So Dolan and Chokri go after some dumb curly-haired blonde guy which plays with them, clearly denying them what they seek. Brains anyone? They remain hooked on their illusions for so long you can only ask yourself it they are real adults.
Dolan clearly fails here. Sad thing is many of his followers do not realize hipsterism is harming society by breaking social unity and trapping us on individual (futile and ephemeral materialistic loveless) pursuits, decreasing our collective engagement to the benefit of the neo-liberal agenda.
Question : why does everyone has to smoke in this movie? Cigarette companies kill people and make heavy profits on doing so. Dolan, please wake up : you are helping a harmful poisonous industry getting new clients. You should be ashamed.
Le vrai du faux (2014)
Superficial laughs
I have really enjoyed getting into this movie. Somehow, I was sucked into the movie from the beginning, laughing often... until I realized the script only delivered gags on a machine gun level, superficially that is.
« Le vrai du faux » (Real Lies) feels like a dumb humorist show : you gather a lot of stereotypes together, slam them on psychotic and nerve-racked characters and let them boil together on a story's string as improbable as silly.
Sure, Gaudreault knows how to deliver : you have rarely the time to get bored... which is the same as eating fast-food : you first enjoy eating it, then feel shallow and, finally, regret having succumbed to bad food.
The thing is you never know what Gaudreault (or writer Pierre-Michel Tremblay) really thinks, because all of the characters are played like cartoons. Is the movie against war, ecologists, capitalism, psychologists? You never know. All themes are played against each other, which results in a ideological vacuum.
Of course, if you are in just for the laughs, you might be entertained... if you are not upset by all the lies and false contradictions the movie pretends some categories of people to have.
For my part, I was disappointed a lot by some of the clichés, and would like to rectify two things : 1. Heavy metal does not sound like the hardcore noise we hear in the movie, 2. I doubt real-life green leftists act like the insensible moron we see in Real Lies, 3. There is no "War against War" movement in Québec. You can hate pacifists - the kind of which worked to prevent WWI and many other wars - if you want, but please do not create false contradictions.
Crawler (2009)
Bland and uninteresting
Granted, independent filmmaking is a tough game : no or low resources, not enough time to make it good, not enough script revision, etc.
In my view of things, there are only three ways around this : 1. Great acting based on a minimal-yet-effective script.
OR 2. An incredible script based on a great idea with an okay cast and okay shots.
OR 3. Passable acting and passable script based on wonderful lighting and set designing.
Many québécois (francophones) films rely on great acting first.
Sadly, a lot of horror movies coming from Québec are shot in English by a mixed cast of bad unknown Canadian actors and bad unknown québécois-francophone comedians. I can understand that the director-producer seeks to facilitate distribution worldwide, but this way of thinking just strips away all the flavor the film could have had if done the québécois way, in french.
I think SV Bell is a nice guy per se, and that by veiling himself in the guise of an English filmmaker (he is francophone, I believe), he misses the target.
"Crawler" suffers from the flaws related to this choice : 1. Actors are bland, forgettable, speaking in a dull and flat English tone.
2. The locales look realistic, which is okay, but the camera work and lighting are uninspired. We quickly lose interest for the main sandy scenery, used over and over.
3. The "Crawler" itself looks like any other bulldozer I have seen. It does not seem in away more menacing than other pieces of machinery.
4. The script is awful. People are killed and no one seem to really care - "Oh, he's still missing. Ah, anyway, let's go back to work...". Tensions between the main character - the old foreman back on the job - and one of his employee - a former adversary in court - are played in an uninspired way. The girl employee hardly acts the way a woman would act in the construction industry. She is not really respected by her colleagues, which exposes herself to danger and abuse. And finally, the way the protesting and grieving mother acts is not believable. Protesting alone is the best way to get evicted by the cops. She should have mobilized the community or tried to get an arrangement with the company.
Anyway, all of this is based on what? On a bulldozer which kills people one by one when others aren't looking. A theme which is based on the failure that "Maximum Overdrive" is. Ouch. That was a bad start anyway.
SV can do better, if not in filmmaking, elsewhere.
Cadavres (2009)
Too much like a stage play
One look at "Cadavres" different sceneries or acting quickly reveals that the crew and the actors really invested a lot of energy in this project... and it shows way too much.
Sadly, the result looks more like an exaggerated stage play than a movie. François Barcelo's script itself is awful, full of unbelievably cartoonish characters evolving in unnatural studio-made locations. The family's old house especially looks studio-made.
Although the lighting and special effects are beautiful to the eye, they just add to the whole artificial mess. The movie-in-the-movie scenes featuring the actress' TV character look like dumb caricatures of TV shows. There is now way they would have been screened outside of a children or comedy context.
Of course, people looking for coloured circus-like adult movies - there is some nudity and sex, but not that much - might like "Cadavres".
As for myself, the magic did not operate. I prefer a more realistic, less-staged approach to movie-making.
All in all, Québec has produced a lot of better movies.
Flavia, la monaca musulmana (1974)
Unbalanced characters
Flavia the Heretic is hailed by some as one of the best nunsploitation - a dubious sub genre at best - efforts out there.
Sadly, the story and characters it unfolds come from nowhere, and go nowhere. Even if we realize that the movie is based in dark medieval-era Spain, there is no real sense of community, no hint of a real society or whatsoever. No one seems to really like to be alive, or simply to exist within the frame of civilization.
Nearly every character is mad, violent, misogynistic or just plain dumb. The people in charge are few and most of the time act rashly for no apparent reason, or just don't seem to know what to do. Senseless aggression and torture abound, mostly from male towards female, but also from female on female.
The madness the Tarantula cult unleashes on the nuns convent during the beginning of the movie is unbelievable, as is the rage and hatred the main character and the senior nun harbour towards men.
I understand being oppressed by a group, class or gender can lead to madness and revenge, but what Flavia the Heretic does is beyond my understanding : how can you betray and condemn to death thousands of your fellow citizens just to have revenge on few? By siding with the invaders, Flavia facilitates the genocide committed on her people, and seems to be very happy with it. Yet, she also despises the invader's attitude towards women, which leads her to be abandoned by the conquerors and captured by vengeful religious fanatics.
She dies horribly. That's what you get for living a life filled with hatred.
Flavia the Heretic is a beautifully lighted movie, but fails mostly because of a script filled with extremely negative characters. I seriously doubt people hated their lives as much as they seem to do in this movie, even during Dark Medieval Times...
Roma a mano armata (1976)
Pure propaganda
"Roma a mano armata" aka "Assault with a Deadly Weapon" might have been done for two reasons : 1. Pure shock value, the producers hoping to bring in more cash.
and / or 2. Propaganda in favour of giving law enforcement "carte blanche" to use and abuse brute force.
*** Tanzi, the main cop - described as a magnet attracting trouble midway during the movie -, just has to be somewhere for crime to happen.
Exchanging his "you bore me" look for his grinding teeth "I joined the force to catch criminals" face, he jumps into action to punch and kick his new found enemies.
Wait a minute... did he really say that he "joined the force to catch criminals"? That is exactly the film's problem : police officers are not working to ensure social peace, but to catch criminals.
The script even uses Tanzi's wife - whom he does not really seem to care for - to (in a very poorly done manner) attack social practises giving small criminals a chance to repent and become honest law-abiding citizens.
Wave after wave, evil-doers cross Tanzi's path, "proving" the cop's approach that only violence can resolve violence. Thus, the movie spirals downwards into ceaseless gunfire, knifing, raping, stealing, shooting a machine gun in a crowd for no reason at all and etcetera.
Did I say that there is no real story, apart from a few of the criminals Tanzi has hard time to catch throughout the movie? Yes, police force is necessary. But a movie which tries to implant the idea that it needs to become more violent is pure propaganda. Given proper care, most people are peaceful.
We need more Gandhi, and less Tanzi.
Deadgirl (2008)
Deadgirl : Illogical and immoral
*WARNING : A lot of spoilers ahead * Deadgirl has all the technical qualities it needed to be a good horror movie : a good cast, smooth editing, moody lighting, great locales, etc.
Yet, it epically fails on two critical levels :
1. Believability - All of the following things are either hard to believe or completely unbelievable : - A living dead girl is found in an abandoned hospital; how could any serious organization leave a body behind? How could anyone leave a living dead unchecked behind? This is criminal.
- At no point does the police gets involved. People disappear. A guy dies of a mysterious disease. A girl is attacked at the gas station. But nobody ever thinks of getting the cops, nor do the police ever appears to investigate on anything. In the USA, where building more prisons is a governmental priority? It seems really hard to believe.
- Adults are mostly invisible or plain dumb. They never question the teens on ANYTHING, with the notable exception of the beer-guzzling stepfather.
- An aggressive dog wanders around in the abandoned hospital, only to pursue the teens. He doesn't seem to be rage-infected, he just seem to hate the teens. The teens never bother to submit or kill him, even though he comes back regularly in the story to threat them. Talk about dumb people.
2. Immorality - Deadgirl's characters are ready for full-time jail. They are evil and their acts are vile on every level :
- That beautiful girl at school doesn't want you because her hormones lead her right into the alpha male? You leave her alone, she will waste her life anyway.
- Not freeing the girl in the hospital - before knowing she is a living dead girl - is a CRIMINAL act. Not reporting to the cops of your best friend keeping of the girl in the abandoned hospital is another criminal act. Raping and letting rape happen are criminal acts too - necrophilia is another one. Protecting friends doing it makes you ready for jail time.
- Inciting the boyfriend of the girl you have a crush on to orally rape either a living, dead or (hypothetically speaking) living dead person just to have it biting his sexual organs is both heinous and criminal.
- Hypothetically speaking, letting an infectious living dead girl escape outside, where it can become a threat to civilization, and not reporting the fact to the authority is purely insane.
And the ending? It is purely revolting. How can the main character achieve so much evil without ever doing anything but blabber and shut up? I usually like horror movies, but this is too much : logically and morally-speaking, it epically fails on all levels.
Annie (1982)
Most of the reviewers miss the point
In itself, Annie sounds a lot like other films, be they musicals or not. You can love them or hate them, depending on your expectations.
Most of the reviewers miss the point : the main problem with Annie is the plot... some orphan girl gets lucky and draws attention from a republican billionaire, melting his heart and getting adopted.
Why her? Why not the other orphans? The man she loves has made a fortune on the back of millions of Americans and other citizens of the World, and she just gets to benefit from what he "legally" stole from others.
Annie is cuddled from start to finish by dozens of "servants", adults working to take care of her and of the man who adopted her.
When she decides she wants to find her parents, hundreds of couples swarm towards the manor to reclaim her... and the 50,000$ cash reward. The movie ends with the billionaire and his armada going after the orphanage's manager, her brother and her brother's lover, which fraudulently cashed in the reward and kidnapped Annie.
And what if these people had the chance to live decent lives and earn a decent salary? They would not have had to pose as her parents to make a living.
Shame on Hollywood for using children as a shield to defend capitalism and rich people crushing their fellow citizens, transforming poor people into thieves struck down by the money-fuelled few.
The worst part : when some dumb Bolshevik tries to kill the billionaire by throwing a bomb into the manor, and the rich man's servants send him back the bomb before crushing the poor bearded guy without the rich bald man really noticing anything.
What an insulting "savage capitalist" farce.
Snowboarder (2003)
Nice atmospheric film
Contrarily to other reviewers here, I have found this movie to be quite entertaining, more than I thought I could at first.
Simply put, Snowboarder is a bare-bones story clothed in a happy serving of beautiful images, great sound, nice music and an interesting gloomy and cold atmosphere, in which silence is as important as dialogue.
There is nothing new or original to be found here. Snowboarder is a treat for the eyes, and for the mind looking to sit back and relax.
You can enjoy it most if you embrace it like you do with winter : you know the journey will take a lot of time for few action, but once you are back home warming up, you still believe it was worth the trip outside.
Basically put : check out this movie for the images and atmosphere, not the story.
Queer as Folk: Sick, Sick, Sick (2002)
Cheap shot
Season 2 turned out to be a lot better than season 1, in general.
Nevertheless, I must say I felt that Emmett & George storyline was a cheap shot. I know this show is TV fiction, I know it isn't real. Still, the show feels believable, most of the time.
Emmett & George story didn't feel like real. I mean, come on, look at this plot :
1. A poor guy is invited to a rich guy's mansion.
2. The rich guy gets to have a great time, thanks to the young one. So far, cliché but okay.
3. They fall in love and go travelling around the globe.
4. The rich guy dies while having sex with the young one in the plane.
5. The poor guy grieves... and receive 10M$
6. The old guy's family sues the young one... for money!? Come on, he probably had much more than 10 millions anyway!!!!
7. The poor guy counterattacks by telling he will spread his love story to the media, an action which could damage the family's business.
8. The family offers 1M$ to keep the poor guy from talking.
9. The poor guy REFUSES the money and, still, does not tell the media about his love story.
10. So... the poor guy is still poor, and is still part of the QAF family. End result : the poor guy hasn't changed much, and the story can continue. CHEAP SHOT, really.
If you give a character something big (like 10M$), it should definitely because you want him to have it, or at least let him some mileage with it. Giving it and taking it back a few shows after feels like a hack screenwriter trick.
Still, this element taken aside, QAF season 2 is a lot better than the first one.
Queer as Folk (2000)
Good production values, wrong message
Queer as Folk (QAF) is, technically speaking, a really nice show : visuals look great, sound is good, editing is smooth, actors do a great job and most story lines are engaging.
So what is the problem with QAF? Mostly :
1. Gay and lesbian characters live in a homosexual ghetto, and seem to take care in avoiding contact with most heterosexuals. How about discrimination?
2. Very few black people are shown, yet they represent 1 out 4 citizens in Pittsburgh. Discrimination strike two.
3. Pittsburgh is home to 300,000 inhabitants... yet it seems like Babylon is huge and has a lot of places. I live in a city with 150,000 people in which there is only one small gay bar, even if most people are okay with gay people.
4. Most people identified as heterosexuals are portrayed as ugly, homophobic, hypocritical, lying, moronic, evil-doing bastards, all the while gay and lesbian people are mostly athletic and humane. How can you preach understanding for gay people if you fight back with constant heterophobic messages? Discrimination strike three. You're out.
5. Most sex or party scenes look dull and repetitive.
6. Opening credits are awful and dizzying. I always skip them.
7. The french-hating episodes show that gay people can be as intolerant as straight people.
***
Nevertheless, I have enjoyed watching the show, but I just wish they would tone down hatred toward straight and foreign people. Whether you like men or women, or you come from France is irrelevant. We can live together with mutual understanding. Heterophobia and hating foreigners is as unacceptable as homophobia is.
Queer as Folk: Solution (How TLFKAM Got Her Name Back) (2001)
Disappointed to see a supposedly tolerance-driven show fuelled by intolerance
*Sigh* Queer as Folk is a nice show, with great acting, interesting stories and overall nice technical qualities.
Still, it continuously bedazzles me on the issue of tolerance and open-mindedness. Yes, being lesbian or gay is okay. Then why would be French would make you someone evil?
Why would it be okay to portray French individuals as impatient-antisocial-impolite-law-breaking morons that every Americans love to hate? I could go on with other examples involving heterosexuals or other kind of people.
It feels like QAF is just replacing one kind of hatred with another.
Sad and disappointing, for a supposedly mind-opening show.
Nothing (2003)
Short film material
Nothing is a movie, well just full of it.
The basic idea - two characters launched into a fantasy world in which they can make disappear everything they want, forever - sounds great, and would have made a fun short film.
Sadly, everything is flawed :
1. Main actors play way over-the-top, and their characters sound and look very unlikable. In our world, they would probably end down an asylum's dark cell, screaming their insanities to death.
2. Secondary characters are pure evil, be they the colleagues who tie of one the main guy's chair to the roof, Marie-José Croze's thieving character or the wicked girl falsely accusing the other main character of having sexually touched her... this made me swear out in pure rage... how can destroying one's life with false accusations came even be remotely funny?
3. Character's background is slim. 4. Pacing is tedious 5. Nothing's world is, well, empty 6. Silly jumping in Nothing's world is pure teen idiocy 7. ...and so on...
Well, Natali has proved he can do both great (Cube) and awful (Nothing) movies for a few bucks.
Prime Target (1991)
This is what America is not about
Prime Target is all some people would like to believe America is about : sun blasted deserts, ugly remote villages, bland-looking people and redneck western-descent heroes.
David Heavener's vision of heroism is even worse. In his self-made justice world, a Cop Hero :
1. Wields a flamethrower, burns criminals alive, and... gets "suspended" as a result.
2. Takes 25,000$ from the FBI just to drive some criminal around, and plagiarize The Gauntlet and Clint Eastwood in doing so.
3. Wears a awfully-looking hat just to reinforce that dumb country attitude.
4. Hates talking, hates culture, and hates eating everything else besides a hamburger.
5. Uses a 60 centimetre (illegal?) six-shots handgun making big holes in human bodies.
6. Listens to moronic country music.
7. Drives around with a "don't talk to me, I live on an empty island" attitude.
"Prime Target" looks just like libertarian propaganda :
Every official is corrupted? The "man" has to take justice into his own hands. Bankers ask for their 25,000$ mortgage in ten days? No problem, the "man" will find the money. His wife wants to throw him away because he never shows up at suppers? No problem, the "man" just has to push around, and he's screwing his wife again... the same boring dumb blonde girl showing up in all these movies.
Damn, at least the 70s movies were entertaining.
This is crappy "Free America lives by the gun and dies by the gun" propaganda.
Hundra (1983)
Sexist beyond any logic and reason
Technically-speaking, Hundra could be an OK B-grade Conan-era movie : nice visuals, great Ennio Morriconne music, enough budget for decent locations, etc. Sadly, the filmmakers decided to inject badly weighted politics based on the male-female eternal struggle for sex domination. Basically put :
- Males want to submit, enslave, rape and most of the kill women.
- Females want to submit, enslave, rape and most of the time kill men.
- Every men hates every women, and vice-versa.
Could a fantasy world like this possibly exist? NO, because :
- Most of the women do want to have a relationship and sex with men.
- Most of the men do not maim, rape and kill women.
- Homosexuals coexist in society, not outside of it, with heterosexuals.
All of these facts exposed, I can only view Hundra has a boring, exploitative, hateful, illogical, ridiculous, sexist B-grade movie, amazon myth or not. Avoid, especially if you believe in equal rights for both sexes.
Les grandes chaleurs (2009)
A nice, well-crafted and fun movie
Be warned : « Les grandes chaleurs » is nothing revolutionary.
Yet, in Québec's maturing cinema, it is the nice proof that our film industry is a healthy one.
The story is simple : a widow having just lost her husband gets the opportunity to have a relationship with a troublesome yet passionate young adult, and finally decides to take it, after a lot of turmoil.
If the movie is nothing memorable, a lot of things just work great : actors are excellent, photography is crisp and sometimes inventive, music fits the mood (even if really not my type), and the editing makes the movie progress without breaking the rhythm. The storyline, all the while being simple, even has a few surprising twists in its bag.
Bottom line : a fun film to entertain a cold evening, and a good DVD gift for ageing women out there.
Je me souviens (2009)
Two movies for the price on one
André Forcier knows it : he is a U.F.O. in Québec's (French Canada) current filmmaking crowd, probably being one of the last torchbearers of the 60s-70s-80s wave, during which filmmakers where not necessarily in touch with the people.
This is not bad in itself : national directors of the time had their own visions, as some of writers (like Victor-Lévy Beaulieu) still have their own.
In the case of « Je me souviens », this vision produces a mixed bag, or an heterogeneous one in fact, as if two different films had been made in one.
The first part of the movie is the most earthbound one. We see Abitibi's miners movement getting together to form an union against abusive work practises, leaning toward a better life in times of austerity and religious control. Nationalism, unionism, communism, capitalism, right-wing governmental control are all presented in a rather interesting historical - if a bit comedy-deformed - light.
So good so far, the movie is both intriguing and interesting.
Passed 42-43 minutes, the director lapses back into his own fantasy world, and forgets that there is an audience out there. Men fall for improbable adultery situations, and enrol themselves into French's « Légion étrangère » to get out of it. A girl born from a faulty union refuses to love her mother, yet embraces the ways and Gaelic language of the first Irish stranger to come up, and is happy once her mother dies by falling into a frozen lake. And a lot of people hate the guts out of themselves... for nothing.
Simply put, the second half of the movie just doesn't make sense, as many Québec-born did during the 60-80s era. This is not to say I do not like the period (Réjeanne Padovani, Gina, Les Dernières funérailles and many other films were great), but « Je me souviens » just fails to stay coherent after the 42th minute mark. It becomes another weird fantasy of someone who seems to have lost faith in Québec, and refuses to realize that nationalism does not equate stagnation or living in the past.
Bottom line : « Je me souviens » is formed of two halves, the first one being interesting, and the other one a simple curiosity.
Truffe (2008)
Weird movie thorn between bad art and cheesiness
Ouch.
While I enjoy Quebec-based (French Canada) cinema, confident to find a few gems with each passing year, I must admit there are a lot of movies in La Belle Province missing the mark.
« Truffe » is one of those.
A sure thing : Kim Nguyen's creative world is an interesting one, and Truffe's basic setting, in which the world climate changes allows truffle's to grow in tunnels below Montréal, is original and genre-defying.
Passed this, everything misfires : 1. The use of black and white instead of colour is unjustified and annoying.
2. Characters are bland, lifeless and unlikable, even when played by quality actors.
3. The alien creatures look ridiculous, as if taken from a bad 50's sci-fi movie.
4. The plot, in which an alien corporation takes over truffle's production and marketing, feels used and cliché... The Stuff did it a hundred times better during the 80s.
5. The movie's score is annoying to the bone, especially when combined with the aliens ridiculous look.
Bottom line : A wasted effort from an otherwise promising young director. See « La Cité » instead.
La cité (2010)
Interesting yet cold film, even under the blinding sun of the desert
Doubtless, Kim Nguyen's « La Cité » shows how mature and international Quebec-based (French Canada) cinema can be, at least when it comes to production values.
Camera work and photography are great, slicing breathtaking images out of the desert, with right-on costumes and sets completing the visuals. Sound editing works perfectly too. Actors are serious and professional... and maybe too much for the movie's own good.
This is the main problem with Nguyen's work : none of his actors ever smile, and all of them seem to take life much too seriously. Humor and joy are ever absent of his movies, removing the sparks which make people usually identify with a movie's main characters.
Thus, while the main plot is interesting in itself, the characters' blandness makes it hard to stay focused on the storyline.
Bottom line : Kim Nguyen's next film will probably be great, if he keeps improving... and takes time to inject additional emotions in his characters.
Les nouvelles aventures de Lucky Luke (2001)
Politically-fuelled entertainment?
Is Luky Luke an individual, self-righteous, justice-made-man right-wing conservative? This questions sums up pretty much how I feel after having finished a "New adventures of Luky Luke" DVD filled with 6 random episodes.
Of course, none can deny the fast action editing, the catchy dialogue, the intriguing plot lines and the devious schemes unfolded in quite interesting ways. The Luky Luke shoots fast, and he also get the problems solved in no time, all of this on colourful backgrounds and strong music. Taken as entertainment, this rocks.
Sadly, the apparent second degree found in the different episodes feel somehow unsettling. Here is what I learned in the "New adventures of Luky Luke" : - Local bandits stealing from gold prospectors form a syndicate and hold protests to get their share of the gold. Doesn't this feels like, in the real world... local populace wanting their share of mining multinationals stealing their resources? Why would the be assimilated to criminals in "Desperados Union"? - Communism is pure evil, capitalism is fun, journalists never tell the truth, and you can buy judges and get out of jail rather easily. And who saves the day? The gunslinging lonesome cowboy. And he can handle justice alone if justice cannot handle itself. Great, he's the good guy. But truly, in real life, are the good guys always those with the guns? Probably not.
It feels weird, in a way, to see a childhood hero posing as a piece of right-wing propaganda. Libertarian anyone? No wonder he is a poor lonesome cowboy...
Charlie Bravo (1980)
An interesting exercise in morality
Let's make it clear : Charlie Bravo is a second or third rate movie. Some characters are sketchy at best, if not bland and hard to distinguish. Photography feels dull, and art direction is bare-bones. If Indochina / Vietnam really looks like this - rainstorm, swamps, infinite jungles, boring inhabitants, empty villages -, there is no understandable reason France or USA ever invaded this country.
And this is clearly the point of the movie : France was wrong (as were/are Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Holland, etc.), colonialism is barbarism and these poor people (the Viet) have the right to defend themselves and their land.
This is why I like this movie. Charlie Bravo shows that soldiers follow orders, and besides that care only about themselves. These infantrymen are out there to rescue some dumb white girl from the Viets, and they will not hesitate to kill both enemy soldiers and innocent villagers that cross their paths. Hell, they even shoot down a Red Cross helicopter refusing to pick one of their wounded, sending everyone on board to their deaths! Of course, these soldiers aren't very brilliant, and they get picked one by one through the jungle... just like Predator, with many Viet instead of an alien. Abandoned by their country, madness finishes the gang, they all go gun-blazing on the enemy, and they finally get what they deserve : death on the field of dishonour.
Even with all this, you still care for these poor bastards, and they get you to believe their murderous reasons... for a moment. If only they had steered clear from their treacherous government and stayed home. If only warmongering USA would finally understand that war on Asian ground is useless and get their boys and girls out of Afghanistan and Irak. These countries are best left alone.
Pinball Summer (1980)
Normality versus the world?
When I first took this tape out of my surprise retro-box, full of yet-to-watch 70s and 80s movies, I was looking for a fun moral-less comedy.
What I found is a mildly amusing comedy, yet one also fully draped in a dubious moral message.
In short, "Pinball Summer" tells the story of four teens - two guys and two girls - looking to have some summer fun after their last day of school. Sounds cool? Sadly, the main characters are hot-headed, egoistical and spoilt children, who will attack (verbally and sometimes physically) anything and everything to get their fun : biker gangs, rich people, old ladies, fat people, policemen and firemen, disco dancers, etc.
As long as you can prove you look average and wear standard clothes and 80s hair, you have the right to make fun of everyone else, and no one can get back at you without incurring your rightful wrath.
Property destruction is also of their domain. Throwing things on the road, stealing, ruining and drowning vehicles, damaging properties : no one will ever get back at "the normals" for the 100,000$ loss they caused.
Making "normality" crush everything else is not fun, and it felt like being shoved in the following message : be like us or die with our laughing ringing in your ears.
These "Pinball Summer" people would have been "villains" in many other films.
An OK addition for any 80s comedy collectors. Otherwise, stay away from this ideological drivel.
Deadly Betrayal (2003)
Bad Movie? Checked
***TONS OF SPOILERS AHEAD***
Deadly Betrayal is the perfect example of what the suspense / thriller movie genre should not be filled with. Here is why :
1. Barbie-like cast of characters? CHECK.
2. Dull unchanging yellow photography? CHECK.
3. Soporiphic neat suburban locations? CHECK.
4. Cliché adultery story of a neglected 40-some blonde plastic-like woman? CHECK.
5. Hysterical husband? CHECK.
6. Dumb and deaf police detectives? CHECK.
7. International events playing an important part in the story mentioned yet never shown? CHECK.
8. Husband coming back home right in the middle of his wife's affair? CHECK.
9. All-Knowing, genius and mightily annoying magnetic villain having no problem getting tons of dumb 40-some women in his bed? CHECK.
This is to suspense flick what run-of-the-mill 90's slasher are to Horror. An excuse to fill empty spaces on video rental shelves.
Avoid.
Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam (1982)
Copyright rape
Pardon me, but there is no redeeming quality to this abysmal piece of trash.
This "Turkish Star Wars" is pure copyright rape, and the producers should be fined for having soiled a film such as "Star Wars". I am no Jedi fan, yet I believe it is unthinkable to take another filmmaker's imagination and desecrate it this way.
Can you believe this film actually uses footage taken from Star Wars to better a no-budget sick Turkish film? Would you like it if footage from a movie you made was used to fill another director's picture? IMDb should elect this the worst movie ever, and ditch all the nationalists 10-rated votes from Turkey.