Change Your Image
adamcfreeman
Reviews
Pacific Rim (2013)
This is how Transformers should have looked.
I am the last person who would choose to pay the exorbitant prices for admission to a theater for this kind of entertainment... and I really liked it.
Not once during this film did I stop and think "Hey, that's CGI, even if it is well done.". On the contrary, I would have little trouble believing this was actual footage. The water looked fantastic, metal glistened beautifully, and the monsters were actually kind of scary.
As far as I'm concerned, an action film should be entertaining, and Pacific Rim did that better than I've seen in a long time. No sex, no plot twists, no leaps of logic, just suspension of disbelief. This is no Bergman work, and Del Toro didn't try to make a mental labyrinth. Take this film at face value for what it is: A beautifully done film with fantastic special effects that only aims to entertain. From my vantage point, this was a chance to have fun making a piece of art, and show off.
Diary of the Dead (2007)
I can't believe Romero put his name on this.
First of all, this film tried the already-proved-to-fail camcorder approach. Guess what! It failed. I have to give credit where it's due, because the lighting and scene construction were done pretty well.
Generally speaking, a film can please a large audience by combining excessive foul language with gratuitous drug use, sex, or violence, but this film doesn't have anything other than cursing.
Over the years, George Romero has been pivotal in the specific sub-sect of horror that focuses on the idea of a zombie apocalypse. I have come to enjoy a lot of Romero's works, and that's why this befuddles me. Night of the Living Dead was ground-breaking, and Diary of the Dead should have stayed dead.
Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011)
Supporting cast was great; main characters, not so much.
First, I really wanted to like this film; I had very high hopes that someone would finally make an attempt at bringing to Hollywood the book that tries to explain the crisis that's plaguing the United States.
Dagny wasn't nearly as assertive and confident, probably because big, watery eyes were chosen to make her more likable. James is too aware of what he does, and confident for the wrong reasons. Eddie is too assertive. Francisco looks like a bum, and he lacks a Spanish accent (Dr Stadler's accent would have been excellent). Rearden smiled far too much; in fact, he was altogether too personable.
The supporting cast was great! Some of them didn't look right, but their roles were done so well that I could overlook the appearances. I did really like how well supporting roles added so much to this film (Lillian was perfect). The story was carried by everyone else, because the main characters were clearly amateurs.
Many interactions had too many niceties added, and Dagny was so close to simpering in every scene that I wondered if she would simply go home and cry at the end of each day.
All in all, the whole picture had a television feel to it, which makes sense, given that the director was most experienced in television, and the producer had never made anything before this.
In closing, I think the biggest problems with this film were related to how quickly it was put together (something to do with the film rights expiring soon). Better leads could have been found, and a better production staff could have been used. If this work can offer the world of film-making one lesson, it should be that planning is key.
Black Swan (2010)
Wow! I was left speechless.
I should start this by saying that I have high expectations of Aronofsky. All of his feature films have gone various directions with great success. Out of everything that I've ever seen, nothing has managed quite the impact that Black Swan has. I almost never rate anything at the top of the chart, but this film makes it. I was completely speechless at the end.
In a nutshell, this film is predictable, especially if you're a fan of David Lynch. Even though Aronofsky has proved himself to be an excellent director and creative mastermind, he is still growing. That said, while I knew where this film was going, and how it was going to get there, I was still shocked at most of the events. The whole film starts very slowly, much like Aronofsky's other works. As things start to happen, tension starts to build.
The main character (Nina, played by Natalie Portman) pushes herself to become the star of a reworking of Swan Lake. We always hear about great art requiring sacrifice and suffering, but this role for Nina is nothing that her years of rigorous training could have prepared her to handle. Unlike many other films that play on the drama created between competition for coveted positions, Aronofsky keeps the main focus on Nina, the tumult under her surface, and how that impacts everything around her. Her producer (Thomas) demands much, pushing and pulling her in directions she's never explored. In the end, the work by Nina and Thomas leads to a phenomenal, new rendition of Swan Lake.
Hellboy (2004)
This was made by Guillermo del Toro?
First, this is not science-fiction, it's blatantly fantasy. I am not a comic-book reader, so I had no experience with this universe prior to the film.
As a film, it was pretty good. When I say "as a film", I'm addressing it as nothing more than a piece of entertaining cinema, like the Back to the Future series, anything Hellraiser, or Fantasia. As entertainment, I'm not looking for anything metaphorical or metaphysical. The presence of deep-seated questions doesn't ruin a film, but they shouldn't distract me from it. Cases in point: Event Horizon, Robots.
For Hellboy, I suspended judgement of the film based on the title because superstitious terminology and imagery are ubiquitous and unavoidable throughout most of the world and literary history. Besides, Hellraiser, even using such a fantastic and superstitious title, doesn't bring excessive religious ideology into the film.
I'll spare appeals to the idea of this film being religiously alienating because of the main character, as the ideas of "devil" and "hell" are concepts that have been propagated through literature for thousands of years. What angers me most is the devotion to the idea that one can only be "human" through Christianity. This is outrageous, insulting, belittling... there aren't words sufficient to describe how offensive it is to discriminate against someone based on their superstitions. Racism is low, sexism is low, classism is low, implied discrimination based purely on religious views is truly despicable.
I had no interest in this film until I noticed it on Guillermo del Toro's IMDb page. Maybe I missed something in his other work, or maybe I'm expecting too much from him, but I won't be jumping at his other films with the kind of zeal that I did before.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
Save your time and your money.
I'm not sure that I can offer much more about how almost all of the characters are less than two-dimensional, and more forgettable than the faces of other people in line at a grocery store.
I found myself wondering how this Jesse James got his name in the title without actually doing anything in the film. Saying that this film is about the legacy and death of such an infamous gangster/gun-slinger is like saying that Forrest Gump highlighted the failure that was the Vietnam war.
Basically, 3:10 to Yuma exemplified the energy, valor, and excitement that The Assassination... needed. I'll grant that the scenery is kind of nice, but it's lost amid the clutter of bodies and plot pieces that are littered through the film.
In my experiences, many of the finer films do require a second or third viewing before much of the nuances can be appreciated. Eraserhead, Dogville, Full Metal Jacket, they're loaded with symbolism and messages. This film left me reaching for meanings, trying to find some hint of an idea, but I was completely baffled and disappointed.
By giving this collection of scenes such a low review, I find myself wondering if everyone who gives it a high review has just convinced themselves that they liked it; sort of a way of dealing with a severe trauma.
Dogville (2003)
Picture of a small North American town.
I have been trying for several years to find something that eclipses this film in honesty, wit, intelligence, drama, and tragedy. To date, nothing really quite achieves the kind of ethical brutality that Dogville does.
Having spent much of my life in rural North Dakota, I feel that I'm qualified to state that this film accurately describes life in a small North American town. These are places where passive-aggression is a way of life. This community functions because everyone knows the weaknesses of everyone else, but no one says anything for fear of being damaged themselves. In a place like this, the only power one can have over another is information (read: dirt). This power can only be exercised through proverbial blackmail, something that passive-aggression thrives upon.
When a stranger enters this community, they become the focal point of the entire community's passive-rage. In an attempt to appease this rage, the newcomer (Grace, an appropriate name) volunteers all of her weaknesses to the town in exchange for safety. Rightfully, the town asks for some sort of compensation, and Grace becomes a sort of public servant. At this point, everything appears to be going well. As the case with anything "public", everyone wants more than anyone else, and the tug of war begins.
With the mention of "each giving according to their ability" regarding Grace's payment (does anyone remember Atlas Shrugged?), the story becomes the prelude to something very sinister. From there, it doesn't get better.
It is not my intent offer a complete explication of this cinematic wonder, merely to give a gentle nudge in one of the directions that the story goes. If you like this film, a nice companion to follow it is Manderlay (which is somewhat close to a sequel).
The Wicker Man (1973)
Don't waste your time.
Don't read past this first sentence if you haven't seen either version of Wicker Man (1973 and 2006).
Having seen this version and the newer one, I must say that this version is atrocious. The only redeeming quality of this film is the burning of the "Christian" at the end.
The audio was rough, at best; I've seen films from the 40s with better sound. The dialogue wasn't of consistent volume, I had to constantly adjust up and down to catch everything, and I still had to replay several portions to hear what was said. The musical breaks hurt the film far more than they helped. Maybe it had something to do with the social movement happening in the UK at the time, but the songs were too loud (comparatively), and seemed to only partially connect to the story.
By the end, I was so annoyed by the investigator that I wanted to see him die, horribly. His acting was entirely unbelievable, as was his religious diatribe. When compared to the newer version, the best part about the ending was the victim's prayer for help, though it doesn't hit quite as hard as a man's daughter burning him to death (as in the 2006 version).
In retrospect, I would have expected these two films to be juxtaposed, both in time and place of creation. America seems to be the current hot-bed of "Christian" propaganda, especially now, so it just makes sense that a contemporary film would retaliate with such anti-Christian sentiment. By comparison, I've not come across any zealots preaching Christian dogma in my times in the UK, though this film leads me to believe that it may have been worse at the time of production.