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ellen_k49
Reviews
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989)
Great film!!
I am in awe of Daniel Day-Lewis' acting in this movie. I can't think of anyone else who could have portrayed the real-life writer Christy Brown as well as he does. He doesn't just portray the ravages of cerebral palsy of his character but the intelligence, humour, courage and love of the man. The character also is not deemed a saint but allowed to have humanity - the foul mouth and love of booze and women. If a movie can be called inspiring than this has to be it.
Lewis and Brenda Fricker as his mother both won Oscars and Ray McAnally as his father also deserved one. The movie is well directed by Jim Sheridan with whom Lewis again worked with in the excellent In The Name Of The Father as well as The Boxer.
Suing the Devil (2011)
Take the movie for what it is...................
I am sick of reading reviews from these nutcases that claim that this movie is too religious, Christian, etc.
Enjoy the movie for what it is. It is a movie meant for a FAITH-BASED audience - those who believe in God. The flack that Borat got and the flack that The Ringer got does not stop those two movies from being great and meaningful in some sense.
Christians are made fun of all the time, and I don't understand why some atheists are being offended for the bringing down of others when those people aren't offended.
I am Filipino and half American and I have mentally retarded family members and I thought that The Ringer was a great movie; This movie is not making fun of Mentally Challenged people anymore than Forrest Gump did.
If you are smart then you have seen the kind of movies Rebecca St. James is in, and you know that some talk of God will exist. If you are offended by this movie, then don't see it. Go see Space Chimps (good movie), unless you are going to be offended by degradation of Life on other Planets, etc.
I agree with the other posters - it's all coming from the same guy: This movie critic who illegally downloaded the film and got caught. Then, in a psychotic way, attacks the film almost everyday. I mean, get a life, dude.
Just, take the movie for what it is. A Movie meant to target a specific audience and bring humor and happiness.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Great war movie
I heard a film critic once say that there really aren't "war movies"; there are only "anti-war" movies. I'm still not sure what I think of that claim, but having seen - The Bridge on the River Kwai- enough times in the past several years, I think I'm persuaded that it's at least half right. -Kwai-, I believe, is both a "war" and "anti-war" movie, and, in my view, it succeeds admirably at both.
There is almost no element of -Kwai- that is not praise-worthy. David Lean's direction is tight and evocative. The cinematography is great (even though the color seems increasingly drained in film versions that I have seen). The acting is top-notch. I honestly believe that this is Alec Guiness's best performance, and Sessue Hayakawa is also highly sympathetic and believable. William Holden and Jack Hawkins round out the cast nicely.
The musical score is also right on. Simply put, -Kwai- is an excellently constructed film made by people who obviously cared a great deal about it. As a result, the viewer comes to care a great deal about it as well.
Clearly -Kwai- is an anti-war film. There is no glorification here. War is brutal, period. It's brutality is not captured here in terms of gory carnage or senseless battles. Instead, the psychological dimension of brutality comes across clearly. Yet, -Kwai- also shows the resilience of the human spirit as well as its complexity. One is left wondering if participation in World War II not only psychologically brutalized the characters played by Guiness, Hayakawa, and Holden but also if it simultaneously uplifted them. The paradox is striking to me each time I view this film. War can act both as a positive and negative catalyst, and it can do both of these things at the same instant.
So, is -The Bridge on the River Kwai- a war movie or an anti-war movie? I think Lean clearly preferred the latter, but the subject matter and his approach to it may have landed somewhere in between.
Regardless, -Kwai- is a fantastic film experience and is not to be missed. It is, simply put, my very favorite film--bar none.