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brendan-stallard
Reviews
Justified: The Collection (2010)
Moving right along
Well, this series is moving right along. I had thought that while the opening two episodes were crackers, it might start to limp from there.
Today's episode, "Collections" while still retaining elements of the original idea, took it down new and very interesting pathways. First class script writing and good playing by the cast.
The newish and side characters are given plenty of room to grow and behave/misbehave, while Raylan does his thing without necessarily going all John Wayne over everything.
That there Winona Hawkins (Natalie Zea) is one handsome lady:) I look forward to the twists and turns to come.
brendan
Dreamgirls (2006)
a real bum burner
This was slow, ridiculous and boring beyond belief.
The one element I found interesting was the way operatic recitative was attempted, in that the actors sung lines which were written as speech at times.
For the rest of it, it portrayed black people as downtrodden yet again, and surely that is getting old.
I did think Beyonce Knowles was particularly good, and at last Eddie Murphy produced a decent acting performance.
For the rest, snoresville.
brendan (atlanta)
Great Performances: Così fan tutte (1990)
Absolutely wonderful rereading of a masterpiece
I note the comments of the other reviewers, which are not complimentary. I have to add that my views are perhaps coloured by the fact that I saw all three Operas which made up the tryptych way back in 1990, live over the one weekend.
It was a bit like being drunk on Opera, and no doubt affects my reading of this film.
This particular movie, which had been shown on C4 in the UK twice, and had been very popular then had been the subject of discussion between me and a couple of really "old" opera fans I'd met one evening at the ENO.
Now you'd think that most Opera fans might have taken Sellars ouvre and dismissed it, "he's always trying to shock" etc.
Not a bit of it, every one of these three old ladies were full of the Sellars Tryptych and especially so with the Cosi.
I've seen Cosi some ten times now, and almost everyone describes it as a comedy of manners, a school for lovers or some such drivel.
No, what it is, is a devastating look at the matter of trust in life and just how witless men are in their dealings with women.
Sellars has taken it into a NY Diner and jazzed it up a bit, but old Sellars knows a thing or two, he is faithful to the music, and he hires good actors.
This is a beautifully worked, stylishly imagined and well sung Opera. It made me laugh and cry at all the right places.
Mozart would have adored it, so do I.
brendan stallard
Scoop (2006)
One dreadful waste of time
I've enjoyed Woody Allen movies in the past and I have quite a penchant for Johansson.
This was poor comedy, I couldn't find a worthwhile joke to laugh at in the entire thing. Allen's routine bored the socks off me and the acting was routinely terrible.
The script was complete tosh, so the poor actors had nothing to chew on. The rest of the time, Allen was hogging the screen with his stupid routine.
London has seldom been used so poorly, with a couple of dreadful backdrops that were so obvious it looked like it was made in the 1950's.
What on _earth_ was Allen thinking of, this was _awful_.
brendan