Evidently five years was all the longer Hollywood had to wait until making a film about the tragic events of September 11, 2001 into movies. Many people wondered whether or not it was right to make money on such a painful event. Others wondered how Hollywood would fill in the unknown events taking place on those airplanes. I was more concerned with the latter. I knew Hollywood would go after 9/11 eventually, but how they did it was my biggest concern.
For those who may be confused, this review is NOT for United 93, the Hollywood film. Flight 93 was a made-for-TV movie that tells the exact same story. I have not yet seen United 93, which I will ultimately compare to this film.
I’ll be honest, Flight 93 isn’t that good. It’s not the story that I don’t like, because the story is the story. You can’t make a story about Flight 93 without covering the essential details. The problems lie mostly within the visual effects and the dialog that we can never be sure of. This is the real story of real people, but the words the passengers use with each other on the plane and their actions are being made up, no matter how you slice it. Oh, we know they eventually rushed the hijackers and forced the plane down, but everything else is artistic liberty, which the writers of Flight 93 just didn’t do well enough at for me.
There was always going to be a fine line between annoying, chest-pounding uber-patriotism and callously underplaying the passengers’ bravery. Flight 93 tries to walk the middle, but the result isn’t very satisfying. Maybe it’s because of budget restrictions on acting talent (TV movie, remember?), and maybe it’s something else entirely, but the dialog just doesn’t convey the sense of emergency that it should. It also does play into the uber-patriotism a little bit, but not too much. Still, it left a semi-sour taste in my mouth.
The other thing I wasn’t so crazy about was the interspersing of teary-eyed family members talking to their ill-fated loved ones, slowly and painfully coming to terms with their impending loss. The events were tragic and everyone was sad that day, but you can’t force me to care just by showing a few teary-eyed wives and moms. Also, 9/11 was such a jolt that I doubt anyone will really ever be able to fully relive the exact emotions they went through that day. Flight 93 seems to try and force it out of you. Personally, I’ve gotten over 9/11 and will never revisit the shock and sadness I felt that day. It’s not that I’m immune or desensitized to those feelings, I just don’t see the point in reliving them.
I had difficulty appreciating Flight 93 because of its attempt to invoke feelings in me that are long gone and I can’t bring back. And besides, it was made for TV, so its chances at being very good were reduced from the get go.
Dry, witty British humor from legendary playwright Oscar Wilde will either sink or swim in the minds of American viewers, who typically don’t dig (or simply don’t understand) Brit wit. While The Importance of Being Earnest is humorous, it seems to drag on at only 97 minutes long.
The story is genuinely funny, but the actors could have done better. Everything is just too subdued, even the zaniness of the two lead men. My only other complaint is with Reese Witherspoon. It should be a general rule of them that British people should play British people in British comedies. Granted, I portrayed a British man in a play once, but I think this rule of thumb should be applied stringently with film portrayals. Granted, Reese Witherspoon is quite likely the only selling point of this movie, as those who are very gung ho about their literature just won’t accept an American playing a Brit, and Witherspoon is popular with the ladies and very likely the only person in the film that American audiences will recognize.
A rather decent production, but it’s the kind of movie you can only watch if you’re in the right mood for something of its kind.
"Films that didn’t really need to exist" seems to be a recurring theme this time around and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is no exception. Star Wars fans had long wondered just how Anakin Skywalker wandered down the path to the dark side and became the evil Darth Vader. What we got was something no one had expected.
George Lucas essentially retcons a good bit of what the expanded universe of Star Wars lore told us about Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. (for those unfamiliar with the term, to retcon means to add new historical material that is now supposed to be accepted as fact, despite any incongruities or contradictions with information that has already been provided; anything you thought you know is now wrong, unless it agrees with the new history) So Lucas is presenting us with a history of one of the most legendary sagas of all time that is substantially different in places.
Perhaps the most significant problem with Phantom Menace can be summed up in three words: Jar Jar Binks. Jar Jar Binks is an alien creature who speaks and walks like a stereotypical Jamaican black man. It is offensive and insulting, but he’s popular with the kids! He provides the comic relief in the film, although his bumbling antics and sheer dumb luck are only humorous to 5-year-olds who can’t yet grasp the depth of the story.
I will admit, the acting wasn’t spectacular in the original Star Wars, but at least there was substance to it. Instead of a mysterious energy force, The Force is now scientifically explainable (science kills faith); instead of meeting a talented young pilot, Obi Wan Kenobi meets a little kid with Force-like reflexes that help him “pilot” a pod racer; instead of using the Force to get out of a jam, things happen by accident (Anakin flies straight into the mother ship’s hanger, stalls out and starts randomly pushing buttons and accidentally blows up the ship’s main reactor, which happens to be left exposed inside a hanger bay). Yeah, it’s that pathetic.
But if you ignore all the chance and dumb luck pervading most of the battle sequences, there’s still the hard-to-believe premise that Anakin had no father, but was conceived by these organisms that scientifically explain the Force. That’s right, I, a self-professed Star Wars geek, have a hard time believing something in Star Wars. Then there’s also spaceships and technology that are ages more advanced than anything in the original trilogy, some rather fake looking special effects, and the woefully inept script that forces the film’s otherwise decent cast to exude less personality than a box of Lincoln Logs.
So nnow you’re thinking this movie is doomed, right? Well, not quite. The story has a chance, just not in the hands of George Lucas. The pod racing scene really is pretty awesome (and a clever way to chew up ten or so minutes of film time) and Darth Maul and his double-sided lightsaber are badass. The music is also pretty good, featuring some choral work included in the main fight theme, which plays during one of the best lightsaber battles in all of Star Wars.
These pros help to at least lighten the disappointment brought on by all the cons, making The Phantom Menace an almost decent movie, but by no means up to par with the original trilogy.
The big problem with remaking a legendary film (especially one with such an iconic and oft referenced/mocked ending) is that everyone already knows what’s going to happen. The middle of the film may be wildly different (as some remakes try to be), but the beginning and end points are already known to us.
Tim Burton brings his creep-tastic directing skills to create some very nice imagery but a mediocre script. Burton’s films typically have a dark feel to them and this is no exception. The landscapes work really well, but "Marky" Mark Wahlberg is out of his element and out of his league here. It doesn’t help that the script is bad, laden with intimations at current politics and how our society is really no better off. Pile on top of this some ridiculous special effects, a shameful overuse of wire work, a weak supporting cast, hideously cheesy references to the original, and an ending that made me say out loud “Well, that was stupid,” and you get this underwhelming example of why Hollywood doesn’t need to remake really good movies.
I’ll be honest with you- the only reason I checked this film out from the library is because the main character's name is Galen. Everything else about this movie reeked of lameness. Evidently this movie has a devoted cult following, probably mostly with overweight nerds who know nothing outside of Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons. I can see how maybe this movie would be satisfying to the unnerving masses of fantasy geeks out there in a pre-Lord of the Rings films world, but there’s really no reason for anyone to praise this movie anymore.
The story is about a sorcerer’s apprentice who, after the death of his master, is sent on a quest to slay a dragon that’s been hassling some town nearby. Big whoop- been there, done that. Boy falls in love with beautiful princess type and we find out he never had any magical ability to begin with. The spirit of his master is inside this necklace he wears (unbeknownst to even him). His master’s spirit kills the dragon in a really poor looking effects sequence, and the hapless dope still gets the girl.
It’s been done before and after, and done much better. Typical cheesy Disney wannabe fantasy crap.
While it is a common misconception that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full motion animated film, there is no dispute that it was the first successful fully animated film. Snow White solidified Walt Disney’s genius and opened up new arenas for the film industry to explore. The painstaking process of animating, dubbing and editing such a project is astounding. More astounding is that the quality of this film made 70 years ago still towers over any traditional or computer animated film made since. Sure, technology has improved, but there’s something about the old classics that still capture the imagination of us all.
Walt Disney takes a timeless folk tale and enhances it with rich backgrounds and vivid colors. With the right splash of suspense and drama, children and adults alike will be captivated by this film. When I watched this film for the first time in a long while, I was honestly surprised at how dark and potentially creepy Snow White could seem to a young child. But in the end, they live happily ever after and we are assured that all bad things have passed.
The filming of an animated film is a long and arduous process of taking still frame by still frame shots of animated plates. Some of the scenes flow for a mere few seconds, which is long enough to shoot at 12 frames per second, but other shots pan and roll for an extended period of time, making consistency a huge issue. Only devoted attention to detail can deliver such a seamless final product.
Also worth noting is the music. Disney incorporates a range of themes and incidental music to hammer home to drama and to lift us off our feet during the lighthearted scenes. The original songs have become legendary in their own right as well. All things combined, Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made animated films a bankable product and created a template for animated film that still exists largely to this day. It is the gold standard to which all of its followers must ultimately be compared to. If you haven’t seen this movie, check your pulse- you may be dead.
Quite a loverly film, really. While musicals aren’t usually my cup of tea, this one is actually rather charming. Audrey Hepburn is adorable as a piece of street-trash turned into a dignified lady and Rex Harrison is perfect as a repugnant, self-serving professor of phonetics. Harrison’s character takes Hepburn under his wing on a bet from a colleague. He feels that he can make a proper citizen out of anyone, and Hepburn gives him a real run for his money.
As an American, some of the language and humor goes straight over my head simply because I don’t know what certain things mean in British English. Other than an excusable language barrier, the only fault I have is with how neatly everything wraps up. Sure, it works fine in theatre but not so well in film. Perhaps that’s the blow suffered by all film adaptations for musicals, but not really. I’ve seen some tremendous film adaptations that are worthy of a four star or higher rating (West Side Story). There’s just something too perfect about the ending which disagrees with my nature.
As I’ve been mentioning in some other reviews for older films, My Fair Lady runs a tad long with some slow pacing at times, but the sum of all its parts is something quite splendid. The music is delightful and memorable, while the writing is rather witty and smart. It’s got just the right combination of style and substance to make it worth seeing, especially if you are a fan of musical theatre. Loverly, quite loverly.
I think Sunset Blvd. was more deserving of the Oscar for Best Picture in 1950, but All About Eve certainly has its merits. The story is rich with desire from both its female leads. Margo is an aging Broadway star still trying to cling to youthful roles despite her age. Eve is a seemingly harmless aspiring actress who secretly is flat-out obsessed with making it in theatre and willing to go to many lengths to make sure she gets there.
At first, Margo appears to be the villain as she makes sure upstart Eve is reduced to stagehand and understudy work. She is the epitome of the Drama Queen. She expects everyone to fawn all over her as if she were a goddess. When need be, she’ll turn the cameras around to gently but coldly remind everybody who is (or who should be) top diva. One feels bad for Eve and I found myself rooting for Eve in her struggles.
By the end of the film, however, little miss innocent has become the villain. She is even more deplorable for the fact that she won us over initially. She is cool and calculating and engineers her rise to stardom at the expense of Margo (and likely any of her peers that would stand in her way). Duplicitous as ever, once reaching the bright lights she pretends to be humble but is all too willing to take over Margo’s role as Queen of the Universe, as if it were her birthright. She gets a taste of her own medicine at the end though, as years later she is approached by an aspiring actress much in the same way she bored her way into the system.
All About Eve is ugly, wretched and deplorable, which is why it's so good. It shows the dark side of theatre, where ego and self-importance tend to run rampant. It is the exact worst case scenario and the type of people I tried not to get mixed up with while I was involved with theatre in college. Despite running a bit long, with some slower parts, All About Eve turns the spotlight on the dark side of theatre and does so uncompromisingly, for which I applaud it.
A pretty thrilling piece of film noir, Double Indemnity brings a high stakes insurance scam to the big screen. A lowly insurance salesman is seduced by a beautiful but unhappy housewife with murder on her mind. She takes out a lucrative insurance policy on her husband and uses the hapless salesman to help do the deed and claim a highly unlikely double indemnity clause in the policy.
Along their attempts to carry out the plot, its aftermath and ensuing investigation, the film carries you on a pretty tight wire. It gets a little long in places and its pacing may seem slow, given the last few generations demanding action, action, action! But it is a classic and an exciting little thriller that performs well to the final reel.
Did we really need a sequel? Aside from the fact that the first Pirates film raked in an unexpected $300+ million in the US alone, and besides the fact that Johnny Depp plays the least creepy and most commercially acceptable performance of his career and is absolutely hysterical while doing so, and besides the fact that the first Pirates film was a down-right fun movie experience, did we really need a sequel?
The correct answer is “No” but when you get all the above mentioned items to align in a single film, money becomes more important than art. Dead Man’s Chest is a rousing popcorn pleaser, but it can't live up to the success of the original. Even longer than the overlong Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man’s Chest outstays its welcome, only to inform you at the end that there will be no resolution until you cough up $8 next summer for the third and “final” installment. Trying to force a sequel like this is dangerous. It can work out well, like Star Wars or Back to the Future, or it could blow up in your face, like the second and third Matrix movies.
The story is stretched far too long, and there are too many subplots, but the most disturbing thing for me about Dead Man’s Chest is that the music, which was so iconic and superb in the first film, has little punch or flair whatsoever. A few recycled bits and pieces here and there, but there was never a moment where the music swept you up and carried you through the action as wonderfully as in the original. That let me down a great deal.
The comedy is played up a little too corny and recycled sight gags made me snicker more than laugh. Orlando Bloom hasn’t improved as an actor in five years, but Keira Knightley is smoking hot and Johnny Depp is still largely funny. The only way for Dead Man’s Chest to become an essential in your DVD collection is if the third film, At World’s End is as good as the first. All in all, a fairly decent popcorn adventure flick.
Evidently five years was all the longer Hollywood had to wait until making a film about the tragic events of September 11, 2001 into movies. Many people wondered whether or not it was right to make money on such a painful event. Others wondered how Hollywood would fill in the unknown events taking place on those airplanes. I was more concerned with the latter. I knew Hollywood would go after 9/11 eventually, but how they did it was my biggest concern.
Dry, witty British humor from legendary playwright Oscar Wilde will either sink or swim in the minds of American viewers, who typically don’t dig (or simply don’t understand) Brit wit. While The Importance of Being Earnest is humorous, it seems to drag on at only 97 minutes long.
The big problem with remaking a legendary film (especially one with such an iconic and oft referenced/mocked ending) is that everyone already knows what’s going to happen. The middle of the film may be wildly different (as some remakes try to be), but the beginning and end points are already known to us.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
While it is a common misconception that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full motion animated film, there is no dispute that it was the first successful fully animated film. Snow White solidified Walt Disney’s genius and opened up new arenas for the film industry to explore. The painstaking process of animating, dubbing and editing such a project is astounding. More astounding is that the quality of this film made 70 years ago still towers over any traditional or computer animated film made since. Sure, technology has improved, but there’s something about the old classics that still capture the imagination of us all.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Did we really need a sequel? Aside from the fact that the first Pirates film raked in an unexpected $300+ million in the US alone, and besides the fact that Johnny Depp plays the least creepy and most commercially acceptable performance of his career and is absolutely hysterical while doing so, and besides the fact that the first Pirates film was a down-right fun movie experience, did we really need a sequel?
