kinoman-2's Reviews

Junk Mail (1997)

1/10

5 January 2000

Though it was labeled as a "romantic thriller" on the videocassette that I rented, nothing can be further from either the romantic or the thriller than "Junk Mail." By some reason certain filmmakers think that simply putting a group of people in ugly surroundings they will make their film funny. Well, it's not. There must be also such old-fashioned things as scripting, acting and directing and these aspects are almost non-existent in this film.

And its portrayal of Norway and Norwegians will unlikely make the country appealing to the outside world.

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Sleepy Hollow (1999)

4/10

For the 90s audience

26 November 1999

Washington Irving's story could have been a perfect vehicle for Burton's talents. However, Irving's atmospheric classic was updated into a serial killer movie which is very 90s-like: loud, over-the-top and weak on characterization and plot. At first, it looks gorgeous but as the story gets increasingly thin and predictable, the movie's gorgeous look can't save it. By the end the movie reminds something like The Terminator rather than a gothic story as it should be.

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Possession (1981)

10/10

Pure cinema

26 October 1999

The very reason why this film was lambasted by so many people is because it requires the full use of imagination on the part of the viewer. Those who like films to be linear or over-explained (almost 90% of all films and almost 100% of all Hollywood films) will call this film confusing, baffling, hysterical, etc. However, very few directors are able to use cinematic space as Zulawski does in this film. This doesn't appeal to your rational part, it's supposed to connect with you on spiritual or deeply emotional level, it's supposed to appeal to something in you that can't be rationalized or explained verbally. Possession is a piece of pure cinema, no less.

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Funny Games (1997)

1/10

Sick film masquerading as high art

13 October 1999

FUNNY GAMES is an exploitation film of the worst kind. It pretends to be some sort of statement about screen violence and simply revels in this violence (albeit mostly off-screen). There are no redeeming points in it, except for its technical competence. Imagine the first half of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE stretched out to a hundred minutes minus Kubrick's black comic touch.

What is exactly the filmmaker's point? I can't understand some highbrow critics who made it a "cause celebre" and gave this film such big publicity. I guess, the film brings once more the issue of responsibility of a filmmaker and a film critic.

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Frosty (1965)

10/10

It's a weird idea to judge a movie after seeing it on MST3000

25 August 1999

It's a weird idea to judge a movie after seeing it on MST3000. Really. I wonder how many of those, who wrote those snide and supposedly witty comments about this movie, have actually seen it in a proper form? Have you ever heard of what Roger Corman and his team did to some decent Russian sci-fi movies turning them into garbage? Do you think that dubbing and editing a foreign movie preserves it better? Morozko is reasonably well made children's fairy tale that was mutilated by some American distributors. That's what it is.

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Enemy of the State (1998)

10/10

Very entertaining

21 April 1999

"Enemy of the State" delivers what it promises -- action and suspense. It also has a clever script and good acting -- the ingredients not normally found in action thrillers. It doesn't use Holocaust or World War II to conceal its weaknesses and it doesn't strive for social significance or Academy Awards. Such honesty should be rewarded.

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Titanic (1997)

3/10

History according to the movies

14 April 1999

What disturbs me the most about "Titanic", that in the minds of millions of people, the tragedy of the eponymous ocean liner will be forever replaced with a fictional romantic story of a British girl and a American boy. Did the film make you actually care about 1500 passengers who died in the crash? Very unlikely. We're supposed to mourn the girl's lost lover instead. 1958's "A Night to Remember" offered both the more historically accurate account of the event and the human drama behind it. Along with "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan", "Titanic" is a sad example of how the actual history is being replaced by Hollywood's fictionalized versions of it. Dream factory, indeed.

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Meet Joe Black (1998)

1/10

Don't meet Joe Black

30 March 1999

Why this film should run for three hours is a complete mystery to me. The screenplay is unbelievably poor (and it's credited to four writers!), the pace is anemic, the plots twists are utterly predictable, the characters are cardboard and reduced to stereotypes. Brad Pitt doesn't have the necessary range as an actor to play this role. At best, he looks wooden, at worst, just plain silly. The glossy production values only underline the futility of the whole enterprise.

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Henry Fool (1997)

4/10

Disappointing

22 January 1999

It's so surprising to see so many good reviews on "Henry Fool". After intriguing first twenty minutes, the films goes absolutely nowhere, resorting to one cliche after another. The ending looks like it was borrowed from a bad Hollywood melodrama. The film hardly says anything new about the nature of creativity and fame, and the characters remain essentially cardboard. At times, it looks like it was hastily re-edited to please some mysterious studio executives. It's so discouraging to see Hartley, an interesting and original filmmaker, doing his equivalent of "Good Will Hunting" (another act of self-denial from an independent filmmaker) .

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Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993)

9/10

Fascinating

10 December 1998

This is a fascinating documentary on a fascinating subject - eccentric Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. The film prefers snapshot technique to straight narrative, and the leading character comes alive in Colm Feore's vivid performance. This one makes you believe that art is not dead as long as the people like Gould still exist.

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Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995)

2/10

Abysmal

8 December 1998

This is exactly a film for the people who think that film history starts with Pulp Fiction. It's a cliche-ridden crime story with supposedly cool dialogues and sudden lapses into sentimentality. If one can watch Christopher Walker doing his psycho thing for umpteenth time and can buy Steve Buscemi as ruthless hitman, then one might enjoy it.

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Celebrity (1998)

1/10

For whom the toilet flushes

24 November 1998

Warning: Spoilers

"Deconstructing Harry" left many viewers wondering how close the central character was to the real Woody Allen. Well, "Celebrity" leaves one with the impression that it might be close enough. The film is as misanthropic as its predecessor, but it's also misogynist while the humor is shallow and obvious. The basic plotline echoes "La Dolce Vita", as a journalist (Kenneth Branagh), who aspires to but never succeeds in being a serious writer, follows the various New York celebrities and simultaneously fails to establish any long-lasting relationship with the women he meets. His neurotic ex-wife (Judy Davis) dates a TV director (Joe Mantegna), who virtually adores her, but she almost manages to blow the whole thing. Branagh does such a faithful imitation of Woody Allen's screen persona, with all the ticks and mannerisms intact, so it verges uncomfortably on a parody. Judy Davis basically reprises her role in both "Husbands and Wives" and "Deconstructing Harry", which is a woman on a verge of a nervous breakdown. The female characters, portrayed either as sex-crazed dumb blondes or beautiful but insecure career women, are all inexplicably attracted to to Branagh's self-loathing, neurotic loser. It looks dangerously as an old man's wishful thinking. It seems that Woody Allen desperately needs new themes and style, otherwise as Branagh's character put it: `Don't ask for whom the bell tolls, or rather for whom the toilet flushes.'

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