Reviews

Right from the first scene I noticed the amateurish acting. Actually, it's so bad I had problems following the actual plot which actually isn't that complicated. Halfway through episode one I gave up.

The POTUS is the liberal good guy while his VP is a Christian conservative and of course a hypocrite. The show repeatedly mocks Conservatives and Christians. It's almost as if they want to whitewash Bill Clinton and his affairs by portraying the POTUS as a philandering but still caring guy who wants the best for the country.

Unfortunately, not even Haim's decent acting can cover for the oher actors' ropey performances. The film was shot digitally which doesn't help either. The plot never really grabbed me and I found myself skipping scenes to the finale.

Seriously, this movie is utterly worthless to watch, unless you enjoy watching sadism unravel before your eyes. It has no redeeming value whatsoever and I cannot imagine anybody watching this a second time. Elvis', the main character's motivations are never made clear. The moment he commits his first reprehensible act, I lost any identification with him whatsoever. It came out of nowhere and served only to shock the viewer. Elvis remains shallow and murky and we never ever understand his actions. They seem random and illogical. Not to mention the stabs at the "naive Christians" who actually think that prayer helps and that love conquers everything. The ending is supposed to be a gut-wrenching punch in the stomach of every Christian, served with a sardonic, cynical smile by the director of this junk. But since the main character's character development remains shallow, the whole punchline rings false and falls flat on its nose. Oh I get it: We are supposed to fill the blanks! Ambiguity is so post-modern, isn't it? This movie is utterly satanic in its ridiculing of faith and love and redemption. It suggests that there is no redemption and no new beginning. We are to put our faith in hatred and revenge and not in love. And if you believe in love, you are an idiot. No, I'm not buying it. And neither should anybody buy the DVD. This movie is rotten to the core.

I will never understand why any movie buff would consider Haneke's movies anything more than self-righteous and arrogant trash. His latest film is just puerile and crude. Fascism was all due to authoritarian upbringing and Christian ethics? Are we to believe that anti-authoritarian "anything goes" and sexual promiscuity would have been the panacea against fascism? This obtuse logic is typical of any lefwing ideologue. Haneke is no exception. "Funny Games" was a priggish attempt at condemning movie violence but made use of violence itself. I guess only Haneke is allowed to employ violence in "Funny Games" and "Die Klavierspielerin" but anybody else who dares employ the same device is fair game for him. Everywhere you look, you can tell what havoc anti-authoritarian upbringing and sexual promiscuity have wrought: Crime, rebellion,STDs, illegitimate children, sexual perversions. Maybe Haneke should consider the consequences of his morals before he points with the finger at Christianity. In my church, you won't find a tyrannical priest. If we sin, we confess and our pastors forgive us, just like Jesus taught us. Forgiveness is one of the most important principles in Christian lives. Why does Haneke use a caricature of a priest to get his point across? Because that's the only way he can impugn Christianity. Because Jesus' and Paul's teaching all make sense, even if sometimes it's not that easy to stick to them. But what is the alternative? No morals atall? Of course Haneke's devoted minions look at all his trite output as "masterpieces" because they are blind to the depraved and anti-Christian moral values that hide behind Haneke's work. "Das weisse Band" is a telltale testament of a man who hates Christianity, who shows a distorted picture of Jesus and his teachings, and who opines that celibacy until marriage is the root of all evil. A true Christian knows that Jesus' teaching all make sense. That's why I abide by them, not because I have to. How about this, Mr Haneke? There are people actually who do not consider sexual ethics as an abomination or a hindrance to a happy life. It's very fitting to the Zeitgeist that a movie maker has to be Anti-Christian to get all the accolades of an atheistic world. Mr Haneke, your jig is up.

Is it any wonder that there are so many haters of that movie? The Democrats demanded parts of the movie be cut and they got their way. Did Bush ever demand cuts from movies lambasting him? No. He rises above criticism, unlike the Democrats and Clinton. This series is a breath of fresh air in the TV landscape where it's become fashionable to blame everything on the Republicans and Bush while letting the Democrats get away with murder scot-free. Yes, watch it. And learn. It's thorn in the thigh of all liberals who have most media in their pocket. It exposes Clinton's incompetence on national security and of course the Democrats would rather have that censored. And sadly, they got their way. So much for freedom of speech. Imagine the outrage if Bush had demanded cuts from Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11." Double standards are alive and kicking among liberals.

It's symptomatical for the current state of the slasher genre that this is just a remake of Craven's 1977 classic. When this type of genre emerged in the 60s and 70s, it was a breath of fresh air for the film culture. But nowadays, it has reached a dead end and cannot move on anymore. Pretty much any splatter flick from the recent past relies on the same tired plot elements by the numbers. Watching the action unfold, you are bound to get bored because you can tell from a mile what's gonna happen: Throw in a few no-brainers, throw in a few hillbillies and inbreds and people are gonna do stupid things and people are gonna get killed one by one etc. It's just frustrating and annoying to watch people getting murdered especially since you've seen it a thousand times before. The only difference is the way the killings happen. Aja's remake relies on plenty of gore to make up for the lacking innovation but it doesn't quite work. Moments of tension cannot hide the fact that it's all been done before. The gore level is the only element the entire genre has been hinging on for a while. However, on the whole those movies have run out of steam because they are bogged down in their own stereotypes and predictable plots. They used to be engaging and punchy when they were new in the 60s and 70s. But now I'd much rather watch more subtle horror movies or dramas that provide me with new perspectives and food-for-thought instead of hip new ways to chop someone to pieces. Those splatter movies largely pander to teenagers and their immature tastes for grisly scenes of death but there comes a point where you grow out of it and plumb for something more to chew on. I wanna see a movie evolving around an hitherto untold story that is gonna make me discover a new world. But both HHE and its other splatter buddies have been grating on my nerves for a while now and it's time to move on from severed limbs and eviscerations.

Mr Noe may think he can shock us with his violence porno but he doesn't serve us anything that hasn't been done before in splatter movies or rape pornos or other exploitation movies. So take away the French chic tag and what you get is an inane and pretentious sadistic porno with no merit at all because the plot and characters are just too flat and crude. How's Mr Noe gonna try to outdo this one in his next movie? With a 90-minute-rape scene? Truly artistic and visionary! Not. Don't believe the hype. Most people are too susceptible and fall easily for anything touted as brilliant or innovative. This one is just derivative and abysmally stupid.

"Out of sight" is a children's tv series that even adults can enjoy because of its affable characters and hilarious yet exciting plots.

I've seen several reruns of this show and it's still enjoyable to see whiz-kid Joe and his loyal mate Ali at their mischievous antics. All characters are very well developed: Joe as the prodigy always rambling about some obscure formula; his long- suffering parents and his brother Shane, the complete opposite of him; or his loyal friend Ali( but only when he was played by another actor a few episodes into the first season). You cannot help but root for them as they are so likeable. Definitely the best show for kids and adults from recent years! Shame there are only two seasons! Smashing!

It really flabbergasts me how any movie buff could possibly rave about this trite would-be educational piece of would be art. What is Haneke's message? That we have become oh so much desensitised towards movie violence? That all kind of horror movies is disdainful? Sorry, but i won't put up with his stance. Funny how any movie critic could praise FUNNY GAMES as a radical masterpiece when in fact it is grist to the mill of all those right-wing forces that have been trying to censor art as allegedly being "immoral and harmful". According to Haneke's "logic" all movie violence is superfluous and dangerous to society. Yes, we may not shriek out loud every time we see a dead body in a movie. So what? We know it's fiction. Are we so jaded and walking around like lunatics killing people? Of course not. I opine that our world has never been more peaceful. We have human rights, we even have animal right. We respect the environment and live in a quite peaceful world compared to past centuries. In ancient Rome people were killed and devoured by lions in stadiums to entertain the masses. That violence was not fake. THAT was despicable! And not fake violence! Horror movies can never receive too much praise. Unfortunately Haneke fails to see this aspect. Thrillers confront us with our fears, with death. Violence is ghastly. Hence we watch horror movies. We need to experience fictional violence in movies or novels in order to grasp what life is all about. How precious life is. How fragile life is. How swiftly our lives can be over. But if we follow Haneke's point-of-view horror movies have no contribution to make to society and whoever watches horror thrillers is a voyeur watching trivial violence and listening to "trivial" and "hazardous" heavy metal. Haneke discriminates against all the thriller buffs. And we're supposed to buy into his thoughts. Instead Haneke is so presumptuous that he really assumes that he's the only legitimate person to employ violence to get his intention across. As if all other directors use nothing but gratuitous violence. It's such a shame that such a priggish and right-wing flick was mistaken for being seminal and progressive when in fact it wants to turn the clock back to those days when movies had to be withdrawn from the movie theatres because of one single harmless kiss on the lips. Shouldn't all those critics that applauded Haneke for FUNNY GAMES maul PSYCHO at the same time for being violent and vapid? 1/10 for priggish, presumptuous, discriminating and vacuous content.

I've seen a lot of horror movies before and there aren't many that are as engrossing as EVENT HORIZON. Sure, some elements are taken from other films but everything has been done before! EVENT HORIZON takes those elements and creates something new! Postmodern, one could argue. It really gave me the creeps! The atmosphere is claustrophobic, right from the beginning till the end. The sfx are dazzling, the design is superb and the camerawork is smashing! And some of the scenes were extremely eerie and intense but violence was used moderately but all the more effectively.I don't care about some physical impossibilities. It's like some people have to find something to criticize.What do I care as long as I see a good film? Some computer hackers complained about HACKERS not being realistic. So what? It's a film and I enjoyed it a lot!It's not a documentary! Nobody complains about the "talking killer fallacy" because there are always some improbabilities you take for granted when watching a movie. Director Paul Anderson("Mortal Kombat") managed to direct a horror film that works the way a horror film should: it scares you! 8/10

Two years before he made a big splash with the comedy "The Full Monty", Peter Cattaneo directed this rivetting feature about teenage angst, friendship and drugs without ever being priggish. A throbbing soundtrack, a tense and dismal atmosphere combined with outstanding performances, especially by Lena Headey and Ian Hart, make "Loved Up", which was highly acclaimed at the Edinburgh Film Festival, a must-see. Definitely not your run-of-the mill tv-film.