Reviews

I can't understand some of the bad reviews this film got. I found it to be a very genuine, tender and moving comedy. I don't think it's just me, but you can feel all the passion and emotion Benjamin Ratner put in his story and characters. As a movie it's quite strange because it shows not "movie characters" but believable persons. I can't see the lack of believability in this movie (many reviewers wrote about that). Maybe it moves too much slowly but the last part, when Elizabeth's character is back, is quite emotional and surprisingly moving. As a director, Ratner is quite better with the actors than with the camera work. But it's nothing terribly shocking (by the way, the version I saw wasn't in widescreen as it was meant to be). The acting is great. Ratner and John Neville are capable and believable in their roles but the one I've found really impressive was Elizabeth Berkley, in one of the best and most vulnerable performances of her career. She proves here to actually be the professional artist she is, not just the girl from "Showgirls". Other cast members cast (Babz Chula, Jay Brazeau and wonderful Rebecca Harker) provides great support to the main performances. Tech credits are good (good camera work in HD, it seems film and a really nice music score). I recommend this movie to everyone. It's impressive and sincere. Two qualities that are hard to find in recent productions.

This movie is so bad.... The acting, the story, the dialogues, the special effects, the direction, the sound.... Everything in this movie is soooo bad that I LOVE it!! It's supposed to be a horror movie but it's the best and funniest comedy I ever seen!! I can't stop laughing every time I'm watching it and I'm so in love with it that I ended up buying the video! If you want to laugh for 80 minutes, watch it!! The best line?? "Spirito del Male.... TI DETESTO!" - Italian people will understand.

I recently saw this terrific short film at the San Diego Latino Film Festival and I was totally impressed by it. How many surprises a little short film like this can give? A lot, believe me! The very first scene is shocking: I won't tell what happens but it sets so well a claustrophobic atmosphere which last until the end credits. The story - set during the colonial period in Mexico - is interesting: a young nun (Claudia Soberon) is haunted by the ghost of Sor Luciana, a nun who was buried alive between the walls of the convent 100 years before. No one seems to believe her: the Mother Superior (Carol Abney) thinks she is possessed by the Devil and calls the Holy Office of Inquisition. The only salvation for the poor girl seems to be the escape from the convent...

A paragraph at the end reveals that the well-designed script by writer-director Erika Grediaga is based on several legends about the monastic life in Latin America. The way Grediaga involved those legends into a disturbing and fascinating ghost story is excellent: the scenes that involves the spirit (as the dream sequence in the outside) are terrifying and helmer Grediaga successfully handles the suspense throughout the entire story. The performances are generally good as the material: the impressive cast includes the strong performances by Claudia Soberon, Carol Abney, Dennis Deal, Katira Alvarez and Rick Simon.

The young and talented Soberon delivers a convincingly vulnerable portrayal as the nun haunted by the ghost. She gives her best to create an empathic and desperate character (she is excellent in the scene when she's crying on the bed, as she realize there's no way out).

Carol Abney as the Mother Superior has a great opportunity to show her talents: she doesn't confine her multi-faced character into the classical cliche of the evil mother superior. She gives true life to a well-conceived character with passion and energy.

Co-stars Dennis Deal, Rick Simon and Katira Alvarez haven't much screen time but they support the story with strong performances: Deal is throughly believable as Brother Matheo Bonilla, Simon offers an emotional, conflicting and moving portrayal and Alvarez is terrifying as requested. Tech credits are fine: a wonderful score, a good lensing and editing work. The make-up department did a great job with the ghost and the costume / production designers were able to put the audience into the Colonial Period. It's a must see!

I saw "Freddy Vs Jason" last week during a trip to L.A. I was very excited, because I've been waiting this film since 1993. The trailer was really great so I was sure it would be a great new addiction to both the series... Oh, I was SO wrong.... The screenplay offers a lot of great ideas but the screenwriters where totally unable to use them right. It was so frustrating... There were great ideas and images (a good photography work, however) but they totally ignored them. It could be a really great script, very innovative, scaring and fun. Actually it is a very fun movie: you'll laugh a lot of times. In that sense, "Freddy Vs Jason" script is good: obviously the creator's intention wasn't to great a good film but just a fun stupid horror film.

Monica Keena is good but you can't compare her insipid role (what about that stupid idea of the dead mother, a-la-Scream) with other "Nightmare" eroines, Heather Langenkamp and Lisa Wilcox. Nancy and Alice were really great characters, well developed and interesting. I really don't care about Lori's troubled past. The way the screenwriters let us to know about her dead mother is totally bad: the lines she told at the first party about her mother are soo bad. Why that argument came from during a party? The same idea was so well created and written by Kevin Williamson for his "Scream". "FVJ" has not a developed story, developed characters.... There's no artistic work there. The special effects were very good but the blood was so fake... It's just a bad slasher films like 10,000 others... A very disappointing film!

I rented "Detonator" without any kind of expectation. I simply wanted to see Elizabeth Berkley's new film. Considering it's a straight-to-video (well, straight-to-DVD...), I was thinking it wasn't nothing great. A kind of TV action flick. But I was really wrong: it ended up to be more than I was expecting. First of all, it's hard to understand it's a low budget film: the technical credits are really excellent, including the visual effects. The opening scene (with the Valentine's box) is suspenceful and very well done. Director Jonathan Freedman did a really good job on this film. The action scenes (like that one with the big shooting at the bad guys' home) are great and there is a nice work on the characters' development.

The actors are all brilliant: Randall Batinkoff has made a very good job playing the postal inspector Beau Stoddard. He deserve starring roles like this one (I only remember her cameo appearance as Helen Hunt's boyfriend in "As Good As It Gets"). Elizabeth Berkley was a pleasant surprise on her first action film, playing FBI agent Jane Dreyer. Very believable. All the cast has done a fine job, including Will Foster Steward, whose Van Wilson gives a - brief - comic relief to the story. The screenplay is often a lot better than others big budget action flicks: there is an interesting plot and the film is not a purely mess of pirotechnic effects, explosions, car races and bi-dimensional characters. I only hated the last scenes with Elizabeth Berkley and Randall Batinkoff... it's really pathetic. What happened to the writers or the director? Where that scene came from? However, it's just a 3-seconds shot and that's not terribly bad. It's totally unreasonable, but you can laugh a lot of how useless it is, put that way. "Detonator" is a really good low budget action flick that deserves the audience attention. Elizabeth Berkley once said she would love to star in an action film: well, she choose a really nice one.

I just saw this film on DVD and I really don't know WHY I rented it. It's one of the worst films I ever seen... However is fun to see how stupid are the characters, how bad the story is... The only known face is Antonio Sabato Jr. (who did his hair???) and this isn't a good sign. The other male star is a young actor who worked on that wonderful series that's "Buffy" and I can't understand how he passed from a great tv-show to a pathetic straight-to-video Z-horror film like this. The worst thing is the screenplay: no one cares about the deaths that are happening in the town; there is the classical, stupid (and absolutely bad) sex sequence and the death sequences are really BAD!!!

And, of course, there is the classic final scene that makes you think there'll be a sequel...

I really hope not.

I just saw "Pinocchio" and I leaved the theater a little disappointed. Maybe because the film was too much waited; maybe because everybody though it could be better than "La Vita è Bella"; maybe because it isn"t a great movie.... I think that the biggest problem concerns how the film was written and directed. When I saw the first pictures of the film on magazines, I was impressed by the wonderful production design and I was sure it would be a really magical film. Unfortunately, Benigni decided to use his talents only in the acting: her good (not great) performance as Pinocchio is impressive but all the magic that the wonderful sets, costumes and cinematography could have done are destroied by a totally anonymous film direction. You can see it from the beginning: the Blue Fairly could be presentd with such intensity and magic but unfortunately there isnt any charm. The atmosphere was perfect to create a memorable magic opening sequence, but the direction seems uninspired. Then Benigni proved he can"t direct the actors: Nicoletta Braschi is a good actress (look at her great performance in "Ovosodo") but she gives her worst performances when the director is Benigni. As the Blue Fairly she is a little better than Dora in "La Vità è Bella", but she is totally unispired by her great character. All the film is full of these kind of scenes: you wish to watch at last one really magic and inspired scene during the film, but you are totally disappointed as the end credits starts. If only Benigni would decided to be directed by someone else... Some characters are well played (as Geppetto and the Cricket) but the others aren"t soo good, as comic duo Fichi D"India (they play the Cat and the Fox), who simply recicles its TV work. However, I liked the performance of Kim Rossi Stuart: I liked how the character was written, how he interacts with Pinocchio and how the character is played. I think Kim Rossi Stuart gives her best performance in this movie and his work is also one of the best performances on the film. Maybe because all his scenes are well.written and his "subplot" with Pinocchio is the best part of the film: there isn"t nothing special about Pinocchio-Blue Fairly scenes, nothing special about Pinocchio-Geppetto scenes but the scenes between Pinocchio and Lucignolo (Rossi Stuart) are the best moments of the film and their last scene is a little moving. In other words, "Pinocchio" is a missed-chance: there were all the elements to be a wonderful movie: Director Benigni and Co-Writer Benigni lose that great chance. The film is only a tale without a soul.

I saw this movie at the Venice Film Festival: it was totally unexpcted and a real shock for myself. The openin sequence - with the tragic presentation of the three leads - is the best way to start the movie. The atmosphere is intense and became stifling when the girls enter the Devil home: "The Magdalene" convent. The rest of the film is a horrible fall into a real hell on earth. The Magdalene Sisters are human incarnations of Devil and you will see that for the entire movie, from the first scene in the convent until the last.

Peter Mullan, who was in Venice to present the film, did a wonderful job and confirms himself as a great talent: he chose an impressive all-female cast (he also play a bit part as the father of one of the girls) who really support the film: the actress who play the monstrous sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan) plays with such intensity the most-horrible character of the story. The three girls (plus the exceptional Eileen Walsh, who gave an heartbreaking performance as Crispina), are young, beautiful and really talented: Nora Jane Noone (Bernadette) make you hate/love her rebellius character; Anne-Marie Duff plays Margareth with all her heart and emotions; Dorothy Duffy uses her beauty and talent to gave life to her role, Rose (re-named Patricia by the sisters). I am a boy and I hated with all myself all the male characters in the film (with the sisters, of course). Most intense sequences: a terrible close-up of Nora Jane Noone bleeding eye with Sister Bridget"s face reflected on; the last scene of Crispina: my heart break-up in that moment. I felt terrible for the real-life Crispina and Eileen Walsh gave her best performance in this film. "The Magdalene Sisters" is a crude film, without emphasis and a real shock for everyone. A must-see.

I have to add another thing about "Roger Dodger": the movie is really great but one of the best things is the wonderful music score by Craig Wedren: intense, simply, effective, impressive. It seems to be on a dreaming atmosphere, listening soft and involving sounds. I really hope it will be out on CD. It deserve to be listen by everyone.

I just saw "Roger Dodger" at the Venice Film Festival. What a great little movie! If you think it was made with a really low budget, I'll see how great work was done by everything: the screenplay, full of wonderful dialogues, the direction, the fast editing, the surprising cinematography. And, of course, the cast: Campbell Scott and Jesse Eisenberg are a great on-screen couple. I'll laugh looking the sarcastic uncle talking of women to his virgin teen nephew. One of the best sequences is the first, with Roger talking to his boss-lover Isabella Rossellini. Elizabeth Berkley and Jennifer Beals deserve this kind of roles in this kind of films: they are both great actresses and they're playing two wonderful characters in the film. Sexy, beautiful and with a brilliant mind: two perfectly developed characters. At least Elizabeth has such screen time: her long and articulated sequences are nearly an half of the film and they are really great scenes. Everything in this film is OK: great cast, great crew, great story: that's "Roger Dodger"!

I just watched "Jeepers Creepers" on theatre and... wow! What a pleasant surprise! The trailer on tv was interesting but nothing more. The film is actually really thrilling, fun, interesting. The long-suspenceful opening sequence with the dark truck is exceptional, comparable to the Drew Barrymore scene in "Scream": no blood, no monsters: only good, fresh suspence. A good start. From the first frame we meet the leading stars: a young and beautiful girl (actress Gina Philips) and his teenager younger brother (Justin Long) and we discover that they are nice and amusing characters. The script is full of funny "Scream"-style quotes: when we see that the boy is the typical stupid character who always put himself in danger, her sister tells to him something like "This is the time when the audience starts to hate the stupid character who does stupid things" Amusing line. When you jump in your seat (and you will, at least 10 times) you nearly always laugh the next second. And you will REALLY jump by fear and you will REALLY laugh by black humour. It is an intense movie: it doesn"t have a deep and wonderful script (the monster"s identity is a little undeveloped and seems "too simple") but it"s nice to go to theatre once on a while and be scared for a pair of hours. Best scenes: everything located in the street, the church sequence and that image when the monster, near the church, stops himself to look at the guys in the car and then takes its evil truck (it"s something like "Hey, I SEE YOU!"... scary). Everything in the film is OK: from the cast to the direction; from the make-up to the cinematography. One of the best horror films of the year. It deserves your attention.

A stolen shipment of Vigoroso, the mexican Viagra; a beautiful girl who is trying to rebuild her life and to leave her husband, a boss of the italian Mafia; a young sheriff who falls in love with his old sweetheart. This is the plot of "The Shipment", a country comedy located in small town of Paradise, Arizona. Despite its simply and classic story, the movie (directed by Alex Wright) has its fun moments: when Elizabeth Berkley (as Candy Porter), looking at a Vigoroso green pill, says: "What"s this? A mint candy?". Or when the girl enters the sheriff"s house and finds him completely naked. Or when the Vigoroso shipment ends up in THAT lake, at the final sequence... The cast offers some nice performances: by Matthew Modine as the sheriff of Paradise Valley, who still loves his old girlfriend; and by Elizabeth Berkley, who"s character still loves her old boyfriend... The supporting cast, including Nicholas Turturro, Paul Rodriguez (as the mexican Josè) and G Michael Gray (what kind of teeth...), makes a pleasant work, too. Not an Oscar material, but not so bad. A fun comedy without pretence.

This is one of the best movies about the life and the secret to be happy, a great screenplay supported by a well-selected cast. The film opens with the lives of few people: a young lawyer, a sweet cleaning girl, a stressed businessman, a teacher and his wife... Everyone is desperately searching for the meaning of their lives and how to be happy, after some accidents which linked them to each other. The life of every character has, at one point, a kind of connection with the others. Those unexpected moments are the lead subject of this brilliant film. Well directed and performed, "13 Conversations about one thing" has also a great film editing (the story is composed by 13 arguments), a soft score and a good cinematography. The sound editing is interesting, completely different from Hollywood standard, as in the scene of the car accident at the beginning, without sophisticated and spectacular sound effects and orchestral musical. Clea DuVall, one of the best new Hollywood stars, gives a strong performance as Beatrice, the cleaning girl. Great work from Alan Arkin, John Turturro and Matthew McConaughey, too. Fine job from Amy Irving in a minor role, as Turturro's sad wife. One of the best scenes of the film is that where the fired man comforts the man who fired him... A really amusing scene. A really, wonderful film.