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Nardia
Reviews
Men of Honor (2000)
I only saw this movie for David Keith
...and he was on screen for less than two minutes in a superfluous background role. But he was still gorgeous!
Here's what I thought of the rest of it: a bit overwrought. I found Cuba Gooding Jnr.'s fanaticism a little distracting, taking something away from the weird world of brass diving helmets and flange assembly (what the hell is a flange anyway?). Why couldn't we see a more informative view of the mechanics of post-WW2 diving instead of yet another highly-strung man-against-the-odds drama?
The female roles in this film were pitiful. Why should a young black American woman be made to think that starting a career as a doctor in times of racial segregation is "letting life pass her by"? Surely marrying a driven man like Gooding's character (and presumably giving up her entire career) is more like letting life pass her by? Theron's slurry wench was strangely endearing, but why do I get the impression she was only there as de Niro's foil?
Will we ever be treated to three-dimensional military characters? Not here, with a bigoted crackpot in charge (how many stereotypes can they fit into one man?) and the uptight whiner seen so often before in movies like Good Morning, Vietnam. Scenarios could be improved - a Russian sub dragging a diver by his air hose? Come on! (I've been told by a reliable source that it was the wrong type of sub as well.) I thought the medal presentation scenes were interesting, though - they didn't pan out as I'd thought.
All in all, I'd rather see the biography of such an unusual man unfold under its own power, not the fable of one rising star and one falling one.
Gulag (1985)
Ah, fanatical U.S. patriotism!
Honestly, do Americans know how much we rubbish their blind devotion to the Good Ol' U. S. of A.? Highly strung anti-Soviet drama with Malcolm McDowell once again showing us how nasty the Brits can be. The scrumptious David Keith is starry-eyed but tasty as ever...he's the only reason I watched it anyway!
Temptation (1994)
An Aussie's opinion
BLOODY AWFUL...except for David Keith's Australian accent, which was surprisingly good. Do all Americans think Aussies look like this? We do NOT have forests of ginger chest hair. We do NOT wear crocodile tooth necklaces. We do NOT use words like "strewth" and "cobber" anymore. We do NOT carry Bowie knives around, much less shave with them. Well done to my hero David Keith for giving Strine a go, but as for the rest of them - the only temptation I had was to switch off. Not even straight-to-video quality. One out of ten.