Change Your Image
kvala_530
Reviews
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Highly overrated
I finally saw this movie on DVD the other day and I was greatly disappointed considering what I've heard of it. Sure, there were charming moments, like the Babaji thing and many other Indian-vs-British things, Jules' mother was hilarious, and Parminder Nagra was acting convincingly, but that was it.
The story was utterly predictable and ALWAYS followed the clichés. That isn't always a problem if the rest of the movie is charming enough, which I thought it would be, but it wasn't. Despite the good acting of some people, among which Parminder Nagra who I already mentioned, Anupam Kher, Ameet Chana and Juliet Stevenson, the acting skills of others were making me wonder how they could make a living as actors. Oh well, I suppose Keira Knightly has her looks and she shows off plenty of body parts to make the male audience drool (if they like near-anorectic girls). I gave her another chance with this movie after being impressed with the absence of any acting skills in Pirates, but this movie showed I was right in my judgment. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers' acting was as natural as banana bubblegum. He must have read his lines off some board! He would have fitted perfectly in 'Days of our Lives' the way he was overacting every feeling and gesture.
Anyway, this could have been an okay movie had the acting been better and had I not had these expectations. I can't believe this movie's rating is 7.4. I can't give more than 5 stars.
The Village (2004)
crosses many genre lines
I'm not too good with scary movies. Usually I watch between my fingers and breathe out when the music gets back to normal. For people like me I can say: go see it anyway! It is a very interesting movie that, yes, is scary at times, but not as much as I had thought initially. On top of that, it has so much more to give than an adrenaline kick!
The movie surprised me in that it wasn't a classic psychological horror movie. It approaches 'Sixth Sense' well in its subtleness and it complexity. I liked the characters, especially Ivy and Lucius (great acting by all actors, especially the younger ones!) and was surprised by some comical elements. The camera work was very good and the weather seemed to follow the atmosphere of the movie. The colors were wonderful as well!
Like all movies by M. Night Shyalaman, this one is about fear of the unknown. How does a society, how do people deal with fear? The odd (but positive) thing is that, where Ivy expects to find coldness and meanness, she finds kindness instead.
The more I think about it, the better I like this movie. 8 stars out of 10!
Yadon ilaheyya (2002)
Strange funny, not funny funny
This was a strange movie. When it came out in the theatres I never saw it. I had heard good things about it though so when I saw it on DVD at the rental store, I thought it would be a sure bet. But boy, were we surprised.
I agree with some others here that it's hard to describe the movie. I also thought it was way too slow, and it would have worked as a short movie, not a 1h40' one. And laugh? Not once. I didn't think it was funny at all. Strange, yes, funny, no! To me the movie was a bit like a dance, modern ballet. As that, it could have been interesting, but I'm not sure it was interesting as a movie.
Then, I had expected a movie that was subtle in depicting the Isreali-Palestinian conflict, some political correctness and some evidence of understanding 'the other side'. However, there was little of that! It was very pro-palestinian in not a very nuanced way.
All in all, I think the idea was interesting but it was too long, and nothing happened in the beginning for a long long time. It was simply boring! ***** out of 10.
8 Mile (2002)
what's all the fuss about?
I saw this movie because it was available among the cheap videos. Earlier, when it came out, I heard good criticism about it, but Somewhere in the back of my head I thought, how can a rapper 'story of my life' be good? So I never saw it. Now I've seen it and the movie confirmed my earlier thoughts. I wanted to like the movie, because I admire someone who is afraid to seize an opportunity (because it's scary to expose yourself!) but who did in the end. I also like Eminem and his 'Lose yourself' has often accompanied me when training for a marathon.
But the clichés! The story is the way it is, I don't mind, but did everything need to be in a way that you knew exactly what would be coming the next moment? Had the characters been a little more subtle, the movie could have been good, but the lines were cheesy, the people-people interactions were cheesier, and the cheesiest were the outbursts of anger and the sex scenes. Didn't the director had the nerve to tell miss Murphy she looked like a suffocated dog on heroin in that sex scene!? Sigh. I wasn't impressed with her acting skills either. When comparing the movie to another 'true story', Monster, there is so much more depth in the latter movie compared to this one. It's a shame Eminem's life wasn't made into a better movie because it IS a fascinating one..
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)
enchanting
A wonderful, wonderful movie! You don't often see movies that fill you with warmth and happiness. This is one of them though. I had not too high (but not low) expectations of an animated Japanese movie, but I was soon charmed by the brave little girl Chihiro and fascinated and swept away by her adventures. The characters are complex and there are mysteries that don't get explained in the movie, which is nice for a change. In most children's movies we get to see these days, every thing is laid out bite-sized, and nothing is left unexplained. Spirited away is much more daring in that respect. And with right: children do not need to see everything explained, they can enjoy a story just as much if it is mysterious.
I give this movie a 10 because it managed to transport me to a fairy tale world and bring me back happy and content. I still think of it at times, even though it was a while back I saw it.
The Tailor of Panama (2001)
worst ever, possibly.
This must be one of the worst movies I have ever seen! Well, maybe together with Beethoven's II, but that one was still more movie than this one.
I don't understand why people find this a 'clever thriller' with 'great acting' because I found neither in this piece of trash. You think, with established actors like Jamie Lee Curtis, Geoffrey Rush (so good in Elizabeth!) and Pierce Brosnan, you'd at least have some good acting, even if the story if a little thin. But not even that! I found myself wondering if the actors hadn't protested while making this movie because every scene was just plain bad. Every movie cliché that can possibly be used, was used. There was a veil of melodrama over the whole movie that spoiled anything that was remotely interesting.
Everything about every character was a cliché. Can lines be so bad that all these good actors become just a bunch of amateurs trying not to be themselves? There was no chemistry, no credibility, sometimes I wondered if the whole movie was to be laughed at. It was too sad for that, though. We sat it through, but at times we had to exclaim: 'no, PLEASE! This is SO bad!' (video, not movie theater thank god).
I'm appalled! How can such a bad movie be made!? What were people thinking? (or smoking).. I wouldn't even waste one star on it, and yet others have given it higher rating otherwise it wouldn't come up to 6. It's a mystery.
You know these movies that are bad but you can still enjoy? This is NOT one of them. Worst ever. I'll give it a 1 because I can't go lower.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Sad that it's (almost) over
I have the same feeling with these movies as with reading the book again: the feeling of leaving your own world and getting absorbed in this fantastic world that has history, mythical creatures, languages, a great story, wonderful characters and so much more. Every time I've finished reading the books I have wanted more - this is why people read the Unfinished tales and the Silmarillion, books not as wonderful or accessible as the LOTR, but more of this world. Now when I read all the comments on this movie, I see that people are like me and want more of the same world. It's just difficult to accept that this world never actually existed.. That we won't find more stories from Middle Earth...
*warning: spoilers may be ahead!*
I really enjoyed ROTK. The battle scene on the Pelennor fields was wonderful, especially when the riders of Rohan came and just rode OVER the orc armies. Grand. Then when they in turn had to swallow a couple of times when they saw the oliphaunt army. Some things surprised me positively by being so true to the book, like the scene at Mount Doom when Frodo has to get rid of the ring, or Éowyn slaying the Witch King (I loved that!). Some things disappointed me slightly by being unnecessarily black-and-white or different from the book. Éowyn, having been in love with Aragorn, doesn't get to show her growing affection for Faramir. Denethor is just crazy and bad in the movie, while he was treated more fairly in the book. Arwens part is too big, and I don't know why she always has to pop up everywhere. Sure, for the romance part, but hey, we get it. One way the occupation of the Shire by Saruman could have been dealt with was a voice over telling us about it, showing some quick battle scenes, and then a peaceful Shire with the four hobbits drinking beer together. I was happy that the remaining pain of Frodo was shown, and his thoughts on how hard it was to pick up his live, and how damaged he was. I appreciated details as his chain with the ring cutting into his flesh, even though this was not mentioned. Sean Astin was great as Sam, and gets a lot of credit for it, but Elijah Wood was great as Frodo too. He showed his agony, pain and the force of the Ring on him very well, in a subtle way. He was quiet and bore his burden as I would have thought Frodo did. The hobbits were all great characters and were acted very well.
Two more things that I felt could have done better: the book frequently mentions how Aragorn became larger than life at times, especially when he had embraced his destiny as King of Gondor. This was not so clear in the movie. It would have been nice to see him shine more. The same goes for Gandalf. In the book his very presence often induces fright on the enemy's side - the one time we saw this was when he kept the nazgûl away from the army outside of Minas Tirith.
Despite my comments I loved the movie. I was happy to get to see wonderful Minas Tirith, Minas Morgul, and the Grey Havens, though the latter passed quickly. It makes me want to read the book again and see what is different, and how the cast and crew has interpreted and worked with the book. ROTK (and the entire LOTR) is an outstanding performance. I can feel the dedication of the people involved, and I thought all leading and supporting actors did outstanding performances. At one moment during the movie I wondered: who in New Zealand hasn't contributed to this movie??
Now it's just waiting for the extended version on DVD... At least we'll always have these movies to rewatch and the books to reread. Thanks JRR Tolkien and Peter Jackson!
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
Could have been so much better...
Well. We didn't expect all that much after Reloaded but I'm still disappointed. Number One, as many here already pointed out, was great in its newness in thinking, creation of action/fight scenes, use of special effects and mesmerizing the audience with its unconventional ideas that almost brought us back to old Plato, who believed that everything is an illusion and we never get to see the 'real' world. A philosophical, interesting, and beautiful movie. Neo is a code name of a normal computer guy who we accompany in discovering the 'real' world. We are as surprised and fascinated with the whole idea as Neo the newborn rebel is. Morpheus is as grand as a god in number one. We listen to him with open mouth as he explains us about the matrix and teaches Neo all his tricks. We meet the mean program Smith, we get a taste of Zion and sentinels chasing hoovercrafts.
But then: Reloaded evolves into an ordinary sci-fi B movie. The Wachowski
brothers fall for easy money as they choose to bore us with more of the same (often unnecessary) fight scenes, the much-hated orgy scene (sigh), stereotypes all over the place (the love of Trinity and Neo, the love of Morpheus and Niobe, the Merovingean and his babe, etc.). They had a chance of fixing things when they introduced the Architect, but Revolutions shows us that they didn't take it. Doesn't everybody feel that Reloaded is totally unnecessary now that you've seen revolutions? What did it contribute actually? It gave us one mildly interesting idea and that was that Neo wasn't the first one, and we weren't sure what to believe anymore.
That idea could have been used to torture the audience with uncertainty and doubt. Couldn't they have done more with the Oracle and the Architect, given them more depth and mystery, couldn't they just have given us a more interesting ending, have lifted a little tip of a veil that would uncover again something new, like the experience we had in the first movie? Was it so hard to come up with an interesting idea?
*warning, spoilers!*
Besides the ending, most of the movie was ridiculous, though not totally unpleasant to watch if one set aside any expectations that were left. Morpheus has unfortunately transformed into any stubborn guy who believes in a messias. His character has not contributed anything in the last two movies. Then, the scene in the Merovingean's club was also totally unnecessary and stupid. And of course there has to be a woman dancing naked and the babe sitting there with her breasts almost exploding. Sigh. It makes me tired. And just one thing about when Neo and Trinity fly over the clouds - how hard would it be for the machines to use solar energy? Just wondering. And it was too easy for them to get to Machine City, but I suppose the film makers were running out of time. And of course he would face Smith again, and we had to sit through 10-15 (how long was it?) minutes of useless fighting -- why??? We KNEW he would have to find another way of getting rid of Smith, just like in Reloaded it was useless with that looooooooooooooooooooooooong fighting scene with all those Smiths. It's boring to watch! And oh, Zion and the defense of the dock. Sorry but that was completely ridiculous. A couple of APUs against the sentinels, the EMP that wiped out the computer system (but not that of the ships when they use it??). The more I think about it, the worse it gets. A missed chance to make film history.