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Reviews
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
A Very Good, Very Flawed Movie
I liked this movie a lot, I really did, but there were some gaping plot holes and whole scenes could have been cut to make a better film. And then there was that awful music...
The treatment of Nate, the boyfriend, was inconsistent and we wonder why Andi stays with him when he's so unsupportive, whiny and generally unsympathetic. Andi slept with another man in Paris, after she and Nate broke up and that little plot thread is simply dropped. Also, when they make up after she quits she appears to agree to move to Boston to be with him, yet a minute later she accepts a job at a New York based magazine.
The film should have ended when she threw her cell phone in the fountain. The following scenes were superfluous and unnecessarily lengthened the film.
Now for the music. The score was fine what was not fine was the really loud source music that blasts you out of your chair every time there is a montage (and there are a LOT of montages). We were constantly on the remote. If you turn down the volume so the music doesn't deafen everybody, then you can't hear the dialogue, especially Streep, who plays Miranda very low key. If you can understand the dialogue, then the music is painfully loud.
Good stuff. Miranda's "cerulean" speech. Emily Blunt. Stanley Tucci. The script, except where noted above, was very good. Anne Hathaway is a good actress but can't hold a candle to Streep, at least not yet.
This film is definitely worth seeing; just don't expect an unadulterated masterpiece.
Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2005)
Not Entirely Honest
Not a very good documentary. The credentials and affiliations of the "experts" are never made clear (another reviewer has gone to the trouble of looking them up and they are all Christian believers, one Roman Catholic and the rest conservative to fundamentalist clergy).
My problem is that they misrepresent the actual age of the four canonical gospels, stating that they are "contemporary" to the events described. Nothing could be further from the truth. The earliest gospel, Mark, was written two generations after the supposed crucifixion of Jesus.
Thus, we have "experts" debunking the book with "facts" that have themselves been debunked.
Shameful.
Magnolia (1999)
The Worst Film Ever Made
Paul Thomas Anderson is simply the latest in a long line of over-pretentious, but ultimately talent-free, film makers to be embraced by the critics.
The script in this film is ridiculous, the directing is worse than amateur, and the acting, with a couple of notable exceptions is plain awful (especially Tom Cruise's over acting). Actually Anderson's failure to reign Cruise in is a case in point illustrating his incompetence as a director.
Do yourselves a favor and don't wast three hours of your life on this unmitigated garbage.
Magnolia (1999)
The Worst Film Ever Made
Paul Thomas Anderson is simply the latest in a long line of over-pretentious, but ultimately talent-free, film makers to be embraced by the critics.
The script in this film is ridiculous, the directing is worse than amateur, and the acting, with a couple of notable exceptions is plain awful (especially Tom Cruise's over acting). Actually Anderson's failure to reign Cruise in is a case in point illustrating his incompetence as a director.
Do yourselves a favor and don't wast three hours of your life on this unmitigated garbage.