Reviews

If you like hackneyed jokes about how oriental people pronounce English then you may like this film. Me however I left those sorts of things behind in the 70's.

This is the dullest film I have seen in a long long time.

Nothing happens.

There is a story there about how a bored wife who has graduated recently is stuck in Tokyo and meets up with a Actor who i couldn't decide wether he wanted an affair or not but was driven to it by the boredom around him. And thats it.

As an insight into Japanese life it falls well short of the mark to as I thought that most Japanese people would probably be insulted by the insinuation that they are all business men, game heads or prostitutes who pronounce rip 'lip' (If i said it in the street it would be racist).

It took me two attempts to finally watch it all the way through and expecting a big finale I was terribly dissapointed. I got the impression that Sophia Coppola got to make an art house movie on a big budget.

Films should first and foremost be entertaining and this one wasn't.

I voted two for the sole reason that it made me laugh once and any film that does that is not a complete loss.

Wooden, dull, don't bother.

After watching the film I read the synopsis on the box and found out this was supposed to be a black comedy. The only comedy in this is the fact that it was nominated for an oscar. The rest of the films that year must have been utter rubbish but I recall 85 being a vintage cinema year.

Definitely Nicholsons worst film(I have seen). The whole thing just didn't seem to hang right the whole sort of ineptness of the gangsters and the slow pace of events really didn't sit well with me......

Re-reading this comment it seems really disjointed and doesn't flow well. Well thats because it is like Prizzi's Honor and not really worth the effort.

Whilst this film is hardly a classic it certainly raised a laugh out of me. I liked the way that they parodied all the classic gangster movies and the fact that DeNiro was willing to send up some of his best roles in film. This will not change your life and it makes no bold leaps in cinema but if you want 90 minutes of fun and occasionally slap stick comedy then this film is worth a look.

Thats all I can say this is neither a good occult film or good teen movie it is an average teen movie and very poor occult movies. Everything in this movie is average its not great but it not rubbish either.

If you fancy wasting 2 hours then rent it or hell just wait until it came on the TV like I did.

very unremarkable

I saw this film for the first time last night and I can't say I was blown away but it was a really good film. Being a lover of Scorsese and a devout atheist then I would say that wouldn't I.

Scorsese's direction is once again fantastic this goes straight into his top three films for me along with Raging Bull and Goodfellas. The only problem with it was the addition of Keitel. How a broad New York accent has any place in biblical Israel I will never know. The only thing that could have made me laugh harder was having Joe Pesci as Pontious Pilate.

Mirth aside I think that the film would provoke thought in a stone. The way I am sure the book would (I am going to find it and read it ASAP). Defoe who has been in some real stinkers excelently plays a christ wracked with doubt who even though is given the power to raise the dead is still in the end desperate to avoid his fate on the cross.

I liked Harry Dean Stanton's cameo as Saul/Paul and his sly insinuation that the apostles invented the gospels behind a locked attic door was very nice. Praise must also be given to David Bowie who did an admirable job as Pilate and portrayed the arrogance of Rome extremely well it was also quite ironic that in the film christ was crucified for the same reasons people tried to ban the film for, making people think.

The score is excelent and I am no Gabriel fan.

Of particular interest to me was the wedding scene. I thought it was refreshing that a religious figure can have fun. It was great to see christ toast his own miracle of turning the water into wine.

As for the controversy surrounding this film then I can only say one thing. If you are a christian then I think you have real problems if this film can be considered blasphemous. If this can cause a problem with anyones faith in christianity then their faith must have been on the wane anyway.

After all it was a film based on ficticious writings on the subject of a ficticous book (the bible). If you believe in christ good on you but don't let that stop us non believers questioning what you hold so dear. Jesus apparently brought a new way of thinking to the Jews I know this film is not going to change the world but the only way we can is by letting new ideas get the light of day.

In the end a good film but hardly blasphemy.....

It was a journalist for the Times that said "the English speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of The Rings and those who are going to".

I think the something similar can be said about this film. If you have read the Book then generally I think you will be disappointed with the film and if you have yet to read it the book will probably make you think the first in the Trilogy of TLOTR is a poor reflection of Tolkein's world.

So what I say is forget about the book. A film can never really do justice to your own imagination or the authors. So if you can watch this film and forget about a great book you have read then I think you can appreciate this film for what it is. A fairly good example of a fantasy film. The fantasy genre is littered with awful movies and this one is far better than most that I have seen over the years. The cgi effects are breath taking and the locations are fantastic.

However the film fails on several points. The action is so fast paced that there is no real time for any character development I left the cinema thinking nothing of the fall of Gandalf or Borromir. I found that I really didn't care about any of the characters. The Balrog scene although good was far to short.

I can forgive the makers in the fact that they were working to a fairly tight time limit. Fitting all that into 3 hours must have been hard but I couldn't get emotionaly involved and that left something wanting in my experience.

However I did enjoy it and gave it a 7 although how it got into the top 5 films I don't know. If anyone thinks this is better than Citizen Kane or 2001 they need their heads checked.