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Reviews
The Road to Guantanamo (2006)
A sad part of our military history
Although some have not heard of the Tipton Three, they are real. In fact, one of them, Shafiq Rasul should be familiar to all who were really in Guantanamo. He is the one who sued George Bush and won in Rasul vs Bush the right of the captives at Guantanamo to challenge their captivity in US courts.
The movie itself has very good production values. At times, the reenactment gives the impression we are seeing a collection of clips filmed in real time and on site.
Oh and by the way, of the 775 prisoners taken to Gitmo, 420 were released without charge.
The Godfather (1972)
To the people who hated this movie
I realize that taste is subjective, but when I read the review of contributors to this site who pan great movies, I wonder about their IQ or their concept of quality. Unless they just love to type their venom on a page or have other emotional problems, it seems difficult for them to understand the quality of a movie
Instead of saying: A lot of people like this film. It is the highest rated film in the database. Maybe I am missing something here. Maybe I do not understand what character development is all about. Perhaps I don't know good acting from bad. Maybe I do not like a certain actor and it is coloring my entire view of the movie. Maybe the movie offends my moral sense and therefore I cannot like it without subjecting my soul to hell.
Or maybe, I cannot put myself in the context of the time the film was made. Sure, the phrase: 'I'll make him an offer he can't refuse!' is trite today. But it wasn't when the movie was made! Although the Mafia was not a new concept to most people, the idea that crime families lived like normal people was a revelation, taken one step further with 'The Sopranos.'
Similarly, one cannot compare 'The Sands of Iwo Jima'with 'Saving Private Ryan.' Although both had good production values of their times, the technology of the 90's made Ryan seem to be a better picture.
To summarize, before you consider yourself another Roger Ebert, read the reviews of the people who liked the movie and try to understand what they saw and why you did not fully appreciate it. Then, sit down at your computer and type, without ranting, a well reasoned critique that may be of use to others.
Sunday (1997)
People are missing the twist at the end.
This movie is similar to 'The Player' and 'Adaptation', a movie within a movie, which most of the comments seem to miss. All of the comments on this movie seem to assume that 'Matthew' is really a homeless person. The last part of the movie, however, indicates that Oliver is really Matthew Delacorta. You hear his fellow mates at the shelter saying he had a wad of $20's. You see him tip the diner waiter generously. This man has money. His new movie is supposedly named 'Diversion'. He mentions the stars in the movie to be his fellow shelter bums. In the penultimate scene, what is popping out of the computer printer is an article on a movie 'Diversion' with a picture of someone who looks like Oliver.
This explains the scene at the end, where he stares at her and she looks depressed, because she realizes he really is Delacorta and is not a homeless person she picked up. He really is staying at the shelter to soak up some atmosphere. Realizing their relationship was based on her fantasy, which no longer exists, he leaves. We assume that subsequently he makes the movie about that day and calls it Sunday. A nice twist to a well-acted flick.
Enchanted (2007)
A self-satirical spoof of past Disney cartoon masterpieces.
I have been amazed at the comments of those who hated this movie. They complain of the bad music, the syrupy plot and do not realize that this is Disney's parody of itself. All the characters from Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Bambi, animals and humans are brought to non-cartoon life as dirty pigeons, rats and roaches. If some viewers cannot get this, they lack a sense of humor. I am not an expert on music, but one of the tunes was catchy enough to have me humming it for an hour, and the fact that the three songs were nominated for an academy award should say something. I though the musical production was typical Disney, what you would see at a Disneyworld production, lots of glitz, costumes, color and movement. Watch it again in the right spirit this time.
Touch of Evil (1958)
Worst 4 star movie of all time
After sitting through almost 40 minutes of this unwatchable film, I just had to turn it off. The acting was poor, the screenplay was disjointed, and the storyline was illogical. Some examples: Charlton Heston is supposed to be a Mexican. They give him a Cisco Kid mustache but his accent is from Iowa. His new bride, Janet Leigh, and he are on their honeymoon in Tijuana. If you are taking Janet Leigh on a honeymoon, there are certainly much better places to take her than a scruffy border town. But catch more of this logic. Heston is a law officer in Mexico who is pursuing a drug gang. Right at the border, near where they are walking, a bomb blows up a convertible with two people inside. Heston is with his wife. Logic says that he would assume that this is a dangerous place, not only for him but his wife. But that does not stop him. He tells her to go by herself back to the fleabag hotel where they have chosen to spend their honeymoon. On the way, she is accosted by a bunch of toughs who say that they have a message for her husband. And she follows them! Later on, she is undressing in her hotel room, which has no shades and someone shines a flashlight on her from a window across the street. After she covers up, what does she do? Does she turn the light off in her room? Does she call the management? No, she climbs up and unscrews the hot light bulb in her room, (without a tinge of pain) and throws it across the street into the window where the light came from and she hits a bullseye. (Try throwing a light bulb once. It's like throwing a ping-pong ball.) Later Heston can't seem to find another hotel in the town so the takes her to a fleabag motel in the boondocks, where she is the only guest. (I half expected it to be the Bates Motel). She lounges around the room in a bustier, while a gang of toughs in hot cars arrive. She shows absolutely no fear or trepidation at this turn of events. Meanwhile, her husband still does not seem concerned over her safety, even though the motel is owned by the drug gang chief. At the point I turned it off, Heston was holding a meeting with a few American cops and takes them to his hotel room, which looked perfectly fine. Why then is she in the boondocks? Note that there are pointless cameos of Marlene Dietrich and Eva Gabor and even Dennis Weaver whose acting consists of looking back and forth nervously behind a set of overly large glasses. For those of you who view this film positively, you must have watched a different movie than the one I watched.