Interesting, the documentary's subtle initial failure is to frame what it is that producers do v directors, obviously Jeremy Thomas has producing credits on very many many a good film, but some viewers maybe confused as to where to draw the line between what a director contributes and what a producer like jeremy adds to a film. I Guess largely that many a film would not get made without the producer, regardless of the talent of the director, producers being fixers and arrangers, often having the last word on casting and selecting the key players directors, script writers pulling the team together etc etc and it is a vital role, but the documentary doesn't elucidate such a technical overview as it is more revolves around Jeremys philosophic musings. As a documentary this will make you keen perhaps to view some of the films connected to Jeremy, This film touches a bit on how jeremys opportunitys were somewhat descended from his familys success in rather popular & gauche yet financially successful british cinema, which could be said to either pander to or be rather degenerative of british culture depending on your perspective, the end of the pier cruft that the carry on comedy series were, but descendant from that inherited wealth and connections, Jeremy Thomas was thereby enabled to help create some wonderful films and cinema, Tilda Swinton makes great repetitive emphasis of Jeremy being incredibly british culturally, though his jewish heritage is elucidated in the film, not that I perceive cultural appropriation as some grand crime, but this fits a little in that mould of some jewish people insisting in some way, of being more british than those solely of British heritage, which sticks a little. The film deals a little with the existential crises in creative life, the film in its duration can only afford skim over the grand arc of a lifes work, to pick over that cinematic history in an eclectic yet thoughtful way, the storm premise is a little forced, but it matters not, as one always needs something to pivot and anchor around, to start any endeavour and is forgiven, the chapters add some rough themes to what might be some abstract musings. The doc illustrates that whatever achievements, failures or controversies may be had in life, the creative mind moves on in hunting for new ground, and those that grow fat on experience are never really sated but age eventually slows talents, it may also engender in you the sense of the chiral feedback loop of opportunity and experience, that oft a few gorge on whilst others whither, most especially it seems those from the 60's were sort of exeriential mosters from a creative way and gorged in ways that seemingly wont happen again everything now to measured, death regardless of philosophical strength is a fear for all, but more so for those whose lives are ill lived with dissatisfaction as to ones endeavours, this doc highlights how really this age of cinema will not come again, but I guess ironically the death of independent cinema if it happens will no doubt be documented in a film. The doc touches very lightly on the over corporatisation of cinema by the giants that now bestride it, which inevitably leads to creativity being pushed out, but the irony is, that cinematic lifeblood must be reinvigorated by the creatives by somehow storming the bastions, to refresh the incestuous blood of corporate cinema.
Reviews
21 Reviews
The Lighthouse
(I) (2019)
A film with lots of layers of interpretation
31 October 2021
The film like the shining - slow burn escalates into crazy increasing chaos, its got elements of Blake-an symbolism, the film grows on you, if you can fight through some of the chaos, it portrays well the era, situation personalitys, for me I subconsciously couldn't help feeling and becoming aware that the interplay between these two figures are like on different paths of the same mans journey but at different parts of their life, taken from different point of psychological decline, like two different parts of the same collapsing psyche at different ages in life / personality abusing each other in internal debate, and seeking revelation to the desperation of existence in which we all suffer. Which I don't think was the intended perception but it felt so much like that to me , it has lots of supernatural moments there, and devolution of the mind as it progresses toward its inevitable degenerative insanity.
Nomadland
(2020)
A slow burner for the poetic, trying to capture the small stillness of existence
30 June 2021
Its not exactly a jolly film :) , it dwells in & is embedded in small town, half empty america, and the struggles there-in, for those living by choice or lack of, as drifters in the hinterland of the economy, eeking a way through, but freer than most, It was well acted generally, the lead actor felt awkward at times, but her character is awkward, so I guess thats fine, this underlying tone plays on the idea, that some don't choose relationships, instead they clutch to the sadness in their lives and commune and drink too deep of empty places, the sorrowed sunsets that speak of a life faded and the draw & mystery of misty liminal dawns, and in the end, those who are drawn to keep moving, somehow become captive to that moving, and cannot be pulled back into relationships and love or the socialised norms. Money and its lack is felt, but its not the purpose of their existence, something else unattainable, is always calling - in us all. The film is generally dis-quieting but moving, life in the small lives led on the peripherary, we so want people and these characters to be happy, but we know thats not how it is, or can be for everyone. And how they have to handle the inevitable lone end ... with grace. American backwater poetry.
Ghost Town
(I) (2008)
A real film with a real script, a real premise, plot, dialog and real characters
29 June 2021
Totally Charming a gentle well paced light comedy. A real film with a real script, a real premise, plot, dialog and real characters, sedate and calmly executed, making use of the character skills of all involved. Gervais doesn't mess it up, pulls off the main role without imposing too much of his specific character or humour. He feels a little awkward in the role, and I'm sure another pressure in hollywood would have selected a more handsome leading man, to make the attraction between the two main characters a little more believable, but the dentist is supposed to be an ordinary slightly soured man. Which ricky plays well. Could have had more cutaways to illustrate the idea that the lead character would appear to be talking to himself, but expensive cgi wouldn't have enhanced this film much, since it is so dialog and script led. There maybe some improvisation? But whichever the film holds together, maybe the end is a bit schmaltzy, but the films premise is still a good one.
Popcorn slop - bruckheimer -esque action monster movie
29 June 2021
Great cgi work, but that alone does not make a great film, if you want fight scenes between monsters, your very much catered for. In fact like allot of action CGI films released today if you don't have a headache going into it, you probably will have, by the time you have finished watching it. The plot, characters, behaviours, dialogs are extremely thin. The philosophical thinking behind the films drive ... is not great, theres allot of ... over the top - feminist female strong characters, playing as gung-ho male characters, not sure there is an actually feminine character in this film anywhere? As is the current modern hollywood agenda, women as men roles etc. The film is way too exaggerated in every way, very much like the proliferative comic book franchise films that currently flood cinemas and screens and rely on action on CGI to compensate for their deep lacking. Meh - you can miss this film, unless your a monster fight and godzilla obsessive & in that case i think this film probably does allot of fan service, as regards mothra and godzilla. Acting wise Im guessing theres allot of acting to green screens in this film? Meaning most of the performances revolve around over emotive expressing, to make up for dire dialog, towards scenes the actors are just told to imagine. The whole thing just doesn't hang together.
Falling Down
(1993)
A great anti hero film speaking of the tribulations of being a man
14 May 2021
A great anti hero film speaking of the tribulations of being a man, set on a heat wave day when a man is wound too tight, whose world has fallen down around him, the traffic jams, the heat of the day, the glare of advertising, noise and other people, with a flash of the sun of the windscreen ... William foster is done ... he's baked ... hes cooked, the straw has snapped and theres no going back.
The strain of being a man a father, william has no doubt brought allot the problems onto himself, maybe some stem from his early life or personality, he obviously has anger and psychological issues, but he wants to be able to get back to where everything was right, but its never gonna be right again, and he needs to exit right - hes writing his own play, and nothing and no-one is gonna stand in his way, in seeing his daughter one more time.
The strain of being a man a father, william has no doubt brought allot the problems onto himself, maybe some stem from his early life or personality, he obviously has anger and psychological issues, but he wants to be able to get back to where everything was right, but its never gonna be right again, and he needs to exit right - hes writing his own play, and nothing and no-one is gonna stand in his way, in seeing his daughter one more time.
Dirty Work
(1998)
2 or 3 lines worked for me. almost Not worth the celluloid it was printed on
19 March 2018
A very dumb film, Norm Macdonald can come across as observational funny & truthful on a tv set or standup, sketch show etc but this films script is unremittingly bad and the film blows, up a tree down a tree ... prosaic, you see every scene, plot device, setup and practically every line coming before it happens, if your above a certain age, all the cameo's are almost prosaic, a pointless use of people who are a bit past themselves, Norm does not translate to the cinema in this film. No strong chemistry between arte and norm. a film to really pass, maybe it would have been a 4 out of 10 - 25 years ago now it's a 2 merely for the fact that the film has bearable production values and because any film is a great deal of work to make, but just ideas wise its real dirty dumb work. 2 or 3 lines worked for me from a humour perspective, but they didn't even have an impact long enough to be remembered after the film ends. makes me wonder whether national lampoons or any of the frat comedies have aged any better? the world today has moved on and this film wasn't great to begin with but has aged badly.
Brave
(2012)
A film riddled with feminist ideology and poor disney stereotypes
7 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
A film based on the tom boy feminist ideology welded to simplistic disney stereotypes.
The usual princess story, an immensely privileged tantruming individual portrayed as a victim at the centre of the story, men only good as violent stupid ineffectual oafs for unrealistically un-empowered oppressed women to easily manipulate etc, whilst the lead individual is shown to be superior at all male virtue half the time, she then messes up the world entirely with her youthful arrogance and then practically single handedly recovers, in the usual up a tree down a tree scenario, for her only to end pretty much back at the beginning a little wiser in a way her elders understood, The only in theory beneficial message in the film being to state the arranged marriages are not good, but its probably not watched by any community that might benefit from that message, not that arranged marriages prove completely ineffectual in terms of sustaining birth rates and sometimes making successful marriages, All in all it is a 'cartoon for children' and the parables and metaphors are pretty simplistic, girls get what they want etc, but ultimately the protagonist saves the day, and then gets to write her own ticket and everyones happy, and the adults learn the lessons from the children etc, but theirs no follow up of her still being single at 40 with cats rather than children etc ;) perhaps I care too greatly for more complex realistic parables, On the upside the film is well animated and the quality good, but as per usual as with all essentially kids films, its all just a bit too chintzy disney simplistic, not sure as to the virtue of feeding this kind of fodder to children. and what harm or benefit it really does?
The usual princess story, an immensely privileged tantruming individual portrayed as a victim at the centre of the story, men only good as violent stupid ineffectual oafs for unrealistically un-empowered oppressed women to easily manipulate etc, whilst the lead individual is shown to be superior at all male virtue half the time, she then messes up the world entirely with her youthful arrogance and then practically single handedly recovers, in the usual up a tree down a tree scenario, for her only to end pretty much back at the beginning a little wiser in a way her elders understood, The only in theory beneficial message in the film being to state the arranged marriages are not good, but its probably not watched by any community that might benefit from that message, not that arranged marriages prove completely ineffectual in terms of sustaining birth rates and sometimes making successful marriages, All in all it is a 'cartoon for children' and the parables and metaphors are pretty simplistic, girls get what they want etc, but ultimately the protagonist saves the day, and then gets to write her own ticket and everyones happy, and the adults learn the lessons from the children etc, but theirs no follow up of her still being single at 40 with cats rather than children etc ;) perhaps I care too greatly for more complex realistic parables, On the upside the film is well animated and the quality good, but as per usual as with all essentially kids films, its all just a bit too chintzy disney simplistic, not sure as to the virtue of feeding this kind of fodder to children. and what harm or benefit it really does?
Blade Runner 2049
(2017)
Must be seen at the cinema
25 October 2017
Im writing this review mainly to say, don't wait for this film to leave the cinema, this is worth seeing at the cinema in its full glory.
All actors are up to snuff in this film, there are no real weak performances thankfully, though its visually beautiful its not an eye searing effects blip-vert, and characters have just enough room to develop, decent cinema with nice pacing for a change, OK its difficult for it to surpass the original and it doesn't it, but its probably as good as a follow on movie can get,
All actors are up to snuff in this film, there are no real weak performances thankfully, though its visually beautiful its not an eye searing effects blip-vert, and characters have just enough room to develop, decent cinema with nice pacing for a change, OK its difficult for it to surpass the original and it doesn't it, but its probably as good as a follow on movie can get,
Mortdecai
(2015)
Johnny Depp does Terry Thomas takeoff
18 May 2016
Warning: Spoilers
No major plot twist spoilers just an rough overview:
Johnny Depp does a Terry Thomas takeoff / tribute playing an strapped for cash English lord involved in an international art intrigue that has echoes / tones of the pink panther films light Brit ensemble bedded in genteel comedy, with a smattering of yanks and assorted cast, pleasant enough but somehow lacking truly hearty laughter, but good watching on a Sunday when light amusement time passing is required. Gwyneth Paltrows lady love interest flirts a little to sleuth the situation herself in extracting information from an Ewan mcgregror thwarted inspector suitor, The pursuit of the painting traverses about into various hands to reveal the plot, a very funny momentary cameo from paul whitehouse as an overtly sweary Italian mechanic, Michael goldblum does a passable himself, Michael Byrne does a fantastic eccentric lord, who imagines that no-one can hear his words whilst he is on the phone.
Johnny Depp does a Terry Thomas takeoff / tribute playing an strapped for cash English lord involved in an international art intrigue that has echoes / tones of the pink panther films light Brit ensemble bedded in genteel comedy, with a smattering of yanks and assorted cast, pleasant enough but somehow lacking truly hearty laughter, but good watching on a Sunday when light amusement time passing is required. Gwyneth Paltrows lady love interest flirts a little to sleuth the situation herself in extracting information from an Ewan mcgregror thwarted inspector suitor, The pursuit of the painting traverses about into various hands to reveal the plot, a very funny momentary cameo from paul whitehouse as an overtly sweary Italian mechanic, Michael goldblum does a passable himself, Michael Byrne does a fantastic eccentric lord, who imagines that no-one can hear his words whilst he is on the phone.
The Machinist
(2004)
Depressing almost worst kind of Russian Nihilism about it
18 May 2016
Warning: Spoilers
There are no real specific spoilers in the following review just theme description and trajectory
The films seems shot in 'depressocolour' why they insist on washing such films out, to such a degree of dismalness I'll never know, you can use luridity to represent the main theme of paranoid delusion just as well, Bales skeletal weight loss - makes you uncomfortable and scritchy just looking at him on screen, the filmic attention and sound draw inspiration from hitchcocks work but here's something evocative of the Russian gulag about this film, makes you wonder whether the source is drawn the worst period of Russian history, which doesn't seem to match the setting of American culture.
If your life is so full of light, that you can handle films this gloomy then drag through it, The plot has some twist but none but a few seem too unpredictable, prosaic plot path sinkhole plunge of it all but the final reveal is alright and reasonable, in its defence the acting is very good if a little turgid on the spectrum of personality types displayed. for me there are allot of other films to watch first before getting round to this, but worthy of attention at some point.
The films seems shot in 'depressocolour' why they insist on washing such films out, to such a degree of dismalness I'll never know, you can use luridity to represent the main theme of paranoid delusion just as well, Bales skeletal weight loss - makes you uncomfortable and scritchy just looking at him on screen, the filmic attention and sound draw inspiration from hitchcocks work but here's something evocative of the Russian gulag about this film, makes you wonder whether the source is drawn the worst period of Russian history, which doesn't seem to match the setting of American culture.
If your life is so full of light, that you can handle films this gloomy then drag through it, The plot has some twist but none but a few seem too unpredictable, prosaic plot path sinkhole plunge of it all but the final reveal is alright and reasonable, in its defence the acting is very good if a little turgid on the spectrum of personality types displayed. for me there are allot of other films to watch first before getting round to this, but worthy of attention at some point.
Ex Machina
(2014)
Self aware AI thriller
29 November 2015
Far better at tackling very realistically the serious problematic issue of whether humanity should generate a truly self aware sentient AI, far better than interstellar is at physics. Must watch you will enjoy if you have a inquisitive mind. Casting and acting all good, dialogue impeccable, this story doesn't waste too much on anything frivolous, its all sparingly done so as to get to the meat of the philosophical matters, no overburden of cgi, just where needed, this film really nails the idea of a competing intelligence, which is sentient enough to feel the injustice of its lack of freedom, and the idea that any sentience competitive with man, might have to be contained, because the potential threat posed would be difficult to establish, because if it were truly sentient it would most undoubtedly lie, and all the ramifications of that - on interrelations. The sentience in a way, precludes and nullifies the idea of Asimov's three laws of robotics, coming into play morally.
Transcendence
(I) (2014)
Competent and interesting take on exponential AI growth
18 July 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Not sure why people rate this so poorly ? the only point where technically possibility is suspended is the unfeasibility of the initial upload via TV satellite dish to the internet at the point of the raid in about 3 seconds of the AI organism, which portrays a complete miscomprehension of the size of data involved and how it would then inhabit other systems in a sentient form outside the pinn computer, the data size for uploaded brain sentience scan combined with the world best AI were talking a dataset estimated at well over 2.5 petabytes, the time frame to upload this data and where to store run and operate it outside its own system is obviously impractical in any sense. And the idea a team of two could code and diagnose the AI code and integrate the brain upload into it, is ridiculous, but once your over that point, then an exponential growing AI could do almost anything in quite a short period of time, which is what makes a vision of such growth so interesting in this story.
Huge
(2010)
Schmaltzy multiculturalist brit comedy
12 May 2014
Warning: Spoilers
A Valid filmic attempt
but Subconsciously littered and heavy with youth multiculturalist schmaltzy programmatic London themes. Crazy skinhead apparently lacklustre comedian needily courts 2nd/3rd generation immigrant as comedic partner, buttons here are pushed way too heavily, cheesy montage, overplayed and instantly appearing passion / emotion / bonding expose etc various very stereotype or unfleshed unbelievable characters litter this supposedly comedic / confused film, which seeks and desires to project an agenda on your thinking on multiculturalist society, young people in restaurants living in large nice shared houses with twee Jewish gypsy grandmothers in the suburbs, and the English restaurant boss is inexplicably somehow the bad guy
yeah, I suppose its comedy ? though I'm not sure where its emotionally aimed and it lolls around all over the place without the subtlety too make the manoeuvres its attempting. I'm not exactly sure which UK or London this film is based in, but its not one I recognise from any era, its that kind of programmatic media invisioned version of somewhere London the UK film industry likes to liberallist project. soft glow effect overused throughout, ends in a cut short manner with a heinous montage of implied saccharin ending. Not funny enough - not believable in any of the places it attempts to go, falls between all the stools
lands nowhere.
Adam & Paul
(2004)
Midnight Drug Cowboy in Dublin
12 May 2014
A variant Drug-ee Midnight Cowboy in Rain Drenched Dublin, two dun-fer deadheads work out how to spend the remaining hours in their own personal hell. There's some very consummate acting from the two lead roles,and lots of lovely character acting, an unashamed range of strong urban Dublin accents, some nicely comedic situations and relations, some nice bits of cinematography and some touching moments, worthy of viewing for those accepting of its strong themes of addiction poverty and no hope grime, though there some similarities between this and midnight cowboy, its updated for the modern age and stands elements on its head without too strongly pulling on the emotional levers that are obviously available, and the truth is this story is perpetual and endless, we tend to iconify and re-project that small proportion who win, but the opposite portion are the truer story, the ending was inversed and more modernist and harder to swallow, but true enough to itself. A tale for those who understand the dark end of the street is in nearly every town everywhere.
Little Voice
(1998)
Stereotype acting
29 January 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Not awful -good in parts - not great, The characterisations worked by the actors to me are struck awkwardly half way between comic and serious, the stereotypes characters are a bit too hard played and amplified, not enough nuance in the acting, to put the emotion of the plot over successfully, Ewan McGregor as romantic interest is a little too dishy, you can feel him awkwardly trying to play down as and ordinary quiet local lad and it not quite jelling or being convincing.
Seems too much a Set Piece with the renown English luvvies of note filling their usual roles and giving each other some extra work. Little Voices - switch to stage seizing performer from shy recluse seemed almost to bi-polar and immediate, and the performance defeated the idea that she had no control over pulling her performance out of her self if such ability was in there, and the father figure apparition mechanic seemed a little too convenient to act as "full" reasoning behind the switch, definitely looks like something that might work as a jolly stage-work for the regions, but this was translated to film with little added nuance or sophistication.
Seems too much a Set Piece with the renown English luvvies of note filling their usual roles and giving each other some extra work. Little Voices - switch to stage seizing performer from shy recluse seemed almost to bi-polar and immediate, and the performance defeated the idea that she had no control over pulling her performance out of her self if such ability was in there, and the father figure apparition mechanic seemed a little too convenient to act as "full" reasoning behind the switch, definitely looks like something that might work as a jolly stage-work for the regions, but this was translated to film with little added nuance or sophistication.
Walkabout
(1971)
Clunkily scored in a way to tell the viewer how to perceive the scenes
6 December 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Clunkily musically scored in a way to tell the viewer how to perceive the scenes and moments, some kind of placatory reference to the purity and romance of tribalism being just a different mirror of our own culture, The kangaroo butchery and cutting to an urban western butchers shop cutting lamb chops, all just too heavy handed, Everything in this film is dragging the viewer about by the nose. Definitely some 70's liberalist revert to nature romance agenda, intimating there is a corruption at the core of western white culture, the nudity in this film is seventies based and comes off as a little prurient, the scene with the boy and the girl talking about whether the aboriginal teenager should where the boys shirt, and then the camera focus in on the aboriginals crotch, while she says no he should not wear a shirt ? > Christ almighty director somethings can be implied more subtly ? I mean I know your audience is mainly Australian but really ? and the 70's pervy obligatory nude swimming shots ? Christ its so ham-fisted and awkward ! they way the film flirts with the idea of sexuality in this film. The little white girl lost falling for the black male aboriginal setup ? Its as old as the hills, and the feigned flashback to nude swimming at the end with something more implied ? when she's with her, dull Aussie urban husband in the future? you could skim through this film on 4 x speed and you could still pick out all stereotypical setups ? but compared to the crap thats out there, well, enough said I think you get the jist of it.
Dungeons & Dragons
(2000)
ideology equality agenda jammed in ham-fisted plastic ?
8 November 2013
Lord knows how so much time energy and money can go into something and it still be awful, but thats the subtlety of film, and dungeons and dragons must be a good measure of such money ploughing into a pit. Somehow the film looks stagy as hell and TV drama quality level whatever talent was thrown in, did not Gel into a cohesive whole. I suggest that the majority of the problems must flow from the plot and the dialogue which is all to cheesy and cliché, the props look plastic the scene setting looks too - for cheap - television, you can almost feel the Styrofoam in it, the dwarf almost seems a sidekick for the sake of it, your not sure why he even bothered turning up, his character seems so inconsequential, the elven tracker tries to act elven serious aloof, but just comes across as wooden, in fact I better stop there as lets be honest none of the acting was compelling. Moments in which your supposed to feel something or have emotion - fall really flat, The plot and the script really must be major culprits in this film. The Elven sword givers, I couldn't even work out what was supposed to be going on there really. Waylans is alive at least, but sadly he just makes you feel he's in frat-house comedy mode, in the wrong time period. The whole thing is just plain awkward, very American takes on medieval alehouses abound etc, clichés, but films that don't work have to be made, so that we can get a few good films at the end of the day, people have to practice to get better.
Cloud Atlas
(2012)
An Attempt at a film like "The Hours" that fails to hit the mark
5 August 2013
This film I guess is a valid attempt at a great film like "The Hours" that just fails to hit the mark. Pretty vapid and bad, the metaphors the morals, the quotes, the philosophy's expressed the time sliced plot switching are all awful, the parables trite, if this is representative of the novel, I pity the novel to. This film seems to be a barometer of those who think they can identify a quality film, whereas really its just an idiot test. The themes are played too much Hollywood / Disney style similarly the stereotyped characters, the oppressed winning through, the cultural reversal, the playing upon other story's too greatly, soy-lent green anyone ? its all so very child like and ham-fisted. And not helped by the fact they have used the same actors for so many parts with only poor make up, to set the characters apart as different from the small range of the actors faces used, and it doesn't really work, nor is it convincing or even logical, and certainly if the intention was to make the cross time parallel character scenario pairings rub nose obvious, its awkward and unnecessary, European's trying to play Asian's, Asian's trying to play western belles and Mexicans etc it just comes off as awkward in fact I don't see how its any less racist than blacking up, you want to portray people of a certain race ? why not simply hire people to play such roles ? instead of using makeup and prosthetics to this extent , or was it a budgetary constraint ? yes one can quite clearly see how it would tickle an actors ego, to be in such a film as they get to attempt to demonstrate their range in the same film, but really its just jarring for the film and there is an effort to try to crudely and artificially stitch the time lines to each other in some ways cross time to end up with some many lives interacting metaphor etc, but some of the lines in this film are heinous and hackneyed, most of the scenario and character relationships you see coming before they're even on the screen practically. The fact this film is rated is so highly is an indictment, I find it hard to believe people cant see through this films general film flam. Its valid to attempt such films but when it fails, its seems more dis-ingenuous, then those films that are at least honest about limited intellect popcorn schlock. It also mildly wreaks to some extent vague populist propaganda of white European's and intolerance of any sort to anything as bad and other globally exported American cultural philosophies. Worst point it plays to a American multicultural audience with ponderous stereotypes, the pseudo Mexican Asian woman (again real bad makeup) who quips "don't call me a wetback" over the corpse of the evil white gunman who she has bludgeoned to death for shooting her Chihuahua dead, this is cheesy playing to the audience style humour. The philosophical lines such as : "love could outlive death" and "it will never amount to more than a single drop in a limitless ocean" which was sadly followed by - "what is an ocean but a multitude of drops" - I mean really really
if this kind of trite display of child philosophies that appeal to the masses then I guess my review is nought more than
let me see
which rubbish metaphor shall I pick?
A drop of intelligence in an ocean of ignorance?
The Act of Killing
(2012)
best 2012 documentary
25 July 2013
best documentary I've seen this year
see this film
seriously, Though Indonesia is the canvas, this film portrays what happens when a society conducts purges of undesired groups the government make alliances with the worst kind of people and then are forever in bed with them complicit and also the government and power can be made of such people even , this documentary highlights the real incivility and poverty of being a human being still in 95% of the world, sadly it seems there are so few moral decent people in the world, the western world very much included in that statement, seriously how are human beings such bankrupt immoral things, but then the memory of year zero and pol pot balance this out in the sense, that atrocity and sadism are part of the human realm whichever side of the political fence, there is no god or retribution for immoral behaviour, except the judgement of our own conscience, and where the scale and scope of that consciousness is limited and weak, terrible things happen, hell is here on earth and its visible in those who commit evil and those who suffer its consequences are the canvas for its depiction, and every complicit silent person in between those two extremes. And how it goes on and on, even now and it seems it will in the future, bleak, but no truer film has yet been made.
Untraceable
(2008)
Take the plot of seven, remove religious motive and 4 of the killings, make it net based
23 April 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Quality definitely above the "made for TV" type stuff. To much borrowed plot and Hollywood propaganda, basically if you take the plot of seven, remove the religious motive subtract 4 of the killings , and place the activity on the web, you've got this film, it also in some senses, could be said to borrow from "SAW" type films, with its egg timer torture type motif.
propaganda issues in this film :
This film is riddled with Hollywood anti piracy propaganda, there's even parts of the film in which they portray the idea of "net neutrality", as something evil, no doubt something that was being debated in congress at the time ?
This film is Hollywood attempting to use the medium of cinema to mould your viewpoint on some serious net issues in which it has big interests.
One of the more simple points of propaganda, is when they bust an evil net user, they sling a recorded DVD into a player and quip how his copied DVD still has an FBI anti piracy warning on it, and he cant say he didn't read it. this scene was so jarring and deliberately placed in here, as to be hysterically poor. For a a small moment i thought the whole film was nought more, than a spoof vehicle deliberately made so Hollywood could lecture on anti piracy.
One of the underlying threads this film is pushing, is that the net is dangerous, and needs to be controlled for our own safety, otherwise terrible things could happen
Licence taking :
This film takes huge licence with technical accuracy, what this hacker is able to do in real-time is unrealistic, at some points in this film he is streaming video to 4 million viewers at once from a server whose location is not fully understood, that volume of traffic is very noticeable, and easily terminate-able. Agency's who wish to make popular videos very difficult to find or access can. Getting rid of all possible sources of a video is very difficult, but certainly it can be made so only the very determined can find it.
It also take huge liberty's with promoting the idea that everything you do on the net is transparent to every agency, all your passwords as a user are somehow instantly hackable by a government agency, the only way it would be possible for these agency's to have this information this quickly without paperwork or request procedure, is in a scenario in which all supposedly secure information you supply to websites, is somehow instantly delivered into the hands of agency's without question. Which I'm sure is a scenario all agency's would love to achieve, real time gestapo style spying on the entire population, but believe this morsel of propaganda and you would believe that net neutrality and privacy were already sunk and done for as an issue.
Moral issues :
The strange thing is, this film portrays how its "net users" who are responsible for the sick content on the web and that they are evil and must be stopped, In a way this entire film is nought more than a way of Hollywood cashing in, itself on the idea of sick content ? and Hollywood's morality here is totally in question, as the film industry is far superior at producing and programming the population in general to have an appetite for disgusting scenes and nasty violence, almost everything Dis-approved of on the web has a precursor and origin in film, and the appetites that people show on the web today, can only be said to have been created and informed by the media already, prior to the web.
The film industry has rarely if ever shown any self restraint from distributing they're boatload of violent and sexually aggressive films, as they themselves do exactly what they wish to portray as evil on the web in this film, IE they try to feed populist appetites as they perceive them to be by feeding what they think will sell, regardless of the moral programmatic feedback this engenders on the population towards morally dubious content, IE the the "dare you look" theory that Hollywood has morally desensitised the population with over the years, in order to gain market share.
And in way this films sub conscious and unwittingly revealed subtext is that Hollywood feels threatened by the web, and is more worried about losing its control over video distribution, IE the thing that worries them about the net is losing control of the propaganda they were telling to the public, and making profit with. So in a way this film is about portraying the web based distribution medium as being inherently immoral and needing controlling, whereas old media film distribution networks were somehow magically more moral ? which is in fact an illusion
Good elements :
The one issue this film attempts to tackle in a sensible way is the idea of large news media organisations profiting viewing figures wise, by broadcasting disturbing or harrowing footage, until it is removed by moral pressure.
which at least attempts to recognise the problems in the home camp of the media as well as on the web.
Product placement :
Apple product placement in this film is really also quite over the top.
Conclusion :
Generally a weak film with too much agenda, will not make a difference to your life to see this film, if its a choice between this and something "made for TV", and you have some time in your life you'd like to dispose of, in a futile way, after say a hard days work, then this OK, low grade propagandising popcorn fodder.
propaganda issues in this film :
This film is riddled with Hollywood anti piracy propaganda, there's even parts of the film in which they portray the idea of "net neutrality", as something evil, no doubt something that was being debated in congress at the time ?
This film is Hollywood attempting to use the medium of cinema to mould your viewpoint on some serious net issues in which it has big interests.
One of the more simple points of propaganda, is when they bust an evil net user, they sling a recorded DVD into a player and quip how his copied DVD still has an FBI anti piracy warning on it, and he cant say he didn't read it. this scene was so jarring and deliberately placed in here, as to be hysterically poor. For a a small moment i thought the whole film was nought more, than a spoof vehicle deliberately made so Hollywood could lecture on anti piracy.
One of the underlying threads this film is pushing, is that the net is dangerous, and needs to be controlled for our own safety, otherwise terrible things could happen
Licence taking :
This film takes huge licence with technical accuracy, what this hacker is able to do in real-time is unrealistic, at some points in this film he is streaming video to 4 million viewers at once from a server whose location is not fully understood, that volume of traffic is very noticeable, and easily terminate-able. Agency's who wish to make popular videos very difficult to find or access can. Getting rid of all possible sources of a video is very difficult, but certainly it can be made so only the very determined can find it.
It also take huge liberty's with promoting the idea that everything you do on the net is transparent to every agency, all your passwords as a user are somehow instantly hackable by a government agency, the only way it would be possible for these agency's to have this information this quickly without paperwork or request procedure, is in a scenario in which all supposedly secure information you supply to websites, is somehow instantly delivered into the hands of agency's without question. Which I'm sure is a scenario all agency's would love to achieve, real time gestapo style spying on the entire population, but believe this morsel of propaganda and you would believe that net neutrality and privacy were already sunk and done for as an issue.
Moral issues :
The strange thing is, this film portrays how its "net users" who are responsible for the sick content on the web and that they are evil and must be stopped, In a way this entire film is nought more than a way of Hollywood cashing in, itself on the idea of sick content ? and Hollywood's morality here is totally in question, as the film industry is far superior at producing and programming the population in general to have an appetite for disgusting scenes and nasty violence, almost everything Dis-approved of on the web has a precursor and origin in film, and the appetites that people show on the web today, can only be said to have been created and informed by the media already, prior to the web.
The film industry has rarely if ever shown any self restraint from distributing they're boatload of violent and sexually aggressive films, as they themselves do exactly what they wish to portray as evil on the web in this film, IE they try to feed populist appetites as they perceive them to be by feeding what they think will sell, regardless of the moral programmatic feedback this engenders on the population towards morally dubious content, IE the the "dare you look" theory that Hollywood has morally desensitised the population with over the years, in order to gain market share.
And in way this films sub conscious and unwittingly revealed subtext is that Hollywood feels threatened by the web, and is more worried about losing its control over video distribution, IE the thing that worries them about the net is losing control of the propaganda they were telling to the public, and making profit with. So in a way this film is about portraying the web based distribution medium as being inherently immoral and needing controlling, whereas old media film distribution networks were somehow magically more moral ? which is in fact an illusion
Good elements :
The one issue this film attempts to tackle in a sensible way is the idea of large news media organisations profiting viewing figures wise, by broadcasting disturbing or harrowing footage, until it is removed by moral pressure.
which at least attempts to recognise the problems in the home camp of the media as well as on the web.
Product placement :
Apple product placement in this film is really also quite over the top.
Conclusion :
Generally a weak film with too much agenda, will not make a difference to your life to see this film, if its a choice between this and something "made for TV", and you have some time in your life you'd like to dispose of, in a futile way, after say a hard days work, then this OK, low grade propagandising popcorn fodder.
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