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Reviews
Tsotsi (2005)
Good, but not best picture worthy. City of god is far superior on every film making level
I have to agree with noel-47. Tsotsi is a good movie. Is it a great movie, and worth best picture? no. The main goal of a movie is to hopefully transport us into another world, and at the sme time be able to attach ourselves to the actors on screen. While Tsotsi has some moments, while the final 5-10 minutes are somewhat touching, we really don't care that much for Tsotsi. This is far from a "gangster" movie, and it is completely different then City of God. City of god is an epic; its perfect on every scale from Cinematography, Musical Score, Acting, screenplay, the list goes on.
Tsotsi generally felt like an African after school special, with a few wild momoments. I certainly did enjoy watching Tsotsi, although frankly I would never watch it again or really even recommend it over many other fine films. In conclusion, I'd give Tsotsi a 6/10 simply because the movie did have certain moments, certain elements where put together good, but sadly 50% of the movie did fail and did not make us 1. Have many feelings for Tsotsi 2. Make us feel like where actually apart of Tsotsi's world.
The Reckoning (2003)
Started well, only to become lackluster. Dafoe deserves better he's a legend.
Shame to see any Dafoe movie go down like this, after all the such a great actor and given us so many great movies.. although anyone who loves making movies like Dafoe & is in so many films bound to be apart of a few flops, and this is one. While this idea of "The Reckoning" is interesting enough, it actually starts well and are transported into the 1300's medieval time period. But the problem with this film is exactly what its trying to be. The movie at times is bit preachy which isn't the problem, but trying to mix it with a murder tail just didn't work good here. The acting overall is good, although does not make up for the rather lackluster middle and certainly ending to this movie. Fans of Dafoe should at least see once, although be warned you will not be adding this to your Dafoe collection. 5/10
On_Line (2002)
Well made indie film, the director deserves credit for a good movie
Well put together film that actually is very accurate. This is a very interesting genre when you consider such flops like feardot.com which actually aren't accurate, stupid, and silly. Here we have a real movie with surprising good acting and not to mention *OUT-STANDING* soundtrack. One of the better indie films that really deserves a viewing. A very key thing to point out about this film is the pace is rather good. The development of each player in the movie is well done, we really do feel for everyone which is not an eask task in 1 1/2 hours. Its easy to make a movie about this content and show unrealistic screenshots on the computer, this was also another area that was real and honest.
My only grip is would they please release a ANAMORPHIC VERSION of this DVD!! :)
good job Jed Weintrob
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
10/10 from its message 6/10 for the movie itself... a bit over-hyped.
Hotel Rwanda is an excellent story, and the movie certainly deserves perfect scores on it's message and the topic at hand. The problem with this movie is a bit on how it's done. I understand the direction the movie was going with light on the gore and rather on the story but I felt it just left a bit too much out, as we know close to a million people where killed, although we really never get that feeling watching the movie. The great movie "passion of the Christ" uses extreme gore to drive home a point, and perhaps tell a story like it really is not so that we don't turn off some viewers. I think this is exactly the point, Mel Gibson figures if you can't watch this movie (Understand how awful it is) but yet refuse to accept it you refuse to really accept the truth, the same could be said with Rwanda and the current tragic events we have currently in Africa.
The acting here is top notch, and I can see the nod for best actor nomination but the movie is a bit too "Hollywood", there's too much music matching the moment and it feel's unrealistic & typical, any experienced movie watcher will get upset with this style. In conclusion, I wish this was done again.. to think of it, we will have another chance, someone will show the horrors in Dufur in a Hollywood production I just hope next time there won't be music playing when the main actor is running to his family, lets get it done right.
Primer (2004)
Interesting, Good Idea, Poor Execution...
What a great idea, this movie certainly had many people excited. In a film industry filled with over glorified time travel & general sci fi films it was refreshing to see this interesting topic on a small scale Indy level. While the film starts off rather promising, it gets very typical with the 4 members discussing "VC" funding. Is this another .com movie? That aspect certainly didn't start the movie off in the right view, show the group working on the project, whatever it takes this was just a boring and typical introduction. The movie proceeds rather good but all the concepts will certainly bore many viewers. When a movie , to be successful you have to realize to softly incorporate your ideas rather then shoving the entire movie of it. Basically we are treated to 1 hour and 17 minutes of geek dialog. Another major aspect that is a let down is what they do with the time power, buying stocks? All and all, this is a decent effort but "Primer" is certainly over-rated. Lets stop hyping Indy films just because they are indy films, lets type movies that are good regardless of how they are made.