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Reviews
Ghostboat (2006)
Not too bad, but a bit predictable
This isn't actually a bad attempt at a naval ghost story. It was much better than I expected, although it did look like degenerating into the expected "haunted house" style story, it just about kept its head above water until the end where the rather predictable "Captain talks to ghost operators appeared". The "posession" of crew members was well executed and was introduced well with little slips of the tongue like referring to the enemies as "gerries" instead of Russkies. Some parts were just downright confusing, such as the Bf109s overflying the boat, with little explanation of whether they were just imagined or whether the crew were seeing Russian ASW aircraft as German fighters. If this is the case though then the final engagement at Kaliningrad is a huge continuity error, with the captain's eye view of the shipyard showing Russian "typhoon" class SSBNs, rather than German U boats.
The CGI was awful. While it wasn't bad enough to ruin the movie, it REALLY irritated me. With just a bit more effort it could have looked sharper and cleaner than it actually was.
Despite the historical inaccuracies it proved to be enjoyable enough, but not enough to make me buy the DVD. It isn't historical enough to compete with "Das Boot" or fast paced enough to compete with "The Hunt For Red October". Nice try Mr Jason, not bad.
Pearl Harbor (2001)
If you want to watch a movie about pearl harbour, don't watch this.
Before we start lets say this movie isn't a success. It does have its ups, but unfortunately it crashes like Ben Affleck's spitfire in the movie in most other areas.
The convoluted love triangle between Beckinsale, Hartnett and Affleck left me horrified that this was going to be yet another "Titanic". And yes, it was. As usual the film attempts to attract the female audience to the film with the romance, with the side effect of boring the whole theatre witless as this is played out with clichéd film-craft and wooden dialogue, not to mention some dire acting from Hartnett, who would have been more at home in a Pantomime than this idealised rubbish.
Of course the battle scene is impressive, with excellent CGI and very good film-making displayed. It was clearly well thought out and executed and the inclusion of Cuba Gooding Jnr as the heroic black seaman, although it sounds corny, is surprisingly entertaining. Unfortunately this trips over too, as the two "heroes" dogfight with the Japos over the harbour. Yes, that is historically accurate, in case you missed it that was sarcasm. The film then deviates on some strange tangent about the Doolittle raid, which while interesting, really had little relevance to the Pearl Harbour raid, and served only to set up the inevitable "NOOOOOOOO Danny don't die" moment.
In conclusion this movie is dire, watch Tora Tora Tora!, don't waste time and money on this.
High Plains Drifter (1973)
A strange but watchable film
When I first saw this film I was rather confused. It is a film that can only be truly appreciated when seen at least twice. The storyline is complex and gripping although it can verge on the convoluted at times. An interesting thing to note is the distinct lack of music throughout the film. While many westerns use the ubiquitous twang of electric guitars to heighten the tension of the scene "High Plains Drifter" succeeds in doing this through clever use of camera and ambient sound. For example in the final showdown between The Stranger and his foes there is no music at all. The atmosphere is created by the light from the flames and the crackling of the burning timber. The one thing that annoyed me about the film is the ambiguity surrounding Clint Eastwood's character. While this adds to the dramatic effect I personally found it annoying that so little is revealed about him.
All in all a great film with some slight idiosyncrasies but with enough drama to make it enjoyable, if a little difficult to understand.