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Reviews
Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story (2001)
Boring, sappy and badly written
OMG did I wait for the movie to end. The tempo of the movie is very slow and events unroll boringly. This may very well have been a magical TV movie but for a movie to watch in one sitting there is no action or drama to keep you awake. You just sit there hoping that there was a climax on the way and it never comes.
Of course this was a family movie, too, so I know I shouldn't have expected black humor or scary thrills.
In many places the script isn't transparent... you kind of start to think of the writers' motives on including a twist in the plot which isn't good. It just wipes away the movie magic.
The actors could've tried harder as well. I know they were making a movie about a fairy tale but this was supposed to be the "real story" so a bit less overacting would've been good. Many of the characters seemed unnecessary, like the pantheon in the trial.
I liked the cheating and conniving ancestor, though. He was a nice touch, worth 1 point, 1 point comes for a good idea and 1 for the investment in fantasy.
Casino Royale (2006)
Bond to end all Bonds
The Broccoli family have really done it: they gave us Ian Fleming's Bond. My first touch to Bonds came from reading Fleming's books as a kid, and they were full of cold-n-naked, cartilage-crushing, verge-of-dying agony. So I've had real problems with post-Connery Bond movies. At last I go to movies to see Bond and I get Bond, not Mandrake. Now my soul is in rest and no past sins of Broccolis will be remembered. Anybody who likes his Bond being the unreal male Barbie(tm) who probably doesn't go to toilet, forget that this movie was ever made. It is not for you. If you like your Bond taking a beating, bleeding, strangling people 'til they sh** their pants and changing his clothes to go play cards, go ahead and buy the ticket and pre-order the special edition DVD; Bond Faery has heard you nightly sobs and your wishes have been granted.
Corto Maltese: La cour secrète des Arcanes (2002)
Beautiful art, lame sound production
The story and the characters in this movie are guaranteed Pratt, and art is nicely adapted to animation. Sceneries are stunning and the atmosphere is definitely right. The animation is french standard quality, which means it's quite good, but not very fluid. You don't forget that you're watching animated pictures.
This could have been an excellent movie, had the director demanded a little more of the voice actors and sound engineers. Now there is very little drama in this movie. You see dramatic events taking place in exotic surroundings and hear people reading out script in a dry-sounding studio setup.
So: 3 points for the original comic, 1 for the idea of adapting it to silver screen, and points for animation, art direction and a beautiful musical soundtrack as well.