merlin-54 Reviews

Broken Flowers (2005)

"The Swimmer" wanna be.

[4/10 · 21 August 2005]

I finally realize what movie "Broken Flowers" reminds me of. It was a little 1968 film called "The Swimmer" with Burt Lancaster that I think was much better. It's about a man making his way home using people's pools as a sort of road map. The closer he gets the more he begins to realize, and so does the audience, that all is not well. He was a man who had it all… looks, money, friends, a wife and children, but things have changed. He starts out on this journey fresh and happy but along the way we start to see the truth. The Swimmer made an impression on me as a teenager that I can still feel today as I near 50. Broken Flowers on the other hand left me kind of flat. I don't know why… I just didn't feel the same sadness with Murray's character that I did for Lancaster's. Also the fact that Swimmer starts out very light but gets darker as things are gradually discovered. Anyway if you liked "Broken Flowers" then give "The Swimmer" a look and see if you agree. I hear they are remaking it with Alec Baldwin… I can only hope they do it justice.

The Contender (2000)

Laughable Cartoonish Good And Bad Guy Movie

[3/10 · 31 July 2003]

This movie is another example of how much the moral standards have changed in this country. Where to start. First off the whole orgy thing. The character says that a MAN wouldn't be judged on having sex with multiple female partners. Well that is a distortion because it wasn't a question of how many men she had slept with, it was a question of did she participate in an orgy. In my opinion. there IS a difference between having multiple partners over a lifetime as opposed to having multiple partners in one sitting! Not that I'm judging but I don't think I'm alone on this one. You can't tell me that if someone found pictures of George W. in some hot orgy that those pictures wouldn't have `found their way' to the internet. I also feel it would have effected how people think of him. Can we get over the fact that men are different than women! Why is that so hard! As a man I will never know what it is like to carry a child inside me. Is it so wrong to say that most men and women define sex differently? (I did say most).. I guess, right or wrong, we do judge women differently because they pretty much say yes or no when it comes to having sex. Maybe it's in our nature or maybe because we (men) don't have to actually have a baby (big deterrent) that we just see the fun part and not the full consequence? Let's face it. If men got pregnant it would be a whole other world. That's probably the real underlying reason for the difference in judgment of women. Don't try to understand it. So our main character should be applauded because she is pro-choice? There is so much gray area there I don't think either side should be made to look evil. No one wants to revert back to `back alley abortions' but on the other hand, is abortion the only answer? Has it become too convenient? Instead of bringing that up, pro-life people are made to look evil in a typical one-sided black or white view. Again this was used in the Church Vs State part of the movie. It's sad and alarming the fact that she is appalled that her child was introduced in school to a man who preached things like `Love Your Enemy. Be Kind To Those That Hate You. Give To The Poor. kindness, love, fairness. amongst many other beautiful things. Yet she stands proudly with music swelling and professes her belief in this country and what it stands for! Considering this country was built on the near genocide of the American Indian. The fact that we still use slave and child labor (we've just moved it out of our country) and that we pretty much squash anyone who gets in our way. doesn't seem to bother her! Which belief is more of a `fairytale'? Then she wants to take all the guns out of every house! Well even the liberal Michael Moore has shown that guns aren't the problem. Other countries that have just as many guns don't have near as high a death rate. Don't address the real problem. just get rid of all the guns! Okay Next subject.The fact that they had to change the appearance of Gary Oldman to make him look and sound like some smarmy conniving evil man going up against the good looking do good President and the poor patriotic vice presidential candidate is so transparently cartoonish good guy bad guy that it's laughable! Give me a break! Oh. another thing. The fact that this righteous woman stole her `good friend's' husband proves what. `That love can't be controlled'. That she is only human and we should forgive her. So by that standard I guess being paranoid and power hungry are also `only human' so we should forgive Nixon. The question is. if a person can lie to and cheat on a `good friend' what is to stop them from doing the same to perfect strangers. AKA - The American People. By that standard, everything done by humans must be considered `only human' including murder I suppose. Not everyone commits murder but not everyone sleeps with their friend's husband or wife either. Where do we draw the line? Of course by the end of the movie the `evil man' is ousted and the pure innocent `only human' character is raised to the level of sainthood. Start the violins please. Funny thing is that included on this DVD was a little featurette. they had the gall to call Frank Capra's `Mr. Smith Goes To Washington' `Simplistic'. This movie was dressed up, but a totally simplistic attack on one of the 2 main political parties. As much as I dislike total liberals I have the same disdain for the total conservatives. When are people gonna learn the divide and conquer theory? You're so busy hating each other that you've lost sight of the real truth and you fall right into the hands of the people that are really running this country. Sheep to be led. I guess we get what we deserve.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

No expectations go a long way...

[3 July 2003]

Okay, this wasn't as memorable as T1 or T2 but for some reason it didn't matter that much to me. I guess I really wasn't expecting much and ended up getting more. I have to say that without Linda Hamilton the film was missing something. She gave soul to the first 2 and her absence is felt. Would have been nice to see Edward Furlong back also but apparently he's chosen a career in drugs... too bad but his choice. Could Cameron have done better? I guess we'll never know. Again, it was his choice not to do it. Maybe he said all he wanted to say in the first 2. He mixes effects and story better than most. It's usually one or the other and he is excellent at both, so yes, I think he was missed. Bottom line... T1 and T2 both had many scenes that are etched in my memory... T3 is missing that. There wasn't one scene that I will carry around with me. That being said... it also wasn't insultingly bad either... so I'd say it was good but not memorable. It had some holes but not enough to sink it. 7 out of 10...

Femme Fatale (2002)

Missed the point... Was there one?

[29 January 2003]

I love it when people (of course more versed in Cinema than I... ha ha) say a movie doesn't have to make sense to be great. Well that goes both ways... just because a movie makes no sense doesn't mean I'm just missing the genius of it or that it's a `work of art'. It may just mean it's BAD. I loved Run Lola Run, Sliding Doors, and Being John Malkovich. They pushed reality but I really enjoyed them. I wonder what some of the positive reviewers would have said about this movie had it been directed by Joe Shhmo, or for that matter Steven Speilberg! I don't care what you so called `Cinema Experts' say… A movie can look great but if the story is bad then the movie is bad. Didn't `The Celebration' teach us anything! Good story, Good movie! After 30 minutes you could care less that it was shot on video and mostly hand held camera. In Femme Fatale, if it was just the dream part that made little sense then I may have forgiven it, but even the reality parts were way beyond suspension of disbelief. Bottom line is the story just didn't work… I suppose I should add `for me' to that but I think I'll leave it as is.

The Sixth Sense (1999)

Still getting chills days later!

[10/10 · 2 August 1999]

My faith in the movie industry is slowly being restored. After years of seeing more bad then good films released that insult the intelligence of the audience I was almost ready to give up. In the last two weeks I have seen two fine well written, well acted and well directed films. The latest is the Sixth Sense. This is what moviemaking is all about. How do you scare the crap out of people without using cheap shock gimmicks? See this movie and you'll find out. This was also done in the original movie The Haunting. If you've seen the new Haunting then you know the difference. This movie has the spirit of some of the best Twilight Zones and is also why after so many years that TV show is still a classic. I think Rod Serling would have loved this film. All I can say is thank you to all involved in the making of The Sixth Sense! You have succeeded in creating a film that will stick in the minds of many for years to come!

Wild Wild West (1999)

A Very Bad Roadrunner Cartoon

[1/10 · 2 July 1999]

I thought The Mod Squad was as low as you could get on this classic TV show to Big Screen Film jump a lot of studios seem to be doing. Before that was the very disappointing Avengers. My new low is The Wild Wild West not only because it was SO bad but because it had so much potential. I don't know what movie BadBoy-11 saw but it sure wasn't the same one I did. The only thing I can figure is that Will Smith has to be BadBoy-11 or maybe it's someone whose career depends on this piece of crud. It's hard to insult a 60's TV show but this movie did it. You're better off watching reruns of the original then wasting your money on the film. I heard George Clooney backed out of this film and I have to say GREAT CAREER MOVE George you have some taste! How this bad script got past Kevin Kline's usually great taste is beyond me, the money must have been too good to pass up. Can you tell how much I dislike this movie yet? The only dance scene I hated more then Will Smith dressed as a woman in this movie was the one in The Mod Squad (don't ask). Do I have anything nice to say? Okay, I liked the RCA dog / megaphone scene but 98% of the audience will miss that because they either have a) fallen asleep b) walked out, or c) have their eyes closed because they can't stand to see a very good TV show made into a very bad 170 million dollar BOMB! My advice to Warner Brothers if they convert any more TV shows is to go back and see what you did right (or should I say WRITE (that's a hint!)) on The Fugitive because that was best TV to big screen film yet.

The Mod Squad (1999)

Bad... not good bad... bad bad

[1/10 · 2 April 1999]

Being a fan of the series I thought, how bad can the movie be? Well I got my answer. Some movies should never be made. Why call it a remake of the series when the only similarities are that there are three main characters. The Pete character in the series wasn't a whiney little baby as portrayed in the movie. The only good thing in this movie besides the music and that Clare Danes is pretty was that it was short. What's with that dance scene??? The only reason I didn't walk out of this film was because it was so bad it got funny. Maybe that was the plan! It's really bad when a cheap 60's TV show is better then a 90's 20 million dollar film. El Mariachi cost only $7000 and is a much better film. Don't even waste your money when it comes out on tape, it's not even worth renting.