dark one Reviews

Inside Man (2006)

An extremely entertaining heist flick

[7 September 2006]

I do not as a rule appreciate Denzel Washington movies. This movie however was quite enjoyable and had in my opinion a good performance from his side. Part of this I believe is exactly because of my dislike for the type of roles he (was perhaps forced/typecast to) played in the past. Instead of self-righteous persona his movie character came over a lot more human and believable, and proved to be entertaining.

As to the movie itself, the less said the better. Obviously, heist movies have been done before; they are a dime a dozen, and it is not so much "what will happen" as "how is it done". There's a bank, there are hostages and hostage takers, there is the police and there is the ton of loot.

We've seen the likes of Swordfish and Quick Change, from tragedy to comedy and from excellence to tedium. For me, Inside Man was an experience in excellence where the planning was surprising, the execution was well done and for me (unlike other reviews I had read later) the tedium did not set in during the later parts of the movie.

If you want to see a well-crafted movie with an original twist on a not so original story, definitely choose this; I know from experience you can do quite a lot worse. Pay good attention to everything the main character says and watch for the quick changes with hostages and hostage takers; you are bound to be in for a laugh afterwards once everything falls together.

The Hanging Tree (1959)

one of the more entertaining westerns to be found

[27 February 2000]

While watching movies like this, unerringly the thought creeps upon me that they don't make movies like this anymore. On the one hand, this is naturally due to the fact that Gary Cooper isn't really around to star as the silent type with a secret, but on the other hand it's a sign of the times. The formula for a western like this is always the same; a man comes into town with a secret that burdens him, and in the end, this burden is lifted. All throughout the movie, his actions and reactions to what happens point in some way to this burden without ever coming right out and saying it. Multiple times in this movie, you see parts where in current day hollywood, a whole minute would be used to allow the character to defend himself, but Gary Cooper being Gary Cooper, he just lets his actions speak for itself. The story is fairly simple, with Gary Cooper being a doctor, coming into town, rescuing a young man and later on a woman, and throughout the movie, interacting with them and the townfolk. All in all, the movie shows how rough a boomtown can be, the madness that can grip men in face of gold and in the end the worrysome effects of a mob.

All in all, one of those classic Gary Cooper westerns that for me have always held that magical gleam that current movies just cannot seem to produce. A last thing about this movie, without telling too much of the plot or giving away anything. As always, there is a tension between the lead character and a local in the town, and naturally, somewhere in the movie this ends in a shootout. All throughout the movie, the lead character is shown to be a proficient man of medicine, and at enough times in the movie, it is told through other characters how his skill as a sharpshooter is without compare. Still, in the shootout he has with this antagonist, he puts six bullets in the man, and then kicks him off a cliff to finish it off. I only realised it afterwards, but for a doctor with the ability to shoot well, this was obviously a very punishing way to take care of an opponent when one shot would have done just as well. A hollywood movie nowadays would have played this up to be the main event, even coupled with flashbacks of his past and everything, but like a true silent type western, we are not only spared this, but the full catharsis comes later on, and even then without explaining what has been punctuated throughout the movie by shady references we feel comforted with the closing shot and the ever present theme song that was featured so much in movies of those days gone by.

Clerks (1994)

one of THE movies you should see.

[26 January 2000]

so much has been commented about this movie already that you might wonder what mine would have to add. on the face of it, not much probably, yet i still chose to add a few lines of my own to the already growing list. why? this is one of those movies you can't stop talking about. it's one of those movies that you keep coming back to (i must've watched it 15 times by now), yet still, every time you see it, you laugh at the same things. in that respect, i consider it to have the same value as 'the princess bride' which, although about something completely different does the same to me. i keep coming back to that one as well, keep quoting it from time to time and can almost play each role by now, having seen it so many times. in clerks, the sharp dialogues give you the half of the enjoyment, the characters provide the other. like most have said before, jay and silent bob are very entertaining, but as usual, randall steals the show, which was naturally one of kevin smiths objectives when writing the script.

also, recognition gives you a lot of entertainment. even if you haven't worked a job like dante's, you can relate with him, and randall is quite the voice in your head that you'd so much like to listen to when confronted with the everyday dumbness of customers. if you have worked a job like that at one time in your life, this movie is your vindication, or at least THE statement in this world coming from someone else that says, 'i've been there dude'. if you haven't seen it, and have to go here to read why you should, you've already lost. redeem yourself; rent the movie and find out why it is addictive.

Real Men (1987)

a wildly hilarious movie that you either get into or drop completely.

[26 January 2000]

a movie like real men is for some people quite difficult to like. i suppose in that respect it falls in the same category as 'hudson hawk', another movie that is as much vilified by its opponents as it is praised by its fans. for me, real men was an utterly hilarious experience.

when i saw the movie, i never heard of it, and was therefore without any expectations about plot, people playing in it or general need for suspension of disbelief. this is perhaps the best way to view any movie, yet also harder and harder to achieve in this day and age of mass communication. i guess that it came upon me pretty quickly that nobody in this movie took themselves seriously, and even better, played their parts over the top and had so many completely unbelievable situations happening to them that i couldn't help but be entertained. in fact, i have this movie in my private video collection, and even show it from time to time to small groups of friends who invariably can't help but laugh their lungs empty. yes, this movie might not have eminently quotable lines, a brilliant script or a beeline to the oscars for best comedy, or even the most inspiring actors, but i've seen a lot of movies that label themselves comedies yet fail miserably where this movie succeeds brilliantly; it ends with me having a huge smile on my face. not only that, but any movie which has a clown squad of elite killers should be applauded for it's complete disregard of normal and sane everyday logic. if you can enjoy a good laugh and don't have too high standards of what should and should not happen in movies, this is definitely one to brighten up your afternoon.

Guest House Paradiso (1999)

several of the comedy duo's earlier works pasted together in a mismatched product that doesn't stay interesting.

[19 December 1999]

having seen this movie in another sneak preview, i cannot fail to have an opinion of it. a bad opinion. it's not that i haven't seen them before. the amount of reruns i have seen of the young ones, of richie rich, hell, of about any series which has either one of them in it (up to and including bottom) has been mirrored in my bloodshot eyes more than once as i sat up late at night, or later on, early in the morning. sadly enough, in this movie, they only propagate all those gags that you've seen a million times before, and continue to bore you in the end, even if you haven't seen as much of all their previous stuff like i have. naturally, there are scenes enough at which i howled with either pain or laughter. the nutcracker scene would be one (anyone who's seen the movie knows to the fullest what i am talking about), and the one with the swing and eddie next to it is another. you know what's going to happen, yet still you laugh. also, this movie has a scene with so much vomit that i actually found myself gagging at one point while watching. in that respect, the duo certainly deliver. sadly enough, if you have a thin plot, and much rests on the comedic efforts of it's performers, a movie like this usually falls flat on it's face after the first half hour, and like so many i've seen this one does it. Rik Mayall is someone who should do more work like the for tv movies he did on the bbc. the ones i am referring to are the string of movies that belong to the 'Rick Mayall presents' series. now there you have someone who can make entertaining movies, and who can put comedy into a scene. there is one hilarious episode which could be termed the nightcap from hell, where rick accompanies a woman with an unspeakable name (siobhan) to her appartment, only to land in absolute terror as the short progresses in time. i think it was called the briefest encounter, or something like that. now that was comedy, and rik mayall has shown in other shorts that he can be different personages as well, instead of rehashing over and over again the same character he's played for so long (and even once in a more enjoyable movie, 'drop dead fred'). this movie is just more of the same, and not even in a good way, but sadly lacking the amusement of earlier efforts.

go watch this only if someone else rented the movie from a video rental shack, and then laugh at the vomit scene and afterwards try to forget it.

She's All That (1999)

a summer sunday afternoon movie, but nothing much beyond that.

[19 December 1999]

to be fair, by posting a comment about this movie, i will probably start getting a lot of flak from friends for actually having seen this little comedy. however, since i do not rely on other people's opinion overly much, this doesn't really stop me. standing in the video rental store in front of this title, i took a long time in deciding to pick it up and drag it along. most of the indecision was due to the fact that hollywood has a habit of making teenager comedies about the end of high school pretty pathetic. luckily enough, this movie avoided it somewhat, if alone by not making the former ugly duckling prom queen; that would have been going way too far. some of the scenes do not ring alltogether right, but i found most of the movie to be fairly enjoyable for a sunday afternoon. i cannot say that it's a deep movie, or that it told me something that i did not know, or haven't seen before, and sometimes better, but that doesn't take away the fact that i had fun watching it, and actually didn't feel so bad after watching the end credits scroll by. yes, it's a forgettable movie, and not such a deep heavy hitter as you could have seen this year, but it passes the time, and it passes it pleasantly, even if it does rehash a lot of earlier efforts in order to catch on more effectively. it will never make my all time greatest list, in fact i'll probably even forget it if i were to sum up all those teenager comedies about the same theme that i have watched, but looking at this one made me remember all those others slowly, and sometimes even made me laugh, for which i feel this movie surely deserves a 6.

Bowfinger (1999)

sadly disappointing, the only real value is eddie murphy's performance

[19 December 1999]

lately, friends of mine have convinced me to drag myself away from the computer which supports me in my day (and night) time job, and get out and do something fun once in a while. this usually amounts to going to sneak previews, which are always a surprise. thus it happened that i sat in the theater a week or so ago, and watched the silver screen with anticipation, guessing at which movie would be shown this time. when the title bowfinger popped up, i got a big smile on my face and sat back in the chair, waiting to be enjoyed. a few hours later, i woke up in a bar, nursing a drink and realizing that something had gone wrong. perhaps i'm too big of a steve martin fan, having seen most of his movies either three or four times (and i'm not joking either, this is serious), but going into this movie i thought 'oh joy! a steve martin flick, a new one and finally i catch one in a cinema!'. going out of the movie, the only true thing to be said about it is that eddie murphy really impressed me with his overall performance. this movie showed more of his strengths than most of his movies in the past, in fact, if for the nerd persona alone i'd say this'd put him into my good book again. sadly enough, the question is whether you want your name linked to a movie like this. i'll not say i didn't laugh in the movie, but mostly i did laugh because of eddie murphy's play, and a few of the pokes at the movie industry. what other reviewers before me have said however is that something like this has been done before, and better. even though it carries a good idea, and yes, does show certain scenes that are worth seeing, only the last part with the fake purse ninjas was really out and out hilarious. it saddens me to see steve martin in this movie, and witness his abilities be wasted on something like this. he tries, he seriously tries, and since he's written the script, like so many ppl keep telling me, i am sure he really believes in it, but with me, it just hit false notes. perhaps, the future will bring on another movie that does carry some of the enjoyment of his earlier ones, and this is just a 'you can't win them all' situations. in the meantime, if i were you, i'd either go out and rent his earlier ones, or watch this one only for the fun that eddie murphy brought into it.

Pleasantville (1998)

a wonderful many layered experience that put a smile on my face again

[18 December 1999]

i wish i had the ability to put into a 1000 words what this movie impressed upon me. sadly enough, i am a verbose person, inclined to write and write and write, following a train of thought that never ends. however, i shall certainly give it a try, without botching it up. after having viewed this movie, i sat a while in my chair, watching the end credits play and listening to the music as it played along. not until the tape rewinded did i fully realise that i had watched a really good movie again, one that spoke on more levels than the simple obvious ones.

if i were to speak of one of the main things in this movie that are so incredibly important, it's the fact that it speaks about people and society, and the patterns inherent in them. in the beginning, you see reese witherspoon in a normal 90's class situation, following what is a 'normal' situation in that environment. then she is dropped into pleasantville, and what happens? she loses all reference points towards a life that seems right to her; she misses her pattern in life. the first thing that happens is she tries to enforce it again, resulting in the start of the major happenings of the movie, and somewhere along the line, softly swerves away from it and finds another pattern. once she reads a book, and stays put reading in it while she could have gone out to 'do it', you know things have changed.

william c. macy shows the same thing when he gets home, and his wife isn't there to greet him, and i could go on for ages to point to this, but i'd be overstepping my boundaries of these 1000 words, and definitely spoil someone elses movie experience. fact is, almost every single storyline in this movie is about change, change brought about because someone is stuck in a pattern and feels something is wrong, or through the self discovery that is inherent in every single one of us. not only that, it also shows how fear of breaking established patterns can bring out the worst, or get the upheaval that the major starts with his 'concerned citizens'. but even beyond all this, all the explanations and thought provoking issues that it brings up, if alone for the beauty of it and for the precious score that is attached, one should at least consider seeing it. i am personally a very jaded person concerning movies, having seen more than probably even a professional movie reviewer has seen taking my age as his career.

even with that in mind, i thank my lucky stars for picking this up on a whim and getting a look at something that has taken me in more than most of the movies this year. several of the scenes are priceless, and as someone before commented, the drive through a black and white scenery with coloured blossom weaving through the soft winds will leave you breathless.

in short, if you feel like watching a wonderful movie, catch this one and be impressed; try to follow the patterns every character exhibits and think about what the colour means in that sense, how it brings life back, how change is life.