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Reviews
War Zone (1998)
Not Quite Fully Baked
This film brings up important issues but fails to make any interesting observations or connections. For example, there is the teenage girl who is leered at by some adults while walking in the street. It's disturbing, no doubt, but there is little commentary or significance attached to this in the film. Pedophilia, objectification of women? They're shown here, but without insight. There is also a shot of a man with his penis out at one point in the film, but it seems more for shock value than anything else. The 911 rape call is disturbing and scary, but, again, no connections are made to the objectification of women and rape.
The bulk of the film is confrontations of people who leer at or otherwise harass the filmmaker. In these episodes she asks them why they do this. Much of the time the subjects walk away or insult her, which certainly makes for nice documentary footage but does not help to illuminate the subject.
The filmmaker has good intentions and it probably will provoke some thought among its viewers, but as a film and societal study it does not delve deep enough into the issues of the objectification of women and violence against women.
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Hilarious Send-Up of Police/Detective Genre
This film is the first of the hilarious Naked Gun trilogy. I never tire of watching this film. The thing that makes the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker films funnier than other comedies is that the acting is so "dramatic," yet, the actors get very silly lines and situations. Rent, no, buy "Naked Gun"; you will be laughing constantly while watching it.
Hey Ram (2000)
Better Than Average Indian Film
After so many song/dance/romance films coming from all over India, "Hey Ram" was a breath of fresh air. Not only is it original, but its subject matter was handled well. Although this movie clocks in at little over 3 hours, every second of this film is entertaining. There are two sex scenes; the first is done quite sensually, but never explicit. The second was done in, IMHO, a silly way, with some special effects and you never really get the feeling that Kamal and his wife are making love. Thank the Central Board of Certification for these cuts. (Incidentally, this film got a rating of "A" for "adult" because of violence and sensuality.) The set design is meticulous, the performances are great, but the special effects are a little needless. You will know what I mean when you see them.
The performances are very good. Kamalahassan is great as Saket Ram and goes through many emotions from love to anger. The other performances are also worthy of praise. This was the first Indian film to record the sound completely live, without dubbing. This results in a very natural soundfield. The songs scored by Ilayaraja are good and are well-integrated into the film, but listening to them on their own, they aren't particularly original. The incidental score which he also composed is good.
I recommend this film to anyone hungering for cinema that makes you think, as well as tired of the typical Bollywood crap.