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austinchimp
Reviews
Mr. Rice's Secret (1999)
A sick, bizarre film. How did they get bowie to be in this?
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** This is one of the worst films ever. The dialogue, acting, and direction are all appalling, but the real problems lie in the story and logic. First of all, no kid in the world would beat up a friend because they had cancer, or shout "Hey Cancer!" at them. Not unless the attackers were seriously disturbed, although after living through the event in this film they probably would be. Think about it. Why would Bowie's character live in a small canadian suburb if he really was a super being? Why would the boy develop a suspiciously close and secretive relationship with a strange reclusive man? Why would bowie's supply of magic potion ("I cannot tell you where or how I got this" why? because the writers couldn't be bothered to think it out) suddenly begin to run out at the moment the boy turns up? What boy in their right mind would secretly film the funeral, and then actually dig up the grave of a weird stranger purely on a hint of a hunch. And what kind of kids would be so easily and casually persuaded to go along with grave digging and corpse tampering? The "clues" which lead to the by discovering the potion are oblique and ambiguous to say the least. And the whole treasure hunt which involves gravedigging, breaking and entering and a whole load of other stuff leads the boys to the house where they started! With no appreciable purpose for the whole thing! Why didn't Mr rice just POST them the letter? And what the hell was with the Undertaker? He really DID want the boy to die so he could get his body?!? Why?? It doesn't make sense. I feel dizzy now thinking about it. Why David, Why? Watch this film, if only because you have to see it to belive that this is a mainstream kids film.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
This film has melted my brain
This has to be one of the most amazingly confusing films i've ever seen. You can watch A.I on two levels; you can let spielberg take you on an epic emotional ride, or you can really look at the film and what it all means. This film is a manipulative masterpiece. It bends you and pulls you in all different directions so that by the end you don't know what's going on. When i saw this film first, i felt dazed, confused, and abused. I think spielberg crosses the line in trying to make the story touching (although he didn't really need to try), and ended up making it sadistic. When you try to make sense of ai emotionally, it;s all over the place, characters motivations don't really seem to be thought out. The story is bizarre in places and unbelievable, yet you almost don't see it because spielberg is so adept at manipulating the audience. While carried away on the emotion and the stirring music, it's difficult to look at what's going on objectively. Ai makes you feel incredibly emotionally involved, yet there is always a niggling doubt about how much sense the film actually makes. Underneath all the dripping emotion Spielberg has laid on, AI's story takes unbelievable twists and turns, it has THE worst voice over ever written, and the treatment of the boy by everyone in the film and fate itself is so cruel and sadistic when you actually think about it that it is incredible that this is supposed to be a kids film?! AI has to be seen to be believed, despite how cruel it is to its central character in order to make us cry. It's half the best film ive ever seen, half the worst, most bizzare film ive ever seen.