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Reviews
Fainaru fantajî X (2001)
Final Fantasy X
Probably half of the people complaining here never made it past the first ten hours, which are, undoubtedly, as slow as can be. Out of that ten hours, it feels like you fight ridiculously easy battles for maybe an hour of it, walk for two hours of it, and sit through cinematics for the other seven hours. I don't know if that is completely accurate, but that is what it feels like.
But if you can survive past that, the game becomes more engrossing. The game doesn't stop as often and you fight far more regularly. You have to, otherwise you won't be powerful enough to move forward. I don't know why people complain about the Sphere Grid. Sure, you may no longer have hit points, but the Sphere Grid has its own unique challenges. And the weapons and armor? Again, it is no longer as easy as to look at your menu and see numbers rise just to know that your weapons / armor are better. You are just forced to plan better.
All in all, I would not complain at all about this game, except for that very tedious first 10 hours, but, considering it took me 60 hours to finish the game--including the main quest and all side quests--you definitely won't feel like your experience is cut short, as a result.
Cremaster 3 (2002)
So let's state the obvious first...
Okay, probably 99% of the public will hate this film. Period. The pace is slow, there is no plot, and there is no dialogue. The music is discordant and the story...well, it's virtually non-existent. And it goes on for three hours. So I'm telling you right now, if you're looking for a conventional film, then please, don't waste your time watching this film and don't waste your time writing an idiotic review that, essentially, rehashes this disclaimer in a less-than-profound manner.
For those who like art films and/or are a bit open-minded regarding film, I suggest seeing this. You may come out not liking it, but I'm hoping you can come out appreciating it. The "Cremaster Cycle" (1-5) is less likely to please crowds, as much as it will influence future artists and filmmakers, who may try and infuse some of these ideas into their work down the road. However, I would say that this has happened once already with Tarsem Singh's "The Cell" (2000), as his appreciation for modern art is pretty obvious with the sectioned cattle scene (a la Damien Hirst).
I heavily enjoyed this film, but I can see why many would dislike it. However, it is an undeniably gorgeous film. If you're lucky enough, watch the "Cremaster" series in numerical order. Much of the imagery links together in this manner, which is all the more interesting, considering "Cremaster 3" and "Cremaster 4" are eight years apart. I will be curious to see what Matthew Barney does in the future.
Showgirls (1995)
One of the funniest films of the last decade!
This film had more comedy in it than many of Hollywood's intentional comedies. Perhaps if they had tried to market it as a comedy, it would have been better received; after all, why must every American comedy fall under slapstick?
Needless to say, I had a great laugh watching this film in German in Europe, on VH1 with the "floating tops," and the NC-17 version over the years. This is a film that comes across as painfully unresearched (i.e., showgirls usually become strippers, rather than the other way around, because strippers make far more money), Elizabeth Berkley overacts the entire time, with Nomi seemingly having alternating manic-depressive episodes, and the dialogue is hilarious and eminently quoteable. "I'm not a whore, I'm a dancer!" Good bad stuff.
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Flawed, but Emotive
This is one of many films where the ending makes the movie. Beautifully sentimental and Sigur Ros' "Njosnavelin (The Nothing Song)" is probably one of my favorite songs of all time.
Where the movie is flawed is its dialogue. Perhaps Crowe should have been reminded of "show, don't tell"? In addition, Tom Cruise is tolerable in this film, as I generally hate him, but you have to ask yourself how long a 40 year-old man can continue to pretend to be about 28.
I think it's certainly better than the average Hollywood tripe and scores fairly high in the "enjoyable" category, if I can get past the flaws.
**1/2 out of ****
Intimacy (2001)
A Mediocre Film that Does Injustice to the Book
Let's face it. Where this film gets its fame is for its infamous and well-publicized brief oral sex scene and that's it. What this film sacrifices is the actual strength of Hanif Kureishi's brilliant novel of the same name, exposing Jay's emotions for everyone to see, for better or for worse. The only thing bared here is Mark Rylance and Kerry Fox's genitalia and not enough was devoted to the emotional quotient.
Having been lucky enough to have met Hanif Kureishi in a private screening, I remember him seeming terribly ambivalent about this film. The script is more Patrice Chéreau than Kureishi, as I believe I remember him telling me, and that's ultimately the tragedy of this film.
U2: A Year in Pop (1997)
The Worst Rated TV Special
If I remember right, this special won the distinction of being the lowest rated TV special of all time (as of 1997). I don't know if any other special has taken the crown, but, to be fair, it had to be expected, considering it aired on the Saturday 10-11 pm slot--the generally lowest rated hour of the television week.
It was an interesting special, though, and U2 fans will recognize clips of this special in the U2.com video section. Overall, it's a worthwhile documentary that chronicles a bit of U2 musical history and the PopMart tour. If you can locate it, it would be worth watching.
Doctor Who (1963)
A Brilliant Show that Shows Its Age
I remember being first exposed to this show from TVO in Canada back in the 1980s, with Peter Davison (Doctor #5) being my first exposure to the show...and I still have the softest spot for this era out of them all, although Tom Baker (#4) is undeniably the best out of all the Doctor's incarnations.
For this show to have lasted 26 years on television is certainly no small accomplishment, but is a testament to a show that can literally replace all of its characters repeatedly and make it believable.
However, one can easily see why this show met its fate of "indefinite hiatus" in 1989, having lackluster companions and buffoons for doctors in its last years. In my opinion, it fell victim of television evolution, where audiences expected more than the BBC could (or wanted to) budget. It's a show that I would love to see brought back (and would love to work on), and hoping that the BBC will realize that great stories and character development was what kept this show alive--and the lack thereof that killed it.