gue_gg_ila Reviews

Roman Holiday (1953)

The pleasure is all mine.

[10/10 · 28 July 2005]

This film directed by William Wyler is a must-see classic. The film stars Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, who I used to consider not such a great actress.

Audrey plays a beautiful princess that is sick of the routine she would like to set herself free of all her royal duties and just live her life like a girl of her age. Gregory Peck plays a news reporter in Rome who is in constant debts and really doesn't enjoy living in Rome.

(Spoilers) They meet and in Princess Ann Joe finds a solution to all his problems an exclusive interview with the Princess could make him win enough money to scape from his debts and return to New York, he doesn't tell the princess that he works for a newspaper and Ann/Anya pretends to be a girl that escaped from school they both lie to each other(but of course, Joe knows she is the Princess)and visit wonderful places in Rome and have a blast together. In one day they become friends, good friends and fall in love..she had never met anyone as nice as him, someone that treated her equally and talking to her directly and he met someone admirable that made him forget about all his problems.

But time comes when she realizes that she must return to her Royal duties.

It's a must-see, I've never laugh in a film so much and I have never cried so much in a film that makes me laugh so hard!Gregory Peck is GORGEOUS, Audrey is hilarious and Wyler just gave us a masterpiece.

10/10..and yes, Audrey did give some great performances during her career.

Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb (1938)

Come on...they are the three stooges!

[9/10 · 8 March 2005]

Short film of The Three Stooges, back ago with Curly and the other two funny guys Moe and Larry. Curly wins a prize in the radio so they go and celebrate in a hotel, and as usual they destroy everything...

Three women(of course the exact number for each stooge)are pretending to be rich widowers in order to marry the three stooges(no explanation for why they knew that they were exactly 3 men accompanying Curly Howard), at the end they found out that because of taxes the prize Curly won was only of 4 dollars, so no wedding, no girls and no money!

Overall entertaining, especially because it is 15 minutes long...and it just makes you laugh.

A Song to Remember (1945)

False to Chopin

[5/10 · 6 March 2005]

This film has absolutely nothing to do with he reality of Chopin's life, starting with the fact that Chopin was a very delicate, feminine man, with a weak health..the guy who plays Chopin is totally miscast, he portrays Chopin fantastically(talented man) but he just doesn't fit with the known description we know of the famous composer. The film also changes why he left Poland to live in Paris, how he fell in love with George Sand, and they put his teacher as a silly, old, boring man. George Snad played by Merle Oberon is a character totally miscast, especially because the gorgeous Oberon was too young, and feminine to play a woman who was constantly pretending to be a man.

The film also has good things: the music. Chopin's music is the only connection we humans have with the angels, so it's just terrific, the costumes are also gorgeous. And the scene where Chopin meets his friend Liszt, I seriously believe that might have been how it really happened...like magic sparkling between two master geniuses! Overall...not a satisfying film...5/10

Mary Poppins (1964)

Brilliant metaphors that inspire the imagination!!

[9/10 · 6 February 2005]

I was a big fan of this movie when I was 6, loved it, visually it is fantastic and the music is just too beautiful. It's great fun, and its packed with amazing performances especially from the multi-talented and beautiful Julie Andrews.

I saw it again recently, may be I have more capacity to understand the double sense of things now and found out that this film has so many subliminal great messages that are enriching for the mind and soul...As a little girl I never cried on this film, but it has got so many reasons to cry for(I'm crying now)because it truly is beautiful. The film can be good for children because it actually can stimulate the imagination, and the creativity of a kid, I for example tried to arrange my room by making sounds with my fingers at some point of my life! Still the film contains some messages that can be quite interesting and useful for any other person of any other age.

SPOILERS***** Besides it contains some great effects, especially when you consider the time it was done(1964). Great dancing sequences, and especially those gorgeous songs(each one of them great). The animation part is brilliant, takes a genius to make that and coordinate those dancing penguins with the Bert character.

And I think that all the words that I could possibly say about this film are over, except tat this film is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Mary Poppins, practically perfectly in every way! A MUST SEE FILM!!

Along the Great Divide (1951)

Quite dated...

[5/10 · 14 January 2005]

It is a quite dated film, but that is not exactly it's problem! It is far from the best film ever. Quite out off reality. Terrible script, which lead to bad performances. Kirk Douglas manages to look credible, but the rest of the cast doesn't achieve what this great actor could in this film. This film proves that bad movies have been made since way before the 90s! Although it has good things, it is dated in almost every way, and it is full of too many flaws! Also, the film is quite predictable, but it has a good scenery and fails to deliver emotion. They make the character of Virginia Mayo very annoying too, and she fails as an actress!TERRIBLE! That forces me to give the film a 5/10, but because Kirk tried to make it better, I would actually rank it with a lower grade!

Talk to Her (2002)

Almodovar's GREAT masterpiece

[10/10 · 18 November 2004]

I mean I have never seen a movie with such a subject...it is about love but in a very, very strange way, let's say that it is a story about love in a very honest way but in a "weird", but also pure situation!

SPOILERS*****

Seriously this is a movie about honesty, confidence and love. A man is just in love(he IS NOT obsessed) with a woman that is in a coma, he meets another man that had a girlfriend who is also in a coma and teaches him about how to treat people in an indirect way...

This man in love with a practically dead woman is called Benigno and his loves goes to the top he is constantly talking to her, arranging her, he is her nurse and he also cleans her during all those years she was "dead". But one night his love goes too far, 1.He wants to marry the woman(Alicia) 2.He actually leaves her pregnant while being half dead.

The situation causes commotion, Beningno is looked at like a Perve and in some way he just didn't really see the world's REALITY of the situation but,on the other hand, he sees his own truth which is that he was just in love with her and had no intentions of harming her. Love goes beyond the usual, REAL love always does, because love and madness are two feelings that always go together.

As the movie ends you see Benigno in prison hurted for what he has done to Alicia, worried about his child and worried about any harm he could have done to her either she woke up or not. At the end we discover Alicia alive again, walking, not able to dance ballet like she used to before the coma but enchanting as always and you are able to realize everything beautiful Benigno ever saw in her.

I won't tell the whole story there is much more going on in the film...but it is marvelous!

10/10...You have never and you are not very likely to ever see a film like THIS ONE!

Shoulder Arms (1918)

FUNNY

[10/10 · 27 June 2004]

It is a story about a guy at war and he is been followed by the oponents and he meets a French girl that helps him and they become friends and try to scape together. It is very funny, especially when Charlie Chaplin is dressed as a tree.Another funny but serious fact is the French girl's house!the house doesn't have a front or hardly any walls but it still has doors!

I really enjoyed watching this film...I fell in love with Charlie Chaplin's talent in this film.

8/10---->but a 10 to Charlie and to Edna!

P.S.: It is hard to believe such a great film was made in 1918!

Penny Serenade (1941)

Lovely...

[8/10 · 13 June 2004]

This is a very nice film.Cary Grant is really good and Irene Dunne is lovely, and all the girls that play Trina are adorable.It has a very beautiful message.It is about a couple, a very young couple that can't have children so they try to adopt a little girl...they fight hard to keep her, and they win the fight and sacrifice themselves to do so.But the little girl dies, and they both become distant to each other... If you ever have the chance to see it...please see it, it is lovely. Though I am not sure about the end, it just seemed too happily unusual(not everyone is THAT lucky) to my taste.

8/10.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Excellent, another classic everyone should see

[10/10 · 18 April 2004]

Lon Chaney gives a great performance as the mad man Phantom of the Opera...that doesn't let two lovers live their life in peace, he falls for an actress and takes her to his secret palace..which is under the theater.What we don't know is that Erik is COMPLETELY crazy and had escaped form a mental institution of France...he likes to come out at nights to scare the high society people that go and watch the plays of the theater. At the end the people from Paris kill Erik, but we really don't get to know why was he mad or anything...but it is a good ending because he must pay for his crimes.

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

I liked it...different kind of silent film

[10/10 · 17 April 2004]

It is about sailors suffering in a ship called Potemkin...they go and protest about the terrible kinds of life they have in the ship , it is very good it is hard to explain how this film makes you feel. Not many silent films, are like this one...this one talks about something politic and about how human rights should be respected, and the endless fight to be treated fairly. Besides the direction is perfect, the camera works greatly not even for the time the film was made but even for today. I recomend it to everyone! It is not funny...and though it is silent it isn't boring at all. I loved it: 10/10... A classic!