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Reviews
Freaks and Geeks (1999)
Junk.
What a steaming pile this is. It's not anywhere near accurate of what early 80's high school was like. Everything from the wardrobe to the hairstyles are completely inaccurate; which would be okay if only there were *any* other redeeming qualities about this absolutely terrible television show. But there isn't. The staging is quite literally laughable; I think a moderately competent 12 year old could shoot a better show. The acting (and I'm being waaaay too generous there) is very, very bad and the writing stinks like fresh dog pie on a dewy spring morn. Seriously - this show is popular because the demographic it's meant to be consumed by have money and want to romanticize a past that never happened. This is junk.
The Chocolate War (1988)
Atrocious Dreck
At best this movie is a pastiche of clichés. When there's no useful examination of motivations, simply substitute long glances into the near distance and play some maudlin electronic music. By and large the performances make do with this grotesquely awful material - but mostly it's a stinking mess. One example: The scene of a phone call between the "bad" guy and the "hero" features the bad dude listening to music... hmmm.. what type of music does every director play to indicate the character is very very smart - but evil? Of course! Classical music! Sure it's a little jarring competing with the rest of the ethno/electro soundtrack... but gosh darn it - dat villain is pure evil's I tell ya- PURE EVIL! ANd HEY! wouldn't ya know? - he's also somewhat effeminate! Yeh - I bet they'vee never had an effeminate, conniving villain - let's make him that way! zzzzzzzzzzzz.....
Only thing missing from this "villian" was the British accent and a constantly stroked white cat. Seriously though - this movie was *BAD* for all the wrong reasons. Just steaming dreck. Stay away from this lump.
Bullet in the Brain (2001)
As it Should Be
The finest short I've ever seen. Some commentators suggest it might have been lengthened, due to the density of insight it offers. There's irony in that comment and little merit. The acting is all up to Noonan and he carries his thankless character perfectly. I might have preferred that the narrator be less "recognizable", but the gravitas lent is pitch perfect. This is a short for people who read, for those whose "bar" is set high and for those who recognize that living in a culture that celebrates stupidity and banality can forge contrary and bitter defenders of beauty. A beautiful short film. FWIW: I was pleased at the Picasso reference, since I once believed that Picasso was just another art whore with little talent; like, I assume, most people - until the day I saw some drawings he made when he was 12. Picasso was a finer draftsman and a brilliant artist at that age than many artists will ever become in a lifetime. I understood immediately why he had to make the art he became known for.
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
The epitome of flattened character comedy.. and maybe a classic film!
Amazing. If you're like me, you get a kick out of posters who claim this movie sucks and that it's for dumb frat boys, then tellingly use the phrase 'deep seeded' in their review. Yes... that's perfect... "deep-seeded"... I was waiting for them to tell us the film was "a hardless exercise that lacked sole" too...
anyway...
This may be the first 'genetic' movie - in the same way that some people are lactose intolerant, some folks are apparently Napoleon intolerant. For what it's worth, I loved Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, the Royal Tanenbaums, etc... and this movie is I think, the epitome of the form. It seems that whatever this movie does have (and it has it in spades) can't be explained to some people. Either you appreciate it or you don't. Its oil to some, water to others. By now it should be plain to anyone reading these reviews that if you like your humour with *any* 'BA-DA-BING!!', this is REALLY not a movie you'll like.
And oh yes, I'm well over 30 years old, so this 'if you're over 30' stuff doesn't wash as far as excuses go ...
Personally, I think this is bar none, the best comedy to come out of mainstream American cinema in many, many years. At minimum, Napoleon Dynamite is a "cult classic" and time may reveal it to be a classic comedy - period.
Troy (2004)
Bookworms - Give it a rest already...
I need to make something clear to the literati here. For what it's worth, a lot of us have read the Illiad and heck, many even enjoyed it. But - and here's the kicker - THIS IS A MOVIE. A MOVIE. I have every suspicion that portraying the events as they 'actually happened' would make a fine MINISERIES. But of necessity for the medium, they chopped up your beloved epic. And if we *really* wanted to get down to it, the events you so desperately seek aren't found only in the Illiad either. Get over it. To the question of whether this is a great movie - no, it's not a great movie. But it isn't a 'bad' movie either. The central characters are portrayed as they needed to be - flawed and invariably compromised by their actions. Nobody's acting to eat the scenery; things are played in a rather straightforward manner. I respected the effort put into the movie and mostly the fact that the "Bradster" wasn't allowed to run away with things... which the studio would have loved. Yes, the movie has flaws, but it is neither a disaster nor an classic. This movie won't be fondly remembered. But it ought not be completely dismissed either. It warrants a 6-7 out of 10 simply for being able to keep people attentive to the goings on (please oh wise literati, show us *your* even moderately coherent script comprising dozens of characters) and maintaining at least a semblance to the material. If it gets someone turned on to the old Homie's epic (epics actually - The Odyssey and the Illiad), then I say good on ya Wolfgang. I'll also point out that the studio that produced Lord of the Rings *guaranteed* 3 movies. Wolfie and his crew got 1. This is a good effort at making a mainstream movie from exceptionally difficult material. And besides, even Herodotus was skeptical about the stories he heard. So give it a rest, bookworms. Everybody knows movies and books are *VERY* different animals - why don't you lot?
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999)
One of the best Documentaries ever made
This is a movie in which the protagonist appears to be little more than an eccentric and (at first) "humane" engineer of killing machines. By the end of the movie they are seen as much less - or much more. This is the story of a person who's aspiration for recognition get the better of them and the costs of those aspirations. Morris demonstrates better than in almost any of his other documentaries why he is a master of this form. Mr. Leuchter takes an abundance of rope with which to hang himself and insists he 'did the right thing'; though it seems amply obvious to almost anybody watching this fascinating movie that he had no business involving himself in the "project" in the first place. He had no idea that the stakes he was playing for were so large and his failure to accept his limited knowledge effectively ruins what was for him, a very lucrative hobby. Maybe a better name for this remarkable documentary would be *Hubris*, since Mr. Leuchter lacks it in spades...