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limoguy1
Reviews
The Tree of Life (2011)
A load of codswallop
What a load of self-indulgent, pretentious codswallop! Malick ought to be ashamed to take money for this tripe - 150 minutes for a story that should have lasted no more than twenty minutes. If you're into symphonic music, there's plenty of it, though why escapes me - totally incongruous.
The first thirty minutes is nothing but a slow flow of images of cloud formations, volcanic magma, spermatozoa, and galaxies that you can find anywhere on the Internet. I spent HALF AN HOUR wondering 'WTF is this?'.
Then there's a collection of disjointed clips of family life in no chronological order costing TOO MUCH THOUGHT trying to figure out what the hell's going on. Their story could have been and SHOULD HAVE BEEN told in maybe twenty or thirty minutes. Instead, Malick thinly spreads it out for ninety minutes and follows it with yet more images of STUFF - too artsy-fartsy.
SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!!!! One of the most disappointing movies I can ever remember watching - ever. Why did I watch the whole thing? I kept thinking maybe it was me, maybe something will happen. It was like sitting in a traffic jam and waiting for the traffic to break and start moving and it just never does.
P.S. This film has had walk outs and drawn boos at Cannes and elsewhere. Shame I didn't find out until after watching it.
The Fixer (2008)
Beautifully acted and executed series
I think this show was exceptionally well-made both in production values mirroring the down-and-out locations used and in the everyman-wish to see the "bad guys" dealt with after having dodged a cumbersome hands-tied legal system.
It's a shame that a couple of reviewers tried to put the boot in instead of dealing with their own obvious issues.
I find that I keep checking every few months to see if the Powers That Be (PTB) have decided to extend The Fixer in the same way that they practically forced Spooks to continue because fans refused to let them bring to an end what was probably one of the top television shows ever made ON EITHER SIDE OF THE Atlantic.