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Reviews
Arizona Dream (1993)
Sexy, faultless European masterpiece.
Having seen this movie, I felt rather strange. This bubbly feeling in my gut kept me up in the night. I felt I had to do something for this film, confess my love in a letter, send it flowers, buy it Champagne. It left me gasping. I wanted more. So the rest of the night I watched the special features on the DVD.
I realise that it is sad to have emotions about a film that would usually be reserved for living beings, however I am completely unashamed. If this movie was a man, I'd do unspeakable things to it. I don't care what it's "about". I don't give a monkey's about any "plot" that it may or may not have. I have not searched for anything that everybody conditioned to Hollywood films, however good or bad they may be, inevitably searches for in a film. Why do you need to be spoonfed? Can you not just completely let go and enjoy a work of art for its mere beauty?
Sorry, journeying into pretentious land.
This is undoubtedly my absolute favourite Johnny Depp film, it used to be a toss up between Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Dead Man, but I admit that this surpasses them by a fraction. I'd actually like to say that I preferred Dead Man, but I, um, didn't. Sorry. I feel I have cheated on Dead Man.
There are certain scenes in Arizona Dream that show things about Johnny Depp as a performer that I never would have suspected. In this film he stepped into a realm shared by characters in the films of Fellini and Brunuel. It pleases me that he can do art house as fantastically as this and do mainstream as well, although I do not entirely approve of the stuff that is too mainstream (I.E. Pirates).
His character is beautifully complex, he is a kook, but a sexy kook, and he is everything else besides. The other performances are also wonderful. Gallo is a nutcase, Taylor needs therapy, Dunaway is at the same time tyrannical and naive. Sure the characters contradict themselves, but don't we? It just keeps it all the more desirable and fascinating.
For anybody who appreciates surrealist art, this is a must see. For anybody who appreciates Johnny Depp, there is no question that this film is absolutely essential.
The Village (2004)
Yay. Enjoyable/not to be over analyzed
I saw The Village last night with no preconceptions except, "didn't he do SIGNS! PAH!". Hoping that this would be more sixth sense and less unbreakable/signs, I went along to see this film. The village, in my humble opinion, exceeds the quality of the sixth sense. This Shyamalan guy has a really great sense of timing and suspense. The atmosphere is incredible, especially in a cinema with really loud surround sound. Well done to whoever did the sound on this film as well, without that it may possibly have been as laughable as people are saying.
The village is, and I am saying this without feeling the slightest bit of shame, really creepy. The lack of gore and the fact that we are given only sneaky peeks of scary things makes it frightening. It would not be at all scary if we'd been shown even the slightest amount more gore/scary stuff.
The film is about a newly formed village of people kept inside the boundaries through blind fear of "those we don't speak of". No wonder nobody speaks of them, they're HORRIBLE! They are honestly really messed up, if I thought they existed I'd soil my pants too. I know that, after a while, as the mini society progressed, people would begin to question and become more and more curious about the towns outside of this little village, especially since the towns seem so much more developed, but it works because the village has only just been formed. Everyone, except for the elders, was raised there and accepts that way of life because they know of no other. They don't really have time to think about what might be better, they're too busy worrying about whether they're wearing the "safe color" or not and making sure that they have no trace of the "bad color" on or around them.
This film leaves you with a lot to think about and judge on a moral or even a "there are holes in this narrative" kind of way, although I kind of like the way that this narrative reveals itself. If you're nit picky or you try to work things out as every second of the film is unveiled before your eyes, please don't bother, you'll only complain. Enjoy as a passive audience member, not a connoisseur. Just make sure you see it when the 12-15 year old kids are tucked up in bed or your enjoyment may be spoiled by screaming girls.
12 Monkeys (1995)
Blimey. I'm absolutely obsessed. (twitches like maniac).
This is a must see. For anybody. It should be available free on the NHS and prescribed to everyone as a rite of passage as soon as they come of age.
OK. So you want to know if this film has flaws. Are there any flaws in this film at all, ever? I'd be lying if I said no, if I said that I did not find at least one second of this film slightly annoying. I was slightly peeved at early appearances from the character of Dr. Railly, but as the film progresses (i promise not to give anything away to unfortunates who have yet to see this beautiful, beautiful film)she givess a more believable, less annoying performance. Perhaps it's just that I grew to like her more as the film progressed, but this is just a nit-picky observation and it wasn't a serious dislike that distracted from the film, I just found her character a bit stuck up. Also, as you may expect from a Gilliam film, you may escape from this film a nervous wreck on the verge of a major heart attack, but MAN! is it Liberating?! (Grits teeth in crazed smile). (screams, monkey-like).
Bruce Willis gives a performance as good as that given in Pulp Fiction, but in no way reminiscent of this, proving that he isn't just some ageing bald guy shouting catchphrases all the time, that he is indeed a talented actor and can 'do art'.
Brad Pitt, Brad Pitt. Hmm. This may possibly be one of those films that proves the talent of actors that have grown to carry tired associations. Yes, we know that Brad Pitt is a very attractive man. We are comfortable with this, and accept that some film makers may exploit this fact to pull audiences. However, we also know, having observed this film (and Fight Club)that he is also a very, very good choice in a serious and seriously good film because he's really good. Not JUST good, like in Interview With The Vampire, which I'm not convinced about because I don't think he suited the role, but really, really great, fantastic, applaudable, surprising, admirable. If you haven't seen this film yet, do. I'm not going to plead, I've seen it. It's you who's going to benefit dramatically from seeing this heaven sent film.
I love it. I hope you do too x.
I'm not crazy, just obsessed. :}
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
disgustingly sentimental Americano tosh, but I liked it once...
call me cynical, or perhaps heartless, but on second viewing of this overrated film I saw straight through it. When I first saw it I was 13 years old. I was angry and angst ridden, and utterly impressionable. The film affected me. It made me rant for weeks about what evil "ba*****s" the French must have been during the war, and resent my French and German lessons. I didn't question it because before then I hadn't even seen a movie that reached the standards of The Shawshank Redemption, not that this is a bad film, on the contrary, it is beautiful and fantastic, but the point remains that I was decidedly naive when I saw it.
Fortunately, I have seen the light. I am now a film studies student and I have fallen in love with movies that make this one look, well, empty. It's nothing, really, to be honest, that Stanley Kubrick didn't do better in Full Metal Jacket. Ok, I admit that the first scene is well choreographed, well photographed, well conceived and genuinely moving. However, it seems to me that there might have been better ways to go about it, really. Someone else would have made a hugely better job of this. And well done Spielburg for Jurassic Park but I can never forgive him for inventing the Blockbuster movie with Jaws, paving the way for big family-fun action-adventure-explosion-fests. Grrrrrrrrrr.
The film was sickeningly sentimental to the point of being really "corny", in every American sense of the world. This is accelerated by the string score, which, like in most big films that want to pull the heart strings, it tells you, TELLS YOU(!), exactly when you should be feeling sad. EUGH! And what exactly is with the American flag filling the screen whilst blowing in the breeze and fading to the D-Day landings? This is such a blatant and screaming use of patriotic symbolism, it doesn't make me proud, it doesn't make me relate to the story, it doesn't do anything but make me puke. Seriously.
Don't eat me. I love you really.
28 Days Later... (2002)
gory, in a realistic way.
This is profoundly not a horror movie, never in Danny Boyle's life would he tie his films down to any notions of genre or audience expectation. Most audience members expect a true genre movie, but this was not Boyle's goal. Some don't find the film scary enough, but do they not find the idea of being isolated and practically powerless in a nation overrun by a virus nobody can stop slightly disturbing? Or would they prefer Arnie to come out of a bush with a machine gun and obliterate some zombie scum? the disurbing thing about this film is that it seems so real, for example, it takes ages to kill a zombie because the survivors are not superheroes. it is shot like any social-realism film, like Boyle's Trainspotting it remains as true to the actual nature of humanity as possible, even though it discusses zombies and post-apocalyptic Britain. Sorry, it's not dawn of the dead, but it is real and in that respect it is disturbing. Perhaps the American audience would also benefit from background information, like all the havoc that viruses like BSE and Foot and Mouth have caused in the UK in order to find the film more disturbing? It may suffer from being a bit too culturally exclusive, but this did not hinder my enjoyment. I found it cool and wouldn't object to seeing it over and over.