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sayhitowarren
Reviews
The Canterville Ghost (1944)
Deserves higher rating
The current rating for this film (6.7) is too low. A more accurate figure would be between 7 and 8. This is an excellent film, a classic fantasy picture on par with Lost Horizon (1937), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), The Old Dark House (1932), Scrooge (1935), Scrooge (1938), Blithe Spirit (1945), Gaslight (1940), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), The Uninvited (1944), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Dead of Night (1945), Death Takes a Holiday (1934), Alice in Wonderland (1933). It's not quite as good as It's a Wonderful Life, A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven), Babes in Toyland (1934), Cat People (1944), The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Thief of Baghdad (1940), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932).
The Clonus Horror (1979)
Deserves higher rating
The current IMDb rating (2.something) for Clonus is too low. It deserves a rating in the 5-6 range. If you enjoy B-grade movies like Westworld/Futureworld, Zardoz, Paycheck, and The Island then you will like this one, too. Clonus is full of clever tidbits for those who look for them. For example, the cheesy-seeming sci-fi title can mean clone-us (us, the American people, or at least some of us). It can also mean clone-U.S. (United States of Clones). Powerful and wealthy individuals are creating a naive (but nationalistic, America-worshiping) population which they literally consume. I'm reminded of the class-conscious horror/fantasy films Society, People Under the Stairs, and They Live. Lastly, I want to confirm the enormous similarity between Clonus and The Island: The Island owes a large debt to Clonus. It's not just that both movies are about clones, it's that Island hijacks the Clonus plot and characters wholesale, with only minor variations (and the variations themselves are not particularly original, having been taken from Logan's Run, etc). Such specific borrowing is plagiarism if the original is not credited.
Boudica (2003)
Quite entertaining
I have found "Boudica" aka "Warrior Queen" to be quite entertaining and very much worth watching. Although I had glimpsed Alex Kingston on ER, she had never really come up on my radar in a significant way. However, now that she's Boudica the Warrior Queen, I'm quite impressed with her (and maybe a little in love). In general, all of the casting was very good and the actors all made the most of their roles. If the budget had been on par with "Alexander" or "Troy" I think this could have been almost as good as those films (although they are far from perfect!). Having glanced at a few of the other user comments, I saw some criticism of the historical accuracy of the film. Those kinds of critiques are unfounded because they are based on naive and unanalytical readings of the source material. In other words, the critic believes everything he or she reads in old books, and criticizes films if they don't match the books point for point. Good historians know that a film like "Boudica" is a valid alternative interpretation of the sources and, at the very least, an excellent heuristic tool.
One Point O (2004)
Kafkaesque
I just finished watching Paranoia 1.0. While this film is not going on my list of all time favorite films, I did find it very entertaining. The filmmakers have nothing to be ashamed of. I was particularly struck by the similarities between this film and Orson Welles' 1962 film of Kafka's The Trial (Le Procès). The Romanian locations do for Paranoia some of what the Yugoslavian locations did for the Trial. Paranoia gives a cyberpunk angle on the Kafkaesque theme of the internalization of social structure, particularly the mentality of consumerism. Although Kafka did not explicitly address consumerism, I think he might if he was alive and writing in the 21st century. The sub-themes of sexual guilt and infection are very much from Kafka. And the police are especially Kafkaesque. I also detected the influence of David Cronenberg, especially his media-related films Videodrome and eXistenZ. I think there was also a little bit of Kubrick influence. I saw this in the neighbor's AI project which sort of a existential, postmodern, frankensteinian, Edvard Munchian version of 2001's Hal and AI's David. He goes "Aaahhhhh ..." You might say the same thing after watching this movie, especially if literary/philosophical sci fi/fantasy is not your bag.