[Closed] Recent Viewing Part II

Birth (2004)

10-year old kid confronts none-too-stable Anna (Nicole Kidman) with evidence he is in fact her (reincarnated?) hsuband, now dead for ten years. Anna, poised to be married again, gradually starts to believe the weird little boy.

It's an extremely unlikely, very unbelievable plot that never quite manages to overcome its weaknesses to goad us into a suspension of disbelief. The acting is generally good, and the cast impressive (it's always great seeing teh wonderful Lauren Bacall again), but from a very ealr moment on, the sense that the whole thing is just...well, ridiculous becomes unbearably unshakable. Oh sure, the director and script touch upon intriguiing premises like love eternal, obsession (psychotic or otherwise) and the vulnerability of reality as every man defines it, but never follows through in a way that is really thought provoking, or -to be honest- even just interesting.

At the end, the film feels hollow and pointless.

2 out of 5

Desplat's score employs weird (and old fashioned) electronics that apparently are meant to disorient us. In fact, it's just annoying. He is FAR better and interesting when sticking to a more symphonic style.

2.5 out of 5

Shame, because I actually think it's a very enjoyable film. Some excellent action scenes, great locations, hot women (much hotter than that British chick from Casino Royale) and Daniel Craig kicking ass. Don't see what's boring about it?

HOT WOMEN is reason enough to make me change my opinion on whether to watch it or not; i do have it sitting on my hard disk in fact. Hmmmmm.....hot women*......






* By hot women you don't only mean the Putin chick alone, right?

In YOUR opinion. Gemma does it for me

On the plus side we wouldn't have to fight over them


as if they would be interested

Eva Green ( hubba hubba ) IS French.

I think she has a dual nationality, doesn't she?
Her English is nigh-impeccable (more's the pity )

Watchmen (2009)

Finally got to see it...and I wasn't disappointed!
The film follows Alan Moore's seminal graphic novel from the eighties to a -t-, with just some very, very minor changed elements. And it works (Although the reason why all the caped heroes are suddenly proficient in Matrix-style fighting skills never becomes clear...and as it never was a part of the novel, it is slightly puzzling in the context. But hey. It tends to look good and feed the casual action fan.)!

Anyway, the story, set in an alternative timeline, cleverly set out in a very good and original prologue in a USA where Nixon was elected president for the third time running, concerns the rise and fall of masked heroes/vigilantes who first came to the fore in the forties, only to be outlawed by the seventies.

Now, in 1985, one of their erstwhile number is killed.
Is it an old enemy out for revenge?
Or is there something far more sinister going on?
And how can those who choose to wear masks and fight crime through demons and deep mental and psychological instabilities of their own, do something now that they're outlawed?

In its day, it was the very first sociological and psychological approach to the caped heroes / superheroes genre, and as we are much more used to that specific take now, I was afraid it might not have the same impact it had twenty years ago. But the story is engrossing and fast-moving enough to still bring a sense of novelty into it!

The non-linear story elements of the grpahic novel have been incorporated cleverly through the use of flashbacks, which never distract from the overall story arc, and though -necessarily, with such an abundance of material- some secundary material is lost (the Black Freighter analogy is left out completely), it doesn't detract or diminish the film at all.

Thankfully avoiding any star power (so as not to detract from the imporance of each character in the film) the acting is uniformly quite good, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian) and Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach) as stand-outs.

In fact, it's EERY how much the actors resemble their graphic novel counterparts! It's from touches like these that the almost fanatical adherence of director Zack Snyder's to the source material becomes clear. And that may be -if one were to carp- also the film's weak point: it really is almost a panel-to-panel realization of the graphic novel. It translates well in my opinion, but if the source material wasn't interesting to you in the first place, the film might not sway you to the greatness of the story.
That said, I went to see it with a couple of friends who aren't into graphic novels or superheroes AT ALL, but who were still at the very least massively entertained and at best intrigued, so I might be too critical.

4 out of 5


The music is terrible. It's TERRIBLE.
And the sad thing is that I'm not even talking about Tyler Bates' score, which is really just action scene wallpaper stuff that doesn't annoy, nor invigorate, but the SONGS someone thought to place on the soundtrack at crucial moments.

At first I thought it was to create a sense of hirstory (maybe getting some old eighties' hits on there to underscore the fact it's 1985), but no: there's all sorts there from the sixties through to the early nineties. "Heavy" "meaningful" songs, clearly intended to drive home some sort of common emotion.

The thing is, though, they make no sense. No sense AT ALL! Simon and Garfunkel's Sound Of Silence during the Comedian's funeral? Leonard Cohen's version of Hallelujah during Night Owl's and Silk Spectre's sexual encounter? What the HELL is that all about? It's not clever! It's not to the point! It's STUPID and UTTERLY unfitting! These scenes (and MANY others) would have been SO much more poignant with a proper score.
Damn. Really. It's awful.

And the worst part is that I fear it's all meant to be so very "ironic" again, as the part where Doctor Manhattan wins the war in Vietnam is scored by...wait for it...oh yeah! Wagner's Ride Of The Valkyries!


JESUS!

This is a straight story.
It's not cleverly quipping Spiderman, or one-liner busting Wolverine.
Snyder takes GREAT pains to keep the story as straight as he can.
And Bates (or the musical director) apparently sabotages it whenever he can. Very, very, very, VERY painful to see and technically extremely jarring as every occurrence actually manages to draw you out of the story.
Well done. ( <- phrase underscored by Beck's Loser)

Minus 16 out of 5

Loved the review Martijn, it seems most fans of the graphic novel ( at least some of my friends ) have been very possitive about the film and now I'm certainly looking forward to seeing it.

She was born in Paris. and her English is impeccable.

A friend of mine was convinced it was Bardem, so well spotted!
I disagree with the film needing stars. In my opinion it would have distracted from the characters AND as we all know: if there's a star in a Hollywood production, (S)HE will survive FOR SURE.
Now, it's all in the air.

But that's just my opinion. I honestly thought it was a good choice.

RV: Eragon

Nothing compared to the book.

"even Eva Green is smoking hot"? EVEN!!!?

I'll be watching QOS tomorrow and wll make my own mind up then.

Yes, enjoy.

I like Quantum of Solace. I think people expect way too much from Bond films, they'll never please anyone. A Bond film will either have too many gadgets or not enough; Bond will be too suave or not suave enough; there will be too much action or not enough action, etc. etc. blah blah blah.

QoS is like Indy 4 was to Raiders or Crusade. It's totally crap when compared to the previous films, but it really isn't that bad. If you don't mind a film that completely lacks wit and is full of speedy action scenes and hot women then you'll like it. If you were expecting a decent continuation from Casino Royale then you're not in for a fun ride.