Reviews

Superb, stunning and moving all rolled into one. Hard to believe that it was by the same director who brought us Fifth Element (not that I'm saying that it was bad!). Leon has an unusual twist in the tale (more than once). We follow Leon who is a hitman, brilliantly played by Jean Reno superbly supported by Gary Oldman who plays an amazing drugged up cop. All I have to say is "see the film" and you will be blown away. The end of the film left me stunned and as for Luc Besson, he is a brilliant story teller.

Robocop had a sense of black humour, Robocop 2 had nothing but violence and a bunch of special effects. Now, with the budget completely zero and the cast limited to Nancy Allen and a few familiar faces, we return to some old routines. We have John Castle as a slightly amusing villain, similar to that of Kurtwood Smith's in the first film. We also have the familiar music returning to the screen, although it didn't save the movie. Much better than R2, something to watch when theres nothing else on.

This film ruined a potenitally good series of films. In my opinion, sequels should only be made if it is vital to the story line, not just to make money. Robocop 2 has two problems, number one being that Paul Verhoven has vanished to make Total Recall and number two being that Basil Poledouris has also gone with his stunning score. I can't really say much more than what previous people have seen before me. On the positive side, the violent bits are well executed but Kershner's Empire Strikes Back seems to be much better, although not great. What a shame.

With Time Bandits and Brazil, Terry Gilliam amazed me with the way in which he directed and wrote some amazing works of fiction. A similar thing happens here but in a much larger scale. The film is so full of magnificent visuals, including the magnificent balloon ride in which they travel to the moon. Excellent stuff, and spellbounding everything!!

Well, after Total Recall in 1990, Paul Verhoven seemed to slip down the ladder of porn really didn't he? This seems to be the first film in eight years that he has done which follows along the lines of Robocop and Total Recall, both being excellent. This film is different as it brings WW2 style to it along with the vomit filled rubbish from Star Trek and basically rips it out of any serious Sci-Fi ever made. Despite the amusing bits, the hidden meanings and texts that you can read up on this film is really quite remarkable, an example being the fact that all officers are wearing Nazi uniforms and the "Brain" Bug looks like Winston Churchill seems to just say "what if?"

This film exists in the same category as Fernando Solanasas' 'The Voyage', it brings to life Madagascar, the characters it introduces and the voyage we must all take to find ourselves

The genius of this film is that the characters are introduced so masterfully that we care every time they breathe.

In this film Brenta engages a minimilistic realist tone to explore the alienation felt by the character to stunning and hypnotic effect. An almost impressionistic text, Barnabo is stunningly shot and moves away from the rampant commercialist slurry of most euro multi country co-productions. The lack of distribution of this film on video is significant of the lack of adventure that seems to be currently characterising video distributers. It should be ranked among the forefront of Italian 90's cinema. Ed Crooks

Previous critical comments about Nostalgia include 'the nearest to poetry that cinema can ever aspire'. There is nothing more one can add, this comment sums it up totally. I would say that this film is different every time I watch it, it's more than poetry, it's hypnotic to the state of Tarkovsky casting a spell on the viewer.

Despite initial thoughts about whether the film would be any good or not, I found Stephen Fry a most honorable Wilde. The most moving bit obviously being the various stunning scenes set in Reading prison which left me in deep thought about Victorian England for several moments. Excellent film.

Despite yet more blood guts and violence from Paul Verhoven, I was stunned when I first saw Robocop. At first I was captured by the non-stop violence but on more recent viewings I am caught deep in the storyline about a cop who has his life ripped from him and replaced by that of violence. I think people should forget Verhoven's reputation of sex and violence in his films as they are just his way of portraying an amazing story.