Reviews

Who is a "freedom fighter" and who is a "terrorist"? Florin Krasniqi appears to be a normal New Yorker, an immigrant who happily settled in the U.S. and started his own roofing business. When his cousin was killed by the Serbian army, he took interest in the struggle of his fatherland. This documentary does not make a judgement about its subject. It just tells the story of one man's life and interest in supporting the KLA. There are some fun scenes in here, like when Florin goes to a gun dealer to purchase a .50-calibre rifle and says he's going to use it to hunt elephants. The weapons make their way through airports and eventually end up in the hands of the KLA. At one point Florin is asked if he has worked with terrorist organizations. He says that he has been approached by some, but doesn't give a clear answer. "I would collaborate with the devil to save my people." It's a good documentary for anyone no matter how familiar or unfamiliar they are with the conflict.

Dorian Gray becomes a tool of an international conspiracy. The plot is pretty wild and there's no point in trying to explain it because it's secondary to the value of this film. It's mainly about photography, set designs, and costumes. The film is basically eye candy. It succeeds to entertain if you can actually sit through the whole thing. Great visuals. Some scenes drag a little bit. Imagine John Waters and Matthew Barney collaborating on a James Bond film. There is no consistent aesthetic here, it's just kind of random. Something good for when you're in a strange mood or don't feel like seeing something predictable.

The camera-work in this film is unbelievable. I haven't seen many films from Vietnam but this one is undoubtedly the best. Cinematography is top notch. Some of the photography is mind-boggling. Xich lo is about a young bicycle taxi driver from a poor family who becomes involved in gang activities after his taxi is stolen and his options are limited. The 123 minutes of the film give time for good character development. The gang's lieutenant, Poet, is a ruthless criminal who rarely speaks and is troubled his bad childhood and a recurring nosebleed problem. Madame is the wise leader with a retarded son, Fishmouth. Every character in the story is human, each with their own problems. I am not familiar with the filmmakers' other works so I don't know if there are any political or social messages contained in this film, but one shot of a wealthy, clean development late in the film is shown in sharp contrast to the dirty and violent world that we see in the rest of the film.

My only criticism of this is the pace.. it dragged slightly at a few points, and these seemed to be included in the final cut for the poetry and songs contained in them. I give this film a 10 in the end. Highly recommended.

Dream Deceivers is only an hour long but it packs a lot into that hour.

The film follows the trial and accounts of events when two troubled teens in Reno decided to commit suicide. One succeeded, the other failed and was horribly disfigured. The family of the disfigured boy decide to sue Judas Priest but their case doesn't hold together. It amazes me that the case even went to trial. A sad story of the breakdown of family life. This film raises many questions about life in the modern age. Every youth interviewed seemed to come from a similar type of family with religious working-class parents who have been through a divorce or two.

Highly recommended.

This film drags on a little too long, the story is cheesy, but there's humour in here. To simply judge this as a drama is an error. This is dark comedy. Perhaps not particularly well-executed at parts, but a comedy nonetheless. The fish noodle man runs his late father's shop in Singapore. He sees a prostitute get injured, takes her back to his apartment etc. The main character is not 'retarded' in the way that we use the word. He's just different, and a little slow. Singaporean dialect is used here, mixing up Chinese and English.

I only recommend this film to people with a dark sense of humour.

Yawn. I barely stayed awake for this. Bill Murray is the only good thing about this film, the only thing that made it viewable. The rest of the characters are incredibly boring. There's a few ha-ha jokes here and there but nothing incredibly funny. Waste of time. On the plus side, at least they didn't do some lame portrayal of Japan and the Japanese like you see in so many American films.

This film bored me most of the time and irritated me at parts. Pure chick flick, avoid this if you like good films at all. Very predictable, full of cliches. Very American in style; it's just like all of those thousands of films churned out every year with Hugh Grant or Richard Gere. Horribly sappy. Two hours I'll never get back.

This film shows the conflict and forming of a friendship between two opposites: Shlykov, the hard-working patriotic cab driver built like a tank, and Lyosha, the thin, panhandling urban Jew.

A taxi driver in Moscow named Shlykov gets stiffed of his fare by the Jewish saxophone player named Lyosha who calls himself a genius who "speaks to God". Shlykov tracks down Lyosha and takes his saxophone and that is when the fun begins.

Lyosha fails to make money fast enough to pay Shlykov back but Shlykov decides to give him back his saxophone anyways. Lyosha, sensing Shlykov's soft heart, tries to further take advantage of him by begging him for money. After Shlykov lets Lyosha in his apartment, and after Lyosha causes him great trouble costing him even more money, Shlykov takes Lyosha to jail.

After a violent outburst by Shlykov he decides to go back to the police station to drop the charges against Lyosha. He has decided that sending Lyosha to jail would accomplish nothing. He wants to show Lyosha what life is like for honest hard-working people. Shlykov makes Lyosha come to work with him. The "intellectual" breaks down when forced to do what millions of other people in the country have to do everyday of their lives. Both characters show impulsive and unpredictable behaviour, but for different reason. Lyosha is simply a drunk. Shlykov is a patriotic ex-athlete full of proletariat angst and senses his nation is dying because of the "rotten" westernized hooligans he sees everywhere in the streets who lack any work ethic.

I will not reveal the ending to you but I will tell you this story is not a fairy tale.

I think this film goes much deeper than just showing what life was like in the USSR; the two characters can be found in almost every culture in the world today.

Excellent performances by both Zajchenko and Mamonov.