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Reviews
Madame Claude (1977)
An unconventional erotic thriller
I've mainly watched this movie for the participation of Klaus Kinski, Maurice Ronet and Ed Bishop, expecting not really much of it. It seemed to be one of those tax-saving efforts in which actors participate for (nice) money only and no redeeming value whatsoever.
I was wrong. It is mostly a thriller, and the thriller part works very nicely. I've been told that Ed Bishop could be utterly chilling on stage, but here he definitely put this on screen. Never to utter a word aloud his quiet, slender and completely unassuming killer Smith is quite frightening. Bishop's performance is absolutely on par with that of Alain Delon in Le Samourai, given that he manages to bring this over with much less screen time. Klaus Kinski delivers a toned down performance one would not readily believe him capable of, yet he too comes over ruthless, brutal and at the same time refined during those scenes when David stumbles past the orgy near the end. Maurice Ronet is as brilliant as Bishop in this. His initiation scene with the novice call-girl Elizabeth certainly belongs to the most erotic scenes in this movie and holds its own with quite some of what was filmed around the same time (e.g. La Piscine).
I enjoyed the movie. Yes, there's loads of nudity and sex in it, but no more than what was common in many similar and much better known movies of the time. The actors deliver solid to brilliant performances, kudos to Jaekin for coaxing that from them, and the thriller works and ends in a very dark scene.
Star Trek (2009)
I want my money back!
This is - and I am absolutely truthful here - the VERY FIRST movie I ever watched in my whole life where I felt so tricked, deceived and let up afterwards that I wanted my money back! Idiot me bought the DVD. It's up at Ebay now, I want it out of my house! If there was a zero star verdict, this one earned it. How could they? I mean how the hell could they do that to the vast majority of Trekkers who grew up with the franchise which kept half way close to storyline and time-line.
Nope, I do not buy the Alternate Universe sh*t, what for would I want that? If *I* wanted alternate universes I'd go watch Bladerunner, Alien, Dune, Star Wars, whatever, there are loads of those around - I don't need an alternate universe for Star Trek! I want Star Trek, when I invest money to watch Star Trek.
I neither liked this totally idiotic Kirk (I mean the original had its problems, but this one would get the Raiders of the Lost Ark-Treatment, a single bullet into the frontal lobe, to stop his awful mannerisms and he-man behaviour), nor the Spock who had nothing, but absolutely NOTHING left over from the early, timid and very much socially/emotionally challenged Spock of TOS. This guy here was, well, neglectable. Same goes for the new Uhura, who hasn't got a thimble full of the charisma and sex appeal of the original one. Even Bones just comes over as being as(s)inine.
I'm not even starting on the plot holes, because others have done that just nicely.
Spare yourself this horrid piece of ... brrrr.