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Reviews
Lemmy (2002)
Sadly, not a film to recommend
To put this upfront, I consider myself a Motörhead-Fan and as such was looking forward to some witty remarks by the Kilmeister as well as some interesting background info towards his musical and other career. Some of those funny and sometimes witty remarks can be found in this documentary. However, I also consider myself a film fan, and as such, I cannot recommend this film. Yes, it has live footage of some of your favorite songs and interviews with Lemmy and some of his companions, but it also looks like it was filmed by a blind monkey and edited by his retarded brother. Apart from shaky video filming and bad sound quality, the tidbits are also clumsily cut together, making it tedious to watch from start to finish. Furthermore, all those people (like Doro for example) who are mentioned in the synopsis don't always give interviews, some of them are only seen on stage for a short time. I give it 2 stars out of ten for some of Lemmy's comments, but I still think I could have spend those 6 Euros for the film on something more worthwhile.
Troy (2004)
A modern adaptation
When I first went out of the cinema after watching Troy, I was disappointed by yet another mainstream Hollywood action movie. The girl with whom I went to see the movie was also disappointed because her favourite epic was violated in such a way (and she also doesn't like Brad Pitt too much, who was portraying her favourite Greek hero ;). But whenever I was talking about the film afterwards, I started to like it more and more. The movie is solidly crafted, but does not add a whole lot to the techniques of film-making, admittedly. But what is so interesting about it, is the point which many movie-goers criticised so hard: the (almost) complete absence of the Greek gods. The only personification we get to see in the film is Achilles mother, and we don't even get a clear statement on whether she is a goddess or not. Whenever the gods appear in the movie, they appear in flowery phrases like when Menelaos spills some of his wine to the ground "for the gods". Also, the gods are portrayed as uncontrollable entities (like Hector tells Paris on the ship) who cannot be completely soothed by gifts or sacrifices. In my opinion, this is a very modern (atheistic) notion, which also puts the blame for the war (and the ensuing casualties) on men, and not supernatural beings. In a time of "Holy War" and "God's Own Country" going to war, this should remind us that it is no higher destiny which makes us do war, but rather leaders of men who do so. Maybe watch it under this aspect the next time.
Hulk (2003)
Green is the colour...
Hulk is different from the rest of the Marvel comics-turned-movies.
First of all, Ang Lee has tried to capture the spirit of a comic book and relate it to the big screen. He makes creative use of split screens and fades throughout the movie. While this is appropriate in the fights and faster (action) scenes, it distracts you from the plot in the quieter dialogue scenes. And yet he still uses them there. It is not as much a comic as Rodriguez' Sin City, yet, especially towards the end when the green man is jumping from canyon to canyon (which I had a hard time getting used to), it is a lot closer to the comic book original than the old TV series was.
The second big difference to X-Men, Spider-Man and the like is: there is no humour in Hulk. Apart from the nerd comment at the beginning and the Atlas pose the Hulk strikes while destroying the laboratory, the movie is a dead serious character drama from start to finish. It succeeds in these points, too, but still it is quite unusual to watch a Marvel movie without snickering even once.
Still, not that bad as some people might tell you.