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Ha-Sodot (2007)
Deeply Sub-Par on Every Level
I can not do it hurl darts at every component of this misbegotten effort. Doing so would exceed Amazon's verbiage cap. Ms. Ardant was the drawing card; but the diffuse, overwrought, condescending and pedantic The Secrets merely delivers a rancid load of Giffilte fish. Ardant's role was ridiculous, though she gave it her all and then some.
Contesting a certain reviewer's perspective, this GM can't justify a default ***** review for every gay-themed or Israeli film.
An e-x-t-e-n-s-i-v-e list of distributors, producers and underwriters preceded the opening titles, leading me to think this might have been a student film. Still: It's what's on screen that counts; and in the case at hand, there's way too little of value.
Spike of Bensonhurst (1988)
A Truly Informed, Brilliant Satire Crying Out For Release On DVD.
Alan Bowne, sadly, will not be around to enjoy SPIKE's reemergence (assuming that Image gets off its ass and publishes a long-awaited anamorphic DVD release); but the film's many fans will rejoice. Image published a pan-and-scan transfer on LaserDisc in 1989.
In other reviews of the film on this site, some (perhaps myopic?) individuals skewer SPIKE for its depiction of certain Italian characters - failing to notice that the foibles of women, Jews, gays, Puerto Ricans and W.A.S.P.s share equal billing. Morrissey & Bowne's targets were hypocrisy and bigotry. The score - a double bullseye.
Viva Spike Of Bensonhurst. While we're asking, may we have an official DVD release of Andy Warhol's BAD, another classic of the period?
Mama's Boy (2007)
Jeff Daniels delivers another nuanced performance...
...in an otherwise ghastly, misbegotten, would-be Oedipal comedy.
I was the lone victim at a 7:20 screening tonight (3 days after the movie opened) , so there is some satisfaction in knowing that moviegoers heeded warnings.
The bloom is off Jon Heder's rose. The emerging double chin isn't his fault; but rehashing his geeky kid shtick in another bad wig simply isn't working. It would be another crime if this were to be Eli Wallach's last screen appearance. Diane Keaton will probably survive having taken this paycheck - basically because so few will have seen her in this, the very worst vehicle she's chosen in the last few weeks.
Sitting alone in the theater tonight I came alive (laughed, even) whenever Daniels was given the latitude in which to deliver the film's sole three dimensional character. He really is among our very best actors.
In summary, even Jeff Daniels's work can't redeem this picture.
Rock Haven (2007)
No, It Isn't a Parody
Ten minutes into Rock Haven I had given up hope. Nothing I've seen on screen had approached the level of overall ineptitude on display here. Suddenly though, when the film descended to a never before revealed level of after-school-movie hell, I realized that this film was actually a kick-ass parody of the "Christian/gay predicament" genre. Haha. Brilliant.
Wrong! To give this film full credit, it's a brainless screed aimed at an audience that outgrew this sort of crap probably in the mid 60's at the latest. A languid melodrama that would be boring at 25 minutes is stretched to 87 deadly minutes with (30+) breaking waves/Pacific/ community shots. Gay audiences - most audiences - are too smart for this idiotic pandering.
Characters have no back story and no depth; and most are written and performed as grotesque stereotypes - most notably Brady, his mother, and, especially, his priest (who makes Paul Linde look like Sam Elliott). Neither IMDb nor the film's website provides full cast credits. Telling. Credit Owen Alabado for an engaged, informed performance that belongs in a much better movie.
Tech credits are sub par across the board: script, score, editing, hilarious lighting, and "cinematography" will have set (-) standards when history is written.
TLA Releasing has, with this dv gem, begun to compete with Wolfe.
If anybody has a radically more positive take on Rock Haven, I'd like to hear it.
Bobby (2006)
But how does one spoil such an awful film?
Altman could probably have pulled it off. Many of his methods are on display here - sort of - applied to third-rate soap opera. Had Estavez ramped it up just another degree he'd have played the story, successfully, for laughs.
SPOILER(?):
A nadir is reached at the film's end when long pauses are inserted into an RFK speech voice-over, rendering the speech impotent and giving us additional minutes in which to view the movie's cardboard characters in mock agony.
Quite a lot of thesp talent was wasted in this embarrassingly inept enterprise. And then there's Ashton Kutcher...
I remember Repo Man fondly and wish for Mr. Estavez a happier future in the industry.