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Reviews
Truands (2007)
This flic is EXCELLENT!
If you enjoy gangster movies, this is a must see, it's top notch! It's the hard and gut wrenching rendering of the hollow, treacherous life and risks you take being a proper gangster, and I've had the dubious privilege of meeting some in my time. The best gangster is the one with the biggest balls, there is no aber dabei. The message of the movie is clear as a bell; menace is the order of the day, by surprise or default. There is no glory, there is no deeper meaning, simple pleasures have no meaning and it's dog eat dog. Ugly life at best and it's really portrayed expertly by the players, shallow and unreliable, but reliably unpredictable, terrifying and perfectly psychotic bar a couple who are a bit 'smarter' than the rest and hold actual dreams for better things. The gallery is typical and every type is in place and proper form. The subtleties are really minute but they are absolutely included, look away and you'll miss it as a whole! I will watch this many more times. You might have a tough time digging it out, but well worth the effort. Now if you'll excuse me I'll go watch some other favourites!
And to those reviewers who were mystified or felt let down by the plot or the characters, may I suggest they watch the more mainstream movies and actors, because the fabulous subtleties of 'Truands' were apparently lost on them. They've never met real gangsters! Even the loot is realistic, just enough 'pennies' to make a new life!
Inherent Vice (2014)
Incoherent Crap
Phoenix is an immense power and certainly so is Brolin, as for the rest, they're chewed off as fillers at random, nothing but stepping stones for the two main acts, who are really just putting it way out there, literally.
Sometimes there is no point and this movie is such, without scope, pointless and therefore quite unfunny. Just keeping up with the elaborate and silly names in this movie is trying and there's not a scene without one.. Who is what, who? Who again??
Regrettably this is nothing but an attempt at being interesting and I admit the bar was set high, but to sum it up, I think the title is misleading; it would have been better with 'Incoherent Crap' to the sounds of music, and I find myself submitting this review to write just that, because it's what I got from it, I just kept nodding off, and if that is good enough for you, then this movie is a blast in terms of watching the very best of the bunch today in flashes making a lot out of basically nothing but complete nonsense?!
I still haven't made up my mind about where the faults are in this movie, it could well be the editing or simply the script, because the acting was impeccable and so were the settings, albeit many of the vehicles were from a different period (but that would be nitpicking)
A strange and wobbly vehicle for two established stars, the rest of the stellar cast along with Owen Wilson, Martin Short, well they just came up short with nothing but bit parts in an incoherent and silly story without head or tail and the ending is nothing but painful.
And for those of you, like I, thinking that this would possibly match 'The Big Lebowski' you've been intentionally misled and you will be most disappointed! I was full of expectations going in, but I quickly found myself just nodding off...
I had three giggles.. But in between I had a good snore, so the wife tells me!
I may watch it again, just to make sure I wasn't wrong, but I don't think I will. Rarely do I watch a movie again which didn't really catch my interest the first time. And I rarely doze off, unless...
A Most Wanted Man (2014)
Outstanding performances!
Philip Seymour Hoffman really shines with one last but not least great character performance, nothing else to say about that. He perfectly embodies (pun intended) his shabby but stout German character and he was perfect for the part. I well knew he was gone when I went to see the movie this morning and perhaps why I paid more attention to his acting, but by no means were any of the others bit players in what is ultimately a thinking man's (women not excluded) movie. It's like a 20.000 piece puzzle if you like. If your attention span is less than 1.5 hrs. you will not enjoy this film at all, because it all leads, in most intricate ways, to one climactic moment 5 mins. before it ends. The story, which is but one anecdote out of gad zillions, still conveys several messages revealing the trouble with our world today in very subtile ways, if you can grasp the totality. You will recognise them all if you have any life experience. This was by far the best interpretation of a John Le Carré story turned screenplay I have yet seen, and I can go very far back, to BBC productions with Sir Alec Guinness as George Smiley, so to me this was not new on my menu nor as a film or book. Willem Dafoe was a great face revisited although subdued to minor role, but nonetheless performed extremely well by all in the leads. So, in conclusion, an outstanding cast, extraordinary handling of material, and just remember this; the bigger fish always eats the smaller fish because they are tastier!
My only regret: I won't see Hoffman in more movies, he was great!
The Designer (2011)
Incredible...?!!
Just an incredibly bad and disappointing effort, nothing works, plot, acting, camera, dialog, background music, stunts, editing, direction, even the locations.
SPOILER
Early in the movie the girl is run over and as she lies there with awful trauma make-up probably applied by a 5 yr. old, blurred in the background is someone just walking along the road.
SPOILER
You want to bleach your brain after watching just a part of it! It's just an insult to its trade.
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Utter rubbish - Awful
You would think that the 007 consortium headed by Broccoli would be very picky in the continuing saga of JB 007 but with Quantum of Solace they have really hit rock bottom with surprising indifference to the solid good ol' material at hand.
In short - confusing throughout - incoherent - ghastly camera action and the worst editing ever - unexplained plot or self-explained? - stupid dialog even abrupt (who checked or questioned the script?) - dull ending - pointless overall - worst soundtrack ever - In fact nothing but a disgraceful waste of my time and good money
As a devout Bond fan and expecting a whole new bag of beans - and it did look promising when I viewed Casino Royale with Craig as the new 007 - I feel nothing but shortchanged and sorely disappointed which not even a good nights sleep will wear down.
However for those involved I shall say this: Nice titles by Mk12 (however crap song detracts) and hats off to choice of Bond girl - Olga is terrific eye candy - just glimpses really due to the very disturbed camera action - and Craig makes a good photo suited up in immaculate duds as he mutters rubbish lines (though him wearing the same cool shades with the confusing agenda throughout the film is a gaff) - Actually great art direction hidden which is very poorly explored by the nuts managing the camera and certainly not helped by even worse editing.
I wouldn't even recommend it as a DVD on a rainy Sunday - but should be ignored and left at the counter as the disaster it is to remind the people in charge that this is not the way ahead put in in plain English: Quantum of Solace is nothing but a 'sugarcoated' insult to any 007 enthusiast.
Nacho Libre (2006)
Great Comedy Applauded
This film is a must have for any comedy buff, free of lewdness, simple comedy in it's splendour with a great serving of sheer corniness, masterly devised.. and there's the delicate balance in terms of images and plot and characters which needs mention. It's all just well done.
This comedy has two funny characters, but Jack Black shows outstanding genius in acting out in a way which seems to come perfectly natural to him and his performance comes off in that wicked and spontaneous way which is such a rare commodity in modern comedy.. Jack Black is consciously or not king of the Corny! Note how he handles a stooopid song in terms of expression! Fabulous. Hands down.
I'm only posting this because "NACHO LIBRE" in every aspect needs to be repeated, not necessarily as a sequel, but I personally would like to see much more comedy with all the simple qualities Nacho Libre represents to me.
I highly recommend this comedy to anyone, if you don't get it, watch it again and try to learn this type of comedy. I hope to see more and will definitely look out for Jack Black and everyone else on this film, in their next adventure looking forward to a real hearty laugh. Hats off!
The Grubbs (2002)
Thought 'The Grubbs' hysterically funny
I like sophisticated humor as well as the next person, comedies such as Frasier, Friends, The Simpsons among a few others, which display genuine integrity. I'm only venturing a review here, seeing the excruciatingly negative review from Canada, when I came by IMDb to review better details on my recent folly, "the Grubbs", which is all about being anything but sophisticated!
These days proper, well conceived humor is kind of rare in sitcoms, where the original idea is to "entertajn" the viewer with new angles and not "bore" you to the limit, where you consider if TV Shopping isn't really more interesting, because at least there they sell lots of spam indiscriminately and obviously!
I have only seen 2 episodes, I admit, but made me burst out with such loud and uncontrollable laughter in the middle of an otherwise silent night, I managed to wake up the house on both occasions.. Sadly it's being shown at a very late hour here, so I might not get to see it regularly, noise levels might be another prohibiting factor, but it's fairly original, punts are awesome and served cool and has that rare but needed quality, integrity.. A good cast and, thx Randy for portraying a professional 'spot on', nice one. I might be biased but then Randy always was always a great yob, and I think it's because he likes it and thats a clue here! A cast giving a good performance because they and everyone else 'seems' to enjoy the material and are not trying to mimic the lot in Friends or any other big box sitcom. Give it a look, you might agree, if not, humor is probably distributed somewhere else.