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Jack28M
Reviews
Lost in Translation (2003)
Boring!
Both my wife and I found this to be one of the most boring movies we have ever seen. We debated leaving in the middle, but saw it through. Bill (Bob) is in Tokyo to do a commercial. He shows little interest in much beyond drinking. He is lonely and appears depressed. He doesn't seem to have any interests or anything to say. Telephone calls to/from his wife indicate that she is mainly interested in her home and kids rather than in him. With nothing to say or do he is boring. Scarlett (Charlotte) is at least 20 years younger and married for two years. Her husband is on a photography business trip and she goes along. She doesn't seem to grasp that he's on business, not a vacation. She is lonely, but at least makes a couple of sight seeing trips. These two misfit mismatched people meet and spend some time together, but this time is boring to observe. The only physical contact is when he touches her foot, or kisses her goodbye at the end. They are forlorn. What they may have discovered is that they are in dissatisfying relationships, but aren't going to do anything about it. Almost every scene is just boring. I wish I had stayed home.
Braveheart (1995)
A good movie, but historically inaccurate.
A comment by dr_necron on March 7th states that Wallace met Isabella when she was 12 years of age which was the year before his death. I find this hard to believe because he was in hiding in Scotland at the time and she was mainly in France. Does anyone have any information to support this? I would appreciate such info. She married Edward II after Wallace had been killed, but in the movie she is married to Edward while he lives. She is shown in the movie to mediate between the Scots and Edward I, but she actually was a mediator between Edward II and the Barons. She was a remarkable woman! Her real life would make quite a movie. She put her son on the throne in place of her husband and then he eventually put her in prison for most of her life. She lived to be 66 which was quite old for those times. The battle scenes in this movie are very well done. The acting is excellent. However, I would have preferred Wallace to have a different lover, one his own age.
Instinct (1999)
Good acting with unusual plot
The anthropologist kills some Rangers in Africa, and unlikely as it might be is returned to America to stand trial. He is mute so he needs a psychiatric evaluation. The next unlikely event is his evaluation being done by a resident instead of someone with much experience. However, this resident is superior and can do it. The prisoner is not treated that well, especially by the chief guard, and the prison has a psychotic section of all things. The resident gets on the wrong side of the Warden quickly, but the prison psychiatrist goes from negative to positive after the resident insults him. The major flaw is that no lawyer seems to exist which would have changed the plot entirely since much that happens would have been changed by the prisoner having a lawyer. The resident discovers why he killed the rangers and the audience is probably sympathetic. However, he escapes, from a maximum security prison no less, with a little help from a couple of nice psychotics, and returns to the jungle. Unusual and unlikely plot, but good acting. No real psychiatric depth. At the beginning we see the psychiatric resident confronting a person with a delusion which isn't the way it is done, but in this instance the woman starts to doubt her delusion. This isn't reality!
K-PAX (2001)
A psychiatrist treats a supposed alien.
This is warm and enjoyable movie, especially if you know nothing about psychiatry. The movie takes place in 2001, but the psychiatry is either a decade or more old or hardly likely. Most of the drugs mentioned were replaced by newer ones during the past decade. Most of the patients don't seem to be responding to their medications, but the psychiatrist seems to believe everyone should. Many of the patients are not in-patient types to begin with. How many in-patients have been taken home to a family cook-out? The patient is a severe post traumatic stress disorder case, but instead of having the symptoms of that entity, shows himself as a psychotic Schizophenic, paranoid type and later catatonic type. However, his knowledge of the universe make the audience and the staff wonder. The patient has a knowledge of the solar system superior to the authorities in that field. The patient is a marvelous subject for hypnosis where the technique might really work with one percent. With the hypnotic information the psychiatrist does great detective work and finds out what trauma took place five years earlier. In spite of all its faults, it's still warm and enjoyable.
Jean-Marc ou La vie conjugale (1964)
A movie with a companion.
This is the analysis of a marriage. I wrote a comment a couple of years ago about the companion movie, i.e., vie conjugale (Francoise), but said, by mistake, that it was from the husband's point of view. Actually, this one is from his, and the other one is from hers. At the moment I am trying to find this movie in order to see it again. I have thought about it many times during the past 35 years which means it must have had an impact. Go to the companion for further comments.
Mr. Wong, Detective (1938)
Awful!
The acting is awful, the direction is awful, the photography is awful. Boris Karloff certainly doesn't look Chinese either. The police detective is as gruff and stupid as any stereotype. Why his girl friend would continue to speak to him is never made clear. Mr. Wong has some clues, but he never lets the audience know what he is thinking as is the case in more modern detective stories. We are made aware of the criminals except for the killer by the middle of the film. Nearly all the characters are rude to one another, except for Mr. Wong, who stands out in that regard so is liked by all. Don't waste your time on this. I regret doing so and an writing this to protect anyone so inclined.
Françoise ou La vie conjugale (1964)
Unusual
I saw this movie about 35 years ago and have been searching to find it again for the past twenty five. It's the only movie I know of that has a companion. It's the anatomy of a marriage from the eyes of both the husband and wife. Both tell the same story, but from different perspectives. This one, I believe, is from the husband's perspective. The other is from the wife's. The acting doesn't make this movie great; it's the unusual feature of it being part of two movies and you have to see both to get the psychological effect. There are identical scenes in both movies, but some scenes in each are not in the other. There are other scenes which are the same, but they are different. I'd love to rent the video and see them again.
Analyze This (1999)
One funny movie.
The violence, sex, and bad language fit the plot so can be tolerated. The head of the mob needs a psychiatrist because he had a panic attack. The real treatment is Paxil, but he gets pseudo-Freudian analysis. It's all fantasy so I can accept this too. The laughs are frequent and really funny. Jelly deserves an award for his supporting role. His comment in the bathroom as well as in the junkyard were a riot.