Change Your Image
Route 66
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
The Notebook (2004)
Brutal
I am a man who typically stays away from romantic films, but I don't object to watching one on occasion. After hearing good things about The Notebook from some friends of mine, I decided that, having nothing better to do, I'd see what the stir was about. Big mistake.
The Notebook is the weakest, blandest and most painfully boring drama/romance I have seen in ages. There is nothing interesting about the plot whatsoever, and the ending of the film made itself apparent right from the start. Expecting warm characters, good acting and a fun storyline, I was extremely disappointed. Instead of portraying the experience of falling in love as being the truly magical thing it is, this movie makes it seem dry, tasteless and liable to put people to sleep.
Thankfully I watched the film on DVD, so I had the fast-forward button readily available for the boring, wide sweeping 'romantic' scenes. If you are looking for a truly moving romantic film, I suggest Love Actually. Don't waste your time with The Notebook.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Weak and Overly Fast-Paced
The latest rendition of the Harry Potter books is not quite as intriguing as the last three. While the casting and acting remained excellent, there were several poor directorial decisions that ultimately contributed to weakness of the film.
It makes sense that story must be changed from the book, especially since the fourth book in J.K. Rowling's series extraordinarily long, but the filmmakers made several poor choices in developing the plot of the film out of the story of the book.
The most unfortunate of these decisions was the elimination of several key character-developments and plot elements in favor of longer action sequences that have more computer generated animation. While the special effects are wonderful, I think that the films were better when there was a smaller budget and they had to limit the amount of CG effects. In changing several scenes subtly, especially during the Tri-Wizard tournament, the filmmakers did little justice to the humour, the mystery and the magic of the story. Instead of amusing the audience with fun little character elements and quick, witty lines, it seemed like much more time was spent WOW'ing the viewers with epic chase scenes and battles.
The first thing I noticed when watching the film was that every scene seemed cut off and abrupt. They limited the dialog to what was absolutely necessary, and over used boring, "epic" shots of things that were not particularly interesting.
My main concern is for the fact that, alone, it does not stand up as a film. Even having watched the previous three films in succession immediately before this one, there are so many things left out of the plot that viewers will be utterly confused as to what is going on. This once more comes down to the decision to replace the finer details of the story with wild and crazy special effects.
The next problem with the film that I foresee is the issue regarding future-proofing the plot. In eliminating so many details, the director has done one of two things. He has either set up the next three films to have few details much like this one, as they have nothing to build on, or they will have to be much longer than the past ones, to explain the key plot elements that were left out of this one. Certain key points were excluded from the film, leaving them to be explained by what the viewer remembered from the books, which ultimately yields a rather weak final product.
I was extremely disappointed by the outcome of this film, as the fourth book was my favorite of the six available currently. On the whole the film did little more than create a bridge between "young Harry" in books One through Three, and "Older Harry" in books Five through Seven. It's really unfortunate that they made this bridge in such a way, as it had the potential to be the best of them yet.
-R66
On the Waterfront (1954)
A Classic
On The Waterfront is truly a classic piece of film history, combining key elements of the standard gangster/mob film with the incredible acting of Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint. The Cab scene is an incredible portrayal of Marlon Brando's amazing acting ability and the thought and feeling that separates this film from being 'just another gangster film'.
I also greatly enjoyed the rooftop scenes, as the director and actors played with the bumps and ledges in dynamic ways, with Brando looking over the lip of a roof, and people running the length of the roof, jumping up and down off the ledges and coming to a halt, eyes at another person's foot level. The rooftop added an incredible depth and intrigue to the parts of the film that were staged there, and I have never seen such well orchestrated rooftop scenes in a film.
On The Waterfront is a marvel of acting and directing that really captures the skill and power of Brando's performance. While a little slow at times, it truly is an excellent film.
A Knight's Tale (2001)
A Fun Romp, If Bland At Times
A Knight's Tale is an enjoyable step away from the typical medieval action film which brings has a host of rather interesting characters, but also a few faults that make it fall from being a really good film. The first and most obvious fault is that they tried to cover up some of the film's overall blandness by creating a modern tone to the medieval atmosphere, an effort which fell flat on its face. The characters dance to rock music and wear Nike logos on their armor in an attempt at humor that really makes the film look stupid. The rest of the film is a wry look at the directors take on medieval tilting, which was a rather brutal sport. All in all it is a fun and enjoyable film that, while not being very profound, will delight young and (maybe) old alike.
My Rating: 6.5/10
Kids (1995)
Weak.
Despite everybody's comments that this is an intense, gritty documentary that shows what teenagers are really like, I have to disagree. I think that this is hype, and crass stupidity, that scares people into thinking that this is how all teenagers are. I have a few points to pick out about the film.
A) The title implies that the film is a tell all informative look at the world of /all/ teenagers, which it is not. It is simply a look at the lives of inner city teenagers whose parents have not raised them to find the subtle shades of grey between good and bad. Instead of being the rule, these kids are the exception to the rule, and the film leads parents to believe that all their kids are out there getting high, drunk and having unprotected sex, wildly and without reason.
B) The so called /gritty/ filmmaking style doesn't work. There is something in the editing style that makes the film seem like a total fake, weak representation of what could be out there. The attempt at gritty realism falls flat on its face as the film proceeds, and becomes a gummy, stuffy, convoluted mass of worthless scum.
C) Parents: If your kids are doing this kind of stuff, it needs to be stopped, but the best way to find out, and put a stop to this is to find information on the internet on how to deal with kids who are out of control. This movie is not going to help in any way except to scare you.
D) Everyone here is saying that this comes very close to kiddy porn. Kiddy porn is quite possibly one of the most vile, disgusting things that humans have ever created, but this is not kiddy porn. This is a weak attempt to show the (contrived) sex lives of teenagers.
E) I cannot imagine what kind of idiot girl would submit to Telly's Don Juan tactics. Telly is not an attractive person (in my eyes at least, but I'm a guy), and he is incredibly stupid, and talks like it as well. What kind of girl would want to lose her virginity to a guy she had known for two hours? I am at a complete loss as to why these girls are so incredibly dumb. I think that this is simply a sexist portrayal of women in general, showing them as being stupid and incredibly submissive sex objects.
This film angered me, because it was such a poor portrayal of teenage life.
If you want to see a gritty, wrenching, painfully abusive film that sticks with you for a long time, watch Requiem for a Dream. Requiem for a Dream is possibly one of the most intense films I have ever seen. Kids, on the other hand, is not, by a long shot.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
A Triumph, A Masterpiece
The Return of the King is a triumph of filmmaking. From the acting, editing, cinematography to the CG effects. Everything fit together flawlessly. The Return of the King seals the truth that The Lord of the Rings is truly the best trilogy ever made in film. Peter Jackson has created a masterpiece, a lifetime achievement that few men ever achieve. The Lord of the Rings was a finely crafted trilogy of fantasy and fiction that was under appreciated by many, leaving it to a sub culture of Lord of the Rings fans. With the advent of The Fellowship of the Ring the amazing story and characters of the Lord of Rings were opened up to anyone and everyone who can go to the movies. Now in every dramatization of a movie there is a wide margin of space in which the movie can totally destroy the book, but Peter Jackson has taken the book and made a tribute and a shrine to the books. Instead of adapting the books, the films take the best, loving and feeling the true emotions contained in the book. I cannot describe the amazing triumph of emotion, action and drama the Lord of the Rings trilogy protrays, it's necessary to see the movie for yourself.
Hulk (2003)
Terribly Disappointing
In going to see the Hulk I was expecting something in the style of Spider-Man, with fancy special effects, a good story line and some nice touches. The only thing that the Hulk had was good special effects. The story line was predictable and static, with very little intrigue and interest. The film mainly focuses around the Hulk (obviously) and his rage. His father genetically engineered himself and passed on the traits to his son. In the present day his son is working in a biotech lab when he is exposed to a great deal of gamma radiation. For some miraculous reason he is still alive. After this the film plummets quickly. For some unexplained reason the radiation 'triggered' the genetic engineering that was previously present inside him. Because of this he became a mutant. Whenever he became enraged at something he would transform into the Hulk and go around destroying things. The computer generated animations of the Hulk were quite impressive, detailing his face and body very well. After destroying things for a while the army gets on his back and decides that with a few bombs he'll be dead and the world will be saved. Not really. The more they shoot at him the more his rage fuels him and they go on a long and pointless journey around the country blowing things up. There is no balance between feelings in the film, each scene is either very explosive and rather over the top, or it is boring and overly drawn out. <---Spoils Ending After this Point---> The ending comes over incredibly strangely. We find the Hulk battling his newly mutated father on the shore of a lake. His father turns into whatever he touches so the Hulk ends up fighting a stone monster, a water demon etc. etc, but then the army decides to nuke them both. The camera zooms out, and a plane flies in and nukes the lake that they are fighting in. The screen then becomes a flurry of motion and green swirls while faces and memories fly past after a few intensely boring minutes of this the screen changes to some unimportant things, and then they show the main character living in South America selling something to the natives, who try to steal something and he says "You don't want to see me angry." A pathetic attempt at a twist on the ending. Another gripe that I had about The Hulk is the editing. The transitions from scene to scene are done using outlined boxes containing parts of the movie gliding around the screen. Sometimes the screen has three or four angles of the scene that is happening, which gets very hard to watch, trying to decide which small section of the screen yields the best view of what is happening. When you find out that none of the angles offered are very good shots of the action then the scene changes and some other strange transition comes into play. It is nice to see people trying something new for a change, but this is not a good example of great editing. It is distracting and detracts from the movie, but maybe thats a good thing when you see how good the film itself is.
My Dog Skip (2000)
This Was a GREAT Movie
This was an excellent movie. I would tell anyone who has ever been a kid in a small town or loved a dog. When Willie grows up in a small town (Yazoo) Mississippi he is guided by his very cute terrier Skip. When his idol goes off to fight in World War II Skip takes over and guides Willie through his childhood and into boyhood and finally through to a young man. Once you see this movie you'll understand.