This is the very first movie that I remember having watched in my life. I watched it in the company of my father on his old b&w TV at some point during the sixties, and yet I remember vividly some of most dramatic scenes of it. It was nice thereafter to watch it again now on DVD, in the company of my 9 years old son. This time it was the glorious Cinemascope wide-screen version, projected on a big-screen TV. I remember that, to me as a kid, this movie was scary, although in a nice positive way, and it brought my attention to a fantastic world of science and technology, that ended up having impact much later in my life. Now it was really funny to see that the movie had the same impact on my son! When the movie started, he would mock at the old-style settings and the electronic score (really nice even if outdated), but later in the movie he was so captivated and curious about the story that he could not stop making questions about it ("what's *id*?"). His imagination was yet running wild at bedtime, so impressed he was with the main concept of the story. So, this is a great family classic in the form of a typical sci-fi flick of the fifties. Watch it if you have a chance. 9 out of 10.
Reviews
9 Reviews
Border
(I) (1997)
The Indian Alamo
20 October 2003
A very good war movie, despite somewhat expected chauvinist moments counterpointed by fluffy pacifist messages. Nice exploration of the inner personal dramas of the characters, and how it will affect their battle actions. Some battle scenes are very realistic; others contain elements of mystic heroism, yet the mix works well. The story has the same ingredients of the siege of the Alamo, but in a completely different cultural environment, what gives it a special appeal.
D.O.A.
(1949)
Felt cheesy...
24 August 2003
I've seen this film twice, the first time almost 20 years ago. I thought it was a very good film then. However, after watching it again recently, it looked cheesy and badly acted, even painful to watch. Does not compare at all, for example, with the best Hitchcock movies.
Awful!
23 March 2003
This movie is awful in every single aspect. Gross and without humor, historically naive, bad acting, primitive cutting, inadequate soundtrack, everything in this movie looks and sounds wrong and cheap. The Spanish and European Portuguese accents sound fake to the point of hurting the ears. Moreover, what's this thing about having a Scot guy narrating the movie in English? What nonsense! Additionally, what's this thing about Carlota throwing shoes out of the boat into what is obviously a cheap fish tank? Hallo! Was it supposed to look like the seabed? If the intention was to be satirical, even if gross, they should have watched some Monty Python flicks and learn how to do it. Well, at least there were two interesting points in this movie. First, it shows how much Brazilian aesthetic production values are contaminated by extremely poor soap opera standards. Contrast this poor excuse for a movie with the excellent "Central do Brasil," and the point in mind reveals itself clearly. It's amazing that the two movies were big blockbusters in Brazil, considering that they are at the opposite extremes of the quality scale. Second, it is the ultimate proof of a Brazilian sociological phenomenon, that Brazilians are unable to accept and face their own failures, and need to systematically bring "deus ex machina" motives into play to explain the difficulties of the country. The bitter question that remains after watching this movie is: if the leaders of a nation, imposed or not, are so weak, mean, incompetent and stupid, what thereafter should one conclude about the character traits of the people that accept the rule of leaders like those? Intriguing, even if sad.
Chain Reaction
(1996)
What? Back to Economics 101!...
14 February 2003
Warning: Spoilers
** ATTENTION: POSSIBLE SPOILER ** So, they discover a new, cheap, clean and reliable energy source, and because of that a big and confuse governmental conspiracy is put on the march, under the excuse that the full access to that technology is going to cause recession, social disruption and war??!!! That was one of the silliest pieces of economic misinformation I've ever seen in a movie! Please, do your homework and stitch up a better script next time! There could be infinite reasons for someone to want to take control of a new technology, but that would be the last one. This movie is not a complete turkey only because it has some beautiful shots and a few enjoyable action scenes.
Of Love and Shadows
(1994)
Downright annoying
14 February 2003
This movie is not only bad but also downright annoying. Acting is weak and the characters are not convincing. You don't need to have lived in a Latin American country under dictatorship to notice the caricatural overplaying of roles. And it's not because the story is so obviously biased towards the leftist cause in Latin America (totally expected, being based on a book by Isabel Allende): Costa-Gavras was able to make good movies in spite of ideology. The funniest thing however is that the movie in reality, and unintentionally, ends up showing a face of Latin-American politics that is extremely depressing: the left and the right are both so empty-headed that not only you're incapable of feeling any sympathy for them, but even worse, it makes you believe that now you finally understood why Latin-American countries have so much trouble governing themselves. It's a really sad movie.
Rambo III
(1988)
A cold war curiosity, with a few good action scenes
12 February 2003
This movie script is just a very poor excuse for a few good action scenes (most of them however downright boring). There are a few political curiosities: the really eerie comments regarding the "gallant Afghans," and one of the most explicit military confrontations between Americans (two, with the help of Afghan friends) and Soviets (lots of them). Bonus: provides excellent catharsis for anyone that, by any chance, despises everything that the Soviet ideology represented.
Zero Effect
(1998)
More than a detective comedy
24 November 2002
I enjoyed this unpretentious movie! Bill Pullman was great. I love movies that work on character building like this one, particularly when the character is so quirk. The movie has a few holes, which can only be digested by watching it twice or by watching the director's comments. The scene at the planetary for example was not clear to me at first -- the idea of the similitude between Gloria and her mother didn't show up clearly despite the good acting. Later I could get it 100% and found it to be nice. Well, that's why I suppose there are so many junk movies out there: nobody takes risks, preferring the wasted but safe formulas. In this movie the director took risks, and he mostly succeeded at it. I liked so much the scene in the ice cream parlor by the way, leading to the love scene: sensitive (despite the comic side of the movie), nice acted, and tastefully directed, all complemented by an interesting use of music score.
The Truman Show
(1998)
When reality can be more shocking than fiction...
23 November 2002
I liked Truman Show, although, in some weird sense, it made me feel quite uncomfortable at times. Only Truman and his true love, Sylvia, deserve to be called human beings in this story. The actors, producers and the audience are the true puppets here. I sympathize with Truman's search for truth, but in the end I can feel only pity for him, knowing that he had to live almost an entire artificial life. Anyway, despite the uncomfortable feeling, and despite the lack of humanity of the audience, who can live only through Truman's life (this is by the way the most shocking part of the movie, which most accurately represents reality, particularly now with all those reality shows out there), I thought it was very good. The end was particularly satisfactory and well stitched. The final scene with the guards was very symbolic: Truman's true drama, even with a happy conclusion, had been planned to be just another big fiction, and ends exactly like that: just another mass-consumption show among so many. A very strong message under the skin of what, I suppose, can be seen by some insensitive souls as a superficial just-for-fun fiction.
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