moore104 Reviews

Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle (2006)

detractors could observe their own expectations.

[9/10 · 12 February 2007]

seems to me that the busters should examine their own expectations. is this a poor film because you expected or wanted more "highlights"? is this film poor because you didn't get enough personal biography? i felt it, too - kept wanting the camera to pan out, to give me/us a bigger picture of what was going on on the field, to use the game's given drama and easy narrative more lazily and/or to replay the so-called highlights. and i'm sure the filmmakers were aware of the probability of such expectations. and they played with them.

this film had me questioning the subject matter and had me questioning my expectations and questions.

the visual and sound editing is, at times, a wonder of achievement. i want to see this film a few more times.

i'm glad i was able to see it in a theater and with good sound quality, at least for the first viewing.

nice film.

tom moore minneapolis, USA

The Razor's Edge (1984)

Very enjoyable film - good pace/feel/look/ideas.

[14 May 2004]

"The Razor's Edge" is based on a novel of the same title.

"The Razor's Edge" takes place over at least a decade, moving from the midwestern U.S to WWI in Europe to Paris and what might be Tibet and back to Paris again. It's a nice film to look at, as the period and place production really sucks one into the story, and has what I thought of as a cozy pacing, but what some might think drags on a little (it was a great, alone-on-a-rainy-Sunday, laying-on-the-couch rental for me).

The film does a good job of playing ideas with scenes, and playing the ideas/scenes off of seemingly drastically different ones, from the barren emptiness of a battlefield to the uplifting emptiness of the Himalayas, to the warm loneliness of a Paris café, to the cold loneliness of a rich man's death bed.

This is obviously a true labor of love for Bill Murray. He nails his character and the ideas the script attempts to channel through his character's development. Hopefully, now that somehow people can "accept" Bill Murray as not "just" an overtly comedic actor (with the success of "Lost in Translation") people will be more open to enjoying this very good film.