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Film
Prophet's Movie Reviews Page 15
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko,
Giancarlo Giannini
Film Prophet's Review...
The sequel takes places right after the end of Casino Royale as Daniel
Craig reprises his role as James Bond. Here, Bond sets out to stop an
environmentalist from taking control of a water supply. M lays
photographs in front of him and explains his assignment. Craig seems to
have plenty of poise and demeanor during his interactions, but the Bond
film was lacking outside of the action and ingredients of a Bond movie.
Minus some of the action and Craig, the film was just deficient. There
were no fancy gadgets to play around with than a mobile phone and there
was no grand entrance for double zero seven either. Even the third
mission impossible movie had characters using gadgets during exciting
sequences. There are tons of stunts, jumps, loud noises, and a lot of
debris that follow as Bond walks away harmless. It's also edited
precisely that it looks really fast than what in actuality looks like.
It glides away from the original concepts of Bond and tries to advance
the franchise by duplicating what recent fast paced action films have
done already. Violence bursts in plenty of locales like the ones from
the Bourne series out of the blue ranging from martial combats to leaps
out of buildings. If Matt Damon was Bond, it'd be too similar to the
Bourne series. Bond fights while running around and the enemies are not
identified who just got beaten. Every enemy in Bond's way is arbitrary.
The villains and the Bond girl’s plans are vague for the most part. All
the background characters have no real significance. There’s little
insight and time dedicated to them. The cast is also unrecognizable
outside of Craig and Dench and they’re centered on action to captivate
viewers and hold them. Dench is in the film just as much as any other
character and the Bond girl played by Kurylenko is more of an ally than
a darling interest. ‘Get in.’ The movie moves from one exotic location
to another. Around the middle of the movie is just terrible. Without
bond, these background characters just go in and out of scene changing
locations every minute. It can't hold one decent scene together for over
a minute without breaking it up with action or a change of exotic
scenery during the rush of pace. Action scenes joint the film together
rather than any use of true dialogue. A few inside jokes only the
characters would understand happen. The story is fruitless and
uninviting while Bond is almost immortal as he just can't be defeated.
Final Grade: C+/B-
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Starring Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner, Sam
Levene
Film Prophet's Review...
The movie concerns a rigid gossip columnist who has a controlling temper
for his younger sister and dominates the lives around him, especially
his P.R. agent who does favors for him to get him space in the newspaper
column. In this black and white picture, everything is mostly shot
during the night where there are more black colors than white and the
black colors are dark. It’s set with a noir touch of New York City's
night life in a seamy environment. The story is over a course of about
two very long night sequences. The city is jammed with not only flashing
lights, billboards, and bundles of newspapers, but adults. These adults
are full of greed and cynicism; the unglamorous of the glamorous spots
dinginess in nightclubs and restaurants. The only time to know these
people is during the night when they're sleazy. No one starts or ends up
really happy and they maintain being lousy and to others. Grumpy men are
distressed over columns not being printed and display menacing and
bitter flaunts over tabloids and publicity and how they handle it. It’s
all unsympathetic because the men all act stern. They are mostly fuming
or sarcastic. The first twenty or so minutes the women are interchanged
being paired up with Tony Curtis during the first long night scene out
in the city. The movie is also very anti-romantic with plenty of selfish
moves as Curtis moves in and out of different places at night he chats
with a new woman every so often it seemed and it flows under the radar.
Well-dressed people listen to jazz music at the clubs while columnists
and press agents float around and act as sophisticated street hooligans
in suits. What's on the outside is not always what's in the inside. It
still looks like they are in business formal clothes going to work when
they are out at night and not having true fun. They're all mid-aged
adults too. There's no one really young besides the sister. There are
virtually no brawls despite the constant drinking and repulsive
attitudes. The sharp dialogue is sometimes too much to keep listening to
in the same tough-talking columnist tone on the street at night. It goes
no where now and then and slows down during the night as they become
pitiful and wretched exchanging lines back and forth that are endless
resulting in few drama bursts besides the words. The plot of the movie
gets knotty trying to figure out who is doing what to whom and it is
blurred with who is with who. It becomes further uncurious as it repeats
the same night format. The only consistent character is that of the lead
by Tony Curtis, but he is trapped in the manipulation of romantic and
business associations.
Final Grade: B-
The Ice Storm (1997)
Starring Kevin Kline, Tobey Maguire, Joan Allen, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, Sigourney Weaver
Film Prophet's Review...
Directed by Ang Lee, the story centers on two married couples and their
teenage children in a wealthy suburb. As a husband carries on an affair
with the wife from the other couple, the teenage kids explore their own
sexual boundaries in the middle of the Nixon era, drugs, and the excess
of the seventies where a television is now found in every home. Family
turmoil is nuanced and kept distant in the film pretty much. The
children step outside of their social norms left to their own
upbringing. The movie is tight and realistic; a complete solemn mood is
stressed through the icy landscape and the Japanese numinous music
score. The movie has patience with its conveyance of its material and it
delivers. The cast does a wonderful job and has instant chemistry. They
give their best efforts to not only their characters, like the
attraction young Ricci creates, but what they each offer to the film in
a way of a nostalgia emotion. The drugs and sex conducting during the
political time frame works well. When characters are uncaring and
unsympathetic between others, the movie undoubtedly becomes empathic
when they are oblivious of their consequences to their decisions. The
friction between the characters was tremendously done; there were no
blown portions and they’re accomplished to settle as distressed. Ang
Lee's direction helps this realism strongly to engross the story. Each
person is complex, none of them are perfect, and each holds their own
flaws. Praise to Lee for not rushing anything and giving time without a
tedious note. The depictions of dissatisfaction with family and school
life are provocative and crafted. Everyone is seeking for answers
sexually. For the adults, a great example is the key party and for the
children, the part at night in a house alone where Katie Holmes asks
Maguire, ‘Paul, are you gonna get home okay?’ and the look on his male
friend’s face displays enormous subtlety to what that meant. The ‘I'll
show you mine if you show me yours’ scene captures the epitome of
adolescence. The kids are open to what they want while the adults tend
to conceal it. Yet, both age groups are parallel in the film to both
understand their relationships. Mostly reclusive, they all don't know
how to proceed with anything but don't go to extreme or wild measures or
wallow away. There’s great symbolism in the film. One scene has Kevin
Kline cracking ice for ice cubes in the kitchen or the movie shows rain
frozen somewhere realizing the film is called the ice storm, a bracing
detachment, and there will be an ice storm to come. The photography of
that ice storm is excellent too. Discoveries and the development of the
parents and their children are made but it all rises on the personnel
level too with Ang Lee’s smooth direction and how the performers
represent themselves.
Final Grade: A-
The Iron Giant (1999)
Voices by Eli Marienthal, Vin Diesel, Harry Connick Jr., Jennifer
Aniston, Christopher McDonald
Film Prophet's Review...
In Brad Bird's first motion picture venture, this animated tale is set
in a fictional town in Maine about an adventurous boy who befriends a
huge, metal-munching, but congenial fifty foot iron robot in the woods.
When townsfolk begin to wonder why their automobiles are found with
large bites taken out of them, they begin to track for the culprit and
the government tries to get the boy to lead them to the Giant. This
movie was among the last big animation pictures of standard
two-dimensional drawings before computer generation images broke free.
Coming to realize though, the cartoon dimensions were flat and the
details in the background weren't too dense. Running at ninety minutes
long, it is a child friendly action movie, but that doesn’t go without
some anti-Cold War themes. The film is also based on a children’s book
set in the fifties. Roughly ninety percent of the movie concerns the
friendship between the robot and the fatherless boy against the efforts
of odious government agents to destroy the misunderstood Giant. It
easily brings back notions of E.T. where a lonely boy befriends a one of
a kind being. It is the boy and no one else from the start as he meets
this robot in the woods. One might wonder how this robot has been
unnoticeable for so long in the deep forest. The boy teaches the robot
things in the forest and ways of human life or even fixing a railroad.
Camera views are always low on the robot which is great as it is never
dead on, low from the boy's view to make the robot larger and maybe ever
scarier than it appears. However, nothing outside of this relationship
happens. It’s a boy meets robot, becomes friends, and then departs. The
robot is in fact the most interesting character even though it doesn't
really speak. The dialogue between government agents and any guy in a
suit isn't as demanding to watch or listen to as witnessing the robot on
screen. There are sticky situations where the boy tries to conceal the
robot from his mom and authorities when the robot is away from the
forest habitat or the junkyard. Most of the human characters in this
movie were humdrum. The government agent Kent Mansley is the most
irritating person in the film. As predicted, moral choices of personally
deciding what's right and wrong are issued. The film is against hunting
and the authority, preaching whenever the human characters are on
screen, and then it eventually turns into an anti-gun, anti-nuclear
film. As when the robot says, 'I am not a gun,' just after, the robot is
fired upon. It’s more mature than childish, often sad at times. There
are no cute characters or humorous gags. There just wasn't anything
great in the movie either to say this part of the movie was better than
this other animation picture's. It is a little film and a simplistic
story with political suggestions.
Final Grade: B-
City of Ember (2008)
Starring Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway, Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Mary
Kay Place
Film Prophet's Review...
In this sci-fi fantasy adventure where people have moved to an
underground town when the planet's atmosphere grows toxic, a child
becomes a messenger because the job will allow her to venture above
ground, while another works underground to repair a generator that
contains the town's power supply. Based on the children's science
fiction-fantasy novel, an underground town was built to house a human
community for two hundred years as a shelter. During the movie’s release
period, there was poor marketing and it could have been bigger than what
the early reception was getting. However, it was planted where it should
be. The abnormal set design fits the fictional standpoint with
flickering lighting, sounds of being underneath a railroad, and an
entire world that's falling apart. A not strong enough exposition opens
up the story that sparks little attention. A big part of the movie deals
with the children roles and what they are assigned to do. They report to
duties to help the town, follow instructions, and that's it. Music runs
off like it is some kind of adventure following kids to do blue-collar
industry jobs. The movie might bore family audiences after twenty
minutes. Everyone in the movie was so worried, like finding food and not
being able to go out of the perimeter of the town. Much of the time is
spent wandering around in dark paths without a threat, besides some
moles and moths. 'You were right. There’s nothing but darkness.’ It runs
around while people fix pipes or patch up something else. Some strange
problem occurs in the tunnels and they follow the noises to see what
else is breaking down. No real conversations or dialogue happens between
the characters as if the script was written to create bland scenarios to
ruin the little underground town. The town is the most important piece
of the story; characters are just there to help sustain it. Murray and
Robbins aren't given anything substantial to do and maybe have a third
of the film time total. Both have somewhat mean-spirited characters with
egos. The best of the bunch is Saoirse Ronan but all she is given to do
is look wondered and amazed. Everyone else acts so methodical, business
like, and they only care about the town and most of the people are
selfish. It is actually much worse than the fantasy picture Stardust.
Here, there's no humor or communication that develops somewhere worthy
of human tenderness. Another poor aspect of the film was that the town
setting was jumbled up. At one point characters look at a ripped map and
they go from point a to point c and skip any direction in the middle.
There’s no transition between scenes. They just end up somewhere
breaking up the continuity of the underground setting, which would be
important to have since the town is number one item in the film and it
doesn't have anything enthralling to connect everything together.
Final Grade: C/C-
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen,
Rockmond Dunbar
Film Prophet's Review...
Robert Downey Jr. is a petty thief sent out to Los Angeles to research a
movie role after an improbable audition and work with Val Kilmer as a
private investigator. They find themselves in the middle of a murder
investigation in this comic crime story. Michelle Monaghan makes for an
anomalous and attractive femme fatale like in old noir film as an
aspirant actress. Downey is the narrator in his own story describing
people and his views on things. He is never annoying and he blends into
the storytelling because it is his narration that guides the movie from
introduction to the drama. However, his narration breaks up the film
picture and pause it to interrupt the movie saying a scene was pointless
or says he was a bad narrator in a previous scene and then corrects his
cynical self to agree with what the audience was most likely thinking
during it. He knows he's talking to a movie audience. There's much less
of this though during the movie though, sadly, but maybe not since more
of it would have been pompous. It seems like voiceover scenes are
missing to explain something but perhaps the narrator deliberately
forgot to include his outlook and explanation or push it off in the
middle of the story. Inside of Downey's acting digs a fascination and
ignition right away that makes him comical and shrewd… just see his fake
acting audition in an early scene. He commands attention to his
performance and to what he says on screen. Dialogue is spoken in a
chaotic manner while the story unfolds being creatively different
offering a few quick surprises and laughs. Plenty of jibes are made
during the film and the film doesn’t take itself seriously so the
audience shouldn't either. Sometimes it's frantic and ludicrous with its
silly humor violence and wordplay like The Big Lebowski meets Fight Club
except a much lesser version of both. ‘No biggie? A guy grabs your tit,
that's life, no biggie? I mean what kind of talk is that?’ The biggest
distraction in the movie was a cut off finger that seemed to play out
throughout the movie. The murder case keeps developing as it gets more
complex with shootings that wear off with the numerous, countless goons.
It goes further out of control all in less than one week of the movie’s
story. It’s far-fetched and sketchy in places and the plot doesn’t seem
important. Audiences will find liking and watching interactions and see
what next idiotic mess of adultery they get into than mostly anything
else.
Final Grade: B/B-
Appaloosa (2008)
Starring Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renée Zellweger, Jeremy Irons
Film Prophet's Review...
Ed Harris directs, stars, and co-writes in a story adapted a novel
centering on a pair of friends in New Mexico hired to protect a lawless
town suffering at the hands of a renegade rancher. Ed Harris is a gunman
to be the town’s marshal who acts like a bad guy. Mortensen is some
humble traveler. The arrival of a widow disrupts their plans and bores
the film. It has what a sixties western in color would be made out of
with the music score, landscapes, horses, guns, and all that. However,
anytime, which is most of the time, men sit around and talk about
tedious laws and regulations, it is tired out until some sort of
interruption takes place, preferably a notion of violence but that never
happens. The film opens the men characters with random shootings close
to each other, but there aren't the archetypal face to face shootouts or
gunfights. There should have been more standoffs than dull talks. There
aren’t even the clear cut heroes or villains and they appear like a
group of boring murderers. The motivations of the characters are never
clear either and no one fits neatly into any old western stereotypes.
The underdeveloped characters all seem the same and there's nothing that
really separates them. There are no big events for them to grow some
characterizations. There are pacing troubles too plodding along while
the men scope and peer around the frontier. The town is also lifeless
and there is no sense of happiness or families or anything worthy of it
being a town. Another problem was that the film had a landscape, but it
was empty of anything appealing. The set was kept to a minimum for some
reason and the cinematography was lacking awfully. When the woman
arrives in town, it becomes very slow and useless. Her role could be
eliminated entirely since it provides plenty of the dull and long
moments during the movie as the woman and marshal relationship could
have been cut out. They seriously slept walk through their roles since
there was no straight focus on anyone or any storyline. The movie does
not pick up any concentration and it goes the whole duration without any
kind of crucial conflict. It quickly becomes stale like Ed Harris' humor
in the movie. Too many times does he and others just sit around on
patios of pubs. The movie didn’t put in material that was anywhere near
gripping and it barely progressed.
Final Grade: C-/C
The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
Starring Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Leslie Banks, Robert Armstrong, Noble
Johnson
Film Prophet's Review...
The central premise is around a hunter on an island who chooses to hunt
humans when they arrive abandoned for a sport. It’s a story of an animal
hunter being hunted by a human just as that. The movie commences right
on a ship with hunters and sailors on board and their suspicions about
the destination route and the captain. It doesn’t last too long as the
indecisions made the ship foreshadow what's to come on the island. One
of the men who was being eaten by a shark yells, ‘It got me,’ which is
humorous due to the poor writing. The film also runs at a mere hour and
fifteen minutes. Fay Wray steps in a bit later as a vulnerable woman who
just screams, but she is the only female in the cast. The chasing
doesn't begin till the final twenty or so minutes, which is after the
night the survivor gets acquainted with the habitants on the island at
some castle. This is the introduction of Count Zaroff by Leslie Bank who
appeals as a cultured individual who eventually rises so to say as the
madman hunter. The talks during the exposition about hunting drag for
almost a third of the time till the action sequence happens. One can get
a weird vibe with the men with beards who just stare, but all audiences
should know what's bound to happen since it is all talk in the beginning
about hunting and it is so obvious that it carries out so long before it
actually begins. By the time it rolls around, it isn't as exciting
anymore as it should have been. Perhaps this area could have been edited
down and then expand the jungle scenes a bit or even have the madman
hunter hunt some other humans in the jungle before the lone survivor.
The survivor and the woman dodge through the jungle from hounds and the
best scene in the film is when the survivor sets a tree trap and hides
out in a cave watching onward. The film throws in many genre aspects,
such as adventure and horror, being through the jungle and being chased
by an enigmatic person on unfamiliar territory, which turns out to be a
private island run by the madman hunter. There are only a handful of
strong thirties films that haven't aged through the decades. This movie
is somewhere in between. The plot isn’t sophisticated, young audiences
might lose some interest due to the late beginning of the actual hunting
after the men discuss about hunting for a stretch of a time at the
castle, but the film is short in run time again and the film isn't too
noteworthy overall. It might actually warrant a new version of it but
there's been plenty of tales alike it.
Final Grade: B-
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Starring Bette Davis, Victor Buono, Victor Buono, Maidie Norman, Wesley
Addy
Film Prophet's Review...
The movie starts out with the childhood years of two young sisters with
one being a popular stage kid singer on stage. This is Baby Jane as her
introduction as the movie's titled character to be played by Bette
Davis. From that moment in her life, Jane has never really moved forward
and finds herself rehearsing the same moves and lines she once did as a
child as an adult now. When Jane and her sister grow older, they live
together with a maid in an old mansion and Jane still throws fits when
she doesn't get her way. Jealousy and envy play out from both sisters in
this classic story of sister rivals. Both had budding film careers that
were flushed down. It can be said it is a parody of their real lives,
Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, as aging actresses in their fifties at
the time with popular careers in the past doing macabre roles. The black
and white motion picture is a realistic decay of Hollywood actresses and
yearning the past like in Sunset Boulevard with an All About Eve twist.
A controlling madwoman fades away because she is obsessively impelled by
her childhood memories. There isn’t much of a story going on in the film
as it develops the sisters from their growth during their big times of
career down to living together and despising one another. It’s like that
for about two hours of the two hours and fifteen minutes runtime. Old
ladies sit around wearing unsightly costumes with pretty looking objects
inside their house and watch older pictures. The former child star’s
sister is crippled to a wheelchair so she is restrained to the upstairs
bedroom for most of the movie. Before then, she pushed her sister out of
the movie spotlight. Now, she feels caged in and confined to her room
upstairs while her sister gets madder by the day. It surrounds the two
sisters who are emotionally perturbed as they fight back and forth doing
miserable things to each other. It’s either bickering or silence for the
most part. Besides that, there are some horror aspects. For examples,
the dead animals on dinner plates as a sadistic prank by one sister and
it’ll get worse when one ties up someone in bed. There’s by and large
complaining and a few frenetic moments. There are solitary things like
phone calls, drinking alcohol, playing piano, and of course, nagging on
one another too. For example, yelling about selling the house. The quiet
tension is between the sisters and does not make a big splash to the
viewing audience as it’s very melodramatic. The film can be trimmed down
by a half hour by reducing the empty moments of no discussions or any
tension that have signs of little progress for either sister in the
movie. The same sort of scenes occur that are mimicked over again during
the movie like the annoying buzzing sound of a bell for attention,
talking about the finances of the house, and just two older sisters
never getting along.
Final Grade: B-
Burn After Reading (2008)
Starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Brad Pitt,
Tilda Swinton
Film Prophet's Review...
The goofy spy film surrounds a computer disk containing memoirs of a CIA
agent that ends up in the hands of two dodgy gym employees who attempt
to sell it. Directed by the Coen brothers, favorites Brad Pitt and
George Clooney return under them but don't team on screen until about an
hour which is succinctly for an instant in a bedroom closet scene. The
humor in the movie is near morbid as they act serious with slurs coming
out their mouths then there’s a moment of silence after it to have the
paranoid characters comprehend it. It’s the type that won't make
audiences laugh but sort of understand the screwball behavior which
isn't too outlandish. There is not one scene or conversation to make an
example out of that has laughable comedy in it. Something was missing in
the first dozen or so minutes and that was Brad Pitt to turn the gears
for his small portion as a dimwitted gym employee. The movie appeared to
be a story about John Malkovich making a memoir shifting to Frances
McDormand's neurotic desires of cosmetic surgeries. The script wouldn't
be enough without the quirky acting like when McDormand first speaks
with her doctor about the procedures. It’s a story about frantic people
who follow other adults acting inane and childish, as there are several
different things going on. It all moves around infidelities which cause
small events, like dating and blackmail. Swinton really had nothing to
do but act cold toward Clooney sometimes in bits. There’s tremendous
paranoia surrounding Clooney's character who thinks everyone is after
him in the second half of the movie. If it weren't for the cast list
that acts poor material in an attempt to be funny that isn’t, it would
be absolutely no where close to the adventure comedy it advertised to
be. It is a silly drama that has concerns about jobs, marriage with
divorce actions, and weight issues and the like that deals with aging
boring middle aged people who are unsure of themselves and don't know
what they want to be doing. There’s way too much marriage infidelity
ignoring the issue mainly by not making it big even though it happens
often in the unexciting movie. They act hysterical and over think on
many occasions because they have nothing else to do and the movie’s pace
portrays this well by playing it unruffled and not fast despite going at
roughly ninety minutes total. There are several petite stories about
different characters that all have plenty of agonizing and worrying.
It's like a dead dramatic serial with people sleeping with whomever
without the big romances. Someone even says in the movie about the
characters, ‘so we don't know what anyone is after.’ The ending is
dumbfounded, sudden, and inconclusive.
Final Grade: C+/C
Body of Lies (2008)
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh
Farahani
Film Prophet's Review...
A CIA operative is sent to Jordan to track a high-priority terrorist.
The spy is aided by the head of Jordan's covert operations that leads to
cultural and moral clashes between the men. Directed by Ridley Scott,
the political war effect surrounding the Iranian government is quite
similar in premise to last year’s dreary movie of Rendition and its
star-studded cast that didn't turn out well. There is not much
difference between the two really, except Rendition had slightly more
punishment and torture. Most people should be over this subject matter
of affairs in the Middle East and their relations with America and tired
of watching it in a lifeless movie. ‘Ain’t nobody likes the Middle East
buddy. There's nothing here to like.’ One would question how the script
would move beyond the dullness of modern intelligence operations. When
it begins, the conversations start out choppy and uninteresting and it
soon needed to provide some interest to the story. Mundane talks about
safety, kidnappings, executions, and negotiations won't do it. The
execution assignments are brief and somewhat of a mess. DiCaprio would
walk through in some desert or crowded marketplaces and the movie would
cut between monitors in a room of agents then satellite images of a
bird's eye view of what’s going on, followed up by watching artificial
news reels. It's the type of action where one can't tell who is shooting
at whom and why and understanding what's happening within the shootings.
There’s no purpose that comes with or before these scenes as they just
fly by. Crowe sits in front of monitors scheming and eating while
DiCaprio does all the foot work. Crowe really doesn’t get to do
anything, besides packing on pounds for this part and working again for
Ridley Scott, but he is much better than this. He says everything in an
oblique monotony, which could be the reason, but his character is gone
for lengthy portions in the film. There are plenty of Muslims and guys
in suits as extras and they all are not dynamic overall. DiCaprio also
has a romance a Muslim nurse. Meeting her sister and nephews pops out
from the scenes in the movie but it seems like an extra part that's
needless to the center story, but it easily the most human scrap of the
film. As the movie title points out, there are several lies in the
movie, but none big enough to mention. There really isn't a betrayal
where so many films end up to either as it shows ambiguity in the
intelligence field. The topic has proved over the years to make movies
dull, but it is kept in a way that is realistic, but it is not an
engaging experience whatsoever.
Final Grade: C+/C
Sleuth (1972)
Starring Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Alec Cawthorne
Film Prophet's Review...
In form of playful charades, it’s a mystery film based on a Broadway
play that has predictable surprises. Michael Caine’s character is
invited to an old estate of Laurence Olivier’s character, as he is known
for his involving puzzles and games. Two British men in suits on some
country home chatter and it is assumed Olivier is the antagonist as he
is the one who proposes a scheme to his wife’s lover. The two received
Best Oscar Actor nominations for their roles in this. They basically
have the entire speaking parts in this one movie. Only two characters
have lines and dialogue to speak. It’s mainly a two man show, minus an
inspector who shows up in the middle when another sidesteps his way, but
still there are just two men to hold a movie for two and a half hours.
The duel starts out as a contest of old wits than games. What goes
unnoticeable is game number one of a lawn labyrinth maze to the house
because the opening credits still are playing basically but it’s just
strange to have one. The games aren’t sophisticated or daring when they
begin. As a whole, it’s a cat and mouse game to outsmart the other, but
it’s just trivial excitement for the two men who come up with plans.
Sometimes, it’s goofy. For example, Caine dresses up as a clown to steal
the wife's jewels. Olivier has these irritating little speeches where he
raises his voice and talks too fast as he is overexcited. The dialogue
solely is between two men who appear to be the gentlemen type with the
type of conversation where nothing is really talked about but the talks
are constant without small breaks. They do get to know each other's
background and talk about the wife who never shows besides pictured in
photographs. These talks would turn off modern audiences and not
understand the endless chatter. This movie is one of the few older
movies that may be dated to mainstream American audiences. There is no
cinematic display, it’s inside one setting, there’s tons of untamed
dialogue, and none of it thickens anything up. It would bore most people
as it’s not at all compelling. There are no big taunts between the two
men really either and they don’t construct any deep panic. The
atmosphere is a huge house that feels empty with lots of items and
antiques. The whole movie happens all within this one lonely setting.
It’s a nonstop series of two men having joy in the film than some
audiences might enjoy it.
Final Grade: C
Eagle Eye (2008)
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael
Chiklis, Rosario Dawson
Film Prophet's Review...
An innocent young man, whose older brother just died mysteriously, and a
single mother find themselves framed as terrorists. They are forced to
carry out plans from a computer voice for a political assassination. The
film opens to some muddled communications of unknown military personal
in a five minute beginning. There’s no steam in this until Shia appears
to do something, but all he does is run and yell to a disappointment.
Before he gets to that, there’s a numbing, forlorn mourning over his
dead brother for about ten minutes. After that, it just features Shia
walking around looking at miscellaneous items without a destination in
mind, ducking cars and the FBI. There's no suspense before or during
unwarranted explosions and sirens. After a half hour into this, it was a
pain realizing it was only a quarter a way through. The frantically
edited crashes and effects are aimed to awe mindless viewers. Even the
scenes of regular, but futile talk are entirely dry. Any scene of
authority figures that cut in the middle of this drivel is also just as
uninteresting and tedious. It tries to be like a modern and
technological advancement of Enemy of the State and The Game, but those
were more realistic within the setting of the film. Here, it's computer
versus human establishing a surveillance and government arc. This
technology has the plan to execute the president because he is not doing
a proper job, so electronics tell the two characters what to do and how
to proceed with it. Nevertheless, no matter how clever the computer is,
it still needs humans to do their work. Cell phones call them and tell
them what to do. There’s no prelude to any of the computer voice command
contact and the audience is left with the same clueless expression as
the characters are in this senseless excess. By the time the film heads
into the finale, a careless final half hour that's shoddy leaves
indifferent concerns to anything going on. Minus the stars and expensive
effects out of this film, one could tell it could have been made with
the idea for some poor school festival or something. It has an inability
to create virtually anything intriguing or cautionary on today's society
on cyber terror attacks like it set ought to. Two people follow voice
commands then head into some moving vehicle followed by the next command
to the next movement to no where in particular than just computer voices
explaining where to go and what to do. These scenes don’t advance
anything. Viewers could get off their seats, go else where, and return
to watching this and see the same thing and not miss anything. It is
easily Shia LaBeouf's worst movie to date, although Constantine is
close. It’s an empty motion picture that delivers fake thrill over
nothing worth following.
Final Grade: D/C-
Mallrats (1995)
Starring Jeremy London, Jason Lee, Claire Forlani, Shannen Doherty, Ben
Affleck, Ethan Suplee
Film Prophet's Review...
Directed and written by Kevin Smith, it’s about two suburban teenage
slackers who go to a shopping mall after being dumped by their
girlfriends. One guy’s girlfriend has to fill in to be on a game show at
the mall and the other guy is so inattentive to his girlfriend and more
attentive to his video games that she leaves him. Time is killed at the
mall easily and it is toward much waste in the movie until the dating
game show in the mall and this is where it culminates at the taping in
an attempt to win back their girlfriends. They’re typical slackers by
the male characters with no direction in a slacking movie. There are
references of the things from nineties culture, like sixteen-bit video
games and grunge music, even with Star Wars and Batman, in an attempt to
be like a recreation of the bland The Breakfast Club of the eighties
with teenage slackers. The lead guy looked way too much like Will
Friedle from Boy Meets World and thought it was actually him for quite
some time and not this Jeremy London, who was actually in 7th Heaven.
Both guys in the movie discuss their insightful problems with their
other slacker friends at the mall. This is Jay and Silent Bob’s second
appearance in a movie together after their debut in Clerks. They appear
to add the cartoon flair with physical gags and plans that end up in
embarrassment. Among everyone, they find meager teenage problems that
don't have any wit or jokes to them, but that is when the movie isn't
trying to be a comedy, maybe. Kevin Smith in the movie struggles to use
the force to levitate some object and Ethan Suplee stands in one
position to try to figure out an optical illusion painting. There are
plenty of sidetracks during and after pointless arguments. For examples,
characters talk about a game show and ask about it in the beginning then
go back to what they were talking about, the smelly shaking hand, ‘that
kid is back on that escalator again,’ and the third nipple distraction.
The movie does try to make a mall exciting. However, it basically moves
the two lead male characters around the mall in front of different
spots, but yet they still have mundane conversations. They are just
moved around with different backdrops, but it's all the same jabber and
acting like bums. As Ben Affleck truthfully says in the movie, they hang
out without a shopping agenda. Although, they all have that mark since
every teenager in relation is at the mall that day. One of the only
people with the real laughing matter is Jason Mewes. He stays pretty
constant. The third suitors' responses in the game show were also
hilarious complemented by Jason Lee’s comments. The game show humor does
redeem and overtake the amount of comedy displayed in the previous bits.
It’s a juvenile comedy that rests on immaturity and its silliness could
provide some laughs.
Final Grade: C/C+
SherryBaby (2006)
Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Brad William Henke, Sandra Rodríguez, Danny
Trejo, Giancarlo Esposito
Film Prophet's Review...
A female parolee named Sherry tries to get her life in order after three
years in prison. Sherry enters a halfway home in New Jersey and some of
her family is unwelcoming for the most part. Her brother and
sister-in-law have custody of her young daughter. The recovering junkie
is keen on establishing a strong relationship with her young daughter,
but she finds out it is more difficult than she imagined. The movie is
worth seeing for Gyllenhaal's performance. Roughly every scene has her
in it and she holds the movie together as the sole star performer.
Sherry is dirty and in poverty, but there’s some likeability and allure
by Gyllenhaal for even having an unpleasant character. It begins where
viewers don't know about her parole or anything when she’s out. One can
predict it dealt with drugs. In the first few scenes, she lives in a
halfway house where habitants are Africans and there’s a disconnection
of not talking to any of them. She is focused on seeing her daughter and
earning that relationship than the ones with neighbors or strangers who
live around her. It’s probably accurate on what a mother or any woman
goes through after she is released from prison and this movie shows the
composed process to it. It’s obviously not a mainstream film, like Half
Nelson was around the same time frame and similar lead performance.
There’s no Hollywood happy ending and the low budget scale aims to make
the people and issues within the film appear real as can be. Some of the
relationships with Sherry are sorrowful, much like the bleak, gritty
drama. She will do anything, and by anything means anything physically
and emotionally in front of the camera to get her life back on track.
The directions of the movie hints at making her thrive well and get
clean. There’s no correct way at re-connecting with her daughter and
it’s harder with reluctant characters to help her such as her brother,
his wife, and Sherry's parole officer, as they try to believe in second
chances for her. Almost every character smokes cigarettes and the harm
in that is barely a concern. She's chosen to represent herself like a
tramp in her outfits and she sticks out. Every guy acts like he is
attracted to her and some try to help her with advice, but she still
feels unwanted and unaccepted. There are still people who put the fear
in her that she may violate. There are some awkward moments in the movie
with her. For example, she stands up and sings at a dinner table to her
daughter with family around and at the gift giving on her daughter’s
birthday. There are mostly low moments for Sherry, and Gyllenhaal
elevates above the slim, dim story and shows than addicts are humans
with a heart and just as liable as anyone else.
Final Grade: B-/B
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Starring Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Judith
Anderson, Madeleine Sherwood
Film Prophet's Review...
Tennessee Williams' play was very much like a play in this movie. It
gave the impression that it was staged in one bedroom basically making a
poor theatrical vibe. It boils down to family members screaming and
yelling at each other in an upstairs bedroom for two hours. ‘I don't
want things!’ Mississippian Big Daddy visits his family and celebrates
his sixty-fifth birthday unaware that he is dying of cancer. His son is
detached to his life and family in a childless, distraught marriage with
an attractive woman who taunts him about his obsession with alcohol and
his deceased friend. The alcoholic coins the cat nickname to his wife.
It was confirmed that censorship acted in the movie by removing an
oversexed wife’s intentions and other sexuality conditions. Therefore,
it was left on a few things like who would take over Big Daddy’s estate
when he does die. All Big Daddy talks about is how he will still live
and just asks Newman why he drinks. There were plenty of Southern
standards with families, foods, parades, clothes, and their accents. One
of the most annoying parts in the movie is the kids. They walk around
with their horns in the background and cut in tame scenes. All their
random singing is a pain and the rest of the family can agree. Newman
plays the alcohol-driven character and he keeps to himself. Taylor is
just thwarted by his unloving ways and frustrated. Other family members
are added in, but it’s too cozy even with the yelling. ‘I'm not living
with you; we occupy the same cage, that's all!’ When Taylor is talking
to Newman who is in a leg cast drinking, it goes nowhere and it is
almost apparent since Newman can't move that he wants to be left alone.
It's almost something ideal for an Audrey Hepburn character, but Taylor
plays the talkative Southern with splendor and grace. However, it's
going take a lot more than having two stars talk about nothing and when
one of them just drinks and dwells and the other has all the dialogue.
Despite minor quarrels that aren't too crucial for a marriage to be on
the rocks, nothing much happens and it's steady like this. There's a
scene where the two argue in the bedroom, like most of the scenes that
similar, and a young girl comes in through the door fake shooting from a
gun like she's playing Cowboys and Indians. The kids come in and incense
them and it seems like the only bursts of excitement comes from the kids
that aren’t in anger. The couple talks about having a child and he just
comes back about saying how he can't stand her. They also talk about a
character that is never on screen. Anytime anyone brings up his friend
Skipper and blames someone for his death, Newman finally raises his
voice. One may say these are authentic problems about an unhappy
Southern family when the truth is told, that is when the kids stop
coming in, but the movie was chained basically. Nearly all the scenes
are shot in one bedroom and Newman is rarely outside or in different
room in the mansion. Viewers may lose interest with the duplicating,
incessant arguments that go nowhere in the same setting.
Final Grade: C
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Starring Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Bruce
Bennett, Eve Arden
Film Prophet's Review...
Directed by Michael Curtiz, Mildred makes it through as a housewife to
divorce to poverty to working and that's just the few first scenes. The
review is on the title character, Mildred Pierce. In a versatile
performance by Joan Crawford who won the Best Oscar Actress, she conveys
selflessness, looking distressed often, and at the same time she’s
vulnerable and cynical. Her sympathetic performance draws the crowd into
the noir atmosphere. The audience is glad for her when she does well.
Max Steiner's score sweeps through scenes and it helps maintains the
audiences’ concern even more. At one moment, she slaps her daughter on
the cheek twice and breaks down. It's all classic stuff. She controls
the movie but not the people around her and it is a story about her.
When it seems predictable, it becomes unpredictable. Thanks to the
script, it contains surprises especially in the second half like
double-crossing and blackmail that deal with Mildred’s vile daughter
with twists that happen one after another. The conclusion will reveal a
conniving unforeseen plan that was made before the narrative started and
these were blind setups and traps to other people. It’s quite as grand
as a mother-daughter relationship can proceed on in a movie. Mildred is
brought down by her own daughter, who she puts first over everything.
The daughter is spoiled and unloving, only caring about money and fancy
things in her life. Mildred provides for her financially as she becomes
successful with her restaurant but her daughter is selfish and stubborn;
the opposite of her mother. The men roles are proper on screen and there
are three in Mildred’s life: the divorced husband, the estate seller,
and the friendly business man. A confrontation with Monty the estate
seller to stop taking her daughter out so much and realizing she is
drifting away from her is an exceptional scene. 'You look down on me
because I work for a living, don't you.' The daughter doesn’t really
establish herself as unappreciative of her mother's efforts till after a
half hour when she shows up, but Mildred has a sense of duty that she
won’t give up on her. The story is told through a flashback narrative by
Mildred in a policeman's office. It has a Citizen Kane style of an
opening with a death and a final word. It also effectively changes
between daylight Santa Monica to nighttime dark scenes, both with
shadows. The crafty camera work and very sharp dialogue create superb,
easygoing sequences. The score, scenery, acting, and drama mesh into the
noir, dim mood. The work here is undervalued in comparison to some other
movies to lighting and camera work going on in the early forties, and
the script takes the movie to greater heights. The movie is visually
gorgeous and it’s one to see again.
Final Grade: A-
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Starring Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn Grant, Torin Thatcher, Richard Eyer
Film Prophet's Review...
Ray Harryhausen's fantasy adventure features ancient Mythology and
animated creatures in a live-action movie. A captain and his crew help
to salvage his miniature princess on his seventh voyage. A devious
magician, a young boy genie, a Cyclops, skeleton warrior, a man eating
bird, and a dragon are just some of the facets to the film. These are
the kind of screen creatures that were imaginative and astonishing in
terms to the decade. It even takes a look inside a genie lamp's tiny
setting. The film opens right away to the captain sailor on a dark night
not sure what to expect. When they arrive on a sandy land during
daylight, they see monster size foot steps which lead them to the big
Cyclops monster. This is what the audience wants to see. They are setup
with traces that may lead to some horrific creature while in the
background a menacing score by Bernard Herrmann plays. All of this
happens in the first ten minutes of the film. From there, the film takes
the audience to an Arabian style Baghdad. The Baghdad setting is not
necessarily an amazing locale and just relaxes away from the creature
violence and toward wishes and magic. There is a large gap of time in
this period in Baghdad till they get on a ship again and back on the
sandy island of monsters. It misses much action between a third and half
of the film. The movie goes without any big acting names, but the
fantastic creatures and the fantasy tale are the stars that kick in
after the midway point. It doesn't care about focusing on a plot, which
is really making every character scared based on foretold illusions.
It’s never the real reason why people watch these types of films. The
real draw is the special effects and encounters with these intelligent
creatures, that aren’t so dumb, no one has seen before as sailors try to
attack and survive from the various creatures. The movie offers
stop-motion animation and effects by Ray Harryhausen blending in scenes
of live-action and animation together that hasn’t lost its touch over
the years. Computer graphics can not replicate what was done in this
old-fashioned adventure. It was a successful project at the time and a
milestone in visual effects.
Final Grade: B
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
Starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Jim Sturgess,
Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott Thomas
Film Prophet's Review...
The story revolves around the Boleyn sisters, Mary, played by Johansson,
and Anne, played by Portman, who are on and off rivals for the bed and
heart of sixteenth century English King Henry VIII, played by Bana.
There was much delay in the release date of this film to the theaters,
and then in personally watching this movie finally and reviewing it. It
was also a former most wanted movie on the year's list prior to when it
came out. Of course, the main attraction to the film on a movie scale is
the three co-stars and the scope of their acting together. Historically,
the story surrounds the Tudor dynasty in England and the upcoming
biological parents of Elizabeth I. It centers on two sisters set in the
medieval times with fancy wardrobes and centuries old sets. It’s an
attention battle to Henry's affection, but he has a queen who never
really appears. However, it came down to Henry wanting to mate with the
sisters so he can have a son. Historical dramas work well when the
material contains livid conflicts and few giddy moments, like what The
Lion in Winter had in similar context. Viewers will question if this
movie is an historical romance or an historical drama movie. Well, it's
more like neither. This is adapted from the book, but the
characterizations in the opening are bleak when all one can get out of
it is that the two sisters were close to each other and uninteresting
supporting characters talk about joyless marriage struggles. The other
men aside from Henry aren't even that menacing or callous. They blend in
and don't stick out, but have more to say than the king and discuss
what's fine for the king politically and personally. Any guy who isn’t
Eric Bana is not engaging and Bana's appearances in the beginning are
short lived and he speaks few words unless he is alone with one of the
sisters in make-out sessions on a bed. The editing is rough in the first
hour. Very little is known about anything happening and the movie
displays a portrait of individuals like a soap opera would without much
intimacy. The story isn’t told from anyone’s point of view as there is
no center character to follow. It goes without giving the king much
importance or the script some polish to assimilate everything. None of
the slightest action happens until the final ten or so minutes with
trials and desperation. It was a series of scenes with little purpose
until the final moments of harsh decisions. The history lesson in the
film only comes out until the near end because they’re resulted by sex,
deaths, and births.
Final Grade: C+/C
Righteous Kill (2008)
Starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Carla Gugino, Curtis Jackson, John
Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg
Film Prophet's Review...
A cop serial killer who kills criminals may be at large as two veteran
detectives partner up to solve the case between someone they already
locked up or one of their own. It’s actually only the third movie both
De Niro and Pacino are in together and only the second they share time
on screen. In Heat, they had very limited time together too. In this
movie, there’s somewhat of a story that suits for both of their
typecasts in cop roles like in Heat, but it's more The Fan than Heat for
De Niro by fooling people with his persona or so that what it appears
so. Thus, the roles are both unchallenging for them also. Their
partnership begins where they are already a team like in a center of
another movie as there's not a whole lot of story to begin with. It's
not really a big problem since they're both veteran actors playing
old-aged detectives, but the poor writing is void of an introduction.
It’s also vacant of puns or irony for laughs that would be appropriate
for the genre, but it’s full-fledged on a lifeless crime drama. Since
there's noticeably a lack of energy or passion, there are fewer reasons
to care about what happens. The editing in the movie is a bit out of
sequence and there’s no smoothness. De Niro opens up with a confession
statement that's broken up throughout the film as random short scenes
cut in, such as when he is in bed with Carla Gugino or at some unrelated
baseball game. The cinematography is rather dull and unspectacular. It
is actually set in New York City though the streets and sheltered
locations make it look to be any city or town. The real display could
have been Curtis Jackson who plays his villain character with some vigor
that's he given to work with, except he disappears and becomes a useless
act in later portions of the film. His role is sadly minimized to a
waste to become anything villainous of a criminal since it's all set on
the cops’ ethical, but imprudent crime choices. There's a part where he
just stands aside and watches four cops argue with no input about twenty
minutes before the end. He simply has a trivial character and poor
acting when he is adrift. It was all about an insipid cop serial killer
agenda and nothing more. The title of the movie uses the word kill as
singular. However, there's plenty of kills by gun shots, but from the
not so opposite side of the law. The question that floats around asks if
they are the real scoundrels being numb to innocent killings as Pacino
once says in it. The kills are a quick way to solve and end things
abruptly and all of them were just way too thin to notice. When they
don't like or agree with anything, they solve it with the trigger as if
nobody would suspect cops killing suspects and then anyone missing the
suspect. The writing tries to make this seem important, but it all comes
down to the same old moral cop, bad cop, lawyers, serial killer, and the
occasional twist before the finale. The killer describes the motives in
confusing and bad poems and there is no action around it… no chases or
explosions and not even enough gunplay until the final scenes. It’s just
crass arguments full of misdirections.
Final Grade: C/C+
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
Starring Rosanna Arquette, Madonna, Aidan Quinn, Mark Blum, Laurie
Metcalf, Robert Joy, Will Patton
Film Prophet's Review...
Living on a straight edge, a jaded housewife sees the ad for Seeking
Susan and becomes curious in becoming her. After following her around,
she accidentally bumps her head and is now being called Susan. The
action of mass encounters is all near the end… merged problems of
misinterpretation of who the real Susan is. It starts off dry,
unenergetic, and at sometimes, even hollow of material in the beginning,
but only for the parts when Madonna isn't involved enough which is the
majority of the middle piece or when Rosanna Arquette isn't presented
with intrigue, but is still bracing. Arquette follows the real Susan,
Madonna, around the city to see what she does so she can mimic her
appeal like wearing gloves when it isn't cold out. The most striking
part of the appearance is the pyramid leather jacket. Similar to those
sequences of her trying to be Susan, the movie goes at a mediocre pace.
This is first true motion picture for Madonna who didn't really have to
change or adapt to any new character that much. Susan was really a
humble clone of Madonna... just by dress and appearance, and that's all
that really mattered to this character for the most part. Most of what
she's given and says is just all stiff like everyone else. There’s
hardly any real dialogue. Conversations are kept to a minimum and when
people speak, it's short and dull, like someone screaming the name Susan
to get the woman's attention. Nothing important comes out of their
mouths until things become complex when people are confused by Susan and
such. There are plenty of minutes in the beginning as to why it is dry
where nothing is said. Several times the ad in the newspaper for Seeking
Susan is shown and people look at it and do nothing about it. There’s a
bunch of gazes and men gawking at the two leading ladies in skimpy
clothes followed by misunderstandings by the supporting characters who
don't really know either woman when they all cross paths near the end.
There are some subtle comedy pieces that are actually added in the
script for people to say later on based on how much trouble the
housewife has gotten herself into. The movie could have employed more of
Madonna's charm and statue, like when Madonna checks out the housewife's
husband's home, than just strutting around lazy, free-spirited, and
spending her time observing… add more dynamic to her like when she was
reading a diary on a bed to the husband with interest. It’s a movie now
initially for an audience of Madonna fans who plays the title part of
Susan to reminisce on the eighties and see her in something other than
for what she's best at and that's being a music artist.
Final Grade: C+/C
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