Reviews

Basic

Just watched “Basic” on DVD. This movie anything, but basic. I think that I’ll have to watch it like another five times to get all facts together and understand the thing completely. Or maybe just once will do with some sleep hours beforehand.

Remember me recently complaining about more than half of the films that I watch having a simple story? Well, this film is surely an exception from that. Storyline changes several times during the course of the film. And just when I started to think that it’s getting pretty close to the end and that there were plenty of story changes already, and that this is the final one – ***BOOM*** – and it changed again. And repeat. 3 times. All of these changes are further confused by a pretty fast pace of the movie and a short duration (just one and a half hours for all of them).

There were many familiar actors here, but nothing particularly remarkable about the acting. John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Connie Nielsen and others all did a good job, but I don’t see any awards rushing this direction.

Overall a good film with a good bit of entertainment. It could use some action and light over the jungle scenes, but these are pretty standard complains about any “U.S. Marine” movie.

4 out of 5.

Bad Santa

Watched “Bad Santa“. It is an excellent comedy for those who get easily tired from the Christmas spirit. It wouldn’t have been so dramatic if I didn’t know of any alcoholics. Really. As it is, it’s very sad…

On the bright side though, I’ve picked up a few more swearing words and phrases. I’ll have to watch it another couple of time to naturalize the new vocabularly, but I will be able to use it once in a while anyway.

Bill Bob Thornton did an amazing job. His 3Bs Santa was one of the greatest I have ever seen. I mean it was hard to belive that this guy is actually acting. I was under the impression that it was his real life and that this is his only role. Luckily we all know that it is not true.

8 out of 10.

Black Knight

Watched “Black Knight” on DVD. It is an excellent comedy with Martin Lawrence. If like him, watch it, if not – then you better not, because it is rather cliche.

This film has got me thinking about something. It seems that mixing Middle Age with Modern Times is always funny. I am trying hard and I cannot remember one film which was bad with it. “Army of Darkness“, “Robin Hood: Men in Tights“, “Just Visiting” and now “Black Knight” are all successful movies. Was there any bad one? Can anyone remind me?

7 out of 10. The boxing in the woods and training of the rebels are my two favourite scenes.

Seabiscuit

Watched “Seabiscuit” on DVD. This is a pretty good family movie. It covers all the usual subjects about family, believe, giving second chances, friends, understand and all these. It also has a good coverage of horses and horse racing. I don’t know how accurate the subject is covered, but it does provide a good insight into horse racing.

As a film, it has a good story and a nice mix of joy and sadness as any drama should have. Most of the acting was OK, which was expected from the OK actors such as Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and Tobey Maguire. It was William H. Macy who did an outstanding job although playing a really background character – radio commentator. The movie is worth watching for many reasons, and he is truly one of them.

I’ll rate this film as 7 out of 10, hoping for some more films like with a slightly more original story.

The Man Who Cried

Watched “The Man Who Cried” on DVD. It is amazing how little this movie missed to be on my favourite list. It has to stay with the average ones now. Pity.

Good things about this movie are: story, pace, casting, acting, photography, and music. I liked how one small girl from the first part of the movie was used to bring in three more main characters. That was an interesting move. I liked the acting of all four main actors – Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, and Johnny Depp. All of them did really good jobs, but they weren’t pushed to the limit or anywhere closed. I’ve seen all four of them doing much better.

What I think this movie needs is more dramatism and depth. It almost touched me. But when it almost happend the closing credits started rolling. First half of the movie with the little girl had a lot more sadness and sympathy to it.

I’ll rate it as 6 out of 10. Good, but could have been so much better!