Movies

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!

Ocean’s Twelve

With all the crap they are show in the cinemas these days, Olga and I haven’t been there for some time. Today we decided to go see “Ocean’s Twelve“. Martin also joined us. It was suprisingly crowded for a 22:30 showing of a Wednesday night.

The movie was good. Actually it was very good. Below excellent, but really really good. At first I thought it was a typical heist movie with a bunch of guys preparing for deal and later dealing the deal. The plot turned out to be slightly more complicated than that, but it wasn’t about the plot. The film was a cover-up for a whole lot of celebrities to gather together and have lots of fun. And so they do.

George Clooney‘s being an executive producer, brought a lot of style and sharm to the film. He is also an excellent actor along with all the rest who starred there. Additionally, one could enjoy nice soundtrack and really great photography. I still cannot appreciate it enough!

But enough with the goodies – everyone can point them out, no question. What annoyed me beyond the limits was plain old camera shake. I don’t know what it is with cameramen these days and why all the directors love it so much, but few recent movies in a row all have this effect. Hello? Did you try to watch it in the cinema? I mean all the shaking is barely noticable when you are watching the movie on a TV screen. TV screen occupies like 3% of the total area viewable by your eyes. You don’t mind if it shakes there. But when you are in the cinema, big screen covers about 70% of all you see. Now that’s one enourmous shake! It’s no fun. It is painful. Olga closed her eyes for a good half of the film. I was going to do the same, but force myself not to. Now I have a headache. So, if any of your cameramen, producers, or directors are reading this post, please cut off the camera shake. Out of 5 minutes or so of shake, the only 20 seconds appropriate were during the black-and-white episode close to the end of the film. That’s it.

Anyway, the movie was very good, entertaining, and aesthetic. 7 out of 10 it should be than.

Am I the only one?

Am I the only one who always mixes up Jamie Lee Curtis with Amanda Plummer? I mean they are like the same person to me. Both of them have remarkable filmography listings. I mostly remember Jamie Lee Curtis from “True Lies” and Amanda Plummer from “Pulp Fiction“.

Unfortunately, they haven’t yet been in a movie together. That would have corrected relationships in my mind. The closest match I can find with Movie Links is via Lorena Gale, with who Jamie starred in “Halloween: Resurrection” and Amanda in “The Hotel New Hampshire“. Again, I haven’t seen neither of these two movies.

Bird on a Wire

“Bird on a Wire” was on TV and I just couldn’t miss it. I had to watch it because it was one of my favourite movies back in 90s, and also because I very often confuse and cross-reference episodes of this movie with “Overboard“. That is probably because both of them are good movies of approximately the same years, both of them feature Goldie Hawn as a one of the main characters. Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell are also two of my favourite action actors, and they even were together in a movie called “Tequila Sunrise“.

Anyway, the movie is a good old action. Some corrupted governent agents, who used to use Vietnam war veterans to transport drugs, are trying to get rid off one of these veterans who could send them all to jail. Car chases, gun fights, fist fights, some romance, some cool talk, few jokes, and good amount of explosives all make for a good action movie. Even now, 15 years later it still impresses and keeps one glued to the screen.

7 out of 10. Favourite quote: “She: … I need rest, I need a bath, I need a bed, I need a pedicure … He: And I need a beer.”. ;)

The Ladies’ Man

Watched the second Jerry Lewis movie “The Ladies’ Man“. It was slightly better than “The Patsy” that I watched earlier, but still way too far from anything close to my favourite movie.

Firstly, IMDB does not provide enough categories for this film. Apart from trying to be a comedy, it is surely a musical and a drama. In fact, somehow I think it is more of a drama than a comedy.

Secondly, this film is still slow, predictable, and boring. It has some interesting production concepts like using several similarly clothed men running around to picture a single confused and paniced individual. The cut of the house and camera movement was interesting too. Acting wise there weren’t anything refreshing. The only scene that I particularly liked was one woman’s rehersal with opening of the door. That was good. And that was funny. Episodes with the “Baby” would have been better if they weren’t that predictable. Other than that I didn’t see anything new or impressive.

4 out of 10.