Movies

The Dreamers

Olga and I watched “The Dreamers” on DVD. (Martin tries his best to shorten my wishlist).

This movie is a very nice drama. It looks very fresh after everything I have seen lately. Somehow it provides a neat mix between American and European cinema. There is plenty of American stuff to make it easier on the watchers and to provide audience with entertainment. Most of the film is European though. It is eye scratching with the issues of sex and nudity. Drugs are touched mildly. But human relationships and cultural differences mixed with romance and family are at the core of the film.

There is plenty of good acting in this film. Choice of compositions and timing in soundtrack are amazing. I wish photography was a bit better. I also wish I could have English subtitles for the French dialogues which occur frequently and mixed with English during the course of the movie. Maybe next time.

Anyway, I like the film and do recomend it to anyone who has been exhausted by the number of templated movies that are coming out of Hollywood during the last few years.

8 out of 10.

The Rock

Watched some good old action on DVD – “The Rock“. It is based on an old story of some cool marine kernel stealing some chemical weapons, taking hostages, setting base ins some secure location (like a prison), and demanding some money off the government. The details vary from film to film, but the main story holds still for many movies.

Anyway, the story is not the point of the film, because it is weak and well-known, and everyone can tell that noone is blowing up anything after like 3 minutes of watching it. The point of the film is entertainment. And this film provides a good portion of it. Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage team up nicely against Ed Harris and David Morse. There is plenty of shooting, fighting, and cool talk.

There could have been more destruction and hot women. Patriotic propaganda could have been cut out too without affecting the film that much. Photography and camera work were brilliant. Some frames from the movie could have been done into excellent posters. For example, the fighter jet in the hangar with huge American flag, or the reflection of the flag in the wet tarmac together with few running marines. These were just beautiful. There were plenty more there.

Anyway, I’ll give this film a 7 out of 10, since it measure pretty much to the level it claimed. It could have been better, but I have seen a lot worse.

The Crimson Rivers

Watched “The Crimson Rivers” (also known as “Les Riviï¿½res pourpres”) on DVD today.

It started like a something really good, with interesting plot points, Jean Reno playing a cool cop, and some really nice photography. I was enjoying it for about 10-15 minutes. Than I started to get bored. Than producers most probably realized that everyone is getting bored and they changed the pace and angle of the movie. From this point on it looked more and more like a bad “South Park” episode with lots of cursing, messed up dialogs, missing story parts, and lousy special effects. The more I watched, the worse it got. Fortunately, it didn’t manage to get too far and ended with a totally expected, happy ending.

4 out of 10. It could have been very very good, but it wasn’t. Pity.

Team America: World Police

No matter how many movies I watch, there are always some that I am waiting to watch desperately. And when they come around, I use any chance to watch them – be that a cinema, a scratched video tape, or highly compressed DivX screener.

I was so waiting for “Team America: World Police“. And I am so happy that it turned out way better than I expected even though my expectations were pretty high. This is a great feature. Here is a check list:

Original – check
From the producers of the “South Park”, with “South Park” atmosphere, but done differently – check.
Explicit lyrics, with lots of “f”-words, “s”-words, “d”-words, and all sorts of other words – check
Unbelievable doll art – check
Great songs – check
Lots of parodies on “Kill Bill”, “The Matrix”, “Men In Black”, “Star Wars”, James Bond movies and what not – check
Huge dead body count and blowing up of few world wonders – check
Both hetero and homosexual scenes – check
Laughing at a bunch of “American” values – check

Could I continue? Yes, of course. But this was so good that is worth seeing. And although I’ve seen it from the screener, I will go the cinema to watch it (if it will ever come to this part of the world) or rent an original DVD.

9 out of 10. I gave 9 reasons, didn’t I?

Punk’d

Usually I am not interested in television programs. I don’t watch much of them and I don’t want to watch much of them. Unless they are really good. Than I make an exception. That’s how I am with TV. Or at least this is how I want to be with TV.

For some time now Martin was bugging me about this MTV show called “Punk’d” done by Ashton Kutcher. I was already thinking about renting it some time in the future. Today Martin had enough of my reasons and all that crap about television, jumped from his seat, grabbed the DVD, and made me watch one episode. The one about tax enforcement officers confiscating property, if you are interested. So, I liked it. It was funny. I took both DVDs – the complete first season – and went home to watch.

The show turned out to be as good as I expected it to be. I watched all the episodes, plus all the bonus features, deleted scenes, and everything else I could find straigt through. No breaks.

If you’ve heard nothing about this show, here is a small summary for you. The idea is very similar to the “Candid camera”, “Show me the funny”, etc. Hidden cameras, actors, setup pranks, and one victim.

What is so different from the other shows? Well, first of all, all victims are celebrities. Secondly, the setup thingy is extremely serious with large sums of money going in, to make it all look realistic. Thirdly, victim’s best friends and/or relatives are assisting in the prank to make it more believable. Fourthly, the scenarios are original. These are not some stupid jokes a third-grader can read in the magazine and try to pull on you. We are talking tax enforcement officers (actors, of course, but with all the merchandize) confiscating property, crane accidentally destroying a house, car theft of a $250,000 collection edition vehicle, busting of illegal casino, and things like that. Add to all of these great acting skills and talents of the people involved and excellent commentary and hosting by Ashton – and you have a really amazing show.

So, I suggest that if you have a chance of finding it, than find it and watch it. Rent it if you have to. It’s worth it. If you are out of luck, I’ll rip it off and share it for you. Probably I will do it anyway. Ashton asked me himself. Yup. In special features of the second DVD he called me names and asked me to rip and share the show. So I will.