Category: Movies

For the last three days, Olga and I were watching the trology of Three Colors – “Blue“, “White“, and “Red” on DVDs. It is a somewhat popular French masterpiece by Krzysztof Kieslowski. Neither Olga, nor I liked it.

When I got all three DVDs in one pack, I was a bit puzzled as to in which order should I see them. Logic suggested that blue, white, and red are colors of the French flag and that I should use the order. IMDB confirmed the suspesion.

Blue” is the first movie of the trilogy. It started of nice, with a car crash a some dead people, but it stayed there. The film was too long for what was being told, or I completely misunderstood it. It is not some American action entertainment, so I am not very good with this kind of films. It is supposed to be all serious and phylosophycal. But it was way too shallow. Reminded me of Phylosophy 101 course in the college. There were not too much dialogs and there was nothing to act upon. There was a surprising lack of music, considering the fact that story of the film was built around the death of the composer. The same piece was played over and over again. Barely I held myself from falling asleep.

The lack of happenings and simplicity was understood by the director and the second part – “White” – was more interesting. It wasn’t a huge brain mover, but there was some originality. There was this man who was all in love and married, but rejected and devorced. And he was displayed from the side which is usually reserved for women. Though there was still a lot of man in him. Interesting. The link with the first part was very weak and that left hope.

Red” – the third part, is by far the most active, but still way too melodramatic and soap operish for my likings. In the beginning it suggets another thin connection to the previous two parts, but in the end everything turns around and there is indeed some kind of point delivered.

These films all do with human sufferrings, mostly because of love, rejection, trust and it’s braking. There is also an idea of some kind of natural balance or, maybe, relativity suggested. Overall, it is not enough for almost 6 hours of total time spent on the films.

The reason I could push myself to finish watching all three of them was the increasing tempo from part to part. If it was in reverse or other order, I would have fell asleep and forgot the whole thing during the first 30 minutes.

Rating these films is a bit difficult. Each one deserves a 5 out of 10, but the synergy of all of them together brings it up to 6. I’ll give them 5s on IMDB anyway, since they are way overrated there anyway.

I just finished watching “So I Married an Axe Murderer” on TV. Very nicely done comedy that is. Both Mike Myers and Nancy Travis are acting excellent.

Actually, I remember that this is not the first time I see this film, but I sure did laugh a lot anyway. My favourite parts: problem with the big capuchino in the beginning, all songs from the “Women!” series, Charlie helping Harriet in the butcher’s shop, Charlie’s father joking about kid’s huge head, and then all Myer’s scared and worried faces along the film.

This movie is what they call “an old one, but a good one”. I’ll vote for a 7 out of 10 for it with no hesitation.

“U.S. Marshals” was on TV today. I am sure everyone has seen a movie where a guy was working for the government doing some dirty work (aka “special operations” and “black ops”) and then he got set up with a couple of homicides hanging on his neck, so he has to escape from prison to avoid capital punishment and clear his name. And there is usually this smart detective that is chasing him and finds out all about this guy’s story and wants to help him, but he still has to catch him. And so they run until one of them doesn’t kill the bad guy who masterminded the setup. Sounds familiar?

Well, “U.S. Marshals” is exactly this kind of movie. But it is properly done. I mean when the story is not a surprise anymore (about 10 minutes from the starting titles, and it took me so long because I was 8 minutes late) the audience is occupied with paying attention to everything else except the plot. So, what’s there? The first thing that gets discovered is that the film is full of celebrities: Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley Snipes, Robert Downey Jr., Joe Pantoliano and more. Further on, after all celebrities are recognized and remembered, special effects come to mind. And they are good too. I mean crashing the regular-sized aircraft is not the cheapest way producers can go help the guy escape from prison. :) Music was great (reminded me of the Rambo’s first blood somehow). Pace was good. Dialogs are natural (film-kind natural) and entertaining. Good acting.

Films like this don’t usually score high on my list, but I am pretty confident that 7/10 is a fair grade.

Well, it turns out that today is a movie day. I am writing my third post in the “Movie review” category and it is only few minutes past 11 AM. I wonder what else will I see today.

Anyway, just to spring in some action I watched “Cradle 2 the Grave” with Jet Li. Overall it is rather average, but it has few nice bits to it.

It starts of with a rather usual and boring beginning which displays few guys robbing a bank by drilling a hole in the floor and blah blah blah. There are a couple of minor fights which do not impress and do not matter. The only thing to enjoy in the beginning is how Jet Li climbs few floors down from the roof of the building by just using his hands. Very nice.

By the time you get really bored and start thinking about fast forward button, film makers realize the problem and throw in a nice car chase. Lots of police cars, quad-wheel bike and motocross bike. Driving through the buildings and on the roofs is nice. Then you are back to boring.

And by the time film slowly gets to the end, you already think that it was a waste of time… And than it starts. The final scene was made into a mega fight in complience with all the standards. There is everything. There is a sniper. There are two girls fighting (good and bad). There is a tank in the middle of the city shooting down a private helicopter. There is a ring of fire from the helicopter crash in which Jet Li has a Final Fight with a Bad Guy.

I haven’t mentioned another couple of scenes which are all over reviews and comments for the film. There is a megafight of Jet Li against a bunch of unlicensed fighters and there is a scene with a girl stripping. The problem with both of these was that they were not shown properly. They were mixed with happenings of other characters. By the time I was done focusing on details of the scene – BOOM! – it was switched to something else; then back; then forward again. This switching ruined both of the scenes.

I’ll give this movie a 5 out of 10. It could have been better if action was distributed evenly over the time, or if there was just more action, or if there was any acting (which there was none, especially on the part of Jet Li), or ifmartial arts were better (they are good only in the Final Fight). Watch something else, if you have something else.

P.S.: The title of the film is totally random. It has nothing to do with the film what-so-ever.