Category: Movies

I am writing this while being under the impression caused by watching “Remember the Titans“. One hand, it’s a pity that the trailer was completely misleading and that I didn’t go to the cinema to see this movie when it was on. It appeared to be just another movie about some college football team and then some smart coach coming in and teaching them a good lesson to a winnning. On the other hand, I am glad I didn’t miss this movie completely. It’s one of those movies that can be equally enjoyed both in the cinema and at home.

The movie is not about the football, although there is plenty of it. The movie is about racism. And it is one of the best movies about racism that I have ever seen. Actually right now I cannot remember anything better on the subject.

This film excellently shows how people had to study each other and learn from each other’s culturies and how they did slowly realize that all people are the same for what it matters. There are good seeds. There are bad seeds. I particularly liked that there was almost no violence in the film. It didn’t try to put the audience in disguise. It just tried to make people think. Very touchy.

It was also very appropriate to choose Denzel Washington for role of the coach – it is his amplua. The rest of the cast was good too. The soundtrack was awesome. It was that good that you almost don’t notice it until you realize that the sounds of Creedence Clearwater Revival mix very well with football action shots.

Strongly recommended.

Thanks to the virtues of the Internet and those who can properly use them, today I watched the “Fahrenheit 9/11“. The quality of the copy was way behind that of a DVD or a movie projection, but it was enough to get the idea, since I couldn’t wait anymore. And it’s a documentary, not the latest masterpiece on computer graphics.

Anyway, the film is very strong. Problems of world piece (or war for that matter) don’t touch me deep enough, but this film manage to get inside me and get me thinking all over the place. I don’t care if all the facts stated in the movie are true or not. I am not going to check them anyway. There are thousands of nerds to do so already. It does fit on my scale of things though. Reflecting on the issues presented in the film requires me to think first, so I will not write anything now on those issues. Instead – I’ll talk about the film.

It is not as “funny” as “Bowling for Colombine” was. There is some of Moore’s humour, but issues discussed are not that funny anymore. There is an amasing amount of video footage. I mean it took Michael Moore only two years to produce this film, but it is almost unbelievable how many tapes he went through. That was some work! I cannot comment on the soundtrack yet, because I haven’t heard it due to a bad copy. Maybe I’ll add something here, when I’ll get the film on DVD.

Overall the film seems to be much more polished and organized if compared with Colombine. It feels that Michael earned a lot of experience. There are some really nice touches, like a sound only coverage of 9/11, a piece of movie about American police, and the western piece with Bush & Co. I do recommend for everyone to see it as it does provide a lot of brain food. I myself will get it on DVD together with Colombine.

Watched “The General’s Daughter” on TV. Very nice movie to see on a Saturday evening. It caught my attention first by having lots of famous actors – John Travolta, James Cromwell, James Woods and few others.

But famous faces was not the best part of the movie. The story was with an interesting twist although not very original. And I felt somehow disturbed by the whole thing. Nice acting and fast pace were also much appreciated.

Today Olga and I went to see “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban“. This is a third sequel to a very well known Harry Potter story.

This time the director was different. Instead of Chris Columbus, who did both “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone“, it is Alfonso Cuar�n. And it shows. Generally it’s the same kind of story with the same people in the same places, but few bits lose the touch. Somehow it feels unfinished. In few places it is very noticable, in others – not.

Overall it is a nice movie to go and see, especially I think if you read the book (I didn’t) or if you enjoy computer graphics a great deal. But in comparison if the previous two films I found this one a bit lacking satisfaction. I will surely go see the next two parts (in 2005 and 2007), which will be done by yet two other different directors. :)