Category: Movies

Watched “Dazed and Confused” on DVD. I am a bit confused to the point of the film. It just shows a bunch (and I mean a bunch) of students on their last day of high school or something like that. They are just driving around, talking non-sense, smoke pot, drink beer and kiss. The movie starts nowhere and it ends nowhere. Maybe it was done as a historical reference for generations to come, but I doubt the accuracy of it (everyone were driving cars that I am far from affording having a full-time job in a good company).

The film started to get boring after about the second minute. And it never got any better. So, I had to find something to entertain myself. Luckily the film provided something. There were plenty of people and all of them looked unrecognizably young, so I went for a quest of recognizing them. First came Milla Jovovich and Matthew McConaughey. Than Ben Affleck. Than Adam Goldberg and Anthony Rapp. There a few others that I recognized the faces, but couldn’t remember where they played.

Soundtrack, with all the classic rock stars, such as Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath, also helped the time to pass by.

Other than that, the movie provides for a little entertainment and carries no point what-so-ever. 4 out of 10.

Wathed “The Alamo” on DVD.

It is an OK-kind of film on dramatic historical issues. It displays a story of Alamo town during the times of American-Mexican military conflicts. I wasn’t aware of the historical background for this film, and I am still not too interested in it after watching a film.

There wasn’t much of a story to act upon, so there wasn’t that much of great acting. Billy Bob Thornton (recently seen in “Bad Santa“) and Patrick Wilson (recently seen in “Angels in America“) are the only two people I have recongnized from the cast.

Battle scenes were pretty good. Again, though, I am not qualified to comment on historical accuracy of items and wear displayed, but it all looked appropriate to me.

If I were to make this film better, I would add something to the story line (like a drama or more character development) and made the film slightly faster. 6 out of 10.

Watched “Hitler: The Rise of Evil” on DVD. For some reason I was thinking that it will be a documentary. Instead it turned out to be a 3 hour long drama about Adolf Hitler.

Production was for television and thus there are many technical annoyances (light and sound come to mind). Acting was good. Robert Carlyle (“Trainspotting“, “The Full Monty“) was an excellent Führer. Somehow I came to think that women acted overall better than men, in this film.

I wish there were more historical information and facts. It would be both more entertaining and educational at the same time. I’ve learned a few things and cleared up some mess in my head, but I could have done more – there’s no question about it.

6 out of 10.

With all the movies I am watching, it’s good to once in a while see something from the wishlist. Today I saw “Killing Zoe“. I think I put it on the wishlist because of Quenting Tarantino being one of executive producers while Roger Avary was a writer and a director of the film. Roger and Tarantino worked together on several films – “Reservoir Dogs” in 1992, “True Romance” in 1993, and “Pulp Fiction” in 1994. All four movies are crime actions with drama and a touch of romance (maybe no romance for the Dogs). “Killing Zoe” is the weakest of four films, but it shows, together with the other movies, what ideas were floating in the heads of Tarantino and his comrads at that times.

If I were to point out few interesting bits about this film, I would pick the fact that the events in the movie are happening in Europe (Paris, France to be precise) as opposed to the traditional USA setup. Also, drugs play an important role in this film. And taking drugs is covered specially. I think this movie was a playground for the famous drug scenes in “Pulp Fiction“. And yet another interesting approach was to show that opening a bank vault is indeed a difficult task that requires expertise, skills, equipment, and time. There are not that many movies who remind us of that. There are, though, a number of usual attibutes of a crime movie – criminals, hostages, guns, lots and lots of swear words and blood.

I think that the film could use some character development. There are many people in it, but only three main ones get enough attention. Maybe it was intentional, maybe it wasn’t – I couldn’t figure.

I liked the acting. It was very realistic and lively. I don’t know how to properly describe it. Basically, not even once I was reminded that these people are actually acting. Good dialogues, or, rather, monologues helped that.

Anyway, the film, as standalone, is somewhat average crime action. You won’t lose anything if you will miss it, but you won’t regret if you will watch it. Decide for yourself. As a part of Tarantino/Avary and Co work it is a missing bit that puts light on the progress they were making. I found it interesting, educating, and entertaining.

Firm 6 out of 10.