Movies

Suicide Kings

Just watched “Suicide Kings” on DVD.

It is a nice film which mixes in crime, drama, and comedy. The story looks fresh and original, although it rings some bells, meaning that I have seen something similar somewhere somewhen. The storytelling and character development is nice. The only thing one has to do to fully enjoy the film is to realize that the movie is not trying to be realistic. It is just a perspective on some abstract situation, which might have arised from something that happened or could have happened in real life. But surely it couldn’t have happened exactly like it is shown in the film.

I didn’t like how the film was changing pace. There wasn’t a good reason for doing that and it looked like unfinished pieces.

The casting was good. Christopher Walken was as good as always. The young guys from the gang of rich kids were very good too.

Overall, a 7 out of 10 experience.

Diary of a City Priest

Watched “Diary of a City Priest” on DVD. It is a good drama about a priest in the poor neighborhood’s chuch. He has been there for more than 20 years, serving and helping people and he got tired and started to have difficulties for his inspirations. Basically, he looks a lot like a man with a middle age crisis.

Film is slightly dramatic and slowly paced with some phylosophy to it. There is no intense or suspense. There is nothing you haven’t seen before. There is, simply, nothing special. David Morse did an excellent job with the priest. Photography couldn’t have been enjoyed fully, due to 4:3 ratio, but it looked like there are some really great shots in there. Music was very atmospherical and spiritual – nicely done.

I think I am a bit too young for this film. 6 out of 10.

Gen-X Cops

Watched “Gen-X Cops” on DVD. It is one of those cheap Hong Kong action films that make an average Chinese martial arts movie seem like a multimillion budget blockbuster.

Terrible story, terrible stunts, no martial arts, no acting what-so-ever, and missing sense of humour drop this film really hard down in my rating table. I am really surprised that it carries the name of Jackie Chan as executive producer.

This film really sucked. 2 out of 10.

Angels in America

You might be a little surprised by the fact that the amount of movie review posted in the last few days decreased dramatically. I assure that I haven’t stopped watching movies. Neither I have decreased the number of them. And neither I am going totally lazy with blogging. It’s just that I have been watching “Angels in America“.

You might be tricked by the “mini” sign at IMDB at first, but please don’t be. If you will check the duration field a bit lower on the page, you will find a magnificant number of 352 minutes, which is almost 6 hours. Yup. “Angels in America” is not exactly a movie. It is a 6-episode series (approximately 1 hour each) done by HBO. It is not a movie, but it is as close as the television program can get. It’s a film.

And not only it’s just a film, it’s really great one. It is one of the best films that I have seen in the last 10 years. Maybe even in my whole life…

This is a story about few people in New York City at the end of the 20th century. Some of them are homosexual. Some of them have AIDS. There are some angels and mormons around. There is a great drama going on.

Having said that this movie is one of the best I have seen, I can be a little bit more concrete:

It is one of the best dramas that I have ever seen.
It is one of the best films on religion and belief that I have ever seen.
It is one of the best films on homosexuality that I have ever seen.
It is one of the best films on AIDS that I have ever seen.
It is one of the best films on general philosophy that I have ever seen.

A really excellent story is supported by acting of such talants as Al Pacino andMeryl Streep. Outstanding performances were delivered by Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman, Mary-Louise Parker, and Jeffrey Wright. Others did pretty good too.

There was some really amazing photography and unbelievable camera work. By the way, if anyone has seen this movie and can tell me how they could possibly do those mega super huge zooms, please do so. I have no idea at the moment.

Anyway, the film does score a pure, clean and hard 10 out of 10 in my book. The only complain that I have is a slightly longer pauses when the phylosophy kicks in. There are ideas and thoughts that not everyone of us think over that often. Feeding those at a speed of light is not a very good idea, since people in the audience get lost. Olga and I were both losing the grip several times by ideas provided by different characters in the same dialogue. Now is there anything wrong with that? Depatable, but it’s there.

I will for sure watch it at least once again to give more attention to details. I also would like to have it on DVD in my home collection. Now the question is why Hollywood is not making films like that?

Prozac Nation

I just watched a really amazing movie on DVD – “Prozac Nation“. It is based on a best-selling book by Elizabeth Wurtzel, which tells the story of a depressed young girl, daughter of devorced parents. The interesting part is in the perspective. This girl does not realize that she has a depression and needs to be treated, which is the problem that a lot of people are having. I don’t know how accurate the movie was done, since I haven’t read the book, yet. So I won’t comment on that.

Apart from the perspective, another different side of the film was casting. There were plenty of celebrities, but mostly all of them are young Hollywood stars – Christina Ricci, Anne Heche, Michelle Williams, Jason Biggs and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Older generation was represented by Jessica Lange. All of them weren’t for nothing. There were plenty of excellent acting.

Excellent photography and good soundtrack do compliment the movie.

Directing was rather weak, I think. There wasn’t enough drama and cast wasn’t pushed to the limit, although some of them went pretty far.

Overall, an excellent film – 9 out of 10.