This is just a fun movie. If you like car chases, the besting of jerk cops, car crashes, and the tom foolery of brotherhood, this movie is for you.
The film starts off with two big shot money grubbers who are challenging anyone who can to smuggle a truck load of beer into their truck festival, and they're promising a huge amount of money to anyone who can do it. The problem is that this is almost impossible because it's illegal, and if they get caught by the police, the shows over. Now we are introduced to the Bandit (a young Burt Reynolds), a famous trucker who has never met a job he hasn't been able to complete. He currently is hired to sit around at a truck show as an exhibit, until he is challenged to complete this seemingly impossible task. Drawn by the exorbant amount of cash, he and his trucker buddy Snowman take on the task. Snowman drives the tractor trailer to be filled with beer, and the Bandit drives a sporty Pontiac Trans Am to screw around with the cops. They pick up their load with ease and head back. All seems to be going their way until Bandit picks up a young Sally Fields, who is running away from an unwanted wedding, and subsequently, a big jerk of a cop who just so happens to be her would be father in law. This sherif then takes on a personal vendetta to chase and capture the Bandit and the woman who left his son at the alter. With the dogmatic sherif on their tail, and in a race against the clock, will Bandit and Snowman be able to deliver their load on time to collect the cash? Or will the police catch up with them first?!
This is just a fun movie. The Bandit and Snowman are devil may care, happy go lucky truckers, And they're just looking to have a good time. We also get to see the really close network and bond truckers have with each other, and get to hear a lot of lingo. What I liked about this movie that I usually don't like about these car chase, run from the cops stories, is Taft these guys are just having fun. There's no life or death situation, they don't have any 'I'm so badass and cool cause I'm such a rebel' frowns on their faces, they're just laughing the whole time. There's no pretense to badassery. There's also no overdone slapstick stupidity just for the sake of cheap laughs. It's just what they do, and how they have fun. It's the reckless impetuousness of youth with a love of cars and trucks, and challenges. The movie almost has the feel of a western. It's just a couple of guys on their trusty 'steeds' trying to best incompetent lawmen. It's lighthearted, funny adventure.
Polyanna is an iconic children's film about an orphan girl who always looks on the bright side, and shows an entire town how to do the same. Through her eternal optimism, she slowly worms her way into the hearts of the town members. It's a feel good movie.
After the death of her parents, Polyanna moves in with her wealthy aunt who lives in a small town where she holds a lot of influence. Everyone Polyanna meets seems to be either miserable in one way or another, or if they are not miserable themselves, are repressed by miserable people. As she interacts with these people however, she slowly begins to change their perspective by showing them how to be optimistic. She plays what she calls 'the glad game', where the objective is to find something to be glad about in a bad situation. As more people are influenced by her, the town becomes happier overall and more closely knit.
This isn't my favourite movie. It has a sacchrinely sweet plot and character who is almost portrayed as an airhead most of the time. Polyanna is a nice girl, and had a nice message to give, but half the time she's staring off into space or in her own world. It seems like they were trying too hard to capture that carefree innocence of youth, and end up with a dazed looking girl who seems like she's hearing voices. As for her happy game, there is actually a term for it, The Polyanna Effect. It describes someone who refuses to acknowledge any negative aspect in their lives, which of course can be harmful to someone's overall well-being. This isn't exactly the whole message of the film, but it's pretty much the main idea.
I'm an optimistic person myself, but some of the interactions she has with other characters as she tries to brighten their day and change their perspective on life are unrealistic and oversimplifying. For a better film series I would recommend Anne of Green Gables, or even better the TV show Road to Avonlea. These stories have a bit more depth and feeling, and are more realistic. The characters are also very strong and spunky.
The film overall is a decent watch, and I recommend watching it, but look into the other films recommended.
Usually these 80's version fairy tale films can be pretty cheesy, but this one was actually an okay live-action version of the story. It was still cheesy, but watchable.
The story is the standard fairy tale. A miller brags to a friend that his daughter can make gold from straw, and the story is passed from person to person until the king hears of it. The king then orders that the girl be brought to the castle and spin rooms of straw into gold, or she will face the death sentence. She is of course unable to do this, but then a magic man comes to her aid and offers to spin the straw into gold for her, in exchange for her necklace. The king is pleased upon discovering that she had passed the test and orders her to do it again. Once more the man comes to her and makes the gold, in exchange for her mother's ring. A final time the king orders her to spin straw into gold, and if she succeeds, she will marry the prince, and will of course die if she fails. Once again the little man comes to help her, but she has no more trinkets to give him, so the man strikes a bargain with her. He will do it, if she gives him her first-born child, and she agrees. The straw is turned to gold, the girl marries the prince, and a year later she's pregnant with the child. The little man comes back to collect his payment, but now the girl feels that she can't give up her child, so the man strikes a bargain with her. She will have three days to guess his name, and if she fails, he gets to take the baby. And then we all know what happens... and if we don't, go read the fairy tale, it's a classic.
The film was decent. There were cheesy songs and a little bit of overacting, but overall it was pretty bearable. The one thing that kind of bothered me in this film (and this is going to sound perverted but it really isn't), was the fact that the miller's daughter either has a very small chest, or that the clothes they gave her were too baggy. It was kind of uncomfortable to watch because half the time it seemed like she was going to fall out of her dress... but there was nothing there to fall out. Maybe they thought the low-cut dress would be alluring or whimsical or attractive, but seeing as how she doesn't have the upper body to fill the dress out, it's just awkward. Other than that, the costumes were actually not bad. It's not going to be on your 'best movies of all time' list, but it's a watchable flick.
This is a genealogical documentary by Sarah Polley. A good portion of the film is spent listening to different people speak about Polley's deceased mother, Diane, and events surrounding her own birth. Polley interviews her father, her siblings, step-siblings, potential lovers of her mother, and her mother's friends. Through all of this we get an idea of the vibrant, energetic woman who was Diane Polley, the impact she had on others, and the impact they had on her.
While the family history is all fine and well, it is not exactly a thrilling film. It's essentially a slow-paced sleuthing process recounting memories strangers have of a mutual connection. Interesting, but not exactly thrilling. Then, in the latter half of the film, close to the end, Polley does something pretty interesting and reflects on the possibility of being able to capture a true memory of her mother. If it is indeed possible to really know her mother, or understand these past events. She poses the question to a couple of her interviewees and receives some interesting ideas about the nature of memory and whether or not a memory can be truly universally shared. There is an interesting statement put forward that, no matter how 'organic' a memory is, it still undergoes an editing process of sorts when it's shared. It is polished and touched up and segments may be removed or modified to suit the situation, and Polley does a remarkable job of echoing this sentiment throughout the entirety of the film. Before, during, and after the shooting of the documentary, we see establishing shots. People getting ready to be interviewed, cameras or lighting equipment, and even shots or Polley herself as she is directing the picture. On more than one occasion, the idea of the 'fourth wall' is broken down and the audience is acutely aware of the fact that this film is being manufactured, but that it is still an essential truth. She also reflects on her own motivations for pursuing this project, once we learn the some key details of the story, and we are let into a very personal and private portion of this person's life. Polley is really opening herself up to the world with this film, at least in terms of the details surrounding her early childhood and birth.
A side note on Sarah Polley and my bias toward her. I really like Sarah Polley. I was first introduced to her through the Road to Avonlea series (phenomenal), and have seen her in various other productions since then. RTA was taken on by Disney after the first or second season, and ended up letting Polley go because of her political activism and refusal to give into the corporation when they told her to stop. When most of the Disney child stars I can think of off the top of my head end up getting into some of the less than ideal situations, I can only think extremely highly of a person who possessed too much moral integrity for Disney to stand. I also just think that she's a very talented and genuine actor and director, and am usually inclined to think that whatever she's affiliated with is bound to be interesting. And it usually is. But that's just me.
Anyway, the story is not only interesting, but she takes it to another level. Ultimately worth the watch.
This is a horrible, horrible film, but still intriguingly watchable, because Christopher Walken plays a human cat.
The story follows the old fairy tale. An old miller is sick and gives his possessions away to his sons. To his oldest he leaves the mill, to the second he leaves his horse, and to the third he leaves his cat. The boy eventually learns that the cat can speak... and in this version, turn into human who acts like a cat, and the cat asks for boots. The boy works hard to buy his magical cat boots, and then the cat manipulates the king and his court to ultimately marry the princess to the miller's son through a series of tricks.
As I said in the intro, the reason I watched this film in the first place, and the thing that kept me watching, was the fact that Christopher Walken prances around like a cat. And he sings. It's horrible! The funny thing is that he actually pulls it off. Creepy, scary Christopher Walken is a tricky, sneaky, dancing, prancing, singing, bounce-in-his-step, cat personified. It's comical. I would not recommend that anyone actually sit and watch this unless you are seriously in the mood for cheese. The songs are quite bad and the acting is atrocious. This is more of a film that you can bring up as a little known fact as cocktail parties, if anyone has those any more. I know you're tempted, but seriously, don't watch it.
This is a nice, lighthearted comedy about dental supply salesman gets accidentally caught up in a cop's scheme to catch gun traffickers. I was wary of this before seeing it because these kinds of police comedy plot lines get pretty repetitive and dull, but this one was alright.
Samuel L. Jackson plays the role of a cop who is trying bust a gun smuggler who's in town. He sets up a meeting place to make a 'deal' with these guys, but when the gun lord's lackey gets there,he mistakes Eugene Levy, the supply salesman who is in town for a convention, for the so- called 'interested buyer', and gives him the gun by mistake. Samuel L. Jackson then comes in and arrests/ forces Eugene Levy to help him capture these guys by pretending to want to buy these guns.
This isn't a ground-breaking film, there are actually several other films just like it, but I really liked Eugene Levy's character. There was something about that oblivious, innocent, 'swell guy' character and his out-of-place reactions to the criminal situation. It's like bringing a grandmother to a rap concert or a skate park. Though this is neither Levy's or Jackson's best picture, they both bring sufficient talent so as to make the film watchable, but it's also lighthearted enough for you to let your guard down and just veg comfortably.
This film is about a young priest named Father O'Malley who goes to be the resident pastor at Saint Mary's school. The school is in disrepair and will have to be shut down unless a donor provides a new school. A wealthy business man is constructing a building next door, but alas, he wants to buy Saint Mary's to build a parking lot. The sisters are very worried, and the new pastor seems to be in cahoots with this wealthy man. What will happen to Saint Mary's?
I was really disappointed with this film. I was hearing these glowing reviews about a wholesome family film and what a classic this was... I couldn't believe I was watching the same film. This film is slow-paced and dull. It also misrepresents the Catholic faith. There may be some who are hesitant to watch film about nuns of priests, and this is not my argument. There are actually several great films that are about or take place in a religious context, a prime example being The Trouble With Angels. No, this one just missed the mark for me. There's a scene where a boy is getting bullied by one of the other students, and Father O'Malley is just looking on and even comments to Sister Superior that the boy is weak. Sister then trains the boy to box. This is so against the Catholic philosophy in so many ways that I cringed to watch it. A real Catholic priest would not condone fighting or bullying, and does not define manhood by who can hit harder. The Sister Superior actually did have the correct philosophy of peaceful resolution (kind of), but then changes her tune when she hears what the pastor had to say. It tries to hard to win the audience over, and cheapens the message as a result. If you don't want to stick to the belief of a religion... don't base a film in a religious setting featuring religious characters. It's really quite simple. There were several other things that bothered me, but I'll spare you.
The pacing, as I've mentioned, is quite slow. I almost stopped watching the film out of pure boredom and didn't care if the school was torn down or what. Also, as you may well imagine, the school is not shut down because the wealthy business man next door has a miraculous change of heart after some mind games played by our number one pastor and gives them the building for the school. I just don't feel that it was at all a plausible outcome. It's a convenient ending to stop a mediocre film. Not worth the time.
This film starts out with a man giving a grave disclaimer, stating that the events in this film are based purely on true events. That most of the dialogue is in fact taken from the actual patient records of the so-called Eve White herself. The film is based on a real life account of a doctor's interactions with a patient who had multiple personality disorder.
We first meet Eve White in her psychiatrist's office. She explains that she suffers from blackouts and very bad headaches, and also that her husband seems to accuse her of things that she has no recollection of doing. It seems to be clear to the doctor that she has some sort of psychosis, but he's not exactly sure what... until during one therapy session she transforms into an entirely different personality before his eyes. He discovers that she has multiple personality disorder, and that she in fact is not the only person living inside her head. It eventually comes to light that three women reside within the body of Eve White. Eve White herself is a very timid, defeated housewife, and is completely unaware that she is sharing her body with another person calling herself Eve Black, who is the exact opposite of her. She's rambunctious and promiscuous and almost childish in her abject selfishness. She claims that she is not married to Eve White's husband and is not the mother of her child. She instead prefers to go out dancing at the local bar many a night. The final personality gives herself the name Jane, and we do not learn much about her when she is introduced. In fact, she knows very little of her own self. The psychiatrist works hard to understand how the personalities interact with each other, and tries to get them to coexist. He is also wildly curious about the event in Eve's past that may have caused this splitting on her personality and works very hard to discover it.
This is a pretty gripping film. Joanne Woodward does a great job of seamlessly switching between the different personalities, and performs each of them so believably well. Watching her work, I found that I did not even once wonder if she suit the role of the different personalities she was portraying because she performed them all so well. One could rightly believe that the performances were genuinely different characters, and she was able to transition from one character to another so quickly and smoothly also. There was no contrived 'transformation' from one personality to another, the transition took place largely in her head and she demonstrated that effectively.
Another interesting thing about film of this nature, in this era, is the fascination with mental disorders and the relation that disorder has to a past trauma. It's really fun watch the characters dig through the past to discover the cause of what ails them.
The characters and story went into just enough detail about the personal lives of the girls and displayed enough emotion each of them were feeling about their situation to create compelling hold on the viewer. Though I may not have liked all of the character types, I was genuinely interested in what was going to happen to them and how, or even if, the hopes and dreams they had about fulfilling each woman's own personal needs and desires would be fulfilled.
Rebecca is a film about a young girl who meets a rich widower who falls in love with her while they're both in France, and then takes her home with him. When they get there, the young girl discovers that the late Mrs. De Winter, the man's first wife, is far from forgotten, and haunts everything and everyone at the great estate she is now the mistress of.
The new Mrs. De Winter is a timid girl and, after her whirlwind romance, is quite unprepared for the aristocratic life that she's signed on for. She can't quite seem to get used to the servants and the large house and the routine of a 'great lady', or at least can't do it in the way the late Mrs. De Winter, Rebecca, did it. In fact, she's bombarded with traces of Rebecca from the moment she first walks into the manor. Rebecca's initials are embroidered on everything, and the housekeeper, who seemed to have had a very strong attachment to Rebecca, always looks at her with a stern, almost disapproving gaze as she directs her in following Rebecca's footsteps. Her new husband, Maxim, also seems very distant, increasingly so as the pair get to know each other better. She feels like everyone is comparing her to the beautiful, intelligent, genteel Rebecca, and are finding her sadly lacking. What exactly are the details surrounding poor Rebecca's death? Will the new mistress ever find happiness in her new home, or win the love of her new husband? Will the memory of Rebecca haunt her and every other person in the house for eternity? Who knows!!
This was an amazing film. It was two hours long and I was enthralled from the get go. The acting was really well done. Our protagonist emotes such a nervous energy from the beginning of the film, and it morphs wonderfully into a stronger self-assuredness as the film nears its end and as she grows more confident in who she in and how she fits in to her situation. The way Rebecca was portrayed was also very well done. Even though we never once see her image nor are told directly or in great detail about her life, we are subtly made to know her character and traces of her are in almost every scene, and yet not enough to satisfy us. Just enough information about her is provided so as to ensure that the viewer is aware of her distinct importance and impact, but not enough to know in what regard, sparking wild curiosity. The cinematography was also very well done. At one point in the story as Mr. De Winters is reminiscing about Rebecca, the camera is aimed at a couch as he remembers the situation, and then it moves as though Rebecca is there and the camera is following her actions, but there's no one there. You can actually get into Maxim's mind's eye as he remembers, and are forced to imagine the memory he's sharing. Usually that kind of experience is reserved for books, or even radio, as flashbacks are typically shown in film leaving little to the imagination. Everything about Rebecca had to be imagined by the audience, which is what I think makes this film so special. It crosses a threshold in that respect and is truly a piece of art. It makes film not only something to idly watch, but something you can actually interact with and can put your own imagination to work. Brilliant.
This is a wonderful film full of suspense, romance, and mystery. I highly recommend it.
This is a story about a young black woman in the '70's who suffers from multiple personality disorder.
Halle Berry plays a young stripper named Frankie. She's living her life and having fun, but every once in a while she suffers from these blackouts, and when she talks about stripping to the new girl, speaks about a disconnect between her body and mind. One night, she goes to a pool hall and ends up going back to the apartment of the dj at the strip club for some fun, but before anything can happen, she becomes disoriented and then begins speaking to the guy like she'd never met him before, attacks him, and runs out of the apartment onto the street. She passes out there and ends up in a hospital, where a doctor checks her over. The doctor notices right away that Frankie has some psychological problems (he's a psychology professor also) and wishes to examine her further. This doctor discovers that when Frankie experiences these 'blackouts', another personality is taking over her body. He discovers that there are mainly three people inside her head, multiple personality disorder. There is Frankie herself, 'Genius' who is a very intelligent child, and Alice, a racist white woman. As the doctor progresses with Frankie, these characters are fleshed out, and they explore events in her past that may or may not have influenced her condition.
Halle Berry does a pretty good job of acting out the three different characters. Sometimes the transitions between one character and another felt a little superficial, but overall it was a job well done. The film overall was decent. It got the story across well enough, but for me there was an emotional element lacking. If you want another film that does a slightly better job, you can check out The Three Faces of Eve (1957). It's a similar storyline, but it packs that extra suspense and drama in there. That's not to say that this film isn't good though. It does a good job and is very enjoyable.
I really didn't know what to think of this movie until about a quarter into it. It has an art- housey, stream of consciousness element to it, and you have to piece together what's going on as the film progresses. This is a French language film, so there may be some cultural barriers also impeding understanding, but once I got the general idea I found the concept to be quite intriguing. The main character, a man named Oscar, rides around Paris in a limo completing various 'missions', for what purpose we aren't told. The missions require Oscar to become different people, so the entire film is essentially a string of vignettes.
The film opens with a man waking up in a dark room. He seems disoriented and walks around the room, coming finally to a wall covered with forest-themed wall paper. He examines it for a moment, and finds a hole, in which he inserts a bolt attached to his finger, and the wall is revealed to be hiding a door. The man follows a corridor onto the balcony of a packed theater, the audience entranced with whatever is on the screen. A baby waddles down the aisle, and a threatening predator follows. Then the scene changes, and we begin viewing Oscar and his life.
Oscar leaves a huge house full of children and goes to work for the day. There are some very expensive cars in the driveway, but he walks past them to a limo waiting for him. He is greeted by the limo driver and once in the limo, finds a folder briefing him on his first assignment. Oscar is dressed in a suit, has an earpiece that he's talking into. From the initial shot, we get the idea that he's a business tycoon or somethings. He asks the limo driver how many assignments he has that day, and then picks up a folder briefing him on this first of the day... which is to apparently dress up as an old woman and beg for change on a sidewalk.
In each assignment, he is required to complete some task as a different person. He's an old woman, an old man, a trollish looking man who lives in the sewer, a thug, etc. In each of these roles, the people he interacts with seem to know him, as if there is a history between them. It's almost as if he is participating in small segments of several different movies. At one point, he meets with a person who appears to be his boss, and the idea that he's acting for an audience is reinforced. Oscar's last assignment is to go 'home' to his 'family', which are chimpanzees. The last scene we are left with is his limo driver parking the limousine in a lot full of limos, the lot is called Holy Motors. She puts on a plain, white mask, and calls someone to tell them that she was coming home. She then walks out of the parking lot wearing the mask.
I don't really know what this film is trying to say. It could be a literal interpretation of the idea that 'all the world's a stage'. That every situation we encounter is just a dramatization, with actors who are different people than who they're presenting themselves to be in a certain moment. That people alter themselves according to a situation. Maybe it's the idea that we all wear 'masks' in our every day lives. I'm really not sure, but the film was interesting to watch anyway. It's hard to choose a favourite assignment, but I think the one I liked best was when Oscar was an accordion player. He is determinedly walking down a darkened alleyway playing a button accordion, and slowly other people begin joining him with more accordions and various other instruments. It's a passionate scene, it reminds me of grassroots revolutions and the power of music to organize. The song is pretty good too. My second favourite might be the troll scene. He plays this weird man who is singled out by a photographer at a photo shoot and asks if he can join his model to do a 'beauty and the beast' shot. He ends up biting off someone's finger, kidnapping the model and taking her down into the sewers, and then creates this really symbolically charged scene where he has obvious desire for the model, but never actually touches her in an aggressive or sexual way. He takes a bit of her dress and turns it into a sort of hijab like garment, and then falls asleep naked with his head on her lap, flower petals sprinkled on his torso. Also, I don't know if there was a meaning behind the cigarettes, or if it's just a French thing to do, but this guy is a smoke-aholic. He's sucking back a cigarette in almost every scene.
There is nudity in this film, both a weird computer graphic version, as well as the actors themselves. So if you intend to watch this, you now know. It is also in French, so you will have to deal with subtitles.
While I don't really understand what this film means, I kind of like that about it. It's something that I have to actually work out and spend tie thinking about. It's not your average movie about angst or drama or explosions. It's something different, and is actually pretty good. I'm sure I would appreciate it even more if I knew what the 'big picture' was, but it's still very interesting. I couldn't look away. At first, because I didn't understand what was going on, and then because I wanted to understand the reason behind what was going on. Fun for the whole (almost) family!
This is a really good movie. It's a sci-fi, so I was slightly skeptical and was half expecting the cheesy acting or second-rate plot line that can sometimes be found in some sci-fi movies. I can happily say however, that this movie was pretty gripping.
The film places itself in a not too distant future, a time that is more heavily practicing genetic engineering. Our protagonist is name Vincent, who was born at a time where more and more people were choosing to genetically modify the fetuses of their children to create 'ideal' children. They remove less than ideal tendencies, such as alcoholism or depression, and they also make more desired genes more prominent, such as desired height or muscle mass, behavioural practices. At one point the characters go to a musical show and the pianist has six fingers on both hands, which we can only assume were chosen by his parents before he was born. Vincent, being born on the turning point of this trend, is one of the last generations to have parents voluntarily choose to not modify their baby's DNA, and in fact choose to genetically modify his younger brother. As more and more 'ideal' people are being 'created', the people who were not genetically modified slowly become second class citizens. Because of his blood, Vincent was only able to get janitorial work, as no well paying or reputable company would employ a non-genetically modified person. The whole idea of an interview is replaced by a blood test to differentiate between the two kinds of people.
Maybe because of his blood, Vincent is obsessed with the idea of becoming an astronaut and traveling through space, and was since he was as a child. He studies hard, and steadily works hard to get into the company that dealt with this... but is only able to get in as a janitor. He seeks out a guy who, under the table, helps people like Vincent pass themselves off as genetically modified people by pairing them with a genetically modified person who underwent an accident or is in some way unable to work. The crippled person will give samples of blood and urine (which are tested almost daily in workplaces), and pieces of hair or skin that can be spread around a workstation, and in return, that person will be allowed to live with the non-modified person and receive a portion of their paycheck. Vincent it set up with a man named Jerome, and from that point on, becomes 'Jerome'. He applies to the company he wishes to work for, and gets in easily. Things seem to be going well for Jerome/ Vincent, until there's a murder at his work, and one of his hairs are found at the crime scene. The problem is that the hair registers as an invalid... aka non genetically modified person, and endless surprise DNA tests pop up all over, which endangers Vincent's secret identity. Worst of all, with this untimely murder, he is now selected to go to space, but will never get there if is secret is discovered.
This was a really great movie exploring both the mechanization of society and the idea of discrimination. The society is tailoring a new generation of people who are almost 'super people', with only the best qualities present in their genetics. It's like creating an army of robots, in that there is no chance left to their creation. They are intentionally selected to be smarter, faster, stronger, taller, etc. than generations that came before them, and indeed than they may have naturally turned out being. We can clearly see how this is beneficial to a workplace and how this can be seen as an ideal state by a society, so it follows then that we can understand why people who were not 'made' to be better, faster, etc. might be seen as and treated like second class citizens. Why would you want to hire or date someone not as smart, not as fast, not as amiable, when they could have someone better? Why would they even waste time asking the question when a simple blood test will determine if your genetics were 'improved' or not? There's also a Big Brother aspect to this world as well. Everyone's DNA is in a universal data base and the government/ law has complete access to it and people are literally created to meet a social standard. A sort of caste system arises, wherein people who were not manufactured to meet the social ideal are worth less as individuals. For people who do not deal with racism or sexism or class-ism or ageism on a daily basis, this film provides an example of what living with that constant and completely bigoted and illogical injustice is like.
The interesting thing that the film does to provide a sort of counterbalance to that idea is to make Jerome, the man Vincent is pretending to be, unable to use his legs, and so even though he is this super person, is still limited to the flesh and is dependent. On the other hand, Vincent, who is a lesser being, is able to easily pass off as a person who was made to be 'ideal'. This suggests that he is mentally the same or better than some of the people he's working with, and the largest distinction between the two kinds of people is the general perception of their class.
This was an interesting film, and the acting was spot on. Jude Law, Uma Thurman, and Ethan Hawke all perform really well, and the plot keeps you guessing. It's worth the watch.
This is one of those traumatizing movies that you wish you had never seen because you can't get the images out of your head, but at the same time, couldn't tear your eyes away from the horror as it was happening. Warning, not for youth or the easily disturbed.
This majority of this film is told via a flashback of one summer a man named David had in his childhood. David lived in a normal, suburban neighbourhood in the 50's. He was an only child, but got along well with and spent a lot of time with the other boys in his neighbourhood, especially his next door neighbours, a group of boys living with their single mother, Ruth. David's life changed forever the summer that two girls moved into the house next door. Their parents were both killed in a car crash (the younger sister was crippled and required leg braces) and Ruth was their next of kin. The girl's name is Meg and David is taken with her from the moment he lays eyes on her.
David tries to get inconspicuously closer to Meg, but as he spends more time at his neighbour's house, he sees more and more tension between Meg and her Aunt Ruth. At first it's small things like making snide comments about her 'delicate womanhood' or implying that she's a slut. David can tell there is tension, but it just seems uncomfortably out of place, they're just words after all. Things change when one day David comes over and sees Meg's cousins tickling her and one of them touches her breast. The tickling was unwanted, but after the touch Meg shoved the boy to the floor, who then went to tell his mother. Here Ruth starts being physical, but not to Meg. She instead beats Meg's younger sister, who is crippled, as a punishment to Meg. Subtle but severe power struggles such as this continue between Ruth and Meg, Meg having no choice but to succumb to Ruth in order to save her sister. A few days later at an outing, Ruth's boys spot Meg speaking with a police officer who stops by the house to check up on the situation, and here is where it gets a bit uncomfortable. Ruth feels that for her own safety, she must now be much more severe with Meg, which means ordering that Meg be tied up in the basement, hanging from the ceiling. At first, she is just left there, not given enough food, bruises and rope-burns covering her body, but it of course escalates. David watches, horrified, while all of this is going on. He feels that he can't do anything to stop it, that no one would believe him if he were to tell, and yet he doesn't want to abandon Meg. At one point, when she's half destroyed, he sneaks down into the basement and releases her, but instead of running to her freedom, she is caught once again by trying to take her sister away with her. This is where the other half of her gets worked on. Will Meg ever escape? Will David be able to save her? Do you want to know badly enough to risk seeing these images that may never leave you... in the worst sense possible?
I have mixed feelings about this film. It was definitely well done, lets start with that. The acting, cinematography, storytelling; all good. The subject matter however, is really uncomfortable. Throughout the film, the neighbourhood boys are all portrayed as either having these mean tendencies, or not caring enough about another human being to go against the crowd. In fact, excluding David, the boys are all quite taken with the idea of having Meg tied up in the basement, and practically jump over each other to carry out their mother's twisted orders. The other kids from the neighbourhood are no better. There's one scene, the worst one, where a whole bunch of kids come and watch/ help carry out the atrocities done to Meg. Boys and girls come to watch. Ruth is also a really twisted person, which is revealed ever more so as the film progresses. We aren't given much of a back story on her, but it's almost as if she's dead inside and tries kill what light she can see in others. There is physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse in this film. Every so often, I look for psychologically disturbing films. It's something that just morbidly fascinates me, the idea of insanity, or the lengths someone will go to harm someone else, or the motivation behind such actions, or how someone could actually endure something like that. Well on that front this film delivers... too well.
The most disturbing thing about this film is that it's based on a true story. There was a real girl named Silvia Likens who endured some of the same atrocities as were displayed in the film, worse in fact. An American Crime, with Ellen Page, is another film dealing with this case and it retells the story in a way that is closer to the actual events. It is a little more tame in comparison with this, and maybe the go to film if you still want to hear the story without the potential psychological scarring.
If you're in that mood, I recommend this film, but if not... then you probably won't enjoy it, and that might be an understatement.
This is a movie about a parole officer whose life is drastically changed, for the worse, because of the manipulations of a convict he's working with, and the convict's wife.
The parole officer's name is Jack, and the film opens with a scene of he and his wife. His wife is obviously feeling distraught and trapped, and threatens to leave him. He runs upstairs after hearing this, picks up their sleeping daughter, and threatens to throw her out of the window is she leaves him. She doesn't obviously, and we fast forward to their golden years, where nothing much seems to have changed. And this is where the story begins.
Jack is a parole officer about to retire, and his last account is a young punk who calls himself Stone. Stone was convicted for accessory to murder and arson, the victims were his grandparents. Stone is a big talker, and eventually gets his very attractive wife involved to... convince him to let her husband go free. This sounds just like any other con movie, but (and of course anything with Edward Norton in it..) it goes deep than that. Throughout this process, Stone becomes increasingly entranced with this religion supporting the idea that we gain spirituality through our senses, through sounds and the like. There are various buzzing and droning noises throughout the sound scape of the film, and Stone interacts with noise and sound continuously throughout the film. Concepts of noise and silence in the physical world and the relation to the noise and silence within your own self.
Religion and the idea of spiritual connectedness play a large part in this film. Jack attends church every week with his wife (still long-suffering), and yet feels no connection to the faith. He confides to the priest on one occasion that he envies his wife's and daughter's ability to feel connected, but it just seems to get harder and harder for him. He seems to be most bothered by Stone's rising connectivity, which coincides with his further spiritual decline. Jack has never seemed particularly happy with his life, but in his dealings with Stone, it comes to light that not only is he not happy, he is connected to nothing, nothing is important to him. He doesn't care about anything or anyone. Maybe this is why he so easily falls into the 'con' planned by Stone and his wife.
Something else the film deals with is the idea that we're really harsh on people who get convicted for something they've done wrong, and it's not wrong for us to keep the peace, but there are people who do 'bad' things every day, and just aren't caught, or aren't even told that what they're doing is wrong, but they also destroy people's lives.
The movie end with Jack's wife reading some reincarnation theory saying that we all start out as stones, and work our way up the chin of beings until we become human, and we do that to pay for our sins in previous lives. Which ties into the spiritual growth, and maybe even to the ability to process sound on some level.
This was a worthwhile film. It was thought-provoking and gritty. It's not a movie to watch when you're in one of those 'feel good' moods, but it's definitely worth your time.
This is a film from the studio Ghibli, but unlike the other more famous films from that studio (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Ponyo, etc) this one wasn't a Hayao Myazaki production. It does however moderately borrow his style, so it has that appeal. The story is based on the book titled, The Borrowers by Mary Norton, and indeed, the characters share the same names as their novel counterparts.
The story is about a young girl named Arrietty who lives with her mom and dad in a huge house in the countryside. This house is much more large for Arrietty and her parents, because they are all tiny people, about the height of a mouse. Arrietty is a borrower, a small person who lives in a regular bein' (human being) sized house, and borrow things from around the house to survive. If anyone finds out they're there however, they must leave for their own safety.
The story begins when a young human boy comes to the house Arrietty lives in. Sho (or Shawn in the English version), is a terminally sick boy whose mother was raised in that house. He was moved out to the country for the sake of his health, but he's a very lonely boy. Arrietty on the other hand, is ready to go out on her first borrowing mission, but she has some bad luck and Sho sees her! This is a big problem for Arrietty and her family because it means they must now leave the house. Sho of course is delighted that there might be little magical people living in the house and tried to find Arrietty and get close to her. We get to see a little bit of Arrietty's world, Sho's attempts to interact with Arrietty, throw in a suspicious housekeeper who seems to have a burning desire to destroy what she suspects to be little thieves in her house, and that's pretty much the movie.
I'm familiar with this story. I've read the novel and seen the 1997 version of The Borrowers (which I slightly prefer to this representation by the way), so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect and had my own expectations going in. But the film wasn't a disappointment. It was a little slow-moving at times, but the pace was consistent and never did I feel that the story was stagnating. It was more of a charming film than a comedy or drama, more exploratory. I do have to say however, that it was not a top-notch film. Though it used the same style of animation and storytelling as in the Myazaki films, the mood of the film was somewhat stagnant in comparison and lacked that air of magical possibility. In comparison with the 1197 English version, it was a very slow-moving interpretation of the story. The parents are also kind of flat personalities that rely on stereotype rather than demonstration to let you know who they are, and that could be said about almost every character except for Arrietty herself. However, that said, the movie was a nice little film overall and worth a sit through.
This is a documentary film about homeless men in Northern Vancouver who go around in shopping carts, collecting empty bottles to return. When the movie first opens, we learn that these men ride around at break-neck speeds down hills on these carts, and race each other too. It's described almost as an extreme sport of sorts.
This is where the filmmaker come in. The person making the movie was at one point very into snowboarding, and would seek out extreme situations for the adrenaline, but due to an accident, he has been crippled from the waist down and is now in a wheel chair. In this shopping cart racing, he finds a similarity to the adrenaline he found as a snowboarder, and he tries to get close to these men, to be let into their secret world.
The men in this film go through blue boxes and garbage, loading up their shopping carts with glass and plastic bottles. When their cart is full, they go over to a recycling plant and return the bottles for money. As we eventually find out, this money is then spent primarily on cigarettes and alcohol. Most of these men 'rough it', some sleeping out in the woods or under tree cover, tents, one guy has a trailer. As we learn more about these men, they seem oddly content with their place in the world. There is constant talk of how free they are, how little they have to work, this and that, but at the same time, we are also faced with some carefully hidden discontentment. They seem to all be alcoholics, one of the men speak about having considered suicide, and not being able to stay in a shelter because having to face with other people's problems and addictions as well as your own. These men definitely live for the moment and in the moment, not having more than a couple hundred dollars, if that, to their name at any one time.
When this movie was first described to me, I thought it was a hilarious idea. Homeless men making an extreme sport out of racing shopping carts. When I began watching the movie, I realized that it was less about the shopping cart racing than it was about a creative lifestyle combating homelessness, but by the end, I was somewhat depressed. These men are facing some personal trials, and are trying their best to live normal lives, but can't seem to escape the situation. They don't want any help either. This I can understand though, as was also stated by the filmmaker. Sometimes when you're not at your best, when you're facing a personal trial or feel that you've failed, help from someone else just feels like a reminder of your flaws, or a recognition that you can't take care of yourself. Anyway, an interesting movie. A unique look into a segment of Vancouver's homeless population.
This is one of those movies that no one has seen, or even knows the name of, but everyone knows the famous scene of the movie where John Cusack holds the radio above his head. It is a good movie though, so if you have not seen it, I recommend that you do.
Lloyd Dobbler is an average teenage boy, maybe a bit less than average if truth be told, no foreseeable prospects or future. In his last year of high school, actually, just after convocation, he declares to his friends that he is going to ask out the valedictorian, the smartest girl in school, Diane Court. His friends warn him away from this because he and Diane movie in different social circles, and there's no way she would give him a chance. They also tell him that he's such a nice guy, and they don't want him to get hurt. He of course disregards this advice and calls her up to invite her to a house party. Initially, Diane is not taken with Lloyd, but on a whim, and because she feels like she's studied so hard throughout the year that she has no social life, she decides to go. Things go quite well at the party for Lloyd, and he and Diane start dating. He is obsessed with her, and she seems to like him also, but not as much. Things seems to be going well, until Diane's father gets nervous that Diane's interest in Lloyd will interfere with the overseas scholarship she's won. Her father is also facing a very troubling audit, and he's being accused of money laundering, and Diane is fighting hard to prove her father innocent, and generally dealing with the stress her father is placing on her and the contradicting emotions she feels for Lloyd and her father. She eventually breaks up with Lloyd for her father, and Lloyd is left with the decision to let her go, or to try to win her back. And Diane is faced with choosing between her father and Lloyd. What will happen to them??!
This is a cute movie. One of the things I noted about it right away was that it's a story about true love in a world where true love is rarely found. All of the people in Lloyd's life are either in bad relationships, or were. His sister (played by his real life sister, uncredited) whom he lives with was left with a child by her boyfriend. His parents are non-existent, his best friend is always pining after a guy who cheated on her and broke up with her, and non-essential characters are constantly breaking up or fighting if they're in a relationship, or sadly alone and lamenting the idea of relationships. So Lloyd is fighting everything he knows innately about relationships to follow his heart and pursue Diane and what he believes is true love.
There are a lot of 'quotables' in this movie, but one of my favourites are when Lloyd is talking to Diane's father about what he doesn't want to do when he grows up "I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that." For a while I felt this way and it always resonated with me. And that kind of encapsulates Lloyd. He's not a cookie cutter high schooler, and he doesn't want to be.
Though this is a lesser known 80's flick, it's just as good as 16 Candles or Pretty in Pink and all of those. The characters are real and endearing, and it's refreshing to have a romance movie not just be about romance, because it never is in real life. It's a great movie, and you should watch it if you haven't yet done so.
This story is about two mothers who make a fortune together, and their relationship with their daughters. The story opens with a white mother, Bea, dressing her daughter Jesse, when the phone rings and she goes downstairs to answer it. Upon hanging up, she sees a matronly black woman, Delilah, at the door who is answering an ad for a live in maid. Bea hadn't put an ad in the paper however, but before sending the woman on her way, she discovers that Delilah has a young daughter, Peola, and because she refuses to abandon her, is having difficulty finding a job. Bea agrees to take her on without pay so that Delilah and Peola have a place to stay. Bea has taken over her late husband's syrup selling business, and goes out every day to try selling it. One day, Delilah is making pancakes from Bea before she goes out to work, and Bea really likes the pancake recipe. Delilah tells her that it's a family secret, but shares it with Bea. That very same day, Bea goes out and rents a storefront... to set up a pancake house. The business is successful, but not booming, until one day a homeless looking man walks into the store and Bea offers him some pancakes on the house. He then suggests to her that if she wants to make it big, she should take the route that Coke took and bottle it... or box it, the mix that is, and sell the flour to people. Bea loves the idea and even makes a smiling picture of Delilah the company logo, calling it Aunt Delilah (Aunt Jemima much?). And so begins the story.
The business continues and they make a lot of money (mostly Bea, as Delilah doesn't seem to get the concept of making money... why would the black character not want to continue living a subservient life when she could be a millionaire? Great writing here), but as the girls grow older, problems arise. Peola struggles the most in this film with her relation to race. As she is light enough to be taken for a white girl, she scorns any evidence of her black history... namely her mother. She wants to try to move as far away from the idea as she can and often tries to blend in with other white people and succeeds, until her mother comes into the picture. We do not see as much dissension with Jesse (because of course the white girl would be sweet and obedient), until Bea's beau comes into the picture. Jesse quickly develops a crush on him, leaving Bea with the difficult decision of which of them she will choose.
This was a good film... if somewhat racist, but remember that this is the 1930's. Delilah is portrayed as the sweet hearted, but not so bright woman who only knows and wants servitude for herself. Her daughter Peola is nothing like her mother and, maybe because of that, is always causing grief with her own apparent selfishness. That is not to say that she is shown in a negative way, but not much sympathy is given to her for wanting more for herself than the discrimination and blind hatred faced by black people in those times. Also, this film tries to position Bea as having this heart of gold for having a soft spot for Delilah and taking her and Peola in, but she shows little concern or care for them and their plights for most of the film. She will be around and make appropriate facial expressions, but doesn't actually comfort either of the two when they face hardship. I don't know if this was the way the part was played or if the actress just felt this way and didn't properly disguise it, but there is an air of inherent superiority in Bea's dealings with Delilah. Even at the beginning of the film when she invites Delilah in and eventually allows her to stay, I got the sense that she didn't like her and wanted her to go. In commonplace interactions, Bea is somewhat distant and slightly patronizing with Delilah, and then when she's doing something 'charitable' she over acts it. It's actually quite fascinating to watch. Then there is also the fact in the plot that Bea essentially stole Delilah's secret pancake recipe and exploited it for her own profit, and then even made Delilah clean the store, cook the pancakes for the customers, and be the face of the product, all for the honour of working as her maid and nanny. Needless to say this would be in the lineup of interesting film to watch if one were to try piecing together the history of white/ black relations.
Aside from the politics however, I found the film to be enjoyable. It falls flat when compared to the 1959 remake, but is still a worthwhile watch.
Apparently this was the trailer targeting the black audience of the day
When I first heard of this movie, and when I first began watching it, it seemed like it would be a long, boring movie about men walking around. Well it was long, but boring not so much. What I came to realize is that, from my perspective, this is like the new form of western.
It almost has the same elements as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but re-imagined. There is The Good, in the form of an aging sheriff, The Bad, in the form of a psychopathic serial killer, and The Ugly, represented by some ne'er-do-well scavenger just looking to cash in.
The Sheriff Ed Tom, begins this story by explaining the title of the film. He says that he wonders how the 'Old Timers' would have reacted to the things people do today. How even the bad things done back in the day were done with a stronger sense of right and wrong, that there were more principles, the some sheriffs didn't even carry guns (for my purposes, compare The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly to this movie). And to compound this point, the good-hearted sheriff in this movie seems to be left in the dust by the bad and the ugly. He can't seem to keep up with or understand them, almost as if they were from different worlds.
The Ugly, Llewelyn, is a scavenger by nature. He wanders around the desert looking for anything that will help him survive. The inciting moment in this story is when he stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong, and he tracks down the money. He is then sends his wife off to her mother, to protect her, and then goes on the run from whoever will be chasing after him to get this money.
Little does Llewelyn know, what's chasing him is a psychopathic serial killer, who would play the role of The Bad in my comparison. This is a man of many morals, but none of them inspiring him to do good. He ruthlessly tracks down the money, killing a slew of people randomly along the way. He's oddly principled though. For example, several times throughout the film he puts a person's life in the hands of fate, and will make them call a coin. If they pick the right side, he lets them live, but if not... then no. There is no ill emotion in his actions however. He acts almost as though he's following some supernatural instruction, and is almost disconnected from what he's doing.
The movie is about one man running from another man, and a third man bringing up the rear trying to find one or both of the first two, and yet, none of these three characters ever actually come face to face with each other. It's kind of slow-paced and there is a lack of dialogue at times, but it is a thoughtful film. There is a battle of wits at play here. Llewelyn and the man hunting him are always trying to stay one step ahead of the other, trying to guess the other man's next move, for if (or when) they interact, it's a fight to the death. The sheriff bringing up the rear plays the role of bearing witness more than he interacts with these men on the intellectual battlefield, but at the beginning of the film, even he shows some powers of deduction as he surveys the deadly drug deal. His mentality is spent more in presenting to the audience the idea that times have changed. Even though it isn't the most action-packed movie ever made, it still is intense once you get into it. It's suspenseful and interesting, but more for the ideas it presents rather than for the 'action'. Maybe the reason this movie gets the 'slow' label is because people think that it will be an action movie, and are then disappointed by the lack of 'action'. If you get past that though, there's something here to be appreciated that is making an important statement. Pretty good.
This is a gem, in the worst sense possible. If you were to get together with a group of friends, got very drunk, and wanted to watch something absolutely horrible that would make you all laugh, this might be on the list.
The premise of the movie is that a bed in an abandoned mansion is possessed by a demon spirit, and eats whatever or whoever it comes in contact with. The mansion is abandoned because the bed ate everyone in the house, and potentially everyone in the local area. Before you get your hopes up for hilarity, the bed cannot move on its own. It doesn't talk either. The only way that we the audience are able to understand what's going on with the bed it through the voice on the narrator, one of the bed's victims who did not completely die and is not trapped behind a drawing he made of the bed. The story takes off when three women come up to the house from the country to 'get away', and they come across this abandoned house, which is of course the logical place to spend the night. Slowly, the bed claims them one by one, but there is a problem with one of the girls, who, as the narrator tells us, remind the bed of its creation. Yes really. Eventually, the ghostly narrator tells the girl from behind the drawing, to create some ritual that will hopefully destroy the bed. Will anyone survive its evil comfort!?
This movie was so bad. First of all, the narrator has this very morose, almost bored British voice that clearly exists only to give the bed's 'thoughts' a voice. Throughout the movie, the narrator has a one-sided conversation with no one about what the bed is thinking, feeling, and doing. It crosses the line of ridiculous. The actors are all very bad. They don't get into character at all and are stiff and awkward, just saying lines rather than actually acting them.
The very worst of all is the bed though. It makes these awkward crunching and slurping noise when it's eating, or swallowing noises when it drinks. The way it eats people is to slowly have them sink down into the sheets, which apparently open up into some void, represented by this yellow foam. We then get to see whatever it's eaten in this liquidy, yellow limbo where they disintegrate in what we can only assume is a bed's equivalent to stomach acid. At the beginning of the movie (one of the worst parts) a young couple comes into the mansion to... have some fun, and the brought a picnic. While they're kissing, the bed sneakily takes their food and eats it... but then returns the left overs to the top of the bed. So an apple sinks into the bed, an apple core comes back up. A bucket of chicken sinks down, the bucket comes back up with chicken bones. But the bed seems to not be consistent, because it later eats things that are not even food and doesn't seem to mind.
I would not really recommend that you watch this alone. Not because it's a horror movie... but because if you don't have someone to laugh with, you will probably get bored about half way through. If that far.
