Film Reviews by JD

The rise of Stalinism as experienced by an orphan. Her self appointed guardian is actively pro-revolution. Her male mentors apparently anti-revolution. The plot is quite interesting. The portrayal of a slightly disturbed girl however is annoying, tedious and dull. Shot in black and white presumably to emphasise the historical setting of late 1940s. I suspect it is not contextually detailed enough for those who may wish to watch it for its political history, I wished to watch it as a drama. It was poor.

The title and cover should have conveyed to me that it was not going to be an enjoyable experience. This goes much further into bleakness than lends itself to entertainment. There are 40 second scenes of heavy rain falling onto concrete waste-ground. There are long soliloquies with metaphors so abstract and tortured I defie anyone to maintain concentration throughout a single sentence. Lock up your knives before watching this desolate and depressing, black and white, soul crusher.

It is how I imagine an acid trip. Long scenes focussing on textures, and minute detail. Virtually no dialogue. Scenes connected very abstractly. Smiling old men with hiccoughs. There are also some slightly shocking moments. Caught in the gentle beauty of a bee-keeper lifting honey combs with curls of smoke evocatively drifting through the air a bee is carefully picked out and squashed. Scurrying through their tunnel a mole catches a worm and eats it ravenously. He is then in turn killed with the spade of a gardener. Each moment detailed in close up with faint noises and textures explored. Watched sober it is pretty boring. This is definitely for drug fuelled viewing.

I think this film was conceived to combine lots of deaths by shooting, with a count down climax. The "Hit List" of 5 victims is drawn up in an unbelievable way and executed in an even less believable and certainly tediously mechanical way. I don't expect to see Allan Campbell shoot to fame on his performance, Cuba Gooding was mis-cast. Best avoided.

The current rating is 3 stars with 1 review which gave 1 star. This applies in my opinion if you watch the film as a thriller, which is how it is described. I was smiling from start to finish with a couple of belly laughs in between. The characters are all lovable losers, the action is fun and there are plenty of one liners to make you smile. The only violence is a cross between Jack Black and Arnold Swarchenegger, and creates a fantastic slapstick. As a thriller/spy adventure it is thin, as a comedy it is outstanding.

This 1984 film was released in 1985 as a DVD, I think 2005 must be a typo. If you're expecting early Dirty Harry, it is not as violent and the main character is not as heroic. I thought it was pretty good generally but lacked suspense. The background music was clichéd and the pictures of training shoes walking ominously, although an Eastwood trademark, was not as sinister as usual. Walking around houses looking for baddies in the dark is a little unlikely (just turn the lights on) and should only be done once in a film for impact, I lost count of the number of creeping scenes.

The plot is interesting if a little stretched. The conflict of religion and science is interestingly explored and the possibility of extraterrestrial life (hardly new) is also thoughtfully approached. Some of the scientist minor roles are well played but generally it is quite ordinary. The dazzling performance of Jodie is slightly out of kilter with this making her look a bit too dramatic. I appreciated it though. McConaughey who I think is so good in Sahara is a bit 2-D in this, I think he played it the same way. The 18 hours of space travel is very good and feels great, wish I'd seen it at the cinema.

I think there has been a lull in creative genius from the Parks camp since wrong trousers. Loaf and Death still lacks some of the comic beauty of a close shave, but this one has a sort of pathos. The slimcea girl eats too much bread and becomes bitter. You have to have grown up in the slimcea/nimble era for it to be funny but I liked it.

Some of the acting is a little weak but moments also of great drama. For my taste much too much light petting and clothed fumblings. It seemed a poor ploy to keep attention. It is all a bit too American middle class suburban to be original. The adverts for funereal products are definitely the refreshing original witty twist this series needed and grew on me, otherwise average.

On the DVD it states 1980 for part 1, it feels older. It draws freely from contrasting genres. Natural history narration leads to satirical comedy back to slap stick with moments of pathos. Loved every minute especially the bonus features. Too non-PC to have been made within the last 10 years.

The subject matter is pretty disheartening, a community driven by drug making and drug use because it is so utterly desolate. Governed by murderers who threaten police and beat up single mothers trying to find their father.

The acting wins through and transforms this from a potentially awful experience to a personal one filled with determination and endurance.

When performing in vitro fertilisation it is hammy to say the least when a computor pop up states the outcome and further pop ups update onlookers to the progress. Maybe CSI is to blame for dramatising the science lab to such an extent as to lead us to expect instant and exciting experiments. It doesn't work. It can work, I think Sahara combines science with drama well. The horror doesn't really go with the academic stuff.

On a positive note there were ethical issues that were explored regarding gene technology and commercialism. How did they do the creature? Must have been a mixture of techniques. That was pretty convincing.

I am not generally a seeker of Art or Arty films but this was absolutely fantastic. I never knew street Art could be so good and so premeditated. Banksy is the boldest political Artist imaginable. Painting a child being lifted by balloons on the Gazza Strip Wall while soldiers bear down is an inspiring feat. The picture of paradise seen through a hole in the wall was beautiful.

Mr Brain Wash is a product of our society but is not so inspirational; but without him the rest would be unknown.

Strange plot to start with where a very unusual context is not explained initially. Having worked out where, when, how the plot then trickles along. Lots of fighting in which 1 beats 10. An amusing scene in which a house is shot to bits (not a novel trick) and a small but unexpected twist at the end is not enough to leave you dazzelled. Denzel is good of course and well casted to the character. The plot let him down.

It is such a shame that so much effort went into the photography of birds in flight, particularly in formation, but also in a stampede and many other breathtaking scenes; but so little effort into finishing off the film. There are some sub-titles but not many. There is some narration by a Frenchman whose command of English is so poor that he searches for words during the commentary. The question that must occur to everyone watching the film is "How do you get such close up shots of birds in flight?" If you switch on the directors commentary it is so boring that you will probably miss the allusion to the answer. Essentially only 2 ways are vaguely described though it is suggested there were more. It could have been so much better with so little extra.