The Critical Filmmaker

If a film can be noisy without making noise, this one would be even without the noise it's implying.  And that's what films do these days.  They take a word and play on it.  So noise can be literal or it can be visual or it can be just the acting in general being just over the top. And, yes, the acting was over the top.  And that's what really hurt this film. Tim Robbins plays a Manhattan resident who is growing increasingly annoyed by the minute as car alarms disturb his peace.  When conventional methods to silence them doesn't work, he takes to a bat and destroys the offensive cars. His maniacal antics are the crux of the film, but rather than being funny or amusing, they get just as annoying as the alarms themselves.  William Hurt can't save this movie from it's lower depths. Skip it.

When I go to film screenings, I prefer not to read the premise ahead of time.  I believe that doing so might ruin the surprise.  There have been times I have found myself either losing interest, because too much has been revealed in the synopsis, or I wind up expecting too much.  This doesn't happen often, but it has occurred on occasion, and so since I can't pick and choose what will be shown at a preview screening, I chose to be clueless about what is to unfold in front of my eyes. Sadly, I can't avoid what the guest host (aka film critic) will say as part of their introduction to the film.  For Last Stop 174, the film critic set it up by telling us that the film was loosely based on a true story about a bus hijacker in Brazil.  We were warned that it was fiction, but the idea that it was about a hijacker, made it seem intriguing. Sadly, it was anything but.  The hijacking doesn't happen on camera.  The last scene we see is him getting on the bus...

A friend of mine told me that I shouldn't see the film, but read the book instead.  I decided to watch it anyway, since it was on cable the other night.  It's not a bad film, but I felt something was lacking.  I've noticed something interesting with films adapted from books.  They either skim the surface, because they assume everyone has read the book, or they skim the surface because they have a deal with the author to entice people to go and read the book after they've finished the movie. Of course, not all film adaptations fall into this trap.  The Lord of the Rings and the very first Harry Potter film are a few of several who give the audience enough information to comprehend what's going on.  Then there are films like Seabiscuit which told a great story, but glossed over the background, leaving me feeling like they were just playing out highlights from the book.  The second Harry Potter film was much worse.  I couldn't follow it at all an...

When I first saw the trailer to this film I was intrigued.  I enjoy films with plots involving writers or English teachers, so this one seemed right up my alley, but then I read a few reviews and changed my mind. While at a film screening for another movie, my screening companions told me they loved The Ghost Writer and that I should see it.  I finally got the chance last weekend during a free preview of Showtime on Demand.  So I sat back on Saturday afternoon and watched the film. Sadly, I should have listened to the critics. I found the film to be too slow-moving to make any impact once the truths were revealed.  There were also plenty of questions in relation to the plot holes by the end of it. Sadly I don't recommend this film to anyone unless you're a big Ewan MacGregor fan.  Pierce Brosnan fans shouldn't bother as he is barely in it and what he does contribute is minimal at best. The best thing to come out of this film is the posting on the IMDB ...

I had mixed feelings about a Tintin film, since I had seen photographs from a live-action version when I was a child and wasn't impressed with it.  The characters looked like caricatures and not real people and that disappointed me.  However, when Stephen Spielberg explained his motivation for making the film, and when I heard that Peter Jackson was involved and was a huge fan of Tintin, it piqued my interest. I've been a Tintin fan for over 30 years.  One thing I enjoy about the stories they appeal to people of all ages.  I find myself discovering new things every time I read them, especially since there were things that I didn't comprehend as well as a child.  Among other things, Captain Haddock's exclamations became funnier and funnier as I got older. One thing that I enjoyed about the Tintin film was the way they depicted the friendship between Haddock and Tintin.  They captured it very well. I'm not sure how those new to Tintin felt about that unli...

Why do people enjoy uncomfortable, situations where people argue, whine and and embarrass themselves?  How many times can puke be funny?  When is it ever funny? Carnage is the product of Roman Polanski, whom (I'm told) likes to explore feelings of claustrophobia.  I've only seen a few Polanski films, but not enough to know of this beforehand. From the outset Carnage gives us the following scenario:  Two 11-year-old kids have an argument in the playground, one strikes the other with a branch and knocks the boy's teeth out.  Soon the parents get involved and meet at the wounded child's home to work things out. Right from the start I knew this was a bad idea, especially seeing how uptight all four parents were.  The air was so thick I could see it. After the four parents seemingly agreed to make amends and resolve the issue, the parents of the branch-wielding boy (played by Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) said their awkward goodbyes and headed for t...

If you want to see this film, which I recommend highly, then I suggest you do not read any summaries.  I didn't before I saw it, but after I did and I think had I read the plot I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. Not that there's anything wrong with the plot.  On the contrary, it's well written and performed.  The issue is how much predictability do you like to observe when watching a film.  This movie is unpredictable.  I had no idea how it was going to wind up, and that's the fun of it.  Reading a plot summary could possibly give too much away without intending to.  So avoid the summary and see this film. I will say this - just to give you an idea of what type of movie it is - it's an amusing, heartwarming and funny character study. And that's all I'll say.... Oh, yes.  I almost forgot.  It's a French film with a few scenes in English, because they take place in London. That's it.