Posted on October 4th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet The Island – Director Michael Bay Pure Hollywood. With all that means. Good and bad. A good idea, pared down to the bare essentials; razor-sharp editing, some of the best choreographed action sequences to date; and good performances. May knows how to make a satisfying commercial product. Thankfully this is more The Rock than […]
Filed under: 3 star, Drama, General, Hollywood, Michael Bay, Philosophical, Romance, Sci-Fi | No Comments »
Posted on October 4th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet In Good Company – Paul Weitz They say many movies nowadays are pitched on a 5 line synopsis. It is beginning to show. In Good Company is a pleasant, undemanding, night at the movies. But it is a slither of an emotional idea whose uncomfortable facile build-up takes longer than its more satisfying, though […]
Filed under: 3 star, Comedy, Drama, General, Hollywood, Paul Weitz, Romance | No Comments »
Posted on October 3rd, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Rendition – Gavin Hood Coup-de-Cinema is the only term I can think of to describe the quite extraordinary twist that ends this otherwise workmanlike, enjoyable but unremarkable political thriller. The practice of political ‘rendition’ is new enough not to appear in the dictionary as a separate meaning from one of its literal senses of […]
Filed under: 3 star, Drama, Gavin Hood, General, Hollywood, Philosophical, Political, War | No Comments »
Posted on October 3rd, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Pride and Prejudice – Director Joe Wright Not quite Rachmaninov but close. Matthew MacFadayen’s Mr Darcy emerging from the early morning mist to open his passionate heart to Elizabeth Bennett runs neck and neck, or rather chest to chest, with Colin Firth’s wet shirt. It’s the surging sub-Rachmaninov score that perhaps gives it the […]
Filed under: 3 star, Drama, Europe/World cinema, General, Joe Wright, Romance | No Comments »
Posted on October 3rd, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet The Lake House – Alejandro Agresti Disbelief is protective. Darwinian almost. A sort of emotionalised doubt. Doubt and disbelief are connected with our desire for evidence, truth. Challenging, testing things out so we get them right and are not misled or deceived. Thus protected. Suspending our disbelief therefore is a gesture of good will. […]
Filed under: 3 star, Alejandro Agresti, Drama, General, Hollywood, Philosophical, Romance | No Comments »
Posted on October 1st, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Lions For Lambs – Robert Redford Lion For Lambs fails its own ethic. Its central message is that a better future than the appalling post-9/11 mess of US foreign and domestic politics, requires its brightest and best young people to become engaged in social and political affairs and not to evade the deep challenges […]
Filed under: 3 star, Drama, General, Hollywood, Philosophical, Political, Robert Redford, War | No Comments »
Posted on September 30th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Miss Potter – Chris Noonan Innocence is by definition unknowing. The ‘magic of childhood’ isn’t something a child experiences but an effort by adults to describe the palpable, heart-stopping delight they see in the eyes of children entranced, absorbed in a picture, a story, a game. Or poignantly, cherished memories of their own childhood. […]
Filed under: 3 star, Chris Noonan, Comedy, Drama, General, Hollywood, Romance, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted on September 30th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Cold Mountain – Anthony Minghella For Anthony Minghella it seems there is nothing like a good book: The English Patient (Ondaatje), The Talented Mr Ripley (Highsmith) and now his much praised adaptation of Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain. In so far as this demonstrates a faith in good writing, I’m with him all the way. […]
Filed under: 3 star, Anthony Minghella, Drama, General, Hollywood, Philosophical, Romance | No Comments »
Posted on September 27th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Superman Returns – Brian Singer Billy Connolly reckons a sign of getting older is that your feet get further away – harder to reach. So we should cut Superman some slack if it now takes him two and a half hours to save the world: a little chore he used to knock off in […]
Filed under: 3 star, Action, Brian Singer, Comedy, Drama, General, Hollywood, Humorous, Sci-Fi | No Comments »
Posted on September 27th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet bit heavy on the after-shave there Jamie Miami Vice – Michael Mann Michael Mann doesn’t bore us with this movie. But it is hard to believe that the director of Manhunter, Heat, and especially The Insider did not bore himself while making it. There is so little aspiration here. The original TV series was […]
Filed under: 3 star, Action, Detective, Drama, General, Hollywood, Michael Mann | No Comments »
