Film Reviews
It’s film binge time again, so here’s some brief reviews.
The Darjeeling Limited
Excellent. If you like Wes Anderson - and he basically just makes different versions of the same film - you’ll love it. I’m not an automatic fan - I love some of his films, but others never appealed. But I like this one a lot. The cinematography is just fantastic, and if Owen Wilson isn’t the best looking guy in the world I don’t know who is. 9/10
Rambo 4
Fucking awful in every way. Unwatchably bad. Ludicrous plot made somehow even more annoying by its attempt at being heartwarming. Even the action sucks. Just fucked, don’t waste your time. 2/10
There Will Be Blood
Great. More fantastic cinematography, excellent acting, especially from the lead, and a hypnotising soundtrack. Not the typical type of plot - more like an account, a record answering the question “how did this lead to this” - but a brilliantly executed one. Definitely worth your time if you can handle it. 8/10
No End In Sight
A decent documentary on the incompetence, hubris and arrogance leading to the USA’s spectacular balls-up of the Iraq war. Not bad but I was uncomfortable watching it - despite my wholehearted agreement with pretty much everything in the film, I didn’t appreciate the air of cherry picking and foregone conclusions the film has. I’d like to see Rumsfeld charged with war crimes as much as anyone, but deliberately interspersing B-roll footage of him laughing at jokes with harrowing footage of death and destruction is a clumsy technique and will only reduce the film’s credibility in the eyes of those who need to see it most.
Furthermore, the film is already out of date - America’s “surge”, otherwise known as “bringing the troop levels up closer to what they should have been from day one”, has actually been very successful, and the whole Iraq adventure has slowly been dragging itself out of its initial disgrace.
And one wonders whether it’s too little too late - and who the audience is, and what it’s trying to say? The US military has learned its lesson by now. Bush is going in a few months no matter what. McCain, the new Republican candidate, was strongly critical of the war’s management.
Worth watching, but. 6/10
Taxi To The Dark Side
Another war documentary, this time on the topic of “enemy combatant” detentions. Very disturbing, although if you follow the issue you know it all already. Much more worrying than No End In Sight. 7/10
March 7th, 2008 at 9:30 am
I’d really been looking forward to Rambo 4 - is it really that bad? Have you seen I, II and III? How does it compare to them? I really liked Rambo II… I was hoping it might be somehow along the lines of that film, being back in asia etc..
March 7th, 2008 at 10:17 am
haha it just occurred to me - you actually got through that movie?? When I saw the preview, I thought “Sho will never be able to watch this”.
(edited by Sho - no real names please!
)
March 7th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Ximeng:
Yes, I’ve seen the originals and was also looking forward to it. I saw 1 again recently but haven’t seen 2 for a very long time - maybe I should queue it up!
Well, as with all things it may be a matter of taste but I was very disappointed. As I said, the plot is ludicrous. The “enemy” is a ridiculous caricature. But hell, I can forgive all of that if it’s at least got some cool fighting, etc!
But no. Well, I didn’t think so anyway. To me the fighting was as ridiculous as the plot - there’s a scene in which Rambo kills about 5 people in a row with a fucking bow and arrow. They are fully armed military men, btw, with automatic weapons and he is in plain enough sight. As IF.
And the physics also annoyed me. Whenever some slope gets shot with a sniper rifle - a hand-portable one which is fired from a bipod, mind you - they fly off the screen like they were hit by an invisible shinkansen. Give me a break. I could go on and on and on.
So - who knows, if you have the bandwith to burn maybe watch a bit and see what you think. But I was seriously disappointed!
March 7th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Ha, of course I could sit through it! Jesus, I’m not that bad. It’s not like he performs surgery on himself .. >_<