GrafZahl Reviews

About Schmidt (2002)

Comedy?????

[7/10 · 23 February 2003]

A Comedy????? No, this was not a comedy, it was a drama and nothing but a drama.

In a way it was sadly true. There are a lot of lonesome old people in the world, and there are a lot of couples living together without knowing each other, and there are a lot of parents and children who have lost the mutual respect towards each other.

But in the world there are normal people, only in this movie there is no-one. Schmidt's daughter is selfish, unthankful and totally consumed by her fiancé's family. This family itself is totally nuts, and all the persons Schmidt meets in his journey are very strange people.

Come on, this is not true. And there is hope in the world, not all people have gone mad.

Very good acting, indeed. But far too pessimistic. Reminds me a bit of the US-American contribution of the '11-9-2001'-Project (which is genius, however).

So, all in all: 7/10.

Autumn in New York (2000)

Boring, boring, boring

[1/10 · 30 November 2000]

Well, to be honest, I left the movie after 45 minutes, so I do not know if it becomes any better in the end, but I deeply doubt it.

The story is no story, but it is just a bore. The characters stay absolutely unbelievable and flat, and so you do not care about what is happening.

Well, the actors are quite nice, and so I will give 1 point for that.

And as always, I swear myself to consult the IMDB comments next time BEFORE I go to a movie. If I only had done so!

Solas (1999)

Very touching drama

[10/10 · 25 July 1999]

An elderly woman from the village brings his husband, a tyrannic drunkard, to hospital in Sevilla. While he is there she lives in the apartment of her daughter María.

María is not too pleased with her mother's presence because she has a lot of problems herself: She is not content with her life as a cleaning woman, she has a serious alcohol problem, and she is pregnant by a graceless truck-driver who refuses any responsibility and wants her to make an abortion.

María first refuses all help from her mother who has to spend her days alone in the city. She makes the acquaintance of her daughter's neighbour (Carlos Ávarez, absolutely brilliant), a widower who lives alone with his dog and falls in love with María's mother.

So, the two lonely (solas) women have to make their decisions: María if she wants to keep her baby (which she herself sees as the only possibility to change her sad life), her mother if she leaves her useless husband who had always treated her badly and who had chased away his children from his house...

I was very touched by this movie whilst I could not believe what the mother had borne in her life. But my Spanish girl-friend told me that this was absolutely usual for the older generation, especially in Andalusía.

The atmosphere of this movie is very gloomy, but it has its moments of hope. (Very interesting the changes of light in these scenes.) All in all, a very good movie, I gave it a 10.

As we see, Spain is not always what it seems to be: When we left the cinema, it rained.

Instinct (1999)

Entertaining, ambitious movie, but flat characters

[7/10 · 24 July 1999]

In the first minutes of this movie when I saw this young psychologist (Cuba Gooding) I just thought: Scheiße, the movie's hero is just another young dynamic pushy, this kind of persons who learn to hate when you watch these Hollywood lawyer films with Tom Cruise. But then I figured out that actually the emotional vacuum of this pushiness is the movie's theme. So, sorry for criticizing.

The movie is entertaining, has its moments of deepness and very hard tries to work out man's nature.

But it is not 100% convincing, and the characters just leave you untouched. I would have liked to see more of the protagonist's life and way of thinking in order to understand the personality. Ok, and the ending is very movie-like.

So all in all I would say --7.

Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (1999)

Better than I thought

[11 April 1999]

Before I went to see it I had some open items about this movie: - How would the actors fulfill the roles of the cartoon characters? - To which book(s) will the movie refer? And the really most important question: - How the hell are they going to animate the flying Romans?

To answer the last question: The special effects are really brilliant, every Asterix-fan will be delighted by the ways how the Romans leave ground. As well I really fell in love with the village.

Some actors are really good. Most of all Roberto Benigni as the evil Destructivus is gorgeous. As well, I was positively surprised by Depardieu as Obelix. But Asterix is not as witty and humorous as in the books, Miracolix (alias Panoramix or Getafix) the druid is not the relaxed old wise.

The plot is new but has a lot of motives from the books. The real Asterix-fan will have noticed (I only know the German titles): Der Seher, der Kupferkessel, der Gallier, die Goten, als Legionaer, and there are surely more.

All in all I really much enjoyed the movie although I was really skeptic about it before. And I missed the pirates.

The Inheritors (1998)

Great movie with remarkable heroes

[9/10 · 12 March 1999]

The old farmer, a real tyrant, dies. Since he has no (legal) offspring the other local farmers are already dividing his legacy among themselves. But surprisingly, the farm-workers inherit the farm. Since a labourer cannot be accepted as a farmer, incredible waves of intrigues and brutality close over the seven brave inheritors. A fight for justice and life arises.

Once you have adopted yourself to the strange camera work this movie will not leave you untouched. The acting is great. Normally, if you have rebels in a film, they are perfect, always good, and superior. These heroes are labourers, uneducated, they have never seen anything more of the world than their valley, and they are absolutely indelicate, and only some of them are real fighters for justice.

This is great cinema!

Enemy of the State (1998)

Totally uninspired "thriller"

[2/10 · 12 March 1999]

What a waste of time watching this movie!

I mean how many movies have you seen with the following plot: 1000 agents equipped with the most expensive machines of their times are still unable to hunt down one single man because he is so clever.

There must be about 60,389 films like this, so why should anyone produce yet another one?

This movie is a complete bore.

Aimee & Jaguar (1999)

An impressing love-story in war-time Berlin.

[10/10 · 28 February 1999]

Lilly, a mother-of-4, disappointed by her unfaithful huband is eagerly looking for love. - In a war-time Berlin where insanity rules: a murderous Nazi-dictatorship leaving no space for freedom, constant allied bomb attacks destroying and killing. She finally finds love in Felice (brilliant: Maria Schrader), a Jewish girl, part of the Berlin Lesbian scene. Lilly breaks with her husband, despite (or because?) of all the terror around they are having an intense love affair until finally the terror proves to be stronger... All this sounds very made-up but it is a true story. Lilly is still living in Berlin having stayed alone since then. And all this sounds like a kitschy and schmaltzy movie, but thanks to the fact that it is not a Hollywood production it isn't. Much more it is overwhelming and always stays near-to-life. A movie about the huming being's will to be happy despite all insanity. Absolutely recommended!