xbernard Reviews

The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)

greatly involving and feels authentic

[9/10 · 27 May 2011]

1920: Two Irish brothers, Damion O'Donovan (played by Cillian Murphy) and Teddy O'Donovan (Pádraic Delaney) join the IRA to fight for independence.

I thought at first this was going to be just another war drama, but the movie gives a very authentic feeling, and at times I almost forgot I was watching actors. There's a real sense of place, time and mentality.

The movie is being clever by not turning the Irish fighters into superheroes but rather as scared and proud people who didn't always agree on what is right to do in terms of justice between themselves. There is a great court scene explaining this very point.

In the end, you could say it's also the story of two brothers the war has divided, the way it has divided their whole land. One one side, those fighting for the Free State Treaty, the others fighting against it.

Blood Diamond (2006)

DiCaprio is the diamond and there's a lot of blood

[7/10 · 24 May 2011]

Once again, DiCaprio demonstrates he is one of the most interesting and talented actors. He's never shied from difficult roles (think Who's Eating Gilbert Grape?, "This Boy's Life" and just about every part played in the 21st century). You can see his attention to detail and dedication to the part, the intensity of his acting. In this case, his use of a local African accent is, to my ears, flawless.

As to the movie, well, compared to "Hotel Rwanda", it still looks more like "Con Air Goes To Africa". Nevertheless, the character development is interesting even if obvious and the movie is well paced, so you never get bored. Djimoun Hounsou is a Mende fisherman. His village is attacked by the Revolutionary United Front and he is captured in order to search for diamonds to be traded. DiCaprio is a white Rhoedsian mercenary smuggling diamonds. They will both at some point meet in jail and DiCaprio will find out Hounsou has hidden a diamond worth millions of dollars. They will start a journey together, trying to recover the hidden diamond and Hounsou's family that was taken to ca camp. They will try to arrange an escape to America for both the family and the diamond.

The depiction of the cruel African attacks owe more to "Saving Private Ryan" than reality, which is a shame, but then, this is a fiction that only uses African conflicts as a backdrop to what the DiCaprio's character has to go through along with Djimoun Hounsou, even if the movie is billed as being about the blood diamond trades.

Deja Vu (2006)

typical Tony Scott vehicle (which is not necessarily a bad thing)

[7/10 · 23 May 2011]

Denzel Washington plays an ATF agent being sent on a terrorist attack site and assigned to a special and secret FBI team to maybe, possibly, go back in time and avoid the incident to occur. He plays his character straight forward without frills and thereby, I guess, finds the right note in such preposterous story.

I had a problem with the following: Washington's character's transition from meticulous cop to action superhero is too sudden. Also, his character seems like a nice and caring and, again, meticulous guy and, yet, once behind the wheel, he causes so many accidents and damages, putting many other people's lives in danger, without looking back even once. He does request paramedics to be sent on one of those crash sites but you don't see the call being made. This is something recurrent in Batman movies, for example, and has been parodied by the "Hancock" movie.

Nevertheless, this being a Tony Scott movie, you know what to expect: a good-looking no-brainer where you ought to just relax and enjoy the show. That's all it intends to be and does perfectly.

Bad Company (2002)

Serious or Comedic ?

[6/10 · 22 May 2011]

First ten minutes into it, I couldn't tell whether this movie was supposed to be a serious crime thriller or a comedic one. In either case, it didn't look too good.

Chris Rock, who, by all means, is a great comic actor, feels out of place or at least miscast and misdirected. Anthony Hopkins, on the other hand, has a more effective comedic approach. Indeed, as with many of his parts in other movies, he is able to project a lot when doing not much. His facial expressions and quiet/weary sense of humor are way more entertaining than Rock's busy and maniacal behavior.

Chris Rock plays the parts of two twin brothers, one is a slick, elegant and well-mannered FBI agent who dies early on and the other, hired as his replacement, is a chess master and a street kid with a big mouth. Anthony Hopkins plays the FBI agent who used to work with the first and now has to hire the latter.

One problem with the movie is that it introduces us to the training process of the hired kid, with some good scenes, but none of it is used later on.

Schumacher's direction in tone and color is nice but doesn't compensate the lack of focus on character's direction and storyline.

In the end, I was left with the feeling Will Smith would have been better instead, being able to project more subtlety.

Rogue Trader (1999)

Takes several viewings

[3/10 · 22 September 2007]

If you're into stock trading and if you've read Nicholas Leeson, it might help you enjoy this movie. If you're not, you might need to view a couple of times before the story grows on you.

I'm still not sure how I can summarize best the story for you: Ewan McGregor plays Nick Leeson, a stock trader for England's Fairbank is given a mission in New Delhi. He builds up a team with people who know nothing about stock trading and together they'll play with the Nikkei. As they're "playing", mistakes are made by Nick's team and he wants to cover them up by opening up an account called "88888". Soon, he'll start gambling with the bank's own money. Unfortunately, the losses grow bigger and bigger until the bank goes broke.

Since there is no real action, and it's really told like a story and not like a movie, you really have to rely on the actors' skills to appreciate the movie.

The Thing Called Love (1993)

too shallow

[4/10 · 22 September 2007]

They were several reasons why I wanted to see this movie: 1. it's about Nasvhille & country music of which I'm a fan 2. it stars River Phoenix, an actor of great skills 3.

This one of River's last movies, if not the last before his tragic death and he does indeed look sick in this movie, skinny and all. And it's a disappointing ending for his career as this movie is really too shallow on its subject.

Samantha Mathis comes to Nashville seeking stardom as a country music singer. She wants to start with the Bluebird Café, a renowned place where aspiring singers go apply for castings, and if they're good enough, they get to come back in the evening for a gig. There she meets with River Phoenix, Sandra Bullock and Dermot Mulroney, all with the same ambition, becoming the next country star. River is the most successful of them (it has to be noted they all sang their parts).

If this movie's intention was to show how it goes in the music business, it missed. If it wanted to show a love story, it missed too because it only scraps the surface of the subjects.

If you want country music and a depiction on how Nashville works, check out Altman's "Nashville".

Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)

mindless movie involving great cars, great chase scene

[4/10 · 22 September 2007]

OK, so this is no movie of the year and all actors seem to be saving up for another movie but it's still enjoyable. The story is fairly simple. Nicolas Cage plays a retired car thief whose younger brother screwed up a car boost and now Cage, along with his old partners and the kid's gang, has to steal 50 hard-to-find cars in order to save the kid's life. Great cars, a great final chase scene involving a 67 Shelby GT 250 flying like no car ever could, but it doesn't matter. If you're looking for a movie where you don't have to think too hard (or at all, for that matter), and if you enjoy cars, then this movie is right up your street.

Cocktail (1988)

right... move on now

[3/10 · 14 August 2007]

Tom Cruise plays Brian Flanagan. He's looking for a job. Coughlin (played by an excellent Bryan Brown) hires him in his bar as a bartender. He'll show him all the ropes of the business. Together they team up and become the city's most sought-after bartenders until Coughlin betrays Flanagan. Flanagan then leaves for Jamaica to work as a bartender on a beach in order to save up enough and start his own business. Coughlin joins later on with a surprise.

I don't have much to say about the movie but this is what I remember thinking:

• Cruise is the obvious star because of his good looks and irresistible smile but Brown is the one actor worth watching in the movie. Listening to him supply Tom with bartender 'advice' is a pure delight. - Some interesting scenes involve Brown and Cruise shaking 'n' singing 'n' dancing 'n' pouring before a packed place. I couldn't help but wonder how many customers are actually served in an one hour time. In real life, they probably wouldn't last long in the business.

All in all, a mindless movie that tries to believe it has a 'message' on materialism but that's up to you to decide.

The Distinguished Gentleman (1992)

Good start, average middle, cheesy ending

[3/10 · 14 August 2007]

Eddie Murphy is a man capable of high energy humor, and is efficient with his broad smile, mimics and impersonations. And this movie gives him some great moments especially in the beginning.

Eddie Murphy starts as a Florida con 'artist' accompanied by some accomplices blackmailing people who use his private fake phone-sex service. While racketing a congressman, he finds out that running for Congress will earn him more money than he does now. His asset to get elected is his name which he shares with a just-deceased congressman called Jeff Johnson. His way to the top of course hardly meets any difficulty but, after all, this is a comedy so we don't mind as long as it's entertaining.

But then things go wrong, Johnson meets a Pro Bono lobbyist, falls in love with her pretty fast but their relationship doesn't add anything to the movie and is not developed and chemistry between both actors is obviously missing.

First, Johnson enjoys his journey at the Congress but he soon realizes he can't keep a straight face and simultaneously take part to the different frauds and corruption present.

This is where the movie takes a turn for the serious and forgets it started out as a comedy. It's now trying to make a point. Johnson accepts to help a town where children are submitted to the negative effects of power high lines causing a great deal of them to suffer from cancer. Johnson develops a plan to force Congress to do something and expose publicly the aforementioned frauds and corruption. All this is done in an unexplainable cheesy way.

Shame, as the movie contained some good ideas for a comedy but director Jonathan Lynn seems to have been distracted and forgot that his original intention was to make a good comedy with Eddie Murphy having a good time at Congress.

Black Dog (1998)

To me, the worst movie I've seen so far

[1/10 · 11 August 2007]

Patrick Swayze plays Jack Crews. The man needs 9 grand in order to keep his house from being taken away from him. He just spent 2 years in prison after killing people with his truck due to him falling asleep at the wheel and he's being offered a 10-grand illegal driving job that just might help him keep a roof over his family's head. He accepts the job against his wife's disapproval. On the way, he's being attacked from people who try to keep him from doing that job.

To me, this movie is too shallow on the right things and too thorough in the wrong ones.

First of all, here's a man who, supposedly, has been living for 2 years with guilt for having killed a whole family on the side of the road while he was falling asleep driving, and he's smiling almost every time his pursuers go up in flames. Now, I'd love to see what he'll be telling his kid about that. It would have been good to see Swayze showing some doubts upon whether he's doing the right, but no, the man just keeps going, knowing he could go to prison, risk his family's life, and make them lose their house anyway. Second of all, his load is being attacked by successively, cars, trucks and motorbikes all shooting at it and not one is thinking about aiming for the tires... Randy Travis is bringing a country element to the movie but that's all he's doing.

If you're into big trucks, country music, and explosions, and if you're not too demanding on the performances or on story logic, this is right up your street...

Hard Rain (1998)

It's wet, alright

[3/10 · 11 August 2007]

Hard Rain. Indeed, that's what this movie is about. In fact, rain is the star of this movie. And amid the flood, are some characters desperately trying to get us interested into some plot. But they don't succeed. The rain and the flood steal the show.

Tom (Christian Slater) works for Huntingburg's money transfer security company. As a flood is on its way, he and his partner collect the money from the town's banks. On their way out of town, their truck gets stuck in a ditch and have to wait for dispatch to come and help them out. Someone comes along, but it's not dispatch. Jim (Morgan Freeman) and his gang come to take the money and run. And pretty soon, everybody, including the town's sheriff (played by Randy Quaid) will go after Tom and will all shoot at each other to be the one to get the money Tom hid in a cemetery. Oh, and there's also Karen (Minnie Drive) who's there to provide some feminine presence in the film. And that's it. And it rains, and rains, and rains, and things sure get wet…

Mind you, the visual effects are perfect but in this movie's case, it's a problem. There's even an interesting idea exploited: a jet ski chase scene in the town's medium school's halls. You don't see that every day. But, since the story or the characters aren't exactly keeping our attention, we're constantly distracted by the rain, the flood, the wet streets, the wet cars. The only time I thought about the actors, was when I realized how wet they were from beginning to end and how annoying it must have been for them to work.

So, this movie is in fact an exercise on how to make everything look convincingly wet for about 90 mins.