Change Your Image
punditz
Reviews
Be Kind Rewind (2008)
alas, it disappoints
I have to give some credit to Michel Gondry for bringing in the concept of "Sweding". The idea of making your own version of some popular movies is fascinating.But sadly this thread isn't enough to hold the story together.Apart from the above mentioned concept, the movie falls flat on its face owing to extremely boring plot of the landmark dispute, which receives rather immature treatment from Gondry. You realize that watching the sweded films becomes much more fun than watching Be kind rewind.It seems as if Gondry was forced to build the story around the Sweded concept and had to make do with a flimsy plot with an extremely disappointing and corny ending(last 30 min or so). Moreover, none of the actors are able to give a great performance.Mos def tries real hard and was probably the best in the movie.Jack black gets annoying with his same old antics,although manages to delight at some points. Danny glover and the frequent customer Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow) and Alma (Melonie Diaz),seem to get thrown into the story rather randomly and their presence appears ill planned. I would have to rate this as one of the weakest works of gondry. It lacked the depth of Human Nature, or the focus and marvelous execution of Eternal sunshine or the brilliant scope and grip of Science of Sleep.
Into the Wild (2007)
Not a life to be proud of...
First of all,my deepest sympathies with the McCandless family. As for the movie, I think we first ought to take in consideration the "extraordinary" life chris led.. I for one, do not relate with him on most grounds. Although I can say that I do have a wanderlust and would like to travel as much as chris did, but my holidays wont be executed in a similar way as chris. I can never understand why chris left his family(essentially his sister)? or why he found it appropriate to form a bond with hippies instead of corresponding with his family even once. I do not have sympathy for a person who goes all alone into Alaska unprepared.I do not have sympathy for a person who longs to live in the wild, but lacks common sense, hunting and cooking skills. Most importantly, we all face problems in life, but I consider it cowardly to run away from them like this. As for Direction and all, I think the movie lost it with the Emile hirsch-staring-into-the-camera tactic.. It was way too long(at least half an hour should have been chopped off) and the sequence shown with Hal holbrook or katherine keener for that matter were not all that impressive. The finest part was the last ten minutes, where Chris realizes his mistake, where all the ppl he had met are shown in a dream sequence, in fact its the ending that forced me to give it a 5 rating.
Closer (2004)
(c)loser
First of all, the big debate.. Is this movie supposed to be realistic or not?? I read some of the reviews here and found that, people who liked this movie, presumed it to be unrealistic and went on extolling the artsy story and witty screenplay. I found the story to be utter crap, although the screenplay, or most importantly the dialogues were extremely witty, it was the premises of this movie that left a bad taste in my mouth. My question is - Are we supposed to feel sorry for the four idiots who go on making mistakes in their love life and fall in and out of each relationship with no sense at all. I personally thought that the movie was supposed to be a realistic effort by the director, but he completely failed at it. The only likable character in the movie is portman's and its a shame to see her falling for Jude law's pathetic character again and again. The same goes for the others(Roberts and Owen). So much so, that it is impossible to empathize with any of the characters at any point. If I wanted to watch a good "unrealistic" artsy movie - I would watch Aliens vs Predator instead. This story is just a mockery on emotions, and the praise it receives is mostly a case of Emporers new clothes
The Kite Runner (2007)
Nice effort by Mr.Forster
Very rarely are movies able to capture the beauty of a book. The Kite Runner, although a great attempt by Marc Forster, I am afraid fails to do so.The issue with books like The kite runner is that, they deal with the innermost emotions of the characters(in this case Amir's) so effectively that it becomes impossible to capture the same in a movie with limited usage of words. Khalid houseni is a brilliant writer and its impossible not to be moved to tears after going through his book. The movie fails to capture the delicate relationship between Amir and his father, Amir and Hassan, in a way the book does. This is the apparent advantage the book has over the movie, the former can afford to be verbose, in fact its the liberal usage of words which lends us a great insight into the mechanisms of relationships between the characters mentioned above. In a movie, it all comes down to the screenplay which can only extract the essence from the book in order to remain within the time limit and most importantly, the actors. The actors,in this case, are generally good with a few exceptions(like the guy who played aseef in present was not menacing enough), but all in all, due to lack of dialogues, they fail to pull a masterstroke. If somebody watched this film without having read the book, then I am sure he/she might like it, but in case you are a fan of the book (like me), this movie will fall short of re-creating that magic
Shanghai Kiss (2007)
Unconvincing,clichƩd, disappointing
might have spoilers!!!
I m still confused why this movie received such a high rating on IMDb. It is poorly directed(so what if its his first), has average actors and a shitty story line. This is an attempt by an inferiority complex-ed Chinese guy to lash out at the "snobbish" Americans. Ken leung is rather pathetic, he manages to "score" white chicks with stupid lines and then gets to act all superior towards them. And whats with the stories of childhood harassment(we are discussing a 7 yrs old's penis...??) Hayden is rather irritating at times and obviously retarded cause she picks up bored looking Chinese men from a bus.Then tries desperately to act like a 16 yr old, with her weird antics. and kelly hu, although hot, is useless, whats with all the crap about Chinese way of life and low wages.?? Give me a break. Please avoid this by all means.