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Reviews
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
Comedy is supposed to make you laugh
Cohen is a comedian. His intent is to make you laugh. And that's what he does with this movie. Yes, it's completely disgusting at times. There were times I was groaning as loudly as I was laughing. But I was always laughing. Throughout the entire movie, without stopping. During the wrestling scene, I thought I was actually going to have a heart attack. It was so funny that I went back to see it again two days later and laughed even harder. Both times, the theater was SRO, and I've never had a theater experience like that--where everyone laughed nonstop and groaned at the same time. When it was over, we were all holding our sides. My cheeks hurt. Just as so-called "scary" movies are rarely scary to me, most "comedies" don't make me laugh. But Borat succeeded wonderfully in doing that. I was still laughing hours after the movie ended. Even though I think the movie had a great deal of biting social commentary (like another of my all-time favorite movies, Team America: World Police), sometimes it's just good to laugh really hard for a couple of hours. After all, we Americans don't have much to laugh about these days.
Red Eye (2005)
Not bad when you're snowed in
I didn't pay anything to watch this movie. I watched it on HBO on a cold day in Colorado when I was snowed in from the big blizzard of 2006 (the same one that stranded nearly 6,000 people at Denver International Airport). I had a nice cup of coffee with Kahlua, Vanilla Rum, and whipped cream in it, and I was settled into my cozy bed. All in all, not a bad way to spend an hour and a half on a day with not much else to do.
So, sure, it was predictable and full of clichés, but it was also entertaining. If for no other reason, I'd watch it just to spend an hour and a half gazing at the scrumptious Cillian Murphy. I think the actors did a bang-up job with such a lame plot and dumb dialog. All in all, not too bad a movie. Wes Craven usually does a good job of entertaining his audiences. And I'm always ready to suspend belief when I watch one of his movies. It is, after all, a movie--not a documentary. I'm glad I didn't spend $9 to see it in the theater, though.
Bollywood/Hollywood (2002)
Delightful!
I've only seen a few Bollywood movies, so my experience with them is limited. But even I, a German-American, could appreciate the humor of this movie and the way it poked fun at the Bollywood formula. I never expected it to be so funny and charming. I even loved the silly musical numbers. The Shakespeare-quoting grandmother was one of my favorite characters.
My only experience with Deepa Mehta before this had been the wonderful trilogy Earth, Water, and Fire, so this was an unexpected surprise. I don't understand the people who are rating it so low. You can't take a movie like this seriously. Enjoy it for what it is.
Segunda piel (1999)
Bardem saves this movie
I rented this movie because I've been watching everything I can find with Javier Bardem in it. I think he's one of the world's finest actors. In addition, I have many gay friends, and I was very interested in seeing how the subject was dealt with.
Having said that, I was quite disappointed in this movie. I really wanted to care about the characters because I thought their story and their plight was very compelling. It could have been an amazing, affecting film. I'm not sure where it fell flat. The acting was quite good, but I never really felt anything for the characters--not even for Bardem's. I was satisfied just to watch Bardem, but it was still a disappointment.
I rated it as I did for the actors' contributions, but the character development could be much, much better.