thegreatape Reviews

Everest (2015)

No good guys, no bad guys, just the facts as they are known

[9/10 · 15 September 2015]

I always find my viewing experience of the retelling of historical events ruined when I come across scenes which I know have been added for dramatic effect or when someone is played as a bad guy just to let us know who to root for.

The King's Speech was particularly guilty of the former, the portrayal of other teams in Glory Road had the latter, and The Imitation Game was shamelessly guilty of both. I'm not saying this made them bad films, but it certainly made me feel like the experience had strayed away from a retelling of the facts as known.

Everest is everything that is good in such a film. There is no needless good v evil addition and no leading the viewer to conclusions. It tells the story and I have since spent three or four days thinking about the hows, whys and wherefores... whilst knowing I will never find an answer.

The other touch that really elevates this film is that there are no added action sequences that have been added to make Everest more of an action move. The film makers have been intelligent enough to realise that climbing Everest does not need any exaggeration, the characters involved were three dimensional people, and the story was interesting enough not to need embellishment.

I expected an action film but left pleasantly surprised by a biopic with a light touch.

The one mark deduction is for the totally unnecessary 3D. The film absolutely didn't need me wearing dumb glasses to be three dimensional.

Bully (I) (2011)

Hard to watch but worth it

[7/10 · 15 September 2015]

As a parent this was tough to watch, seeing how alone kids really are once they step out of the front door and are in the care of others. It was frightening to see the indifference and/or lack of any training that teachers have in this area.

This meant that it pretty much made for a frustrating watch, seeing kids who should be protected, and parents who wanted to bring about changes, going up against a system that is conditioned to sweep it under the carpet.

It is an important enough issue for this film to be essential watching for kids and parents alike.

My only issue was that I would have liked to have heard a little from the other side. I appreciate that this was a documentary about the victims but it would have been nice to see some kind of engagement with the people who are the cause of the issues for these kids.

As the Palaces Burn (2014)

Right place, right time documentary making

[9/10 · 1 February 2015]

Sometimes as a documentary maker, you hit the paydirt, I guess. This would be a totally uninspiring "We do it for the fans" tour DVD documentary if it were not for the film-makers' luck and the band's misfortune half way through. (I don't mean to be crass about the situation that occurred. I do sympathise. I just mean from a film-makers point of view it made the film something more than it ever would have been).

What then follows is a story of fellowship and friendship, watching a man walk the harder path to do what is right and find peace in himself. The sins of the past have been cleared away by sobriety and he now has the ultimate test of his resolution and of his new path. It is heartening to watch how he and others around him stand up and be counted.

I'm not gonna become a fan of Lamb Of God but I certainly loved this "right place, right time" piece of documentary making that was well crafted and told a human story behind what a lot of people may feel is devilish music.

Whiplash (2014)

more than the sum of its parts

[10/10 · 7 January 2015]

This movie works so well in that it does what a good film should. It provokes thought and discussion.

I went to watch this with my wife at the cinema and then out for a meal. After a decade of marriage and three kids, date night sometimes becomes a chat about jobs, money and the children. After watching this film we were both so intrigued that we chatted about it for an hour and that chat morphed into a chat about existence and triggers and passion in life.

I don't want to give too much away but there is a conversation near the end that meant we both interpreted the ending in different ways and that is where our conversation began. And it didn't stop, the more we talked the more we got into different themes raised by the film.

Now, it may read as if I'm thanking this movie for giving me something to chat to the wife about; that is not really the case. What I wanted to say is that this is a wonderful film because our conversation was not "what was good and bad in the film?" it was "what did it mean to you?".

Great art should provoke thought and conversation between it's viewers. Whiplash does just that. It takes a simple story and lays it out in equally simple terms, but the narrative runs a lot deeper so does the subsequent deconstruction.

Beats of Freedom (2010)

Nice retrospective. If only it were longer

[6/10 · 11 June 2014]

As a foreigner living in Poland for a significant amount of time, this documentary gave me a lot. There are so many bands that I own vinyls of but with whom I have never really connected. The music is eighties rock, poorly recorded and not exactly of a standard that the Smiths or the Pixies would have been making at the same time. However, the documentary offers a wonderful context to the quite basic and naive music that was made in Poland throughout the later years of communism which provided the soundtrack to Solidarnosc and the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Seeing the fight that bands like Perfect and Maanam put up just to make their music and influence a youth movement starved of freedom and outside influence gave me a new context in which to listen to the albums and hear the vitality within and vital nature of their existence.

The fervour of fans at concerts, the footage from the streets and the battle just to create music brought home the fact that, whilst music in America and England at the time was light years ahead, the music being created in Poland was more visceral and more socially important than even the most polished of output from Western bands. These elements also added an excitement, drive and watchable edge to what could have been quite a stale documentary if it had just been talking heads and old war stories.

For me, the only downside was that the length limited the content. I could easily have watched another half and hour and would have loved to learn more about: - the influence of foreign music on Polish music, especially stuff like Radio Free Europe. - some specific text from songs and what the message was. - a few interviews with music fans from the time telling the story of things like the Jarocin festival from their point of view, and, - what happened next? The documentary ends quite abruptly with the end of Russian control. Whilst this is a quite logical ending, it would have been good to see a little of where Polish music has gone between 1990 and the documentary being made in 2010.

There is certainly a homogenisation of world culture in Poland (as in most countries) and we now have more Britney and Beyonce than we do Poland's own creators. Polish music and films, once the spearhead of mainstream anti-oppression culture, are now out of the mainstream as Western culture has sent them underground. It would have been nice to see a little about the current situation and what may happen next.

All in all, though, my low score of 6 and my wishes for more content are not an indictment on the film itself, which was a pleasure, but rather on the the length. It was fun, informative and offered a new perspective for anyone who may not know the significance of the bands featured - I just would have loved an extra half an hour or so to get even more from it :)

The Lego Movie (2014)

Lego should be slow and thoughtful

[4/10 · 9 February 2014]

My 5 and 6 year old kids loved this film - at least they think they did. The colours and flashing images of good old Lego were enough to convince them that it had been a wonderful experience but I remain unconvinced.

I have two main gripes with this movie: 1) Is it really necessary to have almost every scene with a thousand characters on the screen and the action flying by so fast that it just becomes a wash of gaudy colour and feels like being on a roller-coaster? There is simply too much happening on screen and they have tried to pack far too much into the movie. The result is an absolute mess whenever the action picks up beyond walking pace. Pieces are flying about and changing at such speed that it is impossible to take it in. I heard that the animators put 52-years' of combined hours into the film, which means that I assume the work is amazing. If only it had been moving at a speed where it could be appreciated. I would have loved to have seen the beautiful and clever work they did, instead it just felt like they had 4 hours of construction ideas and 90 minutes to squash them in to.

2) Does Lego really know it's audience? The basis of the film is Lego City, which is aimed at 6 to 12 year olds. However, Lego must know that most boys and girls stop playing with Duplo at about 5 and their interest in Lego as a fascination (ie. something they would want to see a movie about) rather than an occasional plaything wanes at about 8. The entire cinema was full of kids aged below 9, that much is for sure; and yet the story itself is too complex for that age group. Sure, my children felt that enjoyed the film, simply because they are wild about Lego, but when I asked them comprehension questions afterwards, they had no idea at all what the deeper storyline was or of the moral contained therein. They certainly were not able to comprehend the switch between the Lego world and Will Ferrell and his son in the basement. That may have been the stand-out theatrical switch for adults and older children viewing, but it was totally lost on my children and every other uner-8 who filled the cinema. Sure, they left saying "Emmet was cool" but they could not understand in a month of Sundays that Emmet and Finn were one and the same person.

I'm sure people will rave about this movie and it will be a huge success in spite of the fact that it is actually poorly thought out and was a real missed opportunity to create something beautiful. It seems that Lego can simply do no wrong but they should certainly stick to making blocks instead of films. However, I seem to be in a minority in thinking this film was a wasted opportunity to make something slower and more thoughtful than the hotchpotch of ideas it was. And that is what the real beauty of Lego is, not that it has infinite possibilities but that it is one of the few things that parents can still do with their children at a thoughtful and slow pace. My son has dozens of toys that are all about making noise and running about at a hundred miles an hour. When we play Lego together we sit and chat quietly and build beautiful things at a relaxed pace which enhances the quality of the time we spent together. It just seemed to me that the makers of the film have totally missed who their audience really are and also missed why parents keep turning to Lego as a great toy for their kids. It is not the action we want, it is the quality time.

Jedna ruka netleská (2003)

unpredictable and typically czech

[9/10 · 7 April 2007]

It helps if you understand Czech and can see this in the original language and understand the Czechs obsession with 'The Professionals', but if not, 'Jedna ruka netlaska' is yet another great Czech film. It is funny, dark and extremely enjoyable. The highest compliment I can pay it is that you never know quite what is going to happen next and even keep that feeling well into the second and third viewing.

For a small country the Czech Republic has produced an amazing amount of world class film and literature, from Hrabal, Hasek and Kundera to the films of Menzel, Sverak and numerous others. Czech humour by its very nature is dark and often uncompromising, but often with a naive and warm sentiment behind it. This film is just that, it is unkind and deals with the less lovable sides of human beings, but underneath it all there is a beautiful story full of promise, good intent and optimism.

I highly recommend this and most other projects Trojan and Machacek are involved in. Enjoy it, it's a film made for just that reason - anyway, it's as close as the Czechs will ever come to writing a truly happy ending...

The Castle (1997)

tell him he's dreaming...

[10/10 · 26 March 2007]

Never before have I wondered how much a pair of jousting sticks cost nowadays, although undoubtedly it depends on the condition.

How would I pretty up an ergonometric chair? Have I ever really felt the self-satisfaction that a man gets from digging a hole? Or the panic when it starts filling with water? The Kerrigans are all that is good in the world.

Forget clichéd corny Hollywood plots, this film is not tacky, it is simply honest and likable. it lays itself bare for you to see and says "take me as I am".

Some of the comments here are spot on, it's not a film that will tickle everyones fancy, but if you find it funny it will have you falling off the sofa.

I'm going to Bonneydoon, I'm going to Bonneydoon, I'm going to Bonneydoon... ad infinium

300 (2006)

Lame

[1/10 · 25 March 2007]

This makes some average films look like works of genius.

The comments here that the battle scenes are "amazing" are simply wrong. It is the same scene, with the characters just stabbing people in different costumes. Stupid. It's all filmed so close up that you have no sense of a battle, it's a just a scrap with swords. Then they speed it up and slow it down a bit and call it revolutionary technology. Pointless.

The script, the characters, all of it is ham-fisted at best.

I don't like graphic novels, 'Sin City' was a passable attempt at making this school boys' genre look good on a big screen, '300' isn't. The main difference is that Sin City has characters and

Rubbish.

My wife thought so too.