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Reviews
Caligola (1979)
ROME it is not
Coming from the Netherlands, I'm not one to call something 'pornographic' quickly. Sadly, the influence of the Penthouse magazine producing this movie is pretty obvious.
If you compare this movie to the hit-series ROME, nowadays this movie shocks people less with it's nudity and sex. Still, the focus of this movie is needlessly on sexual escapades and nudity. If you're offended or bored by gratuitous sex, thank God for fast-forward, you're going to need it. About the only sex-scenes that had much function in the story was the (historically fairly accurate) prostitution of the Senators' wives. Even so, this scene was overlong.
The best aspects of this movie are the music and the art direction; they're not historically correct by a long-shot but have that Dr.Phibes-over the top thing going for it. Also, the basic premise of the movie (Caligula takes Tiberius' disdain for the Romans to heart and is anxious to see how far out his behaviour can be before someone shows some spine) is interesting. It would have been a much better movie if it left out most of the graphic sex scenes, and added more action/gore. Caligula was noted for having an obsession with gladiatorial fights so this would be accurate.
If you want to see a more 'historically correct' version of Caligula, watch the splendid "I, Claudius" TV-series with Jacobi.
Blueberry (2004)
Doped-out Cowboys
'Blueberry' is a famous comic book character from France. The books feature the same image of life in the 'Wild West' as most European Westerns do: grimy, brutal and characters with mostly shades of gray in their moral outlook. Not the 'white hat- black hat - "let's shoot up some injuns" stuff (older) American Westerns tend to feature.
As I like European westerns (esp. the Leone films) and was familiar with Blueberry, I expected to get a modernized treat of 'Leone-style' action fun. Even the back of the box promised it too.
Boy was I wrong.
The movie starts well enough, and the acting is good. The music is hauntingly good. The pictures are pretty.
But it is no 'real' Western, contains barely any action, and strengthens my belief the French mainly produce pretentious artsy-fartsy stuff.
Basically (and this is why I checked ''spoiler''- alert) after the promising opening you get to watch doped-out cowboys for about the last HOUR of the movie. We're even expected to believe the main villain goes about committing atrocities, braving the elements and hostile Indian tribes just to get spaced out. Couldn't he just lick a toad or something? At least Indio (For a Few Dollars More) offered some excitement with his druggie-antics.
So: if you like your movies pretentious and dull, you'll love Blueberry. If you want to watch a Western for the fun of it, steer away, you're better off watching a Leone for the x-th time.