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andres_echevarria
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The Counselor (2013)
A waste of talents and budget
The movie has amazing actors, director, budget, and script; somehow they managed to make an overall mediocre product.
Even though the storyline is very interesting, it is build up in such a confusing way that the average viewer will be in the dark -or at least unsure of what's going on- most of the movie.
The articulation between scenes is poor, since the makers seem to have tried too hard to make a profound memorable dialogue out of every interaction between characters. This resource resulted in some nice moments but it mostly made the characters too caricaturesque and contributed to the lack of clarity.
My biggest disappointment is the fact that I have great admiration for all of the main actors and the director. It was kind of painful to see them be part of such a forgettable picture.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
Not the saga's best, but still a great movie
If you like the saga you will like this movie a lot. If you are not a fan of fantasy worlds, you won't like it as much but it's still a movie worth watching.
One dilemma I have with these movies is their running time. I always think they could have been broken down into several shorter episodes and be much more enjoyable than the 3-hour movies they turn out to be.
This particular segment of the Hobbit's story is more transitional than the previous and the next, so the viewer might feel the beginning and the ending of the movie are lacking in "introduction" and "closure". This is why I argue the movie doesn't need to be that long, since the director is cutting it wherever anyhow.
The special effects are absolutely outstanding and the action scenes are incredibly dynamic and original. The music is always beautiful, and wardrobe and make-up are as good as it gets.
Character development is given less importance in this title compared to the rest of the trilogy, and the storyline is more focused on the adventure itself. There's a few new colorful characters, but, again, not greatly developed just yet in the saga.
It is, all in all, a great movie to watch, specially in theaters. The problem is that we can't help but to compare it to the other Lord of the Rings titles, which are overall, in my opinion, better than this one.
Bel Ami (2012)
Quite bad
Although Bel Ami is a novel worth reading, this movie is definitely not worth spending one hour and a half on.
The screenplay is bad, the protagonist casting is bad, the acting overall is quite bad (save a few exceptions), the use of the French language by ALL anglosaxon actors makes the dialogs seem like a baroque joke.
The director didn't even take advantage of the fact that the story takes place in Paris, since there is no remarkable use of the wonderful scenery such location has to offer.
In all fairness, the music is good, fitting and wisely used; and Uma Thurman's performance is always something worth watching. One point for each of those items makes up the solid 2 I grant this title.
Vozvrashchenie (2003)
I must have missed something
This movie had such a high score on IMDb that I had to see it. To my great disappointment I found a 2-hour long sleeping-pill of a story whose only reason to keep watching is the thought that something thrilling must happen at some point. Needless to say that it never does.
In favor of it I must say the photography is quite good and the performance of one of the kids is great, real Haley Joel Osment stuff.
One thing I didn't like is the redundance of needless scenes like a three-minute cut of people just taking bags out of a boat and anchoring it to the shore, without any purpose relevant to the story. It made the movie really slow.
The one thing I hated the most about spending 2 hours watching it is the fact that the director didn't think it important to explain anything about the story. You never find out why the father left, where had he been, why were there two identical photos -one of which his image was missing from, what was inside the secret box he retrieved from that island, and so forth. None of this ever gets explained and this is really frustrating.
All I got from this movie is learning how to say "understood" in Russian.
Elefante blanco (2012)
One insightful and entertaining piece of reality
Set in present day Buenos Aires, a middle-aged catholic priest (Ricardo Darin) who is working on a housing project in a real-life slum brings a french priest friend (Jérémie Renier) to work with him.
In my opinion, the movie's strength is not so much the plot but the realistic portrayal of the crude slum life-style, codes, culture and hardships.
My office is 4 blocks away from that slum, it is quite a contrast between a slick cosmopolitan, corporate world and a poverty-stricken area where violent crime thrives. I can tell you the director achieved great accuracy in the portrayal of the slum environment, without conveying a condescending feel, but a dignified one.
Worth a watch.