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kostas papageorgiou
Reviews
Love Actually (2003)
Taking it a little too serious, actually
The sheer number of "best-movie-ever" and "total-crap" comments left me somewhat surprised, as I never imagined this movie to be polarizing. Myself, I find it to be an extremely charming romantic comedy with a fair amount of flaws, which did not destroy my viewing (and, dare i say, re-viewing) experience. I believe the mistake made my most people who hated the movie was thinking it's a movie about Love or Relationships, while it's clearly not. It's about Falling in love, Dreaming of love, Imagining love. And it does a pretty good job at it. I mean, comments like "he hardly knows her", "it won't work" completely miss the point: it's not about whether it'll work or not, it's just th falling-in-love part - although I could do without the wedding scenes in the end. The sexism criticism is way exaggerated: the movie IS about superficiality, and the powerful man - hot young woman pattern is the most common one, and one based on superficiality. The movie doesn't glorify it, it just uses it (eg. in the Alan Rickman - Emma Thompson story). The Hugh Grant story, however, really bombed. Grant is terribly cast, the Britain-America thing is awfully cheesy, and it goes too far to convince us it's a great thing that a Prime Minister's first priority is falling in love with his assistant. It totally lacks the simplicity and charming everyday-quality the other stories have. Btw, the Claudia schiffer thing: it's a joke, people! It's not insinuated that you should treat grief with dating a supermodel. Geez... Clearly not the best joke in the movie, but relax... And enjoy.
21 Grams (2003)
Would someone please give Naomi an Oscar!
An amazing film, in my opinion the best of the year. Definitely better than the good but overrated Mystic River, a rather conventional film with a very awkward screenplay. Sean Penn´s performance was again breathtaking, in a far more difficult role than in Mystic River. And what can you say about Naomi... One of the best performances I´ve ever seen on screen, in an extremely demanding role. I haven´t seen Monster and don´t want to take anything away from Charlize Theron - a very talented actress -, but it´s getting so annoying to see Oscar after Oscar being awarded for "special" roles. If the trend continues, Miramax will only cast its stars as psychos, terminally ill, depressive, drug addicts, transsexuals, or 19th century Southerners (apparently they´re equally exotic for the members of the Academy, but don´t get me started on Cold Mountain...). Such low-key performances like Naomi´s will almost certainly be overlooked. Anyway, please watch this movie, I give it a 9 out of 10. Sean, Naomi and Benicio all deserve a perfect 10, as does Alejandro Inarritu for his amazing work with his actors. Moreover, please read the comments by Andrew Hutchings and AJ Smith - I couldn´t agree more with you guys. (although I don´t agree that Penn´s character is underwritten at all, AJ) Oh yes, would someone please tell Nicole Kidman she can´t play EVERY lead role there is! You´re good, Nicole, but not that good. You were great in The Hours, now please take a break, for God´s sake, you act the same in every movie. Thanks.
The Human Stain (2003)
Mediocre Adaptation, Miscast Actors
Philip Roth´s bestseller is an extraordinary novel. Not only the fast-paced, compact storytelling makes it a very difficult book to turn into a 100 min movie, but also the many sub-plots and exciting characters. Robert Benton and Nicholas Meyer offered viewers no alarms and no surprises: the development of the action was rather boring, and the subplots were completely lost. Still, the most annoying (and surprising) fact about this movie is its terribly miscast duo of lead actors. I have deep respect for both Sir Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman, but they were a huge disappointment. Although Hopkins has the necessary vitality and the mixture of intellect and ruggedness, he seemed to be absent at times, playing with no feeling, just with his talent. And, for God´s sake, he´s got bright eyes and eyelashes! I mean, it just doesn´t fit! (By the way, an amazing performance by Wentworth Miller! And what a silky voice to go with the nickname.) As for Nicole, I still think she´s great, but also somewhat overrated. She can´t play EVERY single lead part there is!!! I seriously think that the multiple projects she works on prevent her from being able to really get into each part. Sorry, but she wasn´t at all convincing in the (extremely difficult) part of Faunia, not one second. And she over-acted, as always (except in the Hours). Overall, a movie I wouldn´t advise anyone to avoid, but don´t expect much. And read the book, it´s amazing!
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Too cool - literally
I have my problems with this movie and the enormous hype it created. First of all, let´s clarify some things: Yes, it has excellent acting and directing; the dialogues are superbly written and often hilarious; the music is... well, you know, especially if you were in college in the late nineties; it has many clever and (relatively) original storylines.
Still, my biggest problem is exactly what´s supposed to be the movie´s greatest asset: the atmosphere it creates. So many critics mention the violence, and the argument of the fans is always: there´s not so much violence in there, other movies have way more and way harder violence. Well, it´s neither the quantity nor the viciousness that bother me. It´s the fact that violence is really, really cool in this movie. Pulp Fiction made violence and murder to mainstream coolness. Many great films have cynically shown bare violence and thus made their points about society, relationships, human nature etc. In this case, there´s no point to be made - and please, I don´t just mean a moral point. The PF characters are neither good nor bad, neither tragic nor pitiful, they´re barely human. All they are is cool. Cool caricatures. And that´s just not enough for me in order to be really moved by a movie.
PF had a perfect timing, as mentioned in another recent review. However, I sincerely hope it won´t be viewed upon as the ultimate nineties icon in the future - the nineties weren´t just about senseless violence and cool comments; there was much more, and it was way better.
Blackadder Goes Forth (1989)
Definitely the best Blackadder
Th fourth Blackadder series is British Humour at its best. I never liked the first Blackadder, the second one was fairly good, the third one was great (and Hugh Laurie´s Prince of Wales one of the funniest characters ever on TV), but the fourth series tops it all. Apart from the great acting and the hilarious punchlines, it offered the deepest (and often tragic) characters and the most interesting interactions between them. The ´Speckled Jim´ episode is my favorite, followed by the one with George in the hospital (the ´I spy with my little eye´ opening scene is amazing).
Mrs Brown (1997)
An All-Time Great performance by the Dame
An excellent historical drama on a sweet anecdote from the life of Queen Victoria. Certainly not the stuff for a pompous epic drama, and that´s the film´s strength. What makes it great, however, is the duo of the protagonists: Judi Dench and Billy Connoly give acting lessons, at the same time being so subtle about it that I had the impression that each was trying to act the other into the spotlight. I was deeply moved by the Dame´s performance and think she was robbed of an Oscar - a fact which was acknowledged in the Oscar ceremony by the winner Helen Hunt!(not taking anything away from her performance, she was excellent) By the way, a sign of greatness by Helen - chapeau! Obviously, that was the reason for the Oscar for her (great) 8-minute performance in Shakespeare In Love the next year. Still, Mrs.Brown is a great film in all aspects, not just something for Dench-fans. Wouldn´t hurt to check the political history of the time, the background is extremely interesting.