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kcswitzer
Reviews
In the Land of Women (2007)
Desperates Flight for Love...
... would have been a more appropriate title.
To the untrained heart one would assume that this movie is about inappropriate attempts at love in all the wrong places with quick post-breakup romances between a soft-core porn writer, a mother and a daughter.. when in fact it's not even about romance. The director cleverly ties these many desperate attempts at love into a few deeper subtle themes of struggle and self-absorbed "bad listening".
The heart-broken Brody successfully embodies the boyish geeky nice-guy that was too delusional to see the movie-star girlfriend relationship was not meant to be. The opening scene clearly shows that he's way too self-absorbed (notice his "me, me me's", and "I, I ,I") to realize he put himself into the "friend zone" as the movie star girlfriend couldn't even admit that she truly loved him. Yet, it appeared he desperately clinged onto her not so much out of love either but out of infatuation - his proverbial drug he used to cope with his problems, as he eludes to later. Interestingly, if you look closer, almost every character is desperate in their own way and sought an (easy) way to cope with the pain - pill-popping Grandma and her bitter self-pity; Meg Ryan and her "store-bought and wrapped cookies gift to others" facade; the husband's loveless cheating; Stewart's dating the quarterback, blaming anger, smoking, and art; the other daughter's internet/yoga outlet.
You can argue that Brody and Ryan's relationship was needy within itself which further purpetuated desperate motives and fantasies. Luckily, they woke up.... maybe it was the life-threatening struggle of breast cancer, struggle to bring yourself to write a genuine honest letter and script, or come to your senses of about which nice person to trust, Brody, Ryan, and Stewart's characters were offered a chance for redemption.
I felt that the softcore porn was a good symbol of the not beautiful and dishonest written projection this guy had on women which nicely evolved to the "beautiful thank you" and "Pandy: the unlovable, self destructive bear", Even though the acting was good, the messages and situations were almost too forced and made it unbelievable.
Overall, this movie touched on many stages of our life where we may be tempted to run away into disillusion. But staying strong, listening, and fighting past struggle, taking nothing for granted, and living your life for things you love!.. are pretty noble messages.
"It's okay to be scared just don't let your fears make you an ass****" . Easier said than done.
Billable Hours (2006)
Office + Scrubs x toronto law firm = ...
I had to comment on this show simply to boost it's undeserved 3 stars it was getting. It's rare Canadian shows can deliver and especially compare with US big budget shows but somehow Billable hours works.
Its fun bittersweet corky jokes get quick laughs yet are just valid enough so that office workers can somehow relate to their context. Characters still seem very shallow (even for lawyers!) so i don't know how long this series will last but slowly over the years i hope through twists of events (romance, good friend bad friend..., new hires...) some development will take place.
Overall, if The Office and Scrubs had a Canadian Torontonian baby this show would be it... for better or worse :)
10,000 BC (2008)
Can't believe I watched it.... why? WhY?
Movie previews are evil.
They showed some cool clips that in theory can provide a taste of action, adventure, and savageness. BUT all I got was cheesy love/father-didn't-love-me-enough-but-wait-he-did stories, sour plot, and smelly smelly clichés that still stink after watching this.
From an almost Conan-like start to a march thru I-don't-care-land, made me turn away from the movie and contemplate on writing this review.
This is my first IMDb rating and unfortunately, it had to be a bad one. Only thing digestible were the special effects, the rest i'm trying to forget.
Thanks 10000 B.S.