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R-Grant
Reviews
Starship Troopers (1997)
Slick, anti-Fascist, anti-war parody
Quick summary: hilariously good-looking people. Never have the cast of Beverly Hills 90210 looked so good. Brilliant special effects - they barely look dated even today. Superb music. Solid directing. The film hangs together very, very well.
OK. This film is a parody, first of all. It - incredibly, although satirically - depicts a functional, working fascist society, which is divided into "civilians" and "citizens". It also depicts this society as an aggressive one - invading an alien species' territory, then fully going to war against it when it retaliates.
It depicts the media as a major agent in this regard: there are few options as to what to watch, and the first is the "Federal" channel.
It's also very brutal. This is an anti-war film, and also a film with aliens in. It has people ripped apart, although the parody remains (at one point, "Mormon extremists" are massacred in an output). It's tongue-in-cheek to the death.
It's important to remember this though: the humans are the aggressors here. They started the fight. However the barrage of media spin, drill-sergeant conditioning and comradely banter creates the impression the humans are the good guys. The attitude of all of the characters reflects this; they believe that they are retaliating, when they are actually the initiators. The film gives some insight into how an invading country's citizens (in the general sense of the word!) can be convinced that what they are doing is right.
Also we get to see a huge fire-breathing alien get blown up from the inside. Awesome.
Nochnoy dozor (2004)
Tense, atmospheric and engaging
This film combines brief explanation of the elaborate mythology behind it with a very immersive world. Konstantin Khabensky (the lead) is both reassuringly powerful and engagingly flawed. The characters are well-drawn, and the different threads of the three stories are woven together perfectly.
There is an edge-of-the-seat tension (I know it's a cliché, but I genuinely was sitting forwards for at least half of the film) to this which makes the viewer constantly uneasy, but it's never too painful to bear, and Khabensky is reassuring whenever he is on screen. Part of this may be generated by traditional ideas of vampires which are ignored or (occasionally) inverted in the film, so we assume that they are more powerful than they actually are.
If you're disappointed with most fantasy/mythological/supernatural films (e.g. Constantine) then take a look at this.
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
See it at least once, so you understand what everyone else is talking about!
This has to be one of the most quotable (and thus quoted) films ever made. It is utterly full of ridiculous sayings, and ridiculous delivery. How they kept straight faces during the takes is utterly beyond me; I found it hysterical.
I'd say Nap D is very much a sociable film; I watched it with some friends who are all quite lively and we kept the laughter rolling between us, it was so much fun.
If you have fairly dour friends, or if you watch it on your own and are relatively sour, then you probably will enjoy it less than we did.
If you don't relate at all to the film (especially the hilariously awkward prom dancing), you may be in denial :) If you do relate but find it uncomfortable, you might need to learn to laugh at yourself more (I struggled here). I think this is a great, well-observed take on a certain, awkward stage of life. I'd say it's for people who are no longer at the protagonist's age, as at the time you probably can't spot half of the traits you do in fact share with Napoleon.
As I say, see it once. I can see how people might not like it, but I found it great!
Dogville (2003)
A uniquely layered, intricate film
A gradually but inevitably onrushing tidal wave of emotional content, this film is far more of an emotional ride than any number of so-called thrillers or romantic comedies.
There has been some excellent analysis in previous comments - and some fairly shallow criticism, some of which comes from people who didn't even watch the whole film - so I won't try and dig deep. I also won't retell the plot or comment on the (excellent) presentation of the plot.
However in the few pages of comments I read, I didn't see one specific point mentioned fully, so let me make it here. If you subscribe passionately to the worldview that humans are basically good, then you will not like what this film will show you. It portrays humans as essentially bad; people only do "good" things to keep up appearances, and either turn swiftly to evil when they can get away with it, or at least do not have the courage of their convictions (e.g. the Tom character).
The one potential exception is the girl Grace. She is tirelessly, self-sacrificially good, even when the entire village turns on her.
What I see here is a surprisingly clear Gospel parallel. In a place where people seem to be quite nice, a perfect (supposedly) person is placed. Measured up against her - even though she does not come and judge them - suddenly the badness inherent in those around her is revealed. They eventually revolt against her completely, and utterly humiliate her.
The part where the parallel ends is of course the end of the film. Grace is, after it all, only human. Christ, at the point of utmost humiliation, under the most pressure imaginable, where stress and irritability in anyone else would have reached titanic proportions, simply cries out in love, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Grace cannot do this, and although the sudden, avenging end of the film violently and wonderfully opposes the gradual pathos of all of the previous events, I am left with the sense that even Grace, for all of her goodness, is still not able to match what Christianity claims Christ did.
von Trier has certainly constructed a complex, layered masterpiece, of which I think this is a significant facet.
Oh, and go watch it!
Quicksand (2003)
This film is a horrific waste of time, money and actors.
My summary says it all. This film is highly unpleasant in places (for example one theme is systematic rape; this is also shown at one point). It does not even make up for this by being remotely worth watching: the acting is appalling, and even Michael Caine and Michael Keaton cannot make up for the terrific lack of ability in terms of plot, script and direction.
The "setup" of Keaton (Keaton walks onto his balcony and discovers a sniper rifle there; rather than leave it he picks it up, just as a police chief is sniped) is ridiculous; apart from being hideously contrived and formulaic, it also neglects to take into account brutally obvious factors such as motive and bullet trajectory analysis, not to mention the fact that only the terminally stupid would assassinate someone by standing up on a balcony incredibly close to that person, while holding a sniper rifle. At that range Keaton could probably have popped the guy with a pistol.
The characters are drawn with big, big brush-strokes, the female lead is just appalling, and to top it off the final scene shows the vindicated Keaton back as a workaholic in his office, and the girl walks in, he smiles at her and she smiles softly back. Cut to credits. Yuck. Oh, and apparently a corpse blinks at the start, something to watch out for.
And WHY do they have to get shot in the eye? And WHAT is that tattoo which the bad guys have on their hands? And...WHY set him up in the first place if you're gonna try and kill him anyway?
Save your money, time and brain. Go look elsewhere.