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rubrix

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i haven't felt so much pain just by gritting my teeth and sitting through a movie in a long, loooong time. i've seen worse movies - movies that were less inspired and movies that were more wholly inept - but only a handful, if that, were even nearly as painful. i think what really ruined this for me is that it had some vaguely good/okay concepts, but they were so horribly fleshed out that i just kept yelling at my vcr. the dialog was horrible, the acting was pretty damned bad, and the general premise was fairly weak (though if anything else had existed to keep this movie afloat, maybe it would have been salvageable).<br /><br />there's nothing i hate more than when characters in horror movies catch on too quickly, and these people were freaking savants in that regard, especially toward the end. oh, wait, there's one thing i hated more than that - the characters themselves! i've rarely seen a more unlikable bunch. i hated them all. even worse, the only two good actors (well actor and actress) in the film had the two most annoying characters out of all.<br /><br />the dialog hurts, it's so bad and so contrived (did i mention poorly delivered?). the only good points are 1) it ended before 90 minutes were up, and 2) the zombies, which appeared for about ten minutes at the end to play basketball, at least had good makeup. i don't think i can really give unmitigated credit to this movie for anything else.

0neg

I saw this movie years ago at a film festival, and ended up looking it up here after it came up in conversation with friends last night, partly to prove to them that I was not making it up, and partly to see for myself if there was actually any record of the film's existence, or if it had sunk into some kind of merciful oblivion after doing the festival circuit.<br /><br />In my festival-going days, I sat through a lot of films that cleared virtually the entire theatre, and usually took a certain pleasure in being one of the last few survivors who made it through to the closing credits. This was the film that caused me to reconsider that practice. Of all the cinematic trainwrecks I've sat through, this was far and away the very worst.<br /><br />I don't even know if I can fully explain why. It's not just that it's essentially two hours of vomiting, disembowelment and cannibalism, interspersed with about the least erotic sex scenes ever committed to film. It's not even just that the above is shot in grainy black and white at torturously slow art-movie pacing (and I couldn't figure out, even at the time, if that made it better or worse). Or the atrociously bad acting. Or the barely existent plot.<br /><br />I think more than anything it's the sheer pointlessness of it all. Given how much time, money and energy it takes to make a feature-length film, you've got to ask: WHY? Why make a film like this? What on earth is the point? And 15 years after seeing it, I still have no answer to that.

0neg

...that are actually better in German than in English. If you see it in German you will note the (sometimes subtle, sometimes big) differences in language, the different dialects (US, British, Austrian-English) and it is easier to tune into the setting of post-war Vienna, which has been split into four zones of occupancy. One of the best movies ever

1pos

I am not a fan of Ang Lee. I hate crouching tiger and I do not want to talk about hulk. I am a fan of shanghai. The setting appealed to me. There is war, there is electric tram, there is cheongsum, there is nothing more i can ask for. The film is based on a famous novel of Zhang Ai Ling, so not much credit for the plot should go to Lee.<br /><br />It was mature direction which stood out. It never look at my watch a single time while watching it. It shows experience and skill in how the story developed. I cannot think of any irrelevant or redundant scenes. Scenes like Yee Tai Tai meeting Mai Tai Tai and the six of them being executed were things we can picture and were cliché. Lee did away with these scenes.<br /><br />Casting was another strength of Lee. Tang Wei is a like a ghost of the past. She should be living in the forties. She is too natural and no matter in what attire, she is stylish and elegant. I can never forget the look of Tony Leung during the last sex scene. Those sex scenes were battles. It made me pondered who was the prey and who was the predator. In a nutshell, it was good acting.<br /><br />I gave it 8/10. One point missing for the lack of meaningful and powerful dialogues. Some lines could be improved on. The last point for emotions. It did move me a bit, but I thought with such a plot Lee can actually bring tears to my eyes. I believe there should be more character development on Mr Yee. There should be a scene of him interrogating one rebel in the middle of the film, rather than him describing it. After witnessing it, we can relate the manner of the interrogation to the sex scenes, which will make those scenes more powerful.<br /><br />I was surprised by the element of humour which was present in the film. Wrapping this up, it is something you should watch in the theater, not anywhere else.

1pos

Luciana (Carla Borelli) is sent to a mental institution so she can be treated by the mysterious Dr. Spector (Charles Kissinger.) Specter is doing more than just run the hospital though: He also likes to sacrifice his subjects to Satan.<br /><br />William ("Grizzly", "The Manitou", "Three on a Meathook") Girdler's debut is something of a chore to sit through. With poor lighting (this is a low budget affair), amazingly overwrought acting, amateurish production values, a plot that's not too original-and that is dated even by the standards of the time, and a hilarious looking Satan in the film's climax (it's actually the Devil Suit from "Rosemary's Baby", only with a tacky mask added to it), there seems to be plenty for fans of camp to enjoy, but in reality it's just a bore.<br /><br />What's really amusing is that this movie was made in 1975. I say this because at this point, movies like this were largely considered old fashioned. Sure, the fact that Satan is involved is obviously due to the influence of "The Exorcist", but the tacky Monster, below sub par production values, and PG rating were old news in the post "Exorcist" and "Texas Chainsaw" world. The whole thing ends up feeling like it belongs more in 1971 then 1975, and I don't mean that in a good way.

0neg

A great movie documentary telling of the early days of the Warner Brothers toon studios (think of "Termite Terrace" as you watch), along with nine great toon shorts the family will love for a long time to come.<br /><br />This movie should be watched for on Showtime (or any of its other channels). Too bad it's not on video now--it should be taped!<br /><br />I must agree, it's a family film that indeed shall be grater than any others that will proclaim so in future.<br /><br />So long live BUGS...long live the MERRIE MELODIES...and LONG LIVE THE LOONEY TUNES!!<br /><br />An agreeable 10\10 effort from the United Artists team.

1pos

This movie was a great way to get some understanding of someone who seems to have been famous forever. It's fun and keeps moving, but at times it was hard to keep track of the passage of time in the film. It didn't seem clear how much time was passing from scene to scene and, before I knew it, it was 1987.

1pos

Being that the only foreign films I usually like star a Japanese person in a rubber suit who crushes little tiny buildings and tanks, I had high hopes for this movie. I thought that this was a movie that wouldn't put me to sleep. WRONG! Starts off with a bang, okay, now she's in training, alright, she's an assassin, I'm still with you, oh, now she's having this moral dilemma and she can't decide if she loves her boyfriend or her controller, zzzzz.... Oh well, back to Gamera!

0neg

There really isn't much to say about this "film". It has the odd smile or chuckle moment, but on the whole it's bland, predictable and generally pretty dull.<br /><br />The only reason I gave it three out of ten was for the annoyingly catchy jingle (which I hope I will forget soon....please God!). Otherwise its junk. Or mostly junk, interspersed with adverts for Smirnoff Ice.<br /><br />The lead characters give OK performances, but they really don't have anything much to work with.<br /><br />Best advice: Avoid it like a dentist's appointment. Or better yet, make a dentist's appointment instead of watching it.

0neg

Not their greatest film, but better not bad at all. I prefer this one to At the Circus or Room Service. Some would object to the obvious ethnic humour, but in all it's quite silly and mild. Margaret Dumont proves she still has it, Groucho is sharp, Chico's shooting keys and Harpo is, well, Harpo. If you have more than a passing interest in the Marxes, give this one a shot. Best Line: Groucho, "This dress is actually red, but technicolour is sooooo expensive."

1pos

On the surface "The Chamber" is about a young lawyer named Adam Hall (Chris O'Donnell) who is trying to save his grandfather (Gene Hackman) from the death penalty. But really the movie is about breaking the cycle of racism, hatred, and bigotry that got his grandfather put on death row to begin with.<br /><br />Although not one of Grisham's best, he still deserves credit for daringly going into a dark and despised part of American history. This movie may have stirred many people the wrong way and touched a nerve with others. I saw an excellent depiction of a torn young man desiring to help his grandfather in spite of his and everyone else's despise of that same man.<br /><br />The movie was compelling. Just one tale about the troubled history of Mississippi. As the character Nora Stark (Lela Rochon) said..."Mississippi has bodies buried everywhere."

1pos

This noisy aimless mess was an attempt to cash in on the popularity of Star Wars, released the previous year. Battlestar Galactica was barely able to hang on for one season despite the fertile ground and general acceptance for sci-fi that had been created by the Star Wars hit.<br /><br />This 1978 Galactica, and all the other followup Galactica "movies" and series to come from it in the early 1980's, was poorly written and poorly developed. The final product was so revolting that they even managed to mangle the hackneyed character stereotypes and plot twists that were regularly used to fill out the majority of each week's episode.<br /><br />While fans of the series heap praise on Lorne Greene, John Colicos (and Richard Hatch) for their fine effort, most seem to ignore the fact that these unlucky thespians were working with ridiculous scripts. One shudders to think how much worse the final on screen product would have been if everyone performed as poorly as Dirk Benedict, the intended 'lovable rogue' stereotype who instead came across as the 'obnoxious pain in the a**' stereotype.<br /><br />The final product would have been better suited for Saturday mornings, but the expense of the leading edge special effects (for 1978) forced this to be a prime time offering.<br /><br />Producer Glen Larson has an impressive track record for producing fun, technology-based fare, but Galactica was simply too weak on too many levels. Catch his Buck Rogers, early Knight Rider or Fall Guy for examples of how the genre CAN work without making you wish that the 'bad guys' would win so the series could end.

0neg

When people make movies as bad as this, do they attend their premieres? I really wanna know. How do they show their faces? I guess "comedies" like KICKIN' IT OLD SCHOOL must appeal to some kind of illiterate unschooled trailer-trash drool-toothed dipsticks, otherwise somebody fellated some major pole to get this greenlighted.<br /><br />Was it the minimal "draw" of comedians Jamie Kennedy and Bobby Lee (both naturally funny guys, but atrocious in this movie)? Was it the anachronistic break dancing craze, a proved cash cow in the distant past? Was it that comet that passed near Earth and birthed a two-headed calf? <br /><br />The fish-out-of-water premise always has potential: Justin (Alexander Calvert), a hot young breakdancer in the 80s, lands on his head and goes into a coma. He wakes 20 years later (retaining his 14-year-old mentality, which explains why he is now Jamie Kennedy) and reunites his break dancing team from the old days - Miguel A. Núñez Jr., Bobby Lee and Aris Alvarado, losers all, who can't dance any more, let alone act. <br /><br />They enter a dance comp for some inane reason, but Justin's agenda is to show his ex-girl (Maria Menounos) he can still kick it, so she will leave her asshole boyfriend (Michael Rosenbaum) for him. It could have worked, had this movie hired an actual director, actual writers and actual actors.<br /><br />What irks about KICKIN' IT OLD SCHOOL is that, like many movies of its lowbrow ilk, stupidity and non-talent is lauded. It is not a bad thing that Our Heroes "win" the day, but that they win without any effort; they win when others are so clearly superior; they win by being the biggest retards on stage - and that is supposedly how you win. No, kids. It's not. Even this bad movie (and others like it) is not made by people who DON'T know what they're doing. Yet this movie tells us a competition can be won if you don't know what you're doing; it tells us that all those years of practice for the other competitors counts for nothing; it tells us you can be a virtuoso at a craft without going through the rigors of becoming a virtuoso. (Like those bogus exercise-machine ads that claim, "You don't even break a sweat!" Hey, great! No pain AND gain!) And that's entirely unacceptable.<br /><br />The funny thing about this movie (--there's something funny about this movie?) is that Bobby Lee's "Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto" bit looks hilarious in the trailers, in the film, like a Chinese burn. So too with the down-wid-it tongue-in-cheek title, all the failed gags, embarrassing plot points and mistimed bits. Nothing works outside of the thirty-second trailer.<br /><br />What almost became an Olympic sport in the 80s has been marginalized in the 2000s, but the people who still do it, do it extremely well. And that's the only redeeming factor in this movie - the dancing. Dated though it is stylistically, we appreciate the astounding expertise of the kids who can still jam, break, lock, snap, crackle and pop it.<br /><br />Unfortunately, expertise is something Jamie Kennedy and his crew of jackasses lack, so we know how it's going to end - yes, he wins the dance comp, gets the girl, and somewhere, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Gregory Hines are turning in their graves.<br /><br />--Review by Poffy The Cucumber (for Poffy's Movie Mania).

0neg

Watching "The Fox and the Child" was an intoxicating experience. The lush visuals, integrity of point of view, and utter beauty of the setting and characters left me in a swoon of pleasure.<br /><br />The plot is uncomplicated. Deceptively simple. Within the container of that simplicity a world unfolds that draws you in and leaves you breathless.<br /><br />I laughed. I wept. I learned.<br /><br />This is a movie you can trust yourself to -- give yourself over to. Dare I say it is an act of love intended for any innocent heart. It reaches to the heart of the viewer--of any age--and reveals the world through new eyes, as if seen from the heart.<br /><br />Adi Da Samraj once said that true Art draws the viewer beyond point of view into ecstatic participation in Reality. I feel I have been privileged to watch--no, to participate in--this film, a work of true Art.

1pos

Spoilers<br /><br />SILENT SCREAM ain't much of a movie. I call it a micro-movie because the cast is populated by a few actors. There's only one setting. It takes place entirely inside a big but cramped house, and a lot of the action during the climax occurs in the attic. And the body count (aside from the killers' deaths) is only 2! Yep, 2. That has got to be the lowest body count for a slasher in horror movie history. To make things even more underwhelming, the murder scenes for those two aren't very good. What's really funny is as low as the body count is, the story boasts not 1, not 2 but 3 psychos/potential killers (the mother, the woman played by Barbara Steele and the "young" nerdy guy). The flashback is confusing and the film starts with, get this, the actual end of the movie, which basically shows us dead people lying on the floor. We don't know who's who on the first viewing but still, what a boring a lazy way to start a horror film. All in all, I have to say that this micro-movie was not worth watching.

0neg

I could rave about the fantastic acting and directing. But every scene is like waking up in a real Hades. I mean, these people seem locked into the never-ending strain of having to live with each other, and even worse, with themselves.<br /><br />I disagree with another posted comment which said none of the acting was good except for Joan Crawford. They were all superbly on cue, dynamically intertwined, and their interactions were so genuine I kept thinking I was in the room with these miserable rich people.<br /><br />I kept getting ulcers, and feeling angry, depressed, or panicky with each character interaction. Now and then the sweet-natured visiting cousin, Jenifer, offers a fresh breeze of hope, but wow, how she gets caught up in their poisonous existence. You never know if she is going to save this wretched family, or destroy them; you can't quite figure what she is about.<br /><br />There is plenty of movement, dynamic interplay, psychological warfare and symbolism, and smooth continuity. Every actor surprises you with revelations of their inner selves which they are not afraid to expose, which in every scene stirs up more conflict to work out.<br /><br />I also slightly disagree with the posted comment that the ending was tacked on. In a way it could seem so, but the events leading up to it keep you wondering... was the freshly budding resolution of all their sorrows real? Or just a lot of fake premise that never got to full light? We will never know. But after seeing this otherwise well produced movie,I am determined to live as good a life as I can, if this is what Hell is like! And these poor people are in Hell.

1pos