alertubella Reviews

In Time (2011)

Good idea, terrible execution

[2/10 · 7 December 2011]

How can a good idea be so poorly executed? The film starts with a very interesting premise: humanity, able to provide immortality, has now only one worthy trading value, which is time. Based on this you would expect to see some radical changes in human behavior, with lots of existential issues at stake. What this film delivers in an absurd device to control the ultimate human currency, a society which is pretty much the same as nowadays and tons of ridiculous scenes which cannot be believed even if one tries really hard. Characters in this film have zero depth, the story develops to more and more absurdity and it looks as if in the middle of filming they really didn't know what to do about it. On top of it acting is bad, so... what else can go wrong?

I give it a 2 just because of the original idea, and I am completely lost by the current rating at IMDb at the time of writing this (6,7: did I watch a different movie or what?)

Little Deaths (2011)

Refreshing horror

[23 September 2011]

OK, this is not a GREAT movie, but I am lost with the ratings here. I assume that if you watch this film it is because you like the horror genre, and all three stories do deliver a good and fun time. I think that this is probably the aim: to entertain and amuse, and it delivers.

Maybe some stories are predictable, but there is always a funny twist here and there that render them just different. The filming and acting are actually surprisingly good and my feeling was that I got what I was looking for. No more, no less.

Definitely recommended to anyone into horror/gore/sex movies with a sense of humor.

Brazil (1985)

Greatest work of Gilliam, one of the greatest films ever

[10/10 · 14 September 2011]

I love Terry Gilliam's films: the stories, the visuals, the acid and cynic humor... And in his filmography, this is definitely his best film, and one of my personal top 5.

Gilliam gets inspired in Orwell's 1984 universe and creates a world where the individuality is reduced to nothing. This is a decaying universe, where the powers at hand have become experts at mass manipulation, and where those who question the norm are pursued.

OK, this brings nothing new: Orwell, Huxley and many others have warned us about these dangers for a a future society. The twist by Gilliam is that he manages to describe all this with a very particular humor, so that you find yourself laughing at what in fact are very sad and cruel situations. He uses humor to make an extremely acid critic and it becomes obvious that what is described in Brazil is not THAT far from our own society, that we are only a few steps away from a manipulative police state (hey, and America's war on terror had not even started!)

The visuals in this film, as always with Terry Gilliam are stunning. He creates something that looks like a parallel universe mixing time and technology, so that it looks like an old fashioned future, if such thing can be.

Actors are doing a great job. Jonathan Price is excellent, and the small roles of Robert De Niro and Bob Hoskins are plainly hilarious.

I have seen this film many times and it always brings something new and it resists beautifully the passage of time. If anything, the message he renders is more an issue of today than it was in 1985.

Of course, to fully enjoy this film you must have an open mind and some liking for sci-fi and the fantastic, but to me it is already a classic cult film.

Give 'em Hell Malone (2009)

Just for fun

[14 September 2011]

I want to believe that this tries to be a rather naive homage to Noir films with a sense of humor. It has all the ingredients of a Noir film except one: a good story! Everything is predictable, cliché after cliché, and the feeling is that the formal part of this film was much more important that what it tries to describe. It has elements from comics and the visuals are rather good, which makes this m,movie watchable if you want some fun, but do not try to take it seriously.

Another disappointing was the acting, which always seems odd and forced.

So watch it, have fun, and forget it!

Dune (1984)

Lynch needed time and budget to make this a perfect movie worth of the novel

[8/10 · 13 September 2011]

The only problem with this film is that it had to be cut in the middle of its production due to massive expenses and a length that would be commercially unacceptable.

The result is a film which becomes hard to follow for anyone who is not deep into Dune's novel. The other big flaw is that only the events of part 1 of the book are described fully; part 2 simply disappears and part 3 goes far too fast. So, we get a great introduction but a very unsatisfactory development of characters and events. The development of Paul's character from a Duke's heir to Muab'dib, which is a key element in the novel, is left unexplained in this film.

Having said this, the visuals are stunning, the casting and acting is almost perfect, the music goes very well with the story and the way to bring to the screen so many internal thoughts as they appear in the novel is well solved.

I remember loving the film the first time I saw it, but having seen it repeatedly while re-reading the novel leaves me unsatisfied because so many things are left out.

With more money and time this would have been a 10 and a perfect adaptation of a great novel.

Dune (2000)

Only for Dune fanatics. Others, please, read the book!

[5/10 · 13 September 2011]

I should warn that you will possibly only follow this review if you are really into Dune.

OK, to summarize this I'd say that this is a film by someone who has seen many times David Lynch's movie, and has tried with a tenth of its budget to make it more understandable and closer to the book. The result has left me with mixed feelings.

On the positive side, this film respects the 3 parts into which the book is divided. Lynch's concentrates basically in part one and does not care to develop on how Paul Atreides becomes Muab'dib. Here the story is told fully (oposed to Lynch, the director had here more than 4 hours to do it!). It tells it fully and relatively faithfully, with many literal quotes from the book, even if he sometimes takes some liberties which I found unnecessary and absolutely out of line (such as Princess Irulan's upgraded role in the story). Still, the transformation of Paul, the religious plot and the mythology of Guilds, Bene Gesserits, etc are all given the time they deserve.

On the negative, I would start with the laughable special effects (the rat of the desert seems taken directly from Sesame's Street!!). I guess the budget was small, but, come on, in 2000 computer graphics already existed. Really a pity because it simply renders some scenes unwatchable: battle scenes are repeated time and time again, scenery paintings are awfully made, oh, and what a laugh the guys responsible for costumes must have had!!! Another huge problem is, IMHO, the casting. The actors are mainly doing a good job but they are simply not fit for their role. Saskia Reeves is an excellent actress, but she does not have the dignified posture of a Duke's first lady. Giancarlo Gianini cannot be an Emperor of the Galaxy: he does not look like it and he cannot speak properly what is supposed to be the galaxy's only language!! Same goes with Bene Gesserits or Fremens, which do not show the pride and dignity so well descripted in the book. William Hurt could have been a good Duke, specially if he tried to make himself understood when he speaks.

My last comment has to do with the visuals, ie how the director tries to reflect visually what is described in the book. Well...., he doesn't!! Either because he thought that Lynch's work could not be bettered or because he lacked of imagination, he has purely copied the visuals of 1984's Dune, to a degree of detail which is shocking (going to the length of copying the visual of a Navigator which is not even described in the book)

All in all my recommendation is: READ THE BOOK, whether you haven't or it is already your 100th time, it will leave a much more satisfying experience. Go only through this film if you are a Dune fanatic and you want to see another attempt of rendering justice to it, knowing beforehand that it fails.

Pity that no film has yet done justice to the book. I personally think that if Lynch had had the freedom and budget to decide on the length of his film, he would probably have done it.