Collecting Movie Reviews

In "Life of Brian", the setting is Judea, around 33 A.D. The movie is about Brian, a jewish man-boy, raised by a tough mother; Brian's life is seemingly meaningless, until he joins a hilarious group whose main task is to go against Roman domination. Suddenly, and unwillingly, Brian has an enormous set of followers that, based on strange omens, think he is the Messiah.

From beginning to end, "Life of Brian" is much more than just a bunch of nonsense scenes revolving around a common base-point. Of course, the characters are made and chosen to fit the Python actors, but that doesn't mean the acting is bad. John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones (among many others) are still active and very much well-known today or in recent years - 007 series, "A fish called Wanda", etc.

But "Life of Brian", more than a simple comedy, is a tremendous criticism of the society we live in. It is not blasphemous in any way. Countries and societies that have banned this movie on religious grounds completely missed the point. This is not about religion, it's about people's relationships. To criticize globalization, lack of individualism and misguided leaderships (if they were able to see the problem then, what can we say about nowadays, when it's even worse?) they took as an example the christian societies and religious movements because, being westerners, and making a movie mainly for western audiences, they thought this would be more simple to achieve their goal. Well, in the end it was proved they were really ahead of their time. Even today "Life of Brian" is not completely understood, and mistaken as a religious parody.

Congratulations for the Pythons, on the subject choice and on the intelligence with which the movie was made.

Grade 9.2/10

As for the film, it's comical, amazing, and exactly what should be on film, everything that is depicted on the film, is in line w/the Roman occupation of Nazareth at the time of Jesus, with some social comentary of how things were in his time, numerous religions, ultra-pious jewish sects; who among other things would live in seclusion, with out ever reproducing offspring, are parts in it a little streched? Well sure, it's a comedy, it's I'd say streched a lot, but on the whole, it's all there.

this is all in the dead-sea scrolls people, wake up from your 2000 year decension, to the world of conformity, and forget your 1-god religions, like your 1-god religions left you, spread the word 1-god religions are going down.... ((( i believe in a 3-god system myself, then again christians worship the jesus and the god)))

Filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) makes the band Spinal Tap the subject of a documentary. The band is on their first American tour in six years and counts among its members David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Mick Shrimpton (R.J. Parnell). Nothing really goes as planned on the tour as fans don't turn up for an autograph session, their album "Smell the Glove" has trouble making it into stores, difficulties arise in the design of a stage prop, and a concert stop is scheduled for a military hanger. Yet with all this chaos erupting around them, the band members remain oblivious to their plight.

"This Is Spinal Tap" is a film that becomes more and more strained as it goes on. The fictional documentary joke starts to wear thin after the first initial chuckles. The acting is great and the cameos by Fran Drescher, Paul Shaffer, Anjelica Huston, and Fred Willard are amusing but there is little energy to help sustain the film for its 82-minute running time. "This Is Spinal Tap" is not funny enough to be a successful comedy and not clever enough to be a successful satire. The film is merely adequate and, unlike the band itself which is saved at the end by their Japanese fans, is never salvaged before it concludes.

"Das Boot" was the first film I had ever seen that depicted the Germans as human beings fighting for their country (if not necessarily their Party, or Hitler), and it depicted them in all their vulgar, profane, humorous, sweaty, smelly, unshaven, drunken glory. Strangely enough, the movie (like the book by Lothar-Gunther Bucheim, which remains one of my favorites) decides not to give many of the principal characters full names, but merely ranks or first names(The Captain, The First Watch Officer, the Chief of the Boat, etc). I think this was done mainly to keep the 'everyman' feel of things, i.e., to make sure the audience understood that these characters represented the U-boat arm as a whole rather than any particular 'famous' boat such as Prien's, Schepke's, Kretschmer's, Endrass's, etc.) Many people were distinctly uncomfortable seeing the German soldier (or sailor), always depicted as a jackbooted, sadistic robot, shown as more or less indistinguishable from his American counterpart, and I am convinced that this is 50% of the movie's appeal. The other is of course that this is a submarine film, and they are ALWAYS cool.

The U-boat war against the Allies had a number of phases in which each side gained and then lost the advantage. This film is set during the fall of 1941, just before America entered the war, when the tide of the battle was turning against the Germans for the first time after a year of heavy successes against British convoys. The captain of this boat, brilliantly played by Jurgen Prochnow, is an 'old man' at 30 years of age (not merely because his crew is made up of 18 year olds, but because he is one of the few captains to have survived this long) with a half-buried hate for the Nazis and a grudging admiration for the British navy. His officers made up of a willing but rather naive war correspondent, a stiff-necked Hitler admirer, a clownish second officer, a combat-fatigued chief one step from a nervous breakdown, and a brilliant engineer whose wife has an apparently life-threatening disease. Nevertheless, these fellows know their business, and the actors, who (we are told from the DVD commentary) were not only drilled to look and act like real sailors, but recruited from all over Germany and Austria to give the film a feeling of how Hitler's Reich absorbed German-speakers from all over and homogonized them into a fighting machine of ruthless efficiency.

The best thing about the film, which is a director's cut edited down from the enormous, 18 hour "Das Boot" mini-series originally aired in Germany, is its production. The film takes place almost entirely on the U-boat, and the boredom, claustrophobia, tension, heat, stench and bad lighting seem to close around the viewer as if he were actually on board. In particular the depth-charging scenes are agonizing to watch, as lightbulbs burst, control panels short out, water spurts in from broken fittings and hull bolts, driven by the immense pressure of the ocean's depths, explode out like machine-gun bullets into the crew. The awful nature of the U-boat was that once it struck its target, it was essentially helpless and its destruction or survival depended almost entirely on the ability of one man, the "Kaeleun" (captain) to out-wit the enemy above.

Some reviewers have taken issue with the realism of the anti-Nazi sentiments of the boat's characters, saying that this follows the post-WWII liberal-revisionist German line that there were basically two kinds of Germans during the war: those who were simply fighting for their country and had no use for Hitler, and the Nazi villains who adamantly supported him and his crimes. Many English/American novelists hold this view, a la Jack Higgins, so as to be able to create both "sympathetic" and "evil" German characters. I half-agree with this. The German navy was an extremely apolitical and professional bunch, officers actually being forbidden to join the Nazi Party, and probably many officers echoed the captain's ill feelings in real life. On the other hand, having read works like Stephen Fritz's "Frontsoldaten" and the memiors of Gen. Hans-Ulrich Rudel, I have come to believe that belief in Hitler and National Socialism ran very, VERY deep in the average German for much of the war, and this "good vs evil" mind-set is largely a device of both the Germans and their apologists to avoid this fact.

"The Boat's" DVD extras are interesting, especially the featurette on how the U-boat "set" was a real U-boat (!) constructed from old blueprints by the same manufacturer who made them in the war (!!).

I strongly suggest that English-speaking audiences watch the subtitled version first rather than the English-dubbed version, although unlike most dubbed versions this one is dubbed by the actual actors, since most of the principals, including Prochnow, speak fluent English. Hearing the German, if you only understand the obvious words, is very important to the experience.

Hmmm, did you guys notice that lemon is the all time favourite fruits in the movie?

The only suggestion that I can give is : listen it in its original language (if you understand German), the english dialogues kind of neutralize the tensions/ emotions that the crews feels at the time.

If you could, check out the SUPERBIT version of this magnificent film. All the details is fanfastic. In the regular version, you could actually see shadow/grains in the corners of the screen.

Colm Wilkinson and Philip Quast as the rivals Jean Valjean and Javert will blow you away because they are such a great team. Ruthie Henshall shows a lot of emotion in her part as Fantine because she puts a lot of emotion into her part without wailing like Graff on the Original Broadway Cast Version. Jenny Galloway and Allun Armstrong have great chemistry together and do well as the Thenardiers. They are comical yet disgusting at the same time. Hannah Chick will make your heart melt in "Castle on the Cloud."

Michael Ball and Judy Kuhn show lots of emotion in their parts as Marius and Cosette. They make these slightly annoying characters more understandable. Adam Searles is cute as Gavroche with his bubbly little voice, and Michael Maguire as Enjolras will make you gasp, especially in "One Day More."

A must buy for all Les Mis fans!

Featuring Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris,this is a fast-paced action thriller that is, of course, very well acted and full of energy.

The cinematography is topflight, as is the direction, and it will keep you interested until the end, as a good yarn should.

I would rate it as an easy five stars except for the message the story-line pushes: that the government has stiffed our combat soldiers and treated them with anonimity, and when they are killed refused to treat their survivors fairly. This is simply not even remotely true, and for me it almost ruined an otherwise good story. It was the supposed motivation for the heavy, very well played by Ed Harris (who played John Glenn in The Right Stuff), to lead a terror attack on his own country--a man whom, in the story had won the Congressional Medal of Honor (In my years in the service I met only one such man). In the story the other military men simpathized with him. So unlikely an event that it almost made me vomit. I know of what I speak. I was retired for service-connected disability, and have been very will treated by my grateful nation.

The writer also took the usual jabs at J. Edgar Hoover, one of the Hollywood left's favorite targets, and finally insinuated in the conspiracy theory of JFK's death with the clear implication that the government was involved, as well as an allusion to the Roswell 'flying saucer' secrecy conspiracy wherein the U.S. Air Force was supposed to have captured alien spacemen and kept it secret--another kook favorite.

This is a fine film, well acted and produced. Forgive me if I dwell overmuch on the leftist propaganda aspects which are, after all, typical fodder from Hollywood. But I get very tired of story lines that always, always make our government the bad guy, all in the name of entertainment, and contribute to that image among people who know no better.

It WAS good entertainment. I'm probably just too politically inclined to give an objective view.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret.)

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

If you weren't impress with the previous release then upgrade to "The Rock - Criterion Collection". The movie is presented in enhanced widescreen format. The DVD contains a stunning and flawless picture quality with vibrant color and sharpness. The Dolby Digital sound is certainly impressive and offers more aggresive surround effects than the DTS audio track. This 2-Disc Criterion Edition features audio commentaries by cast and crew, FX and action scenes featurettes, outtakes, trailers and the movie's premiere on Alcatraz. "The Rock" is non-stop fun and this Criterion Collection DVD earns an "A".

The puppetry in this is amazing, conveying the personalities and feelings of the characters with, considering that the movie was made in the early 1980s, a suprising amount of facial expressiveness. Jen and Kira, the Gelflings, are full of warmth and friendliness while the reptilian Skesis are suitably sinister and scheming, the shaman-like Mystics are gentle and contemplative, the Podlings are lively and celebratory even in the face of Skesis opression, and even the mysterious super-fluffy-dog Fizzgig is wonderfully designed.

Whether you're interested in this movie as a fan of Jim Henson's puppetry, Brian Froud's artwork, or just fantasy in general, it's devinitely a vital part of any fantasy movie collection (and one of the first parts of my own).

The ones in power in the Castle of the Crystal are the tall, lumbering Skeksis, a cross between vultures and dinosaurs, putrid lizards, as Aughra calls them. Some are downright fierce, such as the Garthim Master and Ritual Master, others are comical, such as the Chamberlain who challenges the Garthim Master for the emperor's throne...and loses. They also must have won the Worst Table Manners by a non-human intelligent species Award, as they burp and make loud smacking noises when eating their roast Nebri. In contrast, the four armed, tan, silver maned Mystics are more laid back, content in their simple peaceful ways, and despite being pokey upon their travel to the Castle of Crystal, don't underestimate them--they are powerful.

Jen, a Gelfling raised by the Mystics when the Skeksis massacred his people, is the Chosen One. His journey--I know, Joseph Campbell--is to find the shard and heal the Crystal, and the land, or else the land will become a place of evil for good. As the prophecy goes, "When single shine the triple suns, what was sundered and undone, shall be whole, the two made one, by Gelfling hand or else by none." So when the Skeksis discover his existence, they press the panic button, so to speak, and sic the Garthim, lumbering black-carapaced crosses between woodlice, sowbugs, and beetles with crustacean claws who make clicking sounds when aroused, after our hero.

In his quest, Jen is helped by Aughra, a squat gray curmudgeon of a harridan with her one removable eye, who lives in an observatory, and Kira, a pretty blonde Gelfling who knows how to communicate with animals via their calls, so it shows not all blondes are dumb, as she proves more resourceful than him, including a significance anatomical difference that saves both their hides later in the movie. Her pet Fizzgig is the most comical creature, resembling a furry light brown ball that barks, and reveals a mouthful of teeth when it roars. Jen and Kira complement each other, he has spent his life under the learned Mystics, while she has spent her life at one with nature.

Jim Henson clearly borrowed some Buddhist principles here. The low-register chant of the Mystics owes a nod to the multiphonic chants practiced by the Tibetan Buddhist monks, as is the sandpainting one of the Mystics does in the early part of the movie. Then there's Aughra's mindset on what happens if Jen fails in his quest: "The end of the world, or the beginning. All the same, big change. Sometimes good, sometimes bad," which is kind of a Hindu mindset recalling the Shiva/Vishnu relationship, of destruction and renewal.

Another symbolic representation is the image of Aughra's house the Mystic leader shows Jen. It resembles a brain, which given the orrery in her abode denotes her as the one gifted with scientific knowledge.

Apart from the jungle scenery, it's the creatures that's a real visual triumph, from exotic plants and animals. The only letdown are the potato-like quiff-haired Pod People, who look like some toys for the 5 and unders. But of individual creatures, Fizzgig, Kira's pet, steals the show, as does the calculating Chamberlain, with his funny cunning whimper and sickly smile.

Aided by Trevor Jones' sweeping score, The Dark Crystal will be optimal for kids 8 to 11, as those younger may find the Skeksis frightening and even disgusting, but for those into fantasy, people of any age, depending on how well you can take the Podlings.

Neon Genesis Evangelion, like the Matrix trilogy, isn't abominable -- but I wouldn't do it again, and can't therefore recommend that other people spend money to watch it for themselves.

If you want incomprehensible philosophizing, watch Lain -- it's more interesting.
If you want philosophizing dramatic action, watch Trigun -- it's much more powerful.
If you want useful existentialism, watch Slayers Next -- it's infinitely more enjoyable.

Borrow it from a friend or rent it at most but please don't buy it.
Don't spend your money on something that leaves you with a hollow feeling at the end. If I had the option of rent I wouldn't have bought it either. After all, if you are an anime fan, you have to watch Neon Genesis evangelion because it has so many original ideas. Too bad it was ruined at the end by the troubled mind of its director.

I love the chemistry between Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. Both their characters were so heroic and caring - what a great example!

The movie was just plain on-the-edge-of-your-seat action. It was fast, it was exciting, it was fun.

There wasn't a lot of cussing, but there were several bloody scenes. It wasn't nearly as gory as most similar kinds of movies are, however, which I appreciated.

This isn't going to change your life, but it's certainly a fun few hours.

I beg you to find a single section of the movie that didn't relate to other parts of the movie. In this respect it is phenominal. The only other Sci Fi movies I have encountered that come close are the original Alien and T2. An almost Shakespearian use of foreshadowing, plot device, and humanity.

2. Continuity: Robocop shows down with Dick Jones, Drops his gun. Later in the movie, does he magically have his gun? NO! Lewis has sneak into the police dept. to give him one. Freakin perfect. Many other instances of this.

3. Realism: Have you seen other action movies from the 80s, (including Robocop 2 and 3). Bad guys are lame characitures (wrap around shades, headbands, mohawks, etc.) This movies' bad guys look act and feel like genuine people and bullies. "You a good cop? Yeah, I bet you're some kind of a super cop, Comin in here all by your self". Clarence, Emelio, Dick Jones. Dag, these guys come across as real today as they did back then.

4. Socio-commentary: The adverts are brilliance. The hatred of yuppie indulgence (before yuppies were a "thing"), the deprecation of society. Compare the gas mileage of the 6000SUX to the modern SUV (SUX, SUV... 1 letter off) hmmm...

5: That gun!!!!

6: Premonition: Yuppies, Vehicle Extravigance at the price of Gas (6000SUX), DVD, (think about the time it was made), The TV show everyone watched in the film seems a little to like Howard Stern for my likes (I'd buy that for a Dollar!)

7. The scene where he walks through his own home and remembers his past (or pieces) is one of the most touching pieces of filmmaking ever.

8: realism #2: Computers work like computers. No flashy pop up displays, truncated words to fit a screen. Realism over flash. Brilliance!

Well, anyhoo, this is an amazing movie, and I've watched a lot. this is the one to watch and own. Go get this. I mean it. go get this movie. I know where you live.

Now, "Robocop" is never as serious as I put on. That newsbreak and corporate scum is scathing satire that prevails throughout the film on 1980s' America, hitting close to home. Everything is privitized, the world on the edge of disaster and America riddled in crime and decadence. Man in the future isn't pretty.

The police however, are trying to do some good in this world. One of their men, Murphy (Peter Weller) ends up being shot to pieces by crime boss Clarence Bodiger (Kurtwood Smith) and his cohorts in one of films' most graphic sequences. But Murphy returns, sort of, as Robcop, one of the company OCPs' projects to try to clean up crime (but only for a company project called Delta City). Murphy, however, is still holding some of his shattered humanity, and when he learns of who exactly killed him, he goes on a revenge mission to find them. He encouters Bodiger and his cohorts in a cocaine plant and an old abadoned steel mill, each attempts to kill each other.

Besides that satire, director Paul Verhoeven is the films' insatiable and bloody energy, showing his fetish proudly for lots and lots of bloodshed. But editor Frank Urioste and cinematographer Jost Vocano are the bulk of the reason why "Robocop" is a fluid, fast-paced action flick. And writers Ed Neumier (who also signed on as executive producer) and Michael Miner make "Roocop" an intelligent and pessimistic view of the future.

Although the sequel does a superior job utilizing the bleak, cartoonish future, Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Showgirls) does a commendable job displaying the action scenes and scenarios with an accompanying, cohesive plot. The most notable scenes are the ones that mock modern news by displaying them in the ugly future, where considerable disaster is spoken of as a normalcy.

If you like this film, I'd also recommend Terminator 2.

Overall rating 4.7 stars (rounded to 5)

Rated R for strong graphic violence, gore, language, drug-use, brief nudity.