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Reviews
Moonfall (2022)
Dire script, unimaginative cinematography and unoriginal direction
Starting from zero, I'll award 1.5 stars for the effort made by the visual effects teams, and 1.5 for effort made by the lead actors to make something of truly sad dialogue-writing.
Three stars. Not even good enough to be "so bad, it's good". I applaud anyone who worked on this with good intentions. But unfortunately, it smacks of being a cynical attempt at a cash-grab and - if that's what it is - it deserves failure.
Green Screen Show (2004)
Nice idea, but I didn't laugh out loud once.
The use of the technology on the Green Screen Show is very clever but looks like a lot of hard work. As others have written though, the concept of drawing in details later definitely clashes with the whole premise of improv. This is two halves that don't come together.
Firstly, the improv: the performers are doing their thing ad-hoc, and they're funny. They have a live audience that laughs at their jokes.
Secondly, you have brilliant animation. This would be great in its own right, but it has no live audience (which is fine for animation, ordinarily, but here it doesn't work).
The reason this combination feels so odd is that you can't shake the knowledge that the studio audience are only seeing the improv, and only laughing at the improv, whereas we (the home audience) get to see the added detail and jokes - which have no audience laughing at them. The result is the same uncomfortable feeling you get when you realise that a sitcom has a laughter track (canned laughter).
Great effort, but the format (Whose Line is it Anyway) wasn't broke, so why try to fix it?
Memento (2000)
As good as all the recommendations I heard.
I've been meaning to rent this film for a while - finally I've been able to watch it. Wow. Now *that* is what film-making is all about. I just can't imagine "Memento" as a novel - I don't think it would be half as popular (it'd certainly be even harder to follow).
Well, I watched it last night, I was thinking about it as I tried to sleep, and I've been mulling it over all day too. My no mistake, this film will make you think. I really admire this film, there is no way I could have conceived or directed it myself.
Highly recommended, and deservedly at rank #11 in IMDb top films (at time of writing)
Patch Adams (1998)
Effectively takes you from highs to lows and back again.
I liked this film, and would agree with the "good points" mentioned in the other comments left here. The scene towards the end of the film which is supposed to make you sad really worked on me - I was holding my breath, as you just *knew* the news that was going to be delivered to the smiling Patch as he enters the room. For the next few minutes my heart was beating a little hard, as the direction is just about good enough to compel you to empathise with Patch at this point. Also, some of the dialogue was very poignant and professionally acted.
However.. ..I was distracted by a couple of things watching this film. Firstly, some of the scenes were just a little too sentimental, to the point of being cheesy. Secondly, someone was in the mixing studio with one hand on the dial that said "main soundtrack" and they *really* wanted you to hear it.
The kind of orchestral music which is supposed to support the scene and be almost at the periphery of your hearing was basically TOO LOUD. It swam into the scenes too often, and distinctly damaged the credibilty of some of them. Other than that - an excellent film and worth seeing once.