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Reviews
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979)
Great Story, Well Done.
This is one of those shows my father would be watching as I was a child growing up in the early to mid-eighties. When I was young I felt as if this show jumped out of the TV and bored me to death. It all seemed to be a bunch of old white Brits jabbering on about topics I had no interest in. It is amazing how we view the same body of work differently at a later period in our life.
I decided to watch this series after hearing the news that a feature film of the same name will be rolled out this fall. The 2011 version has some of the hottest British actors including Oscar winner Colin Firth and the always superb Gary Oldman. They have some big shoes to fill, especially because the BBC series of 1979 was 7 episodes totaling 290 minutes duration and it followed the book as closely as possible. It will be a major accomplishment if the filmmakers are able to inject all the intricacies of John Le Carre's novel into a standard 2hr feature film. I hope they do the book and series the justice it deserves.
No that I am a ripe old age of 32 I appreciate well plotted and well acted dramas. I watched this entire series over 2 nights this past week and was impressed with its depth, production simplicity and graceful storytelling. I found myself wanting more after watching all 4.85 hours. I still felt as if they could have done more on the backgrounds of the characters and the shadow world they inhabit as did Le Carre's novel. I guess I should be happy that they adapted the book as best that can be hoped for considering how poorly some great books have been adapted to the screen. If anyone enjoys well plotted spy films they absolutely need to pick up this series. It should be revered as a window into the world of an intelligence agency. A world that isn't controlled by ultra high technology and assassins but by highly educated and eccentric patriots who work by using cunning, reasoning, deduction and secrecy to protect the homeland they love but more importantly the service they work for.
Check out anything related to Le Carre if enjoyed, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor", "The Constant Gardener", "The Tailor of Panama", or "The Russia House." All are excellent.
The Ledge (2011)
Could Have Been Interesting But It Most Certainly Is Not.
I am always on the look-out for thought provoking, argue inciting films that are camouflaged as romance/relationship fare to feed to my all to narrow minded girlfriend. After watching the trailer and checking the 7+ rating on IMDb I felt confident I had the perfect movie to satiate my appetite for brain food and to keep the old lady at bay with the sex and relationship vomit that peppers this film. I was wrong. This film fails on all fronts and doesn't deliver the necessary amount of thoughtful dialog/opinions or sex/romance either one of us wanted it to.
A sense of dread came over me when I realized how arrogant and intolerant the main character Gavin is. Gavin is played horribly by Charlie Hunnam. Charlie is British. Gavin is American. Gavins' accent is neither. It is quite bizarre and disappointing to watch him struggle to spit out the lines of contrived anti-conservative dribble in his self-righteous and condescending tone. My girlfriend has no ear for accents and she picked it up almost instantly. I didn't like Gavin although I didn't like his antagonist (Patrick Wilson)either. He wants to screw Liv Tyler (another disastrous performance) mostly because he hates her uber-conservative and belligerent born again husband who is well played by Patrick Wilson. Any of Gavins arguments lose all credibility when his motive is so sleazy. The problem with both Gavin and Joe (Patrick Wilson) is they are shallow characters, facsimiles of an atheistic liberal and a conservative Christian respectively. Gavins hatred of religion is as blinding as Joe's holy certitudes. There is no depth to either of them. Patrick Wilson does translate the pain of being a cuckold quite well but he is limited to a stereotype.
Gavin ends up on a ledge, hence the title. It is up there were he translates this story to Terrance Howard who has his own sub-plot that I won't bother you with. It is here where I feel this tale is lost. An arrogant and selfish dude like Gavin would never have the balls to kill himself for someone else. There is also a gay HIV+ Jewish roommate involved. I know, it's ridiculous. Don't waste your time or treasure. Good topics rolled up into the worst possible vehicle of delivery. This is not a very good film.
5 Days of War (2011)
Good Idea, Terrible Execution
My hopes were high for this movie. The War between Georgia and South Ossetia/Russia in August of 2008 would seem to be a great background to a well-plotted, carefully crafted film that captures all the intrigue of the Caucasus. Since the Caucasus have always been a nest of ethnic divisions, political double-dealing and vicious banditry I would think any decent screenwriter and director could piece together a fairly intense thriller, I was so wrong. 5 Days of War is a twisted train wreck of special effects laden action and blatant propaganda with a parade of terrible acting. This film was disappointing on many levels. About 40 minutes into the film I realized I was watching a $20,000,000 piece of pro-Georgian anti-Russian propaganda. If anyone does a little research on this war they will clearly see that both sides committed illegal acts under international law. Georgia is actually blamed for triggering the war by using heavy artillery on a city unprovoked which killed civilians, Russian Peacekeepers and damaged large tracts of the city. Once the war began some Ossetia militias fighting with the Russians committed acts of ethnic cleansing and were not stopped by the Russian Military or Government. Shame on them and shame on Georgia for bombarding a city. I do not have a dog in this fight, I think that the problems of that part of the world should be answered by the countries and governments of that region. It is obvious that the filmmakers feel that we should clearly be supporting Georgia with their charismatic leader Mikheil Saakashvili played by Andy Garcia who is portrayed as a Georgian Thomas Jefferson or JFK. Why the hell did they use Andy Garcia anyway? This movie does nothing to help the outsider with the complexities of the actual situation. I want to know what the target audience was for the filmmakers. I was insulted by this film. Why would they take such a complex and historical subject and simplify it down to this? Westerners are natural allies of the peace-loving, compassionate Georgians therefore the obvious "Bad Guys" are the Russians and South Ossetians who bring murder, terror and misery upon the progressive Georgians. The world isn't so black and white and even us dimwitted moviegoers can appreciate the intricacies of politics in the Caucasus. The protagonist of this wreck is an unlikeable American journalist (Rupert Friend in a career ending role) who jumps head first into danger because of his troubled past. He is surrounded by a cadre of American/British journalists (Val Kilmer, Kenneth Cranham who are both wasted as ridiculous caricatures) who drink hard, take big risks and are always crying about how nobody cares about what is going on in the world. At all times they are protected and working directly on behalf of a group of saintly Georgian soldiers. They do not even pretend to be impartial and objective. The contrived role of Tatia (Emmanuelle Chriqui) is another low point in a film filled with an excruciating level of inaccuracies, clichés and thoughtless dialogue. Special effects are strong, location looks beautiful but the storyline and fact every major character is played by an American or British actor and not native Georgians/Russians is thoughtless and insulting (insulted again). ONLY WASTE YOUR TIME ON THIS FILM IF YOU HAVE TIME TO WASTE AND REALLY WANT TO HAVE YOUR INTELLIGENCE QUESTIONED. A TRAVESTY.
The Great War (1964)
This Series Awakened a Thirst for Knowledge I Was Unaware I Had!!
I stumbled across this documentary series around 2005 when my interest in the first world war was blossoming due to another WWI documentary, aptly titled, The First World War. I was enthralled with this series from the minute I laid eyes on it and continue to watch it over and over again. Sir Michael Redgrave's hypnotizing narration and the eerily haunting score make for the perfect nightcap while relaxing on a lazy weekend or at night before bed. The personal accounts of the soldiers and the memoirs of statesmen and generals add different perspectives on the cataclysmic events which unfold from 1914 to 1918. Anyone who has the slightest interest in WWI should put this series atop a must watch list.
Criticizing this series feels like I am insulting my own child or spitting on my mother but for the integrity of my review I will cough up a few lines of what I would have liked to see more of in this particular series. First I would have enjoyed a little more information and background on the tensions and issues surrounding Austro - Hungary and the tensions with Serbia leading up to and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Second, a little more of the French, Russian, Austrian and Italian perspective because in my humble opinion it focuses to directly on the British and Germans. Out of 26 episodes I think a few more could have been devoted to these other views of the battlefield, the home front and political landscape.
After watching all 26 episodes and the 2 bonus episodes I was thoroughly impressed and will be forever be left with a new understanding of The Great War. Since I watched The Great War I have tracked down as many documentaries and books concerning that war as I can get my hands on and even some of the other WWI documentaries which are considered well done do not come close to the epic event which is "The Great War". This series awakened a thirst for knowledge I was unaware I had. That is exactly what a well made documentary series should do.