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Reviews
Southlander: Diary of a Desperate Musician (2001)
charmingly awful
Well first, it's probably best not to recommend this movie if you're not excited to see famous cameos from the Los Angeles indie music scene, or if you have inside information about why this movie was made other than thinking "oh, I live in LA, i have a lot of cool musician friends, i should do a film with them" - i couldnt figure it out myself.
What if you are an indie music geek then?
Well, the story is a bit like "philip marlowe wants to play keyboards in a band". But i don't necessarily mean that in a good way. The good thing is that it might give you the motivation to re-watch "the long goodbye" by Robert Altman. The bad thing is that you *will* keep wondering whether there is an inside joke to this film, or if this is a film school project thing.
It has to be said, this is *VERY LOW* fi. i can't believe they still manufacture cameras that can give you such a bad image, though. I'm just saying this is not just about the lack of money and staff. Seriously, when characters move 3 feet away from the camera, it gets blurry. The acting is awful all the way through, with the noticeable exception of Beck, who comes out okay. Even Gregg Henry, whose appearance is quite a nice at surprise at first, is very disappointing. A special mention for the framing, i found it schockingly lazy and inexperienced all the way through. And not only you do not expect that kind of inexperience even for a first time moviemaker, you do not expect that kind of inexperience from somebody who loves films and has seen lots of them. I do not know how much time, money and staff was put into this project, but it seems hard to forgive it all.
Now why on earth did i find it all quite charming? I am not able to phrase it. Well of course, the cameos. But also i guess some kind of sparkle to it. The script is crap, and well the directing is awful. But i guess maybe the idea for the script? The general tone?
How did i manage to watch it all the way through (and i did!) other than the fact that elliott smith only appears in the last 3 minutes? I'm not joking, i found it all quite entertaining.
i'm not sure why!
Certainly not a film i would generally recommend, but *some* people might enjoy *some* of it.
X2 (2003)
This movie *is* X-men. The first one should be renamed "X-men -1" or an introduction to the X-men.
The 1st X-men was a very solid work for what it aimed for, but not quite accomplished.
Well it was good enough to deserve a success, good enough to please the spectators with managing to put on screen the X-men in a debatable but solid adaptation, but not accomplished. It was solid, not cheesy, and it resisted multiple views much MUCH more than the overpraised Spiderman. You could say it was too short for the material. Or just too short overall (unconfident producers? come on not even 1h30?), and much too short to all together introduce the characters, raise a bunch of unresolved issues, open for a sequel and make a few things happen. So yeah X-men seemed to me liked unfinished (good) work. The most solid superhero movie since Batman 2 though. Or a promise to make the most solid superhero movie since Batman 2.
Now seeing X2 makes me feel like i was right, by bringing much good stuff that was announced by the first, but kept out of it. Dozens of mutants fighting in a tornade of kick bottom special effects. Histories, ambiguities, a good progression and a good rythm. Dont mistake me though. It's not a Tim Burtonesque variation on the theme of superheros. It's just a very honest and very good big dollars work under huge constraints. The hardest kind of film making, some would say.
I think the beginning of the movie shows how much X-men is a very unique comics series. The multiplicity of characters and powers just blows you away for the 1st hour. I'm still feeling that the rythm of the movie is awkward though, because of this "so many characters, so many powers, so many stories" thing that must have made the script just has hellish to do as those of the LOTR trilogy. Maybe what this movie lacks, though, is 1 character to really focus on, and the focus on Logan is probably is even shyer than in the 1st movie (god i was relieved that the use of the unexpected stardomship of Halle Berry remained in marketing campaigns only and did not seem to interfere with the film).
Anyway, a weird rhythm due to hard adaptation, but all the expectations are satisfied. You'll get your investment back from the first movie, only 5pled!