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rschaer
Reviews
Outlander (2008)
Well written film paired with a good cast and interesting plot
This film does a very good job of blending a medieval film with a SciFi back-theme. I believe the term is called speculative fiction. What if a technologically advanced humanoid race crash-landed on earth during the time of the Vikings? This film contains a few cliché moments but in the end it worked for me. There was an interesting theme (revealed towards the middle of the film) that paralleled the fantasy world with SciFi world. Bottom line, I wasn't expecting much and I was pleasantly surprised. When the credits rolled, I was also surprised to see some names (Jim Caviezel, John hurt, Ron Pearlman) I recognized along with some other I had not heard of that performed well.
Butterfly on a Wheel (2007)
Implausible
While the plot has some interesting aspects, the more you watch, the more ridiculous it gets. The film starts out respectable enough: sleezy add executive and his wife are car-jacked and find out their daughter is a hostage. The rest of the film ( I am writing while watching and have not seen the end) involves their captor playing various mind-games with them with no apparent point. The problem I have is that there are at least 1000 ways these two could have gotten away and notified the authorities. Lousy script, lousy Irish accent (thank you Pierce Brosnan) and sub-par acting from the rest of the cast in general. I suspect it's really the director's fault for even considering to make this film.
Edges of the Lord (2001)
One of the best ensembles of child actors
I rented this film because I am a fan of Osmet. I was surprised by the performances of almost all the child actors in this film. Liam Hess stole the show. I would have rated this film higher, but the story seemed to meander with no real point at times. The film is very dark and somber throughout but what would you expect from a "holocost" film. The central story is about two boys (one jew and one catholic) who end up living together and experiencing some of the atrocities perpetrated on the jews during WWII by the Germans. The Catholic boy (Liam Hess), who is receiving teachings from the local priest before his first communion decides to mimic the life of Jesus (for what reason I'm not sure) and draws all the other local children into his game. As the film progresses, the story becomes more serious and the Tolo's "games" become more realistic.
The Battle of Shaker Heights (2003)
A comedy of Errors (for the studio)
<Partial Spoiler... Not too bad though>
Well, the studio won out and the film was released as a comedy. I enjoyed the film very much. But, as with most films I was dissapointed with the ending. Most of the comedy was of a sarcastic nature and intertwined with elements of tension. I was hoping that the early dramatic elements, which seemed to be building up to something, would lead to a climatic scene where Father and Son reconcile in a big hospital scene.
<Spoiler> The scene, which took a full day to shoot lasted only three or so minutes and had no real climatic value. Just when you expect the big moment, they cut away to another scene. <End Spoiler>
There were some not-so-obvious comedic moments. In one scene, Kelly is painting on a white canvas with white paint.
In conclusion, I think that the studio played this film down and did not give the audience enough credit to read through the comedic aspects of the film and see the real tension and drama behind the comedy.
I hope that a director's cut will be included in the DVD release.