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Riel (1979)
Poor Cinema, Bad History
Poorly written by the same hack who wrote the deeply misogynistic slasher film, Black Christmas. The characters are shallow, the dialogue is artificial, and the acting is campy. Historical inaccuracies abound. The fact that the producers were able to draw some of the biggest Canadian-born talent in the industry to perform in this miniseries makes it all the more ridiculous. The mentality that everyone working on the production must be essentially Canadian is precisely the opposite of the multicultural ethos that permeates this pretentious nonsense. Thankfully, this trifle has been lost in the sands of time.
True Blood (2008)
Way Too Preachy
My wife and I stopped watching this series midway through the first season. It was way too preachy. The characters were always preaching about their values. Sure, their values were vampire values, but it was still so insufferably self-righteous. Every episode featured someone on a soap box, promoting their dearly-held views. It was Dr Quinn Medicine Woman meets The View. Don't keep editorializing. Just tell a story. I really enjoy stories with vampires, with people who live alternative lifestyles from the mainstream, and with antiheroes that prevail against oppressive systems. They often make for some of the best drama. I have no problem learning about someone else's views, I just don't want to watch a show that continuously tells me (explicitly or by insinuation) that its opinions are right or better. Let me think and evaluate for myself, thank you!
Hanna (2011)
A girl on the verge of womanhood must exert her superhuman abilities to remain alive
Despite the gushing of some critics, this film is not very good. It's neither a solid action flick nor a credible critique of the genre.
The basic idea has lots of potential. A girl raised by her father in seclusion is trained to be a killing instrument and nothing more. Set loose, she must 'learn and adapt' in a world that contains individuals who are extremely hostile to her existence. Will she survive?
Don't get me wrong. There are some wonderful moments, as when Hanna speaks perfect and fluent Arabic to an old Arab gentleman. How did a 16 year old girl, obviously non-Arab, learn such a difficult skill? Also, when she sits with a boy her own age for the first time in her life and nearly breaks his neck--even though she seems to really like him.
But rather than show through action how she copes with her complex situation, the filmmakers decided, at critical moments in the narrative, to deliver a very preachy sermon instead. And the message is none too subtle. Hey, boys and girls, did you know that indiscriminate violence is wrong? In case you are one of a handful of people who waffle on that issue, Joe Wright, the Director, is here to teach you how bad it is. The movie's simplistic morality is worse than a Saturday afternoon western of the 1950s. And the technique is so, well, manipulative. He builds a scene to the point when the tension in the audience should be released by an action sequence. But instead of showing a fight, he has a character say something like, 'No, stop fighting.' It frustrates the audience, who were expecting to see some skulls get cracked.
The action is poor. I realize the filmmakers probably made a conscious choice not to create action sequences that glamorized violence. After all, violence is bad. But then, they create them anyway. (There are a few fights). But when they do, there's zero craft to those sequences. They sit on the screen like lumps. And Bana, who is a tremendous actor, performs his action scenes with as much panache as a fish washed-up on the beach.
Now there's nothing wrong with offering a thoughtful, provocative critique of wanton violence. And there are some very good movies, produced by Hollywood, that succeed in such an effort. Kubrick's Path of Glory and the Coen brother's No Country for Old Men are a couple that come immediately to mind. They are directed by filmmakers at the peak of their prodigious talent. They express their ideas effortlessly in a medium that favours action over dialogue. And that's why Hanna does not work well at all. The idea, the medium, and the genre chosen are clearly beyond what the filmmakers are able to handle.
Avoid this movie.