schwarz-10 Reviews

Against the Wind (1978)

Such a culture shock...

[10/10 · 5 January 2009]

I am happy to realize that so many people share my personal feelings on these miniseries. I cannot add anything to the fine words said about the acting, the score or the story - I just can add another touch to the tapestry of opinions which I believe a few will be able to add.

Living in Bulgaria during the Communist regime certainly had its limitations :-), including not being able to watch most of the TV shows that the whole world grew with. For obvious reasons, Bulgaria's then-one and only state-run TV station did not care to show the working class of the country how did the working class in the US, Europe or Australia live at the time. Occasionally, the censure treated us with some British costume drama or historical miniseries so we could not really make any 'politically incorrect' parallels. Against The Wind was one of those series that kinda passed the censorship and I can remember streets of Bulgaria getting empty when an episode was on air. I was about 10 at the time but I still remember the score being played on the radio in a café and everybody hushing down to hear it. You couldn't buy the soundtrack it in stores then... A friend of mine still keeps a cassette tape with the opening theme recorded from the speaker of his TV set. It even has the Bulgarian voice-over reciting the title of the series and the names of the leading casts. The series had a huge cultural impact on me and many of my friends in Bulgaria at that time and was a measure for every new miniseries coming on Bulgarian TV for years.

Hoodwinked! (2005)

Not the best animated movie, but worth the time & money...

[7/10 · 2 May 2007]

In times when animated features face harsh competition and have to cover tough requirements in order to attract attention, Hoodwinked! is fresh air and disappointment altogether. Usually, studios prefer to throw $100 million for FX and SFX and somehow try to avoid those extra $2 mil for a good script. Hoodwinked! is a rare case of the opposite. Even the stills will tell you that the film does not offer exquisite animation. At times, cartoon & anime fans will notice awkwardly unfit character movement, lack of expression, repetition, bad sound edit. However, there's a thing that really makes it up for these deficiencies. It is the script, the story, the whole funny idea to present a well-known, forever-told fairy tale classic as the Little Red Riding Hood from a point of view that rarely (if ever) crosses the mind of people. There are other films (both TV & widescreen) that tried to exploit the same tale in a different way and from a different point of view, but it was one of the funniest I have ever seen. The modern day set-up is only the beginning - satiric examples of 'political correctness', x-treme sports bits and unexpected samples of street talk are soon to follow. Good score and soundtrack with witty original songs and the superb voicing only add to the thumbs-up. In the end of the day, Hoodwinked! is no Shrek if you like such misplaced comparisons when you choose how to spend your spare 90 minutes or so, but I strongly recommend it as a nice and funny little riding film... Oh, one more thing, though the film is a good piece of family entertainment, younger children will find it boring - my eight-year old left the couch some 10 minutes in...