janvones Reviews

Roger & Val Have Just Got In (2010–2012)

Where is Season Three of This Top-Rate Dramedy

[10/10 · 6 February 2013]

Imagine a series about which the central premise is the death of a child. One that regularly makes you laugh out loud and sob like a baby. This series reaches the heights of comedy, drama, and tragedy like no other.

If you've seen The Vicar of Dibley and Spiderman II you know how utterly cheap Molina and French can be. Here you see two actors at the top of their field. Beyond good and...funny.

If they gave Oscars for foreign television shows this would have won one for each season. I challenge any human to see the finale of season two without crying in joy for a good few minutes. Go ahead, I dare you.

The Fifth Element (1997)

Light-hearted Visually Stunning Masterpiece

[10/10 · 6 February 2013]

Yes, Chris Tucker's sexuality will shock the old (white) folks. Yes, Gary Oldman's over-the-top performance and bleeding forehead won't please them either. But there simply is no other movie, science-fiction or otherwise, that outranks this movie in imaginativeness or visual style. Oddly, it capture New York City in the 1990's better than any film set in the 20th Century.

The story is pulp fiction and the ending maudlin; but who would have it any other way? Willis, Jovovich, Besson (for direction and script), and perhaps Tucker (and Ian Holm), all deserved Oscars for this.

Perhaps some day Pedro Almodovar will make a screwball sci-fi comedy, or maybe Stanley Kubrick will come back from the grave and direct a Star Wars sequel as a dead-on comedy. Until then, if you haven't seen this film you don't know squat about movies.