dan1234567 Reviews

The Bank Job (2008)

How this movie was made

[5/10 · 8 June 2008]

Meeting in some large ( or semi large ) movie company, in the past few years.

Slick hotshot #1 : " so , been a long time since we made a movie. Let's make a movie"

( #1 eats a donut, lots of donuts on the table, or maybe some spills some sauce from his British Indian curry on his pants )

Slick hotshot #2 : " Let's!"

a round of applause from the other hotshots in the crowd.

Slick hotshot #3 : " so.... anybody has an idea for a movie ? "

#2 : " hmmmm. Let's review some past movies which made money "

#4 : " Yes, that's a good idea. But i have an idea - Let's review only

the movies which made money, and had a small budget, so as to

increase our profits! "

another round of applause, cheers, a feeling of ecstasy pervades the board room. Maybe someone even pops a champagne, feeling the money already flowing in his pockets, and starts tap dancing on the table.

#2 : " I KNOW. Let's make a movie from the genre of those cheap British bank job movies - It's a sure hit. God knows it worked brilliantly ( or maybe it was splendidly? ), in lock stock, snatch, and all the following remakes. You know, those movies where there are so many characters without emotional depth, that the audience forget who is who, lots of violence, dreams about getting rich fast for second rate low life criminals which are a bit bald so the audience can sympathize with, and an ending scene where every one kills everyone and the good guys ( except one who dies ) win. " Why not make another one? Summer is coming soon. Hooray. Agreed?"

All agree, joyous.

#2 : " Okay, so let's split the work : in order to make things easier, let's base it on a true story, and then we can add at the end "based on a true story". it always wins the dumbwits, it makes them so... awed... Okay, #4, #6, #8 : you're in charge of copying the scripts from lock stock, and the such, and changing the names and abit of the scenerio, so it won't be recognized. #3, #5, #7 - you're in charge of finding crap actors that won't take too much money, it doesn't matter anyway. #1 - you come with me, i'm hungry, and i see that you've finished you're Indian curry already "

Hooray.

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Classic movie, enjoyable, but...

[7/10 · 21 January 2008]

Through out the second half of the movie, i capitulated to my usual obsession, and started debating with myself if i should rate this movie as a 7, or an 8 here. There is no doubt that the movie shows a lot of masterpiece sparkles from Hitchcock - The plot is excellent, The dialog is Very funny at times, and the directing is brilliant. But - despite all my good will to become a real movie buff, and give credit to such masterpieces, the honest truth is that through many parts of the movie, i was bored, and I think that any modern movie lover who does not have any aspirations to be a cinematography student, would HAVE to be bored at times. These days we expect from a "Horror/Action" movie a lot of things, a fast going pace that will brace us, along with the all the effects to make us get excited ( disregarding the fact that most Horror/Action have become so mundane to make oneself want to kill himself ). And all these things this movie lacks, understandably since it was done before WW2 - yet still, somehow, it is very hard to really immerse yourself in the plot, without the occasional yawn. Another criticism is that as opposed to other movies i saw of Hitchcock, and other movies from the time, the characters all seem pretty flat to me, without almost any depth ( maybe it's because of the acting ? well except the 2 British blokes who were hilarious) , and that I do hold against the movie. But i lingered on the negative criticism only because i saw how high this movie was rated, and thought that some realistic counterpart should be in place. Still a great movie, Not really exciting, but still manages to get a good laugh from you, and provide an interesting view of the times back then.

Syrian Bride (2004)

a movie i saw at the movies on the 17.12.2004 with nir and gilaad.

[7/10 · 17 December 2004]

there is a spoiler here!

the bride from magdel shams which is getting married with her syrian husband ( which she has not met yet), which means she has to cross the border and she won't ever be able to come back to see her family.

the story is also the story of her brothers and sister, with their own complex problems with the local population of magdel shams and its strict religious and stupid attitude.

was a good movie with an optimistic end. people cried in the theater, and my eyes too hadn't been totally dry.