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kessingler
Reviews
Ned Kelly (1970)
Funky Ned Kelly -or- Better than the remake
This is a cult movie alright, although I'm pretty alone being a cultist here, this movie has all the elements of an ugly movie of the 70s (though i hear its huge in Australia).
First of, trying to learn about Ned Kelly from watching this movie is just impossible, the story trail is as lose as the one in Dune and it jumps so fast from scene to scene that is unbelievable. In one scene a police officer swears not to tell the authorities that the he had an accident with the Kellys in which he was wounded, he was pretty happy and swearers not to tell, 1 second into the next scene Ma Kelly is standing for trial. What??, so he told them?, he what??. No one knows.
the movie does those jump cuts a lot. and not only that, but you get to see some really weird scenes on the movie (such in the ending when both Kelly's brothers kill themselves in a rather artistic way). It all in the end gets explained if we consider that probably the entire cast and crew was on drugs, and not only them, but the caterers and the cleaning guys also.
But that of course is not the main strenght of the movie, the main thing that this movie's got going-on is of course the horrible performance of Mick Jagger, who doesn't really act whatsoever if we consider it, but rather just stands around being the lead singer of the Rolling Stones than Ned Kelly.
We get to see Mick: -as a drinker. -as a singer. -as a ladies man. -as a street fighting man.
so we pretty much just see him being him, not one line is delivered correctly, but always as if Kelly was really angry because he ordered a latte and not a cappuccino or with a huge hangover from partying all night.
The movie ends with Ned on his armor getting shot by the Brits, which is one of the memorable scenes of the movie, mainly because it actually seems to had been taken from a serious movie instead of a generic 70s movie.
See this movie, its the funky version of Ned Kelly, but of course as all of them are Brits you just get to see a white cast. Kinda like the Stones music if we think about it.
The Animatrix (2003)
It was far better the way I had imagined, i was disappointed
My older brother told me most of the stories on the animatrix, he was really enthusiastic about it and in my head the stories ran with a huge luxury of visuals, symbolisms and other things.
Yet my disappointment when i saw the movie was indeed big, most of the visuals on the movie leave a lot to be desired, and in comparison were not as good as anyone would imagine (for example the part were the machines are studying the human body and experiment with the emotions of a guy with little machines and cables, that sounds so much better in anyones head than what it is seen on screen). The stories could really had been a lot better, with stories like "the kid story" being unsatisfying, simplistic and overly cliché (specially the dialog in it).
Not all stories are like that, some do work in their own way, such as the last flight of Osiris, which is visually striking and most importantly, lacks of any sort of pretension.
To be honest, i believe anyone would had made a better movie than this, instead of 9 fairly mediocre little stories. Its an interesting concept, yet it lacks the attention on details, so important, specially for the short stories, and yet lacking here.
I would recommend them for the concepts in the stories, yet not for anything else.
Imagining Argentina (2003)
strong serious issue, but poorly treated
Id say 4/10 is a generous rating for this one. The subject the movie is based on is a very serious one, and most importantly, something that no one ever talks about.
Around the 70s most Latin American countries turned to socialism/Marxism governments, but by the time it was 1975 all of the same countries were under a harsh right-wing dictatorship supported by the U.S., in cases like in Chile or Brazil, the U.S. spend millions to overthrown socialist governments. It was the middle of the cold war and the battlefield was third world countries, for us Latin-Americans, we only get one side of the story, and usually is the American side.
The best weapon of any harsh dictatorship has always been to suppress anyone who speaks against it. It happens in Cuba with dissidents, it happens in Middle East with "infidels", it happens in Asia with communist regimes and those who want to turn them into democracies, it happened in Nazi Germany and it happened in Latin America as well.
Imagining Argentina is about that, is about people who "disappear" and about the government who then lies shamelessly about it. Its a great material for any movie, yet its just so poorly treated on this movie.
Banderas is a man who lost his wife, and suddenly gains the mysterious psychic power of miss Cleo and can see what happened to people who disappeared, so he makes up a support group on Thursdays to share his talents with others like him (who have also lost a loved one). The directing is amateurish as the acting of the thing, we see talented and gifted actors like Thompson, Blades and Banderas acting very woodenly (specially Thompson), to top that the soundtrack is very generic; if there is a sad scene, guitar will do it, if there's an even sadder scene, violins will do then.
One thing to reckon to this type of movies that seem to come straight out of "Amnesty International Films", is that they WILL educate you about what is wrong with the world and that you haven't seen (such as the current genocide in Sudan for example, which although takes the life of 10000 people every month, is still labeled as a "clan war" by U.S. media), yet devices, tricks and metaphors are usually used to accomplish that, yet none of that is used on this movie and when it is, you bet your first born you've seen it before in "Schindler's List". There was a tremendous opportunity on this movie, yet a crappy production and a even crappier direction ruined that. I wouldn't recommend this one, these are serious issues that should be taken seriously, not with psychic powers...
War of the Worlds (2005)
Good Effects, but lacks of any common sense
After that amazing trailer, of perhaps one of the world's most known book about an alien invasion, i was expecting to be thrilled with the coming of War of the Worlds, how little did i knew what was to come. As the movie is based in such a famous book, it is very easy for any remake of it to be successful if you direct one per generation.
The movie starts with the introduction of the original book, just like in the older movie. Not a terribly creative thing to do, considering it was done in the other other movie, but this is how the movie's logic is.
After around brief 20 minutes, and after we are introduced to one of the usual Hollywood plots (they must have a stash of them somewhere around), in which the kids don't get along with the father, we pretty much know what its going to happened. You bet your firstborn child that they'll end up as a united and happy family in the end though, which at the end happens.
After that, all hell breaks loose, martians come in, destroy everything with the dreaded POOF gun (a gun that does exactly that). Cruise escapes from every hazard, and as all Hollywood movies, a simple man like Cruise is able to do extraordinary things, such as destroy a Tripod by himself and get his family alive through all of the invasion (they survive a ferry crash and numerous Tripod encounters, specially Cruise's character Ray, who survives the first encounter without even a scratch, even though everyone around him dies horribly).
Numerous plot holes affect the movie, making it unwatchable for a second time, as we notice how everything in it is very formulaic. Numerous friends of Cruise appear, but they don't really have any importance in the film as a hole, as their appearance doesn't last more than 5 minutes, the first friends of cruise, who are they?... do they matter?: no, because we never see them again. That family that cruise meets before the Ferry, how do they affect the main plot whatsoever?... well, they don't, they are just there to die, nothing more.
Just like the anonymous extras that usually die in every movie, usually at the beginning, just to prove how evil are the evil guys, everything i War of the World follows that same logic.
Right before they get to the ferry, there is an amazing scene in which a mob tries to take the SUV away from them. 5 minutes later, this whole scene makes no real importance, as the ferry was just 1 minute away from there (those cars in the ferry, why didn't an angry mob tried to take them, and what the hell are they doing there??... it makes no logic, and the best logic is just to say JUST BECAUSE... nice work, Steven... you abused Hollywood formulas to an unsuspected level) Robby, Ray's son, wants desperately go to fight the aliens, even though he looks like he's never fired a weapon in his life, he wants to go there badly. Why?, no one knows, but we can assume that in WOTW magical world, you can go to war and not get a scratch, as Robby shows up at the end of the movie, without even a scratch on his face.
The movie seriously lacks of any creative level, as the dreaded POOF gun is nothing but just an average laser, and its not even disturbing how it leaves clothes hanging in the air, its actually kind of funny, but all in all, just not very creative (as it makes the same thing that phasers and blaster and whatever have done for years).
In the end, all those technological aliens die because of germs, something that did made sense back in the time the novel was published, as it was a very creative ending back then. But it looks stupid on this movie, as it makes no sense (they had shields and POOF guns, but no sense whatsoever about germs?). The movie ends badly, as nothing really made sense to begin with, as the passing of the movie is horrible (when it looks like the movie must end, IT ENDS, without any type of prelude to it), and how the movies tries to be dark and gritty... yet it presents one of the most happiest and sappiest endings I've ever seen in my life, its snobbish in this aspect, as it copies the DARK aspect from other dark movies, but it emulates it, superficially, without really understanding it.
It tries to gives us the perspective of a simple man, yet, Spielberg know that this is formulaic impossible to do (as he would made a very complicated movie if he really had proposed to do so, which wouldn't made so much money in the box office, and mainly because it is beyond his skills), so from time to time, Ray conveniently finds people that know it all, and that explain to him whats happening.
It tries so hard to be a breakthrough movie, but nothing here is what so ever creative, and the patience of the viewer quickly runs out after the brief special effect scenes end. Spielberg tries to make special effect scenes shorter, which is the biggest mistake, as this has always been the mayor point of any Spielberg movie.
For a better time, just read the book, which is much better than Spielberg's War of the Worlds. All in all, the movie is painfully too average, it might stand 1 view, but at the second view, the numerous plot holes are just a direct insult to the intelligence (plotholes and formulaic events that can only be made less obvious if you are a chauvinist that actually believes that the movie is "new" in what its doing).
big points for the swelling orchestra music by John Williams, which is just perfect, as always.