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Robby_V
Reviews
Oldeuboi (2003)
Best Asian movie of all times? Yeah if all you've seen was Pokemon the movie.
Calling this a great movie and giving away 10/10 are most likely the same people saying 'Er er, cool' after they see a chopped off hand, tongue or the totally unbelievable 1 vs. 50 fighting scene.
Violence seems a topic which is testing the limits, Asian movies taking the lead. I have no problem with violent scenes as long as they are functional to the story. In this case most if not all violent scenes were not functional at all. I'd bet if taken out, most Beavises over here would call shenanigan.
*plot spoilers* I'm probably not Korean enough to understand why Dae-su totally freaks out when discovering the plot. Woo-jin seems totally fine with having had a relation with his own sister, but Dae-su starts cutting himself up after being setup and having done something without knowing.
Shouf shouf habibi! (2004)
Serious with a smile
This movie is meant to relax the tensions built up in the dutch society between the 'natives' and the immigrants, in this case Marrocans.
The story revolves around a Marrocan family which tries to start over their lives in the Nethelands with all cultural differences and prejudices depicted with a comical note to it. This film was well received for both audiences, dutch and immigrants.
The intro movie was hilarious, but the more the movie advanced, so did the seriousness of the story. I liked this one, but I still miss the artisticness that some of the French or Japanese movies have. It seems that every movie to come out of Holland must have a comic tone to it to make it more acceptable for the masses.
Het schnitzelparadijs (2005)
Bad script, Bad acting. Yep Dutch hit movie
Yes there is some trace of humor in this film, but aside from that the movie is terrible. This one has movie making 101 written all over it.
Romeo & Julia love story in a restaurants' kitchen setting with lots of different character types to bring out situations deemed funny. Some of the situations could have been funny if it wasn't that you could see them coming miles away. The script is so basic without any shame to use cliché's that it hurts to watch.
Nice for the crowd between age 12 and 16 that made up 80% of the movie's audience, for the people with an attention span longer than 1 second, spend your time and money elsewhere.
Cidade de Deus (2002)
Entertaining, nothing more
I just watched this one and I just sat there watching 130 minutes of kids playing Indian vs. Cowboy with real guns. I did not get a single thread of emotional bonding with the characters or any of the events. This belittles all of what happens in the movie and even manages to reduce the most dramatic scene of the movie(initiation of a new member into the gang) to nothing more then one more kid shooting a gun.
The story is sad but nothing original. Rise and Fall of gangsters, rivalry over territory and someone who managed to stay sane amidst all this. Kudo's for some of the camera work and directing but thats about it.
Oh and please will somebody tell Meirelles that guns actually have recoils and not just say bang and flash a bright light. The scene of Ze returning to the brothel to 'have some fun' almost made me laugh if I wasn't crying for the pathetic efforts of gun-effects.