LTCRKeats Reviews

Apocalypto (2006)

Why the Mayan Empire fell.

[8/10 · 15 December 2006]

If you like historical action movies, you'll enjoy this one. There is plenty of violence, but it is not overboard. It fits the story and is well within what is known from historical sources.

Mel Gibson is a master at defining characters. You like his good guys and have no trouble cheering for them. They are sympathetic, believable and very human. His bad guys are brave, good warriors, loyal to their cause and believable in their roles. They are seeking ever more slaves and victims for sacrifice to their pagan Gods. They are easy to dislike, but still respectable as humans. The use of sub titles is excellent. By having the characters speak in their native tongue, it helps maintain the "feel" of the movie. You get so used to the subtitles, they do not interfere. The ending is a thoroughly fun twist.

Seeing the movie and the Mayan way of life provides a visual perspective of how it was possible for Hernanado Cortez and his 500 Spaniards to conquer the Aztec Empire. It was actually Cortez, 500 Spaniards and his very loyal 200,000 Tlaxcalan warrior allies. The Aztec's religion was based on slavery and taking hostages from the lesser tribes to use for human sacrifice in their pagan religion. The Tlaxcalans and some others tribes decided it did not matter how bad Cortez was, he still had to be better than the Aztec. They blindly supported him and allowed for his victory. After seeing the bad guys in Apacalypto, the Tlaxcalan's choice of Cortez makes sense.

Fun and entertaining while being a reasonably accurate historical lesson.

The Nativity Story (2006)

Humanizing a divine story.

[9/10 · 8 December 2006]

I enjoyed the film, but have one (kidding) criticism. The screenwriter (Mike Rich) is called the author, not true. It would be more honest to say this is an adaptation from the most popular book ever written! Kidding aside, it is well worth seeing.

I will start with the one negative. The very limited amount of violence may be a little too much for small children. Other than that, this is a family film.

This is an attempt to show the human side of the birth of the Christ. An attempt to put flesh and bone on the biblical story. It was effective, in my opinion, accurate and well done. Some of the acting crossed over to be absolutely excellent. King Herod (Carian Hinds) was so wonderfully rounded and evil. He was the Herod the Great of history, a brilliant but blood thirsty king with no concern for anyone but himself. Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother (Shohren Aghdashloo) was the embodiment of the loving aunt and suddenly new mother of the bible. Joseph (Oscar Isaac) was the loving, decent, hard working and honorable man who simply walks off the pages of the new testament. Others were quite good also, both these three simply stood out.

Adding humanity to the greatest story ever told is not as easy as it sounds. Mike Rich and the Director, Catherine Hardwicke, did it well. Little touches such as Mary being afraid to marry a man she barely knew, but growing to realize he is a decent and honorable man she comes to appreciate and probably love, is well done. The three wise men might almost be considered comic relief, but as you get to know them, they are real figures, called by God to do something they had dreamed of. There is no reason that wise men can't also be likable characters and they are. I return to the sheer evil of King Herod! Magnificent! Unless you are offended by Christian and family oriented films, this is one that is well worth seeing.

Babel (I) (2006)

The sheer ugliness and nastiness of life.

[2/10 · 8 December 2006]

I have only walked out on two movies in my entire life. One was in 1983 and the other was yesterday when I went to see Babel. I almost asked for my money back. The movie is well acted and well directed with interesting scenery, but it is a long and tedious movie that is simply terrible.

Briefly the story has four separate but related parts/stories: The first two involve American parents in a troubled marriage who take a long vacation in North Africa and leave their very young children with an undocumented baby sitter who ends up having to take the kids to Mexico so she can attend her son's wedding. She is caught trying to return, can't come back and the kids are dumped and almost die. The baby sitter tries, but... The wife gets shot and almost killed on the vacation. She is basically saved by an Arab veterinarian who acts as a doctor. A sub plot is the other tourists on the bus are so worried about their own schedules and convenience they refuse to even try to help the poor stranger who was shot and is clearly near death. They are little more than an obnoxious mob.

The third is about an African/Arab family who buy a gun. One son has almost an incestuous relationship with his sister and ends up masturbating on the screen. Later, just for the fun of it, he ends up shooting the American wife as they travel down a back road in a bus.

The fourth story line is a deaf Japanese girl who is disturbed over her mother's suicide. She pulls a Britney Spears in a teen hangout and exposes herself to a group of total strangers (teen aged boys). Later at her Dentist she tries to french kiss him and then grabs his hand and pushes it up her skirt. The embarrassed Dentist throws her out.

I knew it would all be tied together at the end. But the movie was so boring, depressing and slow moving, I decided the value of seeing the end did not match the ugliness of tolerating this bad of a movie. You have to have standards and this simply fell below them.

One Night with the King (2006)

One brave person can make a difference.

[6/10 · 23 October 2006]

The biblical story of Esther is a wonderful tale of a pretty little girl, with courage, saving the Jewish people. The story is tailor made for a screenplay of epic proportions and it is one that has been made several times in the past. With the success of overtly Christian films in the last few years, Hollywood is clearly realizing there is an audience for great stories, clean stories, uplifting stories of positive people and positive events. This is sort of an attempt at joining that venue. It is epic! It is clean! It is uplifting! The scenery is great! The movie just misses its mark by a little.

The actual story of Esther is simply not here. If you don't read the Bible and know the story, you won't care. If you do read the Bible and want the movie to be fairly accurate, you will be irritated at this rendition. In this story of Esther it is an anti war movie with the leaders of the Court a bunch of pro war and anti war fanatics. As the Bible said, Spring was the time when the Kings went off to war. That was there job! Not a lot of discussion on whether wars were a good idea. It was a brutal time and people rarely lived to be old enough to worry about retirement. There was every opportunity for this to be one heck of a great film. It is an OK film. If you like epics, love stories and scenery, you'll be satisfied. Not much killin' and violence and essentially no sex or even any real skin, so the kids are safe here.

Anyone who enjoys history and dynamic scenery will have fun with this one. Susa, the Persian Capitol is impressive. The interior shots are just as much fun. The producers make an honest effort to remind you of the glory and magnificence that was Persia. They do overlook the violence and brutality for which the Persians were noted. Thats OK, it doesn't hurt the film. Remember, it is a love story, not a barbarian epic with Arnold saving the world.

The lead actors get mixed reviews. Esther, whose Jewish name is Hadassah (When some people make fun of Senator Joe Lieberman's wife's "too" Jewish name, here is where it comes from. The pretty little girl who saved the Jewish nation from destruction.) is Tiffany Dupont. She is perky. She is smart. She shows courage. She is cute. But she and the rest of the girls chosen to replace the banished (or killed?) Queen Vashti simply do not fit the rule that the King of Persia, the most powerful man in the world, made. His Queen was the most beautiful woman in the world and his harem was full of the same. Esther is cute, but beautiful, no. The harem is, well, not even close to Persian standards. Oh well, so what. Tiffany is OK, but there could have been a stronger and equally vulnerable "woman" rather than a perky kid.

King Xerxes is British Rocker Lou Goss. A good looking guy with a warrior King body. Maybe too nice a guy to be a Persian King, but his performance is OK. He is a little too soft. Persian Kings were tyrants and did not score a lot of points on the nice guy index, but so what, this is a love story, not a war story.

Mordecai, Esther/Hadassah's uncle who adopts her after her parents death, is John Rhys-Davies who is his usual excellent self. As an actor, he is always solid, always entertaining and sometimes absolutely excellent. He is a very good Mordecai.

Tommy "Tiny" Lister as Hegai the Royal Eunuch and Harem Keeper is fun. A tough role for a giant of a man who does not look much like a eunuch! If you want to be entertained by a historical epic, no sex, bad language or large doses of blood, enjoy this one. If you want a close tie to the biblical story, give it a pass.

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

A Politically Correct Crusade.

[7/10 · 20 October 2006]

First rate action and romance; Third rate history; Politically correct view of the 12th century and the blood thirsty zealots who lived and died during the struggles for control of the Levant (Holy Land). The Crusaders and Moslem warriors are brave and blood soaked. The queen is an adulteress with a blacksmith. The leper King is a decent and well intentioned young man. Saladin is brilliant and noble. Most of the Crusaders and the Knights Templars are evil intended bad guys with no religious zeal and bad intentioned to boot.

If entertaining violence and adultery is your bend, here is the movie. If you love good history, well, this is not much to watch. If you have nothing to do one evening and simply want to be entertained, this movie can fill the bill.

It is hard to envision Balian (wimpy little Orlando Bloom), an illegitimate blacksmith, as the great warrior to rally the Christians in the Levant. The Templars, respected and feared by both sides, but truly not loved by either, should protest the impression left of their valiant monk warriors who, when captured, willingly accepted death rather betrayal and conversion to Islam. They may have sometimes been poorly led, but there was a reason why the Christians always sought the valiant warriors to ride in their vanguard and the Moslems, whenever possible, gladly avoided direct conflict with them. The Queen, Sybylla (Eva Green), could probably find a better adulterous lover than a scrawny blacksmith. So much for reality. But, in the politically correct world of Hollywood, the Christians were venal and grasping while the Moslems were brave and reasonable. Hollywood seems to have forgotten the Levant was Christian and/or Jewish for over 1500 years before the unprovoked Moslem attacks that led to the conquest in the 7th century.

Oh well, a fun movie is still a fun movie. Don' waste time thinking about facts and real history, just enjoy the majestic scenery, the lovers, the well intentioned, leper King and the great battle scenes. Go be entertained and use this as an excuse to then go home and improve your mind by reading some real history about an era of great faith, great loves, valiant warriors (on both sides) and the bloody battles that left so many men (& women) of great faith (on both sides) dead or crippled for life.

The Departed (2006)

Betrayal at its zenith.

[9/10 · 10 October 2006]

The Departed is excellent entertainment from some of America's best actors and one of its best directors. Not a totally believable story line, but who cares? It was believable enough to entertain and not lose the audience. It allowed good actors to do excellent work.

The basic story is the head of the Boston Mob (Nicholson)plants an informant in the Massachusetts State Police (Damon)and the State Police plant an informant in the mob (DiCaprio). Both sides figure out there is an inside informant and go looking. The chase and final chapter are great action and great drama. The final 5 minutes are not what you expect which adds to the fun and entertainment. If you have trouble with blood and bad language, this is not your movie. The language and blood are not inappropriate to the story, these are mobsters not school kids.

Jack Nicholson is still Jack Nicholson. With the right part, he is still one of the best. Matt Damon is wonderful as the mole and does some of his best acting. His character has no conscience and that fits the part. DiCaprio is a more difficult and troubled character, but he carries it well. Wahlberg (a state trooper supervisor) is an unlikable jerk, but does redeem himself in the end.

If you go to movies to be entertained and enjoy a mobster movie, don't miss this one.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Facts don't count.

[2/10 · 5 June 2006]

The novel, State of Fear, has an interesting epilogue where the author, a many time award winner, several time best seller and Harvard trained scientist, talks about the global warming issue. The world came out of a mini ice age around 1850 and has only warmed up around a degree. Global warming may be a true problem and man may play a part, but we really aren't sure. To destroy the lives and jobs of millions of people to satisfy the political left seems a dangerous solution to a problem whose cause is unclear.

The world has previously had ice ages and been a tropical rain forest, not to mention a desert. Almost all of that happened before men were even relevant to anything. Air pollution in America is dramatically better in the last 25 years. All that said, global warming may be true, but unless someone convinces China, most of Asia and India to remain poverty stricken, there isn't much we are going to do with the issues raised by Al Gore.

So many of these left wing scares, population bombs, the end of resources and a nuclear winter have proved absurd. AIDS and Moslem terrorists are a bigger and more present danger with more obvious solutions. Al Gore may still want to be President. That's fine, but don't treat political ideology as science. We may have a problem, but Al Gore does not prove it or offer a practical solution.

Frenchman's Creek (1944)

Swashbuckling adventure with a wonderful romance thrown in.

[9/10 · 24 May 2006]

In the era when pirates and their freebooter crews still held sway upon the ocean and near the coasts with their fast and well armed ships, a beautiful Frenchwoman is trapped in a marriage to a noble buffoon and tries to find relief from him and his obnoxious friends at court by taking her children to the family's summer estate on the coast. The house is beautiful and isolated but everything seems out of place. Clearly something is amiss with the house and servants and the noble lady realizes she needs to find out why. To her surprise it is used by a swashbuckling pirate and his crew as their private and very secret hideaway. The lady is indignant and decides to intervene. How could she know this would change her life, forever? Basil Rathbone is at his best and Joan Fontaine is a classic leading lady. Great sword fight with Holyywood's master swordsman, Basil battling to the death. If you love a swashbuckler with romance and fun, this is it.

The Constant Gardener (2005)

Rich white guys plot to murder Africans.

[6/10 · 17 May 2006]

If a movie is rated on the acting, scenery and directing, this is a fine movie and will entertain a viewer. If you are a political junkie, you better be hard left to stomach this one. Good acting and wonderful settings can not hide a political agenda so extreme it leaves you a little shocked.

A milk toast, career, English foreign service officer is challenged by a leftist college student/nurse who he immediately sleeps with and marries. Their blissful love life is transferred to Kenya and an exotic world most of us have never and will never know. It is a fun love story for a portion, but then all this fun is disrupted by nasty British drug companies who make Africans sick so they can use them as guinea pigs for drug experimentation. This will enrich these nasty Englishmen and who cares about these nobody Africans anyway? Rachel Weisz does, thats who! I enjoyed the movie, as a movie, but the leftist, anti Western, anti capitalist, contrived plot line is even extreme by Hollywood standards.

United 93 (2006)

Sometimes the person who has to "do something" is you.

[10/10 · 15 May 2006]

A legitimate tribute to common citizens, who, when faced with the realization that death may be imminent, chose to fight back and possibly save others while they are at it.

The characters are not known actors. Each person was asked to read a bio of their character so they might be able to do a better job of being them, not simply being a good actor. Some of the flight controllers and military people are the real people who did those jobs on 9/11. It dramatically increases the realism.

The movie is real time. The characters don't know anything more than they did at that time on 9/11. No patriotic speeches. No over the top action heroes. No ultimate evil villains. Real people. Muslim terrorists doing their deed, not cartoon characters. Scared people doing the best they can in a terrible situation.

You owe it to yourself to see this movie. It will make you ask yourself if you would have had the courage to act as these common citizens did. It will remind you that there are people perfectly willing to kill any American, man, woman or child. They don't care, they just want to kill us.

This movie puts real life into a situation you can understand.

It Waits (2005)

An ancient Indian devil is released and there is hell to pay.

[6/10 · 24 March 2006]

Technically well made. Pretty scenery. A suspenseful horror flick. This is another "ancient Indian devil released" story to terrify kids sitting around a campfire on their first camp out. This would scare them. With one or two minor exceptions, the acting was OK. The characters were not real deep or rounded, but that is a "victim" in a horror flick issue. You did know the leading lady had personal problems and a terrible secret she was hiding. She had become a drunk for a reason. Story had the necessary shocker elements. The dead people had the appropriate gore. Some interesting twists and turns as everything and everyone who could help the heroine is stripped away. If you like horror flicks with conflicted people and a little romance, this one is good. If you don't like horror movies, then you won't like this one.