Showing posts with label movies on DVD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies on DVD. Show all posts

November 26, 2007

Movies on DVD Review

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My review of a 1981 French art-pop and 2 animated movies on DVD

RATATOUILLE C
Once again I find myself in the minority who did not like this much-loved animated movie about a rat who loves to cook gourmet food. My question to Disney: WHY A RAT? The symbol of all things foul and putrid: bubonic plague, sewers, garbage, and all sorts of diseases associated with it being dirty. AND WHY A MOVIE ABOUT COOKING WITH A RAT? Unlike cute cartoon drawn mice Mickey and Minnie the rats in this movie are so life-like with their gray fur and pink noses, paws and tails. Eww, eww, eww, yuck! The characters and script did not appeal to me at all. I did not laugh the entire time I was watching because all the characters are repulsive to me specially the young man, Alfredo Linguini, who is so painfully irritating and repetitive. Not a single character is adorable but rather it's full of cliched and overused personalities: the angry strong chick, arrogant critic voiced by a British actor, and the dwarf sinister dark skinned thin mustachioed villain again voiced by a British actor. And I really hated the first 10 - 15 minutes with the crazy woman shooting and destroying her own house. Not. Funny. I was wishing she would accidentally shoot herself or the chandelier would fall on her. There was very little cooking shown so what is the point. The ending was so disgusting with the rats having their own dining room at a mezzanine floor overlooking the main dining room. I do not like to see RATS that look like real rats and not cartoon rats in the same restaurant in a cartoon, ick!

SHREK THE THIRD B+
I have enjoyed the first 2 Shrek movies and I was not totally disappointed with this installment. It is far from flawless, some of the jokes are a little too gross a la Austin Powers but I still liked the movie. Who can resist Puss, he's so cute. The High School scene is a little bit corny, I must admit, but tolerable. Although the movie is a little bit crowded with so many new characters, I love the addition of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and Belle. What can I say, the animation and soundtrack are superb. Paul McCartney's Live and Let Die during the king's pond funeral and the women charging to rescue Shrek with Heart's Barracuda as background music are excellent choices and made me smile. Highly recommended if you don't mind a few flatulence gags.

DIVA A++
I am wondering why I have never heard of this 1981 French movie before it appeared in our Netflix recommendation corner. It is such a gem, I love love love it. It has everything I like: comedy, action, suspense, fantasy, romance, bad guys, weird people, fantastic chase scene, and operatic aria.
This is not your average boy meets girl in the romantic city of Paris. It's much more than that. The male lead, a 19-year old postal courier Jules, is in love with an American soprano, the Diva of the title, who in her entire career refuses to be recorded. During her latest recital he recorded her with his expensive recording equipment so he can listen to her whenever he likes which is every time he is home. He managed to steal the dress the Diva wore at the recital, brought it home where there is a large poster of her, and holding the dress while listening to the illegal recording. I know, it seems creepy but I didn't see it in that sense, I can't explain why. Now come the bad guys, 2 sets of them: the hired thugs working for the corrupt Police Chief, and the Taiwanese businessmen who also want to have a bootleg recording of the Diva. One of the thugs is an awl wielding psycho, called Le curé, played by rubber-faced (or to Filipinos mukhasim) Dominic Pinon of Amelie, The City of Lost Children, Delicatessen, A Very Long Engagement, etc. He has very few lines which always start with I DON'T LIKE...cars, car garages, Beethoven, elevators, etc. Jules also befriended the oddest couple in Paris. He is a 30-something male (who is also a master criminal or thief) and his female companion, a young girl, Alba, whose preoccupation is thievery, she stole a music record using photos of herself naked or in sexy poses to distract the store clerk. They live in a very large unfurnished loft apartment with just cushions to sit on, hammocks for beds, and a bathtub on one side of the apartment. But the guy is a gourmet of sorts, teaching Jules the art of making a baguette sandwich, i.e., using a knife that has the precise thinness, how much butter to spread, and so on. This weird couple helped Jules get rid of the 2 sets of villains all at once. All the characters, except the Diva who only has interaction with Jules, crossed paths when the mistress of the police chief placed an incriminating recording she made in Jules' delivery bag. I like the chase sequence which IMHO is second only to Bullitt's. Jules was riding a friend's motorbike going up and down stairs, in and out of the Metro, in and out of the train, the poor policeman chasing him was no match. Spoiler Alert: To make the story short, all the bad guys perished, he became friends with the diva (she sang Bach/Gounoud's Ave Maria and an aria from an Italian opera called The Wally) who forgave him for the recording agreeing to listen to it. I so love this very stylish plot driven movie that I watched it again the very next day.

July 2, 2007

Movies on DVD

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I watched about 25 movies on DVD the past three weeks but will review only the best and the worst.

THE FOUNTAIN A+
One of the best movies I have seen so far this year. Beautiful story, excellent photography (by Filipino-American Matthew Libatique) and soundtrack. Hugh Jackman as Tom tries to find a cure for his dying wife's (Rachel Weisz) cancer, eventually understands and accepts death, helped by the unfinished book that she was writing. I watched it 3 times already and I wouldn't stop raving about it, that my daughter gave me the graphic novel it was based on (probably either to encourage me or to shut me up), both written by Darren Aronofosky (Pi & Requiem For A Dream). I also got the soundtrack CD which is as beautiful and haunting as the movie. Me, obssessed?, maybe...;D

DOMINO D
I found this unopened DVD which was supposed to be my daughter's gag gift to one of her friends. She said it's one of the most awful movies she has seen and proceeded to recite (a la Keira Knightley): My name is Domino, domino, domino... Hahvy, hahvy, hahvy...I'm a bounchy huntchuh, huntchuh, huntchuh...then sneered. She forgot about it and told me to open it and see for myself how truly awful it is. She suggested that I take a shot of vodka or other hard liquor for every stupid/cheesy dialog or scene and I will surely get drunk at the end of the movie, but I'm not into drinking like most young adults so I ignored that. But I can say, the movie is awful. Keira Knightley is not a good actress and she keeps appearing in moan-inducing movies: Bend It Like Beckham, Pirates of the Carribean, and in Pride and Prejudice was the worst Elizabeth ever!!
Also, I viewed for the 5th (or is it 6th?) time a favorite movie of mine: Le pacte des loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf), one of the most awesome movies that came from France. This movie, set in the 18th century French countryside where a legendary beast had been killing villagers, has everything, and I mean everything: action, romance, mystery, beautiful martial arts sequences, mysticism, cultish Christian nuts, crazy gypsies, heaving bosoms, incest, gore, whores, and the most beautiful people on screen: Mark Dacascos (TV's The Crow) and his nice butt, Monica Belucci with her awesome weapon and her real life husband, Vincent Cassel as the incestuous brother. The movie is like a live action anime. Here's a teaser:


April 27, 2007

Movie Rating

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My rating of 26 movies on dvd I've seen this year:

5 stars
Stranger Than Fiction
The Fallen Idol
The Prestige
The Science of Sleep
Kamikaze Girls
Éloge de l'amour
Fulltime Killer

4 stars
Night at the Museum
The Pursuit of Happyness
Casino Royale
Youth of the Beast
Unknown
Borat
Hollywoodland
The Virgin Spring
The Idiot
The Descent
Sleepless Town
The Final Cut

3 stars
The Last King of Scotland
Lost & Found

2 stars
Children of Men
The Illusionist

1 star
The Departed
l'enfant

-1
Copying Beethoven

Copying Beethoven is one of the lousiest movies I've ever seen, not worth a second of my time. It ranks among the worst and most stupid movies of all time, IMHO, which include Signs (Mel Gibson) and Minority Report (Tom Cruise).


February 8, 2007

TV, Movies & A Book on CD

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I reserved a book, PUCCINI'S GHOSTS by Morag Joss, at the library and when I picked it up today I was given a book on CD (11 cds in all) instead of the book itself, I'm not sure how it happened. I have never tried "listening" to a book before but I took the CDs home anyway. I made another reservation for the book and will have to wait probably 3 more weeks for it. I listened to cd 1 in my car and I kinda liked it, it's not bad at all. I feel like a child having strangers tell me a bedtime story, and I will be able to continue "reading" while doing other stuff, like beading.:-)

TV shows: I haven't been watching a lot of tv lately, there aren't many interesting new sitcoms or dramas. The only shows I regularly watch are Heroes, Medium, and Law & Order SVU and the reality shows Project Runway and Top Chef. Top Chef had its finale last week and Bravo introduced another reality show, Top Design with Todd Oldham as host. There are 12 contestants, 6 men and 6 women, although I believe ALL the men are gay, including the married one with a 3 year old child. Even the tough guy who complained that he will be living with all these "girls", I think is also gay, he was eliminated on the second episode. The show is just okay, not as interesting as Project Runway, it also has some product placements but not as blatant as Top Chef. The judges seem to be uninterested and lifeless, I'll give it another week to see if something exciting happens.

Movies on DVD:
I just saw a very fascinating, funny, intelligent, entertaining, bizarre, and sad (in a way) movie, I love, love, love it: THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP by the same person who made Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is one of my favorite movies. This is the kind of movie that you will either hate or love, there's no in between. If you don't get it you will hate it for sure. Five Brilliant Stars

HOLLYWOODLAND, a movie about the actor who played superman on TV, George Reeves. I borrowed this movie because Adrien Brody is in it. I absolutely love him (and his beak) in DUMMY and of course THE PIANIST. The movie is very good, Ben Affleck is surprisingly not bad. Four Stars

 
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