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Grex > Cinema > #44: Movie Reviews for the Summer of 2001 |  |
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fitz
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Movie Reviews for the Summer of 2001
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Jun 22 13:18 UTC 2001 |
Review recently seen movies on this popularly enduring item. You know what
you like, don't you? Put it into words: We've been eager to hear just what
you think.
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| 284 responses total. |
stacie
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response 1 of 284:
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Jun 25 04:54 UTC 2001 |
Le Goût des autres (A Taste of Others) This is a french comedy playing
at the Michigan Theatre. Very funny and pretty cynical. The dog may
have been one of my favorite characters. All the characters are
perfectly cast. Go see it!
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stacie
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response 2 of 284:
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Jun 25 04:58 UTC 2001 |
"Orphan Train: An American Melodrama" This is a new play showing at
the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea. I give it an OK. I don't generally
respond to melodrama very well --it just isn't my thing. However, the
play was very good. It kind of reminded me of a Jane Smiley book. Like
a 1000 Acres and the summer heat.
The only thing I think that would definitely improve it is to get rid
of the extraneous characters on the stage. I think they are supposed to
give a dream-like feeling to the play but I just found them to be
distracting.
The characters were all cast very well. Good actors. :-)
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bdh3
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response 3 of 284:
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Jun 25 08:30 UTC 2001 |
I recently viewed two films. _Three Kings_ and _The Patriot_.
My tai-tai (principal wife) and I have come to an agreement where we
will view a 'boy flick' and a 'girl-flick' one after the other and we
alternate figuring out which is what. The film in the interval
was _High Fidelity_ (so I guess it is three films not two). I actually
insisted at one point (near the end) that we stop viewing _High
Fidelity_ as I was sure that it was headed towards the typical
'hollywood' ending and I was wrong (with suitable astonishment and
no wonder it was not a 'hollywood boxoffice success' not really, I
understand full well why it was not, and thus a 'must see'). _Three
Kings_ is interesting in that one doesn't get a particularly flattering
view of most anything. Who are the good guys? Nihilism has a point?
(In theory no, thats the point. So it does, it a way....) _Three
Kings_ is still a good flick - judge it in that it was not a box office
success.
_The Patriot_. Well. What can I say. I have not shed tears viewing
a flick since Jim Brown did his immortal scene in _The Dirty Dozen_ when
he was shot in the back while dropping grenades on helpless Nazis
trapped in a below-ground bunker doused with gasoline. One tear-squeaker
per film -v- {this}. I tell yah, if there is another flick to 'prove'
you are in fact a 'new age sensative guy' by squeaking a few and thereby
get some I don't know what it is. This long film has lots of 'squeaker'
scenes many of which have nothing to do with the plot - it could have
been even longer if it actually explained the scenes that it could have
been a lot shorter by eliminating without effecting the film in the
slightest. Time and time again it 'explored' a 'dimension' without
exploring anything while ingnoring a dimension that might have easily
been worth exploring. (I *am* trying not to post spoilers.)
I personally found certain scenes in _Three Kings_ that I felt the need
to look away (although they were technically excellent and I did not)
while 'tai-tai' and I both agreed such scenes in _The Patriot_ were
merely gratutious if in fact they were far less 'gross'. (Coulda done
without them and the flick woulda been the same.)
In addition, I found no technical 'details' with _Three Kings_ unlike
_The Patriot_. For one, I found it hilarious in the 'fixed piece'
battles between british and 'rebel' aka 'american' forces that the
british would fire the 'brown bess' (standard arm of the British army
for more years than was prudent, and then sold to various other 'third
world nations' at the time although they didn't have that term) from the
shoulder as that was and is pattently absurd. If you load a 'brown
bess' with the proper powder charge and actually fire it while holding
it to your shoulder and actually aim down the barrel (it had no
'sights') it would knock you on your ass and likely as not break your
collar-bone. It was designed to be fired in 'volley' (in mass) while
held in both hands at the waist. The shoulder stock was merely there
to assist in marching, it was intended as a pike that happened to be
a 'firearm' - it was never intended to be actually 'aimed' (thus the
poor performance of the mexicans armed with said 'surplus' arms who
rotinely undercharged said) (Texas would be part of Estados Unidos de
Mexico to this day if the mexicans understood modern arms)
A good hour could have been well spent chopped from _The Patriot_. In
addition I found it irritating that the principle character (aka 'the
hero') portrayed in the film as 'englishman' by the name of 'martin'
I know to be a frenchman by the name of 'francis marion' who wasn't
married in any church until after. (Perhaps he had 'bastards' earlier
but there is no record.) The 'Bad Guy' an 'englishman' was not the
'heir' of a titled lord who had 'squandered' all the money, but was
the 6th child of a living (at the time) Lord who's mother purchased
a 'commission' (for 100 times monthly salary) at the time to get him
'out of the house' and the 'villan' lived and died of old age - quite
secure and quite rich (although he was not scotch and thus was not as
rich as he could have been had he died scotch). Further,
the 'bad guy' who 'pillaged' and had a problem with no 'collateral
damage' was not in command of a regular british unit, but was instead in
command of an unit composed of 'loyalists' (in a state most northern my
own ancestor did so and was although never committed terrorist acts and
was himself subject to two 'terrorist acts' consisting of two 'mock
executions'). Not only were there few other 'british' officers but the
majority of his 'troops' were 'native americans' - at that time it ment
their mother didn't 'give birth' in britian. In the flick there is one
'native american' while the rest are 'british' - in fact with the
exception of few and perhaps one the rest are 'native americans'.
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remmers
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response 4 of 284:
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Jun 25 10:21 UTC 2001 |
For me, "Three Kings" and "High Fidelity" were two of the more
enjoyable movies of recent years. I've avoided "The Patriot".
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brighn
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response 5 of 284:
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Jun 25 15:03 UTC 2001 |
"Three Kings" was surprisingly good, for a movie that so drastically switched
mood. I couldn't even sit through "High Fidelity," I thought it was wretched.
"The Patriot" was adequate.
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slynne
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response 6 of 284:
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Jun 25 15:49 UTC 2001 |
That is funny. I thought that "Three Kings" sucked.
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brighn
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response 7 of 284:
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Jun 25 16:32 UTC 2001 |
To each their own. =}
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ric
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response 8 of 284:
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Jun 25 17:07 UTC 2001 |
I really enjoyed "High Fidelity"... I have not seen "Three Kings", and I found
"The Patriot" to be interesting enough.
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mooncat
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response 9 of 284:
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Jun 25 18:30 UTC 2001 |
Very much liked "High Fidelity" and found "Three Kings" to be really
interesting and fun... haven't see "The Patriot"
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edina
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response 10 of 284:
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Jun 26 15:45 UTC 2001 |
If you've seen "Braveheart", you've seen "The Patriot" - "Braveheart" is
better.
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senna
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response 11 of 284:
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Jun 26 16:14 UTC 2001 |
Perfect Storm was not as bad as I was expecting. I wisely elected not to hope
for (or care about) the characters, and I was rewarded with some impressive
man vs. weather conflict. And some interesting breaks with realism.
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mooncat
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response 12 of 284:
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Jun 26 16:34 UTC 2001 |
(haven't seen Braveheart either)
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hematite
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response 13 of 284:
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Jun 26 22:58 UTC 2001 |
(And in Braveheart you can see my brother-in-laws twin. The Irish man
Stephen. Chip is so much like him, looks and personality :)
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ric
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response 14 of 284:
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Jun 27 01:07 UTC 2001 |
I don't believe that Braveheart is the same as The Patriot. Both war flicks
starring Mel Gibson. I've seen them both and I don't think they're "the same
movie" or even close.
I will agree that Braveheart was better, though.
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bdh3
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response 15 of 284:
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Jun 27 05:17 UTC 2001 |
(They are the same movie just in different time periods. And I think
_Braveheart_ is shorter and with better plot development (more
concise). Both flicks are blatant 'republicanism' and the only
difference is in _The Patriot_ there are guns and perhaps more 'gore'
(and that may merely represent that the latter was released later where
the 'over the top' level one must attain was higher))
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brighn
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response 16 of 284:
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Jun 27 14:11 UTC 2001 |
They're both war movies starring Mel Gibson, both epics. They're not the same
movie. If you want to see an example of the SAME movie, see Escape from New
York and Escape from LA, where the only real differences were in the dialog
and the wraparound plot... there are enough similarities that, were the second
made by a different company with a different star, the first could have won
an Intellectual Property infringement suit.
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edina
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response 17 of 284:
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Jun 28 14:02 UTC 2001 |
Ok - stop the presses. Someone on grex is related by marriage to David
O'Hara???? No fucking way!! I love him!!! My only question is: is he
single?
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thirdeye
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response 18 of 284:
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Jun 28 19:32 UTC 2001 |
I think the best movie I have seen this year would have to be SwordFish. It's
still new so I won't disuss it in detail, but I love the whole idea of this
group existing.
Braveheart vs. Patriot? Yeah, same movie.
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flem
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response 19 of 284:
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Jun 29 17:00 UTC 2001 |
Oh, good lord. SwordFish? You've got to be kidding.
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richard
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response 20 of 284:
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Jun 30 05:00 UTC 2001 |
A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-- This is the movie Stanley Kubrick was
developing when he died, that Steven Spielberg took over. A tale of a
dark future when scientists have developed a race of androids, robots
designed to look and feel human. A "boy" robot is designed, intended
to be marketed as a child replacement, for couples who have lost their
children. The prototype, a boy robot named "David" is given to a woman
whose real child is injured. The boy is programmed to love the woman
as his mother, but ultimately he realizes that his "mother" can't love
him because he isnt real. One day he reads Pinocchio, and believes
that story is true and that if he can find the blue fairy, she will
turn him from android to a real boy and then his "mother" will love him.
So the boy robot ends up on a search, through a desolate, dark world--
a world where humans have become bigoted against androids, for the blue
fairy who can make him real. But life isnt a fantasy, he can't be
real, and his "love" for his mother can't be real, because that love is
programming.
This is a great movie, but if you are going in expecting E.T. or
something you'll be disappointed. Its a dark, disturbing story about a
twisted future, quite typical of Stanley Kubrick. It is NOT some
lighthearted fantasy film. Think Clockwork Orange or Blade Runner.
The boy android is played in a great performance by Haley Joel Osment,
the kid from the movie the Sixth Sense. (He's too good an actor to be
a kid-- I think he's a midget :) ) William Hurt plays the scientist
who designed him. This movie is a visual feast, with Spielberg giving
an intricately detailed vision of a not too distant future society.
Its one of those movies you can't see just once and that keeps you
thinking well after you've left the theater. **** (four stars)
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brighn
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response 21 of 284:
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Jul 1 21:28 UTC 2001 |
David chases a woman around with a bobbing penis and makes miniature origami?
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giry
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response 22 of 284:
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Jul 2 20:05 UTC 2001 |
Agora 9 <-> Cinema 44
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mary
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response 23 of 284:
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Jul 2 21:37 UTC 2001 |
I can pretty much tell my sister Nancy how much she'll like
a movie. She wants to like the characters and leave the theater
feeling she "got it". She doesn't mind being emotionally manipulated
as long as she also gets to feel good about the experience.
And the movie has to have a point but not a point that's open
to wide interpretation.
She'll love "AI". It's "Blade Runner" for the mall set.
Nice special effects though.
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mary
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response 24 of 284:
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Jul 2 21:43 UTC 2001 |
I can't remember if I reported seeing and liking "The Claim".
I did.
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