DaViD´82

A slightly different Scorsese picture with an as ever unforgettable (and again absolutely different) De Niro in the role of an unsuccessful, middle-aged stand-up comedian. Scorsese skillfully combines the fruits of Pumpkin psychosis with reality, so you quite understand why Robert is so firmly convinced that he is a great friend of the TV celebrity. I’d better not give away much about the story, but this isn’t just a regular glance behind the scenes of TV showbusiness, as it might seem to be at the beginning. If you find a way to the heart of the picture during the rather confusing beginning, you won’t be disappointed with the end result. And the wonderful “happy ending" will stay in the forefront of your mind for some time after.

It is obvious from the first couple of scenes what TV station is responsible for this series. It carries almost all of the “trademarks" of an HBO series. Unfortunately this series had the bad luck that it was made to replace the phenomenal Six Feet Under after a five-season run. There is great potential hidden in Big Love. It’s excellently cast and acted - no question about that. But it is missing what is always HBO’s greatest asset: the polished dialogs. This isn’t a bad series, but it tries too obviously to be on the same wave as the Fishers and it doesn’t work. A solid average, but for an HBO series that’s too darn little.

A story about how a boy from Thailand moved from neediness to happiness thanks to sport. And, surprise, surprise, it’s based on real events. However, this picture differs from others and is more interesting by the fact that the main protagonist has had a sex-change operation. Unfortunately, the relatively good potential here is lost due to uninventive directing and mainly by the actors, every one of which is simply mediocre.

The combination of a Shakespeare work (this time “King Lear") with the Kurosawa slant worked out well again - although the older Throne of Blood is much better in my opinion. The biggest problem in this picture is the camerawork. Some scenes are visually fantastic, thought out to the final detail and with an almost incredible composition. However, these scenes are immediately followed by a scene that is the precise opposite of the above. I don’t know if it’s just the impression I got or if it was the intention, but this keeps on constantly wrecking the atmosphere of an otherwise excellent picture. Also, some of the supporting roles are not acted particularly convincingly, although the main characters without exception are played more than decently. The only thing this is missing to make it perfect is Toshiro Mifune.

One thing will stay with you after watching this... An unpleasantly chilling feeling of “what if, after all". The Medusa wall sculpture in the opening credits came into my childhood dreams to terrify me more than anything else. And the tension built-up in the story (the tension, WOW the tension!), the superb acting performances by all of the actors (even Burton lying in the hospital bed; that stare, THAT stare!), an interestingly approached original topic, absolutely outstanding music (the main theme, THAT theme!) and then, primarily, THAT unforgettable ending. To this day I regret that I can’t get my hands on the book that this British gem is based on. An unforgettable movie and the movie that sparked my love of cinema. Even if in quite a chilling way. P.S.: Although the dubbing is incredibly well-done, you really should watch the original English version which, with Ventura’s French accent and Burton’s somber diction, is a completely different movie.

Not that this isn’t a quality adaptation, but it’s precisely the type that I just can’t stand - word for word, without even a hint of invention. The result is a strange affair which is unclear who it’s aimed at. For those who haven’t read the book, this is full of superfluous and word for word scenes, while for a connoisseur this is nothing more than a set of illustrations for the book. It’s the same problem that I find in the Harry Potter adaptations made by Columbus, which were nothing more than accessories to the books, and this only changed when Cuarón came along. The creators made this from the foundations up and we get everything here, for instance we even get the ins and outs involving Stupid Idiot Johnson’s bathroom (this is just one of many such examples). These passages have a purpose in the book, but they are completely irrelevant to the story and make the movie needlessly long and terribly slow. However, the indisputable plus points include the casting of the central characters, all of whom are exactly right and Death just radiates charisma on all sides. Considering that this is a TV production with a fairly meager budget, the visuals, the effects, the costumes and even the production design aren’t all that bad. It’s certainly worth watching, especially thanks to the really well-made second half. The first half is just too scatterbrained and inconsistent. It’s nice to see Pratchett’s cameo as the toymaker. If the makers of this want to make an adaptation of other Discworld books, I would most like to see one of “Guards! Guards!", “Small Gods" or “The Wyrd Sisters", especially if they weren’t afraid of at least amending the story a little.

Can a hundred twenty minute Samurai chamber piece that takes place in no more than three or four rooms possibly be good? The answer is that it can and it can even be more than just good or above-average. It’s all about weaving intrigue, the Samurai sense of responsibility, being a vassal, belonging to a family clan and, primarily, about love. Although it all looks like a recording of a theatre performance, it doesn’t matter at all because, thanks to the actors, you really care about the individual characters. The icing on the cake is of course Toshiro Mifune, who radiates charisma on all sides literally every time he appears on screen.

A remake of a movie with the same title that was also in the meantime remade in Britain, but involving what I would call “real" football, in other words, soccer. This version with Sandler works quite well, while not being as good as the British Mean Machine, but thanks to the classic “MTV look" it is pleasant to look at and the picture’s pace is pretty solid, despite being on the long side. However, the movie lacks somebody with charisma, primarily Monk as played by Jason Statham. Without him, this really doesn’t work.

Luckily the Nolan brothers played about sufficiently with the screenplay, so the result isn’t just a set of illustrations for the original book, but a self-standing creation. Not all the changes from the book are for the best (for instance, setting the story in the present day and its almost horror feel would have looked good in the movie too), but as a whole it holds together well and works without having to have read the book. Nolan plays an intelligent game with the viewer, asking a lot of questions, but also offering some answers. In terms of directing, he handles the movie with his own inimitable style and uses a similar storytelling method that he tried out in his debut movie, Following. The only more serious shortcoming is the pretty annoying partial happy ending; they should have left the ending the same as in the book.

Although the makers if this tried to remain on the brink of bearable and laughably bombastic kitsch soft porn, all too often this slips into a stupid, noisy (I don’t think there is one second of silence here or no scenes where someone isn’t jumping around, screaming, whistling etc.) patchwork full of cuts, certainly worthy of an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. However, once in a while it calms down and looks good, and so for instance during the tango or the live scene with Satine and Krystian, all of these criticisms move aside, because at these times Moulin Rouge is simply flawless. A shame that there aren’t more similarly powerful moments in this movie, but on the other hand there aren’t that few of them really.