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ruthdeyermond
Reviews
Lost: Catch-22 (2007)
Scotland's only vineyard
Look, I know this is Lost - the programme where there are smoke monsters, characters have visions of the future, and Charlie is a rock god not some tone-deaf cross between a weasel and the less lyrically gifted members of Spinal Tap - but, seriously, a vineyard in Scotland? And not just any vineyard, but a vineyard that produces £100 ($200) bottles of wine. Who harvests the grapes - the Loch Ness Monster? Good episode otherwise.
Since apparently I'm not allowed to leave it at that but need to witter on for several more lines before this is long enough to be submittable, I'd also like to know why, if that flashback episode from series 2 is to be believed, was Charlie brought up in a model council house from the 1950s - were his parents squatting in Paul McCartney's childhood home? And why does every member of his family have a different accent?
Les rivières pourpres (2000)
Read the book instead
The ending makes much more sense in the book. If you do want to see the film, watch a subtitled version, not the horribly dubbed one. Presumably because they wanted to get Reno and Cassel to dub themselves, they have the two main character speaking with heavy French accents and almost everyone else speaking with US accents, which sounds very odd.
Shame they felt the need to make the Vincent Cassel character white for the film.
Quills (2000)
Amazing!
A brilliant film that contains more complex and interesting ideas than a decade's worth of Hollywood films, without losing the sense of a narrative. If you want a film which gives you the story of Sade's life then don't go and see this, as it takes massive liberties with the biographical facts. Instead the film engages with some of the questions raised by Sade's work and the way it has been received - what is the relationship between writing and responsibility, or between art and freedom? What creates violence and cruelty - irresponsible art and ideas, too much freedom, or the repressive nature of the state? But it doesn't do this in any didactic or heavy-handed way; instead it poses these questions in the context of a well-constructed narrative which is often moving and funny. Although he won't win the best actor Oscar (he fails to qualify on the grounds that he's not Tom Hanks), Geoffrey Rush puts all the other contenders into the shade with his amazing performance as Sade. All the other main actors are outstanding too, although it's a shame that Billie Whitelaw wasn't on screen more often.
Unbreakable (2000)
Very, very silly
I sat through this constantly expecting the apparently ludicrous plot to resolve itself in something approaching a sensible way. Oh how wrong I was. There are obviously many sillier films out there (Battlefield Earth, for one) but none that I've seem that take themselves quite so seriously as "art". This certainly isn't that - it's adolescent nonsense, which is great if that's what you want, but if you want the type of film that this claims to be (popular genre but serious, grown-up content beautifully shot)then go and see "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"instead.