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Reviews
Rapa Nui (1994)
Involving storytelling that forces you to care.
I have no wish to comment on the historical accuracy or otherwise of this film, as it is the story that held me enthralled, not the attention to fact.
The first time I saw this film, I nearly had to pick my jaw up from the floor. A hollywood movie.....that doesn't spoonfeed me the plot like some overbearing nanny? An original (for a big studio) plot device? Whew, let me just sit down for a minute. Here's how it normally goes: Hero (young, handsome and likeable) must compete with rival (villanous, evil rogue) in contest of high stakes. Guess the outcome. But in this underrated gem of a story, we find two equally heroic protagonists, all thoughts of friendship lost as they are forced into a dangerous competition of courage and strength. One, fighting for the woman he loves, the other for his life. This forces the viewer to watch in an agonized state of uncertainty. Who do I want to win? Who deserves it more? What will happen to the loser? This was the first film in a long time that truly forced me to get involved with the characters, not in a cliched good versus evil kind of way, but a good versus good "how the hell are they going to get out of this one?" kind of way. Okay, so some aspects of the film do not deliver with the same power, and some of the accents do tend to waver a little, but the beautifully constructed central storyline held me until the end.
Enemy at the Gates (2001)
StalinBad
Spoiler Warning, not that there is much to spoil.
Oh dear. Well, where to begin really? Firstly lets take the claim that it's based on a true story. Mm? Well unfortunately, even though the central character DID actually exist, the rest of the story was just highly successful red army propaganda. Well at least the russians could write, a skill the author of this woeful nonsense seems to have mislaid. But if the script is bad, and oh yes, it is very, very bad, the acting (or indeed lack thereof) only serves to highlight this. The director in his infinite wisdom, decided that a film depicting russians and germans, should be peopled almost entirely by actors speaking some strange fake cockney accent. Imagine the idiot halfbreed offspring of Damon Albarn and the cast of Spinal Tap, and you have some idea of the cringe inducing sound coming out of Jude "when are you going to take some acting lessons?" Law's mouth. Rachel "I only got this job because the director fancies me" Weisz, perfect as the ditzy airhead librarian in the Mummy, would have been the ideal choice for this film, if only her character was SUPPOSED to be a ditzy airhead sniper. There are, regrettably, numerous scenes of Rachel and Jude simpering over each other before going off to fight battles in the early morning, returning each day to curl up safe and sound in secret bunkers. Heaven only knows what would have happened if the germans had actually attacked outside of office hours. Only Ed Harris, impeccable as always, as the fictional Koenig, is beyond reproach. The rest? Well, you have east-end gangster Kruschev, posh boy from drama school, one of the Fiennes brothers (not the good one), and numerous unknowns grateful for their first (and probably last) chance of appearing on the big screen. Shot ON 35mm? They should have been shot WITH a 9mm. To be fair, it's not all bad. Some scenes, mercifully silent, of the duels between the protagonists are fairly tense, ruined only when someone utters the next line of drivel, but even this one glimmer of creativity is spoilt by director Arnaud's ill-judged tribute to Sergio Leone. A Clint Eastwood ending has no business in a supposed historical drama, I paid to see the battle for Stalingrad, not "A fist full of roubles". This film was 2 hours of my life wasted. 5 out of 10 (only Ed Harris keeps it from being a four.)