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Reviews
Leef! (2005)
Celebrating an highly artificial life
For a movie that intends to celebrate life, this movie has the paradoxical quality that everything in it is highly artificial. As a girl suffers from a heart attack, for example, the person who is responsible for this dies in a car crash, so that his heart can be implanted by the girl - and to make it even more far-fetched: the car accident is a reminiscence of an almost-drowning-incident more than ten years earlier with the same actors (the mother Sybille saving the life of the boy, saves then in fact the life of her daughter). These forced plot lines are to be fond almost every scene.
The dialogs contain a similar paradox. The real subject of all speech is never named, yet the single sentences are perfectly clear and fit too perfect and very artificial to the things said before. This creates a sense of deepens that may do it well on stage (the scenario of Maria Goos was originally a lay) but on television it makes your stomach turn more and more as the film advances. And then I have not mentioned all drama and the sweet ending that catalyze this.
Bounce (2000)
look the emotions; oh no, my eyes got wet
Bounce is a story of deep emotions. It shows the importance of being honest and the unfathomable paths of our human lives. It all starts with a plane crash in which all passengers die. The successful advertising agent Buddy Armal (Ben Affleck) was supposed to be on the flight. Fortunately he has given his ticked to a man in hurry. Fortunately, because he lives on, falls in love with the man's wive, and becomes a father to the man's two sons.
Bounce is also a coming of age story. The successful advertising agent Buddy Armal discovers slowly that there is more in life than the superficial world of ads. In the end he even gives up his career, and because of that, has to sell his penthouse on the beach.
Bounce is also a story of how to cope with the loss of your loved ones. A story of how you get your life back on track. And a story about the deadly temptations of alcohol and how to cope with it. Bounce is a story of which you have to cry thunderstorms of tears - if your taste is just a little different of mine.
Y tu mamá también (2001)
more than a the wet dream of a teen
my first tought of this movie was 'a typical teens wet dream', but then I began to realize that there is more in this movie than sex, sex sex, drugs and alcohol. The two Mexican teens take a very beautiful elder women with them on a road trip to the beach. During the trip they thy to impress her with a lot of - irritating - macho boys talk. And wonder by wonder, something between them happens.
During the trip it does not become clear why the woman goes with boys on holiday. Some clues are given, but they do not really satisfy. As the reason is finally given in the last scene, all preceding scenes get a new meaning.
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
perfect, in every respect
A lovely cocktail of violence. Sit down, relax and let the 'dogs' come at ya. The first time I saw the movie, I even hypnotized by the characters's names. Mr. White, Mr. Blond, Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink ("why I'm mister Pink"). And there are much better inventions in the movie. The plot, for example. A classical 'whodunnit' turned upside down. In this movie, the criminals try to find out who the 'bad guy' is.
But the best of the movie are the dialogs, the painful scenes, and the haunting atmosphere. The scene where there is cut an ear of a police officer while the radio plays cheerful music, for example. Or the strange bond between mister white and mister orange. And all this perfectly acted by a dream cast.
Troy (2004)
An empty product, with a beautiful cover.
This movie embodies an total desecration of classical literature by commerce. Quasi philosophical talk, bad romance, caricatural characters, and much too beautiful shots of ancient Greece in a flirt with homer. Off course, films do not have to be 'historically correct', or 'treu to the book on which it is based'; but a film has to be 'good' - whatever exactly that may be.
To make some resemblances. Gadiator had impressive fights, and a story no too bad. Star Wars 3 was good because of the dark atmosphere and quickly unfolding story. Troy has nothing of this. It is only worth seeing for those interested in a half naked Brad Pitt.
In the whole presentation the movie pretends to have something to do with classical mythology. This is not made true. When it was a good movie, this would be no problem. Now it is parasitic upon the Trojan myth. An empty product, with a beautiful cover.
Raising Victor Vargas (2002)
coming of age in new york
This is the beautiful and romantic story of a couple of people in the outskirts of New York discovering their first love. The two main characters (Victor Rasuk and Judy Marte) are both blessed with exceptionally good looks and suffer from a problem of attitude. At first they seem to lack the intellectual capacities to overcome this, but then... The film starts with some nice yokes and one-liners ("At least you've got fat Donna") but as the plot develops, the story becomes so simple that it is hard to keep your attention. The film is saved by some charming, subdued scenes (drama with not much words), and the looks of the main characters - unfortunately for the viewers with light pornographic interests, the romantic parts are well dosed. Melonie Diaz and Krystal Rodriguez do - by the way - an excellent job in supporting roles.