patrickhhanlon Reviews

Iron Road (2009)

Melodramatic tripe

[1/10 · 14 August 2009]

A poorly scripted movie and waste of time and money. It is puzzling that the movie got made given the over-boiled melodramatic elements and the plot twists that were predictable. The movie demonstrated some potential when the story was set in China and there was the effort involved in rounding up the people willing to immigrant to work on the railroad. When the story moved to the BC interior and the challenges surrounding the construction of the railroad it seems that every exhausted trick is hauled out of the bag to propel the story to its fitful end. Very little effort to generate any originality in favour of moving things along with sudden plot-turning health crises, hidden and discovered identities and comic-book caliber villains. In the end, justifying the whole exercise with its historic reference to the plight of the Chinese who worked on the CPR is a more of a cop-out for bad movie-making than it is a tribute to the victims of the unsafe working conditions they encountered and the head tax that was laid on them after they finished the work. A step backward for Canadian movie-making that resembles the tax shelter garbage that occurred in the 1970s and 80s.

The Boys on the Bus (1987 Video)

And award for most out-dated score goes to

[6/10 · 10 June 2006]

An interesting look behind the scenes of the Oilers during their halcyon days. It was quite interesting to see how young these guys were. There were moments when the guys sound a bit too impressed with themselves and show some of the arrogance that they were detested for during that time, especially when Kevin Lowe tries to wax poetic about Gretzky's challenges dealing with his fame. A decent documentary but the long, unnarrated action sequences to the accompaniment of a cheesy synth score definitely detracted from the entire package. An interesting reminder of the team and the era, just have the mute button ready.

In Good Company (2004)

If you liked Jerry Maguire...

[8/10 · 15 January 2005]

In Good Company will fit the bill. A man's challenge to decide what is the right thing for him to do in the mean spirited business world. A great movie that doesn't give the audience the easy, expected payoffs that one might expect or even hope for. Well-acted with great performances by Quaid and Grace. Quaid is continuing his post Ryan divorce renaissance and is quite comfortable playing his age. It might not be the romantic comedy people might hope for, but there are some touches that make an accurate depiction of corporate life and an ending that is still pretty satisfying. Clearly though, there are enough echoes of Jerry Maguire to warrant as an homage to Cameron Crowe. If this and About A Boy are indications of Weitz' ambitions and/or growth as a filmmaker, there is indeed a lot to look forward to.

The Last Samurai (2003)

Solid, deep spectacle

[7/10 · 29 November 2003]

I had been looking forward to this movie for sometime, having been a former resident of Japan and relatively familiar with this chapter of Japanese history. We all have similar experiences of going into a movie with high expectations, either because of the hype, the word of mouth or some other reason only to come away disappointed and wondering really what the fuss was all about. It did not disappoint me despite my high expectations. Leading up to it, I've heard comparisons to Dances With Wolves and there are some similarities in the story, but another comparison I overheard was that it was similar to Braveheart. A fitting comparison, however, the supporting characters in Samurai are developed well enough to make for a much deeper and richer movie than Braveheart was in my opinion. The action scenes, whether hand-to-hand combat or the larger scale battles were vivid and there were a few homages to Kurosawa and his

cinematographer throughout the movie as well. Brilliant.