tiki_la_bongo Reviews

Lords of Dogtown (2005)

as a teenager, i liked it

[10 April 2006]

OKAY so yes there has been criticism about the credibility of this film and yak yak yak. fair enough, but if you haven't gone to great lengths to research this movie and nitpick all its faults, its perfectly enjoyable. Although it is sugarcoated in Hollywood gloss, i thought it had enough honesty to be realistic. OK, i've never met the z-boyz but i thought that through the acting, i had a good enough feel to appreciate what the film was getting at, whatever that may have been. When watching it with three friends of mine, i asked them, okay so who's your favourite, and most people agreed with me on this order: jay (<3) skip, Sid, Stacy and then tony. i thought that jay did a really good job and had a lot of energy, that even when he didn't have lines,, he was still doing some weird twitch or movement that i think would have been true to the real jay. SKip, ah skip, ah heath, OK we all loved the talking. the slur and americanness was fabulous. there wasn't a trace of Aussie in him, and i often forgot it was heath, although brokeback mountain was great, and everybody loved 10 things i hate about you, i still feel like heath was outside of his element in this. As for the rest, the acting was all right, there were a few faulty mishaps where line delivery wasn't great, but otherwise, i actually found this movie really captivating, and yes, it made me want to pick up the skateboard thats been sitting in my room for ages and go outside, and make an ass of myself.

My Own Private Idaho (1991)

inspiring in a subtle realistic way

[30 November 2004]

In my opinion, My own Private Idaho was fantastic. The use and imagery of roads was beautiful and River Phoenix's modern-day philosophy applied to modern day life. Because of course, he is a connoisseur of roads and it is ironic that in River Phoenix's lifetime he has moved from place to place; eg, from begging in south America to living the high life in l.a. I disagree with others saying it is a loose half way film. It is purely poetic and although it is about prostitution, River's characters love for his friends and life even though he is narcoleptic. In the future i would like to see another film prove poetic justice to our society in such a way that this film has.