This is another movie which includes "the hooker with the heart of gold character". Could someone please keep track of how many times this character is reprised. I believe she appears in almost every movie ever made. Of course in H&F, there is a twist, which is that she is counterbalanced by the "pimp with a heart of gold". I like this twist. I give the movie 10 stars for being the first, I know of, to use this character. The other thing that made this movie good was the acting. Also the costuming and set design. The music also was very good. I'm only adding this blather because the algo says I have to. I guess there's no prize for brevity in criticism any more.
Reviews
4 Reviews
March of the Penguins
(2005)
I Just Loved It
2 July 2005
There's really nothing not to like about this movie. It is interesting being shown how the penguins behave and simultaneously told what they are thinking. Obviously the imagery is rather objective but the subjective "story" told makes this a movie rather than an Animal Planet TV show. The Story is amazing. Fact is truly stranger than fiction. The characters are well developed; the hero more beautifully photogenic than Brad Pitt and A. Jolie combined; the plot is compelling; and though the ending can never be in doubt its story is both riveting and the resolution impactful. I took my date and my 7 year old and we all loved it.
Robots
(2005)
Urgent! Read this review and talk about the movie theme with your kids.
8 April 2005
Warning: Spoilers
The story is hackneyed but the theme is fresh and important! The issue raised is corporate needs-creating vs. consumer needs-supplying. In the end the advocate of consumer needs prevails. The creed of the film's protagonist is "find a need and fill it". The antagonist is vertically integrated monopoly seeking to illegally control the market, whereby its most profitable product is the only one for purchase and the waste created by obsolescence is a secondary profit source. I think it's great a child's film would address this very significant issue, and expose children to the fact that their "needs" the media refer to, are probably at odds with their true organic needs. The film flirts with the more interesting suggestion/theme that consumers should control the means of production as that is the only manner in which the evils created by the concentration of capital/power can be held in check. Questions to ask your child after the movie: why was the antagonist bad, what did he do wrong? Which is better new or used?
The Upside of Anger
(2005)
Do not go to this movie
20 March 2005
If one had set out to make the worst movie possible, it couldn't be this bad. A movie this bad must come from a confluence of factors beyond human control. And what makes this movie even worse, is that Costner is good and so is his friend "Shep". It is extraordinary that a movie with anything good, can turn out so bad -- it's like Kobe scoring 50 and the Lakers still lose. Everybody else must have REALLY been terrible. This is an "Ordinary People" derivative but there are no "people" in it. The movie violates several key "rules". First, it tries to tell the story of about 7 people and that's just too many characters. The characters thus lack development. Second there is no back story created. Third the story is "told", rather than "shown". So the story jumps from one random event to another and each "character" responds to the events equally randomly. Nothing that happens makes sense and nothing anyone does makes sense. You could say, "yes, but isn't that what life is really like?", but the answer has to be "No, that's not what life is like, actually"; and it's certainly not what good movies are like. This movie is inane and banal beyond words. I just have that feeling if we knew the story of the making there's some explanation like, "the writer quit", the director was going through a cancer treatment or the studio insisted they change the script the day before release because it wasn't testing good with 13 year old boys.
Tell Your Friends