Judging by movies you were forced to sit through in your youth, I could guess why. Tell her she'll like it. I had a tough time evaluating this one, because as a simple love story its fine, but as a version of Pride and Prejudice.....its not. Ultimately I settled for a C+ over a B/B- becuase Chadha herself said how it was supposed to have broader cultural resonance...which it doesn't. So I couldn't give it points for that.

On the record, I recommend everything C+ or over, its just that the C+ ones I would recommend with serious hesitation, and only knowing the tastes of the person suggesting it too. I would have no problems sending my mother to this film, just as I would recommend House of Flying Daggers to martial arts fanatics I knew. On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend HOFD to my mother, even though she saw and loved Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. SOmewhere in the B to B+ range I start to believe a movie has broader appeal, and would recommend it to most people, and of course, anything in the A's everyone should see.

Let me know what your mom thought Zingy. :wink:

Downfall (Der Untergang)

http://www.worldofkj.com/Galia-Downfall.php



B+

Very well-written review, as always, Dolce, even though I disagree with Ganz' performance being not entirely successful. I thought it was top-notch.

What did you think of the insertion of documentary shots of Hitler's secretary in the beginning and the end of the movie?

Well, Ganz performance for me was tricky to talk about, because I can't realy seperate his performance from the role. As in, I think he did the best he possibly could given the material he was supposed to work with. So, as I mentioned I had problems with the director's desire to externalize Hitler's mental collapse. That externalization was not so succesfful, Ganz portrayel of it was best of the best. That's why its tough to talk about. Can't seperate the character from the actor (and vice-versa). Don't know if I'm making that much sense, but anyways, I do think no one could have done it better than Ganz, and it was a very gutsy role to take up.

The clippings from Traudl were interesting, but that's why I wish they hadn't skipped the two and a half years she was actually his secretary (in the movie). It means the director didn't care to challenge her statement that she had no idea what was going on, which I find hard to believe. I had a section about that in the original review but chose to remove it, since it seemed a little to opinion based rather than a movie review. It was an interesting way to narrate though, and it prepared us for the kind of character Traudl (and everyone else) where. That is, we really have no idea what their sentiments or thoughts, or how they connected themselves with everything around them was.

Well, according to the documentary Blind Spot - Hitler's Secretary, she really didn't know much of what went on outside of Berlin during that time.

I agree that it would have been interesting to see what happened in those 2+ years as she was his secretary, but then again, it'd have shifted the focus of the movie and made it a tad too long.

Gunner Palace

http://www.worldofkj.com/Galia-GunnerPalace.php



C+

Great conclusion Dolce

How long was this documentary exactly?

85 mintutes, it just felt like three times as long.

Did you have an ok time looking it over? I felt like my review bordered on mimicking the movie. All over the place, bleh.

This is just the roughie because I haven't had anything up in awhile, I'll switch it up later.

I looked over it and emailed you back

Did you get it?

Lookin' at it right now. All these fancy red marks and parenthesis, feels all professional. Thanks, and peek at the first post of this thread.

Thanks for my mentioning Even though i've only edited 3 so far. But wow Dolce you have reviewed many movies! Great job

Looking forward to reading more, might actually watch some of them. :wink: Like right now i feel like watching Gunner Palace bc i want to see how bad his music choice was.

Doooooooooooo it! I need to be validated in my bickering about how bad it was.

I do that sometimes actually. I do follow the critics more than alot of people, and sometimes go see stuff with bad reviews just to see if I agree or not. I still might sneak in Diary of a Mad Black Woman this weekend for that very reason. I just have to know about this Medea character that has been such a point of disscussion. Please if you see it, lie and say you agree, and later when I'm feelin' all good about how right I was in how wrong the soundtrack was, tell me its not true, and that the movie was perfect, and crush my sense of critical review ability.

Noooo, Reading your review i'm sure i'll agree. I just want to laugh at those parts. LOL i'll be anticipating them

dolce, I read all of your reviews, and should actually comment in your thread here afterwards to support the good job you do. I'm glad the site has you doing reviews, because it really represents us well.

Nice review dolce. I think I'm going to check this one out over the weekend, though I'm hoping I like it a tad more... out of question, what did you think of Fahrenheit 9/11? Because in general I'm really sick of these political documentaries, they all seem like feature length marketing campaigns, but this one caught my interest for how it seems to not be taking a stance but show what it's like to be in there. Since a number of people I know, two of them of whom are my friends, are in Iraq right now, it's definitely appealing for me.

I have an F9/11 review, so you can read the whole thing. There's a link from the first post in this thread I believe. I gave it a B+. I don't mind a "political" view. I don't think there is such a thing as nuetrality in this issue, and anyone who aims for it will have the kind of discussions that could be democritized (or should I say bastardized) amongst the masses. The one thing here "Oh the poor soldiers" could easily be used in many ways, including considering anti-war sentiment to be anti-soldier sentiment, which are two very different things. Having some criticism (one way or the other, not necessarily saying against) is what is going to make people "think" about it longer. That's what my last line was implying. The soldier comments about how he is just a movie to us, and as far as Gunner Palace goes, he is. You get little lasting discussion from this movie. You don't go home questioning funding, tactics, patriotism, socio-economic class, length-of-stay....ANYTHING. So there is little to no lasting impression in your mind except for *Oh, how horrible.* Like, *Oh, how horrible...people are starving in Africa* That's what it amounts to. Unfortunately, if you don't tie the suffering to any bigger question (rather it be support and competency, support but lack of competency, or lack of support) it loses all sense of power.

F9/11 was not a bad movie. As I mentioned in the Gunner Palace thread in the OverSeas Indie forum http://worldofkj.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5159 , at least it is technically a very smart movie. The music there is tame and intelligent compared to here, and Moore spends his time weaving an actual narrative (granted a political dissent one) with his footage and interview. It doesn't just seem like random clips. Moore is a good director, even if you don't agree with his position. Heh, I saw some damn crummy political docs last year that were really manufactured just in an attempt to swing the elections. That's fine, i don't have to go see them, but Moore had written an entire book for two years first, so he'd done the leg work before filming. Half the films seemed like last-minute jammed together jokes that were the equivalency of phone-banking. I have trouble evaluating some of those, because I cannot completely condemn a film that was attempting to discuss a viewpoint I shared, but some of them like The Corporation got as pretty low as I could take it without feeling bad about failing movie trying to shed light on big corporate faults. That review is up too, it got a C-. Mind you, I reserve D for the worst of the worst, and stuff I don't even agree with (Hence why only The Night Porter has gotten it thus far). F is reserved for the movies that are so bad I end up enjoying them, so in essence, have some redeeming qualities.

I gotcha. I dunno, maybe I should've seen it in the theater, but though I thought Fahrenheit 9/11 had a lot of really good points, I thought it felt more sloppily made then Bowling for Columbine, and particularly lagged at the end, where I started to really lose attention, something that doesn't happen often for me. It really wasn't bad, but I do think the hype made it out to be bigger and better then the end result, so I'd give it about a B-. Oh, and dolce, believe me, if you had heard half the stuff some of my friends and there friends play in the car with the volume and bass turned up to the max, trust me, you'd be desensitized to any music in movies.

Its insulting to the audiance is all. I don't mind swears that are on topic. i don't mind if someone says Holy F******g S**t this sucks. But the some the language was useless and actually represented the soldiers in a disrespectfull light. I rarely notice soundtrack, but this was the exception that proved the norm. Yeah, it has to be that bad for me to notice. In the other thread I mention how insulting the songs are to the viewer intelligence. The lyrics were all like "Yo yo yo I be down here in Iraq, we in Iraq no boyz in Iraq." And one has to wonder how dumb the director thought the audiance was that he needed to continuously keep hitting the point home that, yeah, this isn't Brooklyn, its Baghdad.

Hmm, I see what you're sayin, and I guess I can't really argue against that until I see the movie. That doesn't sound like a very smart move though.

Melinda and Melinda

http://www.worldofkj.com/Galia-Melinda.php



B-

This movie looks inapproriately confusing...

I have never watched a woody allen movie.

* 50th Review for the Site = Party *

Steamboy

http://www.worldofkj.com/Galia-Steamboy.php



B+

Congratulations on 50 reviews, dolcevita! Just shy of your 4000th post! YAY!!! =D>

Just curious, did you see Melinda and Melinda at the one New York Theater with a the big crowd.

Yes. They had it on so many screens there considering its a small theatre. Played every 30 to 40 minutes. Its New York, they love Woody Allen you know. I went at 12.50 pm after I got out of class on saturday, and I would guess the theatre was about 1/3- 1/2 full. But its not a huge AMC/LOEWS type theatre. But Lincoln Plaza Cinema (name of theatre) was really cramming in as many shows as possible.