Delila's Reviews

Hey, Susan! Thanks for reading! It kinda makes my day when people respond in this thread. I've been wondering what others throught of Manchurian..., not much seems to be written on it, so far. I'm curious now to see the original.

__________________
Review: Cabin in the Woods 8/10

Great work by Harvey Keitel and Tim Roth, Reservoir Dogs is an excellent screenplay. I'd have added a little more dimension to one or two of the characters as they were fun and differentiated, but not very human (past quirkiness). Roth and Keitel escape that problem, mainly by really pouring themselves into the roles. It pays off. Keitel's maternal qualities beautifully outlined the irony of the piece. Overall, a terriffic first showing from director, Quentin Tarentino. I was very impressed.

Tarentino consistently, in all his films, makes great use of music. In this case, we have very creepy use of "Stuck In The Middle With You", and the one over the closing credits about "how can I cure this bellyache". It's reminiscent of Lynch using "Loveletter Straight to Your Heart" in Blue Velvet. When Hallmark used that song the following season, I nearly screamed.

The plot itself could hardly be thinner. They were showing interview clips during the commercial breaks and QT said the idea for the movie came from watching "The Thing", as the characters in that movie are locked together and have to determine which of them is the enemy. I agree that it could be a little more fleshed out, but it did hold my interest all the way through. It's a pretty classic example of a guy talking up a tag line and getting a film out of it. Tarantino knew how the game is played.

I was impressed with the way violence is handled in this. I appreciate the imagination on fx because I've done a few and have a hard time not getting jarred out of the story when the blood is the wrong consistancy or whatever. One of my favorite things was Mr Pink running outside and the rest of his story is told as sound effects under the final scene between Roth and Keitel. So cool.

Me too, what did you think of the unbeleivable dark red stuff on the face of Johnny Depp in ummm errr oh yes "Once upon a time in Mexico"

__________________
Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

I've blocked it from my memory! Anything that obscures the face of Johnny Depp is from the devil, no?

After months of advance advertising for this, having seen and loved the stage versions, my (im)patience was answered with brilliance. Mike Nichol's Angels In America is translated to the small screen with ultimate care and beauty and the effect is just as moving as the theatrical experience. I also can't sing the praises enough of HBO for it's willingness to bring a piece to the general public that deals with such hard topics with unvarnished emotional honesty.

The cast is a work of art. Pacino, Streep and Thompson each have their own resonances from decades of film work, and those are well-used here, but don't for an instant overshadow the brilliant performances delivered by these actors. The triple-casting of both Streep and Thompson is meaningful in both instances, and subtly supports Kushner's grand scheme. I honestly can't think of a performance from anyone in this cast that isn't spot on, but the flat out **** YES!! goes to Justin Kirk as Prior. Prior's material could easily be colored throughout by the line "poor me, poor poor me" and Kirk chooses instead to play the courage of his character, to very effective results, particularly in the dream with Harper.

I think the beauty of Kushner's script is that his focus is on the genuine struggle in his characters to be "good", by their own various definitions. Because he gives each their voice on that topic, he presents them and their various issues without judgement. Speaking as someone who was Mormon for 7 years, and who still holds a high opinion of the people and the religion (as religions go), and a person very familiar with the gay community and the AIDS situation, I consider it a marvellous and heroic undertaking to present all of this in a positive light, and with an emphasis on understanding. Truly beautiful and inspiring work.

we bought the original in best buy for 10.00..interesting to say the least...same plot but different settings...and the ending has changed a bit...

i liked the both of them a lot and while i think the older movie makes a little more sense..i prefer the updated remake

I've been playing catch up on all your reviews Delila… well done… … and my "to see list" is growing…

__________________

Good job...


You should update your signature, no?

Adams Rib...I liked your thoughts on it Delila.....and its one of my favorites with Kate and Spencer. Nice chemistry, good story, fun but still had depth as you mentioned. I also loved the court room scenes...in particular the circus lady lifting Spencer over her head to prove a point. And, towards the end when he’s still mad at her, but can’t help himself and calls her ‘pinkie’ in court....loved the expression on Kate's face.

Also, from what I remember in a commentary once...Katherine is the one who pulled for Judy Holliday to get that supporting role. She was a treat to watch.


Return of the King...nicely written Delila. I also thought it was a nice ending to the series. I agree with you...Eowyn did rock and I wish there were a little more depth with the Arwen part of the story. I didn’t notice Aragorn's crown...but I do wish he was shown a more than he was....maybe more of him fighting with the army of the dead...dunno.

One very trivial thing...my dad noticed this (he’s very picky and I need to watch for it myself next time)...Frodo’s finger was cut off by Gollum, but at the end when the Hobbits are back in the shire and in the Tavern, Frodo’s finger is still there. I wonder if Hobbit’s grow their limbs back?


The Manchurian Candidate and Angels In America...I loved your views on these. I’ll make sure to see them at some point. I may wait for MC to come out on DVD though.

Susan....I haven’t seen the remake of “The Manchurian Candidate” yet and I’m curious why you liked the re-make better than the original. I’ve heard about some of the changes to the story and I’m curious if the re-make has as much of a dynamic impact as in the original...(the mother/son brainwashing/killing thing...and the ending were pretty powerful to me.)


Whew....I guess that's enough for now.

Susan~ great deal on that film! I'd be curious to hear why you prefer the new one, too.

Caity~ Thanks!! I look forward to your thoughts on anything you saw here. Or, you know, on anything you see elsewhere.

Garrett~ Good eye! I do need to update my sig. These last few were written previously and I just moved them here, and I have a few new ones I need to write. This silly "work" stuff keeps getting in the way. Hopefully, today I'll get it all together.

Aniko~ How cool is that that KH was pulling for the fresh talent?! She's so cool. (On a side note: my new doctor looks JUST like her, at about the age of 25. My jaw dropped. My next thought was: I have to tell Annie! ) Regarding hobbits, yeah, and if you cut off a limb and count the rings, you can tell how old they are. I'll look for the missing finger, next time through. I remember watching for that, because fx are cooooool, but I don't remember now about that scene. I know it's missing at the end when he writes the end of his book. hmmm...

Damn girl!!!

Your thread rocks!! Love the index. I need to get writing!

__________________

You just made my day!

One very trivial thing...my dad noticed this (he’s very picky and I need to watch for it myself next time)...Frodo’s finger was cut off by Gollum, but at the end when the Hobbits are back in the shire and in the Tavern, Frodo’s finger is still there. I wonder if Hobbit’s grow their limbs back?


annie...in answer to the above question, if you look very closely, you will see that frodo is missing only the top of his finger, a very little bit of it...it surprised me too because in the book, i believe gollum bit his entire finger off....i also thought that nothing happened to his finger

and now to explain why i enjoyed the remake of the manchurian candidate

the new one was very timely and more to the point of where we are headed in the future (big corporate takeovers) rather than an outdated reason as putting a mccarthy fanatic in the white house...(not that this reason was just as timely in the 60's and just as creepy an idea as the remake, just the thought of anything like this ever happening scares me to death)

i also liked the idea of the updated techniques that they used in the remake rather than the solitaire idea...

i thought denzel did a much better job as bennett marco, although the roles were slightly different in each...

i also thought that meryl streep did a bang up job as the scheming mother, although nothing can ever top angela lansbury's performance in the same role...

what struck me about the new one was liev schreiber's resemblance to laurence harvey..rob and i both commented on this

the ending of the original made more sense to me than the remake did, however

in both versions,the son knows that he's being manipulated and in both versions he does something about it....what he does in the original seemed more realistic to me than what happens in the remake....

Nice Job Delila!
i think im going borrow The Manchurian Candidate from my library

Aki Kaurismäki's quirky tale of an amnesiac, the Soup Kitchen Dame Who Loves Him, and finding peace and happiness in a new life.

This film has good and bad, both in the extreme.
First, the bad. (It's interesting enough to watch, so I'll end on an up-note.) I had a problem with the premise of the whole thing. The notion behind this seems to be that if a person's past were removed, they'd be a better person. Our dome-dented protagonist, played by Markku Peltola, finds scruples in his new life that we learn he never had, prior to being attacked by muggers and left for dead. No sale. In my experience, character is developed as people have experiences and learn from them. Remove all memory of the lessons learned, and it seems really unlikely that a person will suddenly turn into a stand-up citizen.

Also bad, and hold onto your hats because this is groundbreakingly bad: the acting. WOW!! From the "slowly I turned...." moments (of which there are comically several) to the march-and-stomp method of hitting their marks, this is more scenery-chewing than Acting 101. The cast seems not only to have never acted before, but give the impression they've never seen it done.

That said, it might seem unlikely that this one is worth watching. It is. The thing is, the story is told in a very human manner and with photography that adds visual appeal. The film is a good marriage of a bizarre situation, a poverty-wracked setting and emotionally supressed characters... all adding up (against all indications) to something that draws us in and makes us care what happens.

I don't know how.
Watch it and tell me!

Grey-Ate Review Samsonite! im going borrow it from my library

Cool, Tazz! Let me know what you think, eh?

Cool review SDelila

(It's hard to find a nickname for you y'know, btw. Isn't SD a dubious abbreviation in one country or another? So what else? We need some form of voting-poll type architecture up top of the thread. With options like, erm... Deliliamite? SamsonalDelite? Erm, someone suggest some...)



Maybe the Finnish are all dead-pan like that?

You've gotta love the way they shifted from pondering poetry to blunt realism without changing their expression or tone .

I felt like the director wanted to lay down some continuity with the consistantly-dour/visually-deadpan tone, so as to make the other bright and absurd events along the way seem more realistic/hard-earned. (I think he might've been taking the micky out of Finnish tendancies a bit too. Dunno :we-need-a-shrug-smilie: )

That was one of the things that drew me in, i think. The strange mixture of surrealness and straightforwardness in both the presentation, events and dialogue.

__________________
Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

Mssr de Got...

Thanks!
Re: my name... It's a quandry. I considered "Sam", but then a "Sam" signed up about 3 days after I returned to posting. Samsonite seems rather macho... Some have been calling me Delila, which I kinda like. Alternately, I'm quite fond of this smilie Which could do for my Prince-esque symbol. Whichever.

Good heavens... let's not call me that, then.

Re: new scruples


I don't guess this film was promoted by their Bureau of Travel and Tourism...

I did have a sense that there was a comedic element to it, the bizarreness underscoring the unlikely thought processes. I don't know anything about Finland or their culture or politics (except how to say "I love you, ****head.") and that would probably inform foreign viewers a bit about where they were coming from with the ideas behind the script.

Yeah, I guess that is what appealed to me, as well. You get the sense that there is poetry in the commonplace moments of everyday life... That the simple act of cleaning out a boxcar and setting up a living space can bring joy.

Thanks Lila