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What Dreams May Come - (1998)
I've steered clear of this film for some time, but as I get older my thoughts turn more and more to the strange conundrum of my mind ceasing to exist for all eternity - and it leads me to kind of meditate on the question of what constitutes my thoughts, and my very existence. So, I had a change of heart - I decided that I'd indeed be interested in what this film imagined an afterlife to be. By it's very nature, it has to use physical reality as a basis of what it shows us - so it's always going to be imperfect - but it basically postulates that consciousness and thought continues in some form, and our identity stays intact - only unfettered by having a physical body. There are some tremendous visuals in the film, which represent the imagination of various spirits who exist in a realm of pure imaginative creation. The story though, is a little thin and anemic - and Robin Williams seems unsuited to a role which would have better fit a more handsome and dashing actor. His character's wife, Annie (Annabella Sciorra) ends up in "hell" after committing suicide, and you could have knocked me over with a feather when Werner Herzog showed up for a bizarre cameo. I wonder how that happened. Anyway, she's to be rescued by her soulmate (who seems to be based on Patch Adams going by what we see in this film) - something that's never been done before. It's an uncomfortable turn of events given how Robin Williams' life actually ended.
5/10

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Kinky Boots - (2005)
My film choices have been dreadful lately. I don't know what to say about Kinky Boots - it's so normal and average in every way, and I was genuinely bored watching it. I don't often get bored watching films. It's an "inspired by a true story" kind of film about a shoe factory that Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) has inherited from his father. Set in working class Northampton, it's workers are rough, rugged and conservative people who have been turning out the same kind of boots ever since they started working there - but the factory is in some financial strife, and through a series of events too boring and predictable for me to be bothered to outline, Charlie stumbles into the idea of making footwear for a niche market - drag queens, who need sturdy boots that look feminine but can take a man's weight. Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is the transvestite Charlie befriends who gives advice and models the boots in Milan. Nick Frost appears as a chauvinistic manly man's man who eventually sees the light and accepts people like Lola (real name Simon.) Edgerton really seems to struggle with this role, and he's given little help by the rest of the cast or director Julian Jarrold. Without a really appealing lead performance, funny writing or interesting story (the soundtrack isn't too bad) this film simply drags (pun not intended) along until it's predictable and unexciting end.
5/10
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