akatemple of reviews

→ in
Tools    





Sit Ubu Sit.... Good Dog


Beneath Hill 60 (2010)
Directed by: Jeremy Sims
Written by: David Roach


Beneath Hill 60 tells story of a group of volunteer Australian miners who were employed during WWI to undermine and then blow up enemy German positions. The film is so authentic in its presentation of the terrible conditions endured by all sides at the front and is more astonishing as it was filmed in Australia and funded by inter alia The Australian Film Commission. The acting is great, the cinematography though not beautiful does exactly what you want in terms of conveying the filth and the sense of claustrophobia when below ground. They do not shy away from the gruesome detail and Alan Dukes and Brendan Cowell are both excellent leads.



That said there is not one lack lustre performance and every one comes across as believable. The story is told with a use of flash backs but this is so well balanced that it helps the narrative flow. For fans of history it also tells a part of the amazing Allied attack on the Messine Ridge which had at that time (due to the miners placing massive ammounts of explosives under the german lines) the largest manmade explosion ever recorded, anyone who is a fan of war films will love this movie.

__________________



Nice review. It was a well made movie. The turn-offs might have been the necessary darnkness and closed in spaces ( especially for claustrophobics ).
Galipoli was a different story and one of the best Australian films ever.



Keep on Rockin in the Free World


Immortal (Ad Vitam) (2004)
Directed by: Enki Bilal
Written by: Enki Bilal


Nyc year 2095. A floating pyramid has emerged in the skies above inhabited by
ancient egyptian gods. They have cast judgment down upon Horus one of their
own. Now he must find a human host body to inhabit & search for a mate to
continue his own life. There is a series of gruesome murders going on where
all the peoples heads have exploded, turns out that if Horus tries to inhabit
your body and your not a match then that is what happens to you. Horus
finally finds a fitting body of a man who has just escaped from prison, during
his accidental escape Alcide Nikopol (Thomas Kretschmann) loses one of his
legs which Horus replaces with a steal beam he magically turns into a
perfectly good replacement. Having a steal leg turns out to be not such a
great thing as it weighs a ton and that's the catch, as long as he agrees to
help Horus then Horus will make sure Alcide can move just fine and the weight
will not bother him if not then he will have to drag his leg around for the
rest of his life.



Horus uses Nicopol to find the girl that he has already selected, Jill (Linda
Hardy) is a blue haired blue skinned hot girl. Her character I really didn't
understand all that well, she is some kind of alien that was brought to Earth
for some reason that I did not understand. With the help of Horus's magic
Nikopol is able to seduce Jill so that Horus can use her to procreate, this is
another part I didn't understand but for some reason Horus needs to have a
child and it has to be with Jill. The bad part of using "magic" to seduce a
woman is that when it wears off in the morning she does not remember anything
and needless to say she feels extremely violated, luckily Nicopol calms her
down and is able to form a friendship with Jill that blooms into something
more throughout the movie. This is a really interesting movie and beautifull
movie as the characters and movie are half live action and half CGI, I
definitely suggest this movie to anyone that likes the bizzare and unusual.

Watched this today on Youtube. Trippy flick in a Luc Besson meets student film sorta way.

Would probably make for a decent tv series on cable.
__________________
"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo.



Keep on Rockin in the Free World
I did, but was left wanting more. Why Horus' time was up was random. That nagged at me the whole film.



I saw some of that movie years ago. Wasn't intrigued at the time.





Passchendaele (2008)
Directed by: Paul Gross
Written by: Paul Gross

In my opinion there are not that many well done WWI movies, the combat scenes and authenticity in this movie are by far the best I have seeen so far on trench warfare. This movie really shows how much Canada got screwed over in WWI, their casualty rating was disgusting and hard to imagine and that is what I really think was shown in this film. The love story felt like it could have been left out, I am guessing that they just needed some filler because the love story did not make me feel any different about the outcome one way or the other.



Michael Dunne (Paul Gross) get's badly injured during a battle so he is shipped back to Canada to help out the war effort on his home soil. David Mann is a young man wanting to enlist in the army to fight but there is one drawback, he has asthma, David's girlfriends father is a doctor and does not approve of there relationship so he signs a paper saying David's Asthma is gone and he is free to enlist. During all this there is the love story part between Michael Dunne and Sarah Mann (David's older sister), when David leaves for Europe Michael feels it is his job to go along and try to protect him.

This movie has some major religious undertones and overtones in it especially at the end which almost made me choke because it was so in your face. I think this movie has some of the most authentic and graphic trench warfare scenes out of any movie that I have ever heard of, if you like war films and have not seen this one then you have to watch it.

I loved this movie. Immediately after I watched another great war movie: The 9th Company.



Sit Ubu Sit.... Good Dog


Blind Fury (1998)

Anyone who has ever watched an 80's/early 90's Action/Martial arts movie is all to familiar with the Blind Folded training montage that goes on where they go from hardly anything to trained killers. This movie like all the others starts with the same type of scene but to my suprise it was fun to watch, funny, and over in like 3 minutes, they did not drag it out more than was necessary I think because it was a pretty hard to grasp idea of the Blind Sword Master. Rutger Hauer was really good in this movie and the violence was just my kind, it was over the top unbeleivable with lots of great 80's blood thrown in just to top it off. Another thing that I really enjoy in a movie is not being bored but their was definitely no shortage of action in this movie, it is their from the beginning to the end and kept me entertained.



The only thing that bothered me about this movie was a few scenes with Rutger Hauer and the kid, I know in the movie he is blind but it was just weird how close they got to each other (physically), kinda like at the end of Lord of the Rings when your just waiting for all the Hobbits to start making out, yeah kinda like that.

I did enjoy this movie and suggest this to anyone who likes 80's action flicks.



Thanks Dexter for this one, I'll try to post the others really soon.



Keep on Rockin in the Free World
Its so weird seeing Siskel and Ebert and the 2 thumbs up on the back jacket. Anyways, glad you liked it sir.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
I was reading these today in Movie Tab II and I realized I'd missed most of the early ones, so I came over here to rep them. You should start them up again.
__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page



Sit Ubu Sit.... Good Dog
I was reading these today in Movie Tab II and I realized I'd missed most of the early ones, so I came over here to rep them. You should start them up again.
Hey thanks, I do want to start writing some more, and as soon as I see another good movie I will.....