By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1128131
The Final Cut - (2004)
I thought to myself that just because a movie hasn't received very nice reviews doesn't mean I won't like it. I should have listened to the reviews. This sci-fi thriller squanders an interesting premise with a really dumb screenplay and plot holes that drove me crazy. Robin Williams plays Alan Hakman - in a world where our entire life can be recorded via an implant, he's a "cutter" - a person who edits a person's entire life into a brief bite-sized presentation for viewing at funerals. To do this he often has to ignore some of his client's less noble moments - seeing as he has a window into their private life. Fletcher (Jim Caviezel) is an ex-cutter who has joined a group of people trying to ban the practice, and he wants Alan's new client - a man who ran the company that does it who was sexually abusing his own daughter - as he thinks this will discredit the whole organization. In the meantime, Alan has a dark secret of his own which he's not only desperately trying to hide, but has been recorded on his own implant.
Look, just as an example of how silly I felt the film was. Alan had an interaction with a young boy in his childhood, and he thinks he recognizes this person as an adult because he wipes his glasses with a cloth a certain way. In the same way around 100 million other people probably do. In the same way
I do. It was such a bad way to have an "It's
him!" response in the film - make it a birthmark, deformity or something - but a rather common habit doesn't sell the moment at all. Characters react in ways that are poorly contrived and the performances themselves are nothing to write home about. It's all a shame because the movie itself has terrific potential and gave Williams another chance to shine in a dramatic role (he seems to have switched off - perhaps coming to realise that the movie as a whole doesn't work.) Anyway, I gave it a chance - it had a very believable future technology in it, and I love sci-fi films that can really sell whatever advance features in them. Writer/director Omar Naim's career never really took off - this was his one chance to shine with A-grade actors and a budget.
4/10
By Rank Film Distributors - http://www.lesbiansnorthlondon.co.uk.../03/victim.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40778600
Victim - (1961)
At a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain, collaborators Basil Dearden (directing) and husband and wife team Janet Green and John McCormick (writing) tackled the subject head on in a sympathetic and extremely courageous way with their 1961 film Victim. Dirk Bogarde is superb in it, it's very well shot and it opens up a really interesting window through which to view a society where sensible people were ready to start asking questions about prejudice and the "blackmailer's charter". Full review
here, in my watchlist thread.
8/10
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