Review Request

Sometimes I'd like to read a review before watching a film and I trust no one more than you guys so I thought I might give this a try.

If one of one you have seen Smilla's Sense of Snow would you please review it?

Thanks!

(If one of you has, and I missed it, I apologize)

This sounds like a great general idea for a thread. I'd kind of like to see someone review Black Rain.

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One of the biggest myths told is that being intelligent is the absence of the ability to do stupid things.

Smilla's Sense of Snow isn't a bad movie, but it's not a terribly good one either. The character of Smilla is an interesting one, played well and subtly by Julia Ormond. But the mechanics of the plot are awkward and downright ridiculous in too many spots. It proports to be more than a thriller, and the ingredients are certainly there, but unfortunately it just lays there and ultimately is just a lame genre attempt. The major plus, other than some nice acting throughout, is the beautiful cinematography (by Jorgen Persson, who also lensed My Life As A Dog and Pelle the Conqueror, among others), especially in the last third of the movie as the setting moves to the icy seas. It's passable, but other than some of the imagery nothing memorable or special. If you want a truly great film in a silimar vein that pays off on every single level, track down Insomnia - not the American re-make with Pacino, but the original 1997 Norwegian film starring Stellan Skarsgard.


And by Black Rain do you mean the Ridley Scott flick starring Michael Douglas, or the haunting Japanese film about the after effects of the Hydrogen bombs dropped during WWII? I'll assume for now you mean the Michael Douglas flick...

Black Rain is very standard genre stuff, though Ridley Scott's great eye makes it visually impressive (especially in widescreen). The way Tokyo is shot, it seems as though the dystopian world of BladeRunner is already here. But as for the plot, it's pretty dumbed-down stuff. Andy Garcia and Ken Takakura really steal the film, which involves two NYC Detectives transporting a Yakuza murderer back to Japan, only to have him vanish before they can complete the transfer. The rest apparently wrote itself, as genre cliche after cliche follow. A much, much better American film with similar themes is The Yakuza (1975), starring Robert Mitchum and the very same Ken Takakura. You can do worse than Black Rain, but you can do a damn sight better too.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

i'm curious as to why ridley scott's film is even titled 'black rain'. any thoughts?

[oh yeah, and i'm pretty sure the setting was osaka, not tokyo - not that it really matters in that movie].

Ridley's Black Rain has a speech by one of the Japanese characters about the black rain brought about by the atomic bombs.

well, thanks, that saves me the trouble of watching it again.

Holden...your so good.

Hopefully someone can give me opinion on Honey for Oshun (1991), directed by Humberto Solás. I recently rented this and fell asleep half way through. I know the premise of the story...but there were some things about this movie I liked...and some things about it I didn't like. Has anyone else seen it and what did you think of it?

Thanks (and rep) to Holden. Hope your new digs and all are working out well... great to see you here.

I'd really like to see a review of Happiness by Todd Solondz. I quite liked the film, but it appears that quite a few people had problems with it because one of the main characters is a paedophile.

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Let us go, Through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster shells

From The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S.Eliot