Gugubee557 Reviews

The Best Offer (La Migliore Offerta)
Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
2013

So I just finished watching this Italian movie directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. To be honest, I didn't have any expectations on the movie, although I had heard some great reviews on it. It is also the first movie I watch from this director, so I was also unaware of his style, so I could not expect anything.

At the start of the movie, I was unsure whether or not I would enjoy the 2 hours spent watching it. It started quite slowly, and the colors were really dark, making it a little boring for the first few minutes. I was also confused by some elements of the storyline, since everything seemed to happen at once (atleast for me). But around the 30 minutes mark, everything seemed clear and I was finally ready to fully understand the work.

Right off, I must admit that the actors have done a really, really good job in this movie. The emotions seem real, and the change in Virgil's (the main character) vision on his life seems natural. I think that is the strongest point in this movie, because the story is simple and the whole picture could have flopped if it were not for the actors, but the fact that they play their role in the way they did it makes the simple storyline seem complete enough. I also enjoyed how the physical aspects of the characters change throughout the story. Tornatore really plays with colors in this work, adding more and more of them throughout the movie in order to fit with the development in the character's emotions.

The setting is also truely beautiful, and the director also plays with colors on this aspect, which might be the reason why I less enjoyed the first minutes of the movie, where the setting was dark and boring, in order to fit with the sadness and the monotony of Virgil.

The story, although really simple, is really well developed, and the way Tornatore develops the story around a handful of characters makes you develop a certain connection with each of them. You can easily fall in love with the protagonists and you become attached to their story, which is something I have had trouble finding in today's movies. And the ending, woah ! I totally didn't expect it, and to be honest, I really don't know if I fully understand it and whether I like it or not, but it surely is beautifully filmed. I will not spoil it for you, but I swear, this is probably my favorite movie ending so far, so different and refreshing, still can't decide if it's in a good way, though.

I really am trying to find flaws to this movie, but I really can't find any : I was hooked from beginning to end, and I would certainly watch it another time, because although the movie is somewhat plot-driven, the settings and the metaphores used in it really make you want to rewatch it.

Citizen Kane
Directed by Orson Welles
1941

As a start, I must say that I found no enjoyment in watching this movie. Its whole 2 hours seemed way too long for me, so I had to watch it in 3 sittings in order to complete it.

I can understand why there is so much love given to this movie, but I really think it is way too much overhyped. I found the story to be boring, and I didn't care at all about what the word ''rosebud'' meant, and boy was I disappointed when I finally learned its meaning. The actors were okay, not great, just okay. I must admit that I've watched this movie because it is ranked #1 of AFI's best American movie, not as a form of entertainment of any kind. The only reason why I see this movie being ranked so high on the list is because it was avant-garde for its time.

But an avant-garde movie doesn't mean it is good. To me, the hype given to this movie is similar to the one given to Avatar. Both used new concepts, and both are loved by a lot of people, but I can't seem to love any of them, simply because their storyline just isn't interesting to me. Yes, Citizen Kane used revolutionary filming & montage techniques, but that doesn't mean the movie is brilliant. I could agree on the fact that the director for this film did a really great job though, but to say that this picture is the most entertaining and intelligent one out there simply isn't true, let's admit it.

The only reason why I'm giving this movie a 2.5/5 is because of the revolutionary techniques used in it, nothing else. I would be dumb to say that this film is pure garbage, because it does contain important symbols & metaphors, but I didn't find it entertaining at all, and I sure won't watch it again. And yes, I love classic films, but ones with a great storyline, not just ''great filming techniques''.

I agree with a lot of what you said about Citizen Kane. It is ground breaking and extremely influential ... but that doesn't make it a great movie. I mentioned in another thread that I cared little for any of the characters and the plot was, at times, boring and long winded. Plot and characters are part of what makes a movie great IMO.

I could understand it being at the top of a director's poll and it deserves a lot of respect for what it did. Just not a great movie.

Citizen Kane is a masterpiece.

Technically it's pretty much perfect and the story is wonderful. It's about trying to understand the inner feelings and actions of a man. During the whole film, they try to define his whole life by searching for the meaning of his last word, 'Rosebud'.
At the end we don't quite understand him, because it is impossible to find a sort of big truth behind a human's life. It's a mistery that nobody ever solves, not even the person himself.
The revealing of its meaning is just like the last quote says: "a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, a missing piece". It doesn't explain everything.

I don't know how aware you are of camera movements and visual metaphors in movies, by the way, but this movie is in my opinion practically never surpassed in that area. Every small piece of this great film has a thought behind it. You should really see it again in the future, because it's a shame to miss the whole point of this fantastic piece of art and find it boring. You should certainly give it a second chance, before judging it completely.

It says a lot that you finished this movie in 3 sittings, though. You can't fully grab a movie like that.

Maybe, though, this is just not your cup of tea and you're not a fan of old classics and search pleasure in other kind of movies. That's fine too, of course.

I think people that praise Citizen Kane for its innovation and contribution to cinema due to techniques used are missing a hell of a lot from the film, it's much more than that, like Cobpyth says.

Even without the wonderful techniques, fantastic shots, great physical metaphors (window illusion, Kane's huge figure, shadow etc.) it is still a wonderful film. And that is because of its story and characters.

It is definitely entertaining, but even if you disagree on that I'm not sure how you can say it's not intelligent. It's an absolutely fantastic character study, and they way we are told about the life of the character is so superb and intelligent, we know nothing about him at the start, his character is mysterious, and every person has something different to say about his life.

The use of flashbacks and the way narration is used to tell the story of this guy's life is fascinating, here's a character with many layers yet no matter how many layers we feel so distance from him, did you not want to find out more about this enigma? I think Martin Scorsese says it best about this film, something along the lines of "No matter how many viewings of the film you have, and how much you continue to learn about Kane, we still feel we know nothing and barely know this guy", that's the beauty of his character.

If this film was released today, I would still hold it in such high regard, and it would still be one of the greatest films made, for me. It's not just influential because of cameras, lighting, direction etc. but because of it's fantastic plot, structure and writing, depth of characters etc. I don't really understand why people don't seem to appreciate these things

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I completely agree, Daniel!

You know, a movie that has a similar structure in terms of the character study is PTA's The Master.

I know, the story is totally different and the structure of the film is also in no ways similar to Citizen Kane, but if you think about it, the inner characters of both Freddie Quell and Charles Foster Kane are actually presented in exactly the same way. They are both characters we don't understand and both the movies are about how it's impossible to completely know them.

In Citizen Kane, we have a journalist trying to solve Kane's mystery by unraveling his past and finding the meaning of his last word.
In The Master, we have Lancaster Dodd trying to define Freddie's behaviour by opening his psyche using questions and strange methods. We also have Freddie trying to find himself and dealing with his past (just like Kane).

In the end, both characters stay pretty obscure to the audience and we never really know who they are and why they do the things they do. The character study is very similar, while the two characters an the rest of the movie are actually NOTHING alike!


The more I think about The Master, the more I start thinking it's a masterpiece. I already watched it two times and I'm going to watch it a third time in the near future. Brilliant character study.

P.S.: I'm sorry to discuss this in your topic, Gugubee557. I hope you don't mind.

It shouldn't be hard to understand - it's subjective. People are different.

Personally I appreciate everything you said and don't think Citizen Kane is great for exactly those reasons. You said depth of characters but there is only one character with any depth. You said fantastic plot but there is almost no plot - it's a character study.

If you read criticism of this movie it is almost always the same - depth in regards to story and characters. To me, they are the two most important parts of a movie.

Depth of character doesn't mean a long discussion about someone's life - it is showing what makes them tick, making you think about why they do the things they do. This movie did that with Kane only but failed to develop any sort of empathy. I could see how he developed ... But didn't care.

A great movie makes you feel something - happy, sad, angry, disgusted, whatever. This completely missed in this regard. The story was dry. I didn't feel anything. I will think about a great movie for days - after Citizen Khan I thought "that was pretty good" and then the story and characters were gone.

My totally subjective view.

To me that's what makes it so fascinating, that we are left with pretty much nothing come the end, despite listening to so many stories, learning so much, we want more, we want some type of connection with his character, some type of feeling, the fact that Charles Foster Kane is such a cold, empty figure is important to the film and further reinforces the significance of the film's mystery and final scene, there is something lost, something missing.

Well said. It obviously connected with you but not with me. I'll watch it again one day and maybe I'll feel differently.

I do enjoy classic movies, trust me. I didn't see this because I didn't want to, I saw this movie because I had heard great things about it and the reviews given on it were pretty damn good (although some horrible ones), but the fact that this movie almost made me fall asleep says enough.

I do enjoy movies with cold characters too, but a cold character is supposed to leave me with some sort of pity for him, or a feeling of discomfort, but this film didn't give me either.

You may understand some things about this movie that I haven't, and that I can't discuss, because some of my favorite films are ones that most people wouldn't put in their top 100.

I must admit this was beautifully filmed, & Welles did a really good job at acting.

Well, that's actually what I felt the whole time during the movie. "A feeling of pity." But if you didn't feel anything, you didn't. It may help to watch the whole movie in one time, though. ;p

May I ask, what are some of your favorite films?

I tried to watch it in one time, but I just couldn't help it.

Mr. Nobody is certainly a movie that would be in my top 10 actually, truely beautiful, great use of metaphors and there's this particular thing about this film that touches me.
Starbuck is also one of my favorite flicks, but you probably haven't seen it because it's in Canadian French (although you live in Belgium, that might help).
Le Vendeur is another great Canadian French film (a movie with a cold-hearted character being the protagonist, really slow story, beautifully filmed & acted, reminds me somewhat of Citizen Kane for these aspects, but I seem to have enjoyed it much more).

But again I haven't watched many classics, so I can't argue too much (I haven't watched Casablanca, for example, but I've seen the trailer and I have a feeling I will enjoy this one much more).

Ah, Citizen Kane. Glad you got around to seeing this 'masterpiece'. After seeing it myself, I sort of wished I hadn't. LOL! Just for giggles I decided to copy my mini-review of it.

I thought that it wasn't great, as you can tell. The actors did a nice job, but I could have told that story in about 5 minutes.

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You are no Vader. You are just a child in a mask.

The Matrix
Directed by The Wachowski Brothers
1999

Never had I watched The Matrix. And to be honest, despite all of the positive reviews I had read on it, I didn't really expect anything than a weird sci-fi movie that tries too hard to be serious (I'm kind of hard to please in Sci-Fi too). But I must admit this movie turned out to be quite a surprise for me.

First off, I must say I was not pleased by the movie opening. Perhaps was I not ready for this kind of action, or maybe because I'm not such a fan of those really weird & cheesy effects, but although they seemed real, I just didn't like how it was all put together. Nonetheless, I didn't give up on the movie that easily. The movie jumped pretty much straight into the action, which is something I liked, because it helped build the fast pace of this film.

I found the actors to do a pretty good job, but I somehow wasn't totally convinced by the acting of both Keanu Reeves & Carrie-Anne Moss (they did a good job, but was expecting a little more from them given the reviews). Laurence Fishburne did a pretty solid job, though. The dialogues were good, lots of good quotes in there that made me think about our life in general, which is something I always like in cinema (perhaps one of the reasons why I gave it a pretty good rating).

The effects were stunning, beautiful, to be honest I had never seen something like that before, especially in the fighting scenes (which were cheesy, but that was good cheese). I also liked the way the color green is used in the Matrix, which I though was a great addition to the movie. The flow of the movie was great, and I didn't feel like it was overlong.

After all, The Matrix was a really great action-packed movie, one that made me think about the way we live our lives. Overall, a pretty solid film, but I can't give it a higher rating than I did because I felt like the main actors lacked in some aspects, and because some scenes were just too much for me (cheese is good, but please don't abuse it).

I used to really enjoy the matrix but now it's just Meh. I think the sequels ruined what could of been a brilliant trilogy. The first movie was very interesting, very unusual and then the sequels were over the top action flicks. I Also hate how in the first movie Agent Smith is very powerful, everyone is scared, the perfect villain. Then in reloaded Neo crushes about 1,000 of him.

Ah, I still haven't seen the 2 other movie, I think I will watch them today.
I really liked the first one though, but I've read many negative reviews after its sequels, so I'm preparing for the worst aha

I rated The Matrix films at 90%, 75% and 75% respectively.

The first film had a lot of mystery to it... a lot of unknown backstory and mysticism. Morpheus himself says at one point "... we honestly don't know" which sums up the whole film really.
The sequels became more like Star Wars Episodes I-III... they showed too much and became too reliant on action to try to tell the story... action just doesn't give story...

... and the second film also became too confusing at times (on first viewing anyway) with all the cod computer science and overly long explanatory dialogue scenes... which I reckon were thrown in because the overall writing was so poor.
Basically a vicious circle, bad writing had to rely on action, then they had to badly write dialogue scenes to compensate.

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The first Matrix is definately the best one. The other two are worth watching though.

Django Unchained
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
2012

Django Unchained tells the story of Django, a black slave, who is rescued by Dr King Schultz, a german dentist, who wants him to find three wanted brothers. And when he finally does, Schultz decides to thank him by making his wife a free woman. The entire movie takes place in 1858, two years before the Civil War. And although the story can look rather similar, Tarantino proves once again that one does not need an outrageously remarkable script in order to produce a great film.

Casual movie-goers will love it for its gorgeous special effects and for the funny dialogues, while hardcore movie buffs will find it interesting for its genuine critic of racism. Tarantino and his team prove to us that Django Unchained is not just another epilectic action flick, but rather a movie that is both visually attracting and soul touching.

Although Jamie Foxx offers a really solid performance, Mr. Waltz is the actor who surprised me the most in this film. He has the ability to stick to his character in such a way that one could believe he really is a bounty hunter. His brillant acting may partly be explained by the fact that Tarantino and Waltz are really good friends, and therefore know each other's strengths & weaknesses, but I have to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's.

Having watched Django Unchained, I can say that it reminds me in some ways of the latest Batman trilogy. Not only is it entertaining and easy to watch, it also is a movie with a deep theme and that can bring profound reflexions. For this, I give Django Unchained a .

Excellent review ! I like the parallel you made between the Nolan's Batman and Django. I personally think Django is better, but I see the link between both of them.

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