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I fell completely asleep watching About Schmidt; when I woke up it was like, that's it?! Lonely dumbass drives around being depressed and makes an ass of himself then gets to cry "poignantly" or something when he gets a happy letter? Zzzzzzzzzzz.
I liked The Lonely Guy with Steve Martin though. The music was better too.
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JFK-- 9.20
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Hi All!
"Farwell to Space Battleship Yamato:In the name of Love". absolute 10+(plus if possible)the only animated sci fi that made me cry.
"Grave of the Fireflies" another 10.
Miyazaki's aniamtion studio directed by Mr. Takahata. The most heart renching animation story period. Must see!
Laters,
Rich.
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Yeah, I loved GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, too. I'm by no stretch of the imagination an anime fan, but I'll watch anything Miyazaki has a hand in.
And on the subject of animation, I just viewed the new DVD of GAY PURR-EE...and it's a nice, solid 8...
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Posted: Jun. 19, 2003 - 5:51:35 AM / IP: 213.224.83.166
By: lars b (Member)
Once Upon a Time in America-- 5
Are you serious, this is the only movie to get 9,5/10 from me. A true masterwork !
I understand its reputation as a long suffering masterpiece, but I still found it amazingly shallow and simple-minded for such a venerated film. I totally don't care about Noodles and the gang. I don't care what pain Noodles suffered for betraying his pals since nothing really registers on DeNiro's performance til his famous opium grin in the last frame, which really is a face the actor's pulled many times. If it's supposed to show something exigent about immigrant experience and its place in American society, I don't see it. I don't understand the title, even though I've read all the reviews. In fact I looked at a collection of reviews from that era, and most of them go to huge lengths to justify what seems to have challenged them to come up with rhetoric suitable for a preordained misunderstood masterpiece, but if it comes down to: Noodles and pals rise to thug power and Noodles looks back in sorrow at his betrayal and his chagrin at raping all the women he encounters-- then that doesn't interest me enough to care. DeNiro is at his blankest. I would probably risk guessing he didn't find very much to play. The double cross plot with Woods is a daytime drama cliche and is kind of not special. I'm amazed people seem to be confused over the ending, Woods' character just jumps in the truck-- what's so difficult about it! None of the characters changes and deepens perspective of the pathos which Morricone keeps insisting is there with the same couple of themes played over and over. So I found the film to have a few points of interest (what does Leone REALLY enjoy directing? lessee, dumb guys squaring off uselessly, actresses playing whores, actresses pretending to be raped, and important-seeming shots that are fussily composed), and then too banal in the end to ever bother making up a justifying stance about it.
I agree with Bertolucci's assessment of Leone's cinema of being one of mise en scene and visual symbols exaggerated to an exquisite degree, but less a cinema of textual content; when Bertolucci remembered Leone's lament that they had taken away the "memory" of his last film, Bertolucci found him talking like a supercritic, a guise that didn't suit him. I think maybe he wanted the support of the so-called supercritics with OUATIA, and seems to have received it.
btw Richard Schickle's commentary on the dvd escapes my comprehension at times-- possibly because it is totally contradicted by what is happening on the film as he is discussing it.
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Fame-- 6.0
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HULK-- 8.99
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Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom-- 9.1
The Good the Bad & the Ugly-- 8.8
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Just dozed through the Blue-underground dvd of Fulci's
CONTRABAND-- 2.4
The reason I rated this scum so highly? Why not.
POSTED BY MICHAEL WARE :
Once Upon A Time In America - 5
The Hulk - 8,99
Go figure !
Well, Contraband is basically the same film as the Leone, only SHORTER! Same stuff--
dumbass tough guys directed by an Italian to have useless spaghetti square-offs and double crosses, and go around raping the female characters and blow each other away. Only Fulci bypasses the artsy coffeetable artbook type framing and just goes for the throat. Why dress up an exploitation movie for the New York Times? Leone gets all quasi-upstanding citizen while Fulci blows guys guts out and breaks out the bunsen burner to fry a woman's face off. I think Fulci was more honest in what he wanted to film. Vile crap.
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The worst visual-effects showdown since Dreamcatcher... Stan Lee's cameo got a big laugh. 
