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| Film Reviews Page: 1 2 4 |
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Who Killed The Electric Car Who indeed. It's not important to determine the exact culprit because the fact is that someone did. This is a documentary about the disappearance of the popular and economically viable electric car prototypes from the streets of California. The 'free' market be damned. If you want to save the environment it has to be done through strong regulation and enforcement. |
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Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land A nice little film. There's some good acting which is allowed to shine thanks to the film's leisurely pace and unobtrusive directing. Nothing especially dramatic happens at any stage but Kostner and Allen hold the attention throughout and the supporting cast all do their jobs pretty well. It's an odd one to review but I can say that when the film finished I wasn't upset that I'd spent the time to watch it. |
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Total Balalaika Show Following on from watching a few Jarmusch films, I watched 'Leningrad Cowboys Go America'. I must admit that some of the Finnish humour passed me by but then I watched this. One of the most bizarre performances I've ever seen. It features the Soviet Red Army Choir, in full uniform, playing mandolins amongst other things, doing a mixture of folk songs and western rock songs performing alongside the Leningrad Cowboys. It's absolutely brilliant. |
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Enron: The Smartest Guys in The Room Good grief. The problem with capitalism is encapsulated in this documentary. Enron was switching off power stations to drive up energy costs and protect their share price. What confidence can we have in this globalised economy that our interests are being protected? None. |
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The Salton Sea Val Kilmer stars in this rather bleak film, set in the world of the meth addict. There's not much of the joy of the human spirit here but the interesting bits of style, plot and script keep the thing just about watcheable pretty much all the way through. |
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Lucky Number Slevin Even Josh Hartnett can't destroy a film with Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman in it, although he does his best as usual. It's not going to tell you anything new about the meaning of life but there's clearly been quite a bit of thought put into this film which should be applauded. There's little references and homages all the way through and I quite enjoyed it. |
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America: From Freedom to Fascism Aaron Russo believes, as I do, that tax is nothing more than extortion and an institutionalised protection racket. He also believes that America was once a free country. The slaves and natives could have told you that America was never free but now it's getting scary, with implications that extend well beyond its borders. Britain is a de facto state of the USA and so we have similar problems. |
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Timothy Leary's Last Trip A Horrible little low budget documentary that has little to do with Leary and is mostly about the Merry Pranksters. It's an attempt to profit on his name by the clowns of the LSD movement. You always find people who get too high and start acting the fool to distract themselves from their growing paranoia and that's what Kesey and the Pranksters symbolise for me. |
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Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue A documentary featuring the full performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. I've done some experiments myself in group free improvisation and it can be very exciting. To the audiences of the day it must have seemed like music from outer space. Some unintentionally hilarious highlights include a young Keith Jarrett playing a barely audible keyboard and the interview with Santana who's still a great big hippy. |
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Alison Krauss & Union Station Live I've got a real soft spot for this woman and for the rest of the band. She's one of the artists featured on the soundtrack of 'O' Brother Where Art Thou', one of my favourite films, along with some of the rest of the band. One or two songs are a bit cheesey, even for me, but I still love it. The awesome sound quality of the concert and Krauss's odd little anecdotes make it all the more entertaining. |
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Why We Fight Why do we fight? Who knows. The problem presented in this documentary is the rise of the military-industrial complex to a position of near total dominance in the American political system, a danger predicted by former president Dwight Eisenhower. It doesn't present too many solutions other than that we should protest more, but it is a professional and reasonably balanced piece of journalism. |
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Sun Ra: Brother From Another Planet Life as performance. I bought a Sun Ra record once and found it incomprehensible. As I've got older I've learned to listen to music in different ways so I can now appreciate more of what this guy was about, although in my opinion it has more to do with performance art and theatre than music. Check out Nuclear War on YouTube. |
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Darwin's Nightmare From what I read on Wikipedia there seems to be abit of controversy about the film caused by some robust rebuttals of its claims. But the camera doesn't lie. The appalling living conditions and degradation of the human spirit caused by corporate exploitation of African resources are incontrevertible. Weasel words about technical issues here and there are irrelevant. I'd highly recommend this one. |
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Thank You For Smoking A good little film about a fictional lobbyist working for a tobacco company. It's basically a simple and fairly obvious cynical comment on these lobbyists made into a feature length comedy but it's well done and Aaron Eckhart does a good job carrying it. According to the director the film is supposed to have a kind of libertarian message that attacks political correctness but I must admit I never sympathised with the lobbyist's point of view at any stage during the film. |
 | The Final Cut The idea of this film is that one day we can have chips implanted that record everything we see during our lives. Robin Williams' character's job is to edit this footage after death into a montage to be viewed by the surviving friends and family. There's some interesting themes in the film and Williams thankfully plays it completely straight. Overall I thought it was okay even if Jim Caviezel's fake beard did make me laugh. |
 | After Hours A Martin Scorsese film recommended by Alex. It's unusual in many ways, especially considering the director. It's a comedy about one man's nightmare evening trying to get home in New York after a disastrous attempt at a date. I enjoyed it. |
 | Pan's Labyrinth A film set in Fascist-Era Spain centered around a young girl beautifully played by Ivana Baquero. It can be viewed as a kind of literal fantasy tale or a portrayal of a young girl's imagination and works equally well either way. I really liked it, especially the incredible performance by the young Baquero. Apparently she had the director and his wife in tears during the audition and I can well imagine. It's not for kids though, it's far too bleak. |
 | Little Miss Sunshine An Oscar winning film about a dysfunctional family's trip to take their young daughter to compete at a beauty pageant. It's a dark comedy that's genuinely funny and poignant in places, although I personally find it hard to see too much comedy in these creepy American pageants. Because of that I would preferred it to be even darker but I did manage to put that to one side and enjoy the film thanks largely to good acting by a strong cast. |
 | Hot Fuzz I thought Shaun of the Dead was a really poor film, so poor it actually made me angry, but its possible I was in a bad mood at the time because I laughed all the way through this. I like the way it parodies CSI type editing and sound effects and I enjoyed all the absurd stuff. Very funny. |
 | Brother Sun, Sister Moon Franco Zefferilli's take on the story of St. Francis of Assisi recommended by Alex. It works extremely well as a metaphor for the hippie movement, with the essentially middle class Francis rejecting the world of his parents for a life of peace and love. It's very cheesy in places and the soundtrack by uber-hippy Donovan might be a bit much for some but I enjoyed it I have to say. Some of the cinematography is excellent, in particular the shot of Francis chasing a bird on the roof. |
| Go to Film Reviews Page: 1 2 4 |