Movies, Drama
This is one the best action based dramas I have seen in a long time. The sequel is dramatically better than the first film in the franchise, The Bourne Identity. Call it a James Bond movie for the adult mind. 007 is not a real human being and his employer, the British secret service, is not a real bureaucratic organization. Unlike real humans beings James Bond does not fall in love with any of the beautiful women he has “relations” with. One exception: Once Bond does fall in love with his female counterpart (Diana Riggs) and gets married. But conveniently his wife is killled on the way to the honeymoon so that James is “free” for another beautiful woman in the next movie. The British secret service similarly is a fictionalized organization in which every employee like a good soldier works toward a common goal. Jason Bourne, by contrast, fell in love in the Bourne Identity and he works for an fractionalized and infighting CIA.The Bourne Surpremacy
Movies, Drama
Some time ago I came to the conclusion that film is the highest art form for it can combine all means of communication: words, pictures and music. It comes closest to how we actually experience life and in the hands of a competent director movies can make you forget completely your own reality for two hours. Watching Alexander PayneSideways
Movies, Drama
After watching its sequel Before Sunset, I wanted to see the first part of the story. A young American (Ethan Hawke) and a young French student (Julie Delpy) meet in a train. She decides not go on to Paris as planned but step out of the train with him in Vienna and spend the evening together before his plane takes off for America. Now we follow them on a romantic adventure through Vienna. Before Sunrise is both better and worse than its sequel, Before Sunset. It is better because the director paced the movie much more effectively and used the glorious architecture of Vienna to surround the narrative with a romantic canvass.Before Sunrise
Movies, Drama
Do not read this review before reading my review of its predecessor film “Before Sunset.” Nine years ago two young people spent, we are told, an amazing night in Vienna togehter. To play with fortune they did not exchange phone numbers but promised each other to meet on a particular day six months later in Vienna. He goes to Vienna, but she does not show up. Later he feels compelled to write a book about this amazing evening they enjoyed in Vienna. Now he is on a tour promoting the book and the last stop in Europe is a reading in a small bookshop in Paris. At the end of his reading she is suddenly standing in the back of the audience. He only has a little bit of time before his limo is scheduled to take him to the airport. She agrees to his proposal to go to a cafe and catch up… Before Sunrise is almost perfect.Before Sunset
Movies, Drama
Even good acting (Marlon Brando) cannot save a script that has no depth and a director who lacks an eye for how to pick stories that are worth telling. If one is confused in one’s head (as writer or director), it does not make for good art to let confusion take over the story. The film likes to come off as being intellectual, but it’s creators lack intellect. Five out of the 130 minutes are truly moving: Roughly two thirds into the movie, Marlon Brando sits in front of the coffin of his dead-by-suicide wife and shows off his genius as an actor. From then on the film is again terrible. The film end’s with the line, “He is a madman.” Ostensibly, Marlon Brando’s character is meant, but one wonder’s about how much grip on reality both the writer and director of this film had themselves. Insight is what is terribly missing here.Last Tango in Paris
Movies, Drama
Unlike Gladiator, Russel Crowe’s earlier historical action movie, the drama in Master and Commander” is quite dull. I was so bored after the first hour that I needed to rest a day before I could watch the second hour. Why did I continue at all? Well, Britain became the world’s greatest power in the 18th century by virtue of its navy. As a piece of historical sociology, the film has some splendid moments depicting the social organization of an British warship. Because of the enthusiam of the ship’s doctor for collecting species on the Galapagos Islands, we also get a sense of how important natural history was to British science from the 15th to the 19th century. Unfortunately, the film’s educational ambitions are frequently thrown over board.Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Movies, Drama
This movie directed by Elia Kazan holds up even 50 years after its making. Labor unions in America no longer enjoy the power they did after World War II when their struggles with management made the front page of newspapers almost every day. If the movie were made today the corrupt union boss would be replaced by the corrupt Enron manager. But what would remain is the dramatic struggle between the many decent people who are exploited by the few, but don’t seem to be able to overthrow their exploiters until a few muster enough courage to do so. Marlon Brando delivers one of the most moving acting performances I have ever seen.On the Waterfront
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