Name: Catallaxy
Most Recent Reviews by Catallaxy
One of the surprising ingredients of this movie is the way the director plays with the audience. We are taken, very gradually, from a rational world governed by science and common consensus, to a relentlessly mounting and finally overwhelming onslaught of fire and brimstone. The film exploits our own many preconceptions about Bible thumpers, southern Hillbillies, priests and racism to scare the living crap out of us. And underneath there is a kind of subliminal tongue in cheek humor, that sneers at us in the ironic twist ending. A definite must see, except for the faint of heart.
This is the best movie that I have seen in a long time. It is a suspenseful shocker, although it is so, on a very subtle scale and pace. A beautiful cloak surrounds a horrifying decent into paranoia, that to some will be troubling but, to others, intense open-mouthed awe. Natalie Portman is beautiful and delightful to watch as she pulls you into her perspective, which always strikes you as real, but then something happens that doesn't add up and you are left wondering, is she going crazy?
This is a must see, especially for those of us who thirst for some originality from a movie.
Although this film is definitely worth seeing, if you haven't already done so, it is one of Kubrick's shots in the oven. The problem is that the protagonist, Barry Lyndon is not a heroic figure. He is really an everyman sort of mediocre character, with no inspirational convictions or ideas. Therefore the whole enterprise suffers from boredom. The interesting things this movie has to offer are the costumes and the music, which are quite delightful to experience. Why Kubrick decided to lavish his talents on this project remains a mystery to me.
Prometheus is the story of how the warning signal came to be placed at the shipwreck planet in the original Alien film, also by Ridley Scott, which was released back in 1979. The characters are compelling, realistic and thoroughly entertaining, especially David the cyborg, who has a sardonic sense of cold humor. The plot is intelligent and absolutely thought through. Just seeing the seminal industrial designs for the transportation and instrumentation alone, is easily worth the price of admission.
Ridley Scott never disappoints, and in this mysterious journey into deep space, our expectations are more than fulfilled. This is a truly epic sci-fi thriller. I can definitely recommend it highly.
John Le Carre, the English author of the book “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”, might have wanted to write an entertaining or interesting story but, the whole purpose of all his spy novels is to paint a skeptical and critical picture of the West. His British agents are anti-heroes, the antithesis of James Bond. From the beginning to the end, this whole film features dreary, drab and gloomy sets and interiors, whether we are in swinging free-market London or gray Communist Budapest. The important thing is that there is no distinction made between the gloom of the East or the West.
The notion of there having been a symmetry of culpability and morality between the Communist countries and the Western democracies, is a Marxian rhetorical relic out of the Cold War, which has been largely exposed as false and illogical. Freedom was missing from the Communist countries, which did not allow it's subjects to leave without an exit visa. These visas were difficult to come by and were only granted every three or four years, depending on the standing of the subject who was asking for permission to leave. Escape attempts were punishable by death. In Western countries, no permission is required for anyone who simply wishes to leave, for any reason, or for any amount of time.
Le Carres equivocating intellectual prevarication cannot hide the fact that there was also no freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association or freedom to decide which career one wanted to pursue, in Communist countries. The staggering poverty and squalor in East Germany, relative to the West, is also not mentioned or referenced in Le Carres Communist regimes. This whole reality is entirel hidden and must not be mentioned, in order to persuade the audience that Western agents are pathetic figures who lead frustrating lonely lives, in contra distinction to the impression one gets watching a James Bond blockbuster. In critical Marxist deconstructionist fashion, we are treated to the scene of a used Aston Martin, the kind that Sean Connery drove in Goldfinger, painted blue and towing the small outdated trailer-home of it's secret agent owner. Also following Marxist-feminist theory, we see the slogan painted on a wall, in the background, which reads “The Future is Female”. Most of the spies in our film are old single men swimming together in a dirty pond, for exercise, presumably.
This film starring Gary Oldman is a sleeper, despite Oldman's first class performance. It is truly difficult to stay awake through all the outdated Marxist self delusion and pessimism towards our Western society.
This is not a chick flick, by any stretch of the imagination. It is a refreshingly realistic portrayal of the events, actions and consequences of real covert espionage. It is today's installment of the English 1980s film "The Final Option" about the S.A.S. (Special Air Service) in action against Communist terrorists. This movie is in stark contrast to such Hollywood bubble-gum fare as the Bourne Identity or Spy Game, which occupy the audiences mind more with reasons for hating America and it's defenders, rather than focusing on objectivity and entertainment.
But I didn't leave the theater with a smile on my face. I was really moved by the sacrifice you must be willing to make, if you want to defend what you hold to be dear. This is a very grave and deep film; less enjoyable, rather enduring, reassuring and salient.
Wealthy Communists, in the Beverly Hills, who seem to be running things, in Hollywood, tell us, through their celluloid sermons that, it is silly to believe in God but, ask us to accept the notion that there is honor among thieves. In the Sting, East Coast con artists avenge the assassination of a small time black con artist, from the slums of Chicago. The preposterous stupidity of this fairy tale premise is suspended in the film, of course, by Paul Newman's crafty caveat, that “Vengeance is for suckers, kid. I've been grifting for 30 years and I never got any.†“ Then why are you doing it?†asks Redford. “It seems worthwhile doesn't it?â€. They aren't con artists, they're grifters. The cynical lie from Hollywood is always, that morality is for losers, while the really smart people, wind up with the cash, in the happy end. They aren't endorsing capitalism, they are trashing ethics and decency, using the audiences own avarice and sense of expediency, as motivation. These ideologues have created a new politically correct establishment, which sanctifies gay marriage, protects the criminal, promotes government encroachment, in our lives and is responsible for the deterioration of traditional values, especially the nuclear family.
The Sting is extremely well crafted and entertaining but, if you can tolerate it, a real distortion of reality.
Finally a documentary has been made about the consequences of Socialism, in both of it's forms; National Socialism and Communism. This film shows that Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin were both Socialists and emphasizes the historical fact that, only Socialists publicly advocated genocide, beginning with Karl Marx, in the 1840s and echoed by George Bernard Shaw, in the 1930s. Shaw is even caught on film justifying genocide, with a smile on his face.
The parallels between Nazism and Communism are breathtaking including propaganda posters, which even show similar gestures. This film will shock you, if all you know of the Second World War atrocities is the Holocaust. Vladimir Lenin started the mass murders, in 1919, fourteen years before Hitler even came to power, in Germany.
This is a must see, for anyone who cares about humanity.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a well crafted and entertaining film with excellent performances by Redford and Newman but, it is a disturbing film because it is a hagiography of bank robbers. The movie trivializes the crime of robbery and places these two thieves on a pedestal, suggesting that the way they lived was deserving of respect. Hollywood has a long tradition of glorifying criminals and portraying them as lovable misfits who cannot be held responsible for their behavior.
Three years after the release of this film, a small gang of disturbed individuals tried to rob a bank in New York, but this attempt turned in to a hostage taking incident. Sidney Lumet made a movie about this incident called Dog Day Afternoon. Perhaps these perps were exalted by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and inspired into action, believing that the unfairness of society entitled them to a little theft, as pay-back, so to speak. Hollywood regularly produces this kind of message in it's films, that it is ok to do wrong, if wrong was done unto you.
Sundance is enjoyable to watch, that's the candy coating, that makes it so nice to swallow the subtle bolshevik propaganda.
This unassuming little film is actually one of the most enjoyable movies i have ever seen. Ron Underwood has created a small town, in the dessert, humorously called Perfection which you quickly feel like you belong in. You are aware of the spatial environment of the whole valley and architectural character of the town, in a delightfully clear and easy-going way. Perhaps easy-going is the whole secret of Tremors enjoyment. The informal banter between Fred Ward and Kevin Bacon, from the start, eases you in to the laid back sarcasm of their wonderful chemistry, which is anything but prepared, for what is about to happen.
In this monster movie, we are treated to one surprise after another, and always flanked by a sense of humor, to keep things on an even keel. The characters of the town are all well played and surprisingly realistic, you can develop sympathy for each person, in this propitious bug hunt.
If you haven't seen it yet, do yourself and your friends a favor and watch it.
