luca's house of mirrors

"We are what we think. All that we are arises from our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world."  (Buddha)

Showing category "movie reviews" (Show all posts)

Blackhat (2015)

Posted by M . on Friday, May 6, 2016, In : movie reviews 
when the soundtrack is better than the movie :|

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnsAbz9Tg6I



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Man of Tai Chi

Posted by M . on Saturday, October 19, 2013, In : movie reviews 


Dragon and human went to the movies. Again. And I don't know about the little red thing, but the human is totally, completely, utterly, irrevocably, unconditionally in love.


.


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The Adjustment Bureau (2011) review

Posted by LucaM on Sunday, August 4, 2013, In : movie reviews 
Catchy soundtrack. Golden boy Matt Damon playing a candidate for congress - or rather being his own talk-show self. Typical Hwood (Universal) movie.
But the only thing it has in common with the alleged PKD source of the story is half of its title. And the honest speech- but that is a reference to another PKD story...
And seriously - elections?  elections?????  for Dick's sake....

And, most important- Hwood, please spare us the 'love conquers all' storyline. Not the White House/the world/Zion ...
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Man of Tai Chi (2013)

Posted by LucaM on Wednesday, July 24, 2013, In : movie reviews 
I think I just found myself a new favorite director.

It wasn't exactly a surprise, though. To paraphrase a character from the movie, I knew he had it in him. But knowing and actually seeing are two different things.
The movie has an old school feel to it - and yet not. It builds slowly, maybe too slowly for most people's taste. Slowly, subtly, steadily; like the bass line of a Foo Fighters song. Like a lazy snake that uncoils in the sun. Like Chi in meditation. It picks up its pace only after ...
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London (2005)

Posted by LucaM on Sunday, May 12, 2013, In : movie reviews 
this

One of those little movies that don't say anything ;)  except for the fact that Jason Statham can act - when he wants to. Pity it almost never happens. And that Chris Evans can play something else than comic book heroes, and be bloody good at it.  He did it here, and in Puncture - and if we're lucky, he'll show us again this side of his.
Just don't get lost in the jungle, little brother...  just don't get lost.

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Django Unchained

Posted by LucaM on Saturday, April 27, 2013, In : movie reviews 
Watched Django Unchained. It's... entertaining, in a Garth Ennis comics sort of way. But Tarantino would do everyone a favor if he stopped casting himself in his own movies. This time, it wasn't even amusing.
And the moment THIS thing got the Oscar for best screenplay, to me the honored Academy has lost what little credibility it had left.
I have a suggestion : in 2014, let's give the Oscar for best screenplay to tumblr. It's got better writing than this.

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Generation Um...

Posted by LucaM on Thursday, April 25, 2013, In : movie reviews 
An almost unexpected surprise in today's world focused only on feel-good movies. A multi-layered little gem. A story about loneliness, pain, despair, and ways to cope with all that. A story about human connection and lack thereof. A story about games of power, seduction and domination. A meditation on how people behave in front and behind a camera. And the camera becomes a fourth character; a silent witness that's central to the plot; a fourth player that changes the rules of the game. or rat...
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watching Tom Cruise

Posted by LucaM on Sunday, October 28, 2012, In : movie reviews 
can be fascinating. but only from a safe distance.

Rock of Ages (2012)


... good grief, I haven't laughed so heartily in months.

Brand channeling Freddie Mercury.
Alec Baldwin channeling The Dude.
Paul Giamatti being great as he usually is.

But the cherry on the cake is Cruise's performance as a rock god.
He doesn't have the voice, but he has everything else: the body, the poise, the mannerisms, the attitude, the intensity...
So soft-spoken, but so gdamned intense...
"You can't trap a fire phoenix. Th...
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SIde by Side (2012)

Posted by LucaM on Monday, July 16, 2012, In : movie reviews 
It's an ode to cinema,this film is. It's about marking a turning point in the history of cinema and raising awareness about it. Yes, it's a subject that's been discussed and bitched about for what, 10 years now, ever since Lucas proclaimed that film is dead. But maybe for the first time it brings all the opposite opinions together. Side by side. (Loved the editing - it was just like watching a tennis match) And for people like myself, 'civilian' moviegoers who while watching a movie often fou...
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Midnight in Paris (2011)

Posted by LucaM on Sunday, May 27, 2012, In : movie reviews 
No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure.
Amen to that ;)

Liked the movie. It’s asking the viewer to have a bit of patience with it in the beginning, but then, which good movie doesn’t? ;)

But if that car ever stopped to pick me up, it would be a car model of the present time. And it wouldn’t be in Paris. And it would take me to an (otherwise) empty diner, late at night.
… or to the hell version of...
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The Avengers (2012) review. sort of, anyway.

Posted by LucaM on Sunday, May 6, 2012, In : movie reviews 
Watched it today. At the cinema. Not only because of the 3D; I still believe that at least the first viewing of a movie should be done on the big screen, at the theater, not the TV/computer screen at home. That comes later ;)
There's something magic about the moment the lights go off and the film starts rolling (well, the file starts playing. or whatever the term is. Side by Side and all that ;) )  You the viewer are no longer sitting in a chair; you're transported in a different world and rea...
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Somewhere (2010) review

Posted by LucaM on Sunday, March 20, 2011, In : movie reviews 
Watched Sofia's 'Somewhere'. Loved it. Loved everything about it: the sarcasm of the Foos' 'Hero' playing in the background of the opening scene; the press conference scene; the white mask; and especially the minimalism of it. The way Sofia uses her camera as a detached, silent witness. The way she observes everything, without judging, without blinking, just like Cleo does.

'Somewhere' is Lost in Translation without the glitz and cliché's and the star treatment that made the Academy pay atte...
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This Is It (2009) - review

Posted by LucaM on Saturday, February 26, 2011, In : movie reviews 
Watched 'This Is It' today. Finally. Yeah, I know. It's just that I'm not good at saying goodbye... :(

Michael Jackson was a genius performer. The ultimate performer. And he seemed in great shape, both physically and with his voice. The shows would have been amazing.
BUT.
musically... he didn't evolve after 'HIStory'.  'Blood on the Dancefloor' was good, but 'standard' MJ material. and 'Morphine' was more of a personal confession than of a song...
And 'Invincible' ... went unnoticed for a rea...
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Beowulf review/s

Posted by LucaM on Saturday, October 9, 2010, In : movie reviews 
Watched Beowulf. the 1998 version.
Remembered that I've seen it on TV many years ago ( in the days when I still watched TV) but it was dubbed in Hungarian so I thought that could be an excuse for bad dialogue.
Wrong. It's even worse in the original English version. And with awful deliveries.
As for the movie? Good gods, it's so bad it makes Johnny Mnemonic look good by comparison ! And that says a lot.
Yet it had its fun moments. And it was filmed on location in Romania. Which means some of m...
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The Hurt Locker review

Posted by LucaM on Thursday, May 13, 2010, In : movie reviews 
Finally managed to watch 'The Hurt Locker'. And I say finally because I had to watch it in two 'sessions'. Taking a break of two days between the first hour and the second. Can't explain why. Maybe it was just too much.
Too much of what? Sheer film, I suppose. There's something haunting and intense about Bigelow's minimalism  - as opposed to you-know-who's pretentiousness and grandeur and megalomania. With Bigelow it's all about details. The bullet  shell. The wind blowing the dirt. The hungr...
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All About Steve (2009) review. well, sort of

Posted by LucaM on Sunday, May 9, 2010, In : movie reviews 
Watched All About Steve today. It starts as silly fun, then becomes... what's the adjective derived from 'cringe'?  But it redeems itself around 1: 20  ( that's 1h 20 minutes, folks) .
And Sandy didn't deserve that Razzie, not even one moment. She's a GREAT comedy actress. Loved her for that acceptance speech and for bringing DVDs for the audience/jury. She was right. They probably didn't watch the movie.
It's one of those 'flicks' where perseverance is rewarded. Eventually ;)

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Legion (2010) review

Posted by LucaM on Wednesday, April 21, 2010, In : movie reviews 
Just watched Legion (2010)

It starts like Terminator. It ends like Terminator, Sarah Connor’s bandanna included. And maybe even the guns in the back of the car. Several scenes cry out Matrix reference, but hey, it’s almost a must. Besides, Matrix fan here, so I guess this could be a biased perception.
The first half of the movie looks like an imitation of ‘Constantine’.  Francis Lawrence and his director of photography ( one Philippe Rousellot) should be proud. I guess.
Heck, even Con...
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Avatar (2009) review

Posted by LucaM on Saturday, December 26, 2009, In : movie reviews 
*The first duty of a movie is to entertain.* someone said here.
and by all gods, Cameron's Avatar does that.
pity it stops there …

It's a 3D special effects extravaganza. It's… a movie written and
directed by James Cameron, post-Titanic. 'nuff said.

But the characters are sketchy, the lines are clicheistic, and the only one who saves the day, in more ways than one, is Sam Worthington. (Ribisi is great too, but his part is more of a cameo than a real part ) Strip away the effects and the scor...
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Constantine (2005) review

Posted by LucaM on Tuesday, August 11, 2009, In : movie reviews 
I wonder ... why is it that I can't write reviews for the movies I really like ? Mumbling and err-ing and waving my hands and ending with "just watch it, really watch it" is not a proper review. Not quite.

What can I say about this movie ? Hellblazer it ain't. not even close. But couldn't have said that if it wasn't for the movie itself. Because this is the movie which made me read comics. It added the final straw on what Sin City and 300 started. And when the first comic book one ever picks u...
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Watchmen (2009) review

Posted by LucaM on Sunday, June 28, 2009, In : movie reviews 
I'm watching the movie and I think 'darn, this guy (Snyder) really has an eye for translating graphic novels onto the screen ! he just makes the drawn panels come to life... ... and then I think better about it and realize I'm somehow disappointed. What he did with 300 and Watchmen was to film the drawings, frame by frame... guess I wanted more than that. guess I wanted a re-telling of the story, not just a translation... But it works. it catches the essence of the comics. Maybe Moore should ...
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Atonement (2007) review

Posted by LucaM on Thursday, June 18, 2009, In : movie reviews 
It's one of the few movies I've postponed watching, over and over again. and there weren't many. Maybe it was because of all the publicity and discussions and articles and all that. Maybe I waited for the dust to settle.  Maybe it's because I've read the novel years ago and wasn't really sure it can be adapted for the screen. Don't know exactly.
Then I tried watching it.  Managed to stay through the whole movie only the third time.
It's a visual experience, I'll give it that. But I have the f...
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War, Inc (2008) review

Posted by LucaM on Wednesday, June 3, 2009, In : movie reviews 
hilariously brilliant.or brilliantly hilarious . or something like that.

haven't laughed so good since "Shoot'em Up" ...

it's been fun to try guessing all the references. it's been a joy to see the oh-so-classical-cliché's put to good use.

and what can beat the "I'm your father " line ? nothing, I guess...

and yet...it's not just silly fun. on the contrary.

and to think the humor was lost on some posters / reviewers... guess post-modernist sarcasm isn't everyone's bowl of soup ...

( unfortun...
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The Lake House (2006) review

Posted by LucaM on Wednesday, June 3, 2009, In : movie reviews 
I've read the reviews on various sites and, frankly, I'm not surprised. I almost saw them coming. "why doesn't she google him ? " "Why don't they send e-mails, pictures, etc" "what's with all this time-travel BS? " and so on and so forth. OK, so this movie is no Oscar material. so what ? it wasn't intended to be in the first place. it's a touching story about loneliness, introversion, search for one's true self, true love, second chances... and the handwritten letters are something that defin...
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Restul e tacere (2007) review

Posted by LucaM on Wednesday, June 3, 2009, In : movie reviews 
just saw the movie. In a cinema theater. Sunday morning, only four people in the audience, myself included.

I'm blown away.

here, normally, I would have added only another sentence to this post - but the IMDb rules state a post must have a minimum 10 lines.

so I might write that this is not just a movie. It's a tribute to all movie makers, of all times. It's a tribute to all the people passionate enough with an idea to be able to follow it until the very end. A tribute to those few people tha...
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Shoot'Em Up (2007) review

Posted by LucaM on Wednesday, June 3, 2009, In : movie reviews 
I watch the very first scene and I'm thinking " so it's 'Constantine meets Bugs Bunny' " . And then it gets better. Eleven minutes into the movie, I'm laughing with tears and counting all the references, noting down all the movies spoofed in this one...it's a beautifully funny tongue-in-cheek to the Matrix , Bourne, Bond movies ; it's got Blade Runner, M.I, X-files , Dirty Harry - like hints, North by Northwest -like lines ; Clive Owen's spoofing his own Sin City character...it's all the acti...
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TDTESS (2008) review

Posted by LucaM on Wednesday, June 3, 2009, In : movie reviews 
Let me start by saying what this movie isn't . It's not the original. Obviously, it couldn't be. But it's an interesting re-telling of it. It's not yet another alien invasion movie. It's not Independence Day. At the end of the day, no-one gets to cheer that we kicked the big bad alien's taillights. Or that we blew up the big bad asteroid which was just minding its business… It's not a movie about aliens. It's a movie about US – and our paranoia. Our fears. Our hysteria.

And it's not a 'gr...
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Street Kings ( 2008) review

Posted by LucaM on Wednesday, June 3, 2009, In : movie reviews 
transferring here a few of the movie reviews I wrote over the years . 'cause , well... one of my pet theories is that the way one perceives a movie says a lot about that person. in other words, the movie acts like a mirror... in many ways.

too lazy to re-write them, so will just add some later edits. 

so here we go :

first of all, must say that this is a movie that benefits from - and actually needs - a second viewing. at least. maybe even a third. then, in order to fully understand it it hel...
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