Margo rogalin gariepy

Visually beautiful with little dialogue it is a romantic treatment of the relationships of Capt John Smith, Pocahontas and John Rolfe. What IS recorded history between the English settlers and “ the naturals,” as the Powatons were called is historically accurate. While dialogue is sparse the romanticized love affair is beautifully done in visual vignettes. This is a Malik film, so be prepared to be enchanted. Highly recommend especially for cinephiles who see films as an art form. General audiences will probably find it slow and not very entertaining. So.

Not a weak episode in this 8 episode series. The performances—wow. Best Limited Series Best Actor (!!!) Best Actress Best Supporting Actress Best Writing Best Directing And all the other stuff including cinematography and episodic music. This is not your daddy’s villian! 10*/10*

This is on the Roku Channel but with ads popping up at just the wrong time. We bought the dvd. It’s a good binge. The AI premise is appealing and the performances are solid. Hartnett stands out, though, as he moves from one level paranoia to another and another. Sadly, the teleplay, an adaptation of a best selling book, is weak. As is the direction. It’s not bad but its premise is never well developed. The denouement is gripping, though, and makes E4 a great payoff. If you are a Josh Hartnett fan this is a must see, if not, there is lovely cinematography of Geneva.

This is a fun movie with classic Ford sardonic persona and a revelatory comic performance by Hartnett. The story has all the cliched tropes of cops vs bad guys but it has some funniest scenes to watch. Supporting actors are having a ball tongue in cheek as well. 3+ stars with a big bag of popcorn

BUNRAKU is a gem! A revenge story. A samurai showdown. A spaghetti Western. And a mind-blowing visual treat. The sword and stick fighting is a Hollywood musical (In this post apocalyptic world guns have been outlawed). The screenplay has some laugh out loud dialogue and the characterizations are bizarre. First you have the samurai Yoshi (played by Gackt, a Japanese pop singer and action star.) He’s on a quest to retrieve a stolen family heirloom. Then you have The Drifter (Josh Hartnett), a Clint Eastwood type guy who’s afraid of heights and is trying to quit smoking. Nobody can figure out why he’s drifted into town. The finger sliding brim of his hat is his trademark. The Bartender (Woody Harrelson) is the man of wisdom (😆) doling out advice to the two other guys. His delivery of lines is pure Woody, and made us double up laughing. Killer #2 (forgot his name🥴) is the lethal henchman for The Woodcutter (Ron Perlman in silver dreadlocks), the Mafia boss who spouts philosophical maxims about, life, love, ambition and paranoia. Killer #2 is utterly brilliant in his ballet-like fighting movements and fierce eye-acting. Demi Moore, as concubine to the Woodcutter, is the stock character who, like Yoshi’s cousin, isn’t quite sure whether she’s in a comedy or drama. They are the only weak links in the otherwise outstanding cast. The Narrator is the connecting thread to fill in the sparse (but hysterical) dialogue. All these actors are having a ball playing in writer-director’s Guy Moshe’s sandbox. They can barely keep straight faces. The plot is a rip off of every popular film genre, a mashup that is delightful. The entire story line is created tongue in cheek. Below the line: there are sets built like kids Erector kits, metal bars for steps, throwable tables and chairs. The background for each scene folds like cardboard origami. Visual punctuation: bits of graphic novels, paper dolls, and pop up books. The bold, jarring colors of costumes and Japanese screens are terrific. Scenes like Woody sitting under a paper rainbow umbrella observing the fight (American fists meet martial arts) or driving a clown car to escape Nicola’s army is like a visual gag. One thing that surprised me is learning that the actors did their own stunts. Now that blows my mind. The turf battles are choreographed! I had a hard time finding this. But when I went to Movies and TV options on Amazon I found dvds, one in BluRay! It says you can stream it on YouTube and Prime Video but I couldn’t find it. I would never have picked this film except I have 2 friends who praised it so highly and so often that I finally combed thru every source to find it. This is a mind-blowing, good time fun film. Definitely rewatchable multiple times. There are interviews on YouTube. 5*

I’m still mystified that critics were so harsh on this film. We watched it the other night, the Director’s Cut, and loved it just like we’ve done over the years since 2001. All Americans know what happened on Dec.7, 1941. What this movie does is take that historical event and put some flesh and bones on it. All the leads and supporting actors were in their early to mid20’s. Their performances are excellent and this movie propelled their careers sky high (Affleck, Beckinsale, Hartnett). What’s most notable about the performances is what they had to do to make one of the worst scripts in the world palatable. Without their skill in eye-acting and inflection, their characters would be flat and uninteresting. The standout performance belongs to Jon Voight as FDR. Alec Baldwin, like the young actors, makes his guts and glory dialogue more subdued. Randall Wallace, who wrote the screenplay for Braveheart and some other good films, butchers this one. Michael Bay, who directed, is his willing accomplice. The storyline focuses, not on the event itself, but on the fictionalization of real life people, the soldiers, sailors, and nurses who were stationed there. The love triangle is the plot point. It’s “the same ole story, a tale of love and glory.” Schmaltzy but endearing because of the talents of its young cast. And some scenes are truly romantic. The parachute hangar scene is my personal favorite 😏. These were the days before film makers required explicit sex to sell a love story. But back to the script. Here is what pilot #1 says to the girl he’s just met. “You are so beautiful.” Five second pause, same tone of voice, “You are so beautiful.” It’s like they forgot to edit out one of the two takes. He does it again with “I love you,” pause, “I love you.” Cringe! There is a lot of flag waving dialogue given to other characters, and, like the leads, these actors sell the cliches with their quality performances. We can nevertheless overcome this awful screenplay because the SFX are terrific. Watch the Director’s Cut that restores deleted scenes. The cinematography is jaw dropping. The aerial stunts are breathtaking. The cuts back and forth between stages in the attack, from Japanese military leaders to Navy intelligence personnel to FDR and his advisors, are nicely paced. Maybe I should have deducted a star for the truly weak writing, but so many other elements are so well done, Pearl Harbor gets all 5*

I love this movie because of its homage to The Great Escape w/out that film’s predictable ending. This was based on the book written by Hart himself. While Willis’s performance was pretty much like his other hard bitten roles, it’s the young Colin Farrell’s that’s the standout. Considering his Irish brogue in 2002 was pretty strong, his American accent is impressive. The German commandant actor is superb. Supporting actors also good. The ending is a twist.

I am pretty disgusted by the critics damning this series, all of whom apparently didn’t “get it.” Each episode is a little story within the larger one and at only 6 episodes just lays the framework for another season to continue the story. The author of the book consulted on the screenplay so the book lovers will love the series. It is funny. It is sad. It is intense. The writing is wonderful, and the directing, especially the camera gymnastics in E4, is brilliant. The really gut-grabbing of the series, though, is the phenomenal acting chops of all the players. Theo James needs an Emmy. Rose Leslie a nomination. And special kudos to the children who play Henry and Clare as children, tweener and teenager. Henry has no control over when or where he’ll jump. He is left naked and sick and sweaty in often dangerous places. He cannot change anything in the past and his drops into the future terrify him. Each drop causes him to age as we see him grey and wrinkled at 43. But the notion of doomed forever love does not weigh the story down. There are scenes that are out loud funny. Some scenes will rip your heart. As someone wrote, “The Time Traveler’s Wife is a romance for thinking people.” I cannot recommend this series more highly, and I’m hungry for another season. The series covers only a portion of the book.

I don’t get the critics’ put down of this movie. I love the Revisited edit, its scenes shifted, footage restored. The magnificent cinematography, especially the battle at Guagelema (sp), is spectacular. There are a couple of scenes that have terrible acting. Jolie and Farrell are so over the top in them, they should have been left on the cutting floor. The variety of dialects didn’t bother me at all. Only Jolie’s Transylvanian accent made me cringe. Aside from the hysterical emotions in these scenes, I think the acting is very good. The complaint about Farrell’s hair is unfair. Stone should have nixed the make up team’s attempts to make Colin’s hair color reflect Alexander’s “golden Locks.” And if they decided to go with blonde, they should have dyed his hair throughout. Stone should not have ignored such details. I have the Alexander Revisited film. I love it.

Austen’s unfinished novel gets all the sharp dialogue and luscious balls and acerbic characters in this Masterpiece series. Fan pressure made a second and third seasons, the second coming March 20. There is fan upset that Sidney (Theo James) will no longer appear in the series. I am one who will not watch the second season, hoping that in season three he’ll reappear as Sidney/Charlotte story arc was the dominant one in season one. That first season is the 5 star gem.