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Formula Jr
01-26-2006, 12:32 AM
I was VERY disappointed with this movie. I rented the DVD.
It tries to be far too many movies and lost sight of itself. I lost count at at least five movies here.
You have a love story, you have national and racial overtones, you have spies, diplomatic intrigue, nasty corporations, desperate poverty, a strange and inexplicable music video of a man with possible AIDS riding a bicycle, characters that come out of nowhere, and a documentary on Kenya. The movie doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Is it about TB or AIDS or how multi-nationals use people as guinea pigs for drug trials? They do clinical drug trials in Eugene, OR also. And how do the bad guys always know exactly where the good guys are? Is this the matrix?
Even the premises do not hold up, depending on which of the premises each of these five or six subplots of this movie are dealing with.


There is only one overall theme to the movie and that has nothing to do with all these subplots. Nature is the constant gardener of very bad bugs. And we should know about that and be informed about that. The main plot being that someday there might be a TB pandemic and the First World will stop at nothing to protect it self from it and even governments will look the other way in the search for a preventative medicine. The movie doesn't even address that question head on. But the movie is sort of about how mean and nasty and callous white people are to black people in Africa to find an answer to this threat. I just wish the movie had done that in a direct way. That would have been a more interesting movie. There is no evidence that anything like this has ever happened with drug trials in Africa.
The writer was even fuzzy about this since he originally wanted to do a movie about Geopolitics and oil and the subjugation of the third world set as a love story. Then he decided on Big Pharma just because it was a different theme.
There is too much oversight for anyone to get away with what the movie portrays. Any oxfam/peace corp. /red cross volunteer would have that on the internet in 15 minutes. Its the new channel that the film never really deals with except in e-mails. So in a sense the movie is counter productive to the real TB threat, and if there are clinical trials dealing with TB that are ongoing they may be affected by all this irresponsible fiction. This movie missed every mark if it wanted to deal with a serious subject, and just wanted to pull strings. And it went out of its way to pull strings.
I hate directors that do that. This director, I think is a little retarded if he thought his audience was going to fall for some of his clumsy slight of hand and mis-direction. If I was teaching a class on contemporary cinema, I'd pick this one to dissect as badly constructed.

I really hate this film. And not due to its subject matter - big pharma should be called to the mat for some of the real things it has done, I just hate the sneaky way the director is working his private themes.

Carl C
01-26-2006, 09:15 AM
Just watched "Into the Blue" last night. There is lots of cool boating action. Check out the yacht that the cocaine dealer lives on!:) Oh yeah, there's lots of T&A too!

roadtrip se
01-26-2006, 09:16 AM
Love being back in the land of trees and changing seasons, instead of just warm to hot to warm. Best of all, I'm home every night instead of traveling for a living. Good for me, but Jill may have another opinion.

Winter seems to last a little longer here, so we have time to watch more movies. Go to the local Blockbuster and my idea is not an original one, all out all the time of anything worth watching.

Join Netflix. The choices are endless. Once in awhile a dvd arrives broken, but not a biggy. Heck, I even bought a big screen plasma and we rarely watch regular tv except for the news and sports, but those bands on the top and bottom were driving me crazy. Had to fix that.

Anyway, I digress. I now have a choice of three movies at any given time to watch. While I have to admit that I might have been sucked into trying to figure this nutso movie out for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, I would have probably returned this turkey to its shipping sleeve and gone on to the next one.

So why the hell didn't you just turn the thing off Owen? Thats two hours you will never get back watching somebody's idea of propaganda. Guess I better check to make sure its not on my order queue.

MrsDigger
01-26-2006, 10:52 AM
May I suggest Monty Python's Holy Grail? :yes:

Seriously, though, I had that same reaction to "Pearl Harbor," the Ben Affleck vehicle. Boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love and promise to be together forever, boy is missing and presumed dead for 2-3 months or so, girl b*ngs boy's best friend, girl gets knocked up by best friend, best friend dies, boy TAKES GIRL BACK??? PUHLEEZE. Oh, and by the way, there is a war going on, and just to prove it, we've included some actual footage...

Also hated "City of Angels." What idiot would ride headlong into the side of a log truck??? I mean, she has what, 13 seconds to decide what to do? Even 4-5 seconds is enough to veer into the woods, where you will m aybe break a leg...long enough to tip your bike over and skid under the truck--a little road rash seems better than splattering your head into a very large fir tree. Geez.

Digger and I are big fans of old movies. We watched Rear Window (again) the other night, and it was great. Anything Hitchcock, especially with Jimmy Stewart. For relatively recent movies, I was a big fan of "The Notebook," even though it had me bawling like a baby.

Cuda
01-26-2006, 11:11 AM
May I suggest Monty Python's Holy Grail? .
My favorite movie of all time.:)

Formula Jr
01-26-2006, 02:54 PM
After seeing Spamalot in New York we had to re-rent the Holy Grail.
The DVD version has a great bonus feature on the locations in England where it was made. All the Python movies are great.

goatee
01-26-2006, 11:12 PM
watched "wedding crashers" last night. it was ok, mildly amusing throughout
but not worthy of the hype.
most under-rated comedy would be "the big labowski"
exellent display of directing and acting. and i know you've all heard this before but, you WILL appreciate it more the second time you see it.
hard to explain but,,, knowing the outcome gives you a whole new perspective.
full of "one liners" and it will have you belly laughing for sure.

Chili 18
01-26-2006, 11:32 PM
I just put up a hundred inch front projection system. Something ive wanted for some time. The price and quality has come into the irresistable zone. Its really cool. Definitely a night time thing as it requires a dark room and I have it set up in the livingroom. Anyway, been on a movie binge lately. One rather odd film I really enjoyed was Big Fish. The story of a storyteller... Havent seen it big yet. Did watch I robot last night. Thought Will Smith did a decent job. Think they did justice to the Isaac Asimov classic story. The effects were pretty cool on the screen. Tora Tora Tora was a recent re watch. Id forgotten what a great film that is. The cast and crew were split between american and japanese. Amazing the effect of having people who were actually in the war, participate in the films creation. Great effects too.
Finally using up some of that microwave popcorn...:)

Formula Jr
01-27-2006, 06:33 AM
"Kingdom of Heaven," the Ridley Scott movie is somewhat historical but will hold you and you will not want it to end.

I agree Todd, sometimes you want to S*can the movie if its a train wreck.
I never finished "Snake Eyes" or "Jade." I don't know how they ended, nor do I care. I even walked out of "Lost in Space" and got my money back from the ticket booth.



Highway 61.
A Very Long Engagement.
The Hours.
The Station Agent.
Good Night and Good Luck.
Fargo.
The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

All good movies.

harbormaster
01-27-2006, 06:59 AM
One the more interesting movies I have seen was "Shallow Grave".
Anyone see that one? What did you think of it?

roadtrip se
01-27-2006, 07:51 AM
Secondhand Lions

Excellent acting by Robert Duvall and Michael Caine as two old rich Texas salts with a storied past, who take on a young nephew dumped on their front porch my their freewheeling mom.

The two of them sitting on the front porch sipping ice teas with shot guns in their laps waiting for the next salesman to come along is priceless. Reminds me of my days trying to peddle almanacs door ro door in Tacoa GA.

Carl C
01-27-2006, 09:11 AM
Secondhand Lions
Oh yes, a truly excellent movie for all ages. Worthy of watching more then once. Along the same lines I also really enjoyed "Leminy Snicket's Series of Unfortunate events".

MrsDigger
01-27-2006, 11:02 AM
Tombstone
The Usual Suspects
Austin Powers II
Slap Shot
An Affair to Remember
Band of Brothers
Das Boot

There are a lot of good movies out there--unfortunately, very few of them have been made in the last 5 years. Has anyone seen the gay cowboy movie?

Carl C
01-27-2006, 11:22 AM
The Usual Suspects
Waning: explicit language! I heard this movie was really good so I took it to my sister's house to share with her family. Now they are EXTREMELY religious. We didn't get past 10 minutes and I've never gotten around to watching it.:o :o :o :o

Chili 18
01-27-2006, 02:20 PM
Good Night and Good Luck.

Excellent portal into an America vanished. Great filmmaking here!

Chili 18
01-27-2006, 02:48 PM
One the more interesting movies I have seen was "Shallow Grave".
Anyone see that one? What did you think of it?

Ive heard good things about Shallow Grave. By the same director who made Trainspotting.

Ill put it on my list!