film_fodder

This film is a bit of a disaster ... but it actually had an idea built into it that could have been really interesting to explore - which is the machines civil war - i.e. The reasoning behind this schism and perhaps making that a key part of the NEW story line. But no, instead its just a weird and tired "overlay" of the original film packed with nostalgia re-made flash backs. There is just nothing new here to watch.

If you want nostalgia, go back and watch the original.

I am pretty sure I don't like watching paint dry, but I don't know for sure because I have never done it. However I am pretty sure it would be better then watching this film. Took me three goes to finish.. at least when paint dries you have the satisfying feeling of a job well done : )

The good:

• B Del Toro: I mean... the guy just has great screen presence, he is the main reason I watched the film, but even his acting was just him on an average day. I didn't get the feeling he was making any particular effort; perhaps he thought shooting this film would be more fun then sitting around at home waiting for his new paint job to dry :o
• Tim Robbins. I really like Tim Robbins, but in fact putting him in the "good" category shows how poor this film is. He has a few lines that turned my frown up side down for a few seconds, a brief reprieve, and that about all I have on him.

The bad:

• The story: a bunch of aid workers who go around with no tools, supplies, or any other useful equipment and with no wit or ingenuity - and definitely no rope - try to solve how to get a dead fat guy out of a well. And also the locals are either too stupid to help or just don't care enough to survive? Give me 3-4 volunteers and I'd have the fat dude out within half an hour...
• The point: Is this a comedy?, is this a story about the tragedy of pointless war? is this about the UN sitting on the thumbs? - it achieves none of these things. Its simply not funny and it does not come across as tragic, you don't get attached to any characters. The boy just mopes around and every other local is portrayed as a git.
• Olga Kurylenko: How this woman is an actor is beyond me. Her acting can be summed up as: "looking up and sideways at people with a superior smile on her face". Also... what is the purpose of her character except to extend the film by half an hour of pointless none-romance with BD Toro. She did give some killer sideways looks with smile though....
• Mélanie Thierry's character. I like Mélanie Thierry in some things, but in this film they have made her the stereo typical female: week, jumpy with no clue and needs help each step of the way. She was meant to be an expert on water and sanitation, she could have shined at least in that regard, but her only purpose appears to have been to tell then they have a 24 hour deadline to get the body out.
• The UN... ok seriously, they would cut the rope with the guy half way out of the well? - you'd have to be a real a-hole to do that, the UN troops are not lobotomised robots ffs. I feel 99% sure they would have seen the sit-rep, given a hand, and then maybe given them "no more" and "get lost" afterwards... right? - anyone from the UN?
• The music: sooooo, if this was rock concert, great! 10/10... but no, this is a comedy... wait, a tragedy...no, a bad episode of crystal maze? - actually that probably fits this film the best, and you just know they aren't getting out with the crystal.

Now I think of it, I was going to give this a 3, but now I have talked myself into giving it a 2.

This is one of those annoying films. It has a rating of 7.4 (at time of writing) and yet the very highest user review rating is 3 stars! - I wish I had read the reviews first....

The good: ...*.......*......*.... (that's a tumble-weed moving across the screen)

The bad: Well.... to quote a fellow reviewer "bloody awful".

• Its constantly dark/dreary (like the film)
• Its soooo boring, I had to reach for the FFD button a lot to get to the end
• The pacing is terrible, and there is so much slow fluff going on that I could not be bothered to concentrait hard enough to really follow any of it... but basically the story is King Arthur comes home and takes control back off his naughty son (who probably has a point btw) - and that's really it.
• The king is the most annoying whiny-arse... why would anyone follow him. To be fair he does tell people this all the time, but they are like: "we will follow you to the end" and crap like that...
• Did I mention it is very boring?
• I did not enjoy the screen time of any actor at all - not one, and that is rare... well, possibly merlin, but then he only had about 3 lines - yet its called Arthur AND merlin??? - it should be called "Arthur whines a lot"
• ehhh... I am too bored to remember the rest...

The film (without spoilers): Get my initial thoughts down first - Its story essentially a story of friendship. There are very few scenes where I was getting bored, and that's generally a really good sign for me. Unlike most big Hollywood films coming out these days - where I just get bored to tears watching all the pretty GCI and trying to figure out what the point of the film is. The pacing is good, there is a nice introduction phase where you watch a pair of shoes walking around, then you are introduced to Boyka... I mean Frenchy... then we are treated to a bit of action followed by an explanation of the mission. Then the films has three distinct parts of the job with road trip mixed with action scenes with little bits of the plot delivered so you can start to paint a full picture of the story. Then you have the friends fighting with each other and go their separate ways, followed by the big showdown.

The good: There is just enough plot to hold this film together. The interplay between Frenchy and Sue is entertaining and (fortunately) makes up most of the film. The rest of the acting is not great to be honest, but as I say, there is not too much of that and its passable. The action scenes are generally fun to watch.

The bad: It probably a low budget film, so I am not going to get too fussy about the slightly badly timed blood squib bursts and such things. But I will say that the final gun battle is fairly terrible. There are people just standing up emptying clips at each other and only rarely does someone actually get hit. There are two dudes just firing their assault riffles the whole time, never moving, not even for the 4-5 grenades that are fired at them... I never had a grenade fired at me in a closed space, but I am pretty sure that just one of those bad boys would floor me :o..... but perhaps they ran out of money for actors and had to make them last while the rest of the story played out ....

I really did not like Sue at the start, but his character grows on you and by the end I routing for him.

Summary I found it quite entertaining, probably won't watch it again, but I might!

I say it just about earns a 7, but I could easily have given it a 6, which is still a solid score.

The good:

• Pacing: There is no dull moment in this film, no long intro, not too much fussing at the end. The film maintains a tense atmosphere all the way through, with just enough reprieves to enjoy them.
• Action: I thought the action was fantastic - guns are inaccurate at best (probably realistic) having to unload everything and watching a good ol' broadside from a "modern", albeit light, cruiser is a lot of fun.
• Acting: top rate, not much more to say on that
• Cinematography: very nice, seemly GCI such that I really did feel like I was watching something real and gritty.
• Story line: I like these "intimate" stories from WWII - its not a specific major battle, its just a single crossing. But it shows the desperation and danger - on both sides - really well.

The bad/not-so-good:

• By far the worst part of this for me is the "creepy" music whenever the sub...err... u-boats came on screen, especially when they surfaced. It de-humanised the Germans turning them into evil horrors and this coupled with the even more creepy voice taunts just made this worse, and this after Tom Hanks looks quite sad at seeing the first u-boat destroyed underwater... the two are at odds and it feels kind of out of place.
• Length: I really felt this could have been more of a 2 - 2.5 hour epic. Even though I liked the pacing, this had room for more. I wanted to see a bit more action around the boat - the magazine, kitchens, crew having some down time, sleeping quarters - perhaps not make it into a long drama - but I was left feeling like I missed a lot of detail because most of the film is focused on Tom Hanks / the bridge - which is no bad thing, but perhaps it needed a 10-15 minutes at the start of the voyage for some "sunny sailing" where you get to see a competent crew doing their thing (think Apollo 13).
• There appeared to be some importance placed on Hanks not eating... but nothing really came of it, felt like we where building up to some crises and the food-guy (cant recall his name) or XO would have to put their foot down, but no, nothing happens - Hanks is tired, but otherwise performs exceptionally well all the time, except forgetting peoples names. I think they could have played that part out to develop Hanks's character arc such that by the end he decides to sort him self out and his crew before entering the final battle and past mistakes are shown to be fixed.

Summary: Very entertaining, bit short

The description of this film in IMDB "A mob hitman recalls his friend Jimmy Hoffa." about sums this film up.... really, I have nothing more to add then that - and that is pretty much how I was left feeling after watching every one of the 3 hours of this film.

Sure, great acting, top cast, good dialog even. But, I think I would have been better off just reading the IMDB description and then watch two other movies, like ones that actually have a point.

So to the rating. Well, its like watching good fellas minus the story line. So there are good elements to it, like I mentioned before, but with no story line the film feel pointless from start to finish and no great actors can really do that much to help. Ill give a star for the acting and another for the dialog (pointless as it is), maybe another for the film crew and makeup artists. Can't recall the sound track... so I got no more stars to give, sorry : (