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Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
May be the worst movie I have ever seen!
I was and am a big fan of the original Planet of the Apes...Thought provoking...great acting..storyline...so i went to this movie with great anticipation thinking that 30 to 40 years of technology would add immeasurably to the movie...what i got instead was a movie, in my opinion was so bad, it was almost funny..funny except my wife and I spent $25 and 2 hours of time watching..and I certainly did not feel anybody watching it with me felt different so it just amazes me to see the high reviews this movie has gotten..I hate to overstate it but I really believe this movie would be on my top 10 worst films i have ever seen..It makes me think i was not watching the same film...
Murder by Decree (1979)
"From Hell's" Inspiration
I watched this movie for the first time about 6 months after watching "From Hell". The number of similarities between the two titles makes me question when a prior film should be credited in the making of a later film. To me, "From Hell" was nothing more than a remake of this title.
From the general theory of the crime that the Prince of Wales conceived a child with a "commoner", to the specifics of the grapes at the murder scene, to the import of Mary Kelly's involvement, to the message left on the wall considering Juwes, to the participation of the Freemasons in the covering up the crime; leads me to think the writers of "From Hell's" screenplay liberally borrowed their concept of their film from this movie without, to my knowledge crediting "Murder's" originators.
Even where "Murder" and "From Hell" differed, primarily in their choice of protagonist, Johnny Depp as Inspector Abberline combined the characters of Plummer's Sherlock Holmes with Sutherland's psychic Robert Lees to gain insights not ordinarily made. The realty, to me, is that the only area where a difference exists is that Mary Kelly was allowed to live because of a mix-up in "From Hell" and was killed in Murder. The baby was allowed to live in both because the truth-finders decided to keep their findings to themselves as a trade-off.
I enjoyed both movies but am struck by our fascination years later with Jack the Ripper. It occurs to me that part of the reason is that as we have learned far more about serial killers since his time, a great deal centers on their obsession to keep committing murders until found out. In the Ripper's case, the murders just stopped as suddenly as they began. Both films seek to give an answer as to why this might be so.
Noleul bola america (1991)
High school project or professional production?
If I were grading this as a high school film project, I would give this an A grade. Unfortunately, for the people involved and for the viewers of the film, it was not a high school project but supposedly a professional production. It was no surprise to me when reviewing the performer's past and future credits this was the highlight of 99% of the actors and actresses' careers. It was like the director got together a group of his friends and on a lark made a film. Of course, the exception being Eric Estrada who portrayed a "white rich guy" which set up the big conflict in the film. Certainly he was not typecast for this role.
Finally, with respect to the end twist in which I am warning of a spoiler, I always think it dangerous to start clapping for a coked-up teenager who has a gun in his hand in which he just threatened to kill his sworn enemy even if it looks like he is not going to do it. Maybe thats just me, I don't know.
I gave this title a 4/10 in that I did watch the entire movie which may say something more about me than the movie. I certainly would not recommend this movie to anybody. Thankyou for your interest in my review.
Un uomo da rispettare (1972)
Surprisingly, great movie.
It surprises me that for my 1st review, I would be moved to write a piece on this movie. I bought it for $1.99 at the local DVD store just because of the cover featuring Kirk Douglas as the star. What moved him to do this movie at this stage of his career would be interesting to know. In any event, I really enjoyed this movie a great deal. It had a car chase that rivals two of my favorites of all time in Bullit and the French Connection. It had the most realistic fight scenes I can remember seeing. The heist was elaborately thought out befitting the USA title of The Master Touch. It had a great twist at the end. A very good musical score composed by one of my favorites of all time by Ennino Moricone. Finally, It even had what I felt was a moral message to pass on at the end. Unfortunately, it also had a couple of big negatives that would perhaps bother a number of viewers. The quality of the DVD transfer is poor. Also, except for Kirk, the performer's lines are dubbed in English.
All in all however, I enjoyed this movie tremendously and feel like I uncovered an unknown gem which for movie lovers provides a great satisfaction in itself.