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Ina reviewed...
The Great Gatsby (2013)
The Great Gatsby looks and sounds (!) incredibly good and yet feels… More
The Great Gatsby looks and sounds (!) incredibly good and yet feels like nothing. In a marvel of lush images, a truly astounding soundtrack (rap and the 20s, what a perfect mix! Really, that soundtrack kills it. Superb.) and gimme-an-Oscar performances, the emotions somehow completely fall through. A bit unexpected from Baz Luhrmann, who jerked more than one tear with equally opulent Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge. Yet The Great Gatsby, a novel than lives off great prose, proves much more difficult to adapt than Shakespearian classics. The elusive quality of the novel simply does not translate onto the screen, no matter how hard Luhrmann tries, even by rather ham-handedly writing the words on screen.
The film ends up being a beautiful shell, albeit worth watching, with great performances by DiCaprio and Mulligan and a not-so-great one, as usual, by Maguire. It is entertaining, it is decadent, exquisite, pretty - but at no point does it manage to tell a story the audience would actually care about. Let's blame Fitzgerald for writing an unadaptable novel, shall we?
2 days ago via Flixster
Ina reviewed...
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
J.J. Abrams makes Star Trek films on crack - here we have all the… More
J.J. Abrams makes Star Trek films on crack - here we have all the ingredients of an Abrams film, explosions, stunts, fights, action, but infused lovingly with, well, Star Trek. After his ingenious start into the reboot, I didn't expect another great film - but Abrams' Star Trek simply works. He tells an action-filled story as probably only he can, appealing to young audiences who have never really watch the original Star Trek and would probably laugh at it. And yet he fills Into Darkness with so many references, such an interesting retelling of The Wrath of Khan, so many insider jokes and nods to Star Trek episodes and films that any Trekkie will enjoy him/herself. I certainly did.
The all-new cast continues to work well, I especially loved Karl "Bones" Urban and Simon "Scotty" Pegg, who get considerably more screentime than in the first film. Urban and Pegg channel Kelley and Doohan perfectly while bringing their own twist to the roles we all know so well. The rest of the new cast is also great still - but they all get a good ass kicking by Benedict Cumberbatch, who is the perfect villain. Devilishly good-looking, he is so deliciously evil as Khan that he certainly made me forget that there was a Khan before him.
The movie is a lot of kaboom - but it also is a lot of nerdy love for the Original Series, a great nod to everything that made people like me into Trekkies long ago. A non-scifi-fan next to me lauded the apparently great 3D (I can't watch 3D, so I could have gladly done without it), the humour and the general entertainment factor, so there should be something for everyone. Perfect mainstream cinema. Perfect homage to the old days.
12 days ago via Flixster
Ina reviewed...
Seven Psychopaths (2012)
Mad, sinister, dark, violent fun with so many meta jokes it's… More
Mad, sinister, dark, violent fun with so many meta jokes it's difficult to keep track. Hilariously funny, brilliantly cast, better than slightly boring In Bruges but with the same snappy dialogue. A must see!
31 days ago via Flixster
Ina reviewed...
Leave it to Peter Jackson to make an entertaining film out of about 5… More
Leave it to Peter Jackson to make an entertaining film out of about 5 pages of actual story. The Hobbit might be a little too long, but I never got bored, thanks to immaculate direction and a great cast. Martin Freeman was an inspired casting choice, he is funny and likeable as always. I'd have much preferred a traditional 2D film, though, as 3D images have an artificial feel that Jackson absolutely does not need to enhance the amazing cinematography. I watched this in 2D, due to not being able to watch 3D images without getting terrible headaches (yes, and of course that is a huge reason for my dislike of the technology), and some images seemed to be shot too obviously for 3D effect, rendering them cliché when watched in 2D.
Overall, I am looking forward to the next instalments - but not with the same eagerness I waited for the next Lord of the Rings film back in the day.
31 days ago via Flixster
