Someguy's wacky super delicious film journey!

[someguy]

Yes for the next while I will be reviewing films that are in limited release,independant,etc. since a theatre here has them. I will be watching possibly every one and giving reviews. So without further adieu,here are the films:

Winged Migration
The Man Without a Past
Raising Victor Vargas
The Saddest Music In The World
Nowhere In Africa
Together
The Man On The Train

Possible review:

Capturing the Friedmans

I will be starting next week but I started now so I can get some reviews from the schmoes and thoughts and such. So wish me luck(NOTE: I was thinking of putting this in Current but I wouldn't exactly call some of these films current since some are probably coming out on video in a bit so I put it here).

[Psychocandy]

Nowhere In Africa is stunning. I want to see it again before I write up a review. It's a future DVD purchase for me. Stunning.

[chasingbanky]

I look forward to seeing your review of man without a past....Something I would totally wanna check out myself...DAMN YOU LAS VEGAS for your lack of diversity in Film......

[someguy]

And damn the Wright Brothers!

[Shakamaker]

Winged Migration (aka Travelling Birds) tries to be more than a feature-length documentary, and barely succeeds. Fan-fucking-tastic camera work, though, and the diligence and patience of these intrepid filmmaking lads is extraordinary. (Watch all interviews with them. Took 'em 4 years to get the footage they wanted.)

The Man On The Train is an exceptional character study, full of excellent dialogue, and is very well shot.

I've not seen any of the others yet (missed Nowhere in Africa on the big screen! :( ) but am leaning toward seeing Together later this week. Be interested to see your review on that one, someguy!

[RickySlade]

Raising Victor Vargas is great! Hope you like it.

[chasingbanky]

Originally posted by someguy
And damn the Wright Brothers!

Someguy!!!! Good news I've decided not to KILL you.....

[phelonious]

Nowhere in Africa
was pretty good. The adults basically flee to Africa to hide from the Nazi's but then this temporary place becomes the little girl's home.

Together,
the interesting thing about this, is I could imagine how the chinese audience could interpret the story differently.

The Man on the train,
great acting from Jean Rochefort. Interesting idea about two totally opposite characters who meet, find some common ground and begin to take traits from one another.

Capturing the Friedmans.
Intellectually fascinating, yes, great subject, yes ... but really hard emotionally. I mean, what if your father and brother were arrested for child molestation? Portrait of a family torn apart.

[someguy]

Bumbing this back up since I am seeing the movie tonight.

[phelonious]

We are waiting with baited breath.

[someguy]

I gave Winged Migration a 6/10. My full review and story will be up tomorrow. Gots to go watch something at the moment.

[someguy]

Sorry for the delay folks. Here is my thoughts and such.

I was ready to go to the theatre worrying about parking spaces(if I'll get one). Me and my friend found one after 10 minutes or so(downtown is crappy here since all we had to do was park the other way but we had to go around-10 minutes to do that since almost every road was one way). I finally got into the theatre and went to get my ticket. I was worried due to the fact that I was involved with a group of people seeing this and had to get some formto sign(which I didn't). All I did was go up and asked for a ticket. They asked if I was a student,I said yes and they gave me the ticket after I paid them. All that worrying for nothing. Yeesh.

I went up the stairs to the ticket dude who ripped it(and treated me like a 5 year old telling me that he will rip half and I get the other half-I know doofus). I went to get food after that. Now listen and be in awe. Complete awe. A regular pop and a chocolate bar costs 7.50. Yes. The man screwed up. I know. He must have. I just shut my mouth though since the theatre went through renovations recently and I thought that they bumbed the prices up to get some more profit.

Anyways I walk into the theatre and it is packed. I mean packed. I take my stuff and sit down at a nice seat. Got bored after 5 minutes and went to get the movie magazine so I had to take everything(no coat and plus at theatres if you leave food around people eat it-I think that's just wrong). Come back and seat is gone. My fault though since I should have brought a jacket or something to show that the seat was taken. Didn't matter though since I saw a better seat and went there. Had a nice conversation with a girl. She told me about documentaries, I told her about horror.

Now is the time though. The movie is starting but it was delayed a couple of minutes due to technical difficulties. So now my review:

Winged Migration-6/10

Winged Migration is a looking film. That's how I describe it. Just a film to look at and enjoy how pretty it is. THe film did take four years to make and the filmmakers used balloons,planes,remote controls,I even heard that they would put cameras on birds backs. The work that went into this is very good and that's where most of the points come from here since I was questioning mainly on how they could have the birds come towards the camera and treat it like something they know well.

I watched this film and for the first 15-20 minutes I was blown away at some of the shots. Perfectly done and just spectaculart to look at. But it's basically that for the rest of the movie. Nothing too original other than an hour and a half of birds flying,squaking,fighting,dying and other bird stuff. The more the film goes on the wonder of it ears off and your just waiting for the movie to end or something different to pop up.

Eventually they start to show birds getting shot,eaten or getting stuck in oil but I didn't really care or them. Maybe it was because I knew that injured birds would get saved by the filmmakers or that after 5 minutes straight of them squaking they get really annoying. I also noticed a flaw that didn't affect the rating but still just something that I noticed. They say that no special effects were used in the film yet they have shots where it looks like they are in space or something(or just really high up in the air). It was easy to tell that that was fake but I didn't lower or heighten my rating because of it since I didn't really care about it.

As a documentary though it failed in that department. Part of me is glad since the topic would bore many people to tears(flight patterns of birds and how they migrate)but the info presented was about a 2 line subtitle once in a while and a narrator's voice who spoke for about 2 minutes(and had a really strong Freench accent-figures though since it was narrated by the director who is French). I would have wanted a bit more explanation on some things and I was walking out with more questions than answers.

Overall though the movie was really great at the beginning but just hurt itself by not offering anything new to the film. Although I really liked two scenes in the movie where the camera goes down a cliff and the unfortunate fate of a bird with crabs(mademe squirm like crazy). Hope that the next film is good.

Audience reaction to film:
Nothing really except for a few ooohs and ahhhhhs at parts and one scene where these two people clapped at a shot(I could tell that they were snobbish since they sat in front of me and scoffed at me mentioning Cabin Fever-it could have been just me though)

Any other wihining/complaining?:

Well it was funny after the movie since my friend would meet me at the same place I came in. Unfortunately the movie was done around closing time(the theatre was in a mall)so that area was closed off. I had to walk around for 5 minutes(I never really went to this mall much)before I found an exit at the other side so I had to walk around. It was funny though because of my stupidity.