A policeman investigates the murder of his daughter and uncovers a conspiracy involving a corporation which manufactures nuclear products.
A really mediocre film; I only watched it out of a lack of other options in a specific occasion. Remake of a TV miniseries which, to be frank, I think is overrated.
Rating: 38
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
The Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans (2009)
A cop with chronic back pain becomes addicted to drugs, and from then on his life and career spirals down into a cesspool of corruption and violence.
Although the information is absent from the film credits, this is a remake of a 1992 Abel Ferrara film called simply "Bad Lieutenant". That film may be considered to be a bit of an oddity in its director's filmography, being as it was the product of an unusual collaboration between him and three actors turned screenwriters; the origin of the film's concept is to be credited, if I am not mistaken, to a late actress and writer named Zoë Tamerlis, also known as Zoë Lund. Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant" was an account of the Christian religion as a monster bred out of irrationality: a religion of despair masquerading as one of hope. This remake is a stylistic variation on the earlier film which somehow reflects the spirits of our times. All the Christian elements were removed from it, a decision which defused all the philosophical content from the story and left it floating in the void, so to speak. Well, considering that this very de-christianization may be thought of as the necessary aftermath of an earlier crisis of which the earlier "Bad Lieutenant" precisely is an instance, the remake is both a natural outcome and a tautology. It is also a tautology in what regards its main actor's screen persona, evoking such similar predecessors as "Vampire's Kiss" and "Leaving Las Vegas". In a less intelectual apprehension, though, the film has something going for it, in terms of a certain ability to conjure up some humor from the situations it explores.
Rating: 53
Although the information is absent from the film credits, this is a remake of a 1992 Abel Ferrara film called simply "Bad Lieutenant". That film may be considered to be a bit of an oddity in its director's filmography, being as it was the product of an unusual collaboration between him and three actors turned screenwriters; the origin of the film's concept is to be credited, if I am not mistaken, to a late actress and writer named Zoë Tamerlis, also known as Zoë Lund. Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant" was an account of the Christian religion as a monster bred out of irrationality: a religion of despair masquerading as one of hope. This remake is a stylistic variation on the earlier film which somehow reflects the spirits of our times. All the Christian elements were removed from it, a decision which defused all the philosophical content from the story and left it floating in the void, so to speak. Well, considering that this very de-christianization may be thought of as the necessary aftermath of an earlier crisis of which the earlier "Bad Lieutenant" precisely is an instance, the remake is both a natural outcome and a tautology. It is also a tautology in what regards its main actor's screen persona, evoking such similar predecessors as "Vampire's Kiss" and "Leaving Las Vegas". In a less intelectual apprehension, though, the film has something going for it, in terms of a certain ability to conjure up some humor from the situations it explores.
Rating: 53
Sunday, May 01, 2011
How Do You Know (2010)
Lisa, a baseball player who has been cut from the team, has a relationship with Matty, who is also a player and can't adjust to monogamy. She meets George, an executive who is in serious legal trouble.
Although the general lines of this follow the romantic comedy paradigm, with an underlying praise to weddings and babies, it has a few interesting things in its construction and in several individual sequences which make for a pleasant viewing. The three main characters exemplify distinct attitudes regarding one's own interests: Lisa has a hard time seeing where her interests lie, George, after a history of confusion, suddenly has a clear idea about his, and Matty simply doesn't need to care about the issue at all.
Rating: 51
Although the general lines of this follow the romantic comedy paradigm, with an underlying praise to weddings and babies, it has a few interesting things in its construction and in several individual sequences which make for a pleasant viewing. The three main characters exemplify distinct attitudes regarding one's own interests: Lisa has a hard time seeing where her interests lie, George, after a history of confusion, suddenly has a clear idea about his, and Matty simply doesn't need to care about the issue at all.
Rating: 51
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