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Battleship Potemkin, a review by addicted2dvd

Battleship Potemkin (1925/Former Soviet Union) IMDb | Wikipedia Total Movie & Entertainment Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein, Grigori Aleksandrov Writing: Nina Agadzhanova (Original Material By), Sergei M. Eisenstein (Original Material By) Length: 66 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: Subtitles:

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Stars:
Aleksandr Antonov as Grigory Vakulinchuk, Bolshevik Sail
Vladimir Barsky as Commander Golikov
Grigori Aleksandrov as Chief Officer Giliarovsky
Mikhail Gomorov as Sailor
Ivan Bobrov as Sailor
Beatrice Vitoldi as Woman with Baby Carriage

Plot:
Based on the historical events the movie tells the story of a riot at the battleship Potemkin. What started as a protest strike when the crew was given rotten meat for dinner ended in a riot. The sailors raised the red flag and tried to ignite the revolution in their home port Odessa.

Extras:

• Scene Access

This is one of those cheap freebie movies I got in a 40 movie boxset for subscribing to the Total Movie Magazine years ago. But is one I never got around to watching. So going into it I wasn't expecting much quality wise. And there was definitely problems with the quality... there was plenty of dust and scratches on the film... there was also plenty of shaky images... but to be honest I expected worse. I mean after all... this movie is over 80 years old. This is some sort of redone film as it is a silent film... but there is a guy speaking Russian over the opening. Unfortunately I had a hard time with the subtitles on this release... as some of it was cut off at the bottom of the screen so no idea what was being said in some parts... especially towards the beginning. Plus what subtitles were shown was show pretty quickly making it hard for a slow reader like me to watch it I had to keep pausing and rewinding to see what was being said at times. I did like that this film is based in fact. Or at least that is how it seems. I never been a good history student.... though the name of the ship did always seem familiar to me. But it is definitely not depicting a good time in history. The story itself is powerful enough to keep your interest. I just wish the quality was a little better... and some of the subtitles a little slower. I would have probably been able to enjoy this story a little more then I did.




(From Weekend Movie Marathon: Memorial Day on May 27th, 2011)

Animal Kingdom, a review by Jon

Animal Kingdom
4 out of 5



One of the things I appreciate most in cinema is when someone takes an genre story and strips it bare, right back to a basic character piece. It doesn’t happen often, but can be very special. Animal Kingdom at least aspires to this and despite any criticism I may have, it is substantial and memorable. Sadly, I was still largely disappointed.

You can’t please some people, eh? I’d be the first to bemoan the state of the Gangster film, a genre that had slipped into self-parody so far that even the best examples of recent years were still predictable and desperate. Animal Kingdom‘s approach is so refreshing that I wanted to like it very much. And up until about halfway, I really did.

The story follows J, a docile teenager who has just lost his mother to a heroin overdose. He’s literally numb to the situation and turns to his grandma, who he hasn’t seen for years. She takes him to live with her and her sons, who are all career criminals. He joins the family as they are starting to implode, with too much police attention frustrating them. The most notorious of the brothers, Pope, is in hiding, but he soon returns and that’s when the trouble really starts. So it’s an interesting twist on a dumb, impressionable teenager, surrounded by a hedonistic outlaw lifestyle, leaving him with a choice of glory or normality? Actually it’s better than that. Far more subtle. Nowhere near as much fun either.

It would be easy for any potential viewer to read that and second-guess the plot and I’d bet they’d be wrong. You could also try and imagine which stereotypes the characters fit into and you’d still be wrong. Well, “ish”. The plot is very indistinct and the acting naturalistic, largely humourless and quiet (which is a good thing) and some early moments are very powerful. There’s a noticeable and welcome lack of irony, another staple ingredient of the genre. The title as a metaphor for the world J is trying to fit into is about the most obvious thing about the film. There is an incredible early scene where J is persuaded to threaten someone with a gun and he does so, terrified and silent. Of course, he wins the stand-off. He’s the guy with the gun.

I wish the film could have built on that, but it seemed to just tread water from then on. Despite that fantastic moment, J remains passive and emotionless (a twist on a typical teen, I suppose!) for almost the entirety of the film and I found it numbing. Also, a lack of plot is one thing, and that really supports the idea of this family who can’t move in any direction, but a couple of developments felt very contrived to force something to happen. Add to this too many attempts to catch the audience out (including the ending, which is so obvious it might as well have been narrated) and suddenly it felt unfocused and disappointingly obvious. That was especially frustrating in a film so fresh as I certainly didn’t expect it to be predictable, if you pardon the expression.

While I found J monotonous, that was clearly the intention and James Frecheville is perfectly cast. Only time will prove if that’s a back handed compliment! All the brothers are good with their own personalities, especially Ben Mendelsohn as Pope. I wish he’d had more to do and wasn’t given such a weak last act, but more than once he’s the best thing on screen (see the simmering tension as he watches the ‘All Out of Love’ music video!). If there was any reason at all to watch this film again, it would be for him and Jacki Weaver as Janine, the mother. Hers is the most well written and satisfying role, which you might assume is similar to Billie Whitelaw in The Krays, but Weaver’s is a more interesting perspective. Best of all though, despite having the least screen time of the main characters, is Guy Pearce as Leckie, the detective. He really is superb, working the scene for all its potential while seemingly doing nothing. A late moment between him and Weaver is a brilliant one.

As a debut, as a film-making achievement, this is a great piece of work from David Michôd. I really enjoyed his balanced approach and I wish it could have been sustained for the full running time, but for me it collapses in the middle quite badly. There’s no rule to say you must like or hate a film absolutely on first viewing, but I wonder if such seemingly fundamental issues can be smoothed over by time? Despite the hugely positive reaction (97% on Rotten Tomatoes? 2010 Sundance winner?) I find I appreciated it more than enjoyed it. It pales significantly against other recent examples of dialled back raw film-making, such as Monsters or especially the wonderful Winter’s Bone. Still, Animal Kingdom is indicative of a thoughtful, measured style of film I hope takes a stronger hold.

(From Animal Kingdom **** on February 9th, 2011)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Marathon , a review by Critter

1.01
Welcome to the Hellmouth

Plot: Buffy arrives in Sunnydale and is not happy to meet her new Watcher, Rupert Giles. A mysterious "friend" offers guidance, but Buffy resists her destiny until Willow and Jesse are abducted. Buffy saves Willow from an ordinary vampire, but loses track of Jesse in a confrontation with Luke, the Master's vampire vessel.

My Thoughts: As far as pilots go this one has never been up there with my favourites. It's a solid start to the series but I have always felt Buffy starts to shine the most as a show around halfway through season 1. This episode is a great improvment to the 'Unaired Pilot' which I once saw and does interestingly leave the episode on a cliffhanger, which means the pilot is almost shown over two episodes instead of one. Not many shows I have watched end a pilot episode on such a cliffhanger but I think it works well here. I found myself laughing at quite a few of the lines in this one. The show may be outdated by quite a lot now, and we know that the way teenagers speak changes over the years but that quirky way that characters seem to speak in Whedon shows never seems to get old. Like I said, this is a solid start to the show but compared to some of the Buffy episodes to come it is certainly not one of the stronger ones.

Rating: 3/5

(From Buffy The Vampire Slayer Marathon on May 17th, 2010)