by Felipe Rosa
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted: very colorful film, but that doesn’t extend past the visuals. The story and characters are heartless, pointless and at best one-dimensional. It’s also surprisingly unfunny.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: adventure, animation
by Felipe Rosa
Seven Acts of Mercy: a sad, almost depressing story; the real issue, however, is that the central characters are both unpleasant and uninteresting, a killing combination. It’s worth mentioning, however, that the cinematography makes the film rise above those limitations; the last shot, in particular, fits the theme and ties the end nicely without being unduly showy.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
by Felipe Rosa
Polisse: not as much telling a story, but showing a mosaic of characters and situations in a setting that is quite disturbing. This film is a gut-wrenching experience, but one that rings true for the most part. Great acting to show how each character, in different ways, do their best to stay humane even when they face extreme lack of humanity. At the end, I was torn: I didn’t want to see more because it was so painful, but I […]
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
by Felipe Rosa
Snow White and the Huntsman: apparently every story must be retold as an epic struggle against tyranny and evil, complete with its own Agincourt speech; of course, by doing so, they all start to resemble, with the elements that defined it originally appear tacked in to justify the name. It has some visual flair, but the main elements (story and acting) are just not there.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: action, bottom, fantasy
by Felipe Rosa
The Intouchables: well done, and above all, efficient feel-good movie. There isn’t, of course, much new in the “mismatched friends” story; the film works, essentially, because of the acting, in particular the solar presence of Omar Sy.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: biopic / historic, comedy
by Felipe Rosa
Oslo, August 31st: the fact that this is an unpleasant, sad experience has nothing to do with the film being badly done (it’s not; it’s simple and effective) or the story being bad. Rather, it’s because this little story rings true at all its moments. It goes beyond drug problems; there’s not smallness to the life issues delt with here.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
by Felipe Rosa
Hysteria: despite its unusual setting and backdrop, and the potential to somewhat provocative, this film is just plain bland. Visually it is by-the-numbers, with a decent but unspetactular art direction and costume design. The real problem, of course, lies with the mostly uninteresting story and characters.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: romantic comedy
by Felipe Rosa
Bernie: while the starting point and the story of this film are very intriguing (indeed, of the “too preposterous to not be true” kind), they are just too thin to hold the film together. However, the cast in general, and the townies in particular, help to make this more interesting than it could have been if done differently.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: comedy, crime
by Felipe Rosa
Headhunters: efficient, solid thriller; it’s risen by its unusual setting (Norwegian thrillers are not as common as it may sound), by its interesting story, by its characters (well-played by the cast); and by the decision to not hold back on the moments of violence, but mingle those with some off-beat humorous moment.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: thriller
Fifth about The Seventh