by Felipe Rosa
The Adventures of Tintin: let there be no mistake: the animation is wonderful, the settings are beautiful, and the free-floating camera is a joy to behold. It’s hard to imagine this story being told in any other way. The problem, then, lies precisely at the story. It’s a perfectly serviceable old-fashioned adventure, as it’s supposed to be. But it’s not really anything more.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: adventure, animation
by Felipe Rosa
The Girl With the Dragon Tatto: the film somehow rises above the pedestrian, pulpy plot. The reason, of course, is the focus that is given to the title character, played marvelously here. While there are examples of great movies out of bad books, this is not one of them; but the courage to show what drives the character gives it points. Great craft at work.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: thriller
by Felipe Rosa
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: a decent finish to the trilogy, despite the slow, unrelated start that doesn’t really add all that much to the story (but does add a lot to the general lore). One can see that, unlike the first film, which was an entity in itself, this and the the previous episode really should be seen as one. Read also: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Star Wars: Attack of the Clones Star Wars: Revenge of the […]
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: action, fantasy, star wars
by Felipe Rosa
Carnage: an example of how a good group of actors and a good director does not a good movie make, by itself. The problem is that the situation they are in could be real, but it is made surreal unconvincingly. And while the acting was good for the first 2 thirds or so, it becomes mostly histrionic at the end.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
by Felipe Rosa
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol: while the plot gets a bit too 007-ish, it still retains enough of the spirit of the original material to be pleasurable. It may, in fact, have the set piece that mostly resembles the old TV series. The light tongue-in-cheek tone is also welcome.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: action
by Felipe Rosa
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows: its consistency with the first film is at the same time its biggest advantage and problem. While all the freedom taken with the characters should not surprise anyone by now, this feeling of more of the same can’t be shaken. Read also: Sherlock Holmes
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: adventure
by Felipe Rosa
New Year’s Eve: it’s amazing that, out of 8-10 stories, most of them simply don’t work, either because of the pedestrian writing or the heavy-handed acting. Not even the “outtakes”, that usually are the saving grace of bad comedies, work.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: romantic comedy
by Felipe Rosa
Raising Arizona: zany, absurd, preposterous, impossible and all the more entertaining for it, especially as it still retains a good amount of humanity. In a weird way, it reminds me of a Marx Bros. film. Adding to the whole is the very interesting, and appropriate, camera work.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: comedy
by Felipe Rosa
The Empire Strikes Back: where this sequel succeeds in beating the original is that, after the pure black and white, some slight shades of grey are introduced (the somewhat darker tone is also a positive novelty); where it does not is at the non-ending end, but just because we want to know the end, now. The excitement and the richness of the universe, as seen in the original, remain. Read also: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Star Wars: Attack of […]
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: action, fantasy, star wars
Fifth about The Seventh