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
by Felipe Rosa
Men in Black 3: the film serves its purposes of being a summer-like kind of fun. The choices made when the story is set on the 60’s are a good find: Josh Brolin is probably the high mark, being both very like and unlike Tommy Lee Jones. Character design also deserves a mention.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: action
by Felipe Rosa
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: a review doesn’t change much what I felt before. Technically very accomplished (beautifully shot!), but it’s still a tale of two stories folded into one movie: one is interesting enough (made even more so by the superb acting of Ms Mara), the other a run-of-the-mill procedural not unlike what can be seen weekly on TV. To say it’s an improvement over both the book and the original adaptation is both true and irrelevant. See […]
Categories: Film reviews, Revisit • Tags: thriller
by Felipe Rosa
Moonrise Kingdom: a bit of a headscratcher. While the central love story is very sweet (and both young actors very engaging to watch), this film also has an emotional detachment that sometimes is hard to overcome. Aesthetically, it is a very interesting film (even if somewhat less so than other Wes Anderson’s works). Anderson has a very well-defined voice and he sticks to it.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: comedy, drama, romance
by Felipe Rosa
Battleship: a headscratching choice of property, based on a story-less, nondescript game; and of all stories they could choose from such a free-form idea, they had to pick up a generic knock off of a bad franchise (That the creators are able to use the game mechanics on screen is simultaneously amusing and annoying). Despite all that, the film is somewhat more fun than it deserves to be.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: action
by Felipe Rosa
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: well represented by its solid, veteran cast, this film has a story that doesn’t bring much new to the table. Originality, however, can be overrated. The film treats all its characters, if not equally, at least fairly; so much so that it seemingly neglects what could be evidence of a character growth. By the other hand, such minutiae aren’t needed, the audience can fill some blanks. In one word, pleasant.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: comedy, drama
by Felipe Rosa
The Avengers: mindless fun, but oh boy, what fun it is. Not needing to spend much time to introduce characters (even because they are set in stone, unchangeable throughout), time is spent introducing and developing chemistry instead, which makes for nice one-liners. The levity here and there shows that Joss Whedon does not take the material too seriously, a common issue in the genre.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: action, super hero
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