Change Your Image
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Reviews
Sex Lives of the Potato Men (2004)
Reviewers missed the point
This film has been treated most unfairly.
If the message of the film was 'these men are always lusting after and getting sex-isn't that great!', then I would agree with the comments about it being 'for morons' as one reviewer put it.
However, these men are losers. They lust after sex, and it always goes wrong. There is no titillation involved. We are not encouraged to see them as some kind of super-studs that young lads would want to emulate.
We are not laughing about sex or bodily functions, we are laughing about the ridiculous image that sex has in the media, where everyone is young, fit and beautiful, they all have orgasms every time and everyone is 'at it' day and night with no ill effects.
I find it amusing that the reviewers that work for the media which promote the fake views of sex, have failed to see the point here.
I must add here that it is a credit to the film-makers that they never stooped to nudity in the film. All too often we are presented with naked women in films for no apparent reason. Here it would have been more justified, but the film-makers have realised that the audience has an imagination-we don't need to watch the group sex to know that it is there etc.
Overall I found this film to be extremely funny. There was no embarrassment in the audience with people feeling free to guffaw at any joke they found amusing, even if they were the only one that got it.
If I were to suggest any problems with the film, I would say that some of the Tolly storyline went a bit far-I was most concerned when he brought the octopus home, for example.
However it will be a long time before the image of Tolly enjoying his sandwich, whilst Johnny Vegas is trying to eat his cereal will leave my head.
Final verdict Crude, but not gratuitous. Hilariously funny. Misunderstood. Not for granny.
Paycheck (2003)
Good, but not good enough
**Spoiler**
There must be a problem in adapting Phillip K Dick's stories. Both Paycheck and Minority Report had fantastic storylines that just didn't quite work on the big screen.
I would have thought a lot more of the film if it didn't have such a great concept behind it. Instead the film leaves you with the feeling that something more, something better could have been done with the subject matter.
What also doesn't help the case is the matter of the objects. Jennings is confined to the companies premises but manages to collect all of those items. Sure he could have got Rachel to buy them for him, but she seems completely unaware of them all (would you forget you bought a winning lottery ticket?). And where in the company premises can you buy lovebirds? It is made clear that the couple bought them together-but where from?
The inclusion of a 10 second scene showing a shop on site would have answered all of these problems. Not including one is just laziness.
Once it is clear that something is 'not right' in a film, it ceases to be real for me, and this is what happened with this film.
Lost in Translation (2003)
A joy to behold
Every once in a while a film comes along that makes you think. It doesn't need to resort to car chases or violent set-pieces to grab the audiences attention and keep it all the way through. Far too often I have found myself planning the rest of my evening when watching a film, because it hasn't engrossed me enough. This film made for a refreshing change in that respect.
This film treats it's audience with respect and grants them a fair amount of intelligence. Not everything that is said or happens is spelled out for the viewer, you have the opportunity to work things out for yourself.
It is a shame that films which cater for the lowest common denominator will always get the best box office takings, when there are films out there such as Lost in Translation which actually deserve to be seen by a much wider audience than they will attract.
Scary Movie 3 (2003)
For 12 year old boys only
Sometimes you find on watching a film that all the best bits were in the trailer.
In this film this was certainly the case, but... most of the trailer wasn't even in the film.
So there were only 2 or 3 good gags in the whole thing.
When you consider how many different films the film makers have taken their skits from, it is hard to believe that they could miss the mark with every single one of them.
This could have been a sly take on recent films, instead it resembled something a 12 year old boy with a maturity problem cobbled together in 20 minutes for his Creative Writing homework.
The audience when I saw it was mixed in sexes and ages. Only the little boys laughed. That, and that alone, should tell you how pitifully poor this film was.