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So far, all four of my recent summer movies have disappointed me. The best
were only good, not great. The last two were just OK. In comparison, _Il
Postino_ was incredibly and unexpectedly a very enjoyable film, in fact, my
best film so far this summer. And it isn't even a 'summer' film which I had
been in the mood for.
Potential spoilers ahead in quick dump capsules of summer movies so far...
_The Rock_ was best of the bunch [good: strong actors Cage and Connery played
well off each other, poor: weak storyline, predictability, little suspense,
few stunning SFX's, director Bay's needlessly-messy annoying filming style,
and a shockingly poor also-annoying "you notice it in a bad sense"
soundtrack].
Second best was _Mission Impossible_ if only to hear the theme song again in
surround sound [good: Cruise is easy to watch, best action scenes of bunch,
to me was TV show transferred directly to the big screen with no translation
done, brought back old experience including its old filming techniques, more
suspense than rest, bad: too predictable and formulaic, you guess right
early, then they hit you over the head with it 3/4 the way through just in
case you didn't, several "why drop Cruise to kill a rat and then NOT realize
that you have to pull him back up again?" and other holes bothered me].
_Eraser_ was OK but was not Arnold at his best [good: neat SDI-like hand-held
rifle guns, neat if unbelievable X-ray imaging gunsights, bad: many times it
felt like its writers copied _Mission_'s scripts (shoot the water tank, boss
and mentor turns on hero, break back into vault to get secret data, etc)
which really took away from the _Eraser_ experience it felt to me, shockingly
poor and cheap and fake looking alligator scenes (even BBC's old "Dr. Who"
would be embarrassed), entirely predictable and weak storyline, enjoy the
super-guns when you have them, they will be the only cool SFX you'll see this
film, little suspense, also: neat unique music played on all the theatre
previews and some TV ads, part of the reason that dragged me into the cinema
for this picture since it stuck in my head during other films, was never used
in the movie at all, wonder what the source of it was].
_Twister_ was just laughably poor. The neat SFX pulled it out of the gutter
to be just OK. I felt sorry for Helen Hunt, it did not reflect well on her
acting ability (made me wonder if she even has any), nor of anyone else in
the cast. A thrown-together storyline, and just about everything else. The
twister SFX were interesting, and were the only reason to see this movie, but
_barely_ made it worth it. The new wife was made into a horribly annoying
and stereotyped female character, suitable for a Spielberg film where his
female characters have the same 'look and feel' which always bothers me, and
then surprise surprise, Spielberg's name pops up at the end of the film.
Screaming hysterical girl/brave boy at a dinosaur, screaming hysterical wife/
brave husband at a twister. How droll...
A summer movie for me has greatly relaxed criteria - it has to be loud, fast,
gripping and leave me on the edge of my seat, a purely physical experience.
"T2" and "Die Hard2" are great examples of the genre for me. The big summer
releases so far this year have just been OK. I'm left feeling greatly
underwhelmed even putting all four together. As a normal film, they were not
strong in storyline or plot or thought-provoking moments or atmosphere. As a
summer film, they were low on suspense and gripping edge-of-your-seat drama.
In contrast, _Il Postino_ delivered a memorable film experience. One that I
will remember long after "Mission Eraser Twister Rock" was forgotten. The
atmosphere and island pace and characters captured by the film were wonderful
slices of real life, as exotic as a relaxed and cozy small town Fourth of
July parade, both strangely beautiful and uniquely enjoyable at the same time.
This film surprised me. I wasn't expecting to like it so much. It was a
'fall' film for me when I am in the mood for exhilarating summer movies, and
I thought that the film was build up by so many accolades that the actual
viewing of it would be sure to disappoint. It didn't.
My favourite movie lines of this SUMMER now are:
Poet: "But those were only 5 words, what were the other two?"
Postino: "And then I repeated, Beautrice Russo." :-)
The exasperated look on his face was priceless. It was the best unexpected
laugh of film lately too.
Unexpected delights are the best kind. Don't dismiss this film as I had for
the longest time, until circumstances [in the form of a SO :-)] pushed me
into seeing it. It too was the best Italian movie I have seen for quite some
time. Well done. And unique. The progression from "Beautrice Russo" to the
audio cassette was moving and powerful, empowering the poet and writer within
us all.
-Erik
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