Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 31, 2005 | | Summary | Hell has frozen over | Content
 | I set my Tivo to search out SciFi films and this is what I got. This movie is a success in just one sense, it is a triumph of "artistic" gibberish over logic. SciFi it is not; unless a languorously shy ice age and other utterly ridiculous departures from rationality (like Africans floating around in the air due to an inexplicable and selective loss of gravity) is what now passes for Science Fiction. This is fiction without science and a torpid story that lacks intellectual gravity. Somehow, the writer manages to throw clones into the mix without even the slightest regard for reason. This mess makes no sense. Apart from the writer's apparent fixation with planes and hotels, the script goes where the actors go; nowhere. Occasional strolls down the street or walks through the airport by the characters invariably include encounters with dead bodies just lying about. Evidently, these forlorn folk croaked because of broken hearts. But, sentiment dies there as the New Yorkers depicted in this brain dead film take no notice of the corpses and routinely step over them without blinking.
There is a great deal of sleeping that goes on in this moronic production. Throughout the film, the principal characters are constantly dropping into unconsciousness, which is exactly the state the director must have been in when he should have been directing.
This movie is a tragedy; a personal tragedy for me since I shall never recover the hour and fifty minutes that were stolen from me by the blackguards responsible for this piece of.......art. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 19, 2005 | | Summary | But Director of Photography Should Get 5 Stars | Content
| And I can't quit watching it. I recorded it on DVR from cable in the US. I thought that Joaquin was terrible the first time I saw it, after being such a fan of his from Quills and Gladiator and other movies I've seen of his (and both of those have heavy accents, so what give with him?). But in subsequent watchings, as I often do, I think I finally get it. It is not too meaty of a part and he is trying to play kind of an ordinary guy to his skating star wife. Reminds me of Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut, the nerdy doctor. Claire Danes, on the other hand, is outstanding. She reminds me a lot of Franka Potente (Blow, All I Want, Run Lola Run). I watched her TV series long ago and liked her but she has grown into an amazing actress. They both had a little accent problem. They were supposed to be Polish and I kept telling myself that Joaquin was brought to the US as a baby (I'm *really* trying to like him). Claire has her moments when she reverts to American, but does a much better job. Sean Penn's accent is over the top, completely (but he makes a good Greek Chorus). I am surprised at him as he is usually so prepared. I have to blame the director for this, for there is a thread of the actors not caring, just going through the motions (except Claire). It is set 20 years in the future and very plausible (except I hope the concept of cell phones changes!) and where the gravity holes in Africa show up is anyone's guess. But the basic plot is pretty cool. I am a figure skater and they got it right, mostly. I could tell the skating doubles were not world class skters, but most people wouldn't and the choreography was very nice. I really like the premise that if people are lonely or lovelorn, something goes to their hearts and they die, and I think a lot of people would relate to that. I have watched it about 5 times now but I think it would have a specialized audience which is why I give it a '3'. Don't buy this for your kids for the skating as it is very violent in the rink. |
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