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Old 01-27-2009, 10:09 AM   #3413
Lucien21
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Edinburgh
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Yes Man

Quote:
Carl Allen (Jim Carey) is a serial life-dodger. Hung up on his divorce, he’s a total downer to be around. Then one TV dinner too many drives Allen to the seminar of a self-affirmation guru (Terence Stamp), where he commits to say “Yes” to all opportunities offered.
Based on a best selling book, it's about the life altering premise that you can live your life better if you say "yes" to more opportunities. Taken to the fullest extreme in this "Comedy" it shows Jim Carey saying YES to everything without hesitation. So this leads to him learning to fly, taking Korean lessons, giving everyone a loan at his bank who asks, ordering an iranina bride of the internet, sigining up to those penis enlargement ads etc etc etc. Presumably this is all supposed to be funny with Carrey pulling his usual facial tics and over exagerations.

Unfortunatly it might be a decent idea as a life lesson to be open to more opportunities, but as a one joke film it was wearing a tad thin. The only decent thing about the movie was the beautiful Zooey Deschanel who always plays the kookey strange girlfriend with aplomb (500 days of summer looks cool).

5/10

Valkyrie

Quote:
Germany, 1943. The 14th attempt to assassinate Hitler — by his own side — has just gone wrong. The conspirators need a new plan. Enter crippled Wehrmacht hero Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise), with a bold plot to blow up Hitler in his Wolf’s Lair.
I couldn't really go wrong could it. Tom Cruise is a Nazi, there are a gaggle of big name British stars to back him up and it's directed and written by the team behind "The Usual Suspects".

Damn them......

It looks great, the authentic settings and costumes. The acting is ok, Tom Cruise is pretty good, Eddi Izzard, Tom Wilkinson etc are all top notch. The story is decent enough based on one of the real Assassination attempts on Hitler towards the end of the war.

So why was I not connecting to anyone in the movie. The film trailer makes it look thrilling, but it's far too concerned with how the plot was conceived and executed that it misses out on the characters. You don't give a hoot about any of them and in the end it falls flat. I think it was a mistake taking a true story and trying to make a hollywood thriller out of it. It can't stand up to the likes of Downfall or Shindlers List without feeling shallow and pointless.

6/10
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