08 Mar 08 10,000 B.S.
Nick Schager gives the best review of Roland Emmerich’s (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) latest tripe:
10,000 B.C.’s stereotypically primitive characters have less personality than Kubrick’s primeval 2001 apes, and no more distinctive is its narrative, a hodgepodge of mystical prophesies, man-vs.-beast skirmishes, and rousing calls to arms so stale that the film comes close to emitting an actual stench. D’Leh eventually finds the courage to be a shirtless, dreadlocked Braveheart to the legion of African-ish warriors who join his crusade. His orchestration of a lame climactic rebellion against the tyrannical powers that be, however, whips up only the desire to stage one’s own revolt against big-budget Hollywood tripe like this.
What happened to the Germans (well, besides that)? They used to make good films didn’t they? Both Emmerich and Uwe Boll are really giving the krauts a bad name when it comes to modern cinema.
Actually though, Emmerich produces better things than he directs. Maybe he should just stick to one over the other.
Related Links16 Jan 08 There Will Be Bitchslaps!
I saw the local premiere of Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood last night. I was wary of being biased due to all of the award attention it has already garnered but I must say, it was damn good. From a movie-nerd perspective it had all of the right elements without being bogged down with too many of the trappings of bad drama.
Daniel Day-Lewis is awesome as usual, something I will have to comment about another time.
The reason for the post title is that there are, in fact, several scenes in the movie where someone just gets severely bitch slapped. I’ve never seen a period piece, let alone a drama like this, where the pimp hands were so strong. Most of the slapping was done by Day-Lewis’ character but even his son and creepy Paul Dano got down on some of the bitch slapping action.
This has nothing to do with the quality of the movie but I thought it was an interesting thing to point out.
Great movie though and worth the time for anyone that likes dramatic movies with deep, yet not always obvious, themes and allusions. The movie has also already received a small cult following and the line, “I drink your milkshake!” has been called the new, “Say hello to my little friend!”
Want a real review? Talk to Nick, he’s completely spot on in his review. Though I disagree with how he felt about Punch-Drunk Love, Anderson’s previous movie that I loved.
Related Links06 Nov 07 Quick Review: No End in Sight
No End in Sight - Now don’t get me wrong on this, No End in Sight is a damn fine Iraq War documentary. However, it is more of the same if you’ve seen any of the other dozen-and-half other documentaries out there. Also if you’ve read Fiasco, State of Denial or The Greatest Story Ever Sold, again it will be more of the same.
Here’s the gist.
Bush & Co. lied, got us into a war they can’t handle under false pretenses and continue running it with no real plan and…*wait for it*…No End in Sight. Wham, bam, that’s it. I’ve watched so many Iraq War documentaries I’ve seen repeats of video and the same situations from multiple sides. The latter is actually pretty interesting though.
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