Melinda and Melinda: Woody Allen's lastest begins with Wallace Shawn and friends debating whether life is comedy or tragedy. The film then illustrates these viewpoints, dividing into two parts, a dramatic one and a comic one with Rahda Mitchell playing the same woman with a different take on the character.
The writing isn't up to Allen's usual standards (unlike most, I've liked all but one of his last several films), but Will Ferrell makes it work in the comic portion and it's a watchable romantic comedy. The dramatic portion with Chloe Sevigny and a few other "where do I know them froms?" is flat and boring. No character is interesting enough to make you care what happens to them as their tortured love lives unfold. The photography is only adequate. Despite using cinematographer Vilmos Zgimond, it's a far cry from his heyday of making NYC glamourous and alive. The film also has little of Allen's signature jazz music, utilizing more classical instead. C+
Samurai Rebellion - I'm going to just use the Criterion summary since it is far less clumsy than my attempt:
Toshiro Mifune stars as Isaburo Sasahara, an aging swordsman living a quiet life until his clan lord orders that his son marry the lord’s mistress, who has recently displeased the ruler. Reluctantly, father and son take in the woman, and, to the family’s surprise, the young couple fall in love. But the lord soon reverses his decision and demands the mistress’s return. Against all expectations, Isaburo and his son refuse, risking the destruction of their entire family.
Thematically similar to Harakiri, this Kobayshi film also uses a samurai setting to attack the authoritarian traditions of Japan's past and criticize what he saw as this disturbing trend emerging in modern Japanese corporate life. Featuring powerful cinematography, a score by my favorite Japanese composer- Toru Takemitsu (though this score doesn't quite rank with his superb work on Harakiri and Woman in the Dunes), and a story packed with furious emotion and metaphoric rage, Samurai Rebellion is drama of a high order. When Tatsuya Nakadai, playing Isaburo's friend tells the clan leaders that attacking a master swordsman like Isaburo will result "in a mountain of corpses", every samurai fan knows these words will prove prophetic and moves to the edge of their seats.
The only thing that keeps this from a total knockout is the ending, which I felt hued too closely to genre constraints. It certainly fit the director's themes, but emotionally, I wished things to play out differently. A-
Millions - A British boy with a big imagination finds a large sack of money. While family and friends feed material concerns, he has something different in mind.
Danny Boyle's latest was mostly praised as a magical, family friendly gem. I found it to be so syrupy sweet as to almost nauseate. While it has a few entertaining moments, I found it to follow the usual trend of including lots of cutesy Britisms for the American audience. The religious visions (the kid sees Saints) and imagery are eye-rollingly obvious or clunky. And the kid actor in the lead role is fine at comedy and being cute, but awfully flat and clumsy when required to emote. C+
The writing isn't up to Allen's usual standards (unlike most, I've liked all but one of his last several films), but Will Ferrell makes it work in the comic portion and it's a watchable romantic comedy. The dramatic portion with Chloe Sevigny and a few other "where do I know them froms?" is flat and boring. No character is interesting enough to make you care what happens to them as their tortured love lives unfold. The photography is only adequate. Despite using cinematographer Vilmos Zgimond, it's a far cry from his heyday of making NYC glamourous and alive. The film also has little of Allen's signature jazz music, utilizing more classical instead. C+
Samurai Rebellion - I'm going to just use the Criterion summary since it is far less clumsy than my attempt:
Toshiro Mifune stars as Isaburo Sasahara, an aging swordsman living a quiet life until his clan lord orders that his son marry the lord’s mistress, who has recently displeased the ruler. Reluctantly, father and son take in the woman, and, to the family’s surprise, the young couple fall in love. But the lord soon reverses his decision and demands the mistress’s return. Against all expectations, Isaburo and his son refuse, risking the destruction of their entire family.
Thematically similar to Harakiri, this Kobayshi film also uses a samurai setting to attack the authoritarian traditions of Japan's past and criticize what he saw as this disturbing trend emerging in modern Japanese corporate life. Featuring powerful cinematography, a score by my favorite Japanese composer- Toru Takemitsu (though this score doesn't quite rank with his superb work on Harakiri and Woman in the Dunes), and a story packed with furious emotion and metaphoric rage, Samurai Rebellion is drama of a high order. When Tatsuya Nakadai, playing Isaburo's friend tells the clan leaders that attacking a master swordsman like Isaburo will result "in a mountain of corpses", every samurai fan knows these words will prove prophetic and moves to the edge of their seats.
The only thing that keeps this from a total knockout is the ending, which I felt hued too closely to genre constraints. It certainly fit the director's themes, but emotionally, I wished things to play out differently. A-
Millions - A British boy with a big imagination finds a large sack of money. While family and friends feed material concerns, he has something different in mind.
Danny Boyle's latest was mostly praised as a magical, family friendly gem. I found it to be so syrupy sweet as to almost nauseate. While it has a few entertaining moments, I found it to follow the usual trend of including lots of cutesy Britisms for the American audience. The religious visions (the kid sees Saints) and imagery are eye-rollingly obvious or clunky. And the kid actor in the lead role is fine at comedy and being cute, but awfully flat and clumsy when required to emote. C+
Unrated version
I just remembered researching that the Klan's period of greatest popularity and influence coincided with their branching out into the Progressive movement and trying to enforce popular morals by brutalizing people like drug addicts and wife-beaters, which isn't commonly known because it's usually assumed that they were only ever interested in attacking non-WASPs. Anyway, I should rent more Kino dvd's because they do some very nice work 
Though it wouldn't make my Top 20 Westerns, probably more like Top 50.
