The Island
You are sexy when you're sad
Bewitched
The Island
There is some "THX 1138" and "Logan's Run" in this movie, but the plot is really frightfully similar to the low-budget 1979-movie "Parts: The Clonus Horror." What starts off as a promising sci-fi thriller, soon becomes superficial action-fun - "The Island" is, after all, a Michael Bay-movie. In his world, the problem of human cloning is taken care of through explosions, car chases and silly melodrama. An enjoyable action no-brainer can be nice to watch, but this movie had such an excellent premise that it should have been more than that. It could have been "Minority Report", but ends up being "I, Robot." At least "The Island" is better than "Bad Boys II," but I honestly never thought I would see Scarlett Johansson acting this badly.
1/2 ( Julie Vinten )
"The Island" starts out strongly enough. Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson) are two members of a colony of survivors from some sort of biological catastrophe, which is only referred to as "the contamination." They live a tranquil life and dream of winning the lottery to get sent to "The Island," a paradise on Earth unaffected by the contamination. But Lincoln soon starts to suspect that something in his too-perfect life is awry. There are a few gratifying twists and turns in this above average sci-fi thriller, although a good story ends up being overwhelmed by the over-the-top, non-stop action toward the end. But the wonderful scene when McGregor's character comes face to face with his "other half" is alone almost worth seeing the film for.
1/2 ( Laimons Juris G )
You are sexy when you're sad
Latvian director Arvids Krievs' newest feature, the absurd comedy/drama "Man patik, ka meitene skumst" has an unstructured narrative and dreary visuals and generally leaves plenty to ask for. Like the movie itself, the characters are roaming around in the dark, trying to make sense of their misery, trying to find something TRUE and REAL. The highbrow, pseudo-philosophical reflections on life are tiring and rather banal. In a crazy world, aren't the crazy people the sane ones? Yawn. This pretentious ensemble piece is full of extreme stereotypes all cut out in squares and put into little boxes. One rather interesting aspect is how the feature seeks to create a snapshot of contemporary Riga and the variety of people living there. The idea, however, could have been more purposefully executed.
1/2 ( Julie Vinten )
I wish I could say that I liked this film. I wish I could say that here, finally, is a Latvian film that will take European film festivals by storm. But I can't. This is yet another waste of precious filmmaking money (there's not much of it in Latvia) on a film by an established director that can't seem to distinguish between the very different concepts of film and theater. Gints (Martins Freimanis) is a photographer with a morbid obsession with death and Laila (Kristine Nevarauska) is a lost soul wandering around Riga. Together, they provide the thread for several other sub-stories. "Man patik…" tries its best to be profound and artistic, but is really just naive and clumsy. Somebody in Latvia has to make a great film sometime. Don't they?
( Laimons Juris G )
Bewitched
There is something about movies that commence with a helicopter-shot of the sea, moving towards a major American city while the titles run and cheery pop tunes blast in your ears. You just know you aren't going to like this movie. This love–me–for–who-I-am romantic comedy is sweet at times, but never interesting, and there isn't a feeling of magic between Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. Kidman makes a lovely and cute witch, but her attempts at being funny are futile. This is not a Will Ferrell-movie, which is a shame. He is low-key in a way that doesn't suit him at all. When he is allowed to be Will Ferrell, the movie is funny, but it unfortunately doesn't happen often.
1/2 ( Julie Vinten )
The tagline for "Bewitched" is "Be Warned. Be Ready." And so you should be. This is by a long shot the worst film I've seen so far this year. How on earth did it get made? And why is it a whole 102 minutes long? And what was Nicole Kidman thinking when she signed up for this execrable excuse for a movie? "Bewitched" is meant to be an affectionate homage to the popular old U.S. TV sitcom about a housewife-cum-witch, but it fails on every level. Supposedly it's a romantic comedy, but the romance is too ridiculous for words. That just leaves the comedy – but it's desperately unfunny. In fact, "Bewitched" is most memorable for achieving the extremely rare feat of having no redeeming qualities whatsoever. It really is that bad.
( Laimons Juris G )
