Film Reviews - 'Eyes Wide Shut' is by far the more psychologically captivating film, when compared to 'Gone Baby Gone'

Compared to what other critics opine, my film reviews here differ to a lot to general opinions of them. The ratings I gave for the films reviewed below are almost the complete opposite of what other critics would give them. If I was to compile a list of the ratings I gave for these films, a lot of other critics may tear the list apart and put it in reverse order i.e. put the film I gave the lowest rating, as their highest rated film (‘Gone Baby Gone’ got 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 7.9 on IMDB – I rated it 1.5 out of 5).

Here are the films and their reviews:

Gone Baby Gone: I was expecting a lot more from this film, considering the impressive cast, which included Casey Affleck and Morgan Freeman. The film did, to be fair, have a couple of spine tingling moments, but in general the acting was very poor, and the dialogue was heavily stilted and unrealistic. The plot (the final act in particular) lacked a lot of credibility too. Had the potential to be a much better film, given its premise and cast. Rating: 1.5.

American Pie: Very funny teen movie which does its job; entertain young people via the use of crude humour, entangled within several coming-of-age tales. Rating: 3.5.

Road to Las Vegas: An extremely moving documentary about a homeless African-American family who move to Vegas in search of a better life. You genuinely become attached to this family, as you watch their highs and (extreme) lows over the course of four years (2005-2009). Rating: 3.5.

Watch the film on 4oD here: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/road-to-las-vegas/4od

The Terminal: I thought that a lot of the things that happened in this film were completely unrealistic. I accepted the given (unrealistic) premise of the film, in order to actively remove myself from reality, but I still found many moments of the film to be rather silly - for instance (SPOILER alert) the bit towards the end when the security are lined up to stop Tom Hanks from leaving the airport. When you think it's all over for Tom, Barry Shabaka Henley, spontaneously gives him his coat, and tells him he'll need it because 'it's cold outside'. Furthermore there is an unrealistic marriage within the film, and the bit where Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones do not speak to each other at the end is also unrealistic. I agreed with Salon.com, when they stated that it was "the worst-directed film Spielberg has ever made." (http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/review/2004/06/18/terminal/index.html)
However, the film did have some bright moments, like the shaving scene in the toilets; Hanks and another man are both shaving. The other man quips to Hanks, "Do you ever feel like you're living in an airport?" Ironically Hanks is living in an airport. Still, that scene alone does not save this film for me. There were some fine performances in this film, from Hanks and Stanley Tucci in particular, but the plot was far too poor; towards the end a lot of what happened seemed to be made up just to increase the film's running time. Rating: 2.

Eyes Wide Shut: For me this film is a genuine masterpiece. Kubrick’s final film – he certainly left his mark on the world of cinema with this one. It was like ‘Taxi Driver’ but with a razor sharp surreal edge; ‘American Psycho’ but with more realism – fantastic amalgamations for the big screen, which created a dream like vision of New York. My only criticism of this film, would be that the final scene was slightly disappointing. Besides that I can’t really complain; with slick and seductive production values and fantastic performances from Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, this film is definitely worth watching. Rating: 5.

Note: I may write an in depth article on this film, when I get the time.

Check out this chilling scene from the film below!

I also watched ‘The Boat That Rocked’ recently. I will publish my review of it for a special UK film post, when I have watched ‘In the Loop’.