Eric_Leiston

A dull plodding work, pretentiously earnest at best, that could benefit from being trimmed by an hour and excluding the distracting cameos. While constructed in an exercise in literary cinema, the viewer is treated to a CIA history taken from the archives of pop culture and urban myth. Best viewed at home with a finger on the forward button. Is it written in Matt Damon's contract that he doesn't age while his co-star, the most decidedly un-WASPy Angelina Jolie, must play a hag worthy of the first act of Macbeth? The theme of corruption played out in career and family has been done before better in the "Godfather" trilogy, which Deniro must have known. Incidentally, the Bay of Pigs failed in much the same way as way as most military operations do when they run into swampland, but in this movie character, and not geography is destiny.

Spielberg turns the story of the Munich massacre into a detail laden often incoherent big screen patchwork. Eager to convey the dilemma of moral ambiguity, not to mention how Europe looked and sounded in the 70s, his movie also contains emotional trickery that also failed to deliver in "Saving Private Ryan." Like many of Spielberg's works, the back story becomes the first sacrificial victim. The movie is also conflicted mainly because it wants to be serious and high minded and yet is based on George Jonas' entertaining but highly improbable account of the Israeli operation to bring the planners of the Munich Olympic massacre to justice. As one example, the whole houseboat scene of the assassination of the hooker assassin, with the bicycle pump gun no less, (but the cat loved the hooker killer, come on Spielberg, will you ever learn to reel it in?) seemed better in the earlier version of this movie, the made for TV effort "Sword of Gideon" starring Michael York. By the way, at no point in Spielberg's self-important commentary on the DVD does he mention that he re-made a cable movie. The ghastly last scene where the main character makes love to his wife with images of the final moments of the Munich hostages has to be one of the worst moments of Hollywood film making.

An entertaining one reeler that relies on themes of forensic science, police professionalism, and the cunning criminal mastermind.

**Plot spoiler** A very novel idea was the concept of matching a bullet by metallurgical analysis against a batch from the foundry. And exactly how were the fingerprints on the handgun faked? There was a film fade at that juncture.Naturally, all these plot elements are highly imaginative, and seem primitive compared to today's modern shows such as CSI. Still in 50 years, how quaint will today's crime investigation shows seem? Especially the leaps into forensic science fiction>

Of course, what is more interesting is the unbroken and unshaken belief mass media has in the basically high minded and incorruptible guardians of of the law and their use of modern science. This could well be the subject of someone's dissertation. For the time being, I will enjoy these shows and try to ignore the sad fact that almost all crimes are committed by very stupid young males, who, after they are convicted, will break their silence and blame substance abuse and their own stupid parents. If I am killed then the suspects, according to statistics, will be drunk or emotionally immature drivers, or my own enraged friends or relatives.

I saw this movie in a shabby downtown movie house in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. The floors stank of a pine based cleaner, and most of the seedy and unshaven audience seemed there only to nap and avoid the heat. However, there was a pimp in the back sitting between two of his employees. They were enjoying the movie, and as they sipped from a bottle in a brown bag, they were shouting out and applauding their approval of the main characters' antics. The movie was long and the actors were overly involved with themselves; after a while it seemed pointless to follow the plot. This was one of the few major movies ever filmed in Athens during the period of the colonels. If you look carefully during the farcial and marvelous car chase scene,you can see Greek police stationed to keep traffic and crowds away from the action. In fact, the exterior location shots of this movie exists as a lost artifact of how Athens appeared between the late 60s and early 70s.

All that keeps Polanski from descending into the pitiless depths of self parody are the acting talents of Johnny Depp and excellent cinematography. The plot, preposterous as it seems, does fascinate the viewer, as long as one ignores the illogical sequence of events. The movie opens with a book collector hanging himself in his library, and then introduces Depp as an amoral book appraiser and "detective." After swindling an incapacitated collector, Depp is summoned by an enigmatic and powerful collector. Depp's task is to authenticate a rare and sinister demonic text. The chase is then on! Depp's sometimes partner is ritualistically murdered for a mysterious purpose, and Depp then heads to Europe. On the way, Depp bumps into a passionate, dark haired woman; an other wordly attractive blonde; a host of other strange book collecting characters. At this point it becomes difficult to discuss the movie in familiar terms of storyline and climax, and one has to start deconstructing sub-text and symbolism. In other words, this movie fails to deliver as a movie, and has to resort to literary tricks and intellectual subterfuge. Slowly, the viewer comes to the horrifying realization that this movie has functioned mainly as a vehicle for Depp and provides further proof of Polanski's cinematic irrelevance. The underwhelming final scene should come as no real surprise.

As good as it gets for the zombie genre with all the classic themes of inevitable doom and constant despair alleviated by the moments of hope. Excellent casting and writing combine to make this better than the already marvelous original. The mall setting still works as it did years ago: while the original veered towards social commentary of how we live mindlessly in a consumer society, this version implies that mall, represents sanctuary, a reminder for survivors of the familiar and comfortable, where people once went to socialize and relax, in a sooothing and familiar place. Of course, with zombies around, the mall now offers only a temorary respite. The tension between characters heightens the suspense. One last note: do not miss a second of the end credits; it provides a gut wrenching finale to the movie.

OK, so it's a cheesy classic, but what the heck, we like good old fashioned cheese. We're not talking big screen blow your mind cinema here. Warning! Don't go there if you are addicted to stunning special effects, can't follow clever plots, get bothered by blunt character interaction, and don't have a sense of humor. There's some fairly sophisticated themes lurking around, and this can upset the unsophisticated. We see the future as an extension of our dreary present, and it isn't uplifting. Things still break, and people who work with each other still hate each other.

This was a student project, and it shows at times (look at the astronaut suit closely, on second thoughts don't). A few minutes were grafted on afterwards for theatrical release, see if you can spot the scene.

If you are an old science fiction fan you will definitely get your kicks. There's stuff that'll tickle the Dickheads (Phillip K. of course) when the captain is consulted. Heinlein gets tweaked, and homage is paid, sort of, to Bradbury.

Everybody goes on about Carpenter and neglects Dan O'Bannon. Now look closely, in the colossal battle to the death with the evil beachball, are we seeing Alien in the making?

The bomb sequence will please every philosophy major out there. And didn't Star Trek Voyager borrow it for a recent episode?

Get on over to your video store and rent it and be sure to bring it back.