Ivan_Hassin

IMDb member since June 2017
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    2014 Oscars
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Reviews

Golda
(2023)

Slightly better than Oppenheimer
Everything from the cast to script makes you question the director's competence as a film maker. In fact, it feels like something a fresh-out-of-college film school graduate would make, as nothing about it feels original or organic but instead taken straight out of the director's college notebook.

Consequently, we get a sequence of different cinematic effects and manipulations, mise-en-scène of all sorts, that are constantly in conflict with the different aspects of the movie: with Golda as a person, Golda as the Prime Minister of Israel, and the war. I believe some of it could be mitigated weren't it for the director's assumption that viewer is familiar with Israel's history, which made him put little-to-no effort to explain Israel's size, politics, and who Golda Meir was prior to becoming the PM. Which leads to my second problem: for whom this movie was made? The movie is about Israel, and the fact that the movie is released on the 50th anniversary of the war is not a coincident, but it's not just of the Israelis - the movie was produced by British and American studios, there are British actors playing 'major' roles, and everyone is speaking English. But why? Don't get me wrong, Helen Mirren looks great as Golda, but is it really appropriate to make it a movie in a foreign language and foreign actors when the whole story is about a country that fights to protect its identity as a Jewish, Hebrew-speaking, nation?

There are plenty of other issues I'm not happy about, like the director's tendency to forsake historical accuracy to over-dramatize certain events and people, but the movie is honestly not worth overanalyzing - it's just a bad documentary and drama.

So, what Oppenheimer has to do with this? In my opinion, they share similar issues, and - interestingly enough - use the same movie techniques. However, what makes Golda slightly better than Oppenheimer, is that at least it's relatively short, cohesive, and didn't look half as bad as Oppenheimer despite having a small budget.

Ojing-eo geim
(2021)

Bad but enjoyable
Squid Game is an enjoyable and visually pleasing show, but it's definitely not a "good" show. It's no different from any other generic thriller made by C-grade directors who never made a movie with a score higher than 6. Being a true follower of this genre, Squid Game made most of the same mistakes such movies usually make: too many plot holes, illogical and poorly thought out scenes, unfairly manipulating people's emotions for shock value, etc. However, the show manages to do one thing most other "bad" movies never accomplished, and that's shamelessly manipulate the viewer's emotions for cheap tear-jerking moments, that despite being unbelievably predictable (such as most things in this movie), still manage to affect many people.

To be fair, I was actually quite surprised when I found out that the director/writer of the show, Hwang Dong-hyuk, presumably worked on this script for years. It looks like something an inexperienced film-maker who never attended a filmmaking school would make. It seems like he simply took bits he liked and that worked well in other movies, and decided to combine them into one tv show. The thing is, this constant jump from one bit to another, stripped the show from any meaning. It's an extremely superficial show which tries very hard to be deeper than it is. Though I wouldn't hold it against this show, even though it makes me laugh whenever the director is mad when someone is criticizing his talentless piece of work.

With that being said, there's nothing wrong about it not being a good show as long as it's enjoyable, and it definitely is. The difference is that despite liking it, I won't put it among the good movies I like, but rather with the other bunch, where you can find movies such as the Saw and various action-driven movies - bad but fun.

Plan 9 from Outer Space
(1957)

Not too bad
Despite having a bad reputation, and being widely known as the one of the worst movies ever made, I believe it aged like fine wine.

Well, perhaps not like wine, but it was entertaining to watch after 'Ed Wood' (1994). Other than that, the movie can get quite boring from time to time, so it's best to watch it with a group of people.

The Godfather
(1972)

Best Mafia movie i have ever seen
The Godfather is the best work of F.F. Coppola and the best mafia movie that you can find, the actors, music, atmosphere, decoration, script, everything in this movie is great and unforgettable! so if you still haven't watched the movie, you should grab your popcorn and get ready to 3 hours of pleasure!

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