BetterThanKerouac
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
18 years
Reviews
Las edades de Lulú (1990)
'Art House' Filth
Aptly described as "pretentious, repellent pornography," The Ages of Lulu is a film you really could do without. Indeed, not only does Spanish director Bigas Luna's (he of Jamón, jamón, Golden Balls and The Tit and the Moon fame) film fire hugely clear of the mark in its attempt at sexually heightened drama, it also suffers from a dodgy cast (Javier Bardem, what were you thinking?), lame acting and a wholly unrealistic plot. Not to put too fine a point on it, then, you'd be better served boiling your head than watching this hyper-sexual and highly explicit 'art house' trash.
On the DVD: The Ages of Lulu is transferred at an anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 and image quality is very good, though in some scenes very slightly soft. The film can be watched with or without English subtitles, and the sound is unremarkable stereo. The main extras are a seven-page essay on Bigas Luna and five pages detailing the now restored 110 seconds of cuts made to the 1998 video release. The main title still contains 65 seconds of alternate footage to the cinema original for legal reasons. Also included are filmographies of Lunas and Oscar Ladoire, two trailers plus trailers for six other films.
On the DVD: The Ages of Lulu is transferred at an anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 and image quality is very good, though in some scenes very slightly soft. The film can be watched with or without English subtitles, and the sound is unremarkable stereo. The main extras are a seven-page essay on Bigas Luna and five pages detailing the now restored 110 seconds of cuts made to the 1998 video release. The main title still contains 65 seconds of alternate footage to the cinema original for legal reasons. Also included are filmographies of Lunas and Oscar Ladoire, two trailers plus trailers for six other films.
I'm with Lucy (2002)
Bernal can't save banal chick-flick
There are some fairly atrocious films we can just about suffer through; while others at least have one or two redeeming elements to them. Unfortunately, there are also those pieces of cinematic garbage we can't believe we actually wasted our time watching. I'm With Lucy sits firmly in the latter category. In fact, it's safe to say this dumb-ass, straight-to-DVD chick-flick is among the most tedious, tiresome efforts ever committed to celluloid. The plot, such as it is, is a simple though not entirely bad one. Well, if the likes of Sex and the City are your idea of an evening's entertainment, that is. It concerns Lucy, a 30-something native New Yorker who is about to get married. Her best friends want to know what exactly led up to that moment so Lucy explains that she had five blind dates in the previous year and decided to marry one of them - but which one? The film then proceeds to show us snippets of Lucy's dates with the aforementioned guys, who include Luke (David Boreanaz of Buffy The Vampire Slayer fame); Doug (John Hannah, Sliding Doors et al); Gabriel (Mexican heartthrob Gael Garcia Bernal - Y Tu Mama Tambien, Motorcycle Diaries); Bobby (Anthony LaPaglia - Murder One, Analyze That) and Barry (Henry Thomas - ET, Suicide Kings). Each date has their own individual traits and pluses and minuses, and the point of the film, it seems, is to guess which one Lucy finally fell for. Problem is... the film is so dull, the characters are so one-dimensional and the dialogue is so flat that, odds are, half-way into this film you won't give a monkeys who the dumb blonde finally picks to walk down the aisle with her. Which is a pity in some ways, for, as chick-flicks go, a reasonably good concept was wasted here. Not to mention the criminal waste of genuine acting talent such as the excellent Garcia Bernal. In a nutshell, do yourself a favour and avoid this film as you would hope to avoid bird flu.
Anything Else (2003)
A return to the Allen of old
IRRITATING? Heck, yeah. Self-indulgent? For sure. A rehash of virtually every movie its creator has done in past years? Probably. Nevertheless, Anything Else also happens to be the most enjoyable Woody Allen flick since . . . well, take your pick.
Admittedly, it doesn't entirely work on every level but it's a movie that does enough to suggest that Allen is back to something like his best form.
With Anything Else, the much maligned movie-maker is clearly pitching for a younger audience. And it's about time, too. Allen himself takes a supporting role and in comes Jason Biggs (American Pie) as the neurotic Jewish Manhattanite, while Christina Ricci gets the nod as the love interest.
Biggs is Jerry Falk, a young Allen-esquire comedy writer looking to make it big and Ricci is Amanda, a chain-smoking, neurotically self-obsessed Beatnik who drives men wild with her huge eyes and button nose.
At the beginning the pair fall for each other instantly, then spend the duration of the film trying to work out their complex and complicated relationship - especially after Amanda's equally neurotic, narcissistic mother (Stockard Channing) moves in to their small apartment to live with them.
Allen himself stars as David Dobel, an ageing comedy writer who mentors Jerry during their daily stroll through Central Park. But it soon becomes apparent that Dobel has a bit of a problem controlling his temper and this works as a neat diversion from the romantic comedy aspect of the movie.
And Allen seems finally to have twigged that it's no longer plausible for him to make flicks in which he plays the character involved with some young girl. Who, after all, wants to see him, at 64, snuggling up to the fresh-faced likes of Ricci? Like any Allen flick, Anything Else is nothing if not wordy. As always, the conversations go on a lot longer than they should, but the script is at least scattered with killer one-liners. Such a moment arrives when Amanda attempts to reassure the sexually-starved Jerry.
"Just because I pull away every time you touch me doesn't mean I don't love you," she quips. In another scene, there's an entertaining exchange between the mismatched couple, who are reminiscing about when they first met.
Amanda: "I had a crush on you. Couldn't you tell by the way I was ignoring you?" and Jerry: "There was something compelling about your apathy." The picture looks great, too, with some neat cinematography by Darius Khondji that shows off Central Park to good effect - not, you understand, that anyone's gone to a Woody Allen movie for the scenery. It's the dialogue that matters most of all - and, even by Allen's standards, this features a staggering amount.
On the negative side, is the casting of Biggs. All those who remember Kenneth Branagh's excellent turn in Celebrity will cringe while watching this guy stutter his way through the traditional Woody role.
Ricci, though, is perfectly cast as an actress with an eating disorder, which reflects her own anorexia when she was 14. There is also a stellar supporting role from Danny DeVito.
Admittedly, it doesn't entirely work on every level but it's a movie that does enough to suggest that Allen is back to something like his best form.
With Anything Else, the much maligned movie-maker is clearly pitching for a younger audience. And it's about time, too. Allen himself takes a supporting role and in comes Jason Biggs (American Pie) as the neurotic Jewish Manhattanite, while Christina Ricci gets the nod as the love interest.
Biggs is Jerry Falk, a young Allen-esquire comedy writer looking to make it big and Ricci is Amanda, a chain-smoking, neurotically self-obsessed Beatnik who drives men wild with her huge eyes and button nose.
At the beginning the pair fall for each other instantly, then spend the duration of the film trying to work out their complex and complicated relationship - especially after Amanda's equally neurotic, narcissistic mother (Stockard Channing) moves in to their small apartment to live with them.
Allen himself stars as David Dobel, an ageing comedy writer who mentors Jerry during their daily stroll through Central Park. But it soon becomes apparent that Dobel has a bit of a problem controlling his temper and this works as a neat diversion from the romantic comedy aspect of the movie.
And Allen seems finally to have twigged that it's no longer plausible for him to make flicks in which he plays the character involved with some young girl. Who, after all, wants to see him, at 64, snuggling up to the fresh-faced likes of Ricci? Like any Allen flick, Anything Else is nothing if not wordy. As always, the conversations go on a lot longer than they should, but the script is at least scattered with killer one-liners. Such a moment arrives when Amanda attempts to reassure the sexually-starved Jerry.
"Just because I pull away every time you touch me doesn't mean I don't love you," she quips. In another scene, there's an entertaining exchange between the mismatched couple, who are reminiscing about when they first met.
Amanda: "I had a crush on you. Couldn't you tell by the way I was ignoring you?" and Jerry: "There was something compelling about your apathy." The picture looks great, too, with some neat cinematography by Darius Khondji that shows off Central Park to good effect - not, you understand, that anyone's gone to a Woody Allen movie for the scenery. It's the dialogue that matters most of all - and, even by Allen's standards, this features a staggering amount.
On the negative side, is the casting of Biggs. All those who remember Kenneth Branagh's excellent turn in Celebrity will cringe while watching this guy stutter his way through the traditional Woody role.
Ricci, though, is perfectly cast as an actress with an eating disorder, which reflects her own anorexia when she was 14. There is also a stellar supporting role from Danny DeVito.