tfduckman

YES - this is a movie dividing the audience so far, like "2012" . But there were other movies that triumphed in time and became understood as this "Skyline" surely will be !

It is not a movie meant to be MAINSTREAM, it wants to renew certain sci-fi-themes and does it remarkably well; at least it wakes up some of us, who were getting bored of this specific science fiction- category .

******************** Spoiler Alert ! *********************

And as many have pointed out, people don't like to see humanity wiped out ! So the higher IMDb-score of "2012" (but same proportional loved it/hated it !!!) is due to the fact that it is nature itself who does the apocalypse-scenario . Not intelligent aliens ...

However "Skyline" and "2012" differs not only in budget-size (opposites on a money-scale-production !) but also as entertainment . Where "2012" is a breathtaking non-stop-journey keeping You awake, "Skyline" has prolonged, almost slow action-scenes making it a tingling suspense + there are many other ingenuities to the story ...

Back with an "embarassing break" from the actual review ...

So, I thought I was crazy giving extra "USEFUL REVIEW-POINTS" to all those who love it, but someone or many have apparently done the reverse !!! I couldn't believe how many times I saw that 0 out of 1 people found the following review useful and even 0 out of 4 p.f.t.f. review useful !

Another tendency was also clear; "small" love-it-reviews was often being under-voted to less than half, where "small" hate-it- reviews were 3 out of 4 or more ! There just might be some people trying to make the review-usefulness into a Facebook-like LIKE- contest .... Sad if true - so keep an eye (and statistics) on the votes !!!! Are someone using MULTIPLE log-ons ???

Conspiracy or not, I feel the credibility of IMDb is "hacked" :-(

I plan to expand on this review later ;-)

Don't believe this is a Bollywood story. Don't believe that it's a love-story or a comic melodrama ! This is a story written by someone I know has a firsthand knowledge of both Muslim immigrants milieu and typical ethnic Danes - she describes sides of life we not are accustomed to see in traditional films (like a man peeing in the sink in "Koks i kulissen") and her social realism is never boring.

Helle Ryslinge shows with this movie that the so-called "impossible" objective point EXISTS ! In the end You feel sorry for both sides and You realize this cultural conflict between Muslims and Christians/westerners will continue.

Danish politicians have tried to restrict immigration and control integration, but the success is only on the danish hands ! A land like Sweden - where criticizing immigrants is law-forbidden - has increasing neonazism and neonazi-demonstrations. In Denmark the freedom of speech has won over both left-wing-extremists lullabies (except when they constantly refrain from paying rent for a YouthHouse !) and neonazists antisemitic feelings.

There is not much success on the immigrants hands yet and though this picture is 5 years old it still reflects the problem is not integration BUT dis-integration ...

A colony with cultural superstitions blocked by religious fear is thrown into a cyberspace-ready world and these colonists has to acclimatize to the new country - or be looked upon as intruders, if not invaders.

Quite a challenge for newcomers, but every step towards a modern mind free of hate, religion and conquest-tradition; will benefit those who seek refuge in the northern Europe.

I won't waste time on this movie - for it is just another piece of crap with politically correct lines, but a GIANT disappointment to any true Xmen-fan ! They should instead make a REAL sequel to X2 with Bryan Singer and call it : Xmen - the Dark Poenix rises ! THIS is what will keep us from hating those who made the misery called X3 ! Everyone of the true Xmen-fans expected Phoenix to be discussed between the extra-terrestrial forces and Professor Xavier in space with his beloved Lilandra, Majestrix of the Shi'ar Empire; we also expected to see Phoenix travel in outer space and we expected the director to not HATE the characters ! I will definitely blame the head-writer Simon Kinsberg who has made fine super-agents-movies like "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and "XXX : The next level" ... BUT super-heroes are more demanding to write believably about since their anatomies have extra powers (where super-agents are trained human beings) and this Xmen3 looks FLAT and DULL, where we had SUSPENSE and DRAMA created by Bryan Singer, who most DIE HARD fans applauded before any piece of Xmen 1 was seen !

Why ? I'll give You two superior reasons :

1. A film such as "The usual suspects" has the suspense and drama, that most super-agents-movies completely lacks. This is why super-agent 007 still works for us all, there are elements of mystique, passions, romance and truth. And of course a much better humour than the watered out lines in Xmen3 !

2. Bryan Singer publicly revealed that he was a personal fan of Xmen and these two movies(Xmen 1 & 2) clearly shows it along with the statement that he'd be happy to come back and direct the third Xmen after "Superman returns" !

If an action-director like Rattner is scared to show Phoenix in space or devouring stars, he should stick to "Rush hour"-film which he apparently does quite well ! And if You can spend the first 15 minutes of Xmen 1 mostly concentrated on Wolverines solo-show, then You can easily show a woman's side of the story too. The Dark Phoenix-saga is not far out ; in fact it maybe one of the finest piece of comics we have and, I'll bet my next Lear-jet that Bryan Singer would do Xmen3 with REAL (not PSEUDO-)emphasis on Jean Greys character and if he wants to use some scenes from the "Xmen : The last stand" he won't have any problem with me !

It is by the way a twist of fate (or the DC-jealousy) that just when John Byrne (Dark Phoenix saga) was near the end of his time at Marvel, he was hired by DC Comics to revamp its flagship character Superman, and now we had to relive this tragic loss with Bryan Singer being hired for Superman returns ! Just a piece of history repeating ... the morale is to leave this amazing saga with its character-developments in the hands of John Byrne and Bryan Singer again. You money-people out there may recognize success - but this time You've killed the most interesting story with Your actions ! Realize Your crime and spend A LOT OF MONEY on the Dark Phoenix Saga, oh yes, don't worry Your money will come back, because it was a success ! And the thing that made it a success was that John Byrne (with Chris Claremont) dared to drop the commercial story lines ! Unfortunately "Xmen3 - the last stand" is just another commercial storyline ... so we want a true successor to Xmen2 ! If they can do it with the Highlander-franchise they can do it with Xmen3 - the Dark Phoenix rises !

My vote is definitely 1 (awfull) out of 10 - go and see Spiderman3 instead (haven't seen it myself , but even the trailers look better than Xmen 3)

... actually I have to admit that I also love the first one with Harrison Fords Voice Over !

I don't mind the Marlowe-/Chandler-element and I think Ford hits a

"wonderfull cliché-filled worn-out Noir-style",

even if the explanatory commentary was "forced" upon Ford & Ridley Scott (Or not ?).

I think people should see the "pop"-edition before the "Director's Cut" (which is now being re-cut from the beginning by Ridley for release in 2007) because this "voice-over"-edition made a lot of the world realize that ScienceFiction is a way of telling essential stories, though maybe not the so-called cultural "elite" !

And the Directors Cut - 10 years later in 1992 - came too late for the masses; who by now, felt that the story of another successful SciFi-movie-masterpiece *) : "The Lawnmower Man" (becoming the Cyber God) was getting just as close to the human mind and as personal as the PC (Personal Computer)!

*)= Inspired by "Flowers for Algernon"

Of course I adore, love & respect the philosophical dramas of "2001" and "Solaris" laying the path to the moral Startrek-universe as well as the true pop-phenomenon of StarWars; BUT I remember the effect the voice-over-edition (of BladeRunner) had on people. They couldn't shake it of, because this movie embodies what we sci-fi-READERS (and I read almost 100 % of the danish sci-fi-books around 1980) wants all NON-scifians to see :

This genre is about YOU and how the elements of the universe interact with You - understood by knowledge in our minds - but felt strangely as a reality in Your heart.

Pretending to be open-minded is easy nowadays - see a lousy movie with some unhetero-sexual scenes in and You're in with the IN-crowd ... One day they'll probably let necrophiliacs marry too ! ("Married with Bundy" !) This is one of a bunch of movies trying to "normalize" homosexuality and in this lesbian case show how sickening and dangerous men are. The only problem with these obvious intentions are that the movie itself becomes sickening with prejudices and dangerous for true movies whether made by or about lesbians ... I haven't seen many, but even the slightly naive "Better Than Chocolate" (1999) is far better than this and the strangle-orgasm + a detective with close companion is twisted & copied - it can be found 7 years earlier om "Rising Sun" with Snipes/Connery !!!

A terrible mistake not to have seen the plot mainly stolen from Michael Crichtons "Rising Sun", but nowadays anything which seems very woman-centralized gets hailed as a "brave new girl" ...

No, I felt the acting was artificially "correct" and the story tried to be light and funny at times, but it collapsed mostly and a heavy rotten biased smell remained ... But the women seemed more potent than the men and refreshingly bed-active ! :-)LOL

Jay Thomson680 wrote : *******************************************************************

And what was the point of Jill's closing line: "Forget the bitch"? Porter didn't mention that. Was its inclusion to comfort the (conservative, hetero, etc) viewer that the dangerous dyke relationship is over, and we can all sleep nice and easy. Worrying stuff, indeed.

******************************************************************* *******************

No, it's not a conspiracy to comfort non-homosexual or other strange people ... It's very simple - Jill says to herself (like a true private dick, erh, I mean dyke) that she should find another woman and forget the love for Diana that still lingered on after she broke up ... but "Worrying stuff" ? Only for people who watches "little doctor on the prairie" !

This is both a modern day version of Easy Rider (and if You think the drugged-scenes in Easy Rider was realistic You will be amazed at the the drugged-scenes in FALILV , they are the best cinematic description of being drugged I've ever seen and I've really been there a long time ago ...) and it is much more - there is a gallery of stars , but the two main characters (Depp is definitely the incarnation of Doonesbury DUKE-character !)somehow disarms & deconstruct themselves as well as the world in a top-thrilling humorous way ; this is a must for anyone who have no idea about what drugs works like ... and for any one interested in a this truly legendary movie by Monty Pythons Terry Gilliam .

PS : I would recommend this movie for understanding parents who has teenagers that may or may not experiment with drugs and believe me - we are far beyond smoking some weed , grass , MJ here !!!

NB : Lastly I would say that this movie is what drugs are all about and You won't need drugs when people dare make films like this , Dead poet's society , American Beauty and A Night at the Opera !

Not much to say about this , Linda Hamilton shines and she deserved a solo-part like this (sorry to say , I haven't heard much about the other actors) after her great T2-performance (OK , and T1 2 :-) which is comparable to Jack Nicholsons Cuckoo's Nest ! Even when Linda is nearly unrecognizable , like in the horrible "A Girl Thing" (understandably unrecognizable ...) , there's a wonderful light she can't hide from us ! Admittedly , I'm a huge fan since I saw the scene in T2 where , no , I won't ever spoil that . See T2 and discover (when she appears in the movie) why I claim she should have had an Oscar and I still think so ! This "Silent Night" is truly a wonderful & worthy step in her further rise to a multi-spectered stardom on the screen .

I think she is the woman-equivalent to Jack Nicholson , at least I would love to see the 2 in a movie together !

There are a lot of people (especially in the movie industry) who doesn't like Brett Leonard ; and his other movies like "Virtuosity" (with Russell Crowe & Denzel Washington) clearly shows he is revealing an insight beyond Stephen King (his short story has very little to do with Leonards script !) into the so-called evil . Of course Kubricks Clockwork Orange is in remembrance , but Leonard does what Kubrick couldn't do - probably due to Burgess novel and the "impersonal" story-points of C.O. - by letting us into the evil guy and by understanding his secret of the deepest darkest unhappiness known to man : The Luciferian state .

However , TLM is a different movie than "Virtuosity" and battles with "brighter" themes !

TLM is from 1992 ; Windows 3.1 was only just announced (Windows 95 didn't exist yet of course :-) and Windows NT was only on BETA-stage ... The wonder-promise of virtual learning , which now is commonly accepted (people "speedlearn" from the Internet and softwares on computers) , takes further steps into the future to a threshold we eventually will run into (when we have eliminated spam-mongers and cyber-terrorists !) sooner or later .

And here TLM starts it's "evil magic" , not like Fausts choice , but like a two-way-responsibility gone apart between the individual (Fahey) and the society (Brosnan , Slate etc.) resulting in tragedy on both parts . We can learn a lot , but we cannot learn how to unlock our civilized psychological prison as we ARE the prison of our mothers "milk" or symbolically in Jobe's case , the aggression-chemical !

Yet I find there are many other themes (in example : the creator and the creation / the mystery of sex and the mind etc.) , this underrated ahead-of-it's-time-movie treats , that is worth paying attention to ; this is a masterpiece in more than one way . And I find most of the actors great in this movie , of course with Jeff Fahey as the real leading star here and Mr.(X?)Bond/Brosnan to give a slightly unconvincing performance .

I'm looking forward to see his "Hideaway" (with Jeff Goldblum & Alicia Silverstone) based on Koontz novel .