One of the Best - One of the Worst
584342
In terms of the "Art" of cinema, Timecode is probably one of the most important films to be presented in over a decade.  Unfortunately, it is also a terrible movie. The intertwined stories are "vapor thin" and the characters are practically non-existent.
There is a certain amount of pleasant confusion created when a phone rings on the soundtrack and people in two different quadrants pick up a receiver to begin seperate, unrelated conversations, or when you realize that the actor who moments before left quadrant two has just entered quadrant four, or when quadrant's one and three are filming the same action, but from different perspectives.  Unfortunately, these charms are not capable of sustaining interest for the entire film.
I'm grateful for the existence of this movie, but I don't really want to sit through it again (though I guess I'll have to since I bought the DVD). Timecode is like a question mark, a challenge to contemporary narrative modes.  But, I suspect it will take many many years for that question to be answered, and the narrative challenge it represents to be assimilated and used artfully.  If you really want to get a glimpse of the immediate future of narrative film technique, watch Memento, or grab a copy of Tender Loving Care or Point of View (of the two, TLC is better than POV).
1015170
I struggled to figure out how many stars to award this.  The book/story is awful, the characters are completely unlikeable (everyone is drunk or angry, or both, except for the kid, who's just confused), and much the music is forgettable, with the title track being among the most uninspired stuff I've heard in a while.  Normally, I'd give this production one star.

But.

The way this production came together, it was SO bad, it was fabulous, and for that, I'd give it five stars. So, averaging the one and five, you get the three.

Anyway, PatsFan's review from April 3rd is spot-on with all that is wrong with this production, but I choose to laugh rather than cry.  In fact, it was a struggle for me to contain myself when I saw it in the theater this past February.  As absurdly hilarious as I found many parts, I couldn't assume the few other patrons felt the same way, so I stifled my laughter, only to burst out in fits of it as I shopped in a supermarket after the show.  Good thing it was late at night with few other shoppers around.  (Apparently, a bunch of folks at a screening in NYC didn't restrain themselves and things got heated after the movie.  Go to the blog The Craptacular, do a search using the words Love Never Dies Crazy, and enjoy the post.)

The death scene was absolutely priceless and an excellent example of the horrible writing.

**SPOILER ALERT**

So, after the Phantom, apparently a better composer than psychologist,  fails in his attempt at hostage negotiation with Meg, Christine is shot by Meg.  Gustave, already traumatized by his mother being shot, finds out that the Phantom, of whom he is frightened and from whom he ran away screaming previously, is his real father.  Fabulous timing!

Then, Gustave runs off to find his "father" Raoul, who supposedly has taken off for Europe.  Did Gustave even know that Raoul had left and where he was going?  Come on, now.  Miraculously, Gustave finds Raoul and brings him back, just in time, to Christine's side, where, when Christine gasps her last breath, the Phantom cries, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" eerily similar to that of Darth Vader in "Revenge of the Sith" when Padme dies.

Oh, I almost forgot - there was NO blood on Christine.  So she was lying there in her death throes, and there was no wound from the gunshot.

I did like Ben Lewis' voice, though.  It's deeper, darker and older in sound than Ramin Karimloo's and much more as I'd expect the Phantom's voice to sound.  I'd like to see Mr. Lewis in another production with a good plot and better direction.  I do like Ramin Karimloo and his Phantom interpretation from what I've seen of it, but the Phantom is not supposed to be a hot young dude; it takes away from the tragedy of the Phantom's life.  As fantastic as Ramin's voice is, its youth came through so clearly in anniversary performance and was a bit jarring for me, and as the Phantom in LND, he's supposed to be 10 years older than he was in the original show.

Bottom line, watch this without taking it too seriously and you might enjoy it, even if not in the way ALW would have wanted you to do so.
2276833
"In Conquest Born" is one of the greatest SF novels ever written.  Its engaging, clever, and above all fairly unique in both subject and style.

Its real strength was its characters, Zatar, the perfect Braxin and Anzha lyu Mitethe, the perfect psychic along with a host of well developed support characters and cultures.

That is where the Wilding breaks down.  By chapter six you have six major characters to keep track of.  And of those six, only three make it through to the end of the book...those that die, don't advance the true plot of the book in any shape or form.  You watch them die one by one and think "Why was this person even here?"

Due to the "writing" being spread thin, even those characters who survive (and I suppose are the protagonist's of the story) really aren't that well developed.  By the end of the book, they could have all been killed and I wouldn't have missed them a bit.

Two stars, because as another reviewer stated, even CS Friedman at her worst is better than most other SF's authors at their best.  The book is well written and did move quickly, but still ranks far below In Conquest Born, or Madness Season.
2888314
I am an unashamed Harry Potter fan and have read and re-read the books and watched and re-watched the movies, and enjoyed them all.  Up to now.

David Yates has managed to take a crop of excellent and experienced actors and actresses, a wonderful book, and an inexhaustible budget and come up with a dark (muted colours and dim lighting making it literally dark, not metaphorically dark), confusing and lifeless movie that is frankly boring.  Those who have not read the books will find it very difficult to follow the story in this movie - it leaps inexplicably from setting to setting with no apparent reason.  Those who are familiar with the book will wonder why so much has been missed out, and why Yates has chosen to add to the story with inexplicable and irrelevant new scenes.

The dialogue has a few good moments - in particular the way that the boyfriend/girlfriend scenes are managed and the few appearances made by Luna Lovegood, but on the whole is lifeless and drab.  The irrepressibly awful Helena Bonham Carter dominates all the scenes she is in and is a major distraction.

Fans will of course watch this and buy the DVD or BluRay, but don't hope for too much.  It's going to be a long couple of dark and boring hours instead of the immense fun it should have been.
4764447
This is one of the great classics of the late 60's era.  It's a very unusual blend of blues and other musical genres.  The coda to "Oh Well" reminds one very much of the Ennio Morricone score for "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" in places.  "Searching For Madge" is the greatest one chord boogie vamp I think I've ever heard, Kirwan and Green play furiously while Fleetwood and McVie keep hammering away back there.  I'm not sure why they put the bizarre breaks in the middle of this jam but it works I guess.  I'm sure I heard Miles Davis borrow this jam structure on one of his live Lps back in the day, maybe Live at the Fillmore?

There is only one track that I really don't care for... Actually, I hate it.  Danny Kirwan's "When You Say" and its highly imaginative "la la la la la la la la la la la la" (and so on, complete with counter-point harmony voice) lyric is probably being used in those secret CIA detention centers in Europe where the "terrorists" are interrogated.  Listening to the entire tune is torture enough to make anyone start talking.  The melody is actually quite sophisticated but the track is actually very annoying because of those stupid lyrics (or lack thereof).  What was this guy thinking?

"Then Play On" is just so great (musically) that I have to pick up the trio of "Live at the Boston Tea Party" CDs.

This AAD remaster is 20 years old. Can you say Hisssssssssss. 1/2 star only for this remaster.  No, wait... Five turkeys for this remaster. It is God awful by today's standards.

It is absolutely criminal that the folks at Warner Bros/Reprise have not remastered this session, added outtakes for bonus tracks, and re-released it with a booklet of notes and photos.  I'm sure they could get away with a $24.95 price tag if they would get off the dime.

Laa-laaa-laaaaaaaaaa-la-la-laaa-la-la-laaaa
1460197
After seeing clips of Taxidermia on YouTube, I thought I had found a really powerful (if somewhat tasteless) movie. Unfortunately, it turns out that most of the best parts were those clips. The story of three generations starts out strong enough (think Wozzeck), but quickly deteriorates;  the ending is a unsuccessful attempt to be shocking for the sake of being shocking. Rent, but don't buy.

The soundtrack (by Amon Tobin) is another matter entirely: excellent!
914219
I have read the novel 'The Odessa File' and absolutely loved it. The ending was one of the cleverest I've ever read. I rented the movie to see what they could do to the great book. Boy did they mess it up. They re-did the whole ending, and it was horrible. I won't give it away, in case anyone chooses to watch this film. Besides the ending and another change involving Sigi at home, I liked the film. If you're a fan of the novel watch this, but be prepared to shake your head at the lousy climax.
3266049
Excellent movie of course, but the Filmmaker Signature Series release is the best copy to own, and it's not even close.  The first Blu-ray release had brutally awful color timing, and it's just baffling what Friedkin was thinking when he approved it.  The color timing of that release is nowhere close to how it looked in theaters (or on previous home video releases), and is terribly ugly on its own terms, with a bizarre emphasis on pastels.  Not surprisingly, the movie's cinematographer was quite unhappy with it.  Thankfully, the Filmmaker Signature Series release has none of those problems.  Friedkin worked with cinematographer Owen Roizman this time around, and the film looks as it should, with accurate colors and nice gritty 70's textures.  The release also contains the original mono audio mix, which in this case is far superior to the modern 5.1 mix (gunfire and sound effects are far too loud in the surround mix - the original mono mix has a perfect balance between dialogue, music, and sound effects).
2883873
I have to say this one one of the greatest books I have read with the worst - well actually - no ending! What a disappointment! No statement, no questions, just depression and the thought of a horrible life ahead. Dang. Five stars for a great book, one star for the ending. Gillian - couldn't you be more imaginative? I hope in the movie, the producers come up with a better "what if" for the ending!
2103853
I have a love-hate relationship with "The Keep".  Its atmosphere is brilliantly rendered, and the main cast contains early performances of some fine actors, although not in their best roles -- Gabriel Byrne, for example as the head Nazi, in constrained by a script that makes his character a cartoon, but he does  workmanlike job with the material at hand.  The concept and script are very imaginative and off-beat (in a good way.)  On the other hand, the special effects, at least in terms of the "critter" -- are unconvincing (look at the "cover picture" as an example.)  There are also holes in the plot that require serious suspension of disbelief. Overall, I would assess "The Keep" as a memorable movie (I carried the memory of parts of it for years) but not particularly good as a horror movie.  It's also morally muddy in terms of anti-Semitism.  (One of the main characters, expertly rendered by Ian McKellan, is a Jew who collaborates with the Nazis for reasons that it would be a spoiler to reveal.)
2535060
Written by Ed Wood, "acted" by Criswell, this is one of the better bad movies. The acting is awful, the dialog atrocious, BUT it contains nudity and lots of it. Why oh why didn't I give it five stars?
484440
I LOVED this movie. It was so deliciously bad in all facets of production that it is great. It has it all- terrible plot, terrible acting (COOLIO!), a ridiculous ending, and the count sporting one of stupidest get-ups this side of the local costume store.

Once I saw Coolio's name as a star, I knew it was going to stink and it didn't disappoint. This was an entertaining view for me as I knew going in how wretched it'd be.
3944370
Just as the oh-so-horrible BATTLEFIELD EARTH came close to setting a new low for cinema, so to does the music by Elia Cmiral. After hearing about how the film left a foul stench behind, I figured that at least the music had to be OK.
Boy, was I wrong.
This score is putrid in that MST3K way: it sucks so bad that it's actually funny to listen to. First off, the music sounds like it's being played by the tiniest, tinniest-sounding orchestra possible. There's no epic feel or grandeur to this score at all. It sounds for all the world like the music's being played by high school kids. Apparently Cmiral figured this out, so he had a choir sing on well over half the album tracks in a last ditch attempt to make the score sound grand, and he tried using sharp clanging percussion to add excitement. He only succeeded in making it sound even sillier. (If you want to hear a score that uses sharp percussion with more success than Cmiral, try listing to James Horner's STAR TREK II score. It's vastly superior to this bad boy.) The ultimate laugh riot on this CD is "Psychlo Top 40." Not only does the music itself sound like a castoff from a Notorious BIG album, but what is up with the moaning-in-pain vocals on said track? Is the vocalist suffering severe digestive problems? This track alone never fails to give me a severe case of the giggles.
Is this album worth your while? If you're looking for good music, no. However, if you're looking for some great heckling material that'll leave you laughing no matter how bad your mood is, BATTLEFIELD EARTH is the CD for you. Like the film it accompanies, this score will make terrific fodder for mockery for years to come.
4079341
Replacing my two scratched Left Banke albums with "There's Gonna be A Storm" was one of the wisest moves I've ever made. Great band. Great sound. Timeless, but not enough. The band dissolved too soon.
  Recently, Montage caught my eye while surfing the web.  That was how I came upon this lost gem. Montage? Who are these guys? Let me tell you. They are Michael Brown's post-Banke pet project, but that shouldn't dissuade anyone from listening. There are some wonderful tunes here and even a couple raided from Banke's own catalog to flesh it out. The sound is pure Left Banke. Or perhaps, pure Brown would be a better way to put it. So why the three star rating. No offense, but these Jersey boys don't match up to the stellar vocals of Steve Martin and crew. "Tinsel and Ivory" is a great tune, slightly marred by some off key vocals. The aforementioned off note in "Men Are Building Sand," not only happens once, but twice more and not only is it off, it is actually painful to listen to. It will make you wince! It's that bad. "Wake Up Jimmy" has, perhaps, the worst ending of any song recorded. It appears a free ride in artistic control to Mike Brown is, perhap, not too good an idea. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad buy, but I suggest you get it used and save some cash. Get the extended version because the three instrumentals will leave you wondering why there are no lyrics. Very catchy melodies.
As a whole, Montage delivers. Sadly, it just makes me think what this album could have been if Left Banke had recorded these songs.
1600383
This movie in its original release is fantastic , a powerfull cast .  Some  are perhps somewhat miscast , yet they're performances were compelling and  effective.  Where this particular film suffers is : They cut almost two  hours out of it .  Never !..... Never,ever do this to a film once released  .  Luckily , I taped the original release , and was very disappointed with  the new edition , cut to 109 minutes.  Rudy Paul Hainal
1100920
I loved this movie; it brought back to me my old love of baseball. It's touching and beautifully acted and photographed. Watching Kostner here and then contrasting his performance in "Tin Cup" is great fun; the man does have range. For DVD watchers, you will be so sad that more of Billy Chapel's private life was not shown in the film as released. The deleted scenes -- his empty encounters with women, his closeness to his teammates -- make his retirement prospects all the more desperate. Something went wrong with the writing for Kelly Preston's "Jane"; her character doesn't add up. She makes a ridiculous scene in front of a very famous hotel with fans of Chapel's all around; there is no basis for either the scene or her language and attitude in the script, it's gratuitous conflict. But the final moments of that Perfect Game make me cry every time I watch them.
3916691
If you like really bad, I mean really, really, really bad B-movies then this is the one for you. This tops them all! This is the absolutey best worst movie ever. It is wonderfully horrible. But why does it cost so much?