Sunday, July 17, 2011

Weekly Round Up (7/10/11 - 7/16/11)

The Saragossa Manuscript (Wojciech Has) **** - This film starts off with two soldiers from opposing finding a book, then it opens up the story of one of their grandfathers, a Spanish captain of the guard trying to make his way to Madrid where he's plagued with evil spirits, the Inquisition and all sorts of mysterious events. Talk about going on a tangent. This very uncoventional film goes off to all sorts of directions. At one point, there is quite literally a flashback within a flashback within a flashback within a flashback within a flashback. Don't let the fact that it's a nearly-3-hour black & white period film from Poland fool you into thinking this is stuffy and boring. It's quite crazy, surreal, spooky and often quite funny.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (David Yates) **** - Yes, I'm a Harry Potter fan and an unapologetic one at that. I would say that this is absolutely the best Harry Potter film since The Prisoner of Azkaban. The second half of the film version of the seventh book of the series is a spectacular piece of pop entertainment that pretty much rivals, say, The Lord of the Rings in terms of sheer visual delights but more than that, it's also as emotionally involving as the books and I have to say the final showdown between Voldemort and Harry is better in the film than it was in the book. I'll stop comparing the books now. But all in all, one movie, Part 2 is pretty fantastic as a whole 5-hour film, I would have to say it absolutely works. It will definitely satisfy most fans. This is my 2nd favorite film of the year so far.

6 comments:

Kamatacci said...

I'm glad to see someone actually talk about the quality of the new movie. Everywhere I've looked online, people are just laughing about awkward hugs.

msmariah said...

The Sargasso Manuscript piques my interest. I'll have to netflix that one.

Jessica Thompson said...

Interesting.. Hit me back, alphabetalife.blogspot.com

J.B. said...

I don't really like Harry Potter, haven't even read the books. But the movies were entertaining. Gonna watch the last one too, maybe. Thanks for recommending it.

StigmataHandjob said...

Never read or saw Harry Potter, I tend to get really disappointed in things that are hyped, and HP is nothing if not hyped.

The Sargasso Manuscript sounds interesting though.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't agree more about the HP review. My 2nd fav so far as well behind X-Men