The Gladiator gets extended

Gladiator (2000)

The problem with these big Hollywood spectacles is that they are rather one dimentional, they thoroughly entertain and thrill you when you first see them, maybe even leave you with something to think about. But usually the more times you watch them again the worse they get as there's nothing more for them to give and thus you end up paying too much attention to the small details, which usually tend to not work as well. I've seen this movie now about 5 or 6 times and even though none of those times has topped the first time I saw it at the theater, I still find this one working surprisingly well. The reason I watched this one again was because I updated my old DVD to a Blu-Ray which had the extended cut on it and I hadn't seen that before. I must say these Universal 100th Anniversary Collector's Edition Digibooks are absolutely brilliant. You can find good deals on them with less than 10 euros and with that you get the movie beautifully remastered on high definition and a ton of extra material in a nice book cover. Like I said the movie worked surprisingly well even though I've seen it often enough. Though of course the small things caught my eye a bit too much, like the problems with the background action in the war scene where people are just standing around there in middle of the battle and quite a few other small issues. But really I didn't mind them that much as the movie is still a great action packed drama with brilliant performances by the cast. Nowadays I don't see Russell Crowe's performance as great as I used to, it's still not bad by any means, but it's hugely overshadowed by Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed and Richard Harris. So pretty much every supporting actor does more or less a better job than Crowe. Another thing which has changed during the years are the visual effects, back in the days they looked amazing, but now not that much, especially on Blu-Ray some of the CGI shots stand out quite clearly. But luckily there aren't that many of them and otherwise this movie looks and sounds amazing in HD. And about the sounds Hans Zimmer's score is a classic already so that of course works great. Anyway, most of the extended cut material was actually not that great. I mean it was very interesting to see the scenes and at parts they brought a bit more depth to the supporting characters, but to be honest those scenes were rather nonessential and well worth leaving out. So in the end they only dragged the movie a bit too much. This rating is for the extended cut, the theatrical cut, and acording to Ridley Scott that's the director's cut as well, would be a few points higher.
81%

Yet another Robin Hood.

Robin Hood (2010)

Another action packed sword swinging movie from Ridley Scott. He already did it quite great on Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven wasn't a total crap either, so how's this one? Well unfortunately not good. The start was quite good and got me in right away. Then it starts to drag on a bit, but still is quite interesting and doesn't get boring. But towards the end things start to go wrong with scenes that are just utterly stupid. And the last 30 or 40 minutes are just plain crap you wish would end. Even at his worst Scott usually makes somewhat ok movies, but this just seems like a miss in every sense. He seems to drag on about all the unimportant things and fast forward on the important and interesting things. The cast is great, but unfortunately the movie isn't. Some points for the cast and a plus for the nice looking ending credits.
25%

A mixed bag of shorts

Cinema 16: European Short Films

A collection of short films from selected European directors. I'll go thru them one by one as they are individual pieces, with very little in common, just put together on this DVD.

01 The Man Without a Head (2003) by Juan Solanas

The title says the general idea, a man without a head is searching for his identity. This is stunnigly well made and quite a great little movie. The look and the feel is somewhat similar to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's movies, which is a great thing of course. And the visual part is what makes this one worth watching as it's pure eye candy.
86%

02 Wasp (2003) by Andrea Arnold

A poor unfit mother with four children looking for a solution to her problems from a man in a pub while her children are left to take care of eachother outside the pub. Filled with unglorified realism and raw emotions. Quite a sad little story and you definitely feel sorry for the children, certainly not a feel good movie. Guess I had the wrong mood for this one as it didn't strike me that well, even thou it's a strong movie.
49%

03 Doodlebug (1997) by Christopher Nolan

Early short film from Christopher Nolan, the man behind Memento and The Dark Knight. Can't say anything about the story as it's only 3 minutes long and runs on one idea. The idea is quite nice, but the outcome is a bit too predictable. As a curiosity it was nice to see this one, but in the end it wasn't that special.
49%

04 World of Glory (1991) by Roy Andersson

Roy Andersson is one of the best Swedish filmmakers. It's really a shame he makes movies so seldom. This is him at his best, similar to Songs from the Second Floor, a bizarre, weird, drop dead funny, dark comic piece of art. This man is a genius.
99%

05 Je t'aime John Wayne (2000) by Toby MacDonald

Ok, this movie is supposed to work better if you've seen Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard. Well it should be put IF you like Breathless, you might get more sense out of it. I've seen the movie and still this didn't strike me on any level. A dull movie with superficial characters and little to nothing to offer.
14%

06 Gasman (1997) by Lynne Ramsay

Well made, but quite predictable and pointless. What I liked about this one was the way it was shot, it looked really good. The characters were believable and the cast seemed to hadle the roles nicely, even thou the brittish dialect they were speaking wasn't the easiest to understand. But what I didn't like was the plot, or the lack of it. It was too predictable and pointless, it left me wondering did I miss some higher meaning or what? I got the point and even guessed the title's part of it, but it was a bit of an anticlimax.
40%

07 Jabberwocky (1971) by Jan Svankmajer

Jan Svankmajer, famous for his stop motion meat animations, is the man behind this crazy work. The stop motion animation is good quality and some of the stuff is quite brilliant. But this has no point what so ever, it's just crazy scene after another. And unfortunately it get a bit boring after a while for example to see the cat jump out again. As a shorter version and with a bit more easily approachable point this could have been a masterpiece, but now it feels like it's just visual art put together without any end goal.
41%

08 Fierrot le pou (1990) by Mathieu Kassovitz

An early film from Mathieu Kassovitz, who made the masterpiece La Haine. Well, this was entertaining enough, but left me cold at the end. Again there's no point in this one, well except the obvious white men can't jump. It was well made and the cast was suiting, but left me wondering why did they make it, didn't get the point if it had any.
29%

09 Rabbit (2005) by Run Wrake

The animation looks like it's from an old children's book, but it tells a grim tale about greed. The contrast between the candy colored animation and the quite horrible story is what's best in this one. Definitely a big positive surprise.
78%

10 Copy Shop (2001) by Virgil Widrich

Funny little film about a man who seems to be copying himself endlessly. Brilliantly made, thou at parts the paper effects were a bit annoying. Reminded me of some of the great silent era films, I could imagine Buster Keaton running around like that. Very nice movie.
81%

11 Boy and Bicycle (1965) by Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott's early student work starring none other than his brother Tony Scott. Both brilliant movie makers today, but as we can see from this one, even the best have to start from somewhere. As the title says it's a story about a boy who's riding around a small coastal English town. He's sharing his frustration with the viewer by a voiceover of his thoughts as he's pondering on about life. The text is quite corny and the movie is rather dull. Thou it looks good and some of the compositions are quite brilliant. For a true Ridley Scott fan this is a must see, but the rest can live without it.
44%

12 Nocturne (1980) by Lars Von Trier

Experimental nonsese. That's about all I can come up with this one. Sure some shots looked quite good, the start and the birds, but it had no point what so ever.
18%

13 Before Dawn (2005) by Balint Kenyeres

Wow. The whole movie is one 12 minutes long shot and what a shot it is. Stunnigly beautiful and even thou there's not much actually happening it's surprisingly touching. Sure there's some action, with cars and helicopters moving around, but there's no dialog except for a few shouts. And still it manages to tell a touching story. Hats off for this one.
95%

14 Election Night (1998) by Anders Thomas Jensen

A man remembers he forgot to vote and rushes to the voting polls before they close. On the way he meets a variety of cab drivers who are all in a way racists. This movie was quite cleverly written and nicely avoids being overly preachy. Loved the end twist in all it's irony. Not the most realistic movie, but still very enjoyable.
70%

15 Six Shooter (2004) by Martin McDonagh

Was looking forward for this one as I really loved In Bruges. This was a dark and quite brutal comedy about a man who meets a weird young man on a train. They seem to be from totally different worlds, but there's more than meets the eye. Was a bit of a disapointment as I guess I set my hopes too high. Still it was funny enough to keep me entertained and definitely worth the watch.
72%

16 Opening Day of Close-Up (1996) by Nanni Moretti

A documentary like piece about a man who runs a chain of theatres. This was a bit of an bad ending to the fine DVD as this movie is just boring. Yes it has some nice points about independent films versus the big blockbusters, but it doesn't really give you anything new.
20%

All in all this DVD is quite a mixed selection of shorts, ranging from the utter crap to the masterpieces. Definitely worth watching thou as the gems outshine the bad taste from the rotten ones.