Random Thoughts: Catwoman, The Dreamers

Catwoman - 3/10
First, the good: The cinematography, particularly in the rooftop sequences, is gorgeous. The sound and score are top notch. I enjoyed the opening credits showing the cats place in history. The sequence where Patience is revived is undeniably cheesy, but it is well executed and has feline-esque movement to it. Now, the bad: Sharon Stone. Wow. Seriously, woman. Retire. Give it up. Casino was great, but you've been milking the Basic Instinct thing for too long. The (over)director. His name is Pitoq, I believe. I'm pretty sure that's something I've made in a toaster before. He seems to have talent, but its not suited for this. The editing, like that in King Arthur, makes scenes incomprehensible. I know they're going for a fast-paced approach, but that only works if you have a clue what is going on. Then there's the soundtrack which seems to be trying to make up for the fact that Halle Berry is only half black. The film's biggest culprit for failing is its screenplay. Let's just take arbitrary superhero movie moments and try to form our own. We call this the Daredevil school of thought. You start to feel sorry for everyone and the dialogue they deliver. In between the bad and the good is Halle Berry. At the opening she plays the downtrodden Patience Phillips who is made all the more laughable when you realize she's played by the unforgivably beautiful Berry. You begin to feel sorry for the actress being stuck in such a dud. Then, she becomes Catwoman. Halle's body looks great in the suit, which may have been the reason for choosing that god-awful creation. But she's given what has to be the most god-awful haircut in the history of the cinema. Berry will recover. Turn back to small dramas, where the actress has always been the most successful. Everyone else associated, take some time off.


The Dreamers - 5/10
Do you like France? Do you like movies? Do you like sexy, pretentious college kids who are bored and like to fuck a lot? But more importantly, do you like pubic hair? Well, here's your movie. I love the premise of the film: an American student in Paris during 1968 is obsessed with the cinemateque, befriends incestuous twins, and spends the next month ignoring the chaos on the streets of France to spend it all in a posh apartment having lots of sex and discussing films. Amazingly, you'd think there'd be more to the film than that, but that's about all the film does. Michael Pitt is becoming quite the experimental actor, and he's a talent to watch. Eva Green is the sexy French girl who spends half the movie naked and seducing just about everything. The actor who plays her brother is pretty forgettable. None of these actors play characters, just types. Once the credits start rolling, no matter how much sex and arguments you've just witnessed, you really have no idea who these people are other than the brief character descriptions you could write in a sentence. I had numerous other problems with this film, but I can understand the reasons for why they were. I only wish more would be addressed about the outside political turmoil, but I guess we're too ignore that based alone on the title of the movie. The Dreamers doesn't work more than it does, and only breifly hints at the film it could've been.