Tuesday, December 23, 2003

DVD Review: Respiro - 1 star We rented this as an Italian film, but the opening credits made it clear that it was a joint venture, Italian and French. Uh-oh. We usually don't like French films. But we kept on watching a while. The cover description must have said something attractive. And it's nice to see people cruising around on little mopeds or scooters. After a while, though, we began to wish for some kind of plot. Finally, perhaps twenty minutes into the film, we gave it up. Plotless unpleasantness just doesn't do it for us. I looked on the internet to see if I could find out what it was supposed to be about. Oh. It was about a woman on an impoverished Italian island. Townspeople there think she's mad. Well, that explains why she suddnely started throwing dishes around. Then her family held her down and gave her a shot. That's when we decided to stop. I noticed at amazon.com that two customer reviews mentioned they liked the film ok except for the ending. So I'm glad we stopped when we did. My recommendation is to skip this film altogether. 1 (at the most) star 8:00:16 PM    comment []

DVD Review: Pipe Dream - 2 stars This comedy is really carried along by the attractive charm of the three main actors: Martin Donovan, Mary-Louise Parker, and Rebecca Gayheart. Watching it, I liked the main character, a plumber. As he devised and carried out a scheme to become "visible" to other people - especially to attractive young women - I wanted him to succeed. Then, at some point, his cheating went too far. Sincerity in romance just doesn't make up for an overall lack of integrity. It's odd that some films can make a violent criminal an attractive character, with whom I enjoy identifying. Other films just don't make this work. The plumber in Pipe Dream isn't a violent criminal, but I still feel a certain distaste for him after watching the film to the end. In Kohlberg's moral development scale, Pipe Dream, like many films about cheating or crime, works at a level 3. (What's good is what's good for the people I care about.) Not good enough. By the way, I'm not sure I picked out the best link to information on Kohlberg. I studied his theory back in the early '80's. But a google search on "Kohlberg moral development" brings up plenty of sites. 9:27:04 AM    comment []