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Proof (2005)
Proof (2005)
2005 | Drama
๐˜‹๐˜ถ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฃ ๐˜ž๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ, a movie about advanced mathematics that couldn't possibly be more stupid. A quote on the back of the DVD case advertised this sappy drivel as "The kind of movie that's made for Oscar" - and I have to say, I couldn't agree more: in that it's overdramatized into ruin, sickeningly melodramatic to the point of near offense, talks a great deal but says nothing (has lengthy asides about conditioners and pointless math puns to pad out this pathetic non-story), everyone overacts, and it reeks of a pretentious stage production poorly translated to the screen with minimal effort. Overly literary for no reason whatsoever, despite the fact that it's nothing more than unnecessary, surface-level jargon which actively refuses to show even a hint of depth. What I'm sure would be at least *ever so slightly* more compelling on the stage absolutely falls apart on screen with no sense of what this should have kept/added/omitted/etc. to make it work. The only proof to come out of this is that John Madden remains one of the reigning kings of bad, intolerable Oscar bait. Glad he gave up this shit for worlds better stuff like ๐˜”๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ด ๐˜š๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ. Lowpoint cringe cinema.
  
The Living Daylights (1987)
The Living Daylights (1987)
1987 | Action
Fifteenth Bond movie is obviously trying to toughen the franchise up a bit after the knockabout fun of the last couple of Roger Moore films: Dalton's 007 is a hardened assassin who is repeatedly despatched on missions to execute people. Nevertheless, the producers hedge their bets by still including a few sight gags and comedy bits here and there. The plot is one of the franchise's knottiest, which isn't necessarily a bonus: possibly as a result of this, it's quite hard to work out who the evil mastermind is - Joe Don Baker gets the big confrontation and death scene, but Jeroen Krabbe has a lot more screen time.

Still, all the globetrotting, fights and chases and so on you would expect from a Bond film in the classic style, and Dalton brings enough of the literary Bond to the screen to make this satisfying for people who like the franchise in slightly grittier mode. Has a certain value as a historical oddity, given it concludes with Bond teaming up with (essentially) the Taliban to attack an airbase in Afghanistan. Dalton arguably never got a proper crack of the whip as Bond; in this film he shows enough promise to make that a real cause for regret.