Rounders
Dahl, 1998
I’m a fan of poker, the game being one of the only card games I actually enjoy, so Rounders obviously appealed to me in that respect, and I’m sure this is the case with most people who decide to check the movie out. It was a good movie, I was entertained watching it, and felt fairly satisfied at the end, as if I hadn’t just wasted an hour and a half. But I really didn’t feel the movie ‘did’ anything, and it is mostly forgettable even five minutes later. It’s pretty fun while you’re there, but when you are done the movie almost instantly becomes an afterthought. Damon and Norton were both great, but unfortunately the movie relies way too much on overbearing narration, which is fine during the poker games, but being that the narration is used as a dramatic crutch takes something away from the story. Also, for a game about poker, there really isn’t as much actual power games as you would expect. Casino Royale had more poker, and it’s about James Bond. Mildly entertaining movie for when you have nothing else to do, but don’t expect a royal flush from Rounders.
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The Good German
Soderbergh, 2006
A throwback to the classic noirs of the 40s, The Good German takes place in post war Berlin, where black markets and under the table dealings rule the city and where peoples pasts follow them as closely as shadows. Visually, the movie looks fantastic, a true tribute to the look and feel of the noir classics. I would actually like to see this movie get a cinematography nomination; I really liked how it looked. The story maybe isn’t something I’m going to remember years down the road, but it is still well written and actually has an interesting subtext about whether or not all German’s were guilty for the Nazi crimes or not. I found it interesting how the movie explored this without having it feel tacked on. All in all it’s defiantly a movie I would suggest any fan of film noir go check out when it’s released, I was very satisfied with the movie as a whole, and it’s worth it for the visuals alone.
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Visions of Light
McCarthy, 1992
Visions of Light is a documentary concerning the art and craft of cinematography, from it’s birth to what it has evolved into now. It’s a bit dated in that there are really no 90s movies included (as it came out in the early 90s), and you can tell that the transfers of the films they showcase are dated compared to what we have now, but this is mostly superficial and doesn’t really affect the overall quality. I was very intrigued and captivated by the documentary, and it includes a huge amount of great clips from various movies accompanied by well done interviews with industry members and cinematographers. It was very well paced, I was never bored, and I also felt like I was learning new things, and even have a few new movies I want to check out now. My one major complaint is that they left out so many great movies that should have actually been explored in depth. Where was Barry Lyndon? The Third Man? Other than a three second clip of 2001: ASO, there was no mention of Kubrick’s films at all, yet they pretty much covered half of Scorsese’s pictures. It just didn’t always feel very balanced in this respect. But for what they did have, I was still very pleased with the documentary. Highly recommended if you are at all a fan of cinematography, as it is a very informative, entertaining and overall well done exploration of the subject.
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