第一篇：英文电影影评
Titanic, “not only because it is a successful commercial film and, more importantly, it brought about the end of the century a wave of nostalgia: the Titanic sank in the early 20th century is a tragedy, the film has to The facts add up the true love story, set sail Tai Tanni will be less than 5 days of love, friendship and a disaster at the end of the century before this generation, it told us a truth: that we must cherish life.Short of climbing aboard a time capsule and peeling back eight and one-half decades, James Cameron's magnificent Titanic is the closest any of us will get to walking the decks of the doomed ocean liner.Meticulous in detail, yet vast in scope and intent, Titanic is the kind of epic motion picture event that has become a rarity.You don't just watch Titanic, you experience it--from the launch to the sinking, then on a journey two and one-half miles below the surface, into the cold, watery grave where Cameron has shot never-before seen documentary footage specifically for this movie.In each of his previous outings, Cameron has pushed the special effects envelope.In Aliens, he cloned H.R.Giger's creation dozens of times, fashioning an army of nightmarish monsters.In The Abyss, he took us deep under the sea to greet a band of benevolent space travelers.In T2, he introduced the morphing terminator(perfecting an effects process that was pioneered in The Abyss).And in True Lies, he used digital technology to choreograph an in-air battle.Now, in Titanic, Cameron's flawless re-creation of the legendary ship has blurred the line between reality and illusion to such a degree that we can't be sure what's real and what isn't.To make this movie, it's as if Cameron built an all-new Titanic, let it sail, then sunk it.Of course, special effects alone don't make for a successful film, and Titanic would have been nothing more than an expensive piece of eye candy without a gripping story featuring interesting characters.In his previous outings, Cameron has always placed people above the technological marvels that surround them.Unlike film makers such as Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, Cameron has used visual effects to serve his plot, not the other way around.That hasn't changed with Titanic.The picture's spectacle is the ship's sinking, but its core is the affair between a pair of mismatched, star-crossed lovers.Titanic is a romance, an adventure, and a thriller all rolled into one.It contains moments of exuberance, humor, pathos, and tragedy.In their own way, the characters are all larger-than-life, but they're human enough(with all of the attendant frailties)to capture our sympathy.Perhaps the most amazing thing about Titanic is that, even though Cameron carefully recreates the death of the ship in all of its terrible grandeur, the event never eclipses the protagonists.To the end, we never cease caring about Rose(Kate Winslet)and Jack(Leonardo DiCaprio).Titanic sank during the early morning hours of April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic, killing 1500 of the 2200 on board.The movie does not begin in 1912, however--instead, it opens in modern times, with a salvage expedition intent on recovering some of the ship's long-buried treasure.The expedition is led by Brock Lovett(Bill Paxton), a fortune hunter who is searching for the mythical ”Heart of the Ocean“, a majestic 56 karat diamond which reputedly went down with the ship.After seeing a TV report about the salvage mission, a 101-year old woman(Gloria Stuart)contacts Brock with inｆｒｏｍation regarding the jewel.She identifies herself as Rose DeWitt Bukater, a survivor of the tragedy.Brock has her flown out to his ship.Once there, she tells him her version of the story of Titanic's ill-fated voyage.The bulk of the film--well over 80% of its running time--is spent in flashbacks.We pick up the story on the day that Titanic leaves Southampton, with jubilant crowds cheering as it glides away from land.On board are the movie's three main characters: Rose, a young American debutante trapped in a loveless engagement because her mother is facing financial ruin;Cal Hockley(Billy Zane), her rich-but-cold-hearted fianc? and Jack Dawson, a penniless artist who won his third-class ticket in a poker game.When Jack first sees Rose, it's from afar, but circumstances offer him the opportunity to become much closer to her.As the voyage continues, Jack and Rose grow more intimate, and she tries to summon up the courage to defy her mother(Frances Fisher)and break off her engagement.But, even with the aid of an outspoken rich women named Molly Brown(Kathy Bates), the barrier of class looms as a seemingly-insurmountable obstacle.Then, when circumstances in the Rose/Cal/Jack triangle are coming to a head, Titanic strikes an iceberg and the ”unsinkable" ship(that term is a testament to man's hubris)begins to go down.By keeping the focus firmly on Rose and Jack, Cameron avoids one frequent failing of epic disaster movies: too many characters in too many stories.When a film tries to chronicle the lives and struggles of a dozen or more individuals, it reduces them all to cardboard cut-outs.In Titanic, Rose and Jack are at the fore from beginning to end, and the supporting characters are just that--supporting.The two protagonists(as well as Cal)are accorded enough screen time for Cameron to develop multifaceted personalities.As important as the characters are, however, it's impossible to deny the power of the visual effects.Especially during the final hour, as Titanic undergoes its death throes, the film functions not only as a rousing adventure with harrowing escapes, but as a testimony to the power of computers to simulate reality in the modern motion picture.The scenes of Titanic going under are some of the most awe-inspiring in any recent film.This is the kind of movie that it's necessary to see more than once just to appreciate the level of detail.One of the most unique aspects of Titanic is its use of genuine documentary images to set the stage for the flashback story.Not satisfied with the reels of currently-existing footage of the sunken ship, Cameron took a crew to the site of the wreck to do his own filming.As a result, some of the underwater shots in the framing sequences are of the actual liner lying on the ocean floor.Their importance and impact should not be underestimated, since they further heighten the production's sense of verisimilitude.For the leading romantic roles of Jack and Rose, Cameron has chosen two of today's finest young actors.Leonardo DiCaprio(Romeo + Juliet), who has rarely done better work, has shed his cocky image.Instead, he's likable and energetic in this part--two characteristics vital to establishing Jack as a hero.Meanwhile, Kate Winslet, whose impressive resume includes Sense and Sensibility, Hamlet, and Jude, dons a flawless American accent along with her 1912 garb, and essays an appealing, vulnerable Rose.Billy Zane comes across as the perfect villain--callous, arrogant, yet displaying true affection for his prized fianc? The supporting cast, which includes Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill(as Titanic's captain), and David Warner(as Cal's no-nonsense manservant), is flawless.While Titanic is easily the most subdued and dramatic of Cameron's films, fans of more frantic pictures like Aliens and The Abyss will not be disappointed.Titanic has all of the thrills and intensity that movie-goers have come to expect from the director.A dazzling mix of style and substance, of the sublime and the spectacular, Titanic represents Cameron's most accomplished work to date.It's important not to let the running time hold you back--these three-plus hour pass very quickly.Although this telling of the Titanic story is far from the first, it is the most memorable, and is deserving of Oscar nominations not only in the technical categories, but in the more substantive ones of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress.© 1997 James Berardinelli
第二篇：经典英文电影影评
China: A Century of Revolution（中国，革命的世纪）
DISC ONE Part One: China in Revolution 1911–1949(1989)DISC TWO Part Two: The Mao Years 1949–1976(1994)DISC THREE Part Three: Born Under the Red Flag 1976–1997(1997)A film by Sue Williams co-produced by Kathryn Dietz
China: A Century of Revolution is a six-hour tour de force journey through the country’s most tumultuous period.First televised on PBS, this award-winning documentary series presents an astonishingly candid view of a once-secret nation with rare archival footage, insightful historical commentary and stunning eyewitness accounts from citizens who struggled through China’s most decisive century.China in Revolution charts the pivotal years from the birth of the new republic to the establishment of the PRC, through foreign invasions, civil war and a bloody battle for power between Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek.The Mao Years examines the turbulent era of Mao’s attempts to forge a “new China” from the war-ravaged and exhausted nation.Born Under the Red Flag showcases China’s unlikely transformation into an extraordinary hybrid of communist-centralized politics with an ever-expanding free market economy.Monumental in scope, China: A Century of Revolution is critical viewing for anyone interested in this increasingly powerful and globally influential country.Slumdog Millionaire（贫民窟的百万富翁）2008 A gaudy, gorgeous rush of color, sound and motion, “Slumdog Millionaire,” the latest from the British shape-shifter Danny Boyle, doesn’t travel through the lower depths, it giddily bounces from one horror to the next.A modern fairy tale about a pauper angling to become a prince, this sensory blowout largely takes place amid the squalor of Mumbai, India, where lost children and dogs sift through trash so fetid you swear you can smell the discarded mango as well as its peel, or could if the film weren’t already hurtling through another picturesque gutter.Mr.Boyle, who first stormed the British movie scene in the mid-1990s with flashy entertainments like “Shallow Grave” and “Transporting,” has a flair for the outré.Few other directors could turn a heroin addict rummaging inside a rank toilet bowl into a surrealistic underwater reverie, as he does in “Transporting,” and fewer still could do so while holding onto the character’s basic humanity.The addict, played by Ewan McGregor, emerges from his repulsive splish-splashing with a near-beatific smile(having successfully retrieved some pills), a terrible if darkly funny image that turns out to have been representative not just of Mr.Boyle’s bent humor but also of his worldview: better to swim than to sink.Swimming comes naturally to Jamal(the British actor Dev Patel in his feature-film debut), who earns a living as a chai-wallah serving fragrant tea to call-center workers in Mumbai and who, after a series of alternating exhilarating and unnerving adventures, has landed in the hot seat on the television game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” Yet while the story opens with Jamal on the verge of grabbing the big prize, Simon Beaufoy’s cleverly kinked screenplay, adapted from a novel by Vikas Swarup, embraces a fluid view of time and space, effortlessly shuttling between the young contestant’s past and his present, his childhood spaces and grown-up times.Here, narrative doesn’t begin and end: it flows and eddies — just like life.By all rights the texture of Jamal’s life should have been brutally coarsened by tragedy and poverty by the time he makes a grab for the television jackpot.But because “Slumdog Millionaire” is self-consciously(perhaps commercially)framed as a contemporary fairy tale cum love story, or because Mr.Boyle leans toward the sanguine, this proves to be one of the most upbeat stories about living in hell imaginable.It’s a life that begins in a vast, vibrant, sun-soaked, jampacked ghetto, a kaleidoscopic city of flimsy shacks and struggling humanity and takes an abrupt, cruel turn when Jamal(Ayush Mahesh Khedekar), then an exuberant 7, and his cagier brother, Salim(Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail), witness the murder of their mother(Sanchita Choudhary)by marauding fanatics armed with anti-Muslim epithets and clubs.Cast into the larger, uncaring world along with another new orphan, a shy beauty named Latika(Rubina Ali plays the child, Freida Pinto the teenager), the three children make their way from one refuge to another before falling prey to a villain whose exploitation pushes the story to the edge of the unspeakable.Although there’s something undeniably fascinating, or at least watchable, about this ghastly interlude — the young actors are very appealing and sympathetic, and the images are invariably pleasing even when they should not be — it’s unsettling to watch these young characters and, by extension, the young nonprofessionals playing them enact such a pantomime.It doesn’t help even if you remember that Jamal makes it out alive long enough to have his 15 televised minutes.It’s hard to hold onto any reservations in the face of Mr.Boyle’s resolutely upbeat pitch and seductive visual style.Beautifully shot with great sensitivity to color by the cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, in both film and digital video, “Slumdog Millionaire” makes for a better viewing experience than it does for a reflective one.It’s an undeniably attractive package, a seamless mixture of thrills and tears, armchair tourism(the Taj Mahal makes a guest appearance during a sprightly interlude)and crackerjack professionalism.Both the reliably great Irrfan Khan(“A Mighty Heart”), as a sadistic detective, and the Bollywood star Anil Kapoor, as the preening game-show host, run circles around the young Mr.Patel, an agreeable enough if vague centerpiece to all this coordinated, insistently happy chaos.In the end, what gives me reluctant pause about this bright, cheery, hard-to-resist movie is that its joyfulness feels more like a filmmaker’s calculation than an honest cry from the heart about the human spirit(or, better yet, a moral tale).In the past Mr.Boyle has managed to wring giggles out of murder(“Shallow Grave”)and addiction(“Transporting”), and invest even the apocalypse with a certain joie de vivre(the excellent zombie flick “28 Days Later”).He’s a blithely glib entertainer who can dazzle you with technique and, on occasion, blindside you with emotion, as he does in his underrated children’s movie, “Millions.” He plucked my heartstrings in “Slumdog Millionaire” with well-practiced dexterity, coaxing laughter and sobs out of each sweet, sour and false note.No.2 Slumdog Millionaire（贫民窟的百万富翁）2008
An orphaned Mumbai slum kid tries to change his life by winning TV's 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' in a feelgood fable from director Danny Boyle and the writer of The Full Monty, Simon Beaufoy Jamal Malik('Skins' star Dev Patel)is being beaten by Mumbai police for allegedly cheating on hit TV show 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' One question away from the ultimate 20 million rupee prize, no one, including slick show host Prem(Anil Kapoor), believes a chai wallah(teaboy)like Jamal could know all the answers.As the tough inspector(Irfan Khan)replays Jamal's appearance on the show, it's revealed that each question corresponds to a specific life lesson from Jamal's tragic past.Raised in abject poverty in Mumbai's grimmest slum along with older brother Salim, then orphaned by a Hindu mob attack, Jamal and Salim are forced to fend for themselves on the streets through opportunistic petty crime.They pick up a young girl, fellow orphan Latika(Freida Pinto), escape the clutches of a vicious Fagin-like crime boss, lose Latika, and continue their picaresque adventures, one step ahead of the law.As adolescents, however, Salim becomes entranced by a life of crime and Latika's unexpected return sets brother against brother.Will Jamal salvage his girl, his fortune and his life on 'Millionaire'? Adapted by Full Monty writer Simon Beaufoy from Vikas Swarup's hit novel 'Q&A', Slumdog is an underdog tale.Beaufoy's lively screenplay scampers after Swarup's self-consciously Dickensian storytelling tradition, and is even built around the 'Millionaire' show, as iconic a symbol of Western capitalist entertainment as exists.Director Danny Boyle and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle have evidently immersed themselves in India's sensory overload.The film revels in the sub-continent's chaotic beauty and raging colours, from Mumbai shantytowns to Agra's regal Taj Mahal.The thrillingly off-the-cuff digital imagery reflects a nation in a state of explosive flux, loo ming skyscrapers erupting from wasteland, slum kids turning into overnight millionaires through the kiss of television.The film's uniquely vibrant, headlong 21st century rush is that of the infinite possibilities of modern India itself.Slumdog's such a crowd-pleaser that some critics might brand it Boyle's best since Trainspotting.It even echoes a couple of that film's classic set pieces, notably a slum chase reminiscent of Renton and Co's opening Edinburgh dash and a lavatorial incident so stomach-churning(yet hilarious), it makes Trainspotting's infamous toilet scene seem like Ewan McGregor took an Evian bath.In fact, the likable Boyle has been on great form for some timethough, true to form, he's insistent here on crediting co-director Loveleen Tandan, whose major contribution seems to have been unearthing the wonderfully naturalistic kids to play Jamal, Salim and Latika.Verdict A spirited underdog fable marinated in modern India's melting pot.Danny Boyle's still the master of spices.Tess(苔丝)1979 Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which Roman Polanski has turned into a lovely, lyrical, unexpectedly delicate movie, might at first seem to be the wrong project for Mr.Polanski in every way.As a new biography of the director reports, when Tess was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, the press pointed nastily and repeatedly to the coincidence of Mr.Polanski's having made a film about a young girl's seduction by an older man, while he himself faced criminal charges for a similar offense.This would certainly seem to cast a pall over the project.So would the fact that Hardy's novel is so very deeply rooted in English landscapes, geographical and sociological, while Mr.Polanski was brought up in Poland.Finally, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is so quintessentially Victorian a story that a believable version might seem well out of any contemporary director's reach.But if an elegant, plausible, affecting Tess sounds like more than might have been expected of Mr.Polanski, let's just say he has achieved the impossible.In fact, in the process of adapting his style to suit such a sweeping and vivid novel, he has achieved something very unlike his other work.Without Mr.Polanski's name in the credits, this lush and scenic Tess could even be mistaken for the work of David Lean.In a preface to the later editions of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Mr.Hardy described the work as “an impression, not an argument.” Mr.Polanski has taken a similar approach, removing the sting from both the story's morality and its melodrama.Tess Durbeyfield, the hearty country lass whose downfall begins when her father learns he had noble forebears, is sent to charm her rich D'Urberville relations.She learns that they aren't D'Urbervilles after all;instead, they have used their new money to purchase an old name.Tess charms them anyhow, so much that Alec D'Urberville, her imposter cousin, seduces and impregnates her.The seduction, like many of the film's key scenes, is presented in a manner both earthy and discreet.In this case, the action is set in a forest, where a gentle mist arises from the ground and envelops Tess just around the time when she is enveloped by Alec.Alec, as played by Leigh Lawson, is a slightly wooden character, unlike Angel Clare, Tess's later and truer lover, played with supreme radiance by Peter Firth.Long after Tess has borne and buried her illegitimate child, she finds and falls in love with this spirited soul mate.But when she marries Angel Clare and is at last ready to reveal the secret of her past, the story begins hurtling toward its final tragedy.When Tess becomes a murderer, the film offers its one distinctly Polanski-like moment—but even that scene has its fidelity to the novel.A housemaid listening at a door hears a “drip, drip, drip” sound, according to Hardy.Mr.Polanski has simply interpreted this with a typically mischievous flourish.Of all the unlikely strong points of Tess, which opens today for a weeklong engagement at the Baronet and which will reopen next year, the unlikeliest is Nastassja Kinski, who plays the title role.Miss Kinski powerfully resembles the young Ingrid Bergman, and she is altogether ravishing.But she's an odd choice for Tess: not quite vigorous enough, and maybe even too beautiful.She's an actress who can lose her magnetism and mystery if she's given a great deal to do(that was the case in an earlier film called Stay As You Are).But here, Mr.Polanski makes perfect use of her.Instead of a driving force, she becomes an echo of the land and the society around her, more passive than Hardy's Tess but linked just as unmistakably with natural forces.Miss Kinski's Tess has no inner life to speak of.But Mr.Polanski makes her surroundings so expressive that her placidity and reserve work very beautifully.Even at its nearly three-hour running time, Mr.Polanski's Tess cannot hope for anything approaching the range of the novel.But the deletions have been made wisely, and though the story loses some of its resonance it maintains its momentum.There are episodes—like one involving Tess's shabby boots and Mercy Chant, the more respectable girl who expects to marry Angel—that don't make the sense they should, and the action is fragmented at times.That's a small price to pay for the movie's essential rightness, for its congruence with the mood and manner of the novel.Mr.Polanski had to go to Normandy and rebuild Stonehenge to stage his last scene, according to this same biography.As is the case throughout his Tess, the results were worth the trouble.The Pursuit of Happiness（当幸福来敲门）2006 With a title like The Pursuit of Happiness, you expect the characters to get to the promised land.They do, but if the journey matters more than the destination, this is a movie to skip.The Pursuit of Happyness is long, dull, and depressing.It expands into two hours a story that could have been told more effectively in one.This is not the feel-good movie of the season unless you believe that a few moments of good cheer can redeem 110 minutes of gloom.Sitting through The Pursuit of Happiness is a chore.Downbeat movies aren't inherently bad(in fact, many are powerful), but this one provides artificial characters in contrived circumstances.How is it that movies “inspired by a real story” often feel more fake than those fully embedded in the realm of fiction? Will Smith has generated Oscar buzz for his portrayal of Chris Gardner, the real-life guy whose rags-to-riches story forms the basis of the movie.(Impoverished guy becomes capitalist poster boy.)While it's fair to say that this is one of the best straight performances of Smith's career, it didn't blow me away.In and of itself, the acting, while effective, is not Best Actor material, but it wouldn't surprise me if the movie's prestige factor and Smith's popularity earn him a nod.Meanwhile, his female co-star, Thandie Newton, isn't going to be considered for any award.Newton spends about 90% of her screen time doing an impersonation of a harpy: screeching, bitching, and contorting her face into unpleasant expressions.Smith's son, Jaden, is okay as the movie's child protagonist;it's unclear whether his occasional deficiencies are the result of his acting, Steven Conrad's writing, or Gabriele Muccino's direction, but there's not much personality behind the cute features and curly hair.Chris Gardner(Will Smith)is down on his luck.It's 1981 San Francisco and his self-employed business of selling portable bone density scanners isn't doing well.His wife, Linda(Thandie Newton), does nothing but yell at him and give him a cold shoulder, and the lack of domestic harmony is impacting the disposition of his beloved son, Christopher(Jaden Christopher Syre Smith).That's when Chris' life turns into a country song.His wife leaves.He is evicted from his home.He goes to jail, neither passing GO nor collecting a much-needed $200.He gets hit by a car.He is robbed.He makes his son cry.He alienates a friend over $14.He gets to spend a night in the cleanest public restroom in the history of public restrooms.But there's a bright spot, although you need a dark-adapted eye to find it.Despite having no experience, Chris applies to enter an internship program at Dean Witter.He would appear to have no chance to get in until he amazes the head of the program(Brian Howe)by solving the Rubik's Cube puzzle in the back of a taxi cab.It's a blessing that the movie doesn't use a stock villain to impede Chris' herky-jerky trip to the top, because that would have tipped the movie into the empire of the unwatchable.However, the lack of a strong conflict makes the two-hour running length seem very long.Thankfully, there's also not much in the way of overt melodrama, but that could be a byproduct of having characters who are not deeply realized and have narrow emotional ranges.It's tough to connect with Chris and his son.Although they are played by a real-life father and son, there's no chemistry between them.We're constantly told how desperately Chris loves Christopher, but it takes a long time before we begin to buy it.Most of the time, Christopher seems like an annoying piece of baggage that Chris drops off at daycare when he has other things to do.The film's most compelling scenes are those that show Chris struggling to enter the rat race.Granted, this is no Glengarry Glen Ross, but it shows the pressure these salesmen are under and how important the contact lists are.In the overall scheme of things, however, these sequences are background noise.They are neither plentiful nor lengthy.The movie spends more time following Chris on his futile sales rounds for the bone density scanner than it does accompanying him during his broker training.The moral of the story is as trite as they come: don't let anyone convince you to give up on your dreams.Disney animated films have been doing this better for decades.The Pursuit of Happyness concludes with a caption that tells us what happens to Chris after the end of the movie;it promises a better story than the one we have just watched.The film is also marred by a persistent(although not verbose)voiceover that adds nothing to the story while frequently jerking us out of the experience of watching it.I don't need Will Smith telling me: “This part of the story is called 'riding the bus.'” This is the English-language debut of Gabriele Muccino, who has made a name for himself in Italian cinema.The Pursuit of Happiness has the kind of slow, drab tone one occasionally associates with a director raised outside of the Hollywood system.What can be an asset in some circumstances is a detriment in this one.The Pursuit of Happiness isn't enjoyable, and its meager pleasures, including the eventual “payoff,” aren't enough to justify the unrelenting misery.The Pursuit of Happiness is competently made and gets lots of the details right, but when it comes to the emotional core of the story, it loses the pursuit and misses the “happiness.”
No.2 The Pursuit of Happiness（当幸福来敲门）2006
Will Smith plays a San Francisco medical equipment salesman who resolves to change his life and become a stockbroker, but is made homeless in the process The sort of film the Oscars are designed for, The Pursuit Of Happiness should induce nausea.There's the cheesy dialogue(“You want something, go get itat least for a while.There isn't a scintilla of intellectual humor in the whole movie, and the repeated bashings and burnings received by the hapless villains get tiring after the first hour.There also seem to be an inordinate number of jokes dealing with the crushing, mutilation, or incineration of male reproductive organs.Young children will also laugh at this film, but there's a question about whether the content is suitable.With Home Alone, most of the damage done to the thugs was relatively minor, at least compared to what happens in Baby's Day Out.This time around, the cartoon mentality is taken to its Wiley Coyote absolute, with the Stooges constantly surviving crippling or should-be-fatal accidents.Somehow, it's more disturbing than funny when it happens to reel people, as opposed to animated creatures.Other than the slapstick, there's little to recommend this movie.A subplot involving how a status-obsessed mother comes to grips with her missing child is horribly misplaced, and these strains of melodrama are cloying.Whenever Lara Flynn Boyle appears on screen, it's the fervent wish of nearly every member of the audience that the movie turn its attention back to the baby.Like Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern before them, the trio in Baby's Day Out make amusingly inept crooks.Baby Bink is cute, but that's what little kids are supposed to be, and most of the impressive baby stunts result from ILM's work, not the incredible athletic ability of the Worton boys.Maybe the worst thing to happen to John Hughes was the success of Home Alone.Since then, with the exception of Only the Lonely(which was already in production by the time Kevin's family left without him), the filmmaker hasn't released a movie with even a spark of originality.Before Culkin, Hughes occasionally came up with something entertaining.Now, he has become redundant and tiresome.Doubtless, if Baby's Day Out makes money, there will be more of this fare to come.And, with the protagonists getting younger with each new picture, one wonders if the next release of this sort might end up being called Adventures in the Womb.Captain Corelli's Mandolin（战地情人）2001 If you've been longing to visit the Greek islands but haven't the time or money to make the journey, you could do worse than spend a couple of hours soaking up the scenery in ''Captain Corelli's Mandolin.'' Filmed largely on Cephalonia, the island that is the setting of Louis de Bernières's much-loved 1994 novel, ''Corelli's Mandolin''(from which the film was adapted), the movie shimmers with a bluish-gold luminescence reflected from the turquoise waters of the Ionian Sea.This light lends the craggy landscape a hot coppery radiance that seems to emanate from inside the earth.Cinematographically(John Toll supervised), the movie is a glorious ode to the sun-baked island on which it was filmed.Although the drama that storms across this rugged paradise encompasses a war and a major earthquake, not to mention oodles of star-crossed love, little of it comes to life.Directed by John Madden(''Shakespeare in Love''), ''Captain Corelli's Mandolin'' wants to be a lofty, red-blooded wartime epic in the style of ''The English Patient,'' daubed with ''Zorba the Greek'' earth tones.But as the movie methodically plods forward on a screenplay(by Shawn Slovo)consisting entirely of clichés and watered-down exposition, it becomes sadly apparent that its only reliable asset is the gorgeous view.Artificial Intelligence（人工智能）2001 Expectations were high, perhaps unreasonably so, for A.I., the firstmovie to bear the monikers of cinematic heavyweights Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg.Yet, while A.I.is consistently involving, and has moments of near-brilliance, it is far from a masterpiece.In fact, as the long-awaited ”collaboration“ of Kubrick and Spielberg, it ranks as something of a disappointment.Plus, the movie may end up falling short of the industry pundits' high box office predictions.A.I.should do sufficiently well to join the $100 million club, but it is unlikely to possess the clout necessary to outpace a certain rampaging animated ogre.By now, the story behind A.I.is well-known.Kubrick had been nursemaiding this project along for almost two decades, awaiting the time when technology could produce visual effects at the level demanded by his perfectionism.Over the years, he spoke in some detail with Spielberg about A.I., and, after his death, Spielberg decided to shepherd the project to completion.To that end, he attempted to wed his own style to Kubrick's.The late master's name appears in the opening credits(the movie is presented as ”An Amblin/Stanley Kubrick Production“), and Kubrick's brother-in-law and long-time executive producer, Jan Harlan, is listed as one of two Executive Producers.I can't help but wonder if the inherent conflict in Kubrick and Spielberg's life views is the reason why A.I.seems so disjointed and uneven.Kubrick had a dim, cynical view of human nature.(What else could one say about the man behind A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut?)Spielberg, on the other hand, is an optimist.A.I.shows both sides, and not always to good effect.It is at times life-affirming and positive;at others, cold and grim.The film's final half-hour is a curiosity, and not a successful onea synthetic who can actually love.In this case, the object of his incompletely-understood emotion is his ”mother“, Monica Swinton(Frances O'Connor).Monica's husband, Henry(Sam Robards), who brought David home as a pilot project from his workplace, Cybertronics of New Jersey, is more wary of the robot child.And, when one of David's actions endangers Monica and Henry's natural son, Martin(Jake Thomas), Monica is forced to take David into the woods and ”lose“ him.He is quickly found by a group of anti-robot fanatics, and, while being held captive by them, he befriends Gigolo Joe(Jude Law), who becomes an invaluable ally in his escape.Like the real-life science surrounding the development of Artificial Intelligence, the movie is top-heavy with moral and ethical questions.What is life and where is the line that divides sentience from a programmed response? If a robot can genuinely love a person, what responsibility does that person bear in return? How can an immortal robot cope with outliving its organic creators? Writers from Mary Shelley to Isaac Asimov have been fascinated by these dilemmas.(The film Bicentennial Man, which explores similar terrain, is based on an Asimov-penned piece.)Perhaps Spielberg attempts too much with A.I.To some degree, by trying to tackle all of these issues, he fails to effectively present any of them.Plot threads are dropped at an alarming rate.A.I.is an ambitious film that, when it misses its mark, does so because it strives for so much.The script does not insult the audience's intelligence, and it gets us thinking about ”big issues“, such as love, life, god, and our place in the universe.It's unfortunate that as much thought didn't go into structuring the narrative as went into crafting the movie's thematic content.And those who have come to equate science fiction with action will be disappointed.A.I.is a drama with little in the way of adrenaline-boosting sequences.Spielberg has consciously slowed things down, relying on viewers' curiosity about the ideas and identification with the characters to keep them involved in the proceedings.The acting, as is usually the case with a Spielberg film, is top-notch.Osment, who is still best known for seeing dead people in The Sixth Sense, is compelling as the Pinocchio-like David.He imbues the robotic character with genuine humanity, but, by slightly exaggerating his mannerisms and some vocal inflections, constantly reminds us that David is not human.All of this is subtle;there are no herky-jerky movements and he does not speak in a monotone.Frances O'Connor(the Australian actress who starred in Mansfield Park)is credible as the conflicted Monica.And, in the part of Gigolo Joe, an android made to give women pleasure, Jude Law is spry and sprightly.The always-dour William Hurt plays David's creator(he also serves as the mouthpiece for much of the film's expositionuntil a big iceberg gets in the way of their new-found happiness.Cameron is no stranger to spectacle, and the amazing boat-sinking effects paper over the cracks in the story so well that even the most cynical viewer is drawn in.Verdict You don't like Winslet.You don't care about DiCaprio.You're grimly aware of every hyper-efficient emotional trigger and fast-forward through whole tranches of bad acting and writing, but in the end, Cameron's monumental epic still prises open the tear ducts.Forrest Gump(阿甘正传)1994 Ever find the grind of life getting you down? Is the day-to-day struggle threatening to drag you under? If so, there is a movie out there that can replenish your energy and refresh your outlook.Passionate and magical, Forrest Gump is a tonic for the weary of spirit.For those who feel that being set adrift in a season of action movies is like wandering into a desert, the oasis lies ahead.Back when Tom Hanks' movie career was relatively new, the actor made a film called Big, which told the story of a young boy forced to grow up fast as a result of an ill-advised wish made at a carnival.In some ways, Forrest Gump represents a return to the themes of that earlier movie.In this case, the main character remains a child in heart and spirit, even as his body grows to maturity.Hanks is called upon yet again to play the innocent.Forrest Gump(Hanks), named after a civil war hero, grows up in Greenbow, Alabama, where his mother(Sally Field)runs a boarding house.Although Forrest is a little ”slow“(his IQ is 75, 5 below the state's definition of ”normal“), his mental impairment doesn't seem to bother him, his mother, or his best(and only)friend, Jenny Curran(played as an adult by Robin Wright).In fact, the naivete that comes through a limited understanding of the world around him gives Forrest a uniquely positive perspective of life.During the next thirty years, Forrest becomes a star football player, a war hero, a successful businessman, and something of a pop icon.Through it all, however, there is one defining element in his life: his love for Jenny.She is never far from his thoughts, no matter what he's doing or where he is.A trio of assets lift Forrest Gump above the average ”life story“ drama: its optimism, freshness, and emotional honesty.Though the movie does not seek to reduce every member of the audience to tears, it has moments whose power comes from their simplicity.Equally as important is laughter, and Forrest Gump has moments of humor strewn throughout.During the 60s and 70s, no topic more inflamed the turbulent national consciousness than that of Vietnam and those who were sent overseas to fight.Forrest, as might be expected, has a singular viewpoint on his time spent there: ”We took long walks and were always looking for this guy named Charlie.“ In this observation can be found the essence of the title character's nature.Through the miracle of visual effects, Forrest meets his fair share of famous peopleone that appeared in the same 'Different Seasons' collection that spawned the films Stand By Me and Apt Pupiland provides a narrative pay-off as satisfying as it is heart-warming.Using a voiceover narration, much of which is taken verbatim from King's story, the film's great triumph is its sincerity, and even those moments that might have felt mawkishachieve the dignity of genuine tragedy.At nearly two and a half hours in length, it's a film with plenty of time on its hands yet, thanks to engagingly warm performances by Robbins and Freeman, it very rarely drags.Robbins in particular locates a deep-seated humanity in his enigmatic banker(who unexpectedly benefits from his accounting skills), while the issues that Darabont is concerned withare woven seamlessly into the fabric of the story.he director returned to Stephen King for his belated follow-up, The Green Mile, which failed to live up to the promise of his debut, replacing its warmth and subtlety with sheer bulk.Here though Darabont achieves that rarest of goals and creates a film that not only stands up to repeated viewings but which, for its legion of dedicated fans, approaches the power and significance of on-screen therapy.Verdict Powerful, poignant, thought-provoking and finally irresistibly uplifting.Thanks to quietly dignified performances and Darabont's own inventive direction, The Shawshank Redemption remains a first class example of how to approach potentially weighty issues with conviction, style, lightness and wit.No.2 The Shawshank Redemption（肖申克的救赎）1994
”The Shawshank Redemption“ is a movie about time, patience and loyalty--not sexy qualities, perhaps, but they grow on you during the subterranean progress of this story, which is about how two men serving life sentences in prison become friends and find a way to fight off despair.The story is narrated by ”Red“ Redding(Morgan Freeman), who has been inside the walls of Shawshank Prison for a very long time and is its leading entrepreneur.He can get you whatever you need: cigarettes, candy, even a little rock pick like an amateur geologist might use.One day he and his fellow inmates watch the latest busload of prisoners unload, and they make bets on who will cry during their first night in prison, and who will not.Red bets on a tall, lanky guy named Andy Dufresne(Tim Robbins), who looks like a babe in the woods.But Andy does not cry, and Red loses the cigarettes he wagered.Andy turns out to be a surprise to everyone in Shawshank, because within him is such a powerful reservoir of determination and strength that nothing seems to break him.Andy was a banker on the outside, and he's in for murder.He's apparently innocent, and there are all sorts of details involving his case, but after a while they take on a kind of unreality;all that counts inside prison is its own society--who is strong, who is not--and the measured passage of time.Red is also a lifer.From time to time, measuring the decades, he goes up in front of the parole board, and they measure the length of his term(20 years, 30 years)and ask him if he thinks he has been rehabilitated.Oh, most surely, yes, he replies;but the fire goes out of his assurances as the years march past, and there is the sense that he has been institutionalized--that, like another old lifer who kills himself after being paroled, he can no longer really envision life on the outside.Red's narration of the story allows him to speak for all of the prisoners, who sense a fortitude and integrity in Andy that survives the years.Andy will not kiss butt.He will not back down.But he is not violent, just formidably sure of himself.For the warden(Bob Gunton), he is both a challenge and a resource;Andy knows all about bookkeeping and tax preparation, and before long he's been moved out of his prison job in the library and assigned to the warden's office, where he sits behind an adding machine and keeps tabs on the warden's ill-gotten gains.His fame spreads, and eventually he's doing the taxes and pension plans for most of the officials of the local prison system.There are key moments in the film, as when Andy uses his clout to get some cold beers for his friends who are working on a roofing job.Or when he befriends the old prison librarian(James Whitmore).Or when he oversteps his boundaries and is thrown into solitary confinement.What quietly amazes everyone in the prison--and us, too--is the way he accepts the good and the bad as all part of some larger pattern than only he can fully see.The partnership between the characters played by Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman is crucial to the way the story unfolds.This is not a ”prison drama“ in any conventional sense of the word.It is not about violence, riots or melodrama.The word ”redemption“ is in the title for a reason.The movie is based on a story, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, by Stephen King, which is quite unlike most of King's work.The horror here is not of the supernatural kind, but of the sort that flows from the realization than 10, 20, 30 years of a man's life have unreeled in the same unchanging daily prison routine.The director, Frank Darabont, paints the prison in drab grays and shadows, so that when key events do occur, they seem to have a life of their own.Andy, as played by Robbins, keeps his thoughts to himself.Red, as Freeman plays him, is therefore a crucial element in the story: His close observation of this man, down through the years, provides the way we monitor changes and track the measure of his influence on those around him.And all the time there is something else happening, hidden and secret, which is revealed only at the end.”The Shawshank Redemption“ is not a depressing story, although I may have made it sound that way.There is a lot of life and humor in it, and warmth in the friendship that builds up between Andy and Red.There is even excitement and suspense, although not when we expect it.But mostly the film is an allegory about holding onto a sense of personal worth, despite everything.If the film is perhaps a little slow in its middle passages, maybe that is part of the idea, too, to give us a sense of the leaden passage of time, before the glory of the final redemption.Gladiator（角斗士）2000 Ridley Scott revives the Roman epic with computer generated imagery and a mighty performance from Russell Crowe.Not to mention the last stand of the late Oliver Reed Hulking great buildings, hulking men, hulking utterances are the blocks that Ridley Scott's film is constructed from.But at the heart of Gladiator's epic recreation of the ancient Roman world sits an effectively simple tale of loyalty and love.Maximus(Crowe)is a respected warrior, a general loyal to the visionary emperor Marcus Aurelius(Harris).However, when Marcus Aurelius dies, Maximus is double-crossed by the dangerous, nay deranged, new emperor Commodus(Phoenix).All Maximus wants is to avenge his family.After being sold to gladiator trainer Proximo(Reed, serving up his final role with brute nobility), the experienced soldier fights his way up the gladiatorial league charts until he's the darling of the Colosseum.The David Beckham of bloodshed.Soon he gets a chance to face the father-murdering, sister-loving cause of his woeswe see very little blood and gutsthe mismatched pair thrown together by circumstance, who gradually learn mutual respect.But Fincher and Walker take these hackneyed ingredients, play with them in the context of a brilliantly cohesive plot, and present something consistently freshand very, very dark.Wuthering Heights（呼啸山庄）1970
Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon take on the roles of Emily Bronte's star-crossed lovers in this 1930s adaptation of the classic novel Samuel Goldwyn said that this was his favourite of all the films he produced.It received no fewer than eight Oscar nominations back in the days when that really meant something and critics have often said that it's the greatest romantic film ever made.Unfortunately, for modern audiences at least, it doesn't live up to these grand expectations.The ”vagabond gypsy boy“ Heathcliff(played as a child by Rex Downing)arrives at Wuthering Heights and is taken in by the kind owner, Earnshaw(Kellaway).Heathcliff and the young Cathy Earnshaw(Sarah Wooton as the child)quickly become inseparable, though Heathcliff is loathed by the brattish Hindley(Scott)who spends most of his time horse-whipping him and throwing fake looking stones at his head.This is the weakest section of the filmand her entirely superfluous interlocutor Mr Lockwood(Mander)-abreast of what's going on.Fortunately matters improve as time moves on and the action intensifies.Heathcliff disappears and Cathy(now played by Merle Oberon)breaks both their hearts by marrying the moneyed Edgar Linton(David Niven).There are some genuinely intense scenes and Oberon is consistently impressive as the wild yet vulnerable Cathy, while Olivier musters some tenderness for the tragic and impressive final scenes.Verdict A torrid half an hour of passion at the end of this picture doesn't quite make up for the hour of drudgery that goes before it.And Laurence Oiivier's Heathcliff is nothing like as impressive as Timothy Dalton's from 1971.A Beautiful Mind（美丽心灵）2001 Earnest thriller-cum-weepie starring Russell Crowe as a maths genius whose life is wracked by schizophrenia.Stamped all over with 'Hollywood prestige project' and showered with awards Russell Crowe gets the chance to act his heart out in Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind.Not only does he portray a maths genius(based on real life Nobel Prize-winner John Forbes Nash Jr), he portrays a maths genius crippled by schizophrenia.And he ages 47 years!He turns in a chunky, twitchy performance which, though not on a par with his more subtle turn in The Insider, is admirable.He is complemented by a less flashy, underwritten turn from Jennifer Connelly.Princeton, 1947.Awkward but arrogant John Nash arrives on a maths scholarship, determined to come up with an original idea.Not bothering with classes, he obsessively writes theorem(plotting the movements of pigeons, for example).His only friend is raffish roommate Charles(Bettany), a rich source of wisecrackshis name was Johnny Walker”represented by Ed Harris' mysterious agentI have a chip on both shoulders“his most explicit statement against technological advancement and capitalism.It is, in fact, a quasi-sound film, but with all voices emanating from various machines instead of the actors, except for one moment when the Tramp sings a gibberish song.That the machines can talk, yet the people don't, is all part of their dehumanising effectit's all here.The Godfather is much more than fodder for bad parodies, though.It is testament to this engaging and intricate film's quality that the three hour running time is a blessing rather than a curse.The detailed plot revolves around the Corleone family, Italian immigrants that have been guided to Mafia supremacy through the questionable ”business“ dealings of family head Don Vito Corleone(Brando in an Oscar winning role).A fresh-faced Al Pacino undertakes his first big starring role as Michael Corleone, son of Vito and recent returnee from the battlefields of WWII.What distances Michael from his family, however, is a desire to go legitparticularly the increasingly ruthless Michael.Featuring note-perfect performances from everyone involved, a brilliantly written Oscar-winning script from Coppola and Puzo and deft direction, The Godfather satisfies film lovers on any number of levels and will have them salivating in anticipation of the equally brilliant(and, for many, superior)Part II of the trilogy.Verdict A multi-generational epic that never leaves the audience less than enthralled, this is the godfather of all gangster films.The Bridges of Madison County（廊桥遗梦）1995
A housewife and a freelance photographer embark on the relationship of a lifetime.Romantic drama starring Meryl Streep and director-producer-composer Clint Eastwood The Bridges Of Madison County ought to be one of those romantic dramas that comes with a health warning on account of its high sugar content.That this adaptation of Robert James Waller's unspeakably bad bestseller is more than halfway watchable has everything to do with Clint Eastwood.An unlikely choice as director and producer, it's thanks to Eastwood's relatively thin sentimental streak that the film doesn't fall headlong into a lagoon of schmaltz.Of course, the subject matter dictates that Madison County has its mushy moments, but weigh the finished film against what might have happened had first-choice director Steven Spielberg signed on and you'll see that we have a lot to thank Eastwood for.Clint is Robert Kincaid, the freelance photographer who's come to remote Madison County to snap the region's roofed bridges for 'National Geographic'.On the way to his assignment he bumps into Francesca(Streep), an Italian-American mother of two with whom he immediately strikes up a friendship.Then, as Francesca's grown-up children discover as they pour over their late mother's diaries, the unlikely pair embark on a short affair that will colour the rest of their lives.The sort of story Mills & Boon might have scotched for being too sappy, it's only great professionalism that keeps Madison County afloat.The contemporary scenes in which adult offspring Annie Corley and Victor Slezak argue about their mother's infidelity are a particular delight, at their best recalling the short stories of Raymond Carver.As for Eastwood and Streep, it's refreshing to see two late-in-life lovers who aren't desperate to disguise their age.That said, Eastwood's lack of eroticism and Streep's self-conscious performance make their's a peculiarly passionless romance.Still, compare their coupling to the fraught relationships of most romantic dramas and their measured maturity is something of a saving grace.So too is the producer-director's muted score, the subtlety of which many a more experienced composer would do well to consider.Verdict Okay for what it is, and far better than it couldhave been.The Legend of 1900（海上钢琴师）1998 Tim Roth stars in the first English language film by Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore.A fantastical, historical fable about a gifted pianist born and raised on a cruise ship Though Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore's Oscar-winning Cinema Paradiso was one of the surprise hits of the 80s, subsequently his profile has been low.Perhaps in an effort to rectify this, here he presents his first English language film, a lavish and unashamedly sentimental fable based on a monologue by Italian writer Alessandro Baricco.Given a ruthless studio edit before its release, more than once it threatens to drift off into whimsy, but remains on course, thanks to the firm presence of Tim Roth in the title role.Told in flashback, it's the story of Danny Boodmann TD Lemon 1900(Roth), so-named because he was found as an infant in 1900, lodged in a crate of lemons aboard a luxury cruise liner.Growing up at sea, it swiftly becomes apparent that 1900 is a giftedpianist.His legend spreads and jazz giant Jelly Roll Morton(Williams)even comes aboard to hear him play.Years later and narrator/former band member Max Tooney(Vince)is pawning the trumpet he blew alongside 1900 when he hears the ship is to be sunk.Could it be that 1900 is still somewhere on board, mooning over a mysterious beauty known only as 'The Girl'(Thierry)while working up a lonely rag? To an extent it's a film uncertain about its own destination and some wobbly dialogue means 1900 himself remains a bit of an enigma.En route, however, are some great set-pieces such as 1900's knuckle-busting keyboard duel with Morton and his ride round the room on top of a piano.Ennio Morricone's score ensures the music is at least as important as the sumptuous visuals, and is supplemented by some great jazz piano numbers by Scott Joplin and(the real)Jelly Roll Morton.Verdict By turns compelling, confounding, and occasionally just downright odd, Tornatore's ocean-going epic contains much to admire.True, there are moments when it threatens to sink beneath a tide of sentiment, but an understated performance by Tim Roth and the music which forms the film's heart make this an unusual but worthwhile venture.The Sound of Music(音乐之声)1965
How do you solve a problem like the Nazis? By becoming the von Trapp Family Singers and hoodwinking the SS with your floral costume and patriotic songs, of course However much it may be ridiculedthere's no denying that this is one of the best screen musicals ever made.As Maria, the lapsed nun who becomes governess to the von Trapp brood and weds their rather chilly papa(Plummer)before helping them outrun the Nazis, Andrews exudes a vibrancy that's hard to resist.But the real secret of the film's success lies in its brilliant songs('Do-Re-Mi', 'Edelweiss', 'The Lonely Goatherd', 'My Favorite Things'), every one of them a toe-tapping classic which will buzz around your head for days.So, ignore those reservations and enjoy.Escapist films about, well, escaping, don't come any better than this.Verdict A film virtually immune to criticism, The Sound Of Music delights and repels with the sureness of Marmite.All About Eve（彗星美人）1950
Bette Davis excels as an aging diva in the six times Oscar Winner.Sit back and 'Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night' Davis gives one of the performances of her career portraying aging stage diva Margot Channing with a painful air of authenticity: the camp star, still awesome but aware of the ravages of time and the threat of younger actresses snapping at her heels.What she needs is someone to follow her around, look after her and worship her, and that person seems to arrive in the form of Eve(Baxter), an apparently innocent, adoring fan.But of course appearances can be deceptive, and we know from the opening scene that somehow the mousy, unassuming Eve has herself become a big star.Mankiewicz triumphs as writer and director.The piece fizzes with energy and the bitchy lines flow, largely from Davis' wickedly crooked mouth.The entire cast is on top form(Marilyn Monroe makes an early, fleeting cameo appearance), although among the actors only Sanders won an Oscar for his superb turn as the louche theatre critic, Addison De Witt, who also serves as the film's narrator.Verdict One of Hollywood's finest backstage dramas.If nothing else Davis should have been rewarded for services to the tobacco industry.M*A*S*H（风流医生俏护士）1970
Robert Altman's anti-establishment comedy set during the Korean War but satirising the US Vietnam war effort.Stars Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould and Robert Duvall
'I wonder how a depraved person like that could have reached a position of responsibility in the Army Medical Corps,' enquires the straight-laced 'Hot Lips' Houlihan(Kellerman)of anarchic surgeon Hawkeye(Sutherland).'He was enlisted,' comes the deadpan reply.From this exchange, it's clear that Robert Altman was never going to be anything other than merciless in his critique of the absurdity of the military.Based on a novel by Richard Hooker and following the fortunes of a group of rebellious surgeons stationed in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital(MASH)during the Korean war, M*A*S*H is actually a thinly veiled indictment of the Vietnam conflict(Altman removed all references to Korea just to be sure).The puerile antics of Hawkeye, Trapper(Gould)and Duke(Skerritt)are juxtaposed with graphic, bloody shots of surgical cases to highlight the terrible waste of life that war brings.With its grainy, washed-out colours and documentary style camera-work, Altman has created a film that looks like authentic newsreel footage.His trademark overlapping dialogue technique is used to full effect, exposing the pointless bureaucracy inherent in military terminology.The largely improvised script drips with sarcasm, and Sutherland and Gould spark off each other with rapier wit and devastating put-downs.On its release it was the perfect summation of the politically charged times and everything that Mike Nichols' adaptation of the similarly iconoclastic Catch 22 should have been.Quite simply, it's Altman at his irreverent, hilarious best.Apocalypse Now Redux（现代启示录）1979
Francis Ford Coppola's legendary Vietnam epic, now with 50 extra minutes of footage.Only a restored sequence set in a French plantation truly enhances our understanding of the film As wonderful as it is to see Coppola's epic back where it belongs, Apocalypse Now Redux comes with a caveat.Whatever you might have heard about the 50 plus minutes of new footage, there's little here that qualifies as must-see material.A new scene with the Playboy bunnies, a bit more splashing about in the surf, bonus footage of Brando mooching aboutthe French plantation sequence, glimpsed in the excellent documentary Hearts Of Darkness, is so enlightening, it's hard to see how the movie worked without it.Besides providing Clean(Fishburne)with a send-off, the scene satisfyingly rounds-out the character of Chef(Forrest), who, as a New Orleans native, speaks French and is actually a chef.And in Christian Marquand's landowner, Hubert De Marais, we find the embodiment of why America's war effort is as stupid as it is doomed to fail.Of course, some will argue that adding more minutes to Apocalypse Now simply makes a big, pretentious movie bigger and more pretentious.But for all the film's indulgences, it's still the small moments such as Lance(Bottoms)'burying' Chief(Hall)that remain the most powerful.And if Apocalypse Now is what happens when a filmmaker reaches too far, we can only hope that i)more directors follow suit and ii)Coppola stops wasting time on trivia like Jack and gets back in the boat he never should have got out of.Gone with the wind（乱世佳人）1939
The definitive Technicolor romantic epic.Rhett, Scarlett, burning sets and a whole slew of nostalgic and/or reactionary values, this is creator-producer David O Selznick's finest hour and a cornerstone of the Hollywood monolith Winner of 10 Oscars, hugely successful at the box office, containing one of the most quoted lines from the movies...With its place in film history assured, there is a distinct air of never mind the quality, feel the width when watching this with the cynical eyes of the modern viewer.Hugely expensive for its time, it has every dollar evident on screen, and it is easy to be seduced by its sumptuous visuals, to feel the heat of Atlanta burning.But this is Hollywood style over substance writ large, almost casually sexist and racist, using the Civil War as a convenient backdrop without ever addressing its social or historical significance.Dissecting it further, the plot is pure soap opera and the acting, particularly from Gable, is often wooden.Hollow and tasteless, it would be difficult to get angry about if it were not glorified and revisited so often.Verdict Grand old Hollywood at its most magnificent and melodramatic.Say what you like about the soapy characterisation and plotting, the spectacle flattens all in its wake.Leon the Professional(这个杀手不太冷)1994
”The Professional“ is a superficial yarn about a hitman(French star Jean Reno)who is befriended in his New York apartment building by an abused 12-year-old girl(newcomer Natalie Portman).When her family(to include her father, stepmother and two half-siblingsslow-motion explosions, starkly lit bodies flying through the air.However, Sam Peckinpah he ain't.Casablanca（卡萨布兰卡）1943
Some people feel it’s impossible to really see Casablanca for the first time, because it’s such a popular reference.Inevitably you’ve seen clips, heard As Time Goes By and admired those film stills of Humphrey Bogart looking smart in a white dinner jacket.You may even be familiar with the plot line: American ex-pat runs bar in Casablanca, clearing point for people trying to escape WWII.He runs into his old flame, now reunited with her husband.Much anguished conversation and poignant recollection of the Paris occupation, along with some mild run-ins with the Nazis and corrupt French police.Great ending too.There are really so many reasons why you ought to see this movie, but in the style of back-to-the-land religious weirdos everywhere, I scaled it down to a list of ten:
1.Ingrid Bergman has never looked so beautiful
2.You can never hope to look as good as Bogey in a white dinner jacket, but at least now you can try.3.As Time Goes By, totally sentimental and sappy, but secretly you will love it and sing it to yourself in the bath for the next month.4.All the immortal lines in context: “Play it again, Sam” “Of all the gin joints in all the world, you had to walk into mine” “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life!” 5.In this movie, even political asylum seekers get to hang out and drink champagne.6.The great thing about this era of American filmmaking is that everyone is always ready for scotch and sex.And if you like this, you should see The Big Sleep, and all The Thin Man Movies.7.If you’ve seen this movie, you can now fake your way through virtually any conversation in which films are being discussed, even if the last thing you saw in the theatre was The Phantom Menace and think M.Night Shyalaman is the greatest working director.8.You can take someone you’re thinking of dating to this movie and they’ll think you a)have very good taste and, b)must be terribly sophisticated to even know about movies made before 1975.9.You can inform your family that you’ve been attending enriching cultural events on the evenings you don’t spend in the library.10.If you hate this movie, feel free to go back to renting Shallow Hal and its ilk unmolested by pretentious hipsters.Air Force One(空军一号)1997
It's difficult to take seriously any film in which the President Of The United States manages to lay waste to a whole bunch of hijackers without so much as loosening his tie, but then again Petersen's movie is so full of such inconsistencies that you go along with it in spite of itself.Ford is the Pres, the only man who can save his titular planeload of croniesfrom the sneering Oldman and his terrorist buddies.A very silly picture, but an ultimately thrilling one;taken as a big dumb slice of popcorn entertainment it more than delivers the goods.The Fugitive（亡命天涯）1993 There is a kind of magic when a superb cast, a truly gifted director, and a literate script with equal parts 'over-the-top' action, riveting suspense, and rich characterization, come together.The end result attains a luster that only grows through the years, as new audiences, through DVD and VHS, experience the same excitement we felt, viewing it on a theater screen.In the last decade, only a handful of suspense films could be called 'great'...and on top of the list is THE FUGITIVE.Based on the popular David Janssen TV series, the film faithfully follows the same premise;a doctor is accused of his wife's death, but escapes before his execution, and tracks down the 'one-armed man' responsible for the murder, as a driven law officer attempts to recapture him.Being a big-budget film, however, the scale of everything is expanded...Dr.Richard Kimble is now a brilliant vascular surgeon, at a major Chicago hospital;the handicapped killer is a dirty ex-cop working on orders from crooked board members of a billion-dollar pharmaceutical firm;and the lawman is no longer a solitary police lieutenant, but a deputy United States Marshal, and his team of agents!While some fans of the original series complained that the 'intimacy' the series had was lost, director Andrew Davis only used the 'bigger' aspects as plot elements, placing the focus, wisely, on the dual stories of Kimble's search, and Gerard's pursuit.Despite the esteem the film has achieved over the years, Harrison Ford has gotten a bad rap for his very understated performance as Richard Kimble.While Tommy Lee Jones certainly had a far flashier role(earning him an Oscar as 'Best Supporting Actor'), Ford's intent wasn't to play 'Indiana Jones', but a man whose whole life was dedicated to his career as a surgeon, and his wife(played, in flashbacks, by the lovely Sela Ward).Seeing his wife brutally murdered devastated him(his scene in the police interrogation room, going to pieces, was largely improvised on the set, and displays some of his finest acting).His search for the killer was not the confident quest of an action hero, but based on uncertain, spur-of-the-moment decisions made by a desperate man, whose medical background was his only tool.Fear does not lend itself to flashy theatrics...Jones, as Marshal Sam Gerard, on the other hand, was a seasoned veteran, the best at what he did, and pursuing a fugitive was 'old hat' for him.With a confidence bordering on arrogance, he ordered people about like chess pieces, multi-tasked without breaking a sweat, and still could charm with a wicked smile and sarcastic remark.Of COURSE he wins the audience's heart!Featuring some of the most spectacular action scenes ever recorded on film(the train/bus wreck that frees Kimble, the dive off a dam into the churning maelstrom of the reservoir), as well as two slam-bang fistfights when Kimble finally gets 'justice', THE FUGITIVE still is remembered primarily for the suspenseful Jones/Ford 'cat-and-mouse' chase, cross-country, and the grudging respect that grows between them...which, ultimately, was what the TV series was best remembered for, as well.There is magic, here!
The Patriot（爱国者）2000 Mel Gibson is a movie star.A really big one, even.He's got charisma and presence and lights up the screen and is pleasingly handsome in a rugged, non-pretty-boy kind of way.He's funny and charming on talkshows and makes lots of money for all of the above.This much we know.What remains a bit of a mystery is how he maintains such status.His star-power is firmly rooted in the seemingly ancient Lethal Weapon series and the quip-throwing, fast drawing, scene-chewing character he plays in it seems to have overtaken his public persona as well.Does anyone actually know anyone who even saw Lethal Weapon 4? The more appropriate question perhaps being: does anybody remember it? Does anybody care?
Since Mel Gibson is a movie star by trade, he is also tangentially an actor.And in his new film, The Patriot, he has a listless taciturnity that one could diplomatically describe as ”understated“ or, if so inclined, ”Gary Cooper-ish.“ Ultimately, though, Gibson's performance just seems false--hollow in an utterly competent, completely professional way.In the age of Jim Carrey and Fight Club, Being John Malkovich and Ben Stiller, Gibson's style of acting doesn't seem so much old school as plain inadequate.This is not to run roughshod over classical notions of subtlety or interiority, but merely to say that if he was once emblematic of his time, Gibson's moment has passed.Perhaps he is simply inching towards some exclusive hideaway of insignificance, where he can commiserate over the rising price of jet fuel with Kevin Costner and Harrison Ford.It's not all his fault, either, The Patriot.And it's not even that it's a bad movie, it's just not good either;it just is.Created by the director/producer team of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, The Patriot is caught in the double bind of wanting to be two semi-incompatible things at once.On the one hand, the project has the air of an important, high-style heritage picture about a simple farmer trying to escape his past sins and keep his family together during trying times.But set against the backdrop of the Revolutionary War, the movie continually feels an alternate pull towards being a blood-and-guts actioner.Over the course of its 2 1/2 hours, the film often seems at war with itself--every time it starts to move with a steady flow, building momentum, it suddenly finds itself in a little narrative eddy, taking time out for a funeral, or a wedding, or to reiterate how bad the bad guys are(as in not good)and how the good guys are simple folk just trying to get along and colonially do their thing.Jaws（大白鲨）1975 Great White Shark to the audience the impression is of course a no bloody role, as long as the game saw him on at all to get is definitely the movie of ”rape angle." The story of the great white shark be shaped to a very strong image, not only bulky, but lethality is also very alarming, is definitely the most dangerous sea creatures.However, you have not thought about the film than we humans may be more frightening in the great white shark? We can see from the human point of view, because we are a group of ideas, but we can justifiably hurt the other different types of creatures, and even their own selfish desires in order to harm his people.In comparison, What do you think are the world's most dangerous species? Jaws? Or us?
David Starkey's Monarchy(大卫 斯塔基的君主政体)Monarchy is more than the biographies of the kings and queens of England, it is an in-depth examination of what the English monarchy has meant in terms of the expression of the individual, the Mother of parliaments, Magna Carta, the laws of England and the land of England.In this series the eminent historian Dr David Starkey brings to life powerful individuals and colourful characters using his unique and engaging gift as a communicator.
第三篇：狮子王电影英文影评
The Lion King is a glorious animation that praises justice and love, criticism of the evil and conspiracy.Simba as a leading role in the film who is nature naughty.He experienced a lot of things in his life later.When he is a little lion, his uncle cheat him.Simba uncle hate and envy simba for Simba will be the king not him of the kingdom.Samba is forced to leave the kingdom shich named pride land for he considered him caused his father died.But his uncle is who caused his father(Mufasa)died.Simba leave the kingdom and meet his friend in his life.They are Timon and Pumbaa.They told Simba to live in relaxed way.All need they to do are eat enough food and have fun in other time.It’s unnecessary to think responsibility.In that way samba live a relaxed life until Simba meet his friend Nala and know the condition of the kingdom.Nala and Simba are friends since they are both a little lion.Simba refused to return the kingdom at first, but his father give him a direction that to return.Simba return the kingdom and find his uncle scar and fight against scar.Finally , Simba and Nalaget married and simba became the king of the pride land.The whole film according to the clue of the experience of little lion(Simba)and become a lion king.The beginning of film is the little lion Simba birth and become a prince.Mufasa is Simba’s father and scar’s brother.Mufasa is a good king character that he can rule a country well and know his brother Scar’s ambition.Mufasa after he dead provide a direction for Simba.Simba with the help of friends and his relative beat against the greed king scar and become a lion king.
第四篇：英文电影影评Movie_Review-examples
Example 1: Schindler’s List
The best Holocaust movie ever made is Life is Beautiful.However, since Life is Beautiful came out in 1997, there has to have been another film that held the title before Benigni‘s comic masterpiece came along and snatched it away.That film is Schindler’s List.Schindler’s List is the true story of Oscar Schindler, a Nazi party member, a war profiteer, and a man responsible for saving the lives of over 2000 Jews in the Holocaust.As would be expected from the majority of Holocaust movies, Schindler’s List is a film that you cannot say you love without feeling like a total schmuck.However Schindler’s List is what you would call an endearing film.Schindler’s List utilizes a stark score by John Williams and a black & white photography by Janusz Kaminski in order to provide the full effect of the Holocaust: utter depression and hopelessness.The film is about as depressing to watch as Leaving Las Vegas.However, despite the desire to use a Smith & Wesson on yourself while watching this movie, the film manages to compel your interest.Zaillian‘s script is right on target: pulling us in at the beginning with the story of Oscar‘s brilliant(although narcissistic)formation of a business out of nothing.The business exploits the Jew so much that you begin to wonder if you are watching the wrong movie.However, after Schindler witnesses the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto(still the most touching bunch of celluloid I have ever watched), he begins to work subversively against the Germans and for the Jews.The one thing that weakens the film is the presence of humor.If a movie is going for the absolute drab, as Schindler’s List did, it would be a good idea to not try to lighten a moment by adding a joke that you would find in a second-rate comedy.Humor has never been Zaillian‘s strongtpoint, and he shouldn‘t have tried to start.Regardless, Schindler’s List is still the best movie that Spielberg ever made, and the second-best film about the Holocaust, Schindler’s List is a true dramatic classic, capable of making anyone cry.Example 2: Brave Heart 1 Intoxicated by the melodious and plaintive tune on bagpipe, which is the characteristic musical instrument of Scotland, my heart cannot help floating up and down with the extremely tragic destiny and intense emotion of the valiant hero---William Wallace(played by Mel Gibson).Brave Heart is an outstanding epic movie in which lots of various complex emotions, including the permanent pursuit of freedom and the brutal oppression, the persistent patriotism and the despicable surrender to power and status, the gallant self-sacrifice and the mean act of betrayal, the most unforgettable and moving love and the most irreconcilable hatred and all the severe conflicts between them are displayed incisively, thoroughly and excellently.It is the innocent and romantic memory of first love full of fragrance of purple thistle that invokes William Wallace in returning homeland.The purple thistle that Murron gives William Wallace at his father‘s burial symbolizes the immortal love.Under the horrible shade of cruel oppression of England they struggle for their perfect love courageously.Unfortunately, Murron is seized and killed ruthlessly by an English official so that William Wallace‘s heart is stricken by great grief and pain.The moment he kills the wicked official to take his revenge he realizes the essential responsibility placed on his shoulders.He changes his individual anguish into enormous power of national spirit so as to devote himself to the innumerable and arduous combats for the great freedom of Scotland.During war, maybe the most fatal threat is not the formidable weapons but the confused and evil hearts.The Scottish aristocrats yield to England and betray William Wallace twice.It is in the second time William Wallace is arrested and killed inhumanly.The most touching and affecting scene is that at the last moment of his life, enduring inconceivable torture, William Wallace exhausts himself to shout out: ―Freedom!‖ to the boundless sky and the people.At the gate of paradise, his beloved wife---Murron is waiting for his coming.His brave heart wins the most naïve heart of Murron, the most elegant heart of Princess of England(played by Sophie Marceau)and the countless people‘s hearts.Through the dignified ablution of blood, all the burden and hardship are released from his respectable and noble soul.Supported and encouraged by William Wallace‘s eternal spirit, at the great expense of countless precious lives, Scotland wins her freedom.When William Wallace‘s strong voice ―Freedom!‖ echoes in my mind, the crying sky of Scotland emerges in my eyes.Brave Heart is really a wonderful movie that can hit people‘s hearts.Example 3: Brave Heart 2 What is there that can be said about Brave Heart that hasn‘t been said before? It‘s an epic movie that ought to be in the conversation about the best films of the past thirty years.And actually, ―epic‖ might be too small of a word.Brave Heart is as much about the inner drama of William Wallace as it is about the life-and-death drama of the war for Scotland‘s independence in the late 13th, early 14th centuries.It‘s a story told on a grand scale with a great deal craft – and flair(and humor).This is a movie that offers both style and substance.It‘s a direct precursor to the success of The Lord of the Rings movies – indeed, one can argue that the success of Brave Heart set the stage for those films.True, Brave Heart may not have universal appeal in terms of genre, story, or its brutal portrayal of war.But there can be little doubt of the value of a film that is, simply, one of the best I have ever seen.The success of the film rests on the balance with which the story unfolds.Put simply, there‘s something here for everyone: romance, action, character, philosophy, conflict, cinematography, great lines, music, and so on, and they all fit together almost flawlessly.I‘m sure if you looked hard enough you could find fault with some parts of the movie, but considering its nearly three-hour run time it manages to avoid pitfalls remarkably well.This is William Wallace‘s story.And through him, the audience is allowed a mirror with which to view itself.This is the true measure of a great story: its ability to not only provide commentary, but also to provoke introspection.And that happens here quite often.One of the film‘s most quoted lines is ―Every man dies, not every man really lives.‖ Within just those seven words there is a great deal of thought and sentiment.It encapsulates a philosophy, a raison d‘être, that anyone can immediately identify with.And it‘s a beautiful philosophy – like carpe diem.And it encourages us to find the purpose and meaning within our lives on a daily basis.This is also a love story, between William Wallace and Murron – a childhood friend.Theirs is a story that flows effortlessly from childhood tragedy and bonding, to adulthood romance and marriage.Indeed, it is Murron‘s murder that proves to be Wallace‘s motivation to launch his personal war against England whose king, Edward ‗the Longshanks‘ is portrayed with a powerfully brutality in the film, making him a very compelling villain.Wallace‘s quest is joined by a cast that is quite adept in their roles.There are hardly any weak links in the acting of this movie, which means that the underlying themes and conflicts are portrayed to maximum effect from start to finish.Mel Gibson‘s directing certainly has to be credited for some of that success.This is, without question, Gibson‘s film.And it‘s not without a certain part of vanity from the lead actor and director.If you were looking for a critique, this would be the most fertile ground for it.But for the most part, whatever vanity Gibson may have been displaying is overshadowed by the craft of everything else.The action is riveting, the dialogue is crisp(and profound)and the music is deeply, deeply moving.James Horner‘s score successfully taps into the heritage of Scotland while displaying a full orchestral presentation.The instrumentation and arrangements are all very well done, from wavering flute to the bagpipes to the thunderous percussion during battle sequences.Example 4: Brave Heart 3 Set in the late 13th century, Brave Heart is the story of one of Scotland‘s greatest national heroes, Sir William Wallace.Crucially charismatic in the title role, Gibson plays the heroic figure and emerges as a remarkable hero with wit and romantic soul, determined to rid his country off its English oppressors.Wallace‘s revolution is set in motion, with great obstacles from his countrymen.Many Scottish nobles lend him only grudging support as most of them are more concerned with wealth and titles than the freedom of the country.Wallace, by comparison, is a man of honor, incorruptible and righteous.But as much as he rails against the Scottish nobles, submits to Edward Ⅰ, King of England, he is astonished to discover the treachery of the leading Scot contender for the throne—Robert, the Earl of Bruce—to whom he confides.Sophie Marceau is exquisite as the distressed princess Isabella of France who ends up falling in love with Wallace, warning him out of several traps.Catherine McCormack is a stunning beauty who ignites Wallace‘s revolution.Patrick McGoohan is chilling, brutal, and vicious as the ruthless Edward Ⅰ, known by the nickname ―Long Shanks‖.While Angus McFadyen moves as a nobleman torn between his conscience and political aspiration, and Brendan Gleeson brings strength and humor to his role as the robust Hamish, David O‘Hara is very effective as the crazy Irishman who provides much of the film‘s comic relief from even the most tensed moments.Mel Gibson has reason to be proud of Brave Heart.It is a motion picture that dares to be excessive.Gibson presents passionately the most spaciously impressive battles, and it is his passion and excess that make the motion picture great.The horror and futility of massed hand-to-hand combats are exciting rather repulsive.It is epic film-making at its glorious best.Gibson‘s Brave Heart focuses on the human side of Wallace, a character so immense, so intelligent, and so passionate, exploring the definitions of honor and nobility, pushing us to follow the hero into his struggle against injustice and oppression.
第五篇：电影《喜宴》英文影评
Movie Review of Wedding Banquet
The movie Wedding Banquet is a very happy movie.Maybe the theme is all about the culture shock, it really make a lot of fun for us.We all enjoy this movie.Talking to the culture shock, this movie draw us a picture about the shock between China and America, the shock between tradition and new tide.There are several moments which caught me in the movie.America is very new tide, but they still could not accept homosexual at that time.When Simon went outside the house, their neighbors are whispering with such unkind vision.In order to welcome Weitong’s parents, they need to clean all the rooms and make sure that they would not find out the truth.This is the first culture shock in the movie, Simon prepared gifts for Weitong’s parents to show his kindness, the blood pressure machine for Weitong’s father and the nutrition cream for his mother.The gifts make the father angry and the mother confused.In China, we will avoid the unhappy things when we choose a gift.But in America, they believe that gifts should be useful and functional.This is the second culture shock I met in the movie.In America, marriage is the alliance of two people.As long as they have done the oath and get the license, they are a couple in low.But in China, there are no marriages without wedding banquet.Only with the blessing of relatives and friends, the wedding means to be complete.This is the third culture shock I remembered.This movie is quiet wonderful, and it is worth watching.
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