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Performance (1970) Directed by Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 8:48 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , ,



This movie is a real mixed bag for me. I was totally into its first half and was absolutely loving it for its creativity but the about half way through the movie starts to become a totally different movie, the moment Mick Jagger makes his appearance.

Thing that made me love its first half, was that it was being a very British crime flick, focusing on criminals, that got shot and told beautifully. Truly in an artistic manner, with some experimental camera-work and editing, that all worked out well and captivating for the movie.

I was so disappointed that not the whole movie was being like this. The second half of the movie is far more psychedelic and doesn't really seem all too concerned about telling its story. So disappointing, since everything that got buildup in the first half of the movie was being very promising and I was anxious to see what would happen next. But it's almost as of halfway through the movie comes to a stop and after that the movie hardly progresses any more story-wise. It becomes more a movie about its characters, which was just all less interesting to watch, in my opinion.

In a way you could say that Jagger ruined the movie for me but I don't blame just him. It more was the story and the different approach of its second half that it all less interesting to watch and caused his character to work out as mostly an annoying one.

James Fox was definitely better. He is not a big name actor but chances are you have already seen him in something. He doesn't always play leading roles, as he does in this movie but he definitely is a more than capable actor, that also has plenty of charisma to him.

I still rate the movie quite highly, simply because of the reason that it's being a very original and creative movie, that also still works out for most part as well.

So in short, it has a great and artistic first half and a less impressive and more messy second one. But overall the movie remains a more than good and original watch, though it's most definitely not a movie for just everyone.

7/10

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Demon Seed (1977) Directed by Donald Cammell

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 8:50 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , ,



(Review originally written at 27 January 2007)

 As much as I love science-fiction movies, as much as I love '70's movies and as much as I love movies with silly premises, I just didn't liked this one.

 The movie started of promising and seemed tense and mysterious. However after the opening, the movie picks about the least interesting and convincing approach and the story got lost in a jungle of weird, uninteresting and highly unlikely moments.

 The middle just wasn't good and interesting enough to keep my attention. It becomes all too obvious that the movie is an attempt to cash in after the success of "2001: A Space Odyssey". The story shows a bit too many similarities and Proteus obviously of course is the same as HAL 9000, only less scary and less convincing. The movie tries to be deep and clever with its story but it instead works out shallow and unconvincing due to an unconvincing and uninteresting storyline. In a way you can call this movie a "2001: A Space Odyssey" for dummies.

The premise of a woman being locked inside of a high-tech filled house and is being held hostage by a supercomputer just isn't the most exciting and convincing story they could had come up with, considering its good and in a way relevant subject, about computers and technique eventually taking over the human-race. It becomes all the more unconvincing when the intentions of the super computer become clear; he wants to impregnate the woman to create a hybrid child, eventually resulting in the rape of the woman.

 The movie could had been tense and above all also thought-provoking. It now instead is a silly '70's mess, with a silly and uninteresting premise that also barely entertains enough. The middle drags on for way too long, without much interesting or tense happening in it. The buildup and story-flow falls flat and the movie is only still mildly interesting and good to watch in some few sequences, mainly due to its good- and good looking technical sequences.

 Normally Julie Christie is always great to watch in any movie. She has played in classics such as; "Doctor Zhivago", "Fahrenheit 451", "Don't Look Now" and the more recent; "Dragonheart", "Troy" and "Finding Neverland". She however was simply awful in this movie to be frank. Her performance was emotionless and unconvincing and she didn't seemed comfortable with her role and the movie its story.

 A silly, unconvincing, technical good looking movie, which subject deserved a better plot.

 4/10

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