My top 5 single sentence movie reviews
Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with The Sentence - a series where I review Hollywood and Bollywood movies in, well, one sentence. I have been meaning to compile a top 5 of my favourite reviews for quite some time now - and this group writing project is the perfect reason to delay it no longer.
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): Who says they didn't make expensive, visually stunning but meaningless music videos for classical music chartbusters?
2. 300 (2006): 300 celluloid Spartans meet a heroic death while attempting to defend Frank Miller's glorious past against the mighty juggernaut of his current work.
3. Flags of Our Fathers (2006): The only saving grace for war is that such powerful and moving cinema can result from it.
4. The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin (1978): I remember watching this movie as a kid long long ago; I remember watching this again as a kid last night.
5. The Departed (2006): In case you missed the plot, it gets shot in the head at point blank range midway through the movie.
Short and sweet. I love the idea! :) By the way, I did check out your 10-things-you-didn't-know-until-last-week series, and it looks very interesting! I'll have to make some time to read thorugh it later. It reminds me of another blog I follow called What I Learned Today -- http://www.wkiri.com/today/ You might find a couple interesting things there.
Posted by: LearningNerd | May 10, 2007 at 10:19 PM
Haha, I enjoyed The Departed, but...you're right :)
Posted by: alicia | May 11, 2007 at 09:38 PM
Interesting fact about "300". The movie version was originally supposed to be titled "301", but after heated debate, one of the extras was told to leave because he was so much better looking and muscular, that he was drawing too much attention away from the main actors.
Check out who the 301st extra is.
Posted by: 301st Extra | May 11, 2007 at 11:01 PM
@LearningNerd: Thanks for the link, Liz. I found it fascinating. As for my own series, you may be interested in a quiz I run that links back to it. You can view the quiz archive and subscribe to it here: http://iqarchive.blogspot.com
Posted by: blaiq | May 11, 2007 at 11:11 PM
Haha totally agree with your sum up of The Departed. I'd have to watch the others to see if you're right about those too!
Posted by: Zahra | May 12, 2007 at 01:00 AM
Yeah, Infernal Affairs was better.
Posted by: Martial Development | May 12, 2007 at 01:22 AM
If only other reviewers knew of this brevity...and used it!
Posted by: Joe Raasch | May 12, 2007 at 03:04 AM
Great submission for the ProBlogger Group Writing Project. I think this is what I like best about projects like this, discovering all the blogs you might not ever visit otherwise. If you are interested here is a link to my submission, Top 5 Sins. It isn’t what you think :) but take a look you might like it.
Thanks and hope to see you in future group writing projects!
Posted by: Susan | May 12, 2007 at 08:30 PM
I never thought of it that way, but 2001 could be considered to be the first music video!
My sentiments exactly on 36th Chamber. It's weird for me to see reasonably high quality dvd's of those Shaw bros. classics, after seeing them on those crappy pan and scan videos originally.
Posted by: Harry L | May 14, 2007 at 09:29 PM
@Zahra: I'd love to hear from you after you've watched the others to see if you agree with me :)
@Martial Development: I haven't seen Internal Affairs - may be I should try and catch it on DVD.
@Joe Raasch: Thanks. (I guess I shouldn't spoil it by saying anything more :)
@Susan: Thanks. I did check out your entry and though it wasn't as engrossing as it's title promised, it definitely was instructive. You'll definitely see me around on more group projects - especially on Darren Rowse's.
@Harry: Lot of people think it borders on blasphemy that I think like that about 2001 - and I'm glad you see my point :)
Posted by: blaiq | May 14, 2007 at 10:15 PM