Review of King (2006) by James H — 15 Nov 2006

[size=3][font=Franklin Gothic Medium] Well since I'm gonna be gone thanksgiving weekend, I'm probably gonna have more than one entry this weekend. So let's begin. I recently watched 3 movies. One I won't review, but I do reccomend, and it's called Cinema Paradiso. I saw the new version with almost 51 min. more of footage, so I don't know how the normal one is, but I really liked this version (for obvious reasons, if you know me). Sure, it's a pretty flawed plot, but the idea is grand, so that's why I liked it.

Anyways the 1 st review I'll start out with is The King. It recently came out in 2005, and I probably would have never bothered to rent it, except for I got the movie poster from the Lagoon one time I went up there, so I thought I better see the movie (as it is on my wall). Also Gael Garcia Bernal is always good, and he plays the "protaganist" if you will, in this film. The film is a story about a recently discharged navy man, who seeks his true birth father, who is now a preacher and has a family in the suburbs. The father (Played by William Hurt) does not want to have anything to do with young Elvis (The protaginist's name), so Elvis continues to live near him, and start a new life. The church scenes I found were very realistic, they were a lot like my church which kinda makes me chuckle. The funniest part was this character who was the preacher's son (played by the silent kid in Little Miss Sunshine), and he was one of those kids who says stuff like "Let's rock out!...... With God!" and is the kind of kid who has a boycott against his school because he thinks they should christianity instead of Darwinism for science classes. I just found that character funny. Just the way he's protrayed makes me laugh. Anyways I could talk about that character for awhile, but that's not what the movie's about. The rest of the movie you probably will feel (as I did) very uneasy. I won't give anything away, but let's say a lot of tragic things happen, and a lot of dramatic irony happens. From then on it almost feel like a greek tragedy, like you are watching A Doll's House except for it's a lot more exciting. So I liked this feeling of old greek tragedy, and it never let's up on the feeling so that's good. Now don't get me wrong it isn't a total bumfest. Well it is, but there are little bits of irony which I found funny. For example there is one part where the preacher and his son are hunting, and the son kills a deer. Then it quickly cuts to someone cleaning the remains of the deer, and then you find out it is the daughter in the family, and the son walks up and puts his bow (no guns) up on the rack and almost brags about his position of hunter. I found that funny, but informational on the family, cause it showed how 50's the family was. The men hunt, then women cook and clean. Overall this film may have some flaws, but I reccomend it. I'm sorry I coudn't do a better review, but I didn't want to give anything away. There are many twist and turns. Yet it is not a thriller.

So on to my next film. The film I'm about to review has generated some oscar buzz as you might of heard. Well I'm hear to say in the Best Actor catogorey it definatley is correct. Forest Whitaker is nothing short of amazing. However the rest of the film is only secondary to his acting. The story is about the rule of Idi Amin in Uganda through the eyes of a scottish doctor who becomes his closest friend, but not for long. The events historically are very interesting. I wish the film talked more about this period in history. But that is the main problem of the film. You want to see Amin, and what is happening in the country, and all you see is a scottish guy drinking wishing he knew what to do. YAWN! The film isn't really boring, but the protaginist sure as hell is. It was based off a novel that had that viewpoint, which is fine in a novel, but in my view I thought it would be more interesting if it were more of a biopic of Amin. Another problem is that the film doesn't know if it is a political film, or a movie trying to give us thrills in an interesting background. Most of the time it is a political independent film yes. Yet by the end of the film, I felt it was just another blockbuster thriller hidden in the shrouds of an independent film. The point is the movie is worth seeing for Whitaker's performance (especially for oscar followers since he will most likely be nominated if not win), but don't expect the same oscar matrial in any other category. Ok maybe cinematography, but still you get the point.

Well see you later this weekend with another review!

PS: That would be great if more people commented, it's not that hard, you can comment as a guest. It just gives me acknowledgment to keep doing this. Thanks in advance and thanks Tara and Whitney for being ahead of the crowd (hopefully).

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