Well, here's a couple of reviews from the continent, by way of Ireland, that were sent to Father Geek today. Check them out...

Our very busy Ozymandias sent us two reviews... First of LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, the new Shakespeare adaptation directed by Kenneth Branagh... Personally I am really looking for that one... so far I like most of Branagh's movies (I even liked his FRANKENSTEIN, go ahead flame me if you want).. and it's a musical so... Then there will be a review of NORA with Ewan McGregor as James Joyce... didn't hear much about that one first but "Ozy" doesn't really seem convinced...

Love's Labour's Lost (2000)

First off on this one I should probably lay my cards on the table. Love Shakespeare. Think Branagh is a god. Love musicals. Know all the words to pretty much every one of the songs used here. And still the made a movie that sucks to high heaven!!! Just kidding. LLL is an incredibly fun take on one of the Bard's thinnest works but is beautifully fleshed out through Branagh's repositioning of the narrative in pre WWII Europe and the at times seamless interweaving of text and song (take Branagh's Berowne following his exhortation on the power of love: "And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods Make heaven drowsy with the harmony" with the opening lines of Irving Berlin's Cheek To Cheek: "Heaven, I'm in heaven, and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak" - Just gorgeous).

The supporting cast are uniformly brilliant and it would be unfair to single any one of them out.... Oh, go on then - it has to be Timothy Spall's ultra camp version of I Get A Kick Out Of You... Pop! It shows that Branagh's ability to daringly adapt Shakespeare is stronger than it has even been and that Hollywood's hottest screenwriter has been dead for nearly 400 years.

Nora (2000)

Where do I start on this one? Pat Murphy should be tried for crimes against my brain. I had to saw open my skull, take it out and wash it in Daz after I got home from the cinema and I still haven't gotten the image of James Joyce playing with himself in the projection room of the Volta cinema out of my head and probably never will. And I never, never, NEVER wanted to see JJ and Nora Barnacle do it doggy style. Never! To call this movie dreadful would be an insult to dreadful movies everywhere. It feels at least as long and obscure as Ulysses but without any of the artistic merit. Susan Lynch is good in places but that's about it. At one point in the movie McGregor as Joyce says that he's never coming back to Ireland ever again and I cheered out loud in the cinema. As I walked out through the doors at the end a couple said behind me, "That wasn't bad." They mustn't get out much.

Just received another review from Ozymandias... THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL... Wenders, Mel Bibson, Jovovich, Bono... you heard about that one before, here's another view on that movie...

The real thing that made Million Dollar Hotel a must see for me was the critical savaging given to it by many Irish newspaper journalists the day after a gala screening a couple of months ago in the Screen at D'Olier Street. In situations like this I always think, "I've gotta see it. It can't be that bad!!" D'ya want the good news? It isn't. Not by a long chalk.

Wim Wenders is the man who brought us Paris, Texas and Wings Of Desire so he'll always retain a soft spot in my moviegoing heart but it's going to take an awful lot of hard work to make up for Until The End Of The World (soundtrack album notwithstanding!), The End Of Violence and his part in Michaelangelo Antonini's breathtakingly boring Beyond The Clouds (The man managed to make a sleep inducing movie with Jean Reno AND John Malkovich in it.. Hello!!) MDH goes a ways towards redressing the balance - in fact it's Wenders best movie in years.

The movie looks gorgeous (surprise, surprise!) with images that stay burned on the back of your retinas long after you've stumbled thoughtfully out into the light and it plays with a laconic slow burn both indicative of Wenders as a filmmaker and the characters of the lead triptych of Jeremy Davies, Milla Jovovich and a very strange Mel Gibson - all uniformly magnetic and deftly played. Adam Sandler it ain't.

You might think that it may not be your bag, baby but the two guys I attended the screening with (1 radio jock, 1 movie marketing professional with no vested interest in the movie's success I hasten to add!) and myself all went in expecting to be plucking our eyes out with boredom inside the first reel - all three of us came out converts. All of this and the best soundtrack album you're likely to come across in many a long, long moviegoing year. Don't believe the hype.

Cya,

Ozymandias

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