penncare

This movie was simply awesome! I ended up seeing it twice at QFest (which is the LGBT film festival in Philadelphia). The movie was done by a first time director. It blew my mind away and I was crying at how touching it was. The performances were top notch by some very high caliber actors/actresses. The director really recruited some amazing people as one was Peruvian, another Colombian and I think another lead was Mexican. You can read others' reviews for a summary of the movie. I will simply say go see this as soon as you can. It won an award at Sundance as well as two awards at QFest. When this film was announced as a nominee, there was some major clapping. There are very few movies I will give a 10 out of 10 to but it ranks up there with movies like Shelter, Bear City and the Diaries of Anne Lister. This movie is worth paying full price because the entire movie from beginning to end is incredible. Wow! I know my praise of this movie sounds like I am part of the PR machine for this movie and I am trying to hype it up but if you read my past reviews, you know the types of movies I like and don't like. I really, really liked this movie and I think you will too! Enjoy.

I saw this as the closing film of QFest (which is the LGBT film festival in Philadelphia). The film is a disappointment. It's a thriller set in the mountains of North Carolina. I think this was a first time director which you would normally excuse but QFest also showed Undertow which was shot by a first time director as well that won 2 awards at QFest (including audience favorite) in addition to an award at Sundance. It's like a Porsche trying to drag race a Neon. QFest was extremely stupid for showing this as a closing night film instead of Undertow. I think the actors tried their best at what they were given but the movie didn't flow or fully explain Beattle and why he did what he did. I am not sure why Robert Gaston used Matthew Montgomery in the film given he is simply a mediocre actor and his facial expressions and acting made me want to laugh in the serious parts. This film is not worth paying full price or matinée at all. If you have to see it, get it on Netflix. Don't rent the DVD or else you will be wasting your money.

I can see why the Vatican didn't have any objections to this film. The reason is because it was so badly adapted and poorly put together that they knew it would get bad reviews on its own. The church didn't need to interfere in this one. I guess Dan Brown really needed the money. Otherwise I can't see how anyone would allow their work to be bastardized this badly.

In the closing credits, it says something to the effect of "based on the adaption of." What it should have said was "based on the very loose, poor adaptation and the location is the only thing we have in common of." The movie was so dissimilar to the novel in storyline and characters that I wondered if I was in the wrong theater. Clearly the directors took massive amounts of liberty in shooting the film. I fully recognize that you cannot adapt a Dan Brown novel 100% into a 2 hour movie (like Santa delivering all of the presents in one night) but the liberties they took went too far and strayed very far from the book. Ewan Mcgregor who is a fine actor was not the right person for the role of Carmalengo. Vittoria Vetra was not fully developed and a very critical element was left out of the movie. I think what annoyed me the most about the movie is the four preferiti plot line. In the attempt to be politically correct and story-wise expedient, they fail tremendously to deliver on this story-line.

If I didn't read the novel ahead of time, I probably would have been kinder in my score but since I did, I really tried to like the movie and was excited for its release. It was just disappointing. The only liberty which I approved of was changing the assassin from being a Muslim to a non-Muslim. There seems to be too many movies where Muslims are evil and this change does not affect the movie at all.

I generally judge a movie based on whether I would pay full price, matinée price, Netflix/video rental or don't bother at all. Angels and Demons is a Netflix/video rental at best because the movie disappointed on so many accounts.