selimkuris

God, do I miss those years. If you are the one remembering Commodore64, He-man, songs with newly invented electronic sounds, you are an 80's guy too. It's the era when the increasing trend of the entertainment industry was just about to peak, and everything were shiny than ever. As I see it, Boogie Nights is the best adaptation that flashbacks the audience to that decade, even better than "Munich" which zooms to another perspective but on the same age.

Paul Thomas Anderson is truly a brilliant director/writer considering his other movies, "There will be blood" and "Magnolia". On Boogie Nights he tries to reveal the insights of adult movie industry with messed up characters having bitter life stories, with a tremendous approach than ever. The actors are so well chosen that I can not imagine this movie without any single one of them, casting made a "bull's eye" selection on this one. Mark Wahlberg was great for the role of Dirk Diggler, a confused kid, trying to be somebody in big town, appreciated by others with his gift (?). Especially I loved him at the scene where he just stares on empty space for 50 seconds in Rahad's mansion, giving the summary of the movie and letting audience to feel free to guess what he may be thinking. He is simply great as well as Julianne Moore, a drug-addict porn-star/mother desperately trying to get the custody of her son, Don Cheadle, another star trying to find out ways to get by besides playing in movies, William H. Macy, a recessive husband with a morally disturbed wife, Philip Seymour Hoffman, a poor sound recorder who can not control or express his homosexual urges, John C. Reilly, the long-life partner of Eddie "Dirk Diggler", and Heather Graham, the sweet Rollergirl.

As for Burt Reynolds, I can not find the exact words to express my thoughts for his acting. He is truly amazing for the "Jack Horner" character who is trying to be an art-man in this difficult sector. Jack Horner is the director of adult films in the movie, trying to prove that the industry may grow with the help of directors, as himself, having artistic approaches. He believes and cares for his actors so well that instead of his directing job, he tries to help the characters in their daily messed up lives. While Reynolds gives his full effort on this one, I can not pass the great acting of Alfred Molina, as freaky Rahad Jackson, who was just on the screen for approximately 10 minutes of the whole 156 minutes movie, but he performs a tremendous job as good as Judi Dench in "Shakespeare in Love" and deserves at least a nomination for an Academy Award.

The songs are so well placed in the movie that besides the art direction; the music you hear will blow your mind and simply take you to those years. I want to congratulate the music supervisors for shaping up the movie just for our taste.

It's a real travesty that this picture was only nominated for 3 Oscars in the lousy Oscar year when the 2.5 hours of hollow steel, Titanic, swept most of the awards. Just like "Shawshank Redemption", this movie was so unlucky to be released on a year when a major shiny blockbuster manipulated the members of the Academy.

I truly recommend it to drama lovers and but also warn parents to keep their youngsters away from this movie, because of too many explicit scenes.

My Rate: **** out of ****

I like Spielberg and Bay, really. From the first time I heard that Transformers were hitting through the wide-screen, I was thrilled. With the satisfying trailers announced weekly, my appetite was growing because I liked to watch Transformers each week when I was 10 years old. It was one of my favorites such as He-Man, Voltron, Robotech and so on, and I used to have a big picture of "Optimus Prime" on my wall.

The time I first heard that the movie was due to 2007, I really had my doubts about it because I was wondering how they would carry this plot to an actual movie. I saw it on Saturday night, and I have to admit that it was truly disappointing. As I get into the theater I had my first impression by seeing 10 year old crawling on the seats. Then the movie started and I was about to go and get my 15 YTL's back. The movie was only offering teen-trash to people. Of course I was not expecting an Oscar nominee and just wanted to see expensive special fx. But, the filmmakers should be aware that it just shouldn't be the only reason to attract the audience. If they are spending 100 millions of dollars for the effects, they should at least keep their 1-2 million for a descent screen writing. I mean the movie was really poor on the plot. OK lots of aliens are coming from outside the planet and they are fighting. That's it???. Give me a break... After JP, the movie industry has turned into a rich PC game demo and now everyone is doing movies according to the developing computer technology. But is that enough? If you are 10-12 years old or just want to free your mind without thinking about the plot of the movie, I can recommend this action flick. It presents you lots of explosions, good sound effects, lovely people (tx to newly introduced Megan Fox), stupid sexual jokes (for 8 year old) and that's it. But if not, I would bet that you'll be begging to the pay-box to get your money back.

3 out of 10

I remember watching this movie on a pay TV in Istanbul. After seeing it I realized that it was such a shame I didn't go to see it in theater. For years I've been a fan of Hollywood thriller and horror movies after I've seen Jaws. Throughout the years those types of movies have been released and I can not remember if any of them thrilled me as much as this one did. I've seen "Vacancy" yesterday night on theater, hoping that it was presenting what it promises, but unfortunately I was frustrated at the end once again. All thriller movies try to get audience to where they feel stranded, however not so many movies of Hollywood in recent years accomplished this goal as much as Breakdown did.

Kurt Russel is an amazing actor. He does an excellent job considering the situation he was in. From the beginning to the end, he plays the desperate husband who tries to get back his wife with no help from anybody in the middle of nowhere. But my two thumbs were up for J.T.Walsh who played an excellent role as the villain. I like Hannibal Lecter (ranked #1 in AFI's List of the 50 winning villains) as a good bad character however compared to Warren 'Red' Barr, he is just a little girl playing hide & seek in kindergarten. This character is so well played, I even couldn't help myself strangle the pillow until it pops while I was watching him, and he truly succeeded to jar on my nerves.

The script is so well organized that it holds you from the start and never lets go until the end. Specially the end parts of the movie will make you jump up from your couch unconsciously. These parts are so well designed that it concludes the 80 minutes you saw and decorates with decent action.

I really recommend you to rent the DVD on a calm Friday night and watch it after preparing all your nerves for extermination. If you are bored with stereotyped thrillers with predictable ends, and up for a true one, this will not disappoint you.

9/10