lasherxl

I was just flipping through the channels and ran into this and it first it was a bit like a car accident, you know you should turn away but you just can't. They were talking about things and as it progressed the volume level raised and the pitch went so high I thought my windows might shatter, you think I'm exaggerating, but I actually still have a headache from listening to them.

Now before people dismiss me, I am a guy, but I have watched shows like The View, I like women's take on a subject we are different in many ways same in others, but these girls were insistent that men and women's sexual drives are essentially similar, which is categorically untrue. Then as they carried on it they mentioned how much religion played a part in sexual connection, which for some if not many it does, but certainly not everyone. As the camera panned through the audience it was almost entirely African American women, then it all made sense.

If you are a young African-American woman 20-32 who is very devout but slightly vapid, then this is most assuredly the show for you. Personally I must avoid it to keep all my wine glasses intact. I don't think this bodes well to providing a positive foundation and influence for young up and coming African-American girls, but I am neither a girl nor African-American so mayhaps I'm wrong. To me I just wish they would speak instead of caterwauling on and on.

The production was well done, cinematography spot on and well acted but it felt slightly disjointed all along the way. The performances mostly Adrien Brody kept things entertaining and charismatic, that and witnessing the creation and execution of some of his death defying stunts.

More foreshadowing of future events aside from the x-ray shot of his repeated gut punches probably could have held things along and taken this from good to great.

Now don't get me wrong you'll most likely enjoy this as a casual nights watching, but to fall short of greatness when your subject matter is Houdini and your lead is Adrien Brody, well its disappointing.

There are moments in the film of sheer visual brilliance and even a fantastic narrative, though I doubt anyone could ever deny Atom Egoyan is a visually haunting artist. Between the various ruins and moments of real time captured on the trip making the film you see a true landscape, not only of the area, but of its people and what makes them who and what they are.

The problem is that with all that greatness are long moments of unneeded scenes or derivative exposition that remove the warm touching moments and at times just bore the ever loving crap out of you. Mind you I'm not anti art or art-esque films, it's just that these didn't really add a magical moment or create an air of mystery to the overall story or film.

I feel like the best part of the film was the Armenian man's story. The added problem here is that you only ever hear his stories second hand via the female translator, and they lack the dramatic impact he has when telling them, only you can't understand his words because there are no subtitles.

The 5 rating was mainly I just felt like everything good he captured he lost in being a tad pretentious.