severin-3

michael caine is well known for accepting every sh**job that comes along. he´s in it for the money and he freely admits that. his recent films include plenty of stinkers (e.g. SHADOW RUN) so it´s quite refreshing to see him in a decent crime flick which allows him once more to show the wide span of his talents. SHINER is not a masterpiece, it´s a typical revenge story a la GET CARTER. this is a michael caine solo. all the other actors hardly have a space to breathe, caine just pushes them aside like the giant steamtrain he is. only the great martin landau can somehow compete with him, the others, frank harper (LOCK STOCK...) and andy serkis ( gollum from LORD OF THE RINGS, hihihi) do a good job but can´t keep up. all in all a very nice way to spend some time but I´d rather watch SEXY BEAST.

one of my alltime-favorites!! I´ve seen it years ago and it still haunts me. this is what real film-making is about, this is how it is supposed to be. lodge kerrigan is a true master, and it´s a pity he hasn´t done anything in years, except CLAIRE DOLAN which is true genius as well. peter "zed" greene gives a landmark performance and it seems that he suffers the same fate like malcolm mcdowell after CLOCKWORK ORANGE: being one of the best but underrated actors of his time but without a second chance to prove it.

anyway, if you wanna "feel" - not just see - what mental illness is all about, check this out.

WOW! as a huge fan of hubert selby´s writing I was somehow scared that they mess it up. but with THAT director and THAT cast, what can go wrong? right, nothing, and that´s why REQUIEM FOR A DREAM sits right up there with other masterpieces of the last decade like BAD LIEUTENANT, CLEAN SHAVEN, JULIEN DONKEY BOY, SEUL CONTRE TOUS, THE WAR ZONE, GUMMO etcetc...all movies that actually dare not only to touch sensitive subjects but actually DEAL with them. that´s a big difference. so, kudos to mr. aronovsky who had the guts to make this movie as unpleasant as it should be. no safety nets, every trace of hope or happiness is immediately crushed by aronovsky´s sense for reality. and ellen burstyn gives one hell of a mindblowing performance. see it and weap!