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Reviews
Brideshead Revisited (2008)
Muted by the shadow of it's predecessor, but beautiful and touching all the same
As with any film which follows a beloved mini-series it is nearly impossible to escape the shadow. When watching this film you'll find yourself constantly comparing it to the mini-series and more often than not the memory of the mini-series comes out ahead.
That being said, I still very much enjoyed the film. As with other recent English remakes (Pride & Prejudice, BBC's Sense & Sensibility) you really appreciate the beauty of modern film making. The cinematography, the score, and the ever beautiful Castle Howard, Venice, and Oxford alone are worth the watching in my opinion. There are also some great performances. Matthew Goode's Charles rivals that of Jeremy Iron's, Hayley Atwell's Julia (in a more central role than that of the mini-series) was also quite good. I also found myself rather enjoying Charles' wife Celia (Anna Madeley) even in such a small role.
The real failure of the film seems to be the difficulty with compressing 11 hours into 2. Everything is forced to move faster and the more quite, gentle, and simple scenes are lost. What's left then is a distillation of the most dramatic moments. As a result the film loses the subtlety of the mini-series. The religious bits are played up a bit too much and makes the characters slightly unbelievable. Emma Thompson is great as always, but her character of Lady Marchmain as written is too over bearing, too controlling, too inhuman. The character of Sebastian is louder than in the mini-series and becomes jaded before you care much for him. Indeed, I didn't find myself caring particularly much for any of the characters except perhaps Charles.
Still, if you don't have 11 hours on hand to spend watching the mini-series, this is a suitable substitute and is worth watching at least once at any rate. As long as you don't go in expecting an equal to the mini-series you'll enjoy it and may even find a moment or two which improves upon the original.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
The first Harry Potter movie to stand on its own
I've always loved the Harry Potter books, but I'd never found the movies more that adequate. I liked them because I wanted so badly to like them. Indeed, with the exception of the Prisoner of Azkaban, I'd say all the movies have so far been rather disappointing (if I'm being perfectly honest with myself).
As far as Order of the Phoenix goes, I must say I didn't know what to expect. I found the book a little long and too dark, and after the rather decidedly disappointing fourth film (the book was just sooooo much better), I was understandably weary. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, however, blew me away.
It's the first Potter movie I liked simply because it was a great film. Had I never read the books, I still would have loved the film. The action was unapologetically awesome and the film remarkably grown up. It wasn't the kid in me that liked the film, it was both the kid and the adult.
From the very first scene you find yourself pulled into an intense and action packed epic tale full of love, betrayal, fear, war, and all that other epic sounding stuff. The battle in the Ministry of Magic is one of the great film battles of all time. Dumbledore's Army provides some of the most humorous and touching moments of the film. Luna Lovegood is almost exactly as I imagined her int he books. And Harry Potter's emotional roller coaster is perhaps the first truly believable emotion I've seen in a Potter film.
Sure there were a few rough points--bits of cheesy dialog and moments of rather overblown intensity where there ought not to be--and book lovers will surely point out plenty of scenes that were changed or left out completely. I, however, have read the book several times myself and I couldn't think of anything that was really missing.
The bottom line--I enjoyed this film far more than I expected to. Indeed, I haven't seen such an enjoyable film in quite a while (and that's saying something as I've just discovered bit torrents and have been on a downloading binge). More importantly, however, I'm looking forward to seeing this film again . . . and again . . . and again. And that's something I've never said about a Potter film before.