Alright but it was not all great.

Although the title seems to suggest some quasi religious film this gritty French drama is anything but. In fact at the conclusion of the film I had to remind myself why the called it "A PROPHET" in the first place. 

A young man goes to prison and brutally makes his way up the ladder to the head of the mob. And they say you can't get a real education in prison!

Robustly done with a true sense of the inner workings of a modern Gaelic dungeon the pace of the film is set early on as we see how vulnerable the 19 year old thug is when he gets thrown in with the big boys.

Prisons are really warehouses for misfits but like everything else there is a pecking order to the madness.

The film features a very bloody murder early on by our hero and then the return periodically of the character who gets killed. I suppose your murder victims always stay with you but in the end you have to ask yourself what was the purpose of that guy?

The film plays a number of cinematic cards to get you through the two and a half but it remains compelling no matter how intricate the plot becomes. He gets out of the slammer on occasion and that is a relief. Not exactly JIMMIE CAGNEY rising to the head of the underworld but a well made genre pic worth your time.   

Really well done!

Make more movies Tom Ford!

Love Colin Furth!

Good Grief.

First time director TOM FORD, better known for being a fashion icon, gives COLIN FURTH a chance to run for the gold with this tear jerker about life, love and loss.

As ravishing as the best perfume commercials, it occasionally become over come by it's commitment to set design but I for one am not complaining.

Oh and remember the kid from "ABOUT A BOY." He is the sensual young man/student who throws himself at his professor who has just lost the love of his life.

Wrenching and ravishing, sensual grief. Colin is deeply moving as a '60s gay man struggling with death, isolation and fashion choices.

JULIANA MOORE is ravishing and impeccable (as always) as, well, the hero's best friend.

A Single Man is a quiet and subtle film, meticulously arranged.

An intimate drama about an interior life.  Wrenching, and possessing.

Oh and you know .... very gay. Not that that's a bad thing! 

TIM BURTON takes you down the hole one more time as a more grown up Alice makes her descent into Underland ... but why forth doth she goest? We never learn why although I guess it's because she's a rebel and that is the point.

But after seeing "AVATAR", this 3-D version comes across a bit like 2 and a half D. Oh it's rich and wild and busy and dreary in it's own Burton-esque way but it just seemed a bit truncated. That is … small.

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" and "ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS" are quintessentially British stories that reflect the Brits character and attitude. They are stories concerning the cruelty, eccentricity and recklessness of government  and royalty and the foolishness of people everywhere.

The story becomes repetitive. Most of the time the characters are most concerned with if this is the real Alice. We, on the other hand know this is the real Alice, and we don‘t care about their confusion.

The performances are generally well done with HELENA BONHAM CATER as the Red Queen really ruling the screen. This is a well drawn out total performance and it is by far the best in the film. JOHNNY DEPP is extremely good as the Mad Hatter but doesn't really have a lot to do. He is not in love with Alice but they seem to bond and become each others best buds. But why? Is he her father in her dream? No? I don't wish to get all Freudian here but it is after all a dream. So who is he?

Anyway that hardly stops him from giving a Tim Burton/Johnny Depp performance. It’s fun.

Look we all know that everyone is going to see this film. This is a favorite story of many people and to have Tim Burton direct it with all the vigor and special effects and magic it will be a blockbuster. But after you get through with all the running and the warring you might ask yourself the question "what was all that about?"

Oh and why is a Raven like a writing desk? Because Poe wrote on both.

Good for kids but that's all.

Well at least the songs are okay.

What can you expect about a TV series that died out years and years ago. Alvin and the Chipsters are forced into a life of show business but guess what? They have lost the real meaning of Christmas. Can you believe it. Not even worth watching on an airplane this is tripe, tripe, tripe.

I guess you get what you pay for. If you have to see this with kids bring an ipod or some hand held device to occupy your time.

The chippiest.

Well done Brit film about a young woman coming of age in the early 60's. She meets a wanna-be playboy and gets 'an education.'

Never heard of CAREY MULLIGAN who plays the girl but she does a first rate job as the talented, pretty young girl who wants more. A tad old for the part she is still able to pull off being a 16 year old especially when they use her bangs to cover her forehead. You forget all about it after a while and accept it.

First rate cast with ALFRED MOLINA as the put upon father.

PETER SARSGAARD is also top notch as the older guy boy friend but it is really the women who carry the piece. What a brilliant supporting cast with EMMA THOMPSON, ROSAMUND PIKE, OLIVIA WILLIAMS and in a truly thankless role SALLY HAWKINS.

This is one of the better films so far this year and it is excellent top to bottom.

wildaboutmovies 11/12/2009

wildaboutmovies found this review helpful

Great!

This chick is so dynamite! Love her and the story is excellent!

This girl is great!

Really good story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You could take some LSD, watch dances with wolves followed the Smurf movie and feel that you had seen this. The movie is three dimensional but the characters are only two. It was written for the same audience that were shocked when the Titanic sunk in James Camerons last blockbuster. Cameron has not had an original movie for decades and the fact that this is a cover of an obscure english comic book, pocohontas, dances with wolves et all, is beside the point. Everything is derivitave nowdays and this was well done. This is a blockbuster because of the brilliant special effects. The story is as timeless as Columbus and the indigenous people are ar always, as pure and wholesome as the smurfs. But I found the preachy tone tiresome and it almost overwhelmed the little plot there was. I was betting with myself which human was going to get shot and then saved by the Maji sorry, I meant Navi. The finish was a set up for Avatar 2 and I could see a franchise similar to Terminator developing. God help us all.

Top Hat Tommy 02/10/2010

Top Hat Tommy found this review helpful

Great! We loved it!

I luved it!

What fun!

Stunning! What a technical accomplishment! Could be best picture. It's that good. Eye popping entertainment made (at great expensive) by the best around.

Understand that this story is a twice told tale but they still manage to surprise you with some of the plot turns.

Yes this is worth seeing. But don't cheat yourself. See it at a first rate theater with a big screen if possible.

A distant planet inhabited by an exotic people are sitting on an enormously expensive mineral. Of course the big, presumably American company wants it. They send in a small team to infiltrate. They appear to be the same as the aliens but of course they are not. And of course boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back is at it's core. 

Interesting when you think of the parallel that jumps to mind with oil in Arabia or gold on an Indian reservation. Hey who are the good guys anyway? Tough to see our species get kick around so much. Needless to say this will not be Rush Limbaughs favorite film. Political correctness abounds and the human race are pretty much a group of stinkers.

Oh and if they left out one Marine or Army cliché dialog I can't guess what that is. Now get down and give me twenty, ladies!

Anyway the real story is the movie and it's maker, JAMES CAMERON. Mister C insisted the firm run 2 hours and over 45 minutes (we timed it). So get the big popcorn. And the score is vaguely reminisant of another Cameron hit "TITANIC." None the less .... SEE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Really fun. A joyride of a film. Not the greatest acting ever but extremely well cast with humor and purpose and enough ups and down and goings wrong to make the whole thing excruciatingly interesting to watch.

I  truly enjoyed this film.  The action fights and chase scenes were great.  I loved how they used hand held camera's.  It really made the film more exciting to watch.  It was fun tracking the world from Turin to Tangiers to Waterloo Station in London.  I was on the edge of my seat most of the film.  The audience was packed and they continually cheered on Jason Bourne (Matt Damon). 

I was happy they didn't make this movie into a sappy love story.  Bourne Ultimatum is a clever, athletic, scary and exhilarating  film.  Jason Bourne is our American Version of James Bond.

Convoluted. Attractive people but the plot is just too much going on and you can easily get lost along the way.

She is soooooooooooooooooooooo great!!!!

This is reallt well done! Win the award!

Jeff Bridges should win the Oscar!

Love Jeff! Win the Oscar!

Soooo good. Great story well acted. Beautifully done.

It's one of the best!

Yes it's great to look at and so what?

The problem I had with this movie is trying to decide what it's about.

I know the plot. A man ages backwards. So? What does he learn from the experience? What does he feel about it? Is he happy? Is he mad? What insight has he gained or lost? Dunno. BRAD PITT plays him in neutral. Even when he finally meets his real father who gave him away for looking so wrinkled as a baby he has nothing to say to the guy. Kick his butt, dude!

Remember the epic poem “HIAWATHA”?

Remember how Hiawatha paddles to her village and she paddles to his and they miss each other because there is an island in the stream and they paddling on opposite sides of the island. Each going to a certain death when they reach each other ones village. I think that was “Hiawatha.” Anyway the point is that was touching and very much like life itself because you felt the tragedy of lovers passing in different directions. This is a story of two lovers who get together on that island and have at it.

CATE BLANCHETT wishes she could dance line that. Who ever was the stunt butt in this movie was excellent. Cate is once again outstanding. She meets the old Benjamin when she is a little girl and then ages in his direction. They are a classic screen couple. She gives him intelligence and grace. He gives her youthfulness and sex appeal.

“Thus the youthful Hiawatha
Said within himself and pondered,

Much perplexed by various feelings,
Listless, longing, hoping, fearing,
Dreaming still of Minnehaha,
Of the lovely Laughing Water,
In the land of the Dacotahs.”

The same guy that wrote this wrote the screen play “FOREST GUMP.” It is more than a little bit Gumpy. Or Gumpified. Whistfully logic-less. Your tempted to ask “did you shoot it in reverse sequence?

But it is still an interesting and fascinating movie. The special effects are sensation and the lovers are well matched.

Still I left with a hollow feeling. Why is this story worth telling?

Everyone who has ever grown up different then the other kids knows the feeling of being an outcast. It is upsetting until you realize what a tremendous advantage it is. But we never see any of that.

But it is a good yarn well told and amazing to look at.

Not for me. It was too complicated.

Why would this guy care about Earth? It is dumb and gets no better.

Not to see!

Tries too hard. Too much like a number of other films. The chick it cute though.

Beautifully shot, combines tenderness, seduction, restraint and mystery to make for an enchanting if unfulled movie.

Long slow shots that build and often little use of dialogue.

You may have heard the plot before “There are three people in this relationship.” KIRERA KNIGHTLY negotiates her way through being the party on the out in a bad marriage that leads her into a desperately wrong affair. Of course we are immediately put to mind of Princess Diana. Yet different.

Good love story told discreetly with tons of passion. Not entirety satisfactory but it keeps it's promise to correctly portray it's century.

Restrained performance from Kiera Knightly gives us some real insight into the times a troubles.

Pulls you in and keeps you going .... good movie

Xactly what you might expect. I used to love him but not now. He is too weird but I liked the British guy.

MEL GIBSON looks like hell. There's just no other way of putting it. I know he's oldish but my god cigarettes and booze have not helped him keep his matinée image. 

This is another of Mel's you killed my kin, I'll get you for it movies. Whether it be "PAYBACK" or "MADMAX" or "THE PATRIOT" or "LETHAL WEAPON" or for that matter even in "HAMLET", Mel is always trying to get back at someone who killed his kin. 

This is a genre that has become quite popular with films like "TAKEN" and "FIREWALL" where a family is at risk, justifying the hero to punch anyone and everyone in the face.

If anybody recalls the well done BBC series that this film is based on then collect two points. The superb WILLIAM MOYNAHAN ("THE DEPARTED" ) wrote the screen play for this Americanized version but it is no bargain.

By the way, the film takes place mostly in Boston but there is not one person in the cast that is even from New England and it shows. You may recall that originally ROBERT DeNIRO was cast along with Mel but he bolted. Happily he was replaced with the very commendable RAY WINSTONE who allows for the film to have it's rare good moments.

DANNY HUSTON does his usual elegant bad guy sneering at the rest of us. The film isn't bad until the last third. The philosopher Pascal wrote "The last act is bloody, however fine the rest of the play may be." That is definitely the case in this blood drenched operatic ending more like Lorca than Hitchcock. 

Please stop making these movies!