Swept Away

"Swept Away" is a film which is filmed in a deserted island in Malta.The movie is a very close remake of a better version of the  1974 movie with the sweet title, "Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August."  The new 2002  "Swept Away" movie has got an amazing script but got a very bad quality of soundtrack and music. It leaves two unattractive characters, one with a diva attitude and another one moronic, on a desert island where neighter they, nor we, have anyone else to look at or listen to. It's even more harder for them than it's for us, as they seem to have to  go through the motions of a sexual attraction that it looks like to have become an impossibility the moment the roles were casted.

This new "Swept Away" is more of an emotional movie, I'm afraid, and these two castaways fall into a more straight forward form of love. I didn't believe what was going on not even for a moment. They have nothing in common, but the worse thing is that, none of them had any conversation. They don't say one single interesting thing. That they have sex because they are standing alone on a desert island, I cant believe.
Madonna character is that she starts out so with the diva attitude that she can never really be changed. We didn't like her intensely and and trough out the whole movie, and when she gets to the deserted island we wouldn't ever believe she will ever learn her lesson, or turn nice, we believed she is behaving with this man as she does with all men, to flirt to get what she wants. As for the so called sailor, does he really wants her and love her, as he says in that powerful and pitiful speech toward the end of the film? What kind of love is there between each other? They shared some nice and good times together, but their minds or their heart never met.

The ending is really what i was expecting, depending as it does on the sarcastic irony that avoids all of the emotional issues. If I had to go this far with these two different character, and sailed with them, and been with them on a deserted island, and listened to their awkward and boring conversations, I would suggest that they arrive at some kind of conclusion more rewarding than a misunderstanding based upon a miss delivered letter.

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Gladitor

A very crazy choice in art way to casts a light over Ridley Scott's "Gladiator" that no swordplay can go through him. The movie looks super muddy and at the same time fuzzy. Its colours are very dark tones at the very end of the palette, and it seems like the movie had been filmed on grim and overcast days. This darkness and a very low detail in the long shots helps obscure shabby special effects (the Colosseum in Rome looks like a fake model from a computer game) and the cast bring no smile to the face, They're nasty, vengeful and really Depressed. By the finishing of this long film, I would have traded any kind of gladiatorial victory for just one shot of Tequila.

This same story line could have been more of an entertainment; I have just revisited the wonderful "Raiders of the Lost Ark," which is just as silly but 10 times more fun. But "Gladiator" lacks of joy It employ depression as a substitute for the personality, and as the believes the characters are harsh and miserable enough, we wouldn't notice how grey there personality is.

"Gladiator" is being a hit by those with short term memories as the same equal of "Spartacus" and "Ben-Hur." This is more like "Spartacus Lite." Or dark. It's only needed to think back a few weeks, to Julie Taymor's "Titus," for the movie is set in ancient Rome that's clearly better to look at. The visual achievement of "Titus" puts  "Gladiator" at a shame, and its script is a whole heck of a lot better than the "Gladiator" screenplay, even if the famous Shakespeare didn't make Titus the only champion that was undefeated in Roman history.

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Troy

"Troy" is based on the amazing poem The Iliad by Homer, according to the credits and the end of the movie. Homer's estate should sue. The movie tells the legend of the Trojan War, as the old city is being attacked by a Greek army who was being led by Menelaus of Sparta and Agamemnon of Mycenae. The most thing i didn't like is why in the movie they didn't explain why Helen would leave with Paris after an acquaintanceship of a very few nights. Was it because her loins throb with a passion for some kind of  hero? No, because in the movie she tells him: "I don't want a hero. I want a man I can grow old with till the day i die."

Pitt is an excellent actor and a very good looking man, and he worked out for six months to get hunk for the role, but Achilles is not a character that fits him easily. You can say what you like about Charlton Heston and Victor Mature, but one good way to handle a sword-and-sandal epic is to be filmed by a camera down around your knees. Pitt is really modern so he brings complexity to a role where usually is not required.

The best part in the movie has been Peter O'Toole creating an island of drama and emotion in the middle of the plodding dialogue. In this movie he plays old King Priam of Troy, who at night go around outside his walls and into the rivals camp, surprising Achilles in his tent.

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Trailer