Old:Europa Europa (1990)
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Writers: Solomon Perel, Agnieszka Holland,
Stars: Marco Hofschneider, René Hofschneider
Solomon Perel (upon who’s written account the
film is based) is part of a German Jewish family about to incur the hateful
sphere of Nazi Germany’s Nuremburg Laws, despite escaping to Polish refuge in
Lodz the danger follows and the family is divided. Solomon subsequently via a
ricocheting collective of fate and fortune finds his way into a Bolshevik
orphanage, part of a German army unit and enrollment at a Hitler Youth school.
At each stop we suffer a juxtaposing set of belief systems, and are told
“Communism is Beautiful” by a Russian Teacher, a German educator waxes lyrical
of the Fuhrer’s lust for the purity of Nordic faced Aryan race, whilst a German School girl and would be love interest
reveals her poisoned longing to see his people eradicated. Solomon absorbing all this
hate and bluster must also ingests a grimly symbolic Grave of Jewish Graves
Stones and the pain of his gruesome attempts to reverse his now clandestine circumcision;
the only way his true ethnic identity can be revealed.
Europa Europa takes a particularly nuanced look at this
survivalist true story of a Jewish boy manoeuvring his way through World War 2,
the film has a rather assumptive stance on the graphic horrors of the war which are implied but not widely shown, instad there is a focus on the intense ideological backdrop of the conflict which
manifests itself through religion, political propaganda and imposing institutionalism.
8/10
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Writer: Dan Fogelman
Stars: Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman
Imagine Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, David Bowie and the
lead singer from Shed Seven getting together for a knees-up in Blackpool to which you
are invited, what might sound like it has all the ingredients for a great night
soon declines into the group ogling young girls they are old enough to grandparent.
If you can imagine this then you are at least half the way to the attempted
joys of Last Vegas, a film that promises you 3 legends for the price of 4 and
proceeds to patronise its audience with some uninspired life messages with only
a few mildly funny gags to act as compensation.
In what could be dubbed the “The Expendables for serious
actors”, Michael Douglas assembles his old pals Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman
and last and least Kevin Kline for a Bachelor Party in Sin City as he battles
to fight off father time by marrying a woman half his age, in the process his
friends are drawn into a similar battle against the other purported lethargies of
later life such as stale sexless marriages, loneliness and ill health.
In the end Last Vegas resembles that night out you probably
could do without, but couldn't help feeling like you'd be missing out so you
pop along for the heck of it, only to return home somewhat underwhelmed by your
own sobriety.
6/10
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