Word: heros
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Like most of the earlier conspiracy thrillers, this one proceeds from two warring premises: a synoptic cynicism about the men who run things, and a dewy belief in the myth of the lone hero. You're to accept on faith that the high-level perps are both deeply malevolent and supremely competent. (Uh-huh. Then why can't they run a simple Iraq occupation?) In the Oliver Stone tradition - who killed JFK? Everybody! - the mischief-makers have infected all branches of power: the military, the CIA, the Senate, big business. "There's no head...
...really nice suburban mom? And if the villagers took a shine to the creature before being egged on to kill him? It's also Beauty and the Beast . Except that Edward's beauty is the beast - for most of the piece Kim pays scant attention to our hero - and, as incarnated by Depp or either of the men (Sam Archer and Richard Winsor) who dances Edward for Bourne, the beast is beautiful...
...effect. Mugabe has demonstrated time and again that he is prepared to destroy the country rather than give up power. South Africa, the big brother of the region, is the key to change. But President Thabo Mbeki has been afraid to touch Mugabe, who is still seen as a hero of the anti-apartheid struggle in southern Africa. Among the poor and landless in South Africa, Mugabe's seizure of white farms went down well. Afraid of lighting a fire in his own country, Mbeki sits on his hands and will take a proactive role only if Zimbabwe collapses into...
...broadly humanist, but its codes and attitudes are as rigid as those for an old-time western or musical. The plot typically begins with a decent person suffering some outrage by an oppressive overlord, whether military, governmental or corporate. It goes on to chronicle the steps by which our hero either exacts righteous revenge or, if it's a tragedy, is crushed by the system. The goal of the movie is to provoke some fellow feeling for the world's underdogs. Then, cleansed and spiritually enriched, you can return to American Idol...
...winning weepies are descendants of the domestic melodramas of the '30s and '40s, with Barbara Stanwyck or Greta Garbo cast as a strong-willed woman censured by a straitlaced society. In the past 20 years, when women have achieved a measure of equality (except at the box office), the hero-victim has tended to be male, and the affliction has been mental, as in Rain Man, Forrest Gump and A Beautiful Mind. They're the movie equivalent of the orphan puppy that no one will adopt--except you, dear sensitive viewer...