siliconlife wrote: ↑Sat Sep 16, 2017 4:33 am Watched on Netflix last night. Here's my review, like it or leave it.

The movie opens ominously, I was very excited, and even felt a shiver on my skin as the Khmer Rouge enter the city. However, within about 45 minutes, I was struggling to pay attention. A movie with some beautiful scenes unfortunately let down by poor casting, distinct breaks in tension, and stock Hollywood emotional grease. A shame that this movie did not have a well-knit group of real professionals (or otherwise people with no experience outside Hollywood) in key crew roles, but I suspect mainly in the directing and casting departments. Jolie showed her amateurism by being unable to elicit convincing or engaging performances from her non-actors. Here the film pales in comparison to other period films with important child roles such as City of God, This is England, or most notably Eli Klimov's Come and See. For all her cuteness, Sareum Srey Mom never manages to come off as anything much more than either completely blank, or otherwise whiny. There is no journey in the girl for a film that supposedly takes place over a four year period, apart from one part of the film where they put make-up on to make her look more gaunt. Perhaps it was due to this that the film simply got boring, but there were other things at play. Sets and props are very impressive, and so are some of the organised mass scenes and aerial shots, but this is essentially a money project. High production values, most of the crew being people who work on Marvel or Tom Cruise films, is unfortunately not really what you need to make a truly impacting movie on a gravely serious subject matter. The ending sequence fails due to repeated slow motion scenes and cloying, stereotypical string music that depletes it of any soberness. Slow-motion does not automatically make things more emotional, I'm sorry, but rather makes it look like the director is trying to cheaply wring emotion out of us. Despite the political/social mess behind the making of this movie, I really, really wanted to like it, if only for Rithy Panh, who I have a lot of respect for. But I don't think this is the historical film that Cambodia needed.

Jamie_Lambo wrote: ↑Sat Sep 16, 2017 9:07 am yeah i quite agree with Silicones post,
i dont mind movies that are quite moody with not a great deal of dialogue etc,
and thought some of the cinematography was some of the movies big strong points

i felt it could have done with a bit more character building at the start before the khmer rouge comes marching in, just to give more of feel and bond to her family,

i also didnt like how they played out a number of scenes which tell the viewer that her siblings have died (the flaming/bombed village and the mine field) then her brother and sister magically re appear in the next scene again, considering during the movie she often has hallucinogenic visions of flash backs of family and other things like the apsaras etc, i couldnt work out if her siblings were dead and she was just imagining they were there for comfort or if they really did just randomly coincidentally bump into each other again, i was half expecting in the scene of them reuniting on the road and theyre all hugging and happy for it then to flash to reality of her walking alone and it was just in her mind/to trick the viewer,

i felt the movie needed a bit more gut wrenching raw drama, and some parts and the ending was far to hollywood cheese for me,
some parts of the movie i really did enjoy though, and thought was played out well, then there were others which didnt convince me

ive not read the books so my views are based on the movie alone, i think the film would have been more tragic and better if her brother and sister didnt keep "dying" then reappearing, i think that was the bit that annoyed me the most and probably wouldnt have had any gripes if it wasnt for that, i think it was when they reappeared after the minefield scene, like one minute theyre all running together, then everyones getting blown up, and shes all alone calling out for them crying then walks through the minefield alone, then the next scene theyre all together again all happy and playing

i felt they glossed over the death of her parents too, they are scenes that could have had more impact, due to the title of the film you know the father is the first to die, and there was always a bit of tension there at the start as to if they would find out who he really was, and your waiting the whole first half of the movie for that moment, then it doesnt deliver, i know they got to stay true to the book and as the movie is coming from the young girls perspective, but they didnt really show a lot of death, considering the death toll in real life

i will be giving it another watch on sunday with the parents so will be watching it with less expectation and might enjoy it more (i did enjoy it but there were some things that spoilt bits for me)

cptrelentless wrote: ↑Sun Sep 17, 2017 5:55 am

Jamie_Lambo wrote: ↑Sat Sep 16, 2017 9:07 am yeah i quite agree with Silicones post,
i dont mind movies that are quite moody with not a great deal of dialogue etc,
and thought some of the cinematography was some of the movies big strong points

i felt it could have done with a bit more character building at the start before the khmer rouge comes marching in, just to give more of feel and bond to her family,

i also didnt like how they played out a number of scenes which tell the viewer that her siblings have died (the flaming/bombed village and the mine field) then her brother and sister magically re appear in the next scene again, considering during the movie she often has hallucinogenic visions of flash backs of family and other things like the apsaras etc, i couldnt work out if her siblings were dead and she was just imagining they were there for comfort or if they really did just randomly coincidentally bump into each other again, i was half expecting in the scene of them reuniting on the road and theyre all hugging and happy for it then to flash to reality of her walking alone and it was just in her mind/to trick the viewer,

i felt the movie needed a bit more gut wrenching raw drama, and some parts and the ending was far to hollywood cheese for me,
some parts of the movie i really did enjoy though, and thought was played out well, then there were others which didnt convince me

ive not read the books so my views are based on the movie alone, i think the film would have been more tragic and better if her brother and sister didnt keep "dying" then reappearing, i think that was the bit that annoyed me the most and probably wouldnt have had any gripes if it wasnt for that, i think it was when they reappeared after the minefield scene, like one minute theyre all running together, then everyones getting blown up, and shes all alone calling out for them crying then walks through the minefield alone, then the next scene theyre all together again all happy and playing

i felt they glossed over the death of her parents too, they are scenes that could have had more impact, due to the title of the film you know the father is the first to die, and there was always a bit of tension there at the start as to if they would find out who he really was, and your waiting the whole first half of the movie for that moment, then it doesnt deliver, i know they got to stay true to the book and as the movie is coming from the young girls perspective, but they didnt really show a lot of death, considering the death toll in real life

i will be giving it another watch on sunday with the parents so will be watching it with less expectation and might enjoy it more (i did enjoy it but there were some things that spoilt bits for me)

Her mum told the kids to walk South, East and North. The boy went South, the two sisters went down the path. Nobody died, hence the reunion scene

timmydownawell wrote: ↑Sun Sep 17, 2017 9:22 pm This review from Facebook:

Tae Kwon Ian First of all, I can't hear shit when they're talking. Most of the actors sounds like they're whispering... Being pretty calm(especially the father). The only clear script I could understand and hear was from the Khmer Rouge army(that's when I had to lower the volume down because some were yelling,lol). .

lol