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Femme Fatale

Femme Fatale

List Price: $14.96
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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Dumb
Review: The only good part of this movie was the first 15 minutes where nobody spoke a word. Once Antonio Bandares started talking is where the movie went South. Rebecca Romijn was pretty in that vaseline lens supermodel look, but they both looked like they were reading off cue cards. DUMB, DUMB, DUMB.I've seen grass grow faster than it takes for this movie to end... I'm sure it will take in a bunch of cash from DVD sales, but don't waste your time!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It made me want to eat
Review: The movie was mediocre, in that there were some definite plot twists and dream sequences (which I like). My only complaint and I think it saturated the decency of the film, is that Rebecca Romjin-Stamos was a little skeletal for being a femme fatale. I thought her fight scenes were completely destroyed because we all know she would have been thrown several times. Anyways the movie was pretty good but maybe if they had chosen Angelia Jolie the movie would have been much better.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best film of 2002
Review: Mr. De Palma is not a critics' darling, and as such his latest, Femme Fatale, has come in for his usual roasting. Is it deserved? Not if you love a film that embraces the visual splendour and techniques that make cinema a unique art form. Not if you love the medium. Not if you love film.

Femme Fatale sees De Palma returning to his forte and his professed preferred genre: the suspense thriller. It is a welcome return considering his recent fare have seen him straying to more mainstream efforts - Mission to Mars, Mission: Impossible - that were shells of his virtuoso films of the late 70s and early 80s.

The film leads off with a stunning 20-minute Jewel heist sequence that takes place during the Cannes film festival of 2001. Completely bereft of dialogue, a la Topkapi, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos's character has the enviable task of lifting a diamond dress from Rie Rasmussun in a bathroom encounter. His first original screenplay in 10 years, De Palma writes a tightly-plotted tale that certainly does not lead the audience by the hand, and the resulting twists it provides will allow different perspectives on the film's events with repeat viewings. It's not passive cinema; too often a film will guide the audience by the hand like a child. De Palma's direction and script respects the audience's intelligence, and it is indeed satisfying.

Antonio Banderas - usually lost without cause if not working with Robert Rodriguez - does what he needs to do with efficiency; Romijn-Stamos, the Femme Fatale of the title, provides the eye candy. The acting is not top drawer, but it does not need to be: we're here to see an auteur in his element: De Palma delivers. I must clarrify that what we are watching is not top-drawer talent - De Palma's stature in Hollywood today means that whenever he takes on personal projects, his funding will not allow access to actors that he may have pursued in days gone by - but they do deliver, and it's not the actors we came to see.

Cinema is more than a stage with a camera - De Palma uses his camera and cinema technique to brilliant effect. Huge swooping camera movements, split-screen, slow motion sequences, no dialogue and an enveloping orchestral score; De Palma's signature is prevalent. And that is good: a director should never be an autonomous entity, happy to turn out derivative drivel that get the masses in and out - directors for hire are too commonplace in Hollywood today - and that is something that De Palma could never be accused of.

Femme Fatale is a great example of a director working in a genre he loves and understands, and given the freedom to create. Total cinema? Indeed, and its smell is sure intoxicating. Welcome back, Mr. De Palma.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: De Palma on the rise again?
Review: Brian de Palma has a very peculiar way of directing his movies. The long shots, the divided screen showing different angles of the same scene at the same time, the moving camera, all this he's always done, and well-done. Unfortunately, his last two movies were so bad (with the exceptions of some good scenes) that one had to wonder if Mr. de Palma has lost his directing touch. "Femme fatale" may prove that De Palma is rising again as a director.

The plot is: the amazingly beautiful Rebecca Romijn is part of a gang that steals a diamond-encrusted body-piece in the form of a serpent during one presentation of the 2001 Cannes Festival. When she double-crosses her robbery-mates, she must run to save her life. Then, one of those coincidences that only happens in movies: she takes the place of a woman who commites suicide in front of her, a woman that looks just like her, and runs away to USA. In the plane she meets Peter Coyote, the president of a software company, and who, later on the movie, will be her husband and will also be designed as the American ambassador in Paris. So, Rebecca must go back to France, where she has to hide from ex-paparazzo Antonio Banderas, hired to take a smug shot of the recluse ambassador's wife.

There are dozens of plot-twists, strong sex-scenes (including one lesbian scene) and, during the movie, subtle hints that may or may not lead the spectator to what is really going on in the story.

The ending is a little bit too fantastic, but that's ok, because everything sums up in the end, it's very well tight.

Praise for the model-actress (I forgot her name) who does a scene RUNNING across the streets in enormously high heels. This must be something very difficult and painful to do.

Grade 9.0/10

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: "Femme Fatigue"
Review: When I saw this movie in the theater, I thought I was in France. It felt like one of those erotic thrillers you'd see at Cannes Film Festival. Really, "Femme Fatale" is insanity. A dream within a dream? Laure or Lily (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) was a jewel thief who robbed a film festival and cheated her lover in the process. After she left to France many years later, a photographer named Nick (Antonio Banderas) believed that the rich wife of an important invidual was in fact this jewel thief. I forgot to mention that her partners in crime were after her. Understand? The movie should've been called "Femme Fatigue." It's that tiring and you'll probably stop concentrating after ten minutes. Of course I get it, I'm brilliant. People may have more fun studying for the SATs than to watch this movie. I have to point out that the cinematography is eye catching and mesmerizing. I'm giving it three stars because it was something fresh that was released recently and it deserves to be seen.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This Film Will Blow You Away!
Review: This film blew me away. Movies are my hobby, I live in a moderately small city (e.g. population 115,000). A movie is almost the only option for a teenager here. So I've seen my fair share and beyond. My friends and I have worked and do work at theaters so I got to see a lot of movies for free. This allowed me to view movies I wouldn't regularly pay for. I had not heard anything about Femme Fatale when I saw it at the theater. Not knowing what I was in for, this movie blew me away. My good friend and fellow reviewer Kyle Marcum made a far better analogy than anything I've thought of thus far so I will just use it and credit him for it. The analogy being that of the Sierra Mist Commercials, "Yeah it's kind of like that." It is the best way to make you realize the feeling of refreshment I had after experiencing this film. I was so happy to see a film in which the writer/director had courage enough to include everything thing he/she did in this film. It is about time that someone really pressed the envelope to include these sometimes-essential elements for a suspenseful film. In the end there is no doubt in my mind that this film will blow you away! I give it the maximum stars available.
Two thumbs up!
5 out of 5 *'s!
Grade: A+

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: De Palma does it again
Review: From the first minutes until the very last, this movie is a Deja Vu-experience for every De Palma-fan out there. But even if you're not that, Femme Fatale does get your attention in a more than a few aspects of good movie making. The storyline is hectic at first, but parts from the puzzle fall together after a while, just like the photopuzzle that Banderas is glueing to the wall of his appartement. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos has the main attention of the camera as well as from the viewer. Every twist in the script makes you think in different directions, and when you got the idea that you've got the idea, another twist comes around the corner. I like that in a movie. It seems that a lot of the movie was shot on location in France but I could be wrong, nevertheless, the French actors do speak French and that's a delight. At the end we have a few things to discuss, which part was a dream, which part is the real present, as good as a De Palma movie can get, this is one of his better efforts.
Image and sound quality of the movie were very good - I did not see the disc yet but have high hopes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Ahhhh - Yeah, it's kind of like that. (Sierra Mist)
Review: I found a breath of fresh air: Femme Fatale. Here is a spicy, fearless movie about a female detective that always gets what she wants (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos). She lies, cheats, and strips to manipulate the people around her for her own benefit. In the beginning of the movie, she screws over her two partners in crime during a diamond heist (it's no ordinary heist). Seven years later, the two come back, and they're hell-bent on killing her. She's cleaned up her act, but unfortunately, a photographer (Antonio Banderas) turns in snapshot of her to a tabloid that allows the two men to track her down. Of course he didn't mean any harm, but by then it's too late. No, I haven't revealed too much, but I refuse to reveal any more. You just have to see Femme Fatale for yourself. Everything in this movie is right on target. The ending is as fulfilling as they come.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I love Antonio but left the teather very confused..........
Review: The story line was good but it needed serious help. Part way through the movie there was a dream sequence totally confusing left feeling "what the he"ck" happened." At point it seemed like the movie was sarting over. I would recommend any other Antonio Banderas films but not this one. If you want to see a really Antonio movie see the following.....Interview, Of love and shadows, Orginal Sin, Mask of Zorro, 13th warrior, Desperado. Those are all good.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truly fabulous film noir!
Review: Brian De Palma has really outdone himself this time. This movie was nothing but sheer joy and excitement to watch from beginning to end. It's smart...intriguing, and can somebody tell me why Rebecca didn't start acting sooner?!?! She embodies the role of the Femme Fatale and De Palma portrays her so well it's almost intoxicating.

Banderas also plays a fabulous role in the film. Probably one of his best and the relationship between the two characters takes wonderful twists and turns throughout the film until the very last second.

As in many heist films, the twist is thrown in but you wonder how original it can get. Femme Fatale has its own twist to its heist of jewels stolen from the Cannes Film Festival...and the scenes that depict this are wonderful to watch considering the lack of dialogue that takes place.

This film is a true gem of film noir and should only be watched if such a genre is appreciated by you the viewer. A must see for the femme fatale fan!


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