Rating: Summary: Movie review Review: When I first watched this movie in 1999. I basically thought this is one of those hollywood fanstasies. But in light of recent events. I have decided to rerent this movie and decide to search for any realism. Tragically most of the things in this movie are realistic. Such as the function of terrorist cells. A terrorist mind etc.And a more disturbing thing. The government was planning to detain any suspected Arab immigrant (note not American Arabs) for 48 hours without warrant in the new anti terrorist bill (in the movie arabs were rounded up and were sent to a makeshift interment camp) but thankfully the bill has been altered so those events will not take place. for now at least. In final conclusion this is one of the good movies that talks about terrorism. But it also teaches you that intolerance to a goup is wrong
Rating: Summary: fact or fiction Review: i saw this film last year and thought how well it was brought together.at the time of watching i thouht that how real is was.the events on 11/9/01 made me think of this film.when watching action movies like this people can think ;it's another good/bad hollywood movies'. let's hope and pray that what happened in the film interms of arabs being locked up doesn't happen in real life. thoughts and prayers go out to all those who lost loved ones in this terrible tragedy
Rating: Summary: Couldn't happen here huh? Well think again. Review: I rented the DVD about a week before the events in New York unfolded. At the end of the movie I was like wow...This stuff could actually happen. It's kinda wierd to see so may "It couldn't happen here." reviews, obviously they were written in previous months. The plot is real, it just happened. The reactions are real. Many things that has happened to the muslim community both the good and the bad(execpt the martial law) has happened. Denzel does his sermon, Annette cries and Bruce Willis does a great job in playing a different kind of extremeist, an American one, but the best in this picture goes to Tony Shaloub. You can really feel his pain when he is torn between his duty and his faith.
Rating: Summary: where does your fear lie Review: All those people who wrote these articles about "the siege" following the tragedy in the US, suddenly referring to the movie as 'prophetic' and 'insightful' etc, the issue has been around you for years. Zwick simply distilled the terrorist-threat Zeitgeist in the US into a film that the masses could absorb, and instead we get know-it-alls calling it a bad piece of screenplay and poorly executed. The truth is, the issue of terrorists has long been a part of our lives, just maybe not our western lives, and a far greater threat has materialised. Im sure like so many other people, your faces have been glued to CNN this past week, most likely you would have received a swell of satisfaction when US administators promised retribution on those responsible for the attacks. Included in this was Bush's recommendation for an 'international coalition' to combat the threat. Face it, violations of the constitution are occurring everyday in controlled hidden environments, now, with the instition of a united global government, leaders can legitimise their crimes using the protection of citizens as an excuse. From now on, with the US's beastly budget, the affairs of said government will most likely be decided from there, and every other country will be locked into passive submission. Thats the future, you can kiss your amendments goodbye. I just find it shocking how every movie and media failed to predict the scope of the recent tragedy... martial law in "the siege" was waved off as hollywood fantasy, well now we have martial war, and the number of lives at stake is hundreds of times higher. Enjoy your freedom people, its about to leave.
Rating: Summary: The Siege: When Will We Ever Learn? Twin Towers of Death Review: After Tuesday, September 11, and what happened at the World Trade Centers, now the reviewers who panned this as a "fantasy" may have second thoughts. Whoever wrote this brilliant movie mirrored our current crisis so closely that is is horrifyingly scary and on target. They talk of knocking out "cells" and how terror operates in our country's borders. Annette Benning is brilliant as the CIA agent with ambivalent sympathies. Denzel Washington, working with Director of "Glory," Edward Zwick,with Washingtom winning a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for that great Civil War drama, gives a powerful performance. But the details-my God if any movie was prophetic it is "The Siege." Now that we are seemingly headed full tilt into a full-scale war, have we learned anything? This movie was made in 1998 and last Tuesday, September 11, 2001, mirrors the sagas and themes so closely that it is uncanny. Rent this movie if you have only one movie to rent, rethink what you have learned about terrorists and controlling them. In the day and age of worthless movies of little content, this movie stands tall in every department. What is so sad is that many watched it and thought it was a "fantasy." The World Trade Center no longer exists. Thousands of people are missing and the ruins are still smoking as I write these words in tears and sorrow. We have met the enemy and he is us. See this movie, show it to your kids, for it is a powerful object lesson of the horrible turns history can take.It is no fantasy, my fellow Americans.May God bless us all.
Rating: Summary: It could have been a lot worse. Review: I was originally going to write one of my usual movie reviews, spotlighting the best points of this film and some of what I think are the bad points. I changed my mind for obvious reasons, but this will still be one of my all-time favorites. This movie depicts terrorist bombings by Islamic militants in New York which, though frighteningly realistic, are fictitious. Unfortunately as Washington D.C., southwestern PA, the real New York, and the entire United States discovered on September 11, reality is often much more frightening than any movie. The five stars will only serve to show how I rate the film as a piece of cinema.
Rating: Summary: The worst nightmare has come true Review: When it was first released in December 1998, THE SIEGE was ridiculed as a propaganda attack in its story of New York becoming a literal prison after a series of devastating terrorist attacks on the Big Apple, as well as depicting anyone of a Moslem background as being guilty by association. Now, unfortunately, that attitude has pretty much dissipated because of what happened on September 11, 2001. THE SIEGE has grown into something far more frightening. No longer can it be seen as just another stereotypical Hollywood action film. Its scenes of terror, destruction, and racism hit just a bit too close to home now, and that's why it is so effective despite whatever flaws it might have. Denzel Washington is the very conscientious FBI agent trying to catch the terrorist cells responsible for a series of horrible attacks that, once they've escalated into acts that kill hundreds in his FBI office, lead to the sealing off of the city by the Army, as led by a right-wing general (Bruce Willis). Besides providing the requisite thrills that are familiar to anyone who has seen DIE HARD or SPEED or any 1970s all-star disaster movie, THE SIEGE also warns us against judging certain groups of people as being responsible before all the facts are in. If THE SIEGE can bring anything positive to us, besides supposedly "cheap" Hollywood thrills, it can teach us that xenophobia towards people who are different is dead wrong.
Rating: Summary: In light of recent events... Review: In light of the recent events in New York and Washington D.C. this film has a renewed relevance. I rented "Siege" back when it first came out on video and my attitude was probably like that of many... "Good movie. Well made. But it would never happen." Certainly, we'd never become so crazed as a nation that we'd start putting Arab-Americans in internment camps and declare martial law... Certainly THAT would never happen... In light of recent events, I'm not so sure. Watch this movie. Draw your own conclusions. Before yesterday (September 11, 2001) I never would have believed that domestic bombings on American soil could drive us to the point of nationwide panic and outrage. Again, watch this movie. Pray that it remains a Hollywood interpretation of fictitious events and not an understatement of things to come.
Rating: Summary: life imitates art Review: I haven't seen this movie, but given the recent attack on the world trade center, it may be something everyone should watch
Rating: Summary: Art Imitating Life and Vice Versa Review: I never thought anything as awful as what is depicted in this film could really happen until September 11, 2001, when cruel reality struck. Those events will no doubt make future viewings all the more chilling.
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