The Boys From Brazil
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Movie Reviews of The Boys From Brazil
Movie Review: A nice rainy evening movie : )
Summary: 4 Stars
I thought this movie was a little boring in the beginning but when the clones come out, it gets better. Thought the ending part was ironic. This is a good movie though, it's fun to my opinion but kinda funny watching 2 old men duke it out.Movie Review: Timeless entertainment
Summary: 4 Stars
I saw this when it first came out many years ago. I bought it for my sixteen year old. He enjoyed it and it was just as good as I remember.Movie Review: Just Cloning Around
Summary: 3 Stars
Based on the 1976 bestseller by Ira Levin, THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL is an entertaining sci-fi/horror flick concerning a plot to establish a new German Reich, one headed by none other than Adolf Hitler himself. After Nazi hunters discover the whereabouts of Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous Auschwitz doctor--often referred to as the "Angel of Death"--who performed atrocious medical experiments on Jewish prisoners, they eventually uncover his most heinous experiment of all: Mengele has created multiple clones of the evil Fürer and has subsequently distributed the children around the world with hopes that one will grow up under the right circumstances and, with a little help from surviving Third-Reich Nazis, bring Germany back to its former "glory."When Ira Levin writes a novel, he has his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. Even though his stories are often categorized as horror or science fiction, most of his works are not meant to be interpreted as speculation about something that could actually happen; instead, they should be read as allegories, satires, or even as cautionary tales. And the same is true of the films that have been based on his novels. The real message of THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL is that scientific advancement is a two-edged sword--it can be used for great benefit and good, but it can be used with equally strong malice when in the hands of the wrong person. (The movie also takes satirical pokes and jabs at certain aspects of the scientific community. One of the most obvious targets is the ongoing nature-versus-nurture debate in Psychological circles.)
Interestingly enough, however, the film has become even more chilling in recent years because some of the things depicted actually HAVE come about. Around 1985, it was learned that the remains of Joseph Mengele were in South America...and in the last country in which he'd taken refuge--Brazil! (It was determined that he'd died circa 1980). And, of course, the news today is replete with stories about cloning, the coverage dealing with the advancements in the laboratory as well as political and religious fervor over the ethicality of both the procedure and its potential results. So while THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL may be a satire or in some ways even a parody, the basic plot is more firmly rooted in reality than some critcs and moviegoers may have initially realized.
As with most decent movies, part of the fun of watching this film is the acting. Several big names show up: James Mason, Lilli Palmer, Rosemary Harris, and Steve Guttenberg, to name just a few. But it is the over-the-top performances of Sir Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck as the two principals--Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman and the infamous Dr. Mengele, respectively--that really steal the show. Both actors ham it up and often fervently chew the scenery, yet their performances in no way seem disrespectful to the script or its source material. Both actors manage to bring Mengele and Liberman to life as intelligent, driven men who are extremely passionate about doing their part in the bizarre events in which they have become key players (Mengele by choice; Liberman by circumstance).
Though the movie is not quite as strong or as cohesive as Levin's novel, it can still be quite intense at times and is engaging overall. Certainly worth a viewing or two.
The DVD from Artisan Entertainment is short on extras, and though it does not offer the greatest digital transfer ever, it is still quite viewable. Considering the fairly reasonable price, it probably deserves a spot in the film library of an ardent movie buff.
Movie Review: Lawrence Olivier for Diet Coke!
Summary: 3 Stars
I think it was 1979 when my dad bought a Sony Betamax VCR. Sony gave you a free movie when you mailed in the proof of purchase. I told Dad I wanted "Superman," but he got "The Boys from Brazil" instead. I'd tried watching it a few times over the years, but I'd always get bored about a third of the way through. The only thing I'd remembered from the film were the Dobermans at the end, since Dad had recently bought use one of those as well.
I watched two other Ira Levine adaptations recently - the original "Stepford Wives" and "Rosemary's Baby," which I through were creepy and fascinating, so I decided to give "Boys from Brazil" another shot, figuring the interesting parts must have gone over a five year old's head.
It's still boring. I'm almost tempted to transfer the film to a computer and re-cut it, since the story and performances are great. Seeing Atticus Finch as Dr. Mengele gave me the chills, and Lawrence Olivier makes Ezra Lieberman an endearing nazi-hunter. Unfortunately, the slow pacing drains most of the film's potential thrills.
I'd still recommend "The Boys from Brazil" to someone who hasn't seen it for the story alone. With all that's going on with cloning nowadays, it'll give you something else to worry about. I'd say wait for a remake, but if someone redid this, they'd probably play up the comedy and make them Dinosaur Hitler Einsteins.
Movie Review: Interesting....for the wrong reasons.
Summary: 3 Stars
This film is an interesting and amusing one...but not in the way it tries so hard to be. Far from being a riveting and terrifying plot, the idea of a cloned evil person (replicated 64 times) is amusing--particularly when the 'evil person' is a self centered adolescent, spoiled by doting parents. I was, instead of being terrified by this idea, struck by how much the 14-year-old reminded me of the kids at the local shopping mall. And by how much the final scene show-down between the Aryan and the Jews resembles a meeting of our local planning commission. Intended to be a threatening glance into hell-on-earth, this film is a trivial performance by great actors and the enlightment of its message is reduced to the banal when compared to the conflicts and social trends of the world in which we live in the year 2001.