DrMemory Reviews

Meat (1976)

Take a Safe Peak

[10/10 · 21 August 2014]

You ever want to look at something that scares you? Like (for me) a big spider weaving its web outside the garage? You can step back away, watch from a safe distance, not have the image filling your view. Or sometimes you can just peak at something, maybe between fingers, one eye shut? This film lets you see how meat is really made. If you went to a slaughterhouse and walked around, had a tour, it would be a completely horrifying sensory overload. But here, on your TV screen, and in B&W, it seems somewhat safer to look. Close your eyes and it will be gone, you are safe.

There is no narration, just the sounds of the plant as the workers do their jobs, the machinery clanks away. Very sterile feeling. (Nothing like Motel Hell). Very simply, each line at the plant, from rounding up each type of critter, killing it, and processing it.

Again, this may sound overwhelming -- but it isn't. The B&W, the natural sound, the slow even pace, it seems more like an automobile assembly line after a while.

So, if you are fine with not knowing, perhaps even not imaging what goes on in a slaughterhouse then you are all set. But if you are curious -- just what goes on behind those doors -- this film will tell you in as gentle but honest a way possible.

American Beauty (1999)

It grows and grows

[10/10 · 29 February 2008]

I didn't think that much of this movie the first time I saw it. But certain images just stuck in my head.

I saw it a second time and I really saw it for the first time, an amazing movie. I just watched it for a third time and it just grows and grows.

The story is so simple and short. Yet it has the enjoyment, the journey of a major novel. I personally hate chick-flicks, am more the action-adventure type. But there isn't a boring moment in what is really casually paced.

The cinematography and the acting is so well done as to become invisible, just captivating. One of the few films where I never thought of any of the actors being "them" playing a part. They are so real.

A beautiful journey into a world so foreign, yet so familiar to our deepest thoughts.

Dreamcatcher (2003)

Scenes From The Novel

[3/10 · 19 April 2004]

Well, it seems that there are some King movies that those who read his books hate and those who don't read them love. The Shining would be a good example.

And then there are those that the book-readers love. In many cases, unless you've read the book they make little sense. This movie is the latter type.

It's sort of like "Highlights from Hamlet." You are expected to be familiar with the original material.

Some great scenes -- the running animals are amazing. But if you don't know the plot -- you won't have much of an idea after the movie either.

Bottom line -- only King fans need apply.

Vertical Limit (2000)

Factual Limits

[2/10 · 11 December 2001]

Dear Lord, what an awful movie! The characters are all the usual clichés. There is a total disregard for science, physics, and common sense. Gee, how can we make this exciting... I know, let's strap Nitro on their backs for some reason! Let's make them click radios instead of talking. Let's take every plot device out of every other action movie and see if we can fit it in! Shucks, you sure we can't have a car chase?

And I hate the Nitro crapola that Hollywood seems to come up with. Yes, if you even sneeze it will explode! How did they get it there to start with then? Who knows. And if anyone thinks ANYONE uses liquid Nitro for ANY purpose, they should research where the funds for the Nobel prizes come from.

What a piece of crap.

The Firemen's Ball (1967)

Hilarious!

[9/10 · 11 December 2001]

I'm not much of a foreign film fan, and tend to avoid subtitled films. But I ran across this film on TV one day, and it captured me.

It feels as real as a documentary, and it is as funny as movies get. You'll also pick up a real feeling of how another society might be.

Don't miss this, even if you have to buy it.

Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)

I Only Lasted 45 Minutes

[2/10 · 29 March 2001]

I don't know what movie these other reviewers saw, maybe they accidentally rented the 1974 version (which was an action movie)? This is another character-interplay "chick flick" disguised as an action movie. I wound up begging, screaming at the screen, "Please, some action, any action, just have someone even drive a car, anything!" I can see the conversation between the director and producer in my mind -- "Gee, do I have to show them actually stealing the cars? Can't we just show them back fresh from the theft and let them tell the story in their eyes?" This is an unbearable, slow, almost actionless movie.

House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Very bad yet very good

[10 June 2000]

First, the bad news. They put 10-20 previous horror movies in a blender, whipped them all up and poured out -- a bunch of scenes that look like they came out of a blender set on low. No continuity in sight. The place is restored, it isn't. They spent a zillion dollars restoring it but didn't do the driveway. It's all fixed up except for the basement, which seems to be where each and every function of the old hospital was, including the mad doctor's office. What did they use the other 30 stories for? Who knows. They really don't exist as the attic is a single flight of stairs up from the main floor, in easy shouting distance.

The good news -- it will scare the crap out of you! They don't get much more genuinely terrifying than this one.