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Reviews
Thale (2012)
Vastly underrated
I share the opinions of many of the reviewers, this is a little gem, pulled off on a shoe-string budget.
It has - in my humble opinion - a decent story, good character development and great acting. I can only assume that the low average is due to the very budget CGI, which many will likely perceive as highly important.
Granted, the opening minutes are not to everybody's taste, some gore, some vomiting, but once you get past that it's a suspenseful thriller with a haunting atmosphere and an eerie sense of foreboding, that it beautifully underlined but the characters of Leo and Elvis. It also raises ethical questions which often get neglected by mainstream cinema.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching it, it's a very fine piece of Scandinavian film making.
Vampire Journals (1997)
OK, move along, nothing good to see here.
I'm not sure what movie all those 7-10 star reviewers were watching, I just can't align any of the rave reviews with what I watched the other night.
Terrible make-up and effects (even for the time it was filmed in), a soppy narrative and theatrical language that would make Shakespeare turn in his grave. Laughable fight-scenes that could have come straight out of a school play, ...
The only good thing about the whole movie was Sophie's piano play and her feminist notions towards Zachary in one of their brief dialogues. Sophie was also (in the beginning, at least) the only likable character in this vampire soap opera.
It was bearable enough to while away a gloomy afternoon without having to turn it off, hence the 3 star rating.
It Follows (2014)
Great cinematography & score, food for thought
I thought it was rather well done, even though I'm not normally a great fan of the horror genre. The mixture of b&w TV sets and shell-shaped e-readers (cellphones?), classic and modern cars kept you nicely guessing at the time period it's set in.
The cinematography was superb, the score not overbearing as in some other horror flicks...
The moral implications of passing "it" on vs not passing it on - either way someone is going to die, were intriguing. Thought experiments of how far/fast one would have to go to at least temporarily get some semblance of normality. Considering the implications of passing it on to someone you're not close to and then never knowing whether or when it's going to come back for you ... shivers.
Bone Cold (2022)
I don't know, man ...
OK, I apologise in advance - this is going to contain a lot of filler words, due to the new requirements about reviews being exceedingly long, when for a film like this one a few sentence should suffice.
The cinematography was pretty good, really, and the acting not half bad, all things considered.
The depiction of the "work" the guys did seemed OK (obviously I can't vouch for it, I never served), the family tensions, the gall for being called off again straight after getting into relief.
But then that creature, presumably a personification of PTSD. I could have accepted it, daft as the costume was, if it hadn't interacted with Marco, Reaper2, and hadn't been visible to the completely uninvolved Sveta. That just didn't make any sense at all.
X (2022)
And now for something completely different ...
I think I may have mentioned in the past (I don't write many reviews at all) that I'm not a fan of horror in general.
But this film has a few interesting things going for it. Questioning the porn industry, the general populace' take on it, rural America ... and all in a, what I felt, fairly authentic 70's style.
The gore is not over the top, the jump-scares are sparse, the most disturbing thing was the wrinkle-sex, which makes me wonder WHY I think so :)
Anyway - I actually quite enjoyed it!
Relic (2020)
Wow ...
I'm not a fan of the horror genre in general, but this portrayal of dementia as a personified demon that takes control of its "host", so to speak, was breathtaking.
The soundtrack never eased up, the atmosphere it created had me on edge throughout the whole 1.5 hours, not a dull moment. The acting, especially of Edna and Sam, was outstanding.
And the way the film used visual metaphors was outstanding, to me, in some ways, it resembled some of the works of Studio Ghibli in its choices of portrayal of inner conflict as external imagery.
The ending, gruesome as it is, is in a way cathartic, and in all its gore and ugliness has something rather calming.
I take my hat off to both Natalie Erika James (what a debut!) and Brian Reitzell (stunning soundtrack!).
And I don't wish to ever watch this film again (I mean that in the best possible way).
Freiheit (2017)
Different
Well ... I was very much gripped by this film.
To me it speaks of depression and a search for "meaning of life" more than anything. As I don't want to make this review a spoiler I'll leave it at that.
Well acted on all parts, the language mumble is quite alright, even though I don't understand Slovak.
Prey (2021)
Why ....
... do people love to hate this film so much?
Admitted, it's not great.
But it's not dysmally bad, either.
The acting was OK, the musical score pretty good; the plot - well. It's OK.
As for the oft bemoaned behaviours of the guys - I wonder how many genuine Rambos, McGyvers or Arnies in Predator are out there who would have made "all the right choices"? And quite frankly, I found most of them quite relatable, not utterly daft or cringe-worthy ...
As for the mother starting to randomly kill people because some drunk hunters shot her daughter - I personally can't see myself reacting in such a way, but people have done weird things; both in movies and in real life.
I Am All Girls (2021)
Good flick, great cause.
Yes, it was a bit overacted (Jodie?).
I actually think it's a 6 or 7, not the 10 I gave it. The 10 is a feeble attempt to counterbalance the "holy warriors" who gave the film terrible ratings because of their allegiance to Iran, and the Arabian costumes, rather than the quality of the film itself.
Color Out of Space (2019)
Meh
Had I not seen "Annihilation" I might have enjoyed this. As it stands it's just another weird movie with Nicholas Cage, trying to do better than "Annihilation", but unfortunately failing.
Depraved (2019)
Well done modern spin on a classic
Not going to rave about it, just here to state that this is a thoughtful and well executed take on the classic, and that it doesn't deserve the poor average rating it's currently on.
El ángel (2018)
Outstanding movie
Watched this last night - absolutely stunningly directed, filmed and terrific acting, I found. Struggled a bit with the Argentinian Spanish and was very thankful for the English subtitles. :)
I'd love to hear from the people who are responsible for the comparatively poor rating (if I give it 10 and it sits on 6.8 there must be a few fairly poor votes) what they didn't like about it.
The Perfect Weapon (2016)
Truly awful
Poor plot, poor dialog, crap acting ... I should have done some cleaning instead of watching this.
Trudno byt bogom (2013)
3 hours of my life I'll never get back
OK, so there's some things about the film that set it apart from the main-stream.
1) It's black & white, and given the subject matter (mud, faeces, guts) I was grateful for that.
2) It has some fairly surreal things going, which, as an admirer of both surrealism and dadaism, I appreciate. Random people waving chicken feet at the camera in the foreground to distract the viewer from the main action taking place in the background is kind of disturbingly fascinating.
Another premise that needs to be taken into account in my review is that I have NOT read the Strugatsky's novel. I have, however, seen the 1989 film adaptation "Es ist nicht leicht ein Gott zu sein", which I enjoyed despite its 2h duration.
German's work ... unless you have an obsession with mud and/or faeces, and are willing to tolerate filth and gore, and weird dialogue for 3h I recommend to stay clear. Setting the scene for Rumata, and the character development, could have been done in about 25 minutes, and that would have been both more than enough and possibly bearable.
I sat through the film even though people around me started leaving, and others fell asleep.
Just my two cents, maybe I'm just not the right kind of guy for this kind of movie.