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3 Body Problem (2024)
A story on its own, not a book
In my experience this is a work on its own. If you have read the books and/or watched the chinese TV-series you might be disappointed, it depends on what you were expecting. But this is not those things.
The Netflix TV-series is compressed, very compressed. Nevertheless I think it gets the ideas from the books through. And if you know nothing of the books or the chinese version you could appreciate it as it is, provided that you like scifi that is more than gunfights with laser pistols.
There is also some regular human conflicts as in almost all TV-shows, and I think those are believable or at least watchable. They have even managed to be funny at moments but that haven't disturbed my suspension of disbelief.
The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
Unlucky
The script might work if the audience is unconscious, but then they would miss the fancy cinematography. Now that I've watched it I wish I'd tied something else.
Le chant du loup (2019)
Reminds me of my childhood
Submarines are exciting, maybe because there aren't that many films involving them. And the first part of this movie keeps that excitement at top.
Then it slows down a little, swinging towards a mystery that needs to be solved. A beautiful girl (the only woman in the movie) comes into play, but for what cause I cannot figure out, maybe the french need at least one beautiful girl in every film.
Then there are complications with nuclear missiles involved and then these complications need to be solved.
At this point I'm lost in technobabble, but I enjoyed the script since it reminded me of how we used to play war as kids: "Now this happens, and then this, and then ..." we invented situations without any concern for logic, like this movie does.
Mi Mefakhed Mehaze'ev Hara (2013)
French 90'ths suspense?
I think this is the first Israeli film that I have seen. You can admit that the Israelis are skilled at many things, but after watching this I must say that movie making is not among those skills.
At first I wasn't aware of the origins of this film and I really wondered what those Klingon-like characters at the beginning was, but I soon understood, and was a bit enchanted of my findings.
Then the story began. Part music video (without the "music"), part storytelling for kids (with pictures), ending in THE CRIME. But since that beginning ended in an empty closet, it could also mean that we are watching a remake of Narnia....
I skipped huge parts of the film (thank you Netflix) and hence I cannot claim this as a serious review. But I want to save my thoughts at least for myself here.
If you like French movies then I believe that this is for you, and I think that the film is heavily inspired by the "French movie" style. I wonder if this is typical for Israeli movies?
If you can't stand people getting tortured then skip this. Even if those scenes are conducted a little unconvincingly, they are there and not nice to look at.
All in all I think I learned some interesting things about filmmaking by watching this but if I had wanted to get gripped I would have been disappointed.
Coherence (2013)
Lars Norén in a modern suit
In the beginning the actors and the movie is running along in quite a good way, almost as a documentary. There are many shots from different angles, zooming in on faces pointing out a little bit of each character together with their lines. A bit American personalities there of course, but you can't say it's a bad movie because you don't like the characters. They are what they are and we get it clearly.
It looks like the camera is hand-held but I'm not sure, it's not too irritating anyway. And there is also something I haven't seen before: Many shots starts blurry but focuses quickly, a variant of shaky camera that is very effective but maybe overused in this film.
The story is also "handheld" in my opinion, as is the performance. In the beginning there are many cuts with a second of black screen, but we don't notice that anything important happens between those cuts, so why are they there?
Important things happens instead totally inexplicable in the scenes, and you really wonder what is wrong with these people?
The plot however is really intriguing. You might need to watch this twice in order to disregard from the annoying details and look at it as a study of psychology.
But no matter how many times I see it, I wonder: What is the meaning of this film? I'm definitely no fan of Lars Norén but I never have to ask that question after I've seen one of his films.
Snowpiercer (2013)
This train never was in in Brazil
Too bad this takes place on a train. From the start it took me ten minutes of hard work to suspend my belief and press myself to continue watching. There are a lot of obvious questions coming up with this world setting and I don't feel that they are ever answered, we are just expected to accept the facts -however illogical they seem.
A good work of the camera helped me well through those minutes, all up to Tilda Swinton's speech "from the head to the shoe." I will be sorting that speech under "Epic moments" in my diary!
Then I got to think that the director, and probably some other guys (I cannot discover any women involved in the decision process of this production) must really like Terry Gilliam's masterpiece "Brazil." That might be just an illusion from my side but nevertheless it came to my mind. If I'm slightly correct, it's sad that they just liked it and never studied why it is a masterpiece.
After 40 minutes I jumped to the end so I cannot judge it righteously, but on the other hand I got the time to write these thoughts.
I hope that I will encounter better movies with the same spirit in the future.
Parallels (2015)
A tinge of Fringe
It's not perfect but it deserves my ten stars because I really want it to continue. In contrary to many other TV-series (I suppose this is a pilot of a series?) I think that "Parallels" must have been made by people that really like what they do. The main characters feels almost as Real People, not just actors doing their work. Of course this is not the Oscar league, please understand that I'm comparing to similar productions.
The plot is far from novel: We have the involuntary protagonists, a phenomenon with a vessel that uses the phenomenon, a couple of persons with unknown objectives, and an abundance of different world settings. But the ingredients are well cooked into a delicious taste. This is a "what if" story with a thriller, not a "it's like this" with BangBoom in the lead.
No mind-boggling stuff... Well, it would be if it happened to me, but as a watcher I'm carefully taken through the loops and I can forgive the few plot holes I noticed. The feeling I get is that this is made with intelligence, it has been given more than a half thought!
And it has humor! Not much but just enough.
When I left "Fringe" I felt sad for a long time. Now I'm happy again, I hope this new affair will continue!
Ascension (2014)
Maybe there is ....
Maybe there is a world that we don't know about, where people are actually enjoying good TV- series. Where there are fantastic stories and directors, and actors who like what they are doing. If there is such a world then I believe that I'm caged in some experiment where I'm only allowed to watch crap, and those on the outside is waiting for me to evolve superpowers. -I just need to reach the right level of frustration. Well, I feel that I'm approaching that level soon, so can someone please stop the experiment and let me out of here? I'm dying to watch something enjoyable from your outside world! Or can it be true? Is this the real world that is producing such garbage? Note to self: Do not EVER spend time again on something that you haven't investigated thoroughly. I regret that I watched Ascension.
Gone Girl (2014)
A few tips
If you're watching this online: First watch a trailer and then skip the first 50 minutes, after that you'll find yourself in a thriller made straight after todays best specifications. You could of course watch any other popular thriller that is 50 minutes shorter but otherwise similar and you would lose nothing. Except for the end that is. If you want everything to be OK when it's over, this is not a film for you.
The script bends you to and through, making you believe first one thing and then something else. Ben Affleck's performing is effectively promoting that drive but he's such a bore when doing that. And when we as viewers gets to know the truth long before the end, every suspense is lost. After that it's just a "soft action thriller" for the most.
All in all I couldn't feel for any of the characters at any time.