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MarkSchmitt1
Reviews
The Good Shepherd (2006)
Matt Damon is bored and so am I
This movie made me aware of the pain and suffering that is actually caused by sitting around for a long time. I could feel every cell, every nerve of my body ache during this movie because there was nothing else to catch my attention. What did DeNiro need ten years for? Ten years for making such a boring, pointless mess of a movie? Was this his plan to create a weapon of mass destruction? Well, my mind felt assaulted all right by having to watch Damon's bored and expressionless face for almost three hours (that felt like, well, three decades at least). And this after I had already suffered through The Departed! I can't believe this guy is seen as an actor! Even a dead body does more acting than Matt Damon! A good story should have, as we all have learned in school, a beginning, a middle part with climax and an ending. The Good Shepherd had nothing! Whenever I believed that a circle was about to be closed and the film would finally come to an end or at least to some point, there was just another circle about to be closed. And another. And so on. A stinking onion of a movie, unfolding one layer of boredom after another. A boring film about boredom and boring people from boring people for boring people.
Hannibal Rising (2007)
boringstupididioticpretentiousboringstu...
Now this is just another film no one needs at all. For those of you who expected a great thriller like The Silence of the Lambs, don't see Hannibal Rising. You won't get what you came for. For those of you who wanted to know more about the interesting character of Hannibal Lecter, don't see this movie because even a six year old just merely able to write could imagine a better and deeper characterization of Lecter. For those of you who thought the film might be a little better than the stupid and boring book, don't see this movie because that was the same I was hoping for when I bought a ticket for this movie after reading Harris' pathetic effort at being a writer and I did get this nonsense piece of crap that is Hannibal Rising. All elements that worked quite well in the novel (and there weren't many!)and that I thought would look quite passable on screen weren't even taken into consideration by the filmmakers! So, this film represents the overall dumb essence of the novel. For those of you who thought that Gaspard Ulliel might be an OK actor, don't see this movie because he is not! He is an anti-talent and his pseudo-evil looks give you the creeps only because it is so ridiculous. And he looks that way all the time! I think that if it wasn't for the character of Hannibal Lecter, this movie would only have been released direct to DVD.
Monkey Shines (1988)
An 80ie's Romero that isn't that bad at all!
Well, I really can't understand why some people talk so bad about MONKEY SHINES - that's a real good one from Romero! Not only is the idea (the "evil" part of the human soul and behavior is the suppressed animal instinct that sometimes breaks through)in general fascinating - but it is also very well brought on the screen! Romero is often blamed for his unspectacular kind of filming, for his "low aesthetics" (especially his films of the 80ies) etc. but if you look a little deeper, you'll see how much sense his special kind of filming makes, for example as a means to show and develop characters. By the way: the beginning sequence is so great - in a way it shows the "poetry of a car accident" (does this sound perverted?). I appreciate the way of handling the topic of being handicapped - MONKEY SHINES is THE SEA IN ME (2004, directed by A. Amenabar) as a horror movie! The film not only works on a philosophical level but is also - of course it has to because it's a horror movie - very thrilling, even though Tom Savini doesn't go as far with his FX as in his splatter flicks. The only thing I didn't like was that the effect of the serum wasn't explained in a scientific way - this makes the story look like some old-fashioned mad-scientist-story from the early decades of the 20th century... And of course: you'll also find the characteristic Romero-sense for dark humor in this one, too.
Toolbox Murders (2004)
The harsh routine of slashing
Of course TOOLBOX MURDERS is a work of routine but in a way it has some energy that most of the slasher remakes and sequels today don't have: it feels as if you watch a debut movie by an enthusiast young filmmaker who doesn't give a s-t on opinions, trends and money and so it has got much of some kind of 80s and 70s spirit. It is well entertaining and if you forget the fact that you have watched HALLOWEEN or Friday 13th or whatever a s--tload of times, you'll have your fun.
SPOILER: The only thing which is quite obvious and embarrassing is the ending which is totally similar to the original HALLOWEEN...
But anyway: the violence is very grim and shocking in a way that most blockbuster horror flicks of our time don't have.
Try it.
Izo (2004)
Disappointing
I am so very sorry to say that and maybe I've been in the wrong mood for watching this one but I really think this movie sucks up! I've been trying to get every Miike movie that I could and I really appreciate his unconventional, radical Avantgarde-style of making movies. But the last few films (Ichi, Graveyard of Honour)I watched were boring, to be honest, and always the same over the top sadistic splatter flicks...when I want to watch a Miike movie, I want to be surprised by every scene - by it's aesthetics, the wild ideas and everything. But Izo's got nothing of that! (Maybe I've watched too much of his movies so he can't surprise me anymore). And about the 'philosophy': this so called wannabe-philosophy is even harder to stand than the schoolbook-philosophy in the Matrix-movies!! It's really hard for me to admit that, but I've finally found a Miike I really don't like at all...
PS: Maybe, MAYBE I've got to watch that flick twice...and MAYBE I've missed some point or what...but that's what people said about the Matrix-Movies either and watching these twice didn't make them better or more intellectual...