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Devil's Pond (2003)
1/10
insulting viewer intelligence
8 October 2021
The male protagonist goes (including swimming) to the truck parked somewhere in the woods because they run out of matches (sabotage), to keep the fire burning, he lits cigarette from cigarette on his way back to the edge of the pond and swims across it (few hundred yards by the look of it) to the island where they're spending their honeymoon. He emerges there with a lit cigarette in his mouth, it's worth mentioning he accomplished the task holding a shotgun, pair of heavy boots and a light bag, fully clothed. I'd love to see him swimming, scene not shown :(.

When he is away smoking cigarette after cigarette, the heroine, whom he chained (long chain), chops the chain with an axe (which is not an easy task, and judging by the gauge of the chain most likely impossible at all), interestingly she chops it off not close to her foot, where it's attached, but at the farther end so now she has to swim on the floating air mattress to the shore to retrieve a heavy metal animal animal trap her abusive (we all figured out by now the relationship deteriorated to point of no return ) husband set up in the wood, to, guess what, trap him.

It's worth mentioning she cannot swim and is rather terrified by water.

But hey, when life is at stake, you can learn in a jiffy, which she demonstrate in the ending scenes.

Anyway, later we learn that a key to the padlock wrapped around her ankle is in a flimsy security box that she could have open with one blow of an axe, but I guess under stress she cannot think strait, neither the film producers.

Drama plot not even worth mentioning, cliche, repeated over and over gazillion times through film history, boring to tears this time, so only entertainment value is in watching these improbable titbits that insult viewer intelligence.

Enjoy!
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Off Piste (2016)
1/10
low budget production followed by a v. low quality movie
26 April 2021
One star because.because I cannot give '0', OK, let it belong to the therapist Bernadette :) From one improbability to another impossibility, accentuated by wooden dialogs and characters.

....... here some juicy pieces: The guy hikes up in the back country to go down in powder, in the avalanche prone area (as we learn from a conversation in the bar a day before), and a girl that wants to meet him (for whatever reason) sneaking up on him to connect, then tries to follow him on a snowboard, falls injures her leg, and the guy says, I have to carry you down to my house that is at the bottom of the hill, and that's what he does, carries her down the hill, in backcountry, in powder snow, how stupid is this!!!???!!!. Then after arriving there in not a drop of sweat on his brow.

Then she is invited by his mother to stay and have dinner with them, walking around not even slightly limping.... Then her Irish jealous boyfriend shows up (we are now in French Alps) with a deranged buddy of his, who persuades him an honor killing her and the guy (the one that does impossible things in backcountry), they just grab the hunting rifle and the pistol from under the blanket in the back of the SUV they drove from Belfast....and then some more incredulous event unfold.

You would be better to watch paint dry.

I very rarely contribute here, but couldn't restrain myself after waysting 1.5hr.
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The Promotion (I) (2014)
10/10
Slowly moving drama of high calibre
23 March 2017
Achingly depressive, painful to watch, wonderfully portrayed study of descent into self destruction. Masterful in subtlety of hints and clues that guide us through unravelling of a desperate mind destined for utter destruction. Superb cinematography and soundtrack complement the spiritual desolation; the unnerving feeling of bland hopelessness will haunt you for some time. First time in quite a while I din't regret using Netflix :) Just the the title 'AMOK' is not congruent with deliberate resolve main character carries out his plan, 'Promotion', into annihilation, fits better.
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