metalprof
Ken Luther
I recently watched several of the films recommended in this old thread, so I thought I'd cross post these blurbs here.
INSIDE - A French horror flick (by the same folks as High Tension, I think) that starts off good, hits a high point in the middle, and then drains away into a long, boring spell of waiting for the inevitable to happen. It's about a pregnant woman being tormented by a mysterious stranger. The ID of the stranger isn't really a surprise. It's one of those films that takes place in one setting only - the interior of a house. There's only so much you can do with that, and eventually I just wanted it to be over. A few good moments, but no consistent tension. Can't recommend it, except maybe if you're a slasher / gore fan.
IRREVERSIBLE - A story told in reverse order, like Memento. This one starts with a killing and works backwards so you can find out who / why / etc. The problem is that each scene gets more and more dull because as you back away from the murder things get more and more mundane. Well, with the exception of an overlong rape scene that appears to have been the main reason to make the film (the rest just being the framework for including it). In Memento, the disorientation was germane to the story itself, and helped you identify with the situation of the main character. In this movie, it's just a gimmick, and each backwards "reveal" of new information brings around a sense of ho-hum. Can't recommend it.
BLACK SHEEP - I'll never look at a wool sweater the same way again! This is a must for fans of Dead Alive; it doesn't quite match the level of gore, but the mix of black humor and zombies (well, sheep zombies and people-sheep mutants!) works really well. Lots of funny scenes and simple, but funny dialog. Recommended!
ALTERED - By the guy who made the original Blair Witch Project. This one doesn't really have a gimmick, it's just a damn good story! Think of an X-Files episode on steroids, with a heavy R rating. It's an abduction story in reverse, the humans have abducted the alien. It starts off at a hot pace and doesn't really let up for a while. The acting is iffy, but I never really found it too much of a distraction because I was interested in what was going on. Recommended!
FUNNY GAMES - More like Boring Games. This is a movie about a pair of young, amoral killers terrorizing the most boring family ever. The film had the gimmick of the killers directly addressing the audience a few times, with (I guess) the point of trying to make you realize the violence is for your entertainment, not the killers', and doesn't that say awful things about society, shame on you for watching. But as the movie went on and on, I found myself hoping they'd do away with the family quickly - not for some sicko thrill, but just because I was bored, and there was no reason to pull for the family. The killers could have tortured mannequins and the movie wouldn't have been that different. I used to like Tim Roth, oh well. Can't recommend it.
DIARY OF THE DEAD - George Romero's latest zombie flick. I had high hopes as it started off, since it was taking the Cloverfield approach and setting things up so that we'd see everything through cameras. Plus, it started out with a few funny moments, such as a quick explanation of why zombies can't run - thus taking a good natured swipe at other recent zombie flicks (unnamed, of course). But having set up the contrivance needed to show the movie through the camera eye, Romero spends the rest of the movie trying to come up with ways to get out of that mode. Another camera gets involved, so that you can lose the first person perspective a lot, and see the primary cameraman; they keep going places that happen to have security cameras showing every single corner, and they happen to find and take those camera recordings. It's almost like he didn't trust himself to tell the story well under the restrictions he set up for himself. Maybe he was right, though, because the story just isn't that good. Bad characters, bad acting, no reason to care. Can't recommend it.
OK, for a completely different style of movie:
WALK HARD - THE DEWEY COX STORY. I was apprehensive about this, since the previews didn't really convince me of anything. But, man, this movie is funny! It's a satire of the musical biopic, taking a Johnny Cash-like character and following him through every decade and almost every style of pop music - folk, hippy rock, disco, etc. Terrific stuff, and I recommend the longer director's cut. It's about half an hour longer than the theatrical version, and I have no idea which parts were left out of the shorter version - all of it was funny!
INSIDE - A French horror flick (by the same folks as High Tension, I think) that starts off good, hits a high point in the middle, and then drains away into a long, boring spell of waiting for the inevitable to happen. It's about a pregnant woman being tormented by a mysterious stranger. The ID of the stranger isn't really a surprise. It's one of those films that takes place in one setting only - the interior of a house. There's only so much you can do with that, and eventually I just wanted it to be over. A few good moments, but no consistent tension. Can't recommend it, except maybe if you're a slasher / gore fan.
IRREVERSIBLE - A story told in reverse order, like Memento. This one starts with a killing and works backwards so you can find out who / why / etc. The problem is that each scene gets more and more dull because as you back away from the murder things get more and more mundane. Well, with the exception of an overlong rape scene that appears to have been the main reason to make the film (the rest just being the framework for including it). In Memento, the disorientation was germane to the story itself, and helped you identify with the situation of the main character. In this movie, it's just a gimmick, and each backwards "reveal" of new information brings around a sense of ho-hum. Can't recommend it.
BLACK SHEEP - I'll never look at a wool sweater the same way again! This is a must for fans of Dead Alive; it doesn't quite match the level of gore, but the mix of black humor and zombies (well, sheep zombies and people-sheep mutants!) works really well. Lots of funny scenes and simple, but funny dialog. Recommended!
ALTERED - By the guy who made the original Blair Witch Project. This one doesn't really have a gimmick, it's just a damn good story! Think of an X-Files episode on steroids, with a heavy R rating. It's an abduction story in reverse, the humans have abducted the alien. It starts off at a hot pace and doesn't really let up for a while. The acting is iffy, but I never really found it too much of a distraction because I was interested in what was going on. Recommended!
FUNNY GAMES - More like Boring Games. This is a movie about a pair of young, amoral killers terrorizing the most boring family ever. The film had the gimmick of the killers directly addressing the audience a few times, with (I guess) the point of trying to make you realize the violence is for your entertainment, not the killers', and doesn't that say awful things about society, shame on you for watching. But as the movie went on and on, I found myself hoping they'd do away with the family quickly - not for some sicko thrill, but just because I was bored, and there was no reason to pull for the family. The killers could have tortured mannequins and the movie wouldn't have been that different. I used to like Tim Roth, oh well. Can't recommend it.
DIARY OF THE DEAD - George Romero's latest zombie flick. I had high hopes as it started off, since it was taking the Cloverfield approach and setting things up so that we'd see everything through cameras. Plus, it started out with a few funny moments, such as a quick explanation of why zombies can't run - thus taking a good natured swipe at other recent zombie flicks (unnamed, of course). But having set up the contrivance needed to show the movie through the camera eye, Romero spends the rest of the movie trying to come up with ways to get out of that mode. Another camera gets involved, so that you can lose the first person perspective a lot, and see the primary cameraman; they keep going places that happen to have security cameras showing every single corner, and they happen to find and take those camera recordings. It's almost like he didn't trust himself to tell the story well under the restrictions he set up for himself. Maybe he was right, though, because the story just isn't that good. Bad characters, bad acting, no reason to care. Can't recommend it.
OK, for a completely different style of movie:
WALK HARD - THE DEWEY COX STORY. I was apprehensive about this, since the previews didn't really convince me of anything. But, man, this movie is funny! It's a satire of the musical biopic, taking a Johnny Cash-like character and following him through every decade and almost every style of pop music - folk, hippy rock, disco, etc. Terrific stuff, and I recommend the longer director's cut. It's about half an hour longer than the theatrical version, and I have no idea which parts were left out of the shorter version - all of it was funny!
