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Reviews
The Night Manager (2016)
From one trope to the other
From the first second on - with the blonde British hero walking fearless through marauding foreign crowds - the whole show is like a pearl necklace of one trope lined up to the next. That makes everything following completely predictable ...if they set up a person as weak and likable suddenly without context, you know they just prepare for some drama in the next. By movie-logic these scenes then make sense. By real world logic pretty much everything that happens is absurd. Often they are just pointless - I don't get why every remotely female person had to beg the hero for sex on first sight.... without even a pretense for any reason or romance. The director tried to make up for it with blurry shots of touching hands and waving drapes on the beds.
This extends to the premise of the show - there is a veneer of a current political topic... but it soon becomes clear that it doesn't go deeper than "weapons = bad". Again, no attempt of giving any other perspective, surprise or tension. That makes everything slug along with much grease and no friction.
I give two points for the awesome intro. One for the neat shots of impressive locations. Two points for the actors... most of them tried their best. The script/direction though deserves an extra minus point.
House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
A movie without a point...
I do like myself a good horror or slasher movie - but this one got nothing going for it. Even straightforward movies like Chainsaw Massacre have some kind of storyline or some interesting dynamic for the characters - it might even make you root for the bad guys. And sometimes they just have great dark humor. At the very very least, all of them have some suspense. House of 1000 Corpses though is nothing except a uninspired collection of violence fantasies, one after the other after the other after the other.
There is no time to give a hoot about the victims. There is nothing special about the slashers to make them interesting - they are all bland copies of old horror movie stereotypes. I can kind of see how die-hard horror fans would enjoy that, and that they can point out lots of references and head-nods to the classics. Everyone else can stay away and rather watch the classics themselves - like "In the Mouth of Madness", which has way less violence but makes it more shocking because you care about the leads... and even manages to make you think. Or "Motel Hell", which is also really silly - but actually makes you smile.
I give this movie some extra points for being really well cut/lit and for having neat music. For the rest it's more like a porn flick - where otherwise pointless sex-scenes are replaced by repeated pointless violence.
Boksuneun naui geot (2002)
Why do Korean movies so rarely make sense?
Maybe its just me, because I am not from Korea, so I have trouble understanding these plots that maybe make sense in their culture. What do for example the four guys that masturbate have to do with anything? Is there some kind of point there? For me the whole movie - like so many Korean movies - is just a collection of grotesque ideas, with basically no connecting arc. Most of the events and twists are completely random, which makes it impossible to derive any message or meaning. And whats this fascination with deranged and disabled people? And why do they always do random acts of violence? Granted the imagery was powerful and of highest quality. That's just not enough to make a good movie.
Babel (2006)
Less would have been more.
The movie shows several short stories in different cultures, that are somewhat intertwined. This idea has a lot of appeal and creates some interesting contrasts. The main story about 2 boys shooting at a tourist bus, sets off events that will effect all people in the movie. It is also the most interesting one of the plots. Unfortunately from then on, the movies pretentiousness got the better of it: The other stories are boring, pointless and often incredibly unbelievable. The connection between them is minor, and has no actual impact, which wastes the potential of the idea. One story is about a Japanese deaf girl, that is sexually frustrated... this message gets repeated and repeated and repeated. There is not point, no twist, no story. This girl, like nearly everyone in the movie, acts very incomprehensible, which makes it hard to identify with her. Thats why the viewer can't really feel with the people. So after one hour, one only waits if something unexpected will happen, so that the movie stays interesting. Unfortunately the fight to stay though the rest does not pay off. It is just elongated scenes that desperately try to create some emotions. That is for me the major downfall of this piece: it tries to be emotional, but to achieve this, it uses unbelievable behavior and even plot holes, just to have someone cry. That is in my eyes artsy for the sake of being artsy.
Kurtlar Vadisi: Irak (2006)
Just plain terrible
It is beyond me why anyone can like this. The effects and look of this movie are kind of okay - and that's the only positive thing to say. The story goes about how three guys and one woman try kill an hardcore Christian American, who is terrorizing turks in Iraq. But most of the movie is just filled with showing how evil Kurds are, how Americans are in Iraq to kill little children (seems to be the only thing they do), how Jews only want organs of dead turks and how great and righteous Turkish Moslems are. I can see when people draw comparisons to American movies like Rambo, which also do show very inaccurate and one sided scenarios. They might be similar in being naive and narrow minded, but the amount of time this movie spends for that propaganda still makes the difference. Whats left of the 2 hours is around 15 minutes of action on B-movie level. Whoever likes to watch trash-movies for fun, might enjoy the clumsy acting and the many (big and small) plot holes.
Magnolia (1999)
One of the worst movies I've ever seen
Simply terrible - and greasy to the extreme. It strongly remembered me on "Short Cuts" a genius movie by Robert Altman. Magnolia is clearly a rip-off, the characters and even some scenes look very similar. In the first hour, I still thought this movie could be good - the beginning was kind of promising. But it is really a very bad rip-off.
And forget the argument, that the actors are great: they are not! The only well played scenes are the ones, where Tom Cruise plays the macho - thats kind of amusing. The rest of the actors play very exaggerated and unauthentic. The worst is Julianne Moore, but perhaps simply had a very bad role. The whole movie long, everyone either cries or screems (and keep in mind, that the movie is 3 hours long).
The thing that bothered me most is that the movie has absolutely no meaning - no smart statement, nothing. I know that the movie tried to look smart somehow - but in the end it is a stupid meaningless fairy-tale.
Ôdishon (1999)
One of the best and hardest horror-movies ever
This is perhaps the most impressive work of Takashi Miike. If you're searching the ultimate horror-movie, this one is probably the right movie for you.
A mid-aged Japanese man, has lost his wife some years ago. Now he thinks that it's time to search a new one. His friend is helping out, by arranging a audition, where he should choose a girl. And there is really a absolute perfect candidate - a nice, sweet looking Japanese girl...
This is no slasher movie - most of the time it looks more like a romantic comedy. But this only strengthenes the effect of the horror-scenes. And believe me - they're quite harsh. If you're no hard core horror fan, you will probably throw up.
It's in some ways similar to "Funny Games". It's an impressive horror-experience. And after this you will run for your life, if you see Japanese girls somewhere...
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
I don't understand why no one understood this movie...
**SPOILERS**It was so clear what Kubrick tried to say. This movie had much of a comedy - but it was so bitter and dark that it wasnt really possible to laugh.
This movie was about woman, who they really are. I guess woman did torturing him in his life - this is the only explanation why he made such a angry movie. Everything fits perfect - especially the title and the last sentence.
So I try to explain what this movie means (SPOILERS AHEAD): Cruise is a man who loves his woman. He is the one who has his eyes shut, 'cause she betrayed him (only in her head, but this makes no difference). Now he starts searching for other woman - but every woman he meets seems to be a bitch (for instance the prostitutes). But then he found one girl, which gave her live to save him. Now of course he thinks that he found everything he searched for - and after that terrible event he searches for her. But as you know he found out that she only played a game. The people at the orgy only where man with money who wanted to have fun. She was a prostitute and played this role for money and betrayed him - again.
So he tells everything to his wife - and the last thing she said to him was "I guess we should fuck again". Now I thing everyone should get whats the message of this movie. Its funny that many woman voted this high for "Eyes Wide Shut"
Les fruits de la passion (1981)
Full of exaggerated symbolism and unintended humor
I really like Kinski he is a great actor. I've seen this movie because I've heard that there are autobiographic aspects in this movie.
The film is full of symbols like a piano sinking in a river or strange shadow-pictures at the walls. Then the narrator always says abstract sentences like: "A kid sells fortune, but her box is empty now." This is really disturbing and wasn't really necessary, because everyone understands what this movie is all about. The movie shows how Kinski's character treated woman, and how he kept them under control. If there are really some aspects of Kinski's life in this story - then he really was an swine. So there is no need to watch this movie, unless if you want to see Kinski naked or if you like sick trash movies to laugh about.
Nowhere Man (1995)
UNVEIL THE TRUTH
This is IMO the best TV series, period. I cant imagine why they canceled it (and crap like Voyager or 7Days runs and runs..) I guess the conspirators stopped the series because it showed to much truth in it ;-) The story was great, and the end still let much open. Also there are some mysteries placed in the series: for instance the glasses you can see in every episode.
I still hope! Bring it back!