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statesofunrest
Reviews
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
You can't make a good movie with a bad script
This movie gets an extra star for the really top-notch acting and the cinematography, both of which really stuck out for me. However, as I say in the title, you can't make a good movie out of a bad script.
This story just confounds me and it feels really amateurish, most things seem to happen for no reason. Though the first 20 minutes seemed to be going well, things really quickly broke down. Frances McDromand's character seemed to have a good point at first but that quickly degraded into her basically being the crazy woman who set fire to the police station, on top of everything else, her being downright mean to Woody Harrelson's character by the end of it, given the events of the movie. And the oddest thing, the only person with character development, Sam Rockwell, was a racist cop, and his character development has nothing to do with his racism! It's just weird choices like that which might have been corrected in another rewrite on the script, but this, as whole just feels schlock-y.
Killer's Kiss (1955)
I think I liked his first movie better
This wasn't bad by any means, I just know that Stanley Kubrick said that his first movie was his least favorite and even tried to destroy it at one point. Though this one he still said was amateurish, he never tried to get rid of it forever. I guess this was probably more suited to the movies of the time, being a gritty noir-drama-romantic film, and it was good as a movie of the time, but as a Kubrick movie, I feel it really doesn't quite stand up to his others and maybe you would agree with me that it might be his weakest film.
What I thought was great in this movie though was the cinematography. You can really see him growing into his own in that respect. Kubrick started out as a photographer and always had one of the best eyes for film and setting up some really beautiful shots. This film is no exception and if your a fan of interesting filmography and cinematography like I am, this film definitely delivers in that respect.
However, the story I feel really falls flat, I think this is more a problem with the times for me than anything else and I'm more interested in more complex stories for the modern age. It's still Kubrick though, but without the edge you expect from his later stories. It was okay though, passable, but something you'd expect more from a less skilled director.
I would recommend this more to fans of noir films from the 50s than to Kubrick fans, but Kubrick fans should probably watch it too.
Fear and Desire (1952)
Not nearly as bad as Kubrick himself claimed
I enjoyed this movie but I can see why Stanley Kubrick did his best to try to destroy every copy after it was released. It only exists today because at the time Kodak made a copy of the film before Kubrick could destroy every other copy in existence. It's good too because I think it is important to know Kubrick's origins as a movie-maker (outside of a few short documentaries) and definitely his first script that made it to the silver screen.
I guess I was most impressed that it was a movie from 1952. To put that into context, it's the same year that "Singing in the Rain" came out, and the ideas and film-making techniques presented here were way ahead of their time. I think that Stanley was maybe trying to put too many ideas into what is essentially a short film. It makes it feel much longer as your watching it than it actually is, and not always for the better.
Some of the problems I had, and these are more problems with being what is more or less a student film than anything else, some of the acting was poor, a few times it was a bit too obvious that the dubbing was done over the original sound (if there was sound originally, I'm not sure). I wish the girl had a bigger part. I wish Kubrick knew how to properly encode things here and didn't just spell everything out for the audience, then Kubrick wouldn't have felt so ashamed and this could have a Room 237 all its own. Okay, it probably wouldn't actually, I mean Dr. Strangelove is also heavily encoded but there's no "CRM 114" movie or something like that explaining how it's all a metaphor for Kubrick staging the Kennedy assassination or something equally as crazy.
I digress, I did enjoy the film, I liked that it focused mostly on a small group of men caught in a bad situation, but focused on them each as individuals as the movie went on. We saw how with one of them the pressure gets to be too much and what happens with them after. I liked the captain a lot who also ended playing the General, the enemy in the movie. I liked that it wasn't clear who was on which side for the entirety of the movie as the whole thing is meant as a metaphor for war itself rather than any war specifically. It's just that these things don't come off in the right way, I think. I know what he's going for, he's showing the horrors of war and the war itself doesn't matter, you'll notice they attack people who can't defend themselves, the General himself says "I surrender" before they kill him. In the context of their enemy, the men we follow are savages. I think it's not even clear whether they can even understand what the enemy soldiers say. I mean, after all, the woman they capture can't speak their language and her single-word only line in the movie, "boat," she says like she's just sounding out the words they are saying. It has some interesting scenes and I don't think Kubrick needed to be so hard on himself for making it.
I would recommend this to both fans of Kubrick and fans of movies from the 50s. For its time, it's really unique.
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)
A great movie, though I think I watched a shortened version
This was an excellent film, though I think the version I watched was a shortened version (the one that anyone can watch on YouTube, coming in at 2 hours and 45 minutes or around there). It was a very good watch though I thought. Hugely entertaining and a terrific score to boot. It's not just a good silent film, but a great film in general. The only thing I didn't like was the Jesus story, not that I have anything against the person, just it felt like it was somewhat lacking and didn't really serve any purpose to the rest of the film. Also, everyone knows the Jesus story and it doesn't really help the movie to reiterate here what everyone already knows. Outside of that, I really liked everything else in the movie. Truly an epic picture, the battle scenes especially are top notch for its time. It's really too bad that this movie ended up bankrupting one of the greatest directors of all time, but really, what a film, for its time or any other.
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The first half is really good, but then the second half is really racist...
It was good during the civil war part. I liked the big battle scenes and the story during that part was interesting enough and everything, but then the second half started and I thought at first maybe the director was going for something that was actually pro-rights for African Americans but then I noticed all the black face, and then the story takes a much darker tone that really wasn't necessary, accurate, and came from a place of ignorance. I know it was a different time, but as the highest selling silent movie of all time, I guess I was expecting something, you know...less racist. Anyway, I guess that shows you that controversy sells tickets, if nothing else.
City Girl (1930)
Everything was good but the story...
I liked the acting, the cinematography, you could tell the director knew what he was doing. I just didn't like the story, too many clichés, no twist was unpredictable, If someone gave you just the premise (boy marries girl in the city and move to the country to help his father on the farm) you could probably guess every major plot point of the entire film. Maybe the things in this movie weren't as well-known tropes like they are now, but it kind of made me dislike the movie just seeing how overdone everything in the movie was. Would have given it a higher score otherwise, the story just brought it down.
Road House (1989)
I didn't think it would be quite this bad...
I'm not the biggest fan of Swayze, but just knowing this was such an iconic movie from the 80s, one you find references to even to this day, I guess I just thought it would be something more than what it was. In terms of plot and characters, all I can say is everything is just stale, or cliché. It's hard to take anything in this movie seriously. There's no one who is particularly likable, at one point Swayze rips a guy's throat out in front of the dude's girlfriend and it just left a bad taste in my mouth. There's better Swayze movies, there's definitely better 80s action movies, I'd say you could probably pass on this one if you're looking for either one of those.
The People vs. George Lucas (2010)
Interesting if you're a die-hard Star Wars fan
I enjoyed this documentary. My only real complaint is that it felt just a little long, but I mean, I guess there's only so many ways you can say that George Lucas made a mistake in making those Star Wars prequels. This was presented in an interesting way and I was captivated with the content throughout.
Crossroads (2002)
I watched this with the Rifftrax and still found it unwatchable
I can't say much more than what's in the title. I just like watching bad movies with Rifftrax really but this, Birdemic, and Glitter are all tied for the worst movies I've ever seen. They go beyond enjoyable B-movies and they're just bad again. It's like watching a train wreck into another train wreck, which I guess is a feat in itself.
Better Off Dead... (1985)
Good comedy but just okay otherwise
This movie was pretty good comedy-wise. I found myself laughing more than a bit, and I liked some of the creative things that they did in the story and with the technology at the time, such as when they used clay- mation to have a hamburger come to life Frankenstein-style and play guitar. However, I see the clichés coming from a mile away in this movie in terms of story. It's hard not to see what's going to happen around every corner of this movie with romance and people getting their comeuppance when they deserve it. It's fine, really, it was made in the 80s after all and I guess they had a certain formula to them.
Anyway, this movie was really funny and I recommend it for its original comedy but as far as 80s ski movies go, you've seen one you've seen them all.