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An error has ocurred. Please try againI so need to update this list. have possibly a thousand more titles that I own since I created this list.
Reviews
The Look of Silence (2014)
The blood stained hands of the Indonesia and the United States.
******* Minor spoiler warning (nothing major) ******
I just saw The Look of silence at the local art house type theater near my house. The title of this film had several meanings to me. Will touch more on that later tho.
The Look of Silence is a follow up film to The Act Of Killing. The focus of the film is on a man named Adi whose older brother was killed by the Indonesian Komando Aksi death squads during the 1965 Indonesian genocide. This was during the cold war era, therefore the United States government chose to help Indonesia mass murder millions of suspected communists and make profits from the death and corruption that ensued.
Adi's brother Ramli was one such Indonesian that was branded as a communist, therefore the Komando Aksi arrested him and relocated him to a prison camp, from the prison camp he was loaded onto a truck with a bunch of other suspected communists, and driven to Snake River and butchered in horrific form. Ramli was one of the more graphic executions that took place, and many of the death squad leaders still remembered Ramli because of the over the top execution that was done to him. It is really graphic, they not only stabbed him and chopped him up, but they also tossed him into the river to die, when he was crying for help the murderers pulled him back out of the water and cut off his genitals, then he died. A very evil and sadistic way of killing someone.
Adi travels around his village and beyond meeting with the death squad leaders who were indirectly, and directly involved with his brothers death, and confronts them about the past and very cleverly and gently recalls the past to them, and in some cases their children, and force them to remember the uncomfortable past that they so desperately try to forget.
This seems to be very important to Adi and Josh Oppenheimer that the true story of what really happened does not become forgotten, and to inform current and future generations of Indonesians that the narrative that their government has been going by, is a huge lie and full of propaganda to make the killers look like celebrated heroes of the state.
This film is immensely important and the whole world needs to know and make the governments involved take action and own up to the truth. We cannot live in the shadows of tyranny and pretend that it didn't happened.
Back to the name of the film. The look of silence was represented to me through the look on the faces of the killers as Adi recalls the gruesome accounts that they were involved with, and the look on Adi's face when the killers seem to not feel remorse for their actions. However, there was an alternate interpretation of the title for me. As I said, I watched this film at the local movie theater, and never have I seen a film anywhere, at any theater in which the audience did not talk or be disruptive at all. It was literally the audience looking at the film in complete silence. Also when the credits rolled, every single person in the theater stayed in their seats until the credits were over, and then walked out of the theater still in silence. Josh is a damn good director and story teller, and I admire him so much for having the courage to make such a film like this one and The Act Of Killing.
If you care about history, and humanity you should watch this film. If you only have the capacity for Michael Bay films, then you probably aren't mature enough to handle this film.
I give it a 9 out of 10.
Prisoners (2013)
An intense desperate feeling
I saw the late night showing of Prisoners last night at the Alamo Drafthouse Richardson, TX. I was instantly sucked into the beautiful yet gritty cinematography and the director made me feel as if the little girls that were kidnapped were my own and that I was running out of time to find them. I love it when a director has the ability to draw in the audience in such an emotional way.
Possible spoiler alert beyond this point:
Prisoners is about two families with children in a nice suburban neighborhood that meet at one of their houses for a dinner party to unwind and enjoy each others company. Each family has a six year old daughter. The two young girls ask if they can go fetch something that they left at the other families house which is a couple of blocks away from the other families home, but they tell the little girls that they must have the older siblings permission and for them to accompany the small kids to the other home. The little girls don't ask the older kids to come with them and end up vanishing completely. The two families become very frantic and worried when they discovered that the little girls were playing near a really dirty, ran down looking RV from decades past. The police are notified, and then detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) accepts the case to find the missing girls. The police find the RV parked at a gas station at the edge of the woods. The police move in and arrest a very strange mentally disturbed, childlike man in his early 30's (Paul Dano). After long interrogation, the man is released and the father of the young white girl (Hugh Jackman) becomes enraged and decides to take matters of finding his daughter into his own hands. The film now becomes a desperate race against the clock to find out what has happen to the missing girls. Desperate measures are enacted and the parents of these children must decide how far they are willing to cross the line in order to find their kids.
I would imaging that this film is very disturbing and frightening to parents of small children. I am not a parent, but I am an uncle of a 3 year old boy, and I would do the same thing Hugh Jackman did for sure.
I would recommend this film to people that enjoy intense dramas, but spoiler alert: this film will make you crazy with emotion, and there is a lot of crying and freaking out from the parents of the little girls.
I rated this film 8 of 10 because I thought the ending could have been better. The film was a perfect 10 until the last 5-10 min.
I would like to note that Paul Dano who plays Alex is a very talented actor and he plays Alex so well that you forget he is an actor and not really a mentally disturbed victim/ kidnapper.
This film shows how the kidnappers brainwash their victims with LSD & Ketamine cocktails. (that should answer everybody's questions about how can a kidnapped person identify with their kidnappers and not run away. It's because the strip their mental image of who they are with the drugs)
Lastly, I was kidnapped when I was 2 years old (1985) at Richardson Square Mall in Richardson, TX while my mother was shopping. I was later re-united with my family. So this film really hit home about what could have happen to me.
Michaels' Movie Madness (1988)
A pioneer of classic film reviews and silliness
Every time I think of Peter Michael's Movie Madness it gives me a tingly feeling of nostalgia all over. Michael's Movie Madness is an oddity of a TV show. The show was aired on public access in 1988 and the success of the show even surprised Mr. Michael's, especially when celebrities such as Vincent Price, Roddy McDowall, and Forrest J Ackerman appeared either on the show or on the phone for an interview or to participate in the fun. If you are wondering what this show is like, think kinda similar in style to Joe Bob, Grandpa, or other cheesy B, campy, cult, horror cinema show hosts, but being that his show was on public access, he could do whatever he wanted to do, and I mean whatever. All in all, this show is worth checking it out if you can find it. Say hello to Oliver the dog while you check in to watch.
The Ray Bradbury Theater: Tyrannosaurus Rex (1988)
Tyrannosaurus Rex (#2.10) Best episode!
***Slight spoiler detail****
On any occasion, the name Ray Bradbury embodies our imagination. He has written numerous stories, shorts, and screenplays, and also TV shows, as in the case of 'The Ray Bradbury Theater'. This anthology television series is very special because all 65 episodes across 6 seasons spanning from 1985-1992 are written by Ray Bradbury himself. The show is often compared to other memorable sci-fi series, such as The Twilight Zone, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, to name a couple, and Mr. Bradbury has even written episodes for both of those shows. So what makes season 2, episode 10 (Tyrannosaurus Rex) of The Ray Bradbury Theater so special to me? Well, it is pretty obvious if you are a fan and follower of Bradbury's work. When Ray Bradbury was a young lad in film school he met a special person that would have a lasting friendship over the decades with one common interest, dinosaurs, and that person was Ray Harryhausen, master of special effects and stop motion animation. Their mutual love of dinosaurs is well documented, and they even admit in a documentary that they made a pact with each other during film school that stated that they would never really officially grow up in spirit, and that the would always keep their love of the Dino's alive and well. So it is easy to see why I instantly acknowledged this episode as an obvious tribute from Ray Bradbury to his dear friend Ray Harryhausen. The episode features a callous and heartless film producer, Joe Clarence who hires a promising young stop motion animation artist named Terwilliger to create a dinosaur film titled 'Lizard King'. The young artist grows tired and irritated with the stress caused by the habitual bellyaching, complaints, and disapproving constantly emits from Mr. Clarence. So much so that Terwilliger takes a stand against his abuser, and decides to put his boss into his miserable place. That is all I will say about the episode, as I don't wan't to spoil anything. I just had to point out that this episode had Harryhausen tribute written all over it. So check out 'The Ray Bradbury Theater', which is available through Amazon on DVD, you will not regret it if your into sci-fi anthologies.