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Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Great but didn't love it.
One has to applaud the director and team for spending so much time on the details. It looked fabulous, sounded spectacular, and the story... well let's say I came for the ride and wasn't expecting much. Don't get me wrong I love the original movie but not so much for the story. For me it was always the theme of the movie, the visuals and the world that sparked my interests. It's the lack of further exploring that theme that was setup in the first movie that was my real disappointment. Yes, there is the whole reproduction aspect, but to be honest it could have been further explored. Also it missed some of the grit of the first movie. It looked too perfect. The acting was all right. Loved all the new actors and their parts. Harrison was alright but not great, not his fault but his part very underwritten. I did enjoy every minute of the movie, but just didn't love it as much as I would have wanted. At times it felt as they were so protective and honoring the first that they were scared to push it in new directions.
Instant Dreams (2017)
A visually striking retro ride.
I managed to catch a screening at the documentary festival in Amsterdam. I was intrigued by the trailer, which I found heavy-handed but wildly intriguing. I was interested in learning more about Polaroid. I did, but got more then expected. Tbh I was blown away by it. What was brought to the screen was beyond anything I was expecting. Space Odyssey in a Herzog - Malick kind of way, if that makes any sense. A visually striking retro ride for sure. There is no plot outline written yet. It's hard to describe, without spoiling anything I would say the movie leans towards being a visual poem. The characters have surreal connections to Polaroid film. The story is layered with fascinating quotes, a reoccurring theme of Christmas, a search for a chemical formula, an artist in a pink bathrobe and her funny chickens. I found it hard to wrap my head around all the details. There's one part of the movie involving the inventor of Polaroid, which totally blew my mind. I enjoyed it immensely and made me want to dig up that old Polaroid camera.
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016)
When it's bad it's still pretty good.
When it's bad it's still pretty good...
Lo and Behold is in my opinion not one of the best efforts by Herzog. It's entertaining, it has Herzog's trademark narration which is great but somehow this film and the way Herzog approached the subject matter feel a little bit hollow. Like Herzog phoned it in.
There are really funny moments like those in the trailer but more often there are moments that feel a bit cheap. For example there is a family interviewed who where victim of being harassed on the internet. People where sending them gruesome pictures of their daughter who died in a car accident. This family is still pretty much damaged by these events. Instead of delving deeper in to why people do such awful things Herzog uses the family for laughs. Maybe this was not his intention but because their story was so minimal we got to see caricatures of who these people are really like. Which feels a bit lazy.
The same goes for some of the other people interviewed. Herzog does his best to get an poetic or thoughtful response but most of the time people just look at him like they don't understand the question. Of course for each of the moments there is a brilliant scene just around the corner. So it's certainly not all bad. But a lot of times certain segments don't really add up or make sense. Like for example the segment about internet on Mars. It seemed a little bit disjointed and not the most coherent story. At these moments luckily Herzog comes in with his fantastic voice and entertaining narration and saves the movie from unraveling.
All in all I found this movie entertaining but not up to the standards of other Herzog movies.
Brimstone (2016)
B movie pretending to be art-house...
The IMDb story line for this movie mentions 'unforgiving cruelty of a hell on earth'. That pretty much sums up the viewing experience I had.
I like violence on screen if done in a tasteful manner, when it serves the story and has any actual meaning. The movies from Paul Verhoeven come to mind as great examples or Michael Haneke. But Brimstone is no Robocop or Funny Games and this director sure isn't Verhoeven or Haneke. This is no social commentary or essay on violence. It's a rape-revenge-story without the revenge.
Brimstone plays like a B-type slasher / suspense flick with a ton of relentless cruel violence added on top of it. Sometimes it is used to good effect for example to depict the dire situation of how women were treated in the good old west. But this movie is no real examination of women rights during that period nor does it delve deeper in the godlike rights religious men bestowed upon themselves. Like I said it''s essentially a B-flick including a scene were a body is fed to the pigs.
So OK this movie isn't very intellectually grounded. How about entertaining? Not really. The movie is very very slowly paced. It has a structure that is told out of sync (a bit like Memento) which actually saves this movie from being a total waste of good actors. That being said the film totally collapses in the last act. To put it short, after our main character endures a lot of bizarre hardship, cruelty and torture she finally gets to confront the bad guy in what is maybe the most anti-climatic scene I have ever seen. No sweet revenge or happy end to justify what just transpired on the screen.
The bad guy dies in unspectacular fashion and as a reward our heroine is drowned. The end.
I gave it 5 stars as this movies has some forgiving qualities. The acting is generally good and the first act of the movie is really suspenseful before it all falls apart. I like that the director seemingly didn't compromise to show us how bad the old West most likely was. But without any clear vision all the violence is just nasty for the sake of being nasty.
Rats (2016)
Great film
I really liked this new film by Morgan Spurlock. Personally I feel the whole horror-aspect (and the fact that some people seem to take offense to it)is a little overblown. For me the filmmakers created just the right amount of tension to tell a fascinating story about creatures that secretly live among us. They - the rats - are like us in many ways. Their way of living mirrors our own societies in many ways. And as we are told they will probably outlast us. Personally I saw the humans in this film as the bad guys. The film makes this pretty clear I think. All in all a very enjoyable film that will make me think twice about going out to diner.
War Photographer (2001)
Excellent film about Nachtway and photographic journalism in general.
Excellent film about Nachtway and photographic journalism in general.It also shows how difficult it is to work under great stress and murky ethical conditions. This film reminds us that there is a tricky line between being involved and 'being involved'. I loved the way the director sometimes takes the point of view of Nachtways camera. It turns the audience into voyeurs with the same moral and ethical questions now bestowed upon us. Nachtway dedicated his life to his work and we see glimpses of both compassion and emotional detachment in his work. I think this film most of all shows the price we pay for the news.