sumez Reviews

Creep (I) (2014)

A lot more shallow than it leads you to believe

[5/10 · 1 September 2023]

Mark Duplass done an incredibly good job in many other low budget indie movies such as this, focusing entirely on a minimal cast and lingering dialogues, so my expectation for Creep might have been a little high, especially given the reputation of this film.

Throughout the movie there are many scenes where you feel that you don't know where it's gonna go, and I'd lie if I said it wasn't captivating in that sense. You share the protagonist's experience of helplessnes, which is a good building block for a suspense movie.

Unfortunately Creep never takes it beyond this, and plays the genre as straight as you have ever seen. You keep expecting a twist, but none comes. Instead the movie keeps relying on really bad jump scares, which are mostly just annoying and exhausting.

It had the potential to be an interesting psychological drama, but never really attempts to dive into that at all.

The Butterfly Effect (2004)

A great potential wasted through unbelievable characters and a lack of understanding of its own concept

[5/10 · 19 July 2011]

It might be unfair to The Butterfly Effect (TBE) that I came fresh from watching Juno, a movie which really stands out due to its cast of sincere and believable characters, but TBE's biggest flaw is indeed that it is based entirely around awkward and severely unsympathetic characters, including, but not limited to, its main character.

The major theme of the movie is extremely appealing to me. First, there's the ability to go back in time and change key events of your life in hope of seeing what could have become of you and those around you, basically time travel without any kind of fantasy bogus, which I think is very admirable. And then the entire concept of the butterfly effect, which the movie is named after - the idea that any change however small can cause a chain effect resulting in an entirely different future. I find this "what if..." concept extremely fascinating, and was really hoping for the movie to explore it.

However this is exactly where TBE falls flat on its face - What it deals with has nothing to do with the Butterfly Effect. I can think of a ton of minor actions and choices in my life that have ended up shaping the person I have become, and will continue to evolve into. Decided to go to a certain spontaneous party, meeting certain people, that would go on to introduce you to other circles, experiences, new hobbies, new music, etc., eventually influencing who you might end up spending the rest of your life with, what kids you will or will not have, and so on. But what Evan, our (completely not) likable main character does, is go back and change major traumatic events of his life causing an almost instant and drastic change in one or more of the movies deck of characters. Apparently -everyone- in the movie is extremely mentally unstable and able to suddenly have an incredible change of heart and even go as far as to killing someone for being jerks, despite the fact that they are normal good hearted people in the other realities. This might make sense if they have been pushed into a different social situation that has influenced their person over the years, but that isn't what happens. Instead we're treated to this idea that we should all be lucky we didn't end up as heroin addicts in jail with everyone you know being brutally murdered, because apparently there's a 50/50 chance between that and whatever other life you could be living. Sliding Doors is a romantic comedy, and it was able to demonstrate the butterfly effect much, much better than this movie ever comes close to.

I realize The Butterfly Effect is just a stupid teen drama and shouldn't be taken too seriously, or treated as a "realistic" movie, but I also feel the theme it deals with IS very serious, and has the potential of showing how incredible the concept of actual real life "destiny" is. A potential that is unfortunately dropped on the floor and never picked up.

One thing I deed feel strongly from this movie was that it was heavily influenced by Hollywood producers wanting something more simple and action packed than the original intention. Especially the ending is so awkward and out of tune with the theme of the movie that I just had to watch the director's cut ending immediately after seeing the theatrical cut. Unfortunately this ending is possibly even worse and only displays that the directors didn't have any idea where to go with the movie either. And well, looking them up on IMDb shows that their other major projects were Final Destination 2 and Final Destination 4, and I immediately feel stupid for even trying to take this movie seriously. What I don't get, however, is why everyone else have been bugging me to see this "amazing" movie for so long...

Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002)

A great drama with a humorous twist. Much better than expected!

[8/10 · 6 November 2002]

Lone Scherfig's previous movie, Italiensk for Begyndere, was very praised around Europe and not the least here in Denmark. It was a well directed dogma movie with excellent acting, but when it comes down to it the story was very vague, and I for one did not find that movie very interesting at all.

However, Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself is an excellent and beautiful film about the Scottish Wilbur (Jamie Sives) who makes use of every other moment to attempt suicide. It's done with a semi-humouristic twist which makes it not all too sad through the movie, but is still meant to be taken seriously. He moves into his brother's home in a used book store where the brother, Harbour(Adrian Rawlins), must watch over him to keep him alive. As Harbour discovers love in Alice, beautifully played by Shirley Henderson, they become four in the home as Alice and her 9-year-old daughter Mary moves in, and Wilbur discovers love in both of them as well as he gets to see death from a new and unexpected perspective.

It was a good choice to make this movie in English, rather than Danish, and the result is an excellent drama which will apply to most people even though they, like me, may not be much for that sort of movies. If you liked Breaking the Waves, Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself should apply to you as well.

The Kingdom (1994–2022)

One of the best horror movies ever!

[10/10 · 7 April 2001]

To me, this was the production that made Lars von Trier stand out as an extraordinary movie director and the movie, that finally pushed the Danish movie scene in the right direction!

It sort of founded the modern Danish dogma/dogme inspired movie style with its grainy colours, rash use of cutting and camera movement as well as strange, yet very realistic acting. All used to develop the perfect atmosphere around a good horror movie! There is just one thing you must remember when watching Riget/The Kingdom. It is a movie. It is entertainment. It is no comedy, yet nothing in the movie is serious. It uses sick and sometimes just weird ways of building up the horror. It doesn't have to make sense.

A lot of people may not like this because it is typically Danish, which may easily frustrate anyone who is only used to high budget Hollywood movies. The not-so-obvious deeper meaning between the lines as well as all the bold and underlined lines that have no meaning at all could confuse certain minds, but if you are prepared for a bunch of self-irony and sweet horror scenes, and if you like writers/directors such as David Lynch and Chris Carter, you are going to love this!

It is nice to see that mentally freaked out horror movies didn't die out with The Exorcist, and this definitely isn't any worse!