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Prey for the Devil (2022)
No offense, but their performances were terrible
I am not a huge fan of the Exorcist, but at least the creators attempted for some semblance of realism in the movie. The Rites of Exorcism, the faith of the Exorcist performing the Rites, and the prayers are all from the Bible and when they do this, the story becomes real because these rituals have been developed for over 2000 years. When the viewer watches, it may hit on some familiar notes from church, Sunday school, or stories they might know. When you make something appear realistic, it is all the more scary, suspensful, and exciting.
Then we fast forward to the 2020s, which so far is a decade that will be remembered when music, movies, and TV withered and died.
The hipster priest, hanging out after work in Tshirt and pants with the nun who was a single mother makes for an all inclusive and diverse film. I mean, we all change out of uniform when we punch out right? In the words of Xander Cage (XXX, 2001) "No offense, but their performances were terrible!"
The fear in the faces of the exorcists, the amateurish approach to demonic possession, and the character building all sum up to an unrealistic and poorly developed storyline. Rather than trying to make this movie about possession and the Catholic Church, it should have just gone a different tangent and been 100% fantasy instead, and left the rituals and such out of it. It's wholly unbelievable. As such, the effects and plot were too predictable, and not scary. The acting leaves something to be desired.
One constant about exorcisms is the priest has faith, and that faith protects him (this is in all the Exorcist movies) there wasn't any of that here. Speaking of which, I'm losing all faith in Hollywood making good movies again any time soon.
Lakewood (2021)
I thought this was a movie about a woman and her phone
There was a facebook meme with Jason (Friday the 13th Parts 2-X) about "when I was younger, I related with the victims in horror movies, now that I'm older, I understand the killer better" Something like that.
I don't think it is because I am older, and seen a lot of movies when I say that Hollywood and other film makers out there have lost the art of entertainment. While the storyline itself is solid, and enticing, promising suspense, and excitement, a real "nailbiter" I got all the way to the end waiting for the climax when I realized it was just a moving about a woman who was out for a run and cannot seem to let go her smartphone.
Perhaps if I was under 30 (or under 25?) the horror of running while taking stressing phone calls would mean more to me, but as it is, it doesn't. I simply cannot put myself in the headspace of the character in the movie. She's out for a run, something bad is going down, the phone rings like 47 times in the first hour, she uses SIRI and does some smart phone stuff like facetiming and leaving messages and so forth.
I cannot relate to being so attached to a phone, and needing live updates on all of lifes little details (like the movie "the Circle"). It was just unrelatable, and not all that interesting. I feel zero suspense if I miss a call or text, which seemed to be the core of the entire film.
After what seemed like an agonizing eternity, I hit "pause" and saw I was only 30 minutes in.
What happened to movie making?
On the Edge with Alex Honnold (2024)
Another climate change documentary
Growing up I did a lot of bouldering and wanted badly to rock climb and do what Alex Honnold does. I also wanted to play for the NY Yankees, but we all have dreams. I have to live vicariously through people who do rock climb, and play pro sports.
Which is why this film was something of a let down. I own a copy of "Free solo" and have seen several snips of free climbing by this man. The ascent in Greenland is a first ascent, and a very exciting idea but it falls a little flat. The narrative was on clear display with climate scientist on the trek and more dialog about saving the ice, than mountain climbing. If I had to guess, it was 63% climate discussion and the rest a blend of climbing and some reality-TV style drama where they sit in a circle and complain in a passive aggressive manner.
SPOILER- Honnold to my surprise is a rather un-courteous climber. This was all about him and the other two climbers were treated almost like hired help. This was also on clear display. The wall is not very solid, and he was dropping rocks on the other climbers (not intentionally) but was very dismissive about it. This is the kind of behaviour that ruins friendships permanently.
Here are my thoughts about the climate discussion on the part of the scientist in the show. These are the points as I remember them:
1. This glacier has never been explored, nor have the rock faces
2. The rock faces were once encased in 100s of feet of glacial ice
3. For the first time, we are studying these rock samples, and glacier samples directly.
Given only these three points, how can they determine effects of climate change without a comparison? They expressed very worrisome concern about the melting glacier, which in the same breath they say has melted in the last 100,000 years to expose the rock faces. They then double back and say how nobody has ever studied this before. As a long-time student of science I wondered why they were taking rock core samples from the cliff face to "study the effect of climate change" when they were boring in about 4 inches. There is no study I can think of where climate is examined by rock cores. It can however tell you loads about how the rock formed.
Likewise, the scientist person expressed shock when the big glacier she was looking at "is not melting fast, in fact is melting less than we thought" and went on to say that just couldn't be.
If you focus on the climbs, this is about a 75 minute video.
The Donner Party (2009)
blah
One of the most memorable times in school was Nevada history and a six week section on the Donner Party, reading the book "Ordeal by Hunger". I'm 47 now and it is still almost fresh in my mind. If school was like this for more people, the world would be a better place I think. When schools can do this with students, it's a true success.
I am glad this was on the Roku channel, so it was free. But I will never get the time back I spent watching this. I realize it is based on "true events" but I mistakenly thought this was a true story. The focus is on the expedition away from the camps at Truckee lake by Mr. Graves, Eddy, and others. The dramatization of them killing each other and feasting on each others' corpses was in bad taste (no pun intended) and strays as far from the real story as possible. It would only be less realistic if a rescue party showed up in helicopters. I think its' a bit disrespectful to the memory of the people who actually had gone through this ordeal to protray them as murderers who killed and ate each other.
I quickly looked up some information online to refresh , and on the History channel website which ended their summary with "according to legend, 46 people survived". I guess this is how it's done now-days, we just say it's a legend.
Actually 47 of the 87 survived, but as you hunt around the internet the numbers vary quite a lot. Legend.... of real people with some real records on file of what happened.
We learned in school that their guide who blazed the trail ahead of them (these were families, not explorers) whom they had hired was later arrested and charged in this mishap, and some of the survivors deposed as witnesses and it was only mentioned in class but I believe he was convicted.
While a grotesque dramatization, it strays about as far from the story as any fiction movie, sadly they have trashed the real story (which is actually much more interesting and exciting than this film) and re-written the history much like the rioters and hoodlums want to do in America right now. It's so sad that perfectly good stories are so distorted in the interest of making film with added shock value.
FUN Fact - there was no documentation or statements that anyone killed anyone else. The dead died of infection or other natural causes (starvation etc) and were then eaten. Murder is a sin, as is suicide, these were devoutly religous people, and I very much doubt they would commit a mortal sin in order to survive another few weeks.
Predestination (2014)
Never (ever) judge a book by its cover
Ethan Hawker, a terrorist bomber, time travel, what's not to love?
For one thing, the hour long lament of an hermaphrodite who was victimized by society when Ethan Hawke's time-travelling law enforcement character meets her in in 1970 while working undercover.
I thought wrongfully this was an action thriller, but instead it turns out a new age Netflix style social justice film about feelings. I checked it from the local library because it has subtitles and I am trying to learn the language, so no money lost, just 72 minutes of my time. I felt nearly all of it too, waiting for the story.
Sorry for the spoilers, but not a great movie.
Alien Domicile (2017)
Wait for it....
The film is one hour fifteen minutes. I made it to the 40 minute mark on my second attempt. Although I got this movie from using a free redbox code, I guess there is no getting a refund on the one hour I spent trying to watch this movie.
To me it was reminiscent of SAW but a story never actually develops, they just remain in a room for the first 30 minutes. Then cross with Blair Witch project, where there is sense of fear and urgency, but without any discernable plot.
I could go on, but I think that will suffice for now. I've wasted enough time already. Just getting the warning out.