Change Your Image
azynkron
Reviews
100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck (2012)
Untalented, unintelligent and boring
Now, obviously this is going to be another Blair Witch, 909 Experiment e t c rip off. If you think it's something else, you are going to be utterly disappointed. The horrifying truth is that you are going to be disappointed regardless.
This is most likely the worst rip-off yet. Worse than Episode 50 even. This production has absolutely nothing going for it. Terrible actors (Yes, they actually try to act), awful effects (guys, why did you even bother..) and a script so thin that even the average soap opera would have disregarded it as too obvious. I'm not going to write any spoilers and I don't have to since you all seen it before: It's the overused "american youths walking into a death trap without seeing it all though it has a neon sign above it saying KILL KILL KILL!". The kids are so stupid that you have to go back to the mindless slasher movies of the 80's to find an equally mentally challenged crowd.
There are a couple of hooks in there that they should have exploited more intelligently (bird feathers.. e t c) but instead it's just mentioned like it was a evening paper lying around.
I wish I could find some reason for recommending you to watch it, but I can't. Avoid it like the plague.
1/10 stars.
Transsiberian (2008)
Hollywood view to a kill
My expectations for this movie was that I would get kind of a Agatha Christie story. I don't know if it's the setting in the train or some other factors that contributed to that, but that was what I hoped for after reading the synopsis. And to some extent, the suspense has a classical cut which I enjoyed.
The movie start out fairly slow and it takes a while before the tension builds up. And hands down, they have done that quite well by leaving some things to your own imagination. You have the classical Hitchcock set with suspicious looking people and your heroine all alone in a hostile and unknown environment. Up to this point, the movie is a clear 8 on my scale. Although I don't think they used the full potential of Woody, he still does a great nerd with religious elements.
Unfortunetely it goes downhill from there.
Emily Mortimers character, without giving away the plot, starts to act hysterically. This is what you'd expect from the circumstances but it gets just too much over the top. I found myself actually being annoyed by how stupid they made her in the last quarter of the movie. And I don't know if it's an American thing, but another scene actually made me angry and that's the fact that they, the characters Roy and Jessie, have the stomach to be upset over the fact that the conductor doesn't speak English. What did they expect? They are in the middle of the Far East in between China and Russia. If they wanted people to speak English they should have gone to Disneyland in Florida. Just a stupid and very ignorant part of the script. Speaking of ignorant, the natives that surrounds the pair are also portrayed as rough, stupid and unfriendly and I think that this is the US way to see the rest of the world. Things we don't understand are alien and if everybody doesn't adapt to the US perspective of things they are hostile and stupid.
I've done my fair share of traveling in countries where I didn't know the language, but to my experience people are actually friendly if you stay humble to the task. My point with this is, if you go to a foreign country where the chances are that the culture is very different from your own, don't get upset if you can't have things done in the ways you are used to. Bribes, for instance, are a way of doing business in a lot of places on this earth, and you just have to accept it. It's not right or wrong, just a different way of doing things that has a history going back thousands of years. And as I said, if you can't handle that, stay at home and watch cable instead. When in Rome..
No, I can't feel sorry about that characters just because they are portrayed as lost Americans in a foreign country. They should have done a better research before they set off on an adventure like this. I am getting rather tired of that stereotypical character set.
So, to sum up everything, this movie had great potential and to some degree it lived up to it but since they choose the Hollywood mainstream path to the ending it crash landed before it could reach it's final destination.
Unfortuntately just a 4-5* out of 8* possible.
Michael Moore Hates America (2004)
Wilson trips over his own tricks
Sometimes you have to take things to a point to make a point. Michael Moore has many times been accused of lying or being naive and not showing the whole picture but the truth is that if you are documenting the type of phenomenons that he is you have to take things to the very edge to be able to show your point of view. Even further, you can't tangle yourself in semantics and rhetorical endless discussion if you want the regular ordinary man on the street to get interested. This is Moores dilemma. He's trying to make very complex matters simple and it's not an easy task.
Now, I'm the first to agree on that he's not always accurate and sometimes not even right, but he finishes his mission which is; To make people think! And this is far more important sometimes than being 100% true.
He even got Mr Wilson to make a movie about him. And that's why we are here.
Wilson is trying to use Moores own rhetoric back on him. He is even got a attorney / author (sic!) to claim that Moore has some personality disorder. He uses the same techniques as him and gets the man on the street to air his opinions and as a coincidence, they are the same as Wilson's. To boil it all down, he is trying to make a Fahrenheit 9/11 about Fahrenheit 9/11.
Now, of course you should challenge Moore's ideas. Of course you should make up your own mind and try to find the facts yourself. That's the whole point of democracy. But where Moore is brilliant with expressing his points and political viewpoint, Wilson is far too blunt. It even gets to the point where you get the feeling that Wilson is not even challenging Moore but is in it for his own personal witch hunt out of some personal dislike. Which is exactly what he's accusing Moore for doing to Mr C. Heston and G.W. Bush. And this, of course, is not good since as a fact he then becomes Moore.
At a point I could almost see him crying off camera because Moore doesn't return his calls. And, come on Wilson, why did you try to make a point about if he cursed or not? A big difference between Moore and Wilson is also this; Where Moore gets people to speak their mind, Wilson will get to use the interviews as long as "they don't look bad". Don't look bad? That's the whole point of investigating journalism, if it looks bad it probably is and you should bring it out in the open. Not the corporate approved statements and views.
Further more, the sections with Penn (yes, Penn from Penn&Teller) screams "You should only show what is government approved". I can't help to recall what the late Bill Hicks said: "You are free to do what we tell you! Here's 16 channels of American Gladiators to choose from".
Now, it might be that we in Europe are more used to harsh journalists that dissect everything, but I get a feeling that Wilson does not fully understand how and why you do an investigating documentary. If peoples toes are going to be stepped on? Sure. If people are going to get mad because things are shown that wasn't supposed to be? Of course. If this is wrong? Not a bit.
A cause, belief or movement that can't stand to be investigated or made fun of, is not meant to survive. It's as simple as that.
I could go on and on and point out the errors I think Wilson is doing this film. The truth is that Wilson should have practiced a bit more first before taking on a challenge as this. He is accusing Moore of editing his movies and then he does the same thing himself. He makes a point of Moore using comments and interviews out of context and then, yes you guessed right, he does it himself. He twists and turns from challenging Moores movies to challenging Moore himself. It all turns into a amateurish soup where you have no real thread to follow. I even felt, after the shop door incident, that he was trying to do a "Cops" episode.
No, Wilson, this is not good. You should have practiced by making some Youtube movies first to get warm in the clothes before going for the trophy; Michael Moore.
The Ruins (2008)
Hysterical young people
I'm just so fed up with hysterical, American, young people. I mean, for the love of god, it went out of fashion with The Blair Witch project. Without giving away the plot, this is what you are going to see for an hour or so. After the unforgivably bad plot intro.
I don't have anything against a movie having a low budget as long as the producer and director are creative. Several of my favourite movies from the last couple of years are actually in that category because they found creative ways around the monetary limitations.
And I can see where they are coming from in this movie. They are trying to build up some tension with the dialogue and give us personal connections to the actors. However, they fail utterly. It's hysterical, stupid and very annoying. No, I can't feel sorry for you because you are American and you don't understand what they are saying. No I can't feel for you because you are stupid enough to go to that awful place that even a blind person could see was dangerous.
This is one of the worst movies I've seen and I didn't even see the point to finish it. A total waste of time.
Outpost (2008)
Suspense
I must say that I agree with the earlier post, this was rather a nice surprise. It reminds me of The Bunker in several ways. Yes, of course, the setting contributes to that but there are other factors that also points in the direction of that movie. What I really like is that they manage to keep suspension without CG. Now, I really like CG, but from my experience, if you don't have the budget to go all the way, low budget CG ruins more than it does good.
But these guys avoid that and manage to give you a claustrophobic experience by using clever tricks with camera and lighting. So if you like the Alien type of horror and enjoyed The Bunker, then this is something for you.
And, yes, the military action for at least 2/3 parts of the movie is rather believable. It gets a bit out of hand at the end, but I'm willing to forgive them for that.
A perfect Sunday afternoon; mercenaries, Nazis and ghosts. What more can you ask for?
Leviathan (1989)
Slime, slime and slime..
I've always wondered why aliens/monsters/etc have to be so slimy? Is there a reason for this? As you understand, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this, Leviathan is no exception. I just don't get it. Is that supposed to make them more frightening? Another feature that I never understood was the fact that all computers have different interfaces. No "Microsoft rules the world" here. No, no. According to the movie industry there are about 2 000 000 different OS developers out there. And I, personally, would love to have a OS that lets me write questions like "Take a guess". And they all have a voice interface. Then that they spite this advanced technologies still used CGA graphics didn't seem to disturb any directors. This have become better. Like the interface in "Johnny Mnemonic". But I guess we are all limited by our time. Very few of us can in a realistic way foresee what things will look like in 20 years. Remember the computer in Space: 1999? Even Mr Kubrick, my favourite, couldn't see past the terrible fashion that ruled back in the late 60's in "A Clockwork Orange". I wouldn't want to wake up with a hang over and be forced to go into that kitchen to make coffee.
I guess most of the different aspects of this movie, Leviathan, has been covered here already. But I wanted to reflect over one actor that I've never really could deal with; Richard Crenna.
The first time I saw Crenna was in "First Blood". I think most of you know about his appearance in this movie, but for those who don't he is a Colonel in the Special Forces that is going to help the local police and national guard to catch Mr Rambo. And from this moment and forward, I just can't stand his acting. He is stereotype no matter what role he plays. Always the same "one eye brow up face a little to the side" look. And I find that unbearably annoying. I guess I'm not the only one, because he played mostly for TV and I guess that shows that he was not a top-notch actor.
Stealth (2005)
Weapons of mass destruction?
To me it's clear that the same team that helped Mr Bush with the Weapons of mass destruction plot in Iraq also wrote the script to Stealth. It has the same aura of stupidness and disrespect for the general public.
The person that took the script out of the trash bin should be shot. The people that approved the funds of making the movie should be tortured and then shot. The director should be slapped with a Haddock until he screams to be shot out of mercy.
Who is paying for all the ASF-files that E.D.I is downloading? Because, surely, he can't be using Torrents, Kazaa or any other "illegal" software? No, it must be the WMP, because the only company in the world stupid enough to make the AI able to both listen to and to download music is Microsoft. "All of them.." must mean that somebody out there can make an early retirement and spend the rest of the life sipping Pina Coladas somewhere.
The best actors in the movie are the blue dolls in the cave early in the movie. Come to think of it, the director should both have used them more in the movie as well as used them as consultants. Maybe even let them have a shot at directing. Go figure.
The Black Hole (1979)
For the love of god..
Can't Disney do anything properly? This is IMHO one of the worst sci-fi movies ever made. What were they trying to achieve? The go back and forth between those awful and silly robots to some sort of evil plot and heroism. If they just had stuck to one of them.. Remember, in the same year Ridley Scott released Alien. This was also in 1979 and just 3 years after Tron hit the theaters. Just two other sci-fi movies that in their own ways changed how movies in this genré would be made ever after. And I haven't even mentioned the movie 2 years before this one; Starwars ANH.
Avoid it at all costs. It's not even funny.
The Bunker (2001)
Fresh
I felt rather refreshed after watching this movie that didn't depend upon 10 million dollar effects. Today in the FX _are_ the movies instead of using them as support for the story. A Beautiful Mind is a good example when FX are used correctly IMHO. I agree that some parts of the movie are rather weak but I kind of liked the eerie atmosphere. Watch this with an open mind and I don't think you will be disappointed.