LuckyLuigi Reviews

Family (I) (2017)

How dysfunctional was your youth ?

[8/10 · 19 April 2018]

On that answer your appreciation of this film likely depends. The people that love you the most can also hurt you the most and many of us carry deep scars their entire lives. Most of us cope, but for some of us the continually adding trauma might suddenly exceed a critical value and then they snap.

Veronica Kedar wrote and directed this film and also plays the main character. I had the pleasure of watching this film in her presence and she, like this film, was surprisingly funny (and very dark). Among the amusing details she shared was that she wasn't able to write a death scene for her mother, so her mother wrote her own death scene.

I really enjoyed this 7.5/10

Hapinesu (2016)

A movie about the curse and blessing of memory

[8/10 · 20 April 2017]

In this movie the gimmick is a helmet which allows one to re-experience memories.

The movie starts out very light, even sweet, then things dramatically take a turn in a completely different direction.

Beware there is some brutally violent imagery in this film.

The main character plays his part in a perfectly controlled way which makes emotional outbursts even more dramatic. Very Japanese.

I thought it was strange but very good.

Molly (II) (2017)

A tiny budget post-apocalypse entertaining story with an unlikely hero

[7/10 · 16 April 2017]

I hadn't actually planned to watch this but accidentally got mixed up in the world premiere by mistake. So it goes.

The movie follows an unlikely post-apocalyptic hero, not a dashing Mel Gibson, or a long-legged Nikita, but a normal looking girl called Molly, who nevertheless proves endlessly resourceful and unexpectedly gifted in surviving the 'wasteland', which I guess is probably the old WWII German bunker ridden Dutch coastline. This is immediately the best part of the film, our bumbling heroine who stubbornly refuses to die, and carries the movie almost singlehandedly.

There are some other actors who make a good contribution, the black chap and the robot-arm girl especially, but for the rest its not high quality. We're talking C-movie level here so this is to be expected. The few special effects were unexpectedly good. What I especially loved about Molly were the realistic (and thus very messy) fights.

We're not about to win Oscars here but given what the makers had to work with I am quite impressed. I am wondering how Brits and Americans will copy with Dutch-accented English. I have no idea what they will make of it.

If you like Mad Max movies or Turbo Kid you will enjoy this.

Project-M (2014)

Loneliness and life choices

[7/10 · 18 April 2016]

The thing that will scare many away is this movie is very slow and not a lot actually happens. I expect this is because this was originally a series that was made into a movie so it is longer than necessary which makes the slow pace even slower for this quick generation. For those not in a rush however, it is worth your time.

It's a story about four astronauts on a space station who are spending 1000 days in space to study the effect of isolation on human behaviour for use in long range manned space missions. All of them have made choices and sacrifices to get where they are, and in the enforced isolation of space each of them is confronted with their decisions, especially when things go banana-shaped. We all know those moments at 00:30 when you lie awake till 04:00 reliving your mistakes.

I can't say more without spoilers but it is a well executed study in human behaviour under pressure and visually it looks very good. The budget for the film was tiny so you'll have to accept there is gravity in the space station and everyone simply walks around, no money for fancy zero-g effects :)

Clear Skies 3 (2011)

Incredible achievement

[9/10 · 22 June 2011]

Ian has done the impossible by making 3 EVE Online fan movies, each one greatly improving on the previous one, while the first one (2008) was already extremely high quality.

The movies became instant legends in the community, with both players and developers eagerly awaiting new installments.

The writing and acting is very good, and the only reason I don't give this a ten out of ten is a few slightly forced scenes to ensure storyline closures.

Excellent writing : check.

Good plot : check.

Great acting : check.

Epic technical achievement : check.

Minds blown : over 9000.