Movie Reviews-January 2008

12/28/2007: Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? -6-
I really wanted to like this. Ive been meaning to check out Fassbinder for a very long time, but getting through this was painful. Everyone seemed to move in slow motion. Eventually I put it on ff2x and I comprehended the whole movie in about half the time since their movements and speech were so slow. Finally, the payoff hits and then the movie ends. I will say that I do love the voyeuristic camera-work of Fassbinder. Other than that, it might as well have been a short

12/31/2007: 28 Weeks Later -9-
Way better than the first! Not just for the action, but I thought overall, it was a much better well-rounded movie than the first one was. It also smacked me upside the head emotionally. From the point of re-infection all the way through to their escape to the abandoned carnival I was on the edge of my seat. I almost cried during the sniper scene which isnt like me. It really said a lot about our current state of government in our world and how we would handle just such an outbreak. My only point of contention was the "homing beam" that good ol dad seemed to have for his kids. None of the other rage-infected indicated that they consciously hunted certain people/things/places, but somehow Don is able to track his kids down? I understand *why* the filmmakers did this, but logically it makes no sense. Other than that, absolutely brilliant and one of the few horror films of the last few years to really affect me

01/01/2008: Cat and the Canary -5-
So much for trying a "studio" silent...it turned out to be just like a typical studio film only with no sound. The acting was bleh, the score was atrocious, the plot was obvious, and there really wasnt anything that stuck out to make me appreciate it. I watch silent films for their certain charm, but this didnt have any charm except for maybe the opening sequence.

01/03/2008: Bad Blood (Coisa Ruim) -9-
WOW! I can almost say that this is like the Portuguese version of Session 9 in its atmosphere, realisticness, acting, pacing, cinematography, and restrained sense of dread. HIGHLY recommended!

01/07/2008: The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting -8-
THIS film is not for everyone. It IS a definite must-see for any Ruiz fans out there. Once you get into the style and realize that its not going to be a movie in a typical sense, you can relax and start to enjoy it. I would even recommend it to people studying art in general

01/11/2008: The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari -7-
Call me picky. Call the film way too hyped up before I saw it, but I didnt find it the masterpiece that most cinephiles do. I DID like it and I definitely appreciate the style and the plot, and the creepiness, but it just didnt seem to flow well enough. I think La Chute De La Maison Usher spoiled me as far as thats concerned.

01/15/2008: Orphic Trilogy: The Blood of a Poet -9-
An amazing early surreal film! I cant wait to see more by Jean Cocteau! This was his first attempt at making a film and it definitely shows, but I think it only adds to the charm and the purposeful disjointedness of it all. Good stuff!

01/16/2008: The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (2005) -6-
While I definitely appreciate the hard work that went into this and the fact that the filmmakers really respected the original, I just dont think that the same techniques that worked in the silent format work in a "talkie". Also, the lead (who looks curiously like Billy Joe Armstrong) CANNOT act!!! He is the biggest ham Ive ever seen. The best acting was done by Dr. Caligari himself and the rest fell somewhere in between. Watch it as a novelty only.

01/17/2008: The Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes -8-
Very dreamlike and confusing. Its something I will definitely have to watch again some time to possibly fully appreciate and understand. I am a fan of the animated works of the Brothers Quay and this was the first feature length film that I have seen of theirs. They only have one other film: Institute Benjamenta

01/19/2008: 6ixtnin9 -9-
I LOVED this movie. To me it seemed to bring the magic of both Thursday (Skip Woods) and Amateur (Hal Hartley) together in one amazing film. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. This film is a must-see and also highly recommended (and how I discovered Pen-Ek in the first place) is Last Life In The Universe

01/20/2008: The Night Porter -5-
Well, that one scene was good...you know, the one where Charlotte Rampling is half naked in the nazi uniform with the suspenders. Yeah, that one. Other than that and the final scene, its really a pointless film. What I saw was just two incredibly stupid people get what they asked for. Bad acting, bad ADR, plot holes, historically inaccurate, etc.

01/21/2008: Sabu -8-
Ive actually owned this film for a good year now and never bothered to watch it. Finally I took all the films that I own and yet to see out and told my boyfriend to start picking ones for me to see. This was the first one that he picked. Its definitely NOT your typical Miike, but it shows that he can not only be a great director, but NORMAL when the occasion calls for it. Some of the drama was a little over-cooked IMO, but overall it was a very good story and well played out. Definitely recommended to any Miike fans and/or fans of Japanese cinema in general.

01/21/2008: Bad Ronald -7-
This was another one that Ive owned and not watched yet. This is a bootleg that I bought from a small distro about a year ago. I thought this was a very interesting, albeit flawed, idea and it played out quite well. It was very restrained and cautious but then towards the end it kinda went all over the place. Its very obvious that it is indeed a TV movie from the editing and the pacing, but it still worked for what it is. I actually wouldnt mind seeing a full-blown remake of it.

01/22/2008: Mondo Trasho -8-
John Waters' earliest available movie! The third installment in the own-it-but-havent-seen-it-yet category. Ive actually owned this one for about 2 years now! Well, its definitely early Waters. There are some scenes that drag on and on, but overall pretty damn unique and original for being his first "feature-length" film. This one will never hit DVD simply because of the limited audience plus all the copyright problems there would be in licensing the soundtrack. All of the early regulars are here: Pearce, Lochary, Stole, and of course Divine. Even the guy who played Crackers in Pink Flamingos had a bit part. Except for the few scenes that were unnecessarily long, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing! My only major complaint is that in the beginning sequence, there is a completely unnecessary scene of a guy doing a very bad job of hacking chickens' heads off and watching them suffer. Utterly pointless and cruel if you ask me and nothing like the chicken scene in Pink Flamingos

01/23/2008: Cannibal Man -6-
Something was obviously lost in translation for me on this one. To start with, for some reason, Netflix only has a dubbed version that came out on Blue Underground. Normally I praise Blue Underground for bringing out some pretty offbeat and obscure films, but Im not too happy with the fact that there is NO option for the original Spanish language track, NO features whatsoever, and no subtitles. As for the film itself, I dont think the acting was very good. #1, its kinda hard to get past the dubbing, and #2, it just wasnt that good. I was hoping for more of a slow descent into madness, but we basically got a killing spree with multiple weapons and each time the killer going "oh damn that sucks that I did that and I feel terrible about it" and 10 seconds later, he's killing someone else. The thing that redeemed the film in my eyes was the gay neighbour side plot. They didnt give us any unnecessary gratuiutous scenes or anything. I liked the way the end panned out with his involvement. If it hadna been for him, I would have rated the film between 4 and 5.

01/23/2008: Death Watch -6-
First of all, let me say that I watched the cut American version. I wasnt aware of that until this morning when I went to find some answers on imdb. I really wish I had waited to see the whole thing intact. This is kind of the same situation that happened with the film Darkness with Anna Paquin; they cut it and it was terrible because no one had any clue what was going on. Well, same here... the entire point of the movie was cut out! Seriously!

. What was the point of even releasing the film at all if they were going to cut it to shit? There are supposedly other scenes that were at least semi-important to the plot that were cut out as well, but Im not sure of all of them. I suspect that I would have given it a slightly higher rating had it been a more comprehendable movie.

01/24/2008: Resident Evil: Extinction -4-
What started off as a popcorn movie ended up just friggin ridiculous! We get a tentacle monster at the end. Wow. Milla constantly looked airbrushed. I think I must have rolled my eyes AT LEAST 10 times throughout the film. This viewing was inspired by my boyfriend. And I admit that the other two movies, while far from masterpieces, provided some cheap entertainment. Im not normally one for single-serving movies, but this franchise hadnt been too bad...until now. There were very few redeeming qualities and most had to do with the cinematography. Not recommended

01/24/2008: Viva La Muerte! -9-
I only give it a 9 for its slight over-the-top pretentiousness and the poo scene, but otherwise, an excellent film. Not for everyone of course as its quite a shocking surreal film that not everyone is into. I found the images to be quite shocking but very carefully done so as to be realistic but not exploitative (except for the aforementioned poo scene). I think this kid and Leolo need to get together. Theyd make a great pair what with their vivid and downright weird imaginations, actions, and their strange upbringings. This is the first of Arrabal's films that Ive seen. I will have viewed The Guernica Tree and I Will Walk Like A Crazy Horse by the end of next week.

01/25/2008: Das Boot -9-
Wow! This is a very good movie! Very realistic and extremely tense! I really thought I was down there with them the whole time. The thought of being stuck at the bottom of the ocean is a scary thought indeed. I'll skip a huge review of it since Im probably one of the last people to see it. Awesome!

01/27/2008: The Prestige -5-
Well I finally got around to seeing this one. Back when this and the Illusionist came out within weeks of each other, I got them confused and watched The Illusionist even though it was The Prestige that at the time looked more interesting to me. Well I thought The Illusionist was very good but a little predictable and thought that The Prestige in that case has to be a bajillion times better. Now, one thing Id like to say before going on is that I feel that this film is one where I probably should watch it one more time before giving my final answer, so in case that happens, I might rethink some things and up the rating, but for now... I thought that there were too many conveniences in the film and too many borderline plot holes. Too many things were for the audiences' benefit and not staying true to the mechanics of the actually story unfolding. I also didnt like how they established the motivations of the characters as well as their motivations ongoing throughout the film. That said, there were some cool qualities about it: the underlying message, the addition of Tesla, the capture of the showmanship and one-up-manship of that time as well as a good sense of realism, etc. Also, the cinematography and acting was excellent, but it just didnt fulfill me in the way I thought that it would

01/28/2008: Shoot 'Em Up -6-
So, if a film is bad, but it winks at you and tells you "yes, I know this is bad" is that OK? Or is bad just bad? Thats the question left swimming in my head after last night's viewing of Shoot Em Up. I was SO ready to just turn it off after the "Fuk U" was spelled in the neon sign, but then, when Giamatti turned around and spelled out "too" I realized "ok, THATS the kind of movie youre giving me!" and I sat through the rest. The acting itself was decent, the storyline was B-movie at best, but it had a sort of fluidness to it that somehow magically worked. By no means a masterpiece or even a rewatch, but an enjoyable romp filled with many sighs of disbelief and eye-rolls. Sometimes bad is funny, and funny is good so.... I rated it a 6 for its overall mediocrity and sometimes TOO over-the-topness and unbelievability, but on the other hand, the cinematography, costume design, and originality (and the award for craziest sex scene in a movie ever goes to.....) prevented it from going any lower. And worlds better than the Transporter films for one reason: Shoot 'Em Up at least KNEW it was dumb; Transporter tried to keep a straight face and fell flat ON that face in the process.

01/30/2008: Simon, The Magician -7-
Pretty good little flick by the same director as My 20th Century. It took a while to get going, but as it went on it got better. I was a little disaointed in the film quality and cinematography though as I was initally led to believe that it was "visually stunning" and it looked like about the cheapest kind of film stock possible. All in all a very quiet unassuming movie with a warm story at its heart. The soundtrack is really good as well.