I watched Red Eye this weekend, mainly because I generally find Cillian Murphy very watchable and I was curious how they'd pull off their high concept plot. It's not a very good film (though I don't think it's bad either - it mainly feels like an okayish B thriller from the '90s), but I was surprised by how much I didn't dislike Rachel McAdams (I tend to find her usual aren't-I-cute shtik annoying and nauseating) - and why is it that Murphy doesn't play villains more often?
I enjoyed Red Eye a great deal
Going from claustrophobic thriller to straight up slasher film at the end was a little jarring, but well done
Did not care for the villain being named Jackson Rippner, though.
"A new take on the epic fantasy genre... Darkly comic, relatable characters... twisted storyline."
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
I was somewhat underwhelmed by the direction, which felt... perfunctory, perhaps? Lacking in energy? It's a neat enough thriller (until they leave the plane, at which point it doesn't become outright bad but extremely pedestrian), but other than the actors it looked and felt like something done by a no-name IMO.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
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FantastikaBetting That The Levee Will HoldRegistered Userregular
I pretty sure it was unintentional but I really liked how Straight Outta Compton kind of mirrored the actual group in terms of quality. The first half, when Ice Cube is part of the group, is pretty awesome. The whole Detroit concert is probably the high point of the movie. The second half, after Cube leaves the group, isn't that great, much like the actual group itself. It kind of turns into a big Dre/Cube fluff piece in the second half that kind of reminded me of a Behind The Music special. There's an intensity in the first half that seems like it's missing in the second half of the movie. It's a shame really.
There are some other problems too. It's does kind of waste a pretty uncanny Snoop Dogg performance by Keith Stanfield. He gets the swagger and almost exact vocal cadence down. It's amazing. Get me a Snoop Dogg biopic starring him stat. Ren and Yella are pretty much side notes at best. They're barely given any screentime compared to the other 3. And finally, it pretty much ignores the rampant misogyny that was part of the group. It's kind of irresponsible that they don't even mention the Dee Barnes stuff with Dre.
From "Will they shoot?" A black woman is my manager, not in the kitchen. So would you please stop bitchin?
That's an Ice Cube track, not a NWA one. The movie's like 140 minutes long and I swear no female gets more than maybe 5 minutes of screentime and no more than 10 lines I would guess in the entire thing.
Sorry, I'm not trying to fish for an argument with that. I just wanted to quote a song.
Though are you referring to "A Bitch is a Bitch" and "I Ain't the One" and "Just Don't Bite It"?
I take more problem with the fact that MC Ren and DJ Yella was relegated to the sidelines as comic relief than any shortage of screentime for the female cast. They're actually in the eponymous group.
Ah no worries. I just read that the wrong way I guess. They kind of just avoid all the really bad tracks like "One Less Bitch" or "A Bitch is a Bitch" or "One Less Hooker" in the movie and kind of pretend they never existed.
I think Ren gets it worse than Yella in the movie. Yella at least gets some funny lines here and there and is somewhat memorable. But I don't know if Ren gets more than 10 lines outside of the raps. He's just kind of there for the most part. But they both are represented better than D.O.C. or Arabian Prince. D.O.C. gets name checked and pops up once I think but Arabian Prince gets completely erased.
We watched Calvary this weekend and it is... hard to describe. It's darkly comedic but not a dark comedy. If anything the parts you laugh at are there to make you realize when you stop laughing how brutal of a thing you just laughed at was. It's a movie about redemption, and death. About doing good while struggling with being imperfect. Almost a "last righteous man on Earth" feel to it. It's absolutely savage to the Catholic Church, while embracing the fact that affiliation does not make the man.
It's Dogma, without stoners and abortion jokes and supernatural beings. It's the embodiment of the Biblical passage about paying attention to the splinter in your brother's eye, while you have a log in yours. Brendan Gleeson is excellent as Father James, dealing with what really amounts to the personification of the 7 deadly sins with people in his parish over the span of 8 days, while simultaneously struggling with his own humanity and his failings in regards to his daughter. Chris O'Dowd and Dylan Moran felt like odd choices for their parts at first, because of the seriousness of the film yet they seemed to be simply playing extensions of their characters in the IT Crowd and Black Books respectively, but it works well in the end because they really could be the same characters just years later; O'Dowd socially inept and entirely lacking in confidence due to horrors visited upon him in his youth and Moran having come into money and let it completely ruin him.
The film never presents capital R religion as an answer to people's ills, in one part even offering up the standard Catholic "say 5 hail Mary's and 10 our fathers" line as a joke, Father James then halfheartedly doubling the "penance" when informed the coming sin to be committed is probably worse than that. His faith is never in the Catholic Church, or in a person, he embodies the faith that there's just something bigger out there, something guiding unseen, that even he can't understand but that he knows would just want people to be... better to each other. It's a faith that's nearly crushed out of him but that he realizes he can't give up on, to be the effective example he has to continue being that example no matter what it leads to.
Clocking in at just over 2 hours, it doesn't feel like it at all. The premise that Father James is told he'll be killed next Sunday and has a week to get his affairs in order gives the whole movie an urgency, an underlying ebb of suspense and mystery as he interacts with each character. It's a good film.
I watched Red Eye this weekend, mainly because I generally find Cillian Murphy very watchable and I was curious how they'd pull off their high concept plot. It's not a very good film (though I don't think it's bad either - it mainly feels like an okayish B thriller from the '90s), but I was surprised by how much I didn't dislike Rachel McAdams (I tend to find her usual aren't-I-cute shtik annoying and nauseating) - and why is it that Murphy doesn't play villains more often?
Red Eye is a really good movie until they get off the plane.
I was about to say this. It's a great tension-filled concept and they play it well and then it's kinda obvious they had no idea how to end it or how to keep the plot going on the plane and the movie just kinda has a generic ending tacked on to finish it off cause it's almost lunch time.
Cillian Murphy is pretty cool in that he can totally come off as charming and likeable as well as cold and/or arrogant. Good 'control of his persona'-school of acting, so to say.
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Now I wanna watch Red Eye.
Also Creep wasn't that bad. It wasn't good either. More like aggressively mediocre. But y'all were acting like it's a 0/10 fuckfest. It's not even in the top 5 worst horror movies I've seen this year. :P
Cillian Murphy is pretty cool in that he can totally come off as charming and likeable as well as cold and/or arrogant. Good 'control of his persona'-school of acting, so to say.
It's those eyes man.
+2
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HedgethornAssociate Professor of Historical Hobby HorsesIn the Lions' DenRegistered Userregular
We watched Calvary this weekend and it is... hard to describe. It's darkly comedic but not a dark comedy. If anything the parts you laugh at are there to make you realize when you stop laughing how brutal of a thing you just laughed at was. It's a movie about redemption, and death. About doing good while struggling with being imperfect. Almost a "last righteous man on Earth" feel to it. It's absolutely savage to the Catholic Church, while embracing the fact that affiliation does not make the man.
It's Dogma, without stoners and abortion jokes and supernatural beings. It's the embodiment of the Biblical passage about paying attention to the splinter in your brother's eye, while you have a log in yours. Brendan Gleeson is excellent as Father James, dealing with what really amounts to the personification of the 7 deadly sins with people in his parish over the span of 8 days, while simultaneously struggling with his own humanity and his failings in regards to his daughter. Chris O'Dowd and Dylan Moran felt like odd choices for their parts at first, because of the seriousness of the film yet they seemed to be simply playing extensions of their characters in the IT Crowd and Black Books respectively, but it works well in the end because they really could be the same characters just years later; O'Dowd socially inept and entirely lacking in confidence due to horrors visited upon him in his youth and Moran having come into money and let it completely ruin him.
The film never presents capital R religion as an answer to people's ills, in one part even offering up the standard Catholic "say 5 hail Mary's and 10 our fathers" line as a joke, Father James then halfheartedly doubling the "penance" when informed the coming sin to be committed is probably worse than that. His faith is never in the Catholic Church, or in a person, he embodies the faith that there's just something bigger out there, something guiding unseen, that even he can't understand but that he knows would just want people to be... better to each other. It's a faith that's nearly crushed out of him but that he realizes he can't give up on, to be the effective example he has to continue being that example no matter what it leads to.
Clocking in at just over 2 hours, it doesn't feel like it at all. The premise that Father James is told he'll be killed next Sunday and has a week to get his affairs in order gives the whole movie an urgency, an underlying ebb of suspense and mystery as he interacts with each character. It's a good film.
The final scenes have stuck with me ever since I saw the film; not just the scene on the beach, but also the dialogue-free coda with Father James's daughter which leaves the audience wondering what lies ahead for these characters. There are some very powerful points made there about our detachment from evil taking place around us, how we only can really care about injustice and evil when we know the victims, how the death of a beloved pet and the jail sentence of a known face can be so much more affecting than the abuse and death of countless unnamed victims.
The movie isn't as well-written or as well-acted as I would like (half of the townspeople's performances aren't even good enough to be forgettable), but what the movie has to say about the power of forgiveness and the importance of faith -- taking seriously both the virtues and the sins of organized religion -- makes it one of my favorite films of the last several years.
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FantastikaBetting That The Levee Will HoldRegistered Userregular
Also Creep wasn't that bad. It wasn't good either. More like aggressively mediocre. But y'all were acting like it's a 0/10 fuckfest. It's not even in the top 5 worst horror movies I've seen this year. :P
Yeah, try sitting through The Gallows or Ouija and then tell me that Creep is that bad.
Also Creep wasn't that bad. It wasn't good either. More like aggressively mediocre. But y'all were acting like it's a 0/10 fuckfest. It's not even in the top 5 worst horror movies I've seen this year. :P
I'm so sorry.
I work for a crime victim compensation department. I'll hook you up. We can make you whole again.
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Like ya want a bad 'orra movie, this week I watched Wolf Creek, a movie about 3 dweebs that get stranded in the Australian outback. They're rescued by some guy who is overly friendly in that obviously-a-murderer-kinda-way. They hang out with him for a while. Now we're an hour into the movie and into spoiler territory!
Aw snap he is a murderer! Victim Girl 1 shoots him in the fucking neck. Movie over!?
She rescues Victim Girl 2, and then they kinda tool around trying to steal a car and escape. They wreck a truck, Victim Girl 1 goes back to get another car. And aw snap, Bad Guy stabs her in the fucking spine! He calls her a 'head on a stick' and tortures her for a while.
Victim Girl 2 is rescued by a passerby, who is swiftly sniped and then the car is wrecked by murderer guy, and he shoots her. Boop, dead.
MEANWHILE, Victim Guy 3 is revealed to be alive! He escapes with like, no problems, collapses in a road and is rescued. End on a wet fart with him being put on trial and a title card saying he was acquitted and blaaaah.
This thing is considered a good horror movie! It appeared on a couple of Best Of lists. :I
Oh brilliant
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
the accents probably made everyone think it's a good movie.
That happens a lot.
Like American Hustle.
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AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
Like ya want a bad 'orra movie, this week I watched Wolf Creek, a movie about 3 dweebs that get stranded in the Australian outback. They're rescued by some guy who is overly friendly in that obviously-a-murderer-kinda-way. They hang out with him for a while. Now we're an hour into the movie and into spoiler territory!
Aw snap he is a murderer! Victim Girl 1 shoots him in the fucking neck. Movie over!?
She rescues Victim Girl 2, and then they kinda tool around trying to steal a car and escape. They wreck a truck, Victim Girl 1 goes back to get another car. And aw snap, Bad Guy stabs her in the fucking spine! He calls her a 'head on a stick' and tortures her for a while.
Victim Girl 2 is rescued by a passerby, who is swiftly sniped and then the car is wrecked by murderer guy, and he shoots her. Boop, dead.
MEANWHILE, Victim Guy 3 is revealed to be alive! He escapes with like, no problems, collapses in a road and is rescued. End on a wet fart with him being put on trial and a title card saying he was acquitted and blaaaah.
This thing is considered a good horror movie! It appeared on a couple of Best Of lists. :I
The plot of Wolf Creek isn't great (although while it's following that one girl it's really good, and I like the setup). But it's sufficiently "hard to watch" in that horror movie way that is deeply uncomfortable. That by itself doesn't make it a good movie; it's more that the film has real things to say about the culture class, masculinity, and especially the male gaze that make it interesting and meaningful, in addition to being effective at creating mood and emotion.
But yeah as a story it's kinda meh--too long, really, and the protagonist switching doesn't help. It's definitely in the neat-but-flawed category for me.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
What We Do In the Shadows is the itunes 99cent movie rental of the week.
This is a deal that is too good to pass up for a great movie, everyone click on it.
Like ya want a bad 'orra movie, this week I watched Wolf Creek, a movie about 3 dweebs that get stranded in the Australian outback. They're rescued by some guy who is overly friendly in that obviously-a-murderer-kinda-way. They hang out with him for a while. Now we're an hour into the movie and into spoiler territory!
Aw snap he is a murderer! Victim Girl 1 shoots him in the fucking neck. Movie over!?
She rescues Victim Girl 2, and then they kinda tool around trying to steal a car and escape. They wreck a truck, Victim Girl 1 goes back to get another car. And aw snap, Bad Guy stabs her in the fucking spine! He calls her a 'head on a stick' and tortures her for a while.
Victim Girl 2 is rescued by a passerby, who is swiftly sniped and then the car is wrecked by murderer guy, and he shoots her. Boop, dead.
MEANWHILE, Victim Guy 3 is revealed to be alive! He escapes with like, no problems, collapses in a road and is rescued. End on a wet fart with him being put on trial and a title card saying he was acquitted and blaaaah.
This thing is considered a good horror movie! It appeared on a couple of Best Of lists. :I
The plot of Wolf Creek isn't great (although while it's following that one girl it's really good, and I like the setup). But it's sufficiently "hard to watch" in that horror movie way that is deeply uncomfortable. That by itself doesn't make it a good movie; it's more that the film has real things to say about the culture class, masculinity, and especially the male gaze that make it interesting and meaningful, in addition to being effective at creating mood and emotion.
But yeah as a story it's kinda meh--too long, really, and the protagonist switching doesn't help. It's definitely in the neat-but-flawed category for me.
I did not get any of that deeper stuff out of it. :P
Maybe I'm just sour on the ending. It's like Inside, that awesome French horror film
Excellent suspense, the hero endures so much suffering, they're gonna pull through! And then they die.
Like ya want a bad 'orra movie, this week I watched Wolf Creek, a movie about 3 dweebs that get stranded in the Australian outback. They're rescued by some guy who is overly friendly in that obviously-a-murderer-kinda-way. They hang out with him for a while. Now we're an hour into the movie and into spoiler territory!
Aw snap he is a murderer! Victim Girl 1 shoots him in the fucking neck. Movie over!?
She rescues Victim Girl 2, and then they kinda tool around trying to steal a car and escape. They wreck a truck, Victim Girl 1 goes back to get another car. And aw snap, Bad Guy stabs her in the fucking spine! He calls her a 'head on a stick' and tortures her for a while.
Victim Girl 2 is rescued by a passerby, who is swiftly sniped and then the car is wrecked by murderer guy, and he shoots her. Boop, dead.
MEANWHILE, Victim Guy 3 is revealed to be alive! He escapes with like, no problems, collapses in a road and is rescued. End on a wet fart with him being put on trial and a title card saying he was acquitted and blaaaah.
This thing is considered a good horror movie! It appeared on a couple of Best Of lists. :I
The plot of Wolf Creek isn't great (although while it's following that one girl it's really good, and I like the setup). But it's sufficiently "hard to watch" in that horror movie way that is deeply uncomfortable. That by itself doesn't make it a good movie; it's more that the film has real things to say about the culture class, masculinity, and especially the male gaze that make it interesting and meaningful, in addition to being effective at creating mood and emotion.
But yeah as a story it's kinda meh--too long, really, and the protagonist switching doesn't help. It's definitely in the neat-but-flawed category for me.
I did not get any of that deeper stuff out of it. :P
Maybe I'm just sour on the ending. It's like Inside, that awesome French horror film
Excellent suspense, the hero endures so much suffering, they're gonna pull through! And then they die.
I had a hard time watching "Wolf Creek." It is a film with one clear purpose: To establish the commercial credentials of its director by showing his skill at depicting the brutal tracking, torture and mutilation of screaming young women. When the killer severs the spine of one of his victims and calls her "a head on a stick," I wanted to walk out of the theater and keep on walking.
It has an 82 percent "fresh" reading over at the Tomatometer. "Bound to give even the most seasoned thriller seeker nightmares" (Hollywood Reporter). "Will have Wes Craven bowing his head in shame" (Clint Morris). "Must be giving Australia's Outback tourism industry a bad case of heartburn" (Laura Clifford). "Vicious torrent of bloodletting. What more can we want?" (Harvey Karten). One critic who didn't like it was Matthew Leyland of the BBC: "The film's preference for female suffering gives it a misogynist undertow that's even more unsettling than the gore."
A "misogynist" is someone who hates women. I'm explaining that because most people who hate women don't know the word. I went to the Rotten Tomatoes roundup of critics not for tips for my own review, but hoping that someone somewhere simply said, "Made me want to vomit and cry at the same time."
I like horror films. Horror movies, even extreme ones, function primarily by scaring us or intriguing us. Consider "Three ... Extremes" recently. "Wolf Creek" is more like the guy at the carnival sideshow who bites off chicken heads. No fun for us, no fun for the guy, no fun for the chicken. In the case of this film, it's fun for the guy.
I know, I know, my job as a critic is to praise the director for showing low budget filmmaking skills and creating a tense atmosphere and evoking emptiness and menace in the outback, blah, blah. But in telling a story like this, the better he is, the worse the experience. Perhaps his job as a director is to make a movie I can sit through without dismay. To laugh through the movie, as midnight audiences are sometimes invited to do, is to suggest you are dehumanized, unevolved or a slackwit. To read blase speculation about the movie's effect on tourism makes me want to scream like Jerry Lewis: Wake up, lady!
There is a line and this movie crosses it. I don't know where the line is, but it's way north of "Wolf Creek." There is a role for violence in film, but what the hell is the purpose of this sadistic celebration of pain and cruelty? The theaters are crowded right now with wonderful, thrilling, funny, warm-hearted, dramatic, artistic, inspiring, entertaining movies. If anyone you know says this is the one they want to see, my advice is: Don't know that person no more.
Oh, I forgot to mention: The movie doesn't open on Dec. 23, like a lot of the "holiday pictures," but on Christmas Day. Maybe it would be an effective promo to have sneak previews at midnight on Christmas Eve.
Note: As of Jan. 3, 2006, the Tomatometer reading for the
film had dropped to 51.
Cillian Murphy is pretty cool in that he can totally come off as charming and likeable as well as cold and/or arrogant. Good 'control of his persona'-school of acting, so to say.
It's those eyes man.
Nah, therein lies only dreaminess.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Paul Blart Mall Cop 2. It was a plane movie, the other choice was Tommorowland. I was in an American Hustle/American Hustle situation.
It was bad, a duh, everything the RLM review had on it was spot on, but what really stood out was how bad it made the Wynn resort look. Usually in these types of product placement tradeoffs they go for super clean sterling reputation instances, unless the company is in on the joke like Subway usually is, but here they show bad reception staff, bullying Groupiers who basically rob Blart of his money, unresponsive and dismissive security, on top of showing that it's really really stupid to have priceless works of art be on display in a hotel with a USB visible that can disable the laser alarms around the pieces. Plus it also shows weird things like Blart and his daughter sharing a small room where he has to sleep on a roll away bed as opposed to showcasing a more appealing room for any potential Vegas visitors. Hangover and Last Vegas did much better jobs of showing their accommodations while still letting hijinks ensue.
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
The only enjoyable thing about Tomorrowland was the first fifteen minutes and Athena.
Everything else was ambitious but rubbish. And I'm kind of annoyed by the new trend of just figuratively shouting "Science!" to make it be hip and cool and Big Bang Theory craft beer IPA because Neil Degrassi Tyson, as opposed to trying to show some kind of science logic there. Sunshine's initial plot makes no sense, but everything about that spaceship going to the sun makes super believable sense, they didn't just have the unobtanium machine go on the fritz.
I didn't think Wolf Creek was that bad. I didn't like it, especially, but it was better than Hostel.
I also don't think dysentery is that bad. I don't like it, especially, but it's better than tuberculosis.
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
Just saw a thing pop up on my feed that shows the top grossing films adjusted for inflation. Star Wars came in at #2 with 1.45 billion. Gone with the Wind hit the top spot with 1.51 billion. I hadn't realized that 4 of the top 10 were superhero movies though. The last two Nolan Batman movies and both Avengers.
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AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
Ebert wasn't always right, and he had some biases (towards fantasy cities, for instance, whether that was Dark City or Babe 2), including a severe dislike for horror that he perceived as nihilistic and unredeeming. I think he was wrong about Wolf Creek; far from being a misogynist film, it's a movie that seeks to uncover the misogyny inherent in a specific kind of masculine ideal (the strong, independent, outdoorsy Aussie Outback type).
I agree it's not a super enjoyable movie, though. I can rewatch those horror movies that are pleasantly chilling over and over again, but once or twice tends to be enough with the ones that are simply out to hurt you. That doesn't make them meritless--The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, for instance, is one of the best movies ever made, even if watching it is fundamentally a soul-draining experience. (At least for me--Tobe Hooper saw enough pitch black humor in it to turn the sequel into a full-fledged black comedy, although purportedly this was at least partially a fuck you to the studio.) I believe art can be both great and valuable if it is skillful in achieving an effect while expressing a point of view, even if the effect is hollowing and the point of view nihilistic. Just as "Massacre" offers no solution to the idea that sometimes pocket enclaves of regressive, violent cultures can exist and thrive despite the so-called social advances, Wolf Creek offers no solution to the idea that the masculine ideal it critiques as standing for violence against women does exist and can't be combatted on an individual level. That doesn't make either of them worthless movies. It makes them horror movies.
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AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
On a completely different subject, All The President's Men feels less like a historical docudrama these days and more like a vision from another planet. It keeps time jumping as the investigation rolls on and you realize that two people were paid to spend months and months investigating a single story. If Obama burgled Watergate today, nobody would have the financial resources to press the investigation anywhere near as far as "Woodstein" had to in order to prove the conspiracy.
That said, it's still a really well-made, tense, exciting movie.
+4
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
Ebert also didn't like A Clockwork Orange.
Or Pink Flamingos the best trailer park trash movie of all time.
Caught "The Rover" on Netflix, its the Guy Pierce in the Australian outback in the post apocalyptic future.
I really wanted to like it, and it wasn't bad, but it just was missing something, and its hard to say what, maybe its the ending reveal that maybe could have been shown sooner to give more motivation to the character.
I'm around 30 minutes into the Bridesmaids and does the tone of the movie change at any point? Because for now it's mostly cringe comedy with a little too realistic people for me. And I feel like it's only going to get worse for Wiig's character.
If you're not into Bridesmaids after 30 minutes, you ain't gonna be.
As to Wolf Creek, I agree with Astaereth on the general points, but I don't think Wolf Creek accomplishes much in the way of message beyond, "Hey, wanna see something really jacked up?" If Hostel is the goatse of horror cinema, Wolf Creek is the Lensman.
Human Centipede is the Tubgirl.
(If anybody doesn't get those references, do yourself a favor and hold on to your ignorance.)
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
Yeah I just got to the dress selection and I'm out. These are all horrible, vapid, passive aggressive people and definitely not outlandish enough for me to find their misadventures funny.
Yeah I just got to the dress selection and I'm out. These are all horrible, vapid, passive aggressive people and definitely not outlandish enough for me to find their misadventures funny.
2) Tom Hanks is miscast. Hanks is a great actor who can do a lot of things well - but as Vern notes in his Road to Perdition review - one of the things he can't do is play a hard-boiled asshole with a heart of gold. He just projects too much wide-eyed boyscoutishness. He can't pull it off. In Catch Me If You Can, when he's telling someone to go fuck themselves, or when he's sneering at and belittling Dicaprio, I don't buy it.
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I enjoyed Red Eye a great deal
Did not care for the villain being named Jackson Rippner, though.
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Ah no worries. I just read that the wrong way I guess. They kind of just avoid all the really bad tracks like "One Less Bitch" or "A Bitch is a Bitch" or "One Less Hooker" in the movie and kind of pretend they never existed.
I think Ren gets it worse than Yella in the movie. Yella at least gets some funny lines here and there and is somewhat memorable. But I don't know if Ren gets more than 10 lines outside of the raps. He's just kind of there for the most part. But they both are represented better than D.O.C. or Arabian Prince. D.O.C. gets name checked and pops up once I think but Arabian Prince gets completely erased.
No, I haven't seen that. I usually stay away from Buzzfeed on general principle but I'll check it out.
It's Dogma, without stoners and abortion jokes and supernatural beings. It's the embodiment of the Biblical passage about paying attention to the splinter in your brother's eye, while you have a log in yours. Brendan Gleeson is excellent as Father James, dealing with what really amounts to the personification of the 7 deadly sins with people in his parish over the span of 8 days, while simultaneously struggling with his own humanity and his failings in regards to his daughter. Chris O'Dowd and Dylan Moran felt like odd choices for their parts at first, because of the seriousness of the film yet they seemed to be simply playing extensions of their characters in the IT Crowd and Black Books respectively, but it works well in the end because they really could be the same characters just years later; O'Dowd socially inept and entirely lacking in confidence due to horrors visited upon him in his youth and Moran having come into money and let it completely ruin him.
The film never presents capital R religion as an answer to people's ills, in one part even offering up the standard Catholic "say 5 hail Mary's and 10 our fathers" line as a joke, Father James then halfheartedly doubling the "penance" when informed the coming sin to be committed is probably worse than that. His faith is never in the Catholic Church, or in a person, he embodies the faith that there's just something bigger out there, something guiding unseen, that even he can't understand but that he knows would just want people to be... better to each other. It's a faith that's nearly crushed out of him but that he realizes he can't give up on, to be the effective example he has to continue being that example no matter what it leads to.
Clocking in at just over 2 hours, it doesn't feel like it at all. The premise that Father James is told he'll be killed next Sunday and has a week to get his affairs in order gives the whole movie an urgency, an underlying ebb of suspense and mystery as he interacts with each character. It's a good film.
I was about to say this. It's a great tension-filled concept and they play it well and then it's kinda obvious they had no idea how to end it or how to keep the plot going on the plane and the movie just kinda has a generic ending tacked on to finish it off cause it's almost lunch time.
Also Creep wasn't that bad. It wasn't good either. More like aggressively mediocre. But y'all were acting like it's a 0/10 fuckfest. It's not even in the top 5 worst horror movies I've seen this year. :P
It's those eyes man.
The final scenes have stuck with me ever since I saw the film; not just the scene on the beach, but also the dialogue-free coda with Father James's daughter which leaves the audience wondering what lies ahead for these characters. There are some very powerful points made there about our detachment from evil taking place around us, how we only can really care about injustice and evil when we know the victims, how the death of a beloved pet and the jail sentence of a known face can be so much more affecting than the abuse and death of countless unnamed victims.
The movie isn't as well-written or as well-acted as I would like (half of the townspeople's performances aren't even good enough to be forgettable), but what the movie has to say about the power of forgiveness and the importance of faith -- taking seriously both the virtues and the sins of organized religion -- makes it one of my favorite films of the last several years.
Yeah, try sitting through The Gallows or Ouija and then tell me that Creep is that bad.
I'm so sorry.
I work for a crime victim compensation department. I'll hook you up. We can make you whole again.
She rescues Victim Girl 2, and then they kinda tool around trying to steal a car and escape. They wreck a truck, Victim Girl 1 goes back to get another car. And aw snap, Bad Guy stabs her in the fucking spine! He calls her a 'head on a stick' and tortures her for a while.
Victim Girl 2 is rescued by a passerby, who is swiftly sniped and then the car is wrecked by murderer guy, and he shoots her. Boop, dead.
MEANWHILE, Victim Guy 3 is revealed to be alive! He escapes with like, no problems, collapses in a road and is rescued. End on a wet fart with him being put on trial and a title card saying he was acquitted and blaaaah.
This thing is considered a good horror movie! It appeared on a couple of Best Of lists. :I
That happens a lot.
Like American Hustle.
The plot of Wolf Creek isn't great (although while it's following that one girl it's really good, and I like the setup). But it's sufficiently "hard to watch" in that horror movie way that is deeply uncomfortable. That by itself doesn't make it a good movie; it's more that the film has real things to say about the culture class, masculinity, and especially the male gaze that make it interesting and meaningful, in addition to being effective at creating mood and emotion.
But yeah as a story it's kinda meh--too long, really, and the protagonist switching doesn't help. It's definitely in the neat-but-flawed category for me.
This is a deal that is too good to pass up for a great movie, everyone click on it.
I did not get any of that deeper stuff out of it. :P
Maybe I'm just sour on the ending. It's like Inside, that awesome French horror film
Welp.
Time for me to post Roger Ebert's review of Wolf Creek!
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It was bad, a duh, everything the RLM review had on it was spot on, but what really stood out was how bad it made the Wynn resort look. Usually in these types of product placement tradeoffs they go for super clean sterling reputation instances, unless the company is in on the joke like Subway usually is, but here they show bad reception staff, bullying Groupiers who basically rob Blart of his money, unresponsive and dismissive security, on top of showing that it's really really stupid to have priceless works of art be on display in a hotel with a USB visible that can disable the laser alarms around the pieces. Plus it also shows weird things like Blart and his daughter sharing a small room where he has to sleep on a roll away bed as opposed to showcasing a more appealing room for any potential Vegas visitors. Hangover and Last Vegas did much better jobs of showing their accommodations while still letting hijinks ensue.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Everything else was ambitious but rubbish. And I'm kind of annoyed by the new trend of just figuratively shouting "Science!" to make it be hip and cool and Big Bang Theory craft beer IPA because Neil Degrassi Tyson, as opposed to trying to show some kind of science logic there. Sunshine's initial plot makes no sense, but everything about that spaceship going to the sun makes super believable sense, they didn't just have the unobtanium machine go on the fritz.
I also don't think dysentery is that bad. I don't like it, especially, but it's better than tuberculosis.
I agree it's not a super enjoyable movie, though. I can rewatch those horror movies that are pleasantly chilling over and over again, but once or twice tends to be enough with the ones that are simply out to hurt you. That doesn't make them meritless--The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, for instance, is one of the best movies ever made, even if watching it is fundamentally a soul-draining experience. (At least for me--Tobe Hooper saw enough pitch black humor in it to turn the sequel into a full-fledged black comedy, although purportedly this was at least partially a fuck you to the studio.) I believe art can be both great and valuable if it is skillful in achieving an effect while expressing a point of view, even if the effect is hollowing and the point of view nihilistic. Just as "Massacre" offers no solution to the idea that sometimes pocket enclaves of regressive, violent cultures can exist and thrive despite the so-called social advances, Wolf Creek offers no solution to the idea that the masculine ideal it critiques as standing for violence against women does exist and can't be combatted on an individual level. That doesn't make either of them worthless movies. It makes them horror movies.
That said, it's still a really well-made, tense, exciting movie.
Or Pink Flamingos the best trailer park trash movie of all time.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I really wanted to like it, and it wasn't bad, but it just was missing something, and its hard to say what, maybe its the ending reveal that maybe could have been shown sooner to give more motivation to the character.
Speaking of the ending reveal, I was suddenly all
MWO: Adamski
As to Wolf Creek, I agree with Astaereth on the general points, but I don't think Wolf Creek accomplishes much in the way of message beyond, "Hey, wanna see something really jacked up?" If Hostel is the goatse of horror cinema, Wolf Creek is the Lensman.
Human Centipede is the Tubgirl.
(If anybody doesn't get those references, do yourself a favor and hold on to your ignorance.)
That's one of the best parts of the movie!
1) The Saul Bass-style opening credits sequence is fantastic:
2) Tom Hanks is miscast. Hanks is a great actor who can do a lot of things well - but as Vern notes in his Road to Perdition review - one of the things he can't do is play a hard-boiled asshole with a heart of gold. He just projects too much wide-eyed boyscoutishness. He can't pull it off. In Catch Me If You Can, when he's telling someone to go fuck themselves, or when he's sneering at and belittling Dicaprio, I don't buy it.
It's a comedy, it happens.
But really, if you aren't laughing your ass off at the wedding dress shopping sequence, it's probably not gonna work for you ever.