Tony Anthony said people walked into the wrong production as there were so many SW’s being shot. Even when they had signs up.
2 Likes
First 10 films of 2020
- Tulio: Hornankoski 7/10
- Nikolaidis: Zero Years 7/10
- Meyers: My Friend Dahmer 6/10
- Scorsese: Mean Streets 8/10
- Scorsese: The Irishman 9/10
- Sputore: I am Mother 7/10
- Sfar: Gainsbourg 6/10
- Kar-Wai: Ashes of Time Redux 5/10
- Walsh: They Drive by Night 7/10
- Pollack: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? 7/10
2 Likes
Ooooh I like this idea
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
- Game of Death 1978
- Justice League 2017
- Cartel Land 2015
- Logan
- Heroes Shed No Tears
- B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin
- Knives Out
- Have a Good Funeral, My Friend… Sartana Will Pay
- Earthquake Bird
Btw. should we split this topic off so there’s one for each year, or should we just keep going?
I’ve watched
Midsommar - Ari Aster
What can I say, yes I like this type of films, it’s like the Wicker Man, but more on the psychological side.
Not for everyone’s taste I guess
1 Like
Joker (Phillips, 2019) - 3.5/5
Man on Wire (Marsh, 2008) - 4/5
Fury (Ayer, 2014) - 4/5
Prometheus (Scott, 2012) - 3.5/5
Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski, 1968) - 3.5/5
Shoeshine (De Sica, 1946) - 5/5
The Navigator (Keaton, 1924) - 5/5
Our Hospitality (Keaton, 1923) - 3.5/5
Le Silence de la mer (Melville, 1949) - 4/5
The Phantom Carriage (Sjöström, 1921) - 5/5
Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, 1975) - 5/5
The Most Dangerous Game (Schoedsack/Pichel, 1932) - 4/5
Breathless (Goddard, 1960) - 3.5/5
F For Fake (Welles, 1973) - 5/5
Nanook of the North (Flaherty, 1922) 4/5
Le Cercle Rouge (Melville, 1970) - 4.5/5
Army of Shadows (Melville, 1969) - 5/5
La Dolce Vita - 4K Restoration on the big screen (Fellini, 1960) - 5/5
1 Like
- Kurosawa: Scandal 7/10
- Hardy: The Wicker Man 10/10
- Cahazelle: Whiplash 8/10
- Frankenheimer: Manchurian Candidate 7/10
- Franco: Dr. Orloff’s Monster 7/10
- Tessari: Tony Arzenta 6/10
- Kasdan: Silverado 6/10
- Altman: McCabe and Mrs Miller 9/10
- Franco: Lorna the Exorcist 8/10
- Miller: Mad Max 2 The Road Warrior 9/10
Parasite (Joon-ho, 2019) followed by a live Q&A via satellite.
I’m pleased to say this definitely lived up to the hype. 5/5!
1 Like
1944 / 1944, Brothers – Enemies (2015, Elmo Nüganen)
½
An Estonian war movie, you don’t see that very often. It tells the story of the fights near the so-called Tannenberg line in Estonia, where the advancing Russian Red Army clashes with the German Nazi occupiers. Both armies had lots of young Estonians in the ranks, some of them volunteers, but most of them conscripted by the warring factions, with little sympathy for the Nazi or communist ideology (at least that’s what were told).
In the first half the events are shown from the ‘German’ point of view, the second half shows them from a ‘Russian’ viewpoint: the stories intertwine when a young Estonian soldier, fighting in Nazi uniform, is killed by a young Estonian fighting in a Commie uniform. The ‘Commie’ discovers a letter in the dead man’s pockets and delivers it to the addressee. Some of the drama feels a little overwrought, but the battlefield scenes are intense and realistic (but never as gruesome as in, for instance, Saving private Ryan). Not perfect, but nevertheless recommended
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007, Paul Greengrass)
The third part of what was supposed to be a trilogy about the tormented, amnesiac hero (or antihero) Jason Bourne. The script bears very little resemblance to Ludlum’s novel of the same name. It’s a typical globe-trotting, fast and furious spy thriller with a serpentine script that is often more suggestive than revelatory, but Greengrass and Matt Damon have turned Ludlum’s character into a completely new kind of screen action superhero: a frightened man fighting for his life. Probably the best entry in the series, and yes, it should have been the finale: Bourne seems to have all the answers he was looking for and the ultimate scene neatly echoes the opening scene of the first movie.
Un Bianco Vestito per Marialé (1972, Romano Scavolini)
A bizarre Giallo. It borrows (very freely) elements from both Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca and Agaha Christie’s Ten Little Indians, but it’s filmed in a quasi-intellectual, experimental style, with lots of nudity (an orgy, a lesbian love scene, etc.). Visually Fellini’s Satyricon most probably was a major source of inspiration. Ida Galli plays a young woman who, as a child, witnessed the death of her mother and her young lover by the hands of her father (who committed suicide afterwards). Today she’s living in a castle, with her protective husband (Luigi Pistilli) and his servant. For a reason unknown to both men, she has invited six guests for the weekend. Certainly has its moments, but it takes an awful lot of time to get started (the traditional stabbings all take place during the final 30 minutes!). It took me by the way more than an hour to realize that this guy with a blonde wig was Ivan Rassimov!
1 Like
- Taviani: La notte di San Lorenzo (cinema) 8/10
- Mamoulian: City Streets 7/10
- Pakula: The Parallax View 7/10
- Bogdanovich: The Great Buster: A Celebration (doc) 7/10
- Kaufman: Invasion of the Body Snatchers 8/10
- Bendelack: The League of Gentlemen: Live at Drury Lane 9/10
- Verhoeven: Flesh+Blood (cinema) 7/10
- Franco: Sinfonia Erotica 6/10
- Lau: Chinese Odyssey 2002 7/10
- Malle: Les amants 7/10
1917 (Mendez, 2019) - 4.5/5
Enjoyed this much more than I expected. I’ll be happy if it wins Best Picture tonight.
1 Like
- Garrone: Dogman 7/10
- Virtanen, Kokkonen & Pasanen: Millipilleri 6/10
- Franco: Venus in Furs 8/10
- Varda: Le bonheur (cinema) 7/10
- Kokkonen: Leikkikalugangsteri 5/10
- De Palma: Blow Out 7/10
- Bertolucci: 1900 8/10
- Garver: What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (doc) 6/10
- De Palma: Carrie 7/10
- Cronenberg: The Dead Zone 7/10
Lost in Translation (Coppola, 2003) - 4/5
Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) - 4.5/5
The Green Mile (Darabont, 1999) - 3.5/5
Cast Away (Zemeckis, 2000) - 3.5/5
Gladiator (Scott, 2000) - 4/5
Fight Club (Fincher, 1999) - 4/5
The Last Temptation of Christ (Scorsese, 1988) - 4.5/5
The King of Comedy (Scorsese, 1982) - 4/5
Donnie Darko (Kelly, 2001) - 4/5
Zodiac (Fincher, 2007) - 4/5
The Social Network (Fincher, 2010) - 3.5/5
Se7en (Fincher, 1995) - 4.5/5
1 Like
- Franco: Sadist of Notre Dame 7/10
- Besson: Leon 10/10
- Franco: Cocktail Special 2/10
- Cozzi: Killer Must Kill Again 7/10
- Juran: First Men on the Moon (cinema) 6/10
- Roth: Death Wish 7/10
- Little: Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey (doc) 7/10
- Arnold: Tarantula 6/10
- Kotcheff: Wake in Fright 10/10
- Brass: The Voyeur 9/10
Sinbad of the Seven Seas. It has to be the worst Castellari film I’ve ever seen.
Saw it in cinema last weekend as well. So far I haven’t found time to write something about it, but tomorrow I have a day off, so … Like you, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Great movie.
1 Like
My second favourite of the year just after Parasite. Although I haven’t seen The Lighthouse yet.
L’argent (1983) - Director: Robert Bresson - 9/10 -> 10/10 - A re-watch.
Le diable probablement (1977) - Director: Robert Bresson - 9/10 = 9/10 - A re-watch.
Highlander (1986) - Director: Russell Mulcahy - 3/10 - I’m not too fastidious about cheesy, cult movies as long as they’re executed in a prepossessing fashion, but it ain’t exactly something I could say about Highlander I’m afraid. I do not take issue with the overarching premise and the overall concept as much as its absurd lack of focus, which makes the whole enchilada look more like an overblown music video rather than a full-length feature film. This pervasive sense of waywardness and general goofiness are additionally compounded by asinine dialogues, excessively zany characters and the incomprehensibly bloated running time. The stagnant narrative makes itself particularly evident in the second half the moment the narration virtually grinds to a halt and then leisurely proceeds to stumble towards its painfully conspicuous conclusion. All in all, I guess my primary gripe with the flick is that its singular constituents just never coalesce into one coherent whole and the venture ultimately ends up looking more like a curious, inconsequential pop extravaganza with not a whole lot to offer apart from its kitschy shticks. And sure, I get that this intrinsic preposterousness is what essentially makes it so special and appealing to a lot of folks, it’s just that this stupefying mixture didn’t leave much of an impression on me other than the lingering temptation to turn it off and watch something else perhaps.
Journal d’un curé de campagne (1951) - Director: Robert Bresson - 9/10 = 9/10 - A re-watch.
Deep Space (1988) - Director: Fred Olen Ray - 2/10 - A low-budgeted rip-off of The Thing (1982), The Blob (1988) and Alien (1979), but without any finesse or sophistication exhibited by these classics. From the very get-go, the motion picture bears all the hallmarks of cheap filmmaking of its era: lazy editing, atrocious acting and the ubiquitous paltriness of film content. While this jocular artlessness could possibly prove advantageous under the right circumstances, the movie merely sets out to indulge in predictably crude tongue-in-cheek humor at the expense of any real tension, scares or three-dimensional characters. Unless you find hammering aliens with baseball bats hilarious and don’t need anything else to stay invested in the story, you should probably skip this one, as a large chunk of this feels more like a gratuitous exercise in unfunny sci-fi schlock. Still, if you’re adventurous enough, you may want to give this one a try, especially if you yearn to see Charles Napier playing the bagpipes for whatever obscure reason.
Robowar - Robot da guerra (1988) - Director: Bruno Mattei - 3/10 - So I’ve seen my first Bruno Mattei movie and frankly speaking, I don’t know what to think or say about it other than the fact that it looks, sounds and functions exactly the way you’d expect it to, which is not a compliment by the way. There is virtually nothing original or intriguing about the whole effort and it essentially constitutes a banal shot-for-shot knock-off of Predator with some of its locations strikingly reminiscent of Rambo 2 for some reason and its antagonist being basically a goofy hybrid of the Robocop and a Power Ranger for lack of a better term. Most of the action is executed in a predictably moronic fashion (i.e. slow-mo sequences supposedly underlining alleged dynamism of presented shootouts) and overall, there is not a whole lot to recommend about the whole measly affair other than certain alleviative moments of blissful ineptitude, which may prove sporadically amusing in their overarching stupidity.
Au hasard Balthazar (1966) - Director: Robert Bresson - 9/10 -> 10/10 - A re-watch.
Shadowhunter (1993) - Director: J.S. Cardone - 5/10 - This is a rare instance of a flick which progresses at too leisurely a pace to sustain its momentum and accentuates its characterization insofar as it begins to stagnate along the way; I guess this is somewhat preferable to it being narratively precipitant, nevertheless, the whole motion picture just seems way too dilatory or attenuated in the way it recounts its central tale, which ultimately leaves a lot to be desired in terms of stylistic elaboration and seems to be going through the motions during its denouement. While I definitely dig the basic concept and usually enjoy horror hybrids of this kind, the flick proves to be somewhat inadequate in quite a few respects and doesn’t live up to its full potential. With that being said, this is still a fairly enjoyable little flick and I firmly believe this is Cardone’s best effort I’ve viewed so far.
Die Hard (1988) - Director: John McTiernan - 8/10 = 8/10 - A re-watch.
Night Trap (1993) - Director: David A. Prior - 4/10 - An intriguing horror story that (almost) ends up being quite good in spite of itself; the primary issue lies in its goofy, shoddy execution verging on pure campiness as well as the ubiquitous sense of trashiness pervading the entirety of its not-so-bad plot. Thankfully, Robert Davi’s and Michael Ironside’s performances manage to pack quite a punch and partially cancel out the destructive effect of its genuinely cheapjack direction, which endows the flick with the distinctively second-rate appearance and feel. It’s hard to recommend it to anyone really, but it’s indubitably interesting to watch for what it could’ve been rather than for what it ultimately constitutes in and of itself. This material could be transformed into a spectacular movie with sufficient resources and the right person at the helm, but it admittedly wouldn’t have this specific 1990s look and sound to it, so I guess it’s fair to say Night Trap is a bit of a missed opportunity and the epitome of a mixed bag.
Deceptions (1990) - Director: Ruben Preuss - 4/10 - Strictly speaking, this is a dogshit, I mean no question about it. On the other hand, the film might be the most obscenely early-nineties-looking thing I’ve ever seen; the whole work is so preposterously cliched both stylistically and storywise it virtually becomes a spoof of this particular era of filmmaking, I mean it’s got every goddamn thing in it: the lighting, the sax, the fucking swimming pool, glass block windows, Harry Hamlin, the femme fatale and last but not least, the fuzz of my laserdisc rip is just a cherry on top. Instead of tracking down and viewing every single low-budget neonoir of the period like certain dangerous lunatics do, you might as well just grab this one, as it essentially encapsulates all tropes associated with this sort of VHS delectations, just bear in mind you might get nauseous in the process and puke your guts out if you’re not into this sort of thing. While you can fare a lot better with more renowned movies, there is something quite unique about its bromidic nature and the best way to describe it would be to call it agreeably platitudinous if that makes sense.
Blindside (1987) - Director: Paul Lynch - 5/10 - Harvey Keitel managing a scuzzy motel, wiretapping his clients’ rooms and listening to their convos on some fancy audio equipment in his shadowy office? Count me in. Apart from the coolness of the basic concept, there are quite a few quirks and odd touches that makes this one stand out from the crowd of similar opuses, particularly film’s caricatural villain, Keitel’s outlandish backstory as well as the quaint, dreamy and languorous storytelling. It’s hard to tell how much of this unusual mixture was concocted in a deliberate manner; suffice to say, the aforementioned components coalesce into the fairly satisfying tout ensemble and you’re likely to find it relatively diverting as long as you’re willing to overlook some of its minor shortcomings in the form of narrative imbalances and half-baked ideas scattered around, which effectively relegate this oddity to the status of second-rate, to-be-forgotten filmmaking.
Love Kills (1991) - Director: Brian Grant - 4/10.
Run (1991) - Director: Geoff Burrowes - 1/10 - Imagine taking an goonies-tier manchild of a protagonist, the most ham-fisted humor with the most worn-out, tiresome one-liners, preposterously one-dimensional characters, exasperatingly zany and caricatural acting, the most bromidic and gratuitous plot conceivable as well as some over-the-top car crashes covering up for the paucity of anything that could be construed as serious craftsmanship and eventually putting it all in one movie and you basically get Run. No, I do not necessarily take issue with the tongue-in-cheek humor or the lighthearted attitude, the primary issue simply resides in the fact that there is absolutely nothing of interest here outside of this absurd outpouring of action sequences and the ridiculously overactive storytelling. If you do not find the whole idea all that appealing and crave for something a little more substantial than this panoply of stunts loosely connected through the laughable pretext of a narrative, then guess what, you’re shit out of luck 'cause there ain’t anything else to enjoy about this reeking piece of turd. To add insult to injury, Patrick Dempsey might be the single most annoying star comedian I’ve ever had the displeasure to chance upon, watching him attempt to act funny was like choking on a waste water pipe.
The Hitcher (1986) - Director: Robert Harmon - 9/10 = 9/10 - A re-watch.
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019) - Director: Quentin Tarantino - 8/10 - I never thought I would see Gordon Mitchell’s mug in a Tarantino movie, nice.
Screamers (1995) - Director: Christian Duguay - 7/10 - While it’s kind of hard to deny some of film’s content feels rather cheesy (especially towards the end and during its denouement), most of that is pretty much negated by the fairly sturdy structure and good production values. However, the biggest strength indubitably dwells in its evocative atmosphere, grimy aesthetics of its decor and the postapocalyptic ambiance, which is additionally compounded by remarkably tenebrous and effective industrial locations. Therewith, one is obliged to give credit where it’s due and recognize Peter Weller’s outstanding performance in this one, as he manages to bring his somewhat two-dimensional character to life and effectively invigorate the whole venture by extension. Philip K. Dick’s emblematic musings on the nature of humanity and the likes thereof appear to have been inadvertently buried in the script, as they feel somewhat superficial and more like an afterthought rather than an inextricable ingredient of the core story; with that being said, they’re not exactly something to sniff at and possibly add some depth to the overarching theme. Overall, although it’s not exactly a classic or anything along those lines, it’s an exceedingly enjoyable slice of 1990s sci-fi with an array of highly successful elements and it’s well worth checking out once you’ve stricken out of your watchlist more renowned genre examples.
Midnight Killer (1986) - Director: Lamberto Bava - 6/10 - Stylistically, one could argue Midnight Killer essentially constitutes a budget version of Argento’s Tenebre, which isn’t a bad thing really and frankly, turns out to make a lot more sense than one would expect, I mean it’s kind of cute. And sure, it’s nowhere nearly as sophisticated as the original in terms of framing or scoring, but that doesn’t really say too much, taking into account the fact that Tenebre’s soundtrack is probably Simonetti’s biggest achievement (Flashing alone renders it superior to his work on Midnight Killer) and given the absence of Tovoli’s stunning lighting, coloring as well as his mind-blowing cinematography in conjunction with Argento’s use of modernist architecture, all of which probably establish Tenebre as the most visually refined Argento movie to date, so it’s not a fair comparison to make. At the end of the day, a lot of its individual elements may not be as compelling, but they end up being perfectly serviceable and adequate within the context of this modest, but extremely enjoyable late-period giallo. Additionally, it’s way less perverse, provocative and gruesome which again isn’t necessarily a bad thing and makes for a good substitute if you’re not in the mood for geysers of blood gushing around and people getting axed or sliced with straight razors, so it’s like a Tenebre-lite for lack of a better term. Other than that, yes, it is quite heavily flawed in the narrative department, but oddly enough, instead of hindering the overall flow of the narration, its imperfections prove largely negligible, ultimately come to enhance the overall flavor and make it kind of cute to watch. Last but not least, the flick actually succeeds in building tension in its modest capacity quite commendably and furnishes its running time with several fairly memorable scenes. Conspicuously, the only watchable version is the Italian one, but I hope that goes without saying. On a side note, I’ve got to say I absolutely love the poster, it reminds me of those gorgeous Superstudio artworks from the 1960s and 1970s, very retrofuturistic and beautiful in its own right.
Lighthouse (2019) - Director: Robert Eggers - 5/10 - Defoe’s fabulous lobster rants aside, Eggers simply ain’t my cup of tea.
Shadowzone (1990) - Director: J.S. Cardone - 3/10 - As much as I wanted to love this one, this sci-fi outing simply proves to be way too blemished by its intrinsic technical deficiencies and overall poor production values. The overarching cheapjack execution manifests itself particularly painfully in its sordid, tawdry sets, certain parts of which appear to have been slapped together from plywood and constructed in a somewhat makeshift fashion. This underlying sensation of cheapness is further exacerbated by the insufferable repetitiveness of its story which fails to go beyond the boundaries of its initial premise and just focuses on milking the monster ordeal for cheap scares without sufficiently substantiating its characters or at least endowing the whole tale with some additional background story. To add insult to injury, some special effects look simply atrocious and do not exactly dispel the aforementioned cheap ugliness. I guess it still might be worth a look for some people, but I am afraid I fail to see much of interest here outside of a couple of scenes and some select ideas; all in all, most of it turns out to be excessively defective on account of the dearth of resources, which is painfully obvious at almost every turn, as well as the unimaginative writing.
Predator 2 (1990) - Director: Stephen Hopkins - 2/10 - It is about as bad as a sequel can get and possibly one of the most insolent cases of cash grab I’ve ever seen. Forget about a concrete story or any approximation of that, just look at the explosions and shell out the cash, peons. Sure, the action scenes are choreographed in an impeccable manner, but you’re seriously fucked if that’s not the only reason why you’re watching the movie. All characters are basically walking-talking cliches with as much human element as a fucking toaster. Danny Glover just seems disoriented most of the time and simply ends up recycling his usual Lethal Weapon impression 'cause why the fuck not, no one cares anyhow. All scenes are strung together in a predictably contemptible, quasi-phantasmagorical fashion and a large portion of the movie feels like an overblown commercial or a music video with perhaps a little bit more gloss and sheen to it. Absolutely at no fucking point was I invested in this reeking piece of bloody shite; this shit is so flabbergastingly boring I had to break my viewing into two separate sittings because I couldn’t take it all in one, what an tedious piece of crap.
The Believers (1987) - Director: John Schlesinger - 7/10 - There is no denying the fact that the film lacks quite a bit of focus, but surprisingly enough, this seems to work in movie’s favor in the sense that it provides the whole tale with a bit of a dreamlike atmosphere and ultimately doesn’t detract from the overall experience the least bit. While some people may try to argue it tries to emulate Rosemary’s Baby to an excessive degree, to my way of thinking, that’s not entirely the case and I hold the opinion it has quite a different flavor to it in that it deals with a slightly different subject and ends up having a more exotic and voodoo-like zest if that makes sense. I cannot say I’m a big fan of Schlesinger’s oeuvre and a lot of his flicks happen to fall flat for me, but his grasp on the narrative and the general aesthetics feels quite strong here overall. Calling this one a classic or anything along those line would be a bit of a stretch, but it’s definitely worth checking out if it sounds like your kind of thing.
Society (1989) - Director: Brian Yuzna - 8/10 - It’s one of those weird movies that appears to partially reflect reality, but you can’t really tell how much and which parts of it are a distorted representation of real events and how much of it is just a wonky, grotesque burlesque making fun of the show business and social elites in general. That component in conjunction with somewhat crude, juvenile humor, the extremely disturbing subject matter as well as some genuinely surreal, fucked up special effects make this thing one hell of a ride. Its individual constituents seem very incongruous and all over the place at first glance, but surprisingly enough, the motion picture ends up working a lot better than expected for some reason; suffice to say, the entirety of the work oozes with this uncannily dreamy ambiance that contributes to the remarkably discombobulating, unnerving and foreboding feel of its resolution. Definitely one of the weirdest movies from the 1980s I’ve ever seen.
Company Business (1991) - Director: Nicholas Meyer - 6/10.
The Banker (1989) - Director: William Webb - 3/10 - A confused and topically tentative thriller with a bunch of imbalances troubling the free flow of the narrative. The primary issue seems to stem from the fact that the endeavor attempts to encompass and detail too high a number of subplots and subjects within its modest scope, namely the importance of journalistic integrity (in the form of the female reporter doing the story on the mysterious killings), the routine police work as well as the activity of the killer himself; hence, the storytelling essentially trifurcates and apparently sets out to touch upon a little bit of everything, but ends up depicting basically nothing for all intents and purposes. What is worse, the execution leaves a lot to be desired and lacks the kind of technical simplicity and efficacy, which other low-budgeted efforts of this kind often display and wherewith they manage to surmount their flaws induced by limited resources. I realize this is supposed to be just innocuous 1980s fun, but a lot of it is just junk in my estimation and you can do a whole lot better than this if you’re after this sort of thing.
Deathline (1997) - Director: Tibor Takács - 4/10 - As unique as its locations and grimy interiors prove, there is not much else to recommend about the whole effort, which fails to satisfy in terms of dexterous technical execution or the subject matter, and one could uncontroversially call it a standard fare if it wasn’t for the aforementioned merits in the production design. A lot of it merely looks, sounds and feels like trash and not in a good way: random women gallivating en deshabille and subsequently picking fights with the protagonist, cheesy punch sound effects, the slow-mo routine, one-dimensional characters, crass dialogues, you know the deal. Regrettably, the focus of the narrative in the second half also gets severely attenuated whilst alternating between the bad guys and the central hero, which is supposedly a predictably meager attempt at emulating the bigger scope of more expensive productions. Flawed and crappy as it definitely is, there is still something fun about it, maybe that’s not even related to the movie itself, but overall, it still felt sort of fun to watch despite it being undeniably crappy.
Beyond the Rising Moon (1987) - Director: Philip J. Cook - 8/10 - Whoever was responsible for putting this thing together must truly dig the genre, as this has got to be the nerdiest sci-fi outing I’ve ever seen as well as a true work of love and only goes on to show how much can be done with so little. Yes, technical shortcomings are multiple and evident almost everywhere, yet it’s hard to fault creative forces at work here and frankly speaking, it is not really that big of a deal in light of film’s other assets. Once you get past the conspicuously low production values you simply start to cherish the effort, which must’ve gone into constructing miniatures representing different pieces of machinery, spacecrafts and locations, and take delight in the imaginativeness of the whole venture. At a certain point, I simply began to feel immensely impressed and just dumbstruck by the sheer minutiae of the production design and the absurd attention to detail exhibited through a number of props and different elements associated with the production. Although the flick is admittedly on the slow side, I don’t really care about the arguably dilatory pacing as much as the hefty characterization and the way the director crafts this genuinely original and self-contained sci-fi adventure with a brain of its own. As a matter of fact, the languorous pace fits this endeavor to a tee, as it allows the movie to develop its own flavor and identity in the process. Definitely one of the best very low-budgeted sci-fis I’ve had the pleasure of viewing.
Jakarta (1988) - Director: Charles Kaufman - 3/10 - The man who made the trailer for this thing should get an award for making the motion picture seem to be something entirely else. I mean the music, the editing and the selection of shots are all just perfect and the VHS crackle is a cherry on top, I’ve seen it like twenty times already and that’s the thing that made me track this flick down eventually. Well, too bad the film itself is a pure dogshit, there is no other way to put it. It’s one of those obnoxious romps with an internally incohesive tone: the ‘story part’ is dedicated to the shoddy pretext of a plot with the purpose of making the whole sorry business look like a serious movie, whereas the ‘action part’ of the narrative occupies itself with virtually unrelated and totally unwarranted action sequences intended to keep more undiscriminating audiences invested in this abomination. There is nothing else to say about this, I contemplated turning this off many a time in the course of viewing this piece of shit, but I persevered in the end for some obscure reason.
Contagion (2011) - Director: Steven Soderbergh - 6/10.
Catastrophe (1977) (Doc) - Director: Larry Savadove - 5/10.
Twelve Monkeys (1995) - Director: Terry Gilliam - 9/10 - A re-watch.
The Fanatic (2019) - Director: Fred Durst - 4/10 - Most people will watch this for Travolta’s outlandish performance alone and him reciting ‘poppycock’ in an insanely bad English accent among other things. While this is definitely not some misunderstood masterpiece, the endeavor has some intriguing, distinguishing factors and is not exactly a complete trainwreck either. It’s merely one of those flicks that do not garner any considerable praise and have no real reason to exist, but they do for some weird reason, becoming bastards of odd circumstances in the show biz and questionable creative decisions of people involved in the project. As a matter of fact, I found most of it fairly unpredictable and surprisingly entertaining in a wonky fashion. I mean sure, it’s extremely easy to pick holes in the structure and script’s logic, but once you come to terms with the inherent incoherency of the work, it’s rather satisfying in its own trashy way.
Mindfield (1989) - Director: Jean-Claude Lord - 3/10.
Death Machine (1994) - Director: Stephen Norrington - 5/10 - I like film’s overall starting point and setting, but something’s missing to make it stand out from the myriad of early/mid 1990s actioners; the primary issue with the story resides in the fact it never transcends its initial premise and merely expands on the scanty concept of the perfect killing machine designed by an amoral defense contractor without really diversifying the cartoonish tone of the production with some extra touches in order to breathe some life into it. Brad Dourif is excellent and so is the rest of the cast for the most part, but it all begins to stagnate in the middle and grows rather repetitive or samey in its disposition of action and general ideas thrown at the audience. Female protagonist’s backstory is gruesome, but doesn’t really feel organic and essentially winds up being more distracting rather than enriching, whereas the remainder of characters remain, by and large, one-dimensional, empty shells of human beings.
The Lawnmower Man (1992) - Director: Brett Leonard - 3/10 - The primary concept offers a lot of potential, however, most of it is squandered in this confusing, cheesy and structurally ramshackle sci-fi picture dealing with the notion that the AI may pose a threat to the humanity at large. The effort indubitably sets out to state something meaningful about the subject matter and inform its audience of possible perils lurking in the depths of computing later down the road, nevertheless, most of this message is irrevocably obscured and partially stultified by its overdrawn characters as well as its out-of-focus, excessively vagabond narration, which is additionally undermined by the preposterously bloated running time making Barry Lyndon’s duration feel like a trifling errand for groceries (I mean really?). On top of that, the motion picture is riddled with all sorts of cliches and badly suffers from overuse of early CGI that doesn’t blend all that well with the rest of the action and just turns out to be distracting more than anything. Don’t get me wrong, I love these early CGI examples with their crude textures and colors, I just wish they’d been put in a much better movie or preferably compiled in a separate video so that I wouldn’t have to be subjected to the agony of sitting though The Landmower Man ever again.
Lifepod (1993) - Director: Ron Silver - 5/10 - Well worth watching, if only to see Ron Silver’s only directional effort to date. I always appreciate these location-bound mysteries and thrillers and this one proves to be just adequate without breaking any new ground or excelling in any particular field. A large portion of the narration is suited to showcase Silver’s acting capabilities, but fans of science fiction should find this moderately engrossing for its relative attention to characterization and emphasized interpersonal dynamics as opposed to mindless explosions or cheesy special effects. While it does suffer from overuse of voice-over a little bit and doesn’t really differ from other TV movies of its period in terms of production values or in the way it’s scripted and put together, it should satisfy most sci-fi fans with the panoply of decent performances and the interesting story.
Above Suspicion (1995) - Director: Steven Schachter - 8/10 - An astonishingly successful marriage of a thriller and a legal drama. It is one of those rare instances in which a movie starts out within boundaries delimited by one genre and then aptly segues into another and is still able to pull this off without looking ridiculous or incongruent. Furthermore, the motion picture is festooned with unusually good performances given by its illustrious leading actors, namely Christopher Reeve, Joe Mantegna and Kim Cattrall. As opposed to trashier genre examples, the neonoir principally concentrates on character development and does so with care and elegance rarely found in television productions from this period. The interesting thing about this hybrid is that it doesn’t merely occupy itself with merging these two aforementioned genres and doesn’t just go with it, it goes as far as to throw in a munificent number of turnabouts, which work pretty well in the context of the presented story; hence, interestingly enough, the movie turns out to be quite an accomplishment in many respects.
Mirage (1995) - Director: Paul Williams - 3/10 - A paltry rip-off of Vertigo with not a whole lot of interesting features other than its bewildering stupidity and Sean Young’s vexing Irish accent perhaps. Not only does the film lack any scintilla of originality about the way it goes about its tale, but also it fails to recount the whole enchilada in a passable fashion, lazily handling time passage and completely botching the resolution. The whole execution just smacks of a sort of arrogant nonchalance and is so thoroughly pervaded by the overall sense of incompetence and laziness the entire work comes to constitute one of these weird, internally meaningless curiosities mostly marked by their sheer disregard for any kind of technical quality; neither does anybody in front of the camera appear to care nor anybody behind it, so why in the hell should be?
The Rift (1990) - Director: Juan Piquer Simón - 4/10 - So yeah, it’s another rip-off of The Abyss featuring submarines and some mutants and the likes. I guess the best way to describe it is to just call it ‘fair’: let’s be real here, neither is the flick particularly special or titillating in the way it handles the subject matter nor is it some grand, outrageous atrocity capable of frying your brain. Yes, Ray Wise plays the smirking bastard yet another time, Jack Scalia is the ‘charismatic’/‘inventive’ type and yes, there is a rubber sea monster or rather a multitude of them jumping around studio caverns, you get the idea. I’ve seen worse and I’ve seen better. With all that being said, I suppose I’d expected a lot more trashy fun from the whole package, but just got a standard helping of the trash lasagna; overall, nothing to see here other than mind-numbing mediocrity.
Virtuosity (1995) - Director: Brett Leonard - 5/10 - Regrettably, the flick completely fails to live up to its full potential and gets stifled by its infuriatingly bromidic script, eventually succumbing to its action-oriented proclivities and devolving into yet another meaningless, pointless exercise in mainstream pop culture extravaganza. Thankfully, Russell Crowe gives probably one of the best performances in the history of his career, he basically own this picture and suffuses the otherwise nondescript tale with some good ol’ sardonicism. Actually, it’s a bit of a shame his performance is stuck in a movie not worthy of this acting level and the only real reason to watch this is to see his outstanding portrayal of an absolute psychopath. Had the motion picture opted for a more satirical approach with none of that cliched nonsense, this probably would’ve been a classic.
Mishima (1985) - Director: Paul Schrader - 9/10 -> 10/10 - A re-watch.
Patriotism (1966) - Directors: Masaki Dômoto, Yukio Mishima - 7/10 -> 8/10 - A re-watch.
Virus (1995) - Director: Armand Mastroianni - 3/10.
2 Likes
The Killing Time (1993) - Director: Rick King - 3/10 - Another great performance wasted in a deeply troubled and ultimately meaningless production; Kiefer Sutherland and his portrayal of the mysterious killer impersonating a deputy are the only interesting things about this completely bungled thriller/neonoir/whatever. Not only does the story not make a whole lot of sense and begin to disintegrate towards the end, but also the rendition is on the uninspired side to the extension that it virtually turns the whole flick into an unwatchable slog and actually makes it hard to determine which component of the abhorrent tout ensemble is the worst one; the writing particularly suffers from poor character development, which freely alters characters’ qualities in order to adapt them to script’s trajectory with little or no consideration to overall realism. The narrative, on the other hand, is ridiculously vagabond insofar as it struggles to maintain order and due flow, not to mention the complete absence of tension or drama induced by the disastrously unimaginative direction. Undoubtedly one of the worst neonoirs I’ve ever seen.
Hardware (1990) - Director: Richard Stanley - 3/10 -> 6/10 - A re-watch.
Memory Run (1995) - Director: Allan A. Goldstein - 4/10 - Despite having an intriguing premise at its core, the conceptual originality is not matched by technical prowess or scripting ingenuity and a large chunk of the material ends up feeling mediocre for the most part. With that being said, one can sporadically discern some flashes of greatness in certain areas and segments of the work, particularly in scenes portraying corporate tyranny in the film’s dystopia, the topic of transferring consciousness from one body to another as well as means of controlling prisoners through pain-inducing implants. Notwithstanding, most of these graceful instants get outweighed by run-of-the-mill action sequences, a lot of which just feel utterly gratuitous, and subpar acting, which demotes the movie to a firmly humdrum status. All in all, it’s not a remarkably flimsy flick and it definitely comprises some compelling and unique elements, most of that is regrettably obscured and negated by some more readily apparent flaws though.
Shattered Image (1994) - Director: Fritz Kiersch - 4/10 - Albeit fairly unremarkable, slow and gratuitously convoluted, Shattered Image proves to be surprisingly enjoyable for what it ultimately constitutes. It’s hard to deny its inherently derivative nature or the fact that its execution is inferior to a lot of similar works of this kind, but it likewise happens to be the languorous, listless type of neonoir I genuinely have a soft spot for (even if it’s trash, eh). While the story gets way too intricate for its own good towards the resolution and all of that winds up looking kind of ridiculous in the end, the overall entertainment factor turns out to be sufficient to make up for its fairly conspicuous flaws (for me, eh). I mean sure, it’s crap, whatever, I’ve seen worse, meh.
Power (1986) - Director: Sidney Lumet - 6/10.
The Emerald Forest (1985) - Director: John Boorman - 8/10.
Prey of the Chameleon (1992) - Director: Fleming B. Fuller - 5/10 - A lot better than its porno-tier cover would imply; from the very get-go, one is able to discern a lot of attention directed towards pacing and steady unfolding of the plot with just the right amount of time dedicated to developing characters and their proper introduction, which is most unusual for a motion picture of this stature. That is obviously not to say the overall execution is impeccable, but the endeavor feels way more classy than one would expect from such a modest project and offers many an interesting moment, adding quite a few little twists to the equation; the somewhat blemished nature of the venture manifests itself more clearly in the denouement and in the way technical imperfections begin to surface and accumulate as the story goes by; however, the flick ultimately exceeds one’s expectations and succeeds in achieving quite a few things without breaking the bank so to speak.
The Secretary (1995) - Director: Andrew Lane - 3/10 - Well, there are movies about psychotic dentists and cops, why not psycho secretaries, I guess? The overarching idea might not be necessarily all that bad in and of itself, nonetheless, the terrible rendition and very poor writing choices completely come to obfuscate whatever good or refreshing there might’ve been about the whole concept in the first place. Not only is the screenplay utterly riddled with crass cliches, but also the direction unequivocally fails to extract any kind of dynamism or tension from the tale. Moreover, the substandard, stagnant narration prostrates the whole effort and infuses the work with a degree of somnolence and listlessness, whereas the actress playing the role of ‘da secretary’ is completely miscast and doesn’t fit the part at all, her shrill, mousy voice becoming the very essence of what is wrong about the whole goddamn thing and heaving the flick down the abyss of utter crappiness.
Apocalypse Now (1979) - Director: Francis Ford Coppola - 10/10 = 10/10 - A re-watch - The Redux version.
Plus parts of the fifth season of Miami Vice.
2 Likes
I’ve barely watched any movies at all this year. Of the sixteen titles I’ve bought on blu-ray so far this year, I’ve watched precisely two of them. And they were both re-watches (Babak Anvari’s Under the Shadow and Todd Phillips’ Joker). My “watching movies” time has been somewhat curtailed by the baby, and what time I’ve still got I’ve dedicated to watching Star Trek. I’m at the end of season 2 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Just five more seasons to go, plus seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager, four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise, a couple of seasons of Star Trek: Discovery and a season of Star Trek: Picard (plus a couple of seasons of Star Trek: The Animated Series) to go, and I’ll be all done (!).
3 Likes