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Film Journal 2013
May
 366  7.2  7.2 17/5
Polanski's strong horror-humor film kind of reminds me of what might happen if Lucio Fulci made a gore-free vampire comedy. Fulci certainly comes to mind when the completely batshit bleak ending rolls around. It's very reminiscent of Beyond at that point. But mostly Fearless Vampire Killers just consists of Polanski and his master, an elderly professor with a keen resemblance to Albert Einstein, running around snowy scenery trying to kill some vampires, while mostly achieving simply getting stuck into tight places or putting themselves into increasingly stupid situations such as trying to dodge each other as they ski across a wide open plain, yet managing to crash into each other. The two just fucking about is occasionally really funny and lasts about the entire film. Too bad I wasn't consistently amused. The bad guy, a vampire count of course, is so juicy I wish there was a bit more of him. The gay vampire son is also a stroke of genius. And despite comparing it to Fulci, this film is still really a lot like Polanski's other work despite being I would argue the lightest in tone of them all (aside from that deadly ending). VierasTalo's rating:
 
427 7.6 8 17/5
If you like seeing Errol Flynn grin a lot while making jokes about how fat people are fat, I whole-heartedly recommend The Adventures of Robin Hood. If there is something that always prevents me from fully loving these so-called "boy's adventure" -films it is that I don't drink and ergo I can never have a hangover to have while watching one of these. But that doesn't mean I can't get something out of them, and there's certainly a lot to get out of this one. Flynn is a great combination of humor, charisma and ideology to carry the slightly too long film on his shoulders, and all the bad guys aside from Sir Guy are deliciously hammy. The action is at the same time utterly chaotic and well choreographed. My favorite single fight shot is early on as Robin beats up guards with a dead deer! But I can't help but feel that despite the very well-meaning light-heartedness of the film, there's not that much to get into here aside from some romping fun action. Also, holy shit, I've watched like 30 movies this month and there's still two weeks of it left. VierasTalo's rating:
839 7.1 7.1 16/5
It is possibly to some a grand achievement for a spy film to portray espionage in this dry and office-like a trade, and in a sense it is indeed impressive for Tinker Tailor to manage to create the amounts of tension and intrigue it does with what little it does. But I just didn't feel it was mostly enough. This is a film carried utmost by it's tremendous cast, not by it's somewhat convoluted and poorly structured story. The final montage is great, but otherwise Alfredson hardly does much interesting with his first big international film. It's a showcase for Hardy, Oldman, Firth, Cumberbatch and Hurt. I also really liked seeing Mark Strong finally do a role that isn't being the bad guy. He was very sympathetic, and gave off an almost Cazalean vibe. But yeah, this just wasn't very dramatically intact as a film. VierasTalo's rating:
 
25 3.3 3.6 16/5
Dario, fuck you so hard. I love some of his films. I'd argue that Inferno and Profondo Rosso belong in my top-10 of horror movies. But this. This fucking movie. Oh lord. It has to be among the worst horror movies I've ever seen. Where to start? The opening credits have a CGI-village in the background. A CGI-village that embodies the quality of the CGI in this film as I could've made it in a few hours using Maya or something. It's just boxes with grey textures slapped on top. Then it gets worse. The first scene takes place in the middle of the night but it mostly looks like day because this movie is lit with 3D in mind. Hence it looks absolutely terrible in 2D. We immediately see tits and even a cock, but then a CGI-hawk turns into Dracula and eats the titty girl. The plot has no resemblance to the novel, and is mostly incoherent. Thomas Kretschmann as Dracula constantly looks as if he was going to throw horrible hissy fits. The dude and dudette who play the Harker-couple have to the worst actors I've seen in ages. Even Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker looks great in comparison to this dude. Then Dracula turns into a group of CG-flies. Then he turns into a pack of wolves. And then into a GIANT PRAYING MANTIS. It's all awful. I don't want to think about it. Look, Dario, when your daughter looks like this in your movie, she probably disapproves of your work.  EDIT: This was the 2000th film I rated on this site. Damn shame. VierasTalo's rating:
 
4 3.3 0 16/5
Uwe Boll criticizes the financial crisis. I'm sorry, but if you think there's any finesse or indeed rational thinking involved with this thought process you're very stupid. The same goes if you think that Dominic Purcell's actions in this film are somehow justified or admirable. The problem is that that's what this movie thinks. It ends on a Dark Knight-esque monologue about how Purcell will continue to murder bankers for the indefinite future. It glorifies the fact that his dude just went into a building and killed about 15 upper class dudes because his wife killed herself. So hooray for liberal thinking I guess. This is just fucking horrible. For about over an hour this movie is just really boring and then it turns into offensive action. There's nothing to enjoy here. And heck, I mostly like Boll. VierasTalo's rating:
19 4.2 5.6 15/5
Another bad film in this disturbingly lengthy series of Finnish detective movies. I still like the lead character's actor, and in this movie he travels to a small town in rural Finland where a religious cult is taking hold of the village. Instead of having a town-wide conspiracy going it turns out to be a scam by a few scant people, which kind of sucks because I would've loved to see all-out action against crazed religious nuts. But the first half is OK, with the exception of the thoroughly awful dialogue and narration. Then it turns into a complete mess, as is usual with these movies. If you want to get to know anything about the Finnish film industry, don't watch these movies. VierasTalo's rating:
 
243 7.4 7.3 15/5
So this is part of the 5x5 exchange project so you can read about it in due time over here: http://www.listal.com/list/filmic-fatal-fourway Suffice it to say I think this is a pretty neat little film you should probably watch. VierasTalo's rating:
 
3089 8.3 8.6 14/5
This movie is still pretty Psycho. Some could say it is much alike Hitching sanity. Puns! But yeah, I had seen this in kindergarten or something the last time so I hardly had the clearest memories, and when my local library had a crisp blu-ray all ready for me, I couldn't resist the call for a rewatch. Surprisingly the film is pretty much as I remembered. I still adore the mid-film flip of plotlines to no end, partially because until Marion gets to the motel the film drags just a bit. When Perkins comes around it gets a lot better as his performance is still majestic. He comes off as such a nice and socially awkward guy unlike most serial killer portrayals in film history. He embodies that "My neighbor was such a nice guy when he wasn't killing people"-aura that everyone is always talking about with real serial killers. VierasTalo's rating:
319 6.2 6.5 13/5
This was really silly, but occasionally in a good way. Premium Rush really brought me back all the way to the end of the 90s. You know what was cool back then? BMX. Hell yeah. Things with X in the name, especially if it was part of eXXXXXtreme were great! And that's what this movie is about. Cool and extreme and wild and raunchy rogue-ish bike messengers delivering a dangerous letter around town while THE MAN tries to keep them down. Unfortunately the authority figure here is Michael Shannon, so you know I did nothing but root for the bad guy in this movie. He makes it fairly easy too, as his performance as a bad cop is like Robert Z'Dar in Maniac Cop but without the murders but triple the coke addiction withdrawal symptoms! VierasTalo's rating:
 
71 8.3 0 13/5
A thoroughly and shockingly un-entertaining thrill ride and the only fun I got out of it was how korny Christoph Waltz is as a villain's voice. VierasTalo's rating:
510 7.2 7.5 13/5
Press screening stuff, and this is embargoed until wednesday. Check back then for a hot rating! EDIT: Alright, so this movie is fine. The rap songs are AWFUL but DiCaprio is great. The narrative is 1:1 to the book aside from a single thing, and they incorporate all the dialogue from the book, as well as Maguire narrating the whole thing, which is lazy but hey, the text is the best thing about the book so it's cool to have around. Here's the Finnish review: http://www.laajakuva.net/post/show/116 VierasTalo's rating:
186 7.1 7 12/5
Oh boy! This was exactly what I expected it to be, AKA super-gory fun. It's all about setpieces involving bodily violence of the umpth degree, and not about horror so much. Pretty much like the original movie then. It even manages to be as intense as the original, though only briefly. The positive thing about Evil Dead is that it is filled to the brim with nasty-ass violence but every shot is exactly right to the point where you squirm a bit but can't turn away because it's also fun to see all those things. It's also a film where you feel the need to just plain shout about how awesome every scene is afterwards, but seeing as I'm the second off my contacts to see this, I won't spoil the imaginative gore. The biggest issue I had is that the movie is about fifteen minutes too long around the beginning and that they use the air horn-siren way too much in the soundtrack. Oh, and this is rated 16 in Finland. We also have 18. It is insane that a movie this violent is in theaters with that rating. VierasTalo's rating:
87 7.9 7.7 10/5
There's an extremely tangible sense of the elements in Letter Never Sent. When it rains, it pours. It covers the camera's lens, it obstructs the ground, creating nothing but putrid mud. When it's poured to the ground from a dish it's poured at the camera, through the camera. When someone digs into the ground, he's in the ground. It covers him even when he's in a man-made hole. When fire is on screen, it smokes. The smoke fills the area, fills the frame, fills the characters. Then in the end comes the wind. The characters shake, the trees shake. The earth shakes at the gusts. Fire rules. Ground rules. Water rules. Wind rules. Man fights the elements but fails, because they simply go over him in this soviet classic, where a team of prospectors end up in the middle of a forest fire after a successful but grueling prospect ends. One of them is writing a letter to his wife the whole time, but the film's title reveals what happens to that. The title also heightens the sense of desperation which is already overbearing as the fires sweep over each prospector one at a time. These people lose all contact with their base camp along with the great fire. Much like during an early rain sequence, where it feels as if the earth was about to be swallowed whole by the drops of water, it feels as if this fire would have scorched all but these folk off the face of the earth, coming now to receive the last scraps. It's a gloomy film indeed. VierasTalo's rating:
70 7.2 6.4 9/5
There's been an aspiration in horror for as long as the genre has existed, and it has been the race to make the viewer one with a deranged individual. How this has been achieved in the past is through the wildest ideas. Dream sequences, documentary crews covering serial killers, first person perspective even. The Maniac-remake applies the latter, but it doesn't. There's a key distinction between that happens in Maniac and what a first person point of view camera really is. In Maniac, you rarely look through the eyes of Elijah Wood's serial killer character. Instead you're always either to the left or to the right of his head. This might seem like something that had to be done simply due to the impossibility of literally shooting through one's head, but I think the difference is by design and key to what makes Maniac pretty much the best horror film in years. It manages to bring you into the mind of a serial killer not through making you the serial killer through perspective, but rather making you his siamese twin, always stuck to his head, thoughts and actions but without the control over him you'd have if you were him. This isn't to say a viewer would have any control over a film character's actions even when the whole thing was literal first person, oh no. But what the other head means is that you become very embroiled in the story. You become more susceptible to it's effects. By recognizing your ephemeral outsider status you also recognize your inability to affect anything, but due to being stuck with this creature you also have to be involved in each horrible act and disgusting thought, intimately. It's very disturbing, and downright ingenious. VierasTalo's rating:
 
42 5.5 5.6 8/5
Ho-lee shit. Brandon Cronenberg has taken to his father, making what has to be the best body horror film alongside dear old dad's Videodrome (I don't consider Zulawski's Possession one). In a not-so-distant future Syd March works at a clinic where people can get injections containing viruses or diseases drawn directly from famous people. It makes you feel real close to them, as if Britney Spears would've sneezed all over you. The satire of celebrity is taken to extremes as scene after scene things grow in proportion, until in my opinion it comes to the penultimate moment of Malcolm McDowell fondling his arm filled with various lab-grown skin patches from celebrity tissue samples while discussing how infantile belief in God is. The plot itself is extremely effective as both a thriller and a personal divulgence into hell, reminiscient of Videodrome's plot. In that movie, Max Renn slowly goes insane due to what he sees on television and what he finds out about the programming. Here the cause and the disease are more separate, and Cronsy Jr. keeps the visual disgust to a minimum, making the absolutely grotesque yet understated ending all the more disgusting. It's a more subtle work than that of his father, and it works. Some might say the opening minutes are too slow, because this is a film of absolutely zero explanation, but it's just a slow-burning masterpiece far as I'm concerned. See it now. VierasTalo's rating:
60 5.9 6.1 8/5
Press screening stuff, so review incoming in Finnish. Suffice it to say this movie is real dumb. VierasTalo's rating:
23 6.4 7.3 7/5
This was, to me, a really fun documentary. It discusses the wide-spread Doping-issue in the international ski-circuit, basically exposing that pretty much everyone who won medals since the 80s probably used one form or another of illegal medicine to enhance their performance. As a person who finds most forms of competitive sports complete bullshit on any level higher than amongst friends, this amused me greatly. There's a fair amount of detective work put together skillfully by director Arto Halonen, and seeing everyone interviewed cover up for one another is funny because when you see the interviews in sequence the whole huge lie just collapses in on itself. Unfortunately after the first hour a fair amount of time is spent tracking down where the doping-stuff started (those Italian bastards!) and after this we resume, for about thirty minutes, back into the more localized scene the film starts with. This pause of sorts in the structure is a bit abrupt and sort of breaks up the overall experience, weakening the otherwise satisfying conclusion as well. VierasTalo's rating:
2795 7.6 7.8 6/5
I watch so few movies as actual TV broadcasts anymore. This is like the second one this year. I guess I dislike the commercials, despite the fact that I usually pause a movie like twice as much on my own to do random shit. I guess I just dislike the occasionally awful picture quality, and as a bonus like half the movies on Finnish TV are in the incorrect aspect ratio because some stupid people like having no black bars when they watch movies. But yeah, this is a romcom without too much rom and some not-so-great com. The structure is OK but hardly does much good to the film, but a charismatic lead saves a lot as do the occasional highly entertaining gimmicky bits, such as the side-by-side Expectations-Reality scene, which must be one of my favourite single scenes in recent years. The message here is a tad all over the place, and the coherent nature of the story is often called to question (eg. the entire ending narration is rotten), but it's still an entertaining experience. VierasTalo's rating:
2 4.5 6.2 3/5
Finnish review up here: http://www.laajakuva.net/post/show/112 Basically it's a mediocre western that happens to be made by Turkish folks. VierasTalo's rating:
 
78 5.1 4.9 3/5
Whyyyy? Oh god why? Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to make a direct sequel to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre after FIVE installments between the two? With the quality of this film it kind of feels like rape. The opening credits have all the scenes of the original, so we see all of it. Then the film continues directly from the ending of the first. So suddenly all the cast members of the original turn into completely different looking characters and proceed to get shot. Then it's back to modern days and a chick inherits a big house from a mysterious grandma. I hope there's no leathery faces in the cellar! This movie is so stupid. And not even like TCM 2-stupid, but like Matthew McCounaughey -stupid, except this might even be worse than all that alien-stuff in part 4 because this plays it so deadpan throughout. So now Leatherface is like pushing 60 or something and the lead character by the end learns that hey, family's important and decides to take out some competing asshole family members with Leatherface and the two have thoughtful glares at each other while doing so. It's so stupid, pointless and the most un-horrory horror in recent memory that it almost verges on being good. Points for trying something new, I guess. VierasTalo's rating:
6620 7.1 8 2/5
Press screening stuff, review abound in Finnish next week. But heck, it's Jurassic Park. You know what it is. And it's still fine. Even with 3D. EDIT: Review here: http://www.laajakuva.net/post/show/114 VierasTalo's rating:
1250 7.2 7.6 1/5
This is a fantasy movie in more ways than just the genre. This is literally Sam Raimi's wet dream. Special effects galore. And all the special effects are fantastic. This is probably the best rear projection of all time. And the best stop-motion skeletons. But the slapstick humour and general deterioration of quality with the script from the previous two is awful. None of the Looney Tunes-ian slapstick is too funny despite Campbell really trying his best. And there's so much of it! There's pretty much a whole hour of the stuff, in a row, in this movie. And the structure is just so dull and predictable. This if everything is a film that's supposed to be completely unpredictable. VierasTalo's rating:
1149 7.5 7.8 1/5
Oh boy, this dropped from five stars to four. Sucks for the movie. There's a problem with Evil Dead II, and that is that it kind of drags. The slapstick-stuff with Campbell seems to go on for about one or two smacks to the head too long per gag, despite The Chin giving what might be his finest performance. Yet there's a very bizarre choreography to all the action, where people jump from point a to point b only to land on monster x who then throws them at point a where now character y stands who then falls into monster x and eventually someone gets eyed in the mouth. I also like how this movie, using either goofs or intentional stuff like camerawork and editing, consistently reminds you of it being a movie. It gives the middle finger to immersion because hey, it's fun to see Ted Raimi's buttcrack sneaking up on you from the bottom of that broken-ass latex suit! VierasTalo's rating:
1500 7.3 7.6 1/5
There are about three films I could name without hesitation as my favourites. This is one of those. It's just such perfection. Intense, goofy, fun. It's all right here. The only thing I have a problem with nowadays is the inconsistency of the deadite-make up, which can change wildly within a single scene. The final claymation stuff is the most charming gore ever though, and really, every single shot in this movie looks absolutely perfect (especially in spanking cool HD) and the sound design is impeccable. I don't really feel the need to speak much about this, it's just a fantastic film and you should see it if you haven't. VierasTalo's rating:
 April
891 6.7 6.9 28/4
I don't know what to say, because this movie gives me nothing to say. It is exactly what the title suggests. A third Men in Black -film. VierasTalo's rating:
12 5.4 6.1 28/4
Few have been the times where I have taken personal offense when watching a movie. This is definately one of them. This three-cent Tim Burton-knockoff from Nightwish-frontman Tuomas Holopainen is basically a massive egotrip from the master himself. In it, his alter-ego, a demented composer, tracks down his memories inside his head while laying in a hospital room due to a coma. Meanwhile everyone in the real world talks about what a fantastic imagination he had and that that was the only reason why he neglected his daughter. What makes this film absolutely frightening (aside from Nightwish-lead singer Anette Olzon's face) is that Holopainen seems to be making excuses for why he is a horrible person. Why of course, it's because he is a master composer and has such a magical imagination! This movie ends with a monologue where he says he has composed the most beautiful melody of all time and then they play some Nightwish. I am offended by all this because for some reason there are people in this world who assume any sane human being would be interested in participating in this horrendous egotrip by becoming a paying patron for it. Fuck this film with every ounce of my being. VierasTalo's rating:
51 5.6 5.5 27/4
Rob Zombie basically stretches out those trippy scenes from Halloween 2 that took place inside Myers's head to the point where he can fill out a hundred minutes with it. The Lords of Salem isn't very effective as a horror film. It isn't scary or intense or even thought provoking at all. But it is occasionally unsettling and thoroughly very interesting to look at. But I should maybe face the music here, because I have no idea what to say about this movie. The reason behind that is I don't know what to think about it. In a sense, it's a sub-par homage to witch films (eg Black Sunday), but then it's also Rob Zombie doing his thing at his most refined to date, filling the screen with imagery that is completely over the top and ridiculous but that still manages to upset and work well during the entire film because of his impressive skillset in editing and filming something. The man goes so over the top but then successfully with every shot manages to maintain a level of tact where you don't get tired or frustrated with the overt nature. It's very skillful. I hope he eventually makes a film that someone else wrote, because then we might get an extremely good horror picture instead of "just" an interesting visual trip. VierasTalo's rating:
743 7.5 7.8 27/4
The best thing about Iron Man 3: They probably won't make an Iron Man 4. VierasTalo's rating:
105 7.5 6.9 24/4
This is a rather odd comedy. It's screwball, but still very much an actual movie with a plot and characters and all. It's a quintessential satire rather than an all out parody in the American sense. The target? Agent thrillers from the 60s. Jean Dujardin plays a chauvinistic and racist asshole who gets sent to Cairo to investigate the death of a fellow spy. As the title indicates, the city is full of other spies trying to get him killed, including rival poultry farmers (Dujardin's cover which he takes very seriously deals in raising chickens), nazis and religious bigots. The biggest bigot of them all is always Dujardin himself though, beating up a holy man for calling morning prayer or telling the prime minister of Egypt that their princess likes it rough in the sack. The character is such an awful asshole that you can't help but laugh at his endeavors. Unfortunately OSS 117 really drags in the first half of the film, where all the rival factions are introduced with various degrees of success in terms of how fun these scenes are. There's an entire five minute dialogue scene where all the spies speak in proverbs, and the whole thing is a dud. Then it's followed up by a fight scene that brings to mind the best moments of Black Dynamite. It's a bit uneven. VierasTalo's rating:
7 7.8 7.4 22/4
The biggest problem with political documentaries is that they're always feeding an angle down your throat and that angle occasionally isn't the one you want. With You've Been Trumped however the only reason why it may feel biased is because one party of the controversy at hand has completely declined all requests to appear in the film, so in the end you can't do much beyond make the film with what you've got. And hey, this movie sure deserves to exist. It's about Donald Trump's schemes to build a huge golf resort in Scotland, destroying the lives of local residents and the scientifically important sand dunes of the environment in the process. The film features a good deal of Sleep Furiously-esque footage of the locals doing their things, and panning shots of the landscape, almost as if to transmit the feeling of home and place in the world that the residents have themselves, but by the end even if these tricks to pull you in didn't work I'll be damned if you just aren't screaming at the screen for all the injustice going on. There's an especially disturbing scene where a resident has recorded on video how construction workers come to his land to cut down a power pole, cutting off power to most residents of the island. It's so completely fucked up it just leaves one with a very, very open mouth, jaw down at the floor. Trump is sort of a douche, which doesn't surprise anyone, but damn, is he a massive one! Naturally all forces who bow down to the man's will are also to blame for this, which is really the only thing I can call this movie out for not acknowledging. VierasTalo's rating:
122 6.5 6.2 22/4 - Part of the Netflix Instant Project of 2013
First disappointment with this Netflix-project, I think. Night of the Comet is generally one of the more appreciated 80s horror movies, but I can't say why. The campy beginning turns into boredom as the last people on earth occasionally see a zombie or two while they go shopping and listening to awful Cyndi Lauper -songs. The direction the story takes is creepy in all the wrong ways and the film after the first 20 minutes is really nothing short of a bore. Can't give my recommendation for this to anyone unfortunately. VierasTalo's rating:
443 5.6 5.2 21/4
Well, there goes my faith for this series. Also, fuck all those horrible people who decide to bring my man Colin Salmon back to this series just for a 90-second stand-in role that ends when he is shot in the head. VierasTalo's rating:
197 7.1 7 21/4
This is such a weird film and only for the reason that Roger Corman directed it. He had an exceptional cast and crew here, especially with Nicolas Roeg helming the camera, and you can tell that in every shot. The elaborate sets and costumes are displayed in such vivid color, intense framing and sprinkled with fantastic sneering from Vincent Price that it's hard to not call this one of the trash maestro's best. There seems to be an actual story, and holy shit, it's so depressing. If someone doesn't die then they'll just get laughed at repeatedly by Price's evil, maniacal prince who makes his honored guests behave like pigs because he's bored. Occasionally this feels like Corman making an adaptation of Saló except that it has tact. The climax is surreal and intense to the point where I'd really want to give this one four and a half, but the somewhat dragging middle section prevents that. VierasTalo's rating:
234 6.4 6.4 21/4
For some ungodly reason this shockfest stars Jessica Chastain. I guess that hey, that worked for Naomi Watts, right? You know, the single star who managed to elevate her status through a horror film with a long-haired entity stalking it's lead characters? Can't say the same for poor old Jessica, being stuck in a film so much below what she can achieve as an actress. So in Mama, two little girls live in a cabin in the woods for five years, being cared for by a ghost. When the girls are discovered and placed in a family, the ghost follows. It incapacitates the father figure, leaving Chastain alone to fight it out, because hey, we can't have male leads in these movies, right? After that it's just your average jump scares with an ugly creation way too CG-infused for it's own good. This movies is just really tired, clichéd and full of everything why I dislike this modern horror cinema. Avoid it like it was Mama itself. VierasTalo's rating:
270 6.4 7 17/4
This movie is worth it just to see Werner Herzog as the antagonist. Granted, I'm one of the people who would see a movie where the man reads a phone book, but he just chews scenery that isn't even there so deliciously I can't believe it. And the concept of that man playing the villain in a Hollywood-action movie with Tom Cruise as the star, oh man. Throw Robert Duvall to the mix as Cruise's sidekick and the most absurd of shootouts is ready to commence. The rest of the film is cool too. Cruise produced it, and as a result it's a weird ego trip for him, as he plays a character who is smarter than all his colleagues in the film, and the way any woman who sees him swoons immediately is a bit creepy. Cruise still brings a good amount of physicality to his fight scenes, and this is a superhero movie at heart, so whatever. I can suspend that disbelief enough. The plot is humdrum, aside from the really good opening scene. I'm mostly surprised at how strong and well put-together the whole thing is, but in the end there isn't much left at hand. A good, fun two hours. Sort of the polar opposite of Alex Cross. VierasTalo's rating:
327 6.8 7.3 13/4
Oddly enough the poster tagline of "Cold Body Warm Heart" completely sums it up for me. The story in this film is fantastic but the actual movie around it is not. There's a lot of smart insight into a different type of zombie apocalypse in the movie, and most of it works. But then the actual parts of it where it's supposed to be a movie come in and it's so much worse. Marco Beltrami does a good soundtrack like a motherfucker but that's it for the good parts on the filmic side. The visual style of grey-blue is ugly, everything is ridiculously low on blood despite gore being on screen (blood is consistently black or just not there) and the CG-superzombies are about as ugly as the vamps from I Am Legend. Still, three stars. The dialogue, narrative and even the consistent narration are fun to follow. It's inventive, and that's not a word I'd use with the zombie genre any more. Pro-tip: Don't watch the trailer before seeing the film, as it probably spoils everything. I got a lot more out of it not knowing anything other than it's about a zombie who loves a human girl. VierasTalo's rating:
308 7 6.8 7/4 - Part of the Netflix Instant Project of 2013
A ghoulish haunted house party only Vincent Price could pull! He calls strangers to a real haunted house, then proceeds to give everyone a loaded gun because hey, why not? Survivors get cash, corpses remain dead. The only real disappointment here is the eventual revelation that the story is really just a ploy to get something done rather than have, you know, actual ghosts in there. The walking skeleton and Price's contraption to guide it is absolutely mind-bendingly hilarious though. VierasTalo's rating:
22 7.1 7.6 7/4
They sure make those episodes fast. That's all I came out of this with. VierasTalo's rating:
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The rap song thrown into the over-the-top shootout seems to be intentional because rap is a genre known for glorifying violence & making it entertaining, so I'd say it definitely suits the scene (even though it's a song I didn't care for either).
Now I'll concede the film would be better had he tackled slavery & given some commentary on it. But maybe he felt he didn't have anything really new or interesting to say & thus didn't bother. Or maybe he decided doing that would go against his preference for entertaining over delivering messages. Whatever his reasons, it's something I felt should have at least been touched on with a little depth & thus is a shortcoming of the film. The worst aspect of the film though is QT putting himself in front of the camera & giving a shitty performance. But overall I was very entertained by the film & welcome another viewing.
I don't honestly think that the violence being portrayed slightly differently has much to do with any commentary on the portrayal of violence but rather a show of tact. I mean even with all this gore going on you can't really show a slave being torn apart by dogs because it's hard for anyone to consider it funny any more. I guess if presenting that fact goes for commentary, then yeah, sure, that's there. I just don't think it was put in there as commentary. If it was, it's sort of a lazy one. The other displays of violence that aren't barrels of blood being blown open are the few more meaningful deaths, where I honestly think Tarantino was trying to go for dramatic impact rather than amusement, hence the difference in style.
Honestly, I hope that isn't why the song is there. Though there certainly exist rap songs (and most other genre songs too) where violence is glorified, I don't really associate rap with that feature and this particular song certainly doesn't put violence on a pedestal at all. It's sort of bad song on the lyrical side though, so I can't really extract that meaning from it no matter how I spin it - Like I said, I can't quite say that I can get this meaning from the song just because a rap song is there. It would feel too much like pulling something out of thin air, especially with a guy like Tarantino who loves spelling out every invention he makes for you.
I don't think the movie necessarily needed to make a comment on slavery. Like you said, it's been done before, and probably with more tact and skill than a showman like Tarantino could ever pull off. He doesn't need to do it, I just hope that the movie would have a better overall structure. Instead it feels... stub, in a way. I have to say, Tarantino is absolutely awful as an actor. Always has been. His best performance was probably in Alias, where he played a villain briefly in a few episodes. Fun part, and he pulled it off. Other than that, yeah, he shouldn't be acting.
Fair enough, I can see that. Perhaps it would have been better had I said he was exploring violence instead of trying to comment on it? Though yeah, it could just be tact too (not to mention the fact that to show the scene with the dogs would likely have incurred an NC-17 rating or an uproar with audiences or what have you).
As for the rap song, I must admit that's the only time I've ever heard the song so I'm not at all familiar with the lyrics (nor the title for that matter). But that was my thought, and if the lyrics don't at all fall in line with my thinking then yeah it seems like a poor choice. Only thing I can think of as to why he'd include it then is just to satisfy his love of anachronisms.
And I'd never go so far as to say QT is a GOOD actor, but in his (and Rodriguez's) early films he never bothered me either. I didn't mind him much in either half of Grindhouse because those kinds of films call for bad acting & he had minimal roles in each. In this case, however, he overreaches with the atrocious accent that makes him purely painful to listen to & thus to watch as well.
And I'm glad you're doing this in English too, not to mention that I'm able to comment on your lists now. ;)
Looks like you've got a lot of updating to do here. ;)
I'd also like to put in a request to see your thoughts on Bride of Frankenstein if you'd like to share them...the rating there seems a bit lower than I'd expect.
I wrote up stuff on Frankenstein Part 2 up there for you. It's mostly just a matter of not meeting any expectations I set for it due to it commonly being the most applauded of the old Universal-movies. It still entertained me to some degree.
I personally think Bride is a bit overrated and definitely not without its flaws, but I have so much fun watching it that it easily earns a more favorable rating from me. I liked the frame aspect, but then I'm a fan of Shelley's book & the Romantics in general so it appeals to my inner literary nerd even if it's a bit silly. We're agreed on the early doctor scenes, and the scenes of him interacting verbally with the blind man & others are entertaining & give the monster a little humanity (though I personally prefer him silent & scary, which is largely why I prefer the original over this one). So yeah, I can see where your expectations might get in the way as it's not on par with other truly Great films, but I'd argue that for its time it's pretty damn good.
Can't help but wonder if your rating might be bumped up a little if you watched (500) Days of Summer sans commercials. I quit being able to watch movies with commercials inserted in them a long time ago because it breaks the spell too much.
And I see you caught The Masque of the Red Death last month. Yep, definitely among Price's best films and among the best of Corman's Poe adaptations (which I think at this point there's only one I haven't seen).
Oh, and I guess you maybe missed it, but at the tail end of Iron Man 3 the words "Iron Man will return" were tacked on. So I'm guessing there may be a 4th film after all (unless they were simply referring to the next Avengers movie).