Bml93's Film Diary for 2014: September & October

Saw VI does indeed make everything come full circle. It's brilliant. The satirical, political stab at American health care is fascinating. This causes the film to have much more of the same amount of morality questions that the original Saw had. Which is great.

The traps are wonderful. The carousel trap is among the franchise finest. The story is intriguing. Hoffman is at his absolutely most bad-ass. The twist is shocking. Everything is great.
10/10

There are some things in Saw V that are really dumb, but it's mostly easily forgiven the many positives of Saw V. One thing that's rather fascinating is that it manages to combine three different stories in such a short time and then weave them perfectly into each other.

The traps varies from spectacularly great to forgettable, but that's remedied by the fact that Saw V has one of the best endings in the franchise.
8/10

Saw IV ups the gore and amount of traps even further, and does to a certain degree stray a bit away from the path that the first three films lead us on. But because of its occasionally intense focus on backstory and exposition, Saw IV turns out to be a very interesting watch for those of us who are invested in this universe.

It might be the most confusing film in the franchise, as it is absolutely all over the timeline. And while thing makes more sense once the final twist is revealed, I can imagine Saw IV bit of a mess for some.
8/10

I used to dislike the Amanda/Jigsaw part of this film previously, but now I think that's the real strength of Saw III. And it combines well with Jeff's game, and gives the viewer an emotional connection that's really rare to find in a horror film. Particularly in one that has gory traps as its primary draw for many viewers.

The traps are plenty, and there's a lot of brutality at display, and they're all certainly enjoyable in one way or another. They're also nicely viewed into a well-crafted story with a nice final twist.
9/10

While Saw II is not necessarily a better film than the original, I still hold it as my personal favourite out of this glorious franchise. It ups the level of traps and gore to a slightly higher level, but it still manages to remain grounded with the same ideas that the original Saw had. It never loses itself in the traps and instead further explores the themes and ideas that Jigsaw has.

I also generally prefer Saw II because it gives us Tobin Bell. His performance is top-notch. Chilling and menacing. He's mostly just sitting in a chair and talking throughout the entire film, but the way he delivers his dialogue and works with his voice is brilliant.
10/10

There are some very well-shot and well-executed action sequences in The Raid, and I do like that it didn't bother with any bullshit set-up or anything like that. But unfortunately, The Raid doesn't manage to be a hit throughout its entire running time.

The problem I have with this film does in fact lie with the fact that it rarely bothers with going into the characters or story. This is a film that plays on one note the entire time, and therefore it gets very monotone and repetitive.
6/10

Check out this list: The New Master of Horror - James Wan

Annabelle is sorely missing James Wan's touch. How a film that's a direct spin-off of The Conuring can fall so much in quality is beyond me. Annabelle is a lazy, dull and profoundly stupid film.

Annabelle has one effectively creepy scene. One scene in the entire film. The rest of the film is just pointless build-up that leads nowhere. Uninspired attempts at horror. But most importantly, almost the entire film is about dumb characters doing dumb things in a dumb marriage. It's pain-inducingly boring. The doll looks creepy, but in this film, it barely does anything.
3/10

One of Alfred Hitchcock's absolute finest films, and one of the greatest horror films in the history of cinema. Psycho is a true Hollywood classic, with its iconic score, memorable (and frightening scenes) and excellent performances. There's a reason for why Hitchcock is called the Master of Suspense. Psycho shows why.
9/10

Reviews here:
www.listal.com/viewentry/6179911

I loved Gone Girl. Wow. With no knowledge of the book this film is based on, Gone Girl turned out to be a refreshingly diabolical film filled with brilliant, unpredictable twists and turns. So I'm not going to say a lot. Because you should see it without knowing too much about it.

However, David Fincher has truly created a slick film that sucks you in from the first moment, and completely engages you in the story. I was constantly on the edge of my seat. This is one of his best films yet.

Nearly every character in this film has a lot of depth. Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike delivers award-worthy performances. The pacing is brilliant, despite the film nearly lasting three hours and the musical score is great. Masterpiece. Wow. Just wow.
10/10

While the first film had its repulsive moments, at least it did have some sort of point to it. Because that's the thing. If you're going to base your film around gruesome violence, sadism and cruelty, you need to have a point. Disturbing, but meaningless violence is boring, and it's a gimmick that wears itself out within five minutes.
2/10

The thing with Tell Tale that made me dislike it so much now is that it's based off some writing by Edgar Allen Poe, with an intriguing premise, but still manages to be completely forgettable. I can't imagine anyone remembering this film 20 minutes after seeing it.

The film is just presented in a way that makes it so awfully dull. Everything just seems to be routine thriller work.
3/10

Dracula Untold may not be a "great cinematic film", but I'm willing to say that it was a great experience. A guilty pleasure, you may say. It's visually slick, provides some cool ideas, features entertaining and well-shot action, and the vampires are as cool and frightening as they're supposed to be. The Vlad The Impaler angle worked very well.

I also enjoyed Luke Evans performance, and Charles Dance was absolutely delightful. A CGI-fest like this is not going to be for everyone, but I very much welcome Dracula Untold.
7/10

In many ways, We Are What We Are deserves a much better rating than what I ended up giving. There's so many good things about it. It's extremely solid framework. The cinematography and music gives an haunting atmosphere that goes well in hand with its slow pace.

Which is why it's such a shame that there are many story elements in this film that are utterly bullshit. With the ending being We Are What We Are's major sin. It angered me.
5/10

Godzilla boasts some very impressive special effects, and some equally cool monster designs. There is no denying that the entertainment value whenever there's destruction on the screen is exceptionally high. So this is an extremely well-made blockbuster, that's definitely worth the money. It's also great to see that it values tension over having action all the time. It makes the action sequences more valuable.

But despite the greatness of Godzilla, there are flaws here. The most obvious one is the lack of a strong, central human character. Bryan Cranston brings emotional depth, but is not used enough. Ken Watanabe is a cool actor, but is given minimal to do. The female cast is barely there, and "leading man" Aaron Taylor-Johnson feels very much like a generic military guy. The film is very much all of humanity vs. the force of nature, but without a compelling human character, it's difficult to engage in the film when there's no monster to be seen.

I do also believe that it might tease and cut away from potential coolness a bit too much.
6/10

Enemy is something rare. An intense mindfuck experience that instead of holding your hand throughout its running time, only gives you minor hints to what it's all about. It's an extremely refreshing film that haves you thinking and guessing while it's playing, and even several days later.

But it's not only food for the brain. It's an enthralling and visceral experience as well. The intensity in the acting, cinematography, editing and music keeps you constantly at the edge of your seat. If there's one film that I'm likely too recommend to others, it would be Enemy.
8/10

It got some nice cinematography, and it's certainly so bizarre that it's not going to be a film for everyone. It didn't work for me. There's something about films that are to some extent repulsive or provocative that rarely works well with me. Which may be that I often feel that the filmmakers tend to try too hard to disgust me, to the degree that I just end up thinking it's extremely silly. A provocative idea or a disgusting element need to come naturally as a part of the film's story or subject. I believe that Dogtooth fails at that.
2/10

With a history of rather bad film video game adaptations, Need for Speed comes across as one of the better ones so far. It might not have a proper story, and it's certainly full of clichés in the plot, character development and overall film language. But Need for Speed really delivers where it's supposed to deliver. It delivers speed.

So by that, Need for Speed is an entertaining and thrilling experience. By completely dodging CGI and focusing on real stunts and effects, you really feel the intensity and fast pace of these races. Add to that a likeable Aaron Paul and a super cute Imogen Poots, and you've managed to capture a great film out of absolutely nothing.
7/10

It feature many nice sci-fi ideas and themes, and it works quite well as a visual spectacle. It's fast-paced and rather entertaining. The cast is also fine. But it's not without its problems.

A major problem is that it never gives its own ideas any room to breath. It moves so quickly that there's no room to explore anything in this film. And then it suddenly ends, and you just think "what?"
6/10

It's bad. It's really bad. The first film was bad as well, but at least it wasn't a basket of only rotten fruit. V/H/S/2 is only rotten fruit. Out of all the small horror stories presented in this film, I didn't like any of them.

Some of the might have had nice ideas in them, but none of the shorts manage to do anything. They're not meaningful, scary, suspenseful or cool. They're nothing. They did nothing. I just sat there bored.
2/10

Liked it slightly more this time around then last time I visited it. It's certainly style over substance, but it's visual style is undoubtedly delightful. The combination of the film noir themes, and the look of a comic book, gives Sin City an unique look that suits it extremely well.

The film is split into several story threads, who are mildly connected to each other. Unfortunately I don't think every part is as interesting. I did for instance feel that Clive Owen's section was too long.
7/10