Film Journal 2013

31/12

Rewatched on 29/12

Scratch that comment, this movie is awesome.

3/2



Maybe it's just me, but I can't shake the feeling that the Bond-series can't rely on good will from the audience any more. This is the last film that can do that. We get obligatory jokes about exploding pens from Q, a new Moneypenny and an old-school Aston Martin. But along with the martinis from Casino Royale and other similar scenes, I think it's about time that these new films stop referencing the old stuff and build a legacy of their own. It's been fine for three movies, but seriously, it's time to start growing up.

That being said, there's not that much to hate in Skyfall. The first hour is absolutely tedious and feels like the film has no bearing to anything, but after the set-up an insane villain played by Javier Bardem shows up and the movie properly starts. Thankfully, even before this, we're treated to what is probably the best cinematography of a big budget mainstream film in 2012. The scenes in Shanghai are especially striking, with gorgeous play with lights, reflections and colors. The turns they take in the end with the Bond-mythology will probably cause conflicting feelings among most fans, but it's worth it because momentarily the movie becomes a violent version of the unfunny but brutal parts of Home Alone.

27/12

26/12

22/12

22/12

21/12

21/12

This movie is kinda great! Not something I'd expect from a very random B-horror. It draws a lot of inspiration from the recent SCP/Slender-trends, combining government experiments with Lovecraftian monsters and found footage. The one thing that really stands out is the way they did the jump scares. I hate jump scares by default. Who wouldn't? They just make you jump. For someone who watches well over a hundred horror films a year that gets a bit boring. In The Banshee Chapter they have the best elements of jump scares without the actual jump. They become quite literal scares. There's great build-up and an ample conclusion to each one, but because there are no immediate scary sound effects, instead there's a slight latency to them, that jump doesn't happen. You just get creeped out. It's so ridiculous that this is something I have to compliment on it's own because it should be a given nowadays, but nope. But this is a nice, original horror film with a slightly silly plot. But the silliness is often good, such as the great Hunter S. Thompson -ripoff who comes in about halfway through the film.

19/12

19/12

18/12

17/12

17/12

15/12

12/12

So here's 90 minutes of verbal masturbation of the work of Bill Watterson. I'm sorry to write that sentence but that's what it is. Occasionally there's some more interesting talk, regarding his anti-commercial stance, but mostly it's just people talking about how great Calvin and Hobbes is because it's so great and subversive. None of the foundations of what make it great are opened up enough to get a grasp on them, and the half-hearted attempt at creating this personal context with like four scenes spread throughout the film are just too little. The sad thing is I too love Calvin and Hobbes and really, really think it deserves a lot better than this documentary.

12/12

You know, for a film called Cockneys VS Zombies, this isn't that bad. Only about a third of it really sucks. The film revolves around a group of chavs doing a bank robbery but then zombies, and that is laaame, but every once in a while we get scenes of Alan Ford (Brick from Snatch) fighting the undead with his geriatric friends in a retirement home and it is fucking fantastic. The last third has the two plots coming together, but it never really works too well at that point. I blame the lack of technical expertise in the creation of the film, because seriously, this is some cheap-looking shit but it isn't cheap enough to look entirely crappy. Now we just get weird pacing and sub-par digital effects.

10/12

8/12

5/12

3/12

1/12

29/11

28/11

Rewatched on 27/11

This film is new and if you don't see it in theaters in 3D you really shouldn't see it at all. Which is why I had to see it again there.

12/11

26/11

There is a pervasive sense of this dreary, tantalizing sensation throughout L'Avventura. It's as if something was coming to get all these hopeless characters, most of whom might as well not exist. I put the blame for this on the terrific audio of the film. Even when all characters are indoors there can be distinct pieces of ambient audio coming from the outside, often at high volumes. Be it constantly passing cars or people talking in what could only be described as loud whispers, these noises constantly intrude upon the most private of conversations.

And of course all of these noises are ignored by our lead characters, an apt reaction from them all for sure. Because lets face it, for these people the prospect of having to take into notion anything other than their own norms and needs is too much. They sort of wander through this plane of existence that not too many others seem to occupy, wondering whether they should be sad or not about a personal tragedy that occurs in the beginning. By the end, this has been disregarded as the cycle that lead to that initial tragedy has begun again, in an immoral fashion no less. It's a film of complex emotions for sure, however I feel some of it could be voiced with more efficiency to us. As it is, it's more of a bizarre mood piece and definitely falls short of La Notte, its so-called sequel.

25/11

21/11

There is so much I would be willing to forgive Catching Fire for. I can overlook the occasionally pandering exposition and the over-the-top methods in which THE MAN tries to break Jennifer Lawrence mentally. I can even overlook the fact that the last hour of this movie is a kinda sub-par rehash of the first film. The first 90 minutes are really good. Like to the point where I was willing to put this up as one of the better films of the year. This series continues to surprise me by taking its time developing the characters and events in ways that are most of the time interesting. There's a wonderful scene of opulence where a patron in a party drinks a drink to throw up just to feast more while lower-class folk starve. They explain it to death, but that drink is a real pimpin' idea.

But here's what I can't forgive: This movie doesn't have an ending. It doesn't wrap anything up. I can live with stupid cliffhangers in the story, but because I just spent 2½ hours watching a movie, I want some closure. I don't care if it happens in the story or the characters. Hell, even a single character I could do with. This movie closes absolutely nothing. And heck, I could even forgive that because the final shot is so great. But then comes in the true final shot: a graphic of a burning bird emblem changing form for like a minute. It's fucking awful. Ugly. Something that belongs on the shortbus. This single useless bird leaves a taste in my mouth so horrid I really wouldn't want to see the sequel to this movie. It makes it real hard to give this movie a good rating despite, for the most part, it being totally cool. That's quite the shame.

18/11

18/11