Good and bad news. Good: this movie does not have the intensity and insanity or violence of either Martyrs or Ghostland, both movies from the same director. Bad news: This movie is less interesting. It has an OK setup(one that reveals itself gradually over the first 45 minutes), but then does not live up to its setup through the back half of the movie. It’s not overly boring, but not overly interesting.
I’ve seen three movies from Pascal Laugier and this was definitely the most generic and least good.
I will at least say, this is not a generic horror movie like “Bye Bye Man” or some silly generic horror movie put out to make a quick buck. Honestly? The Tall Man is not a horror movie at all after about the first 30 minutes. It’s a drama/thriller.
I watched “Til Death” last night and sadly did not concur. Two stars would be charitable. First, Megan Fox can’t move her forehead anymore, which really doesn’t help her wooden acting in a movie where she’s supposed to show fear or terror. The plot was stupidly absurd. Any more would be spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that.
Just watched Bridge of Spies. I liked it well enough. There seemed to be a real attention to detail, and the actors were good (especially Mark Rylance). I didn’t know the Coen brothers were part of the script writing team. I think they helped with some of the lighter moments.
I was reading up on what happened IRL to see what they changed (not much). But there was an American student involved, and they changed the reason why he was arrested by the Stasi, because they didn’t think the audience would believe it (IRL he was trying to return a library book while the Berlin Wall was going up).
When I saw Francis Gary Powers died only 15 years after his release, I was surpised. But that was because I’d completely forgotten that he was the local news chopper guy in L.A. He died in a crash.
Watching Bond films while we can. They leave Prime this week.
Watching Thunderball last night.
Weird. Bond (Connery) looked …different. Almost like a bad copy of Connery. Maybe it was the haircut. And the sexual harassment is hard to ignore. And one moment, I would consider and actual assault and another rape by coersion. But of course, she ending up digging him so we are supposed to forget it.
I was not fully on board with this movie until the final 30 minutes or so. I definitely get why it was divisive when it came out. It’s so bizarre that I found the majority of it to be kind of an epic failure. However, the final 30 or so minutes were really terrific, intense, and kind of made me look on the whole movie much more positively in the end.
I actually saw Darren Aronfonsky’s first movie “Pi” opening weekend in my area. I’d seen a documentary on the production of the movie and was interested. It was pretty good.
I don’t think he has quite lived up to the expectations I had for him back then. Anyway, I’d be curious to hear what others thought of mother!. I am about 5 years late on this one.
Uncharted (2022) - Easy review. If you haven’t played the video game you will think it’s the most ridiculous, goofy, over the top action movie ever and you’ll probably turn it off in the middle of the first scene. If you have played the video game you will recognize this as the most ridiculous, goofy, over the top action movie ever and you’ll probably watch it three times.
A man is obsessed with filming “terror” in people’s faces. He keeps looking more and more for terrifying situations that disturb people in order to see true terror. He ends up locating a woman who is basically a vampire and tries to figure out how to take care of her. This includes bleeding himself and others and creating baby bottles full of blood for her to drink.
A odd, somewhat intriguing, but ultimately a bit dull movie. I had higher hopes, but it was only OK.
Re-watched Little Miss Sunshine over the weekend, and now I have a Rick James earworm. But I love this movie. Just about perfect, and Steve Carrell was superb – very subtle, funny, and sad.
I’m probably a terrible person for finding this movie boring, but I did for the most part. There must be a better movie about growing up in troubled times in Belfast in 1969 or so. This isn’t the movie to capture the experience, at least not the movie to relate to people who did not grow up there. I imagine people who grew up there and had similar experiences to the director(Kenneth Branagh) would find a lot of powerful moments in this movie. I found it to be pretty flat and dull.
I watched Mother! as per your recommendation. I liked it!
I love the horror genre, but very few horror films have captivated me. My short list includes The Exorcist, Alien (first one only), The Shining, The Fly (‘86), The Thing (‘82) and a couple others.
I will now include Mother! on my short list. It isn’t without fault, but I found it captivating. The cinematography, eerie ambiance and snowballing oddness are top-notch. The acting is believable. The build-up of tension is mesmerizing. The payoff is satisfying and a little unexpected (I was expecting the birth of a satanic infant, like Rosemary’s Baby).
Topper Returns, an old comedy about a ghostly woman who recruits a timid banker to help her solve her murder. It’s in 1940’s color but the “ghost” effects are pretty good for the time and some of the dialogue is clever.
I’m going to recently watch Dr. Strangelove later today. That movie never gets old! I’ll be in front of the TV for about a week. Record setting heat has come down on my ass. I almost fee sorry for the poor suckers at Burning Man.
