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davemoore3
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Sans répit (2022)
Was this a joke???
This film is, simply, and to spare verbiage, stupid, sophomoric, and a total waste of time. It should be included in a film study curriculum as 'what to avoid'!!l.
The Passage (2019)
Horrible
It's a shame to see one of the the best books I've ever read materialize into a pointless BORING TV series that has little, if anything, in common with the book other than the character names. What a disappointment!
The Purge (2013)
This is not a "thriller"...it's a statement
Much of the criticism I've read about "The Purge" is due to viewers taking the film literally as a thriller/Sci-Fi piece. Despite the action being contained within a relatively confined space,this movie is not 'Panic Room'. In the fashion of The Hunger Games, The Purge is an illustration of the subtly horrifying means by which a malevolent government can manipulate the society which is dependent on it. The Hunger Games accomplishes the power of the government by fear, deprivation, and intimidation. The only way to gain more of life's necessities and comforts is by allowing our children to be entered multiple times in the horrific lottery for the equally horrifying "games" sanctioned by those in power as punishment for a previous rebellion.. The Purge establishes this same control in a more subtle, but just as repressive fashion by allowing the privileged and most resourceful to prey upon the weaker and poorer members of society in a Darwinian 12 hour stretch when almost all rules are abated. Notice the statement early on where the commentator reminds the citizenry that high-ranking politicians are exempt. The Purge is a small metaphor on where we may be headed without checks and balances in the hands of the populace at large. While the result is universally insidious,some of it is subtle, like the comments by the neighbors and the way in which the coming night of mayhem is accepted as routine, and some is rather 'ham-handed', like the speeches by the "polite stranger" in the prep school blazer. The Purge, like '1984' and 'Fahrenheit 451' before it, further shows what can happen when the line between government edicts and religion tenet is blurred to the point where political ideals take on a religious fervor. The sanctioned criminality takes on the cathartic form of a religious cleansing. The viewer is very effectively placed between the murderous zealots at the door and the homeless victim, making the same choices as the family. Do we ultimately choose what the government tells us we should do or what our humanity tells us what we should do. This is quite a cautionary tale, very effectively executed (no pun intended), with props to Ethan Hawke, who basically carried the film, and the viewer, on his back. Recommended.
Farm House (2008)
Why I gave this movie a "10"
This film accomplished what too many thrillers, even though they may be entertaining, fail to do. That is to say AT NO POINT did I enjoy watching this movie! It was creepy, VERY disturbing, filled with an underlying tension on 2-3 different levels (i.e., 'did Scarlet blame & hate her spineless husband for their difficulties?', 'was he really such a self-centered coward?'), and I couldn't wait to see what the next flashback was going to reveal. Flashback is a tricky and too often ill-advised convention. It can be annoying when employed in books and confusing in films. Farm House was a veritable 'workshop' in how to use flashback effectively. In addition to the well-developed and excellently delivered story line,the cinematography was great, the characters were slowly and fully developed, and the ending,,,WHOA!!! A well done piece of cinema on all levels. One of the beauties of film is that we sometimes sit down to watch a movie with little or no expectations and end up being treated to a gem. Such was Farm House.
Babel (2006)
horrible
This is one of the most pointless, "affectatious to be artsy", pieces of cinematic drivel it has been my misfortune to watch. What an incredible waste of time. Rivaled only by the insidious "Fountain" for pseudo-intellectual pomposity. A complete waste of resources. Why do certain film makers think their "vision" can transcend the basic needs of plot, story, motive, and structure? Why do they think their ideas so revolutionary as to stand alone? Some films have indeed been pioneering deviations. Look only to 2001:A Space Odessy. Truly groundbreaking. This new-age study in kismet and angst, however is a shining example of the failure such a grandiose notion can lead to. This travesty should never have been released.