jessespeer Reviews

The Killer Inside Me (2010)

Might as well have walked into Knight and Day

[2/10 · 4 July 2010]

I liked Casey Affleck's performance but that's about all I can say. The story was not really all that compelling. A bit before halfway through, I considered walking out. It was just boring! It was nothing but a lot of smoking, sex, and grotesque violence, all handled with very little to no taste whatsoever. It was rubbed in my face the same way that most mainstream movies do, and I supposed I expected something a little more... mature? There was also filler narration, narration pasted over a boring story and poor directing, I guess to give a false sense of cohesion. But really it was just stupid and it seriously ##SPOILER##

ends with a really tacky explosion scene. I cannot say I would recommend this to anyone.

Holy Rollers (2010)

Liked it

[8/10 · 11 June 2010]

I really enjoyed Holy Rollers. I want to see it again. They did a good job portraying Sammy's frustration with the uptight moral values of his family and church. Just watching that first half with all the churchgoing and family rituals and not at all any fun-having, I was like yes, drugs, sex, bring it on, this is ridiculous. It was all so dry and boring it was no wonder.

The scene where Jackie's girlfriend talks to Sammy while on ex is phenomenal. Just dead on. I have never seen any movie previously do such a realistic portrayal. Go see the movie just for that scene it is entirely worth it.

There were not a whole lot of moments in the film that just rang completely false, I mean it was pretty honest. It was a pretty respectful movie and I appreciated that.

When Josef calls out to his little brother from the car, all coked up, taking off his watch and yelling that he's gotten him a present. Priceless.

I didn't get it though how Sammy's father just completely abandons all hope in his son. I mean being such a religious man and all, he didn't really offer any forgiveness or understanding. Being all "Why?, Why?" I mean he had to understand why at least to some extent.

I also did not get this one scene where Josef gets into a fight with these two guys, Sammy starts to drive away, calling out to Josef, and then it cuts to some buses or something. That was confusing.

I was going to explain what I liked about the ending but I don't want to spoil it :)

Go see it

Blind Mountain (2007)

Disturbing situation but not a compelling story

[5/10 · 29 May 2009]

This was just not as good as Blind Shaft. It was too much of the same thing, but without interesting characters and good dialogue. The preliminary situation was very rushed, making it kind of silly, and I didn't really understand what was going on, except that the dialogue was seeming a bit cheesy.... The cinematography was very good and real, and the overall situation was disturbing and interesting, but it dragged on, and in the end it just did not pay off. There was no resolution like there was in Blind Shaft. Here it just sort of ended, without the situation really being solved in any way. It was frustrating. There were also a number of shots that just seemed pointless, like a shot of the main character looking off into the distance for about a minute, then a cutaway... Okay? I get that she's thinking about stuff but I don't really want to spend my time watching her contemplate. Shots like that and one of the old lady doing the loom over and over just got annoying. I think they were supposed to express a feeling of hopelessness or something along those lines but really it just got frustrating having the plot not advance at all. Basically there is no story here, it's just , "Wouldn't it be terrible if you were kidnapped and sold to a small Chinese farm community that wouldn't let you go?" Yes, yes it would. But that's really all there is to this movie. It's an "isn't this a terrible situation to be in?" kind of thing and it drags on and on with no resolution at the end. I feel a documentary on the subject of human trafficking would be more fitting to the subject.

Ivan's Childhood (1962)

Didn't like it

[2/10 · 11 May 2009]

I did not like this movie. I actually found it pretty awful. The overall story is not worth the time. And it's just strange watching all these cute/pretty actors in a war film. It doesn't make any sense. They all have perfect faces and haircuts. Seriously every character looks like a fashion model, it's kind of creepy. The kid's character was not very believable. Much of the film was spent on flashbacks of the kid's past, and by the end I still didn't get why/how he became a soldier at such a young age. They say because he's small but I don't really buy it...None of the characters were very interesting. A lot of the shots dragged on way too long. The ending was predictable and was cued by typical dramatic music. I was not impressed.