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blackmariah
Reviews
Murder-Set-Pieces (2004)
The only thing that shocked me was the boredom
I love a good messed up movie. What I DON'T love are movies that bore the hell out of me and insult my intelligence with sub-par acting, writing, and direction.
There is no plot here. There is no character development. There is nothing but a bunch of murder set pieces surrounded by the thinnest veil of story. I guess the movie is accurately named, but if all they wanted to do was string together some effects shots then they should have just done that and forgot about tying it all together with some stupid story. Don't insult me by trying to make stuff like this meaningful unless you can actually pull it off. In other words you do the story first and work on the deaths second.
I've noticed some people on the board talk about the "perceived" misogyny in the film. Look... if you have to use the word "perceived" then you obviously don't know what the hell misogyny is. This movie is absolutely filled with it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, Silence of the Lambs had a misogynistic killer, but the presentation here is purely exploitative to the point of stupidity.
Stupid. That's a word that describes this movie quite well. The scene in the porn shop was stupid as hell and quite possibly the dumbest thing I've seen committed to film in quite some time. The killer walks in looking for a snuff film called "The Nutbag". This is obviously a reference to Palumbo's previous film. Anyone ever notice how only the crappiest movie makers make such overt references to their own works? Anyway, the store manager proceeds to cuss the killer out in one of the most forced scenes of dialogue this side of high school drama class (most likely due to horrible writing. Tony Todd isn't exactly a bad actor). Then, just as the killer is about to off the clerk... there's a hold up. Yeah. Deus ex machina, our saviour (this movie is so bad it's making me quote Donnie Darko... sad).
So why am I giving this three stars and not one (or, preferably, none)? Because the effects are three stars by themselves. The Toe Tag team obviously know their stuff. Too bad the director is so unbelievably amateurish that he makes most of the effects into absolute jokes through his sheer incompetence.
This movie is nothing more than a Z-grade American Psycho ripoff. Lame acting, lame writing, lame directing, lame everything but effects. Watch American Psycho, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, or Silence of the Lambs if you want a GOOD serial killer movie. Watch any of the Guinea Pig films if you want blood and guts. Just don't watch this garbage. I went into this film WANTING to like it, WANTING to be entertained by it... but instead I was just bored out of my skull.
Avoid unless you're a fan of good effects. From a technical standpoint this is a good movie. From any other standpoint it's just stupid.
Honogurai mizu no soko kara (2002)
I want my life back.
Okay, look, I like slow creepy horror movies as much as anyone... but this movie was just HORRIBLE.
Here's a spoiler...
Oh, wait a minute... There are no spoilers, because ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENS. NOTHING. AT ALL. At least Ju-On and Ringu had a good story somewhere in there, but this movie is flat nonsensical. The pacing is bad, the acting isn't all that great, and there's just nothing of interest anywhere to be found in this movie.
Really, if you want something creepy, check out Suicide Circle. If you want a good Japanese movie, watch Zatoichi. Just don't bother with this movie.
Zombi 2 (1979)
I don't know what to think
Few movies are truly bad. Even fewer are truly great. Somehow, even fewer than that can impart an unending sense of neutrality on the viewer. Zombi 2 did just that to me. You all know the story by now, so I won't bother with it. The acting is good enough, with a few exceptions. The effects are pretty good, but nothing outstanding. Maybe they were back in the day, but by today's standards they're not that great. The direction is decent, but again nothing outstanding. I've heard this isn't Fulci's best work, so I'll hold off my judgment of his abilities until I see more of his movies.
Horror movies are supposed to evoke a strong reaction from the viewer, but Zombi 2 just didn't do anything for me. Then again, it didn't do anything to make me walk away. There are good points and bad points, but neither outweighs the other. One of the essential parts of a good zombie movie is a sense of impending doom, and Zombi 2 completely lacks that. Maybe it's the tropical colors or maybe even the godawful score. The rating on here is a 6, and that's appropriate. It's middle of the road zombie fare that won't win any fans to the genre. I'd recommend it to people that are zombie fans, if only because it's still better than a large portion of the zombie movies out there.