jannemet Reviews

Road House (1989)

It's awful and it's awesome

[4/10 · 1 March 2024]

This is the kind of movie that's very hard to rate. For all I can guess, it's a movie written by a 14 year old boy trying to come up with the coolest plot he can think of. Dialogue is dreadful, cinematography is dull and acting performances are absolutely cringeworthy.

At the same time, it's THE perfect period piece. This is the 80's. And for that it's 10/10 - if you enjoy the kind of thing I just described, you should definitely watch the whole thing. And if you're not, you should still watch the first 5 minutes and you'll see more 80's cliches than anywhere else in such a short time.

I won't spoil anything else but here's my take: if you want to time travel, watch it. If you want to see a good movie, maybe don't. Well, even still, it's worth a watch.

In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50 (2022)

So many has missed the point of this documentary

[9/10 · 7 September 2023]

Reading the reviews I realised that many people who saw this expected it to be your typical film of the bands history, it's ups and lows and tales from the road. If that's what you're looking for, this isn't for you.

If you want to see what it means to be fully committed to your art and vision, you're going to love it. It's hard to watch sometimes and it makes you wonder is this all necessary, it makes you angry at some people and it makes you feel sorry for some. There's also rare kind of beauty in it.

If you already know the bands history and the central members of it but you want to get inside the band, this is for you. If you expect it to be something else, it'll be a letdown.

I Origins (2014)

Very surprised how terrible it was

[3/10 · 14 April 2022]

So, it's 7,3 on IMDb as I'm writing this and some people recommended this to me because I like philosophical sci-fi. This was supposed to be clever and thought-provocing film. Well, it isn't really.

And I don't want you to take this the wrong way. Yes, I'm a scientific minded person but anything's possible in the movie world. My dislike of this movie isn't because it conflicts my world-view. The problem with this movie is that even though the main idea could be used to make a good movie, this is way too badly written for that to happen.

If you make a movie with a scientist as its leading character, you should really write something other than this easily beaten strawman who seems bedazzled at every counter argument he hears about his own belief system. I guess that's supposed to make it look like the arguments for spirituality in the film would seem deeper than they really are. The discussion exists (science vs. Religion/spirituality) and it can be intellectual and interesting (read the Karamazov Brothers for example) but this movie is just so shallow...

Character-development and writing as a whole is very lazy in this one. The plot, the main romance and too many things are just too unbelievable for me to enjoy this film. I had Another Earth on my playlist but erased it after watching this.

Halloween (1978)

Sure, it's a classic but it's not a good movie

[4/10 · 28 February 2022]

This is a film that deserves its classic status because of how influential it is. Much of its appreciation comes from pure nostalgia as people first saw this when they made most of their memories of young adulthood/teenage years. It's also the movie that really started the slasher-genre which is not that great in my opinion. It has rarely produced a good film.

Childish plot, bad acting, charmingly bad effects... It's what it is. If you enjoy this sort of film or shalshers in general, it's a must watch. If you're interested in cinema history, it's a must watch. You don't have to like it to agree that it's part of cinema history.

The Reagans (2020)

Not an ideal documentary

[6/10 · 29 December 2021]

I'm not a Reagan-fan by any mean, I watched the documentary from a liberal minded European view. But I'm also a historian and value a balanced effort and fact-based telling of things. Because Reagan is such a mythical being it's good to be critical of that myth and most of the criticism in this documentary is based on reality.

Still, you cannot just push the narrative, you have to base it on facts and numbers which are not shown to us in the documentary. If you talk about economy or poverty, show the numbers! There are good moments in this mini-series but it's frustrating and too one-sided to be considered a great documentary.