marymorrissey Reviews

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)

I guess this is a good demonstration of why French people think Jerry Lewis is so hot

[3/10 · 7 October 2013]

I'll give it a 3 on account of DuJardin's sex appeal, teeth, eyebrow movements and body language. But I mean, the humor is pretty darned facile rating a polite tee-hee here and there at best.

I was perusing other negative reviews I guess god help you if you were to take this movie seriously but I can hardly imagine anybody so doing, but evidently some people have done so.

But hey at least it didn't win the Oscar for best picture or even more ridiculously in the case of "The Artist" best score. That's something to be grateful for:

Thank you very much (I needed another line).

Elysium (I) (2013)

unimaginative. insult to intelligence. go to see Jodie suck in something!

[1/10 · 29 September 2013]

cause that's the only remarkable thing about the movie. she's pathetic, working some mystery dialect that turns out, apparently, to supposedly be German! one cliché after another. what killed me though is how lazy the set decoration was. we're in the year what 2150. let's just grab a few old mac pros and make sure the logo is never shown. as for what's on screen, the kind of crap you used to see when logging on on a windows 28k modem setup will do! as for costumes... don't get me started...

PATHETIC and Matt Damon's overacting was vomitorious. Somehow... they managed to find a supporting cast to put in even worse performances than either of the big stars. Disgusting. (Actually Mr. metal faced jewelry villain wasn't bad) When you think of the power that stars wield in Hollywood and put it up against Matt Damon's apparent willingness to play some incredibly stupid scenes, to the hilt yet... well you can take his not so intriguing crooked smile and not so handsome face and put him in the garbage as far as I'm concerned. Or just let him play Scott Thorson over and over. He wasn't great at it but he didn't suck as he did here.

Gypsy (1962)

disappointing, un-cinematic, not so well performed, and silly insufficiently clever way of handling "blue" material!

[4/10 · 20 August 2013]

I'm reassured that there are a lot of meh reviews of this film. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid, when it was "shocking" given my sheltered upbringing. What a drag it turns out to be. I suppose Natalie Wood does OK, and Baby June is as she eighty be. But Karl Malden and Rosalind Russel do not shine in it.

What really annoyed me now that I'm an adult is that ... it appears to have been necessary to show Gypsy Rose Lee's rise to "queendom" depicted as though all she did to get there was this ridiculous tease showing nothing. I suppose on stage it had to be that way (back then) but gimme a break, why not just pull in for a head and shoulder shot while actually casts away her front piece! It's ridiculous as is, rather an insult to the intelligence, eh what? I think the only bit I really and truly loved was in "Ya Gotta Have a Gimmick" the 'finesse' dancer inserts bumps into a quasi-balletic routine, which was laugh out loud funny. Also I liked, as I remembered from childhood, how Gypsy's act evolves into her sultry "rap" version, despite the dire limitations of the rest of the sequence.

The rest of the movie you can have...

I'm So Excited! (2013)

his most bad boy film since "Dark Habits"

[10/10 · 21 July 2013]

Sadly this film didn't last long in one of the premiere venues in town and this has no doubt to do with lukewarm reviews the result I fear of critics' uptightness and pretentiousness. Personally I'm thrilled that the movie was so light on the surface (less so upon reflection) and totally put pedal to the metal for outrrrrageousness. I haven't had such a good time at a comedy in many many moons.

And for what it's worth, while the caviar critic of one hugely prestigious newspaper in the US bemoans the fact that boring old Antonio Banderas had only a cameo, I was thrilled to see the back of him on account of there being a smorgasbord of hot hombres in just about every conceivable flavor - a notable garnish indeed to of the sustenance offered by "I'm So Excited!"

Anyway I found it to be pretty much unassailable - perfect. I would even say that it's one of his best movies. Just because it's not as "deep" or cathartic as "All About My Mother" "Live Flesh" or "Law of Desire" doesn't mean it's flawed in any way. Thrilled that the man came out with something just like this at just this time to tell you the truth. And to the guy who writes something about "it sets back the portrayal of gays by 10 years" maybe you have a point and in this respect I am also delighted with the film!!

Little Lady Fauntleroy (2004 TV Movie)

essentially nasty film redeemed by its subject

[5/10 · 11 July 2013]

the more I think about it the more I loathe the performance of the presenter in this doc, who feels that 1 we need him to think for us, 2 we need him to overreact for, well, if not us, for such as the good folk living near LLF who periodically throw bricks through the windows of her family home, 3 entertains some exalted deluded notion of himself being "not hip" which is of course to say überhip. For at the end of the film he's not made enough of an ass of himself not to append a wild and crazy ironic karaoke realness coda not quite - a desperate attempt to be hip. There is of course the same point to dive home: no matter how he might degrade himself yet he can hold himself above LFF and family. Unnecessary in this film, to say the least. Such material might be usable in an funeral or graveside "living cemetery" type setting, as only a mother or other lover could glean anything of redeeming value therefrom. I'm sure Lilly Allen - whatever that means - would be tickled!(You see I'm uberuberuberhip I only know she's a chick who dated Russel Brand I'm so above it all).

Now matter how much Mr. Sluggo would like to convince LFF she's good for nothing, it's quite clear she's a gifted performer playing herself on television and has been since she was a he knee high to a bee. So what if she can't sing. Do you imagine Madonna can? Of course it's not that the singing ability is missing that bothers Lilly daddy. In his estimate a real "genius" would undoubtedly serve up a certifiably ironic "I can't sing and I luuuuuuuv it I'm so far beyond hip hear me roar" take on the not being able to sing thing. After all it's right out of the play book from which 9/10ths of movie and TV scripts have been written from the earliest days of the brat pack (whoever they are lol I don't know honestly! just the expresion).

Fauntelroy family is forthcoming about their deep dark secrets, about their charlatanism of the past, at least. Amusing that the presenter feels it's so ironic that the book on 3rd eye astral traveling was written by a FAKE psychic/guru rather than a BONA FIDE genuine for realz out of body specialist. What an ass! The perfect antidote to the strong and miserably stodgy POV of this doc is a passage from Salman Rushdie's "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" about outsiders/ con-men / criminal / outlaw types and why they appeal to us, how our fiction in all modes is so often centered around such characters, permitting us at least a sort of dream experience of what might not be dared in day to day life.

The chancy counseling given to presenter by star actually sounded like not such bad advice. I guess presenter hasn't a clue how many counselors and therapists are loonier than their clients.

OK I guess I'm done time to go do something else now beside BBB.

Phantom Lady (1944)

lame movie worst pacing of any movie from the 40s ever

[1/10 · 29 May 2013]

moves like a slug the two leads are beautiful ella raines is so lovely.

but what a cheapie! what about those court scenes that are nothing but looking at a stenography pad! for a full half hour we do nothing but visit all these idiots who fail to remember "phantom lady". boring.

finally when it picks up a little when leading lady goes all floozie underground for some reason my mac DVD player gets stuck, I need to crash the computer to escape "the beach ball" and every time I try to continue watching it's the same thing full screen and beach ball and no more movie. Maybe the mac is showing me some mercy.

really hated watching the 45 minutes of this I did...

Bestiaire (2012)

"a film to see with the eyes of an animal" . .. uh, OK

[1/10 · 5 March 2013]

long winded, short on substance, big on intentionally poorly composed shots which, if they are meant to suggest the POV of an animal, are an insult to our 4 footed friends.

what is really most irritating about this film is the pretense at some sort of 'objectivity' (primarily through shots that give the impression nobody was looking through the camera viewfinder and editing of sequences that for large stretches simply go nowhere) which in fact is anything but - rather "Bestiare" evinces soft pedaled but nonetheless smarmy, constant clucking, moralizing, pontificating high dudgeon from first frame to last. a great effort is made to 'rigorously' dehumanize the people who participated on camera. why sure, we're stupid enough an audience to imagine the "bestiary" is run by zombies, no heavy handed manipulation there.

Something tells me that auteur and crew helped themselves to all manner of meat, fish and poultry all the days of their lives before summoning up the quiet indignation that results in a film like "bestiary". cause that would just be so typical... and a hoity toity typical typifies "Bestiare".

A glance at this director's CV and my jaw dropped at his fecundity. But if this is typical of the films he makes, they really might be cranked out at the rate of about a per week.

The Juche Idea (2008)

a heavy handed mockumentary, the doc "Kimjongilia" is a better investment of your time

[2/10 · 19 January 2013]

When the end credits roll (including, notably, a shout out to Pauline Oliveros and her collaborator as purveyors of "Capitalist Music") it becomes evident that one has been watching a mockumentary, not a proper doc. All the scenes in the "artists' collective" and the "science fiction film" were shot in Rochester! Frankly, I resent wasting my time watching this comedy masquerading as a documentary, when my prior knowledge of the essentially tragic subject of the state of the arts in North Korea and its context - gained simply from watching the far more serious and easily far superior work "Kimjongilia" - goes well beyond anything offered by The Juche Idea. Watch that film, you'll immediately grasp that to depict the HK media in a harsh light, no lampooning/exaggeration on the part of a madcap auteur is necessary.

The films' lowest points are certainly these idiotic English language lessons on tape presenting dialog cutting between 2 ineptly matched shots featuring a heavily accented Korean speaker and an utterly zombie-like Russian 'actor', about as articulate in English as the Frankenstein monster. This is satire? It strikes me as pretty lame, not terribly funny and certainly not worth trotting out at intervals some 3 or 4 times. Or, or...was this entracte of language tapes one of the sections of real "found footage"? One can't be sure once the 'mixed bag' nature of the film's sources is revealed at the very end. This brings us to the most critical question of all: at this point, who the hell cares?!

The fictional artist in residence upon whom the film centers, with her experimental-toned-down-to-slightly-expressionistic bent, would hardly find support in NK. And it rather bothered me that her intelligence as a character seems pretty pronounced but then she produces laughably unintelligent attempts at Juche film and poetry. Not that such people don't exist, in droves, my dear. East, west, north, south shoot the artist holding forth, shoot the art: instant comedy/satire will result in discouraging quantities... Why fake this?

So, I have to give this film a really low rating since I presume Mr. Finn isn't going to follow this up with mockery of art in the west, which is the only way "The Juche Idea" might... come to achieving any context justifying its existence, as far as I'm concerned.

SKIP THIS AND WATCH "KIMGJONGILIA" which is a far more significant film. You'll get plenty "hilarity" at the expense of 'the Juche thing', but set off, not with strained attempts to amp up the laff riot aspect, but rather with sobering material about real peoples' miserable experiences and the day to day political backdrop of this tragic Kingdom of Kim Jong deifying Kitsch. All "the Juche idea" really adds to this is some exposure of a number of predictable, not terribly fascinating soundbites from the "film theory" writings of Kim Jong Il.

Life of Pi (2012)

after a ponderous slow start it gets really good

[8/10 · 29 December 2012]

Was hatin on this movie for the first stretch, very ponderous, and neither the all encompassing mysticism nor the humor was grabbing me. Other things I didn't like included the two actors in the roles of storyteller Pi and novelist. Couldn't buy that the almost Sabu-cute youngster ended up looking like that, sorry, but...with all them bollywood beauties to choose from, why that guy? the novelist guy's performance I just didn't like at all, his performance seemed terribly mannered to me, annoying.

But once the storm comes on the ship we begin to get something worth waiting for. Maybe there might have been a little less... I mean why are movies getting so long lately? I was completely taken in by the 2nd 'believable' monologue regarding what took place on the lifeboat, as the artistes intended, dismayed at Pi's apparent fabrications accompanied by the emotion! So when all was revealed, metaphorically, that was quite a coup. Began to appreciate the substance of his movie in one blow. nice We were wondering coming out about the tiger being Pi but Pi being there but... it makes a lot of sense, with Pi sort of "behind" the tiger. Especially when the tiger leaps off the boat and comes at Pi. This would be when Tigerpi considers or attempts suicide after all he's seen. nice And then I really admired that for all the talk of God, Pi denies that the ship was sunk on account of whatchacall "an act of God", which in this case would be the Christian thing to do, allowing the bereaved families to collect compensation? That's how I interpret it anyway. Very nice!

Odile & Yvette at the Edge of the World (1993)

Odile and Yvette at the Edge of the World is enchanting, haunting film

[10/10 · 20 December 2012]

Andre Burke said that indeed it was Tarkovsky who inspired him to make films. His life tragically cut short, Odile and Yvette stands as his masterpiece. One can't even begin to imagine what else he might have achieved, for he was a filmmaker of tremendous range.

I also saw a brilliant short, "A" (1986), which had been a big success "on the festival circuit, shot on video, avant garde, sort of post Nam June Paik, visually. Very dark. Not only was it a brilliant if somewhat elliptical film about AIDS, but Andre created the score, from which we may confidently state that if he'd had a notion to, he might have been an outstanding composer. Perhaps it'd be more accurate to simply say, he was an outstanding composer. The score was comprised entirely of overdubbed violin parts. He was a virtuoso violinist, among other things.

He made one other feature called "The Rules of the Road" no echoes of Tarkovsky in it. In fact I wasn't crazy about that film. I mention this to demonstrate that I didn't approach Odile and Yvette with any favorable prejudice, indeed, I wasn't expecting a whole hell of a lot! lol But it blew me away and from time to time I meet someone who saw it and that reaction seems to have been prevalent.

He told me a little teeny bit about a feature he was trying to get made which was to be called, "That Queer Feeling" From the sound of the little scene he described to me, it would for one thing have been completely different from this movie, and it would have been uncommonly truthful, in the uh, well in my opinion largely vast wasteland for the most part that is the new new queer cinema as it were. Not that there aren't some notable to nearly great films coming out in this homosexual genre. But those that are worth watching still tend to run on fumes as far as honesty goes.

He might have been that rare thing, a great man who was also a good man. Or rather, again, that's just what he was. The world might have on day realized and celebrated this.

This film was released on VHS. I hope it comes out in proper format someday...

We used to work out together. He was blessed with a beautiful face and got himself e great body. Hey, it's just the truth. And he's missed by a lot of people.

The First 7th Night (2009)

this movie blew me away

[10/10 · 30 November 2012]

by turns blandly realistic, just strange, atmospheric/Gothic and dramatically expressionistic it winds up with this really deep universal theme kinda thing... I was awestruck.

Maybe I'm just a little hypersensitive at this moment in time, but don't think so.

A wee powerhouse of a movie!

Oh brother I have to say more to submit this review. OK, it uses this weird editing technique that we've seen in Asian horror films in a new way, OK?

The performances were de-lovely, is that enough!?

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

"it is what it is' said the usher...

[9/10 · 26 October 2012]

and many of the negative reviews seem to want PA4 to be something other than it is. what's fun about this franchise for me is the limitations and how in each film they work within a pretty narrow range of possibilities.

my least favorite thing about these movies is the characters, and in each successive film they become even more annoying running at the mouth suburban hipsters yet all of that serves to make it so that you can hardly wait for them to get it from the demon princess, anything to shut them up. "Whoa! Awesome!" is about as far as they seem able to process anything that goes on around them no matter how frightening. I really liked how the blonde girl's character is shown to be so weak whenever tested. she tears off in a panic when a pretty nonthreatening middle-aged coven lady asks, "Excuse me, can I help you?" yet she doesn't even lock her door at night when she knows the spooky boy (who was pretty great) has been climbing into her bed at night and "copping a feel" in the words of the #1 annoying character in the movie, the unbearable boyfriend.

still this movie had some standout moments of stupidity that were pretty unforgivable. the very worst: when dad is confronted with a forcefully thrown knife in the kitchen in the middle of the night but is put off communicating to the wife what has just happened cause she dismisses him, "do you have any idea what time it is? come on, get into bed!"

and the ending was terribly abrupt, a 2 second shot of a bunch of witchy extras closing in then Katie lurching with pointy teeth. kind of lame...

found it amusing that at times the movie seemed to hold on to the conceit that all we see is the result of home video shooting by a fingernail, the rule very nearly violated at times. stepping outside for a minute one realizes that whatever the actual budget, this movie might have been shot for heck under $3000. in that respect one has to take off one's hat eh? no question.

anyway I agree that the first one was the best. the first one was more than anything about a man and a woman and their relationship, their power dynamics at home, for the most part. the demon story is well told but the substance of the movie is mainly the interaction between this couple.

in the end anyway I admire them for being able to keep this thing going up to the standard that they have, without much reservation. it's no mean feat!

The Double-Headed Eagle: Hitler's Rise to Power 1918-1933 (1973)

utterly pointless artless collection of clips

[1/10 · 22 September 2012]

there are no reviews of this film? strange. but then, what is there to say? a lot of pointless footage with scant substance. I watched for 40 minutes, halfway through, we are taken chronologically through 9 years by this point. we hear about 2 minutes total of speeches from der fuhrer, the rest is a random collection of beat up clips of crowded streets, the occasional rural idyll. either the rest of the film is action packed, full filled and crowded to the rafters with information of some kind.... or it continues as it began for the first half, pretty much devoid of substance and utterly lacking in any power whatsoever. I'm amazed at the high rating of this empty snoozefest.

Marlene (1984)

perverse documentary

[2/10 · 21 September 2012]

it's quite as though this film never really got down to being made and instead was cobbled together from disparate materials, the subject of the movie is the iron willed actress refusing the meek, submissive filmmaker, and this is about all it amounts to. boring. and it seems only to portray Ms Dietrich as one very enthusiastic to contradict, which is a common enough trait of artists, 'not at all!' 'on the contrary...' etc.

the film isn't without interest, and aside from the fact that no camera is trained on her, what's interesting I suppose about this movie is its grey gardens quality...there is a certain unbridledness. aside from this an interesting aspect is the inclusion of bits of film and sound that would in he course of normal editing undoubtedly wind up on the floor, which is a nice choice to make.

Vision - Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen (2009)

2 ways of looking at vision

[6/10 · 20 September 2012]

there's a lot about this movie that is very kitsch and tempted me to reject it out of hand without finishing: terrible use of CGI in depicting the "visions", hackneyed interpretation of the role of a saint as burning urgent faithfilled zombie on Ritalin, as old as Saint Joan, God and Barbara, etc., ping-pong "topper" pious dialog, alte musik meets ambient electronica vision score, the good guys vs the bad guys thing (all dressed in black however), ellipses that are bit strange (somehow Hildegarde/Richardis become Petra von Kant/Karin Thimm in a scene that seems to come out of nowhere dramatically), and finally the generally overheated soap operatic treatment of a sacred theme...

however...in spite of all this, the whole thing is managed pretty deftly and cleverly and once I embraced it with a more camp perspective I came to quite enjoy this romp of sapphic sisterhood!

Bigger Than Life (1956)

the "Mildred Pierce" of drug -cautionary movies

[8/10 · 8 August 2012]

this is a very fun movie, especially to see with a responsive crowd. well meaning but overheated with casting that adds to the silliness resulting in a campy drama. (and for this I compare it to Mildred P, the films aren't terribly similar in any detail. this story is far simpler)

there is also a very nice score by David Raksin* who seems to have been breathing the same "Atmostpheres" as Györgi Ligeti in a tech-y EKG sequence.

* whose name I always thought was "Raskin" and it seems to me that William Winant, who knew or studied with DR pronounced it "Raskin" as well, but then on NPR I kept hearing "Raksin" and then came here to check, as the NPR guide also listed the composer's name as "Raksin"

(I only mention this because I didn't have enough lines to publish the review.)

Magic Mike (2012)

get sucked in by the preview then endure a hoaky morality play

[1/10 · 29 June 2012]

oh boy . . . mumble mumble in the big bad jungle... oh lord I really hate Steven Soderberg, I was surprised seeing the preview that he'd taken this story on, and didn't think that much of it, the preview was so, inviting! but the problem with him is that you get a little indie syle but pure Hollywood schlock content POV and if he could even turn the subject of stripping into such dreary storytelling ... well the effect is that I will be certain not to ever see another SS movie. I mean this guy's stuff is as insulting to the brain as that of any schlockmeister that's ever worked.

eg (spoiler)

and when you fear your bro might be going on a big sleep from which he might never wake up... don't call 911, it's time for "the big confrontation" that makes it all so meaningful... "I SEE YOU!" not enough dirty dancing and I'm sorry but the thing about SS is that you get a little style and you get pure Hollywood substance of the classic vomit inducing insult to the intelligence mumble mumble ... Oh I just hate this guy I don't care what is dangled before my craven peepers ... I won't see another film by this guy... hell no. if I want my intelligence insulted ... I mean... there has got to be a better way...

I did like the young actor who played Adam who turned in a nice li'l performance. Channing Tatum, Matthew Mc and the rest of em... you can have... but that is the one star in my one star review... it goes to that beautiful young guy who is actually a decent actor cause ... nobody else delivered much of anything...

Alex Pettyfer, good job Alex!

Satan's Brew (1976)

uh, different! it is understandable that there are some bad reviews

[7/10 · 7 June 2012]

I can't give Fassbinder less than a 6 or 7 for anything. this "screwball comedy" effort is nothing if not unique. it has a very fast "noises off" type quality and might play better on stage with lightning quick changes/entrances and exits etc.

as it is... it's not unamusing but I have to admit I was ... not any more impressed with it the 2nd time I saw it than I was the first. "mannered" would be another word to describe it. the phrase "busy busy busy" also comes to mind. it would not have suffered from having the Volker "Ficken Fliegen" character removed and the enormouos number of times people spit at one another might have been lessened to no loss of comedic effect.

for me "the bitter tears of petra von kant" is a brilliant but very black comedy. this more overt "haha" attempt to deliver laughs... falls short in a lot of ways, leaving various components with elements left to be desired shall we say... yeah I guess I feel certain that a somewhat toned down version of this film would be a superior one.

still just for originality I'll give it a 7

Fear of Fear (1975 TV Movie)

have to strongly disagree that this is one of RWF's best, but...

[7/10 · 7 June 2012]

what they hey I'll go ahead and give it a 7 which it seems to me is high high praise here in general, whereas I tend towards the extremes.

it's interesting to see MC in this sort of role, the husband and brother in law characters are very touching. the PR score is quite different from the music in other of Fassbinder's films, you can just about hear that it's by the same composer. this is appropriate given the exceptional nature of the story and theme. Still, the story doesn't really amount to a lot... somehow... and just kind of stops rather than coming to any sort of satisfying close.

at least tonight I got to see a Fassbinder film I never saw before. I think there might be only a couple left. wish someone would resurrect his version of Cukor's "The Women"... which has completely found its niche in obscurity somehow...

Habana muda (2011)

it's been awhile since I saw this movie, I guess I might have to step up since nobody has reviewed it...

[8/10 · 29 May 2012]

I don't remember much about this movie in terms of style but its substance was ... substantial and ... I felt it was in that regard ... rather lucky for the director that the way his subjects performed this dance really brought out a lot of the nuance that ... generally begs to be hidden in such pairings. Maybe not so lucky for some of the unfortunates involved ... but truth was well served.

I need to make 10 lines of this feedback... is this ten lines?

How about this?

Nope... surely THIS constitutes 10 lines?

No the review is not long enough. Well I recommend you also check out "HABANA HOLIDAY (Yo Soy Malo)" if you ever get a chance (you won't) and also . .. the movie... what WAS it called, about the man from... some Central American country living in Paris, an ex boxer, who now sashays and sells his abundant charms as a transhooker... supporting his family... but I can't recollect the title. It came out the same year as this film...

How to Make a Monster (1958)

crytpohomo gem from AIP

[9/10 · 22 May 2012]

deliciously fun revenge movie with lots of gay sub- and not so subtext a pair of lovers working in the makeup dept of AIP, one dominant the other submissive, are faced with the big faze out... well, one of them is not about to take it lying down so to speak! this is a richly observed little movie. lots of brilliant touches - for example the makeup job for the teen werewolf is as good or better than much of what we see today, while the teenage whatsits looks like some kind of paper mache effort attempted by a blind man. the effect is of something gone terribly wrong.

the performances are more than adequate and the lead Robert H. Harris is nothing short of inspired.

don't want to say anything to spoil or ruin, but if you have the least taste for camp, get busy and track down this amusement packed spectacular!

Shame (2011)

laughably silly the ending was so camp too really bad

[1/10 · 17 April 2012]

oh honestly this film was awful... so heavy handed, overblown, boring, the acting wasn't great, the singing - the less said the better, and that goes for the choice of song as well.

the "lady and the tiger" ending. CORNY. besides which that little miss made her recap appearance so ridiculously tarted up. and we see that she has her little diamante solitaire. honest to god, the hokey, palokey old fashioned "morals" of this movie...! and also his ... great degradation of even finally "going gay" for a minute cause he needs to get off so badly... and the total unreality of the gay sex club scene - has to be laughed at to be unbelieved.

what was the point of making the relationship between brandon and cissie or whatever her name is so confusing, the audience is fairly led on to believe that he's lying about her being his sister. WHY?! cleverness, no doubt.

the only part I thought worked was the date... and even that was kind of ruined by the "comic touch" of the waiter being so overbearing. but the dialogue between the two at dinner I found touching/engaging what have you.

the rest of the movie I could thoroughly do without. and... thank god it wasn't any longer. I counted 3 endings as it was. the last 2 being completely superfluous.

speaking of the ending, and the scene it echoes.... how ridiculous that this man lost track of the woman... she was hustling a bit but she wasn't tearing off. there's no way a horned up sex addicted dude would have lost the trail of this woman who was clearly creaming over him ...

Timecrimes (2007)

this "french film" is a Spanish film and it's not "good" it's awful!

[1/10 · 18 February 2012]

whether the pseudoscience makes a jot o' sense whatsoever is a matter that matters not an iota when the protagonist is such a dolt seeming to have not only lost 90 minutes of time but about 120 IQ points so quick to jump into this vato-0-sperm or whatever it is, the time-giving liquid, and oh how great the review features, a 10 star no less, praises the film for the fact that the male lead isn't gorgeous. did this guy miss the fact that the female victim is in fact totally gorgeous? well hector X (I notice that most of the reviews I skimmed over get the order wrong. according to the "scientist" hector 2 is hector 1... anyway so much time is taken to get from point alpha to points beta and gamma... as homely hector does I he's told then doesn't then does... then doesn't... I know he was tired and didn't even get his nice little nap but... good lord this is a movie to put yourself to sleep by, aside a t blood-pressure and adrenaline rushes that come from watching a character do things that make no sense... like walking when he should be running, etc. blah what a dreary piece of garbage.

T.M.A. (2009)

great first hour, the rest you can have!

[6/10 · 7 February 2012]

this movie starts off very interestingly with a band fronted by a female singer who sounds like a man and it's very amusing for quite sometime and beautifully made and I thought the acting was alright, actually.

however, the last 30 minutes it begins to plummet precipitously and by the end it's a chore to get through and the very end is just horrible...

this is a movie in the "Italian horror" tradition and ... suffers in much the same way as so many of the gialli etc do also... great cinematographic technique, great atmosphere, amusing gore (towards the end), some respectable shocks along the way, but story is a mess, and as I said, the ending is just abysmal.

still an all it's well worth a look if you're into argento, fulci, et al. stands up pretty respectably amongst that crowd eh what

Evil Dead Trap (1988)

stupid fun

[3/10 · 20 January 2012]

I guess it possible to do a 'spoiler' when it be like nothing makes much sense anyway... but that's what's good about it makes 0 sense starting off with these dippy TV people ... could hardly have a more emphatic warning how "it might be such a good idea" to go into the factory of like eybeall knife torture and knifeball eye torture and ... then they split up in to vulnerable little groups and then all these various kills are done basically in these rube goldberg ways that seem to all go wrong but then eventually each victim ends up somehow accidentally going the way of all evil flesh uh and the "showdown" is like back and forth like it's never gonna end it's like please one or both of you just stay down so the movie can finish! but I did like the "very" ending and... uh. well it would have been more fun to share it with someone or an audience, all the silliness... and the men could have been a lot more attractive I'll give it a 3 for ... for the scenes in which they lost the tripod an thus did omse weird kind of . . . stop action stuff .... it makes no sense but then that's why this is a good review. evidently um Oliver Stone says "a daring and grim thriller - reveals Japan's twisted sexual soul one terrifying scene after another." this has got to be an example of an American director doing like one of those Japanese commercials that the stars do on telly for soft drinks and the like?