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Reviews
The Marsh King's Daughter (2023)
Not bad but quite predictable
Overall I enjoyed watching The Marsh King's Daughter. There are some good scenes with drama and suspense. Following Elaina along for her story is captivating and she plays the part well.
However, it's also far from perfect. Besides Elaina (both young and old) every other character and actor is lacking quite a bit, particularly the husband.
Overall, the story could have had some more elements to it. Without wanting to spoiler, the whole movie plot is basically what you can see in the trailer with a predictable outcome. Not every movie needs twists and turns but maybe some plot developments on the side would have been nice.
However, with some minor flaws, it is still well worth watching.
Corner Office (2022)
A good concept, but the movie never really starts.
I really liked the setup. A misunderstood, but genius man in a monochromatic soul-sucking office environment. He sees something that the others don't and has trouble fitting in. He sees an amazing room that does not exist for the others, the others get creeped out by him.
But then... nothing.
The audience is left wondering how this story will turn out. Can he maybe see other things that are not visible to others? Some sort of super power? Nope, he just sees the room, the others get creeped out.
Is he struggling with mental problems? Maybe this will be a personal drama in which he comes to terms with his condition? Nope. He just sees the room and the others get creeped out.
Maybe the others could have videod him or showed him blueprints to convince him that there is no room and we could have seen him struggling to understand what is real and what is not? Nope, they just get creeped out, nothing else happens.
He sees a psychiatrist. Again nothing happens. He tells her, he sees things that aren't there and she does nothing. He keeps seeing the room.
He meets a woman and tries to show her the room. Could that be the turning point we have been waiting for? Maybe she also has similar issues and together they can overcome it? Nope, he sees a room that isn't there and she gets creeped out.
In the end, guess what, he sees a room that nobody else can see and the others get creeped out by him. He gets fired. After a whole feature length film, we are literally back to where we started. Nothing happened.
Acting is good, but everything else is missing from this film.
Dogman (2023)
Exageration and decadence til death
To start off, this movie seems to split the audience a bit. My group of friends, whom I saw this at a sneak peak with, had mixed opinions. Although generally positive, some liked it less. It is definitely in the art house/indie spectrum of films and thus might not be for everyone. It also has near-zero ambitions of being realistic, a fact that you just have to accept if you want to enjoy this movie.
But oh boy, is it fantastic! It is very artful, but not "artsy" in the sense that it feels forced or like an experimental film project that's barely worth watching were it not for it's art style. Instead, it delivers a full and well-rounded feature film, in which the art style feels like an extracurricular you get as a free bonus gift. Just because they can. The art style is "very over the top". From a perfectly trained army of dogs via over-exaggerated cliche characters to intriguing visuals and action scenes. And the intensity continuously increases as well, ending in a big, absurd finale. The story focuses on a broken, abused and deranged man finding his way in life and his company in dogs. Throughout his life story, we meet various characters that are vividly introduced to us from his clinically insane point of view. We get to experience his coping mechanisms with the abuse he suffered and the damage it has created in him by seeing the world through his eyes for two hours. This somewhat dark and serious story goes very well with the sometimes comical art style and reminded me a bit of Bojack Horseman to be honest, not just because of the animals.
Dogman shines with brilliant acting, a fast-paced plot and absolutely stunning imagery. Every scene is perfectly fitted out to match the character we get to meet in that particular scene. And of course... excellent use of dogs as co-stars.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)
So many plot holes it would sink if it were a ship
This movie misses the mark on so many levels. First of all it was not scary at all. Not very long into the experience they reveal a boring looking CGI monster that can kill anyone almost at random. Suspense or plot development is almost non-existent, basically every night another crew member gets killed in almost the same fashion as the last one. This goes on for quite some time with not much else really happening.
But the worst part about this movie is the constant stream of absolutely massive plot holes. Basically, the whole movie is a guide on the dumbest possible things to do when being chased by a vampire:
- Soon after leaving Romania, they have damaged cargo, a dying stow away and what appears to be a rabies infected animal that killed half their food supplies => No big deal, even though port is still close, we want our bonus money, so just keeping sailing. The supposedly highly experienced Captain has no opinions either
- Two crew members disappear with large puddles of blood left behind => no big deal, just keep sailing. Also, bonus money.
- People always die when they are patrolling the deck alone? => Keep patrolling the deck alone at night and have people randomly sneak around by themselves at night.
- They have a girl on board whose village has been terrorized by this creature for hundreds of years => Never ask her a single question about the creature
- They find the place where "the devil sleeps during the day" and where it could probably be killed quite easily => Probably not important, let's not mention it again. Instead let's spend the day complaining that we have no idea where the creature is right now.
- The creature and all it's "offspring" spontaneously combust in the daylight => Only plan to trap the creature in the middle of the night
- The creature can fly => Let's sink the ship, how could it possibly survive?
- Loads of guns on board => Only really necessary when half the crew is already dead
Acting isn't great either. Clemens is portrayed somewhat believable, but most of the crew come across as Disneyland pirates. The Romanian girl has a strong Irish accent and the captain gives of a strong Santa Claus vibe and doesn't appear as the leader of the group once. Actually, Toby is well played, though.
Production value is quite high. Well shot, cut and lit. Soundtrack is supporting what is happening on screen and the ship looks authentic and interesting.
The Ritual (2017)
A lower rating would be unfair because it had it's good parts
A pretty decent horror film for the first hour. A good backstory, suspense is build, some scary elements introduced. Up to this point, the whole thing is pretty good and actually pretty scary. It does everything a good horror film should do. Up to this point it's even realistic. Witchcraft? It only hints at that. Scary monster? Never actually confirmed or in full frame. The rest is just nightmares and one guy murdered and hung in a tree. All totally possible in the real world.
Then the movie takes a sudden turn. The monster is real and the movie is suddenly based in the paranormal. Ok, fair enough. I normally don't like paranormal movies, but this has been so good this far, I am willing to make an exception and accept that there is a scary monster running around the forest. What follows is again a couple of pretty good horror scenes of the remaining 3 and then 2 guys trying to survive their ordeal.
But when they arrive in the village, the whole thing just turns ridiculous. The monster turns out to be a giant moose that is not even that big or scary? Random people in the forest that alternate between being zombies, witches and simple medievel folks? What the hell is even going on here? Why do they life like it's the year 900? Why don't they just flee the forest? Are they immortal? What's their relationship to the hyperactive elk? We never really get answers, because the movie suddenly turns around and concludes that the whole story had just one meaning: All you need to do is stand-up to the monsters in your head. So ... I mean we get it ... Guy is haunted by robbery, yelling at weird moose monster helps him overcome his trauma. That has been foreshadowed since the beginning, so no surprise there.
And that just leaves us with a whole bunch of weirdness. It's not art. It's not horror. It's not even great CGI. If it would have just been the crazy monster and only one guy managed to escape, sure why not, decent horror flick, no reasonable explanation required. Instead it tries to go for some deep meaning of how you have to fight the deamons in your head. So your remaining three friends died, but it's all groovy aslong as you learned something? The alternative here is, that EVERYTHING was in his head, and neither his friends nor scary moose were with him in the forest. Ok, fair enough, but then the witch/zombie/medieval village doesn't fit in. You just don't dream stuff like that up, even if you're traumatised with PTSD. What remains is nonsense. And the learning from this movie is, stick to one storyline. If you make a movie about facing your mental enemies you can't also make one about zombies, witches and angry forest animals at the same time.
Victoria (2015)
A really good movie killed by a stupid plot
Victoria is somewhat sad. The movie itself is a good indie flick. Its very unique with its single-shot and real-time setting. Its starts out a little slow, but really builds up suspense. Its a bit lo-fi, but by design. The actors are also great, scenery in the club and the garage is amazing. But ... the plot.
I am not talking about a weak story or plot holes. The main plot is that four guys rob a bank without any preparation whatsoever and instead go to a nightclub before and get drunk. This is obviously a very thin plot to start with, but thats not the problem. The problem is weird things where you as a viewer just loose touch with the movie.
It starts out with Victoria going with the four boys who are very obviously up to no good. But the movie gets back on its feet. She is a bit drunk, a bit crazy and also very lonely. She likes the guy and it all makes sense again. That ends when she gets in the car! Why get in a stolen(!) car with people you don't know(!) when you are drunk(!), going to something obviously criminal(!) when you actually have to go to work(!)? Why make the story so extreme that a normal viewer cant feel for the main character at all? Anyways, she drives them into a garage where she sees a guy with a gun and realizes what she got into. The viewer can feel her being trapped, scared and the suspense of the movie is back. But than when they leave the garage the boys tell her to leave, but she says she wants to stay, very calm and determined, no explanation. All the suspense and feeling of being trapped is suddenly replaced by "WHAT?! WHY?!" That is not a traditional plot hole. The movie could have forced her to stay in the car or simply skipped the whole issue all together, no problem. But the movie deliberately takes the time to make her say this ridiculous sentence.
A few things can be explained by the chaotic situation, them being drunk and well ... idiots, but even taking that into account there is still a whole lot of "WHY?!"... - after you rob a bank, why park only a couple blocks away? - why then stay right next to the car? - why stay in a group of four? - why go to a night club with guns and 50k in cash? - why go back to the car afterwards? - when you can escape a gun fight with the police why take a taxi right next to it and pay the taxi driver 100 and then actually stay where he takes you? As soon as he hears the news, he will connect the dots. - Even the last scene is ruined... Leaving the dead guy in the room and just casually walking away with the money after an extreme night... OK, good ending! But why the f would you leave the door to the room with the dead guy open and what happened to the ambulance that was called like ten minutes earlier? It makes 0 sense. Why does the movie take the time to call the ambulance if its just gonna turn into plot hole? Just leave it out all together then...
I don't expect a perfect story, but there are just so many "WTF?!"-moments, that it kills the movie. Of course you gonna die if you return to the getaway car that you parked just a couple of blocks away from the bank...
El Clan (2015)
This film has some major plot holes which are expected to be filled by previous knowledge
Introduction to the characters and setting happens on-the-fly. Which might be alright if you know the story before you watch the movie.
First of all, I kept wondering why this professional and experienced kidnapper only kidnaps friends of his son. That is really obvious, he might as well turn himself in. Later(on wikipedia) I understood, that these were the first kidnappings of this kind. I assumed because he is so professional and cool about it, the whole thing seems very routine, no one in his family seems to mind, that he has done this sort of thing many times before. I understand now in retrospect that all these things come from his experience in the intelligence service. However, the movie never really explains that, although it is somewhat crucial for the story.
But there are still some things that don't make sense after reading about the actual story. Arquímedes says to Alex something like "my kidnappings always worked until you left". Well, at that point he previously only had kidnapped two people with Alex, which creates even further confusion when you talk about "always". Then Alex returns the lost son, Maguila, who had apparently left because of the killings. When he returns he immediately joins his fathers business, no questions asked. That doesn't make sense, considering his father only started the killings while he was abroad.
Who is Comodore? We understand that he must be some kind of government official who previously worked with Arquimedes? But then, why does he still have influence, I thought the regime has been overthrown.
Without knowing the story (or at least enough about Argentinian history from that time) before watching the film, it basically shows a serial killer at his day job. Kidnap, make ransom call, write letter, kill, next one please. Sort of boring. The actual story of a former regime officer who now works on his own and the resulting struggles with his surroundings are never properly introduced.
Strangers on a Train (1951)
I know its a little weird that I broke into your house in the middle of the night, but I am only here to tell you that your own son is an absolute lunatic. And I have a gun
Overall Strangers on a train is a good movie, with amazing cinematography, suspense and a good plot. Obviously it is a classic, which might be the reason why reviews here are so overly positive. Brunos character is well thought and acted out. The rest of the characters are a little flat and react as you would expect them to for most of the film. Yes, the tennis scene might be a little long, but then again the film was made a long time ago. By then films had longer shots and scene, a slower pace, no cgi and in general less graphic detail. So for its time, I believe the tennis scene is brilliant at building suspense.
But what really is the big big flaw of strangers on a train, is that there continue to be scenes that don't seem to make any sense whatsoever and are quite disturbing to watch. Most people here didn't seem to notice that, though:
-It already starts off a bit shaky(but still relatively OK compared to what is still to come) when Bruno kills the wife. For some reason he chooses a carnival as the crime scene. Lots of people, light and not exactly great for an escape. He doesn't seem to mind following her the whole time, by which point her company must have noticed him and would be great witnesses. Although his escape by boat may seem a little inconvenient, he is lucky and nobody seems to mind that he just boats back from the island where people are yelling for help and he can just walk away from the crime scene.
-So then Bruno(being a crazy sob) nearly strangles another woman to death at a party. However, in a social group where just days a ago a woman was strangled to death, again nobody really seems to mind this coincidence and Bruno is not a suspect.
-Then Bruno pushes Guy to kill his father, so Guy breaks into the house. But then as sort of the twist, Guy is not there to actually kill him, but just to talk to him. At this point it really stops to make any sense. Why would he break into his house in the middle of the night and sneak around just to tell him that, instead of calling him first like a normal person? Why on earth would he bring a gun?!
-But... the father is not there and instead its one of Brunos traps. So, what is Guys first reaction? He puts the gun right next to the crazy person and actually tells him that he is crazy and will probably go to jail. Luckily Bruno is very concerned about mother, so Guy doesn't get shot.
-However, the showdown really takes the cake! The (trained) police men decide to open fire on the merry-go-round(you know, the fast moving thing with all the kids(!) on it) and kill the operator. So, naturally the merry-go-round turns into a killer machine and the little kids ride starts operating at highway speeds. Next a crazy old dude crawls under the merry-go-round as the only hope of stopping this monster machine, because there simply seems to be no other way to turn it off. By this point we are already in far too deep and returning to sanity would be a little confusing. So the next logical step is ... of course... an exploding merry-go-round!! The villain dies tragically and Guy is again the good straight-up guy. Not exactly much of an ending.
Overall, a good film with a lot of very big flaws. I was a little disappointed at times.