AzureTay Reviews

REC (2007)

REC

[6/10 · 15 April 2022]

A good movie. REC is a solid horror movie, so of course it got a bad American remake called Quarantine. REC is, and I don't think this is a controversy to say, a cult classic among horror fans for its atmosphere, its plausibility for being found footage, strong acting and lastly the twist ending. The movie has a pretty positive impact in the community of horror fans and B-Movie lovers.

Filmed in Spain, and intended for the more religious world, the movie follows Ángela played by Manuela Velasco, a reporter doing a segment for her show "While You're Asleep" and she is in the opening interviewing and speaking with the various members of a fire station and getting information on the daily night activities. A call is made, and she asks to come along, and that is what springboards the movie.

One of the things that make this movie stand out among found footage horror movies is that the camera for the vast majority of the movie's run time is held by a professional camera man leading it to be far more steady and stable more justifiably then in other Found Footage films. Additionally the premise of both the Camera Man and leading lady Angela being involved in journalism lends credibility to them filming even after things go bad. There is a lot ot complement in this movie, it is solid, and though stupid at times, stays good.

One of the reasons the tension always seems so high in the movie is that none of the actors were given the full scripts, so they wouldn't know what became of their character until the scene where their final fate was sealed. The stressed nervous energy and apprehension linger in the scene, and create a strong impact.

Overall: 6 out of 10, it's a cult classic for a reason but certainly not perfect and not for everyone.

Spoiler Stuff The twist ending is to put simply, learning the first zombie was studied by the catholic church as proof of possession and demonic forces in the world, and it is her evil taint spreading outward. In a genre that is overly reliant on 'science' as a hand wave a lot of people found the mystery and fun of religious magic zombies. It is rare and to a lot of American B-Horror movie fans it felt like a neat little reward that gave the movie a strong identity of its own.

On rewatching the religious references become more and more clear.

Wild at Heart (1990)

Wild at Heart

[10/10 · 15 April 2022]

A one of a kind movie from a very special style of Director, David Lynch who has few peers in the art of cryptic indirect story telling. Wild at Heart is one of my favorite films of all time, it is incredibly quotable, stars one of my favorite actors (Nicolas Cage, reminder, favorite doesn't mean best). The movie is a wild ride scene to scene, start to finish with layers of meaning and mystique, David Lynch in typical style doesn't give anything away directly. All that said, it is highly enjoyable alone or with friends, it is both a somber reflection movie, and a great party movie, it is reality, or at least parallel to reality in that sense of open ended exploration of the emotional spectrum of reaction and content.

To start with, Wild at Heart is a romance movie in a very unconventional format, our heroes are generally bad people with lofty higher than life dreams and opinions of one another, and the crazed way Nick Cage presents himself gives the character of Sailor Ripley an incredibly unique style and movement: A presences that speaks for itself. The movie was adapted for film by Lynch himself from the book of the same name by Barry Gifford. I don't know how well the scenes, plot, emotions, or characters translate as I have never read the book, and perhaps if I did, it would demystify this movie and make it less meaningful.

Lynch himself talked about the book in interviews saying, "A certain amount of fear, as well as things to dream about." A statement loaded with unknowable ends, and yet also just presents how we all see the future. The quote presents a marvelous sense of invitation as well, the opening of a great mystery.

At its core, Wild at Heart is about the Future, the fearful uncertainty of it, and the promised fear that always comes with risking our dreams upon the future. Sailor is a prime example of machismo, American brashness and cultural violence. He has vigor, vitality, and vanity to spare. His love Lula as played by Laura Dern is no less bombastically bimbo and loyal. Both characters are genuine, human and real, while also being caricatures of the ideas of youthful invincibility, sex, and the sense of wanting a greater world and a greater future. They rush after that, calling everyone in their youth that there is something bigger and brighter out in the world for them, and everywhere they go, they find it lacking or feel the call all over again.

This movie is hard to talk about because of the layers of the human condition, the explorations of trauma shaping who we are, and how we learn by mistake and happenstance. It also has this motif of freedom or rather the belief of freedom, as Sailor often says, "This is a snakeskin jacket! And for me it's a symbol of my individuality, and my belief... in personal freedom." Lynch is a very careful director, the reoccuring use of this line implies something, and to me, it presents that freedom isn't a real thing, it is an abstraction, it is a belief, a rallying call, and a symbol, but not tangible. Sailor has it because he has his jacket that shows his personal freedom, but it, like the society that is around him, his relationships, and every other binding that gives him less freedom is on top of him, it actually constrains him, makes it harder to act in a way of personal freedom.

This movie, like most of Lynch's work is incredibly dense and hard to parse through, hard to explain and present, but ultimately, unlike most of Lynch's work, it is a solid and entertaining adventure romance movie outside of the messaging, commentary, and ideas he weaved into the dream of his movie.

A thing this movie does, since it focuses so much on freedom, dreams, hope, and the future, it shows Lynch can shake off the title of cynic, of misanthrope, and genuinely say he likes humanity, loves mankind, and sees them for their flaws but still thinks they are deserving of a brighter future.

Overall: 10 out of 10, I don't just recommend this movie, I love this movie. It is one of my favorites of all time and I encourage you to watch it.

Spoiler Stuff One of the finest scenes to ever be put in film is in this movie, near the end of the movie. Sailor is surrounded by a group of punks and simply says, "What do you Faggots want?" Gets the heck beaten out of him, hits the ground, has a trippy dream sequence with the good witch from the Wizard of Oz, and then stands back up still surrounded by the guys who beat him and says, "And I want to apologize to you gentlemen for referring to you as homosexuals. I also want to thank you fellows. You've taught me a valuable lesson in life." Then without skipping a beat he goes from a normal, hushed speaking voice to loudly screaming "LULA!" As loud as he can.

It is a mind blowingly weird scene the first time I watched it, and the third. And now as I've seen this movie dozens of times, it still is one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen.

The Emoji Movie (2017)

The Emoji Movie

[2/10 · 15 April 2022]

I really didn't like this movie. I watched it on a whim, with the idea of, 'It can't be that bad'. Sadly, I was wrong. The movie is from start to finish stupid. It relies on the audiance also being stupid, and eventually a non-sense plot point. It is bad, it is the prime example of lazy, soulless cash grab movies that have no greater goal than making a little more than the cost of production and advertising. The Emoji movie is the blandest meal you can ever have. There is nothing outright offensive, or horrible about it, but that is what makes it even worse, it is... nothing.

There is no difference between this movie and glaring at a wall with nothing happening for an hour and a half. The Emoji movie dresses up the fact that nothing happens under this feel good story about being yourself, but they don't realize they also have a glaring contradiction to that narrative in the form of one of the main characters. The Character Jailbreak, I'll touch on that under the cut. The overall message of the movie for Gene, the lead emoji voiced by TJ Miller is this, Be yourself no matter how many people it kills. It is a shitty movie with no thought put into it.

It is a bad movie, skip it. It has bad morals, bad values, bad humor, and all around is dumb, dumb dumb dumb. On a more technical level the animation is fine, a bit dry and soulless and too rounded with no real distinction giving it this made by committee feel but that is about as nice as I can be.

Overall: 2 out of 10, I don't recommend this movie. It sucks and actively teaches harmful morals and values.

Spoiler Stuff So one of the side characters in the movie is a female emoji named Jailbreak, who is an elite hacker and the smartest character in the movie, because of girl power. A girl can have no weaknesses after all in this era of filmmaking. However, that isn't my issue with her, movies are fantasy, characters are allowed to be super humanly gifted, in fact, part of the appeal of movies is seeing people who are good at things, that inspire us to be good at things. My issue with the character of Jailbreak is her 'character arc' if it can be called such a thing.

Jailbreak, out of the blue, is revealed to be the missing princess emoji. So she can sing and summon the twitter logo and other such cheesy and stupid things. However, the issue is actually, her arc contradicts the moral the movie is pushing with Gene.

Gene has made the choice to be himself pretty much, even if it gets literally everyone in the phone he lives in deleted. You know, be yourself no matter who you kill. Jailbreak however has decided to rebel completely against the identity she was assigned, Princess, until it was convenient to be a princess, then she was one. It is kind of a BS cop out just to give her new powers. She does go back to being the cool hacker princess in the end, but for the time she is doing princess stuff, it is on surface level the rejection of the shitty moral the rest of the movie pushes.

Now the idea of the message, be yourself is fine, kids should hear messages close to that, however... In the context of this movie, Be yourself means killing everyone you have ever known. Being yourself means ruining the lives of everyone around you. I'm not advocating for conformity necessarily, but the movie having a nice wrap up where everything works out including the reversal of what we are told is permanent deletion at the Phone store, is stupid. The message of Be Yourself always needs the caveat of, there are consequences, there are downsides to non-conformity, and you have to make the message that, it is a struggle to find yourself but is also about compromising with the status quo, the society.

After all, aren't most murders just being themselves?

Stitches (I) (2012)

Stitches

[2/10 · 15 April 2022]

I liked this movie, emphasizing the past tense. Do not mistake that statement for thinking this is a well made or even a good movie. I liked it, it was so not scary and unfunny at times I almost died from laughter. I thought it was going to be one of those so bad its great movies I could show my friends and we could enjoy several times. However, prior to writing this review, I ended up watching the movie again after about two years, and it did not hold up the stupidity and absurdity and lost the charm it once had. What I thought would be a treasure trove of laughter, pointing and good hearted ribbing at a failed effort to make the next great slasher movie, Jason, Freddy, Ghost Face, and now... Stitches the Clown. Just ended up being a dull second watch that didn't even really get a smile from me.

So let's break it down, what is Stitches? Evil Clown movie about a clown coming back from the dead to get revenge for a prank played on him six years ago by a group of dumb kids that resulted in him stumbling and dying. The main kid, Tom, saw the weird egg ritual that took place next door in the graveyard where there is a Clown museum and Richard "Stitches" Grindle was put to rest by having his egg put among the eggs of all the dead clowns. The weirdness of the clown egg is how I learned about... Clowns copywriting their act and make up styles by painting them on eggs, this is a real thing that happens. Which is cool, I guess. The movie moves along fast, and implies something about this ritual is what will eventually allow Stitches to seek revenge.

Time skip from little kids to six years later where the little kids are now, small adults. Bad acting, bad effects mostly, and really really bad one liners. The movie doesn't really have much to offer, the sound design was passible, the story was okay, there wasn't any massive gaping plot hole or anything like that, but it certainly wasn't good.

Overall: 2 out of 10, I don't recommend this movie. It is the lower end of bad. Not totally nonsense, but also just not enjoyable.

Spoiler Stuff There is nothing really to spoil here, the Melon Baller scene is okay?

Sing (2016)

Sing

[4/10 · 15 April 2022]

I don't like this movie. It wasn't awful, painful, or bad, but it was shockingly lazy and predictable. The characters are flat, tension is always dropped for heartfelt feel good moments, everyone's a winner all the time, and character assets are reused dozens upon dozens of times. It is lazily put together and presented to the audience with the tag line of "Children are stupid."

Illumination Entertainment has earned a reputation for being lazy cash grabs making something just good enough so they can make bank. This is no different. The reputation is well earned, and plenty of people have pointed out how Illumination doesn't value the artistry of their product, they value the product. That being said, Sing isn't bad, it is a movie about talking and singing animals, and it delivers on that promise well enough, it has a verified enough, if flat cast that will encourage the audience to root for and pick a favorite. However, in all earnesty, if you want to see singing and dancing Animals there are countless movies that do it better. I'd personally suggest Cats don't Dance, a 1997 movie with a great cast, story, and animation.

On that note, one of the directors, and the writer for this movie is Garth Jennings who directed and wrote Son of Rambow (2007) by no stretch a perfect movie, but a good one. A movie I really like. As well as directing the 2005 adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by no stretch perfect, but once more a movie I really liked. So it baffles me how someone who has two pretty good movies, live action movies, and dozens of music videos was able to direct such a lackluster animated movie.

In a word, I find this movie vapid. It doesn't have much of a heart, and the times it looks like there will be drama, it boils down to, "No you can't sing." "I will sing" Character that didn't want them to sing hears it and goes, "I was wrong, please keep singing." No conflict lasts more than a few scenes at best,some of them are wrapped up in the same scene the conflict is introduced in. Sometimes it feels like the story was bored of what it was doing and introduces or drops the sub plot on a whim.

Overall: 4 out of 10. I don't like it and think it is a waste of time, but it isn't bad. It does the worst thing a movie can do, it is mediocre.

Spoiler Stuff There is nothing to spoiler. The movie does what it says, and yes, it happens exactly like that. No twists, no turns, no subversions.

No Escape (I) (2015)

No Escape

[8/10 · 15 April 2022]

No Escape is as simply as I can put it, a good movie. Good action, heart warming story, good characters, good cinematography, it is good. You should watch it. Moving on from the praise, a little summery, Owen Wilson plays Jack Dwyer who recently moved to a south Asian city, Chiang Mai in Thailand, for work. Early into his stay, a deadly coup takes place, and Jack using his wits and nerves of steel attempts to rescue his family.

In interviews the writers and Director said the movie took heavy inspiration from the real life event known as the Taj Mahal hotel bombing incident and the general atmosphere around the 2008 Mumbei Terror attacks in India. A very dark time that included ethnic cleansing efforts, government overthrow, and forced religious conversions.

The movie doesn't directly show too much from the perspective of natives, or go deep into any issues. However it has some snappy dialogue from a man who is a Big Game hunter and spoiler things named Hammond played by Pierce Brosnan, where Owen's character Jack is shocked this would happen. Jack expresses he doesn't understand why the locals are attacking him and his company because all they did was bring jobs, and open a power plant and start working on clean water distribution. Hammond rebuffs it with, imposing your work values, your social hierarchies, and buying up and owning their land at the cost of the local culture. No Escape doesn't dwell on the conflict of imperialism by economics and infrastructure too long before moving on, but it is just enough to give context to the situation.

Additionally, by sharing the lens that the people Jack works for aren't innocent sets up sympathy for the native population that feels they are losing their homeland and way of life to forign invaders who came wielding checkbooks and promises instead of swords and guns. The locals were losing opportunities, and lacked the institutions needed to train and teach them hot to the new well paying jobs Jack and his company were bringing to the area, they had a good reason to fear being unable to participate or benefit from the new society being built around them and on top of them.

The fear of the death of their culture was heavy in the air as well, new high skill jobs the locals could not do meant importing more and more highly skilled foreigners being imported and benefiting from the changes being made to their corner of the world.

Enough about Imperialism and the struggles of those who resist it and the pawns such as Jack who exist to enact unintended large spread change for the sake of imperialistic systems. This is a real world issue and debate; plenty of people have died globally because of, and I appreciate that the creative team behind No Escape were willing to present it, even if they did so in only a sliver of the movie.

The rest of the movie is well executed set pieces, action, and interesting characters. Jack's family is himself, his wife and two kids. Despite the young age of the two little girls, neither of them stand out as 'bad' or particularly flawed like most child actors do. They seem believable and confused, not fully understanding the world around them or why things are happening the way they are. They never get as afraid as their parents, because they don't understand the situation.

Overall: 8 out of 10. I really liked this movie and I encourage you to go se it.

Spoiler Stuff There are two characters in this movie introduced early on Hammond and Kenny Rogers, who are mysterious and weird and a bit off putting. Jack warns his family to stay away from them. However, when everything starts going bad, Hammond has a gun, and his local friend who most likely is not actually named Kenny Rogers also has a weapon.

They have a few really good set pieces and action scenes, and Pierce Brosnan really pulls it out, being an actual on screen badass. He never feels too powerful to be unrealistic, nor too silly and detached not to be likable. He is a cool character that even though I hated a lot of the values the character exposed, I liked the character, he was well written and clearly truly thought he was doing the right thing and in the end dying for people he considered innocent.

One of his many good scenes scattered through the movie is when he and Kenny rescue Jack, at about 1 hour and 8 minutes into the run time. Jack and family are going to be executed, and Hammond, beaten, bleeding, and whining is pushed around by a masked man. He is announcing "I have guns, I can get you guns, just don't hurt me." He is shoved to his knees, and then goes, "I got 1, 3, and 5, you get 2 and 6." He pulls out his hand gun and fires quickly, and his captor, the masked man opens fire with his rifle. THe masked man is Kenny, Hammond's partner and friend and local guide. The two rescue Jack and his family and lead into another great scene where Hammond lies about the meat they are eating. Calling it Chicken and justifying it tasting different from being fed raisins instead of other chickens like in the US.

He then pulls Jack aside to talk to him. He lets slip that they were actually eating rat, and that Hammond works for the big boys. Jack guesses CIA, FBI, and things like that, but Hammond doesn't confirm what one, just that he has an evacuation site and tells Jack how to get there. It is a good scene that reinforces that at his core despite being able to, and implying he has done horrible, awful, even monstrous things, Hammond got into his line of work to actually care about people and help.

Soon after that Hammond and Kenny leave the movie with a heroic and well shot self-sacrifice. For Kenny it was bad luck, but for Hammond, he chose to die both for the sake of revenge and to help Jack and his family.

It is good stuff, and the movie is packed with it. I implore you to watch it, you may not like it as much as me, but I assure you, the movie is worth seeing.

The Angry Birds Movie (2016)

The Angry Birds Movie

[3/10 · 15 April 2022]

Technically sound and competent, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the narrative, or even the visuals. It is, however, a low effort movie. The Angry Birds Movie follows a local outcast who is filled with nothing but rage, Red as one of the only rational actors in his world of goofy goobers. Who eventually overcomes what makes him different and becomes a welcome part of the community.

Basic premise of the movie is really simple, pigs show up on bird island, talk about belonging together, (Bacon and Eggs joke here) impress the goofy and dumb locals with technology and steal all the eggs. That is kind of it, the movie isn't complex and it sort of falls in line with the game. In that, it is all just dressing to see birds get slingshotted around. There is a subplot about Red going to anger management, and being paranoid, but overall it is kind of background noise to try and give this cardboard cutout depth.

There isn't a ton of content to talk about here, it is a bad movie that was made as a cash grab and is tied into the cash grab that is the game. It is low effort for the most part, the only thing that is shocking about this movie is the two directors and five writers that were on staff. Not that any of them did a bad job per say, just that there were that many for such a middle of the ground mediocre product shocks me.

I bet there is probably more here then I'm giving credit to, but honestly, that isn't a lot. The movie for me was really bad, but I can see how some young people (Kids) or someone really drunk could enjoy this movie. I don't have a deep connection with the material and there is nothing truly offensive or great about it, so there isn't more I can say. It is exactly the movie you think it is.

Overall: 3/10

Spoiler Stuff I like the jokes about the great eagle.

Sharknado (2013 TV Movie)

Sharknado

[1/10 · 15 April 2022]

I want to open this by saying I love Sharks. Sharks are amazing and wonderful animals that make me in awe of the natural world. I've interacted with sharks before, and them being called dog fish is incredibly apt. They are loving, they like being pet, they are overall not very violent and can easily be scared. I love sharks. I really really do.

Even movies where Sharks are the bad guys so to speak are really good in my opinion, such as Deep Blue Sea or the classic Jaws. This movie however is a punishment from the heavens. This movie suffers all the sins of cinema. It is lazy, gratuitous, and awful. It relies on tropes and is an obvious pandering attempt to fall into that So Bad It's Good genre of movie like Evil Dead, The Room, and other B-movie classics.

Sharknado is the cash blinded vision of director Anthony C. Ferrante, who is well known for Boo, Forgotten Evil, and Zombie Tidal Wave... If you don't recognize those titles, I don't blame you because they, much like Sharknado, are garbage bag bargain bin trash. However, unlike Sharknado, they ended and didn't have Sharknado 2: The Second One. Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!, Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens, Sharknado 5: Global Swarming , and The Last Sharknado: It's About Time. As of right now, there is a statement that Ferrante doesn't plan on making more, but I don't hold out hope.

Now, contraverserly, the Sharknado movies were made to cash in on people's love for movies like the Guyver, Trolls 2, and so many other gems of bad movies. It is a 'bad' movie by design and thus doesn't have the charm of Neil Breen's filmography, and instead feels as soulless and passionate as movies made by board rooms and committees because it was. Sharknado, in simple terms, is a Bad Movie for people who don't like or understand Bad Movie watch parties. It is a movie for wanna-be cinephiles to whip out at those parties like a quirky hipster and be like, "I only like it ironically." Not understanding that most bad movies have genuine love from their audiences and get real support. I love Army of Darkness, I love Evil Dead, I have several copies of the movie, I support nearly everything Bruce Campbell does, and adore the man as a comedic wonder. I love Sam Rami as a director, and can't get enough over how drastically he has improved from going from B-Movie junk food to full on A list titles. The thing is, Sam Rami was always a director who loved his movies and wanted to do the best, so even when he made Army of Darkness, a low budget, cheesy junk food of a B-Movie, it comes through as a labor of love and passion. Sharknado does not.

I don't want to sound like I'm gatekeeping 'So Bad It's Good' movies, but I genuinely think for the sake of the competence and the genre of bad movies people love, things like this movie need to be shunned or else the genre of Bad movies will be flooded with cash grabs, exploitative movies targeting fans of classic bad movies and the early "bad" work of their favorite directors.

I know this review doesn't have much about the movie in it, cause there ain't much to say about it. The movie is strictly speaking bad. It is poorly acted, the dialogue sucks, the characters are flatter than paper. Special effects are garbage. Honestly one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and I only watched it orginally to torture my mom when I was visting her, and, well needless to say I was tortured instead.

Overall: 1/10

Spoiler Stuff There is nothing to spoil in this movie, it is a cutout with nothing deep.

Enemy Mine (1985)

Enemy Mine

[8/10 · 14 April 2022]

Enemy Mine is a strange sci-fi movie, it is considered an Action and an Adventure movie by a lot, but it is more accurately a drama, and a pretty strong dissection of bigotry and in my opinion a pretty good depiction of LGBT or interracial or just alternative lifestyle partners, hugely so for the 80s. It has a bit of from enemies to lovers trope going on, but it works here, where it doesn't work in most stuff for me, because the two characters, Davidge played by Dennis Quaid, and the alien Drac/Jerry/Jereeba played by Louis Gossett Jr. Both grow and change a lot to the point that by the end of the movie Davidge is a different man who would, and proves he would, hate the man he once was with every fiber of his being.

I'm getting off track. This movie was really influential to me in my youth. I watched it with both my parents when I was very young, and both of them really liked it. I remember they used it as a staging ground to point out that Davidge started out as a bad guy, and became a good guy by the end because he let go of his hate. They also used it as proof that you could get along with people that were different from you, love whoever you want, and so on. It was a powerful message in my young mind, and helped shape a lot of my ideas about just accepting people as they come. That isn't to say this movie cured me of ever having any bias or bigatries and can do the same for you, but it does in a very enjoyable sci-fi romp open the door to talk about it. A few years ago, and again today as I write this, I dug out this jem to watch. I liked it, it wasn't as great as I remembered but I genuinely really liked it. It didn't live up to my memory, but it was still good, better than average even.

To get back on point, the movie opens in the middle of a racial and ideological war between mankind and the Drac. The movie opens with our leads in a dogfight above a desolate and useless planet, fighting, and, in the end, crash landing. The human, Davidge and the Drac known simply as Drac at first put aside their identities, and start to work together in hopes of survival. They both promise each other mercy if their people arrive, but actively dislike one another for the most part. They don't trust, they fight they argue, and eventually... They start protecting one another. Davidge starts to learn the drac language. Drac gives his name as Jereeba, and Davidge calls him Jerry. It is nice to see them grow as friends, and as they learn about one another.

This learning period mostly takes the form of Davidge learning about the Drac culture, since we, the audience, mostly know mankind and what mankind is like, those are glossed over. A bit part of learning is Shismar, the deity/religion of the Drac people, and in one quote by Davidge reading from the holy book: "If one receives evil from another, let one not do evil in return. Rather, let him extend love to the enemy, that love might unite them." I've heard all this before... in the human Taalmaan." Jerry laughs about it and responds to Davidge with "Of course you have. Truth is truth." And this leads both Davidge, and the Audience to understand the appeal to universality, universal sentience, smarts and intelligence. Rights and the right to be alive. Shared, for lack of better word, humanity.

The movie is good, honestly very strongly written. I don't want to go on too long, but needless to say there will be more under the cut.

Overall: 8/10 for me, but realistically, this movie is probably a 6. It just means something to me.

Spoiler Stuff To say the least Davidge and Jerry enter into a sort of strange pseudo relationship, with Jerry becoming Pregnant and mocking Davidge's small view of reproduction and gender. Davidge does the best he can to support Jerry who has become his friend, and in this way they make a family unit.

At about the halfway movie, the last big hurrah before the climax, Jerry dies in childbirth and leaves Davidge with Zammis, a new Drac. The movie then has a few cuts and montages like scenes of Davidge doing his best to teach Zammis everything he can about the Drac, favoring teaching Zammis about his own people instead of trying to extend Human imperialism.

The Climax is a group of human slavers coming to the planet, and Davidge realizing they would rescue him, but take Zammis away and enslave him. Zammis however, being raised by a human father figure doesn't think the other humans will be bad, and goes to meet them leading to the action scenes of the movie and the death of a lot of humans and the rescue of the Drac slaves.

The movie closes out with a narrator and the lines: And so, Davidge brought the Dracs home. He fulfilled his vow, and brought Zammis before the Holy Council on Dracon. And, in the fullness of time, Zammis brought its own child before the Holy Council, the name of Willis Davidge was added to the line of Jereeba.

To me, those lines have a great amount of power, and respect. It creates a beautiful world, one where people grow, change and love. To be simple, I love this movie.

The name of the Movie is pretty clever however, Enemy Mine. In the first portion of the movie, it is about two Enemies that are trying to get the upper hand on one another. Then in a second part, it becomes a more reflective look by Davidge, his enemy is his own. His own people. Then the human slavers arrive and they have a mine filled with Enemies.

The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)

The Girl with All the Gifts

[7/10 · 13 April 2022]

The Girl with All the Gifts is a surprisingly great movie. It blindsided me the first time I watched it, it was recommended to me almost randomly and out of the blue by an online friend. When Al told me about it, he refused to go into much detail, but I was interested, and he knows I have a pretty high standard for movies, and as such, I went in expecting a lot.

The opening of the movie didn't impress me, it layered in questions well enough, but it wasn't particularly shot well, nor did it feel special. Going in, I knew this was a zombie movie, and because of it, I thought it was going to be a criticism about losing humanity for the sake of survival with how the kids were being treated.

Then... I was very heavily blindsided by the movie. It suddenly was about a lot more than that, it had a particularly big twist particularly early, right on the exit of act one of the movie, the whole scope and scale of everything happening changes, and the movie opens up and suddenly becomes incredibly engaging.

I won't lie, a lot of the elements of this movie could be better. The script could use a touch more polish, the acting could be better, the camera angles are all pretty flat, in terms of sound nothing really stands out. However, their visual effects, as in the sets and make up are actually pretty good. Even with the weaker elements considered, the movie is good enough that in a single month I watched it four times.

Once by myself after it was recommended to me, then I watched it with one of my roommates. Then I watched it with my other roommate, then I watched it a fourth time with my brother. Honestly, it was worth the watch each time.

I eventually also watched it with my mom and two more friends. And again write before sitting down and putting fingers to keyboard to write about the movie. It is a movie that anyone can really enjoy for whatever they are looking for, whether it be a sci-fi story, a story of survival, or hope, or contradictorily one of hopelessness, I'll explain more under spoilers. For now, this means one thing, the movie's ending has two very easy intriptations that go in completely opposite directions depending on how you view the story.

In short, the movie is either devastatingly dark, or incredibly optimistic with themes about nature, futility, hope, kindness, trust, family, and society. It also asks questions about civilization and humanity, what they mean, what they can mean. The movie doesn't have anything heavy or meaningful to say about authoritarianism or facism as the opening heavily implies, but what little content in that regard that is shown is pretty negative.

Overall: 7/10

Spoiler Stuff The big spoiler is... The main girl is a zombie, well, part zombie. Sennia Nanua plays Melanie, and she is a child actor, and does a very passable job, but still could be better. She does manage to feel a bit odd, unnatural, and move in ways that aren't fully human at times, but still have the wonder of a child. It isn't perfect, but it isn't bad.

The other thing to note is the end. In the end, mankind is wiped out and the hybrid human zombie children are all that is left and being taught by Helen, the teacher from the compound in the opening. It is hopeful in the sense a new future is happening and being built upon the world that was lost, but it is also a hopeless state as mankind is gonna be extinct.

The Fifth Element (1997)

The Fifth Element

[7/10 · 13 April 2022]

The Fifth Element is a classic movie somehow. On the surface, it appears, and even on a first watch could easily be dismissed as a Big Dumb Action movie with sexy half naked women, generic one noted protagonist, and a larger then life action plot and set pieces. However, if someone earned a position as not just a cult classic but a classic sci-fi movie in general, beloved by a lot of critics and mainstream audiences, the movie has gotten its share of criticism for its overly simplistic and formulaic action design.

Others cite it as a marvelous sci-fi thriller with secret anti-capitalist and anti-corpatist thoughts, environmental messaging, messes about connection, nature, masculinity, and even humanity. The choice to make Mr. Zorg, the man who owns the Taxi company the lead drives for the villain hell bent on destroying the earth is often cited as a strong bit of evidence, as well as the fact that Korben Dallas never meets Zorg that factors into this narrative of grand story telling about the face of the faceless corporatocracy, some critics agree, others think this narrative is just art students looking to analyze to get some value from their degree.

I, however, in my infinite wisdom would say, the Fifth Element is both. Or at least has massive elements of both. The Fifth Element is an undeniably over the top and goofy sci-fi action movie with light fantasy elements, this is completely undeniably. However, just under the performance by Bruce Willis as Dallas, there is a rather strong narrative and plot line. It just takes a moment longer to see it.

On a broader surface level there is a clear "Strong men make good times, good times make weak men, weak men make bad times, bad times make strong men..." vibe with Bruce Willis's character feeling and acting like a relic of a time before the happening of the movie, ancient, very traditionally male and yet needed to overcome the bad times that are now there. Most other male characters have a far more complex relationship with masculinity, and I think that is an interesting topic to think about. Chris Tucker, playing himself under the name Ruby Rhod, is a prime example of this. In a popular discussion about TOXIC MASCULINITY, these two characters foil each other quite well. Dallas is good natured, willing to self-sacrifice, and overall both physically and emotionally strong and fit. Very positive traits that are often seen as Male responsibilities, and yet, he shares almost all of them with the female lead of Milla Jovovich as Leeloo.

Whereas in stark contrast, Ruby starts the movie having an overwhelming number of traits associated with masculinity that are toxic while being anything but traditionally masculine. Ruby is vein, arrogant, whiny, dare I say, a bimbo of a man. He isn't a character that holds either great emotional or physical strength. He does get some spotlight and his character is explored, and even when push comes to shove, he shows he can do the hard tasks needed to survive and help others, he just... whines a lot.

It is interesting, you mix in Zorg, another very untraditionally masculine character, he is also vain, a touch arrogant, but he is stoic-presenting, and exercises control in a lot of his scenes. Honestly, despite not having a lot of screen time Gary Oldman owned and mastered the role. Both over the top and natural feeling in the setting, relying on tools and weapons and wealth to act as strength where he lacked it. And in the end not fearing doing the actions he deemed required for his goals. These make up the three male main characters, and I think without pushing more heavily into it, I think they do a really interesting job of exploring the ideas of masculinity in the modern context, and traditional strength and traditional tasks when the movie first came out. As far as the topic of things like Gender Roles, Toxic Masculinity, and Emotional Availability in Men goes, there is a well to analysis here even if not fully intentional.

The next major subtext in the movie, in my opinion, and becomes very highly highlighted at the climax is of course the five elements, and what they mean for humanity. The first four are easy and obvious, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. The four fundamental elements of the world in most media. However, just like the planeteers of Captain Planet, there is a fifth element. Ultimately the four fundamental elements illustrate a minor point about humanity's ability to control the elements for their own well being, while the fifth element is what makes them human. I'll touch more on that in Spoiler town.

Another element that I don't think the Fifth Element started, but I think was helped popularize by the Fifth Element was the abundance of noodles and china / south asian style apartments and sprawling cities. Like the use of both elements in the Space Western Firefly, it can be seen in the Fifth Element long before it, and admittedly to a lesser degree, but it does peak up. It also hints to a look at the Fifth Element being strongly ameri-centric while also having global ideas, and presenting a world that was a united globe (and galactic because sci-fi, but it ultimately is about showing a unified and connected world under one or more collective ideas and ideologies. In the Fifth Element that is largely hinted at a multi-planet government, Zorg's company, and a blend of over the top clashing caste of people.

There is a powerful anti-corporate and anti-capitalist message in there as well, even if it isn't on the surface, much like shows like Cowboy Bebop, it is more focused on presenting then preaching, it is making the attempt to express and show the flaw and pitfalls. Such as Dallas having to pay for miles, to drive his cab, to get money to pay for miles. Of course, this can also be seen as a mocking of government regulation and intertwining into markets as well.

All in all The Fifth Element has a far deeper movie inside of it, then it shows on the surface and that is by design, it is to lure people in with the lackluster everyman charisma of Bruce Willis, keep their butts in the seats for the actions scenes, and explore other parts of value and story at the same time.

Overall: 7/10

Spoiler Stuff The Fifth Element is love you ding-dongs! The most human thing ever. It is how we connect and interact and how you propagate, and why we do things for selfishness. Love, and by proxy connection are the most human things ever.

There is a thing to be said about connection, in the Movie, our hero is connected to everyone. He is with Leeloo, he meets the priests, Ruby is his 'friend'. Zorg is his boss. He connects. Zorg, our lead villain, doesn't. He never meets most of the named characters, and isn't even aware of his connection to Dallas. He is without real connection, without love to the world around him.

The move presents love as both the romantic and sexual kind, but it is more broad then that, and you can tell by the inclusion of the priests in the context of the narrative. They are vaguely catholic in attire, implying some of the catholic positions on sex and romance, yet they embrace love. Which shows it means love, not specifically romantic, but all love, familial, romantic, platonic.

This movie is old enough that it feels like I don't really need to go over much in terms of the actual spoiler as it seems like, at least to me, everyone is mostly aware of the movie. Yet I wanted to put this sort of section behind it cause I think a bit part of experiencing this movie in particular is this hypothesis on connection.

Battle Drone (2018)

Battle Drone

[3/10 · 13 April 2022]

Do not watch this movie. I feel like that is all that needs to be written about this rather crap-tastic movie. Battle Drone follows six CIA agents with zero personality traits besides 'badass' as they are sent by the US to retrieve a weapons dealer / weapon smuggler in Russia. Only to find themselves betrayed and used as the test for the weapons the US was buying from the target. A squad of Battle Drones. It is where the movie gets the name.

It is 'hardcore' 'badass' action set peices intersplaced with really campy, unorginal drama that ultimately means nothing. The characters are all one dimensional, one note, and meaningless. Honestly, just skip it.

Overall: 3/10

Spoiler Stuff Nothing worth mentioning here.

The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)

The Girl with All the Gifts

[7/10 · 13 April 2022]

The Girl with All the Gifts Reviewed by Tay Rosenberg

The Girl with All the Gifts is a surprisingly great movie. It blindsided me the first time I watched it, it was recommended to me almost randomly and out of the blue by an online friend. When Al told me about it, he refused to go into much detail, but I was interested, and he knows I have a pretty high standard for movies, and as such, I went in expecting a lot.

The opening of the movie didn't impress me, it layered in questions well enough, but it wasn't particularly shot well, nor did it feel special. Going in, I knew this was a zombie movie, and because of it, I thought it was going to be a criticism about losing humanity for the sake of survival with how the kids were being treated.

Then... I was very heavily blindsided by the movie. It suddenly was about a lot more than that, it had a particularly big twist particularly early, right on the exit of act one of the movie, the whole scope and scale of everything happening changes, and the movie opens up and suddenly becomes incredibly engaging.

I won't lie, a lot of the elements of this movie could be better. The script could use a touch more polish, the acting could be better, the camera angles are all pretty flat, in terms of sound nothing really stands out. However, their visual effects, as in the sets and make up are actually pretty good. Even with the weaker elements considered, the movie is good enough that in a single month I watched it four times.

Once by myself after it was recommended to me, then I watched it with one of my roommates. Then I watched it with my other roommate, then I watched it a fourth time with my brother. Honestly, it was worth the watch each time.

I eventually also watched it with my mom and two more friends. And again write before sitting down and putting fingers to keyboard to write about the movie. It is a movie that anyone can really enjoy for whatever they are looking for, whether it be a sci-fi story, a story of survival, or hope, or contradictorily one of hopelessness, I'll explain more under spoilers. For now, this means one thing, the movie's ending has two very easy intriptations that go in completely opposite directions depending on how you view the story.

In short, the movie is either devastatingly dark, or incredibly optimistic with themes about nature, futility, hope, kindness, trust, family, and society. It also asks questions about civilization and humanity, what they mean, what they can mean. The movie doesn't have anything heavy or meaningful to say about authoritarianism or facism as the opening heavily implies, but what little content in that regard that is shown is pretty negative.

Overall: 7/10

Learn more at The Girl with All the Gifts at IMDB

Spoiler Stuff The big spoiler is... The main girl is a zombie, well, part zombie. Sennia Nanua plays Melanie, and she is a child actor, and does a very passable job, but still could be better. She does manage to feel a bit odd, unnatural, and move in ways that aren't fully human at times, but still have the wonder of a child. It isn't perfect, but it isn't bad.

The other thing to note is the end. In the end, mankind is wiped out and the hybrid human zombie children are all that is left and being taught by Helen, the teacher from the compound in the opening. It is hopeful in the sense a new future is happening and being built upon the world that was lost, but it is also a hopeless state as mankind is gonna be extinct.

Watched on: XXXX/XX/XX.

The Ritual (I) (2017)

The Ritual

[5/10 · 11 April 2022]

The Ritual is not a great movie, and never has been, however, I like it. I've watched this movie three times in total, and probably will watch again sometime in the future. It is reliably entertaining to me, but certainly isn't for everyone.

A story of guilt, regrets, broken friendships, and honestly, some good effects late in the movie. I really love the look of this movie, it has a strong visual direction and the transition from past to reality, and then from shallow forest, to magical realm is incredibly well done and transitional.

The bulk of the story is a small band of four university friends get together to pay respects to a friend they lost to a murder/robbery. Luke, the lead character, and the one to witness the death of their friend is really haunted by the guilt and the driving force for them to hike in the Northern Forest of Sweden in his memory. Both to try and honor his memory, and fight his ghosts off. Eventually Dom, one of the four living friends, hurts his leg, and this causes them to go off trail.... And that is the extent of the plot summary I'll give for now.

As I've stated before, the visual design of this movie is incredibly, top notch, it has a great gradual look to it, as scenes transform and blend into the next, and the background always has an aura of telling you the danger, without being obvious. There is no spoiler that this is some Monster in the Woods style horror, and the Monster in question is top notch, very interesting creature design, horrific and majestic. It is one of the few times in movies I can think of where the creature is show the exact right amount.

Long story short, the movie is mostly about guilt, and hate and blaming others. It is strong, I like it, but it isn't a great movie, it has some pretty shallow acting from scene to scene, the cinematography isn't the greatest and the music is lacking.

Overall: 5/10, sometimes a 3

Spoiler Stuff So this movie explores the feelings of Luke, who hid holding his booze while his friend was murdered, and how it has caused him to drift form his friends. This is shown in the opening flashback, but it isn't explored until much later in the movie, after Dom hurts his knee and the group of friends spend a night or two in the woods. Dom reveals he blames Luke exclusively for the death of their friend, because he wanted the drink, because he brought him there, and because if Luke didn't go there, he wouldn't have been there at all.

It explores how this resentment, and the guilt broke their entire friend group, how it rattled them. And how Guilt is not just a feeling, it has a way of shaping reality. The monster, the God of the Forest as it is alluded to, seeks Luke out because of the guilt and hate for himself, it makes him a creature that cannot be understood as well.

There is also a pretty good climax with a lot of fire doing the back lighting and it is cool looking.

Falcon Rising (2014)

Falcon Rising

[6/10 · 11 April 2022]

A 2014 action film, Falcon Rising is perfectly alright. If you are looking for good punchy beat outs, some fast cut and faster paced action scenes, it stands out. Strongly shot fight cinematography with a series of pretty strong looking guys. Falcon Rising lives up to being an 80s action movie made in 2014.

This movie was supposed to be the first in the CODENAME: FALCON franchise following a former marine named John Chapman, also known as the Falcon. Because all gritty marines must have the most bland name humanly possible. In broad strokes, it is a 'gritty' anti-hero movie about a man fighting both demons in human form, and his inner demons.

This movie takes place in the underbelly of Brazil, where Chapman's sister is attacked, and The Falcon is here for revenge, and takes on the drug cartels, sex trafficers, corrupt cops, and crime syndicates of South America. Honestly there isn't a lot to say about the movie, its biggest crime isn't being memorable.

It is alright. Also no south America orange tint which is a pretty nice and good choice, given that most if not all the movie takes place in South America, that orange filter would quickly overstay its welcome.

Overall: 6/10

Spoiler Stuff There is nothing really to say spoiler wise. It plays out pretty directly, except the Yakuza twist which is great.

Nobody (I) (2021)

Nobody

[9/10 · 11 April 2022]

Nobody is a 2021 film starring Bob Odenkirk, one of my favorite actors of the last few years. He, much like Bryan Cranston has proved his metal after years of bit parts and made this role, much like Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul his own. Honestly, this is just a wonderful movie, and you should just go watch it.

The tagline for this movie is, "Never underestimate a nobody." This presents an idea I've always played with and thought about, how good can a thief or assassin be if they are well known? Bob Odenkirk as Hutch is just that he is a nobody, he is a ghost from his days in the military where he coasts on the cover of being an auditor. He is a ghost in a lot of ways.

I'm getting ahead of myself, the acting is top notch, everyone brings a strong performance, and many of the Russians are incredible in character and seemingly loving every minute they are on screen. Bob is reserved when it calls for it, and extremely expressive other times. It is a strong performance, with lots of chemistry all around, some of the weakest chemistry is Hutch (Bob's character) and his wife, but they don't share the most screen time, and have one great scene about Hutch 'missing' her and it helps make the lack of chemistry not feel stilled or odd, but part of these characters that they had grown distant and apart over time.

The special effects are vast, there are so many explosions, muzzle flashes, blood splatters, and shattering windows, and all of it feels... Grounded and strong. There is one part where the blood feels off to me, but I can't say why, but overall I was never taken out by any of the effects besides one trap during the climax that probably shouldn't have worked as perfectly as it did.

The Sound design was amazing, and well structured, every chosen song and silent moment felt heavy and purposeful.

Lastly, we come to cinematography. It was honestly amazing. Every fight scene felt weighty and the punches seemed real. A knife stab felt like a knife stab. The Bus Fight scene made me think of Oldboy (The korean one) and the hallway fight sequence. It was excellently done and I enjoyed it a great deal. One of the highlights for me was that Hutch was hurt, stabbed, limping, that he wasn't just a god of martial arts and combat, but instead was good. Not perfect, just better than some thugs. He was thrown and thrashed about, and his goal was clearly not to kill anyone and he suffered for that.

There is really a lot to love about this movie, sadly the fight scenes do become more unbelievable as time goes on, but they never go so far as to lose the edge of reality, the early fights and action numbers draw you into the world, and accept the rules of this reality, so when you hit those big bombastic later fights, they are nothing, they don't break your suspension of disbelief.

Overall: 9/10

Spoiler Stuff The plot is incredibly simple. It is an action movie, about a former secret service 'auditor' now a nobody who gets into a fight with some thugs that have a tie to the Russian mafia, really the plot writes itself. But we aren't here for that.

The characters are surprisingly in depth and rich, Hutch himself suffering from feeling like he lost his family's respect, his brother and father in law both looking down on him, and all around there is a sense of distance between him and his wife that slowly over time grows smaller, and then she leaves the movie and in the final scene brings back as a new person functionally.

The action sequences are smartly done, and the dialogue is really top notch, the bad guy of the movie never feels outclassed or outmatched and in fact seems like Hutch's equal in terms of skill most of the movie. Just one side training, and the other raw cold violence. They are dark mirrors of one another and it is pretty strong.

Christopher Lloyd, playing Hutch's father David, has a great scene involving a shotgun and watching westerns, where two russian mobsters show up to kill him, and, one is disarmed by a swift grab of his hand gun, with David's finger blocking the hammer, and the other is blasted with a shotgun at close range. When the orderly at the nursing home comes to check, he has cleaned up just enough for it to look like he was watching a western just a little too loudly. It is smart, not perfectly so, but it is smart, most scenes feel like they had the continuity and consequences of it thought about.

Go watch it. I don't want to give any more scenes away because they are why you should watch. Go do it.

Namoo (2021)

Namoo

[8/10 · 11 April 2022]

Namoo is something different, a 12 minute short, described as a visual poem. Written and directed by Erick Oh created by Baobab Studios. It is a 2021 film from South Korea, a surprisingly large amount of cinema seems to be coming from there these days.

As of writing this originally, I watched Namoo three times. It is a strange and serial experience. I watched it the first time not sure what to expect and I found myself feeling sorrow, and hope and celebration of life. It was a powerful if short bit of art, I was kind of moved. I watched it again the following day and tried to restructure my thoughts and see if I still felt it was as whimsical and fantastical this time. It kept the charm, but it seemed more like a love letter and a good-bye this time around. It felt like a celebration of every step of someone's life, even the gritty and bad parts, only to see them depart to the heavens above. It was more charming this time since I had a better appreciation and more time to think about and look at the visuals, and try and understand what it all meant.

Then just before my third watching, I looked up what the movie was supposed to mean, what the intuition of Erick Oh was, and I was touched to find, it is a and I quote "Celebration of a grandfather's passing, looking at his life as a budding artist from start to end". It explains the love letter aspect of it, the celebration and the goodbye. I felt like it was communicated very well, and very strongly.

I don't want to call this snapshot of a film a perfect experience, but it is something that is perfectly sized and perfectly emotional for a viewing and at only 12 minutes, it is worth it. It made me recognize how important it is for us, the living, to hold onto the memories of those who are gone, we are their legacy, and for them, we carry on.

Overall: 8.5/10.

#Alive (2020)

#Alive

[6/10 · 11 April 2022]

From, what I consider a growing market of excellent movies, South Korea, #Alive is a very interesting take on the zombie apocalypse genre, full of mostly interesting stuff and dynamics, and does a lot with very little. I wouldn't say the movie is perfect by any stretch, but I'd say it is pretty worth watching.

First a thank you to Netflix for distributing it, and once more having something good on their streaming platform that has genuine interesting premise or design, an increasing rarity as Netflix has no quality control what-so-ever as shown by their adaptation of Death Note, Cowboy Bebop, Dear White People, and so many other just bad bad entertainment. After all, a hate watch is still a watch.

#Alive, or for the sake of my sanity, just Alive from now on, is a suspense thriller horror movie containing elements of action and drama with a pretty entertaining promise. The film revolves around Oh Joon-woo, a video game live streamer's struggle for survival as he is forced to stay alone at his apartment in Seoul during a zombie apocalypse. It plays a lot with the idea of fighting the undead in reality is nothing like in games, to the point the few times when Oh Joon-woo ventures out of his apartment to fight he often does little damage to the undead, or even panics and gives up for the sake of his survival. It shows how much a person gets burned out by constant new broadcasts that give no new information, and tells a person in a dire strait to stay strong and other pointless pleasantries.

Later on in the movie it introduces a few other characters, but this movie really emphasizes the less is more aspects of character development where the whole movie really only ever really has three characters. The main character, the mysterious girl across the apartment building and the spoiler man. Without spoiling much, the movie is honestly very good with a strong cast of one character for the majority of the movie, who, when the cast expands to two, have limited communication before plateauing into a climax. It is a pretty strong movie, and it is carried greatly on the acting chops of Yoo Ah-in.

Technically the movie has very competent effects, there aren't a lot of scenes that have ritz or dazzle, and all the scenes are well constructed, and when it does have CGI or special effects in any major way they work, they aren't special, but they are grounded and realistic. The makeup and prop work for the zombies is all around pretty good, there are a few scenes of the zombies 'feeding' that if the viewer notices that there is no tearing and it is all just red paint being spread and smooched around can take them out of the scene, but overall, it all works.

All in all the movie is pretty good, 6 out of 10 territory, you won't regret watching it, but you probably won't watch it again. I recommend subtitles and the original Korean personally, but the English dub is very passable and pretty good.

Spoiler Stuff There is not a lot of nuance or special depths to this movie, the third act has a pretty stupid twist that is easy to call where when the Main Character and his friend (not love interest which is a nice twist) head ot the 8th floor they meet the spoiler man who tries to feed them to his zombie wife, to me, personally, this was a bad choice of direction, but I tried not to hold it against the movie.

The final scene is predictable as well, with our two characters on the roof screaming for helicopters that passed them by, only for the door to break and a flood of undead to rush towards them, and at the last possible second, gunfire from a passing helicopter to save their lives. It is a good and strong scene, it is predictable, and you can feel it coming but it was like a smooth drink of water, it hit the right spots.

I am however getting very much ahead of myself, the story centers on Oh Joon-woo and has a lot of very strong scenes of the character struggling to survive, and push himself forward. Including a suicide attempt, a time walking outside of his apartment in another suicide attempt, and just gerneally struggling with 20 days of isolation and nothing but the undead.

It is after he runs out of food, and is about to kill himself that he is spotted by the girl across the apartment courtyard / parking lot, and the two start communicating with signs, and a laser light. It is nice to see how human contact saved his life over some romantic airs or love.

The movie then follows the two of them struggling and learning more and more about each other, and how strong and skills she is, and how resourceful he is. An example comes in: she makes too much noise as a horde is near her door and they start to pound upon it, only for Oh to call her neighbor's house to lure them away. It is a good dynamic, where Oh Joon-woo, despite having a lower skill ceiling than her, still wants to live just as badly, so the two are able to work together in meaningful ways.

Antlers (2021)

Antlers

[5/10 · 11 April 2022]

Antlers is a movie that is more interesting the less you know about it. The less answers it gives you the better the movie is. However, Antlers as a film never realized that by giving the answer at the halfway point, the rest of the movie would suffer.

I won't say the 'twist' but from the name alone, and the movie very quickly tells you, it shows everything the movie has to offer plot wise. As far as a horror movie goes, it is fine. It is acceptable, it doesn't have anything as fun or memorable as Nightmare on Elm Streets one lines, or a scream queen, but it isn't so bad it is laughable, it is, fine, maybe even good at times.

Sound design is good enough, passing, not really great, not really bad, most of the time, you won't even notice it...

The best part of this movie is the special effects, and gore. I'm not a gorehound, I dont need blood, guys, and rock and roll to be happy, but realistic looking gore is nice, it adds an element of greatness to an otherwise cookie cutter movie. The best aspect of the movie is by far the supernatural monster design. I don't know if it is fully practical, but it moved with weight and was part of the scene, the actors could react to it. It is cool, and honestly in a scene in the woods soon after the creature is shamelessly introduced the viewer get a full view of the creature and it is seen, and it holds up.

Overall: 5/10

Spoiler Stuff It is a wendigo, that is the plot. Native American folklore hungry monster. The premise of the strange boy whose father and brother haven't been seen in a long time, and the nosy teacher is a nice twist on it, but it is all a vehicle for hungry time.

That is the only spoiler.

Don't Look Up (2021)

Don't Look Up

[8/10 · 11 April 2022]

From the legendary production companies of Hyperobject Industries and Bluegrass Films comes... An actual good Netflix distributed original. Netflix has earned a reputation for putting up nearly anything made cheaply so long as it looks like it will get enough traffic either from genuine interest or from hate watches, and this is one of those movies that I would hope earned enough love from genuine interest.

Don't Look Up is a comedy and certainly presents itself as one, but it is also a biting political satire, and a misanthropic piece that highlights a lot of the failings of mankind as a whole. It shines a spotlight on corporate greed, political cronyism, the close and incestual ties between all industries and modern government, while keeping it, to quote two of the characters in the movie, 'Keeping it light.'. That really is the motto of the movie, it is keeping it light while hitting the audience with heavy heavy doses of harsh cynical reality that is only slightly out of touch thanks to the Hollywood bubble.

Off the top of my head, it made fun of conspiracy theorists, the news media, Trust The Science, Trump, Hillary, Joe Biden, Apple, Steve Jobs, Celebrity culture, social media. Though at times it felt like it leaned a bit more into a bias then other times, it very clearly was highlighting in a way, that bad and corrupt people claim to the top, and more modest people climb into what they care about, let me explain a bit more-

People who look for power, always will get more power then people who are looking for family, job satisfaction, or following some sort of dream, and that is a message that rings true in a lot of the portrayals of the powerful in this movie, from belligerent and fake pop stars, to the president and her staff, and even a minor character in the form of a three star general that gives the best joke. Those who seek power and more and more and more, really will never stop. They cannot be satisfied, and never will be.

I'm hesitant to speak about any part of the movie in great detail because it is phenomenally good. I suppose if I had to say anything about it, I'd say it is hopefully misanthropic, as in the general world and general population of humanity is bad, spiteful and not worth one's thoughts, but our 'heroes' such as Dr. Mindy, Teddy, and Kate, they are hopeful, they show us better people then the common person, and will go out of their way to do what is right. Even minor characters or characters introduced late into the movie show us this hopeful look at the individual, and how they can stand up even in a world worthy of apathy, and in the end, have a good final moment.

Without spoiling much, there is a scene, where a character is told how he is gonna die, and, despite the near 100 percent accuracy of said prediction, in the end he defies it, he forges a new future for himself and it meant something to me, and I think it may mean something to you.

Technically the movie has very competent effects, there aren't a lot of scenes that have ritz or dazzle, and all the scenes are well constructed, and when it does have CGI or special effects in any major way they work, they aren't special, but they are grounded and realistic.

All in all the movie is amazing, I have never been the largest fan of numeric grading systems as they come to be rather reductivist, but because I do not wish to say anything too spoiler about this movie, take it as an 8 out of ten and just go watch it.

Spoiler Stuff In more depth, the movie follows Dr. Mindy and Kate, they are the two low-level astronomers who come off as incredibly realistic and believable people, they both were content with quiet specs of life.

Early in the movie after Kate discovers the comet that is headed towards earth to kill all life, Dr. Mindy does what he can to distance himself from it, explaining he studies gasses on dead planets, and it highlights how little he wanted to be in the spotlight, but soon, the two have a meeting with the President over the event, and how in six months the world will end.

The characters, to me, quickly start to mirror Ted and Ellen from "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" A short story and video game, it really highlights the futility of their journey, and how much they can't do anything and how the world is amused by their struggle but ultimately will do nothing to help them.

Dr. Mindy has bits of Ted and Ellen mixed into him, most certainly he has the Ted mentality that the world isn't changing him, despite the clear evidence to the contrary, and like Ellen he longs for physical contact, and someone to almost take his lust and sexuality as gift and wonder, and embrace it in a way that makes him feel not just noticed, but alive, powerful and important. Ultimately, sex for both Dr. Mindy and Ellen come to mean the same thing, pleasure to fight off the hopeless futility that is coming upon them, he masks himself in that pleasure and the romance of it, and the no strings attached wildness in the movie to more assure himself that the world isn't over, that it isn't going to end, but eventually that doesn't work, as first his personal world comes crashing down, and then, the world proper does. His moment of redemption is much like Ted as well, where he turns down salvation in order to do the right or at least moral thing. In I have No Mouth, Ted elects to kill his companions to save them the struggle and torture of their world, and in Don't Look Up, Dr. Mindy chooses to die among them rather than to flee to space with the president and Peter T. Both of these choices are hopefully bleak, they are sad, and unfortunate, but speak to the inner resolve of an individual.

Kate, shares more with Ted and Ellen, but has traits with both as well, as well as the other characters, namely, Gorrister. In the short story and game Gorrister was once an idealist and pacifist that thanks to AM, the computer god of their world, reduced to an apathetic and pathetic creature. Kate is studying to be a doctor, and is a PHD candidate, Dr. Mindy never fails to remind us as the audience that she had a big and bright and idealistic future, and very quickly in the narrative of the movie she is beaten down, in fact her first first appearance on the news leads to an outburst, and then her becoming an increasingly disaffected and apathetic person.

However, like Ellen, Kate eventually finds companionship that makes the world less harsh in the form of a punk named Yule. A surprisingly deep and charming character but not overall very important to the story or narrative beyond offering comfort to Kate, and close to the final scene, a prayer for everyone to help them accept the end. The movie is really carried by these two characters and their relationships with those around them, as well as the humor and absurdity of the world.

Like I said, the movie is dark, everyone dies, but it is hopeful because it tells the audience that even in the face of certain armageddon you can stand up to try and do the right thing.

Rating and Recommendation Highly recommended, it is an incredible movie.