I was well aware that this "Death Note" was going to be a liberal adaptation of the source material but by the midpoint my patience ran out: whhhhhyyyy u do dis? This is coming from someone who associated the name "Adam Wingard" with good movies (up until Blair Witch anyways) and is not only here because of the anime avatar... He pretty much added insult to the injury by adding misguided gore effects, neon-lightning and picking the wrong songs to cue.
According to interviews the IP has been passed around in the industry for a while and has been rewritten a bunch during this (and it shows). So who exactly at Netflix figured this would reach a broader audience than the anime already did when they're replacing the core dynamics and traits that made it popular outside it's medium in the first place? Really disappointed with this... it's just a half backed adaptation restrained by it's need to keep the characters while going for a direction that doesn't really lend to them (the note could have fallen into the hands of ANYONE, no need to butcher). 90 minutes is also way to short as the flow is terrible.
Enjoyable for the visuals and setting (which is thanks to the comics I guess) but loaded with tons of issues; bad chemestry from the leads, story gets worse by the minute, needless exposition dumps, plot holes, predictable, shilling social commentary (6 million... like really wow?) and a side story for Rihanna that adds nothing to the movie except runtime.
https://medium.com/@Simon_Barrett/temple-or-why-i-don-t-know-what-that-project-is-any-more-than-you-do-eb2fd1822cd
This movie is quite a whacky supernatural slasher with some great moments but is ultimately held back by brain-meltingly dumb dialogue and character interactions which certainly are not the result of self-awareness.
I wanted to attend a screening of "Grave" (now re-titled to "Raw") almost a year ago from today but it was canceled so I have been looking forward to it's regular release ever since. The general press continued to hype this up, the trailer looked quite dope and even Mondo jumped on the wagon doing the OST pressings... expectations high [✓] (check).
As one can already see by my rating they were not met at all... I was even more so offended that it got that much praise. Frankly put: the movie sucks.
I don't quite understand what it is that some people saw in this... maybe they're vegetarians or just got distracted by the shlock.
The so-so concept which consists of elements all done before is terribly under baked. The changes occurring in the main girl are not really grounded in her character but rely on music or shlock scenes to progress but even with those I feel duped. Nothing in the setting helps to support the story (and it's nonsense) and instead makes the whole thing seem even more unrealistic and distracts with some overly edgy bullshit.
As the movie progresses it just falls apart even more and looses it's focus, building towards a tonally misguided ending. It almost felt like a joke.
The only positive thing I can say that the cinematography is quite good for the most part ¯_(ツ)_/¯...
This "documentary" is a co-product of the filmmakers radio show called "VHS Massacre". In that regard the title is a bit misleading. While it has some semi-interesting interviews here it really doesn't offer much insight. It's structured very poorly and is quite amateurish at times (bad mic, wrong facts, segments with no relevancy, stats with seemingly no real basis). There is also some meta advertisement going on for their other films (even a trailer is shown). If you want to watch a doc about VHS go check out "Rewind This!".
While Tragedy Girls was funny at times it failed to really connect the opening act to the rest of the story for which I was waiting on... Could also have done without the obligatory #teenagedrama BS.
"Dead Shack" clearly sets out to be "your" midnight movie... it just frequently falls flat. I'm not sure if the movie operates on multiple layers of irony as the script is sometimes so bad that it couldn't be anything but intentional. While there is fun to be had I just cannot rate this neutral based on some scenes.
- The drunken dad checking out the place is just pushing it too hard...
- Of course there is a shack with "cool gear" and weapons to stock up... I could have looked past this if the follow-up scenes weren't so anti-climatic (the gang vs. the zombie doggies).
- There are a lot of "stiff" character scenes in it but no one reacting immediatley to their dead dad? wtf
- Ending the movie with a call from Jason's mom when this topic was already only shoehorned in previously and completly undermining the "family drama" of Colin and Summer...
- Oh... and the synth OST did not fit into most scenes :(.
I feel like the choice of poster is going to mislead quite a lot of people about what kind of movie they're going to watch ;). Anyways, not bad but it was a bit contrived and had mediocre payoff.
OKish all female horror anthology that shows that regardless of gender they're always a rocky ride.
The Box is easily the best of the bunch but is based on a Jack Ketchum story so it's sort of a cheat when the selection criteria was a female director, lead and writer ;).
The Birthday Cake as the followup was mostly bad. While the final scene is great, everything building up to it is a tired formula spliced with an unfunny comedy. The standout was the terrible music editing which tried really hard to make things more interesting than they really were. Picking St. Vincent as one of the directors seems to have been a marketing decision primarily.
Don't Fall was the most straightforward "horror" of the four but doesn't have much to set it apart besides some stylish shots.
Her Only Living Son as the closer didn't offer any innovation either but was competently directed.
(If you were confused like me: the movie had initially planned segments by Jennifer Lynch and the Soska Sisters but they dropped out)
The recent batch of "horrorish" VOD releases I checked out were all quite lackluster. In a way this one is too but it was at least for the most part entertaining to watch. Still lots of dumb decisions, predictable events (couldn't the mask be more obviously different(?)), questionable acting and an antagonist who doesn't seem to have a lot of logic in his revenge.
That was disappointing. The movie has an oldschool lo-fi aesthetic but isn't providing the necessary punches one would hope. Kinda hard to build an atmosphere when the acting and FX are poor. While retaining some of the sinister gore of the series it's usually "created" offscreen. Story elements were frequently changed and hurt the mystery aspect. Better stick to the anime OVAs which do more in less time...
This was bad! A total snooze fest with terrible acting and a shitty story that lacks any logic. If this didn't actually have Japanese producers behind I would even call it offensive... As pointed out in my previous comment on here: Barrett based his screenplay on a story of J.T. Petty but never got the full payment (back then) nor heard anything about it's further development. The credits now show three of the producers with the "Story by" and also Eiji Otsuka as an adviser who apparently was also supposed to write a book with a chapter about this Temple which then would then get adapted by Toei Animation. J.T. Petty is a "special thanks" btw.. Not really surprised this turned out as it did.
In my never ending naivety of trying out not too shabby looking found footage movies I gave this one a try. As @kingkon_nl already pointed out this isn't one for the highlight reel. My problem isn't necessarily with the poor FX or the bad acting (Jamal is just as bonkers behind the camera) but the way this all plays out. Instead of devoting time to the process of finding the three supposed specimen the movie cares more about setting up the internal drama of the crew. Their "amazing" project then ends up being 1:1 interviews with each of them in a creepy location. It's no surprise to anyone that things obviously go wrong but even this is in sequence; ohhh nooo, the skinwalker is running after us ---- ohhh noooo, the vampire is attacking ----- oh noooo, there's a demon here. The time devoted to the "ohhhh noooo" part of the movie is actually quite lengthy but also what was the final turnoff for me... how the hell do you make those so boring? It's like 40 minutes of night vision and just running from things. The only semi interesting moment was with the demon (the fog was a cool effect, not the CG however) but even that resulted in nothing.
I don't think this would even scare the "Lifetime" audience. zZz
Quite a lot of wrong data from people thinking this is the TV show huh?
Anyways, I've had Viking on my watchlist for a while since I thought the trailer looked quite nice and given that it's a Russian production it would certainly be unique. And unique it was... as this was quite a huge production (6 years) centered around not much of a story and a lot of nonsense. To be fair... I hardly grasped the initial setup from the intro given the subtitles speed but subsequent scenes made it quite clear that this was mainly a background for battle sequences (alongside Vikings) which are not exactly all that good either.
Vladimir as the hero of the story does little to carry this along and is often just seen failing at this job. After a certain, quite moronic, battle in support of Vladimir's Jesus-esque look I just stopped caring and switched to my bad movie goggles to enjoy the rest. So yes, the bad IMDB reviews are not just from stuck up Russians hating solely on the historical accuracy.
This wasn't worth my time... A more light-hearted tone seems to be more James Gunn's forte given his previous efforts. What should have been the major drawing point of the movie - the massacre - has zero creativity or fun to it. It's executed as memorable as any of the characters. It is really too shallow to warrant any other direction anyways. The ending is also sad sequel bait.
Greg McLean didn't do much wrong here but then, he seemed to be willing to direct this :(?
You gotta be some kind of a madman to make the decision to adapt something like Waita Uziga's work. Penning stories in the field of ero guro they feature NSFL type content filled with all kinds of depravities you cannot even try to reenact legally with real humans. It's no surprise really that the "ero" part gets reduced down to just naked bodies and only slightly suggestive content with plenty of "guro". Since the original '"'"story"'"' would suffer too much from those changes this adaptation can be viewed as another side story involving the titular maid and is actually closer to the prototype of the infamous work. But yeah, this makes one of the possibly most disturbing films ever just what it is... an amateurishly directed movie with girls drenched in corn syrup biting on pig intestines. This is certainly repulsive at times but really pretty tame when compared to what other films already did.
Neither horror nor arthouse... Not even going to pretend the premise COULD have been interesting. Terrible pacing, superficial "drama" angle, dumb actions and not packing any punch (among the most obvious fake violence I've seen recently). I think everyone knows what the film is getting at but at least try to make it worthwhile in execution... otherwise looking at the poster is mission accomplished.
Also... no idea what's going on with the reviews but this seems like shilling from outer space.
Minus points for making me want to turn it off more than once
To my surprise this movie wasn't half bad and features entertaining violence but it really needed something extra to complete the package.
The fuck is this movie? I was expecting voodoo... but hey, that's not really on the cover ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
Like many of the bad found footage films nothing interesting is happening until 2/3rds into the movie however in this particular case it goes absolutely bonkers. I mean I was sort of impressed at their attempt to create the hellscapes but a low budget production and clumsy film making aren't going to cut it. They built their own set (which was quite obvious) and they certainly liked it thus it got reused non-stop, just like the mediocre lead actress's "range" (just doin' some screaming y'all). Many of the scenes ended up being more silly than anything but still quite unpredictable and thus still interesting to watch. The included obscenities and ending helped the atmosphere of the setting but it's also part of why I'm highly confused... the mythology is non-sense. There is some pseudo voodoo in this - probably - I don't know really because last time I checked you do not use a philosopher's stone in voodoo... there are also ghosts(?) and once everything goes to shit there is just every random satanic imagery at play you can think of but then Satan himself sits on a throne with a philosopher's stone??? I give up really. You probably shouldn't watch this.
This turned out worse than it should have but maybe it's that SyFy thing. There is hardly a plot in this and plays more like an extended TV pilot except that it actually should have been a sequel to a damn good vampire movie. Also there are not one but three kidnappings in the first half hour... so diverse!
I appreciate the ride offered and was entertained by "Arrival" but if this came in any less competent package my rating would be much lower.
Instead of relying on explosions as other Hollywood titles of this kind do were instead focusing on an outer space mystery while still not presenting "human characters"* which is something the story asked for (they're all just a backdrop to for our Mary Sue anyways). Tying into this does the world building which was questionable at best along with quite a few stupid people in charge.
*Might also mention the usage of Max Richter's "Nature of Daylight" here; it does not magically conjure emotional connections for your characters on screen and I would even go as far and say that it's not at all suitable as a complementary track (the use in the opening sequence was esp. awful imho).
Thought I give the second feature from "that kid who had a film in festivals at 14" a shot... Turns out he does not seem to aim far beyond the straight-to-DVD pile.
I mean at first I was sort of impressed that the age doesn't show in the direction but that didn't last for very long. I guess to make it less generic the found-footage "horror" gets interwoven with a police investigation of the crimes but instead of amping up the tension it just made everything a lot dumber. That police office is certainly among the most pathetic ones on film but they don't really fall out of place in a movie where not a single character (be it a good or bad guy) has a functioning brain.
It's great that this guy gets active at a young age but if it doesn't make sense on paper it certainly won't on film (and can we at least TRY to get found-footage right).
While there is competence at display here we still get the same tired zombie formula dictating the structure of the movie. Not that you need to reinvent the genre to make an enjoyable flick but I really can't look past it's awful third act which tore it all down for me.
Before watching this I actually thought this was supposed to be a documentary. Danielle Macdonald is great in this and helps to carry the movie but whatever "outsider" angle this was supposed to have (including the Death Grips meme) gets lost in a cliché storyline that is a tad too "Disney".
While in concept the short is quite simple it features some nice colorful animation with a good flow. Apparently online on the 14th too :)!
You can really feel the passion behind this... not.
Some really fancy set design and horrific murders to see here but I would be lying if I said I wasn't bored at times. It's also hard to be surprised by the outcome when the story is framed as it is.
Some men love trees huh?
2017-01-01T00:00:00Z2017-12-31T23:59:59Z