Impressive little short both in terms of execution but also the basic idea and songs.
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 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).
While in concept the short is quite simple it features some nice colorful animation with a good flow. Apparently online on the 14th too :)!
Never having read the manga I think Miike does a great job with the movie (his 100th feature film :o). If you're up for 140 minutes of Sword play you will not be mad. For those concerned with the fact that it's based on a manga shouldn't worry that much. The fantasy aspects are quite small in this and it strips the manga-esque progression (1v1 fights) towards the end delivers action similar in scope of his 13 Assassins.
(I attribute Rin's uselessness to the manga)
This movie kind of takes the premise of "The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon" and applies it with a zombie and does this really well up until the midpoint where it's starts to get a lot less inspired. Just like with Extraterrestrial there seems to have been an issue with finding an ending... and here we had like 3 or 4 moments where it could have ended only to be extend further to spoon feed everything we already know with no value added to the character arc... If you turn off the movie at the point you feel this is the end it would probably be more enjoyable ;)... I put my rating nicely as I still liked the premise quite a bit.
I also want to note that both Brittany Allen and Juan Riedinger deliver strong performances which really help to sell the movie.
Quite a funny adaptation of the director's own screenplay with the same cast which performed it.
Quite a thematic leap from Giddens Ko debut but still a lot to like here. The story involves varying types of 'monsters' including literal ones and concerns itself with school bullying. While it is a bit too overdrawn and provides little insight into the issue the package still works for an entertaining movie. One would also be surprised by how much gore is in this.
This will premiere in Switzerland on the 2nd of July and I ain't even mad about it <3.
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.
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.
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".
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.
A good looking coming of age story whose primary romance is just too overplayed to warrant the events.
This gets a pass for a slightly original story with at least some competence. The lead helps a bit with the suspension of disbelief required which is one of the bigger issues in the movie (found footage school failed).
A decent collection of indie horror shorts.
While Bitch starts out quite gloomy it relatively quickly goes for a more light-hearthed approach to the drama at hand. It feels quite jumbled and not weird enough given that the mom becomes a dog but it still ends up being a decent family film (?) that is quite funny at times.
(Jason Ritter is a pretty good dog too.)
More reliant on atmosphere than any plot the movie works pretty well for most of it's runtime. It however eventually takes the turn one would expect only to then return to "The Darkness" again. If you can live with the mystery that is fine, if not this is going to suck.
OKish documentary about NMB48 and associated 48-idol groups. This was commissioned by the company behind the empire but with the intent to do things a bit differently (this isn't the first documentary about them which they produced).
The framing follows an outsider's perspective of the idol industry which reflects the the director's standpoint. If you're new to the topic it certainly fulfills it's duty but otherwise you'll be missing an element here. I would have loved to see a bit more of the drama elements behind the scenes (caused by the hierarchy) but I can see that this probably wasn't the context for it. Note that despite the production background it still highlights many of the shady areas of the industry (only one scene needed to be left out).
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.
To my surprise this movie wasn't half bad and features entertaining violence but it really needed something extra to complete the package.
Some men love trees huh?
A slightly different take than the first Meatball Machine as in showcasing the build up of the many "hosts" for the aliens but kinda dulls out with all the craziness and the oh-so-many weapons they inherit. Still a lot of red and whackyness to see however... which are sort of the only checkboxes Nishimura has to tick anyways.
An unconventional narrative structure with attempts of adding more character to stereotypes doesn't really help out when it all builds towards the same predictable results we already know of.
Kinda half-baked imho. Needed a stronger tie into the camera to really work. As it stands it's quite ambiguous and has some plot holes.
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!".
"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 :(.
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 :(?
2017-01-01T00:00:00Z2017-12-31T23:59:59Z