Aka Four Shallow Tropes and a MacGuffin.
This episode just annoys me. It's right down there with the worst holodeck episodes. 100% filler episode.
The dialogue feels like it’s improvised by a bunch of first year drama students. Things happen and the reactions feel like they’re all at the wrong scale. “OH MY GOD MY BOYFRIEND BLEW UP! OH WELL.”
Are you fucking kidding me?
"EXTRAORDINARY BELIEFS - WEAPONIZE YOUR CURIOSITY"
More like "Weaponize your stupidity."
"Armed with a patient, a scalpel, black lights, and a stud finder, I was eager to verify the authenticity of this alleged offworld implant technology" says the credulous narrator.
"It's not broadcasting in this electromagnetic spectrum at all, but is using scalar wave technology and then when we use our electromagnetic devices and pick up a radio wave, we're actually reading a harmonic." - Doctor Roger Leir.
"It is alleged that many of these mysterious that Dr. Leir and his team have removed display bizarre characteristics, such as having nano-topography and having metallic compositions described by some labs as exotic meteorite material, not having been forged in the furnace of our own sun." - Film-maker, credulous moron. What lab would describe anything like that? That's insane.
They pull what looks like a pencil lead out of some guy's leg. The lab shows it's "almost entirely carbon." Which likely means that he was stabbed by a pencil in school, forgot about it. Big mystery.
The microscopy guy is a True Believer, though. "Undoubtedly nanotechnological from offplanet."
Then, the film-maker starts editorializing, asking leading questions of the people to further lead them down the path of crazy.
Bad film-making, bad documentary, bad narration. If only there was a lower rating than one star.
Opening scene in a book store, and the customer is asking the proprietor in an antique book store for an Acting For Dummies book. Neither is doing well in this scene, but one of the actors believes he is.
This does not bode well.
Wanted the walkers to eat Costner's head so this mess would wrap up sooner.
The ending isn't "ambiguous" as the film makers assert in the commentary. It's lazy. They didn't know what the Hell they were doing with the story. Ramble ramble ramble, we're getting too long quick! Go to black!
I was less than impressed initially with Paul's revealing all the people he's killed as he prepares to do away with the man who's been holding him hostage.
Then, the odd lack of evidence and the back-and-forth with the officers...
Then the real ending.
Not bad, showing the false ending as a bit pulpy, whether intentional or not, it worked.
Predictable, unsympathetic characters written so shallow, less than caricatures.
Felt a good 45 minutes too long, and that's impressive for a film with less than 90 minutes of story.
Yeah, we get it, his pal is dead. Stop beating us up with it.
Rejected tagline: "Lead poisoning's a bitch."
It's very much a "Made in Vancouver, made for TV" film.
There are some good performances hiding here, but they're largely irrelevant. It's not even a little bit subtle, with 30 minutes of story stretched past the breaking point.
Largely pointless. There's a chase sequence where I just want the heroes to smash into a building and bring everything to a merciful ending.
Little more than an adolescent rape fantasy. More thought went into the synopsis than into the script.
A film of schadenfreude with not nearly enough about the tulip market as I expected. It's little more than a McGuffin to insert some hard luck into stupid peoples' lives. I'm not sure if Sophia was meant to be completely unlikeable and one dimensional, but if that was the intent, mission accomplished. The Maria and Willem ending was about the only possible one that wouldn't have felt completely false,
yet... nobody wins in this film, least of all the audience.
The trouble with anthologies connected story films like this? There's always one or two that are really bad, often feel wedged in...
Like the incredibly stupid middle with the emergency room. Dumb dumb dumb.
Haunted by a ghost, then by a ghosthunter. Keeps seeming like it's going somewhere, never really does.
Film includes the line "Space Honky"
Yeah.
Yeah, and then the two survivors spend time in prison on conspiracy charges, interfering with bodies, etc. May as well finish the story at that point.
Side characters added without any reason - did the film maker owe favours to the actors playing family and Ben? They serve no purpose in the film at all.
Helen Rogers provided about the only believable character portrayal in the whole thing. The red and black poster for the film was better than the other two women's acting.
The Cloverfield Trolley Problem
Would you kill 3 people to save billions?
Annoying as fuck. So, mission accomplished?
Somehow looks both low budget and high budget at the same time... I didn't really find much redeeming here, but my five year old was a fan, cheering on Woody at the end. Even then, I don't think he'd even bother re-watching.
The first 40 minutes contain a whole lot of "It never occured to me what was really happening" - a fair bit of story, but this attempt to build suspense is silly in a documentary like this.
I could have done without the ending monologue and the whole classical guitar bit showing Ben seeing all the other sleepwalkers in their day bodies.
I think there's the core of a very good story idea, but the script feels like an early draft. The film also suffers by acting school talent in supporting roles, like Ben's manager.
Much of the third act pisses me off, especially when everyone becomes Spartacus.
I'm a bit disappointed that it's cut up so much. Sure, it's nice that there's shots and calls back to the development and practice of the routines, but I'd rather see more, wider shots of the performances.
I'm guessing it's a cover of Rashomon w/ Millennials
Dominic Monaghan seems to believe he's in a crazy future world, but Sarah Habel doesn't. She seems to be playing an actor playing the role. It doesn't feel right at all. I can forgive set issues and plot issues to a degree, but when a primary actor doesn't buy it, it's hard to take.
I have a thing where I try to finish watching films, regardless of how bad they are. Even the worst films can have aspects that are enjoyable. I watched nearly half, and it just wasn't turning around at all. Unappealing start to finish. Nothing engaging or interesting.
Dissident books flee the United States of America to go to Canada, escaping the book burning Salamanders.
A book is killed, and they speak of that work being 'lost to humanity.'
If the US is the only nation (or one of a number) with the book burners, then surely there are other nations with libraries or used book shops.
I enjoyed the film for what it was, on its own - a revenge action film. The only real problems I have are in the third act, and that's a shitty place to lose the script.
The detectives are determined to find the vigilante killer, and then are basically "Oh, it was you, we know it, but LOL, whatev!" Sloppy doc left bloody fingerprints on pretty much everything everywhere he went, like the guitar in the pawn shop. This becomes not so much a story of a man's revenge as it does a case of sloppy detectives who I can only imagine must drink a lot. Then, there's the matter of the weapon conveniently stored in the table in the basement like he just knew that's where he'd be surprised by the big bad.
Up until that point, only a couple eye-rolls, but all in all, enjoyable. Not worth re-watching.
Edit: I watched The Foreigner later in the day, and it's a much better revenge film and a MUCH better action film. https://trakt.tv/movies/the-foreigner-2017
I think the first part was enough for me. Over two more hours? I'm picturing a whole lot more redundant talking heads slowly re-stating everything we've already been told.
