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A Hologram for the King (2016)
Too many loose ends, trying to score on every level
This was just a waste of time to watch. It all started fine with the Talking Heads intro, but it soon tried to copy parts of Lost in Translation, a mid-life crisis, fear for the need to perform and a lot of stories on it's own that didn't get explained at all. So, you have this guy (Tom Hanks) who is send to Saudi Arabia, with an unclear assignment, always being late on work, and therefor meeting some paranoid guy with an ipod in his car. For some reason these 2 guys get in a very shallow relation, based on Tom Hanks being driven to some near-future project that has no foundation at all. He meets a doctor, because of a big lump on his back, he meets strange people who seem to live in luxury appartements without any connection to the outside world, he gets involved with the driver, who wants to escape from an alleged adultery, being driven to a distant village, where they are to shoot a wolf, and he finally gets in a relationship with the doctor that treated his lump. Really? This is the story..
The Russian Woodpecker (2015)
Conspiracy story
I know, it's not a popular review. Today, I had the good fortune to watch this, while there's a referendum going on between the Dutch and Ukraine. This film was part of the pro politics.
First of all, understand that Fedor was introduced as either a stranger, not from this world, or a genius (the last, if you're smart apparently).
Then he unveils his possible idea of how thing went in the Tjernobyl disaster of 1986. In his theory he links Sovietpolitics with a coordinated nuclear disaster to cover up tracks. This part seems promising at first. With that he caught my interest.
But soon you will find yourself wondering that what it lacks, is the search for truth, and to find documents. It's not going to happen. No hard evidence. It's all a bit weak and based on ideas (his idea to be specific).
One would say that a lot had been said and written on the matter over the course of 30 years after Tjernobyl..
Then he is concerned that some KGB/FSB service will come and look for him, as soon as he's requesting documents. So....., he doesn't. He's a bit paranoid in this phase.
Then the Maidan revolution breaks out, and all of a sudden, he has no problem whatsoever to tell his 'Tjernobyltruth' as a fact.. Because Moscow has been doing this since the beginning of the Soviet Union for some reason. He even relates events in the order of Holodomor (Stalin), Tjernobyl (Gorbatsjov), and finally Maidan (Putin), and summarizes this as 'Moscow behavior'.
I would consider this as biased propaganda or a conspiracy theory at best, as there's no backing of his story. It was very disappointing, he should be able to do better.
La strada di Levi (2006)
a sightseeing trip through Levi's journey
If you're into old communist artifacts and a fast road story through the former USSR and Romania, then this is for you. If you'd rather follow Levi in his footsteps after reading his book, you might end up a bit disappointed.
The beginning of this documentary shows you the route which Levi described in his second book. You'll see images of the Gulag, steel factories, even a part of Tjernobyl and lots of local habits that still find their influence in statues of Lenin and his other important communist leaders of that time. Near the end, which should introduce a personal vision of his friends, you might find yourself wondering what question you would like to ask if you were in the position of making this doc yourself.
Santa Sangre (1989)
crappiness with some borderline schizophrenia
I think schizophrenia is a terrible disease, which strangely is understood perfectly by the maker of this crap movie. True, the motive of the killings is understood perfectly, but that doesn't make it any less or better to watch. Also I found the Fenix character to be annoyingly gay. So, what do you have, a group of believers, praying for some girl who was raped and have had her arms cut of by the rapists, the church is been destroyed for some unclear reason, a child who says goodbye to a dying elephant, a jealous mother, who plays in the circus and was the former priest of this strange church. She gets her arms cut of after she poors a bottle of H2NO4, which lies around in a cupboard (?), on her unfaithfull husband who's about to have sex with a tattooed woman with an enormous ass and there you have the motive, this is all presented to you in the first half an hour and then you'll have to sit it through all the way, the child grows up and hears his mother constantly telling him to cut of other women's arms or at least to kill them.. I rated this movie a 1
Lucía y el sexo (2001)
confusing
It is probably a movie which is rated as great by women, since I really had to struggle to get this movie finished. It has some sex, a lot of dialogue, pretty people, not so much detail as for the environment it has been shot in. I think it deserves a 7 for complexity and especially for it is a Spanish film, which isn't very advanced compared to French or German productions. About the storyline, there's absolutely nothing to be said about that, you'll probably would want to judge for yourself.
See this film in spring or when you're in an obvious "I don't give a crap" mood :)
Signs (2002)
comment contains spoilers meaning it's a summary of 1 1/2 h of crap
Oeeeh, the aliens are coming and their target is some crappy farm where a catholic priest lives who happens to have lost his faith since his wife died in an accident...His wife, of course inspired by some faces of death episode, dies in a car crash, paralyzing her lower body part, but enables her to life just long enough to pass an important message to Mel Gibson, whose character plays the faithless priest. As for the aliens to come, all they know is that a baby phone registers the presence of aliens. These aliens are supposed to be violent by nature, so figure: we're gonna barricade the windows and doors and hope nothing bad'll happen ... :| Well, why the hell didn't the aliens just kill them ? What victims where found? This movie sucks ass! I'm gonna rate this one a 3 and hope there won't be any sequel.
Idioterne (1998)
emptyness
I found this movie absolutely brilliant. I found the woman who played Karen to be absolutely superb!! What annoyed us a bit was the microphone which was displayed a bit too often, but that's the risk with dogma95 films, I presume?
As for the story: The story was one of spiritual emptyness, and creativity as a last resort to bind the group. As with most community-kind-of-movies, when sex is introduced, you're certain the group will fall apart. However this one didn't really show the personalities of the members involved, it just showed their unpersonal (or dark) sides, at least the sides where you would positively know the big angry world can't get to you.
Of course this simple idea of people breezing of negative energy by acting like a group of mentally disabled people, it did bring some of the characters together, however in a very sad and absolutely destructive manner. There's hardly any ground on which you could say that any of those relationships can ever grow to be a long-term relationship in any way explainable.
Of course this film had it's funny sides, as it should, e.g. with the tattooted guys and the peeing scene for example, the rockwool scene in the beginning and the groupsexscene at almost the end of the group before falling apart.
I should say that I believe al lot of the credit should go to the person who played the Karen character. At it's end the story reveils the nature of her behaviour and how she tried to find support in the group. What really played through my mind is why Karen didn't mention Stoffer's name in the end when saying goodbye to the group.
I think this one is highly recommendable. For example if you would like to spend some quality time with your girlfriend or something. I rated this one a 9/10