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Reviews
Voyagers (2021)
Lord of the Flies in Space
Voyagers has a similar plot to Lord of the Flies. Obviously the space setting differs as does the age of the actors. The preview left me expecting the movie would show teenagers reveling in an awakening of feelings after stopping their intake of a pleasure suppressing blue liquid. Instead the teenagers descend into madness and follow the same path of primitive aggression and power struggles as in Lord of the Flies. This hardly makes sense on a spacecraft which requires some careful management by its passengers. It would seem that violence and destruction aboard a spacecraft could easily lead to endangering all of the lives on board. Just like the Beast in Lord of the Flies there is an "Alien" which a challenger uses to inspire fear and draw followers away from the elected leader. There is even a celebratory feast which the challenger uses to consolidate power; he promises to feed and protect his followers. The outcome diverges somewhat from the Lord of the Flies as the space setting requires a different sort of rescue or resolution. The main motivation for making this movie seems to be showing teens in a situation where they are released from adult supervision and allowed to follow their urges. As a viewer I hoped this would be more fun and less problematic than it becomes.
Skyggenes dal (2017)
Appreciation & Questions
I'm writing mostly to invite explanations so I understand this movie better. I agree with the praise and criticisms of other reviewers. Yes, the movie is slow-paced, and no, that does not bother me. Even the plot summaries claiming not much happens are right. But what does happen interests me and leaves me with some wonderings.
What is killing the sheep?
Who is the person Aslak meets in the woods?
Why is there a pool of blood under the bed in the final scene?
I guess I don't quite understand this style of movie. If it is "gothic," does that give the viewer a set of expectations for how to interpret the movie? I don't mind ambiguity. I just sense that I'm missing something that may be obvious to other viewers.
The Hollow (2015)
The Monster is the Star of This Movie
Go, branch and fire monster! I like outdoor fires and burning wood. This movie is like my campfire coming to life and chasing unwanted neighbors away! I never felt much interest in the victims. It was a split movie for me, the real actors doing their thing (for too much of the movie) and the monster making me care enough to watch until its return. The setting in the woods is spectacular. Wow. I wish my yard had those trees and ferns. The island setting is spectacular. I never got to know the monster enough for my taste. Why was he terrorizing these poor folk near Halloween? I'm sure he had a very good reason and was simply misunderstood. I wish the filmmakers gave us a little more back story to build sympathy for the true hero of this flick. 'Nuff said.
Ricky (2009)
Surprised My Kids Were Fascinated
The premise intrigued me, and I started watching this movie on Netflix streaming. My 7 and 9 year old kids wandered in and became fascinated. What's not to love about a flying baby? They also liked a diaper changing scene, a breast-feeding scene, and some nude shots. However, there were some disappointing lapses in plausibility pointed out by another reviewer. My kids accepted wings on a baby's back but we couldn't figure out why the parents would let him get away. The movie is reaching for some meaning in the baby's flight away from a struggling single mother, but other than a vague feeling of sadness, the viewer isn't left with much to make sense of the final turn of events.
End of Days (1999)
Must See for Arnold Fans
Arnold is back in End of Days to add to our millennium excitement. Computer woes aside, the devil is free to take over the world at the end of 1999 and only Arnold can stop him. There is action galore with just enough religious explanation to slow the film down. Arnold's mission is to keep the devil's prospective bride away from him during the final hour of the millennium. He ends up constantly fleeing the devil and his minions in a manner reminiscent of the escape in Terminator 2.
Although Arnold's faith is renewed at the end of the film, there is little here to convert anyone else. The Catholic church is divided in its strategies for confronting the devil, and it cannot offer the resolution that a single man with a pure heart can bring. The Exorcist this is not, as the film does not challenge or provoke religious beliefs and feelings. The devil might just as well be another archvillain with macabre superpowers. The special effects are excellent, however, with many fireballs, a transparent devil image in motion, and finally a clear view of the devil in full color in the final confrontation.
The supporting actors leave an impression, especially the devil's bride to be and Arnold's buddy in the protection business, but the real stars are Arnold and the devil. The devil is a handsome dark-haired man who resembles a young Al Pacino in his intensity and the controlled expression he wears on his face as he causes other to burn and perish in agony. Arnold appears as a depressed drunk who wears a trenchcoat and contemplates taking a bullet to hasten his own end. The battle with the devil gives him a reason to use all his remaining energies to live life fully in the final days of the millennium.
Stir of Echoes (1999)
Echo of Sixth Sense
This movie is worth watching and I can see myself catching Sunday afternoon reruns in a couple of years. However, like Armageddon and Deep Impact after it, this movie's timing is suspiciously close to The Sixth Sense. The plots are too similar for this to be coincidence; Hollywood must be a small incestuous place with frequent attempts to jump on the same bandwagon other studios have invested in. Enjoyment of the thrills provided by Stir of Echoes are tempered by my recent viewing of The Sixth Sense, a more reserved and successful movie.
My main complaints with Stir of Echoes include too little exploration of the boys' potential to solve the mystery and too little understanding on the part of the mother. If the boy's contact with Samantha was daily and his father's much less frequent, then he could have posed the necessary questions to spare his father fruitless digging and speculation on the identity of the murderer. Of course the out here was the mother's reluctance to allow her son to discuss his sightings. What a tease it was to hear the boy speak with a deep voice and then never to follow through with it again. The mother is like Dana Scully on the X-Files, despite evidence to support a belief in the supernatural, she would rather bury her head in the sand and overlook critical evidence.
The resulting marital tension was more nerve wracking than mysterious and it prevented many opportunities to explore the supernatural (such as the meeting with Neil in the graveyard). Adding to the tension was the steady closeup positioning of the camera, leaving the viewer unaware and expectant of some sudden intrusion on the immediate periphery, a cheap tactic not used nearly as often in the The Sixth Sense.
Viewers crave the supernatural in their film viewing. Witness all the scary movies this summer including Blair Witch, The Haunting, The Sixth Sense, Stir of Echoes and Stigmata. A few instances of psychic powers in a film like Stir of Echoes work to attract our interest but disappoint when they are used to launch a more conventional murder mystery with marital relation problems as the subplot. My advice and wish is for filmmakers to give up more instances and explanation of the paranormal. Haunt us, scare us, but don't tease us with half uses of the supernatural. Just once, add a half hour to a film after all characters have been forced to believe in the supernatural and find out where that leads. With all this summer offerings I still want more films like this one.