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o_pekdemir
Reviews
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Great movie
Really liked it a lot. The story is worth following and adds a few new details to the original Blade Runner universe. Visuals and sound design is absolutely fantastic. In fact it's a must see for every VFX and SciFi fan. I don't know what these people are talking about when they say it was too long ... I could have watched it for another 3 hours without getting bored at all. :-)
Maybe it's "not for everyone" ... But I personally wish it was - so there would be more movies like this.
Chappie (2015)
Awesome movie - Ignore the haters!
First thing to say about Chappie after reading some of the idiotic (negative) reviews here at IMDb: Please watch it, no matter what the critics say about it. Movies (just like books, music and any other art) are very subjective matters and some people just "don't get it".
The movie is extremely well done on almost every thinkable level of film making. Acting, photography, camera work, CGI, music and story telling is all very decent and rock solid.
Chappies story itself feels like a witty, heart-warming children's tale, tuned up and rewritten for (intelligent) adult audiences. What's probably causing some of the negative reviews might be the violent, unpleasant environment, the movie is placed in. Just as in District 9, the whole surrounding world of Chappie is a cold and merciless place. So that's most likely one of the things, that could be pissing off some touchy viewers (just as District 9 did back in 2009).
As for all those douche-bag reviewers complaining about the "unrealistic" accents of the main actors Yolandi and Ninja: These two brilliant people actually ARE from south Africa. More than that: They are also part of a popular rap-rave-band called "Die Antwoord" - well known for their slightly disturbing visual appearances and music videos. And I think they delivered a really awesome acting job in Chappie. Wish they would be casted for more movies in the future.
I could dive deeper into a lot of topics, why I think that Chappie is a great movie. But I think it's just easier to let you experience it for yourself.
But I would really like to add this: I've just read another moronic review, where someone is complaining about the computers in the movie and that they're "old" and using "dos" and so on. IMHO this movie is one of the very rare pieces of film, where computer technology is shown the way it actually really looks like in real life. Sure, to someone whose knowledge of computers is limited to printing a letter using MS Word, a UNIX text console might look like ancient technology. Everyone else should know better than that.
To cut it short: Chappie is sweet, cool, clever, witty, violent, entertaining, very well done and a movie that will - or at least should - make you start thinking about what it means to be alive.
Strongly recommended!
Bal (2010)
Far too slow for me
Although I'd really love to do some promotion for this movie, it's a bit hard to do so. At least I can't recommend it to "normal movie viewers". This is definitively not your regular, entertaining popcorn flick that you can go and watch with your buddies on a Saturday evening before you start your tour through the bars. It's even not the right movie to drag your new girlfriend to in my opinion. There IS a chance, that she will like this kind of arty stuff, but there's a bigger chance that she won't. OK, let's unfold this a little bit. What I liked about this movie is, that it's painting quite an interesting portrait of the pristine "Karadeniz" people in (north) Turkey. But then again: This could have been done in a much more original way. The few introduced characters are too simple for my taste and they don't feel real. I'm a Turk myself and I have travelled many places in Turkey ... and for me it just doesn't add up to a realistic picture. Some of the shown landscapes and locations are really gorgeous and fantastic - that's for sure. But most of the time I couldn't shake off this feeling that I'm watching a terribly slow slideshow of somebodies last summer vacation. The story is thin and fuzzy ... I really wanted to like this film. And I also don't think that I'm an idiot who "just didn't see the point". If you have read other (positive) reviews about "Bal" before, let me tell you: Yes, it is a moving story of a child and his father. But it's also a VERY VERY slowly moving story. In fact sometimes it's hard to tell if anything on the screen is moving at all. For minutes. And minutes. That's not my understanding of entertainment or how movies should be done. This could have been a great short movie. 15 or 20 minutes. Maybe 30. Enough time to tell everything that was important in this movie in my eyes. I went to a theatre here in Germany to see "Bal" - together with my parents (my father is 73, my mother is 62 - And I'm 35). We were all more than willing to give this film a chance. My father was even a little bit angry when some woman left the movie after half an hour or so. But when the credits finally rolled in we made our jokes about how clever that woman was - leaving in time. OK, so why did I give it 5 stars? Here's my explanation: 1 Star goes for the nice locations and some of the impressive pictures. The second star would be for making a movie about a slowly vanishing lifestyle and habitat. And the last two stars are for the two tears I secretly shed during the film (one during the scene where Yusuf finally get's his award for reading and the other one when he's drinking his milk to cheer up his mother). The fifth star is there because I'm a Turk and I don't want to feel like traitor. ;-) No, honestly. Many people really seemed to enjoy and love this movie. I'm just stating that it's not quite my cup of tea. BUT... If you also tend to be bored easily, prefer entertaining movies over arty dramas and if you think that a movie is called like that because it has constant movement in it ... then this movie is probably not for you. On the other hand: It has won an important award in Germany and it's definitively something different. If you're unsure, you should wait until it's out on DVD or Bluray so you can skip the long scenes if needed.
Cloverfield (2008)
Weak
First thing to mention: I didn't have any clue what this whole movie is all about (just had seen that one "official" trailer with the liberty statues head on the ground). And I forced myself not to search for any details on the web; just to keep it captivating.
OK, I guess there are more than enough basic summaries of this movie so I will try to focus on the main debacle. The first 20 minutes of this 75 minutes "short film" are simply boring, needless and trashy. Just like watching some c-class teeny-soap on TV. The rest is a bit better - but not much. Apart from the bugging hand-camera filming style the movie has got almost NO storyline at all. Sure, you walk along with those flat and unispiredly tinkered together characters but - imho this movie wouldn't be any better or worse if you'd simply see some unintroduced people being smashed around. It somehow just doesn't matter.
The visual effects seem to be mid-level "industry standard" and the few good shots are too short and nearly unrecognizable due to the always shaking and zooming camera. Altogether you only get a few seconds of good CG during the whole picture. It's really that bad! There are some nice visual ideas... but as they are barely seen, you might find more interesting stuff while randomly visiting some visual artists personal websites on the internet.
If you certainly want to go to the theatre and see a monster movie, go and see Stephen Kings "The Mist" which is at least much much better than this piece of expensive, visual and intellectual nausea. Or go and get "The Host" on DVD which also easily outclasses the poor "Cloverfield". So don't get too much carried away by that crappy "viral campaign" ruckus made to promote this brainless movie. It might be OK on DVD to bridge some very boring hours at home but definitely not worth going to a cinema to see it.
Sorry for my bad English.
Regards, Onur Pekdemir