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The Little Things (2021)
The ending didn't have to be unsatisfying
First off, I don't understand comparing this movie to Se7en. If that's what you're looking for you WILL be disappointed.
Se7en was focused on the horrific crimes and the manipulative serial killer. The one murder that takes place during this story happens off screen and they never find the body, so we don't see it. The one body we do see is unpleasant, but not psycho murder-as-art like those in Se7en, it's really only run-of-the-mill. Jared Leto's character is only just intelligent and manipulative enough that the detectives want to rule him out. They do not really believe he is the killer, they think he's most likely what he appears to be a crime geek who takes it too far. In fact is NOT the killer unless the ruse with the red barette at the end was meaningless. Deke sent it to Jimmy because he didn't want to see Jimmy fall into an irreversible decline that would ruin his life, like Deke's was.
What we have here is a good detective story about obsession and doing evil in pursuit of solving your crime and what happens to you if you can't. It's all fine until the end. Things don't have to be wrapped up in a neat little bow with catchiing the killer to be satisfying. The problem with the ending isn't that the murders remain unsolved, it's that it can't work. The investigation goes on led by the FBI. If the FBI catches the real killer, or they kill again, then Deke's effort to help Jimmy falls apart. It's too obvious a flaw and it makes Deke look like a fool in contrast to what we know about him.
Bad Ben: Steelmanville Road (2017)
Overall, meh. (Borderline spoiler.)
When you make a horror movie in your own house but your wife won't let you make it look creepy or get fake blood on the floor. Overall, meh. Really crappy "CGI." Brand new looking house supposed to be 40+ years old. Poorly decorated. Bad acting. All the violence happens off screen. Written by a guy who knows nothing about pregnancy: morning sickness within hours of conception and absolutely no mess giving birth. three stars because a bad horror movie is better than a good romantic comedy.
White Settlers (2014)
What?
The movie is a straightforward, unimaginative but slightly suspenseful home invasions thriller. I was wondering why the bad guys were doing what they were doing (I knew nothing about the movie going in, not even the tag line). Wondering right up to the ridiculous ending. I was left wondering how the perpetrators in this story thought they would ever in a million years get away with it. Once the police find the guy with the sliced up face or the one who's face was bashed in they're all done for.
Adolf Hitler: The Greatest Story Never Told (2013)
If you watch this, make sure you investigate the WHOLE truth.
It seems the Hitler loving neo-Nazi guerrilla marketers are out in force to make it appear this 6 hour propaganda piece appears to be credible. Don't be fooled. If all you know is what most of us know, the gist of the history we learned in High School, you might fall for this sort of misinformation. They'll tell you you never heard this "side" of the story because of a global Jewish conspiracy to keep you in the dark. All in order to get money, of course, out of sympathy in the form of reparations to Israel and revenue from films and books about the Holocaust.
The truth is if you know more than the basics about the History of Hitler and the Third Reich you know this is absolutely filled with half-truths, misinformation and even outright lies. This is the equivalent of those political memes people post on Facebook that ignore objectivity and logic to manipulate you. This is clearly propaganda in the most literal sense. It stands to reason people who admire Hitler and, presumably, Goebbels would make use of the sort of campaign of misinformation they used to keep Germans in the dark. In fact this film unquestioningly quotes Nazi propaganda as part of it's arguments. It all screams of a severe incapacity toward critical thought.
Most infuriatingly, the main premise and motivation behind this thing is flawed on it's face. If you've studied the subject matter, you already know all the facts this film offers, distorts and misrepresents. There are no secrets in this piece of drivel. Ironically though, you will not come away with any of the mountain of facts that give lie to the filmmaker's assertions - you'll only know what he wants you to know. I hope that anyone who watches this without a firm grounding in the subject doesn't stop here and base their view of Nazi Germany on this alone.
If the movie wasn't in the interest of whitewashing such a monstrous ideology, there are things in here you can find downright laughable. We hear the stains of a sappy elevator music version of "I Will Always Love You" over images of Eva Braun in an attempt to humanize the Fuhrer. This film deserves to be riffed by real historians ala Mystery Science Theater 3000. This work is right up there with films like "Manos, the Hands of Fate" after all. Someone get on that.