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The Purge (I) (2013)
10/10
The most provocative yet deep and question movie in this modern age
26 October 2013
I was surprised by how deep this concept really struck me, from the simple yet totally bizarre idea that once a year, America, will have one single night of total criminal legalization to outweight the violence and murder that used to be a common fact before the idea was put to action. As it so happens, the statistics has changed over the years, and shows that all kinds of criminal activity has decreased rapidly due to the very fact that people are allowed the pleasure to purge themselves from impulsive and aggressive behavior on this very special night.

But, that is not the only thing that seem to change with this anual festivity. According to other sources, viewed upon as a "everyone has their own opinions" thing, the purge does not only work itself through anger management, but simultaneously erradicating any kind of humanity as poverty decreases due to the lack of affordance to the same kind of barricades the upper class has the means to procure.

What it all boils down to is formed perfectly throughout the movie saying that the purge does not rid the world of aggression, but actually supports evil to manifest itself in the psyche of every single individual participating in this vile and abhorrent ritual.

The ones that partake show no remorse of killing, and rather, religiously, delve in the very thankful gift of the founding fathers that came up with this barbaric idea, giving them the strength to go on, and support an ideal society. It shows that homicidal psychopathy is not a trend, but rather a natural behavior sinking discreetly into every human being, infectious and ruthless, til the point when none can tell the difference, ultimately resulting in a world were caring and understanding does not exist.

The purge (in the movie) has gotten responses from a fraction of mankind, people that still carry a conscience, saying that it is wrong, and has only supported a callous and harsch future, not dissimilar from how the real world looks today. It is a great metaphor for cruelty and egoism that revolves around the supposedly none existing upper class in todays society, saying that equality is a fact of our times, yet in real life unknowingly supports total materialism over the well-being of humanity as a whole.

The Purge takes the face of "the American dream" and rips it open turning the under-belly inside out showing the true face of greed and primal instinct.

This is not a review as much as it is an analysis of a subtle, yet extraordinary message, imagined as a cruel and distorted jest of real life, very parodic, yet with a perfect serious tone that really grips your sences.

As for the rest, I can only say, it was a good movie, no matter the acting or the scripture, but still, I guess it flowed so naturally that there's nothing to analyze from an objective stand-point, but rather a moral one. I think it is important that these kind of movies exist, not to scare us or makes us feel satisfied afterwards, but to stop us, make us sit down, and think about what it really means to be human.

Feel free to have another read after you've seen it. As I've said, it is an experience, more than just a flick, so, prepare I guess, or don't, just indulge in it, and hopefully learn something useful from it.

Have a good one!
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3/10
Professional amateur
22 January 2012
Warning: Spoilers
this is one script perfected in the stereotypical soulless copy-cat of creations forged in the very pits of normal-ville avenue of the western most vile and hellish mainstream genre, blandness.

The characters are what they are; characters, as literal as they are grey, boring, and Mary Sue in the very description of obviousness. It's not that they don't make any mistakes, they are just teeth-bitingly perfect, glued to their imaginative world recognized as the stage in which the actors perform, behind the fractured fourth wall squeezed in between your boredom and the progress of every despicable frame tossed with a force of slouchy laziness. Every moment is perfect, just perfect, from the cowboy sheriff skeptic with his accent, hat, and brown suit, only missing chewing tobacco and a lasso, to the neighborly abrasiveness befitting any all-American lane of green grass and sprinklers.

It is so American that it's unholy, American in the sense a child would describe each landmark from the occidental country of stars and stripes; "the white house, yankee-doodles with banjos, the statue of liberty, and the president".

In this movie, we have 4 bland teenagers, one being the dork always killed first, the sportsy guy playing American football (which we do have to watch), the cheerleader (she's the love interest and the only girl you get to know, need I say more?), and the slightly misunderstood emo-kid who's sister died X years ago, insert relationship as you please.

We have the mother of the emo-kid, Mary-ann Patricia Linda Barbara Elizabeth Jennifer stereotype mother who tries to communicate with her oh so darkened son. The police force of robotic idiots, no description required, the tough sports teacher with a slight perversion to what figures, the history/drama teacher miss brown hair, slight make-up, and common sense making everyday knowledge sound like brilliance talking about the ingeniousness of Shakespeare (You know, like all brown-haired, slight make-up, and common-sense teachers talk about). You fill the rest of the list.

And then comes Dennis Quaid, and let me tell you, this must be the award-winning Oscar for most stale acting performance of the century. He is the most quirky, scripted, formula of any psycho killer in the entire existence. From the queer giggles to the one-liners, his narcissistic and protective aura of convulsive effect you just can't take serious in ANYWAY. Of all the movies I've seen with this actor, this is just downright dumb, so incredibly literal he's basically the manifestation of his own manuscript.

If this story was every intended to be scary, I'd say they lost it on the way, and not just lost it, it fell out of the car on the highway as they drove over it with a tank. Are there jump scares? Actually no, but that's because they're not scary in any mean whatsoever, giving it full-minus on the scoreboard, and what about the horrific heart pounding screaming sensation of the audience following the main character trying to get away from the antagonist? Yeah right.. it died on the way before the camera was rolling. It is stupid, but not laughingly, like all those old 80's slasher horror films like Friday the Thirtheenth or Nightmare on Elmstreet, it is stupid because it poses so heartbreakingly stiff, adding no significance to the screen whatsoever. To even claim it as horror or thriller is to say the least, a great insult.

Two of the biggest flaws which I just can't live without telling, lies stamped with a red seal in a dirty old envelope licked by a tongue so blistered and morbid it makes my spine twist backwards and break in repulsiveness, are as following:

1 - Any movie using Shakespeare as an excuse to have a scene of history class is an absolute godforsaken hell-hole. Sort of like saying, "Hi, I am as original as Gothika, but I'm only famous because of Limpbizkit's remake of Behind blue eyes." Plus, when the teacher asks why Edgar Allan Poe's murderer from The- Tell-Tale Heart would be able to hear the slow beating heart beneath the planks to which he confesses to his crimes, I could not but utter the exact word which would come out of the main-character's mouth 3 seconds later - "guilt", and that is only six minutes in.

2 - When the main characters best friend Danny gets pushed from the stairs and gets his neck broken from Quaid's well placed foot, there is no question about how he died. No mention of fracture, no forensic team spotting the obvious bruise or disjointed neck, no check-up what so ever, and the teenagers are still questioned for breaking into the murderer's house, worst cops ever!.

Then again, there's also at least two positive things to say about it: Even though the characters are stale, the high-school feeling is not as traumatizing as it usually portrays, and being fair to Quaid, his character is probably the only one that at least makes you smile, just for a second, although his performance is practically a clone of Jack Nicholson dancing around as the Joker from Tim Burtons: Batman.

Although not a Human Centipede, or god forbid Human Centipede 2, this film bears the mark of the raging beast that keeps spitting out flick after flick consisting of stomach juices so intense they burn your eyes with wrath. The only question remains: Where did they get their budget from? They did get Dennis Quaid, so where's the cash? But then again, maybe they knew a friend, who knew a friend, who knew a friend.

To sum it up, it is all one big copy-pasted material composed by every predecessor that have lived in the cold heart of Hollywood's most shabby and decrepit black money-pushing machine.

One that should truly remain beneath the darkness.
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1/10
What to say
22 January 2012
In all that is moral and just, despite all criminal acts of a disturbed twisted mind and all the wars created by mankind, this movie is one of the most horrible movies of sincere decency there ever was.

For a movie this tasteless in how to make amends for "too few" disgusting movies on the macabre and insane, the only point that I can think of how it actually bears any kind of actual worth, is to explore the mind of some of the most downtrodden characters in the entire existence, a main character that is so utterly wrong and chaotic malevolent his very being breathes brimstone and fire from the very depths of diabolic society incarnated.

The acting is solid, that it is, but the writing in all it's awe gets more unrealistic the further the rabbit hole ensnares the skin to chains and hooks, gushing blood with such barbaric attitude it really makes me feel (understatement) uncomfortable.

In a psychological perspective, apart from it's abhorrent degrading manuscript as the movie progresses, it adds some realization to analyzing the very phenomenon of human intellect in which the violent nature takes its toll on those who was born in the very womb of mind flaying senseless deprivation.

It can be describe with three words, and three words only:

Sick and wrong

Plain and simple.

To what unholy inspiration this has added to some of the most stupid ridiculous of modern cinematic industry, this one is an example of freedom that has no rhyme or reason, just for the absolute sake of it, and it holds no message in the radical or provocative genre, only because American Psycho did it a long time ago. There fore, it should never have been made.
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what the f..
23 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I wouldn't rate a film awful, except for "The Room" I guess, but in this case, it's very close.

It's got a good camera, it's got a setting, it's got all that is essential for putting up a good perspective on aesthetic film-making, the rest is just so.. choppy, so restless.. just so childish, as in so incredibly poorly written, with plenty good ideas, but with such a stereotypical clichéd approach it's almost embarrassing to watch.

Now, okay, to be fair, for such a low-budget project, it has most that cinemas nowadays are filled with, but this film just doesn't build any suspense at all, it's practically a dream project without goal, without purpose, just a cliché story with no impression left on me at all.

If I'd sum up the story, I'd say: "Dramatic intro, cowboy, horse, bla bla bla, pregnant woman, older man, Gothic depressed stereotypical chick bla bla bla, new house, bla bla bla, cool cowboy shot bla bla bla, irrelevant drunk people out in the woods giving you the impression they might have big rolls in the movie but they don't, bla bla bla, a woman comes out, probably vampire, bla bla bla, cool cowboy shot, bla bla bla, argument during dinner, bla bla bla, cowboy shot, Gothic chick being Gothic, bla bla bla, some black mirror, bla bla bla, more cowboy shots, stupid murder scene with penis being chewed off, bla bla bla, get to the house, save the pregnant woman ,unexplained pain all over the place, get to the car, save the pregnant woman, get back from the car, save the pregnant woman, some wounds, get back to the car, pregnant woman dead, bla bla bla, cowboy back story, Lilith, bla bla bla, vampires, padding padding padding, bla bla bla, Lilith cowboy fight, lousy, bla bla bla, and the rest bla bla bla, end with Gothic chick and cowboy walking away like vampires, bla bla bla bla bla."

There are so many things that's just.. it doesn't deliver anything, it just stands there looking cool, sometimes not really, but all in all JUST standing there. And when it starts explaining things the reaction is pretty much: "Oh.. really? You took that all so unoriginal approach? woppidoo..."

The best thing I can say, it's a movie, but apart from all other vampire stories, this one is way beneath expectations. And now, comparing it to twilight, I'd say the twilight saga has it's own unique Ideas, many of them pretty stupid, but it has a script with music, reflecting, and at least some emotional attachment although it's very teenage all the time. This film gives me absolutely nothing, except for ideas on how it could be better, but only so few parts of it.

It's silly, cliché, goofy, and all so made before, and with all new ideas nothing that makes it stick out or updates, it's just a random picking of old clips in how to make horror and vampire.

If you're in for a really silly splatter kind of 80:s film, even this one would stand below stupid abhorrent comedy action. Comparing it to cheesy films like Conan, Mad Max, Water world, e.t.c this one is very new despite it's withered appearance, yet it still doesn't give you that cheesy atmosphere, torn between trying to be serious, and just flat out obnoxious.

I was just sitting there wishing Doug Bradley would come out as Pinhead and rip them to pieces with chains like a true hellraiser gore fest, but no, I had to sit through a 1 hour long film, just wasting my time on cowboy posing, and poor acting, with a Gothic chick supposed to be 18 but actually with later research found out to be like 30, this is just dumb, beyond compare, and yes, I have seen worse, but this one, no, it adds no spirit whatsoever, so if you ever search for "Vampire" looking for either a cheesy or good movie, just pick Interview with the vampire, Underworld or Dusk til Dawn.
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I'd say mediocre
22 October 2011
For a shaky-based film, this one has most of the clichés, the fighting, the alpha male, the chaos, the momentarily silence, hysteria, the strange little girl, and so on and so forth.

Most critique of how these documentary-like movies progresses is aimed towards how everything obvious has to be written down in dialog, kind of like telling the audience to actually follow this real-life incident.

"I peed my pants, what's up with that?", "oh my god, he's looking right at us", "Beep-beep what the beep in the beeping beep?", all is pretty much the same story told again, again and again. All the things within the script has been done many times over, still it's one of the earlier home-movie settings with cheap cameras so I guess credit goes to the establishment of poor acting and experiment with modern horror. Still, it's very easy to see it's all fake, it bears the skin of Hollywood, and the aura of classic monster-movie set-up.

Nowadays things are very hard to fake, and back in the day when the UFO hysteria started, people didn't know better. A platter thrown into the sky is the same kind of UFO yesterday as a photoshoped image is today, which is why alien-abduction, encounters, and foreign species hiding in society dissecting cows and livestock is highly unlikely. Ask yourself the question, if humans had the technology, why oh why would we send out scientists for millions and millions of dollars to spy on humans, in sloppy brutal heartless ways, so cold we'd just up and steal people from their houses, with no rhyme or reason butcher the galaxy for mere curiosity? Some schizophrenic monster alien beings who just happened to be so smart and civilized enough to build a ship, get to a random planet, and just start blasting away, or a really corrupt political system up in the sky? Not many things makes sense, but of course, as anyone else I'm very much human and can't handle facts above all that is mortal.

However, in regard to the universe, whether or not they've been here for millenias slaughtering away for sport or intelligent progress, or just buzzing around doing aerodynamic dancing in the sky, it would be foolish to believe that we are alone in space. People always point to the heavens saying "The universe is endless", well, in order for aliens to exist it would take eternity, endlessness. Why? Because even if it's a small chance, it's an endless chance of other chances that something else would exist, so to those who says aliens aren't real, it's blunt stupidity to believe. Yet to believe they'd come here to melt our brains or mutilate cows, is very very far-fetched, and very very blunt to assume.

And back to the movie, two final thoughts on what makes it fake. The actors are actors, they have appeared in other films, so there, that's it, end of story.

The other thing is that whenever an alien encounter occurs, electrical gear always seem to fidget around getting wound up either broken, blasted, texting or beeping strange and incoherent messages, burned, frozen, or plain simply dead, yet magically enough the camera with which some lonely individual always carries around for no definite reason never ever has any problem, now isn't that a real mystery to think about?

For inspirational purpose, I'd recommend The Fourth Kind (Another very much fake movie, but still with more spirit to it, and an actual Hollywood movie, not shaky and dull), and in shaky horror over-all, all the paranormal activity movies, and Blair witch project.

And of course, for all real film alien fanatics, X-files, a must see series. And as strange as it may sound, Ancient Aliens series. Its pseudo-science, may be many corners cut by the director to add more spice, with a 23-problem to it always following and seeking out a special occurrence of random numbers, getting what you see, and yet it would be such a cool story, both in film-making as reality, because in depth they twist every historical fact towards aliens. In romanticized perspective, it's really awesome! But like I said, it's not a believers words coming from my mouth, just one very fascinated by the mystical world.
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Monsters (2010)
Very Beautiful
17 October 2011
As a monster movie, it gives a very split reflection on the post-apocalyptic vision of alien species coming to the world, taking over, and destroying all of what we know as the modern world.

It speaks of humanity, all in an animalistic way, emotional, fragile, in contrast to what the future has built, a complex of virtual realities, an environment created by man. It tears down the wall of reality, strips it from internet, from nations, from war, and throws you into a universe of nature. Rather than a force of hyper-intelligent beings coming to take food and resources, these things came from the same nature we ourselves inhabit, but from an outer-galactic perspective, space, the universe as a whole fleeting mass, all moving in a chaotic and violent, yet natural way.

It's more of an overall reflection of humanity contra the animal kingdom than it is political, or about warfare, two people coming together making a journey back to an obliterated future, into a past of skyscrapers and subway stations, marching through landscapes of a hell-ridden earth, reclaimed by the force of naturalism.

It is a very deep inspiring piece, very emotional, and yet very silent. It gives a very still message of love, compassion, trust, fear, all that is human, all that is natural, moving from one scenery to the next, rather than claiming the action genre, or post-apocalypse ala 2012. It gives a very nice yet sad feeling afterwards, and more as a very fabled tale of two wanderers in a mess of a world it brings more than just big scary monsters as eye candy.

It's deep and touching, and very likable in it's controversy focusing on the experience of this man and woman, rather than an entire nation in uproar caused by gun-blazing extra terrestrials.

It's definitely worth checking out, it was a very nice surprise seeing how it went down, compared to other monster movies.

It might not ask the question: "Who are the real monsters?", but rather, "What is a monster?". And indeed, inside the very heart of the jungle, What is a monster? Man? A tiger? Wild-life? Or is it simply a situation of what is natural?

The only thing I feel a bit cynical about is that the characters tend to look all to healthy and less dirty than one would appear after 2 weeks going through lands of the dead, with no food, water, or protection. It's not all that plausible, which is in fact also one of it's greatest achievements, because it is more a story-telling of empathy rather than "invasion of the body-snatchers".
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Dagon (2001)
It's Okay
16 October 2011
To be completely honest, I like Cthulhu 2007 even better. It takes this twist in the end to a better level, more subtle, and less explanation, not feeding the viewers with more answers than questions, which I think is a good thing.

This one though is much more of one of those 80:s gore flicks, kind of a more civilized Friday the 13:th and with more story, but all in all it's just a guide-line for how H.P Lovecraft would write his books.

To be fair, it has some spirit, not the kind I'd expected, but nevertheless it's a fun movie. Still, I can't believe it was made this late, it's definitely more of an 80:s flick, right down to the bone.

In parallel to the game, Call of Cthulhu, I now see where they got a lot of their inspiration from, almost sequentially. Good game though, too bad a lot of bugs, and probably the better one in comparison.

The characters are very stereotypical, the acting is good but only in it's own 80:ness, the plot is very "plotty", sort of what you would expect from a splatter inspired movie, but the very lore of Cthulhu sits very good, too bad that it wasn't executed that well. In context to Lovecraft, it is a very rough sketch which could've been better with less of a satire on the love story, more gritty and dark environments, and maybe less running fish zombie scenes, although it's definitely welcome after a while, but not ALL the time.

To be blunt, I don't understand what people sees in this one, compared to Cthulhu 2007, but, yes, this one has more of the mythology than that one, too bad it lacks so much in how it acts out as a movie.

If you want to see a Cthulhu film, not all that serious but with all main targets, a horror friendly film for younger followers of Cthulhu, I'd give this to anyone interested.

BUT, if you really want to know what's what, how gritty and dark Cthulhu should be, read the books, or play the game (hoping you won't have such a problem with all the bugs).
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Cthulhu (2007)
Cthulhu Indie - All in all, not that bad a movie
16 October 2011
Cthulhu, one of the most revered of horrific thriller literature, originally created by H.P Lovecraft is a creation of dark and mysterious revelations of the terrible deep we know as the open sea. The most obscure of murky scenes pictures the world of Cthulhu with a burned lense towards a full moon, it's cloudy, dirty, foggy, and cold, both in mind and physical presence. A 60:s America taking place in the most inbred of local population, these societies deep beneath the surface of human culture transpires in parallel to what lurks on the bottom of the ocean, it's gritty and malevolent, with no guarantee to reality, psyche, life or death. What we see is chaos, through the vision of people who simply end up in the wrong ally at the wrong time, swept by the waves into the most sinister of maelstroms, sucking you deeper and deeper into madness, until the total epiphany of a psychosis takes one step forward, only to have your protagonist hang himself to one unresolved suicide, with scribbled notes of cultists and watching eyes of the Deep Ones.

This is Cthulhu, a world that never ceases to twist ones mind into a reality not recognizable from the first.

In truth, Cthulhu 2007 is NOT a bad movie, per se. The very spirit of H.P Lovecraft doesn't have that much of a grip, but rather leaves the experience to the watcher, but without explaining any of it. I see how it would be confusion to people unfamiliar with Cthulhu, but probably very unnerved by taking in that puzzling terror of unexplained phenomenon. To fans of Lovecraft, it's certainly a stretch with all the chants, cults, and Cthulhu, all regarded with a very slight read-up on what these books really had in mind, which to me as a small fan appears a bit weak.

However, from a more romanticized view, this movie creates a tale of describing nature, and actually captures the origin pretty good. The very thin love story has actually caught good interest, and renders decent quality, not with any unnecessary thwarts here and there, just plain and simple, and like the movie, it takes itself seriously. As for the horror, I was getting a bit impatient at first, but as it started I could really see this as inspiring. Again, it did not bare the same familiar being to the original, but it has it's own perspective, and in regard to storytelling and emotional value, it holds up very good.

All in all, this movie is not like the books, only with pieces it introduces fright, but it poses itself from a different angle, a more human modern way, and as it reflects upon the book, I'd say it's a good tribute to Lovecrafts work.

The actual best part of this experience is that it leaves me with that exact feeling I'd hoped for, NOTHING is explained, only that there's a cult, strange creatures, and the sea. It is, in it's own sense, a masterpiece.

The only real complaint is about the mythology. The connection gets pretty vague, as Cthulhu is sometimes pronounced wrong, the language of the deep ones could've had more ambitious work, and all in all, reading the books should've been a greater study to really execute the presentation of the movies source.

It could be looked upon as a different starting point within the same universe, or an inspirational version of it's forefather (more like their own version).

As a movie, and compared to Cthulhu, I can say I did enjoy it. It left me satisfied.
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