The world is lived in, the characters to the extras feels incredibly ordinary in the best way and the stakes are gripping. The strength here lies in the unglamorous portrayals of what we'd call heroes. The professionals doing they're job and caring at the same time. Ron howards almost documentary direction is on points in every regard from production design to directing the extras. But somewhere half an hour feels cut out from the movie. The characters goals are unclear or maybe their realization of their goal was just underwhelmning. Viggos character cares for his team, Farells character cares for the kids, Edgerton doubts his abilites. When they achieve what they want it's like it didn't matter. What did their life look like before their "call for adventure"? It'd be like if we saw frodo almost immediately after the film starts run with the ring towards mordor. How did the children manage in the cave? They almost felt like a macguffin. The refence to religion was unclear and should've been explored or cut out. The message became muddier than the water. I came away greatful for the people who do this everyday and having learned something from an exciting thriller. But also disappointed of a lacking story with an excellent delivery.
Reviews
6 Reviews
Slight of hand - the movie
31 July 2023
Take a shot every time someone secretly steal or plant "the key" 😛 no but seriously the AI villain and it's henchmen is a creative addition to the genre. Good set pieces. The new woman is annoying as hell, she acts like a 5 year old. The "haunted past" thing is getting old. It could be more lighthearted considering how over the top it is. The close-combat fighting is not as exciting as it could be (think something like kingsman, the raid or bourne or mad max). Ended on an exciting note. Again I liked the incorporation of things that are real potential AI risk that's actually rooted in reality. Very nice.
Velvet Buzzsaw
(2019)
Enjoyable quirky mystery horror
11 February 2019
Breakdown by category:
story: Art dealers finds haunted paintings which terrorizes them. The story feels familiar yet new, you don't see the turns. Very nice.
Characters/actors: excellent casting. as always Moore and Gyllenhaal delivers the goods. The movie wouldn't have worked without them. The characters are sort of a satire of people deep into the art industry. Their interactions are hillarious.
Direction: This is not a very daring style but impressive in a sense. If you would've read the script I don't think many people would know how to realize it. The lines are so weird but it workes somehow. Good actor directing but the rest is standard which is not bad by the way.
Script: The film explores the art world and art's value. The found paintings where not ment to be found and it's after they're sold the horror begins. A character once says "what's the point of art if no one sees it?". This is further explored in the film. The script is the most daring i'd say. The bulls*it the characters spout when looking at the paintings is so funny. The obsession with intellect and prestige, even when having sex, is too absurd to stop watching.
Visuals: The vfx are very creative. I was hooked by the beautifully drawn intro sequence. There is a death scene (no spolier) where the poured out color on the floor starts soaking up in to a persons skin. The cinematography is passable. It's netflix trademark cinematography so to say. Standard focal length, even lit, smooth surfaces and crisp resolution. The opposite of Se7en if you get what I mean.
The expecations of a netflix produced Gillroy, Gyllenhaal and Moore film was mixed. All three of them knocked it out of the park in Nightcrawler (2014). When it comes to netflixes record of produced films you can't say they're incompentent, rather they lack a sense of honesty, bravery and grittiness. There have been films produced where netflix have left the creative work to the creators and there have been films where netflixes fingerprints is all over them. In the case of, let's say Roma, you see the directors vision louder than netflix. In the case of Velvet Buzzsaw the result was mixed.
I urge Netflix to let the directors and screenwriters do their thing.
story: Art dealers finds haunted paintings which terrorizes them. The story feels familiar yet new, you don't see the turns. Very nice.
Characters/actors: excellent casting. as always Moore and Gyllenhaal delivers the goods. The movie wouldn't have worked without them. The characters are sort of a satire of people deep into the art industry. Their interactions are hillarious.
Direction: This is not a very daring style but impressive in a sense. If you would've read the script I don't think many people would know how to realize it. The lines are so weird but it workes somehow. Good actor directing but the rest is standard which is not bad by the way.
Script: The film explores the art world and art's value. The found paintings where not ment to be found and it's after they're sold the horror begins. A character once says "what's the point of art if no one sees it?". This is further explored in the film. The script is the most daring i'd say. The bulls*it the characters spout when looking at the paintings is so funny. The obsession with intellect and prestige, even when having sex, is too absurd to stop watching.
Visuals: The vfx are very creative. I was hooked by the beautifully drawn intro sequence. There is a death scene (no spolier) where the poured out color on the floor starts soaking up in to a persons skin. The cinematography is passable. It's netflix trademark cinematography so to say. Standard focal length, even lit, smooth surfaces and crisp resolution. The opposite of Se7en if you get what I mean.
The expecations of a netflix produced Gillroy, Gyllenhaal and Moore film was mixed. All three of them knocked it out of the park in Nightcrawler (2014). When it comes to netflixes record of produced films you can't say they're incompentent, rather they lack a sense of honesty, bravery and grittiness. There have been films produced where netflix have left the creative work to the creators and there have been films where netflixes fingerprints is all over them. In the case of, let's say Roma, you see the directors vision louder than netflix. In the case of Velvet Buzzsaw the result was mixed.
I urge Netflix to let the directors and screenwriters do their thing.
Shame
(2011)
A disturbingly human film
16 April 2018
Shame paints an uncomfortably close portrait of an isolated man. He is superficially intimate and isolated. It is painful, gripping and immersive. It is a perfect blend of style and realism. Credit to Steve McQueen and the writers for making a chronological single-protagonist film with really long scenes so interesting. Credit to the cinematographer for pulling of sometimes invisible long takes and sometimes impressing long ones. Credit to fassbender and mulligan which the film could not had done without. For some reason it was ignored by the academy. If I were to nominate it would have gotten a nomination for actor, actress, screenplay, directing and cinematography. I highly recommend this for people who likes a really well done character driven drama.
The Hunters
(1996)
A good mix between emotional drama and crime thriller
10 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers
You will stay along for the entire duration of this film if you don't mind anxious and gory/graphic content. The film shows group mentality and behavior without hesitation. I heard about the film when a youtuber showed a 3 second long clip from it. I could tell from just the framing and acting that this felt real.
I personally can't give it a high rating because of its anxiety inducing content. I'm all for suspense and graphic content if it's appropriate. But this s**t gives me anxiety. All the people and animals dying are innocent and all the perpetrators are so unsympathetic and intimidating that i feel helpless and like a bad human being for not being able to help anyone else. I like the crime aspect to this, the directing, the writing, the acting and that's from my own country. But the lack of heart in some of these characters, lack of redemption and justice and lack of strong arcs paints an unforgiving, cruel, non-rewarding, mean and sad world. Fudge this movie makes me feel bad when i think about it. It's so real at other times.
If i were to improve The Hunters i'd end it differently. I'd make it so that Erik fights his brother. Perhaps gets an answer from him where Nana is. He then turns Leif in to the police (alt. feeds him to cannibal elks because i hate him). The others are charged with crimes (or faces some consequences). Others involved (the police, the criminal's partners) are changed somehow. As the ending is now you feel like his efforts are meaningless. The village/city hasn't changed other than disliking the criminals a bit. Not all people involved has faced proportional consequences. Leif kills himself which means he gets away with everything and gets what he wants once again. Now the film's message seems to be: don't go to northern Sweden, it's corrupt, everyone hates good people, nobody changes, nothing changes, everyone are pieces of s**t, the innocent suffer, the evil wins, etc.
Could have been a fantastic movie.
I personally can't give it a high rating because of its anxiety inducing content. I'm all for suspense and graphic content if it's appropriate. But this s**t gives me anxiety. All the people and animals dying are innocent and all the perpetrators are so unsympathetic and intimidating that i feel helpless and like a bad human being for not being able to help anyone else. I like the crime aspect to this, the directing, the writing, the acting and that's from my own country. But the lack of heart in some of these characters, lack of redemption and justice and lack of strong arcs paints an unforgiving, cruel, non-rewarding, mean and sad world. Fudge this movie makes me feel bad when i think about it. It's so real at other times.
If i were to improve The Hunters i'd end it differently. I'd make it so that Erik fights his brother. Perhaps gets an answer from him where Nana is. He then turns Leif in to the police (alt. feeds him to cannibal elks because i hate him). The others are charged with crimes (or faces some consequences). Others involved (the police, the criminal's partners) are changed somehow. As the ending is now you feel like his efforts are meaningless. The village/city hasn't changed other than disliking the criminals a bit. Not all people involved has faced proportional consequences. Leif kills himself which means he gets away with everything and gets what he wants once again. Now the film's message seems to be: don't go to northern Sweden, it's corrupt, everyone hates good people, nobody changes, nothing changes, everyone are pieces of s**t, the innocent suffer, the evil wins, etc.
Could have been a fantastic movie.
Something in the Air
(2012)
A French Movie
21 March 2013
This is all the summary you need. Seriously, all stereotypical things you'd expect to see in a French movie, was there.
Cliché relations? - Check
Smoking all the time? - Check
Painting? - Check (so much painting)
Eating at cafés? - Check
Just a long montage of the "happiness-model"? - Check
Croissants? You name it, it's there!
I have to say though that the beginning of the film was really interesting. I thought that it'd be a movie about people who fought for what they believed in and the character development along the way. Boy, was I wrong!
It quickly lost its pace and never mentioned what happened in the beginning ever again. Nothing they ever did had any actual consequences later in the movie which made most actions seem pointless.
Don't forget the actors who couldn't show any passion for their characters interests what so ever. It wasn't so convincing when the girl said: "I still love you" when her face looked as numb as if she had been slapped in the face all day. After the movie, I would nominate Kristen Stewart for an Oscar.
I almost forgot to mention the main character. His face expression can be best summarized as this: Depressed, slightly smiling or neutral. But for some reason he was quite popular and painted a lot. I still don't know if he liked to paint or not (because of his unengaged acting).
That is my review and why I so generously gave it 3/10 stars.
Cliché relations? - Check
Smoking all the time? - Check
Painting? - Check (so much painting)
Eating at cafés? - Check
Just a long montage of the "happiness-model"? - Check
Croissants? You name it, it's there!
I have to say though that the beginning of the film was really interesting. I thought that it'd be a movie about people who fought for what they believed in and the character development along the way. Boy, was I wrong!
It quickly lost its pace and never mentioned what happened in the beginning ever again. Nothing they ever did had any actual consequences later in the movie which made most actions seem pointless.
Don't forget the actors who couldn't show any passion for their characters interests what so ever. It wasn't so convincing when the girl said: "I still love you" when her face looked as numb as if she had been slapped in the face all day. After the movie, I would nominate Kristen Stewart for an Oscar.
I almost forgot to mention the main character. His face expression can be best summarized as this: Depressed, slightly smiling or neutral. But for some reason he was quite popular and painted a lot. I still don't know if he liked to paint or not (because of his unengaged acting).
That is my review and why I so generously gave it 3/10 stars.
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