Classic stuff that's still funny and entertaining. It's the sort of film that made me feel happy just from watching it. It's more of a series of sketches of comedy and romance, but the story hangs together once you accept the comedy logic of farces. Stanwyck and Fonda are both brilliant here and all the actors put in excellent support (particularly the horse!).
In some ways the current wave of romance vs. bromance comedies are interesting for the way the reveal the insecurities of the white 30-something American male, struggling with a world where they find their sense of entitlement no longer holds sway. In other, more concrete, ways they're mostly rubbish and this was no exception. A lot of unstructured gags that generally revolve around sex and farting before a generic ending that drowns everything in sentiment and then undermines all the consequences.
Dull action-thriller with Michael Biehn. The sci-fi element is barely there and unnecessary for the plot: it's just trying to trick you into thinking it will be like The Terminator.
The cynical and dark nature of the story make this feel like one of the late film noirs, and the existential subtext of a man haunted by his past crimes makes this an impressive deconstruction of Western heroic archetypes with some excellent cinematography. Cooper is OK but about twenty years too old for the part, and there are a series of plot conveniences that weaken the film a bit.
When the fight scenes and action are happening, it's excellent: raw and realistic but without the fast cutting and cheats that even high-end blockbusters use to make their low-skilled actors look good.
When people are standing around talking, the bad script makes it tedious, even with a hugely impressive cast. In this way it feels like a throwback to the action films of the early 90s when action films would star proper martial artists and pay only perfunctory attention to anything that wasn't the fight scenes.
I feel most of the best horrors inspire horror through sympathy with the victims, rather than directly trying to scare the audience. It does this by dramatising puritan fears of witches and the devil, and has them happen to a settler family trying to go it alone in the wilderness. The film has an oppressive and sinister feel to it, helped by cinematography that makes good use of candlelit interiors and bleak grey forests, and some excellent performances, including a breakthrough performance from Anya Taylor-Joy as the teenage daughter. It's not perfect: the characterisation isn't particularly interesting, and it has some dry stretches where not enough is happening, but the effective use of horror raises it above a lot of its peers.
Aka Exeter
Aka The Asylum
Aka Projet 666
Aka ExitUs: Play it backwards
They can't think up a good name for this so they keep making up new ones. Although this film is a disaster it's fast paced and gory enough to be surprisingly entertaining.
Wow, they actually use defibrillators correctly! First in response to a fibrillation trace on an ECG, then later a flat-lining patient is treated with chest compressions.
Apart from that the film is great, and I think it may be Von Trier's best work.
The choice to have sign language without subtitles was frustrating at first but it is used in an interesting way to obscure the true nature of the scenes, although i found it also had the effect of distancing me from the characters. Is it worth watching? Well, maybe. The story didn't have much depth, though it kept me interested, but to do that it relies heavily on a lot of graphic shock scenes which aren't particularly shocking if you've seen a few extreme horror films.
What happened to the ending to this film? Did they forget to film it? It seems like they just hastily assembled something in the editing room.
Statham and Li doing a spin on Yojimbo with Cory Yuen choreographing fights sounds like it should be good, the action, and indeed most of the rest of the film, is ruined by awful direction.
This had a great atmosphere, helped by a fantastically spooky soundtrack and sound design, until the ghost kids with poor make-up show up to puncture the scariness. everything after that is a bit bland. Still, if you're looking for horror films that rely on jump scares, this is one of the best.
This film has been included in Jerry Lewis' donation of his personal archive to the Library of Congress.
The New York Post wrote:
Beginning in June 2024... “The Day the Clown Cried’’ will be available to scholars for viewing in the research center at the 45-acre Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, and will be shown to the public in the 205-seat theater.
Intensely nihilistic and sadistic. It's not out to give you a lecture or leaven things with humour - just straight horror from beginning to end. And I think the point it makes at the end is reasonably well done - pain and horror can be transcendant for the watchers of horror films and this is conveyed through the metaphor of a cult of pain.
There are certainly problems with the third act, which wobbles badly with too much exposition, lessening the feeling of terror by explaining things, but overall this stands as an important and very good, though flawed, achievement in horror film-making.
A rip-off of Rear Window for teens with Shia LaBouef in the lead role. It also has a bit of Fright Night mixed in there too. It's actually OK, and fun for the most part, but its provenance means it's never able to be interesting.
Ian McKellan gives a fantastic performance as Holmes nearing the end of his life, but the rest of the film tends to be slow and dull. I kept longing for more flashbacks to his last case becuse that was where the film suddenly sprung to life for a brief period.
Decent WW2 horror, that remains engaging depite being dialogue-heavy. There are some tense scenes of demonic terror and lots of gore. However the ending is disappointingly weak and prevents me from fully recommending it.
The introductory bit of the characters wandering around on holiday isn't very interesting, but when they get stuck in the water it becomes suitably nervewracking. I was very impressed at the level of realism they achieved, with the illusion of the two divers being stuck in the middle of the ocean with sharks seeming totally convincing. Unfortunately it doesn't have much of an ending; it needed some sort of climactic terror, but it just seems to run out of steam. I don't think the use of low-grade digital photography hurt the film - it gave it an immediacy that film wouldn't have.
Comments 101 - 125 of 501
Movie comment on The Lady Eve
ChrisReynolds
Classic stuff that's still funny and entertaining. It's the sort of film that made me feel happy just from watching it. It's more of a series of sketches of comedy and romance, but the story hangs together once you accept the comedy logic of farces. Stanwyck and Fonda are both brilliant here and all the actors put in excellent support (particularly the horse!).Movie comment on Ted
ChrisReynolds
In some ways the current wave of romance vs. bromance comedies are interesting for the way the reveal the insecurities of the white 30-something American male, struggling with a world where they find their sense of entitlement no longer holds sway. In other, more concrete, ways they're mostly rubbish and this was no exception. A lot of unstructured gags that generally revolve around sex and farting before a generic ending that drowns everything in sentiment and then undermines all the consequences.Movie comment on Line Describing a Cone 2.0
ChrisReynolds
On display in the permanent collection of the MacKenzie Gallery, Regina, CanadaMovie comment on Starman
ChrisReynolds
Fun and pleasant, despite some cheesy moments. The plot does invite unflattering comparisons to E.T., but it has plenty of its own magic.Movie comment on Timebomb
ChrisReynolds
Dull action-thriller with Michael Biehn. The sci-fi element is barely there and unnecessary for the plot: it's just trying to trick you into thinking it will be like The Terminator.Movie comment on Trespass
ChrisReynolds
A film with both Ice T and Ice Cube!Moves along OK for most of the running time, then finishes in a mass of plot conveniences when Zemeckis and Gale can't figure out a satisfying ending.
Movie comment on Man of the West
ChrisReynolds
The cynical and dark nature of the story make this feel like one of the late film noirs, and the existential subtext of a man haunted by his past crimes makes this an impressive deconstruction of Western heroic archetypes with some excellent cinematography. Cooper is OK but about twenty years too old for the part, and there are a series of plot conveniences that weaken the film a bit.Movie comment on Haywire
ChrisReynolds
When the fight scenes and action are happening, it's excellent: raw and realistic but without the fast cutting and cheats that even high-end blockbusters use to make their low-skilled actors look good.When people are standing around talking, the bad script makes it tedious, even with a hugely impressive cast. In this way it feels like a throwback to the action films of the early 90s when action films would star proper martial artists and pay only perfunctory attention to anything that wasn't the fight scenes.
Movie comment on Trzecia czesc nocy
ChrisReynolds
While watching I thought the "lice feeder" job was a surreal invention of the script, but it turns out it was a real job.Movie comment on The VVitch: A New-England Folktale
ChrisReynolds
I feel most of the best horrors inspire horror through sympathy with the victims, rather than directly trying to scare the audience. It does this by dramatising puritan fears of witches and the devil, and has them happen to a settler family trying to go it alone in the wilderness. The film has an oppressive and sinister feel to it, helped by cinematography that makes good use of candlelit interiors and bleak grey forests, and some excellent performances, including a breakthrough performance from Anya Taylor-Joy as the teenage daughter. It's not perfect: the characterisation isn't particularly interesting, and it has some dry stretches where not enough is happening, but the effective use of horror raises it above a lot of its peers.Movie comment on Exeter
ChrisReynolds
Aka ExeterAka The Asylum
Aka Projet 666
Aka ExitUs: Play it backwards
They can't think up a good name for this so they keep making up new ones. Although this film is a disaster it's fast paced and gory enough to be surprisingly entertaining.
Movie comment on Breaking the Waves
ChrisReynolds
Wow, they actually use defibrillators correctly! First in response to a fibrillation trace on an ECG, then later a flat-lining patient is treated with chest compressions.Apart from that the film is great, and I think it may be Von Trier's best work.
Movie comment on Rose Red
ChrisReynolds
So many of the characters in this are immensely annoying and badly acted.Movie comment on Plemya
ChrisReynolds
The choice to have sign language without subtitles was frustrating at first but it is used in an interesting way to obscure the true nature of the scenes, although i found it also had the effect of distancing me from the characters. Is it worth watching? Well, maybe. The story didn't have much depth, though it kept me interested, but to do that it relies heavily on a lot of graphic shock scenes which aren't particularly shocking if you've seen a few extreme horror films.Movie comment on War
ChrisReynolds
What happened to the ending to this film? Did they forget to film it? It seems like they just hastily assembled something in the editing room.Statham and Li doing a spin on Yojimbo with Cory Yuen choreographing fights sounds like it should be good, the action, and indeed most of the rest of the film, is ruined by awful direction.
Movie comment on Sinister
ChrisReynolds
This had a great atmosphere, helped by a fantastically spooky soundtrack and sound design, until the ghost kids with poor make-up show up to puncture the scariness. everything after that is a bit bland. Still, if you're looking for horror films that rely on jump scares, this is one of the best.Movie comment on Six-String Samurai
ChrisReynolds
Whining kid ruined it.Movie comment on The Day the Clown Cried
ChrisReynolds
This film has been included in Jerry Lewis' donation of his personal archive to the Library of Congress.Movie comment on Martyrs
ChrisReynolds
Intensely nihilistic and sadistic. It's not out to give you a lecture or leaven things with humour - just straight horror from beginning to end. And I think the point it makes at the end is reasonably well done - pain and horror can be transcendant for the watchers of horror films and this is conveyed through the metaphor of a cult of pain.There are certainly problems with the third act, which wobbles badly with too much exposition, lessening the feeling of terror by explaining things, but overall this stands as an important and very good, though flawed, achievement in horror film-making.
Movie comment on The Collector
ChrisReynolds
A late, sinister piece of brilliance from Wyler. The horror and despair creeps up on you, concealed beneath the beautifully shot rustic surroundings.Movie comment on Black Christmas
ChrisReynolds
Nothing can top this review:Movie comment on Disturbia
ChrisReynolds
A rip-off of Rear Window for teens with Shia LaBouef in the lead role. It also has a bit of Fright Night mixed in there too. It's actually OK, and fun for the most part, but its provenance means it's never able to be interesting.Movie comment on Mr. Holmes
ChrisReynolds
Ian McKellan gives a fantastic performance as Holmes nearing the end of his life, but the rest of the film tends to be slow and dull. I kept longing for more flashbacks to his last case becuse that was where the film suddenly sprung to life for a brief period.Movie comment on The Devil's Rock
ChrisReynolds
Decent WW2 horror, that remains engaging depite being dialogue-heavy. There are some tense scenes of demonic terror and lots of gore. However the ending is disappointingly weak and prevents me from fully recommending it.Movie comment on Open Water
ChrisReynolds
The introductory bit of the characters wandering around on holiday isn't very interesting, but when they get stuck in the water it becomes suitably nervewracking. I was very impressed at the level of realism they achieved, with the illusion of the two divers being stuck in the middle of the ocean with sharks seeming totally convincing. Unfortunately it doesn't have much of an ending; it needed some sort of climactic terror, but it just seems to run out of steam. I don't think the use of low-grade digital photography hurt the film - it gave it an immediacy that film wouldn't have.Showing items 101 – 125 of 501