TIGAER-DESIGN.COM_.v5 – Digital Art by Christian Hecker

Man I hope this guy will feel bad for the rest of his life! Damn. There is rarely a film that really makes me angry. In this case it’s even good that it does. Because that’s what the movie wants. It shows a dilemma, of what would be the right decision to make, in a special situation. A decision that can change a whole life.

We all know that our day in day out life is restricted by rules. Even more in the civilized world, where there is a police and (normally) a clear distinction between right and wrong. The movie tries to analyze when it’s right to ‘bend’ the rules to prevent something from happening. It’s about ethics, morals and who decides what’s good or bad.

Now the story leads us to Boston, where a little girl gets kidnapped. No one knows where she is or who might have taken her. The police cannot find her and the media is all on this case. So the family hires Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck), a private investigator. He, together with his girlfriend Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), are well known in the neighborhood and know ways to find out certain details. Angie hesitates at first. She doesn’t feel too comfortable taking the case of a kidnappes little girl. There she brings up a valid point that works throughout the whole movie. What if something goes wrong, something you have to live with, for the rest of your life? What if…? While both visit the mother, we can see that the mother is not exactly a role model for parenthood. Despite Angie’s hesitation, the two decide to take the case and team up with two cops. Remy Bressant (brilliant Ed Harris) and Nick Poole (John Ashton) are long time serving cops. These guys have seen a lot and you immediately see that they want that girl back. No matter the costs. So the four start their search and soon find first leads. But something feels wrong about all this.

I don’t want to go into spoiler territory, since this is a film you should build your own opinion of. Let’s just say that the story is perfectly written for asking exactly the questions the movie wants to ask. Is it wrong to do something good, even if it means to break the law? Is it good to hold up the law even if it means the consequences are no happily ever after?

This movie is another splendid example of how capable Ben Affleck’s directing is. He really knows how to do a movie! His brother Casey does very well in the lead role and it feels like he and his brother are a great team. You can see Patrick’s (Casey) inner workings, how he’s trying to justify his decisions to himself. All through his face and eyes. Or Ed Harris as the worn out cop, who has seen his fair share of crap throughout his career. That’s what I would call great acting. And that goes for pretty much all the main actors in this film. You’re always sitting there thinking “ah now I know what direction the film is going…” and then the movie takes a turn into another direction. That’s at least what I was thinking.

So yeah, this movie made me angry! And it’s good! That’s what movies should do. Provoking emotions and asking the right questions. That’s what this movie does and I can only applaud that.

7.9/10

Gone Baby Gone on IMDb

If I would have to pick one movie that truly, from the bottom of its soul, defines ‘war’… then it would be Apocalypse Now. This movie left an impression when I saw it the first time and still does when I watch it today. There is such a depth and so many layers of detail to it, that no other production captured as good as this title did/does. There are a few close ones like ‘The Deer Hunter’. But when it comes to portraying the sheer madness, and what it all can do to your psyche/mind, then Apocalypse Now is this one milestone in moviemaking history that got it pretty much all right.

The psychedelic hotel scene with Martin Sheen, the famous helicopter scene, Robert Duvall’s Kilgore character, the huge massive napalm explosion, the slaughter scene at the end. This movie is so full of iconic details, that it’s almost unthinkable that the movie had so many production problems, they almost had to shut it down. ‘Hearts Of Darkness’ sheds some light on the production of that movie. Francis Ford Coppola’s wife got the opportunity to document a lot of things throughout the production. From day one up to the last day, we can see how much work and determination went into this project. At one point in production a huge typhoon even destroyed the already built sets and forced them to take a break for a couple of weeks. From the beginning there were financing problems that forced Coppola to use his own money to keep the movie on track. He really took some risks for that monster of a film.

The fascinating thing to see is how, not only the characters in the movie itself, turn more and more psyched out. The production crew went through the same thing. Filming happened on the Philippines. Of course the humid conditions and vegetations are similar to Vietnam. All that affected the crew and equipment as well. And after more than 230 days of shooting the whole crew has had such an experience that it made them not being who they were before. The documentary has a lot of footage from the sets. A lot of footage where Coppola is trying to explain the actors why their characters do what they do. Coppola constantly rewriting scenes and dialogue, trying to get that picture in his head, on paper and eventually on film. There is almost no scene where you are not able to see his inner struggle. To me he seemed like a driven man. He had to finish this monster, no matter the costs.

Under such conditions you are vulnerable for wrong decisions. One that always comes up is Marlon Brando. Coppola had the chance to cast someone else but he kept Brando. I personally can see how someone else could have played Kurtz’s character better. But I also belong to that, I guess rare, group that doesn’t care too much. Brando’s performance, by no means, destroys the movie or experience (and yes, I think that film is rather more an experience than a movie) for me. All the things that happen along the journey that leads to Kurtz are so impressive that Brando’s part doesn’t hurt. Yes, it may make the finale feel a little weak, but to me the trip as a whole works just fine.

This great piece of documentary takes you by the hand and lets you experience the movie Apocalypse Now from a very different point of view. As a movie fan it’s a gem! After wachting Apocalypse Now I often feel like hit by a big giant rock. And this documentary delivers some answers to the question ‘why’ it does. This monster of a movie wants you to feel that way. It even made the creators go through some kind of hell. A nice piece of documented movie history.

9/10

Hearts Of Darkness on IMDb

If you are firm with movies then you probably know the 1995 ‘Judge Dredd’ vehicle with Sylvester Stallone as Dredd. Although I think it does have some cool moments, I heard from various comic fans that it isn’t exactly very true to the original. And with an ego like Stallone in it… it’s pretty much sure that he changed quite a few things, moving it further and further away from the comic. But now there is a new one. And this version also gets a lot of good reviews from all over the press and net. But is it better than the Stallone one and more true to the comic? And is it always better to stay more true to the source material?

The story of the movie is as simple as it can be. The world we see shows a dystopian future. The movie doesn’t make a mystery about the fact that the chance, to live a good life, is very much not existent in this world. If people aren’t living in a slum or ghetto then they live in so-called megablocks. These consist to up to 70k people living in them. Really huge structures. Crime rate is over the roof and only the department of justice is able to fight the crime. At least to a certain degree. In this future the cops are called judges. These judges have the license to kill so to say. If they find you guilty in a crime then you are basically done.

We follow Judge Dredd. A man of not many words. But we can see and feel he’s eager to fight the bad guys. On this particular day he is getting a recruit to his side. Dredd’s job is to find out if the rookie is worthy enough to become a judge. A distress call gets them both into one of these megablocks. Of course this megablock inhabits a huge drug factory. Sure enough havoc breaks out, and we follow our two protagonists managing the chaos.

Yes a very simple plot and a not too original one either. Not the strength of the film to be honest. What it makes so good is that it doesn’t compromise its premise. The movie delivers what it promises and what it shows looks amazingly great. This is the first movie in a long time that makes great use of the 3d feature. The visuals are really beautifully shot. The action scenes are approached in a very old-school kind of way. Movies like Robocop, Die Hard or the 1990 Total Recall come to mind. Movies that deliver good looking and gritty action. There are no middle ways where they try to implement drama or conflicts. It’s just the good guys against the bad guys. And that simple structure, if done right, is fun.

Character moments are very rare. But when they’re happening it always makes sense. Especially when it comes to the law and jurisdiction in that world. Every now and then the recruit questions the law but also understands when it’s necessary to go the hard way. All this is done in a completely non-cheesy way. Good thing! What brings me to the acting.

The cast we got in this film doesn’t have any superstars. Karl Urban, who should be a superstar, plays Dredd without to invest too much. Not a bad thing! After all you only see his chin all the time. Urban noted that he’s a long time fan of the comic and delivers a good interpretation of his character. The recruit is played by a young lady named Olivia Thirlby. She’s pretty much doing the same thing Urban does. Trying to keep it real instead of too much drama. And that’s just right for this kind of movie. Lena Headey gets to play the leader of the bad guys. Some great makeup effects on her make her look wonderfully evil. Which fits her character of course. Overall I can see how it isn’t easy to find a character too root for. We don’t get too much background for all of them. Except the recruit. She is the connection to the audience. If you don’t root for her then you probably don’t like the movie at all.

Overall it is a movie that does a lot of things right. Especially things that have been missing in action movies so much over the last years or even decade. And that’s movies that follow a straight line. Yes the movie is violent! But in context of what story they want to tell, it’s necessary. And all the blood and gore is justified for believability and style purposes. You could argue that the movie celebrates its violence. So what? Have you seen any video games as of late? Blood and gore all over the place.

The movie is indeed better than the 1995 version and it’s closer to the comic. No compromises in style and execution. A few lengthy parts here and there though. It seems to be a good thing to stay closer to the source material in this case. The Stallone movie had a lot of cheesy and unintentionally funny moments and comic relief that made you more laugh about instead of with the movie. The new one does know very well what it wants to be. The 3d and general esthetic look very awesome. Definitely worth a watch!

7.7/10

Dredd on IMDb

This one was on my radar for years. Even before the first trailer hit the internet. It was a very ambitious movie project, completely financed by independent production companies as well as a significant part of internet crowdfunding. It is a movie that follows the paths of a traditional b-movie. But is it a good or bad b-movie?

The story is pretty simple and if you’re reading this, I don’t think I have to explain a lot. It’s basically about Nazi’s who found a hideout on the dark side of the moon. There they managed to build a society and follow their traditions. One of the traditions is, of course, to take over the planet. Planet Earth of course. So there is a long time plan on the move, to take over good old mother Earth. In the movie the USA are closing in on an election. Madame president (who does look a little like Sarah Palin) sent a 2 man team to the moon to take some nice pictures that shall help her to win the election. One of the guys is a model. A good looking guy… a black guy. He discoveres the Nazi base and gets arrested by them. He’s one of the protagonists we follow. The more he sees what’s going on, he wants to cross the evil plans, the Nazis are ready to execute. That starts a string of happenings and hijinks.

Now the first thing you can do wrong is to go into the movie with A: expectations & B: being easily offended by jokes that are politically incorrect. Some of the jokes are quite forced. Others require you to have some education to understand them. So it’s a weird mix of poor and quality jokes in there. Also the dialogue feels a little clunky at times. On the other hand we have actually a nice cast, that tries to get the best off of the stuff they got to work with.

One more thing is that the movie tries a little too hard to bring out a message. And my guess is that the message is something like: “when it comes down to greed and surviving… there will be no difference between a Nazi or anyone else” or “as long as we have the same enemy we will work together, but afterwards it will only take us a split second to find ourselfes new ones or even turn against former allies”.

Some might argue that a roughly 8 million dollar budget is a lot of money. But looking at the visual quality this movie has, it’s quite a remarkable job. The battle scenes in space look great. A lot of CG work in general. And all of it looks pretty neat! They also work with a ton of greenscreen sets. And yes, you can see it. Nonetheless it’s important to say that it really works in the context of the production. Much like a 60mil dollar ‘Sky captain and the world of tomorrow’ from 2004. It’s crazy how far CG production came in these 8 years. Will be interesting to see what other people might come up with. Now that the possibilities are there and easier to handle.

So my final verdict is that I tend to say that it is a legitimate good movie. You can see that the production really put some heart, sweat and effort into it all. And that is what divides a good b-movie from a bad one. All the missing elements of a big budget movie, that a b-movie obviously has, can be filled with heart and effort. And that is what you can see in this film. Yes it is clunky and cheesy… but hey it’s also a lot of fun. And that’s what the producers want you to have. Plain fun.

And maybe, only a little tiny maybe, it brings people to educate themselfes a little more about the real third reich.

7.5/10

Iron Sky on IMDb

Here we have a movie that is trying to get behind why kids (or people in general) go on a rampage. Most prominently in schools. It touches a subject matter that, from my point of view, will never be fully dissectible. There are just far too many variables playing into the question we are always asking… ‘why’. Did this movie shed some light onto the issue or does it leave us knowing exactly as much as we did before? Lets see.

The story is told from the point of view of a worn out woman. Tilda Swinton brilliantly portraits that lady, Eva, with her very own style of acting. She manages it to really show the viewer how down that character really is. That poor woman is pretty much going through hell. But why? Now the movie is told with flashbacks. At the beginning it’s a little confusing to follow, where the movie actually is at a given point. In the past or in the present? It’s well enough done to follow though. It just requires you to really focus on the film. We follow Eva in trying to get herself back into life. Trying to socialize again. She gets looks from everyone she meets on the streets. That’s something the movie does good. Certain points overdo that a little though. Nonetheless it’s Tilda Swinton’s great work that makes you feel awkward along with the character she plays. The viewer soon understands that something must have happened in the past.

As soon as the flashbacks kick in, we get to see the earlier Eva. She falls in love with Franklin (John C. Reilly) and they decide to form a relationship. Soon she gets pregnant and Kevin is born. Right there you can see that Eva does not feel too comfortable. Nonetheless she accepts her natural duties as a mother and takes care of the kid. Just like any other mother would do. She does not do anything different or wrong. The baby though acts weird. It cannot stop crying and drives Eva crazy. Several flashbacks later we see Eva trying to play with a now young boy. The kid still acts weird, and no matter what Eva does, she always gets ignored or (to use a trendier word) dissed. Every now and then Kevin throws her a bone and does what she demands. Making her feel like she finally got through to him. The next moment he’s back to evil again.

That procedure we see throughout the movie. Eva trying to be a good mother. She is doing nothing wrong. Every other child would love it to have her as a mother. Not Kevin though. On the other hand he seems to really love his father. And Franklin cannot understand why Eva has so many problems. At some point in the movie Kevin is even trying to play out his two parents against each other. And right there you can see that the kid isn’t stupid. He is a highly intelligent boy that really knows what he’s doing. Does he know why he is doing it? I would say no.

While these flashback bring us closer to what happened to Eva, we watch her struggling in the present. she’s having a hard time and actually no one to talk to. Aside of that she doesn’t seem to be a very talky/open person anyway. Which makes me wonder about the movie’s title. Because they actually NEVER seriously talk about Kevin. Yes both parents know there is an issue. Eva more than Franklin. But Eva never gets her mouth and heart open. There were moments in the movie where I screamed at her “now start talking!!!”. She swallows everything. All the indignity and ignorance from her son and her husband. And that is what makes this movie so incredibly hard to watch. I personally know people that, for the sake of their lifes, wouldn’t talk about something personal. So Eva is not a stupid character. She’s just a character like any other, with her own qualities. And talking is not one of her qualities. She also never gets loud. And sometimes as a parent you have to get loud. Otherwise your kid will not understand what’s right and wrong.

After seeing Kevin growing up to be a teenager, and the closer we come to the end of the film, we can see where it’s headed. Kevin decides to go on a rampage on his school. And that’s what Eva is trying to deal with. The aftermath of what’s happened. While Eva certainly is not the strongest mother ever, I personally could not see her do anything wrong with how she tried to raise Kevin. The only real flaw I saw simply was that she never got out of herself and talked to someone. I personally am not very open and talky person too and can see why Eva can’t too. But still, if something seems wrong with my kid… I’ll go out and try to find out what’s going on. I, most certainly, would talk to my partner about it.

At the end of the movie Eva is visiting Kevin in jail. She’s afraid of him, and we can see that throughout the movie. But she still cannot/refuses to let him go. She feels guilty for what he’s done. She still wants to understand him. And for a split second, in Kevin’s eyes, we get a glimpse of understanding from his side. A short thought process of “maybe I did do something really bad”. That is at least what I saw.

Man this movie was a hard sitting. Not because it’s a bad movie. It tries to ask valid questions. It’s not able to answer all of them. which is good because it leaves room for interpretation and discussion. Tilda Swinton delivers a fantastic job. The kids who played Kevin were great too. There is no way you will like Kevin. He’s played so wonderfully evil that it sometimes feels unreal. Children can be very cruel.

On a technical level there is not much to complain. Eva’s depiction/look after the incident uses some great make-up work, to make her look like she’s going through hell. The music choices at some parts of the film felt a little odd. As if they tried to cheer up the dark happenings of the film a bit. It adds a nice contrast though.

Ultimately there are some questions left. Do some people get born evil? Are there some people that are just plain evil, without any chance to ever fully psychologically understand why? Even these people don’t understand why they behave and act the way they do. They just do without thinking about consequences. It’s a hard topic, especially for a movie.

Nonetheless I think the movie mostly succeeds. It makes you think about the subject matter. It gives you a hint of how the family of a rampage shooting person probably looks. Without any distortion by the media or some psychologist who thinks he can explain the world for you. Does the movie explain why these mentally ill people do what they do? No. The movie doesn’t even try to speculate. It just shows reality. And some things just cannot be explained.

7.7/10

We Need To Talk About Kevin on IMDb

First of all I have to thank Brian Neufang for sending me a festival screener version of the film. The film is not yet officially released and tries to raise some additional resources via Kickstarter. So, if you’re interested in backing a movie project that delivers some great quality… head to the kickstarter page for a trailer. But what’s the movie about?

The movie starts with introducing us to the two main characters of the film. Both of them are salesmen, who try to get their own invented and manufactured products, into the world. You immediately see that these two guys believe in their products and work really hard to promote their business. One of the guys is Matt (Dallas Roberts). He’s the inventor and basically the brain behind all the products. The other guy is Sam (Jeremy Renner). He is kind of the muscle and drive that keeps things going. Sometimes that ‘drive’ goes a little too far. Sam and Matt have some tiny gambling problems. Sam moreso than Matt. So it happens that their company runs out of cash and tries everything to get money to keep things rolling. The gambling part doesn’t exactly work out and Matt falls into a hole. Their business goes down and both have to go parted ways. To make things even worse, one of their products gets ripped off by another, much bigger, company.

Pretty much on the bottom, with their dreams ruined, we see both of them trying to find a way through all of this. Every now and then we have scenes that bring the viewer closer to the characters. They talk about their fears and how they try to deal with them. Until Matt gets that one creative spark, that could change it all. Immediately he’s going after it and tries to catch that spark. He works very hard to get a prototype done, and when he got it, things start to roll. This is the fun part of the film. And no… it suddenly doesn’t all run smoothly to Matt’s and Sam’s favour. There still are some rocks to climb for them. Especially the money situation always throws them back. Matt’s wife Gina (Ayelet Zurer) comes into play. She left Matt earlier in the movie, as part of the downward spiral, because of his gambling. She tried to help him wherever possible. Matt disappointed her too many times. Now with that new idea and product, she wants to be on board. She gets together all possible cash she can muster up, and offers it to Matt and Sam, under the condition that she will be a part of the team. Matt and Sam have no other choice than to agree. Together they go on to get their product out into the world.

At that point it’s fair to say that all the actors have a nice chemistry going. All the scenes have a very natural feel. There isn’t too much ‘hollywood’ in this movie, even if it got its happy end. You see characters suffer. You see chacaters fail. On the other hand the movie also generates a lot of funny situations and has some good humour going. Knowing people who run their own business, I can relate to the problems these guys run into. There are times that are a constant shuffle and then there are times where things pick up a bit again. Ups and downs.

Some parts of the movie feel a little rushed and the ending felt adequate but a little too soon. Once their business picked up, we don’t get to see much of the aftermath. I would have liked to see how they managed to land the one or another big deal. But maybe that would have made the movie’s running time too long. So yes, there are pros and contras to everything. You could also argue that this story, of people overcoming business problems and rising to the top, isn’t a new one. And yes, you are right. If it’s done in such a charming way, with such charismatic actors and characters, it just works though. These are the stories that spread hope. They tell and inspire you to not give up on your ideas and dreams, as long as you are willing to work for them. And while these sayings are an old hat… they still are true. And this movie captures exactly that truth of no pain no gain, in a really nice and charming way.

A 7.9/10 from me.

So, if you like what you’ve read, applaud the production for its efforts to stay independent or you’re just interested in the subject matter, head to the kickstarter page and show some support, to help the movie getting a proper release. It surely deserves it.

Ingenious on IMDb

After listening to a recent Podcast from Geekjuicemedia.com, going through a post-apocalyptic movie retrospective, I had to watch some of the films they mentioned on the show. Lots of the films I honestly never heard of. But from the descriptions, they gave on the show, I had to risk a look. The following are some short reviews about some of the more interesting ones. Movies I can honestly recommend everyone who is interested in the genre.

*~*

A Boy And His Dog (1975) on IMDb

This is a movie that defined the look, that a lot of post-apocalyptic movies from the 80s had. You had the barren and dusty landscapes, deserts and camps constructed from spare parts. You can clearly see, how these kinds of movies ended up with the Mad Max look, we all know today. This movie kind of started it. The movie is done after a novel by Harlan Ellison, a well known Scifi Author/Writer. As the title says, it is about a young man and his dog. The man, played by a very young Don Johnson, is a character that is able to talk to and understand his dog. Both try to survive and the dog, from time to time, tries to teach the boy some history facts. How it all went down hill. How life was before the bombs fell. Both are looking for a better place. Kind of metaphorical. Even if the title sounds like a kids movie, it clearly is not. There are some very harsh moments, and the first five minutes of the movie make that very clear. It is very good in showing how mankind slowly but surely is losing its humanity.

It isn’t necessarily a great movie, but a little hidden gem, in the mass of all kinds of post-apocalyptic films. It’s certainly worth a look, if this is a genre you are interested in.

A 7.2/10 for me.

Threads (1984) on IMDb

Now this one left an impression. It’s a TV production from the UK, produced in a partly documentary style. You have a few characters you are following throughout the movie though. Every now and then the movie ends a chapter, with scientific facts and speculations, on how things would eventually turn out, in case of a nuclear strike. The first 50 minutes develop the story and characters a bit. The rest of the film shows how our characters are trying to deal with the fallout, literally. Especially the parts after the bombs fell are hard to watch. The film really tries to show, how things would end up, after such an event. In the right age, living in the early 80s and having seen this movie… I would have been scared like hell. In case of a nuclar strike, literally the best alternative you have is, to look the bomb straight in the face and die in the first blow. This movie shows that surviving such an event is not a thing to strive for.

Definitely worth a look if you’re interested in the cold war and ‘what if’ scenarios. Very scary and depressing.

8.5/10 for this one.

Countdown To Looking Glass (1984) on IMDb

In this film we are watching a whole cold war situation/scenario escalate. And we do that by literally following a news broadcast. A lot of small reports, by reporters from all over the globe, move the story of the movie. Every now and then we get a few short character moments from the news host and people involved behind the camera. There is a funny detail that, in the beginning of the movie, the world is moving into a financial crisis. A slight similarity to our situation today. Much like in the movie ‘Threads’ the situation between Russia and the USA starts to crumble with a military action in the middle east. The news show brilliantly covers how one thing leads to another to finally end up with a first military nuclear strike in the middle east.

The presentation of developments within the crisis, through a news tv show, certainly is unique. And while it might sound boring, it still manages it to build up quite some tension. A nice film that rounds up the whole nuclear escalation scare genre. Reminds a bit of the movie ‘Pontypool’. There it’s a zombie invasion and a radio station.

This one gets a 7.9/10 from me.

Miracle Mile (1988) on IMDb

Considering the date of release, at the end of May in 1988, this one came almost a little too late. Keeping in mind that the year 1989 marked a special time in history. The wall came down. The USSR fell apart and seized to exist they way it previously existed. Basically the cold war ended. Nonetheless it’s another movie worth mentioning. It’s a more Hollywood’ish approach and less drastic in its imagery. And, of course, it’s all about a little love story. The story is quickly explained and simple. Unfortunately some psyched out officer, who sits in one of the nuclear rocket silos, tries to call his family one night. He dialed the wrong number though. Now one of our movie’s main characters picks up the phone and first thinks it’s a prank call. The guy on the other side basically tells him that there’s roughly an hour left. Missles are underway and everything is too late. Soon enough we find out it’s true. Now we follow our characters trying to get out of LA. All sorts of things happen in that night.

Even though the movie does have a heavy romantic side to it… it still tries to ask a valid question. What would you do if you knew the world would end in roughly an hour? I personally honestly couldn’t tell. Again it’s a dated movie, since the whole look got 80s all over it. But nonetheless it’s definitely worth to check out. It contains likable characters and a good feel of how the 80s looked and felt.

A solid 7.5/10 for this movie.

*~*

All these movies do look dated. A fact no one can deny. Nonetheless these movies manage to nail all the facts that would come into play, when a world wide nuclear strike would happen. Survivors are doomed. First minute victims are the lucky ones. I grew up not knowing much about nuclear bombs or cold war. When the wall came down in 1989 I started to understand what it meant. In the mid 90s, I was old enough, to comprehend what the cold war and the nuclear scare was. Today I’m old enough, to understand that there truly would have been nothing left to live for. The cuban missle crisis, in the 1960s, really brought us close to the brink. Luckily some wise men understood when to ‘talk’ to each other, instead of just standing there and look at things.

Check out these films. Expect no happy endings! But maybe it will make you think different about the world we live in today. Especially about how good things are today. Despite all the scary financial things these days.

I have seen my fair share of horror movies over the years. That includes the well known, critical acclaimed ones… as well as some really really bad ones. So after hearing and reading, that ‘Cabin In The Woods’ should be a really good one, I was hooked and interested to see it. On the same page I asked myself what this movie could do different? Since I try not to go into spoiler territory, this review may appear a little condensed.

The story could be explained very quickly. 5 college kids plan a trip into the woods. You have the sporty guy, the educated guy, the stoner guy, the sexy blonde bimbo girl and the innocent girl. While they always stay in character you don’t get the impression that they’re stupid. They are just young people. As soon as they arrive at the cabin, and they start to check out the rooms, we notice weird things.

At the same time we have 2 middle aged guys, working in some kind of industrial research kind of looking complex. They are overlooking what the kids do. Every step they do is being recorded and watched. It seems they follow some plan that is going on for quite a while. But there is more that I do not want to go into detail about. Since this would spoil quite a few neat things from the movie.

Without to go too deep into spoiler world, it’s save to say that both worlds will meet up at one point. There is also quite some slaughtering and blood worshipping going on, in the last parts of the film. It was fun to watch how all the things fell into place.

The movie plays with all the typical genre elements. I admit, that a lot of movies tried that before. But from my point of view, they all failed at some point. CitW manages it to make everything that happens in the movie, look plausible in context of the universe, it plays in. A lot of movies try but fail at exactly that. All the characters in the movie are likable. Yes, even the blonde one. The guys in the observation center are great too. The writing for the characters is really good and made me laugh more than once. Yes, the movie has quite a nice humour too.

When the monsters hit the cabin, and hunt down two of the guys, with jamming knifes into their backs, I honestly thought they would die. But no… obviously they don’t even got a fleshwound. Because these guys keep running around like nothing ever happened. That’s the only thing that threw me a bit off. And you could argue about the fact, that this is also part of the ‘playing with the genre’ thing. Aside of that, it’s fun to watch how the movie evolves and unfolds its plot.

When it comes to the ending I’m perfectly fine with it. A friend of mine would have loved to see more of the aftermath. But hey, you have to keep some mystery alive! At least from my point of view. Sequel potential? A tiny little bit. But I personally hope it’s not going to happen.

Ultimately the movie may not be one of the most original one, since it takes all kinds of ideas, that were already there at one point. But it merges all the kinds of genres and ideas to a new combination that still manages it to ‘reveal new things’ to the viewer. A good one, with charismatic actors and nice effects, that doesn’t take itself too serious.

7.8/10

Cabin In The Woods on IMDb

After listening to a recent episode of Radiodrome (cool Internet Radioshow about movies and television stuff), where they managed to interview the infamous Uwe Boll, I had to risk a look at this movie. Another reason was that a colleague of mine worked on some of the VFX for it. Rampage is widely recognized as his best film so far. And to be honest, all other movies I’ve seen done by him are not really that great. So can it hold up or is it a crapfest like most of his other films?

The story is fairly simple. A young man stages a ‘Rampage’ to get money to freely live his life ever after. He’s a smart guy that plannes his undertaking very well. He takes himself time to prepare it all. He creates distractions to free up his back, while he is underway to unfold that plan. He goes out and kills a lot of people in the small town he lives in. The police cannot really intervene and seems completely unable to handle the situation. The young man, thanks to his planning, can pretty much do what he wants. No one is going to stop him.

By no means this movie can be compared to other films done by Uwe Boll. And also by no means does it want to celebrate people who do these crazy things for real. Most of his other films tend to have a really strange and weird kind of humour. Not this one. Boll early on in the movie makes clear that we are dealing with a serious subject matter. The young man, played by Brendan Fletcher, is getting sick of hearing his parents tell him, he has to get his feet off the ground and really do something. In his face you can see that he heard that speech a thousand times. But he’s not a lazy ass. He actually works as a mechanic. And at work we can see how hard he’s working. Probably for shitty wages too. With his friend he’s going to a fast food place to eat. Surely enough the waitress fucks it all up without even thinking about apologizing.

We can clearly see that this movie tries to criticize our todays society. Customer service and things like that, must be a true hell, in the United States. All kinds of people who take everything for granted, not recognizing how much work is often necessary to do something. People that treat each other like shit while others just endure it in pure apathy. It spreads like a virus. All these scenes in the movie feel very natural. Part of it could be the fact that a lot of the dialogue was improvised and made up from the actors. This sometimes feels a little weird but also gives the whole feeling of the film some kind of credibility.

I’m sure there are lots of voices that come up saying the movie is like a blueprint for shootings. And yes, I can see where that’s coming from. On the other hand I must say that it’s a movie that tries to go to the core of things. It tries to investigate the backgrounds. The scenes where we have to watch people getting shot aren’t easy to watch of course. And that’s exactly what it has to be. You cannot make a movie like that without having some hard scenes in it. And it works! Even if we get to see the ‘why’, I still kept asking myself why… or better ‘how’ he’s able to do all that. And by that I mean mentally. The movie cannot really answer this but tries to look for answers instead of ignoring it all.

Uwe Boll wrote, produced and directed this movie. It makes you think that maybe all the other movies were not so much his own thing. Maybe studios always interfered with the original vision and destroyed the movies that way. Maybe it’s not all Uwe Boll’s fault? To be fair I’m sure he will not become a Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese. But hey… who knows what he would be able to pull off with a 200mio budget and free hand to bring his own vision to the screen?

So yes, it really can hold up! It is a good and believable movie with good actors, that definitely leaves an impression. If there is one true criticism that I have to point out then it’s the shaky-cam. It’s way overused in this movie. There are certain scenes where a clean, clear and stabilized shot would have been nicer to watch.

If you want to be surprised about what a Uwe Boll can do… check this one out. It is a very captivating and well executed movie. Will I become a fan of his movies? No. But I’ll keep an eye on his work now. That’s for sure. At least when it comes to his contemporary serious stories.

7.4/10

Rampage on IMDb

Finally the movie arrived in Germany and I had the chance to see it. Two months after its release in the United States. I really had to fight with myself to not watch any released reviews about the movie. I did not want to spoil the film for me. I’m a little proud of myself for that.

Since it is Ridley Scott’s return to Scifi, since Blade Runner in 1982, expectations were high. I personally am a long time Ridley Scott fan. He’s a master with constructing images, composition and depth. I wanted to see him working with a Scifi setting for a long time. I also wanted to get some answers regarding the Alien of course. We got a lot of both. But was it enough?

The movie is about some scientists, who discover that the human race must have descended from another species, that previously landed on earth, created that first spark of life, that lead to what we are now. From ancient cave paintings, scattered around the world, these scientists also discover hints that point to a star system. The Weyland Corporation finances a big project to find out what’s behind all this. The ship ‘Prometheus’ and its crew, along with the scientists, starts a journey to find out what’s behind it all. Once they arrive they immediately find the planet and prepare to land. On their way down they also immediately find some structures that can only be artificially created. Again immediately they go out and explore. In these pyramids they find remnants of an ancient race they refer to as ‘The Engineers’. Obviously something wrong must have happened because they find old fossil dead bodies. Of course they have no idea what exactly happened and keep looking around. And that’s when the movie starts to roll.

The main characters in the movie are Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), David (Michael Fassbender), Captain Janek (Idris Elba) and Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron). All other characters do indeed fall a little flat. Which is a downer. Nonetheless you can see that all of the actors tried to get the most out of their parts.

Noomi Rapace delivers a good performance, even if her character doesn’t have too much depth either. But she manages it to build up sympathies. Especially when it comes to the scientist parts. In the beginning of the movie, whenever she talks about her field, you can see a sparkle in her eyes. The character really loves her work.

Michael Fassbender plays the android David. For me he rivals Elizabeth Shaw as the main character in the movie. I must also say that Fassbender should be considered for an Academy Award for this part. The whole all around performance of him… the way he moves, the way he talks and especially the way his emotions work… just great. The fact that an android doesn’t have real emotions, and that Fassbender has to portrait the try of an android to show emotion, worked amazingly good with him. While the humans in the movie are looking for their creators… the character of David already lives amongst them. We can see how disappointed he is, finding out that his creators are far from perfect. That he himself is actually more perfect than his creators.

Captain Janek is in command of the Prometheus. Idris Elba does a good job playing a space ship captain, that has probably seen a lot of things in his career. A captain that is willing to take necessary risks. Even though in the beginning of the movie we get the feeling he is also someone who got his orders. And he follows these orders. No matter what. This character had some development throughout the movie. He has to make some hard decisions.

Meredith Vickers is the chief of operation. She’s there to overlook the whole endeavour. Charlize Theron was pretty much the perfect cast for this character since Meredith Vickers is a very cold person. I think I remember seeing her smile only once in the whole film. Originally she was asked to play Elizabeth Shaw. But I think Noomi Rapace was the better pick for that role. Charlize Theron just looks too good for that. Scientists don’t look that way. Charlize Theron is also an actress that gets better and better with her age. I can see her doing some very impressive things in the future.

While the movie does play in the ‘Alien’ universe and shares connections to the other films, it does nonetheless stand on its own feet and tries to tell a different story. It does answer questions from the previous movies and also raises new ones. Which is no problem for me. You just can’t answer everything. You have to leave some things open to keep the audience stimulated and the mystery alive. Especially when it comes to the concept the movie shows. The whole idea about that we humans are an artificially, by aliens, engineered species. Which isn’t too far-fetched from my point of view. It’s mind-boggling to think about how many circumstances/coincidents are needed to create life. Especially life that developes into such a highly complex organism like a human being. The possibility that we’re engineered is there. At least for me.

Right now there are talks that there will be a Directors Cut. As usual… with Ridley Scott movies. I also hope that this Directors Cut will add material that fills all the little holes when it comes to the flat character portrayal. The theatrical released cut is very very flawed if you watch this movie with a critical point of view. Of course you need to have characters that do completely stupid moves to create some shock moments… especially in an Alien movie. But a lot of the decisions by the characters are just brainless. The death of Meredith Vickers seems also very constructed and unnecessary the way they set it up. There is also no rational explanation why the Engineers are so hostile towards us humans. Considering that they will add 20-40 minutes of new material to the Directors Cut, we might get some more depth and explanations with that one. I really hope!

In my final words I want to make clear that I enjoyed the movie. It has flaws… big ones, but I can see past that. Visually it’s surely one of the best Scifi movies ever made. The 3d worked really nice and was worth the extra cash. For now I hope the Directors Cut will help to make the movie even better. But even after seeing the movie a second time, it still was fresh and entertaining.

7.9/10

Prometheus on IMDb