hey rocker.
please don't judge me too harshly, but i actually really like sinister. i don't think it's a modern horror classic or anything silly like that, and it's a good bit too long, but i thought the found film sequences were genuinely creepy & unsettling.
don't know your other two.
my week:
trouble every day (2001) 4 claire denis cannibal drama. vincent gallo is not a scientist. he's just not. he is not perfectly cast as a scientist. but in a movie about animalistic drives, he's all too believable as an animalistic man.
i really enjoyed trouble every day. i didn't really understand a lot of what happened, certainly i didn't pull all the plot details together, but i loved lazing in it's weirdly languid pace with bursts of very brutal violence.
night on earth (1991) 4 5 different cab drivers in five different cities on the same night. it's never nice to say you hate someone, but if anyone had asked me an hour ago, i would have told you that i could not stand roberto benigni & that i would rather watch almost anyone else. when his segment started up, i strongly considered grabbing the progress bar & dragging it until i didn't see his face any more.
i didn't, & i'm truly glad. for the first time, he genuinely made me laugh.
all the segments are good. different enough to keep one engaged. the only criticism is that the last one is the most dark & dour part of the film, & it ends what was mostly a light, fun, breezy jaunt on a rather bleak note. still great, regardless.
puppet master 3 (1991) 2.5 better than #1, not as good as #2.
dark ride (2006) 2 sub-par university horror. you can find something better to watch than this, i'm sure.
colossal (2016) 3.5 mostly fun, slightly bittersweet, occasionally meandering mashup of sundance style indie drama & monster movie. one of the characters takes a very sudden turn from likable small town guy to inhuman bastard very quickly, & the inaction of his friends when that time comes seemed off to me. but otherwise i thought this was a really novel, enjoyably baggy film, & i liked it quite a bit.
my name is julia ross (1945) 3.5 fun gas-light-ish drama. and short, snappy, not a bit of fat on it. i wish people these days would take lessons and stop making endlessly long movies.
capricorn one (1977) 3.5 enjoyably silly conspiracy thriller.
probably a touch too long, but i won't complain too loudly about that, because i was never bored.
drive a crooked road (1954) might be my favourite from the criterion noir set so far. andy rooney is perfect as the sad sack wannabe, & it's bleak & sad, yet fun & quirky. and short! make more short movies, not to drone on too much about that.
curtains (1983) 1 docked a star for using burton cummings on the soundtrack without any apparent irony.
i know this was a cheap canadian production, but there's just no excusing that.
it's pretty dull stuff. boring kills, boring characters. the mask is very, very creepy though.
sisters (1972) 3.5 early de palma psychological thriller. strong opening, slightly meandering 2nd half imo. fun to see early de palma in action regardless. all the elements are in place, but i thought the story slightly tailed off rather than maintaining its verve.
chastity bites (2013) 3 reasonably enjoyable. meant to be a comedy horror, but the horror part is pretty much non-existent. plays smoothly, held my attention, went down very easily.
has an sjw politically correct pulse running through it that i found mildly annoying, but it doesn't get too heavy handed. lead actress is fun & has a real presence & is reasonably foxy.
the vanishing (1988) 4.5 that ending is one for the ages.
at this point, i'm sure nobody needs to be told to avoid the american remake, right?
i'm not against u.s. remakes of foreign language films in general, but i'm against that one.
muckman (2009) 2.5 silly no budget horror. i will watch anything, really.
i'm not going to defend this, at least not hotly, but...it's not without its charms. it's deeply goofy, no pretense of taking itself seriously. it could have used some gore or a touch of nudity or some genuine comedic talent or something to give it a bit of an edge.
but i watched it to the end and i didn't really get bored, so that's a a feather in its cap.
i don't think anyone else should watch it, yet i'm sort of glad i did.
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5 years ago
aimy in a cage (2016) 2 imagine that you took the frenetic pace & colorful zaniness of early ken russell or brazil, but didn't bother with a story or a point or anything to latch onto that would sustain a (i'd like to think) reasonable person's interest.
quite a bit of effort seems to have gone into set design & costumes, but yeesh this was a chore to get through. there are things to admire in it. crispin glover is always fun, & it's certainly not boilerplate 'you've seen it all a millions times before; stuff, & the lead actress has something, i'd say - a charismatic & quirky sex appeal.
but i found its relentless bombardment exhausting. and for a movie so filled with people flailing & ululating every single minute, not a lot seems to happen.
nightfall (1956) 3.5 fun, pacey crime thriller. i was perhaps a bit underwhelmed by its silly action sequence ending and our hero's silly resistance to going to the police, but overall this is great stuff. the bad guys are menacing & dark, the good guys are sympathetic. yay all in all.
sorority house massacre (1986) 2 sign your 80s slasher has gone sideways a bit: the most exciting scene is girls trying on their sorority sister's clothes while she's away.
cheerleader camp (1988) 2 leif garrett's receding hairline/mullet felt very badly out of place among the cast otherwise filled with very, very attractive women.
fairly uninspiring, i suppose. no real wit or energy, the kills seem to take forever to come, & they're not all that tough or gory once they arrive.
has some fun oddball moments, but it's mostly a bit of a drag.
the lineup (1958) 4 terrific crime noir. the opening is perhaps a bit wobbly, particularly a scene where a customs official explains incoming traffic to the police that plays like something out of a half-assed educational film, but the rest of it is great. tough hateful mobsters terrorize sweet, innocent people.
marathon man (1976) 2.5 maybe i'm feeling the impact of all the spare, tight noirs i've been watching on the criterion channel, but gosh this felt overblown & bombastic & far, far too long to me. i'll generally be on board with a paranoid 70s conspiracy thriller, but it felt so grating in tone, even in sound. is it just me or did the sound mix seem far too harsh?
killer joe (2011) 4 i found the whole 'woman gives head to a piece of chicken' pretty revolting (i have this innate disgust reaction to any form of animal grease/fat), but otherwise i think this movie is white trash nirvana.
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