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Short reviews for these films below.
9 (USA, 2009)
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Whether it's his personal inability to think of a better narrative and design believable characters, or it was pressure from the studio and producers to dumb it down, but instead of appealing story and convincing characters he decided to go on embarrassing sentimentality and exaggerated melodramatic emotions, adding to this some confusing religious references. The core mistake, I think, was misunderstanding of the target audience, and thus wasting big potential of this animated film.
A story about artificial intelligence, that eventually rises against its own creators, is nothing new in science fiction. This is one of more shallow and pointless examples of it.
5/10
Driven to Kill (USA/Canada, 2009)
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Always awful as actor, Seagal is making pure trash for many years now, but this movie is lacking the juicy pulp required to enjoy something like that. Extremely boring, mostly painful to watch and just plain embarrassing.
2/10
Letters from a Dead Man (Russia, 1986)
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After nuclear war the remaining human population is struggling to survive among the panic, radiation and diseases. The movie follows an aging scientist with clear symptoms of post-traumatic shock, as he walks through the city ruins, leaping over dead bodies and looking for the food and medicine for his dying wife. As he visits isolated underground refugee locations, the film reveals the depressive state of desperate people, trying to make sense of their condition. Some express fierce accusations and hatred toward human nature, some are remembering the beauty in human existence, some are trying to adapt and some just want to die, seeing no hope.
The gloomy visuals of the film and the apocalyptic scenery are simply stunning, creating very depressing mood, so suitable for the content. The film is maybe not as poetic and not as expressive as Tarkovsky stuff, but it's quite artistic on its own.
8/10
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (USA, 2009)
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Tony Scott is that older person when it comes to directing such bad screenplay, because the result is him pretending very hard to be cool. Energetic music and strange camera movements, together with frantic editing, are not what's making moving images into film. Artist you are not, Mr. Scott, neither good entertainer. Waste of time.
4/10
Brüno (USA, 2009)
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But laughs, jokes and shaking of the head with disbelief aside, what about the cinematic quality of this movie. I must say it is not as good as Borat in overall impression. The adventures of gay Austrian are less coherent and interesting than of his Kazakh predecessor, the character is less likable and more mean than funny. It seems that Bruno mostly just annoys people, while Borat had much more going on for him. The pranks here are much shorter, the movie was built around more shallow character and thus the result is one dimensional and less complex. How do you protect yourself from a man with two dildos? Exactly.
7+/10
A Perfect Getaway (USA, 2009)
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So when I started watching this I knew the ending, but during the movie I was constantly hoping it will not be this way, that the writers will go extra mile to fool me, eventually. But no, it didn't happen.
In our interactive world of information and disinformation, when viral promotion and extra involvement of the potential viewer are a common thing, I would expect more sophistication and misleading clues from such film. In the end it 's just another thriller, interesting to watch because of its charismatic actors and decent story, but it seems that the screenplay was written in 90's, making it just way too simple.
7/10
Funny People (USA, 2009)
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I liked it, I was pulled inside and enjoyed it till the very end of this ride.
8/10
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (Japan, 1973)
In one brilliant scene during the opening credits, she is running trough the city holding bloody cut arm of the cop, connected to her by the cuffs. The sequence was clearly shot from a distance, and the reaction on the faces of people seeing such bizarre scene is real.
The film is maybe less exploitation and less erotic as usual Pink Eiga example, but it's very representative of 70's era. There is great retro vibe in this one, anyone who loves this decade should see this film.
8/10
Late Bloomer (Japan, 2004)
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This film is defined by many as horror, but I respectfully disagree. Although there are some creepy moments and one freaky scene when he is waving the knife, this movie is about different kind of scaring. Coming from young Japanese director and featuring one hell of an ending shot, that can make even Antonioni jealous, this feels more like a twisted moral slap in your face. Highly recommended, but not for everyone.
8+/10
The Hangover(USA, 2009)
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This is indeed highly entertaining and enjoyable piece of crap, an instant cult, so all the negative things that I may pour on it are pretty much pointless and unnecessary, because if the movie makes you laugh and you feel good when it's over, than who the fuck cares about stupid camera angles.
7+/10
Grace (USA/Canada, 2009)
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A young pregnant woman looses her husband and unborn child in the car accident, but out of primal instincts and grief she decides to carry the baby inside of her to the end. The baby turns out to be alive after the stillbirth, but apparently he needs to feed on blood to survive.
The film starts great, the pace, the selection of color palette, the introduction of characters, the symbolism, this is truly masterful work. The disturbing but quiet feeling that something bad is about to happen is leaking from every shot. But somehow I expected more shocking violence and repulsive images, sort of uncontrollable spin of events that will result in bloody slaughter. Not in this film, despite modest attempt to do so. Maybe because the beginning director was afraid to loose control over the plot, but this hesitation creates empty vacuum in the film, which resolves somehow by the end, but it's lowering the impression from the film.
7/10
Blast of Silence (USA, 1961)
Social misfit and a loner, raised in the orphanage and later became a hired killer, arrives to New York to do a job. While carefully planning the assassination, he is meeting old friends and having some doubts about his life.
The film is mostly narrated by a third person and it's the main technique to tell the story and define the character and his thoughts. Beautiful black&white scenery of New York in the 60's adds to the classic value of this outdated film, that doesn't really stands the test of time.
6/10
Pandorum (USA/Germany, 2009)
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The film works great with the sense of fear by placing it as the center of the events. In the beginning it is unfocused and very abstract, you don't really get to see the face of it, just feel the sharp sense of danger coming from the darkness. The danger is overwhelming, it's everywhere and you can't fight it, you can only run from it. As the film develops further the fear is going through personification and gets clear source, but it suddenly has many forms. The immediate embodiment of the fear has reasons and consequences, that maybe don't cause that primal and irrational wave of panic, but they are terrifying on their own, probably on much higher intellectual level.
German director Christian Alvart does really good job crafting absolutely believable situation and convincing acting, not every filmmaker knows how to create suspense and be in control in every second of his film. That was very impressive directional work, and the way it's stays hidden only emphasizes his achievement. Also Ben Foster should get more recognition as an actor, he is excellent every time I see him in a role, and here his powerful performance awakes paranoia mixed with fear by facial expressions alone.
The story, the content itself, might get some negative comments, but that's just genre and studio limitations. And it doesn't really matter for the enjoyable viewing experience anyway.
8/10
Gamer (USA, 2009)
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But while I have no complaints about the very interesting content of the movie, which I think deals with the whole Simulacra and Simulation thing much better than Matrix did, I don't think that hyper fast and erratic visual presentation with somewhat schizophrenic editing was the best way to go with such content. This film is first of all a love letter to the science fiction movies of 80's. In deeper analysis I could probably recognize dozen different movies from that decade, starting from direct references to Blade Runner and ending with concept similarities to The Running Man. Therefore adopting extreme cyber visuals, very dynamic and superficial, I can even use the profane word - "postmodern", makes the whole thing less suitable. But I get it, I understand why the directors are using such form, which they are also trying to condemn. They say that there is no escape from the video game, that we are all stuck inside of it, you cannot just wake up, pull the cable out of your head and see the truth. There is no real redemption, no savior, we can only be gamers.
8/10
Thirst (South Korea, 2009)
9/10
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