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Tarot (2024)
For the Final Destinationists.
For the Elders that trawled mercilessly through the Wonka factories that were the Stuffed video stores of Old. Remember the rush of finding something that is just memorable?
Well this is for the survivors of then and the lovers of The Shakespearean cycle of Tragedy that was Final Destination.
Tarot doesn't really make an enormous amount of sense, but did Destination movies really? But, as a vehicle for sumptuous looking, quite unique deaths it's excellent.. Note: I am terrified of Jesters, no idea why. I was never abused by one.
So that sequence may have tipped it up a star or two.
It's Directed with a huge amount of love for spooky tales. It looks beautiful and the close focus work adds a delightful dizziness to some sequences , and a few scares.
If you don't like it, that's cool. I've been watching movies for over 50 years. You may be right, I may be losing it. But the 20 year old from the 80s loved it.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: A Shadow of the Past (2022)
An ambitious reminder of the wonder of Tolkiens world
I think many of us have forgotten the sheer glory it was to see LOTR back when it first came out.
The multitude of life and the beauty and horror it contained.
This series seems to remember and wants to remind us that the world of Middle Earth and beyond is a trove of stories. Both from the creator Tolkien and others who love his works.
I love this show so far. Beautiful but filled with uncertainty. I believe, given the arc Amazon is pushing over 5 seasons this will be long loved and remembered.
I leave the internet trolls to tear at it while I watch the trolls here share their world with many creatures, both ethereal and demonic.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
A slow fever dream of sadness
Seemingly about nothing but everyday graft and lost time. Then suddenly it's about loss itself and the numbing of hope and then it's over and I want to go there again.
Books of Blood (2020)
The Books that can never be filmed
Ok let's get this out the way first. The Books of Blood by Barker have never been equalled since publication.
They are also almost impossible to translate into film. Most of their horror derives from an existential terror of something beyond our understanding.
From the grisly horror of "Rawhead Rex" to the sublime "In the Hills, the Cities" all of the separate stories spin us around in search of a tether we never find.
This is a pretty good adaptation of a series of books that defy translation into something as safe as cinema.
There are moments of horror and some dread. I can feel Barker behind it but it just can't reproduce the terrible beauty if the writing. Nothing ever did. Hellraiser was close because Barker was still in that mindset when he directed it.
This is good. The Miles sequence is the most faithful if transposed and altered. But i enjoyed it and just want to read the stories again.
Do yourself a favor. Go find them and read them too. It's quite an experience. Good luck
Intersect (2020)
You get out what you out into it
Yes, it's not a $100 million dollar movie. But it reminds me if how films used to be made.
You know, ideas, story. A sheer passion to have your ideas brought to life and shared with others. Not chasing the box office.
I really enjoyed it and am thankful for something that made me think instead of feeding me visuals so I won't notice there is actually nothing happening
I'm ordering the Blu Ray from their website. Filmakers like this deserve to be rewarded
Hellier (2019)
Cinematic, intelligent paranormal documentary
Caught the trailer on youtube. Decided to give it five mins. There is so much drivel in the paranormal world these days. Mostly driven by the endless disciples of Zak Bagans and his awful melodramatic twaddle.
This was smart, beautifully filmed. No drone footage of pretty trees which seems to be the flavor right now. The people involved had back stories and flaws.
There was a genuine camaraderie between them and an obvious desire for exploring more fringe ideas.
I watched all 5 episodes in a row. It wasnt perfect but it was damned close. Karl Pfeiffer bhas an amazing future as a Director ahead of him. His obvious love of what he does shines through in his work.
Some people might get lost as it moves away from where you thought it was going into an investigation into consciousness itself.
In the end though. A satisfying modern tale of the darkness and the necessity for opening your mind to see the connections we all miss.
Dunkirk (2017)
War is not magnificent and is fought within the individual
So many scathing reviews here. I love war movies. I grew up on war and westerns. Nowadays I realize the majority are revisionist and hyper glorified nonsense. America lost Vietnam, Rambo won it back. White men destroyed the Natives and John Wayne tamed the savages. It's manipulation of reality by the victors.
Nolan's Dunkirk is war of the individual. We all experience the world from our POV and the only way to understand the horrors of sanctioned murder is to see what the individual experiences. So no Private Ryan mastrubatory war shots in this film. Just dread and waiting. Waiting for your extinction or moving on to the next event to see if you will live to see Home and family.
With Zimmers' fugue like music and Nolan's photochemical film experience Dunkirk is a Post Modern masterpiece that shows was the horrors that we as nations inflict on our young men and women. And the inherent love and good that the ordinary person can evoke for his fellow humans.
Beautifully made by a man who wanted our latest generation and others beyond to remember what those who have gone before us have given for our freedoms.
Oldeuboi (2003)
"He who makes a beast of Himself, rids himself of the pain of being a Man" Samuel Johnson
For those of you who thinks Oldboy is boring, you are dead inside. And I envy you the absence.
For those who it tore inside of and dwells within you, Hold it close, it is a rare thing when Art becomes a visceral, palpable entity.
From the agonizing plot counterpointed by the glorious cinematography. The beautiful music sliding over the cesspool of imagery. The whole film is a contradiction. And one that shows the horror and madness of living in the world with sentience and intellect.
Enough has been said if the violence and the vengeance of Oldboy. The power here lies with the horrifying inevitability of this Man's journey. His existence after release is the ultimate Existential voyage of all of us.
We do because what other choice do we have? By the ending in the white, whispering snowscape, the realisation that his and our only hope for happiness is to forget. To purge the horrors of what brought us to this point and just keep grinning.
This film touches me in a way that is almost impossible to communicate but I'm glad that Art like this is in the World for the people who need it and can absorb it.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)
A palpable sense of dread
This starts so wonderfully slowly and builds so ingeniously that when it really starts to move you have no choice but to go with it.
It's gory but with such a title, should u be surprised. It's intelligent in its plotting and never lowers itself to an easy plot device. At almost the exact half way point it steps up the story into sheer supernatural terror and it works thanks to its intricate and smart build up.
For true fans of horror driven by ideas first and blood second, enjoy!
Grand Canyon (1991)
Twenty five years on
I was 25 when it came out and I saw it in the theater in England. I loved it. I loved Kevin Kline and I loved the writing.
Now I'm 50 and I re watched it for the first time in years. Still beautiful but now? It resounds within me somehow. How quickly time passes. The changes we go through. All the little miracles we never notice. I now live in California, married to a woman who fixed my sunglasses at LensCrafters when I just popped in there one day without a thought. A moment in my life that turned into miracle. A teenager for a child. Bills, work and life flying past. No plan, just life.
This film has no pat answers, no resolution as such. Just struggles, the overwhelming power of love and the fleeting freight train that is our lives blasting along.
At 25 it was a sweet movie. At 50? It's a glorious fable of existence.
The Purge: Election Year (2016)
Horror Sci-Fi brings the message with intelligence
The first Purge was a straightforward horror film with a scary idea. The second one was better as the idea expanded to include social commentary. This final part brings the trilogy together and brings the ideas presented frighteningly close to Real World problems.
Sci-fi at its best in literature and movies talks about our Now by showing us the future. Also great action movies don't have to be dumb, Look at the first Matrix film. Smart ideas hidden in blistering action and hard core Sci-Fi.
It's a pleasure to watch this trilogy grow and an equal pleasure to watch a writer and director expand his ideas and his filmmaking skills across the three movies. As a side note, there is a lovely John Carpenter vibe to parts two and three.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
A renaissance for 21st century action filmmaking
I hadn't realized how jaded action cinema had become until I watched this. I've been joining the lines and buying the tickets for the Marvel onslaught since Iron Man. Watching the Hobbit trilogy with my eyes half open with the sameness of it all. I loved the birth of CGI after The Abyss and T2 and gasped in wonder at Gollum and Caeser.
But eventually all of the third act of all action movies became saturated with digital everything. Now comes Fury Road, an analogue testament to practicality and inventive insight into making it visceral.
Now I know there ARE digital effects in this, I'm not stupid but they are there to enhance, polish and assist in the stunt work and vision of the Director NOT to bury the artistic nature with endless repetitions of glinting danger.
In Road there are characters, people who we can identify with and see them change and grow through the shared experience of their struggles. You can feel the fear and adrenaline within them, you can feel the danger, the closeness of death.
Millers' created world is dazzling in its realness, and the photography is blistering to the eyes. I was overwhelmed by the color palette he used. And to hear the audience stunned into silence was fascinating. The person I was with forgot they had popcorn until the credits rolled!
Maybe those spoiled by being raised in the Transformers era can believe in the power of filmmaking for the first time.
For myself? Born in the 60s and raised through cinema of the 70s and 80s, watching a 70 year old Millers' Cinematic art form on the big screen made me feel young again.
Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)
Salva goes Big Spielberg this time
i loved the first one, it felt like Duel and worked really well, people seemed to freak out after the wing appeared but going bigger was the only way or we would be disappointed. Now with number 2 we have to go bigger again..
Salva is obviously a huge Spielberg fan and here he channels him on the bigger budget full 2:35.1 cinema experience. I didn't like this one the first time but now I see it for what it is. The Spielberg horror he never made. Sure Jurassic Park and Jaws are brilliant but he never seemed comfortable with horror per se.
Salva runs with the set pieces and delivers on all the steps needed. Watch it in a double bill with number one on Blu ray and see how he builds thru the first and continues until the end of 2.
It's pure cinema from the building dread of 1 to the flat out action of 2. Try it, you might like it. And there is great humor hiding in there too.
Serbuan maut 2: Berandal (2014)
Pure nitroglycerin cinema
I love movies, watched them for over 40 years and once in a while something transcendent happens when I watch a film. Years ago I rented The Killer from a VHS store (remember them) and was stunned by the inventiveness of the Asian cinema compared to western.
Now I watch the thousand cookie cutter copies still toting twin 9mm and jumping around and yawn. And then I saw The Raid 2. It's not the most original story but Gareth Edwards is a visionary director. I have never felt so close to a fight in my life. The sheer ingenuity of his camera placement is amazing. It's like he's fighting with the actors only his weapon is his camera.
Watch it, enjoy it. I loved it. It made my whole week. Cheered me up and I didn't get a single bruise while I was watching. Tired me out though!
Lifeforce (1985)
Masterfully creepy and bizarre
This is without a doubt the most accidentally weird films ever committed to print. I actually saw this in the cinema in England and it scared me back then. ( I was a kid OK!) now it occupies some form of affection that allows me to forgive the weirdness of it all.
I'll skip the synopsis as it doesn't matter. There are so many plot holes it's like Swiss cheese but the physical make up effects are fab for their time. It's like a road accident you can't look away from, with the most amazing boobs to wander around London ever.
There are so many great/awful moments that I can't pick just one. Watching Peter Firths' reaction to the male alien near the end is one of the greatest pieces of over the top ham I have ever seen.
Watch this on a double bill with Cool As Ice! Thanks Tobe for this piece of sheer insanity.