The Amaranth(2018) (drama sci-fi/horror like an episode of Tales From The Crypt, but pulls its punch too much) Booksmart (2019) (comedy like Superbad with young ladies but not as good, I liked The Edge of Seventeen and Lady Bird more for example) Dagon (2001) (horror like Resident Evil 4 the video game) The Lighthouse (2019) (drama horror with great performances but not such a good story) The Lodgers (2017) (gothic horror, but not as good as Crimson Peak and certainly not Byzantium for example) Palm Springs (2020) (dramedy like Groundhog Day or Happy Death Day franchise)
Last edited by MagnarTheGreat on August 24th, 2020, 11:14 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Shadow of the Vampire
A fun 'what if' scenario with a good performance by Willem Dafoe.
Midsommar
It's good, not great, mainly because I've seen this kind of film done before and so the tropes are very obvious. Its strength lies in Florence Pugh's performance, the cinematography, music, etc.
I've rewatched my favourite bond films as a warm up for new bond and Tenet. These are actually the only pretty much the only bond films I like.
1)Dr. No: After being disappointed by Brosnan's movies this film made me a bond fan. The way Connery portrays Bond, is so cool and classy. Here is also the introduction of Bond's score which has become also iconic. I think I would want this movie to be all about bond and less plot based. I think from the second half of the film I lost much of my enthusiasm as the villain was quite weak.
2)From Russia With Love: This one looked more like a spy thriller and I had the opposite reaction from Dr. No. I thing the set up for this movie had some room for improvement. Some of the exposition scenes were quite weak and dull. But when they get into the train it becomes one of the most exhilarating Bond films. The whole part in the train in a blast.
3)Goldfinger: This is my favourite from the Connery era because it combines pretty much the other 2, plus it has a better villain. One of the strong aspects is also the sets that they've decided to shoot or built for this film.
4)On Her Majesty's Secret Service: I remember liking this more the first time I watched it, maybe because it was Christmas. But it is still a very good effort. Primarily because of the action scenes. There is a huge step up in the action compared to the previous bond films and the whole Roger Moore era had really bad action. But here the action has more passion, you feel the punches more and has less action tropes compared to previous films. My favourite section is the Alps one and I really liked the ending.
5)Skyfall: This became my second favourite bond and it is the best looking one. Roger Deakins and Sam Mendes gave a more noir in some segments of the film which I absolutely loved. There are some great sequences like the opening, the casino scene which I mostly like about the look and not the actual execution and the last act which was by far my favourite of the film and a feast for the eyes. It's not perfect film though, I think the whole part about the "computer hacking" was quite ridiculous and some action scenes felt quite fake(like the metro scene).
6)Casino Royale: This is hands down my favourite bond film by a large margin. The is James Bond as raw as we have seen him so far. The film sets the gritty tone from the opening scene. The parkour scenes in this one is something else, these are some of my favourite stunt work ever. Sharp without looking fake. The action is also so raw, you can see the struggle of bond to cope with his adversaries and you feel every punch.
And you can tell how Daniel Craig is really having a blast in this role. It also has imo the best bond girl(Eva Green) with motivations and she in not here only to seduce the audience. And also it has my favourite villain played by one of my favourite actors(Mads Mikkelsen) and my favourite bond scene(poker). Many favourites here.
Okay so I watched a whole lot of movies since I last posted my little reviews over here but
I just did a two day Middle Earth marathon and my god, it was both intense and glorious
Began with The Hobbit Trilogy on one day and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy the next. All extended editions. I never watched them all in so close proximity of each other.
I'm just a bit depressed now, my days were full of them and now I'm sort of surprised it's over and done and I have to do other things with my hours lol
Still, while The Hobbit Trilogy is a lot of fun, with The Desolation of Smaug being the best of the three, they're nowhere near the masterpiece as is The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's still unmatched, unprecedented in their craft and still so incredibly good. It's an emotional ride, full of wonder and spectacle and wise life lessons. My God, The Lord of the Rings is still my absolute favourite.
The Black Castle (1952)
I was not expecting the performances to be as engaging as they were (Stephen McNally as the villain relishes every moment of selfishness, pettiness and evil he portrays and it's a joy to watch him work). I would however not qualify this as a horror film because at no point was I actually scared of anything. It was moody and atmospheric and some of the implications of certain developments are horrible but it was not fear-inducing. Some of the tense moments involve animals like the crocodiles in the pit. The story revolves more around deceit and deception than actual horror.
La Grande Frousse/La Cité de l'indicible peur (1964)
Inspector Simon Triquet (André Bourvil) is looking for a counterfeiter in a small French town full of eccentric and strange people who all have their own secrets. Meanwhile, a series of murders are taking place in that town as a strange beast is rumored to haunt the village. I found this dark comedy so charming that I watched it twice in the last two days. Bourvil plays a rather empathetic, if naive, character but some of the twists in the story (darkly funny though they were) I initially did not see coming. The medieval architecture of the town lends the film an eerie atmosphere as well.
Yojimbo & Sanjuro - Kurosawa is probably the greatest filmmaker who ever lived. Prove me wrong.
PS, the ending of Sanjuro lifting the veil and slowly eradicating the entire notion of heroism through violence and therefore retroactively deconstructing Kurosawa's career of samurai movies is way ahead of its time but also genius.
Ce film, appelé le premier film noir français, est un excellent exemple de tension et nous présente avec une situation dans laquelle tout le monde suspecte tout le monde d'être un fouteur de trouble nommé 'le corbeau' qui sème la méfiance en envoyant des lettres anonymes contenant des informations diffamatoires à tous les habitants de la ville provinciale et semble en vouloir surtout au médecin local, le docteur Rémi Germain (une superbe performance de Pierre Fresnay), que l'auteur des fameuses lettres accuse de pratiquer des avortements clandestins. De nombreuses personnes recoivent ce genre de lettres jusqu'au moment où un patient cancéreux se tue en raison de la révélation du stage terminal de son cancer par une de ces lettres. Bientôt, toute la ville est à la recherche du 'corbeau' et le docteur Germain, en tentant de découvrir l'identité de ce dernier, se voit confronté à la lacheté et la laideur de la nature humaine.
A la sortie du film et à la fin de l'Occupation, le réalisateur, Henri-Georges Clouzot, fut accusé d'avoir voulu évoquer la délation qui fut très pratiquée en les années 40 en France et la présentation sombre des Français et la noirceur du film furent intensément critiquées. Le film fut interdit à la Libération. Le fait d'avoir été produit par un studio financé par les capitaux allemands, cela (en plus du fait que le film se heurta aux sensibilités des conservateurs, ainsi que des gens de gauche, de l'époque) causa un scandale et Clouzot reçut une interdiction professionnelle à vie mais la détermination de ses défenseurs lui permetta de revenir à la réalisation en 1947 avec Quai des Orfèvres.
Le film nous présente le personnage principal, un homme émotionnellement distant, ayant une liaison secrète avec la femme du psychiatre local. On sent dès le début du film que les personnages ne sont pas toujours honnêtes et s'ils le sont, c'est toujours en partie lié à leur manque de chaleur/d'empathie ou leur désir de préserver leurs secrets qui les poussent à être cruels dans des situations quotidiennes. Tout cela sera révélé au grand jour par les lettres anonymes qui mèneront graduellement à l'installation d'une hystérie collective dans la ville et tous les personnages sont des suspects. Un moment très émouvant nous montre que le docteur (qui au début nous dit ne pas aimer les enfants) tente de réconforter une jeune fille qui a essayé de se suicider à cause des révélations d'une de ces fameuses lettres. La fin du film est déprimante (en raison de ce qu'elle implique pour certains personnages) mais je pense que le film et fait pour être revu et je vous le recommande bien évidemment.
(drama sci-fi/horror like an episode of Tales From The Crypt, but pulls its punch too much)
