The music helped no doubt about that but a lot of the footage just wasn't engrossing enough, would have worked better had it been shorter with the best bits of the music.
Short Cuts is a tremendous movie. If it isn't Paul Thomas Anderson's favorite Altman, I will eat my hat. Magnolia in particular owes so much to it. The storylines tie together just enough, but never in a contrived way. Huge fan.
The Visit (2015) - 3/10 Insidious* - 7.5/10 Insidious: Chapter 2 - 6/10 Insidious: Chapter 3 - 6.5/10 The Da Vinci Code - 1.5/10 Angels & Demons* - 2.5/10 Inferno (2016) - 0.5/10 The Accused (1988) - 8/10 Sully - 6.5/10 The Lost Boys - 7/10 Hunt for the Wilderpeople - 9/10 Fearless (2006) - 8.5/10 Interesting week despite being inconsistent in terms of quality with two trilogies dominating the week with drastically different results from both. Firstly The Visit was a disappointment as not only had I enjoyed Split but people hailed this as M. Night Shyamalan's return to form after several awful films and sadly it wasn't much better. It wasn't scary, the two protagonists were annoying and the camerawork adding nothing to the film as a whole. The Insidious series may well be a flawed one and not all that consistent in terms of being high quality but it has managed to at least keep characters at the forefront of each film, offered up a decent amount of scares, plenty of creepy imagery and are on the whole entertaining. The Robert Langdon series is easily the worst trilogy of films I have ever seen, not only are the apocalyptically boring but neither of the other two films learnt much from what was wrong with The Da Vinci Code outside of turning the lights on. All three consist of pointing at things, spouting exposition galore, running from one place to another and being way too long. The only worthwhile part of the entire series is the parachuting pontiff part in Angels & Demons as that was hilarious (even after being my second time round seeing it), practically everything else in the series is a giant misfire and the twist in Inferno is probably the worst part. Finally on to the last couple of days where I intentionally sought out films that were at least above average to try and cleanse my love of film from the filth that the previous three dragged me through. The Accused is extremely well acted by the two leads with the film dealing with a hard hitting subject in a way that wasn't exploitative while also being deeply emotional, that scene in the bar was deeply uncomfortable and genuinely shocked and appalled me. Sully was your typical biographical drama film but despite the cliches it was the fact that the NTSB were presented as antagonistic that was my biggest issue with it, excellent performances though and a riveting plane crash (shown in two different ways) were enough to make it entertaining. The Lost Boys is the eighties personified with plenty of style over substance, teen stars and a cheesy soundtrack but since I am a fan of eighties culture none of that really bothered me and it was at least briskly paced with solid practical effects. Hunt for the Wilderpeople was a big surprise as not only was it one of the funniest films I have seen for a while but it also had plenty of dramatic heft to it, looked great, is well acted and has a solid score/soundtrack. Fearless may well be flawed in that it feels rushed and skips over some aspects I would have liked to have been explored better but the cinematography is gorgeous, the fight scenes are brilliant (all in their individual way) and the plot is wholly engrossing. Will be seeing mother!, IT and Kingsman: The Golden Circle over the course of the week all of which I am excited for, so hopefully I'm not disappointed.
V/H/S - 7/10 Haven't watched this in a while. Its just such a great horror vibe. Even when nothings happening, the lack of music and the way they manipulate the old v/h/s look is very clever. The first story with the 'vampire girl?' is amazing. Like, there are about 4 images that fucking scary as fuck, and the ending with the 'vampire' taking the guy away...so good. The second story is a big flop. Not enough of a payoff. The third story, with the 'unfilmable murder', is frigtening as hell. It's that perfect use of vhs film manipultion that works so well. So simple. Maybe a bit chaotic, but i love it. The 4th story, the girl who sees ghosts and is a pawn of some sort of experiment, is a perfect Black Mirror esque episode. While all the stories deal with a twist, this one is the most 'its a twist'-y. The most jump scares definitely. Good use of silence and i love the honest reaction to the ghosts. The 5th story, with the haunted house, is fun. Not the best and it takes a bit long to get to the point, but pefectly fine. Great way to end the movie. The main story arch was fine... i remember when I first watched VHS, my biggest gripe was the main story arch being lackluster and I still stand by that. I'm ready for fall.
Train to Busan might just be my most favorite zombie thing ever. I didn't expect to get so emotional.
Forsaken (2015) - 6.5/10 mother! - 9/10 It (2017) - 8.5/10 The Gambler (1974) - 7.5/10 Kingsman: The Secret Service* - 8/10 Kingsman: The Golden Circle - 6/10 Underworld: Evolution* - 3/10 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans* - 6.5/10 Underworld: Awakening* - 4/10 Underworld: Blood Wars - 5/10 Gods of Egypt - 0/10 The Bridge on the River Kwai - 8/10 Really odd week with several low points and a disappointment but not without its highlights. mother! being the best of the week with It following closely behind, I actually watched both on the same day (is it weird that I spend a day in the cinema?) and both were great for completely different reasons. Kingsman: The Golden Circle was overall a major disappointment, would have liked it more had it been shorter and didn't feature a toe curling scene but it was mostly fun albeit a lot less so than first time round. Rewatched the majority of the Underworld series since I noticed I had yet to review them on my Letterboxd profile and wanted to watch the latest one, a mostly below average series but I kind of like the third one and Blood Wars wasn't as abysmal as I was expecting. However nothing this week came even close to the awfulness that was Gods of Egypt, a film which I have nothing positive to say about it which is incredible considering I have liked films from the director before and the fact the budget is so high as most films with that level of budget at least have something to like. Rest of the week was average or better, not looking like there is going to be much else to watch at the cinema for the rest of the year but already have seen more films from the current year than any year before.
I can't imagine mother! at a 9, but it's a movie that's pretty much built to elicit divisive, split opinions. So makes sense.
Yeah I loved it too, super entertaining and engaging throughout. Probably top 3 of the year for me so far.
I should really watch it. So far, Dunkirk has been the worst movie I’ve seen this year, though, It was pretty bad too.
I think he’s a great visual artist and he clearly knows how to direct a scene on a technical level. It’s his characters and writing that falls flat for me nearly every time. I don’t have it out for the guy, but I genuinely do not find his work to be that compelling. I remember enjoying The Dark Knight, but I haven’t seen that in probably seven years or so, so I can’t say for sure. Dunkirk was a huge miss for me though and what’s interesting is that all the people I am close to in real life felt the same way, but whenever I turn to the internet it’s pretty much unanimously praised. Part of me wants to rewatch it to see if there’s something I miss but I don’t really want to put myself through that again. I was so incredibly bored. It just felt so empty Did you end up seeing it?
I did not see it. I will eventually, but the only reason I would have seen it would be to talk about it but it is one of those movies you cannot criticize on Chorus.fm.