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Despite the Falling Snow (2016)
A work of art!
I accept that I am not among the sophisticati who live and breathe movies and contribute frequently to IMDB. But as a U.S. diplomat I served at the U.S. Embassy in communist Budapest Hungary in the Cold War 1970's. Much that was depicted in this movie ran true back then -- dilapitated decaying wall-peeling apartnents and buildings versus relatively elegant government buildings, bugging of even private apartments, etc. etc. Much was the same in Moscow too. I write rarely on IMDB and only when some movie especially intrigues me. This one did. No grotesque slasher torture-, gun- or hyper-violence here, no f-words. Rather, intelligent dialogues, gorgeous repeat gorgeous cinenatography, delicate music and I venture director's and financial backers' love for this movie's concept make this movie a true work of ART. I am glad it came to be nade.
Lady Psycho Killer (2015)
Remeniscent of "I Spit On Your Grave"
I rather liked it as a spoof on teen/slasher flicks. Less serious than the rape-vegeance classic ISOYG, it still had fairly decent production values, photography and acting. The character of Ella's over-accommodating mother was rather puzzling but became clearer by the twist at the end. Mom was quite a gal.
Countdown: Jerusalem (2009)
It came across as anti-Israel
I approached this movie "cold" not knowing anything at all about it but just browsing one evening on Netflix. Previous reviewers have skewered it. What troubled me and unmentioned by others is that it came across as anti Israel or at least patronizing toward Israel. As a non-deist (athiest) I have my own reservations about deist states be they Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran or would-be Christian fundamentalist USA. But whether or not you like it, Israel exists and is there to stay. The scenes of Israel/ Jerusalem being rocketed, bombed and shot up by some coalition of a New World Order were too much for my taste. I sensed that those scenes would appeal egoistically to Israel-haters. On the plus side the lady protagonist was nice eye candy from the side and rear. And some of the Israel-cinematography was appealing and interesting.
Somewhere in Time (1980)
Credit for author Jack Finney?
I won't add to the laudatory comments about this movie but would like to raise an intriguing question. In 1970 an author named Jack Finney copyrighted what he called "An Illustrated Novel" named "Time and Again," which I have. It is a romantic, soulful read predicated on time travel back to an earlier New York City. I have always been struck by the similarity between the time travel "method" used by Finney in his book, and the sort of self-hypnosis method used in the Somewhere in Time movie. They are uncannily similar! Yet I find no credit for Jack Finney in connection with the Somewhere in Time movie on either the comments posted on Amazon.com or here on IMDb.
Of interest also is that the professor character in the movie who tells Richard Collier about time travel is named "Finney." Can that be just coincidence, or was it intended as a kind of homage to author Jack Finney? Does anyone know?
Living Death (2006)
Not too bad
(Spoiler alert: partially discloses plot)
This flick is not as bad as I might have thought. It actually has a somewhat interesting plot. The sound quality stinks though, turn it up high enough to hear the dialogue and the "music" (such as it is) is overwhelmingly loud and blasts you away.
Caddish rich-heir-from-Daddy husband, sexy wife (yum, great kisser) and her lover, his best friend. Wife and lover off the cad with blowfish-poison. Only he doesn't die, he is paralyzed like dead but still sees and hears everything but can't move a muscle ("Living Death"). He wakes up on the autopsy table and goes on a revengefest.
A medieval torture stretching rack features twice in this horror-genre flick. Daddy had a hobby, a fully equipped attic medieval dungeon that hubby, and implicitly his wife, use for fun and games. The movie starts with yon cad entertaining a lady friend up there with some erotic moderate stretching on a large angled rack (severe unpadded heavy iron manacles, ouch). Things go awry when his wife surprises them. Startled, he leans too hard on the lever and damages the rackee.
One gets an impression of the rack's dismembering strength but pictures of the mechanism are unpersuasive, just closeups of gears meshing and chains and ropes tightening. The rack figures again at the end of the movie in the vengeancefest, this time as a torture and execution means. No erotic BDSM this time, but pain and dismemberment. The scene suggests the horror of the real thing beyond erotica when it was used for torture and punishment, much less execution.
Anyway, I've seen worse horror-genre flicks. If you're a rack aficionado it's worth a look.