Despite my enthusiasm for small budget movies I would have to say that this is a crappy movie on all accounts. It is shot on digital camera that almost resembles black and white that far too often resorts to all black in order to achieve a creepy atmosphere. It deals with a web-designer that is threatened by some mysterious person/thing for no obvious reasons. The scary parts are characterized by an overzealous shaking camera and running through woods (hmmm, where have we seen that before?) and in essence fail to deliver any sort of sense of mystery or horror. The sudden and pretty lame twist at the end cannot help overcome the lack of good ideas and solid film-making that this production suffers from.
Reviews
7 Reviews
Down to the Bone
(2002)
brilliant slightly macabre claymation
11 October 2003
Hasta los huesos is one of the best shorts i have ever seen, (faintly reminiscent of the earlier wallace & gromit, but then darker and better), the story apart from it being very entertaining, has precisely that macabre and authentic mexican touch (with a very nice musical scene with a twist with the mexican classic song 'la llorona' in it) that makes it a hidden treasure and goes way beyond the stuff pixar, disney and those other big animation studios produce that are socalled 'also fun for adults'.
Whale Rider
(2002)
decent audience-pleaser
9 February 2003
Warning: Spoilers
warning; spoilers ahead
How could a movie that is gender/environment/minority politically correct fail to please audiences around the world? Well for one, by bringing a tid bit too much audience pleasing (such as the overdone stereotyping of the grandfather, and the everything-will-be-alright and the people-have-regained-their-so-long-lost-pride). That is a shame because the acting is very good and the script is interesting (though it should have definitely ended when the main actresses rode off on the whale). Now at the end of the movie we are left with a hollywood ending for a movie which deserved a whole lot better.
How could a movie that is gender/environment/minority politically correct fail to please audiences around the world? Well for one, by bringing a tid bit too much audience pleasing (such as the overdone stereotyping of the grandfather, and the everything-will-be-alright and the people-have-regained-their-so-long-lost-pride). That is a shame because the acting is very good and the script is interesting (though it should have definitely ended when the main actresses rode off on the whale). Now at the end of the movie we are left with a hollywood ending for a movie which deserved a whole lot better.
brilliant depicture of children's world
31 August 2002
In a not so well-known piece of the maker of the singing detective, the group of children that is portrayed slowly yet steadily degress from just a bunch of playful kids into a sadistic bloodthirsty mob. Instead of the supposed innocence of children that Hollywood constantly tries to force on cinema audiences, this pic truly portrays children's fantasy worlds in all its crudeness. The fact that all children's roles are played by adult actors (albeit strange at first) works tremendously well.
Moloch
(1999)
very disappointing sokurov
30 July 2002
being very impressed by the poetic imagery in sokurov's 'mother and son' i was very interested about moloch and especially when such a controversial theme as the inner live of hitler and his incrowd is involved. Alas this was a pure disappointment; depicting hitler as a raving lunatic and a village idiot in an overtly absurdist way is almost as insulting to the course of history as portraying hitler as a 'good guy'. Foggy decors, 'ballet-movie' sequences and pseudo-artistic black white scores only help to establish an artsy fartsy feel about this whole project. Concluding very interesting idea to begin with but an utterly failed and boring production.
Schramm
(1993)
best serial killer movie ever
24 July 2002
Warning: Spoilers
serial killers are brutal and normal people aren't meant to understand them (me not being a normal person); this idea came to my mind when i saw schramm and seeing 90% of the audience leave disgusted before the ending of the movie (most of which (warning spoilers ahead) couldnt handle the cleaning of the sex doll part). Which is is sad, because this movie portrays perfectly the boredom, alienation and schizophrenic portrayal of events that the main character, schramm, experiences. Supported by a haunting sequence of reiterating images, a dark cello-based and intoxicating soundtrack and some scenes which are as utterly credible as confronting, which make this movie a true experience into the mind of a serial killer.
Querelle
(1982)
the worst fassbinder ever
14 July 2002
It is unbelievable that somebody like Fassbinder who did make 'der sehnsucht der Veronika Voss' and 'die ehe der Maria Braun' made such a thoroughly bad movie. The acting is completely theatrical, the sets are made out of cardbord, the photography is lousy and worst of all the script is vague, non-consistent and boring. The movie deals with a gay named Querelle who has some sort of loathing for his homosexual desires which he takes out on innocent people/his lovers. Fassbinder tries to get the audience to have sympathy for this pertubed guy, which obviously doesn't occur. I don't mind gay movies, i don't mind movies that show people struggle with themselves, i DO mind crappy movies, bad acting, lousy scripts and this one has all of the latter.
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