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samuelquentin
Reviews
3096 Tage (2013)
Empty
This story about the abduction of 10-year-old Austrian girl Natascha Kampusch and her 3096 days in the hands of her kidnapper Wolfgang Priklopil is done without any skill that reaches more than a below-average German TV movie (and that is BAD, for those who are not familiar with such exploits). Not only that it is slow in pace and filmed in a completely bland style without and sense for atmosphere (speaking of "direction" or cinematography - which is, believe it or not - done by world famous cinematographer Michael Ballhaus! - or editing) - it doesn't deliver anything that is even slightly compelling. All attempts at creating a menacing or desperate feel regarding the girl's imprisonment are falling flat and running empty - and these are the only adjectives that come to mind when watching this really unnecessary and awful film.
True Grit (2010)
A Western for People who have never seen a good Western
Again, the Coen brothers do show their uncanny talent of telling stories about people who are utterly unlikeable. It is a mystery to me what happened after "Fargo" - as this was the last movie where it was possible for the viewer to at least care A LITTLE BIT about the characters. No doubt Jeff Bridges does a good acting job with his mumbling drunkard "Rooster" Cogburn, same for Hailee Steinfeld's dead-serious little smart-ass Mattie Ross - but really NOBODY CARES. None of the characters have any depth, and therefore, the viewer is left with shrugging and waiting for the end titles to roll. The action goes along without any real surprises, the directing is Hollywood standard, the cinematography is okay. And until the final 15 minutes, the viewer has the impression of watching a so-so Western: nothing special, nothing original. - And then, the Coens pull the worst out of their hats: an endless scene where you wish for either one of the characters (or both) or the horse to die immediately. It DRAGS along, with cheesy music, cheesy cinematography - and it's a pain to see this movie being ruined. Whereas the final sequence starts with the remarkable voice-over line: "25 years is a long time." - And boy, 110 minutes can be a long time, too! - What is left is a stale taste in your mouth, even the impression of having wasted almost two hours of your life for a Western that requires new vocabulary - as "overrated" doesn't capture the disappointment in the slightest way. Go watch "The Outlaw Josey Wales" instead, an underrated gem.
Black Swan (2010)
A swan song...
Nathalie Portman can act. - That's the good thing about "Black Swan". - Aside from that, Darren Aronofsky's film doesn't have much to show. Suspenseful moments are destroyed by choosing Tchaikovsky's music instead of something that truly could support the mood, the cinematography doesn't deliver anything original (and is no match to Jack Cardiff's work on the ballet drama "The Red Shoes" - which centers around a similar story and does even show a title consisting of a symbol for a dancer's obsession), and the "action" goes along and along without anything that really surprises or catches the viewer's attention. Another example of Hollywood hype - if you penetrate the audience long enough, it doesn't take too long until everybody thinks they are watching a masterpiece. - All that is left in the end is a feeling of emptiness. Whoever acts surprised or shocked by the display of ballet as a world in itself, with lots of pressure, obsessions and struggle, should maybe start regarding the world with open eyes. - This movie doesn't deliver anything new or original in that field and fails as a psychological drama due to its flat and predictable storyline.
À l'intérieur (2007)
Basically just some mindless Splatter
No, this is not a horror movie. Extreme gore and bloodshed simply isn't enough. It's not even a big deal to reveal the so-called "plot": a young, pregnant woman (played by the sister of French singer Vanessa Paradis) is involved in a car accident. She and her unborn baby (that is shown several times from the "inside" - hence the title) survive, and four months later, when she is a few days away from delivering the baby, a woman in black (the sexiest woman with a tooth space: Beatrice Dalle) appears with the intention of cutting the baby out of her womb. She was the woman in the other car, and as she lost her baby because of the accident, she wants to get the other child and is killing everyone who gets in her way. That's it. Right, could be a nice short film. But it isn't. Instead, you are watching scissors slicing through faces, puncturing hands, faces being blown to pieces, testicles being smashed, arterial blood spraying through the air and so on and so on. And the worst of all: you don't really care, because you don't get to know anything about the characters. They're just there to be slain or tortured. Whoever is calling this "suspenseful" or even "horror" should be invited to watch for example "Someone's watching me!" for suspense or - "High Tension" as a perfect example for a great (also French) horror movie. For splatter fans, this movie may be decent fun, but for others, I would recommend looking somewhere else.