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wolfm72
Reviews
The Team (2015)
Boring, boring, boring
The series was so hyped through the media, that I really had high expectations. I'm sure that one of the major problems was, that the version shown in Austria was dubbed in German (and dubbing is always awful). Another problem was the length. Why four parts? The storyline could have been condensed down to a decent and thrilling film or at least only a two part series. I mean it was a nice try to flesh out the characters but then you would have needed good actors to do that. Storyline wise what happened to the character of Kit Ekdal and her abusive partner? Meant getting out of the car that she left him? Especially that storyline would have deserved a more convincing and satisfying ending. So all in all as my summary says: boring. I think it would have been more thrilling to have Mads Mikkelsen reading the phone book than watching his (by far not so talented brother) stumble through a 4 part series.
The Oscars (2015)
Sleep-inducing
Better than any sedative.I was really fighting with myself: To watch or not to watch? Unfortunately I thought that with Niel Patrick Harris host wise it would be an interesting show. I was proofed dead wrong. Lame jokes, sometimes with very bad timing, a watered down performance, but I'm sure he will host next years event as well, because he didn't cause any ripples in the boring and quiet surface of this years Academy Awards. So thanks for being such a good boy, because if Mr. Harris will indeed host next years event, then the choice of watching or not watching is much easier to make. The next problem were the nominations (not the people, who stood behind each category): In every category there were nearly always all the same five movies. A trend that developed over the last few years. So there were really no surprises at all on that front. The only good thing that evening were: best actor in a leading role. After his stellar performance as Stephen Hawking NO ONE had the right to take the golden boy home except Eddie Redmayne. And the Oscar for Citizenfour (bad joke and very inappropriate). This was the only moment were someone showed balls (and not the one's on a dress)this evening. And of course the touching performance of the song Glory. So having only 3 highlights during a nearly 4 hour show is not my kind of an exciting evening (or night). So thanks academy for a very boring night (because I'm from Austria, and I spent half the night in front of the TV for nothing)and next year I'll rather stay in bed than getting up in the middle of the night for another tedious 4 hours in front of the TV.
Jug Face (2013)
What the hell?
I really don't have a clue, why the rating for this film is 5,2 stars. This is one hell of a low (or maybe a no) budget movie. This film was well produced, had good actors in it (especially Ms. Lauren Ashley Carter and Sean Bridgers - these two actors rocked already the one and only movie "The Women", which also received only a 6,1 rating on your page). The film was well produced, well acted, but most of all it had an ORIGINAL story and that's the reason I'gave it a 10. All the crappy stuff that's played in the multiplexes around the world can't keep up with this film. Remakes, re-imaginings, part 108 of some stuff, were part one was already a stinker and then, you find light at the end of a dark, boring and uninteresting tunnel that's called mainstream - and for this we owe Mr. Chad Crawford Kinkle tons and tons of appreciation. Thanks a thousand times for this little gem.
The Theatre Bizarre (2011)
Lives up to it's title
I just saw The Theater Bizarre on DVD and I have to say that it's a shame that great films like this are only seen in the festival circus and don't get wide distribution. It would have been great to see this film on a silver screen in a theater, than seeing it on TV. But as long as Hollywood is flooding us with stupid and uninteresting movies that nobody cares about and that are only made for economic reasons we will have to live with it, that all the good and interesting stuff is condemned to DVD and the small screen. Hopefully one day all the stupid people wake up and are investing their money into movies that are worth seeing and not into worhtless and silly crap that comes out of Hollywood.
The Woman (2011)
That's what the genre is about
I was really Lucky (pun intended) to see this wonderful movie in a packed cinema during a small horror film festival (the /slashfest) in Vienna and it was amazing to witness the reaction of the crowd to the mayhem on screen. First I was surprised how many women were there (later on it was apparent, that they didn't know what they were in for). I read the book by Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee and knew what would hit me but still I was amazed by the boldness of MckKee to stick so close to the literary source. Whenever a violent outburst against one of the women in the film happened the whole audience was gasping for air (especially because sometimes you didn't see it coming like a good sucker punch). When I finished the book I thought that it was really misogynistic and I felt quite depressed, but when the final minutes went down (even when the story followed the book sometimes word by word) it was like a victory of the "weaker sex" over the "stronger" and it was a relief (shared by many applauding audience members) to see the men suffer by the hands of The Woman.
The Ward (2010)
Boring as hell
I have seen this film during a small horrorfilm festival (the /slashfilmfest) in Vienna after Lucky McKee's The Woman and after such a powerful and good movie everything looks pale in comparison, but when I read that the running time was only 88 minutes I was shocked, because it felt to me like I set through Lord of the Rings. And to be true and honest: What was Carpenter's last good film? My favorite is Cigarette Burns from Masters of Horror Season 1 (and that's been a while). To make a good movie it's not enough to pack one jump scare on the other until nobody is scared of them anymore and when the mystery was finally solved I thought it was a sick joke. We saw this film back in 2003 and it was called Identity and far more scary and (back then) far more original than this boring mumbo-jumbo by Mr. Carpenter.
Avatar (2009)
THE cinematic experience
We (5 people) saw Avatar yesterday and each and every one of us was blown away by the beauty and the beasts of Pandora. This is not watching a movie, it's an experience and I mean this in the truest sense of the word. Also mesmerized were the 200 to 300 people in the audience, because during it's 162 minutes of running time you could have heard a pin drop. There was no talking, no noisy munching of popcorn and no playing around with cell phones. It's good to have Mr. Cameron back in the directing chair, because he breathed life into the rotten and hollow corpse of Hollywood's cinematic existence with all their boring movies and unnecessary remakes. Since the last of the Lord of the Rings films cinemas across the world were a barren wasteland, but it took the visionary genius of Mr. Cameron to put something out there that is full of life. Usually I'm not someone who easily weeps, only when I see the beauty and the wonders of our own world (Grand Canyon, a starry sky in a summers night etc.), but yesterday when we discovered Pandora through the eyes of Jake Scully, I had to fight back tears of joy, because of it's beauty and exuberance. I was not the only one feeling this way, and our little group consisted of fans of all genres, but everyone was on the same page yesterday: This film was one of the best in recent years and in many years to come. Speaking of years to come, I hope that Mr. Cameron will bring us back to Pandora to show us more unforgettable things. Thank you, Mr. Cameron for bringing things back on the big screen, that seemed to be lost and forgotten since the end credits of The Return of the King came to an end in December 2003. Thanks o lot!!!
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Boring as hell
Yesterday we (2 friends of mine) saw Paranormal Activity in our small town Austrian cinema. After all this hype that came across the big one and the phenomenal box office success in the States expectations were running high to see the next good example in fright film format. I have to say that our small group consisted of hardcore horror fans. We have seen them all and were looking forward to be scared out of our pants. Instead we were bored out of our pants. So my advice is: Watch the film ONLY, when you are not a horror film fan. Some guys thought that they could do the Blair Witch and failed miserably in that effort. Cheap thrills, a very slow and uninteresting first half of the film sent me nearly of to dreamland (I was very exhausted, because I hadn't slept much in the last few days) and when the film started to become interesting it was over. So save your bucks and watch something more original than this sucker.
Martyrs (2008)
An artistic beacon to the genre world
First I have to say that all the hype about the violent nature of this movie was far too exaggerated. I'm an horror film fan since the tender age of 16 (now I'm 37) and I've seen hundreds of films that were more grotesquely and perversely violent than this one. On the other hand I have to admit that I saw the German rental DVD and I'm not quite sure if the film was cut or not. There was little information on the net and from the film itself it was not possible to tell if the German censors had again a field day with that movie, because even after 60 years after the Nazi regime art has no free right in this country to tell, or to show what it has to show, but that's a different story. In May I can tell you more about the nature of the film, when I get the unrated American edition on DVD from Amazon and can compare it to the German one. Even if the movie I saw was cut, it's still a far cry from things like Saw and Hostel, especially when it comes to term of the quality and the story of the film. What started with Alexandre Aja's film High Tension in 2005 and found it's following with Alexandre Bustillo's and Julien Maury's Inside in 2007and Xavier Gens' movie Frontier(s) in 2008 French horror directors have delivered films that stand mountain high above the genre outings from the States. I hope I allowed to quote from the DVD review of that movie from the Fangoria home page that these films are "
a shining artistic beacon to the rest of the genre world." There is nothing more to say about this.
Watchmen (2009)
Hell of a movie
I have to salute Zack Snyder for bringing Alan Moore's graphic novel in this beautiful and gory way to the big screen. After his success with 300 I hoped that Watchmen would open to similar figures at the box office like his previous work. Unfortunately it didn't, but what can you expect from an audience, that throws over 40 Mio. $ to movies like the really WORSE Friday the 13th remake. It would be great if the Americans would go to the cinema and see some good stuff than this boring, useless and mindless remakes. I'll hope that with word of mouth the movie will life up to the expectations of the producers (especially at the box office). So guys, get up and watch a GOOD film instead of bad ones. Thanks for this epic movie Mr. Snyder and keep up your visionary work.
Friday the 13th (2009)
Stop the remake wave
I saw this film last Friday. A couple left the theater before me, that was old enough, that they must have seen the original movie in the cinema back in 1980 and I felt sorry for them. They saw a classic back in the day and today they saw one of the most stupid movie remakes ever made. I mean expectations were running high (so were mine). But they were buried on this day. Please, stop making remakes of films that are classics. When I think of the upcoming The Thing, Last House on the Left or Hellraiser to name only a view, I feel sick to the bone. Why do you have to do something over for the second time, when it was made right in the first place. It's interesting that people (I don't know the exact demographic that this disaster was made for)like to see stupid teenagers, running around, doing drugs and getting killed (even in no exciting ways). The screenwriters have done their part ruining this movie big time by creating "characters" we, the audience, don't care about and give a damn if they are getting killed or not. The storyline was as thin as the characters and the "hero", Jared Padalecki should stick to his TV assignments. If all remakes are following now this route, it's better to leave them be and look out for something knew. It's also strange,that Sean S. Cunningham was involved in this mess. But maybe he was more interested in making money, than caring for a franchise that he has created, because, by all means even the worst entries in the old Friday the 13th movies were a million times better then this really horrible mess.