Change Your Image
CrazyCultFilms
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Jigeum uri hakgyoneun (2022)
Excellent in some ways and shoddy in other ways.
Okay so the good - it's fun, the pacing works well and keeps you interested. The characters are played by young actors to reflect their high-school personas. Overall the concept is great and it starts off very promising. There's also some original strategies to escaping the zombies which is nice to see.
Now for the bad - the writing has no direction. Characters are built up over episodes only to be wasted away in minutes. The build up to pay off ratio, in terms of plot and character development for each character, feels completely unbalanced and poorly considered.
This wasteful storytelling becomes frustrating at the midway point where it's easy to stop caring about anything or anyone since it seems like the writers also don't seem to care.
The Unforgiven (1960)
Lots of potential but lacks critical thinking
The idea of a child being stolen from the Kiaowa by white cattle ranchers is a very compelling one
However, the film fails to critically engage with any subject matter around race, colonisation, violence, gender etc so you end up with a story that depicts a family who slaughter a whole tribe of natives, with Audrey Hepburn killing her brother point blank, as "the good guys". The relationship between Burt Lancaster and his adopted sister is creepy and unnecessary to the wider narrative.
While interesting to view the film with 2021 social views, I still struggle to believe the actions in this film by the protagonists could have ever been considered justified even in the 60s.
Cats (2019)
Feels vulgar to watch human furries
Watching human cat hybrids spreading their legs and running around licking themselves, it feels perverse to watch.
The set designs and some performances are actually quite good but the CGI of the cats is so distracting. The story is also quite disjointed and difficult to follow.
The experience ends up being uncomfortable and otherwise boring.
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
The whole film is told via exposition
The fight scenes look so bad compared with the 20 year old original. Terrible choreography, terrible cinematography, terrible editing.
The worst thing about this movie is just how boring it is.
Masha (2020)
If you're expecting Hero With A Thousand Faces storytelling this is not it
The film captures the beautiful scenes and vibe of 90s Russia. If you're familiar with the East Block in the 90s you may appreciate a lot of the cinematography and mise en scene because it's spectacular down to the fashion.
It also very accurately captures the naivete and simplicity of being a 13 Yr old.
If you're hoping for the familiar structured story telling style from film school this is not it as some whiny reviewers have already mentioned in their undeserving low review scores.
Dr. Death (2021)
Shocking and anxiety inducing but very well performed
Amazing performances from all involved. Unlike other commenters I found the time jumping very compelling and ultimately brought the narrative together in a very fascinating format.
I've seen the lawyer in the final episodes from Suits which was a little distracting .
House of My Fathers (2018)
A good concept that suffers from poor editing and ugly visuals
The story concept and the themes it works with are actually very strong and what drew me to the film in the first place.
Sadly, the film looks lower budget than it probably was because the cinematography was very bland and made the viewing experience painful. It's a shame that there was a lack of visual cues to bump up the story, for example use of colours or visual references to enhance the fantasy setting the forest. An opportunity to use colour grading or even enriched vibrance could have made the viewing experience a lot more enjoyable and the story easier to follow. The music score was actually fantastic but again, poorly used for enhancing the story and there were moments of over-acting in some of the side character's performances. Overall, an interesting idea that reminded me of Annihilation but lacked the visual elegance to be rated the same.
Salinjaui gieokbeob (2017)
Decent attempt at depicting dementia in a thriller but suffers from poor writing and unnecessary length
Honestly the journey and structure of this film is great at the start but becomes a bit lost and over convoluted further into the story. The reason for this I believe is a lack of focused writing. Playing with the time and memory lapses of Byung-soo and how it relates to trying to catch his daughter's bf is a good idea and I think there are parts where it was very well executed.
However there were also parts where it was badly executed and parts where the story becomes convoluted without any real reason.
The audience attention is lost because of this lack of focus and instead you are left a bit confused about why certain scenes happened instead of gripped throughout. This confusion remains at the end of the film.
Also the film commits the crime of continuing after the story ends, dragging on an extra 15 mins or so that could easily have been cut from the end.
The concept is interesting and there's certainly parts where the story is engaging but it's not as well brought together as one would hope.
A martfüi rém (2016)
Gratuitous violence overshadows any underlying message about State corruption
POSSIBLE SPOILERS: I watched this at London Film Festival where the director described his desire to tell about the political corruption that prevented a competent investigation into a serial rape/murder case. Fine. But after having watched the film, which for the first half burdens us with the unnecessary graphically depicted rape scenes and close ups showing horrific violence against numerous women (and a child), I'm not sure any political message is what you are left thinking about.
The fact the entire story could have equally been told without a single rape scene being showed, leads me to believe the director simply enjoyed showing this type of violence, and that these scenes were included for shock value. Confirmed by the director himself who wanted to provide 'horror' for the audience.
So if you were hoping to find an impressive depiction of the corrupt Communist regime, you may be disappointed by this. If you were looking for Last House on the Left x5 then you've come to the right place.
I've given it 5 stars because the acting was good, there's some excellent dialogues and the cinematography is beautiful. But for me, the story (structure not content) was weak and relied heavily on American style 'violence for the sake of violence'. Do better please.
Films like Memories of Murder did a far better job showing the corruption of a political system in a police investigation (and the violence included was far more appropriate to the story).
Muge (2012)
A Fine Piece of Cinema
This film is a bit of character study and also a bit like a dark fairytale.
Jung is a mortician who is very ill with tuberculosis. The film begins with very little known about Jung and slowly reveals his past being an outcast, being adopted, his relationship with his new mother, his relationship with his step brother and his concern with helping the step brother become a woman.
Jung does a lot of odd things including painting his corpses, dancing with them, allowing strangers to pay him to use the bodies for sex etc the money he makes from this he collects in order to help his brother with the final operation so he can become a woman.
The relationship between Jung and his adoptive mother is similar to the evil-stepmother/aunt archetype used in fairy tales. It reveals why he was adopted and why despite this he remained an outcast whose only solace is in helping his step brother that final time.
It's an interesting watch that weaves Jung's own depression and anxiety with his desire to help his younger brother to make that final step and the elements of fantasy that the audience must decide what parts of the story are real and which are products of his imagination.
I felt there could have been a smoother flow to the story as there are some situations and characters that perhaps don't need to be there or I missed the purpose of including them.
In any case a fascinating but slow film that could have been improved by a more structured approach to the story. Otherwise a very moving and insightful piece.