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The Invitation (2015)
Something I missed?
Really wanted to like this movie. Critics were great and set-up seems exiting. What a disappointment! From the start, nobody acts with any sense of credibility. Starting with Marshall-Greene who looks partly psycho,partly depress. Why would he even go to this party feeling the way he did? Anybody in his right mind would have stayed home.
How about all the other invitees? There supposed to reunite after 2 years, best of friend, and there is absolutely no chemistry whatsoever between any of them.
And then, when the hosts starts talking cult, and all weird...Anybody home? Hey, they installed fences to block windows, they keep the doors locked. They even invited a creepy looking bodyguard and a women who would be just right as a charles manson's devotee... They even have stash of barbiturates hid in the nightstand...
So there is no big surprise when the big reveal finally happens...
Escobar: Paradise Lost (2014)
Even lower than my low expectations
Having just seen the brilliant Narcos series on Netflix, I didn't expect much of this movie. Therefore, I was surprised to be that disappointed.
First,there are the performances by both leads. Josh Hutcherson from Hunger Games fame is so bland. We always feel as though he is somehow surprise of what's happening around him. His girlfriend's uncle is the infamous baron drug Pablo Escobar, for crying out loud! She's honest enough to say that he made his fortune in the drug trade, and, that doesn't change any of his reaction.
And I wasn't more impress by Benecio Del Toro's performance, which I thought was just average, considering the nature of his character.
I had a hard time believing how anybody behaved in the movie, in particular the relationship between Escobar and Nick (Hutchinson's character). Nick is so suspicious and self- cautious, it feel impossible to believe that Escobar would welcome him in his entourage.
The major problem is the screenplay, which is by no means based on real story. I had a hard time figuring out if this was supposed to be some kind of a account of Escobar's life, a thriller, or just a cautionary tale. In any case, it failed on all counts, specifically on the cautionary tale dimension. Nick is never really fully integrated in Escobar's activities, and doesn't get any of the rewards. At best, he is the pool boy of the Escobar haciendas.
Spoiler: The last third of the movie, which many critics have said is full of tension and is considered the "thriller" part of the movie, doesn't even make any sense. Can you really believe that Escobar would ask this gringo to take charge of a sensitive mission, involving hiding part of his fortune and killing someone?
Your time would be better invested in the Netflix series mentioned above, or the documentary (available on you tube) The true story of Killing Pablo.
No Escape (2015)
So bad it hurts...
I was really looking to this picture. I thought the concept was exciting. Then I read the critics. And finally saw the movie. It's even worse than most critics are saying. Disturbingly violent at times, the movie lacks any kind of perspective, both literally and figuratively!
Yep! The filmmakers use a awful lot of close-up and hand held camera, which makes me feel nauseous. Even in quieter moments, the damn camera keeps shaking. I understand that this is meant to overstate a certain level of paranoia and a sense of stress. But you almost never get to see a wide or mid shot of any action, and when the camera finally stops it sea-sick movement, it's a relief.
As for any perspective on the reasons behind the coup d'etat, or any type on context...well this is not this type of movie. And that is probably it's major problem: we are more in The Purge: anarchy territory
Room 237 (2012)
get a life...
i had high hopes for this movie, critic's reviews having been great. so this is a bit of a disappointment.
some of it is good, but overall, it seems like "geekdom" come. The Shining is a great movie, but you really have to take a leap of faith to think that Kubrick''s film is at the same time a movie about native Americans, the holocaust, Kubrick's excuse for is participation as the director hire by the Nasa to film a fake lunar landing, and so on.
I don't doubt that once in a while, a movie has hidden messages, easter egg or in-joke. but to think that Kubrick deliberately includes a penis in erection in one introductory scene is pure delirium. and it's even worse to think that some people really think it is true.