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drrothe
Reviews
Agent Kelly (2020)
Walk Lola Walk
For those who have seen the German "Run Lola Run." this one is also about a woman in constant motion. It starts with a woman running through some woods from a couple guys who look alike (we later find out they're twins played by the same actor). Once they catch her, we jump to the title character (Caroline Spence, who also wrote) talking on the phone to "Ed," who seems to be her boss. She tells Ed she killed one of the guys who killed the first woman (a lot in this movie happens off-screen) and now she'll kill the others. Ed sounds pretty exasperated with her. Most of the rest of the movie is Agent Kelly walking around and sometimes riding in vehicles and sometimes running through some very scenic Spanish locations. She does a recurring voice over in which she mentions several times she's age 50---doesn't look her age, I guess we're meant to think. Her accent varies between American and British. She looks around a lot; there's a nice "It Follows" kind of vibe as we wonder if anyone passing by will turn out to be a villain. She doesn't seem particularly well prepared to deal with villains; when one guy chases her along a beach, she stops to take off a shoe so she can hit him with it, then throws it aside and keeps running. Eventually she's at a marina, picks out a yacht apparently at random and climbs in; how does she know the owner won't show up? There's another phone conversation (she never talks face to face with anyone in this) with we're not sure whom concerning we're not sure what, but he tells her where to find some explosives. After a while I was wondering if the whole movie was her imagination, especially at the end when (here's the spoiler part) what looks like the first woman (who's supposed to be dead) appears. At the end she's still walking. Whether you find this worth watching or not depends if you find Agent Kelly (at one point she says on the phone her first name is Doris, who knows if that's true or not) personally appealing; also the atmospheric electronic music helps it along. The dialogue sounds like self-parody (I guess deliberately). We also hear some radio conversation about what jobs women should have; the voices are pleasant to listen to. Too bad we never get to see what Ed looks like, he sounds pretty interesting on the phone. If she's a secret agent, I have to ask (along with the irate sheriff from "Live and Let Die") "On whose side?"
La horde (2009)
I loved this movie.....
Even if there had not been a single zombie in it, this is exactly what I crave: no holds barred action that hits the ground running and never lets up. Possibly influencing Indonesia's later "The Raid," it has four French cops infiltrating a drug gang's tenement hide-out to exact revenge for the murder of a colleague. Things go wrong and it looks like the cops are doomed---until both groups realize they're under attack by zombies; the whole city seems lit up. From there they must reluctantly co-operate to survive. One of the cops is a bad-ass chick who shows she can more than hold their own. (She has a brawl with a female zombie that's maybe the best girl-fight I've seen.) The gang is led by a couple of Nigerian brothers who exude authenticity. The gore level should satisfy anyone. Some comic relief is provided by a pot-belled and somewhat addled army veteran who lends the proceedings a kind of graciously doomed "Camp of the Saints" aura. When one of the cops draws the creatures' attention to let the other get away and winds up atop a car with a sea of monsters swirling around him, it's almost poetic in it's horror. Another intense moment is when the survivors stare in stunned silence as the zombies scream at them from beyond an all too flimsy barrier. Nothing against George Romero and many others, but I've never seen zombies looking worse or scarier than these. A final twist at the end is a kick in the guts even if in hindsight it seems inevitable. Unlike some of the movies I've seen for free on YouTube, I would have paid to see this. If this doesn't satisfy the adrenaline junkies, I don't know what would. For Harvey Keitel fans, one of the crooks somewhat resembles him and decidedly "loses some face...."
Chum thaang rot fai phii (2007)
Helps if you leave your brain under your seat....
Given that the very title gives most of the "twist" away, it's not that much of a "spoiler" since anyone who's seen "Carnival of Souls" from 1962 (and of course "The Sixth Sense") and the even earlier "Outward Bound" (1930) (also redone a number of times) can see it coming from several train lengths away. Two of the later gang of comical Grunge-looking thugs are seen sleeping in what looks like a garage, one keeps having bad dreams, then we cut to a Motocross competition that goes on so long I thought I'd clicked on the wrong movie on You Tube. But eventually we rejoin the first two guys and the rest of their motley crew as they ineptly commit a robbery, leaving the only female member behind to die; as they flee the cops, they hit somebody since the driver's not paying attention---both of these become significant later---crash into what looks like an army surplus store and take one of the Motocross guys hostage, stumble across a waiting train and hide out in it. (Guess the cops wouldn't look for them there.) They don't seem to notice that the suddenly appearing passengers don't react to them at all, except for one comely lass (who plays a model) who tries to explain the situation to them. There's a lot of screaming and outlandish violence and confused running around until it's finally revealed what we knew all along, that they're all on their way to the afterlife; apparently some get to be reincarnated and some don't (I'm no expert on Thai theology). The actors ham it up with gusto (including a flamboyant gay character who maybe would have been funny here forty or fifty years ago) and the otherworldly special effects aren't that bad for a low budget, but ultimately it's a lot of "sound and fury signifying nothing." But it seems no worse than some of the chintzier zombie flicks available on You Tube....
Decays (2020)
Some nice work on a low budget....
The first in a "zombie trilogy" from the indie Some Dude Productions, "decays" is the term used for the walking dead; wonder if any zombie movie will ever again use the word "zombie." (Guess we mustn't offend Haitian religion?) Somewhere on the mobility scale between George Romero's slow stumblebums and the speed demons from 28 DAYS LATER, these creatures have apparently overwhelmed civilization and now roam the countryside, with survivors here and there trying to avoid them. Our protagonist has the unlikely name Bigby Gravesly, played by Brandon Whipple who also performs many roles behind the camera. He meets a pair of brothers (played by brothers) and they explore abandoned homesteads in search of food and weapons. There's an unforced amiability to their interactions, fitting the relative newness of the apocalypse (apparently it's been months not years), and everyone's teeth still look pretty good. Scenes of violence are brief but effective and the gore is low-key, e.g. When someone gets stabbed in the eye with a knife, it's off camera (also maybe due to the low budget). Late in the going there's a hint of a large group of predators, possibly a nod to Negan and the Saviors from THE WALKING DEAD. (I've seen the third DECAYS but not the second yet.) Adrenaline junkies may wish there were more action and less talk here, but just as an air traffic controller's job is said to be "95 percent boredom and 5 percent terror," the naturalism here works well, and I would recommend having a look at it, especially since it's free on YouTube...
The Darkest (2019)
Seems long at 67 minutes....
Another review mentions the bit with the cat at the beginning. I almost shut it off right then, but I figured since this wasn't written by Stephen King, maybe the cat would be okay. (It was. Maybe the knife missed it by another inexplicable physics trick.) The best line in the movie comes from one of the students: "It IS alive or dead, you just don't know which." Clearly that guy's too pragmatic to be in physics. It's probably meant to be foreshadowing for the metaphysical shpiel later. Anyway this professor then explains to his--umm--girlfriend? That he won't cheat on his wife. (Why any woman would want a stiff like him is unclear.) Cut to his wife cheating on HIM. Seems "not much love left here." Yet she agrees to go hiking with him in the mountains. On the way upwards, he shoves her into some water---romantic, those French! Once they settle in for the night, they seem remarkably unprepared for it being moonlessly dark. Then some supposedly spooky stuff happens; if you've seen THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and some others, this seems to fall short. The physics prof comes up with some bizarre notions about who's menacing them---multiple universes and whatnot--- that movie with Michelle Yeoh pretty much ruined all that for me. I never felt that they were in any real danger. You've probably read elsewhere that the movie demands we watch it in the dark---I don't like looking at computer screens in the dark, bothers my eyes, so I disobeyed this dictum. Much of it is just sounds on a dark screen, I didn't see why it had to be even darker. PITCH BLACK and others used darkness better. The ending seems abrupt, as if something were left out---maybe the low budget expired? Still the actress playing the wife is pretty hot and works up some enjoyable hysterics, so since it's free on YouTube and only takes an hour and some change, I guess you could do worse....
Attack the Block (2011)
Delivers the goods efficiently
My cable system recently offered up this 9-year-old British flick called ATTACK THE BLOCK where a biracial gang of juvenile delinquents in Brixton contend with a bunch of space aliens who resemble large Brillo pads with legs and nasty big pointy teeth. Only one of the gang has a gun available but they come up with other means to combat the invaders, such as a bunch of fireworks (it's Guy Fawkes Day). As always, it's enjoyable (at least for me) watching young people "die horribly, in searing pain" (a line from the original "Star Trek" series); there's a moment of possible "social commentary" (or a spoof of it) where "Moses," the black leader of the "yardies," muses that the creatures may be the latest government attempt to kill black people, after first introducing guns and drugs. (Likewise I guess one could read something into the extreme negritude of the creatures.) My favorite exchange is when a white woman who lives in the block, and who earlier got mugged by the gang, announces that her boyfriend is in Ghana or something helping underprivileged kids, and the gang's Jewish member asks why he couldn't find any such kids in England to help; this is how I respond to stories of saintly Americans who go wandering overseas and often get killed or what have you. Unfortunately Nick Frost (frequent screen partner of Simon Pegg and the only cast member I knew) doesn't get to do much here, but if you happen to catch it on the telly some night (I wouldn't pay to see it) there are worse ways to kill an hour and a half, especially if you've had some beer, or maybe the weed that we see the kids smoking. if you're wondering if the authorities ever get involved, they show up at the end---and arrest the gang; nice ironic touch....
Atomic Blonde (2017)
A question about the ending
If, as appears to be the case at the very end, Lorrane is actually American and was working for the CIA all along, what was the point of the earlier scene where she and the CIA guy are overlooking the Berlin Wall and she talks with her British accent as if they have no common background? For whom was that charade being performed? Or am I missing something?
Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)
"A word to the Wise...."
....Re the first "Jeepers Creepers," I thought that opening section (up until the kid falls down that long dark hole) was brilliant how it slowly and believably developed tension, always maintaining the "outsider" perspective of the brother and sister; I was so "into it" that when the Gina Philips character said "Girls are smarter than boys about things like this," I "said" to her brother "Yeah, listen to her, moron!" (I also liked the interaction of the two in the car, I could believe they had known each other all their lives. By the way, kudos to Philips for convincingly playing a college student at age thirty.) But as soon as the director let us see the basement, I thought "JC" started downhill fast; at first I couldn't even tell those were supposed to be human bodies, they looked like cartoons. For me it became by-the-numbers horror/monster stuff to include batty old lady conveying key plot information, & the ending left me confused; I thought "That's it? Was there re-editing by the studio?" "JC 2" is one of the few sequels that I think is better than the original, mostly because of the Aristotelian "unity of time, place and action" centered on the crippled bus, although I found it odd a bus full of athletes and cheerleaders having just won a title could disappear so long without, I don't know, the police sending out a helicopter or something---I mean this was fairly soon after 9/11/2001, wouldn't the authorities have assumed it was a terrorist action? Also some time before I die I'd like to see a horror flick where somebody's cell phone or radio ACTUALLY WORKS--also wouldn't mind seeing a prostitute WITHOUT a "heart of gold." I thought the director did well capturing the undercurrents of homophobia and racism in American high-school culture, and Eric Nenninger was convincing as the proto-fascist jock--- "I want you, you and you off the bus"--- in fact all the young cast members (unknown to me then and now) were fine. But for me Ray Wise owned it; I'm not sure he's even capable of playing a "normal character," but his scenery chewing never rings false, he endows his loonies with gritty realism; I wouldn't have wanted anyone else delivering the line "Well, it seems dead to me." Speaking of lines, I loved how they borrowed the classic line from John Carenter's "The Thing"----"You gotta be blanking kidding me"---and divided it between two actors. I saw oddly minimal gore for this genre (even the dancing decapitated body has hardly anything gushing out) but instead some suitably squishy special effects, although it got a bit silly when the creature ripped off it's own head and replaced it with one of the kids' heads, like a cartoon; also if I remember right, didn't it's wings get detached went it went through the back window and windshield of the car---hence we saw it hopping instead of flying later----yet in the barn at the end it had it's wings back? (Maybe the Wise character and his kid found and re-attached them?) But the two flicks together are among the better made horror duos I've seen, and if one doesn't let the controversy about Victor Salva's past bother one, they're both well worth a look---try to see them for free (as I did) if that makes one feel "morally cleaner." Yeah, Salva did a very bad thing a while back, but even if I had to the time to go delving into everyone's background before seeing a movie or reading a book or whatever, I don't particularly have the inclination.....