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Posted: |
Sep 11, 2010 - 3:26 PM
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By: |
DeputyRiley
(Member)
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Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) -- 8.5/10
The best of the series. Very well-made, although the director's insistence on using fade-to-black for every other scene toward the beginning of the film was pretty annoying, and he can't write very good dialogue. Some characters amounted to nothing more than cardboard cutouts, zombie fodder or action figures, but I come to these types of movies expecting to be thrilled, visually impressed, on the edge of my seat and to see badass hijinks, and on that level the movie totally delivered. For the genre this movie serves and taking it at face value, it did an outstanding job. Surprisingly few zombies in the film, replaced by a newer villain. Great, great action. The scene where an airplane plows through a zombie crowd leaving behind a gigantic red streak was pretty fantastic, and I really underestimated Tomandandy's ability to score a Resident Evil film; they did an incredible job, if you like great electronic atmosphere-setting action and suspense music (which I happen to).
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Posted: |
Sep 11, 2010 - 7:15 PM
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By: |
DeputyRiley
(Member)
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How big a role was Wentworth Miller in the new resident evil? Or do some believe that his acting in the movie is not good enough to make it worth watching it for him?
Check out the movie, I recommend it. Wentworth Miller was in it a fair amount and made a very convincing action hero, even if he doesn't have anything interesting to say in the movie. He's pretty badass.
I agree that Resident Evil Afterlife was not very original in its camerawork or visuals but strangely that doesn't bother me -- the unoriginal visuals in this series fit the movies so well that it works for me and I'm able to just enjoy it. But Resident Evil Afterlife isn't the first to tribute Matrix visuals (a guy dodging bullets in slo-mo)...the motorcycle crashing throught the church in Resident Evil Apocalypse was very similar to Trinity's motorcycle assault at the beginning of Matrix Reloaded, and the truck explosion in Resident Evil Extinction was very similar to the highway truck explosion from Matrix Reloaded, to name two examples. It's not like suddenly the fourth Resident Evil movie is no longer original. There are plenty of movies out there that copy cliches and effects for their own gain, but if the effect or cliche works for that particular story, I never really mind it...I don't expect these movies to be total originals every time out of the gate. The bottom line for me is, does it enhance this particular story, does it work in context of the film, is it done well, etc...and I thought the visuals and effects in Resident Evil Afterlife worked great, unoriginal though many of them may be. And there are plenty of original and unique effects and visual shots in this movie to balance it out, all of this IMO. 
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Posted: |
Sep 12, 2010 - 1:12 PM
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By: |
mastadge
(Member)
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Troubled Water (DeUsynlige) (2008) by Erik Poppe -- When a child disappears in relation to a young man's delinquent action, the youth is convicted of murder, even though, while he acknowledges his part in events, he denies having murdered the kid. Later, after he's paroled, he finds a job as a church organist, but, despite developing a relationship with the pretty pastor and her son, he seems unable to move forward in his life. One day, the mother of the missing child, a teacher, brings her class on a field trip to the church and sees him, and the wound, never given proper closure, tears back open. This drama probes the relationship between guilt, shame, forgiveness and reconciliation in a very humanist way. It's told in an unconventional starter; we spend the first half with the young man, and then go back and watch the same period from the point of view of the child's mother; both a real characters and neither comes across as caricature. It's a thoughtful, powerful film, and one that acknowledges both the power and the responsibility of the church without either glorifying or vilifying it, which is nice, but somehow the movie, while excellent, doesn't get me in the gut the way I expected it to, and thus doesn't earn a fifth star. (****)
"Der Kolaborator" (2007) by Chris Bessounian -- Short film that came on the Troubled Water DVD. A young Serbian soldier is part of an execution squad when he finds himself face to face with an old friend. He knows he will be executed by his CO if he doesn't shoot, but can he bring himself to kill someone he knows? It's a powerful film, as this kind of thing can hardly fail to be, but it feels kind of slight; the depiction of this moral quandary doesn't do anything unexpected or particularly enlightening.
Mother (Madeo) (2009) by Joon-ho Bong -- Just as he did with the serial killer film in Memories of Murder and the monster movie in The Host, Bong here takes a genre with particular conventions, in this case the intrepid individual seeking to clear a friend or loved one's name of what he or she is sure is a false conviction, and defies those conventions without parodying them, creating powerful, surprising, excellent films in the process. Here a neurotic and absurdly overprotective mother of an idiot son is out to clear his name after he's been convicted of murdering a schoolgirl. She can't afford a lawyer and doesn't know whom she can trust, but as her investigations start to bear fruit it seems that there's more going on than there appeared to be? Or is there? This is an exquisite film, beautifully shot, offbeat without being too eccentric, and surprisingly intense. Highly recommended, as are all Boon's films. (****½)
Date Night (2010) by Shawn Levy -- A toothless comedy from the director of the Night at the Museum movies. I only watched it because I like both Tina Fey and Steve Carell, but they've really got very little to work with here. They're consistently amusing but rarely do their roles allow them to really cut loose. Certainly this is a step or two above other recent romantic comedies like the awful Killers, The Bounty Hunter and Did You Hear About the Morgans?, but that's damning by faint praise. The overall feeling here is of cheapness; this often feels like a TC show. Small roles by Mila Kunis, James Franco and J.B. Smoove occasionally spice things up a bit, but mostly this whole thing is rather dully amusing. Certainly both Fey and Carell are capable of far more wit and wisdom both, and I have to wonder why they'd take this project instead of something that maybe allowed for a little more improvisation and better use of their talents. (**½)
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Posted: |
Sep 12, 2010 - 2:47 PM
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By: |
DeputyRiley
(Member)
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Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters (1994) -- 8/10
A surprisingly terrific sci-fi movie. Despite its B-movie onscreen talent (a veritable who's who of character actors), the film is very, very creepy and surprisingly well-written. The Faculty is my favorite telling of this classic sci-fi story, but Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters is a close second. The film's writers went on to very successful careers in Hollywood (David S. Goyer -- writing Batman Begins, Dark City, and the Blade trilogy; Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio -- writing the Shrek films, Pirates of the Carribean, The Mask of Zorro).
Having recently seen The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), it's interesting to compare the two. Both are derived from two of the most popular sci-fi tales in history. The Day the Earth Stood Still remake had plenty of A-list talent, an enormous budget, was made by 20th Century Fox, and featured two Oscar winners. In contrast, The Puppet Masters featured B-list talent, a small budget, and was made by the smaller studio Hollywood Pictures. In my opinion, The Day the Earth Stood Still fell flat and completely missed the point of its existence, lacking in excitement. The Puppet Masters did so much more with so much less -- a lesson I wish Hollywood would learn -- a very exciting, fast-paced, genuinely scary film with great creature effects.
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Posted: |
Sep 12, 2010 - 6:23 PM
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By: |
Sirusjr
(Member)
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Mother (Madeo) (2009) by Joon-ho Bong -- Just as he did with the serial killer film in Memories of Murder and the monster movie in The Host, Bong here takes a genre with particular conventions, in this case the intrepid individual seeking to clear a friend or loved one's name of what he or she is sure is a false conviction, and defies those conventions without parodying them, creating powerful, surprising, excellent films in the process. Here a neurotic and absurdly overprotective mother of an idiot son is out to clear his name after he's been convicted of murdering a schoolgirl. She can't afford a lawyer and doesn't know whom she can trust, but as her investigations start to bear fruit it seems that there's more going on than there appeared to be? Or is there? This is an exquisite film, beautifully shot, offbeat without being too eccentric, and surprisingly intense. Highly recommended, as are all Boon's films. (****½)
Agreed, very good movie. After I saw your review I streamed it on Netflix I also really enjoyed The Host but couldn't really get into Memories of Murder. Of course Mother does move a little bit slower than some who watch modern hollywood movies might be used to but it really gets exciting as the story picks up. 9/10
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