Post by moviemouth on Feb 23, 2020 17:06:43 GMT
First Time Viewing:
The Bay (Barry Levinson; 2012) – Found footage movie which wants to create a realistic effect depicting a case of environmental pollution in a small coastal town which causes the deaths of many inhabitants. But it lacks any characters you could care for and the shocks are really superficial and sometimes over- the-top. The medical personnel also behaves unrealistically and once you find out what caused the infection, the whole thing descends into a silly farce.
2/10
Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa; 1980) – No, just no. This is so stagey and slow and not cinematic at all. There is a potentially interesting story here, but the directing is all wrong. Characters have long conversations, but without any close-up shots of their faces it’s difficult to fathom what anyone feels. As a viewer we keep observing them from afar. Not really what I imagine a great samurai epic should be.
4/10
Pawn Sacrifice (Edward Zwick; 2014) – Bobby Fischer’s eccentric life story gets a rather unimaginative biopic treatment. At one point during its production history this was meant to become a huge prestige production with David Fincher directing. In the end it was only Edward Zwick taking the directing duties. Zwick is not really what one would call an innovator. He has a rather workmanlike approach to things and although the movie is still entertaining and sometimes even gripping, it could’ve been so much more. Also the philosophy of chess and the nature of the actual game is barely touched upon. We are told that Fischer revolutionised chess without it being explained what made his game so special.
6/10
Crimes And Misdemeanors (Woody Allen; 1989) – Having not seen any of Allen’s classic movies, I thought I would start with this one which seems to be considered one of his best. It’s an interesting enough story, but occasionally feels like two different movies, a dark comedy and a tragic drama, mashed together. Allen also suffers from the flaw of many author-directors in that he keeps casting himself even in films where his presence doesn’t really fit in. Let’s face it: the man is a great writer but just not a very good actor and I find his comical presence in a more serious movie like this distracting.
6/10
The People Under The Stairs (Wes Craven; 1991) – This has an intriguing premise, but makes very little of it. It’s as if Wes Craven had the idea for a neat little piece of social commentary wrapped inside a horror story, but he forgot to write a decent script. It also suffers from a limited budget, because the location is not interesting enough, instead of a spooky haunted mansion you get a rather average house with sometimes cheap-looking set design. This has a running time of 100 minutes, yet already runs out of steam after an hour.
5/10
The Bay - 7/10 Terrifying
Kagemusha - 7.5/10 - This movie is extremely cinematic imo.
Pawn Sacrifice - 6/10 I have the same problems with the movie as you do.
Crimes and Misdemeanors - 7.5/10 One of Woody Allen's best movies.
The People Under the Stairs - 5.5/10 Good first half, dumb second half.