Log: week 33 / 2023
Another very basic noir. The courtroom scenes at the beginning of the final third kept things alive, but I'm not really a fan of courtroom drama as it doesn't make for very riveting cinema, so that's how plain the rest of the film was. I guess the film's better if you like classic actors like Simmons and Mitchum. A classic crime plot dressed up with endless dialogues and a bit of forced romance. The film's not much to look at, the performances are overwrought and the dramatic tension is insufficient. It's a good thing the film is pretty short and it helps that the final third isn't a complete slog, but other than that, extremely forgettable.Read all
A film that reminded me a lot of the 90s anime where some young dude ends up with an unsuspecting girl crashing his room or apartment (think Video Girl Ai). The twist here is that the girl is in fact a ghost. A cute variation that offers some new giggles, but in the end it doesn't do too much to an overly familiar formula. Light romance and comedy, and a bit of plot to fill the gaps, that's what you're getting. The performances are okay, the presentation is proper but not too remarkable and the pacing is solid. It's certainly not the most memorable film, but the finale is nice and it passes the time quite well. Solid filler in other words.Read all
One of those films that used to be immensely popular, though looking at it now, it's very hard to see why. No big A-listers are involved and the film is little more than a generic 90s thriller (made half a decade too late). It's not the worst thriller out there, but I can't help but wonder how this film rose to the (commercial) top. Foster's a bit frantic, Sarsgaard could've done better with his role. The thriller elements feel generic and predictable, the presentation is lackluster, and even though the film is on the shorter side (for a blockbuster), it still feels like it outstayed its welcome. Unremarkable thriller filler.Read all
One Piece: Dead End Adventure
The upgrade that wasn't one. This is the first One Piece film that is feature-length, but it immediately highlights the problems of this series. While it is decent fun in limited servings, it starts to bore when stretched to 90 minutes. There just isn't enough there to keep things interesting throughout. There is some interesting experimentation with cel-shaded 3D and regular animation, and the trademark exaggerations are fun enough, but the plot is basic and the comedy/crazy is also pretty repetitive. It's a shame the next few films are all 90-minute affairs, but maybe the animation picks up as the series would gain in popularity. Fingers crossed!Read all
It's been at least two decades since I last saw Tarantino's first feature film. I didn't remember much, but I've always considered it his best work. Revisiting it now, I still stand by that statement, even if the film has lost some of its shine (read: my taste changed considerably since I first watched it). The meaningless conversations are obvious highlights, and the camera work is also surprisingly energetic (for a Tarantino flick). Once the focus shifts to the plot and the crime elements things get a little less interesting, the soundtrack too is a clear foreboding of what would become Tarantino's signature style. Good fun though.Read all
Not the most adventurous horror film, but the execution is pretty solid. It is part of a relatively established horror niche and it doesn't really color outside the lines, but there are some interesting touches (like the behavior of the parents) that help to set it apart and give the film some extra creep. The first third tries to keep the film's mysteries hidden, but once the cat is out of the bag it follows a pretty familiar pattern. Bodin builds up the tension pretty well, the scares are effective and the film is brutal when need be, though most of the gory bits happen off-screen. Good horror fun, though a bit too safe to stand out.Read all
Hardcore sci-fi is pretty niche, so it's often done on a budget, which is a really tough thing to pull off. Malice@doll is a film with a lot of promise, but it doesn't have the budget to do justice to its ideas and concepts. Even so, with very limited means, director Motonoga manages to deliver a pretty decent film, warts and all. The setting isn't unlike Nihei's Blame! and some of the designs really are outrageous. The music is also very moody, and the plot is interesting enough, it's just a pity that the animation and art style are so crummy. It's like watching outtakes of an old PlayStation game. Still, if you're able to look past that, there's some good fun to be had for hardcore sci-fi fans.Read all
Ten films in, I'm starting to get a solid grip on Kiarostami's work. He has a way of blending fiction and reality, while also doubling down on previous work in his career. It sounds interesting on paper, but the resulting films are often quite dull and lifeless, even though his supporters seem to proclaim the exact opposite. The performances are okay, but not too great. The cinematography is plain, the settings are rather grim (apart from the finale), and the conversations are meandering. There's a certain rhythm that keeps the films going, but it never truly engaged or gripped me. Kiarostami's films are not really for me.Read all
Anime based on Masamune Shirow's work. That sounds promising enough, but Shirow has a visually dense style and when the budget isn't there, all that is left are some smudgy sci-fi designs and a politics-infused plot. Gundress isn't the worst, but it's far from the best Shirow adaptation out there. There are some solid ideas here and the mechas look fun enough. It's just a shame that the art style is very basic and the animation is limited. Some of the action scenes look decent, but only because that's where they spent all their budget. OK anime filler and fans of Shirow should give it a go, just keep your expectations low.Read all
Just more Creed. The plot is elementary, a little too basic for a 2-hour movie, but that's what you need nowadays if you want to pose as a proper drama. It's not that the third entry in the Creed series is a bad film, it's just very generic and by the numbers. One for the hardcore boxing fans in other words. It all leads to a big fight at the end and everything works out per the norm of the genre. The performances are solid and the fights are properly choreographed, the drama is weak though and it ruins the pace of the film. I guess next up is a spin-off with Adonis' daughter. That would surely tick a couple of boxes.Read all
A Western doc with the word "unknown" in the title can only mean one thing: fearmongering. And sure enough, this doc on robots and artificial intelligence starts from the good we can do with the technology, but pivots to all the bad that could be done with it. And it does that for a couple of applications. It's a pretty slim premise that isn't even explored very well. While short it is still very repetitive and rather than take a scientific approach to the problem, it's mostly just people cowering when they talk about the unknown. As a summary of the current state of AI, it isn't too bad, the rest is negligible.Read all
Dark Water
A film that is often considered in the same wheelhouse as Ringu. It's not too weird a thought, both films are after all directed by the same person, they were released not far apart and they're both horror films. What made Dark Water so much better for me is that it's not quite part of that less-is-more let's-go-for-cheap Japanese horror cinema. The start is slow, but the build-up is competent and things get progressively more tense. It's not exactly scary anymore and if you've seen a couple of these films you can easily predict the underlying drama, but the final third of the film contains some haunting and memorable scenes. Very solid, but a little dated.Read all
Takahisa Zeze is an interesting director, but like most of his peers, his pinku work can be easily ignored. No Good Men could've been interesting if the core themes had been given a bit more space to breathe, sadly, there is no time for that, as genre quota and regulations had to be met. Like most pinku movies, the film is anything but sexy. No Good Men does touch upon some interesting themes, but Zeze merely breezes by them. The cinematography is cheap, the performances aren't good and the drama never really hits the mark. Mostly for completists, unless you're a big pinku fan.Read all
Experimental cinema that feels old and outdated. It sounds like a contradiction, but it's a feeling I get quite often when watching these avant-garde films. Circumstantial Pleasures is a collection of 6 short animations, all of them rather crude collages of found objects (packaging in particular). I do know that I'm getting increasingly more allergic to (Western) angst as I grow older. The endless focus on negativity and danger and the urge to sell it as reality is starting to wear me down, and I find it harder to put in the effort, even when it's just a 65-minute film. The music saves it from being a complete failure for me, but this didn't do anything for me.Read all
Classic Hollywood cinema, to the max. If you like American epics like Gone With the Wind this might be something for you, I couldn't really bear the kitsch, the sentimentality, and the overbearing drama. Which sucks, because Giant runs 201 minutes long. A true gargantuan undertaking. The performances are overdone, the cinematography and colors are ugly as can be and the score is tiresome. I didn't care for any of the characters, nor their soap-like drama. The runtime is the final nail in the coffin. Giant is a grotesque Hollywood drama that deserves to be buried in the past.Read all
A 90s Douglas/Moore thriller directed by chameleon Barry Levinson. This means a rather basic plot, some twists and turns, bland styling, and a runtime that far exceeds its welcome. The film is set in the tech industry, so clearly it didn't age too well, but at the same time, it gave the film a bit of goofy charm. Douglas is a perfect villain, but for some reason, he was often given the role of the hero. It's hard to root for him here, which sucks as the entire film revolves around him proving his innocence. The VR stuff was pretty hilarious and the film isn't exactly boring, but it's a pretty mediocre thriller that fails to stand out.Read all