Log: week 40 / 2021

Beth mourns her recently deceased husband Owen. Seemingly out of nowhere Owen killed himself, leaving Beth behind with a lot of questions. When she is rummaging through his stuff, she finds a picture of a young woman on his phone. Beth starts to suspect Owen had a secret life she didn't know about.

The Night House felt like a collage of familiar horror elements that never really come together in a very coherent manner. There are some proper scares here, Hall is a decent enough actress and the mystery is upheld until the very end. Still, there are quite a few dead moments and too many unresolved horror elements to be considered a genre highlight. Solid filler.

Mr. Morales is a taxidermist. He loves his work and finds peace in what he does. His wife isn't too taken with his profession though. She complains, moans and whines. After a hellish marriage of 20 years, Mr. Morales is fed up with the situation, and he decides to kill her. All he needs is the perfect plan.

The clean black and white cinematography is nice enough and the lighter tone makes this a pretty easy watch. The story is pretty plain though and while the film is quite short, it still feels like it overstays its welcome. Not the most memorable of films I'm afraid, but not the worst classic either.

When Hamada arrives late to a school meeting, he sees how Hari, a freshman student, is bullied quite harshly by her classmates. The bullying grows worse and Hamada decides to protect the girl to the best of his ability. The two enjoy each other's company, but Hamada is about to find out that Hari hides a dark secret.

The performances are solid, the drama is decent, but decent isn't good enough for Tanaka. Maybe if the bullying part had been reduced a little the balance would've ended up more satisfactory. The ending is pretty great though, it's there that Tanaka's talents surface again, but it's too little, too late to make this a true masterpiece.

Emma, Ray and Norman are best friends. They live in a remote orphanage and are forbidden to leave the premises. When Emma and Norman explore the gardens one evening, they discover the awful truth. The kids at the orphanage are live stock for demons, who feed on their brains.

The presentation is nice, the fantasy elements are creative enough, it's only the performances that drag the quality down. The kids are pretty annoying and there's no lack of overacting. The direction could've been a bit more distinctive too, other than that this was a pretty solid fantasy film.

The film doesn't give a full overview of Patton's life, but hones in on his army accomplishments, as he flanks the Germans by fighting his way through North Africa. Through some speeches and several battle scenes we learn what kind of man he is, which is pretty much all there is to this film.

I'm not 100% sure if intended, but Schaffner's portrayal of Patton is somewhat comical. A simple-minded army nut with crass one-liners who tramples through war like an elephant in a china shop. That's amusing enough for a while, but it doesn't fill three hours of film. The second half really drags, making this quite an ordeal to finish.

Natasha Romanoff was trained by the Soviets to be the ultimate fighting weapon. Years passed and Natasha moved to the US, joining the Avenger squad. But then her past comes back to haunt her. She runs into her sister, reacquaints herself with her parents and together, they take on their former enemy.

Pugh and Johansson are poor action stars, the comedy bits don't come across at all and the fake Russian accents are quite painful. The villains and costumes are as cheesy as ever, so don't expect anything dark, grim or brooding. This is just another film that tries to throw every genre in the mix in order to appeal to the broadest audience possible. Bland and tasteless.

Jesse lives with a foster family, but he's somewhat unruly. He runs away and spray paints the local aquarium. He gets apprehended by the police, to teach him a lesson Jesse is forced to work in the aquarium. There he meets Willy, a killer whale who isn't too happy swimming around in his little prison.

A film that exemplifies USA kitsch for kids. Cheesy performances, a bland plot, dumb characters and a cringy ending make this quite the trial to sit through, not in the least because the film almost lasts two hours. I remember not liking this one as a kid either, so it's not just a matter of target audience. Kids deserve better entertainment than this, but at least it raised awareness about killer whales kept in captivity.

Makani Young and her friends are shocked when one of their classmates is brutally murdered, right after his nasty secret is revealed. A masked killer is seeking out students who have a secret to hide, which is pretty much everyone. Makani too has a dark past, one her friends don't know about, so she fears the killer is coming after her next.

Annoying teens are a staple of the genre, but normally they die fast, and they don't get too much exposure beyond the time needed to set up the next kill. The kills themselves aren't too bad (though not very creative), there's just too much dead time between them and the characters, nor the final reveal are really worth it. Basic genre filler.

Vince and Alf are two small-time crooks who love the mystery of the crime world. When they're given the number of a locker in a near-abandoned train station, it feels like a dream come through. There they meet Annie, a vampy waitress who runs the bar in the station. Alf is immediately smitten by the girl, but she hides a darker truth that might be their undoing.

The trashy, industrial and neon-drenched sets are no doubt the highlight of the film. The characters are a bit flakier. Fletchers's Vince is pretty great, Pegg is also on point, Robbie (too close to Harley Quinn) and Myers (a miscast) feel a little lost. The film also lacks a few more colorful characters who could've added some extra spark. As for the dialogue, there are early Ritchie vibes there, which is sure to divide audiences. All in all, there's a lot to love, Terminal just lacks a few finishing touches.

Tom and Matt are two friends who grew up in poor immigrant families. They hang out with Putty Nose and become low-ranking criminals. They have ambition, and they quickly rise through the ranks. When the Prohibition hits, they see their chance to make it big, but you don't become an important criminal without making a couple of enemies along the way.

Men in coats and hats, rainy settings and grubby black and white cinematography are the perfect ingredients for a crime noir, which will surely please the fans. I'm not one of them, so all I'm left with is a relatively short runtime and decent pacing. This one is for classic genre fans only.

Billy Moore is a British citizen who ends up in one of Thailand's most infamous prisons. His drug addiction complicates his life there, and he has trouble fitting in, but his former boxing experience offers him a way out. He joins the Muay Thai club and is allowed to fight for his freedom.

Raw and gritty are the keyword here, and Sauvaire manages to translate that rather adequately through intense camera work and a brooding score. The performances are solid too, the biggest problem is that there isn't really enough material to fill two hours of film. The middle is a bit long in the tooth and the finale lacks punch. Other than that, a pretty nice discovery.

After the events of the first film, an autopsy on Takayama's body reveals a paper in his stomach with a cryptic message on it. Ando is triggered by this message and decides to investigate by himself. It doesn't take long before he is confronted with the videotape myth. At first he doesn't believe, but when people around him start dying, Ando fears for his life.

The film starts off basic enough and the first half is pretty much what you'd expect from a Ringu film, though without some of the more obvious scares. The finale is quite something else though. A pretty radical switch not everyone will appreciate, I felt it was a welcome variation on a by now worn out formula. Performances are decent, the cinematography and score a little lackluster, but if you're looking for a more challenging take on Ringu, this one doesn't disappoint.

Sam is a prisoner who gets lucky one day and sees a chance to escape. He ends up on a farm with Clydie and her two kids. He is allowed to stay, and he's very thankful to her. So much in fact that he decides to protect Clydie and her family when they are threatened by a local businessman.

JCVD is terrible, the drama is laughable, and the action scenes are pretty dim. You don't have to hope for a great story either, there's really not much there. It's one of those films that kinda survives on pacing alone. Things move forward fast enough so that it never becomes too boring, but I was hard-pressed to come up with anything positive once the film was finished.

Meera and Henry just moved into their new home. Henry is an architect and designed the house himself. Not long after, they come home to find someone has broken into their house. Henry installs an alarm system, but a couple of nights later the thieves return, hoping to find what they were looking for.

The presentation is actually pretty decent. Nothing spectacular, but the camera work and soundtrack have their moments. A film like this hinges on its mystery and suspense though and there's very little of that here. Way too predictable and nonsensical, something you might've gotten away with 40 years ago, nowadays, it's just silly.

Brent is sent on a mission to find and rescue the astronauts that went missing in the first film. He too jumps forward into the future, arriving at the ape planet. When he overhears the apes wanting to kill all humans, Brent decides to flee deeper into the wilderness. He isn't really prepared for what he will find there though.

The costumes are terrible, performances are crummy and the plot is half rehash of the first film, half random nonsense. I wouldn't have minded that much had it all been for the sake of entertainment, but the film tries way too hard to say something meaningful about humanity. Apart from the short underground adventure segment in the middle, a real hassle to sit through.

The film imagines a near-distant future where everybody is vegan. The elderly are ashamed of their carnivore past, young people can't fathom that people used to kill and eat animals. A history of veganism takes us back and shows how the people of the past became more receptive to the idea, ultimately switching around completely.

I love deprecating comedy, but Amstell's attempts feel rather forced and not at all genuine. The first half has some decent jokes, but it becomes repetitive real fast and by the time the second half kicks off, the entertainment value has dropped below zero. That might've been the point, but since Amstell fails to make any original arguments, I didn't care for the second half at all. In the end, this felt a bit half-arsed, but bonus points for trying something new.

Lupita lives in Oak Springs, a small community that has been her home for years. Gentrification is becoming a problem, but the people of Oak Springs awaits a worse fate when a new Bingo hall opens its doors. A strange man offers big lump sums of money for people who come and play in his establishment. After they win, they all end up dead.

Blumhouse is used to working with lower budgets, director Guerrero not so much it seems. The film looks quite cheap, the horror is pretty bland and unimpressive and the performances are borderline acceptable. The jolly music isn't an asset either. Kudos for trying something different, but a concept like this needs a better director to succeed.

The film follows two young brothers around. They do the stuff young kids do, including looking up to their father, who likes to boast about his position in society. Their dream in shattered when one day they follow their father to his work, discovering that he is regularly made a fool of by his boss.

The lightness and the charm of the main characters makes this a pretty easy watch, on the other hand I didn't find a lot to actually care about. Stylistically it's very functional, the soundtrack is quite boring, while the drama isn't very memorable. Fans of silent cinema will get more out of this one, I on the other hand am pretty sure I prefer Ozu's later work, even though it's certainly not the worst silent I've seen.

Poseidon, the pro-human terrorist organization, is still trying to get into the way of Olympus' plans. This time around, they're trying to stop the launch of a space craft. 10 individuals have been chosen to lead the mission, one by one they're being picked off. Deunan and Briareos are put on the case to keep the remaining ones alive.

The animation is still a little iffy, but since the second part is a bit more action-packed it is not that noticeable. The conclusion was pretty tense, the plot slightly better than the first film and the mix between action and politics/mythology/drama up to Appleseed standards. Certainly the weakest of all the Appleseed films, but Ouranos is a welcome step up from Tartaros.

The doc clearly lacks an openness to experience this world many people love to visit, instead Pallières seems more interested in supporting his own ideas and talking about them endlessly. It really feels like this documentary was already "finished" before a single frame of footage was recorded.

It certainly doesn't help that Pallières' attempts to add dread are horrendous. The music is cheap, the sound effects are hilarious, the short bits of animation are grating. It certainly wants to be very deep and serious and people sharing Pallières' sentiments might get a kick out of it, personally I didn't see anything more than 45 minutes of misdirected whining.

Kenji's live comes crashing down when his dad dies of a drug overdose. His life feels aimless, and he ends up joining a Yakuza gang. There he meets Hiroshi Shibasaki, the clan's boss. Shibasaki reaches out to Kenji and a father-son bond develops between the two, with Kenji slowly rising through the ranks.

I certainly don't mind a good Yakuza film, but A Family is a bit long for my taste, especially since it doesn't really stand out stylistically. It offers a typical crime plot, some nicely shot scenes, solid performances and a minimum of action, but it's nothing I hadn't seen before. Prime filler in other words.

Grom is somewhat of a rogue cop. Everywhere he goes, mayhem follows, but he does get cases solved. Until one day he finds himself opposite a figure wearing a cape and plague mask. He is chasing down rich folk who paid their way out of justice, killing them one by one. Grom is of course eager to stop him.

The effects are on point, Trofim's direction is appropriately flashy, the characters are fun, the film doesn't take itself too serious. In other words, Major Grom is everything I expect a good blockbuster to be. The film's maybe a tad too long, other than that, this was very entertaining, that's more than I can say about most Marvel productions.

During a sailing trip, Scott is caught be a mysterious cloud. He is covered in a shiny type of dust afterwards, but he's otherwise fine. Back home, he does feel something is off. His clothes don't fit like they used to, and it dawns on him that he is slowly shrinking. The doctors don't quite believe him, but even they can't ignore the facts.

The effects are pretty decent for an old film and there are some scenes that got a few giggles out of me, but that's about all there was to it. The horror scenes are flaky, the sci-fi elements are very limited, and the film is often too serious for its own good. At least it was pretty short, so boredom never set in.