esmad3 Reviews

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)

Sure, it's extreme, but what else?

[3/10 · 20 December 2010]

In my opinion Salò fails completely as political criticism, and belongs in the shock-horror genre. Sure you can call it criticism when you have fascists rape children and eat feces, and you could criticize Nazi-Germany by having an SS-officer sodomize a pig and eat human flesh, but what does that have to do with anything? Pier Paolo Pasolini was fired from his position as a teacher because of charges of immoral behavior (not his political views as many sources claim), and he discovered his homosexuality by falling in love with one of his students. I'm all for homosexuals, but not creepy pedophiles. In my opinion this movie can tell you a lot more about the writer than the fascist regime of the 40's Italy. But I am willing to give a little credit for it's effectiveness in shock-effect.

The Thing (1982)

Overrated nostalgia

[5/10 · 12 August 2010]

John Carpenters "The Thing" is a decent movie. Nothing more in my opinion. It has a lot of strong sides; good actors, good setting, good storyline. It's only fault is the execution of the effects. I know this impressed the **** out of people back in the 80's, but as a 90's guy I have to say, it's not that scary. There is never any interaction between the cast and the alien (except for when the doctor looses his hands, that part doesn't make sense btw., why does the replicant suddenly collapse?) Sure, the ones infected/taken over/copied must have interacted with it, but every time the alien shows itself it never does anything. It's just there, as if its gross appearance and sounds would be enough. It almost is, but... Some will say "sacrilege!" but I say go-go remake.

Ps.: Watch the much underrated movie Phantoms from '98 for a better "amorph"

Phantoms (1998)

Underrated

[7/10 · 12 August 2010]

This movie is a solid 7 at least. I read the book back in the 90's, and I have known about the movie for a decade without sitting down to watch it. My expectations where low, thinking this story would be very hard to put into film. Incidentally I re-watched "The Thing" the other day, a proclaimed "sci-fi classic". There is in my opinion some similarity between what these two movies are "trying to do", and if asked now I would have to say "Phantoms" surpasses "The Thing". The former is as underrated as the latter is overrated. Not that "The Thing" isn't a decent movie, I just think 80's- and "The-first-sci-fi-horror-I-watched"-nostalgia has caused some to look with gentler eyes on it, as well as some might have judged "Phantoms" harder because of Ben Affleck.

Humanity's End (2008 Video)

Han Solo from hell

[1/10 · 15 July 2010]

I like sci-fi. I also like trashy sci-fi as long as there is some redeeming qualities. But I don't like trash and unfortunately that is all I can call this movie. I actually enjoyed Battlefield Earth a lot more than this and I rarely regret having watched something, even when it's that bad. It boggles the mind how they could screw it up this much, since the background story is not that bad, post-human races behaving like alien invaders, I like that. Special effects are OK, and the locations, costumes, and make-up are also decent. I'm even willing to believe the actors could come off better. It's just a terrible, terrible script, where the characters are constantly sitting around discussing tedious personal (mushy) subjects while the genocide of the human race is supposedly going on. And the fact that the main character is Han Solo like Don Johnson would have portrayed him does not help at all. This could have been in Serenity-range, instead it's making Battlefield Earth look good. This is what Uwe Boll would make if someone (god forbid) got him to do a sci-fi movie. This is Mortal Kombat 2 bad.