rustysettler Reviews

Léon: The Professional (1994)

Excellent, smart action film.

[10/10 · 4 January 2005]

Luc Besson's "The Professional" is sort of a companion piece to his international breakthrough hit "La Femme Nikiti", and in many ways it's an even better film. It raises the stakes of Besson's playful women-with-guns theme by making the heroine a 12-year-old, played by a then unknown Natalie Portman. Jean Reno is excellent as her assassin trainer and surrogate father. Oldman is completely over the top in one of his best bad-guy roles, obsessed with both Beethoven and butchery. As a gritty, suspenseful thriller, this film won't leave action fans feeling cheated, but the film is so much more than that. At the center of "The Professional" is a wonderful father and daughter-like relationship between two damaged strangers who find solace in each other.

The Grudge (2004)

Loses something

[5/10 · 28 December 2004]

This movie definitely loses something in the translation. Unlike "The Ring" which equaled and even improved on the original story in some ways, this one just meanders along in an uninspired fashion.

The original Japanese film, "Ju-on", was pretty incoherent, mostly just a series of set pieces and great chills. The American version, directed by the same filmmaker, has done nothing towards clarifying the muddled story and, aside from the great opening sequences, is just a straight-forward recreation of the same suspenseful sequences that somehow don't play as well. I'd suggest renting the original instead.

5 out of 10.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

Not as bad as it could have been...so what...

[10 December 2003]

While not as shameless and pointless as Gus Van Sant's pathetic attempt to "recreate" PSYCHO, this "re-imagining" of the classic SAW is pretty reprehensible. Standing on its own this would be a mildly suspenseful but ultimately forgettable slasher, but seen as an attempt to cash in on a classic film of it's genre, this remake suddenly melts into a steaming piece of fecal matter.

Killer Me (2001)

Beautiful, strangely compelling. *possible spoilers*

[9/10 · 10 December 2003]

This is a compelling, serious film about psychotic behavior, rather than a typical serial killer flick. It certainly has it's suspenseful moments but where it really shines is as a character study, and even more strangely, as a love story. I haven't seen a film in a long time that has so successfully externalized such an internal character. The film is so obsessively told in the first person of the main character, Joseph, that we nearly breath as he breaths, think as he thinks. When we first meet Anna, the future love interest, it's so uncomfortable to see Joseph's reaction that it's almost unwatchable. We feel Joseph's struggle to quell his inner demons, to cast away his violent thoughts so he can have a normal existence with Anna. This is a killer who truly does not want to kill. In this way he becomes human, sympathetic, a metaphor for anyone who struggles to cure their inner ghosts.

"Killer Me" is one of the most interesting, unique films to come out this year. The acting is all top-notch, especially for a cast of complete unknowns. The cinematography is very atmospheric, switching between the more sedate and extremely stark depending on the mood of the character. The sound score is brilliant. If you can manage to find a copy, check it out.

Irreversible (2002)

Stupid and Pretentious *minor spoilers*

[4 December 2003]

Gaspar Noe's "I Stand Alone" was brilliant, but this film is stupid, disgusting, and pretentious. The story plays out in achronological order, like in "Memento", from graphic murder, through the unrelenting rape and beating that instigated it, to earlier happy times in an attempt to provide an explanation about predestination, but the result isn't real motivation, it's simply a pat attempt to justify the atrocities. The camera movement at the beginning is so disorienting that it's difficult to follow the action, though it grinds to a halt to vividly show both rape and murder. This is a film that revels in it's excess, but is too cowardly to admit that it's exploitation.

Darkness Falls (2003)

Train Wreck

[3/10 · 2 December 2003]

This one started off okay, but I had to turn it off by the end. I'm not sure whether they wanted to make a horror film or an action film, and I don't think they were sure either. What starts off as an okay "They" type movie about night terrors ends up as a terrible "Alien" ripoff. I was able to overcome the rather silly premise of the tooth fairy being an evil character, but I couldn't forgive the complete destruction of any suspense that had been built up in the first half of the movie.