laserburn Reviews

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Different, but still good

[9/10 · 12 May 2024]

Part one of Villeneuve's dune was following the book quite closely. Small changes that it made were probably for the best, no one is going to miss lasguns. Liet was gender swapped for some reason, that was the biggest unnecessary change that I can think of. So, it would make perfect sense that since first movie followed the book closely, the second is going to do so, too?

Part two is light years away from the book. A bunch of characters have been changed completely. Aliya is not even born. Stilgar is nothing like Stilgar from the books. Chani, a side character from the books, is now a central character in the plot. In fact, on most of the posters for the movie, she is next to Paul, standing as high as him, she even occludes him. I guess every movie these days must have a girl boss. Zandaya is a bigger start that Chalmet, so studio was promoting her more.

Does that mean that Part Two is a bad movie? No, it's still well crafted and it actually manages to preserve the key ideas of the book. I do think that Part One was the better of the two, though.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

When you must watch a movie with your kids, watch this

[7/10 · 21 October 2023]

I so wanted to hate this movie. It is very commercial, quite silly, the plot is total nonsense, it makes a lot of references to DND video games, it's like a disgustingly sweet cake that you're supposed to avoid.

Yet, I had to relent that as the movie went on, it really grew on me. It's one of those old school movies that they don't make any more, from the times that there was only one TV set in the house and the whole family had to be entertained by a film. Yes, it is a children's movie, but the grownups won't be bored watching it. Casting is great, humor is ok, it really took me back to my childhood.

H-8... (1958)

A pleasant surprise

[8/10 · 16 September 2023]

I'm a big fan of the Yugoslav cinematography, it has provided a lot of masterworks throughout the country's short life span. Film making was treated as very important, almost like a vital industry, rather than just craft. Everything was usually on high level, acting, directing, editing, production, so it's not strange that even smaller movies were often quite good.

Knowing that, I was still surprised how excellent H-8 is. Quite original in its story and tone, it almost feels like an episode from The Twilight Zone, way before that show even existed. You are first given the facts, as on a police report, and then you get to see the actual stories of the passengers in the two collided vehicles, filling in the details who performed what action and why.

I can't believe that movie this good was never once mentioned anywhere in the anthologies of the Yugoslav film. I ran into it quite by accident, having no idea that it ever existed. My warm recommendation to anyone!

Scream VI (2023)

After Scream without Wes Craven here comes Scream without Neve Campbell

[5/10 · 29 April 2023]

I didn't expect it at all, but the movie is actually slightly better than the previous Scream (5). It's actually quite a decent effort until the final 20 minutes where they manage to stink it up a lot. The movie does manage to capture a fair bit of magic from the early days of the franchise.

And yes, as they boldly proclame in the movie, that this is now a franchise. Just like Luke Skywalker had to die in order to clear the narrative and enable the story to go into new directions, so will the great purge befall the Scream characters. Except that the studio chickens out in the end and all the major characters end up surviving their horrible stabs to be there for the next movie in the franchise. :( It is clear by now that there will be no stopping ever, the producers will keep milking the Scream into the ground, until no more money can be made on these once iconic horror films.

The Menu (2022)

Bon Appétit!

[8/10 · 7 January 2023]

Not sure how to categorize this one. Perhaps it could be best described as an experimental movie. It doesn't have any real plot or belong to any genre. It doesn't have any real message, though it does point to several of society's issues.

The problem with experimental movies is that they are usually very boring and pretentious. The Menu was certainly not boring, I was actually quite entertained throughout. I will need some time to digest what was I actually watching here, but I can certainly recommend this dish to others. It is quite exquisite, though it might be an acquired taste.

Anya Taylor-Joy looks anorectic and really needs to eat something. Ralph Fiennes is again effortlessly amazing.

Men (2022)

Hard to rate properly

[7/10 · 4 August 2022]

From the purely technical standpoint, this movie is an absolute masterpiece. The camera is just amazing. Framing, the use of colors, angles, all amazing. Soundtrack is very good, sound effects are top notch, visual effects are also at high level. The actors are performing well.

But the story is just too thin, bare bones with very little meat on them. The characters are unsatisfyingly developed and the story gives no resolution. I believe I understand the point the director wanted to make about this being men's world, but the movie is simply lacking in substance.

In short, the movie doesn't have much to say, but says it masterfully.

Scream (I) (2022)

They should have stopped at 4

[5/10 · 19 February 2022]

The first Scream was an anthology and deconstruction of slasher horror genre. The second one was about sequels, the third about trilogies, the fourth about remakes and now the fifth about... requels?? I see no reason why anyone should have made another Scream as long as Wes Craven is dead. The director's magic is clearly missing. The characters, both new and somehow even the old, feel as props and not as actual people. How can you have a horror movie if the viewer cares nothing about the characters and will forget they were in the movie ten seconds after their death scenes?

On the technical side, the movie is well made, the camera is top notch. All the staples of a Scream movie are there, with the characteristic self-awareness and poorly disguised fourth wall breaking, so if you liked the previous Screams, you're not going to hate this one for sure. But I really, really hope they retire the franchise after this one.

And to agree with the movie's quote, yes I did indeed like Babadook way more.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)

A waste

[5/10 · 10 February 2022]

There went Jake Gyllenhaal's only posibility of becoming an action star. Scenario feels rushed and very likely was being edited while the shoot was ongoing. It's very thin, makes no sense and it would have been better if they just kept the plot from the original video game, although than one would have been too thin for a movie as well. Direction is poor and the movie has nothing really to recommend it. Actors do their job decently with what they had to work with, except that the princess kind of sucks and is poorly acted, they should have kept Farah from the original.

Dune (2021)

Masterpiece

[10/10 · 2 November 2021]

Excellent work from the director, impeccable casting, very unique esthetic. Writing is especially good, while it stays true to the original book, it does make small changes and mostly improves some less logical parts of the source material. I could think of few minor negatives, but the movie deserves a ten.

Until the End of the World (1991)

I watched the long version, so you wouldn't have to

[4/10 · 10 September 2021]

This is indeed a pretentious, boring, needlessly long film. If you haven't watched it so far, I can safely say that you can skip it, your life won't be any worse for it. Not that everything about this movie is bad, it indeed has possibly the best soundtrack of any movie ever.

Fahrenheit 451 (2018)

Interesting reimagining of the literary classic

[7/10 · 10 September 2021]

Most reviewers complain that this movie has strayed very far from the book and that is indeed a very valid argument. It's like getting rights to "War and Peace" and instead of making a movie about Napoleon's invasion of Russia, you make it about Russian revolution. I do miss that a lot of original ideas from the book were removed or suppressed, for instance, it would have been good if the character of Montag's wife was kept, to show how dumbed down people have become.

But not to concentrate on the negative, the movie does have things going for it. Chemistry between two leads is excellent and we got a memorable multi-faceted villain, played to perfection. If just the scenario was a bit more serious, pushed harder to highlight real world issues and was overall more polished, the movie might have been great, even with all the deviations from the book's ideas.

The Box (I) (2009)

Forgettable

[5/10 · 9 June 2021]

The movie that ended the career of the director Richard Kelly. It was never a really promising career, Donnie Darko must have been a stroke of luck. The original Twilight Zone episode The Box was way better and all the additional material in this movie does not improve on it, with subplots that don't resolve into anything. The script is just poorly written, with a lot of illogical situations and thin characters. The movie overall is not horrible, just don't have any high expectations from it.

Streets of Fire (1984)

Charming

[8/10 · 22 April 2021]

A rock'n'roll fairy tale. It doesn't take itself too seriously and you shouldn't either. Fine actors and great music make it one of those movies that you simply have to watch at least once in your life. One of the best movie soundtracks ever.

The Room (2003)

The worst movie ever made by either man or animal

[1/10 · 1 January 2021]

No matter how low your expectations are, this movie will still manage to suck more than you thought possible. Every scene is absolutely awful. Every aspect of the movie is completely horrible, except for the pure technicals like sound and camera, which help frame how awful everything in this movie is. If they gave me a camera and specifically asked me to make the worst movie that I can, I would not be able to make something this bad. In the same time, it's entertaining, because I couldn't stop laughing at how terrible it is.

Devil (2010)

Spoiled by few needless errors

[5/10 · 15 October 2020]

It's the kind of a movie that I really like reviewing - those which could have been damn good, but missed out because of something.

In this case, it was flaws in Shyamalan's scenario. Guy commits suicide and they don't figure out what happened until much later, despite the glass on the sidewalk and a missing truck? But worst of all, it's the Ramirez's explanation of the whole plot at the very beginning, a very long and a very elaborate McGaffin. If they just removed that narration at the start (not needed, as Ramirez repeats it in the movie later), the whole movie would easily be a seven. This way it starts firmly supernatural, but then keeps giving these hints that the events might actually be natural, then it completes supernatural, just like it said it would at the start. If you fake to the right, that means you have to go left, you can't fake right and then actually go right. It takes a much better story teller to pull a double bluff.

The rest is pretty good, the director and the actors do a decent job, the movie is interesting and hold suspense well.

Coma (I) (2019)

Surprisingly good

[7/10 · 27 July 2020]

Glad to see that Russian SF tradition is alive and well in this day and age. The premise of the film is quite interesting, even if it obviously is ripping off some aspects of Inception. The movie is loads of fun, everything works, even though the scenario could have been better, in some places character actions and motivations don't make enough sense. Definitely worth watching for SF fans.

Colossal (2016)

Meh

[6/10 · 30 May 2020]

The movie managed not to bore me, but that's as far as it's achievements go. The basic story is quite interesting, but poorly developed and narrated. The characters is where it fails the most, they are simply not behaving consistently or logically, even for a bunch of drunks they are supposed to be. The movie actually manages to do a lot of things right, so it's quite a shame that it fails on basic stuff. If it just improved its characters a little, if Anne Hathaway didn't provide such a poor performance, if writing and directing were a bit better, this could have been quite a movie.

War Machine (2017)

Shows well absurdity of the "War on Terror", but flawed as a movie

[7/10 · 8 December 2018]

Netflix just doesn't seem to be able to put it together for a really good movie. This one was a decent shot, with Brad Pitt's charisma carrying the project, playing a well meaning US officer in an unwinnable situation. It shows well the American cowboy attitude in their foreign policy, it's well acted and manages to be entertaining, but the way the story is presented is fatally flawed.

First rule of any movie narrative is show, don't tell. Instead of us understanding what the movie wanted to say through the actions of the characters, it is explained to us by a faceless voiced narrator. So why pay attention to the characters at all?

Hold the Dark (2018)

2/10 stars for 2/10 parts of the story you should have given us

[2/10 · 29 September 2018]

Such a shame. You can see that a movie is technically very well made, camera is top notch, acting is excellent, pacing is slow, but steady. It has a lot of things going for it.

But the movie feels like someone watched 'No Country for Old Men' and thought "This, but instead of giving the audience a story with no meaningful resolution, let's not give them a meaningful story at all". I mean, it's ok to leave out story parts and let the audience fill in the blanks, but you ripped out practically the entire story to the point that the movie no longer has a plot.

I can't recommend this movie to anyone, except as an exercise in frustration. I've let Coen brothers get away with this in 'No Country for Old Men', but Jeremy Saulnier, you didn't earn that right yet.

Get Out (I) (2017)

Excellent directing debut!

[9/10 · 13 August 2017]

Some mild spoilers ahead.

Wow, looking at the review rating, I got to say that this is one polarizing movie. So many 1-star ratings and accusations of racism (not entirely unfounded, mind you) and not one of the negative reviewers paid attention to how well was this movie crafted and with what attention to details. It is so rare to see a movie that didn't skip to explain something important or that left number of unnecessary scenes that really should have been cut.

For instance, Chris wakes up tied to a chair and he tries to untie restrains on his hand using his teeth. At first I was thinking "Ok, this is not a necessary scene", but it turns out it was there to show that Chris can reach his hands with his head, which is important afterwards. Clever, real clever. Though I couldn't deduce everything, for instance, what's the deer symbolism present in this movie? Maybe it makes sense to an American. Few gaffs as well, for instance when Chris tells Rose he wants to leave it's evening, when they enter the house it's already night. And also the big one, why black people? Explanation is because of their superior genetics and I understand what Jordan Peele wanted to say when he went with that, but for the sake of suspension of disbelief (and not to be called racist) maybe he should have went with because they endure the procedure better or whatever.

Movie is really an 8, but I will give it a 9 because it's directing debut and hopefully to anger the people who rated it poorly. It's a movie I would recommend watching if a girl invites you to meet her parents. :D

Total Recall (I) (2012)

A decent movie that nobody asked for

[5/10 · 5 August 2017]

The question on everyone's mind was what was the point of remaking this movie? Verhoeven's peace was a classic in it's own way and his movies are best left alone, as remake of Robocop confirmed as well.

If this movie was not a remake, it could be viewed as quite decent. Even as a remake, it is not bad, though there is way too much action and CGI for my taste and the story was not as developed as well as it could be, though the original movie was not that much better in that department either. The male major roles are decently acted, but two leading female roles are somewhat lacking, though they are not horrible by any means.

I did like the brushes with the original here and there, mentioning of Mars, a familiar lady at the police checkpoint, etc. And I also liked that in this movie it is suggested stronger that everything is fantasy, while in the original it was suggested that it was reality. I am talking about the director's cut, the original theater version was kind of crap and it had a slightly different ending.

Synchronicity (IV) (2015)

Not good

[3/10 · 20 June 2016]

I've never seen a bad sci-fi movie that has so many good things going for it. The actors do a very decent job, the directing feels competent, there is a certain 80s feel and flow to the movie, the soundtrack is good...

But the plot is just plain silly. Even if you do your best to emerge in the strange logic of this film, you can't escape the notion how silly the story is. It feels like something that comes to you in a dream, but when you wake up, you realize it doesn't make much sense.

If you get bored half way through the film, it's probably the best to stop watching, it doesn't get better later and there is no great finale resolving everything nicely. But it's not impossible that you might end up liking this movie for it's good sides. I didn't.

Snowpiercer (2013)

Really, really good

[9/10 · 3 March 2015]

I started watching this movie expecting nothing, but boy was I surprised! As someone said, this is finally an Americanised Korean movie done right! To me it feels as if '1984' and 'Brasil' had an unholy child together. I was a fan of both of those films, so I warmly salute their offspring. I'd rather not tell anything about the plot, this movie is better enjoyed without any spoilers.

To the people pointing out plot holes and lack of realism: people, it is obvious after 10 minutes that this is a surrealist peace. It's like complaining at the lack of realism in '12 Monkeys' for crying out loud. Enjoy 'Snowpiercer' for what it is!

Killing Season (2013)

A movie that could have been very good

[4/10 · 15 July 2013]

For starters, the movie gets absolutely everything wrong about events of the Bosnian war, but since such ignorance is expected from Hollywood, there is no reason to hold it against this particular title.

The premise of the movie is good, the basic story is decent, but the script could have been better written, the two main characters' stories never get satisfyingly developed. If this was directed by John McTiernan as originally planned, this would have been a great movie. Sadly, instead we got the guy who did Daredevil and he once again delivered a bland, uninspiring product. Acting is OK, Travolta did his best to hold a consistent accent (it was the wrong accent, but hey!) throughout the movie, while DeNiro looked more like he was only concerned with the paycheck.

All in all, the movie is not terrible, I guess it wouldn't kill you to watch it if you have nothing better to do for an hour and a half. The sad part is that this could have been a much, much better movie, perhaps even a classic.

Cloud Atlas (2012)

A classic

[10/10 · 31 December 2012]

Amazing that a movie like this was actually made. So much money, such expensive actors to create what essentially is a philosophical drama. The movie is not as complicated as some say, it should not be too difficult to understand, nor would I call it pretentious. Several Oscars are guaranteed, not that anyone should care.

Acting is just amazing, several Hollywood heavyweights managed to outdo themselves. Makeup is amazing. Story is beautiful and touching. Do not miss this movie. It is long, but in the end I craved for even more.

Cloud Atlas is also not without it's flaws. With 6 stories being so different, some of them you won't find as interesting as others. The quality of the story drops or slips into cliché here and there, but since this is truly one of a kind movie, I will reward it with a perfect 10.