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Aftermath (2021)
One of the worst movies I've ever seen, and Ashley Greene deserves better
It looks pretty but is basically C-grade Hollywood schlock with LA soap drama to boot, and has giant plot holes and nasty or campy dialog. If I'm to believe what the monster was, it literally doesn't make sense with previous things it supposedly does, like apparently being able to move around furniture that only 1 person can see but a camera can't. I don't get how the writers just blew this off, along with some other senseless decisions by the characters, and some situations that require too much suspension of disbelief. Ashley Greene is great in this, but she deserves better. Everybody else was fairly cheesy. The ending possibly intimates that there's more than 1 monster, but if so it wasn't fleshed out or integrated well. You can make up your own story I guess, this one was a mess and not well-directed. See it if you want to laugh with friends, maybe it's a good scare movie if you don't think about it much.
Color Out of Space (2019)
Disappointing but fun
I expected a lot from this considering it reminded me of the visuals and immersion of Mandy, and I love HP Lovecraft stories. I haven't read the short story, so I was basically fresh to this not really knowing what was going to happen.
The visuals and presentation at first is great sci-fi horror dread, however mixed with some oddly campy special effects and dialog. It's almost too in-your-face and obvious at times though, and the pacing goes from creeping to shrieking to creeping, with some odd psychotic moments and overly-long scenes of people being sick or hearing an irritating whistle too often and inconsistently, making me wonder what kind of experience the director was intending to evoke. A lot of it feels like different horror tropes mixed together, with some odd comedic moments mixed in, mostly from Nic Cage's frenetic performance, which jilts the flow and makes the mood a moving target for me.
A lot of the visuals and sounds and situations work for Lovecraft in horror, though I bet they worked much better on paper than they ultimately ended up being as a movie. I have to knock some of the visuals though, as many of the creatures look more like they're out of video game pre-rendered CGI scenes than visceral monsters, which can take me a bit out of the immersion of the scene.
About the only thing grounding everything was Elliot Knight's performance, which of course is partly the intention of his character being there, so he at least was allowed by the director to play the part instead of being shambled around like the rest of the characters to evoke horror tropes or wildly inconsistent behavior or push the plot along when it's meandering.
As much as I wanted to like it, it ultimately felt like a B-movie with A- effects, A+ music, and decent acting from everyone where they could. The directing and writing just seemed to miss some sort of grounding, and things seemed very top-of-the-head ultimately, maybe for gasps or laughs, I don't know, but it's really mixed bag for me. It doesn't sink as deep as it should, nor as it seems to try to. Ultimately disappointing and somewhat forgettable.
A Quiet Place Part II (2020)
Better than the original, but still kind of a Grade-A B-Movie
It was really intense, like the first, but moreso. That's where it shines the most, and where attention should be focused the most. The more you think about it, and the more you expect from character development or believable scenes, the more you'll find it lacking; I think it's been overrated, but I'd give it a 7.5 if I could. Better than the first in most ways, but still not as great as the '70s and '80s horror classics like Alien, The Thing, or The Fly. Most young people of course would just see those as dated and slow, because they're not full of the predictable quiet-to-loud jump scares and shrieking flailing monsters every 5 minutes like the typical mainstream horror movie these days... but it is better than most mainstream horror movies in a long while.
The opening is a well-done twist, with a nice bit of exposition on the monsters, and a very immersive and believably-human sequence of events that I wish more scenes of the movie had been more like. Cillian Murphy and Millicent Simmonds bring strong presences and very believably-human traits to their roles, even if Cillian's character may be unforgivable. I've not seen many actors outshine Emily Blunt in movies, but unfortunately her character didn't have a lot to chew on in this one, or she didn't bring her normal chops.
Besides being annoyed by the "here's another quiet part leading to a jump scare" parts, the monsters' behavior sort of left me scratching my head again, wondering why they do what they do, how they don't seem to be hungry, and how they ever evolved to be able to decimate a planet's top species without being able to see or smell well... there's a twist weakness that's revealed of them that just makes me want to laugh based on what they're doing here to begin in. It's about as silly as Signs... but actually presented better.
Really, it's greatness is in its presentation. It doesn't really beat you over the head with anything, nor does it go so far over the top that I can't take it seriously; it's a great sci-fi horror, and moreso an intense experience, tied together by the believability of the characters. It's got some cheese, maybe a little too much, but it's way better than Cloverfield and maybe even a lot of Stranger Things episodes even if it seems to lift from them a little too much. I'm glad The Office guy did this, and I recommend it.
The Perfection (2018)
Great suspense, production, and acting, but somewhat over the top
I simply saw an article saying this movie was too hard to watch... considering I've seen a lot of movies that many people have considered too hard to watch, I figured I'd give this a try.
It's riveting through most of it, much like Black Swan, and surprisingly patient with it's characters and setup, which I appreciate. I loved the twists, and the underlying horror was especially gasp-inducing, which I believe is also feasible.
The lead-up however was more interesting than the delivery, especially the first big twist, so the movie does the former exceptionally well, but the ensuing violence felt over the top and just didn't have the emotional brevity as what led up to it. It was almost comical at times.
I think if the movie had presented the predicament a little more emotionally realistic and the violence a little more meaningfully, it might have stuck more to my chest than my head. In any case, it's worth a watch, especially with a significant other, and it's probably better knowing almost nothing about it beforehand.
Knock Knock (2015)
I guess Keenu needed a campy horror film in his portfolio
Keenu Reeves and Ana De Armas have been great in some of my favorite sci-fi movies... so I was expecting a lot from this. However, when the opening credits showed Eli Roth... I wondered if it would be another groaner, and I was right.
It's top few qualities are some moments of believable passion from Lorenza Izza, and a stomach-twisting premise that should shoot fear and self-inspection into the heart of every man, but they're bowled over by the dumbed-down dialog and erratic pacing, crescendoed by Reeves over-the-top yelling.
Not even De Armas' beauty or the sleekness of the production and Reeves' Wick-like demeanor could save many minutes of this cliche-driveling B-movie in A-list garb. If you like the actors, Roth's movies (*shudder*), or cheesy psycho movies from the 70s, I suppose you'll get a kick out of this... but for me there's just too much camp and poorly-thought-out writing to keep me from laughing at parts that probably weren't meant to be funny. I should probably stop expecting The Bear Jew to show his supposed genius, and I've disliked everything he's done except for Cabin Fever, which I actually found more entertaining than this, and which I was reminded of several times due to Roth's recognizable camp. At least that camp was more fun then even if just as stupid; maybe Roth should stop trying so hard and make parody horror. Maybe that's what he does? :/ I'm still super-disappinted.
Triple Frontier (2019)
Kinda dopey but it tried hard
I like heist and action movies, and this looked gritty, but ultimately failed on some underbaked plot points like the underbaked heist plan. Oscar Isaac carries the preposterous plot like a bag of overweight money, but its main failing point is when they decide to carry too much of the money over the Andes in a helicopter that they knew couldn't handle it... why not stash half of it somewhere in the endless jungle they're hanging out in? Also they had plenty of other places they flew over where they could have stashed it for a few days.
Instead, the "best" end up trudging through failure we all know is going to happen, and end up tossing and stashing most of the money anyway except in a much harder to reach location.
A lot of the decisions made by the team were just dumb, and it's hard to believe these top-level actors weren't cringing through the doomed dialogue and petty bickering like I was. There still could have been a lot of good drama and conflict without these dopey decisions, but maybe we can all blame the guy who bit the dust anyway... so much potential and so much letdown, I'll forget about this movie soon enough.
Skyline (2010)
I actually liked this movie
It had a good sci-fi plot (almost old-fashioned), special effects, and a driven story. I liked the idea of being hypnotized by an alien force that makes you sympathize with it and starts controlling you so it can take your brain and absorb you into itself to further its species. That's a way cool concept that does seem right out of the 50's but I don't see those good old-fashioned kinds of concepts that often in many modern sci-fi movies, just a lot of simple plots and explosions and little threat beyond death or dismemberment.
It did languish on some of the hypno-scenes too long and too often though, didn't explore the interplay between characters that were escaping the mind control, the adolescence of some of the characters and their dialog and actions, and the ending seemed a little too fast even though I loved the twist that set it up for a sequel. I wish this had been more popular and I could see that sequel.
Informant (2012)
Ostracized movie whose point is overlooked
I think the message of this movie is lost in the left/right side-taking that many viewers will feel the need to take. Above it all is Darby's simple aspirations to help people and do the right thing, which is transcendent to any side and is the side everyone should take.
Unfortunately this makes him a complex character in a world that likes to take sides and trumpet ideals to the detriment of undeserving and unawares people. He did the right thing for Robert King Wilkerson by going back and fighting for his survival, and tried to help people by creating the Common Ground foundation and rebuilding a divided community. His activism was fueled by anger from the neglect of the Federal government's lack of response to the Katrina disaster, and his flair for radical protest was egged on by an ambitious ego that wanted to do more than the average man.
He may have stoked a fire that caused a couple of kids to try to do something violent to make a message, but he did the right thing by trying to stop it. I can't think of one liberal that would be willing to put themselves in one of those cars that could have caught fire and maimed or killed them. While it may be frustrating to try to pin down a guy that seems to be playing both sides, he's really taking the higher road by refusing to be a part of a violent protest and disrupt it.
As negligent and profiteering as the right-wing power is today, harming innocent people and destroying collateral property is not the answer and only strengthen's the power's resolve to suppress it. Brandon was right to fight against the powers-that-be that contributed to the mess in Katrina and other suppressive powers, but he was more right to stand in the way of violent protesters who felt innocent people getting harmed or their property damaged justified the means to the end.
While I feel he hasn't gotten deep enough into the right-wing to see their corruption and the misguided souls (much like the left) of many of their followers, I do believe him when he says his ultimate motivation is to help people and do the right thing, which is evidenced when he left the FBI due to their negligence, and he just may leave his own party when he realizes they can't live up to his two simple ideals of doing the right thing and helping people, which is something we all should be living up to. That's what our common ground should be.
Upstream Color (2013)
Beautiful, frustrating, pretentious naval-gazer
This had a fantastic idea in it... but then languished in interrupted thought and drawn-out emotions. I felt like I was watching a mystery, then a sci-fi, then a relationship drama, then an abstract art film, then an animal rights movie. There was so much disparate communication and cut-scenes I felt like there was supposed to be some kind of narration going on or I was just supposed to "know" and "feel" everything that was happening, like I'm some kind of psychic.
I enjoy a movie that doesn't say everything, that leaves some mystery or lets the mood tell the story, but this felt very pretentious and naval- gazing, like someone that has heavy thoughts but can't put the words together to form a sentence. I felt by the end like the writer didn't have a clear understanding of what he was trying to get at.
The premise is amazing, but I think the writing and directing just couldn't pull it off. There were several moments where there could have been real clarity and a convergence of all of the abstract moments, but this just kind of walked off in a starry-eyed gaze. You can put the pieces together without it being over-exposed, but this was just over- blown and underdone.
By the way, I saw Primer years ago, and I didn't even realize this was made by the same person, but that movie is far better, even though it is much harder to understand. I felt like I got a better story told out of that one even though I don't fully understand it and this one I did understand. I just wanted more story told, in a better way, with less abstract stops and starts that frustrate the flow.
Enjoy it for its beautiful music and scenery (and the actors are great too), but don't expect a consistent movement in the story-telling.