June - Short Reviews

09.06: Youth In Revolt (2009) - 3 / 10

This movie is so weird it makes no sense, and even if it's so weird I feel like it really had no impact on me whatsoever. What the fuck?

10.06: Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) - 7 / 10

Holy shit this movie was adorable and funny. Why did I avoid this for so long?

17.06: Snuff-Movie (2005) - 3 / 10

This film is a huge disappointed. It's like Bernard Rose tried to make something disgusting yet weirdly artistic and failed. The film had so much potential, but the execution was poor. It could've been thrilling, but it feels too distant for the audience to actually fear for the characters. It leaves you with the kind of confusion that doesn't feel as good as an amazing plot twist that just comes out of nowhere and changes everything. It's the kind of confusion that just leaves you wondering, what did I just see, and not in a good way.

I just expected something a lot different. It's kind of like with Natural Born Killers - a simple plot that could be a great movie, but the filmmakers make it too artistic and deep and ruining the simplicity. Also this one was the third movie on the Night Visions Psycho Killers box, just in case you're wondering if I don't update on that box anymore, since I'm just putting this film in to the short reviews.

Now You See Me (2013)

Directed by: Louis Leterrier

Written by: Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin & Edward Ricourt

After four magicians pull off a bank heist during their shows, both FBI and Interpol are trying to catch them.

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I've wanted to see Now You See Me since I saw a GIF-set from the beginning of the movie. In the scene Jesse Eisenberg's character does a magic trick with a cards, and even through few GIFs the trick works, and that blew my mind. Another reason was that I saw the trailer for the sequel, and I wanted to see that, but didn't catch it at the theatre.

The cast of Now You See Me is excellent, and that's the first thing I noticed even before seeing the movie. All the actors and actresses are well known, and while they quickly feel like a weird combination, they all work well together. For example it's always a joy to see Woody Harrelson in a movie - if the movie is good, that is, because I've had enough disappointments with movies he was in.

While the cast is amazing, the characters are even more awesome, and every actor does their job wonderfully and with skill. In the beginning you very quickly learn the basics about the four magicians, but towards the end they don't have so many lines and it's mostly about the FBI and the Interpol trying to catch them, but during that short while you are introduced to four interesting characters, and while I think there's much more to know about them, I am content with what this film offered me. While it's easier to root for the magicians, Mark Ruffalo and Mélanie Laurent's characters also turn out to be more  than two-dimensional Lawful Good characters what we are used to in a crime mystery movies where the criminals seem to be more like heroes. 

The plot of his movie is sensational and clever. It sweeps you off your feet right in the beginning: you see characters and you want to know what that mysterious party wants with them. And as the movie goes on the plot just keeps getting bigger and bigger, larger than you'd think. The film is full of delicious plot twist, and each and every one of those work instead of just being there to confuse the audience. Now You See Me is like a magic trick, with misdirection and all.

But this film was so great and well written I'm pretty skeptical about the sequel. How could it be as good, because how could they introduce just as amazing plot twists? Also it never feels good when a director changes between two movies. I'm not familiar with Jon M. Chu, but comparing his filmography with Louis Leterrier's makes me a tiny bit suspicious. But still, I wouldn't want to miss out on Now You See Me 2. 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

9 / 10

The DUFF (2015)

Directed by: Ari Sandel

Written by: Josh A. Cagan (screenplay) & Kody Keplinger (novel)

A high school senior realises she's the DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) in her friend group, and she wants to change that with the help of her neighbour, one of the most popular boys in the school.

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Since I hadn't written any reviews lately, or even watched any movies, I visited the local video rental store. My friend Pipsa recommended The DUFF for me, because she had seen it and enjoyed. And to be fair I think I've been in a slump so I really needed something to watch, and if it's a ridiculous but possibly funny high school movie that will help me, I will watch it. 

And if you haven't seen this movie, there's something I need to say immediately. It's mostly because I am over weight and I was wondering in what universe would Mae Whitman and / or her character be "fat", well, a DUFF doesn't necessarily need to be ugly or fat. Go figure.

Anyway, high school movies are almost always fun. They are completely over the top, because the kind of teen drama in movies doesn't exist in real life, at least not in this form, at least not where I am from. That kind of drama wouldn't suit in a movie, it's not extremely cinematic.  (Our drama is so much more vaguer like there was a period that lasted over a month where about four people didn't talk to other five people because both groups thought the other group was angry, while it turned out nobody was angry at anyone.)  So, The DUFF has all the highlights of cinematic high school drama: there are brutally mean people, there are so many embarrassing things the main character does that make the viewer want to shut their eyes from all that. It has the kind of pop culture and social media references that won't mean anything in ten years, probably. Some of those are outdated even know. Honestly, they refer to Robert Pattinson, who was in, like, five years ago or something! Someone who never lived through the Twilight phase doesn't necessarily get that. 

Of course The DUFF also has all the annoying little things in high school movies. Some people hate these things, some people love them because they are so tacky, but I don't know anyone who would say they like this stuff unironically. First of all, plot structure. While after five minutes you can't predict every turn in the movie, it's super easy to see what will happen next, how a certain scene will turn out. The structure is always the same in these movies. Sure, it's kind of fun to predict the events with your friends or so on, but it gets annoying. Another annoying little thing: everyone is the wrong age. Come on, Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell are both almost 30, and they are playing high school students. Why?

While this movie typically has am emphasis on teenage romance and crushes, I love how eventually it's about Whitman's character coming to terms with who she is and just... loving herself the way she is, instead of the DUFF being all about Bianca getting the guy or something like that. I think every high school movie, Mean Girls, Clueless, all the others, are mostly focused on the love story and not enough on girls loving themselves and all that. It just was a nice change in the typical story. And it wasn't even just subtext it was exactly how it was. 

Also typically high school movies love stereotypes and being loyal to them - this means they can have one character outside the stereotypes (usually the main character) and then two-dimensional simple supporting characters. But most of the stereotypes are shattered in the DUFF. Sure, Bianca's neighbour Wes is a jock but there's more to him than that. There are a lot of characters outside stereotypes, or at least their cliques are very hard to place. It's refreshing to see characters instead of stereotypes.

The DUFF has probably as many good things as it does bad things. It's refreshing from its typical genre, but it still follows too many cliches. It's an average movie at best, even if it's better than most modern high school movies. 

☆☆☆☆☆☆

6 / 10

EDIT: My friend Rose pointed out how ridiculous it was that they made the prom dress in about few hours while she estimated it would take at least two weeks, maybe even a month. Can't help but agree.

A Night With Tarantino - Gloria, Helsinki - 10th of June 2016

On Saturday 10th of June I was at Gloria in Helsinki, at the event called A Night With Tarantino, hosted by Night In Experience Productions LTD. I had been waiting for this event since my friend told me about it, and I was so psyched to be able to attend. 

The event itself was exciting. It was marvellous to see all those scenes performed live in front of my own eyes. The only slightly disappointing detail that those scenes, the music, everything was mostly dominated by Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. Yes, they are amazing movies, but so are all the others. There was basically nothing from Death Proof, Inglourious Basterds or Django Unchained. But all the actors and actresses were brilliant, beautiful and talented.

On my Tumblr I included a list of he highlights, which I will also post here

• "The most erotic and scariest moment of my life including a weird stripper and a hammer
• The Gimp scaring the shit out of us
• Jimmie carrying three mugs and sighing while we were standing in line for xxx zone
• Jimmie’s robe briefly touching my legs 
• “What’s the password?” “Shut up.”
• Mia Wallace waltzing around and everyone automatically giving her room bc she is royalty 
• My shoulder briefly touching Mia’s shoulder
• Daisy Domergue waltzing around and being terrifying as hell
• When the band asked for our favourite Tarantino movie, everyone was quiet apart from @piisamilotta yelling out “Inglourious Basterds!”
• THE SHOWDOWN AT THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES
• All the dancers (Culebras) were so beautiful and there were different body types, it was lovely
• The band!!!! And I don't think I have danced in public in ages. Also I was dancing behind Jules and let me tell you, he was good.
• 40-50-year-olds dressing up as characters (Elle Driver, Jackie Brown, Daisy…)
• Not everyone spoke perfect English but everyone’s own accent was really charming!!"

I will also include some of the videos I took there. The quality is bad, because I only had my phone, and I also had to made a compilation of few videos because there were a lot of 10 second videos, because I put them straight to Snapchat.

In short, I had a great night and all my thanks to the people behind the event! You did a marvellous job!

The Victim (2011)

Directed by: Michael Biehn

Written by: Michael Biehn (screenplay) & Reed Lackey (story)

A man living in a cottage in the woods is surprised to find a distressed woman outside his door. She claims two policemen killed her friend and are now after her.

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The Victim was the second movie in my Night Visions Psycho Killers box. I didn't really have any expectations apart from the really short summary on the back of the box. The summary said this film "oozes" sex, that's kind of the only description tat I remembered when watching The Victim. Well that was correct. This film practically shoved sex down your throat with few scenes where it felt completely forced. I like the writing of this film, but there were few embarrassing parts because of this. Some of the sex scenes, some make you wonder if the writer(s) actually thought how stupid and sudden something was?

I said I like the writing, and that's true. The structure of the story is very good. The narrative is non-chronological, and it's easy to see when there flashbacks occur. The filmmakers probably made it too clear considering the transitions from present to flashback and the other way around are emphasized by actual flashes. The audience will get it, considering the setting changes drastically and Jennifer Blanc's character spaces out briefly. The story itself is extremely interesting and the dialogue is smooth, apart from what I said before. I especially like any scene with just Blanc's character Annie and her friend Mary. Their chemistry is unbelievably good and the dialogue is very genuine. It reminds me of Death Proof.

But what seems bad about this movie is the execution. The story is excellent, but the writing alone can't hold a movie. The cinematography and editing are sloppy, and there are several scenes that are way too long while nothing's actually happening. If you want an example, in the beginning there's a weirdly long and boring scene with Kyle (I hope I'm remembering that correctly) driving a car. They could've put the opening credits on that scene so it wouldn't be so annoying to watch. And I get that long scenes might be an artistic choice by the director, but in this case they didn't make the movie any more thrilling or frustrating in the good way, it is just really annoying to watch and wait the action to start. Yet luckily this movie is still short, so the scenes aren't stretched too much, just a few in the beginning, after that it's easier to watch.

The Victim is a decent film. It's worth watching because of the story, but there are a lot of annoying details. I like this movie, yet I don't think it could ever become one of my favourites, and I don't see myself watching it again for a while. The story deserved a better execution.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

7 / 10

Danny The Dog (2005)

Directed by: Louis Leterrier

Written by: Luc Besson

Danny has been enslaved by a mob boss called Bart since his childhood, and he doesn't remember anything else. When he has the opportunity flee, he does, and tries to start a normal life away from his captors, with the help of a blind man called Sam.

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When I was in Helsinki this weekend (I think I will tell you about that later) I found a second-hand film store, which had such an excellent selection and great prices! I was able to buy eight movies at the price of 20 €. If you are a Finnish film enthusiast reading this, you might want to check the store out. Danny The Dog was one of the eight movies I bought. I'll try to review the rest, apart from Jennifer's Body and Hostel, which I have already reviewed. 

Danny the Dog (or Unleashed, but I'm much more familiar with this name) has been on my watchlist for a very long time, yet I just haven't watched it until now that I had an "excuse" to watch it - apparently it being on Netflix wasn't enough, I had to actually buy it. Anyway, I think I should regret the fact that I hadn't seen this before, but I think I'm just so fascinated I can't be mad at myself. Danny the Dog is such an astonishing movie in so many ways.

This movie wasn't what I expected. I was waiting for something brutal and violent - and I got that. But I never would've guessed how heart-wrenchingly sweet some of the scenes are. 

Jet Li's performance is incredible! Every look, every stance and every word just is so genuine. Jet Li was able to be both a brutal killer and weirdly cute man trying to adjust to normal life, yet he kept the character there, instead of switching between two characters.

There's one negative comment I can think of: the beginning of this movie wasn't as strong as it could've been. It's fast and it sort of takes the viewer with it, but it's not as effective as the rest of the movie. Danny the Dog just seems to get better instead of being evenly exciting.

Danny the Dog wasn't what I expected, but I got so much more from this movie. It was brutal, violent yet delicate and emotional. This is definitely one of my favourite movies now!

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

9 / 10

A Horrible Way to Die (2010)

Directed by: Adam Wingard

Written by: Simon Barrett 

Sarah's life is threatened by his serial killer ex-boyfriend Garrick Turrell who has just escaped jail. Sarah is the reason he was caught in the first place, so is he coming for her?

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A Horrible Way to Die was in a 3 DVD movie box presented by Night Vision. I bought two of these boxes months ago, and I started the Psycho Killers box. 

The name paints a totally different picture of the film than what it truly is. Most of the actually deaths in this movie don't seem that horrible when you only see some mild gore here and there. Yes, a horror movie doesn't necessarily need that much gore, but when a movie has a  title like this, you're expecting that. Also A Horrible Way To Die is a very straight-forward title, but the movie is far from it. The movie is quite short yet it's very slow. It takes too long for anything to happen, which makes it seem more like a seriously boring art drama. 

The "seriously boring art drama" feel was also enhanced by the way this film was shot. While it enhanced the creepy, haunting atmosphere, it also annoyed the hell out of me. That kind of shaky shots are good every once in a while, but not all through the movie. It's not easy to look at, and therefore not easy to follow. It wasn't just the visual side that was hard to follow. Of course I don't  believe in chronological narrative anymore, because breaking the story with flashbacks work most of the time, but in A Horrible Way to Die it was sometimes really hard to tell when something happened. Of course this was enhanced by the cinematography, because you can't always see the characters and what they look like, and then realise when that scene took place and all that.

The writing of this film is good though. The dialogue is as amazing as it tends to be in horror movies, it's so real. The story itself is not bad, apart from the story being so slow. The good writing can be seen in little things, like amazing twist, dialogue and whatnot. The slowness itself is not a sign of bad writing in general, but when you watch a horror movie it's frustrating when everything happens at the last minute. But the story might work well as a novel.

A Horrible Way to Die is an interesting movie to say the least. While it's not actually good and I didn't enjoy watching it, it definitely stands out from the horror movies I've watched. 

☆☆☆☆

4 / 10