July - Short Reviews

01.07. They Call Me Trinity (1970) - 7 / 10

Damn, I didn't know this was originally in Italian! We watched it in English! I would've preferred the Italian version...

This is the first time I watched a Terence Hill & Bud Spencer movie. If I'm completely honest, I'm slightly disappointed - not because the movie wasn't good, but probably because my friend told me how amazing these films are.

They Call Me Trinity is an excellent spaghetti western, but the film's slow pace is one of its greatest weaknesses. It's too easy to just... not pay attention to what's happening. But still, this film is extremely funny, and the cast is excellent. The experience was amazing - apart from the subtitles that continually had the figure 3/4 in the middle of dialogue.

02.07. Deadpool (2016) - 7 / 10

Still so much fun! I like X-Men, but Deadpool stands out. It's more violent and vulgar than any superhero movie and I love it!

05.07. Dinosaur (2000) - 5 / 10

I haven't seen this film since I was a little kid. I watched this because my little sister has always been enthusiastic about dinosaurs, and her enthusiasm just got back because she started playing Primal Carnage (so she definitely isn't that young little sister.)

But the animation in this film is amazing. It seems different from the 3D animations Disney is doing these days. The characters don't always look extremely realistic when looking at their face, but every hair on the fur of those lemurs is visible to the eye. And every scenery, which apparently are sometimes actual real locations, is extremely beautiful. I can't compare the visual side of Dinosaur to any other animated movie. Nothing comes close.

But that's where that ends. The plot doesn't feel too interesting to an adult, of course children might think it's exciting. The plot and everything else is mostly just typical Disney shit and nothing extremely interesting. The best part of this film is no doubt the visual side.

10.07. The Conjuring (2013) - 4 / 10

The plot is annoying. A white family moves in to a house, shit goes down and no one comes up with the simple idea to MOVE OUT OF THE NEW HOUSE.

There were few scenes during which I had to keep my eyes closed - not because it was that terrifying, but because you just knew there were going to be some jumpscares. Jumpscares are effective in like the very moment they come to you, but they don't leave you paranoid or scared after the movie ends. Jumpscares are a cheap tactic to get you scared on that very second but not a moment longer.

And this movie could've been terrifying if it wasn't for so many "scary" scenes that just looked absolutely ridiculous. And you know what is the most terrifying thing? When you can't see the evil.A few times this movie managed that, and your mind comes up with the most twisted things you can imagine. Many of the spirits in this movie seemed ridiculous, and it could've been horrifying if we hadn't seen them at all.

Decent horror film, but there are so many things that could've been done better.

24.07. Whip It (2009) 9 / 10

I love this! I ordered roller skates bc of this.

Ghostbusters (2016)

Directed by: Paul Feig

Written by: Katie Dippold & Paul Feig, based on the 1984 film "Ghostbusters" by Reitman, Aykroyd & Ramis

Four women band together to stop the ghost invasion of Manhattan.

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I haven't seen the original. I wasn't interested in Ghostbusters until I started hearing all the good things about this remake. Then I heard all the whining about this remake. That made me even more interested and determined to see this movie. And once I started to hear how most of the female audience loved this film, I had high expectations. Funny thing about high expectations - sometimes you're disappointed, sometimes you're not. I was definitely not disappointed - I love this movie so freaking much.

No matter what people are saying, this movie is hilarious. The only reason I didn't laugh out loud in the theatre was that, well, I'm Finnish and didn't want to bother anyone else. Dippold and Feig are extremely talented at writing comedy.

The cast is incredible. I love Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. They are all incredibly comedians, and if you weren't convinced of their skills, this movie will convince you. My favourite thing about the leading ladies is that while they all are very beautiful women, they aren't necessarily considered attractive by the typical Hollywood heroine standards. The most attractive character might be Jillian Holtzmann, and while she's incredible cute (come one, we all have a crush on her) she's still very tomboyish. And I definitely love Chris Hemsworth as the man-bimbo eye-candy receptionist. 

'Ghostbusters' uses the themes of horror and science fiction extremely well. Of course few of the jump-scares are annoying, but since it isn't exactly a scary film, it's easy to just get over them. 

The only very slight annoyance is how the threat of the ghosts doesn't seem too serious. There's not a one second when the audience thinks that everything is going to go to hell. But hey, it's a comedy. I don't think the original movies are any different.

In short, Ghostbusters is extremely hilarious and entertaining film. I'm definitely putting it on the list of my favourites.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

10 / 10

Also yeah I notice my theme week idea didn't go as well as I planned, but I don't think anyone was REALLY PSYCHED about that so we can just forget about it, right? 

We Come In Peace! Alien Theme Week! - Alien (1979)

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Written by: Dan O'bannon & Ronald Shusett 

A deep-space mining crew gets an distress call. While exploring the source, a member of the crew is attacked by an alien life form. The crew member is allowed back to the ship against the quarantine rules, and the rest have to deal with the lethal consequences.

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When I came up with the idea for an alien themed week of movie reviews, Alien was the most obvious choice because of the name and more. It's a classic, and every other movie of this type seems to be copying this one, intentionally or not.

Once the film started, I felt like I had seen this before. There are so many space travel horror movies that follow the exact same pattern than Alien. Now I don't know if Alien is the first one of its kind, but it's definitely the best known. I actually saw Prometheus before any of the Alien films, and it's almost annoying how closely Prometheus followed the same pattern as this one. The writers of that movie should've come up with something slightly different, because if you've seen Alien, that makes Prometheus predictable - and the other way around. 

But it shouldn't be surprising every science fiction horror filmmaker wants to make a film like Alien. Alien's pace is just right - it's slow, but it doesn't feel too stretched. It's making everything even more intense than it'd be with faster pace. But with faster pace it would probably be harder and more annoying trying to keep a track of this movie. 

One really effective thing about this film is how gross everything looks. There's always some gross liquid coming out of somewhere. Otherwise the effects seem sometimes ridiculous, like the little baby alien running away. How can you take an intense, dramatic scene like that seriously when the effects are what they are?

I don't enjoy this movie as much as other people can. I appreciate the horror elements and the value this film has, but I hate space travel science fiction. Simple setting is better, and of course the setting of Alien is simple - it's one ship, barely one planet and so on. Still I felt like I didn't completely understand what was going on.

I appreciate this movie, and I recognise it's good, but I don't really like it, which affects the medium score I'm giving this film.

☆☆☆☆☆

5 / 10

We Come In Peace! Alien Theme Week! - Men In Black (1997)

Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld

Written by: Lowell Cunningham (comic) & Ed Solomon

An NYPD police officer (Will Smith) gets an invitation to join an organisation called the MIB. Their purpose is hide the aliens visiting Earth, and defend the planet against the hostile ones.

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The title of this post might be look all weird for y'all, considering my reviews usually have simple titles: the name of the movie and the year it came out. Well, I am trying new things, and this is something I've been thinking for a while: theme weeks! I'm trying to do these at least once a month, but there will be times that ain't possible. Only problem is, this week isn't going to be a full, since I'm out of town for a few days and realised that too late. Still, this is going to be at least 5 movies. Anyway, the theme for this week (18th-24th of July) will be aliens, so you can expect movies with extraterrestrial creatures, and we are starting with one of my favourites I haven't seen in a while: Men In Black. 

This movie is simply so lovable, and it has affected many people who have seen it. Men In Black has such a nice atmosphere, and it's not gritty and dark as science fiction or fantasy written these days. How many people have seen this movie and were immediately (not entirely seriously) convinced aliens have visited us? When it's a movie like Men In Black, it's so much more fun believing aliens might exist. There are movies that make aliens seem like killing machines whose only purpose is to destroy human race OR they are the kind of wise creatures who are so much better than us. But the aliens in Men In Black are - apart from the villains - almost sympathetic. They seem nice and really ordinary. 

Most of the charm of this movie comes from Will Smith. He is a talented actor, and his experience in comedy such as Fresh Prince of Bel Air has given him the ability to deliver comedic lines wonderfully. For him they are natural, and while Tommy Lee Jones's character Kay doesn't get as many one-liners,  said by him the feeling is different. 

The character Jay is exactly how many of us would like to be in a situation like this. Of course the aliens and secret organisations are all new to him and he is allowed to be openly confused, but he still seems extremely excited about everything instead of being too broody or too angry like most heroes in action. 

This movie was made in 1990s, and the effects aren't what we see in the theatres these days, but they are still pretty damn amazing. When we are used to see the extremely beautiful science fiction, something as simple as Men In Black is a nice change. 

Men In Black is simple science fiction comedy. It's a movie that made me like science fiction, and is still probably the reason I'm not into the kind of science fiction where everything is in space and where you can see the filmmakers tried way too hard. Men In Black has a quite simple setting, quite simple plots and ordinary characters. Jay could be anyone of us, chosen by almost randomly instead of having some kind of great destiny. This is what science fiction needs to revisit. This is amazing.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

10 / 10

Essay: Once Upon A Rainy Day

This is a rewritten version of the essay I wrote on English matriculation examination in the spring 2016. Since the essay I wrote will never be returned to me, I'm trying to remember what I wrote back then. But since the essay was about films - and because I need to write something during Camp NaNoWriMo - I thought I'd rewrite it for this blog.

Of course it's debatable if this could be considered an essay.

Note: I do not own any of the photos used in this essay.

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Everyone has their own way to relax when the weather doesn't let you go outside. Some people snuggle up under a blanket with a good book. Some people drink warm tea and just listen to the rain outside their window. What do I do? I choose a good movie or one I've never seen before, and I lie on the sofa for 1,5 hours or more.

I know exactly where this habit came from. When I was little, my dad took me to the movies with him all the time. It was mostly because he wanted to see the new Disney / Pixar movie. It was easier to take his daughter with her instead of going alone. That's how everything started. It was my dad's movie collection that gave me and my little sister something to do on rainy days when we couldn't go out to play. We'd watch animated movies our dad collected.

Of course I had a lot of favourite movies as a kid, like The Lion King, Shark's Tale, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory... But there's a film I consider my first favourite film. That's The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a science fiction cult classic rock musical. I was 12 years old when I first watched that movie - without my parents' permission. That's the first movie that actually made me slightly obsessed. I still know all the lyrics by heart.

When I was 16 I started this blog. In 2013 I started a challenge where I'd watch new movies and write about them and all that. It was quite surprising when a challenge turned into the whole theme of this blog. I started really getting into movies, and the routine changed. There are very few times I just watch movies. Nowadays I think about what I could write about, what I like about the film and what I dislike. Before this blog I watched a movie, I liked it or I didn't, and that was it. Now my love for films is more complicated. A movie might be bad, but I still like it, or the other way around. 

Someone once asked me if this has ruined how I view movies, considering I sometimes take notes. I don't think so. I don't force myself to write about a movie. If there's nothing to write about, I just give it a score on IMDb, and leave it at that.

But I have to be honest: there have been times when I don't have anything to watch or any motivation to watch movies. And these are easy for anyone to notice, when I'm suddenly not that active in my blogging. I can point out the worst time when I had no passion or inspiration. It was around the time we got Netflix. Of course Netflix is filled with amazing movies, but it was so much easier to watch a TV show. But it was actually a TV show that showed me the way back to my passion.

I started watching From Dusk Till Dawn, and once I was done with the show I watched the original movie from 1996. I had previously seen great movies from Robert Rodriguez, and it seemed like he was about to become my favourite director. The only problem is that I have always been a writer at heart. So what really had an impact on me when I watched From Dusk Till Dawn? The writing. 

So it's no wonder I got my motivation and inspiration back when I saw The Hateful Eight in the theatres, and then pretty much everything from the director Quentin Tarantino. 

The biggest reasons for how sometimes I had hard time finding interesting movies was how I had no idea what kind of movies I liked. I couldn't say who was my favourite director, and now that I have a favourite, it's so much easier to say which movies I might like, which is my type and so on. 

I'm sure that without this blog I never would've found my passion. I love films, and I want to be a filmmaker in the future, probably a screenwriter. 

And this is how my way of spending the rainy day has become my greatest passion.

Sharknado (2013)

Directed by: Anthony C. Ferrante

Written by: Thunder Levin

When a freak storm hits Los Angeles, the shark will swim on the flooded ground and fly through the in some fucking tornadoes.

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You might be wondering who would even watch Sharknado, but a better question is who would actually write a review of this movie. That's right, I would. I knew Sharknado was a B-movie, and I knew its reputation, yet I was honestly so bored I wanted to watch something and Sharknado seemed stupid enough. That's exactly what I thought to myself before watching this movie: "Well, this seems stupid, let's watch."

I can appreciate B-movies and cult movies, no matter how stupid they are. The makers of these probably don't give a rat's ass about what anyone else might think. In a way I see that profession as one of the best. You can just come up with whatever and make it, and whenever it's viewed as bad you can say "well DOY." These films are mostly fun because of how stupid they are, but they don't always reach that level of hilarity. Did Sharknaddo reach that level? I don't think so.

Sharknado does have few of those amazing funny details that make it hilarious. First of all, the sharks are so shitty, yet everyone reacts to them so dramatically. One of the most ridiculous things about this film is how serious it seems. The soundtrack is dramatic, so is the acting - honestly, I expected something much, much worse - and the way there's a slight hing of some depth in the main characters, though that is nowhere near as deep as what would actually surprise you. 

But while it's all fun and ridiculous, Sharknado is actually pretty boring. While they are all fighting and running for their lives, nothing seems that interesting. You don't root for anyone, and it isn't that much fun you could watch it alone like the best of B-movies. 

Of course Sharknado is bad, it's supposed to be bad. But it's not bad in the fun way, it's just utterly lame and boring. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm disappointed - I thought this would turn out to be better.

☆☆

2 / 10