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  • Not really horror

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    The Sixth Sense  (1999)

    With fantastically scary moments and an amazingly well done double-twist ending, it's hard to top the horror of Sixth Sense... regardless of your feeling for M. Night Shyamalan. Though many dislike his movies, this one is masterfully plotted, suspenseful and emotionally powerful. Perhaps most impressive about this 1990s horror classic is it's thought provoking take on the afterlife, a realistic depth not typically seen in the genre. Well acted and intellectually scary, this is one film most will love


  • What can I say

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    Fight Club  (1999)

    Fight Club is, quite simply, flawless. The casting is perfection, the acting exquisite, the humor totally unexpected, and the rollercoaster ride of a plot is intense, thrilling and utterly unpredictable. When you watch Fight Club for the first time, it is impossible to anticipate what will happen next. Other than that you will definitely see it again. And again. And again. It will have an impact on you. It may even leave you literally breathless. The fact that many reviewers have felt the need to explain Fight club, variously, as a morality play, an existential masterpiece, a socio-economic commentary, an exercise in gratuitous violence, a bizarre hetero romance, a festival of homo-eroticism, etc, attests to the truly profound effect Fight Club has on nearly everyone who sees. Personally, I prefer to regard Fight Club as exactly what it is: an incredible, superb piece of entertainment, creative, original, unique, engrossing, puzzling, hilarious, unpretentious and, oddly enough, quite charming. It is unlike anything else, including "Clockwork," where the brutality is sexual foreplay joyfully inflicted on hapless victims. By contrast, the violence in Fight Club exists for its own sake alone, and it is joyfully sought and entered into by the participants, with no overt sexual overtones. For whatever reason, they ENJOY it. The pain, the bruises, the audience, the secrecy - all of it. And the pleasure and release the find in the fighting, being incommprehensible to the vast majority, is undoubtedly the reason why so many need to find an underlying theme.

  • Tale is the word

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    Southland Tales  (2007)

    Extremely bizarre trippy story. Melodramatic, and WAY over the top but amusing. It is hard to follow and a bit slow / long. As the confusing plot begins to piece it self together the intentions and direction of the film are revealed. There were a few good ideas here but as a whole it just didn't seem to come together AS well as it should have. It is part stoner Requiem of a Dream, and part time travel fantasy like Primer. It is part Spiritual like the Fountain and it is narrated with a very politically driven tone. (It has the signiture feel of Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko). All these elements together, it is extremely strange. The movie tried to do too much with a new drug and time rift and a man made "Natural Disaster" affecting people brains and demeanor. For me there was too much political tone to start. The Bad acting was intentional but still awkward. Rock did show a vulnerable side but a bit cheesy and I found it slightly uncomfortable; but the reasons for the strange behavior are later explained so if you forgive that, the problems lie with the story. I have yet to decide if I liked it. It did have a Huge number of small roles and cameos from A-listers (lots of faces I recognize and admire). Still, I have a hard time actually recommending this movie. It is going fit a very small number of movie viewers. If you like the weird twisted head game, then give this a shot but know that it is still only mediocre with in this style of movie. It was not Richard Kelly's best job directing, and is nothing like Donnie Darko but if you loved that abstract feel you might tolerate this one. Otherwise you may want to pass


  • Is this our future?

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    Children of Men  (2006)

    How do you rate a film that you admired for artistic achievement accomplished and disliked for it's endlessly depressing view of the future? You may love it or hate it. It is after all showing us that we all have 20 years until the end of the world. And the way it ends, all too realistically, is in pollution, pandemics, starvation, suffering, bombings, filth and cruelty. Alfonso Cuaron feeds us this apocolyptic meal based loosely on the P.D.James novel, casting a dissolute, Clive Owen as the unwitting hero in the last country surviving, the U.K., in 2027. Its all shot in a grim grey/blue hue. The direction of Cuaron and the camera style of Emmanuel Lubezki is a terrifying visual statement attempting to warn us of our tendencies towards war. You are caught up in the story of an infertile earth where no children have been born for 18 years and a "Black Madonna" of sorts appears to have conceived a child. The woman's life is at stake and despite the bleak unexplained beacon of hope,"The Human Project", we can't imagine anything but the endless evil we're shown. It doesn't have the sleek techno look of "Gattaca" or "Clockwork Orange", It's gritty and more like a novel by Margaret Atwood or a play by Caroll Churchill. The year of 2006 is seminal for showing us disturbing visions of violence through the eyes of filmmakers worldwide "Babel", "Pan's Labyrinth", "Blood Diamond" "Last King of Scotland", "Departed", "Letters from Iwo Jima, "Flags of our Fathers", "Apocalypto" and "Children of Men" are but a few to frighten you.

  • Wolverine and the Lycan

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    Van Helsing  (2004)

    The problem most people seem to have with this movie is a failure to realize that it's a comedy. If you go into it expecting an action or horror flick, you're bound to be disappointed. If, however, you're willing to take the obviously comedic scenes as they were intended, you'll love it. The movie is fast-paced, has plenty of action and special effects, and has enough tongue-in-cheek humor to keep you grinning the whole way through.

  • I'll be back

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    Anyone who knows anything about the Terminator series knows what to expect when they walk into the theater for T3. If you expected intricate plot lines, detailed character development and Academy Award winning performances, you are saddly mistaken. You saw this movie for the action - and this movie serves that up on a silver platter. The amount of damage inflicted on the sets in this movie is inconceivable. T3 takes the action genre and raises it a notch. No more car chases - we have firetrucks and supersized cranes. No more explosions, we have mini hydrogen bombs. This movie is one big demolition. Arnold is great as the Terminator, but his schtick is getting a little tired - but I think in the dark corners of our mind - we still love it. Kristanna Loken is outstanding - even though she barely utters a word. Not as imposing as Robert Patrick in T2 - but still just as lethal. Nick Stahl and Claire Danes are good, but they are mere sketches next to the full life special effects on display here. There is no way T3 could surpass the brillance of T1 and T2, but I think it is a decent installment on the story. Terminator fans should not be disappointed


 

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