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Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, #1)

Seth Grahame-Smith

7.5 (10 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a...

Time's Convert

Deborah E. Harkness

8.0 (2 Ratings) Rate It

Book

From the Sunday Times Number One bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches, soon to be a major...

A California Childhood

James Franco

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

The trade paperback reprint of James Franco's thoughtful reflection on childhood through a series of...

The Novice (Summoner Book 1)

Taran Matharu

8.5 (6 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Demons, magic and epic adventure - introducing the first book in the New York Times bestselling...

young adult fantasy magic fiction magic

Sarah (7798 KP) rated Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) in Movies

Jun 28, 2020

Full of Eurovision spirit

I am a big fan of Eurovision, it's a must see event every year and I've even been to see it in person when it was last held in Denmark. Sadly with the cancellation of pretty much everything this year including Eurovision, I've been dying for a bit of cheesy fun and this film *almost* delivers it in the truckload.

This film really knows how to channel the Eurovision spirit. There's a lot of great cheesy songs and costumes, some great over the top performances (Dan Stevens was a hoot) and a decent amount of heart. The songs are very good, from the hilariously cheesy to the impressive ballads. The acting was good although i felt Will Ferrell was a little of a letdown. It was great to see Dan Stevens camping it up though and a nice (but sadly too short) role for Natasia Demetriou from What We Do in the Shadows, and I loved the cameos from existing real life Eurovision acts.

The problem with this film is the humour is lacking when it's not cheesy Eurovision fun. And the jokes that were there fell pretty flat for me. The film is also rather longer than you'd expect and did drag a little in the middle.

I had been expecting a Eurovision spoof comedy, but instead what I got was almost a homage to everything we love about Eurovision. It's not great but definitely an enjoyable bit of fun. I've been debating whether to score this a 6 or 7 and in the end, I've decided to be rather generous as it is a lot of fun.

Kudos

Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated M (Movie) (1931) in Movies

Jan 28, 2021

The maestro of dark shadows, Fritz Lang already had 14 feature films under his belt by 1931, including the much loved and much borrowed from Metropolis in 1927. It is said that he was such a slave driver with cast and crew alike that he had very few friends and was detested as a man. His work spoke for itself, however, and was always miles ahead of anything happening at the same time in Hollywood. Take the dark, sinister and serious M as an example. It tackles the subject of child abduction and murder, homelessness, crime in general and the punishment of a mob – subjects American cinema would never have touched in 1931, let alone done with such an exquisite non- melodramatic feel.

Peter Lorre as the killer compelled by his own weakness and madness gives an unfeasably nuanced performance for the era also. He is mesmerically creepy and unforgettable. Images and motifs (such as the whistle that indicates the murderer is lurking) abound, creating a landscape of pure mood and disease. As a morality tale it touches on issues of vigilantism and true justice that still has some relevance today. It also works as an entertaining thriller, and there wasn’t a minute I felt bored or distracted. The only jarring element are the scenes where Lang cuts the sound entirely to create tension and focus – they feel like technical mistakes, not deliberate choices. Otherwise, I could not have been more impressed and pleasantly surprised by this Euro classic for all time. If I were making a list of the best films ever made that disregarded the limitations of the age, then M would definitely make the cut.