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Kane Hodder recommended Monster (2003) in Movies (curated)

 
Monster (2003)
Monster (2003)
2003 | Drama

"Unfortunately, I keep saying ones that I had something to do with. I was the stunt coordinator on that, and I actually played the cop that arrested her at the end. If I have any kind of acting ability, it’s from watching people like Charlize Theron. I was on the set every day. I didn’t have all that much to do, stuntwise — just safety issues and a couple of little stunt things — but I could watch her work, and see how she got to certain places, and that’s the best possible training I think an actor can have. [Theron did] subtle things right before certain scenes, to get to a certain place. I think, even subconsciously, I’ve incorporated some of those techniques. It’s nothing I can really describe. For the violent stuff, it doesn’t take long. It’s just very easy for me to get from my personality to the murderously violent personality. I think I’m closer to that than most people are, so it’s a short trip. [laughs] But for the emotional stuff, and crying scenes and stuff like that, what works best for me is to use music that means something to me, that reminds me of something in the past that isn’t a good memory. Something like that. That helps me to where I can convincingly cry, because I’ve seen so many actors — and these are whom I consider good actors — who are not convincing when they’re crying. It’s just not believable, it’s too forced. I think that’s obviously one of the harder things to do. Take [Hatchet series’] Danielle Harris. Most often, when you have a character who has to have a lot of emotion like that, you start out as a regular character and become that, like Tamara [Feldman] did in the first movie. Starts out normal and then becomes emotional at the end. Well, because this picked up from the very last frame of the first movie, from the very beginning, Danielle has to be crazy emotional. She lost her whole family and found them dead. So, it’s one thing to be able to get to an emotional point, but to have to do it so many times is the hard part. Lots of people can make themselves cry once, but let me see you do it ten times in one day, and some of those times being after lunch, where you’re talking to friends, and then you gotta get back to that place. It’s not that you just do it one time and they film it and you’re done. You gotta do all the coverage and make sure the emotion matches. That’s the hard part."

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Psycho (1960)
Psycho (1960)
1960 | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Contains spoilers, click to show
Ah Psycho, the granddaddy of slashers and a film that I find somehow modern and dated at the same time.
Psycho is a slow burn, at the beginning even the dialogue is sparse as the film builds up to the confrontations with Norman Bates (argued by most as the first modern slasher) and this is part of what makes it dated (and modern), the lack of action and the main character driving around gives Psycho the feel of something that Tarantino might make but it lacks 'something' . It's hard to explain but, by todays standards, parts of Psycho are a bit bland, not necessarily boring but bland. The best example I can think would be the scenes in the car, Psycho has just one character in the car who is imagining what others are saying about her and lots of silence which are filled with dramatic music, where as something like Pulp Fiction you get two characters who are just talking, the music seems to take you out of the situation because, in a modern film it would just be in the background.
As the film progresses we start to pick up on some of the slasher tropes, Norman is strange, again we can't quite explain why but that is sometimes the same in a modern film, we see him spy, once, on Marion and, in a more modern film this would probably be stretched out a bit more.
The kills aren't actually as graphic as most modern day slashers but this doesn't matter as Hitchcock has a talent for making the viewer see what he wants and not just what is happening.
The character of Norman is quite interesting but a lot of 'fleshing out' is just told to the viewer in exposition near the end, however you can see how Norman/Mother could easily be an inspiration for the Jason/Pamela dynamic in the first 'Friday 13th'

Psycho has a lot to answer for, sighted by many as the first modern 'Slasher' movie it caused an uproar for other reasons, the first time a toilet was seen flushing on screen, the first time a 'Leading Lady' was killed off halfway through the film (still a slight oddity now as we normally have one 'final girl') and the fact that the stolen money is just thrown away when it is no longer needed to push the plot along. It is these firsts that help to make the film feel dated, we are used to more graphic kills, toilets are almost irrelevant and there is normally more nudity/sex in a modern slasher.

Apart from being a little dated Psycho is a pretty good and entertain film which has put some thought into it's story and characters
  
Skyfire (2019)
Skyfire (2019)
2019 | Action
8
7.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
On a whim I put this one on, a disaster movie at just an hour and a half long felt like a good way to start my day.

Years after the volcano on Tianhuo Island erupts, businessman Jack Harris builds a paradise resort and theme park in the shadow of the volcano. Because no story that started that way ever ended badly...

Skyfire struck me in a very peculiar way that I want to address later, but for now let me just say that this is a classic sort of disaster movie. A classic with a lot of borrowing.

A state of the art resort is built on an out of the way island. But when disaster strikes, everybody is in danger... If I read that to you and asked you which film I was talking about, what would your answer be? Jurassic Park or Jurassic World? It won't be the only time you find something to reminisce on. I didn't write down all the connections I thought I saw, but if you took Jurassic World, Dante's Peak and Shape Of Water (a little odd I know, but I'm sure you'll see it too) you'll be most of the way there.

I feel like I'm about to do this film a disservice, but I don't really want to talk much about the acting in it. This is nothing against the actors, try all do a good job, chemistry is there, there's the balance of serious and light-hearted... it all works, but it's not the thing that makes this movie for me.

The effects throughout are pretty good on the scale of disaster movies. To look at it all in the heat of the moment it very rarely comes across as unbelievable (which given this scenario is quite impressive), and those scenes that could have crossed over into looking bad are blended in with some great action sequences... so they might be bad, but I really didn't notice.

What sold me on Skyfire is just how well it works visually. In my opinion (I'm going to exercise this phrase more often I think), you don't need to listen to this film to understand what's going on. If you cut out the dialogue and just had the reactions and the ambient sounds you'd still perfectly understand what was going on.

That may say to you it isn't a very complex film, but it makes for a very enjoyable watch, and whole the familiarities did occasionally verge on frustrating I did begin the enjoy the game of spotting them. Mix those things together and it might not become my go to disaster film over Geostorm, but I will absolutely watch it again if the mood takes me.

Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2021/03/skyfire-movie-review.html
  
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Armie Hammer recommended Apocalypse Now (1979) in Movies (curated)

 
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
1979 | Action, Drama, War

"That’s my plane movie. Like, I’ve got it stored on my phone, and if I absolutely just need to just be on a plane, I’ll just put on Apocalypse Now. The mania and craziness that Colonel Kurtz is supposed to represent, and what the jungle in Cambodia is supposed to represent — knowing, by watching documentaries and reading about it, that that mania was not only present, it was prominent on set as they filmed this. Just all of that together. The movie itself is incredible, but the knowing of the making of the film, and what happened when they were making that film, knowing all of that just makes it a much more comprehensive experience. When Colonel Kurtz talks about the horror, and you know what horror he’s talking about, you just feel like you are let in. You’re gifted an audience into true craziness. Every single character in that movie is bats–t insane, and it’s just a matter of how forward it is. So I mean, even Robert Duvall saying, “There’s nothing like the smell of napalm in the morning,” and then taking a pause from it and going, “You know, one day this war is going to be over.” You can just feel how sad he is about that, and how crazy that is. And then you move on to the othercharacters, and then when they get to that farthest checkpoint where the bridge keeps getting knocked down, and he’s like, “Who’s in charge?” And the guy’s like, “S–t man, aren’t you?” No one knows what’s going on here. What does he say to the guy, Roach, the guy with the grenade launcher? “Do you know who’s in charge here, son?” And he just looks at him and he goes, “Yeah,” and then turns around and walks away. That’s when you know. You know who’s in charge? Craziness. The only thing that is in charge here is chaos. You can feel it, and I love it. And Lance, who’s tripping on acid, who’s standing on top of the bunker screaming, looking out, where Charlie is screaming back at him like, “F–k you, GI,” and he’s like, “Lance, get the f–k down!” But that’s the thing: Lance is all of us. That’s what I feel about that movie. He first gets up and he’s just like the good old surfer dude who’s just there and serving his thing, doing what he has to, and in the presence of all of that craziness, he is so affected by it. He’s like the frog slowly boiled in water. To the end, where you get there and he’s ready, he’s primed for the gospel of Kurtz, and he’s just there, and that would be all of us. That’s the experience that so many people had in that war."

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Lee Ronaldo recommended Meet The Beatles! by The Beatles in Music (curated)

 
Meet The Beatles! by The Beatles
Meet The Beatles! by The Beatles
1964 | Pop
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I chose Meet The Beatles!, not With The Beatles, it was the first album (released by Capitol) in America. It’s mostly coming from With The Beatles, but I think there’s a few songs on there that are not on Meet The Beatles!. I’ve been talking about Sgt. Pepper and Revolver recently because those records are to the fore in terms of my new record but I chose this one because The Beatles are such an undying, unending influence and that’s the record I heard first. I was very young when it came out but for some reason my father brought it home and he brought home the singles that preceded it on these obscure little labels in America – Vee-Jay Records, Swan Records before Capitol took over, so I have all those records. I always cite Meet The Beatles! because I’m so very happy that, even though I was very young, I was able to experience the arc of The Beatles career in its time rather than coming to it afterwards. When Steve Shelley joined Sonic Youth, he’s a huge Beatles freak and we’d ask “What was your first Beatles record Steve?” and he’d say the red one or the blue one, the two doubles that came out after they dispersed and we’d be like “ok…” It doesn’t really matter where it starts, it’s not like an ‘I’m better than you’ sort of thing, but to have experienced that momentous change in music and culture in our society in its time is a very important thing to me in terms of who I am and how it shaped me. It all really started with that record. Pop music was always on the radio, but that record changed something in me. You never think when you’re a little kid that you’re going to grow up to be a pop musician, you never really think that it’s going to happen for you. But that record changed the things I found important in my life and it just made music such a central obsession and just showed how intelligent that process can be. It can start with something as simple as that record that’s got ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ on it, songs of that ilk, to go through to ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and ‘I Am The Walrus’ and all these super sophisticated musical compositions. So just watching that arc gave me a lot of inspiration on a lot of levels and it didn’t even have to be for music it could be for whatever you wanted to do in terms of showing how deeply and committedly you could throw yourselves into the work you were going to do."

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The Silent Patient
The Silent Patient
Alex Michaelides | 2019 | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
8
8.3 (39 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is Michaelides' first book. I'm always a little suspicious when I try a new author, but I was extra suspicious because he is literally brand new. He. Did. Not. Disappoint. I was hooked from the very first page: a woman is found with her wrists slit in an apparent suicide attempt after, presumably, shooting her husband in the face 5 times. I mean, how's that for reeling the reader in? Reading from Alicia's diary was probably my favorite part, though Theo's point of view was far from lacking. I love books with an unreliable narrator because throughout the entire story your mind keeps bouncing back and forth between: is this character telling the truth or lying to me? In this case, I couldn't determine if Alicia was actually mentally unstable or if she was the victim of an unbelievable and unfortunate misunderstanding.
Alex is good with his suspense, too. There was an actual moment when I jumped just a little in my seat in anticipation of an attack, when it was just Theo being paranoid. However...
***SPOILERS AHEAD***













Perhaps a more intelligent person may have connected the dots long before I did. Fortunately (yes, fortunately), I'm a bit dimwitted, so things that are obvious to others ahead of time are not so obvious to me, which makes the surprise all the more unbelievable. So it didn't take me until Theo was standing outside Kathy's lover's house, watching his wife, that I got a crazy sense of de ja vu and LITERAL chills up and down my spine! This has never happened to me before, so kudos to Michaelides, and that's no joke.
However, even then (remember, dimwit) I couldn't fully understand why I was feeling that way, just that he was suddenly starting to sound like, if it were possible, he was the mystery man Alicia kept talking about in her diary. But that's impossible, right, because he only met her when he chose to work at the Grove in order to help heal her after hearing the story on the news. Then it all came crashing down on me and I suddenly realized, with an almost exaggerated physical response, what was really happening. Surprise!
I gave 'The Silent Patient' 4 stars instead of 5 because something felt off about the ending. It wasn't necessarily disappointing, because pretty much everything was answered and we know Theo is busted for all his wrongdoings. But there was something missing. I felt bereft, I suppose. Other than that, which I wish I could explain better, I was blown away by this book and was in kept in suspense the entire time - and the twist at the end was, indeed, an unbelievable twist. I'm quite certain I'll grab Alex's next release!
  
Same Old - Single by SHY Martin
Same Old - Single by SHY Martin
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Rating
SHY Martin (Sara Hjellström) is a singer-songwriter raised in the small town of Lerdala, Sweden. Not too long ago, she released a lyric video for her “Same Old” single.

“My whole life changed after I moved. I lived the dream he’d always supported, and I got to see the world we’d both dreamt of. For a long time, I thought I wasn’t allowed to be hurt or miss him because I was the one who left. Today, I know that sometimes it’s just as hard to be the one who has to leave, if not harder.” – SHY Martin

‘Same Old’ tells an elegant tale which touches on a bittersweet personal story of SHY Martin.

Apparently, not too long ago, she moved away to music school, and in doing so, she had to break up with a supportive lost love.
‘Same Old’ contains a relatable storyline, ear-welcoming vocals, and lavish instrumentation scented with an electro-pop aroma.

Also, the Hampus Hjellström-directed audiovisual showcases moments from SHY Martin’s recent European tour.

‘Same Old’ follows the April release of SHY’s “Out of My Hands” single. Also, the likable tune follows in the success of her debut EP, entitled, “Overthinking”, which has amassed a collective 100M+ Spotify streams.

The impactful EP was driven by the singles “Forget To Forget”, “Good Together”, and “Just A Little Longer”.

Not too long ago, SHY established herself as a songwriter, which led to a co-write and feature vocals on Mike Perry’s “The Ocean” single.

SHY Martin recorded the vocals in one-take in her home wardrobe after a tonsil operation. She wrote the song with longtime Swedish songwriting partner, SHY Nodi, whom she has written several other songs with.

The track won Spotify Sweden’s Most Streamed Song of the Year with a groundbreaking 550M+ streams.

Since then, Martin’s songwriting catalog has gone on to generate 2.5 billion Spotify streams.

Her credits include “First Time” by Kygo ft. Ellie Goulding, “(Not) The One” by Bebe Rexha, “All We Know” by The Chainsmokers, “I Wanna Know” by NOTD (ft. Bea Miller), as well as songs for Jess Glynne, Astrid S, and ALMA, among others.

“I was never good at talking about my feelings so I wrote them down instead. When I felt sad, me and my mum wrote letters to each other about it. So expressing myself through songs came pretty naturally for me.” – SHY Martin

SHY Martin began writing songs and poetry in her youth as a means of self-expression. After winning a music contest at her school at age 17, she signed with EMI for a period though ultimately decided to go independent.

Recently, she just wrapped up her first European headline tour, which traversed 14 cities.
  
The Limehouse Golem (2016)
The Limehouse Golem (2016)
2016 | Horror, International, Mystery
The community of Limehouse in Victorian London have been rocked by a series of murders. They have called the mudered the Golem, as only such a creature could have done these heinous acts.

Elizabeth Cree, the music hall star, has been arrested for the poisoning of her husband John Cree on the same night as the last Golem murder. But when evidence is found by Inspector John Kildare that links John Cree to the murders, he sets about trying to solve both cases so that he might save Elizabeth from hanging for her crime.

Their investigation leads them to an exclusive reading room at the library, and a book on the art of murder. Within its pages are hand written notes chronicling the Golem murders to date. Only four men entered the reading room when the last entry was made; Dan Leno, Karl Marx, George Gissing and John Cree. Can the inspector eliminate the other three men and prove Cree is the Golem in order to save Elizabeth?



I was looking forward to this one. Some top actors were involved, and I love a bit of Victorian era murder. The film itself was good throughout, I can't fault it for the scenery and acting.

But...

Those of you that know me, know that I don't think about films. I'm sure I keep saying this. I watch them to have some fun, to escape reality, so what's the point in picking apart something that's made as a fiction to entertain you?

Even with me suspending my brain function for the duration of the film, I paused and thought... oh, this is what's going to happen... and it did. It felt a bit cliche, like the twist had been overused in every film like this that I'd seen. I don't think it was designed that way though. There was a clear moment in the film where they want you to know what is happening, but the realisation of the ending cam much earlier than this. And it was disappointing. I was enjoying the film a lot until I realised what was coming. Talking to my movie buddy I discovered that I wasn't the only one who had this feeling. It's such a shame, but the twist felt so obvious to me that I was suddenly very disappointed.

I have taken to looking at Rotten Tomatoes after seeing a film, and this one is currently sitting at 77% with critics and 61% with the audience. I'd say that's about right. I've left the major spoiler out of here, but if you're familiar with this sort of story then I don't think you'd be hard pressed to work it out. It is an excellent film in it's genre, but it was let down, for me, by the obvious direction it went in.
  
The Incredibles 2 (2018)
The Incredibles 2 (2018)
2018 | Action, Animation, Comedy
Contains spoilers, click to show
Talking to friends about what this one could be was a roller coaster. Lots of us were hoping it would be Skyscraper, but our realistic guesses were somewhere nearer previous secret screening offerings. Films that looked good but were probably not going to make massive waves on their own. We mused on the possibility of The Incredibles 2, but it didn't get much further than "that would be the dream" kind of thinking.

I have never attended a screening that filled me (pretty much everyone) with so much glee. Glee is the only appropriate word there because I had a smile on my face the whole way through.

14 years of waiting and I wasn't disappointed. For me, this one was much more enjoyable than the first. I can't deny that that's partly from the rush of getting to see it before friends do and I get to rub it in their faces... yes I know. No I won't grow up.

Skip forward to getting out of the cinema after 10pm. What? How?! The film itself runs at just under 2 hours long. That's a long time to get a kid to sit still. Hell, that's a long time to get me to sit still. There are certainly parts of the film that could have been trimmed down. Some of them made little sense to me, and some just seemed unnecessary. That being said, it didn't detract from the enjoyment.

Neither did the fact that the villain was rather predictable, as was "big twist". Had this been a new movie with no previous incarnation to give me expectations then I'm not sure how I'd have felt about it. At a guess I probably would have been disappointed. The rush of what it was has probably helped the movie over these issues.

Months ago I joked that I would have just watched a movie of Jack-Jack and his powers. That feeling hasn't changed. Every time I see this film I will be giggling and laughing so hard at that I may embarrass myself. Jack-Jack and that raccoon stole the show. A whole screen full of grown adults wheezing and crying with laughter is something to behold.

Throughout the whole 2 hours little Jack-Jack is definitely the bright spot that put a grin on my face. The raccoon incident it definitely the top scene for me. Auntie Edna came into her own, and I feel like they were channeling some Baby Herman from Roger Rabbit when they came up with that scene. What had me mesmerised though was when Lucius/Frozone gave Jack-Jack a ball of ice to eat. The attention to detail had me a little speechless, just try and look at the lens effect on that sphere of ice and tell me it's not amazing
  
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Darren (1599 KP) rated Climax (2018) in Movies

Jul 13, 2019  
Climax (2018)
Climax (2018)
2018 | Drama, Horror, Musical
Verdict: What The?
 
Story: Climax starts as we meet all the dancers in this gathering, Selva (Boutella) seems to be the one that is planning the big dance number that will give all of them a chance to show of their different styles and techniques, we see an early look at the project before seeing the dancers relaxing at a party, going through the social numbers.
The night takes a dramatic turn when somebody spikes the drink with LSD putting everybody into a hallucinatory nightmare bringing out the worst in them all.
 
Thoughts on Climax
 
Characters – We have so many characters that we meet in this film, nobody seems to be the main character, with most getting equal screen time, this doesn’t help the movie because it is hard to keep up with every single character, you get to see the names in the opening introduction only to forget them when you meet the next one, not many of them are that interesting either, they do all have one thing in common though, they want to be dancers.
Performances – It is hard to judge any of the performances in this film, the dancing side of everything is faultless, it is meant to look different, but because we don’t give enough time to the actors it is hard to give them time to shine in anyway through this film.
Story – The story follows a group of dancers that are working on a project who look to celebrate only for the occasion to turn into a nightmare when the drink is spike. I am going to be honest, there really isn’t a story here, it is mostly just characters talking about who they want to have sex with, then getting high and running around like maniacs, that is all that happens.
Horror – The horror in this film comes from just what these people end up doing to each other once the drugs have kicked in, it’s a lot of screaming and it does try to push the boundaries, the problem comes from us not getting to know these characters enough to care what they do.
Settings – The film is set in one location, it has plenty of corridors along with a big party hall, which does make senses for everything happening in once location over one night.

Scene of the Movie – The interview introductions do make sense for the number of characters we have to meet.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The first about 50 minutes is just boring.
Final Thoughts – This is a movie that will have its fans, though it is just a complete art piece that is trying to push the boundaries more than give us a proper story with too many characters to keep up with.
 
Overall: Overly Arty Movie.
Rating
  
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Andy K (10821 KP) Jul 13, 2019

I loved this, but could see how it is not for everyone.