AFFLICTED
Like the film WER (which I reviewed
on this blog last month), THE AFFLICTED attempts to use found footage to recast
a horror movie archetype. In this case,
it’s the vampire and unlike WER this film succeeds because it incorporates just
enough of vampire mythology with a fast moving action film. Nicely plotted with great fight scenes and a likeable
main character. A good film all around
that also doesn’t skimp on gore.
LUCKY BASTARD
After complaining about found
footage films over the last couple of years, here’s another one that
works. I’m not sure the director had in
mind making such a strong statement on the pornographic voyeur culture we’ve
become but this film contains much pointed criticism and has great dialogue. It also contains a very good performance by
Jay Paulson as a scary psycho who wins a contest to have sex on a pornographic
website.
THE MACHINE
The first 2/3’s of this
variation on BLADE RUNNER are quite good.
A decent imagining of a not so distant dystopian future including a cold
war with China and creating robots for warfare.
However, the last 1/3 which contains most of the movie’s action is far
too genteel and predictable.
THE UNKNOWN KNOWN
Erroll Morris’s usual
documentary bells and whistles (cool graphics, stock footage, various oddities
such as dictionary definitions flashing on screen while someone is speaking)
fail here because his style of yelling questions from off camera and leaving the
rest fail to achieve their goal; exposing Donald Rumsfeld. Instead, we get Rumsfeld pontificating at
length in the most arrogant of tone without a sense of right or wrong
(basically he’s a sociopath). The only
thing Morris succeeds in pointing out is Rumsfeld’s deliberately confusing use
of verbiage.
SKULL FOREST
Trying to cover up bad filmmaking as a grindhouse homage with details such as excessive gore, nudity, odd characters, shaky
camera shots etc. is coin of the realm these days. This film is just another example as four
women on a camping trip tussle with rich people who hunt humans. The only thing commendable is there is nudity
from the type of women we don’t often see in films like this – middle aged and roly poly.
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