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Moribunny

moribunny
Criticker Zealot
# Film Ratings: 6022
# Game Ratings: 211
Member Since: 03 Apr 2006
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel

Featured Reviews

45 34%
Landscape in the Mist
Landscape in the Mist (1988) - Rated 15 Dec 2012
I found this to be "heavy handed" in more than just the literal sense. Angelopoulos is a master of the slow tempo, I'll give him that. He makes space seem full. Full of what, though? An unaccomplished Tonino Guerra script serves only as a giveaway of the director's aspirations. He tries to be a touch fantastic like Fellini, use long uninterrupted shots like Tarkovsky and big, ominous symbolistic sceneries like Antonioni, but the sources do it better. The story, like the music, is kind of sappy.
50 39%
I Spit on Your Grave
I Spit on Your Grave (2010) - Rated 29 Jan 2011
The last in a tidal wave of remakes of classic scaries, this version of ISoYG is fashioned in accordance with the torture porn fad of the aughties, so the vengeance scenes are far more elaborate and crueler. While Meir Zarchi's was a B-movie made on a shoestring budget, the remake boasts expensive production and is more technically accomplished in every way. Genre fans should be entertained, but it lacks psychological subtlety present in the original, and doesn't add anything of substance.
60 55%
The Right Stuff
The Right Stuff (1983) - Rated 07 Apr 2011
Very good entertainment for such a long movie, it boasts a good cast and runs the gamut from tension to humor, never boring. Believability is not a strong point, though, and everyone is a stereotype: The scientists are nerds, the astronauts' wives hysteria-stricken, the journalists, the politicians, all familiar tropes. The pilots are jocks of course, but that's what makes them the only heroes of the Mercury program according to Hollywood.
25 13%
The Belko Experiment
The Belko Experiment (2017) - Rated 26 Jun 2017
I've seen way too many of these Zimbardo-infused Battle Royale knockoffs, and they're all detestable. With Greg McLean directing, at least Belko is grittier than most; but that doesn't quite rescue it from its humdrum predictability and pretentious while asinine allegorical subtext. For God's sake, won't horror directors please just stop remaking this same movie over and over again?
68 71%
Seconds
Seconds (1966) - Rated 07 May 2014
The problem is that it's too easy to draw a kind of "appreciate what you've got" moral from this, and it takes some mental effort to block that tripe out of one's mind - but to the extent that I managed it, this was quite creepy and had a bit of a "The Trial" vibe. It's one of Rock Hudson's best performances, but most of the credit is probably due to legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe. Seconds is all about the atmosphere, which is his doing.
48 37%
The Vampire
The Vampire (1957) - Rated 23 Jun 2022
Pretty basic old-school vampire movie, that it's Mexican is of no real consequence (the vampire is Hungarian, naturally). It does add a few compelling pieces of lore, such as the suggestion that those bitten become bloodsuckers themselves only because they begin to thirst for their own blood which was forever taken from them. Decent sets.
48 37%
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) - Rated 24 Jul 2019
I get Berlinger's "and the women who loved him" ambition with regards to Bundy, because his magnetism was what made him special among serial killers, but it's palpable that Berlinger doesn't know much about Liz and hasn't the imagination to flesh her out; he also feigns surprise on her part when in reality she wasn't exactly oblivious to Ted's nature. Thus we have a single memorable character in Zac Efron's Ted, and the only engaging parts of the film are those based on trial transcripts.
58 50%
Once Upon a Time in America
Once Upon a Time in America (1984) - Rated 13 Aug 2007
This is Leone's most epic and sophisticated work, but it's not as good as his Westerns. The three hours pass by without a dull moment, but the story is flawed in many respects. Also, so many Italians playing Jewish characters is a bit of a stretch.
5 2%
Freddy Vs. Jason
Freddy Vs. Jason (2003) - Rated 30 Sep 2009
Two atrociously trashy, overcommercialized and endlessly repetitive horror franchises converge into one super duper crapfest. Slavishly obedient to the series' preprogrammed storyline conventions, the film successively kills off a flock of obnoxious teen-like things led by a theatrically incompetent but enormous-breasted blonde. Their two dusty but still cartoonish executioners are then pitted against each other, setting the unfortunate precedent for the year after's Alien vs. Predator.
5 2%
Blood Quantum
Blood Quantum (2019) - Rated 03 Apr 2021
As if zombie apocalypse wasn't already the shittiest movie genre in existence, this one has a shitty spin about native americans being immune because it's all just nature's revenge on the white man. Too boring for words.