Letterboxd — Your life in film

This is just an utter waste of time. It is nothing but clips for the other films put into some kind of chronological order with a few minutes of added footage to wrap the clips around. Lazy stuff. The only way this would ever be good is if you hadn’t seen any of the other films and wanted to get up to date without wasting your time by actually watching them.

I found this to be a little bit of a poor man’s Gummo at times. Just like in that film, we meet various people and keep coming back to them as their stories unfold. Some of them don’t really have much going on yet none really kept my attention. I did enjoy the hitchhiker girl as she worked well in an absurd way. There was some hard core sex in there too which I wasn’t expecting. There is a pretty rough scene with two guys abusing an older woman. The rest of the film was dull. It may have been a better watch if they cut the thing down by around 30 or 40 minutes, but at two hours, it’s far too long.

Full of atmosphere and a great performance from Lugosi. I did find that it dragged a little near the end but it was enjoyable and has put my faith back in the Universal classic horror films after the pretty awful Mummy film. I really enjoyed the warden of the mental hospital who brought some humour into the film which I wouldn’t have expected to work but it does. Theres a great scene where him and a girl that also works there talk about how they must be the only sane people in the whole building. Dracula’s helper was great too and gives a particularly manic performance.

An OK film with a ton of nudity and 70’s rock music but not all that much else going for it. The lead Suzy was very well played but I found her transition from sweet innocent young girl to slut that sleeps with every man (and one woman) that comes along. I did enjoy the location work in London. The gig footage is nice too and I kind of enjoyed how mean spirited the ending is with Suzy not giving two shits that her one time best friend has just killed her self in the bath tub.

Lenny Abrahamson does not disappoint yet again with What Richard did. His last two films, Adam and Paul and Garage are criminally under seen and should have a much larger following. I’m glad to see that this one has gotten out there a little more and his next film seems to be a bigger budgeted film with some big names in. It’s about time he received this kind of recognition and I just hope it isn’t his downfall.
What Richard did is a beautifully crafted piece that takes it’s time and really packs a punch. I really liked the title as it alludes to something big happening in Richards life and during the quiet parts near the start, where he is just hanging around with friends and starting romances, you really are just anticipating what is obviously coming that’s going to ruin all of this.
The performances are all great and the dialog has a very natural feel to it. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of it is adlibbed. After the event, we really feel that Richard is utterly destroyed and torn with what to do. I also really liked the ending. I was guessing throughout what he would end up doing and the fact that they just kind of leave things by the end of it, works really well. Richard is left to live with what he did. Another great film from Abrahamson who along with Ben Wheatley, is probably the most exciting director working today.

Rise of the Zombies is certainly bad, but it could have been a lot worse. It at least never lets up. The film is almost non stop action so there is little time left to be bored by it. The amount of action though takes away any time for character development but the dialog is so awfully written and delivered that you’re glad they don’t put to many scenes with the characters all chatting away getting to know each other. The effects go from awful CG to passable practical work. They are never too awful that they are laughable. The acting is terrible and the camerawork bland but it goes by quick enough and is a decent waste of time.

This is going to come across as blasphemous as I know this film is a classic, but I just really did not like it. It slogs along at a snails pace with little to nothing happening. Even at around an hour and ten minutes long it seems like two hours. The mummy, or guy that was once the mummy does no real damage to anyone. I felt little to no atmosphere from the film and felt nothing for any character. The make up was pretty cool and that is about all I liked.

Have to say I had higher hopes for this one. I found all the parts with Van Damme in the bank to be utterly boring and uninteresting. Anytime he was out of there and dealing with the fan in the cab and the ones outside the shop, it was pretty good. The opening long shot was great too as was the well known monologue scene which actually is really well acted by the man. The rest was forgettable.