I know that this may not seem like a lot of movies to you all, but for this slacker, this is seriously more movies than I have watched in a long time. Go me; that's all I'm sayin'.
Lake Mungo (2008)
Okay, this movie confounds me. It's technically found footage, which I like, and it's a sort-of ghost story, which I really like, but it's also psychological and real and stuff. Not sure how I felt about that. I'll admit that doing a horror mockumentary thing was a cool idea and a way to make something different from all the other found footage movies out there, and it's execution was brilliant. It felt almost too much like a real documentary about this Alice Palmer girl - I could really believe that this was a true story and that these guys were real people and not actors. Turns out the story is not really about ghosts at all, but about people - how we can't ever know what is really going on with a person and how everybody has their secrets. Though a tiny part of me was (again) disappointed at the lack of real ghosts, the story of Alice and her family was quite compelling. Not one I'll be watching over and over again, but I like that Lake Mungo did its own thing and tried to do something really different. Kudos.
Lovely Molly (2012)
Believe it or not, the poster is what put me off from this movie for a while. Netflix kept recommending Lovely Molly for me, and I thought the art looked cheesy and cheap. I'm a silly goose, I know. Lovely Molly was killer. A big hunk of that praise goes to newcomer Gretchen Lodge, who absolutely rules as Molly. It's hard to believe that this is her first movie job because she owns the role of Molly, looking gorgeous and totally professional at the same time. The only thing the movie suffers from is being really freaking confusing, as what you believe is happening constantly changes almost from scene to scene. I think I finally got it by the end, even it was very frustrating the whole way through. I mean, a dead deer in the ceiling, FTW? Not all the answers are given but you are given enough clues to make your own conclusions, which I sometimes like my movies to do. Lovely Molly is seriously a good, creepy film with an amazing performance from someone who hopefully will have a great career in the future.
Also, she gets naked a lot, so... there you go.
Prometheus (2012)
To make my feelings about Prometheus clear, let me just say that I watched it the same night that I watched Rubber.
And I liked Rubber SO. MUCH. MORE.
Watching Prometheus was like watching fucking Avatar all over again. Yeah, I didn't like Avatar and I'm not afraid to say it. Way, way too much use of pretty, distracting look-how-fucking-awesome-our-CGI-is CGI to disguise the fact that the characters and the story SUCKS. Prometheus is too long, the characters do stupid stuff and I didn't like any of them, and the movie's "philosophy" goes so all over the place that after a while it doesn't know what the hell it's talking about anymore. I mean, I thought I was watching a prequel to Alien, for Peter's sake, why didn't anybody tell me that it wasn't really a prequel until like, THE LAST FUCKING MINUTE??? You could have saved me from two hours of utter boredom, thank you. Big disappointment. Huge.
Also, she gets naked a lot, so... there you go.
Rubber (2010)
I'm gonna make a crazy statement right now and say that Rubber was almost genius. For months, I had been very hesitant about trying to watch a movie about a killer car tire, but my newfound motivation told me to just jump right into it. So I did. And I kind of loved it. It's actually not a bad looking movie and its absurd, "no reason" pretense lets the movie be as stupid as it wants - but it's not really that stupid. It's offbeat, it doesn't make sense, it's pointless and meaningless - but it's strangely fun. Truly strange. The acting is actually... good? The movie is... not that cheap looking? I don't believe it. Rubber's not the greatest movie out there by any means, but it is worth the interesting experience of watching it. I'll probably forget about it fairly soon, though.
To make my feelings about Prometheus clear, let me just say that I watched it the same night that I watched Rubber.
And I liked Rubber SO. MUCH. MORE.
Watching Prometheus was like watching fucking Avatar all over again. Yeah, I didn't like Avatar and I'm not afraid to say it. Way, way too much use of pretty, distracting look-how-fucking-awesome-our-CGI-is CGI to disguise the fact that the characters and the story SUCKS. Prometheus is too long, the characters do stupid stuff and I didn't like any of them, and the movie's "philosophy" goes so all over the place that after a while it doesn't know what the hell it's talking about anymore. I mean, I thought I was watching a prequel to Alien, for Peter's sake, why didn't anybody tell me that it wasn't really a prequel until like, THE LAST FUCKING MINUTE??? You could have saved me from two hours of utter boredom, thank you. Big disappointment. Huge.
Lovely Molly sounds pretty cool. Haven't seen it on my Netflix but I'll look it up. What's funny, I had no desire to watch Prometheus, it didn't stand out that much to me like other movies.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that Prometheus had a lot of mixed reviews/feelings. Mostly bad. Looks like I made a good choice. ;)
Lovely Molly is a divisive movie so it's hard to tell who will like it and who won't. Prometheus is a pretty movie and it looks cool, but something just went wrong with it. You probably don't really need to see it.
DeleteI personally liked "Prometheus" a lot, but it was in spite of its flaws ... which are numerous. Watching the behind-the-scenes stuff on the Blu-ray, it's clear that Ridley Scott has no clue what he is doing anymore. The movie's original concepts and screenplay are vastly superior to what they ended up actually making. It's almost like they came up with a really strong concept and then said, "Alright, cool; now, how can we utterly fuck this up?"
ReplyDeleteAnd then found the answers.
What a shame.
That said, I enjoyed the look of the movie and the technical aspects enough that I still put it in the plus column. Just not by much.
No doubt Prometheus is a good looking movie and the sets were awesome, but that's not enough for me. The story is weak. I was sick of scoffing at all the stupid stuff the characters did - two people are trapped in the alien cave and the rest of them are just like, "We'll pick you up in the morning." Theses same two dudes who were afraid to be in the same room with a dead body suddenly have no problem touching a snake-like alien thing that oozes out of the floor. Rooney Mara escapes from the people trying to contain her to have her alien abortion and suddenly they are not after her anymore. Alien spaceship falling from the sky right on top of us? Let's run away from it but totally stay in the path of where it is falling so it will eventually crush us. Genius. All of these guys were just geniuses. I couldn't get over it.
DeleteRooney Mara?!? You've got your dragon-tattooed babes confused. Noomi Rapace is in this one. ;)
DeleteThat thing where Charlize just continues to run right into the path of the spaceship is indeed one of the retardedest things ever put on film.
Normally, I can't forgive movies that have that many plot problems. I've been trying to figure out why I'm able to forgive THIS one ever since I saw it.
Oh, god damn it! You know what I meant... Noomi, Rooney... Why'd they pick Dragon Tattoo girls with similar names? Well, I meant Noomi - the non-ugly Dragon Tattoo girl.
DeleteOh, sorry Rooney. That was mean.
Yeah...Prometheus, despite its production values and cast, went nowhere. I did like the atmosphere though. The moodiness of the alien cave and the ending that felt distant and surreal got in my head a little (much like "Contagion", which is not terribly exciting, but just casts a troubling pall over everything).
ReplyDeleteI like your blog, btw. it's non-pretentious and I can tell you are enjoying yourself as you define your passion for scary.
I thought of one movie you should keep an eye out for: when it arrives on DVD (soon, I think), watch "Sinister" (with Ethan Hawke no less). It has a awesome harrowing feel coupled with a terrifying backstory... and the ending made me want to say to myself "enough! It was just a stupid movie...stop thinking about it!" I am curious to hear your seasoned view on it.
Thanks, Paul! I know, right? Prometheus went nowhere, despite how pretty it was. It could have been so much better. Sinister is one I wasn't too interested in at first, but I've actually seen a lot of positive reviews so I'll definitely be seeing it when it comes on DVD and reviewing it. Hopefully it'll be as good as everyone says.
DeleteAgh, I tried to enjoy Rubber, but I just couldn't get into it... I actually preferred Prometheus (really enjoyed it, in fact). Lovely Molly I thought was awesome though.
ReplyDeleteWatch the link Tyler sent me below. It says absolutely everything I thought about Prometheus!
DeleteLOL all of them disappointed me :)
ReplyDeleteI thought that Lake Mungo was interesting but too slow and dull.
Lovely Molly has a fantastic lead and a great first half, but the second half wasn' exactly my cup of tea
Prometheus is one helluva mess and Rubber is just rubbish :)
Of course Rubber is rubbish! It's awesome that way... much better rubbish than Prometheus, anyway.
DeletePrometheus was okay, thought you would like this though. SPOILER ALERT!! for people who haven't seen it yet.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBaKqOMGPWc
Thank you Tyler, that was my new favorite thing ever! Totally gets it right and shows what was wrong with the movie. Watched a bunch of the other Honest Trailers and they were spot on as well!
DeleteHaha no worries they are all pretty well done, you will like the Twilight one also if you haven't seen it yet. Talk soon
ReplyDelete