rlaine Reviews

Hatching (2022)

I was pleasantly surprised how good this movie is!

[8/10 · 23 April 2023]

Being a Finn myself, I was very prejudiced when I started watching this as I think 90% of Finnish movies are pure crap, made to please majority of audience. This was a super pleasant surprise, it's a genre movie (horror) and very good at it. The story is good, acting is good, fx are good and overall it's just a very fine entry to a very bloated genre.

The story is surprisingly multi-layered covering problems of a girl with a demanding mother trying to re-live her own childhood. There are subtle and very well written subthemes including puberty, eating disorder etc. All in all the script is very good.

The only problems with this movie imo are that while it's very nicely directed, acted and scripted, it could have benefited from a little more "subtle" touch. As it is now, the movie doesn't try to shy away why things happen as they do, but it doesn't really underline things either. But I had a feeling this could've been a masterpiece had it been a directed with a bit more subtle touch and more of a drama approach. But all in all, the movie now works perfectly as a small horror movie, with a very good story and top notch execution (which is very rare for a Finnish movie).

Highly recommended.

Chaos Walking (2021)

Wonder how this ever got green lighted

[5/10 · 6 February 2022]

This is such a strange movie with a strange concept of all male thoughts being heard on a settled planet and one woman drops to this planet. This sounds like an impossible task to make a decent movie of, but it works surprisingly well. It isn't a great movie either tho.

There's tons of plot holes, unsolved plot points (why are the thoughts heard, the aliens..) and there seems to be very little point to this movie in general. Kinda missed the point of all women being killed also.

It kinda felt 70's scifi, tv series scifi, not a movie made in c. 2020. Mostly everything happens outside in nature, which is one of the redeeming qualities of this movie, it's nice to look at. And somewhat well acted.

Still, nearly stopped watching somewhere in the middle as the plot is not super interesting.

Into the Night (II) (2020–2021)

Season 1 was good, season 2 crap

[7/10 · 20 December 2021]

I really enjoyed the first season, characters were interesting as well as the somewhat fresh plot, but the driving force was definitely how the characters were slowly built and unraveled.

Season 2 on the otherhand felt rushed, unstructured and badly written. They still reveal some character backgrounds in the beginning of the episode, but it's quite irrelevant really. Totally missed opportunity. S2 script is really farfetched at times and there is a very annoying open ending for possible S3.

Imdb needs a season based review/rating system.

Season 1 = 9/10 Season 2 = 4/10.

Things Heard & Seen (2021)

Very well made psychological drama/thriller

[7/10 · 10 May 2021]

I very much enjoyed this movie, for the most part. I didn't read reviews before watching this so I had no idea there might be a questionable ending. I have to say I didn't have a problem with it, I was more put off by the events near the end, but that's not to say there's anything wrong with the story, I just didn't like it. The very ending tho is a metaphorical one, but not quite a clear one so it can be confusing. Polanski's "Ninth Gate" comes to mind. Not a clear winner by any means, but not impossibly bad either.

As for the rest of the movie, this is a real winner, production, cinematography, acting etc are top notch. This is on a completely different level than most "direct-to-Netflix" horrors, it's very very well made, it's more about if viewer will get the ending or not. It's not exactly horror movie either as many think, there's just one gory scene - which actually ruined the movie for me - I felt it was totally unnecessarily graphic and took away power from the the more metaphorical and thinker ending. I really dislike the one scene as this was otherwise very atmospheric, mostly everything else was left for viewer to imagine and decide themselves.

Not a perfect movie, but definitely better than many reviews make it seem.

Night Hunter (2018)

Such a mess of a movie, bad in so many ways

[3/10 · 13 April 2021]

One of the worst movies I've seen in a while seriously. If you "just watch movies" you may find this passable pastime, but if you like me expect a bit more of your movie time, you better pass this one. There is no point, focus or proper structure at all. There are way too many characters and none of them is fleshed out properly. They could've dropped the character played by Henry Cavill completely (as well as Tucci) and the movie would've probably have been a lot better and focused. The Rachel (Daddario) character would've been enough. Henry Cavill gives probably the stalest performance I've seen in a good while, but the script is not on his side either. Even the Kingsley character doesn't quite fit in.

Brendan Fletcher gives a pretty impressive performance tho, but it doesn't make up much as the character/story is so confusing. The whole script is confusing with editing that jumps from one thing to another with seemingly no direction at all. I don't know if a lot of scenes were left out, but a lot of stuff happens out of nowhere.

Somewhat atmospheric, but a complete mess of a movie and nothing to grab into really, very uninvolving. Thumbs down.

Outlier (2020– )

Very mixed bag, mostly strong script but sloppy production

[7/10 · 13 April 2021]

I caught this on HBO Nordic as I dig nordic noir (this isn't noir really tho). I enjoy northern scenery and have visited north Norway a few times so why not.

The story is about a small Norwegian town, missing/dead girls and a woman who has moved aboard to study serial killer profiling and now returning to her home town to help the local police and apparently facing her own demons of the past while at it. While the town itself is small we are talking about vast spaces panning hundreds of kilometres and three countries, which makes up a subplot of local police resources on what to really investigate and put resources on.

The script is mostly strong and interesting. I was gripped and I think it's pretty convincing with details and broad strokes. It's also pretty dark story even tho it mostly happens in summer when it doesn't get dark at all. The script is not perfect either tho, but it's interesting. I did sense a bit of a feminist attitude in the script, but it's mostly just a line here and there, not pasted over whole production.

Despite the strong story, it's sad to say that the production, direction, editing and acting are strangely amateurish most of the time. The overall look of the series is very neutral, even boring and the acting is mostly quite bad in a strangely neutral and realistic way. I'm leaning to think that it's just unintentionally amateurish.

There's a low budget feel all over the production, actors use same clothes throughout the whole series, looks like everyone uses the same laptop, one scene caught my eye where a characters mouth was moving while the audio had other person speaking. And so on..

I didn't mind the slowness others have mentioned. I did mind the production values and some script decisions, but overall this was a winner because I really wanted to watch it episode after episode and finished all in four days. There's been many series with better production values which haven't held my interest even nearly as well.

The Block Island Sound (2020)

I found this a great sci-fi mystery

[7/10 · 7 April 2021]

I thoroughly enjoyed this. For some reason I thought it'd be totally different and hesitated a bit to start watching, but glad I watched. It's not really horror, but more of a sci-fi mystery. Add Mulder and Scully and this would be a great x-files episode, with an atmospheric island setting.

Story is rather simple, a fisherman father starts acting weird and other weird things happen to fish and birds on an island. Fishermans adult son and his sisters try to figure out what happened. Story mostly revolves around the adult son who lived on the island with his dad.

Not much more to it really, sometimes less is more. The movie is directed and shot very nicely, acting is great too. Just very well crafted little movie, slow burner like many have mentioned. I was only a bit distracted by the name for some reason, it sounds (pun intended) like a different movie, aimed at younger crowd who will no doubt find this movie boring.

8 Days (2019)

Good, kind of a realistic take on "end of the world" series

[8/10 · 22 March 2021]

Caught this on HBO while looking for something new to watch. Hadn't heard of it, but decided to give it a go and glad I did as it was surprisingly good.

A huge asteroid "horus" is about to hit Europe, USA has tried to use an atom bomb to alter it's course, but the plan fails leaving 8 days for the asteroid to hit earth. This series covers those days and we are mostly following one family, their relatives, friends and other connections. A few survival plans in their minds, getting out of Europe or trying to find a bunker. And just staying sane.

The characters are well built and interesting, but during first episodes I had a bit of trouble buying some of the characters and their actions. For the most part the characters aren't all that likable or relatable, atleast in my opinion. But given the extreme situation they are put in, it's pretty difficult to say how one would really act. There really are no traditional heroes in this series and overall it feels quite realistic.

This is quite a strange combination of somewhat explicit imagery, but overall more leaning to drama style presentation. There is a lot of sexual imagery (including somewhat random view of someone wanking an erect penis), but I guess this all adds to the realism. There are also a few super gory scenes.

The set design is super well done, showing mostly suburban Berlin (?) in the wake of a disaster, garbage lying around, looting etc being new normal with very few trying to keep up with normal day to day routines anymore.

As I watched this further I really wanted to know how it all ends and what happens to the characters and I think the ending (and the series as a whole story) worked pretty well, leaving just the right amount for the viewer to fill in. Nowadays it often feels that most series fall flat after the first few episodes, but this got better and better by each episode. I've also lately liked this kind of mini-series that have a beginning and an end rather than dragging on forever.

The current global COVID pandemic gives this kind of series a morbid twist as it's believed an asteroid has hit earth before. Just like we had had pandemics before, but for most of our lives they had only been subjects for disaster movies and series, but suddenly so true.

The Caller (2011)

Ok story, but the style is horrible

[5/10 · 21 February 2021]

The story is somewhat ok, but a lot of a horror movie comes down to the style it's made in. This movie looks like a soap opera with weirdly tacky camera work, set decoration and color grading. A lot of effort has been used, but the style is just .. meh. Like X-files meets Friends meets Bold and the Beautiful. Theres even a sex scene for gods sakes, havent seen one since the 90s?

Style does matter.

The Third Day (2020)

Wicker Man for the 2020's, but very original

[9/10 · 21 February 2021]

I really liked this series, finished all episodes and can speak of it as a whole, not just few episodes.

I've always been a fan of the original Wicker Man and similar creepy, weird, pagan whatever movies and shows. This has a bit of the original Wicker Man vibe. Here we have a group of people living in a small island of Osea, not far from London, which the dwellers think represents the heart of earth. Osea has fallen ill, divided people and they feel they need to restore the balance of Osea and earth while at it.

Osea island, which is a real place btw, can only be accessed during low tide, which happens twice a day giving the island and the show nice secluded and creepy feel. The island itself is very atmospheric with a hotel, pub and long beaches, but the people living there are weird mostly. Or atleast have something to hide.

The show begins with Sam (Jude Law) rescuing a teen committing suicide and ending up in the island looking for her parents. The story of Sam is slowly revealed, it's implied that there has been a tragic event in his past. Maybe also a connection to Osea. Won't go into the plot any deeper, but it quite nicely keeps you in the grips.

About halfway through the show changes tone and perspective following a woman and her two children visiting the same island at a different time, won't go any deeper into the plot here either.

The cinematography and editing is very experimental in the first half and I really wasn't sure if it was crap or genious or both, but there seems to be meaning to all the stylistic choices. At times it's truly mind-bending visually (the LSD sequence is crazy!) and at times just badly focused, over-exposed and looks like they turned every fx parameter to max in post production. The final half plays more "normal" so stick with it even if you dislike the processed look.

Acting was great, story was great, I really enjoyed it. It was very original all the way, didn't feel like a remake or cashing in on some other succesful show, but I can see the overall execution may be a bit artsy for a mainstream viewer.

Recommended to anyone who wants something different to your regular show.

The Invisible Man (I) (2020)

Nice old school genre thriller

[7/10 · 1 February 2021]

I kind of enjoyed this. Was waiting for a more horror movie as thats where I associate Whannell, but this was more of a 80s / 90s style blockbuster thriller. A simple setup, strong lead, a few surprises here and there.

Times are a bit difficult for a movie lilke this as world has evolved technically and surveillance wise, a lot of the plot holes would've passed a few decades ago, but not today. I'm not too picky maybe and didn't think of every detail covered in here, but there are a few points that bug me like how nothing was recorded at the restaurant to prove her innocent and how would they "make everything be normal" if she accepted the agreement, there were people dead anyway.

Nice popcorn movie, technically very well made, only the script was a bit too old school, but maybe that was what made it so enjoyable, not being so obsessed in filling out every single plot detail or trying to be too smart.

Ma (I) (2019)

Good and quite well balanced creeper

[8/10 · 19 January 2021]

I really enjoyed this one, very well put together in most if not all areas. It's not all horror and actually the horror part is quite mild, but there is layered drama too and you actually feel the characters. This was a surprisingly well balanced combo of entertainment, drama and thriller/horror.

Acted very well, especially Octavia Spencer puts together a great character. So many layers to her. Really liked Juliette Lewis too.

This is a story of bullies and how they can destroy a person. Part revenge story, love story, going nuts story.. Spencers character is very multi-dimensional. She runs into a situation where she suddenly has a chance to be seen as cool, things add up, situation leads to another, a revenge seems possible.

I liked the fact that not all of the backstory was left for an ultimate twist in the end, but rather serve them here and there to build up Ma's story. I did initially feel a bit let down how early they started revealing Ma's past, which did take a bit of the mystery and overall creepiness, but it played out well, there are still twists along the way.

Would've liked to know a bit more of Ma's daughter and their relationship, she clearly sheltered her, but what happened to her father or who he was would've been a nice add to the story.

The direction is pretty stylish as well as the cinematography. Thumbs up!

The Turning (2020)

Enjoyed watching, but probably butchered in editing

[5/10 · 11 January 2021]

There are plenty of this kind of movies, a manor, weird kids, dead or absent parents, home teacher etc. I take it that this is based on a book The Turn of a Screw which I'm not familiar with, but I always enjoy a ghost story taking place in manor so I went for it despite the low rating.

I quite enjoyed watching this, the style and atmosphere are certainly there, but it's easy to see why people haven't liked it. The ending isn't very clear and the rest of the movie doesn't make it very easy to interpret. The problem is that the ending tries to be more intelligent than the actual movie. The movie itself plays out pretty straight without beefing up the story very much.

If I had to guess, I'd say they have tried to compromise between making a generic scary movie and more of a drama movie and ended up with a mess. It felt like some scenes have been made scarier in post just to speed things up, like quite early in the movie when the new teacher goes to the horse stable to look for the girl, it's made really creepy with music etc even tho there shouldn't be any reason to be scared at that point. There are also scenes that make no sense nor are explained (the east wing, mannequins..) and whatever the relationship was between the boy and the riding teacher was left really vague, leaving the boys actions a mystery. Actually there really is no proper story told here, just randomish events leading to randomish end.

The movie was surprisingly fun to watch tho, but ultimately not very rewarding. Had they built up the ending with better care and focus it would have been a real winner. My guess is that this is not the directors vision nor cut, but rather producers wanting a more crowd pleasing cut, ultimately failing at it. But that's just a guess.

Acting and cinematography are great, the girl is quite funny as she's much more naturally "kid" than kids often are in horror movies, like she was just being herself and not acting at all. At first it felt a bit off, but there are enough horror movies with serious kids acting like grown ups. The girl as a character is surprisingly meaningless tho, now that I think about it.

Vivarium (2019)

A bit like a Twilight Zone episode, but a good one

[8/10 · 9 January 2021]

I actually enjoyed this one a lot, can't think of many bad things to say about it. It was interesting and super creepy at times, very well acted, directed and produced, the theatrical CGI beefed (?) sets were pretty impressive.

I was really interested and terrified all the way from beginning to end. Maybe there might've needed to be some further explanation, but the ending was pretty good as is. Kinda like an old school Twilight Zone episode. Simple story with great execution.

Never been a huge Jesse Eisenberg fan, but he's good here as is Imogen Poots, not sure I've seen any other of her movies. Will definitely keep an eye on the director.

Raised by Wolves (2020–2022)

Starts great, but falls flat

[5/10 · 7 January 2021]

Watched the whole series, every reviewer should do that before reviewing. Theres no point reviewing a series/season without completing it. This series is a good reminder why. You don't review movies either if you only watch them halfway thru.

Like many, I really enjoyed the first episodes, but this quickly went downhill. I feel exactly how I felt after watching Prometheus, just do not understand what the makers were thinking. Such a great intelligent setup, but the outcome is a mess. I rarely feel a series stole my time, but this time I do.

I'm all for symbolic and outside the box plots, I don't need to be spoonfed. Theres clearly some snake in the paradise genesis thing going on in the end, but it's such a mess and not at all rewarding ending.

I might go as far as partly blaming Luke Scott who directed some episodes including the finale. The episodes he directed just weren't good.

Ready or Not (I) (2019)

Pretty good balance between horror (gore) and comedy

[7/10 · 3 June 2020]

Horror comedy is not an easy genre and I can't really think of many that are actually good, although I'm not a die hard fan of the genre either. Ready or Not succeeds quite well tho, I was entertained. It's not that much of a horror, as it's not really scary, but rather depends on the gore. I bet real gore hounds would've liked even more, but a few scenes were a bit too much for me, not a huge gore fan here.

My kind of "horror" comedy is the lighter kind, Joe Dante etc, not necessarily the Evil Dead etc kind that are more hard core.

What I liked was the somewhat cliched crazy family mansion, candles, thunder, secret passages kind of old school "gothic" atmosphere, it made a lot for me. Acting was pretty good (although too much flat out screaming for me), the comedy was quite nicely timed and the characters were nicely balancing between crazy and goofy.

Well made movie not to be taken too seriously!

Taxi Driver (1976)

Powerful and stylistic movie, but not entirely perfect

[9/10 · 2 June 2020]

This is a classic powerful movie, which has it's place in movie history as one of the most iconic productions. There's no denying that.

There are many good things about it, especially directing, cinematography, music, performances. The mood is very nicely done with many night scenes and scizophrenic music changing tone constantly.

I have seen this probably two times now, first time must've been when I was a twenty something art student in the 90's. The movie naturally made a huge impact on me. Now that I revisited it in my mid fourties, I saw it a bit differently. I was still struck by many things, but this time the movie felt slightly random in it's events and character evolution, I didn't buy Travis Bickle's character as easily as I did before. Maybe all the hundreds of movies I've seen in between have made me expect a bit more precision. Watching Taxi Driver for the first time I probably didn't care as much what exactly was wrong with Bickle, this time I watched with a bit more analytical mind (I don't know if it's any better way tho, but comes with age).

At times Bickle just seemed socially awkward - almost autistic, but at times he seemed very fluent in social skills. I didn't pick any reason really to why he was living in NYC feeling alone, he maybe left home for some reason, but why. He wanted his parents to believe he is doing well by lying, why was this, I don't know. He had violent thoughts, probably some PTSD, but I didn't quite find any reason to try and assassinate the presidential candidate as his repulsion seemed to be targeted on criminals and what ever he felt was wrong with the society. It all felt a bit random.

Also, I didn't remember the finale where he actually survives and becomes a hero and even "gets the girl", this didn't feel right at all. I had a thought that it may have been a delusion (Birdman style ending), but there are no clues really.

So, a powerful experience for sure, but maybe expected a tiny tad more by todays standards. On the otherhand I like this kind of movies that or not 100% accurate giving us a mental illness diagnosis, and what do I know anyway, I'm not a doctor. It's still a great movie.

Leave No Trace (2018)

Good one, but felt even too subtle and understated

[8/10 · 27 April 2020]

I liked Winters Bone, so I kind of knew what to expect, the director clearly has a way of making heartfelt and touching humane drama. This time we have an apparently war traumatised man (Ben Foster) who lives in the forest with her daughter (Thomasin McKenzie), until something happens that disrupts their life.

Acting, cinematography and everything is really good, I really liked this movie, all the way until the end. Until the ending everything is interesting and believable, but I didn't buy the ending. It's not necessarily a bad ending, just expected a bit more or something else. Describing the whole movie as understated would be an understatement, and the ending makes no difference.

We haven't had wars in Finland in a good while, so PTSD is not that well known. We (or atleast me) mostly hear or see about it in american movies. The dad in this movie is suffering from what I gather service / war based PTSD, but we are never really let inside his head, we only get hints when helicopter sound stresses him etc. For me the ending didn't seem believable, but I'm not familiar with PTSD. Maybe the fathers earlier actions in the movie don't really justify the decision he makes in the end. Or maybe I missed some (subtle) hint and misunderstood the ending.

I liked the fact that this movie doesn't really have baddies in it, that's super rare for a movie these days.

Acting in general is super good, although Ben Fosters has less to play with in the end. Thomasin McKenzie I wasn't familiar with before, but I'd say this is more her movie than Ben Fosters.

Nice scenery, good performances, interesting story to a point, but I felt something was missing.

Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

Cute could be the right word for this movie

[6/10 · 20 April 2020]

I like The Conjuring etc, the whole "universe" of it, not exactly a fan tho. I watch whatever they put out with an open mind and while this wasn't anything special, I thought it was ok. I would say it's kind of tame and cute for a "horror" movie, probably aimed at teens as the cast for the most part is kids and teens.

The acting is ok and direction, cinematography etc are good. I remembered McKenna Grace from the amazing Haunting of Hill House, funny how the same actors - kids mostly - appear on every other horror movie these days. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga appear a bit more than briefly, making this movie seem a bit "bigger" than it actually is.

One thing I did not like was one character who did all the things people are not supposed to do in a horror movie. The motive was there tho, but her actions were a bit too obvious. Script was pretty thin.

All in all fun watch, but nothing to remember really.

The Outsider (2020)

Liked at first, but ended up being super boring

[5/10 · 19 April 2020]

I have a feeling a lot of the high score (8.0 while writing) is due to the first episodes. Two first ones are really good, gripping, interesting and set up a chilling tone, but then the gear drops, more characters are introduced and the show just lingers on for the rest of the episodes. The slow paced grim tone works to a point, but when there is nothing else it just gets boring. Honestly I can't remember the last time I dosed off so many times while watching something. I wanted to like this more and kept watching til the end, but imo the ending wasn't even that satisfying.

Castle Rock suffered from a lot of the same problems, the series seem to take a completely new turn after a few interesting episodes. Too bad since the acting, cinematography etc production values in general are top notch.

A lot of the good in this show is Ben Mendelsohns charisma, he's perfect in the role and the character is believable. The same can't be said about many others, I felt many of the characters weren't properly introduced and I kept thinking who is this and why is he getting so much screen time, only to realize he is one of the main characters (Jack). The Holly Gibney character felt especially off. She's something of a genius, neurotic, asperger/autist, highly sensitive person, but doesn't seem to have any social skill problems, climbs out of windows etc. functions as anyone really, very inconsistent character imo.

So, lot's of good when it comes to atmosphere, but lacks in many ways.

VHS Massacre (2016)

Flawed, but interesting for a movie geek

[3/10 · 22 March 2020]

I'm a movie geek, but not really an expert on b-movies. I grew up with VHS tho so I found this kind of interesting here and there. Overall I wouldn't say this is very good and that's mostly because it's not very focused. If the makers had ditched focus on their own productions and focused more on the physical media and VHS movies in general it might've been better. Troma etc are interesting, but the documentary feels very subjective with very preachy piracy part (fwiw, I'm against piracy). I wasn't fan of the actual VHS massacre either, imo the diabetes video wasn't a laughing matter. I've seen this kind of movie geeks at local arthouse movie theatre laughing at everything and basically ruining the show for everyone else. So yes, I found the VHS part interesting, cover art appreciation etc, but there was a lot of stuff I didn't find that fitting. The subject calls for a better documentary.

Horse Girl (I) (2020)

Somewhat light movie about mental illness

[8/10 · 9 February 2020]

This movie is probably quite new, few days out, as this had no reviews when I started watching it two days ago. It seemed interesting and artsy enough to hold my attention and it did.

It's a weird and quirky movie, the kind of movie that usually has an illustrated movie poster, title written in (what looks like a) hand drawn typeface and a few movie festival prize logos. Independent movie.

I think it was marketed as a scifi thriller drama, or thats the impression I got. It kind of is, but thriller and sci-fi factor is quite low. It's more of a drama, with lighthearted comedy to it, not exactly full comedy tho.

The movie is basically about falling into mental illness. The problem is that we don't really know much about the characters history, other than they seem to have a history of mental illness in the family. So we only get to see what happens when a woman falls into the disease, there isn't much of a buildup, more just many awkward social situations when she gets more and more detached from reality. The movie has a slight touch of fantasy to it, alien abduction etc, so it's not 100% serious. And that's what works pretty well here and makes up for the lack of character backstory. It's interesting watch without being exploitative.

Acting, direction, music and production in general are good. Brie is good in lead (first movie I saw from her). Direction is both stylish and consistent. Music plays an interesting role.

Good, interesting, thoughtful, even funny at times. Lacks a bit on depth, but definitely a winner.

Castle Rock (2018–2019)

Mixed feelings after two seasons

[6/10 · 21 January 2020]

I've watched seasons one and two now. Quite different, both had good and bad things to them. Overall I think they were a mess. The problem for me was that many times I didn't know what I was watching, who's story is this. I gather Castle Rock is basically the center of Stephen King novels and we have many familiar (and not so familiar) places and characters, but especially in season two the storylines didn't seem to have any real connection other than possible earlier appearances. Sure a connection happens in the end, but the only real connection is that they happen in the same "universe", which seems quite popular these days in popular culture.

The story about Annie Wilkes was pretty good tho, it was what made season two interesting, but everything else didn't seem to serve much purpose. Season one was maybe a bit more straightforward with less different storylines, but it was boring and confusing, much less engaging.

I ditched season one once and came back to it after watching a few other (better) series. Season two kept me glued better, mostly due to the Wilkes story. Honestly I have no clue what possible season three will offer, probably more unrelated storylines, lot's of characters without real purpose and one main story that is utterly confusing, because of all unnecessary clutter, red herrings and plot twists coming out of nowhere. JJ Abrams style. I will still probably watch it, god knows why.

Deliver Us from Evil (I) (2014)

Atmosphere is there, but that's it

[5/10 · 7 December 2019]

I was looking forward to seeing this as I liked director Scott Derricksons Sinister a lot, I thought it was one of the better horror movies I'd seen in a while. Dr. Strange wasn't bad either.

The movie starts out with a scene from Iraq war, a few American soldiers find something in a cave/crypt or so, but the scene cuts pretty short and we move on to New York City.

The atmosphere, cinematography etc is good. Very Se7en style, dark and rainy metropolis, Eric Bana seems like a fit choice for a troubled cop with kind of a sixth sense, which his colleague calls radar. They follow a few leads concerning for example domestic violence and a strange event at the zoo. There seems to be a connection to the soldiers we saw in the beginning. Eric Bana's "radar" seems to connect to things supernatural, he hears and sees what other don't. A priest also appears and sooner or later it looks like they are dealing with some kind of possessed individual rather than just ex-soldier.

While the style indeed is creepy and atmospheric, the story itself never really kicks off or gets very interesting, we never get to know why anything really happens other than that a soldier somehow gets possessed by the devil in Iraq and starts terrorizing. The back story is too thin to properly engage.

Eric Bana as Sarchie has ok charisma, but mostly the acting is super wooden in scenes where they would've needed some more beef. Especially the priest delivers a lacklustre performance.

We also have Sarchies family and they naturally get in danger, which mostly include a few very cliched horror movie scenes which could basically be from any horror movie (kid goes to sleep, hears strange noises, toys move by themselves, door closes with a slam).

The movie has a few pretty strong images, a twisted body of a suicide jumper and the exorcism scene is quite intense.

I never figured out the The Doors music how it connected to anything. I had to watch the beginning with very low volume tho so maybe I missed something, but if not, I think it was more comical than spooky.

Nothing memorable really and worse than Sinister.

Knives Out (2019)

Ok entertainment, but expected better

[7/10 · 6 December 2019]

I'm a fan of "whodunnit" genre, really like to work my brain and Clue in all it's craziness is one of my all time favorites. Not to say I don't like the more serious ones, I loved Gosford Park, Name of the Rose etc. This seemed like a great movie to see.

Starts out pretty good, fast paced and quirky, the cast is great, but for me the movie fell apart as soon as they showed the murder/death/suicide. It was quite early to the movie and you know at that point that this can't be the whole truth, even tho you've just seen exactly how it happened. After that it's just guessing what lead to it or how they cover up for it.

There are tons of clues on the way, a few of them very obvious ones and you kind of know quite early on who actually is to blame, you just aren't sure why. And it's a bit problematic for a whodunnit as the rest of the cast don't really seem very probable murderer. There is basically just one very unlikable character (ok, maybe two, but the other is too small part to be the murderer).

But even tho the clues are quite obvious, the path to conclusion is everything but. It was somewhat interesting to watch everything unfold, but a certain key character had such a small part (Fran) that guessing everything seems like a very difficult task.

What comes to acting and direction I think most did ok, but what started out as fast paced quirky show, went somewhat flat in the middle. Pace slowed down, Daniel Craig in my opinion delivered quite stale performance after starting out being more interesting. Direction wasn't quirky enough to be a proper comedy after all, only delivering a few good laughs. Most of the time the movie was just a crime drama.

Could've used some trimming at over two hours long, I did feel drowsy halfway.

Then the political part. Unnecessary in my opinion in a movie like this.

I do like the fact that "good guys win and bad guys loose". It was a good movie anyway, but not really a masterpiece.