Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with an... interesting report in from a fest in Germany called THE FANTASY FILMFEST. There's some pretty typical reaction to such modern masterpieces in their genres as OLDBOY and SAW. I haven't seen THE MACHINIST, yet, but I love SESSION 9, so I'll definitely give it a looksee first chance I get. Anyway, this is an oddly worded series of reviews by our guest ESL reviewer, but high on the entertainment level. Enjoy!
Hi, Harry & Co. from Aintitcoolnews!
I have been to the 18th "Fantasy Filmfest 04" in Frankfurt (4th-11th august 2004) Germany, which is celebrated every year in a few big German cities. It's not really a festival with award winning or whatever but more a special program.
They show many European and German Premieres of Chinese/HongKong, US, GB, Japanese, Korean, Australian or whatever kind of movies which are more Thriller, Splatter, Horror, Psycho, Cannes winner, genre features(including Animes).
There were shown so many films that i couldn't catch everyone, you could probably understand when you checkout the timetable of this site: RIGHT HERE, YOU CAPITALISTIC PIGS!!!
I'll review the following movies and if you're going to put this mail to your site and if you think that one of the reviews have been put too often then you can even edit my mail and just put the ones which you consider as important.
I've seen "The Machinist", "Hellboy", "OldBoy", "SAW" and "Open Water" (I tried to catch both of "Infernal Affairs" but i couldn't manage it.) .
I'm not going to review Hellboy of course, but as you can imagine, this movie had the festival premiere in Germany and the official release date for the whole country is the September (and del Toro is going to release the Director's Cut for the European audience...)
Well first of all just for info: Every movie is shown in the original language and as long as the movie was not in English, the feature had English subtitles.
Now to my opinions to:
The Machinist:
I'll not loose any word about the story as you already read enough about it. But whatever you have thought this Brad Anderson movie is about after having seen the trailer or the footages on the Internet...be prepared that everything turns out to be something "TRAGIC" which is good for me but perhaps for all those bastards who wants a kind of a "mad serial killer psycho movie" should stay away from this one .
There are people who would say that many elements was stolen by Fight Club but i think that these two movies are too different and the whole conclusion in the end are too far away than to compare these two.
The first thing what you'll recognize from the first frame is the color...well there is almost NONE. It's almost a black and white movie or better it's a movie where they reduced every color besides LITTLE blue(more extremely than "Narc") and when you watch the movie and try to grasp the whole theme and the tone you'll see that the color is perfect for the whole movie and it's intention.
I have seen Christian Bale in "Corellis Mandoline" and "American Psycho" but in this movie he definitely gives his best performance of all! How he plays this awfully thin Trevor who also suffers from insomnia is just great and in the end you just feel the whole tragic and sad situation not only through the happenings but also through Bale's great acting! (I can't wait to see Bale in Batman-Begins!!!)
The rest of the actors are doing good job especially John Sharian as Ivan. The pity is, as for many other movies in our days, that it won't become a big financial success...nevertheless it's a great little film!
OldBoy:
Now it was the third time that i have seen OldBoy after the screening in the Filmfest in Frankfurt/Germany.
Well i think many people who haven't seen this Cannes "Grand Jury" winner are tired to hear all the hype about this South Korean film "OldBoy" by one of the best Korean directors Chan-Wook Park. But i have to say it: WATCH IT!
The reason why you won't read more information about the plot or story in the newspapers or reviews than the fact that the main character Dae-Su Oh, played by Min-Sik Choi, is captured in a room for 15 years is, that more information about "what happens next" will SPOIL everything!
Acting, plots, twists, tension and whatever i can think of are great. If Park, the director, had a Hollywoodbudget, his movie would have looked even more gorgeous. At least it was filmed with an Arri camera if i have seen it correctly from the credits.
The only advice i can give is to read the subtitles carefully through the film 'cause every details are important and you'll recognize early enough how complex this movie is!!!
What makes this movie so important than just being a smart,bloody Thriller/Drama is the fact that it gives a very controversial theme and conclusion which is evolved through the twist and the final end ("hypnosis") It was the second time where i had seen such a reaction in the audiance(the first one was "The Passion of the Christ"): They were shockingly silent until they have left the cinema.
I'm just happy that I had the chance to see this kind of movie. It's really interesting what Korean film makers are doing on these days.
(check out these Korean flicks, if you haven't seen them yet: "Memories of Murder", "Save the Green Planet" , "Silmido", "Tae-Guk-Ki" and "A Tale of Two Sisters")
SAW:
Oh man, this movie by James Wan rocks!
You follow two normal guys, doctor Gordon, played by "you have seen in many movies in supporting roles but i don't know the name"-actor and the photographer John how they wake up chained in a kind of an old dirty bathroom. The rest is a kind a mix of "The Game", "Seven" and "The Cell" (more or less). This movie has many great shocking moments but they are not really subtle as one would wish but they work very well. When you have seen the posters or the trailers than you would think of a totally sick, bizarre and strange movie but it's less bizarre than i'd expected. It's more a kind of a fun and uncompromising ride with many many twists and i believe that there won't be many people who can guess THE FINAL surprise in the end.
James Wan understands very well how to prepare tension which leads to an adrenaline pouring moment.
There are still a few minor points:
-It could have been cut a little shorter.
-After seeing the posters and teasers i expected a more strange movie where you would have an uncomfortable feeling even after leaving the cinema.
-The acting was not always convincing sometimes even ridiculous. And Danny Glover plays his "i'm a Predator hunting detective(Predator2)"role.
But perhaps i'm nitpicking now...
Nevertheless it was very entertaining but it lacks in a few points to become a cult classic...
Open Water:
Let me tell you how i feel about Sharks. I don't feel nothing. I mean it's like Tennis. I'm sure it's quite exciting to play Tennis for yourself but i find it boring to watch it on TV (except a russian pro girl wearing a short mini skirt is playing...;-) ) And whenever i see any report on the news or any kind of documentaries on TV about shark attacks my brain tells me that it's (OF COURSE) dangerous blabla, but i don't feel scared or frightened or whatever emotionally. I think the real fear arises just in the moment when it really happens around YOUR life. And Open Water doesn't change that. After having seen the second or third shark in the movie you are not scared any more except a few moments where you just react physically but the whole movie is not really frightening!!! You just think oh there is another shark...after a few minutes you think again oh aaaaannnnnndddd again a shark...hmmm why didn't i bought Nachos for this movie...
So "Open Water" tries to make a scary film in a very home video/ documentary style but it's not really frightening at all BECAUSE it's too realistic. What i mean is that the acting of the couple are quite natural and they show behaviors which you would expect in such a situation after being left by boat accidentically.
But you, as a part of the audience, just sit there and watch them and laughs for a few reactions and conversations and disputes but don't really care for them.
SPOILER
In the end, when both of them dies, it really didn't bothered me 'cause there wasn't really an attemption in the story to sympathize with them and everything what happens is shown in a distant view like a documentary and we don't really get the chance to really care for them.
SPOILER End
And when you don't care for them you, as the audience, are not frightened about the situation. The only exception would be a very extreme, bizarre or special situation WITHOUT a living known animal! What i'm trying to tell you is this: It's hard to tell a frightening story where the thread comes from an animal which you know and which exists in real life. It doesn't matter if it's a lion or shark or whatever. When you still want to do a movie with real existing animal as a threat, then you must be a genius like Steven Spielberg. And when you think you are not as good as Steven Spielberg than PLEASE, don't throw your money away,ok?! I hope nobody makes a film called "Open Jungle" with elephants...
Before i come to my conclusion let me tell you one thing what really sucks me. Everybody is talking that Open Water would be a kind of a "Blair Witch Project under water"...What a crap! Just because this film was filmed digital (i don't know if they used DV cam or beta but something which you can buy with much money for yourself) and just because it's a "scary" movie in home video style, it's just unfair to compare these two... When someone is filming another frightening movie on a desert what will the people say? Oh, this is a "Blair Witch Project on the desert" ??? Or that was a "Blair Witch Project kind a film No.24"??? Please make those comparisons just when it's obvious and not just because it was filmed with a similar camera. AND THOSE TWO MOVIES ARE NOT SO OBVIOUSLY SIMILAR, ALRIGHT?!!!
But if you still want to know if "Open Water" is as frightening as "Blair Witch", than i can tell you this:
I was totally disappointed when i saw Blair Witch many many years ago in cinema. The only frightening part of that movie were the last 5 or 10 minutes but that's it. I still don't know why this movie became so successful (well the promotion on the Internet-site COULD be an explanation but not more...) And speaking so the last minutes of Blair Witch are more frightening than the whole film "Open Water".
Now i think it's unfair to say that this movie is bad. I don't know nothing about Director Chris Kentis because i believe that this was his first big movie (correct me if i am wrong) and for an amateur or someone who left the film school recently(correct me again if i'm wrong on this) "Open Water" is a damn good movie. You can see many great intentions (e.g. showing the sun or the sky/clouds speeded up or just hearing the screaming voices in the dark with a few short flashes by the lightening in the stormy weather) and this movie is definately worth to be shown in the theatre but it's not that good 'cause it's too naturalistic to be in any way frightening.
Now that's it from me and it's after 1 a.m. here at home. Sorry for my bad English and i'm just too tired to check all the spellings and grammar and whatever in this e-mail but i hope you can understand it.
cya, your CurryIce.
