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Frankensteinmonster
Reviews
Hundstage (2001)
A truly horrible experience
I once promised never to walk out of any film ( a personal policy that made me suffer through the most different kinds of dreck, such as Rambo 3, Baise Moi, Deep Impact) - but Mr. Seidl almost succeeded. Hundstage was a truly awful experience. Anyone who sees this movie will think that Austrians are a miserable, pathetic bunch of retards. It shows a world where love and humanity don't exist, a world where people humiliate each other only for one reason - to distract from their own miserable existence. By choosing a documentary-like style with non-professional actors (most of them look like straight from the imagination of Austrian shock-cartoonist Deix) director Seidl wants to make us believe that this is real life in Austrian (European? Western?) suburbs. The viewer is confronted with depictions of sex orgies, violence against women and handicapped people, madness and degradation. But this isn't social criticism. This is just pure shock without any aesthetic value. Instead you get bad acting, bad cinematography, bad filmmaking. If anybody needs a film like this to realize that there are things wrong in our society then this person must have walked through life with closed eyes. This is pseudo-social criticism with a sledge hammer. And it looks down on people in a disgustingly condescending way. It shows ugly people - that is not the reason why I hate it. But it depicts average people in an ugly, misanthropic way. And this is why this film is truly despicable.
Buffalo '66 (1998)
What's worse than ex-model turned actor?
Of course ex-model turned auteur!
This is simply one of the worst films I have ever seen. I almost left after 20 minutes because I could not stand it any more. But I stayed because I could not believe I had payed for this "experience". (Up to now this has only happened to me 3 or 4 times, which puts Buffalo 66 in line with Rambo 3 and Deep Impact) It would be easiest to say what was good about it because then this review would be quite short. OK, for those who don't like reading: Only Christina Ricci was superb. Actually, it really amazed me how anyone could play a character so convincingly in such a sh**e movie. But then, on the other hand, Ricci's scenes were mostly showcasing her talent and - luckily - the other actors chose to step back when she entered.
Unfortunately, she could not save this trashy thing which dares calling itself a movie. It is really hard to relate to any character in Buffalo 66. They are doing things they obviously don't have any motivation to do. To all you girls out there - honestly, would anyone of you do what Ricci did for this scumbag Gallo? What's the point of it? Maybe Vincent Gallo just wants to prove that he is so good looking girls do everything for him despite him being the biggest a**hole in the world? With its trashy, no-budget cinematography this film has an almost documentary look. But what is the point in making a completely out-of-this world story look like real life?
Add the worst acting one could possibly imagine (even Rourke, Huston and Gazzara are completely wasted), nerve-racking, monotonous, repetitive dialogue, a man wearing the same expression in his face for 110 minutes, the ugliest clothes ever to appear on screen, camerawork a first-grade film student couldn't do worse, and you get something that should not be in this database.
Oh, before I forget... I liked the scene in the donut shop. It was almost....poetic.