Change Your Image
emgotm
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Agatha's Bulletin Board: Unfortunate Casting
I've seen all the Indy movies. Well, the DOD is not that bad. I would go for a 6.50-7.00 but I gave it a 4.00 because IMHO the lady next to Indy was really a VERY bad casting... Yeah, unfortunately her acting was always reminding me that I was just watching a film. She could not drag me into the movie & whenever she was around "PUFF!" the whole magic on the screen was disappearing... Pity, really pity for the whole movie. After that I found out that this lady "... has contributed to the screenplay of the James Bond film No Time to Die". OMG, nice, the puzzle is solved. It seems that the screenwriting talent does follow the acting one too... Cinema little by little does not rely any more on strong character acting & tight scenarios as it used to be. But... who cares? Everything is ok, let's move forward guys.
No Escape (2015)
Agatha's Bulletin Board: Between Scylla & Charybdis
A simple father and a simple mother trying to save themselves & their two girls, passing between Scylla & Charybdis in a foreign country. The consequences of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you like thrillers and lots of tension, try it. My BIG congrats go (a) to directing, and (b) to editting. I think those two elements of the movie are almost perfect!
The Night House (2020)
Agatha's Bulletin Board: When "Nothing" is "Something" (A Complete Explanation Guide Of The Whole Story)
If you like supernatural / psychological thrillers with give it a try. Nice Elements of the movie:
>Creepy, nice, dark atmosphere.
>Solid performances.
>Beautiful cinematography.
>Camera optical illusions (set up carefully in order to define "nothing-ness").
Spoilers follow! A complete explanation guide:
Beth dies for 4 minutes when she was 17 and she sees nothing in the other side. That "nothing-ness" (that she experienced) was expecting to get her life.
Think of that "nothing-ness" as the Spirit of Death (SoD from now on) or the Death or something similar (SoD: "I am what you felt when your heart stopped").
But SoD was tricked by Beth since she managed to recover. Now, it wants to reclaim her life back and comes after her (SoD's Main Objective). But since Beth is NOT the believer-type, SoD cannot interact directly with her.
Quite soon Beth marries Owen (Heather: "You were married young!") Owen is a believer-type, so SoD establishes a channel with Owen in order to get Beth's life.
Owen starts to sleepwalk (Beth: "A year or two after building our house...") and having weird dreams in which SoD demands from him to end Beth's life.
Owen tries through occult arts to protect Beth. Reading "Caerdroia" he discovers in chapter "Decoys and Deception" a way to trick SoD ("People have sought remedies to threats posed by evil...")
Such trick can be done via "Voodoo dolls at gravesites near to those afflicted... activated by contact with the intended recipient... mazes and reversed spaces to confuse dark forces".
So Owen starts his plan "... by distorting the identity (i.e. Other women looking like Beth) and location (i.e. Other house like Beth's house) of the subject, pursuing spirits could be tricked by false forms of sacrifice."
His plan is to trick SoD by sacrificing a woman looking like Beth in a reversed place looking like his house, as he read in "Caerdroia".
Owen builts secretly that house like the one he and Beth lives, but in a reversed architecture (blueprints are discovered by Beth).
He makes the voodoo doll, puts the related spell and puts it in the secret house. Then he meets women looking like Beth and he brings them to the secret house. He makes them touch the voodoo doll (i.e. Activates the channel between SoD and the woman) and he chokes them as offering to SoD.
SoD is tricked but when it finds out it did not get Beth's life, it presses again Owen. Owen meets another woman like Beth, and that loop goes on for 6 times (Beth: "... half a dozen"). Thus SoD is tricked for a while (Beth: "He tricked you!", SoD: "For a while... he thought he could protect you").
At the end Owen having guilts does not kill Madelyne, the girl in the bookstore (Madelyne: "he was shaking and crying") who has been left with tender feelings and has not understood anything evil.
Aware that SoD cannot hurt directly Beth, Owen kills himself and leaves behind the known note. "You are right. There is nothing. Nothing is after you. You are safe now."
Note means: There is really that "nothing-ness" that you experienced when you died (i.e. The SoD) and it is after you. But now you are safe because I die, so there will be no channel existing between SoD and you (it's like saying "there is no way for you to be hurt onwards").
But unfortunately that channel is established since Beth discovers and touches the voodoo doll, although she remains a non-believer-type (you can see that during the conversation she has with Madelyne in Beth's house).
SoD now can interact with her physically (touch her) and has all the potential needed to make her kill herself.
Beth tricks SoD once again in the boat and does not kill herself. But SoD is there and we know as the movie ends that SoD will do anything till it gets Beth's life.
_____
Hope that is clear for people who did not understand some points in the movie.
No Time to Die (2021)
Agatha's Bulletin Board: Cubby would never allow that!
What was that guys? This is cinema we are talking about, not comics to portrait "the death of Superman" in order to sell more copies! You can't kill the hero like that...! Jesus! What were you thinking?
(1) The movie is good only for the first hour max.
(2) After that, the movie turns out melodramatic.
(3) Acting is not convincing, especially when it comes to the Bond family issues.
(4) Plot is not strong; it "culminates" to a very cheap death, accompanied with the producers' wish to lift up the franchise.
(5) No bonding to Bond! The hero dies and you (a JB core fan for so many years like myself) don't give a damn. That is pretty bad.
Well, some friends reminded the awful GameOfThrones ending and that put a smile on my lips. A tested method to ruin everything that has been successfully built up all those years! Pity ... Cubby would never allow that, for sure.
(Does this review contain spoilers? Of course, "no". All internet is FULL of the news that hero dies in the movie)
High Plains Drifter (1973)
Agatha's Bulletin Board: Clint is great, ok, but the movie is a little bit outdated and immature.
I love Clint and his movies but imho this specific movie is a little bit immature. The plot is not that good, the settings do not look that "real", the acting cannot absorb your attention and unfortunately a lot of times you can see the actors trying to act, something that takes away all the magic. There are a lot of other old western movies that you can still watch them today and they still feel fresh ! Unfortunately, I do not think that this apply for HPD. To my opinion this movie is mostly for the Clint hard fans. Sorry for not considering this a masterpiece; I think of it more as an average western wrapped with a tone of mystery.
De dødes tjern (2019)
Agatha's Bulletin Board: Has anyone seen the director?
Very good scenery, nice musical background, cute actors but ... WHERE IS THE DIRECTOR??? Acting is no good, editting is no good at all, and I completely burst into laughter when during the final scene, the scene where the lady (protagonist) struggles between life and death in order to survive, she does not forget to ... pull down her dress in order not to show her boobies! What a fake scene ... BTW, Has anyone seen anywhere the director? Because he or she does not seem to be there at all :-)
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Agatha's Bulletin Board: Better watch it as a meta-documentary about late 60s, because if you try to watch it as a movie ... you fail.
It is good for me to see at last QT fans confessing here how boring & stupid that film was. Thank God there exists the Fast Play button!
If you want my opinion: I think QT gave whatever he had to give with his first two films, which were of quite good ranking; not at all exceptional but I sort of like them. Now, after those first two films, I keep seeing over and over again completely stupid & boring long dialogues with no substance at all, about clueless things, just filling in the movie time, having as a possible excuse (I presume) the "character building"! OMG, If QT's sripts were for Oscar then what would Woody's scripts deserve? The whole galaxy maybe ...
Nevertheless, the good part is that you can watch the OUATIH as a documentary about late 60's, since the ONLY effort put when creating/making this film, seems to be the one of representing as good as possible that era and nothing else (e.g. Cars, buildings, settings, clothes)
The Wretched (2019)
Agatha's Bulletin Board: "Oh, you're so cool, Charlie Brewster!"
Decent movie with a nostalgia of the 80s horror movies. It reminds "Fright Night" since we also have here (a) a teenager thinking that next door neighboor is Evil, (b) nobody believes him although he speaks truth, (c) his love-interest helps him to save the day. There are some plot holes but in a nutshell I think that movie is ok for a popcorn Friday night :-)
The Fare (2018)
Agatha's tagline: "Harris"... just replace one letter (some explanations)
Tha name of the cab driver is "Harris". Replace "i" with "o" & it becomes "Harros". This is the greek name for Charon the ferryman. When his ID is given to Penny, you can spot also his surname which looks like "Charon". The water that Harris drinks is from Lethe (one of the the underworld rivers) & it makes you forget everything.
Then we have Penny for Persephone, the spouse of Hades (God of Underworld). In the movie Penny is married to Death. According to mythology Persephone does not leave Hades & goes "up" for just some minutes per year, but for a much longer period. So, partly based in greek mythology, we have here a sheer Fantasy/Romance story that Persephone falls in love with Charon.
My opinion: It is a good try. Not bad, but I will never sit to watch that again some time in the future.
The Room (2019)
Agatha's tagline: Did I watch a Twilight Zone looooong episode?
A modern fairy tale: you can have whatever you ask for, but there is a price. First 2/3's of the film is a sloooow film, slow dialogues, slow silent takes; someone could tell you that it is for character development but I absolutely doubt it. The story will remind you Twilight Zone episodes. Last 1/3 (where you admit that "ok, it can be a movie after all) is watchable mainly due to the twists and somehow to the pace that increased a little bit. Nothing special, just average... like my rating.
The Hunt (2020)
Agatha's Bulletin ' Board: This is how Tarantino movies should look like !
A movie that does not take itself seriously. Yes, a popcorn movie just for fun, but actually of the best ones. Mainly it is an action/run movie, non-horror, somehow gory in a 3-4 points & full of black comedy situations that for sure will make you LAUGH. In the beginning it is impossible to spot the main char but when done, relax & enjoy the ride. That char is like popping out from comic books, winks at us, knowing per se that could not be made better! Nice settings, smart dialogues, unexpected turns.
Calibre (2018)
Agatha's Bulletin Board: Three Major Points
Number 1 > The STORY may be simple (some may say predictable at some points) but it is FULL OF REALISM. It may remind you a nightmare that you once experienced and you would never want that to be true.
Number 2 > Performances are very convincing. It makes you feel that you are in the two antiheroes' shoes. And believe me it is quite uncomfortable since their positions are EXTREMELY UNPLEASANT.
Number 3 > CINEMATOGRAPHY & MOOD is perfect; full of Scottish rural scenery.
Conclusion:
I would suggest not to watch trailers or various movie scenes and not to read anything about how the story unfolds. If you like intense thriller as well as Scottish village and woods scenery, just go for it.