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jackthegiantkiller
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Ghosts of Mars (2001)
The horror...
This was dreadful. Like a horror movie version of "Nude on the
Moon". Didn't we once scoff at 50's and 60's sci-fi where people
walked around in front of a red-tinted camera lens on a planet that
strongly resembles Arizona with no helmets because one person
tosses off a line about the new technology that enables such?
This film comes off as worse than low-budget. The only thing I
enjoyed about the film were the little art objects the evil ghosts left
around the sets.
Even the effects were cheesy, miniatures looked very much like
miniatures, greenscreen photography looked very much like
cardboard cutouts. The only redeemably effects were the
decapitations, which were most lively.
Also, why did everything look like it was shot under 100's of flood
lamps? There was absolutely no contrast much less a hint of
atmospheric lighting in this film. None. It looks like soap opera
lighting.
Oh, Carpenter, what happened? You were once a really GOOD
cheesy. This is bad cheesy.
And please, PLEASE, stop scoring your own films.
The Shining (1997)
Good Lord, you people must be kidding
This television series was so dreadful, so dull and cheesy, how could any intelligent person possibly endorse it? Sure it was a much more faithful adaptation of King, but, for Christ's sake, it was shot like an after-school special, suffered the WORST miscasting, had some of the most godawful CGI effects (the moving shrubs made our entire roomful of viewers crack up), and lacked any mild attempts at atmosphere or terror. How could anyone EVER be scared by Steven Weber? It's like watching Barney descend into madness. What Kubrick lacked in direct interpretation he so greatly compensated for with a beautiful, disturbing and personal film. Remember people...BASED on the book by Stephen King. There was a reason many things never made it into the original film...they would look absolutely stupid (ie the shrubs) in direct translation and would most certainly detract from the film. Earlier quote - "Kubrick was a bit of a bad director(have i made any one cry just then)" No, you just made me laugh at you!
Memento (2000)
Brilliant...
It is unfortunate that the majority of people who voted negatively for this film are also the ones most confounded by it. Your inability to grasp the nuances of a particularly complex plot should not reflect on the film, but on yourself.
Yes, some might call this film contrived or 'gimmicky', but that is typically a knee-jerk euphemism for "I've been tricked, I fell in the trap, I can't figure it out and it's not my fault." This film isn't perfect, as no film truly can be, but it is one of the most fascinating endeavors to twist narrative, continuity and subjectivity. One reviewer suggested that the actual story would be quite dull if it were edited in typical narrative fashion. Well, no s**t. Because it is reversed does not mean it is not a typical 'narrative'. What it manages to do is create incredible tension and suspense while allowing the viewer to know what has already happened. How many scripts could pull that off? Of course the story would be less interested told in real time, that is the whole point!
Excellent performances, etc. etc.
Ten stars for originality, intelligence and production. 0 stars to the dull-minded folk who resist any challenge greater than "Jurassic Park III."