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Reviews
Under the Dome (2013)
A great novel turned into teenage fantasy crap
If you read the book you should expect something much darker and grittier than this slick, generic, almost Twilightish teenage fantasy crap. In the book the appearance of the dome is the only supernatural thing to happen. Everything else is a human drama taking place under very unusual circumstances. Also people die like flies, which mightn't be very pleasant but effectively shows you that you can forget about a happy ending. King was not joking around this time - I loved it! Watching the series you get the impression that Spielberg smeared his butterfingers over every aspect of the story. Not in the good "jaws"-sense, but in the bad "A.I."-sense that is. Kitschy Trekish visual effects everywhere, kids who are much smarter than grown-ups, minorities that are morally superior, Butterflies with a message for humanity, love conquers hatred and greed. "WHEN WILL PEOPLE FINALLY LERN??" is what the show seems to yell at you constantly. What I learned is to hate everyone in it, thats all.
Please cancel asap.
Fraktus - Das letzte Kapitel der Musikgeschichte (2012)
German Comedy that's actually funny (yes, there IS such a thing!)
FRAKTUS is a Mockumentary about the Reunion of an 80's Elektro-Pop-Band that resembles KRAFTWERK quite a bit. One could call it a German version of "this is Spinal Tap". Sounds dull? No, really, you should give it a chance -- This is one of the frustratingly rare gems of German comedy!
Only two other German feature film comedies (that I know of) come to mind which worked as fine as this one: Loriot's "Papa ante Portas" and Helge Schneider's "Texas". FRAKTUS could be located right in the middle between those two very different films, because the former is a work of almost mathematically crafted comedy and the latter a spontaneous collage of improvised scenes. FRAKTUS is a mixture of those approaches, and miraculously it all blends together in the most hilarious way.
The Movie was written and the Band Members are played by a German Trio of Radio-Comedians/Novelists/Actors/Singer-Songwriters and what not called "Studio Braun". Those Guys are mostly just called Comedians, but in Germany that comes close to an insult. One could better describe them as all-round-Artists of the Unexpected and the Psychedelic. They don't seem to care about making an audience laugh, they even dare to be hated (and by many they are!). So everything they've done so far is quite the opposite of mainstream comedy.
I don't know how the movie works with subtitles, but also for a non-German audience there should be much to enjoy. The Soundtrack itself is a work of genius. It's crafted so well that it singlehandedly tells the story of a band's journey from experimental music to pure remix- crap. The huge amount of mock artwork, album covers, Tour Posters, Photos etc. featured throughout the film also deserve credit for being a spot-on emulation of the early 80's underground style. But the biggest achievement of the movie is the portrayal of the three main characters, which seems to happen casually but is all the more effective. Needless to say they're all not very likable. They can't stand each other but try to overcome that for what they think is the greater good. And that maybe is the most German thing about the movie.
To sum it up: FRAKTUS is one of those movies I will frequently re-watch for the rest of my life! I strongly advise you to go see it!
9/10
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
well meant, well done, but not well aged
This is one really dated movie... For todays audience it is quite hard to sit through, even if you're a big fan of weird fiction and cheesy movies. It contains way too much talking and far too little, well, lets just call it optical values. In that sense, it differs quite a bit from other Hammer Films which mostly have at least some gore, sex or action. This one has none of that AT ALL. In fact, it is one of those movies you can very well just LISTEN TO while doing something else. ON THE OTHER HAND the story is really, really weird... and thus: GREAT (if you ask me). It is sort of a Mixture of H.P.Lovecraft and Doctor Who. The Atmosphere is creepy at times. But then again, when people turn mad because they have witnessed something mind- bending, the actors ruin everything by overacting totally.
I enjoyed the movie for two things: The build up in the beginning, which creates quite some suspense, and the showdown. The final scene, in witch one of the main characters maneuvers a crane (!) into the giant ghost of a space locust (!!) would be a great thing to see in a remake, and even in this version, although the effects remind me of the old THUNDERBIRDS series, it is kinda cool! The shot in which the ghostly locust face is closing in on the camera is surprisingly creepy and effective.
If you are VERY patient with your movies, if you are a fan of weird fiction and if you dig the style and cheesiness of British 60's films, only then I can recommend it.
Stalker (1979)
Better than AVATAR - but that's just my catchphrase.
This movie made me really, really angry. Not because it's almost unbearably boring and overrated to a ridiculous extend. No, Mostly I hated it because i just finished reading the book it's based on, "Roadside Picknick". I love this Book, because you rarely come across a more chilling or atmospheric story about an alien culture meeting ours. I thought, a movie made from this book must be great, because you could do something outstanding even on a low budget. So I really looked forward to watch this one. What did I get? 3 Guys talking endlessly. It felt like being back to school and forced to watch a philosophical stage play of three hours length. The worst thing is that the strugatzki-brothers themselves screwed this up. It almost seems as if they wrote the screenplay with the intention to eliminate everything which was great about their own novel. I keep it short and give you a list of the outrageous decisions they made:
IN THE BOOK the main guy, Roderic, is a hard-arsed scavenger who is sort of addicted to the bizarre Nature of "the Zone". IN THE MOVIE, he is a whimsical, bible-quoting coward in search of some sort of divine illumination. IN THE BOOK, you experience the deadly traps and anomalies of space and time the "Zone" is contaminated with. IN THE MOVIE, you don't see SH*T and nobody even hurts his ankle -- despite HOURS of dialogs emphasizing how dangerous the slightest movement can be. IN THE BOOK, the Zone is a lifeless industrial wasteland where not even birds are to be seen. IN THE MOVIE you have the impression of a nice stroll through a green landscape with some bunker ruins in it. IN THE BOOK, there are lots of alien artifacts that most effectively create an impression of their culture and technology. IN THE MOVIE, you get some strange sounds, also the aliens are completely reduced to a humble meteorite. IN THE BOOK, Roderics Daughter is disfigured by the strange effects of the "Zone" on human beings. IN THE MOVIE she's mentioned to be mutated, too, but looks perfectly normal. IN THE BOOK, you have really creepy stuff like "the meat-mincer" or the walking Dead - IN THE MOVIE you don't.
I could go on like this for hours. Let me just put it like this: If they just had made a lousy B-movie I would be perfectly OK. I don't blame anyone for screwing up, it doesn't suit me. But this Disgrace of a movie was done this way ON PURPOSE! It is simply a violation of a great Science-Fiction-Novel and can only be enjoyed by Philosophy-students who mistake everything for high art as long as it's boring enough.
The Deadly Spawn (1983)
Fun little Schlock-Fest
I just watched this absolutely weird piece of 80's-No-Budget-Junk and I loved it! Here's why:
First of all, it's better than "AVATAR". But that goes without saying.
No, seriously: I wouldn't call this a cult-movie and I don't get why some people in this forum compare it to "Evil Dead". It is a homemade horror-movie too and it has some over- the-top gore scenes, but the similarities end right there. Apart from that it is much more a parody of 50's alien films. Have a look at the posters in the hero kid's room and you'll see what the creators had in mind.
At times the movie gets quite impressive FX-wise, for example when it comes to the creature scenes in the cellar, which feature great puppetry and theatrical lighting. Once the monsters get out of the dark, the general impression turns from creepy to hilarious, and the showdown is quite disappointing. But still not as bad as "AVATAR".
The characters are a bunch of nerdy kids plus some notably ugly grown-ups, and they altogether have some of the weirdest dialogs you'll ever find in a movie.
I give this 7 of 10 for being fun from the beginning to end, for fast pacing, great gore-scenes and total weirdness.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD?"