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fireheart412
Reviews
Hotel (2001)
A Vile Piece of Steaming Crap
This movie is god-awful, just like "Time Code" was. Mike Figgis scored with "Leaving Las Vegas", one of my all-time favorite movies, but this new direction he is taking is horrendous! When I got home with it, and looked on IMDb to get an idea of what I was about to watch, I almost started to cry because I hate these kinds of movies. It is completely misrepresented on the cover, saying it is a movie about, "a terrifying journey into the dark catacombs of desire." This movie was falsely advertised as a horror movie with a great cast, and even the reviewer's comments on the box make you want to pick it up immediately and watch it. I guess the comment, "Hotel is never less than fascinating... It dares you to look away.", quoted from the New York Times, hooked me into renting it.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's perfectly great for a director to express himself artistically through a film, but this is just a vile piece of steaming crap. After seeing others comments on here before I viewed it, I was going to try being open-minded about it and try to keep in mind that this was improv without a script. I made it through about 40 minutes and I just felt like it was going nowhere and was a waste of my life. Normally I can watch any movie and find something good about it, and I watch all kinds of movies ranging from low budget to blockbuster hits. I love independent films too! I just don't understand why anyone would want to watch dry boring characters, played by great actors, walk around aimlessly while talking complete nonsense to one another? The movie sucks a fatty! Don't watch this! I'd rather stab my eyes out with glass shards than see anything else like this!
Briar Patch (2002)
Plain Disappointment
I watched this movie because I am a fan of Dominique Swain's work. Her acting was done well in this movie, but her southern accent wasn't very convincing to me since I actually live in the south myself. All of the acting in this film was decent, regardless of how dull the film actually was. "Plain Dirty" has a lot of stale and boring moments and it moves as slow as molasses. Basically, it is a portrait of southern poverty with little excitement or thrills. There is somewhat of a plot, but it's not very intriguing and I think most viewers would walk away from the film without a second thought about it. There is murder in the film, but it isn't even very convincing. There is love in the film, but it's not moving. There is a variety of characters in the film, but none of them are remotely interesting. The three main characters were lazy, filthy, and dumb in my honest opinion, and I felt nothing emotionally for any of them. It's one of those films where you are sitting there saying to yourself, "Come on, get to the point, when is this going to end!?". On a positive note, I do think the cinematography and the musical score were beautifully done, and complimented the gritty depiction of the south well. All in all, I was disappointed with the movie and found it to be dry and boring. Even if you are a big fan of Dominique Swain, like I am, I still don't recommend this film.
The Devil's Rejects (2005)
Perfect 70's Style Killing Spree!
I had the pleasure of previewing this movie a few days before its official release. While I enjoyed "House of 1,000 Corpses" I think this follow-up sequel was far better. "House of 1,000 Corpses" was more like a carnival freak show with supernatural and unbelievable scenarios, whereas "The Devil's Rejects" was quite realistic and very brutal.
This film is in the vein of "Helter Skelter", and 'Otis' pays homage to Charles Manson, even hauntingly resembling him. "The Devil's Rejects" is full of bloody carnage, perversion, filthiness, vulgarity, and the characters are sadistic and relentless serial killers. It is not for the feint of heart or the squeamish. There are some clever and quite humorous lines in the movie, along with some very disturbing ones as well. Sherri Moon Zombie gives a stellar performance as 'Baby' that is quite unforgettable. It was great to see P.J. Soles (Halloween) in this film, still looking beautiful as ever. Leslie Easterland, 'Mama Firefly', really gives an excellent performance as the perverted and disgusting mother of the clan. All of the actors did an amazing job in this movie and were very convincing as their characters.
The cinematography of this film was really brilliant, and uses the 'swipe' and 'freeze-frame' methods, sometimes resembling a comic book adventure. The music was classic seventies rock, and fits well with the road trip theme. The gore was spectacular and realistic, and sometimes even disgusted me at times, which is hard to accomplish. I gave this movie a "10 out of 10" because it is full of spectacular, clever, and gruesome horror-movie fun! It contains scenes which seriously make the viewer cringe and feel sympathy for the victims, while hating the serial killers. I've never felt so much hatred and disgust towards the villains as I did during this film, and that goes to show you how convincing this movie really is! If you like Rob Zombie, seventies slashers, and a good horror movie plot, with edge of your seat/nail-biting scenes, then this is the movie for you! Check it out, its jaw-droppingly great!
Amnesia (1997)
*Spoiler Alert* Lots of Loose Ends!
This movie was better than I'd expected, full of black humor and had pretty good acting. Sally Kirkland was very convincing as the lonely and obsessed hotel owner. Poor Ally Sheedy has resulted to playing in these low budget films, although she is a very talented actress. Anyways, the movie was pretty good, but I really thought the ending was pretty awful, with lots of loose ends. There is no way that Ally's character and the adulteress, Edgar's teacher, could have got away clean with that insurance money. I mean really, they didn't even discuss what to do with the additional bodies and how they were going to cover it all up! Plus, when they dumped her husband's body in the lake, he was still bagged. If the police were to find his body, they would have known it was a homicide! I just thought the ending was quite a disappointment, with all the loose endings that weren't resolved. If those were wrapped up, I think this movie would have been a little more convincing.