• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Last seen...

A Horrible Way To Die. You know, I've been hoping someone would take up the mantle of Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer for a long time now. A Horrible Way To Die isn't quite that, in fact not nearly that, but it does share a certain intimate bleakness. It's a simple story: serial killer breaks out of jail, his ex-girlfriend who's been trying to piece her life back together is convinced that he's coming for her, but of course having dated a serial killer is not something you just tell people... It overreaches a bit in the end, trying to go for some sort of satire that hasn't been properly set up, but for the most part it's an effective, slow-paced psychothriller; intimately shot, with focus more on the characters and creeping dread than on sudden scares. :star3: +

The Bunny Game. Somewhere out in the desert, filmed in grainy black and white, stands a huge, unmarked, black semi truck, looking like an inverted cinemascope screen. Inside, there's a trucker who's kidnapped a hooker and is now staging his own horror movie in there. And we're invited to watch.
The Bunny Game is a weird film. It's first and foremost a very, very violent film, all the more so because it was shot without special effects - everything that's done is, we're told ad nauseam in the accompanying material, done for real. The movie is loosely based on something that really happened to Rodleen Getsic, who plays the hooker in question and also scripted and produced, and as therapy goes, it's... well. The question, though, is why would anyone want to watch an hour plus of a deranged trucker mentally and physically torturing someone?
The promotional material compares it to Martyrs, and while that movie is far superior, there's something similar to The Bunny Game; the director (both the trucker, in-story, and Adam Rehmeier, the director of The Bunny Game) wants to do more than just show sadistic violence, he wants to stage it and show its effect, use every trick he learned from watching David Lynch and Tobe Hooper movies. We're told it's real, that there are no special effects, and yet the whole surreal black and white imagery in precisely picked camera angles tells us it's not real and we get to wake up... except we don't. The movie itself becomes a weapon. Against whom is left up to the viewer. Come see the violence inherent in the system and all that.
This is a sick fucking movie. There may be more to it than just being sick. And at least it's far more honest than Saw, Hostel and that ilk. Whether it's a good movie... I honestly couldn't say.
 
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy(2011) ~

We tried this one the other night. I was really, really tired, granted, but it seemed like it couldn't get much drier or slow-paced. I'll give it another shot.
 
Gattaca. Never seen it before, for some reason. Probably a good one. Yeah, it's stylish and everything, it's got some decent-to-good actors and there's nothing exactly bad about it, but... what's the point? One or two heavy-handed metaphors about discrimination that just seem tossed in there to justify calling it a dystopia, and as far as I can tell the only reason for that is that they wanted to do a stylish futuristic thriller. Weak :star3:
 
beer good said:
Gattaca. Never seen it before, for some reason. Probably a good one. Yeah, it's stylish and everything, it's got some decent-to-good actors and there's nothing exactly bad about it, but... what's the point? One or two heavy-handed metaphors about discrimination that just seem tossed in there to justify calling it a dystopia, and as far as I can tell the only reason for that is that they wanted to do a stylish futuristic thriller. Weak :star3:
Click to expand...

There is something about Ethan Hawke. Something not good. Can't remember ever seeing him in anything where I didn't think someone else would have been better in that role.

Contraband = :star3:
Mission Impossible 4 = :star3:
 
Into the Abyss ~ Werner Herzog takes a look at the emotional fallout of a murder in Texas as well as the death penalty. Just spellbinding. :star5:

Elite Squad: The Enemy Within ~ followup to the Brazilian smash this time focusing on corrupt cops and politicians. :star4:

Cabin in the Woods ~ crazy as hell and tons of fun. Loved it. :star4:
 
The Conspirator

:star5:

Historical film based in the Civil War that is directed by Robert Redford. A true story about the female conspirator in the plot to murder Lincoln and the other powerplayers in his administration.
 
Atlas Shrugged, Part 1

Atlas Shrugged, Part 1. A good movie that is fairly true to the novel that it is based upon. Looking forward to seeing parts 2 + 3. :star4:
 
Tried to watch Nobody Knows today, a film based on an 80s news story about four Tokyo children left to fend for themselves when their mother leaves them. I made it half-way through its 140 minutes, and whilst it wasn't boring it felt too insignificant to finish.

Later on, my cynical heart was reluctantly thawed by Latifah's vain star vehicle Last Holiday. It didn't hurt that one of my favourite actors (Giancarlo Esposito) was involved, nor that it was largely set in Czech beauty spot Karlovy Vary, but a day ago I would have been incredulous at the notion that I could enjoy this movie so much.
 
Mother's Day ~ sadistic hostage thriller, loosely based on the real life 'Wichita Massacre', directed by a guy who did a couple of the Saw sequels. :star2:

A Lonely Place to Die ~ tidy thriller set in the highlands of Scotland, nice scenery. :star3:

Rampart ~ Woody Harrelson plays an out of control cop on the downward spiral, script co-written by James Ellroy :star3:

Shame ~ Fassbender plays a guy with lots of issues :star4:
 
The Perfect Host - quite a twisting little movie starring David Hyde Pierce that surprised me quite often. Very much the "psychological" thriller type of movie, but hard to really describe. :star4:
 
The Grey

The Grey :star3:
Pretty good movie. Very bleak. If you are semi-suicidal don't watch this movie.
 
We spent the last two nights with the Hatfields & McCoy's, shown on the history channel. I'm not sure how close it is to the real story of the feuding families. It seems there was really no good guys and everyone deserves some blame.
 
Leonardo Noto said:
As much as I hate to say it, at least one actor has made a string of big-ticket flicks that I've enjoyed over the past 5yrs -- Leonardo DiCaprio. In addition to having a most excellent first name :cool:, Shutter Island andJ. Edgar are both great films with superb acting. I saw Shutter Island last night and J. Edgar last week and both were easily five-stars.
Click to expand...

Have you seen The Aviator? I think he channelled Howard Hughes.

Polly Parrot said:
Rear Window
Frenzy

I wonder why I've never watched any Hitchcock before.
Click to expand...

I can also recommend Shadow of a Doubt.

Anamnesis said:
Dark Shadows. The movie works as a comedy, but as a supernatural thriller it's bloodless.
Click to expand...

We thought it was hilarious. I'd seen the original TV series/soap opera back in the '60's, and thought it was a great take off on it.

We've just finished the Swedish Wallander series. Darn shame there isn't more of it. Tragic.
 
Snow White and the Huntsman. Charlize Theron overacts, while Kristen Stewart plays Kristen Stewart with a British accent. Still, it looks great on the big screen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top