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Reviews
Chasing Sleep (2000)
stay drug free and you will know the truth
This is yet another movie that I picked up from the .99c store. It is good, but it is not up to the level of movies such as "What Lies Beneath" even though it is in the same genre - psychological thriller. In its defense, I would say that I would much rather watch "Chasing Sleep" than "What Lies Beneath." (I have a problem with "major release" films that are specifically targeted towards broad audiences, done through immense advertising and artificially created hypes - only to capitalize on the week minds and weekend box office sales). But I guess one of the best movies, in this genre, that is superior to all of the ones mentioned above, and the one that I would enjoy watching the most, will be "Secret Window." But going back to commenting on "Chasing Sleep." It should be noted that there is a border line of making movies inexpensively, and dirt cheap. And this movie almost crossed it. It shouldn't really cost that much since it is stationed only on a couple of locations. But maybe paying off the actors significantly decremented the balance sheets. I guess what I am trying to say is that there should have been a little bit more money spend on locations and perhaps trying to show some of the action in other means - much like it is done in "Secret Window - where we see the character talking to himself, or to the air, etc. There are a few known names in this movie. However, there is only one actor that is great in this movie and that is Jeff Daniels, everyone else gives mediocre performances. The director has done a fine job with what it is. Particularly there are several very interesting techniques, which he used to build the psychological profile or maybe even the schizophrenic atmosphere. As a matter of fact those techniques are so well done and used, that they could easily end up in movie books. However, at the end of day, I can still see him saying "it is what it is," and retire to bed with a glass of whiskey. The plot is tough, just as you would expect. Just don't get high, thinking it is the only way you could understand it. Or maybe this genre targets that specific purpose? Just like X rated movies target
you know what
I don't think we are supposed to understand it, otherwise we would know everything about the conscious and there will be no more crazy people. Then everything will become boring. In the mean time - if you are bored, pick this up for a little mind puzzle. Don't worry - the IMDb message boards have plenty of discussion boards that will help you to form you own opinion about what happened. And that is - without the worthless need to use drugs. The moral of the story is - stay drug free! And for that (and for the amazing camera/sound techniques) I give it 6 out of 10.
Emmett's Mark (2002)
The title of this movie should be changed to: "Objective - to Kill Internal Motivation"
This movie is about killing internal motivation, not about killing Emmett Young. The antagonist challenges internal motivation (and shows his Hopelessness) The hero embraces boundless ambition (and shows his Passion)
On Becoming a Detective: Requires internal motivation, embracing detective work, ambition, split second deliberation. This movie is great. It is not superb, but it is great! Once again I was lucky that I bought this at the .99c store, but don't be fooled - it is not just the price talking. I almost didn't buy it, because the cover didn't look very promising, neither did the title. This is just to show you not the judge the movie by the cover. This movie is not about "Killing Emmett Young," this movie is about becoming an exceptional detective. This is detective, crime genre, which tends to be polluted with tons of rotten produce. Because they are fairly inexpensive to make, so the return on investment can be nice, but you really need a strong plot twist and great directing to break through. This movie might not hold up on one part of the plot premise - the actual killing of Emmett (we are still left asking the old fashioned :why" and also it looks way to fabricated and unreal to actually be true), but it has great directing style to compensate for it (everything is darkish, grayish like an October Sunday night late afternoon feeling). This movie, coming from a small production company, is a breeze of fresh air. It is not like "Seven" or "Silence of the Lambs" but the detective work and the acting is nearly to the same level. If we must compare the levels, then this will be a match of the highly acclaimed Al Pacino's "Insomnia." I just love it when I see a dedicated detective, being new to the job, trying to impress everybody, and taking his job very seriously. Anywhere in life, the best results come from that state of mind. What is even more interesting, and what makes this movie to stand out, is the choice that Young has to make - should he try to save his own life, or the life of the next victim? Luckily I don't have to make that choice at my job, even though sometimes it comes pretty close (metaphorically speaking). Also I love to see in a movie the small human errors that can indirectly lead to someone's death. Trying to expose that is always difficult, because the very same people that make those mistakes, will be watching this movie, and still not realize what they are doing. I like the message that this movie sends out: persistence will break resistance - think outside the box and always stay motivated. 50% of any work is showing up on time, the other 50% is being able to stay at work until the job is done. And this movie gets the job done for me. I give it 6.5 stars out of 10.
Gacy (2003)
The "normal" life of a serial killer
After I promised myself not to rent any movies, which have fewer than 6 stars on IMDb, I made this my exception, because I found this movie in the .99c store, and I am glad that I bought it (now, don't you all rush to the .99c store - it is probably closed or the movie is sold out by now). The plot is simple - "lets just try to tell the story of Gacy", and because they simply "tried" wasn't good enough for this plot. In other words - I am sure that in real life, they must've had FBI on this one for a long time, yet the movie only depicts the local policeman, which is kind of boring. The acting was done well by all characters, which makes this definitely worth .99c. The problem was the directing, editing, production - this movie was definitely not thought out good enough, but I have seen worse. The director should have chosen better script, better score, better layout, locations, costumes etc. The editor should have chosen better timing in his editing, because as it is, at times - it makes people confused. Nevertheless, just like other better attempts to portray serial killers, a better one would be: "Henry - a Portrait of a Serial Killer" - this is a very risky genre. The safest way to go, is it to make it into a documentary. However, at the end of the day - it only seems to work if the characters are fictional, That way we can completely separate from our minds: the serial killer and his "normal" life. And that is how we will be left with the gruesome picture of a different species. Then we can see that in his mind, he is either becoming or he already became a creature from a different world - to fuel our fascination with the mysterious works of the mind. From this movie, we get just a tiny glimpse of it. So we are left left begging for more. But that is still a downfall of this movie. Anyways - at the end you can still stand up and exclaim: "this is a true serial killer." And that is why I give this 6 out of 10.