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The Mist (2007)
4/10
One of the worst scripts ever
25 January 2008
Warning: Spoilers
*** Spoilers !!! *** First the good things: overall this piece of junk is quite entertaining. It says that the army is evil, that fundamental Christians are evil. The hopeless end is nice, as shocking. - But it was difficult to sit through the first 90 minutes of this rubbish, without laughing out loud all the time, and thus disturbing the audience in the theater. It was hard to stay quiet... I wanted to make fun all the time: 1st) the dialogues were the silliest, most stupid ones I remember in any mainstream, multi-million $$$ trash. Well, there are some Ed Wood movies with similar bad dialogue... 2nd) The wife (thank god she disappeared quickly from the movie - her grimacing made me sick!) and the boy were the greatest over-actors ever - again, I thought some high school pupils were trying to imitate Ed Wood. 3rd) type casting was pushed into its extremes - the characters looked so typical as if they had been animated for Japanese television. 4th) the characters acted so unbelievably stupid as if their brains had been sucked out already by all those bloodsucking freak creatures. 5th) the delayed tentacle melt-down. WHY did it wait so long? 6th) the „good“ soldier (typecasted as „The-guy-in-„Pearl-Harbour“-Josh-what’s-his-name?-Lookalike“) looked like an alien, with all this make-up, eyebrows and expressionist expressions. 7th) the fact that none of the characters knew the „Alien“-movies. Didn’t they live on planet earth before this mist?!?

And here I reached the point to mention good movies which were ripped off by this bad mist-movie. Better watch these movies again, instead of „Mist“: 1st) „Alien“ and „Aliens“ were copied. James Cameron’s team should sue Darabont for using his ideas and copying the images.

2nd) Romero’s „Night of the living dead“ and „Dawn of the dead“ also saw „normal“ people trapped by bloodsucking beasts („Dawn...“ even took place in a supermarket, too). But I believed what their characters were doing and saying. In Romero’s stories they had no better choice to react. There was logic. But in „Mist“ I always fell out of the movie, because the characters were so stupid, acted so out of story and logic: they acted without relating to what was happening around them. They even say „Let’s get out of here“ or „Turn off the lights“ or „Use the axe“ or „How can I persuade you?“ or „I will find a way“ - but they don‘t DO it. They ignore what they said a second ago. A good movie imitates life: there is no delay, no talking - just doing. In „Mist“ there is: NOTHING. The action always had to stop and wait for the stupid characters to collect their brains. And the characters shout then they need to be quiet, they switch their lights on when they should hide, they kill themselves when they should fill up their gas tanks...

And Romero’s movies had Afro-American HEROES, while the family-father was the asshole. But in the ugly, racist, old-fashioned „Mist“, the Afro-American Single is the asshole, while the WASP family man is (intended as) the good guy. At least, in the end, the wonderful white guy gets the punishment for all (t)his stupidity: so I also got my reward for sitting through this movie scum.

3rd) De Palma’s „Carrie“: I guess that the annoying and endless „fundamental Christians bashing“ is Stephen King’s influence; but „Carrie“ 1 + 2 were more than sufficient to let us all become Pantheists or Atheists.

4th) Hitchcock’s „The Birds“ also had a group of passersby-people hiding in some kind of paradise (a pub), while greedy animals tried to eat them. But this part of the „The Birds“ only lasted a few minutes, before Hitchcock was clever enough to blow the pub out of the story (in a big explosion) (the following story „family in their home“ is not what „Mist“ is ripping off). While „Mist“ stayed nearly two hours in the supermarket, annoying us with unnecessary love affairs and repetitive, seemingly endless religious preachings - so annoying that the audience in my theater applauded when the preaching finally stopped.

Better watch this turkey award candidate at home, so your laughter won’t disturb anybody.
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Zohar (2007)
9/10
young girl tries to arrange herself
15 January 2008
Warning: Spoilers
In the streets of Israel: angry bad young girl comes to accept her family (little sister and 'old' mother) and friend; well written with - which is wonderful: few words, no action, no effects. Low-brow direct cinema. ZOHAR looks like a reborn young Charlotte Gainsbourg in L'EFFRONTEE and acts like her. A film of small gestures and small people, full of modern life and loneliness. Is the running ZOHAR also a young version of the LONG DISTANCE RUNNER and his LONELINESS? Anyway, ZOHAR is about the wisdom of the elders and the painful search for life of the young ones, the relations within an all-female family that tries hard to get along and the near-eastern sun, which equally shines on sorrow and hope.
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Barely Legal (2003)
1/10
too many stupid lacks and holes
22 December 2006
The movie should have been stupid, I know. But they did it too well. They included a lot of plot twists, of love affairs, of "Yes, let's do it" and "No, let's stop it", but those twists and ideas had no reasons, or seemed believable. This effect was even enhanced by plot holes: people jumping in and out of the story, characters jumping in different directions, scenes ending halfway, not going far enough. Even more disturbing were the three main characters: being so stupid that I hoped them to leave the film; the girls were too similar; the sex scenes had no sex; the boys kept their trousers on; everything was too ashamed. The only embarrassing thing was the lack of braveness and the missing logic.
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9/10
Work of art by a 15-year-old
18 September 2006
Great cinematography and styling. He stole the good parts from CAT PEOPLE (Bowie's music) and also used Kubrick (Shining, 2001). Well, that is what we all did in our first films... but this one is much more mature! The director also played the main part, so praise his DP even more! Weird message (which me, as a German, could not understand. Something like Beckett's LAST TAPE? But it lead to Kubrick's end of 2001.) And I wonder if he really climbed this rock?!? It looks terrific! Carefully thought, written, shot and cut, I hardly know films from film schools that are so overwhelming, both on an emotional and serious level. It is available on the "99-EURO-Films of European Directors", at least on the German DVD. Really a hidden Super 8 treasure, complete with original Super 8 - dropouts at some cuts.
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3-Iron (2004)
9/10
How important is the bike company?
15 August 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Because the guy rides a bike, the film starts with pestering us with logos of an European car corporation. This is annoying.

The film itself is: Full of magic, mysterious incidents, strange rituals. Love without words (answering machines seem to have most of this movie's text). The magic of growing trust. Secret things are happening: he is entering the lives of others, she is watching the intruder, he hides behind the policeman, ghosts are changing pillows, machines are speaking, washing machines are forbidden. Some ideas remain me of classic my favourites like LA JETEE, CHUNGKING EXPRESS or BLUE VELVET, but they serve the story, are not copied and could exist independently.
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Kroko (2003)
9/10
A portrait in and of modern western society
15 August 2005
Despite its realistic approach, I did not stop the DVD. Many films are boring, so I stop watching and need a break. Not in this case.

Two main themes: 1) The reality of a modern western urban society is attacking us in this movie: no future, patchwork families, materialism, unemployment, shoplifting, juvenile female delinquency (ninja-feminism?), care for disabled persons.

2) Psychology and group behaviour, violence among friends and partners are well observed. The most intriguing, fascinating and overwhelming idea is Kroko's magic trick with the two Julias: the good and the bad one. The actors are so great, so powerful, it is not necessary to understand them. Franziska Jünger is thrilling, exciting. And despite the dark, depressing environment, which is well observed, our hope is growing for Kroko - though still tore apart between her two worlds, and tightly fixed to her old world (of being a violent child) she seems to be learning.

A great portrait by a first-time filmmaker. We will hear much more of Sylke Enders.
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Demolition High (1996 Video)
Corey Haim is not important. It's Melissa Brasselle!
26 March 2005
Warning: Spoilers
The main reason for praising this film is the appearance of Melissa Brasselle, featured on the video cover at IMDb, but not mentioned by the other reviewers, who prefer to fuss about Corey Haim. Well, all you fetish-lovers, admire Melissa in her tight black leather outfit, untamed dark hair, falling in luxurious waves, her half-open mouth, spitting out words signalling dangerous danger and dark desires (mostly to kill, which she hmmmm, really enjoys) and trying-to-be-funny lines (the last words to the poor old watchman at the gate, or about her working ethics). There are two other girls in the movie (the FBI chick and the cheerleader chick), both are blonde, dumb and survive. This is not fair! I really wait for "Part II: Melissas Revenge". Apart from Mr. Wynorski's shameless attempts to enter his name into the movie, there is nothing to praise.
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Lichter (2003)
10/10
It touched and shocked me deeply
26 March 2005
It is a slap in the face of all these rich, satisfied, egoistic, first world societies, who think that they are great, know better, and have more rights to live and spend than the poor on the other side of the fence.

We (some students, theatre people etc.) also tried recently to make a realistic feature, in our present times, shot on mini-DV, but this LICHTER is much, much better! I admire its realism, and how it could touch me within very few minutes, holding its tension for the whole time, and really caring for its characters. Believe me, I watch quite a lot of movies, but this does not happen very often.

It is a very sad observation of our economic situation, and the pressure which it forces on normal, small, everyday people. The need to make a living destroys their pride, their hopes, their humanity - and all this happens not far from the "Lights" ("Lichter") of the rich, promised land of wealth, where I live (I am blessed to live here) which is only a small distance away. Only a river to cross, but in fact the distance from poor to rich is nearly impossible to cross.

If you know "Lamerica" from Gianni Amelio or "Dekalog" aka "The Ten commandments" by Krzystof Kieslowski: "Lichter" has some similarities.
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3/10
We learn a lot about chicks with guns
25 March 2005
Extremely funny - but without intention. I used it to light up a rainy Easter holiday.

Another movie, where the authoress/directress takes things very, very, very SERIOUS!! Maybe it is a comment about rape and male violence?!? Then I fully agree to any message that I did not find! Because the message is carried by "megababe" (Wayne's World) Tia Carrere, who fires guns, wears boots and a miniskirt and grimaces like the Little Masochist's nightmare (watch her faces, when she rides the motorbike!). And, in the beginning, the others say, that she even "likes sex". What a dream! I was happy that she never practised sex during the movie, so that she is still untouched in my dreams... (to make the ending more sentimental, she ends up with a son, even without sex before)

No, seriously: this serious movie is dealing with the serious topic of brutal rape in third-world-prisons. We learn serious information: that third-world-policemen read bondage magazines and rape every innocent woman who enters their jail. That a woman lawyer, who is supposed to be one of the good girls, takes drugs from complete strangers. That her future husband is a complete loser. That two stupid, horny, drug-abusing bad guys can cross a room unnoticed in the good guys' back, because the good guys were too busy watching the room for enemies (the good guys came to fetch their money, instead they only sneak through the house, searching for trouble). We learn that smugglers, who are supposed to bring lexicon's across the border, shoot them instead...

We learn about the art of movie writing: you can write anything that comes to your mind, no matter how stupid. For example bloody shootouts. You don't need any reason or explanation. Make the your characters silly; no one cares, only some nerdy IMDb writers - This comment gets too long! - Let me only add, that this bad movie had a good marketing abroad! Viewers from New Zealand, Bulgaria and Germany!

And I strongly recommend the German version for additional humour: the Mexican people change languages quicker than underwear. When they swear and talk to each other, they use German, which is translated by English subtitles, but sometimes, without reason, they only speak Spanish, without subtitles. Well, no one cares.
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Fat World (1998)
10/10
Bittersweet romance
26 September 2004
Warning: Spoilers
*** Spoilers *** A sad, sweet, bitter love affair with no future. (Different lives, different ages.) A documentary approach with not much talk. (The DP shot many documentaries before.) Always on the edge of hope and despair. Interesting, how sex pushes the relation. I don't know the book, so I was very much impressed. The murder on the riverbank reminds me of Herzog's "Woyzeck":

such a sad way of killing his beloved girl; who was just too lost in this world.
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Very up-to-date
15 September 2004
The movie takes "organized crime" as topic and is very up to date. If you read Jean Ziegler's book (published 1998 in Geneva - I don't know the original or the English title), you know what the film is talking about. It is about the modern form of economics, the modern way to make money: by stealing taxes, using capital markets, tax havens, private police forces... the main "Baddie" studied at the London School of Economics. Obviously it was there where he learnt to make money by stealing power from the people or democratic governments, using corrupt banks and secret accounts.

The film uses the struggle of grassroots movements and NGO's as a background: the end of the film takes part WITHIN a demonstration against globalization, which takes place in Munich, the city of the REAL annual "NATO Security Conference" - annual demonstrations included. While the movie describes properly the mechanism of the modern capital markets - organized crime being a regular part of them - the Munich demonstrations are not shown correctly. I live nearby and watch them each year. There is much more police, which is armed heavier, and which is the only violent force on the streets, always being able to suppress any non-peaceful protest. Violent protest, as shown in the film, is not possible in Munich. During the Nato Conference, Munich seems to be a totalitarian Banana Republic. And there is absolutely no way to get near the conference hotels, if you are not invited. Believe me, the demonstrators try it each year...

But the capital markets are not affected. What the film is not telling you - as it is first and foremost an action movie: the problem are not certain human beings, who are criminals: the problem is the structure of the system (capital markets), which allows criminal behavior - which even DEMANDS criminal behavior to be successful. In this system you have to choose between having success or having moral values.
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Nordrand (1999)
10/10
Warm and tender
2 November 2002
Warning: Spoilers
Too many words would only spoil the enchanting charm of this wonderful "little movie".

*** ATTENTION: unimportant spoilers, that do not spoil too much ***

To its advantage, it was "little". Shot on location, with extremely good camerawork: watch Valentin, when he sits in the bus at the end. At first sight, and many more, the movie looked like one more depressing look into the lives of European white scum - I have no problems watching this, I even love Ulrich Seidl's documentaries, another Austrian observer of life in Vienna - but instead, the film becomes more warm, tender, caring and hopeful all the time. I think, I even understood, why one girl tends to laugh. It is about "not giving up".

And that the other girl learns to laugh is one of the most rewarding moments of this beautiful film.

Barbara Albert must be a person full of love. And she caught the beauty, power and poetry of falling snow, of snowmen in Vienna, children letting kites fly, of embraces...
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Habitat (1997)
8/10
Eccentric, Over the top "Preserve Nature!" message
10 March 2002
Honestly: I enjoyed HABITAT !! I switched on TV while doing some other stuff, checking my emailbox etc., and found myself suddenly under HABITAT's spell.

(Maybe it was necessary to do something besides watching the movie: thus it was easier to sit through all this much too long and too often sparkle-flowing through the air, and the high school-talk scenes. - And, I must admit, I also missed the beginning, maybe 15 minutes...)

First I was bewitched by the mother figure. Large brown eyes, innocent like a child, at the same time there was an aura of knowing, of wisdom and peace about her... she forgave her enemies, she slept peacefully, while a posse of army/police/FBI/NASA/neighbours invaded her house - her beautiful Garden Eden - full of life, while the world outside was dry, sunburnt, hostile.

Yes, I DID LOVE, absolutely, the set design: the ever-changing/growing family's house, the contrast to the stupid neighbours (with their umbrellas), the torture schoolyard (yes, the high school has a large torture stone outside in the yard, where pupils can be chained! A nice prophetic idea!), the cars wrapped in blankets (they look like publicity for a Bed Shop), the desert (I think I know it from some holidays in the Southwest)...

And the mother stayed calm, in face of the enemy = the fascist/redneck physical education trainer (beating and insulting his pupils)(a man you love to hate!). He had entered her peaceful home, insulting and threatening her, but she stayed friendly and calm, softly teaching him facts and arguments (about the small parts of his skin which serve as food for tiny little beings), while slime and snot are running out of his nose, dripping down his chin in beautifully shimmering closeup... GROSS!

This was one of the most weird/disgusting/wonderful/shocking scenes in the history of cinema: the bad guy sweating, snot all over his face, coughing and cursing, while a beautiful calm lady is teaching him facts about his body functions (did I mention her curly hairdo?! I loved it!She's definitely the Good Witch!). I could hardly believe it!

Well, and the girl that Laura Harris played: the script must have said that she is a normal young high-school girl, without any magic powers or secrets about her. But the way she is presented in HABITAT: she looks so strange, so rare: the camera and lighting treat her that she appears like an alien from outer space. Her surface is so unreal - her image can serve as an explanation why men fall for women; why men cannot resist; why males HAVE TO follow whatever female is near them. Her appearance of unearthly beauty promises hidden secrets - then she kisses passionately without reason - paradise is near!

(Besides: when they finally had sex in the lake, it was disappointing, compared to the disturbing promises during her first close-ups; but the mood was set already, and could never be lost again.)

PS: don't forget the ecological/preservation ideas! They are right! Strange but daring in this weird B-movie full of over-the-top eccentricities.
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10/10
Three of 8 million stories
1 March 2002
Three NYC stories at a climax. Stories about breaking up, losing, leaving, giving away... the things or people you love, you live with, you depend on, which formed your past... The stories are about how difficult this is, how terrifying and how frightening. Yet, you HAVE to do what you have to do. The three girls are met at the turning point of their lives.

The film is wonderful written, with few words and a great, exciting pace (though it takes its time and lot of it). Stop: there may be a lot of words, sometimes, but what's important is between-the-lines. The performances are marvellous. I've rarely seen better ones EVER.

Style and location (all shot "on location") remind me of this specific independent NYC style of Jarmusch, Poe, Seidelman, Silver, the style that made me love movies again, while Hollywood screws it up.

Forget those other NEW YORK STORIES (1989). They do not matter anything. Just selling out big names to make money.
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Subway Riders (1981)
10/10
Most intense impression I ever had - full of truth and life
1 March 2002
Warning: Spoilers
SUBWAY RIDERS is a powerful poem of the 80's.

But obviously, Nick from London does not like poems. I don't agree with him. What he hates, made this film probably the BEST FILM EVER.

  • Camerawork: I've never seen such an unique way of lighting and movements. Johanna Heer has invented an own language, an own grammar of using coloured lighting and, at the same time, moving a tilted camera. Somehow it works, the grammar is correct, but don't ask me how. She simply knows how to move. It took about 15 years, before Wong Kar-Wei and Christopher Lloyd could manage a similar style, which finally revolutionized modern cinema.


  • Then the weird, fast editing manages to fit with the strange camera movements to create an unparalled style. Maybe experimental, but still there is a moving story (no, many stories) about urban loneliness and desire. (Moving camera, moving story, ha!) But Poe also knows to slow down. Remember the "how many stars are there..." story?! The image seems to stay forever. Not only during the film, but now for 20 years in my mind.


  • SUBWAY RIDER includes so many stories, that one tends to lose the overview. Be assured that it is not necessary to have one. Forget it! Overview is for sissies! SUBWAY RIDER's topic is to be lost in the night and in the city, to keep on searching without knowing what, thus you should also expect to get LOST!


It may even good to fall asleep while watching the film: then your consciousness cannot block and resist to the impression of this film. Switch off reason! Simply watch it again and you will understand better.

********** SPOILERS AHEAD *************

Searching and getting lost is exactly what the detective (Robbie Coltrane before he has sold out to mainstream) is doing. His story is not "detective searching the killer", but "lonely, frustrated man under pressure losing his wife and stability". No wonder that he shoots the killer at the end, after all his frustration (remember him eating the cold food out of the can?!). While the killer is not a killer, but a dark angel-poet (remember the sound of horses, while he is drinking beer?!), helping the lost souls of yuppies and nighthawks find their peace in death (better be dead than living in New York City!).

As you may have noticed, I also do not agree with IMDB's "contents" section. There is a saxophone killer indeed, but he has a mirror image, and they have a hooker neighbour, who has a mirror persona, too - and there is a psychic with a little girl, called "Cola-Marie"...

And all form a cast of outdropped alien strangers on a far away planet... of course, the film on this planet has to be grainy, and mainly colour-neon-lit, shot totally on location, often at night. Some idiots may call this "too dark" or "bad quality", while that's the only way to catch this atmosphere. And the film does catch it indeed. He manages where most features fail. They destroy what they try to catch. Even worse, they tell us "We have captured it!" while in fact they present us dead bodies.

To the damage of our perception, Hollywood and TV did persuade us that their faked images, the destroyed images of reality that they supply, and that they call "good quality", are the correct and only ones. Thus they manage to persuade some viewers that SUBWAY RIDER is bad stuff, with no socially redeeming values, shot in bad technique, by a crew of retarded amateurs.

But what the big film business calls "professionalism" is in fact a status of death, and has nothing to do with life, truth or reality. If you search for this, and can stand some personal, visionary poetry, watch SUBWAY RIDERS.
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10/10
Wonderful, heart-warming
9 February 2002
Very interesting about our modern times in Berlin. I nearly crawled into my TV. Four very different coiffeur/hairdresser shops are watched over some weeks. All are in Berlin: one old-fashioned German, one modern Techno, one high-society snob shop and one Turkish. Conversations with owners, customers and employees. Technically perfect (sound, translation, subtitles)! Good: no comments by the director/author, no superfluous shots to fill up the time. - AND: heart-warming, very human, fascinating, interesting, urban kaleidoscope, sociological study, touching, up-to-date. An example how documentaries could and should be made.
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No idea
9 February 2002
No idea what they intended. After 30 minutes I stopped the tape to bring it back to the store. I did not found humour, or interesting story, or anything. The beginning was much too long already (I stopped after 10 minutes for the first time, but nearly nothing has happened during this time). Maybe they also had no idea what to do. Sorry.
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Gigantic (1999)
10/10
All about friendship
25 January 2002
It does not need many words to show you what friendship is. Just watch this movie. --- Don't search for women here. They only play a small part. But it's enough to fall in love with Julia Hummer. --- Did you ever watch a morning come ? This film does. It changes from black to blue, pink and white.

And: did you notice that the car driver in the beginning (who races against the 3 friends) looks exactly like Harrison Ford ? In AMERICAN GRAFFITI, my other favorite, but many years earlier, another film about friendship, and friends getting older and going apart, Ford played the race driver, too.

The table-soccer game is shot like the pool games in THE COLOR OF MONEY. ABSOLUTE GIGANTEN took the best from the best, and it's already among them.
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Tampopo (1985)
10/10
Many unforgettable scenes
25 January 2002
When I saw it again after many years, I discovered how many impressive, unique, unparalleled scenes are included in TAMPOPO - I remembered my astonishment when first watching them. I was astonished how surprising these scenes were, how unexpected, how strange and weird and fascinating. Try it yourself! It's unbelievable, this free flow of thoughts and odd ideas. It opens your mind. It teaches to respect your food. It makes you love Japan.

PS: listen carefully to "The Old Master". He appears very soon.
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Ultimate Trespass (1998 TV Movie)
10/10
A daring exception
10 January 2002
Warning: Spoilers
It is the best German made-for-TV movie that I know. In Germany, there is a firm rule: German TV-movies are bad.

Usually our TV-plays have only three values or reasons to exist:

1.) you can make fun of them (as long as they are no comedies. Comedies are not funny)

2.) you can learn how a bad movie looks like.

3.) they serve as examples for films that try to imitate a real movie, but they fail.

"Vergewaltigt..." is an exception. Better acting, more tension, more depth. The central dialogue, sort of an intellectual duel with the devil, builds up more tension than any other killer/ thriller/suspense/crime movie's dialogue ever. It is kept until the end.

WARNING: SPOILER !!! THE STORY !! SPOILER *** THE MAIN STORY IS:

  • First rape. Reactions.


  • Second rape. Reactions.


  • Third rape. Including central dialogue.


  • How the assaults changed the women's life.


  • Victim no. 3 prepares to strike back.


  • Successfully. Rapist is killed.


  • Victim no. 3 in court. Trial.


When the rapist enters apartment #3, tension and your grade of identification are hard to stand. The victim #3 tries to talk herself out of it - afterwards she tries to survive - then she takes revenge - then she, the victim, is accused. During all these steps, the tension is kept. You can't escape, can't avoid to react. The scenes go into more detail than anything else in "realistic" television (except some films by Ingmar Bergman); at first viewing, they - the torture - seem to last eternal.

The actors are responsible for the quality. They are excellent, especially Katja Studt, who is sensational, and the rapist. And, of course, the well-researched and thoroughly-written script. It's an daring exception to go into such detail.

Notes: - Warning: it is definitely hard to stand. Usually in cinema, killing and raping are designed to give us a good time. Not in this case. In comparison, ACCUSED / ANGEKLAGT (with Jodie Foster) stays at the surface and is more fun.

  • Avoid Martin Enlen's latest "DIE KATZENFRAU" (2001). This l'amour fou-story is an example for the > > mentioned bad German TV-movies (see points 1,2,3 at the beginning. It also includes: AWFUL ACTING !). It is only interesting, because the rapist in "VERGEWALTIGT..." and the husband in "KATZENFRAU" live in same circumstances, their houses and wives appear the same, and both husbands try to escape their stupid middle-class lives. In "KATZENFRAU", it was the Italian WOMAN, who RAPED (no, sorry, seduced) the harmless husband, who finally returns to his wife. In the last scene he is fixing a satellite disc on his roof...
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Decampitated (1998)
8/10
It's only an amateur movie
7 January 2002
in the woods behind your city, so don't use the wrong measures.

It is cheap, there is no suspense or horror, but it is more fun than any "expensive" A-, B- or C-picture. Cunningham and Friends show you all these dump mistakes of the bigger movies, but they know it. And they don't take their film serious - that's the difference, which makes their film much better than all of these highbrow, expensive, well-lit but only boring soap-bubbles. DECAMPITATED makes fun of itself.

And the blood looks good, and the rhythm is fast.
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2/10
The heroes should die earlier
6 January 2002
Warning: Spoilers
to end this shame/pain of a movie. The only reason why this film terrified me, was the unbearable stupidity of the two stupid "heroes":

How can anyone be so silly ?!?

*** Warning: SPOILERS MAY OCCUR !!! ***

  • Never act when you are shocked. - Never run away when you are frightened. - Always "freeze". - Never stop to argue. - Try your best to fall into big black holes. - Let your brother fall into big black holes. - Always look back when you are running. - Forget every horror movie that you have seen. - Forget how to drive. - And if you try to, use a broken car. - If you are in a hurry, move in slow motion. - Don't fill up your gas tank. - Don't charge your cellphone's battery. - Don't let your car be fixed. - If you want to phone for help, do not do it. - Let your shocked, unable-to-speak brother phone for help. - Start every cry for help with "It sounds crazy, but..." - Don't explain yourself. - If you are in trouble, don't search for a solution. Just lean onto


your car. - Don't listen to warnings, ask "What's the matter?" instead.

But the heroes were lucky: the bad "something" was stupid, too.

  • Show many acrobatic tricks. - If you can only eat once in 23 years, waste your time with sewing. - What is my connection to the famous song "Jeepers Creepers" ? - Store your food in a public place. - Don't kill your enemies. Only frighten them instead and let them go. - Don't worry, don't think. You don't have to, because you can fly, and nobody can kill you.


(So what's the point to watch this movie? Nobody likes the heroes and they deserve to die. And the bad guy cannot be killed, so why watch the heroes battling?) After these notes, I guess that the author of this film was even more stupid than his protagonists.

Now I want to go to sleep. And it surely won't be disturbed.
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1/10
Stupid computer game
6 January 2002
Go from one place to another. It is difficult. Meet monsters, strange settings and secrets. Beat'm up. While changing from one level to the next, listen to meaningful "philosophic" gibberish. Leave destruction behind. After one hour your head is aching.
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Retroactive (1997)
great running woman
2 November 2001
Warning: Spoilers
DEFINITELY A VALUABLE + IMPORTANT "TOUGH WOMAN MOVIE"

  • one of the few movies with a woman successfully running. most movies are so stupid, that the running lady seems incapable to control her feet. Most movies do not let her get further, let her stumble, fall, look disabled etc.


BUT NOT THIS ONE !!

*** I would not call anything a SPOILER here, but maybe you disagree ?! ***

- she CAN run. but to give the bad guy a chance in return, she always is so stupid to leave him with his weapons. in this movie everyone has a gun (once they explain "we are in Texas!") and the bad guy is always able to grab some of them. then the heroine kicks him in the balls, against the head etc. - then you expect her to finish him, for example by taking his gun and blowing his head off, or at least making him do the old "hands up" - but instead she runs away (she is a good runner, indeed!), or only kicks the gun away, where he will grab it soon etc.

THIS IS THE MOVIE WITH THE MOST OPPORTUNITIES TO FINISH MR BAD GUY THAT MS GOOD GIRL DOES NOT SEIZE (instead she even causes more trouble) - all teenie slasher sequels are no competition for RETROACTIVE!

- the time machine sequences are too long. you wait for the next action scene IN TIME, but how the persons get into time does not matter. my advice: use the FAST FORWARD BUTTON whenever the heroine is entering those cellars!
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Zina (1985)
10/10
Overwhelming
24 August 2001
McMullen's art of photographing and blending scenes into each other is incredible. I've never seen a similar way to create a dreamlike atmosphere or to build up tension when showing only two people talking. Of course, no mainstream bull**** can compete. But it requires concentration - I saw it many times, but it is still not easy. You want to know the contents? Me too! Some parts are about a daughter trying to understand her important father. But maybe understanding takes place between the lines and is not obvious. Forget "Octopussy" as recommandation - it's bull****, like every James Bond. Check out "Ghost Dance" instead, by McMullen, too.
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