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kolja93
Reviews
The Initiate (1998)
good for me
I finally found this movie and liked it a lot. This movie looks and feels a bit like a long episode of twin peaks! Thanks to the creative use of light and camera angles it has lots of atmosphere. The acting is a bit wooden here and there but that didn't really bother me, and maybe it was the rather slow editing that made some of the actors look a bit bored sometimes. The plot is actually very simple but sadly a lot of elements that are hinted at aren't fully worked out. But there's a constant sense of foreboding throughout the movie that kept me intrigued until the end. The makers did some research into the world of the occult and it helps to know a bit about crowley to really get it I guess. In the end the (anti)hero receives a serpents kiss from the girl that tempted him back into alcoholism, which probably means that he'll always be under her influence from then on. All in all a great effort on a small budget, and I'm curious as to what the director will do next. If you like hard to classify movies with a dark atmosphere check it out. In my opinion it's comparable to 'the Indian runner' by sean penn, and David lynch's work.
Apocalypto (2006)
awful
I won't say anything about the story because there isn't one. It's basically one cheap shock effect after the other. Some critics said this movie was exciting but the only excitement is the kind of fear you get when you see something horrible about to happen. I don't need Hollywood to show me that violence is ugly, I can watch CNN or Aljazeera for that. Apart from that, it's historically inaccurate and if I were Mayan I'd be terribly insulted. Not that Hollywood would give a d*mn, apparently they feel free to take any culture they don't understand and hang a clichéd American story on it and then sell it. The message is pretty obvious: if you insist on being filthy pagans worshiping unclean gods we, as Christian Americans, have no other choice than to come to your country and CIVILISE you. I got the impression that mr Gibson tries to use violence to make the audience feel as if they're finally seeing something real, and that only he has the balls to show things the way they really are. And then he uses that emotional shock effect to hammer home the propaganda. But it's not real violence at all, it's cheap Hollywood gore. I think mr Gibson has something to prove, probably to the all seeing imaginary head monkey in the sky, and it shows in the unhealthy (really really unhealthy) fascination for pain. Yes that's what life is: opportunity after opportunity to experience pain, until the white man comes over with the cross to give you some more, and then you'll know your place in the pecking order. If you want to see pain and violence, go to chechnya or iraq (or a thousand other places), go prove you're a man! Do something worthwhile with the money wasted on this crap, get a foster child, send some money to amnesty international or whatever. Stop destroying culture!