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Reviews
BloodRayne (2005)
Bias is a way of being prejudiced
The genre of horror/vampire movies is a genre with diverging tastes and qualities both in director/actors as in viewers. The movie Bloodrayne looks good , the storyline is confusing at times but also transparent and simple, the acting is mediocre. But this does apply to 90% of the movies in the genre. So why always pick on uwe boll ? 1 many people react on him being a German, !!!!come on ,Americans
are not always the superior ones !!! 2 German cinematic tradition has another kind of tension ( view Necromantic for ex.) 3 he tries too hard to give an American audience what they want
and that is what they deserve but that doesn't make a good movie
So Bloodrayne is inferior to Underworld or Bam Stoker's Dracula FFC, but its easily outshines the likes of Cursed , Queen of the damned , Dracula 2000 etc.
For example the movie Romasanta is a European style horror movie and it works because American taste doesn't count at all !! Boll should rid himself of the question what do Americans want,and stick to European style works, but sells less.
Underworld: Evolution (2006)
when horror means horror
I am a fan of Underworld and thought it was a wet dream for all lovers of styled horror movies like Bram Stoker's Dracula ( perhaps the founding film of lavish and well acted horror flicks). Underworld:Evolution hist like a orgy of dark and blood soaked realism that tends to fuse orchestration from Cradle of Filth with VNV-Nation. I liked the sequel equally as the original. The overall darkness en lighting styling is superb and the whole atmosphere is crowded with stunning impressions of fantasy and gore. There was only one flaw in my view and that are the flashbacks. In the first movie they were of a wind torn quality ,now they are to narrative as in a dream profiler series. A good sign for the overall impression was that all the original actors are in the sequel once again.
I hope there will be a third installment!!
For reference: I loved Resident evil ,but abhorred the sequel.
The Bridge (1991)
Stand alone quality
This film like not many other films has moved me to tears. The blending of moods and visuals is stunning and above all refined. It never crosses the line of being a tearjerker,yet it has all the
ingredients of it. Especially the music is so haunting that upon this day i can hum it in my mind, though it has been some 10 years since last seeing it.
I'm looking forward owning it on DVD when it is released on that format. The scene in which the village-fair is crowned by a fireworks which the main characters view sitting besides each other is superb, and the acting is topnotch for the withheld sense of longing and isolation. A great movie.
I Am Dina (2002)
Brilliant and entertaining.
The pictorial language of I am Dina pays tribute and homage to the great directors Bergman and Tarkovski.The characterisazion is well done and psychologically convincing.The cast is well chosen and especially
Maria Bonneville is a revelation. The overall feeling of the movie is typically Swedish/Nordic : life is a lonely quest with grief and pain always on the doorstep ,tender feelings and worryfree joy are brief escapes from it.Although the movie can be considered Arthouse ,it is a more accesseble one. People who liked The Piano , The Elephant Man, or Camille Claudel must see this picture. Some visuals are such strong statements that will linger on in your mind , for example when young Dina stands before the burning washhouse and her father is going to the boat that will take him to Bergen.This a masterpiece of a visual that is symbolic for the whole movie and narrative. There are only two weakneses in the movie 1 it`s title ,it`s to simple and not convincing ( it should be something like "Amongst the ghosts of loved ones " or shorter " Going away " ). 2 Dina`s stallion sex with a number of men is somewhat unconvincing, it doesn`t express her longing for togetherness but only her strong willpower.But it`s exactly the two of them together that drives her.
Willy van Wessel