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The Martian (2015)
An ode to problem solving
The film is visually stunning, it feels very real (although there are a few inaccuracies on the Mars side) which goes well with the tone of the story.
On the story, the film focuses completely on the problems the lost astronaut faces and the thinking progress to try to solve them. I was very drawn to this aspects, I thought it was fascinating and engaging, but I love technology. It so much focuses on this, that the movie immediately goes to the astronaut being left behind on Mars, and only adds a little suspend and "action" in the latest scene.
This means that the human relationships aspects are very lightly explored, and although the other astronauts and people on Earth "say" they care for the astronaut on Mars, there aren't enough scenes showing this bond or human connection for one to feel this and get invested in their relationships. And the movie suffers for it, I can completely understand how people not too interested in the technology, engineering and problem solving, and more interested in the human relationships would find this movie bland and possibly even boring.
But not me, I was so drawn to the issues and engineering, and positive attitude in the light of such daring circumstances that I did not mind much the lack of human connection, although I did notice it.
Extracted (2012)
A good Sci-Fi take on memories
How accurate are our memories? If we needed to take life changing actions, how much should we trust a memory to reach a final conclusion? Can memories be used as hard evidence?
At the core these are the questions explored by the Sci-Fi movie, when a man invents a machine that can make a person look into other people's memories, and things go wrong in a test leaving his conscience living for years inside the memories of a man accused of murder.
With a bit of suspense, interesting concepts (like how can the inventor figure out on how to communicate with his "host" and create a relationship where both can help each other out), and some interesting relationships, particularly the between the accused and his father, and well resolved final part, this movie was enjoyable from start to finish.
Not spectacular, but well worth watching if you enjoy the Sci-Fi genre.
The Suicide Theory (2014)
Interesting premise, well executed
I watched this film knowing nothing about the plot, and the premise got me immediately hooked. A killer gets hired by suicidal man to kill him, as he has a "theory" that he cannot die, and will only be able to die once he does not want to die. The killer man job is to figure out how to kill this man, i.e., how to make him not want to die and then kill him. The killer tries to kill him a couple of times, not believing the theory, but fails, until the hard evidence makes him start to consider the theory.
Once the premise is established, we get to know little by little the background of both protagonists, and discover how they are somehow connected, and poses the questions is everything happening for a reason? Or is it us that we give reason to the inevitable coincidences that occur in our lives? This is done not subtly at all, but it's a good question to be asked.
In the end, we reach a resolution though a series of events that are connected for a reason, or in the other interpretation, through a series of coincidences too strong not to think they were meant to happen.
My only minor criticism is that the "twists" are very predictable, but this is minor, since possibly the intention was not to give a shocking twists, but to show how a series of unlikely connections makes us wander if they are happening for a reason, the main question of the movie.
Quite interesting though not spectacular film, it did leave me thinking a bit, and I enjoyed my time through the darkness of the tone, the character development, and the questions thrown unanswered by the movie.
Time Lapse (2014)
Impressive, enjoyable, well thought out time paradox movie
This was an impressive movie, it hooked me from the beginning and never let me down, I was trying to hard to find the moment where the whole time paradox concept collapsed, like in so many movies, but I couldn't, it worked really well.
And in the meantime, the movie explores some of the worst facets of human nature, how when in a situation where a lot of power can be gained, we quickly try to use it for personal gain, even at the cost of others. Access to power, of whatever sort, gets the worst out of us.
The three protagonists find a machine, created by their dead scientist neighbor, that takes pictures of the future. The three of them start using it for personal gain, each of them with different motivations, pushing them against each other with terrible consequences. These are flawed characters, with their flaws shown at the beginning, and their flaws get exacerbated once they get access to this machine.
Some people have complained that the protagonists keep making stupid decisions, but that's the whole point of the movie, their decisions are based on greed, personal gain, and not the good of the group or anyone else.
The time paradox works, the human character study was excellent in my opinion, and there were many twists and turns to keep me entertained throughout the movie. You couldn't ask more from a low budget sci-fi movie.
Død snø 2 (2014)
This time they got it absolutely right!
Although I kind of enjoyed some parts I was not a big fun of the first Dead Snow movie. I felt they could have done so much more with the fact that the zombies were Nazis. Their motivations did not make much sense either.
This movie corrects all of that. It incorporates the Nazi part much better, the motivations of the Nazi zombies are much more clear.
It's fun, funny, gory, action packed since minute one. It knows it's supposed to be funny, absurd, and have fun with the Nazi theme, it does not try to be suspenseful or frightening at all, which the first one tried, and failed in many moments.
The jokes work, the characters are likable, and the fights are so much fun.
I truly recommend watching this one, even if you didn't enjoy the first one. The tone is completely different, and in my opinion, this one works so much better, it's what I expected from a Nazi zombie flick, and then some more.
Død snø (2009)
Quite uneven film, you'll really enjoy the last 25 minutes, if you can make it through the first hour
~~~Non-Spoiler part~~~ This is a very uneven film. In the beginning it uses every cliché of the cabin in the woods, group of young people in isolation, zombie flick, no funny twists/takes on zombie, in fact the Nazi zombies could be just zombies and practically nothing would change. I thought they could have done something more fun and interesting with the zombies being Nazi, but they are just zombies, OK, the outfit looks cool, but that's it. I was bored out of my mind at the hour mark, and almost gave up on the movie, but then the fun really picked up, the final battle is epic, it's almost like they started conceiving the film with that last battle, and then they worked out a very generic beginning. Extremely gory with silly brutal violence, that last fight really worked, at least for me. The Nazi zombies motivation for the killing spree doesn't really make sense given their actions, but I'll give my thoughts on that in the Spoilers part.
The film is so uneven that my rating should be done in two parts. First hour: 3 1/2 stars Ending: 8 stars
~~~ SPOILERS !!!! ~~~~ The plot, Nazis aside, is quite unoriginal, group of young guys go to an isolated cabin, attacks ensue. Except the initial tone doesn't really work, it plays almost as suspense, but we already know who is attacking them, it's shown in the first scene when one of the ladies of the group, who was going to the cabin by herself gets killed by a Nazi zombie. So what's the suspense all about? Then a guy shows up all mysterious to the cabin, his only role is to explain how the Nazis ended up in the region, and how some evil is going on in the region, in a suspenseful way, which again doesn't work at all, since we already know that there are Nazis there. But worst, he gets killed immediately after that in his tent, so no character, just a guy that shows up in the film, and explains to us what is happening in the film. Bad writing. All the characters are very generic, I didn't get invested in any of them, so other than thinking the ways some of them were killed was really cool, I didn't feel anything for them. Then the Nazi zombies motivation for killing the group revealed at the end: they just wanted the gold they found, to the point of letting the last guy go when he gives them the gold, doesn't make sense at all, the first lady that was killed did not find the gold yet, so why was she killed by a Nazi zombie? Anyway, the last battle between the two last guys and the Nazi zombies was fantastic, it made up a lot. If you like gore, that last part alone makes the film worth watching.
Big Ass Spider! (2013)
Keeps you entertained, has the charm of low budget movie, lacks originality
If you're looking for a low budget movie that makes up for it by inserting original ideas, twisted premises, social/political commentary, well... this is not the movie you're looking for.
This movie follows all the clichés of a man made monster movie: bad guys make monster by mistake, try to keep it a secret and deal with for a while, until it's out there and out of control, underdog/loser has some skill that's needed and saves the day in the end, there's a comic relief sidekick (very stereotypical) and there's a love interest along the way.
There's really nothing original in the plot, and there's no message/point to be made that we haven't seen a million times before.
However, for what it is, it does keep you entertained, and it does have the charm of a low budget movie, and some of the jokes work, I did get a few laughs.
It's a non-pretentious, straightforward, bit-of-fun movie. Don't expect too much of it, but if you're in the mood for some mindless light entertainment for a couple of hours, I'd say you'll enjoy it. I did...
Iron Sky (2012)
We need more movies like this
This was a fantastic use of a relatively low budget, a preposterous (in the good sense) premise that becomes a starting point for hilarious and engaging situations, and interesting social commentary.
This is the kind of movie that we need to see more of, in this age of reboots, sequels/prequels, spin-offs, etc., we are too used to giving a pass to lack of originality as long as a lot of budget is thrown to special effects, explosions, high-profile actors, etc.
A well put together, original, risk-taking low independent movie, that in the process of making you laugh at the absurd situations, leaves you also thinking about human greed, power-hunger and its possible consequences.
Forget about the Hollywood formula, get ready to accept the limitations of a low budget, and fully enjoy the well thought-out craziness this movie proposes.