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An error has ocurred. Please try againI've been into these genres since forever, and I'm always in search of new movies. I hope somebody will find this list useful!
I put new additions at the bottom of the list.
I use this extremely blunt scale:
1/4 - A bit painful. 2/4 - It has ... something. 3/4 - Good, but didn't blow me away. 4/4 - This is something special.
Check out my other lists: * Numbing my brain 2022; I watched 369 productions during one year. * As many countries as possible 2023; exactly that. * Heist and hacking movies; continuously updated ...
I'm using this extremely blunt scale:
1/4 - A bit painful. 2/4 - It has ... something. 3/4 - Good, but didn't blow me away. 4/4 - This is something special.
To sum up 2023: I've watched movies from 54 countries. It's been fun. I've especially enjoyed watching those which take place in a different country or culture than I'm more used to, like the one from North Macedonia, or the one from Estonia. Still, fellow Swede Ruben Östlunds films were quite special too. And you never know what you get when you watch just about anything.
For 2024 ... no specific challenge, but a list nevertheless.
I have been updating this list throughout 2022, as I watched more. It turned into a challenge to watch 365 movies during 2022, which I reached on Dec 21. I ended up watching a total of 369 productions during the year!
I used this extremely blunt scale:
1/4 - A bit painful. 2/4 - It has ... something. 3/4 - Good, but didn't blow me away. 4/4 - This is something special.
Some statistics to add now in the last few hours of 2022:
* Average IMDB rating: 7.02 * Average runtime: 105 minutes * Top keywords: murder (136), death (133), blood (121), violence (120), husband wife relationship (90). What can I say? :) * Top genres: drama (183), action (94), crime (75), mystery (45), war (41) * Top decades: 2000's (95), 2010's (88), 2020's (44), 1980's (37), 1990's (31) * Top directors: Rainer Hartleb (6), Roman Polanski (4), Alfred Hitchcock (4), John Huston (4) * Top stars: Matt Damon (5), Arnold Schwarzenegger (4), Jackie Chan (4), Mark Wahlberg (4), Philip Seymour Hoffman (4)
For 2023 I have a new challenge: to watch productions from as many different countries as possible :)
Reviews
The Emissary (1988)
Bad script, boring execution, falsely marketed
It's falsely marketed as an action movie in some countries, renamed Code KGB. For a thriller it's not that thrilling. It's a cheap drama with some suspense.
And expect no exotic or exciting places or creative visuals of any kind. The entire movie takes place in the same city, and it's mainly during day time, and it's always sunny.
The script is bad. The motivation for the blackmailing is unknown. It's regarding a computer system that's never explained what it does. Access requires a diskette plus "codes" which turns out to be 16 simple words. These passwords are for an unknown reason changed by Jack Cavanagh so that he's the only one who knows them -- a stupid security risk and totally unrealistic, and does not add anything to the story. The safe where the important diskette is stored is in Jack's home (!), and it's opened using only a key.
Jack's position would not require body guards. But even his wife has body guards. It's just silly.
The bad guys have gathered "evidence" for eight (!) years, to be able to blackmail Caroline. The only reason to blackmail her to begin with is to get her to drug Jack, so the blackmailers can access his safe without him knowing. Why not just break in and steal the diskette? They did not know about the needed passwords at this point!
While breaking in to their house, Caroline has been asked to visit a certain bar. Why? Well, for no reason as it turns out! They could've kept her in a room if they didn't want her to see what they were doing in their house!
The "evidence" is photographs of Jack's wife Caroline speaking to communists; who, why or when is never explained. They still choose to drug and kidnap her and take staged photos of her (unconscious) having sex with an unknown man. She was also raped but this is just something she does not want to tell her husband; she's not too upset about it! Wtf?
At around 3 pm the bad guys sit down and have a chat (!) with Jack and Caroline, and say that they need the codes in two hours (it's not explained why). "Call me at home at 6 pm", Jack says, and they leave. Basically no reaction on that from the kidnappers. Do the math.
And the list goes on! In the cheezy end scene Caroline jumps into the sea, clothes on, swimming to her husband who survived an exploding boat.
I give it 2/10, and that's one point for the fact that there was some suspense, believe it or not, and one point for the cheezy end scene which gave me a laugh.