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janiaimanen
Reviews
Galaxis (1995)
Lady-Terminator-He-Man-Barbarella
Masters of the Universe meets Terminator meets Barbarella in a Roger Cormanesque low budget 90's TV-movie, which resembles more of a bad 80's TV-movie in every way. The looks and the sounds of the film give out an expression, that the expiration date was like a decade earlier, and even the star of the film hasn't really been relevant since then. Playboy cover girl of December '87 and the former wife of Sylvester Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen, plays the Lady-Terminator-He-Man-Barbarella as badly as she can.
The single best thing in this movie was Roger Aaron Brown as a detective. He had some funny lines and did a pretty good job at delivering them.
Terminal Force aka Galaxis is as bad as it sounds, and not in a good way, but at least we get to see Sam Raimi do a cameo. Yayy!!!
Poor Things (2023)
One of those films, that show you the true power of Cinema
Poor Things is a perfect film!
There is not a single thing in this film that I disliked, and it's one of the most beautiful fairytails I've ever seen, heard, or read, but above all, Poor Things is a perfect metaphor and a depiction of life on celluloid.
Let me summarize it like this:
When you are a child, you have a black and white look of the world, innocent and naive. Your home is the whole world with occasional controlled visits to the outside, and your parents tell you bedtime stories about creatures, that you imagine to be something completely different than they are in reality. Everything is still brand new to you and it's fun to discover new and exciting things. Smallest of things make you laugh and cry, sometimes both at the same time, because you can't quite control your feelings yet. Sometimes, you might get outburst of uncontrolled rage, but that's normal behaviour for a child, and usually your parents can tame that beast by putting you to sleep with a gentle lullaby. You grow fast and learn new things about life as you go, and everytime you learn something, you add some colour to that colouring book of life.
Then you hit puberty and start to discover things about yourself, like your sexuality. The puberty is hard time for us humans, and sometimes it hits so hard, that you start to rebel against the world, which is pretty much your home and your parents. You don't do as they say, even if they know it would be best for you. "Get an education. Get a steady job. Marry the nice kid from the neighbour and have a great home with a loving family." That's not your life or your world, it's your parents world and their lifes. The boring life, you think.
You start to make your own little adventures by expanding your world and your views of it. It's all fun and games still, naive and a bit dumb, but the games you play are not the same you played when you were a small child. You make some mistakes here and there, 'cause inside, you're still just that small child learning about life, only older but not much wiser.
Then the puberty ends and you think you're an adult, but you're not quite there yet. There are still things to learn and lot of things to discover in life, but now you kinda know who and what you are, or at least what you like and what you don't. The things you like, you do them very often, and while doing those things, your world gets bigger and bigger and bigger, as does your view of the world.
The child inside of you almost dies, when you start to discover, that there are bad things in the world, very bad things, and you try to fix those problems with that child like naivety, but you quickly learn that you can't, because no one can, not by themselves alone.
Now you've become an adult and you have to take some responsibility of your life, so, you get a job. First job is usually some low paid labour, which is fun at first, pretty easy to do and the co-workers are actually quite nice. One of them is a like minded person, which you're quite fond of, and soon you become a pair. But as time goes by, you start to notice how you're being used by your superiors and customers or such, and you're not making your way up in the world. You begin to ask yourself questions about your life and your choices. Is this it? Is this life? Is this worth it? Could there be more? What should I do? Maybe you start to rebel against your boss, or quit discreetly. Maybe you get into politics or join a union. Maybe you start to do something other than work, like have a new hobby. Maybe a hobby, that has something to do with the things you enjoyed to do when you were a kid. Can you have a hobby as a doctor?
Then you remember, that you haven't visited your parents in a long long time, and when you finally go back home, you find that they have gotten old. You're kinda sad, that it took so long for you to revisit them, and you decide to stay home and help out with all you can. Then you remember that neighbour kid, the one your parents wanted you to marry when you were a teen. Not a bad idea after all.
Life goes on and a tempting ghost from the past comes haunting. The last big mistake we need to make to find out out who we really are.
After making the last mistake of your life you realize, that you share a lot of interests with that childhood friend of yours and you team up professionally. You get an education, a job that you like, a loving home with important friends around you and life is finally smiling with all that sunshine. You have travelled a long way to become a fully grown human and now you know yourself inside out. You're at peace with the world and you're ready to settle down. No more adventures, life is good as it is. The fairytail had to end eventually, and now it's time to live in the real life.
The black and white colouring book is finally fully coloured.
The End.
Don't Look Now (1973)
Nicolas Roeg was a true filmmaker in the true meaning of the word.
A British-Italian psychological horror/thriller/drama from the year 1973, directed by Nicolas Roeg and starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as a couple, who travel to Venice after the accidental death of their daughter.
The film is a masterpiece and it's regarded as one of the finest British films of all time, and I can see why. There isn't a single bad thing in this film and it shines on every department. Direction, cinematography, screenplay, sound and set design, music, wardrobe, editing, etc etc... Everything is in perfect order, actually, this film is a perfect example of mise-en-scène, what you see and hear is fully thought out. The film has depth and many layers, and the plot itself is just one ingredient in the puzzle and it's quite open for interpretation. Lot's of hints, symbolism and "nothing is what it seems", hence probably the name "Don't Look Now."
One of the rare films that I had to watch twice in a row, and more than likely, will watch it again pretty soon. Cinematic masterpiece worthy of a study.
I watched the 2019 Studio Canal 4K restoration release (approved by BAFTA award-winning cinematographer, Anthony B. Richmond) and it's incredible. Money well spent!
Rating: 10/10.
Ex Machina (2014)
"To erase the line between man and machine is to obscure the line between men and gods"
2014 scince fiction film written and directed by Alex Garland and starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac and Sonoya Mizuno.
A programmer gets invited by his CEO to come to his isolated luxury home to perform Turing test with a highly intelligent gynoid called Ava, played by Alicia Vikander.
Alex Garland started as a novelist and wrote the novel "The Beach", which was adapted into a film by Danny Boyle couple of years later. He then proceeded to write scripts for Boyle's "28 Day Later" and "Sunshine", but "Ex Machina" is his directorial debut and what a film it is!
The film is very well crafted, every aspect of it is brilliant. Direction, acting, cinematography, editing, sounds and music, just brilliant, but what stands out the most, is the script. It's intelligent and very philosophical, it makes you think.
I like to watch these kinda films every now and then, but I wouldn't recommend this to everyone. Some might think this is boring, but if you're into films like Kubrick's "2001: Space Odyssey", Aronofsky's "The Fountain" or the works of Andrei Tarkovsky or Terrence Malick, or even a games like "Death Stranding" or "The Talos Princible", you'll love it. It's not Terminator, I'll tell you that, but it could very well be a something we're about to experience in reality not so far from now.
Rating: 9/10.
Pig (2021)
Nicolas Cage and a pig, what could go wrong?
Michael Sarnoski's directorial debut about a truffle forager whose beloved truffle pig gets stolen.
Didn't know what to expect from this. Was this going to be a comedy? An action film? Horror? It surprised me completely by being something else, something much more. Direction and cinematography were good, if you count out couple of unnecessary shaky camera shots. Nicolas Cage is truly fantastic as the caring, but somewhat nihilistic truffle hermit and Alexander Wolff does very well in a supporting role. The writing is very original and the film deals with lots of themes, but propably most important one is how different people deal with a loss. What a directorial debut and what a film! Highly recommend this to every true lover of cinema. 8/10.