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mikenine453
Reviews
Across the Hall (2009)
Pretty Awesome
I was completely caught off guard by this film. It has a great classic film/noir feel to it which is far too uncommon these days. That it was clearly accomplished on a smaller than Hollywood budget is all the more impressive. The pacing is steady and deliberate which may throw some viewers off, but there is so much texture and richness to each scene that you have the opportunity to really take it all in and feel/experience the mood and atmosphere, unlike most movies in this genre (think Mad Men, one of the best shows on TV, in this respect). The acting, cinematography, music, lighting and direction are across the board very impressive. I started watching thinking I would only sit through about 20 mins or so, but I was totally compelled to watch the entire thing (twice actually!) and found myself incredibly engaged.
In terms of story and twists, I quite enjoyed the way the structure of the film really didn't cheat or force these elements. Upon the second viewing I found really interesting clues that would have allowed me to figure things out the first time if I had noticed them then (pay attention to expressions, time of day and even the drink glasses in the film). The plot and story is very tightly woven together. Its easy to dismiss some of these things as cheap or devisive but thats a lazy criticism. They are clearly carefully crafted and not just thrown in there.
I hope to see this film hit theaters soon as I would love to experience it on the big screen. There are shades of Hitchcock and Kubrick that really excite me about a project like this. I don't know that its actually a 10, maybe an 8 or 9 (who knows?), but film efforts like this deserve major praise and hopefully this one will gain major momentum. Kudos to the creative team for bringing a smart, non effects-driven, character based thriller to creation. This is excellent work.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Great moments but fairly all over the place
I really loved characters and moments in this film but felt those gems were hidden in a very sloppy/messy structure and a fairly insensitive film. I know this is what QT was going for but it seems pretty strange to me to trivialize something as serious as this subject matter for a sort of silly entertainment value. I also had a problem with the fact that the Basterds were really featured very sparingly in the film. Its sort of false advertisement of sorts to sell this movie as revolving around these characters and then really spend the majority of the film elsewhere. It felt like Brad Pitt was only in the movie for 45 minutes (out of 2 and a half hours). This structure made it hard to connect with any of the characters as they were so spread out throughout the movie. Also, really great scenes began to drag on and on throughout the film. It felt very self-indulgent. And I really felt the ending was in poor taste.
District 9 (2009)
Big Let Down
Maybe I was a bit put off by all the hype, but I found myself very disappointed in D9. I enjoyed the effects, and parts of the movie, but overall found it a big let down. There are way too many plot holes for me to ignore SPOILERS such as the fact that these aliens didn't land in some super-power nation and still were so easily contained and controlled, especially with all their superior weaponry. How??? Wikus and that other Alien very easily broke into a heavily guarded facility with a few of those weapons, but that same heavily guarded facility was able to police over 1.5 million of these creatures all with access to the same weapons? And I have a hard time believing they were on earth for 20 years and other countries from around the world hadn't become actively involved with them. But more importantly, these aliens would clearly do anything for that cat food and were totally persuadable, and yet the humans who are only concerned with using the alien's weapons and nothing else, haven't over the course of the last 20 years figured out a way to get a group of these aliens to act as soldiers in their interest? How about offering them some...cat food. The whole thing with Wikus changing slowly into an alien off of alien fuel seemed pretty far-fetched...especially since he was sprayed in the face but began to transform at his arm...why? And truthfully, the acting in the earlier non-alien scenes was fairly bad and the whole relationship thing at the end felt totally thrown in. Overall, a real let down.