Change Your Image
tonylaird
Reviews
The Empty Mirror (1996)
Fascinating, and horrifying
I am a WWII buff, and you can't be a WWII buff without having some fascination with Adolf Hitler. Most movies you see vilifies him, and certainly, there is plenty to villifry, but it's hard to find anything that analyzes the man for what makes him up, that is exactly what this movie does. This wonderful work looks at Hitler from his own eyes, giving a unique look at the man, his ideals, and his motivations from his own perspective. It never makes Hitler look like a "hero" though, which is certainly a delicate balance when looking a the man from his own eyes, if anything, it is what makes the movie terrifying in seeing just how fine the line is between genius and insanity - what could this man have accomplished if he had taken his drive toward humanity instead of world conquest? The movie uses actual German propaganda and war clips behind Hitler talking about his drive and motivation to provide a surrealistic horrifying image, and does a wonderful job of showing his cross from that line of insanity/genius. You can't possibly be a student of the world we lived in during WWII without considering Adolph Hitler's part in it, and you can't understand exactly what the world faced until you understand the man behind it. If you are a student of the world of WWII, you must see this movie!
The Maize: The Movie (2004)
Maybe if cornfield mazes scare you...
Besides the comments on the technical merits of the production, or lack thereof, the acting is absolutely horrible. What is really scary about this movie is that I actually OWN a copy of it, of course, it was in a bargain bin and had been renamed as "Dark Harvest 2", and after having seen it, I can understand why it was in the bargain bin - they should have paid me for taking it out of their inventory.
The majority of the movie, if you want to call it that, is spent by a frantic father running around a corn field maze looking for his daughters because he has a premonition that something is going to happen to them. I suspect that the camera that the girls were playing with at the beginning of the film was probably one of the production cameras for this fiasco. In the maze, he runs into the ghost of some children, which are poorly done, and the movie goes horribly south from there.
I can see why they renamed this movie, otherwise, they would never have gotten rid of them. Absolutely one of the worst movies I have ever had to sit through, and it wasn't worth the $2 I spent on it.