This movie simply did not capture me. I can't quite put my finger on the reason. Probably it has to do with a number of things. I love it when films have such a tight atmosphere that I completely loose myself in them. That's maybe why I like long movies and why I usualy sit in the first row. Very few movies achieve that. But most let me at least forget that I am in a cinema watching a film. This one did not even do that. I was completely aware of myself during pretty much the whole movie. It just went by in front of my eyes.
Reviews
6 Reviews
Pulse
(2001)
Not easy to rate
28 September 2003
Warning: Spoilers
There is no easy way to express my opinions on this film, so I will explain it.
There may be spoilers in here.
Background: I was sceptical when I started watching this movie. There used to be a time when I was captured by the hype and forced myself to believe slow Japanese movies simply have to be good. Anyone who does not like them, simply does not get it. Yet lately, I have come to understand that many of those movies really are just boring, shallow, and expressionless. Japanese movies are not great in general because of their nationality, just like American or German films are not. I just recently saw Dark Water and Tomie and thought they were very dull. I did not really expect this to be very different. Luckily, I was positively suprised. Right at the beginning I noticed how incredibly beautifully this film was shot. Towards the middle of it though, it seemed to me as if this would be just another bad Japanese movie. It developed all the signs of that. E.g. charachters that are unnaturally introverted, even for a Japanese; that don't talk about the things, that happen to them. You can't really connect to those charachters, they don't have much of a charachter development. We've got a lot of atmosphere shots, but nothing really happens. Just what I feared. This kind of movie is not arty or culturaly meaningful. Its just shallow. Yet, as the film went on, I noticed this one is different. It seems to criticize the japanese culture for this lack of communication. What I thought would be a bad charachteristic of it, is actually the central point of it. It seems like the director consiously displayed the charachters, the way I described before, not because this is just another boring japanese movie, but because he tries to criticize this charachteristic of the Japanese society. At some point in the movie it is being said that the ghosts attempt to capture the people in their eternal loneliness. This may be a very strong hint. In the end it seems like this movie does not merely inherit the same bad aspects of other movies but analyzes them and more so the society behind it. In the end it is being said that there seem to be people alive in Latin America. Guess why: because they talk! They communicate, talk about the ghosts and don't let themselves become lonely that easy. None of the Japanese charachters in this movie seem to have friends. The main charachter tells the girl with the car that he had one friend who he did not really know. He also said earlier that he maybe got an internet connection to meet people. I think this does all support my theory. What do you think?
There may be spoilers in here.
Background: I was sceptical when I started watching this movie. There used to be a time when I was captured by the hype and forced myself to believe slow Japanese movies simply have to be good. Anyone who does not like them, simply does not get it. Yet lately, I have come to understand that many of those movies really are just boring, shallow, and expressionless. Japanese movies are not great in general because of their nationality, just like American or German films are not. I just recently saw Dark Water and Tomie and thought they were very dull. I did not really expect this to be very different. Luckily, I was positively suprised. Right at the beginning I noticed how incredibly beautifully this film was shot. Towards the middle of it though, it seemed to me as if this would be just another bad Japanese movie. It developed all the signs of that. E.g. charachters that are unnaturally introverted, even for a Japanese; that don't talk about the things, that happen to them. You can't really connect to those charachters, they don't have much of a charachter development. We've got a lot of atmosphere shots, but nothing really happens. Just what I feared. This kind of movie is not arty or culturaly meaningful. Its just shallow. Yet, as the film went on, I noticed this one is different. It seems to criticize the japanese culture for this lack of communication. What I thought would be a bad charachteristic of it, is actually the central point of it. It seems like the director consiously displayed the charachters, the way I described before, not because this is just another boring japanese movie, but because he tries to criticize this charachteristic of the Japanese society. At some point in the movie it is being said that the ghosts attempt to capture the people in their eternal loneliness. This may be a very strong hint. In the end it seems like this movie does not merely inherit the same bad aspects of other movies but analyzes them and more so the society behind it. In the end it is being said that there seem to be people alive in Latin America. Guess why: because they talk! They communicate, talk about the ghosts and don't let themselves become lonely that easy. None of the Japanese charachters in this movie seem to have friends. The main charachter tells the girl with the car that he had one friend who he did not really know. He also said earlier that he maybe got an internet connection to meet people. I think this does all support my theory. What do you think?
The Shaft
(2001)
Great
6 May 2002
This is clearly one of the greatest films I have ever seen. This isn't the kind of movie you would expect someone to say something like this about? It's true. Check it out yourself, just don't take yourself too seriously, the movie doesn't do it with itself either. Down is very well done, has good acting, and a well written plot. Yes, it has its extremely "stupid" moments, but it is meant to. It is part of its way to deliver. You do not really think this film takes itself seriously every second and is just a little dumb, do you. By the way, I also found it quite scary, too.
Brotherhood of the Wolf
(2001)
One of the best films I have ever seen
16 February 2002
To me this is by far the best mixture of genres the movie world has ever seen (well, let's say that I have ever seen). The editing, music, and cinamatography would deserve an oscar. The lightning is just great. The atmosphere is so thick, you can almost cut it. And the characters are very well drawn (good acting). I like movies that take their time to create an intense experience for the audience and Le Pacte des loups does this superbly. I could have watched this for 6 hours more. I think the best word to describe this film is "intense". If you expect a realistic historical drama or a nonstop action film, or if you expect anything at all, you will be very disapointed. But if you just take this movie the way it is you will probably enjoy it as much as I did. This is just one of those films that you really have to be open-minded for. Take it as a tale someone tells you. If your grandfather would tell you a tale and if that tale would contain some mysterious elements or a little overdrawn pictures you would not complain, would you? This is part of the storytelling and this is what makes this movie so incredibly intense.
i liked it
29 October 2000
maybe it's just my fate to always like the movies others didn't like. but in my opinion this was an extremely entertaining film. i had the luck to watch it without any expectations and knowledge of the plot because i had not heard much about this movie before and it positively surprised me. ok, it does not have an extremely deep plot but it has some nice details to it and for the kind of movie it is supposed to be it is simply not bad.
just go watch it and try not to be too close-minded.
just go watch it and try not to be too close-minded.
The Mummy
(1999)
i dont get it
2 July 2000
i dont get why americans love this movie so much while everybody hates it. i have seen the mummy together with french and germans, talked about it to people from sweden and spain and everybody thinks it's awfull (including me). but every american i have spoken to (i've been living in the us for the last year) likes. personally i think it is simply bad: bad plot, no style, bad acting, simply boring. i really dont want to make a racial issue out of this, i just thought it's kind of interesting.
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