Tumbling


I often come down hard on movies that use "surprise" endings to trick their audience into thinking that monotony that came before it was worth the time (ie: The Sixth Sense). I also hate endings that negate everything that's come before it (ie: The Usual Suspects) because once again - what was the point?

But tonight a saw a great movie with a great ending. The Conversation (1974) - by Francis Ford Coppola. If you want to see how a surprise ending can be pulled off fairly and without voiding the 90min that preceeded it - see The Conversation. It's good times.


- posted by Brendan @ 6:40 PM 0 comments

 
Osomatsu!!!
That's it. I'm giving up on the whole "Japanese horror movie" fad sweeping the nation. I've seen the top 3 pinnacles of this genre - Ringu, Dark Water and Ju-On - and then some, and have yet to get anything close to a good film, let alone a good horror film (which is, in itself, a dead genre that was never really alive to begin with - and I'm not just being cute by saying that).

Seriously, they have some creepy atmospheric moments but in the end I just come out pissed of that I wasted the bandwith and time on them. Thank god I only invested $10 in Ringu and the rest came via BitTorrent. Ju-On had a lot of potential at first, and then at about 90 minutes with no resolution in sight it became obvious there would be no semblance of resolution and indeed the film would completely unravel. And so it did. Not to mention they went for the most obvious, cringe inducing, "dum dum dum" final shot they could have. Even though I already hated the film in those last 5 seconds, it would have been nice if they had retained some dignity and not taken such a played out stunt. I was just thinking, "Fade out now.. Fade out now!"

They didn't fade out, and instead we get something you'd expect from a B horror flick, minus the self-referential charm and the fun of seeing a movie by people who don't think they're redefining the genre and are probably too drunk to care.

I'll stick to playing Silent Hill games. Which have good atmosphere, good imagery, good acting - and good fucking stories that actually, you know, go someplace. And the Silent Hill series is Japanese - so I know some Japanese people know how to tell a good creepy horror story.

- posted by Brendan @ 1:49 AM 0 comments