Fast movie, short entry: "Nerve" starts well, with an idea of an online game/social network where the users are split in two - players and watchers. The second category commands tasks to the first category and funds their accomplishment. As the trailer shows sometimes the players have to deal with extreme stuff. And as weirdest the task as better is the payment. Finally, after 24h the winner takes the the money. Or at least that's what the rules say ...
The story is catchy and seems believable up to some point. As main character we have Vee, a girl who gets more and more trapped within the game until things start complicating. The bad part is that: first, the ending seems a bit far fetched, and second: despite the clear main target that's somewhere in the range of 15-20, it still felt a bit too immature. Perhaps if I wouldn't have been working in IT I could get over the first part (= I'm subjective on that), but we can't get rid of the second ...
Yet another Korean movie that's more than you expected ... Not necessarily in the good sense. From what was I remembering the last time when I checked the IMDb title (in original "Goksung") it didn't have "horror" among the genres and the rating was higher. But this was in May ...
The movie is not bad. Somewhere in a Korean village people start to die. The local cop, a guy who seems the perfect character for any law enforcement joke, gets to the conclusion that the guilty person would be a Japanese man residing in the nearby woods and dealing with spells and other strange rituals as his daily hobby. For a while the movie keeps up a comic scent that 1) you can't figure if it's intentional or not but 2) it draws a lot from the pressure that builds up as the movie advances. However, this ends ... and at some point what seem laughable gets serious. This variation is probably the most interesting aspect in what we have here, towards the final the tension growing far from what we had during the first half. I don't know if I've seen anything similar in terms of contrast. However ...
Too much horror. And that's not the problem (even though with the age I tend to prefer movies that are more relaxed) but the way it comes is sometimes free, doesn't make sense and leaves too many open questions in the end ... There's a sort of climax in tha last part, where the main character has to choose who to trust, and the moment is built so well that you can feel the indecision. It's also frustrating in the end though, since you won't get a clear answer on which decision would've been actually better and why, and if it would've been possible to reach the end in a different way dealing with so many threads that you don't know if they're white or dark ...
There's something about the submarine movies which gives a boost to the "thriller" factor, because that's the typical genre we have here - "Hunt for Red October", "Crimson Tide", "U-571", "K-19" and more or less even "Das Boot". "Black Sea" is no exception.
Something nice in this niche is that despite the limited context most of the times somehow we get a new original story. In "Black Sea" the action takes place in the present day. A sub captain in the commercial navy (Jude Law) is fired by his employer firm where he worked for more than 10 years. Since there aren't many open positions for a sub captain he decides to follow a tip given by a formare mate. Apparently the firm which fired him found out that somewhere on the bottom of the Black Sea lies a WW2 U-boat loaded with Nazi gold, but it was too complicated to legally try to get to it. However, a mysterious guy is willing to fund a private expedition. And like that we're getting on board of an old Russian sub, with a bunch of people quickly gathered to form a crew, half Russian, half British, all ready for the treasure hunt ...
From here onward we're between the classic theme of "if at the end are less alive, my cut is larger" and some sort of underwater "Moby Dick" where the gold is the whale and captain Ahab is Jude Law. The movie's catchy, but a bit over the top. First, for some characters the behavior change seems too sudden. Second, I'm not an expert in submarine technology, but what wee see sometimes is hardly believable at least compared to other movies. Thirdly, at some point it starts to look too much like a "horror" where you wonder who's the next who dies and if in the end there's somebody left alive ... ( spoiler: the answer is yes ;) )
I wished to like "The Book of Life". I was expecting more. When I've seen the trailer long ago, I remember that for a second I had the same feeling I got ofter "How to Train Your Dragon" = the promo was hiding much more than the first impression it left me. I thought here will be the same ... Well, it was not.
The story starts with Manolo and Joaquin, two boys in a village in Mexico who both like Maria. Well, the story actually starts with a group of spoiled children visiting a museum, but let's leave the context of the context aside and let's get back to the context ... La Muerte and Xibalba, the two "gods" of the Mexican underworlds make a bet: who's gonna put the wedding ring on Maria's finger? The ruling of the realms beyond depends on the result. Just that until the wedding there's still some time left (really, like half the movie) ... Maria is sent to study in Europe and we move onward X years until she's back in the village. Meanwhile Manolo strives to continue the family tradition as a bull fighter despite his pro-life beliefs regarding the bulls, and Joaquin receiving a hidden support from his protective "god" made a career as a soldier who defends the town against El Chakal (= a big, evil and mean "bandido" who wants to pillage everything). Again backed up by his protective "god" Joaquin seems to win the bet ... by absence = like in a Shakespearean tragedy Manolo lets himself poisoned to follow Maria who passed out after a snake bite. The problem is that he doesn't find here in the other realm = two snake bites - Manolo's dose - are apparently more lethal than one snake bite - Maria's dose. So, she's coming back to life, and without a choice left she's getting ready to say "yes" to Joaquin ...
Ok, I've told already what's going on for half the movie. But that's the intro. The main story starts after. I didn't get into the Mexican mythology details because I don't want to spoile everything, but what can I say more is that what follows was disappointing. The premises are good and open up the room for a really nice story. But the room's left empty. The way things are solved is rushed, chaotic, exaggerated (not that I was expecting something realistic, but when in the end suddenly everybody gets along with everybody ...). It sort of gives the impression that after stretching the length as much as possible up to the middle, who wrote the script found out that there's a time limit to wrap up ... What a loss.
Immersive ... That's a one-word description for "The Signal". It's been a while since I've watched a SciFi that kept me so engaged. Two students at MIT and the girlfriend of one of them are on the road to California. At some point, they decide to take a detour to meet a hacker - nickname: Nomad. An IP trace leads them to an address in the middle of nowhere, at night, where the only thing they find is a deserted house. And now for a short time you feel you're watching something between "Wrong Turn" and "Blair Witch Project" and you ask yourself why IMDb listed SciFi and not horror. But that goes fast ... And we're suddenly transported to "The Matrix". Or .. well, we have Laurence Fishburne as someone who seems to lead a quarantine compartment of a facility where the three were brought after a 3rd kind encounter in the desert. A bit further we're moving to "The Cube", at least conceptually. Probably I'm not giving the best references - somehow the right one eludes me, but is better like this: that's the proof that what we have here is original enough (although sort of predictable) and .. I'm not giving spoilers :) About the camera, sound, etc .. you can see it in the trailer, or just go for the movie, it's really worth it ;)
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