Change Your Image
graeme32
Reviews
Bad Day for the Cut (2017)
Underated
The reviews on here say it's a revenge thriller. I see it as a man who is wronged by an enemy that won't leave him alive. This pushes him to the extreme.
Revenge? No. Pushed to the limits to defend oneselve? Yes.
Other reviews say there was no ending. There was. Read what I wrote above, listen to Eamons speech at the end about a never ending cycle of violence down through the generations, and the ending is clear.
This is a good film, and an evening well spent watching it.
The Bunny Game (2011)
A wast of good acting
I watched this film last night after reading the press coverage of the film being banned in the UK.
Rodleen Gestic's performance was amazing. She was physically branded, and abused for real in front of the camera, so it is impossible to fault her commitment. Similarly at times Renfro was genuinely convincing as a lunatic.
However, the film has many flaws. The editing is so quick that for whole sections of the film, individual scenes last 3-5 seconds. I have read reviews on here that praise this as creating an atmosphere where the viewer shares a sense of disorientation. I just found it distracting from an already weak story.
The film is made on a low budget, and the added features on the DVD say there was not even a film crew present - just a handful of actors and the director / filmmaker. This lack of budget feeds through into limited sets, and few (none?)special effects. There's a lot of torture, but no blood (fake or real). The actresses are really branded, but this added nothing to the film compared to the use of prosthetics - it doesn't add to the story so why do it.
In interviews Rehmeier states that they improvised large parts of the film. The reality seems to be that they didn't have money for a decent script so fall back on filling the film with bunny being abused over and over again for little real purpose in terms of plot development. Rapid cutting between the 2 main characters screaming at each other over and over again for 5 minutes is not an alternative to a script, and doesn't even build tension.
The bunny game itself involves Renfor dragging Bunny around the desert in a straight jacket and a rabbit hat. This was more like a fetish film than a serious horror film. This is supposedly the highlight of the abuse, but compared to what came before it would have been a relief.
The film ends with an anticlimax. Bunny has been abducted and tortured by what appears to be a psychopath, but he doesn't kill her, rape her, or free her. After a few days he transfers her to a friend, who takes her away. There is no explanation of why. I have read reviews here which state that this leaves it open for the viewer to interpret it in their own way (For example has he been breaking her as a human being in order to make it easier to sell her into white slavery, has he tired of her and passed her onto his friend to play with). Whatever. Its hard to praise the skill of the storyteller if he expects you to decide what his story actually is.
I didn't find this film frightening / scary, and the plot was so weak that there really isn't much of a story. If you like seeing a young girl get hurt, in the knowledge that a lot of it is real, then this film is probably for you. If you want to watch a film that scares you and makes you think then you would be better off watching "irreversible" or "Oldboy" Gestics skill and commitment deserved a better vehicle than this.
Irréversible (2002)
Recommended - if you are in the right mood
This is definitely a film to watch by yourself. Don't even consider taking someone on a date to watch it unless you already know them really well. Don't watch it with friends unless you don't mind sitting with them in silence for 90 minutes at a time.
This film is as far from light entertainment as its possible to get. The camera technique and story telling (in reverse order) leave you disorientated due to the lack of a normal narrative flow. Individual scenes contain sequences of violent, shocking, disturbing, and in some cases distressing events that appear to be totally unprovoked, random, and which continue long after you would expect or want them to stop. This is one of the few films that have made me physically flinch.
Only as the film nears its end (the beginning of the story) do things start to make sense and fall into place.
What did I take from this film? That the acts of evil people are matched by the acts of normal people put in impossible situations and transformed into people that they themselves would not recognise; That sometimes there are no happy endings, although there are happy "starts". This is a film that will leave you silent and contemplatative after watching it. I thoroughly recommend watching it - but watch it when you are in the right mood, rather than because you had planned to watch it a certain time
Det sjunde inseglet (1957)
Good film but no longer a masterpiece
An earlier reviewer said that the film is inaccurate because crusaders were a feature of the 11th century, and the black death is a feature of the 14th century. The crusades to the Holy Land were mainly in the 11th century, although the so called "King Peters crusade" to Egypt took place in 1365. Throughout the 14th century though Scandinavian and German knights were crusading in the Baltic States against pagan slavs. (With the Livonian crusading order wiping out the state of Riga for example). The Black death caused a resurgence in crusading, and indeed in religious activity as a whole. Either way its irrelevant to your enjoyment of the film!
I found this film dark and slow. I can understand why it was considered a masterpiece when it was first released, but it has been parodied so much that the "shock" value it must have once had is now largely lost.
That said, it is still well worth watching provided you come to it with an open mind, and are not disappointed by seeing a good film rather than the masterpiece that you were led to expect.
Starship Troopers (1997)
Excellent film, but recognise it as the parody that it is.
People either love or hate this film.
Some people hate it for it's unbelievable story line (mankind fights for survival against bugs) or its comic book characters.
I love it as the respectful parody of every black and white war film that I have ever seen. Verheovens perspective is very clearly shaped by having grown up in Nazi occupied Holland, and by god it shows!
Mankind against bugs? If that isn't denying the humanity of your opponent then what is. When Johnny Ric exorts "I come from New Buenos Aires, and I say kill them, kill them all" then you know where this film is coming from.
Dont think of this film as being futuristic, think of it as being a second world war film. Duty to your species equals duty to your country, your enemy is subhuman and fit to be nuked, and the military is the top of the food chain. Failed disastrous attack on the bug home world - read it as the German failure to over-run "subhuman Russia" in 1941.
Zulu (1964)
Fantastic film, poor history
This is one of the best films that I have ever watched, and I have seen it well over 100 times. It's a story of courage, duty, and stoical endurance. It's one of those rare films that an entire family can watch, enjoy, and relate to on a number of different levels.
Don't let the historical errors in the film detract from its message and entertainment value, but similarly don't watch the film and think that you know what really happened. (The truth is as heroic as the film makes out, but a very different story).