taghiramzi Reviews

Late Night with the Devil (2023)

Alright.

[7/10 · 20 April 2024]

In this movie, a late night show host, desperate for ratings, does some paranormal experiments live on air on the Halloween night of 1977.

This movie right now has a rating of 7.4 with 13k votes, which by the scale of the horror movies is like 9 for regular movies, so as a horror fan I've watched it as soon as I could.

I really wanted to like this, I really did. It is a unique story as mentioned by other reviewers, the setting is great, acting is great (specially Mr. Dastmalchian), the movie is really engaging and not a bad at all, totally watchable. So what's the catch? In my humble opinion, it is not scary. It has some scary moments, but in overall, I didn't find it scary.

Most horror movies have some main elements that are scary or at least creepy for everyone, like new house, peculiar entities, etc., but late night shows are not creepy in nature, so maybe they needed some more preparations or backstories for the viewers.

In conclusion, this is not a bad movie, it is unique, has its moments and acting is great. In general, it could be better (or worse), but it is watchable, specially for horror fans, but do not expect anything groundbreaking or extraordinary.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

Alternative history of the Resident Evil

[8/10 · 19 March 2024]

This movie is a semi-reboot of Resident Evil live action movies. To be honest, the previous live action Resident Evil movies were terrible, even for me, an avid RE fan (except for the first one).

In this installment of RE series, we are on the September 1998 again, with those characters and places. Even thought they have altered many events, details and character appearances for this movie, I think is will be enjoyable for RE video games fans. Unlike the other RE movies, the acting is not terrible and special effects are believable and fresh.

This is by far the best RE live action movie. Better than expected, it does not disappoint, and it is fun to watch.

Naga (2023)

Unusual and intresting

[8/10 · 25 January 2024]

The movie is about a girl who despite a curfew and controlling parents, decides to attend a party with her boyfriend in a camp in the middle of nowhere.

As a person from Iran, I was very curious about this movie as didn't know much about Saudi's. After watching, to me at least, this movie showed that despite our politicians' intentions, we have pretty similar beliefs and fears, and our societies are not much different. The movie has almost everything: thrill, horror, drama and mystery, but makers tried to not just scare or thrill, but also address some other issues, like honor killings and controlling parents, which some of them may not make sense for western viewers, but they are extremely familiar for the people from other countries in the region, problems which we hope and pray that would solve soon.

So while I liked the movie, I reckon that it is kind of unusual movie, I hope to see more from my Saudi buddies in the future.

Infidel (2019)

Come on man!

[4/10 · 28 December 2023]

This movie is about an American, who gets kidnapped in the Egypt and gets handed to Islamic republic (Iran) while his wife is trying to free him. So while I appreciate the effort, I have to say this movie is extremely cheesy and ridiculous. Lets start from beginning: The police calls Rawlins' in the middle of the night, to talk with them at their Muslim friends' house because the friends daughter has disappeared, then shows the Doug the father's sex dungeon/terrorist shrine which has posters and flags and swords and daggers on the wall with one old muzzleloader rifle, without even a warrant! And it is wrong on so many levels! Not only that, almost every scene in the movie from the beginning to the last prison scene (helicopters? Seriously?) has some levels of this kinds of errors , which makes the movie cheap, unreal and painful to watch. The movie is also politically wrong: Islamic Republic never tries or executes those kind of prisoners, they just hold them to extort money or to exchange them with some terrorists detained on western countries.

To conclude, with respect to the director and cast and crew, this movie is a bad movie, acting is not bad, there is almost no logic in the story but it is funny in some scenes because of errors. My advice: avoid it, even if you are against Islam or Islamic republic government.

Disclosure: I am agnostic and anti Islamic Republic (former Muslim) , From Iran.

Gran Turismo (2023)

Satisfying for everyone

[8/10 · 30 November 2023]

I am a veteran Gran Turismo player and a big fan. I've played GT1 through 4 religiously, So I was really looking forward to watch this.

The Gran Turismo movie does not disappoint. It has Great acting, great visuals and actions. David Harbour and Orlando Bloom are great as always and other actors are as good. I would expect to see fake cars or fake courses in these kind of movies, which fortunately this one did not have those.

The movie does a complete shift from video games to actual races and does not go back to games. It would be great if for instance they'd analyze the courses and even cars in the games universe. In addition, it is my understanding, and correct me if I am wrong, that racers would have an hour in every course, the day before the actual race, to get familiar with the course and their car, but in this movie they go the race head first without any prior training and even with a completely new car! Also to me the movie was somehow predictable and I felt that story was kinda cliche, but it is alright.

With all said and done, it is a great movie for the gamers, car guys, families and general audience.

Skinamarink (2022)

I'm going to sleep!

[5/10 · 3 November 2023]

This movie is about two children trapped in a house with doors and windows gone. There are some other entities in the house but it is not clear how real they are.

What is unique about this movie is that you won't see any characters or event fully as most of the times camera is filming walls or ceiling or doors or other unrelated objects, and let me be clear: it is fine, I am fine with it as I do not believe in limits in art. So what is the problem? It is too long and extremely vague and ambiguous. I watched the movie on 2X and I was nearly sleep four time during 50 minutes.

So, while I do not have anything against the technique used and with great respects to makers, to me it was boring and confusing and pointless. But this could be a great 5-10 minute section on one of the V/H/S series.

Cat People (1982)

Not my cup of tea.

[6/10 · 27 September 2023]

To be honest, I am not a fan of erotic movies and I do not watch them as I find them distracting and shallow. I watched this movie without any prior knowledge of its contents and I didn't know any of the actors.

I can't think of anything particularly positive about this movie other than its story which is kind of interesting and makes movie watchable. Other than that, the performances are flat and mediocre, special effects are typical of that era, and there are many plot holes and unexplainable events. Like the events of the massage parlor, why the bother goes there? To kill? To mate? Why doesn't do any of those properly? What happens to him on the morgue? Why he vanished? Where did he go?

With all said and done, this movie is not "painful to watch" while has almost nothing to offer, other than somehow interesting story many scenes of nudity and gore, which makes it recommendable for the people who like those elements.

Cropsey (2009)

True crime and urbex, yay!

[8/10 · 21 October 2022]

I liked this documentary, it combines two of my favorite subjects : true crime and urban exploration. The movie is well-made, with great cinematography, clear computer generated views of documents and newspaper clips, looks very real and spooky, with great background music.

I am not a legal expert and while I'm not assuming that Andre is innocent, From what I saw in this documentary, I believe the case against Andre was mostly circumstantial, I hope with the advances on technology, maybe his innocence or guilt would be determined conclusively. Also, I pray for the families to get closure on their children's fate.

One last thing, his birth last name "Rushan" is a Persian word which means 'bright' or 'on' or 'clear'.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Boring nonesense

[2/10 · 2 September 2022]

I have tried to watch this movie twice. I could watch about 30 mins at first try, second time about an hour, then I realized it's just waste of time. I don't get how this movie got an 8.2 score, I even had doubts about the movie's file I've downloaded, I had to check the trailer on YouTube to be sure.

The main problem of this movie is that there is no logic. The story won't remain loyal even to its own logic. The first 15 minutes is just irrelevant prologue about the lesbian daughter and stressful life of business and family. Then in the elevator scene we get informed that husband is from another dimension and there is no time, So the main character has to defeat an "enemy" in another dimension in the middle of an IRS meeting. After that, there is no destination or logic, just random battles and random dimension visits without any hurry. After an hour, comes the realization that the story hasn't progressed even a tiny bit and probably there is no story.

So this movie is a great example of why movies should have stories, non-random-well-thought stories. A better title for the movie would be "Everything everywhere all at random in favor of protagonists, because we couldn't think of anything more sensible". From other positive reviews, I suspect that maybe you have to be a stoner or acid user (which I am not) to enjoy this film. With all said and bad acting, the only relatively positive side of this movie is special effects. Bottom line: This is a bad Kong fu movie with some stupidest sci-fi backstory, that some may enjoy.

I Hate the Man in My Basement (2020)

Underrated emotional crime drama

[8/10 · 3 August 2022]

How and why they classified this as comedy I don't know, but it's underrated for sure. It's one of those movies which you would not check the timebar while watching it. Engaging story, great acting, specially the main actor, and great chemistry between the couple. Having that said, I think it needed a few flashbacks, but that's my personal preference and the story makes complete sense.

I believe there is a symbolism in the movie, not that you won't enjoy it as it is, but pay attention:

The man in the basement is my grudges,

The man in the basement is that person that I know is toxic, yet I still keep them in my life.

The man in the basement is my old, useless beliefs and thoughts.

So I have to let it go to move forward... I have to let it go to get to the new better parts of my life.

Bottom line: I've really enjoyed this movie, I think it was great in both literal and symbolical point of view. 8/10.

Dark Light (2021)

Torture!

[1/10 · 18 July 2022]

Have you ever considered making a movie using your cellphone, featuring your friends? Well, I guess your movie would be a lot better than this.

The story is almost interesting, but sound, cinematography and acting quality are so bad that watching this is almost like torture. It is worse than most homemade amateur porn movies. So many unnecessary camera moves and angle changes which is confusing and cheap, sound quality changes with camera moves, there is no sound management, it's like they've recorded sound using old cassette recorders and I guess the filming locations are not acoustic so sound echos. The acting is also trash and ridiculous, again, worse than most amateur porns. This is not an independent cult hidden gem. Avoid it.

Joker (I) (2021–2022)

Pure BS!

[1/10 · 1 February 2022]

Not funny in any aspect, just attracting clueless viewers because of some good-for-nothing celebrities appearance in a dumb pointless competition. It is good for low class and low educated Iranian, I wouldn't watch it even for free. To put it in Rick Sanchez's words: "Its a joyless cash grab"

Into Schrodinger's Box (2021)

OK but nothing special

[6/10 · 19 January 2022]

I've downloaded this movie because I love independent horror movies and saw some of my fellow Iranian made it. It is not a groundbreaking movie, I think it is a typical run-of-the-mill horror film. Performances are mediocre, plot is almost good, with some twists and holes. I liked the COVID theme, it made the movie relatable and fresh. All in all not a bad movie, could be better, hope to see more from the makers. Cheers.

The Operative (2019)

My Opinion as an Iranian

[8/10 · 5 August 2019]

I think this movie shows relatively realistic image of Iran , Iranian people and clash between Iran and Israel. As an Iranian I enjoyed the movie. unlike some of similar movies about Iran , all Iranian characters are good hearted people with no Iranian interrogators or such. also I like that -despite having Israeli production- the involvement of Mossad on Iranian scientist assassination and sabotaging Iran's nuclear program is depicted without hesitation. Acting was good and Iran's streets and atmosphere shown believable and almost perfect ... there is no Opel Astra police cars or old Volvo Station wagons in Iran though. I gave is 8 of 10.