Change Your Image
mindfulpulsar
Reviews
Alien³ (1992)
Underrated but still not as good as the others
I can understand why Alien 3 got so many negative reviews. First, why kill the young girl that managed to survive in Aliens and who everyone got emotionally attached to? And why kill so soon the most interesting character besides Ripley, that it Clemens? He is the only normal person in this zoo full of paedophiles and rapists. Charles Dance offers a pretty good performance as a well educated doctor with a dark side. The scene in which he performs an autopsy is quite remarkable. He should have stayed alive longer. You don't kill such an important character before the very secondary ones. Also, I can understand the fact that Ripley got infected with a monster gives the movie a more pessimist side. Beside that,there seems to be some inconsistencies. Is it me or the images of the lava cauldrons -or weatherer you wanna call the thing in with Ripley plunges at the end - don't match logically with the large plan of the installations? And the image you see on the monitor when Ripley performs a scan is quite bad. Your cant really see the alien. It's all fuzzy and chaotic. Alien 3 is definitely the darkest and saddest of all four. But still I wouldn't go so far to say that it is a bad film. The atmosphere is well established. The acting is good. There are many gory scenes, especially the one with the fan. As in Alien, there is a sense of permanent menace and claustrophobia. Finally, the new version is way better than the original. It makes more sens.
Stalker (1979)
Unforgettable surrealistic imagery
The first time I watched this movie I was like "How can you like something that goes so slow, that has characters speaking about mystical subjects all the time, lying on the ground, doing nothing, then deciding to throw small metal objects wrapped in tissue for unknown reason?" But still that movie succeeded in grabbing my attention. The images are so nice. Tarkovsky handles the camera in a way no other director does. Every movement is precise. The dream sequence with the little girl whispering and the camera showing different objects in water is just fantastic. There is something about the scene in the Chernobyl-like desolated building when a bomb is put into pieces and water starts dropping from the roof like rain for minutes. You'll never see something like that except in a Tarkovsky movie. The four elements are always present. There are many other memorable scenes, like the one with the psychokinesis and the one with birds flying over dunes in the Chernobyl building. Apparently, some of the actors and Tarkovsky himself died because they developed diseases after being exposed to the chemicals in the place where the movie was shot.
Sauna (2008)
Nice atmospheric movie
Sometimes you have to take a chance when renting a movie. Because there are good quotes from critics on the cover of the DVD it doesn't mean the film will please you. This one did. Sauna is an atmospheric piece of art, Tarkovsky style, with nice shots, cool camera movements and slowness. If you hate slow and subtitle movies, don't rent this one. But if you know how to appreciate different styles, this one should please you. It reminded me of Stalker and Shyamalan's The Village. It also has a Bergman side. I liked the surrealistic imagery and the Finnish language. See it with the subtitles, not translated. Finnish sounds aggressive and poetic. After this movie, you'll never look at saunas they same way as before. The sauna which the title refers too is located in a mysterious village that sits in the middle of the swamps, somewhere on the border between Russia and Finland.
Linkeroever (2008)
Top quality film
I first watched this movie expecting an ordinary suspense/horror type of film. But Left Bank quickly captivated my attention. This is very good cinema. The actors are convincing. The plot is well sculptured. The soundtrack adds to the atmosphere, especially when the voices start to get distorted. At some point you start hearing echo when the characters speak. Very intriguing. This is a movie about mother Nature. The earth is a character on its own. There is a parallel between being a woman and the laws of nature. I like this idea of having a building standing on some kind of black hole that has mysterious powers. One of the most scary scenes is when the girl has a nightmare in which she sees herself breastfeeding her boyfriend in a park. That was pretty gripping, something you'd see in a David Lynch film. Why is this movie so unknown? It deserves to be respected. See it if you liked Rosemary's Baby or if you are into crazy stuff like Possession (1981). You wont be disappointed.
Irréversible (2002)
Powerful and haunting
The way the movie starts, with the camera rotating constantly, is a prelude to the nightmare you are about to face. The scene in the Rectum bar with the fire extinguisher is the most shocking one I've ever seen. It stays in your head. The rape scene was extremely painful to see too. Irréversible is an "avant-garde" movie made like never before. Very long takes, few cuts, so you have to see the horror in all its gory and mad details. The music plays an important role in this movie by hypnotizing you and increasing your receptiveness. Apparently many viewers needed medical assistance during its first presentation at Cannes.