Monday, February 11, 2013

Primer Review

Primer is a low budget psychological thriller that is not for people to watch when they are are either tired, drunk, or trying to multitask. This might be the most confusing movie I have ever seen, and it does not explain too much. After you watch it, just google it and you will want to rewatch it.

What I liked:

I liked the narration of the movie, it set a nice suspenseful tone. I also liked the science for everything and the convoluted story could allow for many viewings to try and figure out everything.

What I did not like:

The characters, the rushed pace of everything, the acting, and the production costs. So essentially everything else. The characters were not really fleshed out nor were there interests and the kid was very seldom referenced, as were the 2 other original members of the group. The acting was just bad on all levels and that does not have to be the case in a low budget movie. The movie was essentially a "have power, they lose it" but without any character development to get me to care about really anyone in the movie. It was an 80 minute bleh movie with some complicated time travel aspects to try and overcompensate for a general lack of poor plot, character development, and acting.

I give this low budget movie a 5/10

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Jaws Review

 I had never seen Jaws before yesterday for one reason or another. This was seen as a tragedy by most so I ended up watching it with a group of friends. It was better than I expected to be quite perfectly honest.

The movie has truly held the test of time, as the suspense was built throughout with the music and superb camera angles. It is no wonder why this movie helped launch Spielberg's career. Also a movie that has been parodied so many times and originated so many references has to be fondly thought of. For instance it was nice to finally understand what so many people are referencing with the creepy old man in the room drawing attention to himself, bad hat harry, and we are going to need a bigger boat.

What I liked:

As has already been stated I liked the camera angles in the movie. The underwater shots with Jaws helped add to the suspense and gravity of the situation. The music was very well recognizable and did a great job of building the mood of the scene. What Spielberg did a great job of doing was realizing you do not need to show the villian of a horror film in order to establish the threat level of him. To be honest I thought the shark was most menacing when we did not see him, the movie did a wonderful job of building the suspense.

The acting was cheesy at times, however that was more of the era the film was shot in. The main character was your typical hero, off to do the right thing and always does his best because of some moral standard he possesses.

What I did not like:

The supporting cast was eh, the shark "expert" was a bumbling fool throughout the entire movie after his initial inspection. I mean that guy cannot hold on to ANYTHING in water. Also the mayor was just illogically dumb whenever it was convenient to advance the story.

I also felt the movie was about 30 minutes too long. They should have cut some stuff out, most of the "shark is in the pond" scene could have been avoided if they would not have relied on such lazy methods to keep the story going. The scenes on the boat were well done, however you could have wiped out one singing scene and probably cut a good 5-10 minutes off the hour they are there. Also why did they bring the old boat instead of the new superior one?

Jaws was good and the dialogue provided many timeless references and built good suspense, however the movie lasted too long and relied on some lazy plot elements to advance the story. I give it a 8/10.