SEMI-DOCUMENTARY GRUESOME INDIE

B-horrors rarely managed to create the adequate atmosphere and the sense of realism due to their restricted budget, but original story about the family of demented mass murders buried deep into the American south isn’t of those failed scripts.

Although limited when it came to special effects and casting, „Texas chainsaw massacre” manages to persuade the viewer that those kind of maniacs really exists somewhere and that innocent people can get really hurt stumbling upon their home, as did the teenagers in the movie story.

„Texas chainsaw massacre” is one of the scarier horror movies and one of the more realistic ones as well.

TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE – 6/10

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HILARIOUS, NOT SCARY

There are horror stories that were never meant to be scary, just utterly ironical and funny and „An American werewolf in London” is one of those stories.

All the trademark werewolf script elements will be there, as well as some hilarious dialogues between the dead and the living. On the other hand, special effects and acting will just be horrible, so that kinda evens up the score.

„An American werewolf in London” was better to have been directed as a comedy than a horror movie.

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON – 3/10

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STILL GRUESOME

1980s saw the rapid expansion of b-movie production, especially when it came to horrors.

Clive Barker’s story about the escapee from hell and its effort to revive himself certainly comes as one of the more bloody ones, fueled by some revolutionary special effects and solid acting (Higgins).

The script will also be one of the more innovative ones, although the ending and the introduction to the entire franchise is something we already saw many times before.

„Hellraiser” is still a gruesome horror, even by today’s standards.

HELLRAISER – 7/10

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BIRTH OF THE ENTIRE GENRE

Most people believe that „Rocky” was the birth of a modern fighter movie and they are wrong. Walter Hill managed to film a better, more convincing and better acted movie couple of years before Stallone rose to the stars and picked up all the laureates, including the „oscars”.

A story about the silent and harsh, but fair stage fighter travelling across the American south was written for one man, Charlie Bronson. With reliable James Coburn as his sleazy agent, it was left to Hill to direct crude and realistic fighting scenes, while preserving the „lone hero” aura around Bronson.

With little or no music at all, „Hard times” will often resemble a documentary more than a featured film.

„Hard times” was the first major American fighter movie and one of the best ones as well.

HARD TIMES – 7/10

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PLAIN GARBAGE

Movie stories with merging human and animal genome can never work, whether it is about a spider-man or the fly-man.

Merging the nonmergable won’t be made more convincing neither by the stellar crew (Goldblum, Davis) nor by the solid director (Cronenberg). Trashy special effects will only contribute to the overall tragicomedy of the entire flick.

„The Fly” is one of movies that was out of date at the very moment it emerged and still remains so.

THE FLY – 2/10

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CARPENTER’S JOURNEY INTO MAINSTREAM

John Carpenter was the king of b-movies, especially when it came to horrors. His illustrious work in the lower  productions managed at one point to elevate him to some serious budgets, such as the „Halloween” saga.

Classical story about the immortal murderer behind the mask will show off all the director’s talent, especially when it comes to combining angles and lenses. It will enthrone Jamie Lee Curtiss as the queen of movie screams and open the entire movie cult that will span from modern horror interpretations („Scream”) to comedy („Scary movie”). It will also end too abruptly, just teasing the viewer to continue to follow the franchise.

„Halloween” is one of the best directed movies made by John Carpenter and a solid horror as well.

HALLOWEEN – 6/10

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OL’ SCHOOL SCARE

Wes Craven’s „Nightmare on Elm street” is certainly one of the most important horror franchises in recent movie history and it kicked off very well, bringing new and brutal action to the teenage population it was meant to scare.

Besides being the first flick in a flourishing saga, it also managed to establish one of the most iconic movie monsters, the man with daggers instead of his fingers, Freddie Krueger.

Besides from that, and the fact that it introduced young Johnny Depp to the mainstream public, „Nightmare on Elm street” is in the end a cliche horror story, with all its basic benchmarks and script developments.

„Nightmare on Elm street” was an important movie when it first showed up, but has lost some of its relevance during the course of time.

NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET – 4/10

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CLASSIC TRASH

Walter Hill knew how to direct an action movie and an tense one as well.

Story about the group of National guardsmen stranded deep into the marshes of the American south will give us all the basic elements of a Vietnam war movie without having a real conflict in sight. Some great moments of prejudice and racism will also enrich the plot, however trashy it may be from the beginning to the very end.

As for the acting, all the b-movie stars from the ’70s and ’80s will be there, as well as the similar production.

„Southern comfort” is a solid piece of b-production action from some past decades.

SOUTHERN COMFORT – 5/10

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CLASSIC SPANISH CRIME TWISTER

Spanish cinema makers really like to intertwine stories, especially when it comes to crime related scripts. „Contratiempo's” director and writer, Oriol Paulo, uses that very vessel of overlapping to build itself into a really complex script.

In the center of this plot twister are two murders and potential scenarios of their conduction. Every single story aspect and script path will be covered, leading the viewer to a somewhat expected finale. Besides that very ending, all of those classic crime movie tricks will be there, bringing us back to the Golden era of the genre.

If you are into old school Poiroesque crime stories, you should definitely watch „Contratiempo”.

CONTRATIEMPO – 7/10

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FARAWAY, SO CLOSE TO PERFECTION

Christopher Nolan is one of those movie people that has been close to the laureates from the very beginning of his stellar career, but somehow always failed to materialize his enormous talent.

One of the most inspiring wartime stories of all time, English evacuation of expeditionary forces from the coast of Dunkirk in 1940, was one of those scripts waiting for a diversely capable man behind the camera to take it to the stars.

And Nolan did it, creating one of the most tense war movies ever filmed, using everything he has to recreate the unique claustrophobic atmosphere through three overlapping stories (beach, air, water). He also didn’t abandon his trademark storylines intertwining masterfully leading them to the major problem of this movie.

Its ENDING.

If it weren’t for the bottom quarter of the script, we would be now talking about „Dunkirk” as the best directed war movie of this century. If it weren’t for the surreal heroism, pathetic patriotism and sudden lack of brutality, „Dunkirk” would’ve been known as a total triumph of Nolan’s supreme cinematography. Unfortunately, loss of the control over the script managed to severely diminish perfect sound, sound mixing, wide angle, handheld camera and realistic sea and sky battles, as well as some solid acting (Murphy, Whitehead, Rylance) and that is a real shame.

„Dunkirk” is one masterfully directed war story that will awe you in the first three quarters of its course.

DUNKIRK – 8/10

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KEANU’S BACK, FULL TIME

Keanu Reeves is one of the rare blockbuster actors that always knew his place when it came to role choosing. Always with his feet rooted into the ground, he chose to revive his career with ultra trashy male action „John Wick” three years ago and hit the jackpot.

In the second part of clearly a great franchise in the making there will be two distinctive parts of the storyline. First one will be forced out, slow and repelling, while the second one will represent one of the rare examples of perfect action genre.

And not to worry, there will be a third part ;)

„John Wick: Chapter 2” will reward you with some fine trash action, if you endure its first half.

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 – 6/10

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INTRO FOR A VIDEO GAME

Mangas and computer games can rarely be a decent material for a movie script and „Ghost in the shell” isn’t one of them, although it tries really hard to give us an explanation of the half robots-half men in the distant future.

Scarlett Johansson is there to attract the viewers, and the CGI is decently used. However, the script is kinda slow, while offering little explanation in this hugely stretched intro into a whole franchise.

„Ghost in the shell” is the material for a computer game/manga fans and not many more.

GHOST IN THE SHELL – 3/10

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COCKY AND PATHETIC

True stories can be a powerful material for movie scripts, but not always. Terrorist attack at the Boston marathon 2013 could’ve made a great movie, but Peter Berg's hasty adaptation starring Mark Wahlberg just isn’t a good story.

It is really emotionally shattering from time to time, but most of the celluloid is just eaten by tacky American patriotism and artificial hope boosting. On the positive side, there will be some really tense and well directed action sequences, but that’s it.

„Patriot’s day” is story about one of those true events that needs a greater historical distance before transcribing into a movie script.

PATRIOT’S DAY – 4/10

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OH SCRIPT, WHERE ARE THOU?

It isn’t true that everything is bad in today’s high end Hollywood production. There are still some great men behind the camera, capable of filming a suspenseful and innovative scene/sequence/movie. Guy Ritchie is one of those naturally gifted directors, whose editing cut, camera and lens can still surprise us so deep into the 21^st century.

There are also some still decent actors, capable of carrying out their roles they were meant to, even if they were mediocre up until now (i.e. Jude Law).

CGI, production and soundtrack makers were never the issue.

So, what is the main problem with modern blockbuster coming from the other side of the Atlantic?

Script, script, script.

There aren’t any good ones left. If there were, story about King Arthur, his sword and the Knights of the Round table wouldn’t be so trashy and written for the population with special needs. Which is really a shame, because Guy Ritchie otherwise made a really decent action historical/SF spectacle that could’ve been capable of satisfying even a more demanding viewer.

„King Arthur: The legend of the sword” is a good movie with an awful script.

KING ARTHUR: THE LEGEND OF THE SWORD – 5/10

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