#iamsteihl

[edisonia]

Boys Don’t Cry - Stefan’s Review

This is a fun crime comedy film about gangsters and some teens who accidentally gets involved with them. At first glance it reminds me a little of films like In Bruges, Pulp Fiction, Kopps etc. This one put more emphasis on the humour perhaps. And even tho the plot summary and subject matter etc may suggest that it contains dark humour, it still keeps a very light tone(which I think works great in this case). What I liked the most about this movie was the characters. Especially the blond wanna-be-tough-guy and son of a mafia boss, Bolec. Something about his ignorance/stupidity made for good comedy, ha. The big guy(forgot the name) is also a fun character, I think mostly because of him being very monotonish all the time(and even worse after he gets a braindamage). Also loved the ongoing theme of Bolec not being able to kill the people he was suppose to eliminate due to a number of random reasons.

There's quite a few funny segments, but most involve some kind of absurd/complicated situation and would have to be seen. I recommend this movie if you're into the kind of movies mentioned earlier and want something amusing/fun to watch!

[edisonia]

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop - Stefan’s Review

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop is a fascinating and entertaining look at Conan's comedy concert tour, both on and offstage. There's never really any dull moment and the pace is pretty high from the start. Basically Conan and his team sends out a tweet announcing the tour, and the tickets are sold out in record time(much to their surprise) The only problem is that they don't have a show/plan yet!! What follows is especially interesting, seeing some of the creative process where they go from having just a small idea to a full show. If anything, I would love to see more of this process and how some of the ideas for the comedy-sketches etc came about(That's always fun to watch). 

We also get to see a lot of bits from the actual show, which is cool! However, imo the most interesting and fun moments actually took place behind the scenes. Seeing Conan's energy on stage is quite a contrast from when we see him backstage, but he still makes a lot of funny comments.. most of the time. If you don't like Conan in the first place, you probably won't like this documentary as it's all about Conan(I could see some saying it's TOO much Conan, because if you're not a fan he might come off annoying). If you're a fan or think he's a good comedian then you'll most likely find this documentary very entertaining and worth your time. If you're a creative person you would probably wish there was more of the process oriented stuff, but still like the parts that shows some of this. All in all I thought it was very entertaining!

[edisonia]

I Saw The Devil - Stefan’s Review

I Saw The Devil is a shockingly brutal revenge flick, filled with blood and suspense. I was familiar with one of the director's earlier films, A Tale of Two Sisters , and it's safe to say (from what I remember) that the violent/gory trademark is still intact(expect it to be very graphic and disturbing). Basically a serial killer, Kyung-chul, kills the fiancée of a special agent, Kim Soo-hyeon , who then sets out for revenge.

The actors did a great job, and I found the two leads first encounter/fight-scene pretty epic. From there on tho it takes a left turn (given that it was still early in the movie it was kind of expected but..) where Kim Soo-hyeon hunts Kyung-chul with a GPS/mic but doesn't kill him when he have the chance. Instead he sets him free, only to hunt him down again and injure him some more. This hunting concept kind of gets repetitive after a while, since it's very clear what will happen next. It does however pick up steam again when the tables are turned yet again and Kyung-chul is taking control of the situation. The last 30 mins or so are pretty suspensful stuff. Real edge of your seat moments(love that!). However, given the genre and the high rating I might of expected something a little better overall. It just seemed to lack that little extra that would set it more apart, or be around the same level of thriller's like Se7en for instance. Could be tempting to relate this to the somewhat long runtime, but that was never even a concern as the movie flows along nicely and stays interesting. Hmm, a little too dark/cold blooded for my usual taste maybe, but it's a very solid film nonetheless.

[edisonia]

Nine Queens - Stefan’s Review

"Awesome!!" - my exact thoughts after(and while) watching Nine Queens. A film that's never even been on my radar, and it turned out to be one of my favorite movies that I've seen this year. Not bad! Right from the opening scene in Nine Queens I was immediately hooked. It all starts at a gas station where one con artist (Juan) tries pulling off a trick twice, but gets caught the second time. The other con artist, Marcos, helps him out of trouble by pretending to be a cop. From there on their partnership begins. The journey that followed did not disappoint, and I really enjoyed most of it (especially seeing all the con tricks and plot-turns). The term "nothing is what it seems" feels like one of the overall themes here - which to me is a good thing, always!

The only actor I was familiar with from before was Ricardo Darín, mainly for his part in "El secreto de sus ojos" and I thought he did a great job in this one along with the other main actor, Gastón Pauls aka Juan. Great chemistry, and the other actors were pretty solid too. Sometimes I had trouble catching bits of the dialogue though, because of how fast the subtitles changed :P When watching this film you really need to pay close attention or else you could easily fall out in parts(needing to rewind certain scenes, like myself).

If I were to nitpick I'm sure I would find some plotholes or that certain things were predictable etc. but the bottom line is, I enjoyed it for what it was. It was excactly what I hoped for and more. Recommended!

<Spoiler Alert> For me, I didn't really mind the twist at the end, but it may have seemed a little far fetched. Regardless the movie was great imo prior to the twist being revealed so it didn't have that much effect for me either way. </Spoiler Alert>

[edisonia]

Blue Valentine - Stefan’s Review

Blue Valentine is a simple but kinda facinating story. It's also portrayed and written in a way that makes it feel realistic.

Now, I'm not usually a fan of switching between time periods within movies, unless it's done in a good way. And in Blue Valentine, it worked well without ever feeling forced or contrived in any way. The constant change of timeperiods demands your attention a lot while watching, which I thought made the movie feel more intense and interesting. We're given just enough information to be able to follow along the timeline and sympathize with the characters, but not too much so that it becomes predictable and plain. Of course, this wouldn't work at all if the actors weren't any good. But luckily, the actor's really did a great job in this film - the credibility was there from the start all the way to the end. (Michelle Williams got nominated for an Oscar for her role, but Ryan Goslin should probably have been nominated as well imo). Hard to pick a fav scene, but for some reason I really liked the scene in which Dean shows up drunk at Cindy's job and making a mess. Dramatic!

The only thing that annoyed me slightly sometimes was Cindy's character in the film itself, and that was it really, ha. There's really not much left to say but watch it if you like a good acted drama done in a realistic setting. I, for one, thought it was better than what it sounded like when just reading the plot. Not too cliche and not over-ambitious. Solid film overall!

[edisonia]

Rubber - Stefan’s Review

Rubber is not a movie I've heard much about, in fact my knowlegde of this movie is purely based on the poster. Which is awesome, btw! (and the dark one too!) Reading the plotline, a tire that goes around killing people randomly with telepathic superpowers sounds at first glance completely ridiculous, and it certainly lives up to that. For good and for worse. Mostly worse though. It's as if the director sets out to purposely create a movie for people to feel confused about. At least that's the feeling I'm left with after the short runtime of 1 hour and 10 minutes.

One could best describe this film as style over substance. As far as story goes, we see the psychotic little tire take showers, watch some tv and kill a few people once in a while. Now, I was under the impression that the movie would solely focus on the tire's killing spree, and whatever stories that may intervene, like a fun splatter film or something.. What I wasn't prepared for however was the main aspect of the movie - the metafiction part. I'm not sure what function it was suppose to have; if it was mostly for comic relief or not, but one thing's for sure, it added an extra dose of weirdness into the mix. So much that it effectively killed it's own premise, and it seems like this was the director's intention all along. No matter what approach they would've gone with it still would've been kinda silly either way, but personally I would prefer sticking to the "original" concept, ha. Seeing what the director could have managed to squeeze out of the little plot, instead of covering it up with meta jokes.

What I did like was the visuals, the shots were really neat to look at(again, style over substance ha). Also, this part made me laugh a little just by how over the top it was "It's not the end yet, the tire has been reincarnated into a tricycle!!"

So with all that being said is there any reason at all to see Rubber? The answer is simple: absolutely no reason!

[edisonia]

Snow Prince - Stefan's Review

This review of Snow Prince was written very last minute due to an unhealthy addiction of Angry Birds(my focus was unfortunately moreso on destroying the pigs than on watching the movie, apologize in advance :P ) Snow Prince is a nice (children's) film about poverty, death, dreams, friendship, and a dog basically. Couldn't help but think of it as a Disney story in some parts, especially in those scenes where they walked around in snowy landscapes with the dog, Chibi, alongside. Chibi actually felt like the main star for the first part of the film, as he definitely stole the spotlight a little.

With that being said, I really did like most of the characters in this movie. The chemistry between the likeable main character, Sota, and the others(especially his grandfather) were very good portrayed. Little subplots I enjoyed was the search for the "night-sky" paint - that could only be found by going through a dangerous tunnel(tension, yay!).

Other themes I thought was interesting was the bad relationship between Sayo's father and Sota, and the whole circus scenario. "No circuses. Circuses are bad"  Ha, don't know why I liked this quote in particular, but it's one of those I remembered after seeing the film.

The last 20 mins are also very captiviating to watch as well. The pace is slow moving, but I find that it works good for this kinda film. The build up of the characters felt pretty natural and hence, the ending also made sort of an impact with the way things panned out. Overall it's a very nice film - with a cute dog - but perhaps what I missed was some more originality or something "new" since the whole story felt very familiar(like something you've seen a lot of times). But yeah, pretty great film overall!

[edisonia]

Renaissance - Stefan's Review

I’ve always been a fan of the film-noir and sci-fi thriller/mystery genre. In fact this might be my favorite type of genre out of all. The plot revolving around kidnapping/identity-theft and a large company called Avalon, set in a dark (Sin City-like) atmosphere in 2054 sounded engaging enough, and the opening credits kept me wanting to see more. With some nice typography flowing across the screen and eerie music to set the mood, I felt I was in for a treat. Immediately afterwards you’re introduced to some dazzling black and white visuals. The dark atmosphere fits great, and the motion is captivating to watch at first. Still, after some minutes in I couldn't help but think “Great graphics, but when does the film start? Will there even be a connection with the characters at all?” In other words, I felt more and more like I was just watching things take place on the screen, but not being able to live inside of it(which is key for this type of films to work at all) With time it did get a little better, however my opinion of the film still remains very mixed. Positive My fav thing about the film would have to be the graphics/effects(obviously). The film also includes some cool looking villains, who have the awesome ability to be semi-transparent(real Predator-style!) Especally liked the scene where the main character, Karas, is involved in a gunfight in a small forest/glass-house.

Other scenes I felt worked well were the car-chase and when they were breaking into the vault in the Avalon building. Pretty cliched stuff you could say, but at least there was some tension in those scenes.

Negative I think the reason why some scenes worked better for me than others is that they kept it simple. For the most part I felt the plot/dialogue is overcomplicated for no reason. There’s already the visuals that demands a lot of attention, and simplifying the story and dialogue in some bits would help the film keep focus in the long run(more easy/engaging to follow along). Unfortunately both the characters and the dialogue feels quite flat, couple that with the graphics and it’s almost like you’re watching scenes from a videogame(Was just waiting for the game to start so I could play :P ) Another thing I didn’t like was the editing. It seemed kinda rushed in some places, with sudden cuts from one place to another, too excessive use of fading in and out, dramatic music in scenes that to me didn’t really fit the context etc.

After being impressed with the visuals for a while, Renaissance becomes uninteresting and plain (I felt that it dragged on, especially towards the end). A shorter runtime would have benifited the film greatly in that sense. Watching the trailer and just some scenes would probably have been enough for me as the plot really just seems like a variation of the same stuff we’ve already seen in films like Equilibrium, Blade Runner, Minority Report etc. I mean, that’s awesome and all had it only been more engaging. Dig the genre, but this one was just meh. Unfortunately :/