I don't care. More experience. I'd tap that.
Film The Redcafe Movie review thread
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The Devil's Toy Box (Out of the Shadows)
Cynthia O'Neil enters a haunted asylum known as the Madison Seminary in search of her father who went missing in the asylum while shooting a reality television show. The plot and style is very similar to Grave Encounters... this just feels like a worse version of that. Some scary moments here and there but also some really cheap and badly done jump scare attempts. The biggest issue is that the audio mix is atrocious. Sometimes the dialogue is too low and sometimes too loud... same goes for sound effects, produciton effects etc. I had to hold my remote and constantly adjust the volume, which took me out of the movie completely 3/10
Cynthia O'Neil enters a haunted asylum known as the Madison Seminary in search of her father who went missing in the asylum while shooting a reality television show. The plot and style is very similar to Grave Encounters... this just feels like a worse version of that. Some scary moments here and there but also some really cheap and badly done jump scare attempts. The biggest issue is that the audio mix is atrocious. Sometimes the dialogue is too low and sometimes too loud... same goes for sound effects, produciton effects etc. I had to hold my remote and constantly adjust the volume, which took me out of the movie completely 3/10
The Room
First time you've watched this?The Room
Light Sleeper (1992)
Nice little 90s crime flick with Willem Dafoe and Susan Sarandon.
Nice little 90s crime flick with Willem Dafoe and Susan Sarandon.
Yes. Kind of knew what I was going into but still an experience all the same.
This was a lot more fun than it needed to be. Found it an enjoyable political-lone wolf thriller hybrid. Jackie is very good and Pierce is very Gerry Adams. Competently made with some solid action scenes. Decent enough poppy-schlock entertainment. Sure, it's less than condemnatory of torture, excessive surveillance, vengeance and violence towards women but then you don't expect to be served avocado on toasted quinoa when you enter a diner.
Oh it's an experience alright.
I thought I was late to the party when I saw it a couple of years back.
It's certainly an experience alright. You're just in time for the disaster artist
Aye, main reason I watched it.I thought I was late to the party when I saw it a couple of years back.
It's certainly an experience alright. You're just in time for the disaster artist
Free Fire 6/10
Watch 'The Villainness' and review it, you fecks
It's korean, not Thai. And it's east asian, not South Asian.Watch 'The Villainness' and review it, you fecks
The. Movie is superb, the first person cam is top notch, im amazed how they do that without too many cuts. But story wise is too complicated, it tries to be la femme nikita and the raid rolled into one.
Imo it'll be better to just forget about contrived plot and go raid path. But all and all a superb movie.
A 9 for your taste in asian cinema and a 3 for your geography
I like jacky more when he does a serious movie (shinjuku incident), i cant stand his stupid slapstick money grabbing all asian star stupidity though (cough... Kungfu yoga... Wtf)
Nah, it's on the watchlist though.
The Foreigner, 7/10
The cranes are flying, 9/10
Fantastic movie, unforgettable cinematography.
Fantastic movie, unforgettable cinematography.
Were you able to watch a HD version ? I can only find a 480p version.
Watched it at the cinema with an original copy from some private archives.
Jesus that sounds incredible.
It was. I love the look of old film. It’s so alive and wonderfully imperfect.
Mikhail Kalatozov's and cinematographer Sergey Urusevsky's other collaboration I Am Cuba is just as gorgeous, this reminds me that I need to get round watching Letter Never Sent.
Star Wars Last Jedi: Heavy Spoiler review!!
'
The trailer said “This isn't going to go the way you think” and while their are defiantly some general plot similarities with ‘Empire Strikes Back’, Director Rian Johnson really tries to hammer home that point. This films has twist after twist after twist…… from Leia Dead, ow no she's not, Kylos gonna turn good ow, no he isn’t, Holdo is a coward/ wait no she’s not, Lukes come to save the day ow he's died ow wait it was just a projection ow no he is dead, Rose is dead ow no she's not…….. its constant and un-relenting, and by the end of the film it had become tiring. You can’t just throw curve-ball after curve-ball because after a while that's what you start to expect.
I love the fact Rian Johnson and Disney had the guts to do try and take things in a different direction, I liked the Force Awakens a lot, but the amount of similarities it has to A New Hope does dampen my enjoyment of it, but I completely understand why Disney went that route with that film and I commend them and Johnson for taking risks with The Last Jedi, its what we have have been crying out for. Watching this film however it feels like they are in such a rush to take risks they forgot they had to have a film good film that makes sense for these risks to take place in.
The film starts with a joke, we all loved the Poe exchange with Kylo Rey in “The Force Awakens’ the who talks first lines where great, but the ‘can he hear me’ joke that starts this film feels like it was written for Tony Stark it just comes across like a spoof and goes on and on and what probably would be a dark space battle scene that follows, just feels jarring because we had just had that daft spoof like humour preceding it. Then Finally we get to the Luke and Rey on the Island where we left them Rey hands Luke the Lightsaber and Luke in another spoof like scene throws it over his head and again your taken out of the film wondering whether your watching a sketch show. Then follows about 10 mints of Rey following Luke around while Rian Johnson in the most unsubtle way imaginable beats the audience over the head with the fact the this isn't the Luke we remember.
Back with the rest of the Resistance things don't get any better, they are under attack and the bridge is destroyed sucking the resistance command out into space, Leia included, but don't worry in a CGI scene about as convincing Dean Cain flying in the ‘new adventurers of superman’ she flies back to the ship….. From their things get more ridiculous, turns out the resistance only have enough fuel for one more light speed jump, but the New Order can track them through Light-speed….. so the Resistance just fly in sub light-speed while the New Order tracks them firing a few shots at them every now and then…. but surely the New Order Could just jump to light speed and appear in front of them, or get one of their other ships else where in the galaxy too do that, i hear you ask? yes they could obviously of done that, but its never mentioned they just fly through space for hours….… So now with Leia injured Laura Derns character Holdo is charge and the films spends the next hour building her up to be in a inept coward, So, with a little interaction from the films second most pointless cameo from Maz Kanata, Poe sends Finn(whose alive and awake after another daft comedy sketch) and new character Rose to go on a pointless mission to find a code breaker to break into the New Order ship ….. to be honest their is literally no point spending time dissecting this useless side plot or its utter waste of Del Toro even showing up, because it basically only exists to give Finn something to do for the film and it really feels like that.
On Lukes island things are picking up slightly we get a few cool scenes with Luke, and Rey and Kylo’s connection shows off the chemistry between the two actors and Rian Johnson does a great job of building up Kylo Ren as a conflicted teenage like character, unfortunately because of what happens later it turns out he does too good a job because it dilutes any threat value the character needs to have later on. It also does a great job of building Rey up to be incredibly powerful even though at no point has she had any Force training at all. Also at this point I want to point out Hamill was fantastic, I was worried how he would come across been back on screen in such a large dramatic role when he had mainly become known for voice acting, but he's brilliant. Their are still a few missteps in this point of the film, the comedy with the Caretakers is truly awful and the obvious cave below the island that strong in the Dark Side is un-necessarily similer to there been a cave on Dagobah strong in the Dark Side. But by the time Rey leaves the Island to go save Kylo its at least got you vaguely interested in where that relationship will go. Enter the films worse Cameo in Yoda, how can the get a puppet right over 35 years ago but not today it looks dreadful and you miss the CGI Yoda from the prequels. He then warbles some nonsense, burns a tree that doesn't contain the books was he warbling about and laughs….. what a waste.
Now i haven't mentioned Snoke yet, we've spent the last two years plus, wondering who he is? whats his plan? where he came from? is he just an Palpatine knock off?….. what a waste of time that was! But in fairness to Johnson while he spends literally no time answering these questions he does do a good job building Snoke up to be incredibly powerful in him limited screen time he gets. Also the CGI on him is brilliant. So we get to the show down between Rey, Kylo and Snoke the films been building towards Kylo turning good, and he boom Kylo kills Snoke, Granted the following battle with Kylo and Rey vs the Emperors Guards rip offs is the best few mins of the movie but once their defeated then what? Kylo obviously cant turn good now as their would be no villains left, so your left with a quick under whelming Rey Vs Kylo round two, Rey escapes and now Kylo Ren is the Supreme Leader of the New Order. The bloke who the director has spent most of the film making to look conflicted and not such a bad guy after all, they guy who has temper tantrums of a 4 year old, who Snoke was lambasting at the beginning of the film for been weak…. is now the new trilogies big bad…..
Else where a lot of other nonsense is happening the pointless Phasma comes back just to die two seconds later, Rian Johsnon has obviously decided what he really likes is the awful way droids are used in the prequels but decides Lucas didn't go far enough down the jumping the shark path, and Spinal Taps it by getting BB8 to drive an ATST(after already taken down a troop of storm troopers), in the 200th twist Holdo turns out to be brave rendering most of what happened in the film outside of Reys story line obsolete, she then pilots the ship though the New order fleet at light speed seemingly destroying them all(why don't they always do that if its that easy) and the Resistance escapes to a planet and the New Order chases them even though all the visuals seem to show their fleets been destroyed.... but ow well. The following land battle looks awesome visually but never really gets going(why are the resistance flying directly at the the New Order?) but Rose dies sacrificing herself for her love of Finn. Really though your just waiting for Luke to show up, and he duly does and he’s had a hair cut too! The Luke/Leia scene is touching especially considering Carrie Fishers death. Then Luke walks out to obviously sacrifice himself so what remains of the Resistance can escape. I was thoroughly expecting Luke to die walking into this film so this wasn't a surprise, but i was expecting him to go out with a bang. What we get is Kylo having another temper tantrum and getting all the New Order guns to shoot him and after he is still alive goes down to face him, Luke ignites a Blue light sabre (Huh?) does a few Neo from the matrix dodges and then just when you think he has done a Kenobi and disappears as he was struck down you get another twist it was projection and Luke is still on the Island… your like ow cool he survives it doesn't matter that that scene was a bit under whelming…. ow wait no he has disappeared into nothingness in a way that makes Padme death from a broken heart in Revenge of the Sith seem almost palatable. You then get a few more twists, Rose isn't dead the Jedi books didn't burn…… we see a kid possibly move a broom with the force and that's the end ….. I know a review shouldn't normally just lay out of the plot but I had to write it down to see if it seemed any less awful then it did on screen.
The other theme with film is you have to let go of the past (“kill it if you have too”), and again this is done with same amount of subtly as Domhnall Gleeson’s performance as Hux (ie: in no way subtle at all) which I thoroughly support, the franchise had to take us in a new direction if it wants to survive long term. However you have to do it in a way that ties up and is respectful to what came before, Not to mention have a plan of how it goes forward. This is the main point I took away from this film, their is no plan at Lucas film right now! The Force Awakens asked who is Snoke? Who are Reys Parents? The Last Jedi went who cares lets have a load of twists and a comedic scene with a droid acting like a slot machine. Their doesn't feel like their is even a resemblance of a through line going through these films.
So what does it leave us with? Lukes dead, Snokes dead, Carrie Fishers dead, Rey has had no training, the resistance is about 10 people. The new order had it's main weapon blown up in the first film, what seemed to be large chunk of its fleet blown up in the second film. It's all powerful yet plot-less leader is dead and it is now lead by a guy who has been made to seem as menacing as grumpy teenager who secretly just wants his mummy, and whose main General seems to think he is acting in a panto. So what is their to look forward to in episode 9? Theirs no interesting questions left hanging, their obviously no plan in place at Lucas film about where this trilogy is going, so what are we left with? Rey vs Kylo round 3? we've seen that twice already. Their is the underlined problem with the direction Johnson has taken;He has killed the past but left us with no interest in the future; Not only that but he did it in a film that is uneven and lacks coherency, that is so totally obsessed with shocking the audience it completely forgets to tell a good story."
The trailer said “This isn't going to go the way you think” and while their are defiantly some general plot similarities with ‘Empire Strikes Back’, Director Rian Johnson really tries to hammer home that point. This films has twist after twist after twist…… from Leia Dead, ow no she's not, Kylos gonna turn good ow, no he isn’t, Holdo is a coward/ wait no she’s not, Lukes come to save the day ow he's died ow wait it was just a projection ow no he is dead, Rose is dead ow no she's not…….. its constant and un-relenting, and by the end of the film it had become tiring. You can’t just throw curve-ball after curve-ball because after a while that's what you start to expect.
I love the fact Rian Johnson and Disney had the guts to do try and take things in a different direction, I liked the Force Awakens a lot, but the amount of similarities it has to A New Hope does dampen my enjoyment of it, but I completely understand why Disney went that route with that film and I commend them and Johnson for taking risks with The Last Jedi, its what we have have been crying out for. Watching this film however it feels like they are in such a rush to take risks they forgot they had to have a film good film that makes sense for these risks to take place in.
The film starts with a joke, we all loved the Poe exchange with Kylo Rey in “The Force Awakens’ the who talks first lines where great, but the ‘can he hear me’ joke that starts this film feels like it was written for Tony Stark it just comes across like a spoof and goes on and on and what probably would be a dark space battle scene that follows, just feels jarring because we had just had that daft spoof like humour preceding it. Then Finally we get to the Luke and Rey on the Island where we left them Rey hands Luke the Lightsaber and Luke in another spoof like scene throws it over his head and again your taken out of the film wondering whether your watching a sketch show. Then follows about 10 mints of Rey following Luke around while Rian Johnson in the most unsubtle way imaginable beats the audience over the head with the fact the this isn't the Luke we remember.
Back with the rest of the Resistance things don't get any better, they are under attack and the bridge is destroyed sucking the resistance command out into space, Leia included, but don't worry in a CGI scene about as convincing Dean Cain flying in the ‘new adventurers of superman’ she flies back to the ship….. From their things get more ridiculous, turns out the resistance only have enough fuel for one more light speed jump, but the New Order can track them through Light-speed….. so the Resistance just fly in sub light-speed while the New Order tracks them firing a few shots at them every now and then…. but surely the New Order Could just jump to light speed and appear in front of them, or get one of their other ships else where in the galaxy too do that, i hear you ask? yes they could obviously of done that, but its never mentioned they just fly through space for hours….… So now with Leia injured Laura Derns character Holdo is charge and the films spends the next hour building her up to be in a inept coward, So, with a little interaction from the films second most pointless cameo from Maz Kanata, Poe sends Finn(whose alive and awake after another daft comedy sketch) and new character Rose to go on a pointless mission to find a code breaker to break into the New Order ship ….. to be honest their is literally no point spending time dissecting this useless side plot or its utter waste of Del Toro even showing up, because it basically only exists to give Finn something to do for the film and it really feels like that.
On Lukes island things are picking up slightly we get a few cool scenes with Luke, and Rey and Kylo’s connection shows off the chemistry between the two actors and Rian Johnson does a great job of building up Kylo Ren as a conflicted teenage like character, unfortunately because of what happens later it turns out he does too good a job because it dilutes any threat value the character needs to have later on. It also does a great job of building Rey up to be incredibly powerful even though at no point has she had any Force training at all. Also at this point I want to point out Hamill was fantastic, I was worried how he would come across been back on screen in such a large dramatic role when he had mainly become known for voice acting, but he's brilliant. Their are still a few missteps in this point of the film, the comedy with the Caretakers is truly awful and the obvious cave below the island that strong in the Dark Side is un-necessarily similer to there been a cave on Dagobah strong in the Dark Side. But by the time Rey leaves the Island to go save Kylo its at least got you vaguely interested in where that relationship will go. Enter the films worse Cameo in Yoda, how can the get a puppet right over 35 years ago but not today it looks dreadful and you miss the CGI Yoda from the prequels. He then warbles some nonsense, burns a tree that doesn't contain the books was he warbling about and laughs….. what a waste.
Now i haven't mentioned Snoke yet, we've spent the last two years plus, wondering who he is? whats his plan? where he came from? is he just an Palpatine knock off?….. what a waste of time that was! But in fairness to Johnson while he spends literally no time answering these questions he does do a good job building Snoke up to be incredibly powerful in him limited screen time he gets. Also the CGI on him is brilliant. So we get to the show down between Rey, Kylo and Snoke the films been building towards Kylo turning good, and he boom Kylo kills Snoke, Granted the following battle with Kylo and Rey vs the Emperors Guards rip offs is the best few mins of the movie but once their defeated then what? Kylo obviously cant turn good now as their would be no villains left, so your left with a quick under whelming Rey Vs Kylo round two, Rey escapes and now Kylo Ren is the Supreme Leader of the New Order. The bloke who the director has spent most of the film making to look conflicted and not such a bad guy after all, they guy who has temper tantrums of a 4 year old, who Snoke was lambasting at the beginning of the film for been weak…. is now the new trilogies big bad…..
Else where a lot of other nonsense is happening the pointless Phasma comes back just to die two seconds later, Rian Johsnon has obviously decided what he really likes is the awful way droids are used in the prequels but decides Lucas didn't go far enough down the jumping the shark path, and Spinal Taps it by getting BB8 to drive an ATST(after already taken down a troop of storm troopers), in the 200th twist Holdo turns out to be brave rendering most of what happened in the film outside of Reys story line obsolete, she then pilots the ship though the New order fleet at light speed seemingly destroying them all(why don't they always do that if its that easy) and the Resistance escapes to a planet and the New Order chases them even though all the visuals seem to show their fleets been destroyed.... but ow well. The following land battle looks awesome visually but never really gets going(why are the resistance flying directly at the the New Order?) but Rose dies sacrificing herself for her love of Finn. Really though your just waiting for Luke to show up, and he duly does and he’s had a hair cut too! The Luke/Leia scene is touching especially considering Carrie Fishers death. Then Luke walks out to obviously sacrifice himself so what remains of the Resistance can escape. I was thoroughly expecting Luke to die walking into this film so this wasn't a surprise, but i was expecting him to go out with a bang. What we get is Kylo having another temper tantrum and getting all the New Order guns to shoot him and after he is still alive goes down to face him, Luke ignites a Blue light sabre (Huh?) does a few Neo from the matrix dodges and then just when you think he has done a Kenobi and disappears as he was struck down you get another twist it was projection and Luke is still on the Island… your like ow cool he survives it doesn't matter that that scene was a bit under whelming…. ow wait no he has disappeared into nothingness in a way that makes Padme death from a broken heart in Revenge of the Sith seem almost palatable. You then get a few more twists, Rose isn't dead the Jedi books didn't burn…… we see a kid possibly move a broom with the force and that's the end ….. I know a review shouldn't normally just lay out of the plot but I had to write it down to see if it seemed any less awful then it did on screen.
The other theme with film is you have to let go of the past (“kill it if you have too”), and again this is done with same amount of subtly as Domhnall Gleeson’s performance as Hux (ie: in no way subtle at all) which I thoroughly support, the franchise had to take us in a new direction if it wants to survive long term. However you have to do it in a way that ties up and is respectful to what came before, Not to mention have a plan of how it goes forward. This is the main point I took away from this film, their is no plan at Lucas film right now! The Force Awakens asked who is Snoke? Who are Reys Parents? The Last Jedi went who cares lets have a load of twists and a comedic scene with a droid acting like a slot machine. Their doesn't feel like their is even a resemblance of a through line going through these films.
So what does it leave us with? Lukes dead, Snokes dead, Carrie Fishers dead, Rey has had no training, the resistance is about 10 people. The new order had it's main weapon blown up in the first film, what seemed to be large chunk of its fleet blown up in the second film. It's all powerful yet plot-less leader is dead and it is now lead by a guy who has been made to seem as menacing as grumpy teenager who secretly just wants his mummy, and whose main General seems to think he is acting in a panto. So what is their to look forward to in episode 9? Theirs no interesting questions left hanging, their obviously no plan in place at Lucas film about where this trilogy is going, so what are we left with? Rey vs Kylo round 3? we've seen that twice already. Their is the underlined problem with the direction Johnson has taken;He has killed the past but left us with no interest in the future; Not only that but he did it in a film that is uneven and lacks coherency, that is so totally obsessed with shocking the audience it completely forgets to tell a good story."
Yeah, the guy who introduced the movie also raved about I Am Cuba. I‘ll definitely try to see it as soon as possible.
It's spellbinding from the first minute.
The Forty-First is another great looking film, not directed by Kalatozov but shot by Urusevsky. In colour as well.
The Forty-First is another great looking film, not directed by Kalatozov but shot by Urusevsky. In colour as well.
Call Me by Your Name is very good.
It really is a very well-made film about family in the end. Too bad it can't see much exposure due to the genre.
Devil
A group of people are trapped in an elevator and the Devil is mysteriously amongst them. Saw this for the second time and still enjoyed it. Some twists and turns that got me even the second time. Really fun bottle-neck style movie, really like these kinds of films 8/10
Here Alone
A young woman struggles to survive on her own in the wake of a mysterious epidemic that has killed much of society, and forced her deep into the unforgiving wilderness. Very slow and for the most part boring and forgettable. Sets up to nothing really and the ending just annoyed me. Felt like the beginning of a film that takes 90 minutes. I'd avoid 3/10
The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister. Shot really well and an interesting idea/story but there are some plot holes that make the film fall apart when you think about them. I thought maybe these were things that are metaphorical/symbloc that I just didn't understand but after reading around online and talking to others that loved the film, it really does feel like they were plot holes. The acting, like in this directors previous films, felt like script reading rehearsals, which also took me out of the film. The main villain was superb though and is a film that you think about a fair bit after seeing it. My score may go up when I revisit it, but for now, it's a 6/10
Mother!
A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence. This is pretty much the film I wished the above to be. It has a surface level storyline but it's the concept underneath that makes the film memorable, tight and re-watchable. Everything makes sense once you know what the film is about and highlights how deliberate all the moments are that feel random during the first watch. Definitely going to watch this again as I enjoyed it a lot 8.5/10
A group of people are trapped in an elevator and the Devil is mysteriously amongst them. Saw this for the second time and still enjoyed it. Some twists and turns that got me even the second time. Really fun bottle-neck style movie, really like these kinds of films 8/10
Here Alone
A young woman struggles to survive on her own in the wake of a mysterious epidemic that has killed much of society, and forced her deep into the unforgiving wilderness. Very slow and for the most part boring and forgettable. Sets up to nothing really and the ending just annoyed me. Felt like the beginning of a film that takes 90 minutes. I'd avoid 3/10
The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister. Shot really well and an interesting idea/story but there are some plot holes that make the film fall apart when you think about them. I thought maybe these were things that are metaphorical/symbloc that I just didn't understand but after reading around online and talking to others that loved the film, it really does feel like they were plot holes. The acting, like in this directors previous films, felt like script reading rehearsals, which also took me out of the film. The main villain was superb though and is a film that you think about a fair bit after seeing it. My score may go up when I revisit it, but for now, it's a 6/10
Mother!
A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence. This is pretty much the film I wished the above to be. It has a surface level storyline but it's the concept underneath that makes the film memorable, tight and re-watchable. Everything makes sense once you know what the film is about and highlights how deliberate all the moments are that feel random during the first watch. Definitely going to watch this again as I enjoyed it a lot 8.5/10
Yeah it's properly brilliant. I didn't like much about Seven Psychopaths but loved In Bruges. I think this is better than both and I'm excited to watch it again.
Loved it from start to finish. Definitely recommend it. The story takes more than a few unexpected turns. But it is brilliantly done. You should watch it, especially if you’re a fan of Lester Freamon. I think he still might be in character
Happy Death Day
A college student must relive the day of her murder over and over again, in a loop that will end only when she discovers her killer's identity. Groundhog Day with a horror twist. Very predictable and doesn't really do anything differently. I guessed the killer the first time I saw them. There are some cool moments and the protagonist does what you would expect, so that's nice for a horror film and there is a decent twist that I didn't see coming but overall, I felt slightly let down 4.5/10
A college student must relive the day of her murder over and over again, in a loop that will end only when she discovers her killer's identity. Groundhog Day with a horror twist. Very predictable and doesn't really do anything differently. I guessed the killer the first time I saw them. There are some cool moments and the protagonist does what you would expect, so that's nice for a horror film and there is a decent twist that I didn't see coming but overall, I felt slightly let down 4.5/10
Toni Erdmann - Never thought I'd enjoy a 2h42m German film so much. Really touching and tender character study, light on the humour and light on the drama too, but an incredibly personal and careful film.
Call Me By Your Name was just absolutely stunning and so forth.
Watched the Dark Tower and, yeah, it’s spectacularly bad. But then it was always going to be. King’s reached the level of literary legend where everything he’s ever written is considered game for potential adaptation, despite the fact that anyone whose ever read a King book knows his talent lies in the elaborately detailed backstories and inner lives he gives his characters, rather than the cool and original plots he puts them in. Basically, the things that work better in books than movies. Hence why the best adaptations of his work have usually been of short stories, or changed so much that he outright actively hates it.
The reason he’s an author is because what he’s really good at is taking a lot of drugs and writing 400 pages of inner monologue and lengthy descriptions of crazy bonkers shit. Which is exactly what an author should do in fairness, but under no circumstance what a screenwriter should. So however involving the Dark Tower books may be to read, they were never going to work as a film of any length, let alone a 90 minute one, because the plot stripped of all the things that makes books good, is rote generic fantasy shit. Also cocaine.
Elba’s quite good though tbf.
The reason he’s an author is because what he’s really good at is taking a lot of drugs and writing 400 pages of inner monologue and lengthy descriptions of crazy bonkers shit. Which is exactly what an author should do in fairness, but under no circumstance what a screenwriter should. So however involving the Dark Tower books may be to read, they were never going to work as a film of any length, let alone a 90 minute one, because the plot stripped of all the things that makes books good, is rote generic fantasy shit. Also cocaine.
Elba’s quite good though tbf.
Yeah, some of his work really stays with the reader afterwards but some of the adapted stuff is quite thin, really.
He’s an incredibly evocative writer (for better or worse *cough* child orgy *cough*) but a lot of his plots seem like after thoughts. Stand By Me is probably the best adaptation, ‘cos it’s the one that treats it as a character peice, which is fitting for a short that barely has a plot at all.
Yeah, some of his work really stays with the reader afterwards but some of the adapted stuff is quite thin, really.
Which is perfectly normal for someone so insanely prolific. Even the most talented writers can spend months or even years trying to break a story, whereas all you need for 400 pages of crazy inner monologue are a couple of grams and a free weekend. And talent obviously, Im not a denigrator of King. I like a fair bit of his stuff. Mostly the shorts, where he’s run out of cocaine just at the right time to tell a coherent story.
Apparently Gerald’s Game on Netflix is really good. I haven’t seen it (or read the book) but it seems like a quintessentially King thing. A good dark idea that then allows the main character to talk to themselves for 50 million pages.
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Two on my to watch list. Glad to see positive reviews.
It’s put me right off peaches though.
I like the horribly dated mini-series of "The Stand".
I am probably in a minority though.
I am probably in a minority though.
I'm just shocked that he's called 'Armie Hammer', always thought it was 'Arnie'.
I like that also, just downloaded another of his to watch , its an old one but one I have not seen. Graveyard.Shift