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Machete 2010 ★★★★
Four stars once you enjoy Machete for what it is: rollercoaster B-movie fun with flip out moments like “holy shit, he jumped from one floor to another holding the dude's intestins”. Or “is that...? wow.”
Add a star studded cast with everybody involved clearly having a lot of fun with their respective parts and we're off to the races. Also props to Robert Rodriguez for casting Tom Savini and Cheech Marin.
Black Mirror: Shut Up and Dance 2016 ★★★★½
Talk about bleak. Good lord.
One of those rare occasions where I don't really know what to say. By the end, I was speechless.
Is it the soul crushing ending or the perfect use of Radiohead in the ending scene? Or the fact that Kenny was so successfully portrayed as a seemingly nice kid that the truth did not really dawn on me until a bit later? When all the pieces fell into place.
Not every episode can be a zinger, but when BM hits the mark, they can give a masterclass in writing and storytelling.
Macabre 2009 ★★★★★
This Indonesian flick was a true horror of the senses. Texas Chainsaw levels of intensity. It really glues you to the screen.
Don't expect the plot to reinvent the wheel. A group of friends do a good deed which ends up becoming their undoing when they are captured by an Indonesian version of the Sawyer-family. This is all about the looks, the actors, the delivery and the atmosphere.
Especially that mother. Holy crap, does she look creepy. Imagine a crossover between Vincent Price's mask from House of Wax and Kristanna Loken in T3 and you will get a vague idea. And her delivery. Everything she says has this emotionless, measured tone that makes it sound all the more frightening. Phoah. You are in control, madam.
This control extends to every bit of action. Like the daughter singling out the horndog of the group in a split second. Or the nonchalant way one of the sons goes to work torturing good guy Alam. Or the line about how “the others got tired too”. The tone and delivery on that one. Brr.
All of this comes with exquisite gore and mark out moments a mile a minute. Unless you OD on that, you will love it. Because this movie will NOT give you a minute to recover once it gets going.
Five stars across the board. As far as I know, there is no stream available at this point, but seeking out a copy of the DVD is worth your while. Well recommended.
Bodies Bodies Bodies 2022 ★★½
This looks like some sort of woke version of The breakfast club or St Elmo's fire. Except that, like Unfriended, it mostly begs the question why these people are friends in the first place. Thus providing drinking game material: depending on wether you want to be tipsy or bombed, you can either take a sip or do a shot for every bit of namecalling of every OMG in the dialogue.
Don't get me wrong, it's not terrible. It's enjoyable for what it is. Lightweight horror comedy fluff with a bit of a twist. Unlike other genre mates, it's less adolescent or jokey joke, with the final reveal serving as a good example.
It reminded me of what a friend once described as how women's humour generally is different from men's humour and how women's humour according to her more relies on laughing at situations (with a bit of you had to have been there as well) than on common jokes. If Schwarzenegger is the idea of “men's humour” – simple, bite size, with a bit of the look-at-how-witty-I-am-peacocking – then this seems closer to what she was trying to explain to me then and probably also somewhat connects to director Halina Reijn's own sense of humour.
It's never really scary, though it has a good fake out moment in the first act and at least it has the courage not to go for the low hanging fruit of turning this into an easy slasher concept. It keeps you guessing and no matter what you say, you don't see the final reveal coming. The type of rap that fills the score (catchy and energetic) is more memorable than the acting (not terrible, not great, nobody really stood out). That said, Pete Davidson is well cast as the annoying pipsqueak. Pretty sure there was or should be an SNL-sketch where he does a good Zuckerberg impression.
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