stahlman

IMDb member since August 2003
    Lifetime Total
    1+
    IMDb Member
    20 years

Reviews

Hostel
(2005)

Is this entertainment?
This is disturbing. I did not feel entertained afterward, just sick and melancholy.

*Spoilers below*

The build up is fun and somewhat realistic for those having traveled on trains in Europe. but then torture, gore, death and murder in a WAREHOUSE seems like NOTHING NEW for this genre except for the level of violence.

Then, around the time when we could enjoy someone escaping the madness, we get a girl committing suicide due to her shame of disfigurement -- and sadder still, it was predictable.

Then the guy escapes but not before the revenge murders in the same torturous fashion. You expect him to kill the guy, knowing this will possibly end the torture club etc. But by showing the violence, you feel he is just like the sick killers. Maybe that's this movie's depressing purpose, to show our « eye for an eye » sense of justice.

I don't want moralizing and certainly don't expect a Disney ending, but this movie focuses on the worst of human nature and I don't recommend it.

Timeline
(2003)

This was a good film, entertaining
I kept waiting for this film to fall apart after the bad reviews but it was highly entertaining. I was never bored. The main character that falls in love with Kate was the only actor who made me cringe. I was impressed with how the French was accurate and how much was spoken. The fact that the English sounded pretty much like other modern British accents is excusable because it's just an action film, and who knows what the language really sounded like then. I'd rather it tell a story than be pretentious like The Passion which pretended to know how aramaic sounded, but didn't even get the accuracy of the well-known crucifiction spike through the wrist instead of hand. Like I said, entertaining film. Kind of bland dialogue sometimes, but at least it keeps the script moving. I liked it much more than people on IMDB.

Alien Hunter
(2003)

Ripped off a lot of films, but entertaining with a good ending
I thought it was great. Yes, ripped off many films, but a good screenplay nonetheless (kept the film moving) and more importantly, a surprising ending. Not oscar material, but I'd give it thumbs up. The base was totally unrealistic however. "The Thing" base was more like what it would be. And the title "Alien Hunter"... totally for marketing. It should have been -- in fun sci-fi form -- "It came from Space" or something. Cause it wasn't about hunting an alien. The geneticist guy was too 1-dimensional. They should have slowly developped his attitude instead of making him an idiot from the start.

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