MortoCultese

I went in to watch this with absolutely no information, and I liked it.

most of it takes place inside, or just outside, the Bank. a woman is desperate to get an immediate loan, and not even a robbery will stop her.

it's not your average rehash of bank heist tropes. the robbers are damaged people who behave supremely idiotically. the police are "soft" compared to what one has come to expect from other similar movies. a wordplay is being used as a major plot device (it helps if you speak spanish, but it's not necessary). there's a minor twist halfway through that I honestly did not see coming.

this is not a movie that will change your life, but if you're tired of movies where you can guess the plot twists and the ending 20 minutes in, you'll enjoy it.

The worst movie I've seen in recent memory. By far.

I quite liked the O'Donnel books, they retain their charm several decades after they were written. And Modesty herself, is sassy, sexy, intuitive and capable.

This movie does not do them any justice. The acting ranges from bad to painful to watch. The direction and editing would have looked cool 25 years earlier, but they are laughable by 2004's standards.

Worst of all, the plot. It mostly takes place over a game of roulette, with flashbacks to tell Modesty's story, parts of which bear an uncanny resemblance to Karate Kid. I'm not joking.

There's a good franchise in the MB books, but this movie is nowhere near the origin story it pretends to be. Don't waste your time. Honest.

I really wanted to like this, and in the beginning I did. It starts off with a coupla nice scenes, that are lifted from HPL's short story and set the tone. The "aged film" effect looks quite poor, but I appreciated the effort to make it look like an old movie, with the pompous acting and static direction, etc. And all the Lovecraftian references added in, with a knowing wink.

Then, they skip to the end of the original story just 30 mins into the film. The story works because of all the letters exchanged between the two main characters. Here, when they meet, the viewer doesn't know any of that, as they're just barely mentioned, in passing.

After that, the movie goes off the rails. Characters that are not even named in the story take centre stage. Ridiculous plot points that Azathoth knows why anyone thought they'd work... Unfunny comic relief scenes. And a poor man's Indiana Jones. Don't get me started about the ending. Worst of all, it doesn't get scary. Not one bit.

I was beyond disappointed, but mostly sad, as the original story has enough strong material to make a good, atmospheric, suspenseful, SCARY (low-budget) movie. Instead they added one hour plus of their own, sub par, material and ludicrous dialogue. Even the one thing that holds the story together, the actual "whisperer in darkness", is done as wrong as one could possibly get it.

I don't know if the movie would work for someone who has not read the story. I doubt it, as they skip two thirds of it. It certainly did not work for me. I spent the last half hour hoping Cthulhu would turn up and take me so I don't have to endure any more of it.

Very unusual movie. It starts off as a typical post-apocalyptic/sole survivor film, with Tyrion Lannister wandering alone in his hometown.

Then Elle Fanning crashes her car while driving through. It's still "as expected" for a while, but then things start happening that seem like intruders from a different film, or a Twilight Zone episode...

It's not bad, not great either. Sorta leaves you feeling "meh"... Some questions are never answered, while others are raised that have plainly naive answers. Subplots emerge that disappear without going anywhere...

If you wish, you could see it as a critique on some aspects of the American Dream, but even that's far-fetched... It's not as smart as whoever wrote it thinks it is.

This takes place along two different timelines.

One story, taking place in our time, is a re-imagining of The Da Vinci Code, a quest for the Holy Grail, involving a naive and unassuming heroine, secret societies, rich and therefore powerful individuals and the like.

The other, taking place in Medieval times, has more betrayals, backstabbings and deaths than your average Game of Thrones volume.

It's clear, then, what they tried to do here...

Budget-wise it's decent, but the acting's very basic, and the plot twists (not that many) I saw coming a mile off... oh, and Draco Malfoy as a french prince? that can't be good.

Watchable, but way too obvious in its intentions.

Old fart is too set in his ways yet he goes out of his way to date girls who just want to go dancing and love surprises. old fart gets what's coming to him.

PT Anderson is a master now, but I miss his earlier films, like Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love that told you stories about people you could identify with. this is not one of them.

one more thing, there's a piano playing pretty much throughtout this movie. not sure if it was meant as a grand artistic statement, but it just got on my nerves. big time.

Remember those old movies, where there were good guys and bad guys? yeah, this isn't one of them... every character is good, just misunderstood. but they all have good intentions, and/or they're fighting against past trauma.

social media comes out great, too. it's good to have a profile and "be yourself" on it. as much as possible.

it's an enjoyable film, but a bit too patronizing, and at times nauseating, if you think about it. its makers were perhaps hoping it'd get adopted by certain websites as a promotional tool. but it wasn't. boo-hoo.

This is a well-written and produced re-imagining of the same-titled story by Edgar Allan Poe. in the story, the narrator follows the "Man in the Crowd" around and makes his own observations about his life.

in this exquisite short, the director has fleshed out the story with a subplot, flashbacks and nuances. it all takes place in contemporary Budapest, and the director even sneaks in a miniversum shot.

masterfully directed and beautifully executed, this short gives new life to a Poe classic.

The camera pans across a deserted beach, then a forest. Lithe bodies dance, muscles tense, swords clash. Blood is spilled, breath returns to the aching body to rise anew.

This sublime movie does not betray its limited budget. The photography is gorgeous, and appropriately minimalistic, as is the dialogue, which serves only to enhance the images. Vast, green scenery is the real protagonist in a movie where heroes and goddesses battle for the earth.

I have wanted to watch this for a while, because a clip off it has about 1.5 million views on YouTube... Finally a friend found a DVD with english subs.

Luigi has a standard boring life. He goes jogging every morning, eats healthy, works in a company where his boss, his boss' fiancée and all 9 secretaries love him, and is about to marry the local tycoon's only daughter.

Obviously this can't last.

Enter Sonia, his distant cousin he hasn't seen in years. She just happens to be in town, as her parents have mysteriously disappeared (you might think you can guess what happened to them, but wait til you know why!). Sonia seduces Luigi and introduces him to all the cool things in life, like shoplifting, threesomes, dogging, and armed burglary.

If you think this sounds far-fetched, there's also black magic, bloodsucking, incest, bondage, murder (naturally), and cheating. A lot of cheating.

It's a ludicrously bad, yet enjoyable movie, with some memorable scenes and a lot of stylized erotica. Too glossy for a B-movie, too contrived for anyone else.

Apologies for spoiling way too much, I just wanted you to know what you're in for. If that sounds like your thing, you'll have a great time.