POMO

Femme Fatale is Brian De Palma’s masterful cinematic plaything that will receive well-deserved acclaim from a limited group of viewers. Outwardly inaccessible and strange, inwardly childishly simple and beautiful. A treat for connoisseurs.

In filmmaking terms, The Order is solidly made darkness for a very narrow range of (dark) viewers. Its plot is similar to that of Stigmata, but less focused on form and more on content. A film with minimal chance of commercial success.

The psychology in City by the Sea is too simple and the film is too chatty. The actors perform more with their mouths than with their eyes. And it’s needlessly long. The story could have been told in eighty minutes as a TV family drama.

This is pretty bad. A minimum of scenes with slime and those that there are have dime-store special effects. There is not a single shot in the film with slime and a human at the same time. Always just a shot of slime stuck on a ridiculous dummy and then a shot of the actors screaming or running away. But the worst thing about The Blob is the seriously intended but terrible dialogue! As the group wanders through the woods, they hear a dog barking in the distance, “Did you hear that! There must be a house nearby! No, that wasn't a house; it was a dog!”

Frailty is a gritty thriller and an unintentional self-parody at the same time. Bill Paxton isn’t so much a bad guy as a naïve director. If Sam Raimi (who receives “special thanks” in the closing credits) had made this film, it could have been a solid thriller. As it is, it’s just a slap in the face to anyone who underestimates Shyamalan’s Signs as a fable about faith.

The screenwriter of House of Frankenstein brought all of the famous monsters of the 1930s and ’40s to life in a single film and mixed them into a fun, never boring plot cocktail. Nicely filmed, cast and acted. Packed with endearing nostalgia. But don’t expect a dramatic masterpiece along the lines of Bride of Frankenstein. This film isn’t that strong, nor does it have such a big heart. It’s just pleasant entertainment for interested fans.

Unbelievable bullshit. Even  Edward D. Wood could have done better. Boring, cringeworthy daytime shots alternate with night-time shots, there is minimal cannibalism and even the eroticism doesn't work. A complete waste of time.

The psychology doesn’t work too well for director Hirschbiegel in the first three quarters of The Experiment, but he demonstrates his skill with the action in the last quarter. This is an OK thriller, but it’s outshined by Shallow Grave and even Cube.

If there is an art to filming shit and its aroma, then this film is great art.

Nice camerawork and sets. The actors are also pleasant, with the exception of the king, who is more suited to wearing a butcher’s tunic. The screenplay and  especially the directing seem overly routine, as if done out of obligation. And because of that, the film lacks what makes the old Czech fairy tales immortal: Heart.