zoondijkstra's reviews

´Training Day´ is a winner. This movie has it all: good acting, a strong (yet simple) plot and great camera work. I read some of the comments on it; why doesn´t anybody mention the camera work? Cuz it´s brilliant. check out the gritty look it provides with those extreme hand held close ups in the car, and the wide shots that have lots of lens flair in ´em. Shots of the sun, all orange, make beautifull bumpers. You know what L.A. means. Waiting for the sun, ciudad de los angelos. Hawke is ok, but denzel takes it all the way. We love it.

Suspiria is among the top italian horror movies in that lovely decade known as the seventies. As for most of the spaghetti horrors, and Argento´s specificly, the plot is very bad, totally incomprehensible. But you don´t watch this kind of movies for the plot; it´s the briljant camera movement and the briljant mise-en-scene. The colors and light in suspiria are spectacular, this makes the film a must see. The thing though that sets Argento (and sometimes Fulci)apart is the deep sadistic underlay in the movie. watch out for the scene featuring a girl trapped in small room filled with barb wire. The more she moves, the more she hurts herself. Blood is dripping from her body. It´s the ultimate display of the deep hatred Argento feels towards women. Mind you, this is the guy that had his daughter in one of his later movies getting raped and brutally slaughtered. This is where it begins.

Surely the best movie Fulci ever made. To real horror fans this is top of the bill. Never mind the plot, watch out for the breathtaking gorey action pieces. The scene in which a girl is pinned on a long splinter with her eye is classic. Classic, cause it´s so sadistic; not only on the screen, but also in the slow pace of filming and editing. It makes you wanna throw up, and that´s the way we love it. Check the mysterious scene in the first reel when a zombi gets into an underwaterfight with a shark. Wow!

I saw this film again last night, for the first time in a million years. I can´t believe i actually liked it back in the eighties. This proves, once more, what a terrible decade that was. Teen wolf sucks big time. It´s never funny, and the acting is incredibly poor. As the movie went on i totally lost sympathy for that ugly freak. cast him out! Beat him up! he´s a freak!

´Shadows´ is one of the best movies i´ve ever seen. The filming is so beautiful that it constantly makes you wonder how they did it, remind you, it was made in 1964. The way the lead characters feel is constantly expressed in color and camera movement, in a way i´ve never seen before. Notice how the colors are full in the first, happy part of the film, and how they get faded more and more to an almost black and white teint along with grief of Ivan, the male lead. At the end it turns to a blood red fury and then there is nothing but the dead. The folk music, with very poetic lyrics also contributes a lot to the sphere in this film. Again, i never saw something like that before, normally i hate folk music, now it fitted perfectly. And then the ending,it´s so sad, i almost cried my eyes out. What an archievement, it´s the most beautifullest thing i´ve ever seen.

´The last detail´ is one those movies that only could´ve been made in the seventies.So if you are, like me, a 70ies fan, you´ll love this one. It´s a gritty looking, heartbreaking film that gives you worth for your money. Nicholson is awesome, sois Quaid. It´s a shame that i don´t remember the black guy´s name (´call me mule. Everybody does´)cuz he´s gerat as well. Worth seeing several times, if it´s only for Robert Towne´s great dialogues. I AM the MP, motherf**ker!