sunniva_reilly
Joined Jan 2008
Welcome to the new profile
Our updates are still in development. While the previous version of the profile is no longer accessible, we're actively working on improvements, and some of the missing features will be returning soon! Stay tuned for their return. In the meantime, the Ratings Analysis is still available on our iOS and Android apps, found on the profile page. To view your Rating Distribution(s) by Year and Genre, please refer to our new Help guide.
Badges2
To learn how to earn badges, go to the badges help page.
Reviews9
sunniva_reilly's rating
The Dyatlov Pass Incident itself is a super intriguing incident and it is weird that no one else has made a fiction film about it before. I highly recommend reading up on it, if you haven't already.
This film on the hand is not... super intriguing, or indeed even recommended if you're looking for a theory about what happened on the Mountain of Death. It's not a terrible film, but it's not about the Dyatlov Pass Incident. Halfway through the film I decided to put what I know about what really happened aside and just watch the film.
It is a found footage film. Sort of. The camera stays steady mostly and it's easy to forget that it's supposed to be found footage, which, honestly, I find to be a good thing. No need for sea sickness medication.
The good: The middle part of the film is visually stunning, the views are just breathtaking and I found myself at one point craning my neck to see more. It's definitely the best part of the film.
The bad: The story wobbles all over the place and leaves loose ends. Touch of Russophobia, but no more than the average Hollywood film.
Overall: Fun little flick if you don't take it too seriously. Take it about half as seriously as it takes itself and discard anything it tries to tell you about the 1959 incident, and you'll enjoy it.
This film on the hand is not... super intriguing, or indeed even recommended if you're looking for a theory about what happened on the Mountain of Death. It's not a terrible film, but it's not about the Dyatlov Pass Incident. Halfway through the film I decided to put what I know about what really happened aside and just watch the film.
It is a found footage film. Sort of. The camera stays steady mostly and it's easy to forget that it's supposed to be found footage, which, honestly, I find to be a good thing. No need for sea sickness medication.
The good: The middle part of the film is visually stunning, the views are just breathtaking and I found myself at one point craning my neck to see more. It's definitely the best part of the film.
The bad: The story wobbles all over the place and leaves loose ends. Touch of Russophobia, but no more than the average Hollywood film.
Overall: Fun little flick if you don't take it too seriously. Take it about half as seriously as it takes itself and discard anything it tries to tell you about the 1959 incident, and you'll enjoy it.
Ever since I first saw Jaws, I've been searching for more good films about sharks, but there is something about the subject matter that tends to turn the film tacky. This film isn't tacky. Sadly it isn't any good either.
Halle Berry plays Kate Mathieson, a marine biologist of the Erich Ritter school of thinking (Sharks aren't dangerous unless you're scared of them - there's a video of him getting mauled by a bull shark on youtube). During a dive she gets someone killed and refuses to have anything to do with sharks thereafter. Until she needs money and a rich guy offers her 100 000 Euro to take him out and let him swim with great whites.
The Good: The sharks, they are so beautiful. And the filming is just exquisite.
The Bad: Someone seems to have filmed the first draft of a so-so script. The dialogue is cringeworthy. The characters are woefully underdeveloped. The background conflicts are tired and predicable. There are logic fallacies at every turn. This is where a set of good actors could make all the difference. But they don't. With the exception of Luke, the characters were was so thoroughly unpleasant I honestly didn't care if they got eaten.
The House Blend: Sharks are not portrayed just as mindless eating machines. But what are they portrayed as? Inanimate objects really. They swim around in circles, not even acknowledging Kate who is touching them, tugging their tail fins, grabbing hold of their dorsal fins and going for a ride etc.
All in all I was disappointed. I wish someone had taken the time to finish the script before turning into a film. A little better dialogue, a little tightening up of the plot, make the characters a little more believable (and sympathetic). It could have made a world of difference.
Halle Berry plays Kate Mathieson, a marine biologist of the Erich Ritter school of thinking (Sharks aren't dangerous unless you're scared of them - there's a video of him getting mauled by a bull shark on youtube). During a dive she gets someone killed and refuses to have anything to do with sharks thereafter. Until she needs money and a rich guy offers her 100 000 Euro to take him out and let him swim with great whites.
The Good: The sharks, they are so beautiful. And the filming is just exquisite.
The Bad: Someone seems to have filmed the first draft of a so-so script. The dialogue is cringeworthy. The characters are woefully underdeveloped. The background conflicts are tired and predicable. There are logic fallacies at every turn. This is where a set of good actors could make all the difference. But they don't. With the exception of Luke, the characters were was so thoroughly unpleasant I honestly didn't care if they got eaten.
The House Blend: Sharks are not portrayed just as mindless eating machines. But what are they portrayed as? Inanimate objects really. They swim around in circles, not even acknowledging Kate who is touching them, tugging their tail fins, grabbing hold of their dorsal fins and going for a ride etc.
All in all I was disappointed. I wish someone had taken the time to finish the script before turning into a film. A little better dialogue, a little tightening up of the plot, make the characters a little more believable (and sympathetic). It could have made a world of difference.
I'm not a fan of torture porn, I'll say that straight up. I have largely avoided the whole phenomenon, as I am a bit of a wimp. With this one I slipped up, mostly because it comes disguised as a dark romantic comedy. It is funny and quirky, disgusting and disturbing in equal measure.
Mixing genres is both fun and innovative, as long as one simply rule is followed: it must be cohesive. The viewer can go from laughing one minute to crying the next (see Futurama episode "Jurassic Bark"), but not if the change comes out of nowhere. In Must Love Death the change from comedy to horror is incredibly jarring and it took me, for one, out of the moment.
Comedy and horror usually go together like peanut and chocolate, but in this film it just left a sloppy mess. I adore dark comedy, but the element of torture porn just made the laughter stop. I can imagine torture porn fans would be equally disappointed, because half the film really is devoted to a dark romantic comedy. This film could have worked. At first I wanted it to work, but beyond the halfway point I just started wanting it to end instead.
Mixing genres is both fun and innovative, as long as one simply rule is followed: it must be cohesive. The viewer can go from laughing one minute to crying the next (see Futurama episode "Jurassic Bark"), but not if the change comes out of nowhere. In Must Love Death the change from comedy to horror is incredibly jarring and it took me, for one, out of the moment.
Comedy and horror usually go together like peanut and chocolate, but in this film it just left a sloppy mess. I adore dark comedy, but the element of torture porn just made the laughter stop. I can imagine torture porn fans would be equally disappointed, because half the film really is devoted to a dark romantic comedy. This film could have worked. At first I wanted it to work, but beyond the halfway point I just started wanting it to end instead.