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VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2018 list

A beautiful, human film filled with empathy that shows what happens when cool action heroes, villains and goons realize that they're all inhuman monsters and how they cope with the pressure born from that realization and whether they can or can't forgive themselves for all that they've done. It is amazing how warm You Were Never Really Here is.

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo rated Paddington 2

 Paddington 2 8/10

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2018 list

When Paddington 2 is a Wes Anderson but actually great prison movie it's the best film of 2017. Everything else is very good as well.

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2018 list

The best possible cast and crew for a 90s action movie make one and it features a car chase full of perilous situations featuring old ladies crossing the road, an antique street car, sports cars, humvees, sick flips, paralympic athletes crossing the road, a truck full of water and a sick jump through a glass window.

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo rated Insidious: Chapter 3

 Insidious: Chapter 3 4/10

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2018 list

This is the best of the first three Insidious-movies which isn't really saying much because they're all very messy and scattershot. When they hit, they hit big, but they miss so often it doesn't really feel like it counts for much. Everything they do in this movie, much like the prior two, that pertains to their netherrealm nonsense is poor, but the spooks leading up to all that during the first 50 minutes or so are very good, even best in the series so far. If you can live with the not-very-well explained mystical superpower battles in the ghost-a-verse this is totally a pretty good movie! I can't.

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo added Deluge to wanted list

 Deluge 

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo rated Twin Sitters (1994)

 Twin Sitters (1994) 4/10

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo voted for list

Movies the giraffe watched in 2018: March (29 movies items)

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2018 list

Paddington is wonderful and I re-watched it just so the missus could see it before I force-feed the second one to her instead of watching it alone. Of note: I've previously only seen the Finnish dub of this movie and I could swear it has about 80% more lewd, bawdy jokes aimed at adults than this original does. Which is bad, it sort of detracts from the fairly ethereal feeling the actual movie has.

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2018 list

This movie is terrible. I love it.

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo rated I Kill Giants

 I Kill Giants 6/10

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2018 list

Here's a cool tween fantasy movie with a good message. It tugs at your heartstring a bit too aggressively towards the end when it starts spoon-feeding you said message, but before that it actually treats the viewer like a human being instead of whatever the hell the similar-ish, absolutely dreadful A Monster Calls did.

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo rated Lady in the Water

 Lady in the Water 2/10

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo added 2 items to Film Journal 2018 list

6 years, 8 months ago

VierasTalo added Gunmen to wanted list

 Gunmen 

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo rated Laser Mission

 Laser Mission 8/10

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2018 list

I have a somewhat high tolerance towards racist stereotypes in dumb action movies due to watching Hong Kong movies. If you don't, don't expect to get as much out of Laser Mission as I did. Because boy oh boy, this movie stars Brandon Lee, Ernest Borgnine and a whole mess of Germans playing either Russians or Cubans (seemingly in brownface) wielding absolutely ludicrous accents. The best of this being the German-sounding Russians who put up German warning signs on their private property, the worst is absolutely a pair of Cuban soldiers who are clearly German and are real danger close to being part of a minstrel show with their look and vocabulary. Beyond that, the first 40 minutes of Laser Mission (a film with 0 lasers by the way) are perhaps perfect 80s film-making, featuring non-stop sax music, plenty of deadly encounters, very poorly edited dialogue scenes and the best music cues this side of CSI: Miami. After that it dies down a bit, but never reaches any particular doldrums as it picks up significant steam towards the end as the editing and action get more and more frenetic. A hidden gem, this one.

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2018 list

You know, this movie is a lot more tolerable on a rewatch since you know you're walking into a 2½ hour wannabe Johnnie To gangster drama that happens to have an hour devoted to real good action scenes.

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo rated My Life as a Courgette

 My Life as a Courgette 6/10

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2018 list

There's not too many worse feelings than when you start a film and know exactly beat-for-beat what's going to happen in it within the first 15 minutes. This charmingly animated story about a kid who ends up in a home for abandoned children is exactly that. As a result, all those story beats feel very mild, fluffy. There's a clear attempt at creating a textured cavalcade of characters, but it doesn't pay out as an intriguing movie. My Life as a Zucchini is actually at it's best whenever no one is saying anything (though the voice acting is on-point!), but rather when it becomes a series of shots where abandoned children stare at children who are with their mothers. The animation style perfectly straddles the line between haunting and adorable during these sparse shots.

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo voted for list

Watched & Played 2018 (23 movies items)

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo rated The Defenders

 The Defenders 4/10

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to VT's episodemeter list

Episodes: 8 Seasons: 1 This is what happens when you try to make a 2-hour movie into an 8-hour show. The structure is straight out of a movie and that super doesn't support a show like this.

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo added 2 items to their collection

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo added 2 items to Film Journal 2018 list

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo rated Annihilation

 Annihilation 6/10

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2018 list

A fun, moody breeze through a pretty forest. I really appreciate how even and steady Annihilation is as an experience in terms of pacing, even if it often doesn't inspire much more within me than the enjoyment of pretty pictures. I wish it leaned into the cosmic horror in ways that were a bit more subtle than two people standing around saying "Whoa look at this molecular body horror" but eh, take what you can these days. PS. This features a very good use of the "future interrogation" as a narrative device since it manages to not actually sacrifice any intensity in the climax despite knowing who is in that interrogation.

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2018 list

Raising my score from a three to a four on a rewatch. This is really, really good, because it nails two things that are pivotal in emotionally charged sports films: 1) The feeling of power within the athlete is greatly built up by surrounding him with people essentially fighting the same, self-destructive demons as he is. One will be engulfed by them to do what she has always loved, one must repel them to embrace a new kind of love. Coogler & Covington's wonderful script allows the athlete to grow in power through those close to him, and because it's written so well, you really feel that growth. As such the struggle, key to most sports films, within Creed, is not an external battle against the circumstances such as poverty, but a battle of the mind. And thus, infinitely more relatable. 2) It revolves around a relationship. Sports movies are the ideal way of portraying relationships because they provide a basis for a romantic relationship that makes both parties heavily involved while also remaining grounded to the point where you don't think it's unreal that these two are so involved with the facets of their significant others life.

6 years, 9 months ago

VierasTalo rated The Handmaid's Tale

 The Handmaid's Tale 6/10

6 years, 9 months ago