Surveillance

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Surveillance - 25/3/2009 11:19:34 AM

Empire Admin

Posts: 26526
Joined: 29/6/2005

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Post #: 1

RE: Surveillance - 28/3/2009 9:47:47 PM

jobloffski

Posts: 1846
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: elsewhere

Not too bad a film, some quite humorous and creepy moments, and even if (like me) you guess the twist almost right away, there's still a good film here (just view it as though you're seeing it for second time, first time).

Jennifer Lynch, practically all is forgiven for Boxing Helena, though if it wasn't for your dad's films and the efforts I have made making sense of them, you coulda had me twist-wise. As it stands, for me the fun to be had here is being 'in on the joke' in all the ways that phrase applies to the film.

Don't go for this expecting D Lynch level head screwing, it's that sort of thing though in the form of characters messing with other characters. Think more in terms of low budget Cohen Bros, with the humour quite dark (but, again, not as Dark as Daddy Lynch, or say, Dexter).

I am flabbergasted that nobody else has yet posted on a half decent film I saw on it's Brit release date. Yes, my gast is truly fucking flabbered

PS Only two stars for this, Empire? Could that be because it doesn't leave you mentally screwed like Daddy Lynch? Cos I've seen many, many, many, films Empire has rated higher than 2 stars and felt like like I'd be better off pulling out my pubes ten at a time than staying for their duration (comparison based on accidentally tweezering 2 or more nasal hairs at a time, rather than actual pube yanking).

< Message edited by jobloffski -- 28/3/2009 10:57:34 PM >

_____________________________

Yes, dreamers dream and doers do. But if dreamers DON'T dream, doers don't have anything TO do. Everything that is only here because people exist, only exists because someone thought of it., or in other words, dreamed it.

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Post #: 2

RE: Surveillance - 29/3/2009 8:22:24 PM

davie_rfc

Posts: 480
Joined: 22/9/2008
From: GlaSSgow

Thought Empire where right on the money with their rating but not so much on the review as it comes across as if she tried to make one of her father's films when it's a pretty straight forward thriller. Also, before seeing it, I read quite a lot of reviews stating it was ripping off Roshomon in story telling technique but this wasnt true either as none of the characters give a different account of what went down, we're just shown how it actually happened.

I think she definetly has potential as a director but making films like this wont help her out.

_____________________________

"This whole festival was put together by twenty third-graders with lots of chutzpah and one panda!"

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Post #: 3

RE: Surveillance - 30/3/2009 9:56:38 AM

jobloffski

Posts: 1846
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: elsewhere

We didn't quite get the Rashomon thing, but we did get the 'Show the audience exactly what happened to contrast that with the interviewees verbal version of events which edited out some of their behaviour in an effort to make them look better people than they actually were' thing. That's the 'moral viewpoint' of the film and it's honesty or dishonesty about what they did and saw that seals the fate of every character. Might have helped some if the script expanded some of the dialogue such as 'Witnesses see things' with follow on lines like 'Things like the difference between what they shouldda done, and what they really did.' Then the duff sounding first three words would have had something to back them up instead of sounding like a statement of the obvious.

in the film, the extremes of good and evil survive, people pretending to be more evil than they are (for fun), and those pretending to be more good than they were (to avoid the shame of admitting how they actually behaved) don't. The few who act truly according to their nature survive for that reason.

If the director's getting anything from her father's work, its that idea of self deception (remembering or recreating things to suit how we'd prefer people to see us or in denial of our own wrongdoing) leading to trouble for us.

< Message edited by jobloffski -- 1/4/2009 5:33:18 PM >

_____________________________

Yes, dreamers dream and doers do. But if dreamers DON'T dream, doers don't have anything TO do. Everything that is only here because people exist, only exists because someone thought of it., or in other words, dreamed it.

(in reply to davie_rfc)

Post #: 4

- 2/4/2009 12:04:09 AM

omarx

Posts: 150
Joined: 7/10/2005
From: Somewhere that's neither here nor there

I loved the film, I actually saw it last year in france, didn't know anything about it, but I left very happy, Clever, unexpected, creepy, and sometimes funny. It is miles and miles ahead of the monstrosity that was Boxing Helena. And Ormond and Pullman play extremely agains type

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Post #: 5

- 7/4/2009 11:29:18 PM

ARmy2510

Posts: 107
Joined: 21/4/2008

Good thriller...

Who is the bigger baddas?
There's always bigger fish!

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Post #: 6

I Hated It. - 13/7/2009 7:01:47 PM

joanna likes films

Posts: 987
Joined: 27/10/2007
From: Bexhill

Agh, this looked good on a tralier but when I actully watched the film it was awful. Taking nearly half a hour for the film to really begin with the action at the hour mark and the twist near the end, this film didn't make me gripped to the edge of my seat. None of the characters were likeable or you would feel something for them, I just hated the film throughout and the ending ended stupidly. Not high on my rating at all.

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Post #: 7

Blunt and Brutal - 1/1/2010 8:26:44 PM

djabacus

Posts: 5
Joined: 14/10/2009

***BEWARE SPOILERS***

Gripping and gruesome...does exactly what it says on the tin.

I just saw this movie on 'Sky Anytime' and enjoyed it.

I can see why people don't like it, its blunt and brutal. The reason I like it is it kept me gripped. I felt tense and had this sick feeling in my stomach throughout the whole movie. The film affected me, and I like that in a movie.

The one thing that I thought could have done better is when the 2 FBI agents revealed their true identity. The acting could have been a lot better. Their discussions/behaviour were slighty odd leading up 'the twist' and it would have been better to continue this bland,eerie cold-hearted killer approach rather than doing the blood-thirsty, horny, killer couple (aka..true romance..natural born killers..) act. Both good films btw, especially true romance, but it's been done before. They should have stopped and shot the girl in the last scene as well. It was that type of movie.

3 stars

< Message edited by djabacus -- 1/1/2010 8:27:49 PM >

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Post #: 8

- 26/1/2011 6:35:30 AM

david hayes

Posts: 61
Joined: 16/5/2010

another miss by empire

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Post #: 9