Closed To The Public Blog

: :

Strings - Every so often you run across a movie that is a tribute to it’s medium, and could not have been done effectively any other way. Strings is one of those films, to bad it wasn’t much better. If you didn’t figure it out from the title this is a film about marionettes but rather then working around the limitations that the puppets have they created a world based on the limitations of the puppets. Imagen a world where all life comes from strings that ascend into heaven, people are unable go anywhere there strings can’t and can be killed by severing there head string, it’s really something that must be seen to fully understand. Sadly the films story was not as well thought out as the world it takes place it. While the script was defiantly written for an adult audience it often seemed that it was directed for children. This is most obvious and the end of the film which is a real tragedy, one instance that really stood out to me was when the Prince was in danger of being killed a boy called out “Watch out!” in much the same way a child would cry “Watch out!” in any direct to DVD kids animated feature. Things like this would pop up throughout the film thwarting what had tried so hard to be a mature animated feature that pushed the bounds of marionette puppetry to new heights. But even though this film was not nearly as good as it could have been I enjoyed it to the end. 3.5/5 stars

: :

El Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil’s Backbone) - It is unusual for me to rent horror films but when Netflix recomended The Devil’s Backbone and I saw it had been directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) I could not resist adding it. During a Spanish civil war a young boy who’s father died is dropped off at a boys school who’s staff is helping the resistance. Unfortunately my Spanish history is a bit sketchy so I was a bit unsure of the whole context the film is set in. However the war is primarily a background to the events that take place. It’s a hard film to review because talking about it without giving away spoilers is very hard. As the film opened it began showing typical horror elements but as the plot progressed it turned into a triller. At the heart of The Devil’s Backbone is a ghost story about revenge and greed, the fact that children are mixed up in it makes the film have a very dark tone. I felt that it veered away from your standard horror clichés and was both exiting and enjoyable but not nearly as great as Pan’s Labyrinth. 4/5 stars

: :

Poirot: Peril at End House - I am perhaps the most unqualified person to review this film. It is an Agatha Christy murder mystery featuring her popular French detective Hercule Poirot. It features acceptable acting and camera work along with a mustache that sometimes looks fake. I rarely watch mysteries as I tend to prefer that darker Noir crime stories, but my parents were watching it and I figured why not. It wasn’t bad if you like that sort of thing, but I prefer my crimanals to be caught becouse of there own human flaws, not becouse of brillent detective work. 2.8/5 stars

: :

Animated Soviet Propaganda (disk 4) - This is the last disk in Animated Soviet Propaganda, and I was really disappointed in both this disk, and disk three. The shorts I enjoyed the most in this series were not just outright propaganda but short films created to entertain as well as brainwash, sadly the only real short film on this disk was ‘The Hot Stone’ which was easily outdone by some of the shorts disk one and two. Disk 4 2/5 stars Series 3.4/5 stars