I've been a bit far behind on my reviews:
Father of the Bride (Vincente Minelli, 1950) -- A father of a young woman deals with the emotional pain of her getting married, and the financial and organizational pain of arranging her wedding. Spencer Tracy stars in a light comedy that is very well crafted, and manages to stay away from being corny, while still remaining interesting and no doubt, one of his best performances, where he says the right things and acts the part, but also does a great silent impersonation by just making faces according to situations. The movie also has an 18-year-old Elizabeth Taylor, who is actually pretty hot . The quality of this movie puts is above the ordinary, and is exactly what was missing in the Steve Martin remake 40 years later. 7.5/10
Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956) -- A starship crew goes to investigate the silence of a planet's colony only to find two survivors and a deadly secret that one of them has. Among my favorite types of sci-fi is the 50s versions of it, where the crappy special effects were actually seen as amazing, and when seen 60-70 years later, it's amazing how much they did with so little, especially when compared to today's technology. This is a great sci-fi that rose above the 'reds are coming' level of its generation and delivered an intelligent script with some humor in an attractive film that has stood up well over the years, and it also stars Leslie Nielsen, in a serious role! The movie gets a bit philosophical at times, yet the 'monster' in it is very much alike the movie
Sphere, to the point I'm thinking the Michael Crichton could be a remake of this movie. Still , it's a great movie classic that should be seen. 8.5/10
Fahrenheit 451 (François Truffaut, 1966) -- In an oppressive future, a fireman whose duty is to destroy all books begins to question his task. From Ray Bradbury's novel about totalitarian society, this movie could've been as great as the book was, if it weren't for Oskar Werner's pathetic acting, yet the story says that he couldn't stand the director and thus, acted poorly for spite. In any case, the viewers and the story suffered and I can only blame Werner. This is François Truffaut's only English-spoken movie and it's amazingly well directed, with some amazing editing parts as well as art direction and an incredible production design. Some odd parts in it, but an excellent characterization of Bradbury's novel that could've (and should've) been so much better. 6/10
Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931) -- The horror classic in which an obsessed scientist assembles a living being from parts of exhumed corpses. After so many aliterations of this story, I was impressed to see how much they differ from this, apparently truer to the original version. This movie is very dated, but it's also scary and a definite must-watch. It remains true to its German roots (or at least of the Frankenstein family) and the movie recreates thje German expressionism from the time (so present in German movies of the time, like
Metropolis and
M), and Boris Karloff is such a prototypical monster that the resemblance to all movie monsters for the following 50-odd years is uncanny, as he's the actor who really gave life to the movie monster era. Great movie, again not to be missed. 8/10
Triangle (Christopher Smith, 2009) -- The story revolves around the passengers of a yachting trip in the Atlantic Ocean who, when struck by mysterious weather conditions, jump to another ship only to experience greater havoc on the open seas. A mind-bending story that rates high on the WTF scale, as it's as puzzling as it is original, that hides behind a horror mask, but is really more of a mystery/thriller where situations become more and more surreal, almost dream-like. But, after a while, it becomes strangely predictable, but it does the complete opposite of what you'd think, so it's like the creator said "Okay, observers are going to think Scenario A happens now, so I'll just do Scenario X and not have to explain much about it". The movie does rate well for me in terms of plot, but after a while it seemed they were just toying with the viewer and not worrying about the plot holes they might be leaving in their wake, just to shock and confuse the audience. 5/10
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (Tom Six, 2009) -- A mad scientist kidnaps and mutilates a trio of tourists in order to reassemble them into a new "pet"-- a human centipede, created by stitching their mouths to each others' rectums. What the hell was this? What is going on in the world and in the people's minds? Aside from the disgust factor, I have to say this had a good premise, but it was ruined by the pointlessness of the scenes and their redundancy, where apparently the 'concept' of the movie should be enough and the director wastes little effort in making the rest of it work. Take away the striking image/concept of the movie and the thrills of it are really nothing, with an overly clichéd scientist and so many other points in the movie that just take the path of least resistance and the minimum effort principle from one point to the other, where characters motivations defy logic and reason. This movie really has nothing to say aside from it being perversely funny and doesn't really entice me to watch its sequels. 2.5/10
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky, 2012) -- An introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors who welcome him to the real world. This movie reminded me how personal and intimate and observant and incisive a well-made film can be. The well-written script is so refreshing, and truly breath-taking that I was left stunned and enthralled and had to stay sitting still for a while after watching it.
The painful and difficult times we have all gone through are explained and illustrated in the movie, but it also shows how encouragement helps us fight through this stage and get on to the next ... then able to find our true self. The characters are what drive this movie, and their infiniteness in society.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower will go down in history as one of the great coming of age movies, at the same level of
Breakfast Club,
Kids,
Y Tu Mamá También,
Stand By Me,
Naissance des Pieuvres (which I didn't really like that much),
The Virgin Suicides and
Dead Poets Society. 10/10
