Portrait of Starving Artists: A Review of Anvil: Story of Anvil by Michael Hall

Someotherguy Reviews: Super

Someotherguy Reviews: Must Come Down

This is a short review, and it is out of order with the rest of the week...but its about a film that I saw and just *HAD* to talk about. Do you like monster movies? Cheesy B- and Z-grade flicks? Do you like wrestling? Ever wanted to see what would happen if a vampire and a mummy got into a smackdown? Well look no further, my friends, because I have just the movie for you! This is...

MONSTER BRAWL

This is my criticism about the movie Hustle & Flow:

independent drama, USA, 2005
Hustle & Flow
116 min.

Aspiring emcee DJay works the angles to get his first record made with help from assorted
people in his Memphis 'hood. And when he hears that hip-hop superstar Skinny Black is
heading to his area, he throws together a supreme hustle to grab Skinny's attention.

» Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410097/

SaG's criticism view:
"Today there are many movies about Hip hop music but there is only one
the best from all... I talk about Hustle & Flow! It's not just a movie about
music! Hustle & Flow shows us with no mercy the hard life of the procurer DJay
and his prostitutes. One of them was thrown together with her baby out the house.
Like I said this movie don't has any mercy and there are many hard to watch
scenes. But that makes this movie just so special! I mean the acting of everyone
is just so authentic the story maybe sounds not new but it is because there are
many moments who surprised me after I saw this... these moments are unforgettable!
The music is also great because it's in the same way authentic and cool like the
actors themselves. I can only say that this movie is just a major recommendation
for hip hop fans and also very special. But what can you expect from the great director
who directed Black Snake Moan which he also written like this movie."

This is my criticism about the movie Last Days:

independent drama, USA, 2005
Last Days
97 min.

Introspective artist Blake is buckling under the weight of fame, professional obligations and a
mounting feeling of isolation. Dwarfed by towering trees, Blake slowly makes his way
through dense woods. He scrambles down an embankment to a fresh spring and
undresses for a short swim. The next morning he returns to his house, an elegant, if
neglected, stone mansion. Many people are looking for Blake--his friends, his managers
and record label, even a private detective--but he does not want to be found. In the haze
of his final hours, Blake will spend most his time by himself. He avoids the people who
are living in his house, who approach him only when they want something, be it money
or help with a song. He hides from one concerned friend and turns away another. He
visits politely with a stranger from the Yellow Pages sales department, and he ducks into
an underground rock club. He wanders through the woods and he plays a new song...

» Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0403217/

SaG's criticism view:
"Last Days is a movie that based on the life of Kurt Cobain. But it's not
about the last days of him but it's about a broken person from which we'll never
know why he's depressed. But that's real good for this movie. Elephant should maybe
give us some more information about anything else there but Last Days don't need
this here because that makes this movie good: The unknown answers. Michael Pitt
plays his role as Blake real like he would be this person and the location is just
nice. The only bad things about this movie are the long scenes where Blake or anyone
else just doing some stuff but it also let us understand the characters. The movie
"Last Days" is the final movie from the "Death Trilogy" and it's also the best."

This is my criticism about the movie Elephant:

independent drama, USA, 2003
Elephant
81 min.

It's about Moon-nazis. IN SPACE!

I had heard of this movie, mainly through my best friend who was a big fan of Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, and had been following this project by the same makers. What makes this movie-project special is the active collaboration between the film makers and the online-community. Fans could take part in the process, by designing things, funding, spreading the word about it in social media etc. The film makers have been publishing material such as making-of videos monthly and made this a community-project.

I didn't really have much interest in following the production, since I didn't want to have any expectations, in case I'd just be disappointed. I knew the premise; in 1945 Nazis fled to the moon in secret and based a colony there. In 2018 they try the whole taking-over-the-world-thing again.

It's a really good movie.
It can be called a comedy, or scifi or action. There are jokes, but it's played very straight. And that's why it works, it takes ridiculous premise and crazy ideas (Nazi-stormtroopers with flying saucers and zeppelins! IN SPACE!) and handles them seriously. The actors are good, and the characters they portray are interesting. The plot is fast-paced, and the designs cool and action scenes interesting.

It also portrays the space-nazis as real people, as opposed to evil caricatures(which, let's be honest, would be really easy road to take). It helps that it's distanced from the real WWII nazis, and their atrocities. It has been over 70 years since they settled on the moon; even people who'd still be alive would have been children when it all happened, and they have lived in isolation, being fed propaganda about Hitler and the Nazi party. And real people, especially in a scale of societies, don't think of themselves as evil.

Even the villain of the story, Klaus Adler(Götz Otto) is more power-hungry than pure evil, and his main motive is to overthrow the Moon-Fuhrer. The whole conquest of Earth seems more like a way to get to that goal, at least at first. And even at his worst, he's no worse than the president of USA and other world leaders in the movie.

The main character is Renate Richter(Julia Dietze), a school-teacher and a scientist in the Nazi-colony. She's idealistic, buying into the propaganda about how Hitler was an awesome guy and the Nazis just wanted the best for everybody. Then an US astronaut and obvious love-interest James Washington (Christopher Kirby) lands on the moon and is captured, and the Nazis go to Earth on a mission to get an Apple ipad to power the Nazi super-weapon, so she goes with them, and predictably, gets a whole new view on Nazism and life on Earth.

And all-the-while the threat of war, Moon-Nazis, and Sarah Palin as the leader of the Free World looms over them.

So, yeah, I recommend it. Especially if you like alternative-history scifi. It's not exactly steam-punk, but kinda similar, in how it takes old technology and develops it into ridiculously awesome and impossible direction.

 I didn't expect much but was pleasantly surprised.

It's mostly in English, although quite a lot of it is in German, and subtitled.

http://www.ironsky.net/site/