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Camera Obscura

Predictive murders show up on a depressed man's vintage camera. How far will he go to prevent them?

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
21-01-2018
6.5

Good idea delivered somewhat plainly

It's got a great story and almost reels in that 'low budget doesn't matter when you have good ideas and actors' vibe. But I found it lacking that extra touch and sharpness. It ends up somewhat tame and slow. Some of the horrific scenes somehow left me cold.
6.5

Bait

After a tsunami wave, a group of people get trapped in a flooded building with freaking sharks in the water

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
15-11-2015
6.5

Amazingly ok

Amazingly, this movie takes its story rather serious, instead of trying to mock itself and attempting to get by with being an unpretentious B-movie. Even more amazingly, it indeed manages to be fairly entertaining and worthwhile. It's still a move a about sharks in the supermarket though!
6.5

The Mountain Between Us

Man and woman survice a crashlanding in the snowy mountains, and now face survival as well as a developing forbidden love between them

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
14-09-2020
6.5

Yeh sort of works

Throughout the film there's alternating scenes of them taking a few more steps, and then a much longer scene of them resting and developing feelings for each other amidst all misery. Both are fine, but none of them felt very profound.
6.5

Older Gods

A man retreats into a house to study the mysterious legacy of his friend, involving something larger than us, even larger than God

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
12-10-2023
6.5

A decent cosmic horror, lacking some weight

These low budget movies have no choice but being a slow burner, but that need not be a problem if the story supports it. And well, I was quite interested to see where this was going and appreciated the ideas. Ultimately though, it was a little too thin and minimalistic to really leave a mark.
6.5

The Void

Policeman and some citizins are trapped in a hospital. Oustide await robed knife yielding people, but inside awaits even more dangerous and grotesque horrors.

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
12-04-2023
6.5

Good scares and filth, but a bit directionless

A pretty interesting and sinister horror, with a good atmosphere and some satisfying creature abominations. But without people to really connect with, and without a clear story or resolution to any of it, it kind of feels like a pointless freak show that can only terrify for so long.
6.5

Sand Castle

Military squad in Iraq get assigned the task to fix a watersupply, which turns out to be ungrateful and dangerous work

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
24-01-2021
6.5

it's got the stuff but not the story

They had fine actors, a solid atmosphere, music and four Humvees to make this work, but it just didn't happen for me. The mission, already a bit tedious in nature, needed a level of story telling or tension that just wasn't there. My attention wandered off several times.
6.5

The Lost City

Author of classic adventure romans novels suddenly get involved in a real, treasure-finding adventure - with her cocktaildress still on

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
06-11-2022
6.5

Good fun, but not great

The combination of slapstick humor and classic Indy mystery and adventures still works for me. But the movie seems self aware of it's simple goals, making it a bit lazy. The jokes are a bit insecure and over the top, the adventure a bit anti climactic, the romance not really tangible.
6.5

The Green Inferno

Student activists go protest in the jungle to save the habitat of the local natives, but end up being eaten by them

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
02-04-2018
6.5

Eat those annoying actors

The cannibalism and slaughter should please those who like this sort of thing, and the live of the tribe - while not eating - even seemed sort of respectful and authentic. The movie is held back by really annoying characters delivering lots of poorly acted lines.
6.5

Chappie

Write-off police robot secretly gets a firmware upgrade, making him reboot as a child with a huge learning capacity. But he accidently falls in the hands of not so ideal parents to learn from..
average 6.5

RockmeNow
RockmeNow
23-03-2015
6

Nice robot, crappy story

Robotics and the consciousness debate are usually my cup of tea, but Chappie definitely failed to deliver in this regard...
6

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
17-03-2015
7

A bitter sweet 7

As much as I adore the hyperrealistic robot visual FX, techyness and idea of this movie, a robot acting like a child acting like a ridiculous Hollywood caricature of a 'gangster' was too awkward to look at. The governance and discipline within this Tetravaal company were also sand in my eyes.
7

Poltergeist (2015)

Family moves into a house in which a ghost goes after the little girl

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
29-05-2016
6.5

A but uninspired

Right from the start it quite mundanely runs by -=scary scenes=-. Then the science team moves in, after which the scares are pretty much gone. The boy's trick of constantly turning his head toward a scary event VERY SLOWLY was also getting on my nerves. DeWitt rose above it all.
6.5

Black Snake Moan

When a devout Christan, ex-blues musician, finds an unconscious nymphomanic girl on his street, he takes her in to learn her better ways

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
13-08-2023
6.5

I saw through it

Maybe I was in a bad mood or something, but it felt a bit phony and forced down your throat: Their developing friendship, the characters, the Southern blues atmosphere - all so self-aware and self-content. Still, with these actors, there is plenty left to enjoy.
6.5

Skyline

Room full of pretty people must survive an invasion of ugly aliens

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
02-11-2013
6.5

Good looking B movie

An unusual cross between a B movie with dull actors having tedious arguments, and very decent effects and designs. Guess what's more important in the end?
6.5

Warcraft

A fantasyworld at peace is suddenly invaded by violent beasts coming through a portal

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
11-10-2016
6.5

Surprisingly mature, but still a slightly distant game world

Pleasantly surprised by the quality of the characters, looks and various memorable scenes, and the way that things have a mature quality to them.. But you still may feel like you're thrown in a world you do not know, making it hard to connect with it, or be immersed by it.
6.5

Cryptozoo

Animation about a zoo housing cryptoid creatures, bad people that want them dead and good people trying ot protect them

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
29-10-2021
6.5

Great for it's uniqeness, but utlimately a flawed trip

I wanted to like this more, with it's bold ideas, pleasantly strange story and willful drawings. I can see how people describe it as beautiful, but I could also make the case that it can look pretty crude an amateuristic at times. Everyone also seems a bit high and slow, making me sleepy eyed.
6.5

The Mandalorain, season 3

Mando and friends try to reclaim and reinhabit their homeworld

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
05-05-2023
6.5

Kind of done with this, but very pretty nonetheless

I am done with the dumb-ass, endlessly repeated creed, the preposterous helmet policy (yet still they celebrate with diner?), and once you have mini Mandalorians with mini mando-helmets you're killing lore. And yet, this series still excels at showing many Starwars elements in all of their glory.
6.5

The Lazarus Effect

After succesfully bringing a dog back to live, an accident brings the science team to try the trick on one of their own

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
31-03-2016
6.5

Unremarkable horror despite some good ideas

A promising idea and start can't help this movie from soon ending up with rather cliche and predictable scares and a lack of focus. The science 'team' is also an unconvincing bunch of Hollywood stereotypes.
6.5

Pompeii

Slave gladiator falls for girl above his league, then has to fight his way to freedom through evil romans and erupting volcanos

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
03-05-2014
6.5

Fine, but not all it could have been

Sort of a fine and good looking flick. Would have been much more intense if the characters weren't as 1-dimensional, the story a bit more refined, and the whole thing looked a little less clean and fabricated.
6.5

Swiss Army Man

A lost and stranded guy finds a corpse on the beach, who's 'special powers' and friendship help him to make the journey home

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
13-08-2017
6.5

Just because it's unique doens't mean I like farts

I guess there's points for originality and it sort of works in it's own special way, but I couldn't shake the feeling of being pranked into watching someone's bizarre fart joke fantasies.
6.5

Calvaire

A man seek shelter at a French auberge, which turns horrific when the owner strats to claim him as if he were someone else.

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
20-07-2023
6.5

Nasty, but not in a good way

There's potential here for quiet a nasty, slowly consuming horror/thriller - you might even say it is one. But for me personally, I found the protagonist too stiff, everything a bit filthy and weird so it was hard to feel involved or empathize about it.
6.5

Creepozoids

A group of deserted soldiers (?) in a post nucelar world hide in a lab, but there even bigger dangers await

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
03-04-2024
6.5

A bad movie the way I like 'em

Poor effects, attacking rat puppets that move only because the actors handles them, a nonsensical story, unnecessary nudity and people running through the same hallways over and over. And that's just for starters. But it's all quite quirky and amusing.
6.5

Sex Tape

Couple makes a sex tape to spice up their sex life, but it ends up on the interclouds! Now, how to get it off?

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
14-10-2014
6.5

Little more than it's own tagline

Yes, you'll giggle. But you'll also find that the central joke is pretty much all there is.
6.5

Clara

Expelled from his teaching position, an obsessed professor carries on his search for exoplanets with help from a not so obvious assistant

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
30-07-2019
6.5

An exciting scientific quest with a double agenda

The quasi-deep dialogue between the two felt forced and banal, and a stone-juggling hippie telling the atheist scientist (narrow-minded, grumpy and depressed of course!) how to find planets was quite preposterous. The science of it was nice though, and at the end it still was strangely rewarding.
6.5

Split

Three girls are kidnapped by a man with multiple identities

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
28-05-2017
6.5

Multiple Personality Disorder annoys me more than it scares me

Frankly, I was somewhat bored and agitated by the multiple identities, especially the laughable behavior of the supposed 9 year old. Apart from the identities there's wasn't much in there, nor did I find it very particularly scary. It's okay, but underwhelming.
6.5

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

During the familty vacation to Florida, the kid accidently ends up alone in New York - as do his nemesis crooks

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
12-12-2021
6.5

Faithfully more of the same

I'd say it successfully manages retain the same atmosphere, jokes and story line as the original. So if you are in need of more of the same slapstick humor, and warm family friendly Christmas vibes, this will do.
6.5

The Other Side of the Door

Devastated by the tragic loss of her son, the woman resorts to an indian supernatural ritual to speak to him one last time - and exectutes it wrongly

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
10-07-2016
6.5

Fair horror

I loved the Indian setting and the story had potential, but ultimately it keeps relying on familiar tricks and I thought everyone was overacting a bit.
6.5

A Scanner Darkly

Cop (sort of) gets involved in drug business by using it himself

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
01-09-2014
6.5

Less than meets the eye

The painted looks of this movie are just great, but I don't quite get why they needed to be in this fairly plain drug story. The effect serves no clear function to me. (Well perhaps there's the shifting suites - but why don't these folks just put on a mask?)
6.5

Possum

A man tries to get rid of a horrendous puppet

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
28-01-2023
6.5

A respectable but not entirely succesful oddity

An oddball, slightly experimental film that is pretty close to being fascinatingly disturbing. However, for that it needed more truly intense moments, perhaps some more depth in the story, and perhaps most importantly: a bit more speed, as it sometimes almost comes to a standstill.
6.5

A.I. Rising

For a long journey, a cosmonaut will be accompanied by a female android engineered to his taste

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
05-09-2021
6.5

ok, but would have benefited greatly from better writing

With just a some fairly modest modifications in the dialogue and story line, such as more profound elements of philosophy, existentialism, psychology and perhaps some horror, this would have been great. As it stands though, it still is a decent sci-fi tale.
6.5

Snatched

When noone's left to join a womans non-refundable trip to Ecuador, all that's left is her mother.

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
01-04-2018
6.5

Fine, could have done with more Amy mayhem

I like Amy Schumer, and she lifts this one above the overpopulated 'amusing comedy with a few laugh out loud moments' - but not by much. Almost as though she held back a bit.
6.5

Rambo Last Blood

Retired in Texas, Rambo must come back into action once more when bad stuff happens to his stepdaugther

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
15-10-2019
6.5

Not the right rambo movie for me

I can see what they were going for, but this didn't feel quite right to me. I need him to be in the jungle operating big guns - not walking through nightclubs and brothels. The final showdown was uninspired and disappointing too, as everyone simply walked into the traps and that was that.
6.5

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

Did you know that after killing the witch, Hansel and Gretel became witch hunters?

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
15-06-2013
6.5

Tries everything except being scary or exciting

Oh I don't know. They tried their best and it shows. But the witches are just there from the beginning, there is no tension built-up. These loud, semi-artistic fights for people with MTV brains are getting on my nerves too. Mixes too many styles and atmospheres.
6.5

May December

An actress parts up closely with the woman she is going to portay in her next movie, and with her secrets

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
26-01-2024
6.5

Great acting and built-up leading to nothing

A movie filled with a solid cast that are a pleasure to watch, and a story that has the sensation of slowly building up to a climax of some sort. But I don't think it did. Instead it left me with a feeling of being cheated, and wondering what I had been watching.
6.5

Orbita 9

Woman on a long solo space mission gets a visit from a mechanic, after which she learns the true nature of her mission

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
08-08-2021
6.5

Nice scifi with a twist. One twist - early on.

With a plotline that it's impossible to describe accurately without ruining it, this is a pleasant scifi done just fine. It's just that, after the big twist it's, sort of de-energizes a few notches. When the big reveal is almost at the beginning, it's harder to keep us hooked.
6.5

Paradise

In a future where people can sell years of their live for money, allowing the rich to get younger, a couple gets caught in a web

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
28-04-2024
6.5

A fair but plain future crime story

A fine futuristic crime story providing adequate friday-evening entertainment. I did find everything was a bit plain, lacking energy or a really tight script. It needs a better, less generic title too.
6.5

Dark skies

Family is being visited by aliens

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
19-05-2013
6.5

Greys don't have much to say

Some good scares and performances. But this movie is so loyal to the alien-visitors handbook that is struggling to fill up the time, resulting in loads of pointless scenes and an anticlimax.
6.5

The Liberator

A squad comprised out of people from very different backgrounds fighting in the second World War.

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
21-03-2021
6.5

Looks unqiue, but it's not quite there

The half-drawing, half real-life filter make it look unique, and is a great idea for making epic scenes on a lower budget. The action scenes were good, but the dialogue not so much, and it frequently does emotional and sensitive dives which I found a bit forced and cliched.
6.5

Thor The Dark World

Evil forces want to bring darkness to the worlds. Thor intervenes

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
20-04-2014
6.5

Another curious case of stellar looking boredom

I just sat around wondering how I could be so bored with so much beautiful looking stuff going on. Natalie Portman, who is dragged into celestial warfare, doesn't appear to be impressed by any of it either. Points are solely for looks and effort.
6.5

Asteroid City

A small desert town with wandering souls gets a visit from space

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
16-07-2023
6.5

Objectively great, subjectively empty

I'd be happy to applaud the artistic value, the conspicuous characters, the fantastic colors and the bold cinematography. But ultimately, I could not process it. I could only stare at it, telling myself to enjoy it's objective quality and audacity, yet feeling quite uninvolved and untouched.
6.5

The BFG

Girl befriends a giant and helps him to get his live back on track

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
19-08-2016
6.5

Lovingly made but not immersing

I hate to be negative about this lovingly-put-together and fine looking movie with plenty of good moments, but ultimately it failed to grab my full attention and made me sleepy-eyed because of a lack of tension and the long dialogues.
6.5

Stalingrad

In WWII the battle for Stalingrad, Russians and Germans fight for a strategically situated building and the few women left in the vicinity

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
05-10-2014
6.5

Actors and story can't keep the few impressive scenes afloat

A good looking - if not over processed - movie, with some very intense scenes that will remain stuck with me. But the rest of story is struggling to bind it all together, with slow and clumsy scenes that fail to show the terror that these men must have been in.
6.5

High Life

Survivor on a spaceship tries to take care of a babygirl. Slowly we learn what preceded this situation, and what comes after.

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
19-04-2022
6.5

ok as a slowburning, artistic scifi, but hardy delivers a payoff

The decor hardly reminded me of a spaceship, but I presume the creators thought this was irrelevant to the sophisticated story they wanted to tell. And while I was interested and enjoyed this 'alternative' scifi, it was also arrogantly slow and even the word pretentious came to mind.
6.5

Peppermint

When her husband and daughter are buraly murderedand the villains walk free, she seeks revenge on ther own

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
03-03-2019
6.5

Exchanging the sexes isn't enough

This really is the Punisher but with a female lead and lacking a dark costume. While this may give us an entertaining action revenge flick, it was too familiar, I was annoyed by the army of stereotype badguys and lead character's deep hatred inside (I assume there was) didn't quite come out.
6.5

The Darkest Hour

Teenagers must make it through an alien invasion in moscow

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
27-08-2013
6.5

A floating light can only be so scary

The abandoned streets of Moscow looked great. But the jumpy characters, the goofy people they meet along the way, and the unscary lights just don't have what it takes.
6.5

Play Dead

A girl fakes death to get into a morgue, where she needs to retrieve evidence against her brother. But there is unsuspected danger inside.

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
11-11-2023
6.5

Maybe too long and too unlikely, but still a thrilling ride

The premise and story are far-fetched, and I thought the acting lacked finesse. But this still manages to roll out quite an exciting, pretty tense thriller/horror for the most part. Unfortunately it drags on for too long, becomes tiring and even more implausible. Still, enjoyable stuff.
6.5

The Colony

Members of a colony, trying to survive in a frozen world, respond to an SOS signal from a nearby colony. But what they find...

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
25-01-2014
6.5

Frozen B-movie

The dark alley scenes: fine. The outside snowworld: even better. But the uninspired badguys and cat and mouse action is just plain mediocre. Then it secures its B-status by having desolate survivors with full make-up on, and Rammstein rockmusic during fight scenes.
6.5

1899

A ship with migrants find another ship that went missing, and it all gets stranger and stranger from there

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
28-12-2022
6.5

A potential gem plagued by avoidable problems

This almost is a successful, super mysterious puzzler with an intense atmosphere, but I found it was let down too much by one-trick pony characters that become parodies of themselves, infuriatingly ineffective communication and strange decisions and logic throughout. The events even felt improvised.
6.5

What Happened to Monday?

In a fascist single-child society, septuplet sisters have found a way to cheat the system. But for how long?

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
12-05-2019
6.5

Gimmicky

While original and somewhat amusing, I found it mostly gimmicky. The sisters are simplified and overacted stereotypes like the 'tough sporty jog', the 'posh' and 'smart computer nerd' (with glasses, a cap and long sleeves of course!) but without emotional connection to any of them.
6.5

Lucid Dream

A man tries to find his kidnapped son by reliving the moment in lucid, and later also shared, dreaming

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
28-05-2018
6.5

Disappointing

The awesome idea turns out to be mostly a rather plain detective/crime story, and the way the whole dreaming thing was supposed to be working seemed rushed and like they didn't really care too much either.
6.5

The Consecration

A woman travels to a monastry to investigate the mysterious death of her brother

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
01-05-2023
6.5

Lacked impact, but ended well

The ending and big reveal near the end are pretty good, but the movie really has trouble getting there. It was a bit unlikely, flat and lifeless, and failed to harvest the creepiness of monasteries and it's rituals. She didn't even react to those nuns lying on the floor, for crying out loud!
6.5

Ichi The Killer

A ganster mob routine of torturing and killing people gets disrupted by a mysterious killer that leaves the rooms soaked in blood and guts

Wittenberg
Wittenberg
08-08-2017
6.5

A torture movie for research rather than enjoyment

I actually got used to the torture scenes of amputations and various acts with sharp objects. I actually became somewhat interested in, and empathized with, the mysterious killer. But mostly I still felt sick and depressed rather than amused after watching this.
6.5

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