vlaskman Reviews

Child 44 (2015)

Love story as well

[7/10 · 22 May 2023]

I have read plenty of users' reviews which rightfully concentrate on the main genres of this film which are crime, drama, thriller and certainly history as indeed we are presented with the post WWII Stalin era Soviet Union, where the characteristics of that society vastly determine on how a crime such as the one the film is dealing with, will be tackled. I am not going to add anything more on those dimensions.

What is worth mentioning though, and this will be my contribution, is that in all that pain, agony, insecurity and search for truth (and thus the capture of the killer) we are clearly having a Love story. Just after the opening scene with the flash backs from the youth of Leo at the orphanage and later on from the capture of Berlin and the pinning of the USSR flag and while the opening titles are still playing, we have the scene of the declared commitment of Leo to Raisa "Oh no they will never be somebody new, there will only be you. All these stories are over for me now." ... "There is only you" ..."There always only be you .... always you". That scene grabbed my attention utterly not only because of my romantic personality but cause in my life I know a Raissa. As the plot is being unfolded you get to forget that scene cause obviously their reality doesn't allow much space for romance, on the contrary is full of obstacles. Further on, we witness that their relationship wasn't that honest after all and that they had serious secrets from each other. They even reach at the brink of parting ways and there is Raisa arguing that she didn't have much of a choice when Leo (a highly ranked, decorated army officer in a regime/society like that) proposed to her. However, despite all those odds against them, they stick together (so Leo keeps his promise that she will be the only one) and they accomplish their goal in a dramatic end, barely being able to survive. Surely it is not the classic love story but pay attention to how it starts and how it ends and there you have got the devotion of 2 people to stay together no matter what.

I don't know if the director or the producers were aiming to project this point of view, but for me was the most important aspect of the film's story, their devotion (especially Leo's, who made the promise) to each other.

Red Sky (2011)

So Greek

[4/10 · 27 August 2022]

I bumped into this film unexpectedly as I was zapping on TV one summer night. Initially it grabbed my attention cause of the pretty nice cinematography and scenery and the young cast. They lay out the concept of the movie pretty fast. You have 2 good looking young men which are good friends and business partners, with pretty opposite characters. There is the beard bearer with wavy hair (who seems to always wear colorful plaid shirts) cool acting young man so confident of himself and the more reserved and sophisticated and less expressive one. A pretty young female tourist is also thrown into the mix having an affair with the 1st guy and there is also the beach and the sea, and so I was curious to find out what will come out of this. The plot however hasn't got to offer anything more than this, falling short of the positive start. I was impressed by how realistically and vividly is recorded the problematic relationship between the 2 friends, even though I doubt that was the purpose of the production. Its very typical in the Greek way of things people to behave irresponsible, selfish sometimes even out of the context of the law to each other and then act like there is no bad blood between them and be friends again. Behaving like that is considered normal and expected in the Greek society and I believe its a Balkan thing. Another dimension of the life in Greece is depicted by the orthodox baptism of the grown up Albanian worker. Again, I don't think that the director (or anyone else) included this for all the right reasons, however it is widely known that to be accepted from the Greek society (especially in small places), you need to be orthodox and that is pretty much what most of the immigrants (who decide to built their lives in the country) do, as a matter of fact is so typical of an Albanian to be doing that. My conclusion is that was an ok time filler.

The Guest (I) (2014)

Too predictable

[5/10 · 7 August 2022]

Overall wasn't that bad of a movie as Stevens plays the leading character pretty well. The plot is easy, which makes it an easy to watch film (i.e. You won't mind a toilet break without pausing the film) but on the other hand it doesn't grasp your attention like top movies do. The ending is very predictable. Another weakness is the gun scenes, where the leading character is being chased by the army, in which he seems to be invulnerable in a ridiculous way. A average film, a time filler for the fans of this genre.

Black '47 (2018)

Vegeance

[8/10 · 21 April 2020]

I love Irish tradition and I do love justice being served and it saddens me that even in our times justice isn't an easy and an often delivered commodity. My most regretful moments are those that I have witnessed injustice and I didn't make at least a slight effort against it. Those 2 issues made strong connection as I was watching this nice production. The scenery and the atmosphere are given in a great manner. James Frecheville's performance as the vigilante had impressed me as well.

I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu (2019)

Torturingly prolonged disappointment

[3/10 · 2 April 2020]

I am big fan of the original but especially of the remake (2010) and the I Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013) so I was looking forward for another sequel to come out. This film is a disgrace to the previous works. Many scenes are unjustifiable long (starting with the abduction scene and the dialogue inside the van). All the villain characters are of the outmost silliness to the extent that if compared with Beavis and Butthead, the later would seem like rocket scientists. I mean even cartoon characters can't be so naive and dumb. I can go on mentioning a handful of other failures but I won't. I will only mention that even the killings didn't have the slightest creativeness. My grade of 3 is nothing but generous and this is mainly because of my respect to the previous films and because I can clearly sense an attempt to make a mockery of Christian ethics.

Eden (I) (2014)

Fighting and Beating beyond any scope

[4/10 · 11 June 2019]

The fighting and the beating between the male characters of this film is way out of what someone would expect under a situation of food scarcity. I mean I understand tension arising cause of the sudden and abnormal situation that the group is facing but that goes way out of that. Same goes for all the swimming between the 2 islands which they have more than a mile distance. Swimming a distance like that in an open ocean is a very exhausting activity even for athletes. Same applies for the sexual encounters that happen. Overall a cheap production that is hardly convincing.