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eltringham
Reviews
Running Scared (2006)
Should be entitled "A Series of Unlikely Coincidences"
Like another reviewer, I had heard NOTHING about this movie and saw it on a complete whim. I believe my time was not wasted with this movie.
First of all I was delighted to find out most of it had been shot within 5-10 miles of the place I was viewing it. The diner featured in the movie is one I frequent (and it does have very good cheesecake).
I was at first not very entertained by the movie as some CGI directing techniques were used to replay something from a different point of view when there was really no need. It was EXTREMELY obvious what had happened. An unnecessary amount of CGI effects were used throughout the film.
The main thing that turned me off initially is that the film seemed to be a feature (and my impression was not incorrect) that was meant to portray a "what if all of the most unlikely things that could possibly happen happened for one day". I'm pretty sure this is a good summary of the premise of the film.
All the characters featured in the film have clearly been taken right out of a big bag of stereotypes. Despite being detrimental I found this highly entertaining. Even the over the top New Jersey accents (especially since I know people who talk like that). I can honestly say I can not think of one character who was not some kind of stereotype. Some of them were QUITE ridiculous.
While it may sound like I'm giving the film a reluctant pan I would not say that, by the end of this movie I absolutely LOVED IT. It's not quite a 'so bad it's good' but it's definitely not a gem of film either. Mostly it was just extremely silly but still very interesting. Also, even though the character design was not unique or terribly inventive the acting was very good.
The only place the movie completely failed for me was when it was trying to portray a sorrowful moment and it was just very poorly scripted and I found myself laughing at the preposterous reactions of the characters. It was just so unrealistic. But in retrospect everything about most of the way the characters act and what they manage to pull of is extremely unrealistic.
So my final conclusion: Unintentional Masterpiece
Celibacy (2004)
A weak documentary overall...
I was intrigued at this documentary as I sat down to watch it. It begins with the word "Celibacy" superimposed upon an image of skulls. It gives some examples of celibacy in many cultures that I found very interesting.
Unfortunately it degraded into a tirade against celibacy in the Catholic Church. The narrator states that Catholocism is the only religion that forces celibacy on anyone (which is inaccurate) and the rest of the film seemed to make vague attempts to connect Catholic celibacy to child molestation.
The film also indirectly suggested that celibates somehow wasted their lives because they didn't produce offspring.
It started out as an interesting documentary but it was far too focused on Catholocism and clearly extremely bigoted against celibacy (mostly in the Catholic Church) to provide the objective viewpoint that a documentary should.
Goth (2003)
I can easily say this is the worst movie of all time.
In 'goth' a young man and his girlfriend are drawn into committing various random activities by 'Goth', a woman with a powdered drug that apparently makes movie cameras swing randomly around the interior of vans. Repeatedly, the main character is coerced into doing something by Goth simply saying "You won't do it? You're not GOTH". The premise of this film is so outrageous that it is insulting. Watching this movie was neither boring or annoying. It was absolutely painful to watch. I have seen some bad movies. There is some entertainment that can be derived from watching movies that are "so bad they're good". This movie is so bad that I felt I was in cinematic turmoil for several hours after viewing it. The actors are hideous, the camera work is atrocious, and set design is ridiculously contrived/non-existent. This movie is so terrible I don't even suggest viewing it for the novelty of doing so.