elffriendsplace Reviews

Outlast (2023– )

As fake as it gets.

[4/10 · 12 March 2023]

I can't get over the idea that this is the most unconvincing attempt at faking reality TV.

I could almost see the story boards for each episode just off camera.

Its quite fun if you take it as a faked show, and it's easier then to swallow all the coincidences and convenient speeches that lead the plot into one unbelievable crisis after another.

Its also the only way to believe that any humans would behave like such a pile of evil creeps after only a couple of weeks have passed as the alpha team does.

I haven't seen the last two episodes yet but if this is as fake as I think it is then I'm expecting the baddies to lose and the goodies to win.

I'll give it four for its entertainment value but if its all true reality then I think I might just become a hermit and forget about the human race.

Interview with the Vampire (2022– )

I thought I'd hate this - and I loved it!

[7 November 2022]

As a fan of the first two vampire books by Anne Rice, and quite an appreciator of the first movie, I thought this was going to be a train wreck, based on all the foreknowledge I had about how much had been changed within the story.

What a surprise!

This has become my favourite version of the story, and my favourite version of Louis as a character.

The writing and the acting are excellent, the characters are compelling and even the subsidiary ones are well-conceived and well-developed people.

The visuals are stunning, and the rationale for all of the changes turned out to be more than justified, as there is now so much weight to the story beyond the gothic romantic vibe that it otherwise would have had to rely on.

I'm actually glad that it's taking its time with the story, and didn't cram it all into the first seven episodes - it's just a shame that I'll have to wait another year at least to see how the story develops.

This was brilliant!

The Woman King (2022)

Great acting in a moneygrubbing lie.

[3/10 · 16 September 2022]

Damn, it's hard to diss a movie that so much work went into, and where so many great performances were offered.

But the disgusting way that the writers have turned villains into heroes and sold a fake history lesson to the public cannot be overlooked.

This country was a despicable, slave-owning, slave-trading, totalitarian regime and its Amazon army, composed of girls who were themselves enslaved as children, were how the country captured its slaves.

Viola Davis is great as the fictional character she plays and the whole thing looks spectacular but none of this matters a damn because its all a cash-grabbing lie.

Psalm 21 (2009)

What film did the low-scorers believe they were watching?

[10/10 · 28 August 2022]

I had to give this a higher rating than it deserves because so many have not managed to figure out what this film is and what its purpose seems to be.

This ain't a supernatural horror movie!

This is commentary on abuse, hypocrisy, elitism, and the blind respect of privileged authority figures by the masses, which is made possible by the creation and the manipulation of superstitious beliefs.

The imagery which is used to make these statements belong to the horror genre, but supernatural horror is not the point of the film.

The performances of the actors are very strong, although the director has coaxed out more histrionics from some of them than was probably wise, and the final denouncement in the church is definitely too on-the-nose to be subtle.

But the lessons here are important ones to take on board, for those who - incredibly - still haven't managed to learn them.