The Young Poisoner's Handbook (Benjamin Ross, 1995) --Based on the true story of a British teenager who allegedly poisoned family, friends, and co-workers. As a boy he first becomes interested in chemistry, and begins to be fascinated by morbid subjects such as poisons and murder. When his family becomes intolerable to him and, he decides to poison those who annoy him. This movie borrows many traits from
A Clockwork Orange and for a while it seems almost as a remake of it, to a point. Yet, remaking a Kubkick movie is no easy task and, of course, the movie failed at that. But while the rest of it may be a tad compromising and disturbing, and to a point, even interesting, they whole setup is too tedious and boring to make it a movie worth watching. 5.5/10
Spoorloos (a.k.a.
The Vanishing) (George Sluizer, 1988) -- If you remember an early 90s movie called
The Vanishing, starred by Jeff Bridges and Kiefer Sutherland, this is the original it was remade from, which funnily enough, was called
The Vanishing outside its original market. It's about Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love who are on vacation. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia is abducted. After three years and no sign of Saskia, Rex begins receiving letters from the abductor. While I actually enjoyed and liked (and saw first) the remake, this is a review of the original, which I think is also very unsettling and haunting, vividly depicting the banality of evil. It's a tad slower than you'd expect, though the everyday reality of it is what makes it even better, because there's the sense that it could happen just as easily. The ending is chilling and suspenseful to say the least and really tops it as the better movie. If you like Michael Haneke movies, but just want a bit more conclusion, this is one you don't want to miss. 8.5/10
Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios (a.k.a.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) (Pedro Almodóvar, 1988) -- A woman's lover leaves her, and she tries to contact him to find out why he's left. She confronts his wife and son, who are as clueless as she. Meanwhile her girlfriend is afraid the police are looking for her because of her boyfriend's criminal activities. They talk to a female lawyer, who turns out to be the lover's new lover, and everyone's path keeps crossing each other's in a very complicated and confusing manner. This is exactly the type of movie that made Almodóvar famous, even before his movies became solely about transvestites, prostitutes and incest, and before he could even be considered Oscar-worthy, even if the movie was actually nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Yet, the movie is from the time when his movies had much more comedy value and weren't so deep, which isn't really a bad thing, but it was just 'different'. The way the movie jumps between comedy and tragedy is seamless and the excellent performances turn it into one of the best movies by Almodóvar, while remaining stricly PG-13-ish. 8/10
Breathless (Jim McBride, 1983) -- Jesse has to get out of Las Vegas quickly, and steals a car to drive to L.A. On the way he shoots a police man. When he makes it to L.A. he stays with Monica, a girl he has only known for a few days. As the film progresses, the police get closer to him, and the crimes escalate. This is also a remake, of a movie called À bout de souffle from the brilliant mind of Jean-Luc Godard. No surprise comes when the remake is not that good, but I certainly didn't expect it to be so bad either. In part it's because of Richard Gere's acting, which is so good that it makes it obvious as to how bad Valérie Kaprisky's was. The movie seems more like a silly excuse to have spotty acting and X-rated scenes, which was really a very 80s thing. In the end it's a movie about a tragic hero doing nothing right and the dumb woman-object following him around, with some failed intentions of making it seem real, when it's quite obvious it can't be. 4.5/10
with some of my best buddies 👍
