Children of the Corn is an interesting movie. I wouldn't call it a very good movie, but it is a nice adaptation of a Stephen King book in my opinion. There is not a whole lot I like about this movie, but there isn't a whole lot to hate either. I would say that the movie is one that you should watch with friends.
I'll start with saying that I think this film meets the criteria for being an adaptation of a Stephen King novel. The only thing I am surprised by is that neither protagonist is a writer because I know how much King loves to have one of the characters be a reference to himself in some way. Now, with the movie, I think that the film fits King's writing style pretty well. I don't think that they compare at all as films, but I found myself comparing this movie to The Shining in some ways. I don't know what it was, but I found myself getting similar styles in the filmmaking. I do know that Kubrick directed the good Shining, but I thought the movies were similar in some ways. I was thinking that the beginning of the movie would have some longer exposition, but you can't have that and within the first five minutes it is an all out bloodbath. The weird thing about it is that its children killing parents. Normally, if it were the other way around it would be super uncomfortable, but I found it more uncomfortable that the kids were the ones committing the murders. The rest of the film seemed to follow how other King books I've read before. Setup, into protagonist doing stuff and figuring out the story, lots of death in between, with the final act having some sort of supernatural thing come out of nowhere that needs to be defeated. I think that this movie is almost in the category of, it's so bad that it's good. The filmmaking and acting are not the greatest (but what can you expect with mostly child actors). Some character decisions and things that happened almost seemed not realistic, but I haven't read the book so those scenes could be coming straight from the book. Another surprising thing with the acting being pretty poor is that Sarah Conner is in this movie. She doesn't do horribly, but she didn't exactly help the acting situation either. The other actors are really where the funny things come from. Isaac's actor was actually pretty good, but all the other children actors weren't very good. Although you could consider this movie a horror film, I would definitely recommend it as a movie to watch with friends to get a laugh because I don't think this film was supposed to be a box office breaker. I wish I had more to say, but there wasn't a whole lot to this movie. 5/10.
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This movie was disturbing to watch. I watched this with my whole family and I can't decide if it would have been worse to watch this by myself. However uncomfortable I was, I could tell that it was a very well made movie and definitely deserves the praise I've heard it get before. Even though the movie is rated R, I still found myself surprised with the gore and detail that went into the dead bodies and the skin suit. While starting this movie, I wasn't very invested because I wasn't in the biggest mood to watch a movie, but as the film went along and the story developed, I found myself more and more invested in the story.
With not being the most invested in the movie, I quickly found that this movie was very well crafted and would be interesting to watch. One thing that I noticed was how Clarice was shown throughout the movie. Multiple times Clarice is by herself in a room filled with guys that are big and taller than her like in the elevator in the beginning and the police officers in the funeral home. Another thing you see, which Lector brings up is that people are attracted to Clarice. You see this with some FBI trainees, as well as some random civilians turn and stare at Clarice. The owner of the psych ward that Lector is at straight up tells Clarice she is attractive and asks her out which was weird, but it shows up a whole lot in the movie. This kind of moves to another thing I thought of. The theme of man and woman. With how Clarice is treated in the movie and women in general are treated it is ironic (I hope I used that correctly) that Buffalo Bill is and transgender person that wants to become a woman by literally using their physical features which makes them attractive. I guess a thing that did make the movie so good was the gore. I won't talk a lot about it, but I definitely think that the movie would be as good without all the gore because the movie wants to make you uncomfortable and suspense for the characters. The one officer that Lector cut up and hung on his cage to look like an angel was very gory, but an awesome shot none the less. Another thing with the gore is the suspense in the second and third acts. The first act does have some things that set up the suspense, but it is magnified by 10 in the second and third acts. The thing fresh in my mind is when the cops SWAT the house they think Buffalo Bill is in and are completely wrong was suspenseful, but what made it worse was that Clarice found the house by herself and figured it out on her own. Other things that I could think of are when Lector first escapes and they are trying to figure out where he is. Another scene is after Clarice has discovered Bill and she is being hunted in the basement with the night vision goggles. The movie also has enough fakeouts that when Lector escapes and Clarice says he won't come after her, you both believe her, but also don't believe her and think that Lector will show up out of nowhere to try and kill/eat her. The cinematography was also great with some memorable shots being when Clarice first meets Lector. In their second meeting where you can just barely see him in the shadows. I mentioned it earlier, but the elevator shot with Clarice and the other dudes. Lector being rolled out of the plane with the mask over his face was creepy. When Lector and Clarice are talking and Lector's reflection is seen, but you don't see Lector in frame. The cut up officer outside of the cage I already mentioned, but gets a second mention. Another thing I remembered is all of the POV shots in the movie. There are so many shots that you see from so many characters' POV and their are so many closeups of characters as well and they all show the emotions and tone very well. Besides not being a huge fan in the beginning, the only complaint I have is how Lector got the pen from the ward owner because I don't know why they would take him out of his constraints long enough to get a hold of the pen, but the movie wouldn't happen without it, so I guess I'll just have to say MOVIE MAGIC! This was a very well made movie that deserves the praise it gets. Easy 9/10. Do you call the movie THE Silence of the Lambs or just Silence of the Lambs? It feels like a Mandela Effect kind of thing. This movie is so awesome. I feel like I enjoyed this too much, something feels wrong liking this movie so much, but I very much enjoyed this movie a lot. This is only my second full Tarantino movie which I find hard to believe since I know a whole lot of other movies that he's made. My Tarantino viewing collection has now expanded to Django Unchained, Reservoir Dogs, and parts of Crimson Tide. I know not everyone likes Tarantino the most, but this was so good. I've said the film is so good already, but that's all I can say right now. I guess I'll move into more details now.
The first thing that I will say sets this movie apart from others I have seen is the camera work. Holy crap was it good. I noticed it almost instantly in the beginning scene, but once I saw that I knew the camera work was going to be good in this film. This film has so many long takes that are just shot masterfully. They make you feel watch you should be feeling at all times. The movie does have guns and shooting and LOTS of blood, but the amount of dialogue just makes you feel on edge during the long takes, because you just feel like something is going to happen and it doesn't completely. There is one scene that I would call the most famous from the movie, but its where Mr. Blonde goes from the warehouse to the car and back into the warehouse, but that long tracking shot/long take is so beautiful. Blonde leaves the building listening to music being played on the radio and as he leaves the music fades out. Once Blonde gets back into the building the music picks back up. This is such a small detail and it makes sense that it happens, but the way the movie is made you almost forget about it and are blown away by noticing it. The actors and performances were also phenomenal. My favorites were Tim Roth (Mr. Orange), Harvey Keitel (Mr. White), and Steve Buscemi (Mr. Pink). They all killed their performances and everyone else did insanely well. The only thing I remember that Tim Roth has been in was The Incredible Hulk and that movie was kind of average so I was not expecting this performance out of him at all. Keitel as Mr. White was so good because even though he isn't the good guy, you almost sympathize with his character because he goes through so much trauma so quickly and its just ends badly for everyone. Steve Buscemi also surprised me because I didn't know he was in this movie, but I didn't think he could be in this serious of a movie. I guess the next closest serious movie he would be in would be Fargo, but I think that even in that movie he still seems like a non serious character because of how the movie is almost more of a comedy. The relationship that White and Orange build in just a short amount of time on screen is crazy and it hurts even more at the end of the movie. Its left very subjectively so I'm choosing to look more on the good side of things even though my guess is different. One thing that I noticed was early in the movie Mr. White looks into a mirror and says that he thinks he is jinxed. He then explains that a couple of jobs back there was an undercover cop in his group. Later in the movie Mr. Orange (who is an undercover cop) looks into a mirror before he leaves his apartment and we know he's an undercover cop, but White doesn't know that so I felt like that was a motif or something. The movie flashes back a lot, but Mr Orange looks into the mirror earlier in time, but later in the movie. I don't even know if I have any criticisms for this movie right now. That feels wrong, but I can't think of a mistake or anything I saw. The film was that good to me. I think that this movie is probably the best I have seen so far this year and gets a very very strong 9.5/10 from me. I will definitely need to watch some more Tarantino eventually. This movie is weird. I guess it makes sense that it is though because its a German Expressionism film, but it is still very weird. I chose this not only because it was only 45 minutes long, but also because it said that it was a horror movie and I wanted to see what was considered a horror in the 1920s.
Not a whole lot stuck out with me on this movie. I didn't find too many good things that I enjoyed. Mostly just smaller details that I noticed or things in the editing that I thought were odd. I'll start with the plot/editing because man that is confusing. The plot of this movie I think we've definitely gotten in the more modern era, but it is very hard to follow because of how the film was edited. With the way the film was edited it looks like there should be another 30 more minutes in this film because every time there is a card for when someone speaks the film jumps forwards many seconds or even minutes and I was left lost because I thought that I missed something even though I didn't. Not that I would want it to be, but I think this movie should have been around 1:15 to 1:30 minutes long. If it was I think that the story could have been a lot more effective and I think I would understand more about the film. The movie does however hit the mark on being a German Expressionist film. It doesn't have such sharp angles as Dr. Caligari, but it still has a weird feel to it in most of the sets that put you on edge a little bit. One thing you see is a massive skeleton with a clock replacing the skull. This is cool and all, but also very weird. There isn't much more about this movie I think I can say. I didn't hate the movie, but I am very far from liking it. 4/10. |
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