READERS' CHOICE #48: MEMENTO (2000)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, but it's been a long time, maybe not since shortly after it was released

BEST SEQUENCE

The scene in which we realize that Natalie isn't quite the sympathetic collaborator to Leonard that we thought she was

BEST LINE

After Leonard finds a man, Dodd, in the closet, tied up and bloody

Leonard: "Who did this to you?" Dodd: "...what?"

Leonard: "Who did this to you?" Dodd: "You did"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

93%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Christopher Nolan skillfully guides the audience through Memento's fractured narrative, seeping his film in existential dread"

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer."

THOUGHTS

• Christopher Nolan's first big hit, it really does have quite a clever little hook: since the main character, Leonard, has short-term memory loss and can't create any new memories, the story is told backwards. Therefore, at the beginning of each scene, we experience the same state of confusion as Leonard. We know what will be happening after each sequence of events, but we never know what happened previously to lead Leonard to each current predicament. The actual plot of the movie isn't terribly complicated, but this is a good thing. It allows us to stay engaged without getting distracted or frustrated by losing track of the details
• Incidentally, this was kind of my issue with Tenet. I found it confusing to the point of distraction, and it wasn't really entertaining enough to make me care all that much about figuring it out
• Incidentally incidentally, Inception is probably my favourite Nolan movie, but Memento is also really good!
• There have been versions of Memento edited to put the scenes in chronological order, including an official chronological cut on one of the DVD releases. I haven't seen the chronological version, but it's been said that it takes away some of the intrigue and exposes the plot as actually relatively straightforward. A lot of the appeal to this movie for me, though, comes from watching people interact with Leonard and manipulate him to their advantage, which would still remain intact regardless of whether you watch the story going backwards or forwards. I feel like it would just change the structure of the movie as intended by Nolan, and you'd be experiencing the big reveals at different times and in different ways
• For a movie that's told backwards, it's pretty cool that it's still plotted in such a way as to keep a massive reveal from the audience until the very end of the movie, despite it being the chronological beginning of the movie's plot
• Guy Pearce, as Leonard, does some nicely underplayed work here. He's a man who's focused on a mission, but you also kind of get the sense that he's resigned himself to just being along for the ride which is now his life. His voiceovers, especially, can be darkly comedic in a reserved, character-based way
• And I really like Carrie-Anne Moss as Natalie and Joe Pantoliano as Teddy in the supporting roles. It's very clever how the bruising on Natalie's face is used as a visual shorthand to make us automatically sympathetic to her up until we learn where she actually got those bruises. And Joe Pantoliano is such a weaselly guy that it's super easy to mistrust him, even at times when we learn that he's telling the truth (or at least a version of the truth)
• The movie has an effectively grimy look. Seedy motels, dive bars, even Leonard's handwriting, of which we see a lot, is very visually unappealing. It all just makes you feel kind of gross to be watching
• Oh, and I found the tale of Sammy Jankis to be quite moving
• Despite definitely having seen this movie in the past, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had been long enough that I forgot a lot of the details and a lot of the twists. If you haven't seen it for a while, give it another watch, and hopefully this will be the case for you too! (And hopefully this review wasn't too spoiler-y)

Up next: The Strangers from 2008

READERS' CHOICE #49: REC (2007)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

9.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

No, but I have seen Quarantine, the American version from 2008

BEST SEQUENCE

The scenes that revolve around the little girl

BEST LINE

“We have to tape everything, Pablo. For fuck’s sake.”

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

89%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Plunging viewers into the nightmarish hellscape of an apartment complex under siege, [Rec] proves that found footage can still be used as an effective delivery mechanism for sparse, economic horror"

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A television reporter and cameraman follow emergency workers into a dark apartment building and are quickly locked inside with something terrifying."

THOUGHTS

• This is probably the scariest movie I've reviewed so far, at least judging by the number of times I yelled and swore out loud while watching it. The setting is effectively claustrophobic, the tension ratchets up without much time to breathe, and it keeps surprising us with barely a moment's notice. I almost gave this 10/10 on the Thrill Scale, but I wanted to leave some room for even scarier, more thrilling movies. This one came pretty close, though
• A lot of the big moments are jump scares, which are often seen as a crutch for the lazy horror filmmaker. But you know what? Jump scares, when filmed effectively and justified by the story, are scary! If they're all a movie has to offer, then sure, that can get tiresome. But in a movie like this, with a tense atmosphere, and with the danger stemming from lightning-quick changes in behaviour from the characters, the jump scares definitely work, and if anything they help put us in the mindset of the protagonists
• And speaking of controversial horror movie tactics, it's a bit of a gamble to decide to make your movie found footage. Beyond just trying to, you know, make a good, scary movie, you need to ensure your plot and characters can support the idea that these people would continue filming even after survival becomes what should be the main priority. Some movies handle this well (I think Paranormal Activity is pretty flawless in this regard) and some don't (from what I recall, I was really not impressed with Cloverfield). I think REC straddles the line, but mostly comes down on the side of effective found footage. The main character is a reporter, and when it becomes clear that things are going bad, she insists that her cameraman, Pablo, keep filming for journalistic integrity because "people need to see this" (and presumably Pablo agrees, although we never see him, since he does indeed keep filming). I liked that the cops and firemen didn't just ignore the camera continuing to roll; at various points they knock the camera away or tell Pablo to turn it off. Around the late middle part of the movie, when the main characters are in very real, obvious danger, it becomes a lot harder to believe the camera would still be running instead of just thrown to the floor at some point. The final scenes are quite clever (and terrifying) in this regard, though, as the lights in the building go out entirely and they need to rely on the camera's spotlight, and then night vision, to navigate their surroundings
• Looking at my favourite parts of this movie, and also Night of the Living Dead, apparently all good zombie movies need to have a scary little girl?
• After watching REC I also gave Quarantine a rewatch, and I've decided that REC is the better movie. They are indeed very similar, a lot of the same beats and even the same scares, but I can't pinpoint exactly why, I felt like REC used more effective filming techniques to shock me more than Quarantine did. Also, while Jennifer Carpenter from Quarantine may not be the most famous actress in the world, I've seen Dexter. I know she's an actress. Manuela Velasco, from REC, I've never seen before, adding to the verisimilitude of this being real footage from a real event. And, while I don't think the acting in Quarantine was bad, it still felt a little actorly at times. By default, with REC being in Spanish, it was more believable for me; I wasn't judging the line deliveries, and everything I saw on screen seemed pretty convincing. If you have a preference against subtitles, Quarantine isn't bad, but I'd definitely recommend REC before it (and if you do have a preference against subtitles, you're missing out on a lot of amazing movies)

Up next: Christopher Nolan's Memento from 2000

READERS' CHOICE #50: THE GAME (1997)

TW: Suicide

THRILL SCALE 1-10

7.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, a few times

BEST SEQUENCE

I think the ending is tremendously effective, but the runaway cab scene might be the most thrilling

BEST LINE

"This is your game, Nicholas, and welcome to it."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

76%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"The ending could use a little work but this is otherwise another sterling example of David Fincher's iron grip on atmosphere and storytelling. "

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"After a wealthy San Francisco banker is given an opportunity to participate in a mysterious game, his life is turned upside down as he begins to question if it might really be a concealed conspiracy to destroy him."

THOUGHTS

• If you haven't seen The Game yet, stop reading this and go watch it. It's a good movie, you'll like it. And it's not overly scary or violent if you're squeamish about such things. Last warning, though, this will be a spoiler-heavy review
• Because I think the ending is so good, and for me, it absolutely works. Sure, you could pick away at the logic of it if you were so inclined. Sure, it strains credulity that the game company (CRS) could predict everything so accurately. But if you allow yourself to buy into it, I think it's a wonderful twist ending. Personally, I can suspend my disbelief because the tests that Nicholas (Michael Douglas) goes through in preparation for the game are depicted in such a scientifically mystical way, and they're shown to be so thorough and intensive, that my imagination doesn't have to stretch very far to believe what they were able to predict, including, yes, even the exact spot from which Nicholas would jump. What can I say, I'm an easy mark for movies like this
• I first saw this movie in high school, I believe, if not a little younger. I don't really remember how I responded to it when I first saw it. What's interesting about rewatching it, knowing how it ends, is how it changes the way we view the action on screen. Aside from watching how Nicholas responds to the situations he finds himself in, we also watch with an eye for how CRS is actually pulling all of this off. I also kept thinking about what the twist ending means for the movie's thrills. Is the movie still thrilling if, ultimately, Nicholas was never in any real danger, as it's explained at the end? I think it is. A locked cab barreling into the water is scary even if we eventually learn that there were divers standing by to rescue Nicholas. More importantly, it was still real for him, and since we're experiencing the movie along with the character, I think that's what counts
• Another fun little activity is watching carefully to see who you can recognize at Nicholas's party. For example, the man who's in charge of the invoice at the end was the same man in the airport who indicated to Nicholas that his pen was leaking
• Some other favourite scenes: the beginning of the game, when the newscaster speaks directly to Nicholas from the TV; the extremely creepy clown in the driveway (what is this, Poltergeist?!); the blacklight vandalism scene; and really, many others
• I think it's very effective how we're told that Nicholas's father committed suicide. The old-timey, grainy film has a very creepy quality to it, and I like that it's never actually spoken out loud by any of the characters in the movie. Speaking of Nicholas's father, watching it this time I was thinking gee, that man looks a lot like Michael Douglas, is that Kirk Douglas? Only to then look it up and realize, get ready to have your minds blown, Nicholas's father was played by Charles Martinet! Better known as THE VOICE OF MARIO since 1992! Let's all just be thankful he didn't get any dialogue in this movie as that would be incredibly unsettling
• Oh yeah, one more thing. I just lost

Up next: Slight change of plans. In the original poll we had Quarantine, the American movie from 2008, but I've seen it before so I'm actually going to go with REC, the Spanish 2007 original

MARK REVIEWS THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: ETERNALS

• On Rotten Tomatoes, this is the lowest-ranked Marvel movie by a wide margin. Currently sitting at 47%, and the next lowest is Thor: The Dark World at 66%. I have no explanation for this, especially since it's not like the MCU movies are critical darlings, anyway
• This certainly wasn't the best Marvel movie, but it was also far from the worst. It was decidedly unique, which is something I've come to appreciate from individual entries into the MCU. It also took a lot of big swings. Some of the creative choices worked, some didn't, but they'll stand out in my memory and that's more than I can say for a lot of these movies
• For a while before it came out I thought this would be the next Avengers, a slam-bang team-up with a variety of dynamic personalities and superpowers. This isn't really that. The Avengers worked so well because we got to know (most of) the characters independently before seeing them work together. However, the Eternals all have the same origin story, and they're not really distinct enough from each other to make individual stories worth telling. Although this is by far the most culturally diverse Marvel cast, which I really appreciated (doesn't really explain why the fictional characters all have different accents, but I can suspend my disbelief)
• And so, with a grand total of ten title characters, some of them don't make much of an impact. Angelina Jolie, in particular, didn't have much to do, which is interesting considering her star power
• Side note, it was nice seeing Richard Madden and Kit Harrington outside of Game of Thrones (Robb Stark and Jon Snow, respectively). It was also funny that the two of them spent a lot of their screen time talking to a character named Sersi (pronounced exactly the same as Cersei)
• I've always like Kumail Nanjiani, and he was a lot of fun in this movie
• As villains, the Deviants weren't much; just some CGI monsters to rough up. And the main Deviant, who kept absorbing the Eternals' powers, really didn't go anywhere
• Villains aside, though, and despite the overstuffed cast, I liked watching the Eternals interact with each other. I enjoyed their team dynamic. The movie has also been lauded for its artistic cinematography, and I echo that. And the climax had some issues, it was a little incoherent, but I thought the Emergence aspect of the climax was extremely effective and suitably bonkers
• Finally, little bit of trivia, I'm fairly certain that this is the first Marvel movie to refer to any DC characters. Both Batman and Superman are mentioned, and it's not made explicit if they are fictional or real-life characters in the MCU. I thought that was a neat little nod, though, maybe even with some crossover potential

Up next: Somewhat undecided! Depending on when I see Spider-Man: No Way Home, it might be that, otherwise it'll be back to the thrills with the first reader-voted thrilling movie

 

#81: THE OMEN (1976)

TW: Suicide

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, but I can barely remember when. It may have been 10 years ago, it may have been 20

BEST SEQUENCE

The very early scene when Damien's nanny hangs herself

BEST LINE

"Damien! Damien! Damien, look at me! I'm over here! Damien, I love you! Look at me, Damien. It's all for you." - The aforementioned nanny, her last words before jumping

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

86%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"The Omen eschews an excess of gore in favor of ramping up the suspense -- and creates an enduring, dread-soaked horror classic along the way."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?"

THOUGHTS

• More than any other movie so far, my reaction to this movie really fluctuated throughout, which is kind of surprising considering I've seen it before. My pick for the best sequence happens at only the 10-minute mark, and then it takes a good long while to pick up again. Full disclosure, it took me three sittings to see the whole movie. For a fair while, I was thinking I'd grade this around the 5/10 range
• But then we get to the last 20 minutes or so, and man does this movie stick the landing. I totally forgot how it ends, and it gets DARK. Extremely effective climax, especially since things are still left a little ambiguous as to whether or not Damien actually is the Antichrist or just, like, a creepy-looking kid
• The special effects may be a little dated, but there are some pretty gruesome death scenes in this movie, a few of which may have been contenders for the best sequence. There's a fairly infamous decapitation scene, and I also like the scene in which a character gets impaled by a metal rod falling from a church roof
• This is the second Gregory Peck movie on the AFI list (after The Guns of Navarone), and we'll be seeing him again (Cape Fear is coming up, and there may even be others that I'm forgetting). Funnily enough I never really considered him a "thrilling" actor, but he's certainly well represented in this list. Just like in The Guns of Navarone, he brings a lot of gravitas to his role
• Incidentally, Peck plays an American diplomat, the Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and I haven't a clue what that job actually entails
• This is also the second appearance of composer Jerry Goldsmith (I really liked his work on Poltergeist), and looking at Goldsmith's credits, we'll be hearing his music several more times throughout the list (Chinatown, Alien, and Planet of the Apes, to name a few). The Omen brought Goldsmith his only Oscar and it's a pretty effective score, heavily influenced by religious choral music
• Speaking of influences, I kept thinking of this movie as kind of a combination of Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, while not quite being as impactful as either of those classics. And the AFI agrees; Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist are both in the top 10
• Finally, the significance of 666, the number of the beast, is really hammered home. People have birthmarks in the shape of the number, Damien was born at 6 AM on June 6th, and the movie was even released on June 6th, 1976, in the UK. I have to imagine that this movie played a big part in solidifying 666 as a satanic number in the public consciousness

Up next: Time to get caught up with Marvel! It'll be Eternals, which I've already seen, Spider-Man: No Way Home, which I'm planning to see in the theatre, and then I'm very excited to say we'll be starting on the first block of thrilling movies which have been voted into the list by readers like you!

#82: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

1.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never

BEST SEQUENCE

The worldwide electrical outage orchestrated by Klaatu to demonstrate his power to all of humanity

BEST LINE

"I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

95%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Socially minded yet entertaining, The Day the Earth Stood Still imparts its moral of peace and understanding without didacticism."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"An alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets."

THOUGHTS

• More like The 90 Minutes My Life Stood Still
• Catty remarks aside, let's talk Thrill Scale. It's an entirely unscientific process. I don't have a rubric, there's no specific criteria. Really, whatever number I assign is just a way for me to quantify my gut reaction to these movies. Going into this I was uncertain how low these scores would go; this is a list of the most thrilling movies of all time, so surely there's a good chance I'd be fairly entertained by all of them. But I can definitely state that while watching The Day the Earth Stood Still I was the least entertained, the least thrilled, out of any of these movies so far
•  And I know that this is considered a stone cold classic of early sci-fi. While watching, I was trying to find some sort of justification for this and I just couldn't. It's boring and it's corny and it did nothing for me. I will acknowledge that some of these early, influential movies may have lost some of their impact because aspects have been imitated in so many movies in the years since that the original iteration may have lost some of its novelty, but even with this in my mind, I just couldn't find anything in this movie that would stick with me
• Some of the special effects, especially when it comes to Klaatu's spaceship, were fine. But Gort, the main threat to humanity in this movie, just looks like a tall guy lumbering around in grey pyjamas. I didn't find him intimidating, and I mostly just kept thinking of Sam's Halloween costume from Freaks and Geeks
• Also, all the characters kept referring to Gort as a "robut" in that old-timey way
• And Klaatu's story, of learning about this funny little species called humans, was incredibly slow going. Even the scene in which he stopped all the power across the Earth, which I thought was the most effective scene, was kind of silly. How can we show the massive impact that this would have on people around the globe? I know, how about someone who's trying to make a milkshake, but the milkshake blender won't work! Goosebumps!
• I will admit that some of the Washington DC landmarks were used effectively
• I get that this is a parable about the Cold War and nuclear weapons, and I get that Klaatu is a pretty heavy-handed Christ figure. I'm sure this was a very effective concept during the actual Cold War. These days, the movie just doesn't hold up
• We also had to deal with an annoying child actor, who got to deliver such wonderful lines as, "I like you, Mr. Carpenter! You're a real screwball!" Credit to the rest of the actors, though, at least they engaged with the film
• And so, this is officially the lowest score I've given a movie so far, and it's going to be hard to go much lower. More than even The Poseidon Adventure, another "classic" which did nothing for me at all, I wouldn't be surprised if The Day the Earth Stood Still has its defenders. And who knows, maybe I'll watch it again some day and it'll click for me. But as it stands, I doubt it, and I probably won't have the urge to watch this one ever again. But hey, check another "classic" movie off the old list

Up next: The Omen from 1976

#83: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

5.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never. In fact, this is the first filmed version of The Phantom of the Opera that I've seen (but I did see the musical on Broadway)

BEST SEQUENCE

It would have to be the famous unmasking scene, but when the chandelier falls it's also pretty cool.

BEST LINE

"..." - Everyone

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

90%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Decades later, it still retains its ability to scare -- and Lon Chaney's performance remains one of the benchmarks of the horror genre."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A mad, disfigured composer seeks love with a lovely young opera singer."

THOUGHTS

• This movie is best remembered for the physical appearance of Lon Chaney's face as the Phantom, which the actor designed himself with makeup effects. As most people probably know about The Phantom of the Opera, the titular character wears a mask for a large part of the story and we don't see the Phantom's face until exactly halfway through the movie at minute 45. Now, apparently in 1925 when moviegoers first saw the Phantom's face, there was much screaming and fainting. But come on, that was 1925, and we've seen some pretty intense movies since then. I knew about this scene, and I was prepared to be underwhelmed and scoff at the weak stomachs of those people from 1925. But you know what, in the context of the movie it worked pretty well. I didn't scream or faint, of course, but it was quite effective, especially with Lon Chaney staring directly into the camera. If you want to see just this clip, you can find it very easily on Youtube. Just look for the unmasking scene
• Speaking of which, as has happened with a few of these movies so far, at some point The Phantom of the Opera's copyright lapsed, so it's now in the public domain and you can find several versions of the whole movie on Youtube
• And in addition to his physical appearance, I thought Lon Chaney was great as the Phantom. Considering he spent half the movie behind a (still quite creepy) mask and the other half behind a full face of makeup, and the fact that this is a silent movie, his physical acting was really quite expressive and engrossing. He especially stood out compared to some of the other actors who were more hammy and exaggerated (we're talking giant stage winks and nudges to show us when someone's being sneaky)
• There have been a few different releases of this movie, including various versions of colouring effects and different musical scores. The version I saw used tinting on the black and white, and some scenes even appeared to be in full colour, which was quite striking visually. This version also used a score which was composed by Gabriel Thibaudeau in 1990, which I thought was absolutely fantastic
• The sets and scenery were also magnificent
• I'm pretty sure this is the last silent movie on the list, so I made my dumb "..." silent movie joke again, but if I did pick a favourite line it would actually be the Phantom saying, "Feast your eyes - glut your soul on my accursed ugliness!" Big mood

Up next: The Day the Earth Stood Still from 1951