Frankenstein's Army (2013) Review

Purchase from Amazon: DVD - Blu-Ray - Stream Pros: +Awesome monster design +Good special effects Cons: -Poor writing -Underwhelming execution Similar films: Dead Snow

Director: Richard Raaphorst Stars: Karel Roden, Joshua Sasse Genre: Science Fiction, Horror, War The rough concept of Frankenstein's Army is that essentially it's the Frankenstein story set in WWII instead of the 19th century. Keep in mind it's a very loose Frankenstein story; that is, it really only shares a few basic themes, i.e. a scientist who assembles monsters. But I like the concept of a group of Russian soldiers going on a mysterious mission and having to fight off weird Nazi creatures while descending into a hellish laboratory. Horror movie + War movie? Awesome. I just wish the execution of this concept was a bit better. The writing isn't all that great. The writers felt the need to add some internal conflict within the group of Russian soldiers, which was honestly unnecessary. If it had been done well maybe I'd think differently, but it's not. The dramatic parts (and luckily there's not many of them) are pretty pointless and cliched. The characters are also pretty dull and almost all their action/reactions are completely unbelievable. It doesn't help that the acting is only ever decent at best. It's shot from a loose found footage first person perspective. I say loose because it's not very strict about it. There's plenty of cuts and stuff that defy the form. And while the shooting style does have a slight narrative purpose, it's really just there so that no actual quality cinematography had to be done. Which, ya know, for a low-budget horror movie it's understandable. It's not that scary either. Usually POV found footage films don't take much effort to be made scary, but this one is relatively action orientated. It basically plays out like an on-rails shooter. This could have easily been a spin-off of the House of the Dead video game series. Seriously; there's the first-person perspective, there's a a variety of monsters that just pop out randomly from behind doors, the monsters often just stand in front of the camera and attack the air, and much of the camera movement is nearly identical to something you'd see in an on-rails shooter (quick turn arounds, looking left and right around a room, peaking around corners, etc.). Monsters come out and the soldiers shoot at them for awhile while we observe from a soldier's point-of-view and then the monsters die and the soldiers continue on through some more corridors. This is a video game. Actually, I think this film would be more enjoyable if you get a light-gun (preferably a NES Zapper) and pretend to shoot at the monsters while you watch the movie. I think it'll actually work out pretty well and you may even trick yourself into thinking you're playing a video game. The best thing about this movie is easily the monsters. The creature design is pretty awesome (Mosquito Man!) and the special effects are done very well, even if they do sometimes look silly or unbelievable. They're over-the-top (monsters like these would be completely ineffective in actual warfare) but they look great. The main problem is that they don't really do much. The monsters pop out and dance around a while for the camera and then just die. If this movie is essentially a non-interactive on-rails shooter, then it's severely lacking a cool boss battle. Watch for the interesting monster design. That's about all that's worthwhile here. It's not bad, it's certainly watchable and mostly enjoyable, it's just nothing really special or impressive.

Inglorious Basterds (2009) Review

Part of Merry Christmas and Happy Tarantino Month!

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Brad Pitt, Cristoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth
Genre: War, Comedy, Macaroni Combat

Tarantino's most recent film (not counting Django Unchained, which, as of writing, will be released in a few days) and boy what a fantastic film it is. If Kill Bill was his Martial Arts Revenge Epic, then Inglorious Basterds is certainly his War Epic.

I should say that it's a little hard for me to review this one. Whereas I've seen all of Tarantino's other films a multitude of times, I've only watched Inglorious Basterds twice (as of writing). I do like it, however many of the reasons why I like it are unknown to me. It's a very subjective movie for me. Anyway, onward to the review!

The film concerns two plots to kill Adolf Hitler. The first plot is a Special Unit of American soldiers who have plans to kill Hitler. At the same time a Jewish girl who owns a cinema also has plans to kill Hitler. The American soldiers and the Jewish girl know nothing of each other's plans, but they end up indirectly effecting each other.

There's some fantastic scenes in here. The opening scene is marvelous and intense. It shows just how ruthless the Nazis can be. The scene that follows shortly after, with American soldiers torturing Nazis for information, also a marvelous scene, shows us just how ruthless the Americans can be. Other favorite scenes of mine include the tavern scene and the cinema scene.

Inglorious Basterds is a sort of Macaroni Combat film, the Spaghetti Western of war. There is no shortage of graphic violence in here. People getting their faces shot up, their heads bashed in. It's a very violent movie, and you either love that or hate it. But that by no means makes it a realistic film, on the contrary it's a very exaggerated (stylized even) and comedic film. 

Films don't often make me laugh out loud, but Inglorious Basterds manged to make me. The scene with three American jarheads trying to pretend to be Italians is hilarious. One of the funniest things I've ever watched. As violent and savage as Inglorious Basterds can be, it also has it's very funny moments. 

There's many of Tarantino's signature long-takes, and many scenes go on for minutes upon minutes with nothing but dialogue carrying them. It's very dangerous to leave the audience with nothing but talking for such long takes but Tarantino proves again and again that he can pull it off (except for maybe in Death Proof). The film is very well written and the dialogue is great. We never really get to know the characters very well, and I can't say the character development is terribly great, but the characters are all quite interesting. 

The cast and performances are great. Brad Pitt does a fabulous job as a (somewhat dumb, yet always capable)  American soldier. Eli Roth, who I usually don't much like as an actor (or as a director for that matter), I didn't mind at all in here. He did a good job. Christoph Waltz perhaps steals the show here as a Nazi soldier. You'll see other faces like Mike Myers or hear the voices of Samuel L. Jackson and Harvey Keitel. It's, as are all Tarantino films, a wonderfully cast film.

The soundtrack here is much less vocal and pop compared to Tarantino's other films. There's a lot of Ennio Morricone stuff taken from other films that sounds great. There's even a David Bowie song in here...very odd indeed. It is a very good soundtrack, though perhaps not as stand-out as you may expect. 

Inglorious Basterds is a highly enjoyable film, and while it may be a genre film turned art film, I think one must watch it primarily for entertainment. It's far from a serious movie, but if you know how to approach it I think you'll find yourself very pleased.

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