Under the Skin quick movie review

Cast: Scarlet Johansson
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Running time: 1 hour and 48 minutes

  Movie critics love Under the Skin, the most recent movie of Jonathan Glazer, who has previously directed Birth and Sexy Beast over the period of something like 13 years. The movie, based on a novel by Michel Faber, follows the adventures of our protagonist, Scarlet Johansson, around Scotland.

  So I'll come right out and say it, I HATED THIS MOVIE!!!!!!! I was in agony, i wanted to shoot myself in the face and never ever see that van again in my life.

  But let me explain why i had such a strong reaction to this movie. To do that, i will make this review special and start with my thoughts on the negative aspects of Under the Skin. My main problems were two, the first one being how slow paced it was. I didn't expect anything super fast and adrenalin filled but the degree of the slow-moving pace was unbelievable. Minutes were passing by and nothing was happening. And i mean nothing. After a point it became exhausting, nerve-inducing and all in all a black energy-consuming hole that sucked the life out of my eyes (and yes i know how dramatic i am being). The movie runs 1 hour and 48 minutes long and i felt like it was 4 hours.

  But making things even worse, Under the Skin was incredibly repetitive. Scene after scene following the same path with slight differences. As mentioned before, if i ever see that van or that black lake/floor again i will hit my head on the wall. Subsequently, if i was to remove all the extremely similar scenes, Under the Skin would come down to a half an hour sort film (that i would probably love).

  However, there were some great attributes to Under the Skin that i can recognise and appreciate even though i couldn't stand the movie as i was watching it. The premise of the human-looking alien that comes to earth and experiences for the first time everything that we take for granted in our everyday lives is an interesting idea that i would have liked to see made into the short film i previously mentioned.

  Another idea i was interested in was that in the begging of the film the fact that Scarlet Johansson's character has never eaten chocolate cake or has never felt sadness and empathy or has never had sex and her reaction to all that is so wonderful and pure and by the end, when she is the most happy she has been in the whole movie, the same fact, that she has never experienced life as a human before, turns into the very thing that destroys her is very though-provoking and intriguing.

  In conclusion, this movie got Under my Skin (such a good pun, i know) in a really unique (and not good) way. If you have a low threshold for slow-going and overlong movies stay away, but if you don't mind a more relaxed and unhurried structure in a film you will probably end up loving Under the Skin.
Score: 20% (but if you had asked me my score right after watching the movie it would be more like Score:0%)
Tomatometer: 86% 

m.

Courtesy of A24 Films

StudioCanal

Mongrel Media

Movie Fact of the Day

  Today's movie fact is about a movie that i loved since the first time i saw it as an early teen. The movie i'm talking about is Death at a Funeral (the original one).
  One of the leads is Alan Tudyk (one of my favourites), and in multiple scenes his character, Simon, was under the influence of  hallucinogenics . During his drug haze Simon gets on the roof of the house, gets naked and threatens to jump . According to Tudyk, the inspiration for his performance was an intoxicated teen, who he saw when he was young, on top of a picnic table, naked. He based the  poses he did on the roof on the memories of that naked teen.
  I hope you enjoyed today's fact and go check out my Death at a Funeral review (http://moviereviewsbym94.blogspot.gr/2013/07/death-at-funeral-movie-review.html) if you haven't already. Have a great day.

m.

Courtesy of

Verve Pictures

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Movie Fact of the Day

  Today 's fact is another fact about one of the movies James McAvoy has been a part of. This time the movie is "Wanted", a 2008 film also starring Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and Chris Pratt among other.
  There is a very liberating and badass scene in the film where James McAvoy's character, Wesley Gibson, tells off his boss and as he is leaving, hits his best friend Barry (played by Chris Pratt), who is sleeping with his girlfriend, in the head with his keyboard. The letters that come flying off towards the audience spell the words "Fuck You".
  So, that was the movie fact of the day. I hope you enjoyed it and have a great day.

m.

Courtesy of

Universal Pictures

Movie Fact of the Day

  THIS MOVIE FACT CONTAINS SPOILERS ABOUT THE MOVIE "TRANCE"

  This post is a spoiler about "Trance", so i suggest if you haven't seen the movie, watch it and then revisit this Movie Fact of the Day.   If you've seen "Trance" then you know about the character secrets that are revealed by the end of the movie. However, there is a sign early on that if you look close enough will give up all the secrets before the third act unveil.
  That sign is in the scene where James McAvoy's character is under hypnosis. His phone rings but before he gets a chance to answer it he gets into a car accident. At the moment where the car hits him the audience can see in the phone screen who called him, and who would later be the solution to all the questions of the movie.
  I hope you enjoyed today's movie fact and feel free to revisit Moviereviewsbym94.blogspot.com for movie reviews, rating and more.
  Have a great day. 

m.

Courtesy of

FOX Searchlight Pictures

Fact Sunday

  Today's movie fact is about The Silence of the Lamps (1991), the famous movie about Hannibal Lecter, featuring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. Even though Anthony Hopkins embodies the main character of the movie his screentime is only a total of 16 minutes.
Hope you enjoyed today's fact. Have a great day.

m.

Courtesy

Orion Pictures