The Raiders of Atlantis – 1983 – Cheesy and too confusing

Even though I’ve heard quite a lot about it before I wasn’t sure if it would be too cheesy or just about right for an enjoyable time. It’s been in my possession for quite some time but I haven’t gotten around watching it. It’s directed by Ruggero Deodato which makes it very interesting to say the least. His best known feature film is by no doubt Cannibal Holocaust and if you haven’t heard about any other of his movies, that one is so infamous that even those who haven’t actually seen it knows about some of the gruesome scenes in it.

In my opinion there are many more flicks directed by Deodato that’s mentionable. One of my favorites is The Barbarians Brothers starring David- and Peter Paul, two body builders with massive bodies. Just the right thing for a barbarian flick!

But this one I had not seen before. I must confess it’s quite confusing. I don’t know who is after the treasure and who is avenging who when it comes to the end of the movie. Basically there are some people trying to raise a Russian submarine. While doing that some of the radioactive material leaks out which causes a chain reaction that eventually makes the sunken island Atlantis rise to the surface. There are a couple of different gangs trying to collect the treasures and there is some gang, they might be native to Atlantis, which acts very violent.

As a whole, it’s a bit too confusing to me. And to tell the truth, I fell asleep several times when I tried to watch it. It was kind of boring. Still, there were some nice cheesy action and some costumes that should never have seen the light of day which was quite entertaining. This is not Deodatos best work. It’s quite overacted and with little to none continuity. It wasn’t my cup of tea.

4/10

Lone – 2014 – Something different

I find it very hard to write something about this. That’s not unusual of course since movies that don’t follow the usual conventions are a bit harder to comprehend. If you go for a different way to tell a story you’re bound to narrow down you audience. On the other hand, I don’t think you totally have to “get it” every time. Imagery can be “felt” and taken aside from the rational mind that we usually rate movies with. Mark Pellington does a fine job with that here. I wouldn’t go as far as comparing this with Alejandro Jodorowskys surreal masterpieces but now you know just which direction to expect from it.

This is more or less a musical video, but it’s quite lengthy (about 57 minutes) and there’s not music all the time either. The artist in question is Chelsea Wolfe whom I had no previous knowledge about. I can say that I enjoy her singing more than I would any other professional singer but she’s ok. I didn’t watch this for the music anyway.

And I’m sure there’s a story in there somewhere. But I can’t account for it. That’s not the point of this movie anyway, not in my opinion. What you should do is to let your mind flow and don’t try so much. Either you like it or not. I can’t say for sure what I think as far as a grade goes. I do know though that I had to watch it multiple times before getting any sense to it. Who said reviewing movies, short or long, blockbuster or independent, should be easy?