Genres

Visitors Review

2013-05-08 06:34:04

Trapped people

This film is not for every one becouse it will shock,offend,and psychologically assult you. It might even show you the dark place you might be in but dont want to see and what could happen if you don't get out of it. If you are attracted to films that are psychologically dark, surreal,and uncompromising like the works of Luis Buneul, David Lynch, and Claude Chabral then this film is for you. This films commentary is a must listen to if what the film is about flew over your head. I viewed it on blu ray its a bit grainy but if you get engrossed in the story like i did you will not notice it.

2013-05-07 09:49:45

Not a "pretty picture" but raw with battered feelings and bodies. For one who loves acting and storytelling without censoring.

Honestly, I rented this because I find Josh Lucas to have an emotional honesty lacking in most actors and I look for his work. He did not disappoint, nor did the rest of the cast. I had an instinct that this film would be hard to watch because I countered it with "Have you heard about the Morgans"..so I was not wrong to pair it with this film. It has a rare sexual rawness that is disturbing, and images of concentration camp experiments that sicken your heart. For all the nakedness and sex, it actually told an important part of the story for a change. It's about how the horror of one young woman's experience of being abandoned by her family in Nazi Germany, to be put in a concentration camp, falling in love with a German doctor, abandoned again, then how it affects her two sons lives years later. It is a film that left ME to think through what I saw, and it brought up feelings about my own experiences, and it left me feeling like I'd seen a story told which has the potential to heal. The purpose of art. A commercial movie is all neatly wrapped up in a non offensive package with how to feel and interpret it, whereas here I was watching their story but interested in my own reactions and judgements and 'allowing' myself to watch this movie with the curtains open...I took an acting class and was fascinated how it felt to explore that process...and this film made me feel that intensity like no other film ever has...it was only after watching the actors and the director's comments about how they felt, that I see that for them it was that same feeling...the terror doing something that makes you want to run the other direction, but once you do it, you have a fierceness no one can take away. We are all filled with judgements about things, about how we should live and how much we will allow ourselves to be happy, and this film, on so many levels, lets you explore that. It is interesting that I am seeing this film as I'm struggling with family issues, so I would say, if you are drawn to this movie, then most definitely watch it, but get a comedy for later....it is intense and will likely affect you. It's not a film that I would watch over and over..but I won't forget that it said to me to rethink what I've told myself based on what I experienced as a child. I"m willing to be happier than that! Watch the featurettes and interwiews...

pjjcm 2013-04-16 06:08:58

Mrs Glass wants smore ...

This is like some crazed version of the Salinger family of cognoscentiin Franny and Zooey; all members destroyed and genius blighted by theneurotic legacy of the mother's will to survive the KZ experience in1945. Bisset plays the mother who suffered the Sophie's Choice ofseducing her executioner-doctor with sado-masochistic sexual rompingsin order to survive and make a family in New york with two sons both ofwhom are dripping with potential but who have had their genius crushedby her wild and uncontained rages. The provider father is a shadow of aman who cannot control his wife's mental devolution nor his sons'actual contempt for him.With stilted monologues and dialogues their raisons d'etre paint themas hollow people pretending to cope with a meaningless set of unhappylives.The one shocking curiosity is that the end of the film houses aprolonged scream of orgasmic satisfaction which stems from the agedmother now visited again by her Camp doctor as she is finally set freeof her morbid longings with a wholehearted indulgence in what she hasmissed all these years. Out of a Mephistophelian debacle comes arenaissance of the evil promise; all the evil caused by her moralturpitude is 'excused' with this one long drawn-out scream of sexualsatisfaction. Worth a watch if only for the daring moral tightropewalking ...

bella-chase 2013-04-15 19:45:21

Intense adult drama about repercussions of violence and war

This movie tells a story held secret by most people who write about theHolocaust, which is the crippling effect of the Survivors' warexperiences on their children. Studies have shown that the children ofNazi Holocaust Survivors share many if not all of their parents'psychological issues, particularly depression and post-traumaticstress. This film has the rare courage and honesty to show the bleakemotional damage left by that war, not only on its direct victims buton their children as well. The portrait of the mother is particularlybitterly real -- her seemingly inexplicably outbursts and fits ofviolence a near-mirror of the unexplained violence she witnessed as agirl; her narcissism and coldness linked to her own abandonment as agirl. Again, a poignant and tragic reality of the psychologicallandscape of all survivors of war. The actors were superb, the dialogueactually worth LISTENING to. Haas and Lucas put in beautifully nuancedperformances and Bisset was outstanding in arguably the best, mostemotional performance of her career, and looking more beautiful thanever.This is not an easy film. It is most definitely not a family film(there are explicit depictions of sex). It is a disturbing portrait ofbroken people struggling to find reasons to stay alive. It's prettygreat, really.

Andreas Zeller 2013-04-13 06:32:26

A hard thing to judge

This is one of the movies which will be loved by those wannabeintellectuals, because it appears profound, alternative and provoking.It offers a lot of opportunity e.g. for a class to discuss the problemsand personal backgrounds of each character and their histories, butafter all it's just very average and way too pretentious.About the plot: It starts off very good and interesting. Ourprotagonist talks about life in general, people, expectations and howto deal with that in life. His monologue pisses off his one-night-standso badly that she gets dressed immediately and leaves.The movie switches inbetween three timelines: Childhood: He and hisneurotic brother grew up with a mentally deranged mother and a fatherwho couldn't keep her from snapping. That's the first of the timelines.You'll see the mother snap, scream and shout, destroy their kids' roomfor some bogus reason. Scenes appear very depressing (and annoying).Concentration Camp: The mother survived a German concentration camp bysleeping up with her angel of death, some German concentration campdoctor who apparently lets her live because she has her body to offeras a reward for that. In this time snipplet, you'll most likely seethem have sex, have dinner, dance or do other couply stuff that doesn'tseem very romantic, but also very depressing and pretentious. The lastscene of this time period shows the mother cry over her doctor leaving,because the russians were coming. She gets a hold of herself again. Butit appears that she never really got over that separation.The here and now: Most of the movie is set in the present. The motherstill snaps every once in a while and destroys inventory, her husbandstill doesn't have the guts to do something about it, her first son(the main character) gets conned by his new business partner and sleepsaround with a lot of women while the second one has a weird eatingdisorder. The mother meets her concentration camp entertainment again,just for the masochistic sex, which her son likes too, by the way. Theneurotic son doesn't seem to ever have had sex, so he stays at home andplays the piano.All this may seem very depressing and annoying, and it is. The questionI have been asking myself the entire movie, is 'What is the writertrying to tell us?' - And honestly, I have no idea. The movie ends verysudden, while the plot doesn't really thicken. There are just thosethree stories told, and of course their history: Protagonist getsstabbed by his masochistic Asian lover, although it might have beenjust regular sex, judging from previous scenes. Mother meets her docagain in a hotel and has sex with him. Brother breaks most of hisfingers smashing the flap for the piano keys shut with his hand inside.There are still some weird scenes showing human body parts being cut, ahuman brain being BBQ'd, some more of this weird stuff without anyconnection to the already very weird plot. I don't even know how tocomment on these scenes, so I just chose to ignore them.On the whole: Personally, that was a waste of my time. I was waitingfor the movie to resolve some of the plot parts that seemed intriguing.That is by the way the only reason why I gave it 4/10 instead of just1/10.If you like dark and wannabe meaningful movies, go ahead and waste yourtime. If you want to be entertained, don't watch this movie with any ofyour friends, that you'd like to have a fun night with later on.

2013-04-12 20:55:22

I'll tell ya what this should have been called!

It should have been called "The Male Booty Movie"! Every ten minutes some guy is showing his butt. Either he's getting busy with a woman or mastering his domain. Don't get me wrong: long live men's butts! Still, this sure had a lot of them, especially for a non-rainbow-flag film. If you like the male buttocks, then here's some excellent eye candy for you. Happy New Year!!!

2013-04-11 22:10:10

Death in Love (DVD) ~ Jacqueline Bisset

I got this DVD because of Jacqueline Bisset. It wasn't a great movie but it was to see Jacqueline Bisset in a movie.

2013-04-11 07:10:58

Don't waste your time

This review is from: Death in Love (Amazon Instant Video) I "was" a Josh Lucas fan before I made the mistake of renting this. It was complete trash. Josh has some explaining to do.

EstieR 2013-03-30 09:27:00

Some truth to it !

Wow ! that was some strong Movie..The very beginning was very intense, and to hard to look at. . It showed theeffect of the Holocaust Survivors, and howit affected their next generation.The BabyBoomers. I do notknow how realistic it was though, that a Holocaust Survivor would actually fall in love with a Sadistic Nazi doctor. To play along withhis emmotion, perhaps, to save her life, but toactually fall in love with such a person...I do not buy it!

freeway-6 2013-03-30 02:56:36

Weird and Wacko

For whatever reason I stuck with this dismal excuse of a film by BoazYakim until the bitter orgasmic end.Set sometime in the early nineties from what appeared to be news of thebasement bombing at the World Trade Center, we meet the protagonist whofor the better part of twenty minutes is either nude, with a nude,masturbating or engaging in rough sex. Considering the fact this filmwas rated R, you could easily describe the goings on as mildlypornographic.Basically, the story is about a mother, Jacqueline Bisset, a Holocaustsurvivor thanks to her connection as a girl to a Nazi doctor into humanexperiments, which are shown in gory detail, her husband and two sons,Josh Lucas and Lukas Haas. The mother is still lusting for the Nazidoctor, her husband is a wimp, her forty year old son is into raunchysex, and her youngest at thirty-five hasn't had a date since he was inhigh school.The story jumps back and forth from war past to fifties past to thepresent. The performances are over the top, with lots of reactionclose-ups from each of the major characters, many times either cryingor screaming.Mother has a number of liaisons who all turn up dead after her meetingswith them courtesy of her doctor friend. Near the end of the film, sheleaves her husband alone in their apartment prior to her climaticmeeting with her Nazi crush. She deliberately leaves the apartment doorajar and we see the evil doc enter the building. Later her youngestshows up with his smashed hand and no one is at home. We never find outwhat happened to her husband, but suffice it to say, she probably willbe attending another funeral prior to living happily ever after withyou know who.Death in Love is one very strangely weird film.

tjohnsn61 2013-03-24 12:36:32

Fantastic script, good video and a philosophical plot - a movie that thinking people will enjoy

Don't let the first few seconds scare you away. After that, theremaining initial nine minutes of dialog in this movie grabbed myattention. As a 49 year old guy, it was like the conversation that I'vebeen holding in my own head was exposed, thoughts that I've neveradmitted to another human because of my shame, somehow brought out intothe public for everyone to hear. Unbelievably honest, real, certainly aglimpse into my very brain with the same rationale and conclusions thatI have come to in my own life.If you've lived enough of live, you recognize the maternal instinct ofthe mother for her disadvantaged son. She protects him, puts up withhim and shows a patience that only a guilt laden (whether deservedly soor not) mother will demonstrate. Her description of the call of herjilted boyfriend's parent's call is also not out of the ordinary forsome of us. The acting of the disabled son, the emotion, absolutelyfantastic and realistic. Unbelievably realistic, like looking intosomeone's personal life.The movie only gets better. Watch it if you're interested in exploringthe shadows of the human condition in an honest, thought provokingmanner. Bravo!

Irene F 2013-03-23 20:02:12

The WORST movie ever!

Wow...what was this all about?? What a lousy, distressing movie! I would have walked out about miday...but I thought maybe, just maybe, the movie would wrap up nicely at the end. WRONG!!!

kayfgibbs@msn.com 2013-03-17 09:25:27

Honest portrayal of traumatic bonding - enlightening - slightly spoiled

The film begins with a dramatic portrayal of a kind of perverted lovestory, the traumatic bonding between a Nazi Doctor and a femaleprisoner; a young woman abandoned by her parents escaping Nazi Germanyleaving her behind, alone, and how she sacrifices the last of her selfrespect in order to survive Nazi captivity. Surviving that captivityand suffering from the effects of her trauma unknown to her, shemarries and becomes the mother of two sons living in New York City.What follows are the desperate measures by the family in grappling withthe results of the mother's failure at managing her life and how, likea virus, her abusive past has infected her two sons and the people theyare involved with, now adult men trying to cope with the lives theyhave inherited.Jews do not hold the world cup for suffering or living with PTSD as iswell depicted here. All of the characters are suffering from the resultof some kind of despicable abuse or oppression. What surprises me, ishow little people really recognize or understand PTSD, repression,acting out, repetition compulsion, and a host of other maladiesspecific to victims of abuse when they see it; not just specific to theJews, but war veterans and their families, victims of rape, sextrafficking, slavery, child molestation, and abuse perpetrated in thename of medicine, science, and law enforcement that often getscompounded when attempts at helping are done in ignorance. I basedthese conclusions on personal experience and on the articles I haveread about the film. None of the writers who reviewed this film seemedto know a single thing about what this film was portraying.This condition we all have inherited, includes that from centuries whenno psychiatric care existed or was simply unattainable that usuallylands on the shoulders of the lower class peoples of a country whodevelop psychoses, will never know true freedom, enslaved to thesewanton souls often for the rest of their lives with no way out.To me Death In Love is also a depiction of the hidden cruelty withinour society as a whole, the incapacity to truly love, thesado-masochism hiding behind what we blindly accept as being for ourbenefit or best interest. The film was better than expected. I washesitant in viewing it based on the previews I watched but I haverarely been misled by Bisset's choices in her roles or films thoughthey have surprised me recently, so I felt compelled to see it. Thisfilm is different than The Fine Art of Love as the rage is seriouslyrepressed and the cruelty not so obvious. In Death In Love the angerand rage being reenacted is abounding, real and often frightening.If you want to be enlightened and know nothing about post traumaticstress disorder or Stockholm syndrome, then this is a film to see thatleaves little hidden from view.

2013-03-16 15:28:12

Awesome

This review is from: Death in Love (DVD) This is an awesome movie. It's unique, and definitely not your conventional action or drama, but it's remarkably well done. It's also a definite R+. If you are scared off by horror, gore, or violence, much less sex and more sex, don't buy it. However, for the adults in the audience, it's awesome. I highly recommend it to those who want to watch a good movie and are not scared off by archaic moral or ethics systems.

Siamois 2013-03-16 11:22:20

Weak and indulgent film-making in all its glory

What happens when the writer of some gems as "The Punisher", "DirtyDancing: Havana Nights" who also directed crap like "Uptown Girls"decides to write and direct an artsy flick?Death In Love is the answer. This film does not pull any punch when itcomes to gruesome and explicit scenes. Writer/director Boaz Yakin hadto finance this film all by himself because he had specific things inmind. This would never have been approved by studios and I understandwhy he got no financial backing. Having a specific vision, refusing tocompromise are all laudable as far as I am concerned. It's just that, unfortunately, Yakin's vision seems terribly limited.So are his skills as a storyteller. The founding story arc revolvesaround a Jewish girl who begins an affair with a doctor overseeingexperiments on human in a concentration camp during WWII. Yakin goesall guns blazing trying to showcase the intensity of this relationshipand fails spectacularly because there is a total lack of chemistrybetween the actors and the script is emotionally numb right from thestart. She just supposedly falls in love at first sight, with a psychodoctor who looks like an extra in an infomercial. The second story arc (which gets the most screen time) takes place inthe present and features this woman again with her husband and twoadult sons. All of which seem to be mysteriously as nuts as she is forno reason whatsoever. In between, we get flashbacks from the time her sons were children andhow she'd go nuts and scare them, but it's done awkwardly, like whatyou'd expect in a direct to video "it happened for real" melodramafeaturing Melissa Gilbert or some other has-been. The present-day story arc features the most interesting and intriguingscenes. The youngest son (Lukas Haas) is a total waste of screen timeas an obnoxious man-child who has various phobias and still live withhis parent. But the eldest son (Josh Lucas) gets a lot of screen time.He's almost 40 years old, seemingly jaded about everything. Of lot ofhis scenes (particularly with his co-worker played by Adam Brody)feature dialogue that, while not amazing, is still better than what therest of the movie has to offer. There are a few themes displayed but Yakin, in the least subtle wayEVER implies a strong connection between pain and sexuality. In fact,so strong that he almost implies one is synonymous with the other. Thiscould be a powerful and interesting theme to explore in a fewcharacters but here, it's just not done well. Every character on screenhas intense desire to masturbate, and it seems nobody is able to makelove without beating his partner at the same time. It's just...amateurish. The story and characters feel artificial despite all thecourageous grit Yakin put in the film. There is also a strong undercurrent of self-loathing in all the maincharacters. Yakin is Jewish himself and I sensed that he was extremelycritical of a segment of people who shun their origins and hate whatthey are. And I can appreciate his attempt to highlight that. One ofthe most powerful scene, to me, was a small one where the Jewish girlat the concentration camp (who receives favorable treatment from thedoctor, her lover) refuses to give the rest of her meal to a starvingJewish violinist. Instead, she sadistically eats every last crumb, asif she renounced her Jewish heritage and what she really is.All in all, I think Yakin tackled powerful issues in a very confusingway. This feels like a very personal film but unfortunately, the fewpowerful scenes in there, the great performances by Lucas, Bisset andHaas and the grittiness can't save a weak script and a weak story.

mhelen 2013-03-15 15:29:16

Best movie I've seen this year so far

movie ends with woman in her seventies screaming while having orgasmand her son being stabbed by his Chinenese-American female boss whileroll playing rape mazo fore-playing . Woman is having sex with her longforloren lover who used to be a doctor in a Nazi extermination camp andshe were interned while being abandoned in Paris by her father and stepmother . Flashbacks are absolutely amazing .Actors in them speak infrench and German unlike in those usual pathetic flicks where bad guysspeak with German accented English to make a flick more authentic. if uthink its yet another holocaust survivor thingy don't .I've seen quitea few of the kind and I never seen anything like that. Woman got twosons. One working in a shady semi con "model" agency where he gets acut from fleecing plain average looking females from their money byimplying the possibility of them getting jobs as models Other one is 'live with his parents till his forty' type .He got a goodexcuse though, he is seemingly talented pianist and composer unable todeal with everyday life . The borderline conman brother gets conned by dashing new addition toagency.He looses his apartment where shortly before his brother beganexperimenting with living away from home .to summarize the movie in one word its Smart .Its Smartly cut .Smartlyshot .Smartly written you don't feel for one minute that something isout of place or fake . I watch like 4 to 5 movies a day and a bunchload of TV shows .I know I know sad case .So like I said my brains areconduits to pretty much huge amount of movie stuff .Not that that makesme an expert or anything but I love this movie .

venusianmovielover 2013-03-10 23:27:37

Deep, dark and psychologically fascinating - a realistic portrayal of how "anything repressed comes out in toxic form."

Although at times I found this movie hard to watch, I think it is anexcellent film about the things that human beings don't want to talkopenly about,the underbelly of human life that we all experience andidentify with in one way or another. This movie portrays these types ofthings with a good story, a good script and fine acting.The filmmaker should be commended for his conviction to tell a storythat was obviously important to him, by investing his own money to makethis film. I see why that was required because society in general doesit's best to push down out of sight, the very things that need to havethe light shown in on. In my opinion film and theater are the best wayto do it, and this movie does it authentically.I agree with some of the other reviewers that this film's subjectmatter is very important for all of us as human beings to understandand not be afraid of, so that we may have compassion for others who maybe "acting out" some neurotic compulsion that they have "inherited" orbeen left with from experiencing trauma, as well as compassion for ourself. Human beings "act out", it is just a part of the human conditionand being alive.If you like intensity and a view into deep emotional scenarios thisfilm is for you.

2013-03-10 13:59:30

Best film I have seen depicting traumatic bonding...

This review is from: Death in Love (Amazon Instant Video) The film begins with a dramatic portrayal of a kind of perverted love story, the traumatic bonding between a Nazi Doctor and a female prisoner; a young woman abandoned by her parents escaping Nazi Germany leaving her behind, alone, and how she sacrifices the last of her self respect in order to survive Nazi captivity. Surviving that captivity and suffering from the effects of her trauma unknown to her, she marries and becomes the mother of two sons living in New York City. What follows are the desperate measures by the family in grappling with the results of the mother's failure at managing her life and how, like a virus, her abusive past has infected her two sons and the people they are involved with, now adult men trying to cope with the lives they have inherited. To me Death In Love is a depiction of the hidden cruelty within our society as a whole, the incapacity to truly love, the sado-masochism hiding behind what we blindly accept as being for our benefit or best interest. The film was better than expected. I was hesitant in viewing it based on the previews I watched but I have rarely been misled by Bisset's choices in her roles or films and they have surprised me recently, so I felt compelled to see it. This film is different than The Fine Art of Love as the rage is seriously repressed and the cruelty not so obvious. In Death In Love the anger and rage being reenacted is abounding, real and often frightening. If you want to be enlightened and know nothing about post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic bonding or Stockholm syndrome, then this is a film to see that leaves little hidden from view. The acting is excellent and believable.

2013-03-10 03:26:44

Sick

great cast depressing script if you are into stories about sick, messed up people, or just want to be able to say well at least my family really looks normal in comparison, I hated it but I did watch it all. Just not what I watch movies for.

dbborroughs 2013-03-09 19:12:55

disturbing

I'm not sure what I make of this film. Its certainly its own film in away that few films ever are. Is it any good? Your guess is as good asmine.The plot of the film concerns a woman who survived the concentrationcamps by sleeping with one of the Nazi doctors. We also follow her twosons, one who is unnaturally attached to his mother and won't leavehome, and the other a man who works at a questionable modeling agencyand sleeps with a good number of women. Its a very sexual and dark talethat has everyone on a downward spiral into destruction.I'm disturbed. This is a trip into the dark side of the human psyche.Rarely have I ever seen the eroticism of death so clearly stated. Thereis a great deal of food for thought here, but I'm not sure it adds upto much. The people here seem to be some form of extreme cases and theyborder on certifiable which makes taking anything away from theirexploits all that more hard to take. The performances are good and Iunderstand why everyone took their roles, but I'm still struggling towork out what they were getting at.Worth a look if you don't mind looking at the darkness and want to seea unique vision. All others stay away