This movie is very difficult to find where I live but after I have fallen in love with the brilliant series and all the other works that David Lynch has done, I was really looking forward to watch this prequel that many professionals had heavily criticized. Many people said that the movie didn't have the same charming way of the life in a small and mysterious town, many people commented that the characters weren't as intense and believable as in the series and some people regretted that some of the series's characters like Audrey Horne or Harry Truman didn't appear in this movie and that some other main characters like Dale Cooper only had small roles.

But I think that those people didn't understand the intention of this movie. It is sure that a movie of two hours and fifteen minutes can't develop the characters as much as a series with almost thirty episodes. It is also sure that this movie is about the last days of Laura Palmer and that's why characters like Audrey Horne have not much to do with this movie as they had no closer connection to the main character. This movie has a faster development than its series, it is straight forward and maybe less mysterious.

But this movie is intense in every sense of the word. It is frightening, has a very dark and desperate atmosphere, it is horrifying and it is brilliantly played by Sheryl Lee and we get a true insight of the character of Laura Palmer and her everyday life along side her strange father, her weak mother, her many different friends and especially boyfriends. This movie shows in a very straight and hard way the wasted life of a beauty that has lost its youth and innocence. This movie is about sex, drugs, violence, crime, murder and fear and how to get drowned in a circle of desperation. The scene were Laura and Donna are in the discotheque is one if the most intense moments ever filmed in cinema's history with its strange music, weird light effects, ugly sex and violence scenes and the feelings that evolve from there. You feel hypnotized and desperate about the characters. The scene where Laura and her father are in their car and surprised by a strange one-armed man is strange, disturbing and extremely weird. The scene where Laura meets the strange Bob in her sleeping room is spooky, haunting and could create nightmares. The scene where Laura finally faces her destiny is brutal, uneasy and pervert. The conclusion and final scene of the movie is the only part where you feel a little bit of piece and hope in a very transcendent and spiritual way.

David Lynch plays with your emotions and your wildest dreams and drowns you from one feeling to the other. While watching this movie I was frightened, I was almost crying, I was disturbed, I was delighted and I was absolutely impressed. I never thought that this movie would mess up with the best series in history but this flick is absolutely at the same level even if it is different because of its intensity.

But even though this movie is straight and heavy, there are still many mysterious details and typical trademarks of the series from time to time like the weird introduction of the case by Gordon Cole and the dancing lady, things that only a genius could have invented. The weird scene with David Bowie is also one for the ages and extremely cool. There are also many little hints to discover that concern the fate of other characters of the series for example the scene where a bloody Annie sleeps next to Laura and transmits her a strange message.

A sure thing is that this movie is no easy stuff and more scaring than any horror movie I have seen in my life. That's why this movie hasn't been a success for the masses and its very particular style is in fact very charismatic and different from anything you might expect. The point of desperation is that you know what will happen if you have seen the series and that you know that the characters are damned or even lost and the frightening about all of this is that you know that there is no escape and that you don't exactly know how or when it might happen. I really felt with the characters in this movie and this is something that has been developed in the series over several episodes but in this movie, I had the same feeling only after a couple of minutes. I have never seen or felt something as intense and strong concerning a movie in my whole life.

I always thought that David Lynch's masterpiece concerning a movie is "Lost highway" but after watching this flick I am no longer sure about it. This is a masterpiece, a mysterious, weird, scaring horror movie with some dramatic elements. This movie doesn't need much blood or gore effects to frighten you, it's all about the atmosphere. This movie is so intense that you simply don't have the time to miss Audrey Horne and all the others that I have liked so much throughout the series. That is something brilliant and unexpected that only David Lynch could create and it's a shame but as well typical for the mainstream masses that they didn't accept this style at the time and that there haven't been any more movies about Twin Peaks. At least, the legacy found its end on an absolute climax.

I would recommend this movie to anyone that likes movies and has a little sense of genius and is open-minded enough to accept the flick's very unique style. It is probably my favourite movie of all times or comes at least quite close to it.

This movie is a pleasant offering for any fan of Japanese cinema and weird mystery movies. I just gave this movie a try because I was attracted by the strange cover of a naked woman and a press text on the back that compared this movie to the works of Cronenberg and especially Lynch which I admire.

This movie is not as strange and difficult to follow as the works of a David Lynch, but it comes quite close and proves its uniqueness with a weird fantasy story and many original ideas that make you doubt what is reality or illusion in this movie as the frontier between both is a very small path. The movie lives by its strange and mysterious main character, by its dark and frightening scenes in the metro or in the strange apartment and by its idea that the main character films everything he sees. The dark footage, the minimalist dialogues and the atmospheric and frightening music create an intense and uneasy atmosphere like in a morbid horror movie plus the Lynchian weirdness and Japanese originality as well as a shot of intellectual or philosophical content. That's a highly explosive mixture even though it is a typical slow paced flick like many in this genre. I really suggest you to watch this flick if my description already made you curious.

This is a dark tale of an isolated and frosty man that wants to discover such an intense emotion as deadly gripping fear after he has accidentally filmed the suicide of an unemployed in a metro station. The main character wants to live the same emotion, stops to take his pills against depression and goes out to look what could have frightened the suicidal man in the metro as he is convinced that the man has seen something frightening out there. In the depths of the metro, the main character discover a strange underworld where strange spider men or robots live as well as some beggars and the ghost of the suicidal guy. He later discovers a strange and abandoned city in between some mountains of madness where he meets a naked and pale girl that is imprisoned in a small cave by a chain. The main character liberated the girl and takes her home. But she is very strange as she doesn't speak a single work and refuses to eat or drink anything that her new friend wants to offer her. As the main actor then gets strange and menacing calls and is observed and followed by a hysterical lady that says that the strange girl was her daughter, the camera man realizes that a strange secret surrounds this wicked girl: she needs blood to live and forces her saviour to look for new carcasses if he doesn't want to fail his strange mission and get menaced by the strange calls.

I am a huge fan of Western movies and also of Matt Damon's acting and that was why I was really looking forward to this movie. I haven't seen the original with John Wayne but I have seen other movies starring him and know about his strong presence and particular acting even though I largely prefer the Italian Westerns and their actors and think that John Wayne is somehow overrated. After many positive reviews and an entering at the list of the top movies of all times on this site, my expectations were quite high for the new version of True Grit and then crashed dramatically down. I won't say that it is a bad movie but I would honestly say that it is a rather boring that is saved by the great actors, the magnificent landscapes and the movie score. True Grit is neither a True Hit nor the True S*it.

The movie is a rather slow paced character study where the actors do a very well job, especially the young and talented Hailee Steinfeld as stubborn young girl Mattie Ross that wants to chase the killer of her father with the help of the often drunk, used and pitiless but rather smart Rooster Cogburn played by the very convincing Jeff Bridges. Matt Damon plays a young, modern and somewhat emotive Texas Ranger but is less convincing as usually. On the other hand, I didn't see any sadness, fear or despair in the role of Mattie Ross, a young girl in a stranger town that has lost her father recently; her only emotion was her stubborn sense of vengeance. Rooster Cogburn did a slightly better job and shows his two sides as a prudent tutor and nostalgic storyteller but also as an alcoholic with a quite grey life. But even though Rooster saves Mattie in the end, I miss somewhat a closer contact between them, a developing relationship between them and I would have liked to see a more intense final ending between those two characters. I was also surprised to see that the development of the character was abruptly broken when Rooster got suddenly heavily drunk out of the blue after so many sacrifices during the chase and I thought that inappropriate. The role of Matt Damon seemed strange to me, sometimes he acted like an arrogant and pitiless ranger and later as an almost warm-hearted friend. Some people may call this a developing and profound characterization but I rather saw the whole thing as an unconvincing lack of continuity. Every time I thought that there would be an interesting and tension filled relationship between the characters for example when the Texas Ranger left the group to chase the bad boys on his own and enter in conflict with the other two main characters, nothing really happened or evolved. But what really left me disappointed were the roles of the evil guys. They had nothing menacing, nothing bad and nothing outstanding apart of the embarrassing and unnecessary bad buy that was imitating animal noises to cut off the little rest of atmosphere and tension in the movie.

And with this allusion comes my next important point. The whole story was rather boring and tensionless while the main idea could have been interesting. Something like a convincing final duel or intense chase between the good and the bad was missing. A part of a few shooting scenes, there was a lack of action in the movie as it tried to touch a rather emotional, nostalgic and finally dramatically and philosophical style. That could have been another interesting approach, but the movie even failed from that point of view. The nostalgic speeches of Rooster about his wife, his career and his demons are completely random and not very touching, the thoughts of the young girl are quite linear and predictable while Matt Damon showed two different attitudes in a rather disturbing than convincing manner.

Many good ideas that could have given something special to the movie have been left out in my opinion. If the bad boys and their three hunters were marching through a territory of the Indians, I would have liked to see a cause of conflict between them. But the good and bad guys were just randomly galloping through rather beautiful landscapes. But the whole chasing story is somehow based on a few unbelievable coincidences. The fact that the girl meets the murderer of her father was predictable and the way how she met him was quite unoriginal for example. I also thought that the killer had nothing menacing at all. He was afraid of the young girl and almost begging and crying face to face with the leader of the gang (who were those guys anyway?) but should have been a cold hearted and legendary murderer across several states? These lacks of logic and some boring points throughout the whole movie could not have been hidden only by a few sympathetic word plays or jokes throughout the whole flick.

When there is a random story with many coincidences and less convincing characters, even the greatest actors, the best movie score and the most beautiful landscapes can't quite help to completely save this movie. I would have preferred a more original or even unique story and not a remake of a rather average western. I think that the talent of the actors was wasted in this unoriginal movie. Only those actors save this movie from being an absolute faceless average Western like "Appaloosa" or worse. That's why I don't really understand the whole hype about this movie. I would only recommend this flick to collectors that would absolutely see any film with Matt Damon or Jeff Bridges and those who adored the original flick. But sadly, the great times of the brilliant westerns have gone a long time ago. With this kind of movie they won't come back either even if I would hope so.

This is another well done French film noir with a rather dramatical touch. But instead of presenting us ugly events or the worst case scenario, the movie plays in a very intelligent way with wrong expectations, fatal illusions and terrible fears. The philosophy of this movie is shown at its very end and is a rather unconventional style for a film noir which makes this flick somehow stand out in comparison to the usual genre flicks.

What I liked about the movie is that it was always a very realistic and addicting flick without any unbelievable sex or gore scenes. The main actor didn't fell in love with the young student. He didn't kill his old best friend out of his despair. The movie didn't need a dose of extra blood as it worked very well in a psychological way. The movie didn't constantly build up pressure and tension but there were rather reoccurring ups and downs, moments of despair and then moments of relatively tranquillity which was an interesting development.

The reason why this movie didn't get a higher rating was the fact that I was somehow missing a punch or a twist in the end of the movie. I think it is original and unconventional that there wasn't one in the end but it would have addicted me more to the main actor and whole storyline and so I didn't completely get into the whole movie as the actors didn't do more than a good job but not an as convincing one as for example Attal and Cornillac in the brilliant "Le serpent". This distance to the actors and the story rate this movie eventually a little bit down.

But if you like a rather unusual film noir, I would suggest you to rent but maybe not buy this flick.

I bought this film at a cheap price at a drugstore because I found the story intriguing enough. I haven't heard about the movie or the book before and didn't even know the main actor Yvan Attal. Now, I will never forget him or this movie because I found a true and unexpected masterpiece by chance. This movie is dark, absorbing and intense and sends shivers down my spine by delivering everything a great psycho thriller should show us. This movie is a disturbing vengeance movie and those who always thought that the French were only able to do emotional and intellectual dramas and comedy movies should now be convinced that they can also create some heavier stuff. The great acting and the intense atmosphere are outstanding and even not comparable to other psycho thrillers so that the French have once again created something unique with this movie.

The storyline is slow paced and mysterious and becomes heavier and more and more disturbing. The characters are extremely interesting. The main actor Yvan Attal does an incredible job as a photographer that is going to get divorced soon that finds himself suddenly in the middle of a creepy nightmare that becomes reality without really knowing why. Clovis Cornillac plays the bad guy in a very mysterious, silent and creepy way that is chasing Yvan Attal and trying to destroy his life for a reason that is only revealed in a dramatical final showdown. It is hard to believe that this actor that plays a dangerous maniac and killer in this intense flick has already played Asterix and convinces in both styles. Those two actors are strong enough to carry the whole movie and we can add to them Olga Kurylenko that has a short role as a mysterious and beautiful femme fatale. The movie has a few action, gore and sex scenes but they are only some entertaining gimmicks as the whole movie is underlined by a very depressive atmosphere. The violence of this movie has a mental and not a physical touch. The whole scenery and style of directing is very photographic, very aesthetic and detailed so that a brilliant job by the director, screenwriter and cameramen are added to the perfect executions of the two main actors. Even Alfred Hitchcock or David Lynch could not have created a darker movie and only beat this movie in terms of weirdness and originality or pioneer's work. That's why "Le serpent" is maybe not properly innovating its genre but in my opinion by far the best of its kind in the last decade, maybe together with the epic vengeance movie "Oldboy" and the heavily disturbing instant Quebec classic "5150 rue des Ormes". It's a sad thing that this movie didn't get the attention it would have deserved so I would ask anyone that saw this movie to spread the word about it. I'm close to give a ten point rating to this flick which is a thing that I rarely consider. I just give nine points to this little gem because I haven't seen it often enough and because I don't know if this movie will still feel that intense in a decade or so.

All in all, I highly recommend this movie to anyone that likes disturbing and intriguing psycho thriller or simply the film noir genre. This is truly a rare masterpiece and a must see!