Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Under the Skin (2014)

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 05-03-2014, 06:36 PM:

CINEMA: Cinemarkury 16 Suncoast, Las Vegas, NV
AUDITORIUM: 7
PRESENTATION: Mystery Meat Digital (2K)
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: LF channel seemed to be at least partially out
RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four)

Finding a multiplex buried in a casino that provides no directional signs for it is always an adventure. Just saying.

THE PLOT: A girl lures boys into her goo. Wackiness ensues.

This is a slow-moving thriller that relies on visuals more than dialogue to tell its story. Good thing too, since this is set in Scotland and most of the characters speak with an accent thick enough that, had this been a Food Network program, they would have subtitled it.

Anyway, it works. The story unfolds nicely. But a lot of people are going to find this boring as hell.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 05-04-2014, 04:58 PM:

But you managed to actually see it!

The distribution of this movie surely is a mess. The local distributor cannot even tell me when the movie will finally be available for release around here...

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 05-22-2014, 11:48 AM:

I personally liked the slow pacing of the film - it added an extra sense of creepiness.

surprised this got an R-rating, since a couple male characters/victims are *ahem* fully aroused.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 05-23-2014, 08:28 AM:

We're running two screenings of it on 12 June with Adam Pearson doing a Q&A at the evening one. The trailer looks weird.

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 05-23-2014, 01:17 PM:

Running it right now.
We got a bad review in today's paper which wont help it.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 05-26-2014, 11:33 PM:

quote: Victor Liorentas
Running it right now.
We got a bad review in today's paper which wont help it.

thankfully the Washington Post gave it a rave review and an overall 3 and half stars (out of four)

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-20-2014, 05:04 AM:

So, someone finally decided to release this movie around here. Being a primarily British production, it's still rather strange it took forever to cross the channel. Maybe the disk arrived as "message-in-a-bottle"? Yeah, this surely isn't your main stream, in your face, Hollywood production. But with a bankable star like Scarlett Johansson, going fully nude for the first time, you would expect a bit more... homogenous release.

The local art house, which is usually packed to the brim, features all the crappy entourage you'd expect. They're at times pulling in more customers than the local multiplexes, even ask more for a ticket, but they still pride themselves in ghettoness all the way: tiny and small, unmasked, common width screens with way to big perforations. Legroom you say? Ventilation? Air-CONDITIONING?! And you know, those surrounds are just for decoration, didn't you? The Scottish accent was made even more unintelligible by the total lack of high frequencies, as if the center speaker was hooked up via long distance phone call from the 70s. But at least we got subtitles, even although there was no cooking involved [Wink]

.

Never having read the book this was based on, I went to this movie without any pre-set expectations. From what I know now, the book and the movie are quite different beasts and the movie is just "inspired by" and not "based upon".

It's certainly not a movie that takes your hand and tells the story for you. What's actually going on is pretty much left for your own interpretation.

The plot: Humanoid looking alien girl(?) is sent to earth to replace previous alien girl. Her primary task seems to be luring men into some kind of trap, primarily using her looks. Exactly why they're being "harvested" isn't made clear. Is it for their skin? Or are there other purposes?

During her quest, she encounters a man with an extreme facial disfigurement. She decides to let him live and enters a quest for something akin "self-recognition"...

Although I did actually like the concept, personally, I found the pacing to be somewhat slow. Maybe because I don't need three minutes of exposition to get a point across. Although it was clearly not the intention of the movie makers, I would've liked some more profound background regarding this alien race and their intentions for example.

All in all not a bad movie, but if you're easily offended by some explicit pictures or easily bored, probably not for you.

P.S.: The title lists this as a 2014 release, it was actually already produced and "released" back in 2013.