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Haley Center Basement / Re: Kaos' way behind movie reviews
« Last post by Kaos on March 26, 2025, 10:55:22 AM »MaxXxine
Streaming on (ironically) Max
The third entry the Maxxxxine trilogy which was released in 2,1,3 order. So it’s the sequel to the first film, X, which preceded its prequel Pearl.
It’s the conclusion of the story of a farm girl with dreams of Hollywood stardom. So what if there’s some murder that has to happen along the way. Some (not sure how much) takes place in her head.
Mia Goth plays Max and man she’s hard to look at.
In Pearl she humped a scarecrow and escaped her controlling family. In X she was making her mark in the porn industry and humped a lot of things.
Here, she tries to break into legitimate acting and leave porn behind - and humps nothing. She never even gets nekkid. In her efforts to make the move from porn to real movies (is there that much of a difference these days?) her past baggage becomes an issue (that requires murder). The film is set in the 80s, has the right tone, and probably spent 1/3 of its budget on music rights. I liked that aspect of it.
All three films are marketed as horror. There’s none of that in this one other than the horror of Goth’s face. Its ugly. I didn’t hate her as much as I did in either of the other films though.
The way MaxXx is shot is more of a throwback that steals a lot of the look and feel from Tarrantino’s grindhouse movies - which are stolen from Hammer horror (which this movie directly references). The carnage (what there is of it) is laughably, purposely bad. There’s one scene where the director of the horror movie MaxXx is cast in comments “the blood is all wrong.” That’s an accurate statement as it pertains to this movie. The violence was 70s level CGI bad - on purpose.
The director is able to loop in some decent talent in all these films. X featured (then barely known) Jenna Ortega, Karen (Nebula) Gillian, and Brittany Snow. Pearl had David (Superman) Corensweat. This film gives us Kevin (six degrees of) Bacon, Giancarlo (he’s in everything) Esposito, Bobby Canavale, Michelle Monaghan, Elizabeth Debicki, Lilly (baby Phil) Collins (given little to do), and Sophie (Yellowjacket) Thatcher (who I am convinced will be great but is given essentially nothing to do here). They are all (other than Thatcher) wearing horrendous outfits (and or wigs) and overacting in a way you only usually see in 70s pulp movies. Bacon and Giancarlo in particular are really hamming it up.
Of the three, I found this one less distasteful mainly, I think, because it was more bland. It was really more like an extra long episode of Mannix than a horror movie.
You don’t have to watch the other two to follow this one. It could easily stand alone. But you’ll miss some of the subtle callbacks if you didn’t.
The movie doesn’t have a lot to say. It thinks it does. It just doesn’t. What it says is kinda dumb. So unless you just are weirdly attracted to Goth? I don’t know what you’d get out of this. Maybe it’s art.
Streaming on (ironically) Max
The third entry the Maxxxxine trilogy which was released in 2,1,3 order. So it’s the sequel to the first film, X, which preceded its prequel Pearl.
It’s the conclusion of the story of a farm girl with dreams of Hollywood stardom. So what if there’s some murder that has to happen along the way. Some (not sure how much) takes place in her head.
Mia Goth plays Max and man she’s hard to look at.
In Pearl she humped a scarecrow and escaped her controlling family. In X she was making her mark in the porn industry and humped a lot of things.
Here, she tries to break into legitimate acting and leave porn behind - and humps nothing. She never even gets nekkid. In her efforts to make the move from porn to real movies (is there that much of a difference these days?) her past baggage becomes an issue (that requires murder). The film is set in the 80s, has the right tone, and probably spent 1/3 of its budget on music rights. I liked that aspect of it.
All three films are marketed as horror. There’s none of that in this one other than the horror of Goth’s face. Its ugly. I didn’t hate her as much as I did in either of the other films though.
The way MaxXx is shot is more of a throwback that steals a lot of the look and feel from Tarrantino’s grindhouse movies - which are stolen from Hammer horror (which this movie directly references). The carnage (what there is of it) is laughably, purposely bad. There’s one scene where the director of the horror movie MaxXx is cast in comments “the blood is all wrong.” That’s an accurate statement as it pertains to this movie. The violence was 70s level CGI bad - on purpose.
The director is able to loop in some decent talent in all these films. X featured (then barely known) Jenna Ortega, Karen (Nebula) Gillian, and Brittany Snow. Pearl had David (Superman) Corensweat. This film gives us Kevin (six degrees of) Bacon, Giancarlo (he’s in everything) Esposito, Bobby Canavale, Michelle Monaghan, Elizabeth Debicki, Lilly (baby Phil) Collins (given little to do), and Sophie (Yellowjacket) Thatcher (who I am convinced will be great but is given essentially nothing to do here). They are all (other than Thatcher) wearing horrendous outfits (and or wigs) and overacting in a way you only usually see in 70s pulp movies. Bacon and Giancarlo in particular are really hamming it up.
Of the three, I found this one less distasteful mainly, I think, because it was more bland. It was really more like an extra long episode of Mannix than a horror movie.
You don’t have to watch the other two to follow this one. It could easily stand alone. But you’ll miss some of the subtle callbacks if you didn’t.
The movie doesn’t have a lot to say. It thinks it does. It just doesn’t. What it says is kinda dumb. So unless you just are weirdly attracted to Goth? I don’t know what you’d get out of this. Maybe it’s art.
