 Thanks for checking out this movie review video So this is for the 2018 film the pool that is currently available for streaming on the shutter streaming service The day I'm putting this review up now since it's a 2018 film and it's just hitting shutter And I'm not sure if it's been anywhere else in the United States at this point because it is a film from Thailand It will be no spoilers in this review, but it should give you a good idea whether you want to watch this or not So it was written and directed by Ping I'm sorry. I'm gonna butcher the last name Ping Lumpra pli romp Lumpra pli long Lumpra plong, okay, that's my best rendition once again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry he's done a few films and One of them really caught my eye the name of it that makes me really want to check it out It's called noodle boxer and it looks like he's done mainly some like lighter fare. Maybe some comedy a little bit of like high school Direction type films. So Yeah, interesting so a quick synopsis on this that won't really give I mean it gives some away because It's a very simple plot to it Plus the name says a lot to it. So it's called the pool. It's basically about a guy who gets stuck in a pool or the pool in this instance and Bad things happen One there's one strongly bad thing in particular that I will not go into Although I know if you kind of follow shutter on twitter They've kind of ruined that in a picture that they put out there for the film Which I wish they wouldn't because that's kind of was a cool surprise thing in the beginning of the film But if you haven't seen any of the spoilery type stuff for it You can go into it and be kind of surprised in the beginning And that's one of the things about the beginning is that it's nice and attention grabbing with what happens immediately Now they do one of these things that's been done in a lot of films before and I kind of like sometimes But they're there's a bad side to it as well and I'll talk about that But they do the thing where they start with kind of A portion of the film that story wise is towards the end And it's just a little segment of it and then you'll end up seeing it again much later towards the end of the film And then they expand upon that the events after that to show you how all that resolves But it starts it off by showing This is a bad situation and now we'll go back and we're going to show you how we got here Now it's cool because you kind of see how a lot of things led to that But then it also kind of sucks because When you're seeing how certain things lead to that if you're remembering that opening scene Then you also know certain things That uh don't happen And so when they come up in the film and you're like oh, there's a possibility of this happening Then you think and you're like no because I remember in the opening scene that This was happening. So there's no way this happens at this point in the story So some of the tensions some of the like, oh my gosh moments Kind of get ruined because of that but not a ton and with this film there is There's a decent amount in it that you don't see coming that is interesting to it So it doesn't really you know spoil the movie doing it that way Now I do have some problems with this film and I will say that overall The story Around the people involved in it is not very good Uh what is good is The meat and potatoes of it that you would be going into it with which is this person being stuck in this pool With issues and how they deal with that That is what's interesting. That is what's good about the film What is bad about the film is where they tried to add some sort of like backstory with characters and Things that go on with those characters. That does not work in my opinion In fact, they do some things that I really hate with that with that storyline That really made me roll my eyes and actually a few times I was yelling at the screen actually towards the end But I'll talk about that a little bit later The drawback or I already kind of talked about that. Sorry about that There are some really nice visuals in this and I think from a technical standpoint There's a lot of great technical stuff in this film. It looks really good. Nice directing. Nice cinematography Some of the camera work looks like it would have been pretty tough to do The acting by and large is quite good Especially the the lead actor does a outstanding job with what seems like a pretty demanding role in my opinion And I was watching this and I'm just like Being in that role that had to be really exhausting for many reasons One the emotional Acting of it, but also one of the biggest things there's a lot of physical acting to it A lot of things that they had to do physically that I was like you would just be physically tired Filming this this film. Uh, so kudos to that that individual. That was that was awesome Since you already know where it goes. It's actually interesting to see everything kind of set up I kind of talked about this a little bit But you pick up on like key little things where you're just like, ah now I see where this comes into play here and this comes into play here. So that's on display and nice What's going on with that weird? Sorry Do there's a pretty well done tense moment involving a choice that needs to be made relatively early in the film But I think it kind of sets the tone for When things are tough decisions or when things get high stakes in this film They do do a good job of setting up The tension of making you feel it and it's partially done with the way they shoot it with the camera work that they do With the acting that they use and with the soundtrack that they use and the soundtrack by and large is good as well That's something I forgot to say with, you know talking about the technical components All the technical stuff for the most part is good. It's just the script Issues with the script And once again, not the pool portion of the script but all the story between people Portion is yeah a lot of cliche going on there. I will say that a lot of cliche Um, there's something they use in this that ups the stakes This is one of my biggest issues There's something they use that really ups the stakes with it Which I really really hate In film when it gets dropped in because I think it's cheap I think it's a cheap way to up stakes and I think that it's overused To the nth degree Now another thing is I'm a little bit biased because it's something that just never works for me Personally, uh, it doesn't make me personally feel like the stakes are up And it doesn't get me to care anymore I know it does work for some people out there and you'll understand what I'm talking about If you've seen the film already or when you see the film, you'll know what I'm talking about But I hate it when that stuff gets dropped in. I think it's cheap And I think you can be more creative and and do something else. Just really do something else For a foreign film, you actually don't have to read a whole lot of subtitles in this And you know, that doesn't matter to me because I'm fine reading subtitles But there are some people out there. They don't like to read a whole lot of subtitles So if you're one of those people, uh, you should be okay with this You will need to do some subtitle reading but To be honest, um, you don't have to do that a whole lot of that and actually If you're like me and you don't really care that much about the backstory of all these people You could just 100% not read any of the subtitles Because if you just want to see what's happening in the pool and the dangerous situations All you need is the visuals to be honest. So you can just watch it that way If I was going to rewatch it, that's how I would watch it. I would not read any of the subtitles Uh, there's some CG in this that is pretty well done There are a few moments where it looks kind of wonky and part of that ends up being where it gets kind of too close up There are some good some close-up portions where I was pleasantly surprised that the cg looked as good as it did So it's pretty accomplished from that standpoint But like I said, there are just a few moments where it looks a little bit wonky, but not bad not bad The audio has some problems. Uh, it's one of those issues where Dialogue is very very low sound and then any sort of a sound effects or the music is very loud So you have this issue where you know, you have it at a comfortable level of volume for The music and for the the practical or the sound effects And then all of a sudden people are talking and you're like I can't I cannot hear what they're saying and then you have to turn it up And then you forgot that you turned it up So then when it goes to the the sound effects and the music it blows your eardrums out So that's something I have an issue with with this. I hate when films do that There are some moments that made me actually cringe for sure and it's things involving That would hurt type stuff and I think It would be like that for a bunch of other people too. Uh, so kudos on doing those that that was nice There was some bad ass stuff at the end of this film that I did not see coming And I think a lot of people will feel the same way when they experience it I didn't see it coming and there's something like it's It's getting there and you're seeing where it's going and I was like, oh, no, really? We're gonna do this. Okay. That is bad ass and it it goes from there. So, uh, yeah, there's there's some nice Nice moments in the end of this But then we get the story coming into it and it kind of ruins things for me personally Uh, so something actually happens at the end that I was like do not do this. I was actually yelling at the screen I was like do not do not do this do not And then they did and I was like, are you kidding me? Uh, it doesn't make sense For the timing at the end of the film and it doesn't make sense For the impact in my opinion Well, I mean for some people it it it may actually add to the impact for me personally It doesn't because once again, it's another one of those things. It's very cliche It gets overused it gets done all the time and I was like The way they were going I was like good. This is the way it should go. This will have more impact for me personally It won't be cliche No, then they just whoop turn the car last minute or like, hey, we're going to cliche land. Let's go So and once again, it's not realistic for the amount of time spent at the end And you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it or if you've already have And I just I was so mad. I wrote down. They did it. They did exactly what they shouldn't have done that tick me off Yeah, so it didn't end in a great way for me, but Like I said, if I would have watched it the first time the way I'm saying I would watch it a second time not reading any of the story or any of the subtitles and not like focusing on the human story Really except for the struggle in the pool Yeah, I would have a much better experience with it But because of that, I have to like lower the rating some on it So there is a lot of good like you've heard me talk about there are some bad So in the end, I'm going to give it a two and a half stars out of five I was thinking about potentially giving it a three but The ending and and some of the cheap cliche stuff that got thrown in I was like that's got it down great it and I even considered taking it down to a two because of that But that the badass moments at the end brought it back up to the two and a half So two and a half stars out of five. I would say yeah, check it out once It's definitely worth watching once it's an hour and a half long It does feel a little bit long at times with the story the backstory or the human story aspect of it, but There's a lot of good stuff there and I did enjoy it. So yeah, let me know your thoughts on it Put some comments down there spoilers in the comments. That's totally fine. 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