I'll make this short and sweet. I did various things today (some of which were unexpected) and right now I am watching a livestream so there was no time to watch films and with my schedule, I'll wait until Friday night to return and by then, I should have seen some sort of motion picture.
As for my Top 10 list, it may be another month or so until I post it. I may see some more films that I think have a chance to qualify for the list. I'll give more details when the time arises.
For now, I'll hope that everyone had a nice year of movie-watching and next year I hope it'll be even better for me.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Friday, December 27, 2013
The Wolf of Wall Street
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
77% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 147 reviews)
Runtime: 180 minutes (no, I did not mistype that)
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner
From: Paramount/Red Granite Pictures
Here's a movie that I saw last night and I finally have a quality candidate for my Top 10 of the year list. Not to spoil it but it'll be in the top 3 at worst, it's looking like. I saw it with a bigger crowd than I expected and thankfully I had little problems with them. They laughed at the right times and they gasped at the most shocking moments. I'll note that I know little about the true life story this was based upon and I haven't read the book that the protagonist wrote about his life story and how he did all these crazy things.
To steal the plot from the IMDb: “Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stockbroker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.” I know, not really a sentence. You start off with Belfort starting off his career in Wall Street. He's young and innocent but he quickly gets told by Matthew McConaughey how it really is and you have to get a drug-using madman to succeed as a stockbroker. He gets laid off after Black Monday happens in late 1987. He has to work in a penny stock operation and it's a low-quality operation, to say the least. However, with his charisma and powerful persuasion, he makes the outfit a success and he starts up his own company, Stratton Oakmont. It's a wild out of control horny crazy company that at best was incredibly shady. He and his employees make an incredible amount of money. Belfort becomes crazy due to abusing an incredible amount of drugs; so does his right hand man Donnie (Hill; for some reason, most of the real-life names were changed for the movie), which leads to some amazing adventures with the two. Jordan dumps his cute brunette wife for a hot blonde (Robbie; yeah, she is hot) and eventually things turn real bad.
Not to spoil things, but Belfort did end up serving jail time in Nevada and Tommy Chong (yes, THAT Tommy Chong) convinced him to write a book about his story, which became this movie. What a loud and profane movie it is.
I know film fans will HATE this but I think this is the perfect double bill with Pain & Gain. I say that as both are loud bombastic over the top tales of excesses and bizarre things that happen which are purported to be true. Of course I've only seen the two movies one time each and if you actually try it, it may be a crap idea. But it's just a thought. Of course, this movie should be watched second as needless to say, even when it comes to wild out of control stories, Scorsese can do it better than Michael F'ing Bay. Pain & Gain can be like a warmup to the main event.
I understand why some would be turned off by such a profane film where the F bomb is dropped over 500 times, you have copious amounts of garishness, drug use and full frontal nudity... and oh yeah the movie is a few seconds short of 3 full hours. Yet with me, I dug it all and I was fascinated by the crazy story and all the odd things that happened.
With the director everything is top notch, from how it's filmed to the pacing, the performances (Leo was awesome; so was Jonah Hill and the several incredible things his character did) and there's several classic soliloquies. There's also some things that only Scorsese could pull off, from fourth wall breaking to internal monologues and it all works. The soundtrack is also cool. There's no Rolling Stones songs (believe it or not) and there's everything from blues to jazz to odd poppy songs to the Plastic Bertrand song you heard in National Lampoon's European Vacation.
It may not be for all tastes but if you enjoyed something ostentatious like Pain & Gain then you should see this too. I am glad I saw it on the big screen. I am sure that people will idolize Belfort and the awful things he did which ruined people's lives, just because he lived to excess. However, you should more note his downfall and how bad his life turned out. Right now I understand he's doing alright out of jail but it was still a downfall.
I'll be back Monday night.
77% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 147 reviews)
Runtime: 180 minutes (no, I did not mistype that)
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner
From: Paramount/Red Granite Pictures
Here's a movie that I saw last night and I finally have a quality candidate for my Top 10 of the year list. Not to spoil it but it'll be in the top 3 at worst, it's looking like. I saw it with a bigger crowd than I expected and thankfully I had little problems with them. They laughed at the right times and they gasped at the most shocking moments. I'll note that I know little about the true life story this was based upon and I haven't read the book that the protagonist wrote about his life story and how he did all these crazy things.
To steal the plot from the IMDb: “Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stockbroker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.” I know, not really a sentence. You start off with Belfort starting off his career in Wall Street. He's young and innocent but he quickly gets told by Matthew McConaughey how it really is and you have to get a drug-using madman to succeed as a stockbroker. He gets laid off after Black Monday happens in late 1987. He has to work in a penny stock operation and it's a low-quality operation, to say the least. However, with his charisma and powerful persuasion, he makes the outfit a success and he starts up his own company, Stratton Oakmont. It's a wild out of control horny crazy company that at best was incredibly shady. He and his employees make an incredible amount of money. Belfort becomes crazy due to abusing an incredible amount of drugs; so does his right hand man Donnie (Hill; for some reason, most of the real-life names were changed for the movie), which leads to some amazing adventures with the two. Jordan dumps his cute brunette wife for a hot blonde (Robbie; yeah, she is hot) and eventually things turn real bad.
Not to spoil things, but Belfort did end up serving jail time in Nevada and Tommy Chong (yes, THAT Tommy Chong) convinced him to write a book about his story, which became this movie. What a loud and profane movie it is.
I know film fans will HATE this but I think this is the perfect double bill with Pain & Gain. I say that as both are loud bombastic over the top tales of excesses and bizarre things that happen which are purported to be true. Of course I've only seen the two movies one time each and if you actually try it, it may be a crap idea. But it's just a thought. Of course, this movie should be watched second as needless to say, even when it comes to wild out of control stories, Scorsese can do it better than Michael F'ing Bay. Pain & Gain can be like a warmup to the main event.
I understand why some would be turned off by such a profane film where the F bomb is dropped over 500 times, you have copious amounts of garishness, drug use and full frontal nudity... and oh yeah the movie is a few seconds short of 3 full hours. Yet with me, I dug it all and I was fascinated by the crazy story and all the odd things that happened.
With the director everything is top notch, from how it's filmed to the pacing, the performances (Leo was awesome; so was Jonah Hill and the several incredible things his character did) and there's several classic soliloquies. There's also some things that only Scorsese could pull off, from fourth wall breaking to internal monologues and it all works. The soundtrack is also cool. There's no Rolling Stones songs (believe it or not) and there's everything from blues to jazz to odd poppy songs to the Plastic Bertrand song you heard in National Lampoon's European Vacation.
It may not be for all tastes but if you enjoyed something ostentatious like Pain & Gain then you should see this too. I am glad I saw it on the big screen. I am sure that people will idolize Belfort and the awful things he did which ruined people's lives, just because he lived to excess. However, you should more note his downfall and how bad his life turned out. Right now I understand he's doing alright out of jail but it was still a downfall.
I'll be back Monday night.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Happy Holidays
Well, no matter what holiday you celebrate around this time of year, I hope it was good for you. The trip to Kansas and back went well and it was nice hanging out with family and meeting a pair of twin nephews for the very first time. The only movie-watching was seeing parts of Rambo & The Rundown; the latter I'll have to review here one of these days years.
I will be back Friday night as I plan on watching something tomorrow night; it'll likely be something theatrical.
I will be back Friday night as I plan on watching something tomorrow night; it'll likely be something theatrical.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Runtime: 129 minutes
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard, Vince Vaughn
From: Universal
Before I get to talking about this movie (which I saw last night), I have to mention that today was a sad day in the acting world as three deaths were announced of actors who had passed away in the past few days:
Peter O'Toole (I haven't seen enough of his movies but he was awesome in Lawrence of Arabia)
Tom Laughlin (I haven't seen any of the Billy Jack films but I've wanted to for years now; he was really the Seagal of his time in terms of being a martial artist who had lofty ideals and enjoyed such things as nature and not wanting to be violent but wanting to be... and also being weird; it turns out that my parents apparently have seen all those movies way back when)
Joan Fontaine (She was 96 and one of the last of “Old Hollywood” to still be alive; my mom has seen some of her movies way back when)
But now onto this review; I saw this movie in the cinema summer of '97, as I had seen the first one the summer of '93. I am pretty sure that was the only time I had seen The Lost World in full until last night. I did not remember too much from it, to be honest. I did remember it was clearly not as good as the first one.
The plot, taken from the IMDb: “Four years after the failure of Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar, John Hammond reveals to Ian Malcolm that there was another island ("Site B") on which dinosaurs were bred before being transported to Isla Nublar. Left alone since the disaster, the dinosaurs have flourished, and Hammond is anxious that the world see them in their "natural" environment before they are exploited.” There are also other people involved, including a rival company, a big game hunter... and Goldblum's character's daughter, who looks nothing like him. I suppose she was added because the first movie had kid characters, but wow was that a badly done character and I am not even talking about the now-infamous “gymnastics scene”, which is at least unintentionally hilarious.
I can't say I hated this movie or that it was bad. There still are effective scenes and there are some nicely-filmed sequences. However, that story... it's just no good and it sinks things. It has characters (especially the one played by Moore) doing the stupidest things just to advance the plot and that kind of stuff can be pretty irritating. Most of the characters aren't that interesting and they seem one-note and not fleshed out; you don't always care when they bicker and yell at each other. As I already said, the movie would have been better off without the really annoying Ian Malcolm's daughter character. It's also a mess, storytelling-wise. As for the “T-Rex rampaging through San Diego” part, it was shorter than I had remembered. At least that was cool.
It's not awful; it's just disappointing considering the original movie, the talent involved and the legendary director who you just expect more from. At least I finally got to see it after all of those years. Like I said last night, I won't be back until Christmas as I'll be out of state and I have to prepare for it before I leave.
Runtime: 129 minutes
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard, Vince Vaughn
From: Universal
Before I get to talking about this movie (which I saw last night), I have to mention that today was a sad day in the acting world as three deaths were announced of actors who had passed away in the past few days:
Peter O'Toole (I haven't seen enough of his movies but he was awesome in Lawrence of Arabia)
Tom Laughlin (I haven't seen any of the Billy Jack films but I've wanted to for years now; he was really the Seagal of his time in terms of being a martial artist who had lofty ideals and enjoyed such things as nature and not wanting to be violent but wanting to be... and also being weird; it turns out that my parents apparently have seen all those movies way back when)
Joan Fontaine (She was 96 and one of the last of “Old Hollywood” to still be alive; my mom has seen some of her movies way back when)
But now onto this review; I saw this movie in the cinema summer of '97, as I had seen the first one the summer of '93. I am pretty sure that was the only time I had seen The Lost World in full until last night. I did not remember too much from it, to be honest. I did remember it was clearly not as good as the first one.
The plot, taken from the IMDb: “Four years after the failure of Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar, John Hammond reveals to Ian Malcolm that there was another island ("Site B") on which dinosaurs were bred before being transported to Isla Nublar. Left alone since the disaster, the dinosaurs have flourished, and Hammond is anxious that the world see them in their "natural" environment before they are exploited.” There are also other people involved, including a rival company, a big game hunter... and Goldblum's character's daughter, who looks nothing like him. I suppose she was added because the first movie had kid characters, but wow was that a badly done character and I am not even talking about the now-infamous “gymnastics scene”, which is at least unintentionally hilarious.
I can't say I hated this movie or that it was bad. There still are effective scenes and there are some nicely-filmed sequences. However, that story... it's just no good and it sinks things. It has characters (especially the one played by Moore) doing the stupidest things just to advance the plot and that kind of stuff can be pretty irritating. Most of the characters aren't that interesting and they seem one-note and not fleshed out; you don't always care when they bicker and yell at each other. As I already said, the movie would have been better off without the really annoying Ian Malcolm's daughter character. It's also a mess, storytelling-wise. As for the “T-Rex rampaging through San Diego” part, it was shorter than I had remembered. At least that was cool.
It's not awful; it's just disappointing considering the original movie, the talent involved and the legendary director who you just expect more from. At least I finally got to see it after all of those years. Like I said last night, I won't be back until Christmas as I'll be out of state and I have to prepare for it before I leave.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
An Updated Schedule Until Christmas
Basically, I figured out last night that I would be watching a movie on cable tonight I hadn't seen in over 15 years. I'll be posting that review tomorrow night. After that, I have to prepare for the roadtrip I am going on and I'll be back before Christmas but I'll wait until Christmas Day to do a post here, where I'll likely say I am back then I'll update people on when my next review will be; for all I know while I am on vacation I could be seeing a movie on the big screen or with the family.
Like I said I'll be back tomorrow night.
Like I said I'll be back tomorrow night.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
The Three Musketeers (Unfortunately, the one they did in 3D)
The Three Musketeers (2011)
24% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 90 reviews)
Runtime: 110 minutes
Directed by: Paul Writes Shitty Anderson... excuse me for the joke I stole... it's actually Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Matthew McFayden, Logan Lerman, Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans, Milla Jovovich, Christoph Waltz
From: Summit Entertainment
Yep, this is one of those times when I watch a movie I expect to be pretty crappy but I do so anyway, whether to laugh at it, to appreciate the actual good films, or other reasons. This was on a Showtime HD channel last night so I figured I should check it out even though I hate the director and just about all the movies he's involved with as they tend to be pretty awful; one of these days I should rewatch Alien vs. Predator to talk about the travesty that was.
I imagine that many of you know the basics of the Alexandre Dumas story whether it be watching one of the other film adaptations or just reading the original story. It doesn't really matter here as this movie pretty much wipes its ass with the original story. To copy the plot description from the IMDb: “The hot-headed young D'Artagnan along with three former legendary but now down on their luck Musketeers must unite and defeat a beautiful double agent and her villainous employer from seizing the French throne and engulfing Europe in war.” Somehow, such things as Da Vinci's crypt (to steal airship blueprints!) and devices in the early 17th century that can shoot out huge swaths of fire and flame are involved.
Really, to steal an opinion, it seems like the director was more focused on his wife Jovovich than developing the title characters and making them heroes you want to root for. What you get is a pretty crappy movie where you don't care about the totally nonsensical insulting to your intelligence plot (the airship that the bad guys end up building has a heavy anchor; I wish I was joking), stuff happens for no reason at all and it seems to get stupider as it goes along. I don't know why there's a fat guy that tags along with the Musketeers but he does.
Now, I don't always hate really stupid movies; however, it really depends on what kind of movie it is and how the dumbness relates to the plot. Here, I found it unbearable and when there's also humor that rarely is funny and the action scenes are nothing to write home about... you should really stick to the other adaptations of Dumas' classic novel; there's plenty to choose from. There's even the goofy but fun '93 movie starring Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Chris O'Donnell. I haven't seen that in years but I much rather would have seen that again than watch this and engage in a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I do admit that the scenery was nice (it was filmed in Germany and there are some ornate sets), Waltz had a great head of hair and I have to laugh that one of the minor characters (his name really isn't important) was dressed and looked like what I'll describe as “a gay cowboy pimp from the 1970's (I don't mean to be offensive; that really is the best way to describe the appearance) but this ended up being a waste of an estimated 75 million dollar budget. I know that there are more egregious wastes of money when it comes to worthless movies and people should never have any expectations for a movie where Orlando Bloom is the main villain, but still... I hope that the established actors in this got paid pretty well.
I'll be back Saturday night.
24% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 90 reviews)
Runtime: 110 minutes
Directed by: Paul Writes Shitty Anderson... excuse me for the joke I stole... it's actually Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Matthew McFayden, Logan Lerman, Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans, Milla Jovovich, Christoph Waltz
From: Summit Entertainment
Yep, this is one of those times when I watch a movie I expect to be pretty crappy but I do so anyway, whether to laugh at it, to appreciate the actual good films, or other reasons. This was on a Showtime HD channel last night so I figured I should check it out even though I hate the director and just about all the movies he's involved with as they tend to be pretty awful; one of these days I should rewatch Alien vs. Predator to talk about the travesty that was.
I imagine that many of you know the basics of the Alexandre Dumas story whether it be watching one of the other film adaptations or just reading the original story. It doesn't really matter here as this movie pretty much wipes its ass with the original story. To copy the plot description from the IMDb: “The hot-headed young D'Artagnan along with three former legendary but now down on their luck Musketeers must unite and defeat a beautiful double agent and her villainous employer from seizing the French throne and engulfing Europe in war.” Somehow, such things as Da Vinci's crypt (to steal airship blueprints!) and devices in the early 17th century that can shoot out huge swaths of fire and flame are involved.
Really, to steal an opinion, it seems like the director was more focused on his wife Jovovich than developing the title characters and making them heroes you want to root for. What you get is a pretty crappy movie where you don't care about the totally nonsensical insulting to your intelligence plot (the airship that the bad guys end up building has a heavy anchor; I wish I was joking), stuff happens for no reason at all and it seems to get stupider as it goes along. I don't know why there's a fat guy that tags along with the Musketeers but he does.
Now, I don't always hate really stupid movies; however, it really depends on what kind of movie it is and how the dumbness relates to the plot. Here, I found it unbearable and when there's also humor that rarely is funny and the action scenes are nothing to write home about... you should really stick to the other adaptations of Dumas' classic novel; there's plenty to choose from. There's even the goofy but fun '93 movie starring Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Chris O'Donnell. I haven't seen that in years but I much rather would have seen that again than watch this and engage in a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I do admit that the scenery was nice (it was filmed in Germany and there are some ornate sets), Waltz had a great head of hair and I have to laugh that one of the minor characters (his name really isn't important) was dressed and looked like what I'll describe as “a gay cowboy pimp from the 1970's (I don't mean to be offensive; that really is the best way to describe the appearance) but this ended up being a waste of an estimated 75 million dollar budget. I know that there are more egregious wastes of money when it comes to worthless movies and people should never have any expectations for a movie where Orlando Bloom is the main villain, but still... I hope that the established actors in this got paid pretty well.
I'll be back Saturday night.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Tonight I Talk About Dean Reed
This review will be a little different. I'll talk about a documentary I watched on YouTube today. It's about the late singer Dean Reed, someone you probably haven't heard of but he had quite the life.
You can read about him in his Wikipedia article here, but in short, he was born in 1938 in Colorado and after high school he went to Hollywood to try and be a teen idol, which didn't quite work out... but one of his songs was highly popular in Argentina so he went to South America for a time and he fell into a love of leftist governments and he was wildly popular down there; he then moved to Eastern Germany and he became a huge star in Communist countries, especially the Soviet Union, where he was known as The Red Elvis as he stood out for being a rock star and sticking out amongst what the music is like in those other countries, where Communism prevented people from listening to popular Western acts like the real Elvis or The Beatles.
He was a substitute and while music-wise he wasn't as great as them, at least he was more than competent in what he did (a lot of cover songs) and he was a showman. That was enough to make him a huge deal in Communist countries despite being an American. He did an interview for 60 Minutes in 1986 which ruffled some American's feathers due to a few controversial comments he made. Despite his politics he still loved the United States and paid the IRS each year. Not long after that he was found dead in a lake near his home and it appeared as if he drowned. Of course some people speculated otherwise due to how things were back then. After Communism fell, it was made public that he left a suicide note; basically, he was upset that things with his third wife were at a real bad point.
Even today he is hardly known; I first heard about him a few years ago while reading a book with a lot of trivia facts. Earlier in the year in a bookstore I found a book called Comrade Rockstar, which I haven't gotten into as I hear it's as much about the author researching about Reed as it is about Reed himself, which is... interesting. I figured before I start reading the book I should look for other sources to learn about his unique life story. I know there have been a few documentaries about him, but most were from foreign countries and I haven't found dubbed or subtitled versions of those yet; I just discovered a few days ago that someone uploaded 1985's American Rebel: The Dean Reed Story to YouTube and I had to check it out as hey, it was made in America and in English.
Overall, it was a very interesting documentary about his life, from his childhood to the then-present time and after the fact, it proved to have covered most of his life. You see him act (he appeared in a variety of films, including spaghetti westerns and something known as ROBIN HOOD, ARROWS, BEANS AND KARATE which is something I must watch if I can ever find it), hear his thoughts in interviews, have his family & friends give their opinions, and you see various performances and hear various songs. His old man was very entertaining to listen to as he's the old farmer conservative type. In the future I hope to learn even more about this performer and his fascinating life.
Here's the YouTube video, while it's still up. I'll be back Thursday night.
You can read about him in his Wikipedia article here, but in short, he was born in 1938 in Colorado and after high school he went to Hollywood to try and be a teen idol, which didn't quite work out... but one of his songs was highly popular in Argentina so he went to South America for a time and he fell into a love of leftist governments and he was wildly popular down there; he then moved to Eastern Germany and he became a huge star in Communist countries, especially the Soviet Union, where he was known as The Red Elvis as he stood out for being a rock star and sticking out amongst what the music is like in those other countries, where Communism prevented people from listening to popular Western acts like the real Elvis or The Beatles.
He was a substitute and while music-wise he wasn't as great as them, at least he was more than competent in what he did (a lot of cover songs) and he was a showman. That was enough to make him a huge deal in Communist countries despite being an American. He did an interview for 60 Minutes in 1986 which ruffled some American's feathers due to a few controversial comments he made. Despite his politics he still loved the United States and paid the IRS each year. Not long after that he was found dead in a lake near his home and it appeared as if he drowned. Of course some people speculated otherwise due to how things were back then. After Communism fell, it was made public that he left a suicide note; basically, he was upset that things with his third wife were at a real bad point.
Even today he is hardly known; I first heard about him a few years ago while reading a book with a lot of trivia facts. Earlier in the year in a bookstore I found a book called Comrade Rockstar, which I haven't gotten into as I hear it's as much about the author researching about Reed as it is about Reed himself, which is... interesting. I figured before I start reading the book I should look for other sources to learn about his unique life story. I know there have been a few documentaries about him, but most were from foreign countries and I haven't found dubbed or subtitled versions of those yet; I just discovered a few days ago that someone uploaded 1985's American Rebel: The Dean Reed Story to YouTube and I had to check it out as hey, it was made in America and in English.
Overall, it was a very interesting documentary about his life, from his childhood to the then-present time and after the fact, it proved to have covered most of his life. You see him act (he appeared in a variety of films, including spaghetti westerns and something known as ROBIN HOOD, ARROWS, BEANS AND KARATE which is something I must watch if I can ever find it), hear his thoughts in interviews, have his family & friends give their opinions, and you see various performances and hear various songs. His old man was very entertaining to listen to as he's the old farmer conservative type. In the future I hope to learn even more about this performer and his fascinating life.
Here's the YouTube video, while it's still up. I'll be back Thursday night.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
So I Rewatched Meet The Feebles...
I decided to do that today so I could write about that wacky, wacky movie for Letterboxd, which I'll do sometime tomorrow. I talked about it here almost 4 years ago (it's hard for me to believe it's been that long ago) and I know it's crass and naughty humor, but I can't help but often guffaw at what I see whenever I check out that depraved movie about "adult Muppets". It's a film I happen to love and yet it was far too long between the times I saw it in full. I am not ashamed to admit either detail.
I'll be back Tuesday night as I'll likely be busy Sunday and Monday.
I'll be back Tuesday night as I'll likely be busy Sunday and Monday.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Homefront
Homefront (2013)
36% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 77 reviews)
Runtime: 100 minutes
Directed by: Gary Fleder
Starring: Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Clancy Brown, Izabela Vidovic
From: Open Road
Here is the movie I went and saw earlier today. I went to a mall I rarely go to in order to check it out as I was out and about today. I have been interested in seeing this for awhile now given that it was written and co-produced by Sly Stallone, the plot sounds interesting and hey, it's Statham kicking ass.
The plot, as explained by myself: Statham is Phil Broker, a former DEA agent who quits after an incident where the teenage son of a bad guy gets killed and he doesn't agree with it. Two years later you see Broker and his 9 year old daughter living in the rural Louisiana area where his now deceased wife grew up in. They live on a nice ranch with some horses. The daughter defends herself against a chubby boy who bullies her; she bloodies him in a hilarious scene. His white trash parents are NOT happy and that causes friction. Turns out, they are releated to GATOR BODINE, the local bad guy who happens to make a lot of meth. Gator tries to deal with Broker and the fit hits the shan, so to speak.
I have heard mixed reviews about this film. However, I happen to think it was quite entertaining and just plain fun. It's certainly not fancy, complex, or inventive. But me, I am okay with this being a simple meat and potatoes film where you can shut off your brain for awhile and you can ignore how seemingly a plot thread or two was dropped and not really resolved and you can enjoy an awesome good guy/family man who does battle with some A-hole bad guys and as it's Statham he kicks ass in a gleefully grand manner. Stuff explodes and people either get killed or hurt badly and it was rad.
Sure, it could have been better but I was still happy and I laughed at various moments during this simple yet effective action flick. If you're a fan of the genre in general then it's worth a watch; I suppose you could wait for DVD or Blu-Ray; as it's not doing so well at the box office I was happy to help out there.
I'll be back Saturday night.
36% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 77 reviews)
Runtime: 100 minutes
Directed by: Gary Fleder
Starring: Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Clancy Brown, Izabela Vidovic
From: Open Road
Here is the movie I went and saw earlier today. I went to a mall I rarely go to in order to check it out as I was out and about today. I have been interested in seeing this for awhile now given that it was written and co-produced by Sly Stallone, the plot sounds interesting and hey, it's Statham kicking ass.
The plot, as explained by myself: Statham is Phil Broker, a former DEA agent who quits after an incident where the teenage son of a bad guy gets killed and he doesn't agree with it. Two years later you see Broker and his 9 year old daughter living in the rural Louisiana area where his now deceased wife grew up in. They live on a nice ranch with some horses. The daughter defends herself against a chubby boy who bullies her; she bloodies him in a hilarious scene. His white trash parents are NOT happy and that causes friction. Turns out, they are releated to GATOR BODINE, the local bad guy who happens to make a lot of meth. Gator tries to deal with Broker and the fit hits the shan, so to speak.
I have heard mixed reviews about this film. However, I happen to think it was quite entertaining and just plain fun. It's certainly not fancy, complex, or inventive. But me, I am okay with this being a simple meat and potatoes film where you can shut off your brain for awhile and you can ignore how seemingly a plot thread or two was dropped and not really resolved and you can enjoy an awesome good guy/family man who does battle with some A-hole bad guys and as it's Statham he kicks ass in a gleefully grand manner. Stuff explodes and people either get killed or hurt badly and it was rad.
Sure, it could have been better but I was still happy and I laughed at various moments during this simple yet effective action flick. If you're a fan of the genre in general then it's worth a watch; I suppose you could wait for DVD or Blu-Ray; as it's not doing so well at the box office I was happy to help out there.
I'll be back Saturday night.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Bring It On
Bring It On (2000)
Runtime: 98 minutes
Directed by: Peyton Reed
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford, Gabrielle Union, Clare Kramer
From: Universal
Here's a blast to the past... at least for me. Sure, this is a movie that I initally saw due to who was in the cast but once I did... let's just say I've had the original DVD release for a long time. I say that this is a movie anyone can like; sure, it's about cheerleading but it is more than that. While there is about cheerleaders, it also happens to be a movie that is real well-written, fast-paced, and often pretty funny. At least that's what I thought back then. Do I still feel the same way now?
To steal the brief plot description from the IMDb: “A champion high school cheerleading squad discovers its previous captain stole all their best routines from an inner-city school and must scramble to compete at this year's championships.” There's more to it than that. Torrance (Dunst) just became the new captain when new cheerleader in town Missy (Dushku) exposes what old captain Big Red did. She also develops a romantic relationship with Missy's brother Cliff (Bradford), which is an issue as she has a hilarious douche of a boyfriend who is already in college.
Turns out, I still feel the same way about the movie now. I still think it's sharp, well-written and moves fast and often is funny. Watching it tonight I noted the various clever things that were done. For example, the opening of the movie is a dream sequence and it manages to be a great “info dump” to get everyone caught up on how the story will start and who some of the important characters are. And I'll always be happy to note such things as Dushku in a baby blue bikini in that one car wash scene...
I am surprised it only has a 5.8 rating on the IMDb; is it because it has spawned numerous direct to DVD sequels, none of which I've seen but I imagine they're all crap? I don't know but it can't help its reputation. I say forget the haters and if you haven't seen this, then maybe you should. Sure, some elements are dated (the music and the fashion, basically) but I laughed at that stuff in late 2013. Much of the humor still works so it's not dated in that fashion.
I'll be back tomorrow night, as I plan on seeing a theatrical film tomorrow afternoon.
Runtime: 98 minutes
Directed by: Peyton Reed
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford, Gabrielle Union, Clare Kramer
From: Universal
Here's a blast to the past... at least for me. Sure, this is a movie that I initally saw due to who was in the cast but once I did... let's just say I've had the original DVD release for a long time. I say that this is a movie anyone can like; sure, it's about cheerleading but it is more than that. While there is about cheerleaders, it also happens to be a movie that is real well-written, fast-paced, and often pretty funny. At least that's what I thought back then. Do I still feel the same way now?
To steal the brief plot description from the IMDb: “A champion high school cheerleading squad discovers its previous captain stole all their best routines from an inner-city school and must scramble to compete at this year's championships.” There's more to it than that. Torrance (Dunst) just became the new captain when new cheerleader in town Missy (Dushku) exposes what old captain Big Red did. She also develops a romantic relationship with Missy's brother Cliff (Bradford), which is an issue as she has a hilarious douche of a boyfriend who is already in college.
Turns out, I still feel the same way about the movie now. I still think it's sharp, well-written and moves fast and often is funny. Watching it tonight I noted the various clever things that were done. For example, the opening of the movie is a dream sequence and it manages to be a great “info dump” to get everyone caught up on how the story will start and who some of the important characters are. And I'll always be happy to note such things as Dushku in a baby blue bikini in that one car wash scene...
I am surprised it only has a 5.8 rating on the IMDb; is it because it has spawned numerous direct to DVD sequels, none of which I've seen but I imagine they're all crap? I don't know but it can't help its reputation. I say forget the haters and if you haven't seen this, then maybe you should. Sure, some elements are dated (the music and the fashion, basically) but I laughed at that stuff in late 2013. Much of the humor still works so it's not dated in that fashion.
I'll be back tomorrow night, as I plan on seeing a theatrical film tomorrow afternoon.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
On Second Thought...
Last night, I was not expecting that tonight a gaming podcast I've listened to for a few years now would be livestreaming their new episode and it'd be about the PS4 vs. Xbox One... I won't be getting either for at least a few years but I still wanted to hear it as I've missed most of the chatter concerning the merits and demerits of the systems. So, I wanted to listen to it live.
At least I have been coming up with ideas as to what to watch in the next two or so weeks. The second half of the month I'll be gone at least a week as I'll be in the middle of the country with family so once again this will be going on a short hiatus. I do want to see a few things before then.
I can't guarantee anymore if I will have actually seen something but I hope to when I return tomorrow night, even if it's real late.
At least I have been coming up with ideas as to what to watch in the next two or so weeks. The second half of the month I'll be gone at least a week as I'll be in the middle of the country with family so once again this will be going on a short hiatus. I do want to see a few things before then.
I can't guarantee anymore if I will have actually seen something but I hope to when I return tomorrow night, even if it's real late.
Monday, December 2, 2013
RIP Paul Walker
Yes I have returned and yes, due to me being tied up with other things (including starting to play Skyrim) I did not watch anything between the last time I posted here and now and post it on Letterboxd as I was hoping to do. That's alright though as it had to work out that way for me and I am fine with it. Now, I'll try to be back to a normal schedule.
This past Saturday night I of course was as shocked as everyone else that Paul Walker had passed away due to a fiery car crash that apparently was due to speeding and/or mechanical failure in the supercar designed by Porsche. No matter the cause, it was a very sad thing. I know that he wasn't exactly a Shakespearean actor and I like others made reference to that. But, I never had any problem with him and I am someone who often gets disgusted with how actors and actresses act in real life... you know, D-bags and really rude, or just so pretentious and an asshat. He never acted like that and in fact he was involved with various charities and he tried to help people, so seeing someone like that pass away way too soon was very sad; of course it was sad that the driver of the car (Roger Rodas) passed away too.
The only movies I've seen of his are all that I've reviewed before here, which was She's All That and all the Fast & Furious movies he was in. You can search for those reviews if you wish. But yeah, what a sad weekend it was; the Fast & Furious movies started off pretty goofy but 5 and 6 were an over the top (in the right way) blast.
I'll be back tomorrow night and unless things go awry, I'll try for it to be a review.
This past Saturday night I of course was as shocked as everyone else that Paul Walker had passed away due to a fiery car crash that apparently was due to speeding and/or mechanical failure in the supercar designed by Porsche. No matter the cause, it was a very sad thing. I know that he wasn't exactly a Shakespearean actor and I like others made reference to that. But, I never had any problem with him and I am someone who often gets disgusted with how actors and actresses act in real life... you know, D-bags and really rude, or just so pretentious and an asshat. He never acted like that and in fact he was involved with various charities and he tried to help people, so seeing someone like that pass away way too soon was very sad; of course it was sad that the driver of the car (Roger Rodas) passed away too.
The only movies I've seen of his are all that I've reviewed before here, which was She's All That and all the Fast & Furious movies he was in. You can search for those reviews if you wish. But yeah, what a sad weekend it was; the Fast & Furious movies started off pretty goofy but 5 and 6 were an over the top (in the right way) blast.
I'll be back tomorrow night and unless things go awry, I'll try for it to be a review.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
I'm Taking A Short Break, BUT...
I have decided today that barring anything major I won't be posting here again until Monday December 2. I need to do various things and catch up on other things. However, I will be rewatching some old movies to talk about on Letterboxd; at least that's the plan. Who knows how many I will see.
Until then... au revoir.
Until then... au revoir.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Stunts
Stunts (1977)
Runtime: 89 minutes
Directed by: Mark L. Lester
Starring: Robert Forster, Fiona Lewis, Richard Lynch, Joanna Cassidy, Bruce Glover
From: New Line Cinema (back when they were a real low-budget joint)
Here is something I only watched because of someone who does a bad movie podcast who mentioned during the livestream of the latest episode that he saw this movie on YouTube (I believe it's public domain) and yet he hasn't watched it because he's afraid it'll be bad. I did not say that I was going to volunteer but I decided to do so anyhow. As I have met this dude in person a few times I figured I should oblige him and I viewed this tonight.
To take the plot from the IMDb: “After a stunt man dies while he is involved in the making of a motion picture, his brother takes his place in order to find out what really happened.” Needless to say, sabotage is involved.
This movie is directed by Mark L. Lester, who I understand has directed a lot of crap but he was responsible for a pair of great movies, Commando and Showdown in Little Tokyo. This was obviously early in his career and unfortunately, it's no Stunt Rock, the wacky Australian movie involving stunts and a wacky rock band known as Sorcery. Besides there being no rock band (although there is a mellow late 70's soft rock soundtrack), the stunts aren't as great and there seems to be plenty of downtime between the stunts or the investigation the brother (Forster) does; in fact you don't see him do much sleuthing at all. I am not saying that the movie is bad; it's just average and not as awesome as Stunt Rock, although it does end in a cool way.
At least there are wacky moments, such as the movie starting off with the soon to die stuntman waking up from a good night's sleep (you get to see him in colored briefs, which I could have done without), getting on his bike that is in the living room, and riding right out the front door... or someone saying that they should be a stuntman because they can crush a beer can with their nose and eat glass, or someone randomly painting a naked lady mural on his truck... and later on you see that that someone owns the truck and he has a waterbed in the back of the truck!
Oh, and like in Stunt Rock there's a female reporter around who is doing a story about stuntmen in general; the one here has the initials of BJ and of course the expected joke is made to a horny guy in the crew and he giggles excitedly; yes, there's some late 70's sexism here.
Like I said, this is average so it's not a must-see but at least it's not awful so if you want to see some 70's character actors in action, there certainly are worse ways to go. I'll be back tomorrow night.
Runtime: 89 minutes
Directed by: Mark L. Lester
Starring: Robert Forster, Fiona Lewis, Richard Lynch, Joanna Cassidy, Bruce Glover
From: New Line Cinema (back when they were a real low-budget joint)
Here is something I only watched because of someone who does a bad movie podcast who mentioned during the livestream of the latest episode that he saw this movie on YouTube (I believe it's public domain) and yet he hasn't watched it because he's afraid it'll be bad. I did not say that I was going to volunteer but I decided to do so anyhow. As I have met this dude in person a few times I figured I should oblige him and I viewed this tonight.
To take the plot from the IMDb: “After a stunt man dies while he is involved in the making of a motion picture, his brother takes his place in order to find out what really happened.” Needless to say, sabotage is involved.
This movie is directed by Mark L. Lester, who I understand has directed a lot of crap but he was responsible for a pair of great movies, Commando and Showdown in Little Tokyo. This was obviously early in his career and unfortunately, it's no Stunt Rock, the wacky Australian movie involving stunts and a wacky rock band known as Sorcery. Besides there being no rock band (although there is a mellow late 70's soft rock soundtrack), the stunts aren't as great and there seems to be plenty of downtime between the stunts or the investigation the brother (Forster) does; in fact you don't see him do much sleuthing at all. I am not saying that the movie is bad; it's just average and not as awesome as Stunt Rock, although it does end in a cool way.
At least there are wacky moments, such as the movie starting off with the soon to die stuntman waking up from a good night's sleep (you get to see him in colored briefs, which I could have done without), getting on his bike that is in the living room, and riding right out the front door... or someone saying that they should be a stuntman because they can crush a beer can with their nose and eat glass, or someone randomly painting a naked lady mural on his truck... and later on you see that that someone owns the truck and he has a waterbed in the back of the truck!
Oh, and like in Stunt Rock there's a female reporter around who is doing a story about stuntmen in general; the one here has the initials of BJ and of course the expected joke is made to a horny guy in the crew and he giggles excitedly; yes, there's some late 70's sexism here.
Like I said, this is average so it's not a must-see but at least it's not awful so if you want to see some 70's character actors in action, there certainly are worse ways to go. I'll be back tomorrow night.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
No, Not Tonight
I unfortunately did not get a good night's sleep last night and I just don't feel well enough to watch a movie tonight. However, I shall return tomorrow night as I imagine tonight's sleep will go much better for me.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Killing Season
Killing Season (2013)
Runtime: 90 minutes (although the last 10 are some of the slowest moving credits you'll ever see)
Directed by: Mark Steven Johnson
Starring: Robert De Niro, John Travolta, Milo Ventimiglia, Elizabeth Olin
From: Millennium/Nu Image
As I mentioned last night, I saw that this movie is being streamed for free on Xbox this weekend so I decided to take them up on the offer. I had heard about it before from a messageboard, where several people had seen it and there were mixed reviews. I don't think I would have ever paid to see it so this was perfect for me. The director being the guy who wrote and/or directed such “classics” as the Michael Keaton Jack Frost, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, and When in Rome did give me pause, for sure.
The plot, stolen from the IMDb: “Two veterans of the Bosnian War -- one American, one Serbian -- find their unlikely friendship turn tense with one of them reveals their true intentions.” To elaborate, Travolta is the Serbian. Yes. His Abe Lincoln facial hair, almost shaved head and hilarious attempt at what he thinks is a Serbian accent: hilarious. He decides to hunt down De Niro's character in order to gain revenge for what happened in the 90's.
The highlights include the two old men doing shots of Jaegermeister and talking about the 90's, De Niro sometimes trying a Southern accent, De Niro telling dirty jokes, someone being waterboarded WITH A PITCHER OF LEMONADE, and other funny/wacky moments.
The movie isn't awful (I've seen far worse 2013 movies, that is for damn sure) but it isn't great. It's average, which was better than what I was expecting. There are some stupid moments and things that just don't make a whole lot of sense. I am not surprised given the director. I enjoyed the wacky and silly moments, sure, but it takes awhile for it to get going. I won't complain about the scenery (a lot of it is set in the woods), as it is very scenic and pretty; it was filmed in Georgia.
I do enjoy the idea of the movie being mano a mano, two guys and two guys alone doing battle against each other in the woods and the weapons aren't usually more high tech than a bow and arrow and sometimes they have to create makeshift weapons on the spot with random materials that are nearby.
The movie is more even-keel than I expected. I mean, there's ambiguous moments and you'd expect old Bobby De Niro to be the hero but it's not as clear at that in this movie. That was interesting, although I know that some people did not like how it ended and it is understandable. I was not upset with the ending except that it seemed like they dragged it out too long, and yeah I do agree it could come off as being implausible after what you had seen before that point.
Overall, it was average. I was expecting it to be worse but if they would have done some things different and cut out the nonsensical elements, I would have rated it higher. As is, at least it's not a long movie and you may think it is good yourself... or you could think it was worse than I thought. It's one of those movies where it could be quite polarizing.
I won't be back until Tuesday night.
Runtime: 90 minutes (although the last 10 are some of the slowest moving credits you'll ever see)
Directed by: Mark Steven Johnson
Starring: Robert De Niro, John Travolta, Milo Ventimiglia, Elizabeth Olin
From: Millennium/Nu Image
As I mentioned last night, I saw that this movie is being streamed for free on Xbox this weekend so I decided to take them up on the offer. I had heard about it before from a messageboard, where several people had seen it and there were mixed reviews. I don't think I would have ever paid to see it so this was perfect for me. The director being the guy who wrote and/or directed such “classics” as the Michael Keaton Jack Frost, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, and When in Rome did give me pause, for sure.
The plot, stolen from the IMDb: “Two veterans of the Bosnian War -- one American, one Serbian -- find their unlikely friendship turn tense with one of them reveals their true intentions.” To elaborate, Travolta is the Serbian. Yes. His Abe Lincoln facial hair, almost shaved head and hilarious attempt at what he thinks is a Serbian accent: hilarious. He decides to hunt down De Niro's character in order to gain revenge for what happened in the 90's.
The highlights include the two old men doing shots of Jaegermeister and talking about the 90's, De Niro sometimes trying a Southern accent, De Niro telling dirty jokes, someone being waterboarded WITH A PITCHER OF LEMONADE, and other funny/wacky moments.
The movie isn't awful (I've seen far worse 2013 movies, that is for damn sure) but it isn't great. It's average, which was better than what I was expecting. There are some stupid moments and things that just don't make a whole lot of sense. I am not surprised given the director. I enjoyed the wacky and silly moments, sure, but it takes awhile for it to get going. I won't complain about the scenery (a lot of it is set in the woods), as it is very scenic and pretty; it was filmed in Georgia.
I do enjoy the idea of the movie being mano a mano, two guys and two guys alone doing battle against each other in the woods and the weapons aren't usually more high tech than a bow and arrow and sometimes they have to create makeshift weapons on the spot with random materials that are nearby.
The movie is more even-keel than I expected. I mean, there's ambiguous moments and you'd expect old Bobby De Niro to be the hero but it's not as clear at that in this movie. That was interesting, although I know that some people did not like how it ended and it is understandable. I was not upset with the ending except that it seemed like they dragged it out too long, and yeah I do agree it could come off as being implausible after what you had seen before that point.
Overall, it was average. I was expecting it to be worse but if they would have done some things different and cut out the nonsensical elements, I would have rated it higher. As is, at least it's not a long movie and you may think it is good yourself... or you could think it was worse than I thought. It's one of those movies where it could be quite polarizing.
I won't be back until Tuesday night.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Thanx, Xbox Video
I saw when I went on Xbox Dashboard today that they are offering up a free movie for the weekend via their Xbox Video service. They've done it before but I've never checked it out. However, this weekend they are offering up Killing Season, a film from this year with De Niro AND Travolta and I've heard mixed reviews about it. However, my watching that won't come until late tonight so I'll have a review for it tomorrow.
Hopefully in the future they'll have more free movies as hey, it's a cool thing to do, especially if I possibly have any interest in wanting to check it out.
Hopefully in the future they'll have more free movies as hey, it's a cool thing to do, especially if I possibly have any interest in wanting to check it out.
Monday, November 11, 2013
First Blood
First Blood (1982)
Runtime: 93 minutes
Directed by: Ted Kotcheff
Starring: Sly Stallone, Brian Dennehy, Richard Crenna, Bill McKinney
From: Anabasis N.V.
While I was thinking of something appropriate to watch for Veterans Day I realized I wasn't sure if I had seen this movie and reviewed it for the movie blog or not. I looked and apparently I did not so I figured it was time for me to give it another viewing. I have seen it a few times before and the first time was actually on the big screen via something that Fathom Events (or a company like it) did one night. It was an obvious DVD projection but that was mostly OK with me.
I'll steal the plot description from Letterboxd as it greatly tickled me: “When former Green Beret John Rambo is harassed by local law enforcement and arrested for vagrancy, the Vietnam vet snaps, runs for the hills and rat-a-tat-tats his way into the action-movie hall of fame. Hounded by a relentless sheriff, Rambo employs heavy-handed guerilla tactics to shake the cops off his tail.”
To think that this was based on a book by David Morrell that was in quite a few ways different from what ended up on screen (although I am sure he isn't complaining as he must have made a lot of money due to having rights to the character once it became an 80's pop culture icon later on) and that John Rambo ended up becoming an America F*ck Yeah killing machine in the sequels...
As in this movie he's just a highly decorated soldier from Vietnam who was in a small Washington town to visit an old war pal-who ended up having passed away-and as some soldiers like him had problems after getting back from 'Nam and he was a wanderer/drafter & he experienced problems and he reaches his breaking point due to mistreatment. Things changed with the sequel, for sure.
I am sure that some would much rather watch the sequels and enjoy him slaughtering even Commie bastards, but I also enjoy watching this movie as it's more serious and besides the action and suspense you get from people trying to hunt him down and him using his military training to take them down, there's also pathos and seriousness as they deal with the issues that some Vietnam veterans had to endure once they came back, from getting disrespected to literally being spat on. It's not a mindless sort of film by any means. I mean, Rambo doesn't even want to kill anyone but things escalate and due to circumstances some people do die. All the acting is good overall; yes, even from Stallone, someone who gets criticized a lot.
Overall, it's fine entertainment and I am glad I saw it again. If you see it on disc, Morrell does a commentary on the film and it's always interesting to listen to. He seemed fair to what the movie is compared to the book. The only other Rambo movie I've reviewed here was the 4th one from '08. Eventually I'll watch the jingoistic greatness of Parts II and III.
I'll be busy with a few things this week so I won't be back until Friday night.
Runtime: 93 minutes
Directed by: Ted Kotcheff
Starring: Sly Stallone, Brian Dennehy, Richard Crenna, Bill McKinney
From: Anabasis N.V.
While I was thinking of something appropriate to watch for Veterans Day I realized I wasn't sure if I had seen this movie and reviewed it for the movie blog or not. I looked and apparently I did not so I figured it was time for me to give it another viewing. I have seen it a few times before and the first time was actually on the big screen via something that Fathom Events (or a company like it) did one night. It was an obvious DVD projection but that was mostly OK with me.
I'll steal the plot description from Letterboxd as it greatly tickled me: “When former Green Beret John Rambo is harassed by local law enforcement and arrested for vagrancy, the Vietnam vet snaps, runs for the hills and rat-a-tat-tats his way into the action-movie hall of fame. Hounded by a relentless sheriff, Rambo employs heavy-handed guerilla tactics to shake the cops off his tail.”
To think that this was based on a book by David Morrell that was in quite a few ways different from what ended up on screen (although I am sure he isn't complaining as he must have made a lot of money due to having rights to the character once it became an 80's pop culture icon later on) and that John Rambo ended up becoming an America F*ck Yeah killing machine in the sequels...
As in this movie he's just a highly decorated soldier from Vietnam who was in a small Washington town to visit an old war pal-who ended up having passed away-and as some soldiers like him had problems after getting back from 'Nam and he was a wanderer/drafter & he experienced problems and he reaches his breaking point due to mistreatment. Things changed with the sequel, for sure.
I am sure that some would much rather watch the sequels and enjoy him slaughtering even Commie bastards, but I also enjoy watching this movie as it's more serious and besides the action and suspense you get from people trying to hunt him down and him using his military training to take them down, there's also pathos and seriousness as they deal with the issues that some Vietnam veterans had to endure once they came back, from getting disrespected to literally being spat on. It's not a mindless sort of film by any means. I mean, Rambo doesn't even want to kill anyone but things escalate and due to circumstances some people do die. All the acting is good overall; yes, even from Stallone, someone who gets criticized a lot.
Overall, it's fine entertainment and I am glad I saw it again. If you see it on disc, Morrell does a commentary on the film and it's always interesting to listen to. He seemed fair to what the movie is compared to the book. The only other Rambo movie I've reviewed here was the 4th one from '08. Eventually I'll watch the jingoistic greatness of Parts II and III.
I'll be busy with a few things this week so I won't be back until Friday night.
Friday, November 8, 2013
RIP Blockbuster
I was planning on watching a movie today to talk about tonight, but today had its ups and downs and for awhile I thought it was going to be pretty bad. So, instead I'll mention how it was announced earlier in the week that for all intents and purposes Blockbuster was shutting down for good, closing down its remaining stores. Yes, they still had stores open and I in fact went to one that was open in my hometown here in Clermont, Florida.
However, up to a few years ago I had never been in a Blockbuster. Way back when (back in the day of Beta tapes and me being a toddler) my parents used to rent tapes at a grocery store. Then, a regular videostore opened up in my town called Videos 4 Le$$. My family and I went there for years. As a teenager I sometimes rented tapes from I believe a Hollywood Video. In college I got tapes from a pretty liberal store at Illinois State University called The Movie Fan. Once I moved down here I went to a few different spots but they all ended up closing down so I had to start using Blockbuster.
I know that not too many are sad about their demise, as they destroyed those mom and pop videostores back in the 90's; I do agree with that. For a long while now I've said elsewhere that I wouldn't be surprised to read one day that they would close down, and on Wednesday I was not surprised by the news.
There is on-demand, Netflix, and Redbox to rent films, but to me it isn't the same as browsing in person at a store and looking for awhile before picking out something to watch. Leave the memories alone!
I'll be back Monday night and as it's Veterans Day I'll try to review something with a military theme.
However, up to a few years ago I had never been in a Blockbuster. Way back when (back in the day of Beta tapes and me being a toddler) my parents used to rent tapes at a grocery store. Then, a regular videostore opened up in my town called Videos 4 Le$$. My family and I went there for years. As a teenager I sometimes rented tapes from I believe a Hollywood Video. In college I got tapes from a pretty liberal store at Illinois State University called The Movie Fan. Once I moved down here I went to a few different spots but they all ended up closing down so I had to start using Blockbuster.
I know that not too many are sad about their demise, as they destroyed those mom and pop videostores back in the 90's; I do agree with that. For a long while now I've said elsewhere that I wouldn't be surprised to read one day that they would close down, and on Wednesday I was not surprised by the news.
There is on-demand, Netflix, and Redbox to rent films, but to me it isn't the same as browsing in person at a store and looking for awhile before picking out something to watch. Leave the memories alone!
I'll be back Monday night and as it's Veterans Day I'll try to review something with a military theme.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Escape Plan
Escape Plan (2013)
49% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 101 reviews)
Runtime: 115 minutes
Directed by: Mikael Hafstrom
Starring: Sly Stallone, Arnold, Jim Cavizel, Faran Tahir
From: Summit Entertainment
To think that THIS was the first time action legends Sly and Arnold starred together in a motion picture. Then again, the only time and De Niro and Pacino starred together in a motion picture (Righteous Kill) it wasn't so hot either.
I've heard about this movie for awhile now due to various sites and messageboards I frequent. I was excited because of who the two leads are. Even when I found out recently that it wasn't really an action movie but was more a drama, I was still pumped up for it. What a letdown I experienced yesterday afternoon.
To steal the plot description from the IMDb: “When a structural-security authority finds himself set up and incarcerated in the world's most secret and secure prison, he has to use his skills to escape with help from the inside.” The location of this secret and secure prison... once I found out what it was, I groaned. It makes no sense, which ends up being one of the themes to this movie.
I ended up not really liking this movie at all. And those sites and messageboards by and large really enjoyed the movie and I just don't get it. There are amusing moments and some decent bits, but overall the main themes I got out of this were nonsense, non-stop contrivances, stupidity, and coincidences. What I mean by nonsense is that characters would disappear when they shouldn't have, important plot points come up out of nowhere and apparently you're just supposed to know beforehand what they are yammering about... and it seems like there's dialogue missing to connect things together. This is jut a badly-made movie, or at least badly-edited. This sort of film, I shouldn't be befuddled multiple times as to what in the hell was going on; this isn't a David Lynch movie for calling out loud! Yet there was confusing way too often for my tastes. Not even the action scenes were all that well-filmed or put together.
Stupid moments or nonsense doesn't necessarily ruin a flick for me. However, everything combined together with too much of this movie being unpleasant equals me thinking that this wasn't an enjoyable movie to watch. It wasn't the acting that was a source of the problems; besides the people listed already there's Sam Neill, Vincent D'Onfrio, Amy Ryan... and yeah, 50 Cent. Fiddy wasn't bad, at least.
Overall, what a disappointment this was. Then again it wasn't the only film to earn that tag this year. At least there's been a pleasant surprise or two but I hope to see 10 worthwhile movies to rate and rank for the Best of 2013 list I'll do, likely in early January of '14.
I'll be back Friday night.
49% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 101 reviews)
Runtime: 115 minutes
Directed by: Mikael Hafstrom
Starring: Sly Stallone, Arnold, Jim Cavizel, Faran Tahir
From: Summit Entertainment
To think that THIS was the first time action legends Sly and Arnold starred together in a motion picture. Then again, the only time and De Niro and Pacino starred together in a motion picture (Righteous Kill) it wasn't so hot either.
I've heard about this movie for awhile now due to various sites and messageboards I frequent. I was excited because of who the two leads are. Even when I found out recently that it wasn't really an action movie but was more a drama, I was still pumped up for it. What a letdown I experienced yesterday afternoon.
To steal the plot description from the IMDb: “When a structural-security authority finds himself set up and incarcerated in the world's most secret and secure prison, he has to use his skills to escape with help from the inside.” The location of this secret and secure prison... once I found out what it was, I groaned. It makes no sense, which ends up being one of the themes to this movie.
I ended up not really liking this movie at all. And those sites and messageboards by and large really enjoyed the movie and I just don't get it. There are amusing moments and some decent bits, but overall the main themes I got out of this were nonsense, non-stop contrivances, stupidity, and coincidences. What I mean by nonsense is that characters would disappear when they shouldn't have, important plot points come up out of nowhere and apparently you're just supposed to know beforehand what they are yammering about... and it seems like there's dialogue missing to connect things together. This is jut a badly-made movie, or at least badly-edited. This sort of film, I shouldn't be befuddled multiple times as to what in the hell was going on; this isn't a David Lynch movie for calling out loud! Yet there was confusing way too often for my tastes. Not even the action scenes were all that well-filmed or put together.
Stupid moments or nonsense doesn't necessarily ruin a flick for me. However, everything combined together with too much of this movie being unpleasant equals me thinking that this wasn't an enjoyable movie to watch. It wasn't the acting that was a source of the problems; besides the people listed already there's Sam Neill, Vincent D'Onfrio, Amy Ryan... and yeah, 50 Cent. Fiddy wasn't bad, at least.
Overall, what a disappointment this was. Then again it wasn't the only film to earn that tag this year. At least there's been a pleasant surprise or two but I hope to see 10 worthwhile movies to rate and rank for the Best of 2013 list I'll do, likely in early January of '14.
I'll be back Friday night.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Violent Naples
Violent Naples (Napoli Violenta) (1976)
Runtime: 91 minutes
Directed by: Umberto Lenzi
Starring: Maurizio Merli, John Saxon, Barry Sullivan, Elio Zamuto
From: Paneuropean Production Pictures
It's been awhile since I've seen a poliziotteschi film so I figured it was time to watch one. Unlike many I've seen (which I watch via a site I won't reveal as I never want it to be shut down, for selfish reasons) this one is easy to find online as it's on YouTube. I think it's public domain but sometimes I really don't know is a movie qualifies as one or not.
To give my own plot description: This is a sequel to Violent City, a movie I saw in April and reviewed here. This time, the cop with the great cop 'stache known as Betti (Merli) gets transferred to Naples, but he hasn't changed his ways. He's still a real loose cannon cop who is happy to stretch or break the rules in order to bring down the bad guys. There's no shortage of bad guys to deal with, either. There's robbers who end up being rapists, there's bank robbers who try to manipulate things via their leader being on parole (he has to sign in every afternoon and he races there after the robberies in order to try and have an alibi), and there's people who pay protection to underworld forces. This is a very fast-paced film that never lets up.
There were various interesting touches, like Betti using undesireables to obtain information on the big bad guys, and seeing the various tricks of the trade that the villains do to get the advantage. Then there's the usual you get from the genre... car/dirtbike chases, gunfights, fistfights, and yes, sleaze. There are some very violent moments, involving the likes of spiked fences and bowling balls. Nasty... and sweet.
I happen to really enjoy that segment of 70's films and this was a quality example of the subgenre. I got a lot of amusement out of the loose cannon aspects and there are several great setpieces, including one about an hour in and features a chase that turns into a tense showdown involving a cable car and gunplay. There's also a groovy score, which is another typical trademark of this genre. Good times, at least for me.
I won't be back until Wednesday afternoon.
Runtime: 91 minutes
Directed by: Umberto Lenzi
Starring: Maurizio Merli, John Saxon, Barry Sullivan, Elio Zamuto
From: Paneuropean Production Pictures
It's been awhile since I've seen a poliziotteschi film so I figured it was time to watch one. Unlike many I've seen (which I watch via a site I won't reveal as I never want it to be shut down, for selfish reasons) this one is easy to find online as it's on YouTube. I think it's public domain but sometimes I really don't know is a movie qualifies as one or not.
To give my own plot description: This is a sequel to Violent City, a movie I saw in April and reviewed here. This time, the cop with the great cop 'stache known as Betti (Merli) gets transferred to Naples, but he hasn't changed his ways. He's still a real loose cannon cop who is happy to stretch or break the rules in order to bring down the bad guys. There's no shortage of bad guys to deal with, either. There's robbers who end up being rapists, there's bank robbers who try to manipulate things via their leader being on parole (he has to sign in every afternoon and he races there after the robberies in order to try and have an alibi), and there's people who pay protection to underworld forces. This is a very fast-paced film that never lets up.
There were various interesting touches, like Betti using undesireables to obtain information on the big bad guys, and seeing the various tricks of the trade that the villains do to get the advantage. Then there's the usual you get from the genre... car/dirtbike chases, gunfights, fistfights, and yes, sleaze. There are some very violent moments, involving the likes of spiked fences and bowling balls. Nasty... and sweet.
I happen to really enjoy that segment of 70's films and this was a quality example of the subgenre. I got a lot of amusement out of the loose cannon aspects and there are several great setpieces, including one about an hour in and features a chase that turns into a tense showdown involving a cable car and gunplay. There's also a groovy score, which is another typical trademark of this genre. Good times, at least for me.
I won't be back until Wednesday afternoon.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (L'uccello Dalle Piume Di Cristallo) (1970)
Runtime: 96 minutes
Directed by: Dario Argento
Starring: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi, Mario Adorf
From: Central Cinema Company Film
I figured I should watch some sort of horror film on Halloween, and why not one I hadn't seen before, and why not what has been said to be Argento's directorial debut? To steal the plot description for this giallo film from the IMDb:
“Sam an American writer in Rome witnesses a murder attempt on the wife of the owner of an art gallery by a sinister man in a raincoat and black leather gloves - but Sam is powerless to do anything as he gets trapped between a double set of glass doors in going to her aid. The woman survives and the police say that she is the first surviving victim of a notorious serial killer. But when they fail to make any progress with the case Sam decides to investigate on his own turning up several clues that point in the direction of just one possible suspect - assuming that he really knows who hes looking for...”
I've heard this described as a Hitchcockian film and that seems appropriate. A foreigner at first is wrongly accused, he starts investigating himself which seems to put himself in harm's way... the influences are clear to me. Also, things aren't always as they seem.
This is quite the debut. You can say what you wear about the acting or some parts of the plot (really, when you find out what it's all about, it does seem a little far-fetched), but it is well-done overall, from the cinematography to how the film looks, some of the setpieces are cool and the Ennio Morricone score is really good and odd and it fits what you see.
There's some quirky humor too, which kept me amused. For example, there was a scene where Sam had to view a lineup of “perverts”. Yes, that's what they were referred to as. You also find out that the police in Italy don't consider transvestites to be perverts. Progressive for the time. I also laughed at the late 60's computers that are on display and used; wacky. So is seeing Mario Adorf (someone I know for some poliziotteschi films) in a one scene cameo as a very quirky painter who lives in the middle of nowhere, lives with many cats (he's not a cat lady; rather, he eats cats!) and he has giant hair and a full beard. That scene got a big laugh out of me.
I'll be back Saturday night. I am thinking that it's about time for me to finally see another poliziotteschi film.
Runtime: 96 minutes
Directed by: Dario Argento
Starring: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi, Mario Adorf
From: Central Cinema Company Film
I figured I should watch some sort of horror film on Halloween, and why not one I hadn't seen before, and why not what has been said to be Argento's directorial debut? To steal the plot description for this giallo film from the IMDb:
“Sam an American writer in Rome witnesses a murder attempt on the wife of the owner of an art gallery by a sinister man in a raincoat and black leather gloves - but Sam is powerless to do anything as he gets trapped between a double set of glass doors in going to her aid. The woman survives and the police say that she is the first surviving victim of a notorious serial killer. But when they fail to make any progress with the case Sam decides to investigate on his own turning up several clues that point in the direction of just one possible suspect - assuming that he really knows who hes looking for...”
I've heard this described as a Hitchcockian film and that seems appropriate. A foreigner at first is wrongly accused, he starts investigating himself which seems to put himself in harm's way... the influences are clear to me. Also, things aren't always as they seem.
This is quite the debut. You can say what you wear about the acting or some parts of the plot (really, when you find out what it's all about, it does seem a little far-fetched), but it is well-done overall, from the cinematography to how the film looks, some of the setpieces are cool and the Ennio Morricone score is really good and odd and it fits what you see.
There's some quirky humor too, which kept me amused. For example, there was a scene where Sam had to view a lineup of “perverts”. Yes, that's what they were referred to as. You also find out that the police in Italy don't consider transvestites to be perverts. Progressive for the time. I also laughed at the late 60's computers that are on display and used; wacky. So is seeing Mario Adorf (someone I know for some poliziotteschi films) in a one scene cameo as a very quirky painter who lives in the middle of nowhere, lives with many cats (he's not a cat lady; rather, he eats cats!) and he has giant hair and a full beard. That scene got a big laugh out of me.
I'll be back Saturday night. I am thinking that it's about time for me to finally see another poliziotteschi film.
Monday, October 28, 2013
An Update
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch anything during the weekend. Things were busy and I was tied up in Tampa 2 hours more than expected so that threw everything off. Between that, doing fantasy NBA stuff (hey, the season does start tomorrow) and other things, I might as well just take it easy for this week and not watch anything and not worry about this site until Thursday night, when I will return for what I hope will be an appropriate Halloween review.
Sorry about having to change plans this month, but October has just been wacky for me and not always in a good way. I was hoping to watch more horror films but maybe next year will be better...
Sorry about having to change plans this month, but October has just been wacky for me and not always in a good way. I was hoping to watch more horror films but maybe next year will be better...
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Death Car On The Freeway
Death Car on the Freeway (1979)
Runtime: 91 minutes
Directed by: The late Hal Needham
Starring: Shelley Hack, Frank Gorshin, Peter Graves, George Hamilton
From: The Shpetner Company
Here's something unusual from me: an obscure late 70's made for TV movie (made for CBS, to be exact) that I found out about recently; on a podcast I was listening to someone wrote in asking for advice on a movie he saw but did not know its title. He gave some info and evidently he never uses Google as one of the hosts found it right away; it was this movie but the host did not notice that it was from Hal Needham. The movie sounded interesting to watch (think of the old Spielberg movie Duel in terms of plot), has quite the 70's TV cast (besides who I mentioned already, there's Harriet Nelson, a.k.a the mom from the 50's classic Ozzie & Harriet, Dinah Shore, Abe Vigoda, and even Sid Haig) and it sounded horror-related, or at least it's a thriller. But, then I heard yesterday that Mr. Needham passed away and I figured tonight was the perfect time to watch it.
Like I said, the plot is similar to the Spielberg TV movie Duel, from '71. Here, a mysterious person in a bitchin' Dodge van chases after random women on the Los Angeles highway and causes problems. He repaints it to try and thwart the authorities. Lady reporter Janette (Hack) covers the case in a strong way, which causes problems as it's the late 70's so there's rampant sexism from the police chief (Graves) and from her fellow reporter ex-boyfriend (Hamilton) who pretty much acts like Ron Burgundy, but in a serious way. He was a real stubborn A-hole.
There are certainly plenty of vintage cars to watch and enjoy if that's your thing, from that 70's van to a really early Civic (it looks a lot different now... and it's a lot larger too), the much maligned Mustang II and a Chevy Chevette. Oh, and the killer is known as THE FREEWAY FIDDLER. No, he does not fiddle himself while driving. Rather, when he goes on the attack he blasts some crappy country song where the fiddle player is going wild, as if he's Charlie Daniels on a coke binge.
Overall, the movie is fine. If it would have been R then things would have gotten more hardcore and there'd be more of a bite to it. Still, I enjoyed it for what it was and as you can see, various aspects of the film tickled me pink, especially while watching it in late 2013. While there was plenty of sexism to be seen at least it came from rude idiot guys and Janette doesn't accept any of that crap; feminists would of course appreciate such things. She is determined to do things on her own without the help of any man as she tries to stop the Fiddler.
If you want to see a Hal Needham version of Duel (with his trademark car crashes and explosions and other stunts; Hal even has a small role as a stunt driver) where the second unit director was later the director of Action Jackson, Stone Cold, and I Come in Peace-yes, Craig R. Baxley-with some wackiness and some groovy music (typical 70's stuff... I wasn't talking about the fiddle song), then you might as well watch it on YouTube.
Runtime: 91 minutes
Directed by: The late Hal Needham
Starring: Shelley Hack, Frank Gorshin, Peter Graves, George Hamilton
From: The Shpetner Company
Here's something unusual from me: an obscure late 70's made for TV movie (made for CBS, to be exact) that I found out about recently; on a podcast I was listening to someone wrote in asking for advice on a movie he saw but did not know its title. He gave some info and evidently he never uses Google as one of the hosts found it right away; it was this movie but the host did not notice that it was from Hal Needham. The movie sounded interesting to watch (think of the old Spielberg movie Duel in terms of plot), has quite the 70's TV cast (besides who I mentioned already, there's Harriet Nelson, a.k.a the mom from the 50's classic Ozzie & Harriet, Dinah Shore, Abe Vigoda, and even Sid Haig) and it sounded horror-related, or at least it's a thriller. But, then I heard yesterday that Mr. Needham passed away and I figured tonight was the perfect time to watch it.
Like I said, the plot is similar to the Spielberg TV movie Duel, from '71. Here, a mysterious person in a bitchin' Dodge van chases after random women on the Los Angeles highway and causes problems. He repaints it to try and thwart the authorities. Lady reporter Janette (Hack) covers the case in a strong way, which causes problems as it's the late 70's so there's rampant sexism from the police chief (Graves) and from her fellow reporter ex-boyfriend (Hamilton) who pretty much acts like Ron Burgundy, but in a serious way. He was a real stubborn A-hole.
There are certainly plenty of vintage cars to watch and enjoy if that's your thing, from that 70's van to a really early Civic (it looks a lot different now... and it's a lot larger too), the much maligned Mustang II and a Chevy Chevette. Oh, and the killer is known as THE FREEWAY FIDDLER. No, he does not fiddle himself while driving. Rather, when he goes on the attack he blasts some crappy country song where the fiddle player is going wild, as if he's Charlie Daniels on a coke binge.
Overall, the movie is fine. If it would have been R then things would have gotten more hardcore and there'd be more of a bite to it. Still, I enjoyed it for what it was and as you can see, various aspects of the film tickled me pink, especially while watching it in late 2013. While there was plenty of sexism to be seen at least it came from rude idiot guys and Janette doesn't accept any of that crap; feminists would of course appreciate such things. She is determined to do things on her own without the help of any man as she tries to stop the Fiddler.
If you want to see a Hal Needham version of Duel (with his trademark car crashes and explosions and other stunts; Hal even has a small role as a stunt driver) where the second unit director was later the director of Action Jackson, Stone Cold, and I Come in Peace-yes, Craig R. Baxley-with some wackiness and some groovy music (typical 70's stuff... I wasn't talking about the fiddle song), then you might as well watch it on YouTube.
Friday, October 25, 2013
RIP Hal Needham
No review tonight. I'll be going out in a bit. One thing I'll do is have an alcoholic beverage and tip my glass (well, bottle) to Hal Needham, the stuntman/director who passed away today at the age of 82. His most famous work is Smokey & The Bandit, which I saw one time on the big screen a few years ago with Burt Reynolds in attendance (my take on that here).
Tomorrow night, I should return and I plan on watching something obscure from him, which happens to be on YouTube.
Tomorrow night, I should return and I plan on watching something obscure from him, which happens to be on YouTube.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Machete Kills
Machete Kills (2013)
29% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 99 reviews)
Runtime: 107 minutes
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Many people, including Danny Trejo, Mel Gibson, Amber Heard, Sofia Vergara, & Carlos Estevez
From: Open Road
I still remember first seeing the fake Machete trailer back in '07 and I thought it looked awesome. I then enjoyed Machete which I saw twice on the big screen (including once at a drive-in with the ultimate perfect partner in Piranha), the review you can read here. As I did have a lot of fun with the first movie, I was hoping it'd be the same with the sequel. The fact that I only saw it last night is telling, though. The pretty bad reviews turned me off, and even before that people were complaining about how there were too many characters in the film; turns out they were right...
The plot, via myself: Things happen in the beginning, and Machete is brought to the White House to meet the President (Charlie Sheen, acting under the name on his birth certificate) and he has to go down to Mexico to try and take down a bad guy who wants to blow up Washington. A lot happens and it ends up being tied to a guy with the Bond-esque name of Luthur Voz (Gibson). In fact, the movie has a surprising amount to do with a certain Bond film that I won't spoil as it would reveal quite a bit.
It won't be until tonight but when I do write up my opinion of it on Letterboxd, I'll likely give it 2 and a half stars out of 5. That seems most appropriate. There are things I enjoyed but then there are other things that I thought were just stupid, being over the top but in a dumb and insulting way. It went up and down like a rollercoaster. It was bipoloar, which is ironic given that... but that's another spoiler. What counts as a stupid thing was how Walton Goggins, Cuba Gooding Jr., Lady Gaga and Antonio Banderas all played the same character, El Camaleon. That was just a waste.
There indeed proved to be way too many characters in this movie. That certainly did not help what was a mess of a script, where things are chaotic in a poor way and that has to be a big reason why it was such a flick with mixed results. The fact that it turns sci-fi is just goofy; they did tease that the third film would be set in space! No kidding. With the box office take of this movie, though... who knows if there will be a third Machete movie.
At least there were still things throughout that I enjoyed so I did not hate the movie; I was just disappointed by it. I did enjoy how there were plenty of good-looking women in the film. Alexa Vega certainly has grown up from her Spy Kids days. She is a very pretty lady now. I would have liked more of that character and have some others deleted. I was hoping this'd be one of the best movies of 2013 in my eyes, but nope. Hopefully by the end of this year I'll have a list that will have 10 viable options to make it look good.
I'll be back tomorrow night.
29% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 99 reviews)
Runtime: 107 minutes
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Many people, including Danny Trejo, Mel Gibson, Amber Heard, Sofia Vergara, & Carlos Estevez
From: Open Road
I still remember first seeing the fake Machete trailer back in '07 and I thought it looked awesome. I then enjoyed Machete which I saw twice on the big screen (including once at a drive-in with the ultimate perfect partner in Piranha), the review you can read here. As I did have a lot of fun with the first movie, I was hoping it'd be the same with the sequel. The fact that I only saw it last night is telling, though. The pretty bad reviews turned me off, and even before that people were complaining about how there were too many characters in the film; turns out they were right...
The plot, via myself: Things happen in the beginning, and Machete is brought to the White House to meet the President (Charlie Sheen, acting under the name on his birth certificate) and he has to go down to Mexico to try and take down a bad guy who wants to blow up Washington. A lot happens and it ends up being tied to a guy with the Bond-esque name of Luthur Voz (Gibson). In fact, the movie has a surprising amount to do with a certain Bond film that I won't spoil as it would reveal quite a bit.
It won't be until tonight but when I do write up my opinion of it on Letterboxd, I'll likely give it 2 and a half stars out of 5. That seems most appropriate. There are things I enjoyed but then there are other things that I thought were just stupid, being over the top but in a dumb and insulting way. It went up and down like a rollercoaster. It was bipoloar, which is ironic given that... but that's another spoiler. What counts as a stupid thing was how Walton Goggins, Cuba Gooding Jr., Lady Gaga and Antonio Banderas all played the same character, El Camaleon. That was just a waste.
There indeed proved to be way too many characters in this movie. That certainly did not help what was a mess of a script, where things are chaotic in a poor way and that has to be a big reason why it was such a flick with mixed results. The fact that it turns sci-fi is just goofy; they did tease that the third film would be set in space! No kidding. With the box office take of this movie, though... who knows if there will be a third Machete movie.
At least there were still things throughout that I enjoyed so I did not hate the movie; I was just disappointed by it. I did enjoy how there were plenty of good-looking women in the film. Alexa Vega certainly has grown up from her Spy Kids days. She is a very pretty lady now. I would have liked more of that character and have some others deleted. I was hoping this'd be one of the best movies of 2013 in my eyes, but nope. Hopefully by the end of this year I'll have a list that will have 10 viable options to make it look good.
I'll be back tomorrow night.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Yep, Another Slight Delay
I will be seeing a big screen movie; I'll be leaving in a matter of minutes to make a short drive to watch Machete Kills. I thought I'd be able to see it in the early evening but I looked today and that changed and I could only watch it in the late evening. Thus, the change in plans.
I WILL be back tomorrow afternoon (probably late afternoon) to talk about that film. Hopefully I enjoy it as much as the first one.
I WILL be back tomorrow afternoon (probably late afternoon) to talk about that film. Hopefully I enjoy it as much as the first one.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Chillerama
Chillerama (2011)
Runtime: 120 minutes
Directed by: Adam Green, Joe Lynch, Adam Rifkin, & Tim Sullivan
Starring: This is a horror anthology, but the most famous faces are Joel David Moore, Eric Roberts, Lin Shaye, Ray Wise, & Kane Hodder
From: Ariescope
This is a horror-comedy anthology I've had on DVD for awhile but I've never watched until tonight. I've heard that the filming of this anthology was a nightmare to film due to it being a low-budget affair and trying to do 4 short movies and put them together with a overarching story... there won't be a Chillerama 2, that is what I gathered.
I wasn't sure what to expect going in. I heard that the overarching story (which ended up also being the final segment of the film) was how the owner of the last drive-in in America was shutting down but not before showing four films in an extravaganza. Right away, I had an issue as there indeed are a decent amount of drive-ins that are still up and running, and trying to say that there are literally none left is pretty stupid. I've been to one in Tampa a few times (including to see Grindhouse, which was pretty awesome and seeing a car full of people go crazy for the ending of Death Proof... it has to be one of my favorite theatre-going experiences) and the Silver Moon Drive-In in Lakeland, I've been to a decent number of times before.
The “plot” is that a drive-in is closing down; it's never said that it's the last one in America, so I don't know why the movie's publicity suggested so... anyhow, the drive-in shows four super-obscure films, that being Wadzilla (yes, Wadzilla), I Was A Teenage Wearbear, The Diary Of Anne Frankenstein, and the final short was supposed to be Deathication (which revolves all around feces) but the final part of the movie is chaos going on at the drive-in. How it all starts... pretty awful and makes no sense, but that's unfortunately par for the course with this film.It involves blue blood (literally; I don't mean a member of an aristocratic background) and a guy who gets his genitals bitten off but not really finding it all that painful.
Wadzilla is about one sperm that becomes giant-sized and attacks New York City. It's set in the 50's. Think that one segment in Woody Allen's Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask) which ended with Woody and a girl being chased by one giant breast, only it was done much better there and that movie is much better than this one. Eric Roberts appears as General Bukkake. Yeah. That's as “clever” and “matutre” as the humor gets. However, I was amused a few times and this ended up being the best segment in the movie.
The Wearbear one... WOW. And I mean WOW in a bad way. This rivals Hatchet III and Only God Forgives as amongst the worst filmmaking and the hardest bit of footage to get through this year. You start off with it being pretty much incomprehensible and you have no idea what in the blue hell is going on; it takes a few minutes to figure it out. Meanwhile, the movie is set in “1962” and yet you see cars from the late 60's, the 70's and even the 80's. This was horrible, and not in the spoof way either; this is shockingly atrocious filmmaking, and it's a MUSICAL; several songs are sung and they're all terrible in the worst ways and oh yeah, it's about gay werewolves. This really sunk the movie and yet even if you skip that segment, this would still be a poor insufferable film to sit through.
The Anne Frankenstein one... the “joke” is that all the actors are speaking legit German, but Joel David Moore (who plays “Hitler”) speaks gibberish that's supposed to be German but isn't. Yeah, it's even less funny than it sounds. It's just loud and overbearing and a complete 180 from being even smirk-worthy, let alone hilarious and a laugh riot.
You see a few minutes of Deathication and it's all about shit, literally. To describe that segment as “shit” is actually offensive to shit. After that, you get the rest of the film, where chaos is happening at the drive-in and while it is quite graphic, it is also quite not good and quite not funny, unless you enjoy a non-stop assault of lazy and uncreative movie references presented and references in the laziest most ham-fisted ways. Oh, and the thing that happens at the drive-in which causes the chaos... via circumstances too lame to get into, people start turning into zombies... horny zombies. Yes. Maybe if you're 13 you'd find it amusing. Otherwise...
Yeah, I hated this film! I now regret purchasing this film back in 2011, although at least the hand-drawn cover is pretty cool. Unfortunately, the movie seems like the result of a bukkake session among the filmmakers (who are all close buddies) and this wankfest is what you ended up with. If you find Troma movies to be too sophisticated and mature then you should see this. Otherwise, this is a must-avoid. I'll be back on Wednesday night, as I really do need a day of recovery after seeing 2 hours of awfulness in a row.
Runtime: 120 minutes
Directed by: Adam Green, Joe Lynch, Adam Rifkin, & Tim Sullivan
Starring: This is a horror anthology, but the most famous faces are Joel David Moore, Eric Roberts, Lin Shaye, Ray Wise, & Kane Hodder
From: Ariescope
This is a horror-comedy anthology I've had on DVD for awhile but I've never watched until tonight. I've heard that the filming of this anthology was a nightmare to film due to it being a low-budget affair and trying to do 4 short movies and put them together with a overarching story... there won't be a Chillerama 2, that is what I gathered.
I wasn't sure what to expect going in. I heard that the overarching story (which ended up also being the final segment of the film) was how the owner of the last drive-in in America was shutting down but not before showing four films in an extravaganza. Right away, I had an issue as there indeed are a decent amount of drive-ins that are still up and running, and trying to say that there are literally none left is pretty stupid. I've been to one in Tampa a few times (including to see Grindhouse, which was pretty awesome and seeing a car full of people go crazy for the ending of Death Proof... it has to be one of my favorite theatre-going experiences) and the Silver Moon Drive-In in Lakeland, I've been to a decent number of times before.
The “plot” is that a drive-in is closing down; it's never said that it's the last one in America, so I don't know why the movie's publicity suggested so... anyhow, the drive-in shows four super-obscure films, that being Wadzilla (yes, Wadzilla), I Was A Teenage Wearbear, The Diary Of Anne Frankenstein, and the final short was supposed to be Deathication (which revolves all around feces) but the final part of the movie is chaos going on at the drive-in. How it all starts... pretty awful and makes no sense, but that's unfortunately par for the course with this film.It involves blue blood (literally; I don't mean a member of an aristocratic background) and a guy who gets his genitals bitten off but not really finding it all that painful.
Wadzilla is about one sperm that becomes giant-sized and attacks New York City. It's set in the 50's. Think that one segment in Woody Allen's Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask) which ended with Woody and a girl being chased by one giant breast, only it was done much better there and that movie is much better than this one. Eric Roberts appears as General Bukkake. Yeah. That's as “clever” and “matutre” as the humor gets. However, I was amused a few times and this ended up being the best segment in the movie.
The Wearbear one... WOW. And I mean WOW in a bad way. This rivals Hatchet III and Only God Forgives as amongst the worst filmmaking and the hardest bit of footage to get through this year. You start off with it being pretty much incomprehensible and you have no idea what in the blue hell is going on; it takes a few minutes to figure it out. Meanwhile, the movie is set in “1962” and yet you see cars from the late 60's, the 70's and even the 80's. This was horrible, and not in the spoof way either; this is shockingly atrocious filmmaking, and it's a MUSICAL; several songs are sung and they're all terrible in the worst ways and oh yeah, it's about gay werewolves. This really sunk the movie and yet even if you skip that segment, this would still be a poor insufferable film to sit through.
The Anne Frankenstein one... the “joke” is that all the actors are speaking legit German, but Joel David Moore (who plays “Hitler”) speaks gibberish that's supposed to be German but isn't. Yeah, it's even less funny than it sounds. It's just loud and overbearing and a complete 180 from being even smirk-worthy, let alone hilarious and a laugh riot.
You see a few minutes of Deathication and it's all about shit, literally. To describe that segment as “shit” is actually offensive to shit. After that, you get the rest of the film, where chaos is happening at the drive-in and while it is quite graphic, it is also quite not good and quite not funny, unless you enjoy a non-stop assault of lazy and uncreative movie references presented and references in the laziest most ham-fisted ways. Oh, and the thing that happens at the drive-in which causes the chaos... via circumstances too lame to get into, people start turning into zombies... horny zombies. Yes. Maybe if you're 13 you'd find it amusing. Otherwise...
Yeah, I hated this film! I now regret purchasing this film back in 2011, although at least the hand-drawn cover is pretty cool. Unfortunately, the movie seems like the result of a bukkake session among the filmmakers (who are all close buddies) and this wankfest is what you ended up with. If you find Troma movies to be too sophisticated and mature then you should see this. Otherwise, this is a must-avoid. I'll be back on Wednesday night, as I really do need a day of recovery after seeing 2 hours of awfulness in a row.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Escape From Tomorrow
Escape From Tomorrow (2013)
58% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 54 reviews)
Runtime: 90 minutes
Directed by: Randy Moore
Starring: Roy Abramsohn, Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez, Jack Dalton
From: Mankurt Media
I apologize for this going up a few hours late, but things happened. Plus, I did need some time to think of how to describe this movie. I did want to watch this tonight, as it's a horror film and it's a movie with quite the backstory. If you haven't heard, this is a film that was filmed guerrilla style, in black and white with the type of cameras you'd find tourists use, and the scripts on iPads... and oh yeah, this was filmed at Walt Disney World and Disneyland without Disney's permission. Disney amazingly did not sue; maybe it was because they did not want more attention drawn to the movie, but not only did this get shown at places like Sundance, but last Friday it got a limited theatrical release and it's available at sites like Xbox Video, which is how I watched it tonight.
The plot, from the IMDb: “In a world of fake castles and anthropomorphic rodents, an epic battle begins when an unemployed father's sanity is challenged by a chance encounter with two underage girls on holiday.” Needless to say, the theme park it's set at is never flat-out named, although you see footage from some of the rides, some rides are correctly named, and of course you see much footage that was actually filmed at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Siemens also gets mentioned by name, oddly enough. As you can tell from the description, it's a psychological surreal horror sort of film.
I knew little about it going in, aside from the basic plot and how there were David Lynch-esque moments. I don't really watch strange surreal films all that often, where strange crap happens and it's never explained, just because... well, this is one of those movies. Strange random crap happens, and it's never explained; I suppose you could say that a lot of it is just a dream, even if the film never flat-out brings that theory up. I won't spoil much in case you ever want to watch it to decide for yourself. I do have to bring up some minor things, though...
While I admire how the movie got made and how it was made available to the point that me and anyone else could watch it on Xbox Video... it doesn't mean it was a movie I really enjoyed; your mileage may vary, but that's just my opinion. I thought it was just weird for weird's sake, it seemed a LOT longer than 90 minutes, and there's no character you really like.
I hope you're not supposed to like the dad, who is the protagonist and got fired from his job that morning. He gets wasted to the point of puking, which I suppose is understandable if you have bratty kids, a nagging wife, and just got fired. However, this man who looks to be in his mid to late 30's starts becoming obsessed with those two underaged girls. It wasn't just “a chance encounter” like the plot describes; once he first lays eyes on those girls, he oogles and goggles them and pretty much stalks them! Honest. He becomes infatuated with them and they both looked like they were no older than 15 years old! What a “hero” to follow. I thought the movie was off-putting at times, to be honest.
It's a shame that I did not really care for it overall (other people will enjoy that bizarre crap more than me) as there are effective shots/moments where you see distorted faces or just odd things. The horribly fake greenscreen shots you see a few times were NOT the effective shots I'm referring to, by the way. I am all for Disney being satirized as while I do enjoy going there, there's also bratty kids, A-hole parents yelling at each other/yelling at their kids, rude people there, usually hot weather, long lines... and the movie did point out all those aspects.
Unfortunately, like I said already it was just weird more than good and the plotting made it seem like it was 190 minutes instead of 90. At least it certainly was a unique experience and a movie I won't forgot, which is something. I'll be back Monday night, as I'll be busy this weekend.
58% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 54 reviews)
Runtime: 90 minutes
Directed by: Randy Moore
Starring: Roy Abramsohn, Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez, Jack Dalton
From: Mankurt Media
I apologize for this going up a few hours late, but things happened. Plus, I did need some time to think of how to describe this movie. I did want to watch this tonight, as it's a horror film and it's a movie with quite the backstory. If you haven't heard, this is a film that was filmed guerrilla style, in black and white with the type of cameras you'd find tourists use, and the scripts on iPads... and oh yeah, this was filmed at Walt Disney World and Disneyland without Disney's permission. Disney amazingly did not sue; maybe it was because they did not want more attention drawn to the movie, but not only did this get shown at places like Sundance, but last Friday it got a limited theatrical release and it's available at sites like Xbox Video, which is how I watched it tonight.
The plot, from the IMDb: “In a world of fake castles and anthropomorphic rodents, an epic battle begins when an unemployed father's sanity is challenged by a chance encounter with two underage girls on holiday.” Needless to say, the theme park it's set at is never flat-out named, although you see footage from some of the rides, some rides are correctly named, and of course you see much footage that was actually filmed at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Siemens also gets mentioned by name, oddly enough. As you can tell from the description, it's a psychological surreal horror sort of film.
I knew little about it going in, aside from the basic plot and how there were David Lynch-esque moments. I don't really watch strange surreal films all that often, where strange crap happens and it's never explained, just because... well, this is one of those movies. Strange random crap happens, and it's never explained; I suppose you could say that a lot of it is just a dream, even if the film never flat-out brings that theory up. I won't spoil much in case you ever want to watch it to decide for yourself. I do have to bring up some minor things, though...
While I admire how the movie got made and how it was made available to the point that me and anyone else could watch it on Xbox Video... it doesn't mean it was a movie I really enjoyed; your mileage may vary, but that's just my opinion. I thought it was just weird for weird's sake, it seemed a LOT longer than 90 minutes, and there's no character you really like.
I hope you're not supposed to like the dad, who is the protagonist and got fired from his job that morning. He gets wasted to the point of puking, which I suppose is understandable if you have bratty kids, a nagging wife, and just got fired. However, this man who looks to be in his mid to late 30's starts becoming obsessed with those two underaged girls. It wasn't just “a chance encounter” like the plot describes; once he first lays eyes on those girls, he oogles and goggles them and pretty much stalks them! Honest. He becomes infatuated with them and they both looked like they were no older than 15 years old! What a “hero” to follow. I thought the movie was off-putting at times, to be honest.
It's a shame that I did not really care for it overall (other people will enjoy that bizarre crap more than me) as there are effective shots/moments where you see distorted faces or just odd things. The horribly fake greenscreen shots you see a few times were NOT the effective shots I'm referring to, by the way. I am all for Disney being satirized as while I do enjoy going there, there's also bratty kids, A-hole parents yelling at each other/yelling at their kids, rude people there, usually hot weather, long lines... and the movie did point out all those aspects.
Unfortunately, like I said already it was just weird more than good and the plotting made it seem like it was 190 minutes instead of 90. At least it certainly was a unique experience and a movie I won't forgot, which is something. I'll be back Monday night, as I'll be busy this weekend.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Gravity
Gravity (2013)
98% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 244 reviews)
Runtime: 91 minutes
Directed by: Alfonso Cuaron
Starring: George Clooney, Sandra Bullock, and the voice of Ed Harris
From: Warner Brothers
Yep, I finally saw this last night, and on a giant screen and in 3D, as I was told this was the way to go. Until I heard just about everyone going wild for this, I had no real opinion on the movie; I feel the same about the two stars and even the director, whose movies I had never seen before. I know, I know... I just haven't felt like it; it took him 4 years to make this one, and somehow was able to fight through the usual idiotic studio interference to create what he wanted to; I had no idea or not if it was worth the wait.
You already know the plot now, of how a newbie in space (Bullock) and an astronaut on his last mission (Clooney) experience a catastrophic event, and they have to deal with those nearly impossible conditions. I won't spoil anything past that, except that Bullock's character does have a backstory that some have griped about, as they felt it wasn't needed. I do understand the complaint but it did not bother me too much, and maybe that was the one concession given to the studio; they requested it be more cliché or more what you usually see on the big screen, so that one thing isn't so bad in comparison.
Anyhow, it turns out that I do agree with most people; this is a great movie. It's a unique plot of how you are in one location (space) and it always looks great. It's just a beautiful movie to look at and you actually feel you are in outer space. How they managed to film it I have no idea but for now I'll be happy to remain in the dark.
It's certainly never boring even when you only have a limited number of characters to follow the entire time; it's always tense and exciting due to the situation and throughout you go through a whole lot of different emotions. The performances help make it a hit; the two actors are like, “yeah, whatever” and I don't go out of my way to seek their films. However, they did a great job here and it only further made you believe you were in outer space with them. Besides what I've mentioned already, the sound design and the score also are a perfect match for what you see; it's actually realistic to what you'd hear if you were in outer space, that's how the sound design is.
I am not sure yet how I'll rate it in comparison to the rest of the top movies I've seen. I am thinking this will be the movie for the year for me for it being such a different experience and yet it's very thrilling to watch and it's all so well-done. I am certainly not one who believes the hype in general and I am usually skeptical when I hear people going wild for something, as more often than not I think the hype was too much for what you actually got. This time, though, believe the hype; if you do decide to see it, a giant screen is a must, whether it be AMC's ETX, Regal's RPX, Cinemark XD, the fake IMAX, or the legit thing. All would be appropriate.
I'll be back tomorrow night.
98% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 244 reviews)
Runtime: 91 minutes
Directed by: Alfonso Cuaron
Starring: George Clooney, Sandra Bullock, and the voice of Ed Harris
From: Warner Brothers
Yep, I finally saw this last night, and on a giant screen and in 3D, as I was told this was the way to go. Until I heard just about everyone going wild for this, I had no real opinion on the movie; I feel the same about the two stars and even the director, whose movies I had never seen before. I know, I know... I just haven't felt like it; it took him 4 years to make this one, and somehow was able to fight through the usual idiotic studio interference to create what he wanted to; I had no idea or not if it was worth the wait.
You already know the plot now, of how a newbie in space (Bullock) and an astronaut on his last mission (Clooney) experience a catastrophic event, and they have to deal with those nearly impossible conditions. I won't spoil anything past that, except that Bullock's character does have a backstory that some have griped about, as they felt it wasn't needed. I do understand the complaint but it did not bother me too much, and maybe that was the one concession given to the studio; they requested it be more cliché or more what you usually see on the big screen, so that one thing isn't so bad in comparison.
Anyhow, it turns out that I do agree with most people; this is a great movie. It's a unique plot of how you are in one location (space) and it always looks great. It's just a beautiful movie to look at and you actually feel you are in outer space. How they managed to film it I have no idea but for now I'll be happy to remain in the dark.
It's certainly never boring even when you only have a limited number of characters to follow the entire time; it's always tense and exciting due to the situation and throughout you go through a whole lot of different emotions. The performances help make it a hit; the two actors are like, “yeah, whatever” and I don't go out of my way to seek their films. However, they did a great job here and it only further made you believe you were in outer space with them. Besides what I've mentioned already, the sound design and the score also are a perfect match for what you see; it's actually realistic to what you'd hear if you were in outer space, that's how the sound design is.
I am not sure yet how I'll rate it in comparison to the rest of the top movies I've seen. I am thinking this will be the movie for the year for me for it being such a different experience and yet it's very thrilling to watch and it's all so well-done. I am certainly not one who believes the hype in general and I am usually skeptical when I hear people going wild for something, as more often than not I think the hype was too much for what you actually got. This time, though, believe the hype; if you do decide to see it, a giant screen is a must, whether it be AMC's ETX, Regal's RPX, Cinemark XD, the fake IMAX, or the legit thing. All would be appropriate.
I'll be back tomorrow night.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
A Rough Outline For The Rest Of The Month
Yeah, no review tonight. Today-besides going out for dinner-has been a day for catching up on podcasts, otherwise I'd end up swamped and down further the rabbit hole and not being able to get out... especially considering that in the next few days I plan on seeing Gravity in 3D and on a giant screen (ideally, tomorrow night, as a matter of fact), Machete Kills (even though there haven't been too many rave reviews for it), and something on Xbox Video; I hope it is still up there Thursday night. There are reasons why I am not 100% that would be the case, which I would explain in the review if I am able to do it.
Also, I'll watch some horror films; maybe not as much as I would have liked for this month, but oh well. I may see a bizarre pairing of movies in 3D on Sunday. It just depends. But, I'll try to not have another one of these nights where I end up not watching anything when I was hoping to do so. I certainly have plenty I could watch horror-wise. It's the process of picking one out that's the bitch and a half for me, to put it bluntly.
Anyhow, I will be back on Thursday afternoon, hopefully with a review of Gravity, a wildly popular movie in every way that I understand is best seen on a giant screen, which I will be doing.
Also, I'll watch some horror films; maybe not as much as I would have liked for this month, but oh well. I may see a bizarre pairing of movies in 3D on Sunday. It just depends. But, I'll try to not have another one of these nights where I end up not watching anything when I was hoping to do so. I certainly have plenty I could watch horror-wise. It's the process of picking one out that's the bitch and a half for me, to put it bluntly.
Anyhow, I will be back on Thursday afternoon, hopefully with a review of Gravity, a wildly popular movie in every way that I understand is best seen on a giant screen, which I will be doing.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
The Last Will & Testament Of Rosalind Leigh
The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh (2012)
Runtime: 80 minutes
Directed by: Rodrigo Gudino
Starring: Aaron Poole, Vanessa Redgrave, Julian Richings, Stephen Eric McIntyre
From: Rue Morgue Cinema
Here is a horror film I first heard about on a podcast earlier in the year, then saw discussed in a messageboard thread, where it got mixed reviews. It sounded different so I was hoping for it to be different in a good way rather than a bad way. It was directed by a newbie, but one who is not only the editor and President of Rue Morgue Magazine, but its founder. So needless to say he's a longtime fan, if nothing else.
The plot, from the IMDb: “An antiques collector inherits a house from his estranged mother only to discover that she had been living in a shrine devoted to a mysterious cult. Soon, he comes to suspect that his mother's oppressive spirit still lingers within her home and is using items in the house to contact him with an urgent message.”
If you do decide to see this, note that it is a S-L-O-W movie and Poole (one review described him as sort of looking like an 80's Phil Collins; this made me laugh) is pretty much the only guy you end up seeing for much of the runtime. The dead mom (Redgrave) you sometimes hear her narrate throughout the movie. A movie being slow is one thing, but a lot like The House of the Devil, it's slow AND boring. It seems like it would have been better off as a short rather than a feature length film. There seems to be a lot of nothing that's padding it out, you know.
I mean, it is filmed technically well (at least in terms of cinematography), the print looks nice, the house is full of odd bric-a-brac so it does come off as being spooky at times (it better, if that's where most of the movie takes place in), although there seems to be too much stuff crammed into every shot and it becomes overkill after awhile; why didn't you try to be subtle there, movie? The score is also show-y and for the most part it was interesting.There's a lot of religious mumbo-jumbo and you can think of that how you will.
I will say that the movie did not really work for me at all. It was just dull and for the most part did not creep me out at all; some of the stuff that was supposed to be scary, it was just hokey and goofy. There's also some really smug and turn-off dialogue involving the dude and his girlfriend, who's a shrink, or a doctor, or something... it was just bad and unappealing dialogue and delivery.
And the ending... it did not end on a high note. Nothing really gets resolved at all! That made watching the movie seem like a giant waste of time as it seemed rather pointless. I mean, it made me wonder why some people have gone wild over this. I did not think this Canadian production was really even all that good overall; no matter how it was filmed or the score, if the story is a whole lot of boring nothing...
I'll be back Tuesday night.
Runtime: 80 minutes
Directed by: Rodrigo Gudino
Starring: Aaron Poole, Vanessa Redgrave, Julian Richings, Stephen Eric McIntyre
From: Rue Morgue Cinema
Here is a horror film I first heard about on a podcast earlier in the year, then saw discussed in a messageboard thread, where it got mixed reviews. It sounded different so I was hoping for it to be different in a good way rather than a bad way. It was directed by a newbie, but one who is not only the editor and President of Rue Morgue Magazine, but its founder. So needless to say he's a longtime fan, if nothing else.
The plot, from the IMDb: “An antiques collector inherits a house from his estranged mother only to discover that she had been living in a shrine devoted to a mysterious cult. Soon, he comes to suspect that his mother's oppressive spirit still lingers within her home and is using items in the house to contact him with an urgent message.”
If you do decide to see this, note that it is a S-L-O-W movie and Poole (one review described him as sort of looking like an 80's Phil Collins; this made me laugh) is pretty much the only guy you end up seeing for much of the runtime. The dead mom (Redgrave) you sometimes hear her narrate throughout the movie. A movie being slow is one thing, but a lot like The House of the Devil, it's slow AND boring. It seems like it would have been better off as a short rather than a feature length film. There seems to be a lot of nothing that's padding it out, you know.
I mean, it is filmed technically well (at least in terms of cinematography), the print looks nice, the house is full of odd bric-a-brac so it does come off as being spooky at times (it better, if that's where most of the movie takes place in), although there seems to be too much stuff crammed into every shot and it becomes overkill after awhile; why didn't you try to be subtle there, movie? The score is also show-y and for the most part it was interesting.There's a lot of religious mumbo-jumbo and you can think of that how you will.
I will say that the movie did not really work for me at all. It was just dull and for the most part did not creep me out at all; some of the stuff that was supposed to be scary, it was just hokey and goofy. There's also some really smug and turn-off dialogue involving the dude and his girlfriend, who's a shrink, or a doctor, or something... it was just bad and unappealing dialogue and delivery.
And the ending... it did not end on a high note. Nothing really gets resolved at all! That made watching the movie seem like a giant waste of time as it seemed rather pointless. I mean, it made me wonder why some people have gone wild over this. I did not think this Canadian production was really even all that good overall; no matter how it was filmed or the score, if the story is a whole lot of boring nothing...
I'll be back Tuesday night.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy
Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010)
Runtime: 240 minutes
Directed by: Daniel Farrands & Andrew Kasch
Starring: Many of the people who made those films, just not the real famous ones; it is narrated by Heather Langenkamp
From: 1428 Films
Here's a documentary I've heard all about even before it was released in 2010; I found the DVD last year at a MovieStop store. Finally, last night I sat down and I watched this 4 hour documentary, which tells in chronological order the history of the franchise; each film gets plenty of time in the spotlight as they show behind the scene stuff and interviews; they are candid, too, as people are willing to admit if one of the entries was a disappointment or downright bad. Many people are interviewed and it's pretty comprehensive. Of course the real famous people (such as Johnny Depp, Laurence Fishburne, or Patricia Arquette) aren't interviewed but that's to be expected.
It's all produced and put together very well, and it is 4 hours that fly by pretty quickly as to me at least it's always interesting and informative. If you dig the franchise as a whole then this is a must-see. I haven't seen any of the special features but I'll presume they are all at least good. There's even some cool stop motion animation that is used throughout.
I have heard podcasts with several of the people involved with the production, and I do know that it was a small production, so putting everything together in a short amount of time was like the Bataan Death March for the main people involved; I am talking about much stress and going who knows how many nights in a row with little to no sleep. I am happy then that things turned out as well as they did. Also, Ronee Lee Blakely (the mom in the first movie) wasn't interviewed for a good reason; when she showed up for the interview she acted REALLY horribly, being totally unreasonable and treating the crew like crap; finally the head honcho in charge had enough and demanded she leave. Apparently she acted not so great back in her heyday, too, which may explain why her heyday did not last so long.
Anyhow, there isn't too much left to say except that this documentary was as great as I've been hearing for years now, and I imagine the same crew's new documentary Crystal Lake Memories is just as good if not even better. I'll be back tomorrow night.
Runtime: 240 minutes
Directed by: Daniel Farrands & Andrew Kasch
Starring: Many of the people who made those films, just not the real famous ones; it is narrated by Heather Langenkamp
From: 1428 Films
Here's a documentary I've heard all about even before it was released in 2010; I found the DVD last year at a MovieStop store. Finally, last night I sat down and I watched this 4 hour documentary, which tells in chronological order the history of the franchise; each film gets plenty of time in the spotlight as they show behind the scene stuff and interviews; they are candid, too, as people are willing to admit if one of the entries was a disappointment or downright bad. Many people are interviewed and it's pretty comprehensive. Of course the real famous people (such as Johnny Depp, Laurence Fishburne, or Patricia Arquette) aren't interviewed but that's to be expected.
It's all produced and put together very well, and it is 4 hours that fly by pretty quickly as to me at least it's always interesting and informative. If you dig the franchise as a whole then this is a must-see. I haven't seen any of the special features but I'll presume they are all at least good. There's even some cool stop motion animation that is used throughout.
I have heard podcasts with several of the people involved with the production, and I do know that it was a small production, so putting everything together in a short amount of time was like the Bataan Death March for the main people involved; I am talking about much stress and going who knows how many nights in a row with little to no sleep. I am happy then that things turned out as well as they did. Also, Ronee Lee Blakely (the mom in the first movie) wasn't interviewed for a good reason; when she showed up for the interview she acted REALLY horribly, being totally unreasonable and treating the crew like crap; finally the head honcho in charge had enough and demanded she leave. Apparently she acted not so great back in her heyday, too, which may explain why her heyday did not last so long.
Anyhow, there isn't too much left to say except that this documentary was as great as I've been hearing for years now, and I imagine the same crew's new documentary Crystal Lake Memories is just as good if not even better. I'll be back tomorrow night.
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