Sorority Row

Sorority Row (2009)

25% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 59 reviews)

Runtime: 101 minutes

Directed by: Stewart Hendler

Starring: Briana Evigan, Rumer Willis, Jamie Chung, Audrina Patridge, Carrie Fisher

From: Summit Entertainment

Sorority Row is a movie I’ve heard about for awhile and it’s a remake of the 80’s flick The House on Sorority Row, which I haven’t seen before so I’m unable to compare the two. What caught my eye with the remake was, to be blunt, the attractive women in the cast and seeing them wear not much in the way of clothing! I know, shallow, but that’s how I feel. Man, Briana Evigan… very nice.

I already mentioned the problems I had last week in watching this movie, so I only saw the first half of it. Yesterday, I finally got to see this in full. As I figured from seeing the first half of it, it’s a goofy trashy movie that you can’t really take seriously, and yet it is entertaining trash and while the kills weren’t that inventive they were still good overall and looked fine enough.

You probably know the plot already if you’ve seen the trailer as a lot is given away, but it’s all about several ladies in a sorority, including the bitchy girl that’s the unofficial leader, and what happens when a prank against a guy goes awry and one of their sisters is accidentally killed, so they cover it up. Problems arise the night of graduation. Yeah, it does sound a whole lot like I Know What You Did Last Summer, which is a film I enjoyed way back when. I Still Know…, though, is a horrible movie and it shouldn’t be seen; I mean, the big plot point of that film is knowing the capital of Brazil! No lie.

Sorority Row, like I said, is entertaining trash and I can’t say is “good”, but it’s not ”bad”, IMO. You’ll have to put up with some goofy and eye-rolling dialogue, but if you can and you like horror flicks with some nice gore and a good amount of nudity (mainly female, but some male too) then you may have fun with this. It’s almost out of first-run theatres now but I wouldn’t be surprised if it made it to some dollar theatres in like a month or two, so you can wait for that or until it comes to DVD, probably before 2009 is over with. What a stocking-stuffer! I’d like to stuff… oh wait that’s way too crude, nevermind.

I’ll be back in a few.

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity (2007)

92% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 24 reviews)

Runtime: 85 minutes (don't believe the 99 minutes that has been bandied about)

Directed by: Oren Peli

Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat

From: Paramount/Dreamworks/Blumhouse Productions

I’ve talked about this movie before and there’s a really informative article from the LA Times here which explains the history of the movie and why it sat on the shelf for so long, but FINALLY now I can talk about it after seeing it in person.

To copy and paste from a recent MySpace blog:

I’m not sure if this was the arrangement that all the other 11 theatres had when they showed this last night and Friday night, but what everyone had to go through at Universal was enter in, wait in line, then the line was moved outside and then they only let people into the auditorium a few people at a time and then wait at least a minute before they let a few more people in at a time. THEN, you had to enter the auditorium (and be told where to sit exactly) first before going back to concessions to get stuff there! It was a total dick dance and I'm presuming based on past experience that it was probably a Universal thing (the staff being rude on that night didn't help matters) rather than a needlessly complex thing that was demanded by Paramount that all theatres MUST do. To quote another theatre-goer, "What, hasn't this place ever had a sell out before?" Why didn't they just have people enter the theatre normally rather than do this dick dance, I don't know, but it came dangerously close to ruining the whole night for me. I'm glad I ended up liking the movie and had a great experience once the film started. I don’t really want to give anything away (and when I eventually talk more about the movie on my movie blog page, I’ll try to be vague about it) as it’d ruin the surprises, but for a simple movie that isn’t complex and costs about as much as the cheapest compact car, it is VERY freaky and many people there were screaming in terror during the scary scenes. It’s supposed to be in wider release next month, or so I understand, so you can wait to see it then, or see it at Universal the first few days of next month if you can go to it at midnight and are willing to put up with that BS treatment I described above. Even with their dick dance thing, the movie IS worth that aggravation, and then some.

OK, onto the movie. As I said before, it's about a young couple who move into a new house and some sort of spirit that's bothered the girl intermittently since childhood pops up again and this time the boyfriend confronts it, and from the usage of a handheld camera hooked up to a laptop, they record what happens at night when they're asleep. We see everything happen in one house through the span of about 20 days. You'd think that with the setup and the budget, no way could it be as scary as advertised. Well, trust me, it IS very freaky. I mean, it's certainly scarier than most horror flicks out there, and it's the opposite of a gore-fest and what is so scary is the setting, the usage of sound, and strange out of the world images that lets you know something other-worldly is going on. There's probably a backlash due to all the hyperbole that's been used in the advertising, but don't let that sway you from seeing it if you can. It's in more towns this upcoming weekend and info can be found on such places as the movie's official website.

In general, the "sold out" auditorium (although the first few rows were empty) was freaked out of their minds by it. I'm sure I knew more about the movie than many of them did; I wish I knew how they all heard about it and if any had known about the movie for as long as I did. They ran mainly horror trailers and the only one that got applause (!) was the crappy no-budget one for Saw VI. I'm sure they would've gone wild if they had shown the New Moon trailer! No wonder why they were freaked out as much as they were. I was certainly chilled by it and I was on edge but there were people shrieking in terror and there was groans when they knew something bad was going to happen... and the surprises, I wouldn't be surprised if people jumped out of their seats due to fright. I know the ending minute or two is something I won't forget due to the surprise and one unnatural moment in particular.

Like I said, believe the hype and if you can see it, you MUST. It really is that good, and a 15,000 dollar movie having this kind of run is an amazing success story.

I'll be back by the end of the week.

An Update

Let me cut and paste from my latest blog on MySpace/Facebook:

Originally I had tonight planned as me seeing a pair of movies at the theatres at CityWalk (Sorority Row and then Paranormal Activity, a movie I’ve talked about recently that has gotten a LOT of hype and CityWalk is one of only like 8 places all across this country showing it this weekend) but things changed when I found out that the Friday night midnight screening was sold out. Yeah, they’re showing it only once a day at midnight and that’s it and it’s this Friday, Saturday, and then next Thursday through Saturday and then that’s it. With the way things are now I’d better see it as soon as I can so even though I have my sisters (and husband of one of them) coming down this weekend I now had to change things around and tonight was me going to Universal, seeing Sorority Row there that night, and get a ticket to see Paranormal Activity tomorrow night at midnight. It means that even though I didn’t want to do it that way, I will be seeing a wrestling show Saturday evening in nearby Minneola and then leaving from that and going straight to CityWalk.

Unfortunately, things got screwed up AGAIN and it’s because I went and saw Sorority Row and unfortunately, because of some complete baboons in the audience making noise as if they were at a zoo, I had to leave as there was no possible way I could concentrate and focus on the movie when those monkeys were so disruptive. I don’t know what’s worse, them acting that way or the few other people in the auditorium doing nothing about it, as if they’re ok with that disrespectful ignorant crap. I’m not a fan of ignorance, in case you couldn’t tell. At first they made some noise but it was intermittent. Then, it became nonstop and it was just unbearable. When I left I walked by them and I stopped and gave them a dirty look! Really. They deserved it. Then again, they deserved a large bag of popcorn and several sodas dumped on them, but alas… I stopped and talked to management before I left and I got a free pass to use at anytime at any AMC joint, so depending on how things go I’ll have to use that this upcoming week during an unbusy time for me (and where I’ll be more confident there won’t be any Troglodytes around) I’ll have to see the movie in full. It sure as shit will NOT be at CityWalk. In fact, after Paranormal Activity tomorrow night it’ll be a long while before I go to Universal, let alone that theatre. I’ve had problems there and one other time I had to go get a free pass due to more baboons being disruptive. It’s best if I try to avoid all that Halloween Horror Nights garbage. No offense to anyone who likes it, but it’s not for me, that’s what I’ll say about it. It started tonight so yeah it’s a zoo there, but thankfully it wasn’t filled with baboons; it’s just that the ones I saw were in a theatre and hell, it looked like a mom and some kids, none of whom looked to be old enough to have too many pubes, to state it crudely! What an appropriate movie for them. What I saw of it, it was crappy, sure, but still entertaining. Hot women wearing a scanty amount of clothing and nighties… I enjoyed that, and I certainly enjoyed looking at Briana Evigan too. But yes, they haven’t showed any old movies at CityWalk in months so it will be a long time before I go back there after tomorrow night.

Yes, not good times. I'll continue the horror kick I'm on by reviewing those movies within the next week when I (hope) to see them, so check back then.

Blood Creek

Blood Creek (a.k.a. Town Creek, or Creek) (2009)

Runtime: Approximately 85 minutes

Directed by: Joel Schumacher

Starring: Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill, Michael Fassbender

From: Lionsgate Entertainment/Gold Circle Films

A quick story:

Last August Lionsgate Films released a movie called The Midnight Meat Train into theatres… but it was a rather odd story. To copy and paste my comments on the film from when I wrote about it on my Facebook/MySpace page last August:

“Wednesday night I went to the cheap second-run theatre in east Orlando to see a horror film called Midnight Meat Train. Now, it's a movie that came out just recently and yet it's already in there… it's a long story as to why Lion's Gate released it to the cheap theatres, but basically they changed regimes and they want to dick over the people that made the movie, so that's why it was only in about 100 crappy theatres. Horror fans were understandably pissed over this happening, as it was a highly anticipated movie that is based on a short story of the same name by famed horror author Clive Barker, probably best known for being the dude that wrote the story that became the Hellraiser movie. Overall, the movie was uneven but I ended up enjoying it. The kills were pretty great and bloody, and it was creepy also. Funnily enough, Vinnie Jones is also in it, along with Brooke Shields! Yes, Brooke Shields.”

I haven’t seen it since then, but that movie did not deserve the fate it got. I mean, it wasn’t that bad. It was shown in Orlando at the Touchstar Cinemas Colonial Promenade 6, which is a real old run-down place with non stadium seating and yeah, you get what you paid for in terms of price.

Well, I went back there as once again Lionsgate dumped a horror flick into these second-run theatres, and this time I believe it’s even less than they booked Meat Train into. As for the night I had going out to see this last night and what I thought of everything…

I drove over there and the place is the same it’s always been. Me and two random people were there, none of us knowing each other, and I don’t know if they heard about this movie due to its controversial release or what, but yeah, only three random people in there including me.

The movie is a horror flick about… it’s not easy to describe in short without unveiling massive spoilers, but I’ll try. It’s about a mysterious German man-a Nazi, at that-who visits a West Virginia farm in 1936, what happens there, and how that relates to that area in current times (i.e. 2007, when this movie was filmed. Yeah, it sat in the can for that long. More often than not, that’s not a good sign). What you get to see in this movie is a rather amazing mix of stuff. Besides Nazi’s, there’s the drinking of blood (I’ve heard the main creature in this flick a “vampire” but I wouldn’t really say that, as besides the blood drinking there’s nothing to say that’s what it is), Norse runestones, dead animals and human beings that can be revived and do evil things… I can sort of understand why Lionsgate wouldn’t want to release something as strange as this, although releasing it this way instead is rather insulting.

The most interesting thing is that it was directed by Joel Schumacher, the guy who’s done stuff like Falling Down, The Lost Boys, and even those two garish cartoony Batman movies in the 90’s (Batman Forever and the truly hideous Batman & Robin) so him doing something like this is pretty jarring.

As for the movie, it’s not as bad as those no-budget direct to DVD horror flicks that must be in the thousands now. You know, stuff that most people have never heard of, and much of it is bottom of the barrel garbage that student filmmakers probably would’ve done a better job on. But, it’s still a bad film. I mean, the story is totally ridiculous, full of plot holes, and doesn’t make much sense with even a little scrutiny. The villain is supposed to be a powerful… well, thing… but it can’t escape the farm and it can’t even enter the house on the farm due to contrived reasons! The ending of the movie is even more preposterous. So, while it’s not a dull movie by any means, it’s ineptly made at times (scenes switch from day to night or vice versa with no warning) and at times it’s clear Lionsgate meddled with it somehow. At least it moves quickly and it’s not too long. I guessed around 85 minutes as I didn’t stick around to the end of the end credits.

As others have said, I don’t know why they just didn’t include it with their annual January After Dark Horrorfest, where it at least would have played in regular first-run theatres. That’s also what they should’ve done with Meat Train, which I’ll say is clearly better than Blood Creek.

Check back late this upcoming weekend with my take on several other movies.

House of 1000 Corpses

House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

16% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 75 reviews)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Rob Zombie

Starring: Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Karen Black, Rainn Wilson

From: Lionsgate Entertainment

As Halloween II is out in theatres (and not doing that well at that) I figured I should revisit a movie I saw in theatres in Normal, Illinois in 2003, back during the days when I rarely went to the cineplex at all. It is something that since then I saw once at a friend’s place in Illinois and then I think I saw it again in 2005 a few months before I saw The Devil’s Rejects (a movie I need to revisit as I haven’t seen it since I saw it on the big screen) but that’s it. During that time Zombie seemed to be doing well in the opinion of the hardcore horror fans. After the Halloween movies, though.. that isn’t the case.

The movie is about a group of college students who are in the backwoods late one night, trying to locate a haunted landmark, an infamous place of local lore (even in my old hometown of Belvidere there was a place like that, Bloods Point Road). Instead, they run into trouble and you get a movie that yeah, is certainly “inspired” by Texas Chainsaw Massacre-the original, at least-I haven’t seen either the remake or the prequel to the remake but I haven’t heard too many good things about either-but for what it is, I enjoyed it. Sure, Zombie needs to sing a different tune when it comes to having too much of the same stuff in all of his movies, but if you don’t think about that and instead just focus on this, you can tolerate the foul-mouthed white trash milieu and the graphic violence and enjoy the interesting colorful visuals and it's trashy but fun 70's style.

It was a surprise seeing Rainn Wilson in this; sure, I loathe The Office but I had no clue he was in this, as when I saw this he wasn’t famous due to his role on that program. Amongst the performances, the standout of course is the great Sid Haig as Captain Spaulding, as he’s so amusing and you have to laugh at him even though at times you know you shouldn’t. The victims…, er, I mean the college kids are your standard type and the acting doesn’t go above or below what you’d expect from a horror film. There’s nothing that’s cringe-worthy from anyone in the movie (not even from the girl now known as Sheri Moon-Zombie) so that’s good.

I’m glad that Lions Gate distributed it after Universal passed due to the pussified reason over the first cut of it being NC-17, which is exactly what happened, but as what always happens, they re-edited it until it became an R, so it’s odd to me they’d dump the film like that.

One thing about the DVD: I enjoyed how in the menus it "talked" to you and the characters were pretty amusing.

I'll be back next Friday night with at least one new review.

A Pair Of Tidbits

As I have some free time I’ll mention two quick things on here.

The first is that I’ll say “RIP Patrick Swayze”. I haven’t really seen too many of his flicks but having to go through something as rough as pancreatic cancer and the way he looked in the last few months of his life… it’s a sad thing. I can say about Road House, though, is that while it’s one of the most ridiculous movies ever made, if you turn your brain off and just go with it, it’s a lot of fun.

The second thing is that a movie I’ve heard about since October of ’07 is finally coming out in limited release and it has an interesting story behind it. The movie is Paranormal Activity and it’s a horror flick about a woman who is haunted by some sort of presence and it flares up again after she and her love interest move into a new house and he taunts said presence, and a camera set up to record what happens at night is the way that we get to see what happens when they’re asleep.

That’s what I heard back then and that’s all I’ve heard about it until now. It was first brought up on a Dinner for Fiends podcast on Dread Central and since then many people have been interested in it and not a lot of news has been said about it, except that when it was picked up by Paramount/Dreamworks, they were thinking of doing a bigger budget remake of it and releasing it along with the original, but they changed their plans. Apparently several endings were filmed until they got the right one, but I think it was other things that caused it to be on the shelf until next weekend, when it’s finally coming out in limited release.

The site has the list of theatres it’s scheduled in as of this moment. I am SO thankful that not only is it in Florida, but it’s right in Orlando. I’m not sure about it being at the Citywalk theatre, as in the past I’ve had problems with stupid monkeybrained knuckle-draggers that were in the crowd in the auditorium, but I’ll hope for the best here. I plan on being there on the 25th too, so a large crowd that does NOT lose interest in this and acts respectful will make me happy.

I'll be back by Friday night with a review of another horror flick.

Adam

Adam (2009)

64% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 115 reviews)

Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: Max Mayer

Starring: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Frankie Faison, Mark Linn-Baker

From: Fox Searchlight Pictures

I heard about this romantic drama with dashes of comedy in it from seeing a trailer for it at a theatre earlier this summer. It’s about a guy with Asperger’s Syndrome so it’s a rather unusual topic to see on the big screen. I figured I would go and see it. Well, last weekend some people I know (but due to me feuding with them) saw this flick, said it was “The Blair Russell movie” due to their perceptions about me (even though I’ve never said anything about what they believe me to be; if they want to think that way, though, more power to them) but in any event, they stated that after watching the film they learned more about the affliction and they acted like they’ll treat people who they believe to have it differently. If it can educate people on what Asperger’s is, all the better.

The film is about an “Aspy” (Dancy) who had his father and main caretaker pass away, so the only dependent he has is his father’s friend (Faison). One day he meets up with a new lady-Beth-who moved into the same apartment complex (Byrne) and he took a fancy to her, but due to his Asperger’s, he has problems relating to people and at first he had difficulties trying to get to know Beth due to his social awkwardness and apparent lack of empathy for, well, most things. Soon, though, they get to know each other better and… in the midst of all that is Adam getting let go from the job by his boss (Linn-Baker; yes, he was the guy who lived with Cousin Balki on Perfect Strangers!) and he had to try and find a new job, and there’s also the fact that Beth’s dad (Gallagher; now, I never watched The O.C. but even I know what kind of character he played there; not to give too much away, but he didn’t act too much differently in this flick) is on trial for irregularities at his place of work.

Throughout the movie you get to see Adam and Beth getting to become more involved with each other while we see Adam get out of his shell more and we also see his affect on Beth. There are bumps in the road and I’ll leave it at that. Of course, what is portrayed in the movie should not make you think that everyone with Asperger’s acts quite as severely as the title character does, or that they all react badly to-say-lying. It was done for dramatic purposes and hopefully audiences are smart enough to realize that.

I enjoyed the performances from the leads (I don’t remember seeing Rose in any movies before, but she’s rather easy on the eyes and she looked pretty attractive in this flick) and the supporting players do a nice job too. The fact that the two leads are British and Australian and yet both do fine American accents is another thing to mention. Even if you don’t have the syndrome you might identify with him if you feel like you’re “different” or whatever.

So, I recommend you see this movie if you’re able to, as if nothing else you may learn something. It’s not that different from the usual romantic flick, I’m sure, but it’s quirky enough and I rate it pretty highly. I know it's gotten mixed reviews but I think that's a bunch of poppycock, myself.

By this time next week, expect a new review or two on here.

Mother, Jugs & Speed

Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Peter Yates

Starring: Bill Cosby, Raquel Welch, Harvey Keitel, Dick Butkis, Larry Hagman

From: 20th Century Fox

A black comedy concerning an ambulance business starring the bizarre trio of Cosby, Welch, and Keitel, and directed by the guy who helmed Bullitt sounds like something that just wouldn’t work, but hey it does, for the most part.

The trio are members of a misfit ambulance service in Los Angeles who fight with other companies over who gets to reach a person needing a ride to a hospital first, as whoever gets there first is the one who gets to transport them there and of course they get more money the more people they help. With that kind of plot description, you know that you’ll get some dark, sarcastic humor, and that’s indeed the case.

Cosby is the veteran driver, Welch the dispatcher of the company, and Keitel is the ex-cop who’s just starting off there. It’s not the type of role that you’d expect out of Cosby, especially if you’re used to him being family friendly, shilling Jell-O pops and wearing garish sweaters. He’s not vulgar here or anything, but you do get to see him find a woman’s drug stash, bribe a police officer, and even prank a convent full of nuns, so it’s different than what you’d expect to see him do.

It is also a drama so it’s not all laughs and at times it does drag. But, if you’re in the mood for it you’ll probably enjoy it. I mean, you get to see Larry Hagman play a lecherous employee, and a great scene where they have to try and get a heavyset injured woman from her second floor apartment to the wagon. You may be surprised at how far they went there. Oh, and it's rated PG... or rather it was back then before the days of PG-13, which this would get in present times.

I'll be back by this weekend with at least one new review.

A Double (Moon)Shot

For All Mankind (1989)

92% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 12 reviews)

Runtime: 80 minutes

Directed by: Al Reinert

Starring: The Apollo Astronauts in archival footage and narration

From: Apollo Associates

As I didn’t have time to watch a movie in the past few days I’ll have to talk about a pair of movies I saw in July right around the time of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. One of them I talked about on my blogs but the other I did not. First, the one I did not, For All Mankind, a movie that, among other places, you can find from Criterion.

It’s a movie where the only dialogue is snippets of audio from archival footage. Interesting idea and for the most part it works. You get to see what a typical Apollo mission was like and you get to see much in the way of incredible footage of what the astronauts saw while they were in space. Working so well with the images was the soundtrack provided by ambient music legend Brian Eno. It matched perfectly with the haunting ethereal images you saw on the screen. Apparently, the movie was made in 1983 but for whatever reason it didn’t come out until 1989; I don’t know why that was the case but at least in ’89 it was the 20th anniversary of Apollo 11, so there’s that. If you’re interested in the subject of space flight or our missions to the moon, this is a must-see.

The Wonder of It All (2007)

Runtime: 82 minutes

Directed by: Jeffrey Roth

Starring: The Apollo Astronauts in archival footage and interviews

From: Indican Pictures

To copy and paste from what I wrote on MySpace/Facebook:

“What I did on this day was drop off a relative at the Orlando International Airport and then headed out to the Atlantic coast, as I was like halfway there already by being at the Airport. So, I drove to Cocoa Beach and stayed there for a little bit before heading on over to nearby Merritt Island to see a movie there that’s only playing in that area of Florida. It’s a documentary on the moon landings (and if anyone says that they were staged… I’ll punch you in the nose!) entitled The Wonder of it All. It showed footage of the space program and it was mainly interviews with various former astronauts edited together into a narrative style. While it started to drag near the end, overall it was a very interesting movie about the lives of the astronauts and what they’ve done since walking on the moon. I know it’s a niche thing but I was still surprised that I was only one of four people there. Oh well. I drove back home and like the way to Cocoa Beach, road rage happened. Those people deserved it, at least!”

Yeah, I don’t have too much else to say about it besides the fact that it worked nicely with For All Mankind, and one of these days I’ll watch In the Shadow of the Moon, a very highly acclaimed documentary on the same subject. Once I do I’ll talk about it on here. As for viewing Wonder, it hasn’t come out on DVD yet and it being screened in Merritt Island was totally random. Who knows when it’ll be out for more than a few people to see. Judging by IMDb, not too many people have seen it yet, and that’s unfortunate.

I’ll post something here Monday night.

Inglourious Basterds Revisited

I know, long time no write but stuff prevented me from doing much movie watching as of late, let alone updating this. But, by Friday night I'll post at least one new movie review. Promise. To copy and paste from my latest MySpace entry:

Monday I ended up seeing Inglourious Basterds again. This time it was at the local theatre in Clermont. I enjoyed it more the second time around, and I was able to accept the “plot twist” I mentioned before much better than I did the first time I saw it in Daytona Beach. So, I can say with confidence now that this is Quentin’s best movie and you should see it if it’s the type of film you think you’ll like.

To elaborate a little more, it did help me to read some comments and thoughts on the movie from the people on the CHUD.com messageboard. It helped me look at things a little differently and I now viewed the plot twist differently and I'm saying that I liked it more out of genuine thought, rather than trying to go with the flow and agreeing with the general consensus. As for how it was to see the movie again with an audience... well, believe it or not, even though the theatre opened in like April of this year, I was the only person in the auditorium to see the film! I kid you not, this happened and on a Monday night. I know that the theatre was almost deserted when I entered it and it was more so when I left it. Seeing a grand total of like 20 cars in the parking lot (and some of them may have been employee cars) is a bad sign for that theatre and I hope it's doing well and is not in trouble.