My Best Movies of 2011 Blog

Alright, so here's my list of the ten best movies I saw that were released theatrically this year. Note that I haven't seen all of the films that I've wanted to this year, and if I saw a certain few then maybe one or two of those would take a spot on this list. That said, I'm still happy with the list as at least this year I was able to come up with a solid 10 choices, unlike in '10.

I have these in order from 10 to 1 (with one honorable mention) and each movie listed you can read the review of by clicking on the title. The list isn't written in concrete in terms of how they're ordered. Really, the only one I'm certain of is 1, as I strongly feel it deserves that spot.

Honorable mention: The Mesrine movies

These two French/Canadian movies were released in '08 and got a limited release last year stateside. I just happened to see both on the big screen back to back in January. The films, based on the life of notorious French criminal Jacques Mesrine, were wildly entertaining, as he was a wild character who was best known for his elaborate escapes from authorities.

10. Drive

Sure, I thought this was overrated for all the hype it got, and I didn't necessarily care for how it ended. Yet, I'll still say it belongs on the list, due to its great style, nice performances all around, and the groovy 80's electro-sounding soundtrack.

9. Devil's Double

This film that got a theatrical release on a limited basis was based on a true story of how Uday Hussein got a former pal to be his double due to the number of attempts on his life. The story was pretty outrageous and I don't know how faithful to the truth it was. But, it was entertaining sleazy trash and Dominic Cooper was great in a dual role where he had to play two very different characters.

8. Hangover Part II

Yes, this was almost as big of a copy of the first film as Home Alone 2 was to the original. I do agree that Alan was more off-putting as a character this time. Yet, I still laughed often while I watched this, so I had to include it. I guess I enjoyed the interesting Bangkok setting that much.

7. Paranormal Activity 3

Oh, if only the marketing for this one wasn't so damn dishonest... still, in a different way this was as fun as the first two movies in the series, so it belongs here, even if I wish they didn't explain the backstory as I don't really like what the backstory is.

6. Hobo With A Shotgun

What an insane and out there flick this proved to be. Extremely sleazy, extremely trashy, extremely graphic... and yet extremely fun to me too. Seeing Rutger Hauer in this kind of motion picture is still surprising to me. Just head my warning if you're the squeamish type.

5. Drive Angry

I was one of the few who got to see this on the big screen in 3D. I guess most people didn't care for this kind of flick. However, I happen to be one of those who enjoyed this ridiculous and ridiculously fun ride, filled with enough sex, violence, and car chases to make me happy. Amber Heard was also a great heroine.

4. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

I am glad I was able to see this at a cineplex. The movie was a send-up of slasher movie cliches and it worked well as both a comedy and a horror film. It featured two good-old-boys who love Pabst Blue Ribbon who get mistaken for killers by some dumb teenagers. If you love comedy/horror then this is a must-see.

3. Fast Five

I had only seen the first two movies in the series before I heard many rave reviews for this. It turns out the hype was warranted. While this may be the most preposterous movie I've ever seen it was also great fun, with a nice cast (The Rock was really memorable here) and a final 20 to 30 minutes that was pretty awesome.

2. 13 Assassins

I was lucky to see this Takashi Miike motion picture on the big screen via the Florida Film Festival. I'm usually not a Miike fan but this was quality stuff. It's a simple story of various badasses getting together to go against an evil Lord and his much larger army. The final 45 minutes or so is in essence one long action scene and like the big scene I referred to in Fast Five, it's filmed nicely with everything being easy to follow and it's none of that Michael Bay crap.

1. Attack The Block

I feel pretty strongly this is the best movie I saw all year. I am thankful I got to see it theatrically back a few months ago. It took some time but I'm glad I did have that opportunity. This tale of some tough young London teens (and a nurse) doing battle against a cadre of hairy aliens with glowing teeth is pretty tremendous throughout, from the electronic score by Basement Jaxx to the acting to all the action and gore you see. What's best, though, is that this is greatly written. Everything flows together so well. If only more movies were like this.

I'll be back Tuesday night. I thought I had a nice year of watching movies all in all. 2012 looks to be quite the eventful year, at least on the big screen. One thing I think I'll try to do is to watch more obscure movies, as those are always interesting to write about. Until then, have a good New Years Eve.

Mission Impossibles 2 Through 4

Mission Impossible 2 (2000)

Runtime: 123 minutes

Directed by: John Woo

Starring: Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton, Dougray Scott, Ving Rhames

From: Paramount

Mission Impossible 3 (2006)

Runtime: 126 minutes

Directed by: J.J. Abrams

Starring: Tom Cruise, Michelle Mongahan, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Keri Russell

From: Paramount

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)

93% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 175 reviews)

Runtime: 133 minutes

Directed by: Brad Bird

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton

From: Paramount

For my last review of the year, it'll be a 3 in 1 deal, although I'll mainly talk about Ghost Protocol, which I actually saw before 2 and 3. I had to use Wikipedia to get the low-down on the plots for both before I was able to watch them.

2 concerns a virus known as Chimera and its cure, which are stolen by a former IMF agent (Scott) and Ethan Hunt has to use Newton as her womanly charms will help him get close to Scott. They go to Australia and have various adventures there. That's about it for the plot.

I did not really like this one at all. Woo appeared to be a parody of himself here with how he used slow-motion and his various motifs, such as doves and what have you. But what really sinks things is that all the characters I could not stand for various reasons. I mean, they act really stupid most of the time and if they don't act dumb, they're just obnoxious. It's a shame, as the Australian sights are nice and so is some of the action.

3 I definitely preferred. The story was better, Cruise seemed more like a team player than a solo act, Hoffman was pretty cool as he cashed in a fat paycheck for his rare appearance in a blockbuster rather than his standard indy faire (hopefully in the future he plays a Bond villain, as that could be tremendous) and there's some nice action present too. However, as I heard elsewhere, it seems like a TV show too often and too often there's an odd color tint to things. I guess that's Abrams as a newbie (at the time) big-screen director. If he did it now I'm sure it'd be better, but this movie is at least a fine time-waster, even if it could have been pretty good with some changes.

Now, onto Ghost Protocol, which I got to watch on a giant screen last Thursday. This series isn't my favorite, to be honest; however, I think this is the best one. While I wish the villain would have been fleshed out more and not such a cypher and the story wouldn't have been as popcorn slight at times, it still works quite well as entertaining shut your brain off fare and if you enjoy fun and exciting action that isn't as insulting or insufferable as Transformers or other films of its ilk, then you should have a good time and I am glad I saw this on the big screen. Some of the scenes were made for a large screen.

The story isn't too complex. Ethan Hunt and his IMF pals Benji (Pegg) and Jane (Patton) have to do a mission at the Kremlin; this is to get information to help them stop an evil Russian looking to use a nuclear weapon to his advantage. However, they get set up there and the Kremlin is bombed. Thus, the IMF is disbanded and the three agents have to go rogue to stop that Russian and his pals. They end up going to Dubai and another exotic location which I won't divulge. Brandt (Renner), who is an “intelligence analyst” gets involved and there are some secrets he has.

While the story isn't the most original it at least is fun escapeism. The action is pretty darn good throughout. The stuff you see in Dubai is especially exciting and well-done. For a guy that previously only directed animated films, Brad Bird did a great job helming this. I certainly prefer that directing style to the likes of directors who use that shaky-cam or quick-edit crap. Hopefully he directs a Bond film one of these days. Speaking of that, this was a much more satisfying spy adventure than Quantum of Solace was.

I'll be back on the 31st where I will reveal my 10 best movies I saw this year.

Silent Night Deadly Night

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

Runtime: 85 minutes

Directed by: Charles Sellier

Starring: Robert Brian Wilson, Lilyan Chauvin, Toni Nero, Linnea Quigley

From: Tristar

For Christmas, I decided to recently watch an infamous movie from the 80’s about a young man who dresses up as Santa Claus and goes spree killing during the holiday season. As it’s still December 25 on the West Coast as I write this, it works… at least that’s what I’ll claim. If you want more Christmas-related movies I reviewed you can go to last December as I covered some related to the holiday season.

I saw this movie once before during my teen years. I mean, it was so long ago I saw it on VHS tape via a rental from the mom and pop video store, which closed long ago. I recently found it on YouTube, which even offers up a link to a full video download from Megaupload, if that’s what you want to do.

The story involves Billy, who as a young kid visits his catatonic grandfather in the mental hospital; while the rest of the family is away old gramps talks to him and stresses how Santa punishes naughty boys. The family comes back and they all leave. On the way home they come across a thief in a Santa suit who kills the dad and then attempts to rape and then kills the mom, in front of Billy and his infant brother. Yep, this movie isn’t exactly subtle. So, you then see Billy in an orphanage having to deal with a really mean Mother Superior (Chauvin).

You then see Billy at age 18 as he gets a job… at a toy store during the holiday season. To quote a review from long ago, that aspect is a little goofy given what happened to Billy as a kid. It’s as of something horrible happened to someone as a kid on Valentine’s Day, then as an adult they get a job as a florist. Anyhow, as it nears the holiday season, a co-worker yells at him for allegedly slacking off at this time of year and even calls him a “moon goon”. No, I have no idea what a “moon goon” is either. Through contrivances, Billy ends up having to play Santa Claus at the store, and that’s when he snaps, and goes off on a killing spree on people he sees as being “naughty”, such as those who do bad things to his cute brunette crush Pamela (Nero).

I didn’t remember this from the first time I saw this, but while very entertaining in a trashy way, this movie is rather mean-spirited too. I mean, besides what I said already, you have such things as more than one attempted rape, plenty of nudity, hardly any subtlety at all, Billy having sexual fantasies about Paula which end in him getting killed in his dreams… like I said, mean-spirited. You also get some really cheesy generic 80’s songs, Linnea Quigley showing off her bare breasts (oh wait, this is typical for her), and some memorable kills.

Overall, while this movie is rather ridiculous, and the acting isn’t always the best (to say the least), but it’s a slasher so that’s expected. Despite how cruel it is at times, it’s still a watchable and fun movie to watch, I say. Hopefully that doesn’t make me sound a little strange. After all, back when this was released theatrically this received a HUGE amount of negative publicity. I mean, a lot of people were downright pissed that a movie about a guy dressed up as Santa who kills people was released. The movie didn’t last long on the big screen before Tristar pulled it and no surprise, they never released it on video or DVD and instead other companies did so.

I’ve never seen any of its four (!) sequels. However, if you want a spoiler-filled recap of all five, you can read this FearNet article posted just last night. I’ll mention the four sequels in brief based off of what I know about them. Part 2, about Billy’s infant brother Ricky all grown up, has a lot of footage from the first one edited in, just because… but the new footage includes a scene so ridiculous out of context (or probably in context too) that it’s become an Internet meme. That’s right, the “garbage day” scene. It’s rather graphic but you can still watch the YouTube clip of it here; you get to hear a bad guy say “that’s what she said.” Really. Then you get a few minutes of some incredible cinema. Part 3 involves Ricky returning with what looks like a fish bowl on his head (!) and such things as telekinesis is involved and it just sounds strange. Oh, and genre legend Bill Moseley plays Ricky now. Parts 4 and 5 have nothing to do with the first three. 4 sounds even more strange and deals with bugs, witches, and the Egyptian god Isis. 5 is my favorite in terms of plot alone. I need to see all four sequels, but I need to watch 5 especially to see Mickey Rooney (!) play somebody named “Joe Petto” and has a son named Pino, and yes the names are referring to exactly what you think they are. Why, I have zero idea.

I’ll be back on Thursday night with a post covering the other three Mission Impossible movies, then on the 31st I’ll mention in order my 10 favorite movies released this year that I saw.

Mission Impossible (The First Movie)

Mission Impossible (1996)

Runtime: 110 minutes

Directed by: Brian De Palma

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Beart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno

From: Paramount

Believe it or not, this is something I had not seen before this week. I just never felt like it. However, I heard strong stuff about the new MI out on the big screen now, so I figured I should at least try watching the first three in the series. I went and saw this via a DVD rental, and it was an original DVD from ’98, which showed via its presentation… and the disc being scratched up, so I had to fix it.

That wasn’t the only time I was reminded of the 90’s. The movie had data transported on floppy disks, after all, and my personal favorite, major conversations happening in Usenet! That certainly dates things.

The plot as such is that the IMF team led by Jim Phelps (of the 60’s TV show; this time it was played by Voight rather than Peter Graves) go do a mission in Prague but it gets screwed up so it’s left to Ethan Hunt (Cruise, delivering a Cruise-ian performance. You can decide if that’s a good or bad thing) to try and fix things up and not have people think that HE was the one who allowed things to go awry.

The movie has such has a lot of spy stuff such as “moles” and gadgets and wacky setpieces and what have you. It is popcorn entertainment and not something you want to think too much about. But, I don’t mean that as a slight. It’s still entertaining to watch 15 years later. The ending in particular is highly ridiculous; that said, it was still thrilling to watch. In fact, many of the special effects still look fine in 2011. So, while this wasn’t a great movie by any means at least I can say I’ve seen it.

I’ll be back Christmas Day with a review appropriate for December 25. Expect it to be up in the afternoon.

A Change Of Plans

My plans have changed now, which I don't like doing, but it does mean me viewing a few movies within the span of several days. I'll be back in about 24 or so hours to post a new review, and by the end of the year I'll have several reviews and even one devoted to the holiday season.

The Loved One

The Loved One (1965)

Runtime: 122 minutes

Directed by: Tony Richardson

Starring: Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Rod Steiger, Liberace

From: MGM

Now, here’s a movie I’ve seen before but I stumbled upon while looking through various VHS tapes (yes; I still use them in 2011; it works for me); I recorded this another time after I first saw it years ago so that I could watch it a second time, but that second time just came this evening.

This was a movie I heard about long before I got to see it. It was described as being “something to offend everyone”, and I’ll agree that for its time period, I am surprised they were able to get away with some of the things that they did.

To sum up the plot, Dennis Barlow of England won a ticket to L.A. so he decided to use that ticket to escape London. As he’s an aimless sort he had the time to hang around Southern California with a bit. Having a famous uncle who works as a production staffer in Hollywood (John Gielgud). They hang out but it isn’t long before the uncle gets canned because of his age. He decides to kill himself via hanging, and you do see him at the end of a noose. Some British expatriates say that he should be buried at the prestigious Whispering Glades Cemetery. That’s where the crux of the movie takes place at, both this place and a pet cemetery that Dennis works at to earn some income.

Along the way he meets up with some rather unusual people and falls in love with a lady who works at Whispering Glades. There are also other people around, like Mr. Joyboy (Steiger), someone who is as bizarre as the surname would suggest. There’s also Liberace briefly appearing as a casket salesman, and in hindsight, it seems funny to me that a lot of people didn’t catch onto the fact that he was… well, you know. I have no problem with that orientation. All that matters to me was that he was quite the showman and quite the piano player too.

Anyhow, this movie has a lot of dry and wry British humor. After all, the short story was from Evelyn Waugh; he (yes, he) was a novelist from across the pond. That sort of humor isn’t for everyone (even me sometimes) but I found this to be rather amusing. It’s mainly a satire on the funeral industry so various things associated with that field are parodied, and the barbs also go towards the Hollywood industry. It also is never boring, as the movie goes in rather strange directions that you couldn’t predict. I won’t give it away as it’d probably sound preposterous from what I’ve said most of the movie is about. Yet, it manages to work somehow.

So, if you like the wry sort of thing, this movie is worth seeing. It sometimes is played on Turner Classic Movies, which is how I saw it. I’ll be back Wednesday night with a new review.

The Slams

The Slams (1973)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Jonathan Kaplan

Starring: Jim Brown, Judy Pace, Roland Bob Harris, Frank De Kova, Dick Miller

From: MGM

Here is a movie I literally had never heard of before but saw that it was playing real late this past Friday night on TCM so I decided to record it as the plot sounded interesting and the lead was Jim Brown, which is a good sign already for me. Now, I’ve talked about some of his movies before, both good (Slaughter*) and not so good (The Slip**; if I ever get to see it again I may have to review it again just so I can give a more extensive take on why I didn’t think the movie was as good as others have said. With that sort of cast it should have been awesome and yet it wasn’t at all). Like The Slip this is almost impossible to find as I don’t think it ever got a VHS release, let alone DVD, as amazing as it sounds in this day and age.

* http://blairreviewsmovies.blogspot.com/2011/05/slaughter.html

** http://blairreviewsmovies.blogspot.com/2009/08/split.html

The plot, I’ll lift from the IMDb, as it’s concise and explains things rather well: “After a heist Curtis Hook (Jim Brown) is caught by the police. In jail various people want to know where he stashed the loot. But the places where he stashed the loot ($1.500.000) will be demolished so he has to get out of jail to get to the dough.” That is indeed what happens, but let me elaborate a bit.

The movie starts off and you see the heist take place. It involves going to an oil field and the way that the gang wipes out the people guarding the money (and the heroin, which was part of the deal that Jim Brown did not know about) involves the exhaust pipe of a 60’s Ford Econoline and cyanide! Rather inventive, I say. The fit hits the shan and only Brown remains alive, but he ends up in jail, i.e. The Slams. That’s a term I’ve never heard of before to describe the slammer. He meets up with various characters there, all of whom know that he knows where the cash is located. The usual clichés are shown, from cliques to corrupt prison wardens, from racism to prisoners who get special treatment.

I’ll say that the first 10 or so minutes and the final 20 are rather entertaining. I won’t spoil what happens at the end, but for me the middle hour isn’t as strong. It feels like at times that the wheels are spinning in that there’s stalling in order to fill up time. Still, overall the movie is decent and fine. I just don’t think it’s worth spending a whole lot of effort to try and track down given how aside from it appearing on TCM it’s pretty much impossible to find.

Oh, and you get to see Ted Cassidy (i.e. Lurch from the original Addams Family TV show of the 60’s) without makeup. He’s an interesting-looking dude. I’m not poking fun at him, though. Sure, he passed away in ’79 but I still mean no disrespect. Plus, I’m sure he was a gentle giant, all six feet nine of him.

One last thing: HA at TCM rating the movie TV-14. There’s plenty of racial slurs and some homophobic ones too. You see some violence, along with some F bombs and MF bombs too. Oh, and the one scene with several ladies topless. I think the full movie wasn’t watched before it was rated.

I’ll be back Friday night (i.e. maybe Saturday morning) with a new review.

Lisztomania

Lisztomania (1975)

Runtime: 103 minutes

Directed by: Ken Russell (no relation, I swear)

Starring: Roger Daltrey, Sara Kestelman, Paul Nicolas, Ringo Starr (yes)

From: Warner Brothers

This is the movie I referenced recently with the recent passing of British director Ken Russell. He is probably best known for directing Tommy, the movie about the Pinball Wizard. From what I knew, a lot of his films were just plain strange. Awhile back I found it online and downloaded it (I know, I know) as at least in the United States it never made it to DVD. It turns out that probably because Russell passed away, more than one person uploaded it to YouTube. This is the best copy. However, if you do watch it, it may be best if you ingest various psychotropic drugs beforehand!

This motion picture is allegedly a biopic of Franz Liszt, a Hungarian pianist in the 1800’s who for a short amount of time was the Justin Bieber of his day! No, really. When he performed there was mass hysteria a la when The Beatles first performed in America. That hysteria was known as Lisztomania, explaining the title. However, what this movie actually is… it seems like it came from the mind of a deranged lunatic. I mean, I’m talking Naked Lunch or Forbidden Zone level of WTF-ness. And, Russell even took liberty with the facts. In real life Liszt and Richard Wagner were pals, which is far from the case as presented here.

The movie… wow. Let me tell you how it starts off. Literally, the first thing you see after the Warner Brothers logo is a metronome, and Daltrey uses it to rhymically kiss the bare breasts of a woman! Then, Richard Wagner (yes, the composer) busts in and wants to kick Liszt’s ass, as Franz was diddling around with his woman. They fight to what sounds like ragtime music, then it gets narrated (?!) in a wacky fashion. He and the wife then get locked in a piano, which gets run over by a train! Then, Liszt wakes up… I think. Who knows for certain.

Anyhow, the opening credits appear, and here’s some of the really strange things I saw:

• A LOT of phallic imagery. I mean, Daltry literally rides on a giant penis at one point.
• A bearded dude in a sailor’s outfit who proves to be a vampire… but it’s a dream sequence… maybe. I know for certain that Wagner IS a vampire.
• The Pope appears, and it’s Ringo Starr!
• Wager is resurrected and he’s a cross between Frankenstein and Hitler; yeah, it’s too weird to even be offensive, even when he fires a machine gun shaped like a guitar.
• Also appearing is a cryogenic Viking named Thor (!) played by Rick Wakeman (!!), of Yes keyboarding fame. He drinks beer and belches.
• By the way, I swear that all I’m saying actually appears in this movie. I could say more but I wouldn't want to ruin any surprises for anyone brave enough to watch this.

The music itself fits the film, I’ll put it that way. Synthesizer stuff and what have you.

I can’t even say that the movie’s good or bad. Like with Naked Lunch or Forbidden Zone, you can only watch in amazement at what you’re seeing.

I'll be back Tuesday night with a new review.

Immortals

Immortals 3D (2011)

36% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 100 reviews)

Runtime: 110 minutes

Directed by: Tarsem Singh

Starring: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Steven Dorff, Freida Pinto, John Hurt

From: Relativity Media

Finally, here’s a review of this movie, which I saw in 3D early Sunday evening. When I first heard about it a few months ago I couldn’t have cared less. It just didn’t look appealing to me. Then, I heard from some people online that the 3D visuals look tremendous and it was a fun story. Then, once it came out I heard more of the same. So suddenly it was of interest of me. But, it was just this past Sunday that I had the time and felt like checking this out.

The story wasn’t too complex, to say the least. It’s set in the BC era in Greece, and there are Gods and their enemy, called the Titans. Rourke’s character King Hyperion is evil and mad at the Gods so he wants to unleash the Titans to destroy said Gods. He has to find a magical bow and arrow to do so, though. Meanwhile, there’s Thesus, a common person who has to escape the village he lives in as Hyperion is going to lay waste to it. Things happen and he meets up with an oracle (Pinto). It turns out that Thesus may have been blessed by the Gods… literally.

As I expected, the story wasn’t anything special. It’s serviceable, though. If you enjoy the “sword & sandal” sort of story then you might enjoy this. What was clearly the highlight (well, besides the nudity from the body double of Pinto) were the visuals and the violence. The director had only done two other movies before, both visually strong, and that was more of the case here. The violence literally in your face was pretty sweet. It was like 300… only good. That’s another topic for another day, though.

There isn’t too much else to say. The movie was exactly what I expected. I am glad it wasn’t boring to watch. The pace is quick-enough and it’s cheesy fun. It looks great and if you do want to see it, I recommend doing so in 3D.

I’ll be back Saturday afternoon with a new review.

So...

I fell completely behind on this; yesterday I went to Jacksonville to watch some pro football. I'll just tell you that I watched Immortals 3D and I'll post a review for that by tomorrow night, promise. It's a movie with a typical story but the 3D visuals look rather nice.

Deliverance

Deliverance (1972)

Runtime: 109 minutes

Directed by: John Boorman

Starring: Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox

From: Warner Brothers

So, this is something I wasn’t planning to see but a death made public on Friday plus finding the movie on Blu-Ray for cheap at a Barnes & Noble meant me watching this Friday night. Bill McKinney, who appeared in seven Eastwood movies-along with this one-passed away at the age of 80. He was best known for playing a key role in one of the most terrifying scenes ever put to film, which was in this film. He was one of the hillbillies who made Ned Beatty squeal like a pig in this movie. And, he wasn’t the one with the missing teeth, but rather the guy who, ahem, assaulted Beatty. He passed away due to cancer, so why not say a few words about this movie, plus at the end tell a short story about the connection between my dad and the river this movie was filled on? Anyway, RIP to Bill McKinney.

So, most people know this movie just for the squeal like a pig scene plus the dueling banjos scene where Ronny Cox plays acoustic guitar with a backwoods boy playing banjo. However, this movie is much more than just that. This is about a quartet of men from the city with various levels of experience in the outdoors who decide to canoe a river in the South as in a short amount of time that river will be dammed, literally. You get to see the four differing personalities interact with each other for a bit, and you see some very pretty scenery. Then, the guys run into the hillbillies, and deal with them. The ramifications with the decisions they made in that difficult situation fuels the rest of the movie.

I don’t want to give too much away but it’s a quality drama/thriller, even almost 40 years after it was released. You get very good acting from the four leads, which plays a big role in this movie’s goodness. You get nice scenery, exciting canoeing action, some action, character arcs… if you haven’t seen the movie yet you really should. It looks nice-enough on Blu-Ray, too. Oh, and it doesn’t necessarily always portray white trash people who live in the hills and the woods in a flattering manner. But, the movie sometimes makes the leads look dumb for their stereotypes concerning those people, so that is another layer to this movie.

As for the story I referenced, years ago my dad and his pals went down to the Chatooga River, border South Carolina and Georgia, which is where this movie was filmed at and has never been dammed up. They rafted part of the river and no, they did not run into any rednecks who wanted to violate them nor possible inbred types.

I’ll be back on Monday. Late Sunday afternoon I plan on seeing a movie on the big screen for the first time in over a month.

A Special Case Of Randomness

Unfortunately, I have to do this as the thing I was planning on watching tonight is out the window. It’s a long story, but to try and be short… I was going to watch a movie from the late Ken Russell (no relation, I swear; he was a British director best known for helming Tommy; in general he was known for directing flat-out weird movies. I don’t think it’s quite like David Lynch, but still odd nonetheless) which I happened to download from the Internet awhile back but never watched. I know, I know, but it’s one of those movies which I don’t think has ever been released on DVD, at least not Region 1. I was going to watch it on a portable DVD player I got from a relative long ago, but it finally crapped out on me, and as that’s the easiest way for me to watch burned DVD movies… that review will have to wait for a later day, although I see that someone did upload it to YouTube just a few days ago, likely as a tribute to Mr. Russell.

So, to fill time I'll post something I posted on a messageboard recently. It was something strange I stumbled upon on a religious channel, and I only saw parts of it. However, it was so odd I might as well post it here too.

So, earlier this afternoon I was channel-surfing and I stumbled upon a surprising sight, and on a real surprising channel. I landed on one of the religious channels I get, and who do I see? Why, Gary Busey... acting a scene with Margot Kidder! I later find out it's some crappy religious-themed movie called Apocalypse III: Tribulation, which concerns The Antichrist (Nick Mancuso) and his pals (apparently members of the Illuminati... hey, they use the pyramid with the eye on top) wiping out most of the world and brainwashing the rest of it via a *virtual reality helmet*. I kid you not, there's brainwashing involved and they do it to those who don't believe automatically by using one of those virtual reality helmets from the 90's. And yet this movie was released in 2000. Believe me, I didn't watch all of it but instead some random scenes, and it is pretty bad. Here are some more things of note:

* Busey and Kidder play brother and sister.
* Gary ends up in a coma and you see him awaken years later. He sports a Kris Kristofferson-style haircut with matching beard. It's quite the look. Somehow, he manages to shave the beard and cut his hair BEFORE escaping from the hospital.
* I see some guy with black-rimmed glasses and a goatee, and I think, "No, it can't possibly be him", but indeed it was Howie Mandel (!!)
* Margot Kidder is apparently an atheist, and it wasn't until production started that she realized this was a serious religious production. But of course.

I do wish I could have been on set for the making of that film. I can't imagine a more batshit insane male-female duo than Gary and Margot!

I'll be back Saturday night. As I plan on finally seeing some movies in December, I should be a little more active than I was this month.

When Nature Calls

When Nature Calls (1985)

Runtime: 85 minutes

Directed by: Charles Kaufman

Starring: David Orange, Barbara Marineau, Nicky Beim, Tina Marie Staiano, David Strathairn

From: Troma, but don’t be turned off by that

Yes, I’m technically reviewing a Troma movie, but it’s really only from that company as the owner’s brother directed this. The movie is far from the puerile and immature crap you get from that company, although on the DVD you get an introduction that’s terrible as it shows off Troma's style in the worst way. The less said about it the better.

This actual movie is a parody film a la Airplane or The Naked Gun and I first heard about it from reading someone’s review on a site a long time ago. I mean, I have no idea what the site was and by this time I’ll presume it’s long gone from the Internet. The reviewer really enjoyed the movie and once I saw that the movie has brief roles from a bizarre grouping of people (the late wrestling manager Classy Freddie Blassie, G. Gordon Liddy, Gates McFadden*, comedian Morey Amsterdam, and even legendary baseball player Willie Mays), it sounded so odd I was glad I was able to find it on DVD. It turns out, after viewing it, it really is an entertaining film and I’m surprised there seems to be a lot of hate for it online. When you compare it to the God-awful parody garbage we’ve gotten in recent years (the feces from those talentless Epic Movie/Date Movie/etc. douches as the prime example) the film looks especially good.

• Star Trek: TNG fans will be delighted to know that McFadden appears in a shirt and her panties.

You start off with some fake trailers a la Grindhouse before you get to the movie itself, which concerns a family man in the city who needs a break from that hectic life so he decides to take them and himself and they move to the countryside. That’s pretty much it for the plot. It’s filled with gags throughout. I mean, it’s rather heavy per minute and it has different varieties of humor so if something didn’t make you laugh, the next joke or visual pun likely will. You get everything from a spoof of Ingmar Bergman movies to the family’s teenaged daughter and a grizzly bear falling in love (it’s tame), from jokes about Jerry Lewis being terrible to an intermission that spoofs those old candy ads with cartoon characters/claymation that you’ve seen somewhere before as a bit of nostalgia for what was shown way back when at the cinema/drive-in, but in a cruder way that you’ve seen before.

Sure, it’s uneven and aside from some crude bits it’s otherwise tame, but for a low-budget thing I think it’s a movie worth checking out if you enjoy how parody movies SHOULD be. It’s also better than Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. If you’re able to track down this movie, you may think it’s worth what may be quite a bit of effort.

I’ll be back the last day of this month with a new review.

Omega Cop

Omega Cop (1990)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Directed by: Paul Kyriazi

Starring: Ron Marchini, Adam West, Stuart Whitman, Troy Donahue

From: Cine Excel Entertainment

Here’s yet another movie I found out about via the Bad Movie Fiends podcast. It was a film they loved watching for its low budget action-ness and after some searching I found it on a site offering up downloads of really obscure films. The comments section for each post offer up the movie for download, via Megaupload file.

Oh, this movie… it’s real low-budget and it’s one of those post-apocalyptic films. Apparently there’s only a few cops left in this small area. That department is led by… Adam West! He looked like he was still missing the days 25 years ago when he was a big star on TV. You also get some small appearances from the other famous faces (Whitman and Donahue) but most of the cast is unknowns. The Omega Cop (Marchini, a martial arts fighter from back in the day when Chuck Norris fought in those battles. In fact those two once fought and Chuck only barely won) goes against a band of slave traders and picks up some chicks in the process.

Here are the reasons why I managed to enjoy the film:

• The soundtrack is mainly something you’d expect from an old-school John Carpenter film, but for reasons unknown, a few times you hear neo-oldies! You know, groups from the 80’s going for the sound of songs in the late 50’s and early 60’s. I have no idea why the producers went that route but I’m glad they did.
• The Omega Cop loves crotch kicks and crotch punches. Even more so than Steven Seagal does. The best one was when a bad guy unzipped his pants and was about to relieve himself when he got kicked right in the nards.
• One of the main bad guys looked like Ron Jeremy with a beard.
• The Omega Cop’s hideout is the locker room of a small baseball stadium (!) and it’s guarded by a skeleton with a gun in its hand (!!)
• He really cares about his accessories. He will go far distances to acquire the hat and gun belt that gets stolen from him. It’s part of all the running you get to see him do.
• The action isn’t exactly like you’d see in a Hollywood blockbuster… it still works and it’s fun to watch. There’s even a quality explosion or two.

So, this movie is technically terrible but hey, I found it to be rather entertaining. At least the action is fun to watch, there are wacky and unique moments like the oldies stuff or all the abuse to the groin (and other things that I won't spoil, except that West's final scene is memorable), and it's just plain wacky. There's a sequel, Karate Cop, and I also could download it, but I hear it's not quite as great as this movie.

If you want a 1 minute taste of what this movie is all about, check out this YouTube clip.

As it's a holiday week I won't be back until Saturday night.

Arena

Arena (1989)

Runtime: 97 minutes

Directed by: Peter Manoogian

Starring: Paul Satterfield, Hamilton Camp, Claudia Christian, Shari Shattuck

From: Empire Pictures

Here is a movie whose cover I remember seeing as a young kid at the videostore way back when. I was inspired to watch the movie from listening to a review of it on the Bad Movie Fiends podcast. That particular episode is here if you want to hear a detailed spoiler-filled recap of that movie. I found the movie and watched it on YouTube, but “shhh” on that.

Basically, this low-budget faire is the Rocky sort of boxing story but it’s set in the future in space, and it’s more like kickboxing or even what would now be called MMA. It’s a standard sort of thing: there’s a dominant champion who can’t be beaten, and he’s controlled by an evil dude. Steve Armstrong (Satterfield, who looks a LOT like Christopher Reeve, but with blonde hair) is a short-order cook on the space station where the fights take place. Steve gets into a fight himself at the diner, so he gets fired and doesn’t even have enough money to go back to Earth. He gets convinced by four-armed Shorty (Camp) and manager Quinn (Christian) that he should become a fighter. He does, and as he becomes more successful, he gets more attention, both good and bad.

As you can see, the plot itself is rather standard. Yet, it’s still entertaining to watch. There’s comedy, both intentional and unintentional. There are some interesting touches which makes things entertaining despite the fact that you can really tell at some points it’s low-budget. You get to see a hologram of a girl who sings songs, a la The Star Wars Holiday Special, something which I may very well review for the holiday season this year. That was more weird than anything else but at least they were trying here.

At least the creatures for the most part look fine. My favorite was Stitches, a creature the same color at Thing from The Fantastic Four and looking like a cross between an armadillo and alligator, and also with crab claws. And he’s the training partner of Steve! Not to mention, he speaks English. It’s only a small role for that creature; as mentioned by the BMF guys, it’d be great if Stitches would have had a bigger role, and if he would have been buddy-buddy with Steve, the two “cruising for chicks” or what have you.

It’d be pretty rad if there was a modern remake of this where it’d be straight-up MMA action you get to see with various creatures fighting against each other. That could be money if done right. For now, though, if you like goofily entertaining low-budget action, check it out. What goes on in the ring isn’t the only fighting/action you get to see.

I’ll be back Monday night with a new review.

So

My schedule ended up being more hectic than planned so, no review for tonight. I'll be back Wednesday night and I'll do that then, I promise.

Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Runtime: 120 minutes

Directed by: Guy Hamilton

Starring: Sean Connery, Jill St. John, Charles Gray, Bruce Cabot

From: UA


You know, this movie managed to be worse than the first time I watched it!

As I alluded to before, I was never a fan of this movie, despite there being people out there who rate this rather highly. I wish I could see what they did. I just don’t quite get it.

In this entry, I presume it’s a direct follow-up to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, as the opening has Bond on the warpath after Blofeld (this time, Gray) for killing his newlywed bride Tracy. He tracks down Blofeld and kills him… only it’s a ruse, as he somehow was able to have various people perform plastic surgery to look exactly like him. That’s not the only eye-rolling “oh come on” moment of the plot. From there the story starts, and it’s nonsense about diamonds being smuggled by a mysterious person, thought to be Howard Hughe… oh wait, I mean Willard Whyte (Jimmy Dean; as an actor, he made good sausages) and the action moves from Holland to Las Vegas; it turns out the acquiring of the diamonds was actually for a satellite… WITH LASERS! Sorry for the Austin Powers reference, but at times I swore I was watching one of those movies rather than a Bond production. The camp value here was rather high, regrettably.

That’s about all I have to say about the confused plot. I’ll say that it isn’t all that entertaining to watch, although a few times you’ll probably laugh for the sheer WTF value. Some of the acting left a lot to be desired. Lana Wood, as “Plenty O’Toole”, had acting ability that was the inverse of her impressive cleavage. Actually, I hope that in her other movies she acted better than she did here. I hope she acted even half as well as her sister Natalie did. Oh well, at least the two were fine-looking ladies in their heyday.

The only two performances I thought were interesting were the unusual Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, played by Bruce Glover and Putter Smith. Looks-wise you can easily tell that Crispin is his son, and judging by the performance, I have a feeling strangeness runs in that family. Putter Smith was a jazz bassist, so I have no idea why he was chosen for this role, unless it was for his distinctive look. The duo had an odd chemistry and yet it works, and the jazz guy wasn’t a bad actor either. Apparently, judging by a throwaway line, the duo happened to be homosexuals. Why that was included, I don’t know, as it meant nothing for anything you see. That’s one of many questions I have with this movie.

Even the action-something I tend to count on with most Bond movies-wasn’t too great here, aside from an entertaining fight in an old elevator. Otherwise it didn’t do much for me, and the strangest moment for me was Bond fighting two acrobatic chicks named Bambi and Thumper. See what I mean about camp? Aside from it being interesting to look at how Las Vegas was back 40 years ago, this movie is just not good. It’s definitely the worst of the Bond movies that Connery was in. I am not counting Never Say Never Again, as that’s not an official Bond movie in canon, and plus it’s even worse than this one!

Speaking of that, here’s the Connery Bond movies ranked from worst to best in my opinion, and I included the links to the reviews I did before.

6. Diamonds Are Forever
5. Thunderball
4. You Only Live Twice
3. Dr. No
2. Goldfinger
1. From Russia With Love

I don’t know when but I’ll try to make it not too long before I get to the Roger Moore Bond flicks. I’ll be back Sunday night with a new review.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

Runtime: 140 minutes

Directed by: Peter Hunt (please, don't giggle)

Starring: George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Gabriele Ferzetti

From: UA

Oh boy, here’s a movie I was actually hesitant to revisit, thus why I haven’t reviewed a Bond movie in order in so damn long. I didn’t really care for it the first time around, as I thought Lazenby was a terrible Bond and some parts of the story were blah to me. I still feel the same about the latter, but watching it again made me realize that George wasn’t as bad as I first thought, although still the worst Bond there’s been.

Of course, I decided to watch this last night after hearing the announcement of the new Bond movie, coming out a year from now. It’ll be known as Skyfall, and the cast is rather nice, and it’s got to be better than Quantum of Solace. Once I eventually get to that one… I doubt I’ll have too many nice things to say about it. I haven’t seen it in three years now, but I’m still sure I’ll strongly dislike it. Oh, what a massive disappointment that was.

But onto this one… we all know the story now about how Lazenby was chosen for this huge role and he was a dumbass so he only did this one movie as he thought much more of his talents than everyone else did (although there were apparently other reasons why he only was Bond once). He wasn’t as bad as I first thought, but he’s no Moore or Dalton, let alone Connery. Maybe I’m being harsh as this was his first acting role, period. Still…

The story revolves around Blofeld (Savalas) once again, this time threatening germ warfare… not for cash, though, but for more practical reasons. That’s really all you need to know, aside from the fact that while you see some action in Portugal (including a bullfight, but it’s really tame compared to how bloody those things end up) much of it is set in Switzerland, which provides some great scenery. Oh, and Bond ends up falling in love with a young woman named Tracy, who he ends up marrying. As this was the only movie she appeared in… well, need I say more about her fate? It did lead to a memorable finale.

Me, viewing it again I say that despite a choppy and oddly edited at times first hour and some odd moments in the story (you can tell there were production problems) the movie still is rather entertaining despite its faults. The scenery is great, the score is memorable, there are some sweet action scenes, and the fighting stuff is filmed in a way that really is ahead of its time. You know, quick cutting and all that. It almost becomes something that I would dislike but it ends up being fine. It’s no Michael Bay or Paul Greengrass; the camera never shakes as if the operator is experiencing a seizure. It’s just quick cut, that’s all. It’s also definitely not like how incomprehensible much of the action in Quantum of Solace turns out. Really, I hope Skyfall doesn’t end up quite as serious as the first two Craig Bond flicks have been and there’s at least a little more humor added. You know, Q and Moneypenny and the goofy charm that you expect from most 007 motion pictures.

What was I saying… oh yeah, the movie was better on second viewing. I can’t really compare it to the other movies in the series as I prefer to rate things by the actor who plays the role. It’s just easier to do it that way, I say. There’s definitely other movies in the entire franchise I prefer to this, I’ll put it that way; it’s not at the bottom of the giant list either. It does depend on what you think of Lazenby. If you don’t dislike him, then you’ll be able to enjoy a fine story which is mostly grounded in realism and isn’t quite so fantastical.

I’ll be back Tuesday night, and I’ll be reviewing another 007 movie I’m not quite looking forward to revisiting, Diamonds are Forever.

Happy Halloween!

Unfortunately, no new review or anything else from me today. I'm burned out on horror films for the time being, and I was busy the past couple of days with a pair of big wrestling shows, and now some relatives from out of state are down here. So, no time for any reviews, Dr. Jones. I figured I've done enough the past few weeks.

I will at least give a podcast recommendation. If you love reading/listening to discussion about bad films, give Bad Movie Fiends a try. They talk about crappy movies, both enjoyably bad (like Robot Jox) or just plain terrible (like Battlefield Earth) The main trio are hilarious pals so it's fun to listen to.

I'll be back Friday night with a new review, this time something not in the horror genre.

The Howling: New Moon Rising

The Howling: New Moon Rising (1995)

Runtime: 90 minutes

“Directed” by: Clive Turner

“Starring”: Clive Turner, John Ramsden, Jack Huff, the citizens of an actual town playing themselves (no, really)

From: New Line Cinema!

As this movie was brought up recently on a forum I look at, I figured I would talk about this; while I haven’t seen it in years, I did see it more than once so I say that’s good enough for me. I might as well review one of the all-time terrible movies I’ve seen as an adult. Plus, you can read an extensive recap of the movie here and watch a video review here which contains clips from the movie which proves that it really is as bad as many have said. I don’t even remember how I first heard about it, but I do know I’ve seen it more than once, which makes me quite the masochist.

Describing the plot is rather futile but in short, a drifter comes to town and (off-screen) killings take place. Some investigators nearby try to solve the murders, and meet up with some people from earlier Howling movies. That’s pretty much it in terms of stuff that moves from Point A to B. The rest of it…

I’ll be honest and say I haven’t seen any of The Howling movies in full. Not that it really matters for this one as none of them are related to each other in any way. Yet, director/producer/writer/actor/everything else Clive Turner tried to retcon things by having some characters from a few of the sequels appear here and he tried to tie it all together… to zero success, according to what I hear. No matter what things are just confused all around.

Besides the awful screenplay, the barely-there presence of any werewolf action, and the special effects being a joke even for ’95, the bizarre decision was to set the movie in an unincorporated community known as Pioneertown (built in the 40’s in order to provide a backdrop for western features of the time), and all the residents of that town play themselves! Do I need to say that the non-actors deliver terrible performances? It’s a crime the full movie isn’t on YouTube anymore, as that’s probably the easiest way to watch this if you want to punish yourself for an hour and a half. It’s only on DVD overseas and you know it’ll never be ported over here. I mean, much of the runtime is filled with awful country songs (no matter what you think of the genre, this material is putrid) and line dancing! This really is one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my entire life.

How anyone thought this was a good idea, I do not know, and how it got released by New Line Cinema… that still befuddles me today. No wonder why there hasn’t been another Howling movie until just recently, The Howling Reborn, which just came out earlier this month and I’ve heard it be best compared to Twilight, so yeah I’ll avoid that at all costs.

I won't be back until Halloween night due to the rest of the month being busy for me. I'll try to find an interesting and appropriate movie to write about.

Paranormal Activity 3

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

Runtime: 84 minutes

Directed by: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Starring: Christopher Nicholas Smith, Lauren Bittner, Jessica Tyler Brown, Chloe Csengery

From: Paramount

Oh, this series… I’ve reviewed the first movie and the second one when they were released but in short, I first heard about the original Paranormal Activity way back in ’07. For two long years I waited to see it, and when I finally did I wasn’t disappointed. Due to some clever marketing it became a shockingly huge hit, guaranteeing a sequel. That proved to be better than I expected. Can they do it once again?

This movie was helmed by the guys who gave us Catfish, a controversial movie due to question of how much of it was actually real. Funny then that they were given a fake documentary to direct.

You’ve probably already seen too much from all the damn commercials (more on that later) but I’ll try not to reveal anything here. Basically, you see sisters Katie and Kristi as kids and you get to find how what they alluded to in the first two movies concerning the strange stuff that happened to them as kids. Their mom’s boyfriend films weddings so thus that is why he has the ability to film stuff at night in 1988. And what references to the late 80’s you see, from the fashion to the big VHS camcorders to best of all, a Teddy Ruxpin doll! I’m old enough to remember them back when they were a huge fad.

As for the movie, it’s not bad at all; I’d just rank it below the first two. It’s a shame as the performances are all fine and like the first two, there’s the feeling of dread for most of it and what does scare you, it works. Some of it is obvious special effects, more so than the first two, but the audience went “oh darn” (or rather, cuss words; I just cleaned it up there) a few times. The problem is, where the story went… I heard some people complain about how in the second movie the expansion on the mythology sort of ruined things as they didn’t like what the story was really about. Well, I’m sure they’ll especially dislike the additions made in this movie to the overall story. Even I was unsure about some of it. I mean, I just thought it was goofy.

Then, there was something I can’t really blame the movie for but particularly put a bee in my bonnet. The ads you saw for this movie seemed to give away a lot. That alone doesn’t make me happy; even worse, one major shot you see in the ads, I was expecting to see in the movie. So of course that clip doesn’t appear in the movie at all! I don’t want to give it away as it’d be a spoiler but I even watched all of the end credits to see if there was a surprise after those; no dice. I was-and still am-pretty peeved about that. As is, the ending you saw was certainly creepy… if open-ended. Despite those quibbles, if you enjoyed the first two, you need to check this out.

I'll be back Tuesday night.

Screams 3 & 4

Scream 3

Runtime: 116 minutes

Directed by: Wes Craven

Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Scott Foley

From: Dimension

Scream 4

Runtime: 111 minutes

Directed by: Wes Craven

Starring: Neve Campbell, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, David Arquette

From: Dimension

I actually saw these two movies last week, but waited until this time to talk about the two. Scream 3 actually was an interesting viewing experience, as I only saw about the first half of it before the scratched-up disc from Blockbuster finally stopped working properly. Thus, I had to go on YouTube to finish watching it! I know, but I had to. Hell, there were a few different copies of it on there.

This was the first time I saw the movie since I watched it on the big screen back in 2000 and I got pretty mad at it for a rather stupid plot device (and I’m being literal there with the usage of the word device) which was not only such a cheat for the plot, it was what I would call “impossible technology”, and I say that’s true in 2011, let alone 2000. That and some brief shots were really all that I remembered about the movie.

After watching the movie, there was a good amount of dialogue that I found was entertaining and I chuckled or even laughed at. Maybe it was me, but I laughed at the references to 60 Minutes II, due to how dated it is now. The problem is, the movie didn’t really seem like a Scream flick. It really clashes with the others. It was more about comedy here than blood and guts stuff. I don’t really remember too many of the kills one week later, which isn’t a good sign. It’s obvious that the change of settings to LA (due to the whole Columbine thing scaring the crap out of movie studios at the time) and the constant script changes (including on the set; why it changed so often, I’m not quite sure) really affected things, and not in a good way. Heck, Neve Campbell only being able to work on the movie for a short amount of time-she pretty much plays a supporting role for the majority of the movie-also threw a monkey wrench into things. No wonder why they didn’t release another one of these for 11 years.

And yeah, the plot device thing still made me mad. Now, onto Scream 4.

I watched this movie and I heard some mixed reviews on how good it was. I watched it, and the opening was goofy yet entertaining; it also presented how ham-fisted it was going to be talking about torture porn and the rise of horror remakes. It’s the opposite of clever how the movie discusses those things.

Overall, it had a collection of good/fine moments, but overall as a movie it doesn’t come together all that well. While it was interesting seeing Sidney Prescott as a successful author now and seeing her niece and her pals as the youths of the series (not to mention how the universe is now that there are such things as YouTube and iPhones), there are some stupid moments too which brings things down. It’s a shame as a good amount of the movie is rather entertaining, and it’s much bloodier than the rest of the movies in the series. Both Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettiere were better than I expected.

Who the killer(s) were… also interesting and that led to some great bits. It’s just that the ending really brings things down. It’s not that great. The way it should have logically ended… I hear that’s how it ended in the script. But the studio changed it and for the worse. If not for that changed ending, Scream 5 could have been a gigantic breath of fresh air. Alas… who knows if there will be a Scream 5 given that worldwide it did fine but in the U.S. it was a disappointment.

I'll be back tomorrow night with a review of Paranormal Activity 3, a movie I'm really looking forward to.

Maniac

Maniac (1980)

Runtime: 87 minutes

Directed by: William Lustig

Starring: Joe Spinell, Caroline Munro, Abigail Clayton, Kelly Piper

From: Magnum Motion Pictures

For awhile now I’ve heard of this controversial movie, which was release unrated and even now in some countries is still banned. Yet I haven’t felt like seeing it. Well, because it’s coming out on Blu-Ray soon, Grindhouse Releasing and Blue Underground decided to release this to any sort of art-house and indy joint that wanted to show it. Well, the hipster hangout known as the Enzian decided to do just that, so just this past Saturday I watched it for the very first time, and in front of a small but appreciative audience.

The plot… I’ll yank it right from the IMDb. “A schizoid serial killer randomly stalks and kills various young women in New York, which he sees as revenge for the mistreatment he got while being raised by his own abusive mother.” That sums things up pretty well. That man, Frank Zito (Spinell; he also came up with this story; I’m not sure what that says about him) otherwise is a normal person. But in private you see that he’s a crazy person who is still haunted by the memories of his late mother so he randomly kills people, and when they’re women he scalps them and uses their hair to dress up the various mannequins he has in his apartment.

Between that, the grainy and naturalistic look the movie has, and how tense things are, that makes the movie rather uncomfortable to watch at times. Oh, and all the violence you see contributes to that too. Tom Savini (who also plays a disco guy who almost has sex with a woman in the backseat of his car) does a great job with the special effects and the best one is where you get to see Tom’s head explode in graphic detail via shotgun blast to the head.

What I thought of this… I was skeeved out more than anything else. It isn’t a bad movie by any means, but it does leave you feeling creeped out due to how it’s presented. I’ll say that as a compliment, as I presume that was their goal. It’s not all gore and kills. There are some really suspenseful scenes which work very well, and there’s also some things which made me laugh and helped liven up the mood.

First off, there’s the idea that an average schlub like Frank Zito could successfully get more than one date with a fine-looking British babe like Caroline Munro. But even better was this upbeat disco song you heard during one scene. It definitely is the opposite of the rest of the movie, which usually has a groovy synth score.

So, if you’re brave enough you should give this a go. Just be warned this isn’t the easiest movie in the world to watch. I’ll be back Thursday afternoon with two reviews in one.

So...

Due to my weekend being busier than expected, I'll be back in about 24 hours time with a new review.

I can promise you, though, that the rest of the month will include reviews of such things as Ghostbusters, Paranormal Activity 3, Screams 3 and 4, and some other things.

Aliens

Aliens (1986)

Runtime: 154 minutes (The Director’s Cut, anyhow)

Directed by: James Cameron

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn

From: 20th Century Fox

Now, if you want to know which films I rank highest among my favorites, I don’t have a particular list of which ones are the best but this one is up there somewhere in the discussion. As much as I enjoy Alien and its claustrophobic and intense setting (one of these days I’ll review that), I more enjoyed this pumped-up macho adrenaline rush where the action and horror genres are melded together perfectly, along with a great story and such themes as being a mother and trust issues.

It’s difficult to try and figure out what to say about this that will come off as intelligent and well-written given that many people have done so before. So, that’s why I’ll be brief here. I will say that I watched the movie via the Alien Anthology Blu-Ray collection and while the print there isn’t crystal clear it still looks better than it did on DVD, for sure. This long review of the set includes thoughts on all four movies and I agree with a lot of what is said about Aliens.

What I’ll say I enjoy about the movie the most-besides it turning out to be an almost non-stop thrill ride for the second half-is that the first half takes its time building up the story and introducing the characters and how they interact with each other. They’re all very entertaining, especially Hudson (Bill Paxton). The movie often throws funny lines out there, lightening all the tension that’s going on. I don’t mind at all that the movie is 2 ½ hours long as it doesn’t seem that length when you’re watching it. The action also more than delivers and even in 2011 it’s a great rollercoaster of excitement and just plain emotion.

If I could see it on the big screen one of these days it’d be the cat’s pajamas. I got to see Alien that way a few years ago; while it was likely a DVD projection (it turned out to be the Director’s Cut that Ridley Scott did which he didn’t even want to do but had to do just so there’d be a different version of the movie out there) I still thought it was great watching a classic in that format. Watching Aliens that way would make me quite excited. I mean, if more movies were like that (in terms of action, story, and not being insulting to the audience's intelligence) I'd be a happy camper.

I’ll be back on Sunday night, where I plan on discussing a more obscure film than Aliens but I will be watching that for the first time and it happens to be on the big screen and I’ve heard some good things about.

Screams 1 and 2

Scream (1996)

Runtime: 111 minutes

Directed by: Wes Craven

Starring: Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Rose McGowan, Matthew Lilliard

From: Dimension

Scream 2 (1997)

Runtime: 120 minutes

Directed by: Wes Craven

Starring: Neve Campbell, Jerry O’Connell, Liev Schreiber, David Arquette

From: Dimension


Here’s a two-fer, which I’ll say counts as two reviews. As I’ve heard some real mixed reviews on Scream 4 and never saw it on the big screen, I figured that eventually I’d watch it, but I should re-watch the first three as I hadn’t seen them in years, and the third one I never saw after I saw it on the big screen and got pretty ticked off with it, but I’ll talk more about the reason why once I watch and review that movie.

The first movie certainly saved the ass of the horror industry when it came out in ’96, as for awhile there it seemed to be on life support. It truly was something unique at the time. Now… but let me review the movies in order.

I don’t need to explain the two plots as I’m sure everyone’s familiar with them by now. Instead, let me talk about what I thought of the films viewing them in 2011. The first movie, it was SUCH a 90’s movie. I mean, it could have only been made in that decade. It was so 90’s, you expected to hear Hootie & The Blowfish and the Gin Blossoms. I mean, the characters were in your face, yelling at you (especially the guys played by Jamie Kennedy and Matthew Lilliard… not that anyone should be surprised those two guys would ham it up to a tremendous degree), and there’s a lot of dialogue which tries to make it look like the movie is oh so smart with its horror references. In the age of the Internet and all that, I don’t know how impressive that looks now. There’s also the general goofiness with the series, such as the whole relationship with the characters played by later married then divorced couple David Arquette and Courteney Cox.

Despite those gripes, it was still an entertaining movie. There was a nice amount of gore and blood. There were many funny moments to go with the scares. Henry Winkler’s character of the school principal was more entertaining than I remembered. Who the killers were and their motivations were still fun. Skeet Ulrich looked like a bootleg version of Johnny Depp in the 80’s and early 90’s. It was still interesting how they bended genre clichés. So, despite some annoyances while viewing it with modern eyes, I’m glad I decided to revisit what ended up being an important movie in the genre.

Soon after I saw the first, I watched the sequel on a Showtime channel, as that is the only movie in the series that my local Blockbuster doesn’t have. My opinions on that… it was both better and worse than the first, so it’s tough to judge. It was a more entertaining movie and the hip references didn’t seem so shoehorned in. The stakes were indeed raised as stated by the Jamie Kennedy character. There were more deaths and they were bloodier. Yet, it was overlong, you could tell that things were changed due to what had to be a really early example of a script leaking out via the Internet, and the ending wasn’t quite as good as the first; also, with that there was an overload of characters appearing, I say. Still, it was an acceptable way to spend two hours.

One thing that I was instantly reminded of while watching the two movies was how Scary Movie (the original title for Scream) ended up doing a nice job of spoofing the series. If only Scary Movie 2 would have been any good, and in my world I can pretend that Scary Movies 3 and 4 weren’t made. I never saw them and I understand that’s for the best.

I don’t know when but eventually I’ll watch 3 and 4. It may be soon and it may be not so soon. It depends on what I find on TV or pull out of the giant pile of “to watch” movies. I will be back on Wednesday, no matter what.

RIP Charles Napier

So, due to my schedule, I didn't have the time to do a review. Instead, I'll say RIP to Charles Napier, who passed away on Wednesday. I've only seen a few of his films but he was great as Murdock in the second Rambo, where he played a great bad guy who also happened to be extremely sweaty. I also enjoyed him in Silence of the Lambs and even the Austin Powers movies. I was sad when I heard he passed away.

I'll be back Monday afternoon. The rest of the month I'll try to be a little more active; I also think I'll mainly be doing horror films, but don't quote me on that.

My 200th Review: Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

Yes, this is the 200th review I've done. It doesn't seem like I've been doing this for that long, but I started a little more than 2 years ago and for the most part I've enjoyed doing this, and I hope to be doing this for years to come.

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)

87% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 79 reviews)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Eli Craig

Starring: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss

From: Magnet Releasing

For awhile now I’ve heard about this horror comedy spoof and finally it was a few days ago that it started playing for a two night run at the artsy-fartsy Enzian Theatre. It turns out it was a good idea to listen to the strong praise I’ve heard from this and go out and see it in front of a crowd.

To copy and paste the plot from IMDb: Two lovable West Virginian hillbillies, are headed to their "fixer-upper" vacation cabin to drink some beer, do some fishin', and have a good time. But when they run into a group of preppy college kids who assume from their looks that they must be in-bred, chainsaw wielding killers, Tucker & Dale's vacation takes a bloody & hilarious turn for the worse.

That pretty much sums things up rather well. It’s a spoof where a pair of good old boys get into a bloody case of mistaken identity where some things happen that unwittingly convince some dopey college kids that they’re crazy killers you’d expect in a Rob Zombie movie. At first I wasn’t sure about it but as I stuck with the film, I understood why it’s been so highly praised. It’s often quite funny. The title guys are loveable hicks who are simple country folk and love drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon and fishing on the local lake. The college kids prove to be obnoxious and annoying, so you don’t feel bad that “accidents” began happening to them, further convincing them in error the rednecks are evil folks.

While the movie is not perfect and the last part wasn’t as great as the others, it’s just a fun and entertaining movie to watch; also, for you gorehounds, it does deliver on that front. There’s a lot of blood and guts to see. However, it’s also a nice movie as it actually has a heart and a nice relationship between two of the characters. No, Tucker & Dale don’t fall in love with each other!

I understand the movie is also out on demand in various locations. No matter how you see it, this is a good old time where you see various horror tropes get poked at. It actually does live up to the hype.

As an aside, this is the director's first feature-length film... and his mom is Sally Field! No joke.

I'll be back Friday night with a new review.

Fast Five

Fast Five (2011)

78% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 175 reviews)

Runtime: 130 minutes

Directed by: Justin Lin

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, The Rock, Joaquim de Almeida

From: Universal

Here is something I wasn’t actually expecting to see, at least not for awhile. After all, I’ve only watched the first two movies in this franchise, the first one being entertaining and the second one less so. I’m not a fan of the idea of “boy racers” goofily modifying their Honda Civics or Mitsubishis with nitrous or whatever to race each other; I’ll never understand it and that’s why for a long time now when I’ve seen a vehicle like that I say that the car was “The Fast & The Furious’ed”. Yet, when this film came out it got really strong reviews not just from critics (shockingly enough) but from action fans on various messageboards who usually don’t care for this kind of movie.

But, as AMC is doing a deal until Thursday the 6th at its IMAX joints where for only 7 bucks you can watch this, Star Trek, and Inception. Not a bad deal at all. I decided to take the plunge and watch it that way. This proved to be a wise decision.

From remembering the two movies (and reading what happened in the last one via Wikipedia) it wasn’t too difficult to follow this. This wasn’t really about cars like earlier in the series and instead this was basically a heist movie, which is fine with me. To try and not spoil too much, the familiar gang end up in Brazil and they do a job for cash. Things go awry and for revenge they go and target an evil drug dealer and his cash (de Almeida, looking like a mean Brazilian Mario Andretti); as those guys are wanted fugitives of the law, the U.S. sends some Diplomatic Security Services guys, led by Hobbs (The Rock) to get them back. All three fight with each other and its wild stuff and it’s never boring.

Overall, I have to say that while I usually don’t care for movies that go way out to be absolutely preposterous and ridiculous, in this case it’s just that this may have been the most ridiculous movie I’ve ever seen! Yet they went balls-out and due to how entertaining the cast was (I’m sure they had a blast while making this) I actually got into all the impossible things I was seeing and my brain took a vacation as I went along for the ride. At times it does feel rather long but otherwise it was a story which wasn’t boring and you ended up rooting for a bunch of people who were on the wrong side of the law.

The movie looked great in the IMAX format. To be honest, I didn’t mind looking at Gal Gadot (a very nice-looking gal, for sure) in that format either. The action was fast-paced and yet for the most part was actually easy to follow and wasn’t that shaky-cam crap. Rio (or rather, Puerto Rico standing in for Rio) looked very scenic; and of course there’s a lot of action to witness. The last 20 or 25 minutes of the movie… totally devoid of logic, but pretty amazing to watch nonetheless. I can see why a lot of action fans want to see director Lin helm big projects in the future.

I tell you, it’s obvious that there’s going to be a sixth in this franchise. Besides the outrageous amount of money it made at the box office, I did stick around to see the teaser at the end of the first part of the end credits. I understand that’s about as ridiculous as everything else, but now I’m actually looking forward to watching the sequel… and even watching all the movies in the franchise, including the third one with Sonna Chiba apparently dressing like a pimp and the oldest kid from Home Improvement.

By the way, how can I hate a movie which either as a code name or as his real name has the Korean guy named Han Seoul-Lo? Now there is a pretty awesome messageboard name for people to use.

I’ll be back probably around this time tomorrow for my next review.

Drive

Drive (2011)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Cary Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman, Albert Brooks

From: FilmDistrict

Here’s a movie I’ve been hearing a lot about this month. After some people saw it, they lost their minds and unleashed some rather strong statements about how great the movie was, calling it a classic and that sort of thing. Always a skeptic, I wasn’t sure what to think. I know that I enjoyed the 80’s motif the movie had and what I heard of the soundtrack was awesome, as it was 80’s synth pop and that’s always a good thing.

Last night I finally went and saw the movie to see if the hype was warranted. Before I get to the film itself, I have to mention that I thought I would get to see it with no problem as I went to the local Cineplex which is usually not a busy place; some other people were at the screening also and as it’s Florida, a few of those people were Troglodytes and just acted stupid. I swear that my opinion on the movie was not colored by my less than ideal experience while watching said movie.

To try and be brief, this is about a stunt car driver named Driver (Gosling) who also does some side jobs which could be called less than ethical, although he also works for a mechanic pal (Cranston) He meets up with a neighbor (Mulligan) and her young son. Her jailbird husband (Oscar Issac; for some reason his name is Standard; was he named after Standard Oil?) comes back from prison. He quickly gets himself into trouble so Driver tries to help him out to be nice to his new lady pal and her son. The fit hits the shan, and… but I don’t want to give too much else away, except that some unsavory characters are seen (Perlman and Brooks, both delivering memorable performances).

One thing I can say right away is that everyone there to see the film-me included-were quite surprised at just how violent this was. There are some REALLY graphic moments. From what I could tell, the rest of the crowd did not seem to care for how the movie turned out. Me, I had a more positive view on it although I didn’t find it to be a classic or the best movie of the year or anything of that sort.

What I did like were the performances in general. This is the first movie I’ve seen Gosling in and I was really impressed. He wore an awesome silver scorpion jacket. The story was always interesting throughout. The 80’s synth music (actually modern songs with that particular sound) was tremendous and was an asset to the film. However…

This was artsy-fartsy at times; you know, long takes, silence, and that sort of thing. At times, even I was wondering why it was taking so long to get to the point. Even I was turned off by how graphic some of the scenes were. But it has to be made clear that this is one downbeat and dour tale. I don’t have a problem with that necessarily; it’s just that you should be prepared that this is the sort of story that isn’t cheery and happy. For you Christina Hendricks fans, her role in the movie isn’t as large as her che… er, I mean as large as has been advertised.

I also had some issues with how the last 15 minutes or so turned off; I can’t really explain it without giving away big spoilers; I just thought it wasn’t as good as what preceded it. You should also note that the movie doesn’t have as many car chases as you’d think given the subject matter; it’s a shame, given that what chases you do see are well-done.

So, this isn’t something I disliked by any means. I’m sure this will end up on the list of the 10 best movies I’ve seen this year (if only because I haven’t seen as many movies as others) but this definitely isn’t the best movie I’ve seen all year, like a lot of people are thinking.

I’ll be back Sunday evening with a new review.

Friday the 13th Part III

Friday the 13th Part III (or 3-D) (1982)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Steve Miner

Starring: Dana Kimmell, Paul Kratka, Tracie Savage, Larry Zerner, Richard Brooker

From: Paramount

I decided to keep it simple last night by watching once again the 3-D version of this film. A few years ago it was finally released in that format, and even though you have to watch it with the old-school red and blue lens and it likely will screw up your vision for a few minutes afterwards, if you watch the DVD version upconverted on a Blu-Ray player, it’s not so bad; on a regular DVD player, it’s not so good but upconverted, it’s not that bad, although it is inconsistent. I hear the Blu-Ray version isn’t much better in terms of image.

Anyhow, this is a movie I’ve always enjoyed despite itself. It’s a typical Jason movie, meaning bad acting, goofy moments, implausible things, and yet at least in this case it was a fun time. If only I could see this one day on the big screen… as for the plot, it doesn’t really matter. A bunch of young people, including a girl with baggage (Kimmell), a Latina lady, a chubby nerd (Zerner), a blatant ripoff of Tommy Chong, and more end up at a rural house on Crystal Lake. Jason acquires his hockey mask and raises hell, unleashing bloody kills that use the 3-D format rather well. The movie is technically poor but in this case it don’t matter.

From the tremendously goofy and yet great theme song to the movie (an extended version can be found on YouTube) to the near-constant reminders that the film is indeed in 3-D-quite often, there are gags where stuff is hurled towards the screen-I can’t help but enjoy this. I mean, there is a trio of bikers who you see for a short amount of time, and they appear to be there only to kill time, but again I can’t hate. If only all of the movies in the series could have been like this, and if only the poor-quality movie from ’09 could have been like this too.

There are also usually some nice kills to see, which is good. I wish that the original X-rated print would have been saved for future generations like us to view, but lack of foresight ruins a lot of things, including that. But anyhow, you can go look and laugh at the fact that there’s a Wiki for this series, and you can check out the page for this movie, if you wish.

I’ll be back Wednesday night.

High Tension

High Tension (Haute Tension) (2003)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Alexandre Aja

Starring: Cecile De France, Maiwenn Le Besco, Philippe Nahon, Franck Khalfoun

From: Europa

Oh, this movie… for a long time I’ve heard about it and how it had an ending that turned people off as it was rather stupid and unnecessary. Me, I say that there are actually two twists that are likely to get people up in arms. I’ll tell you what the second twist is in a moment.

This French movie is about a pair of young ladies, Alexia (Maiwenn) and Marie (De France) who travel to the rural farm home of Marie’s family, in order to study for the weekend while experiencing peace and quiet. However, you soon see a big scary killer invade the house, and cause a lot of havoc (although some of it is REALLY preposterous to the point that it turned me off to the movie right there) and he ends up taking Marie. Alexia has to try and save her friend… and I’ll leave it right there.

I’ll give away the second twist right now, as it’s better off if you stop the movie 30 seconds before it actually ends. The final scene seems to imply that it was all a dream! What a giant middle finger to the audience that was so not needed I can only speculate as to why that was done.

I won’t give away what the first twist was; it takes place about 75 minutes in and it really changes things. I thought that the idea was actually interesting and if it would have been done well, it’d be a quality twist and it would have been something great and different for the horror scene. However, unlike many people (at least from what I’ve seen) I thought that the movie before that twist 75 minutes in, aside from some good moments and a few tense scenes, wasn’t all that great. There was the really preposterous stuff which just insulted my intelligence, and the fact that I didn’t really like any of the characters-even Alexia and Marie-is definitely a problem.

A shame, as the main idea was pretty cool and if done better I could have gotten behind some of the hype I’ve read about this throughout the years. Alas, I thought it did not come together and I really wish there wouldn’t have been so many dumb moments, especially if you think about the twist and how it makes what you saw the preceding 75 minutes rather impossible at times. As for the gore, it definitely delivers if you love seeing blood and guts on the screen. It’s just that at times I thought it was too much, that it was being done as a sick joke. I mean, it ended up getting rather ridiculous.

I’ll be back Saturday afternoon with another review.

[Rec] 2

[Rec] 2 (2009)

Runtime: 85 minutes

Directed by: Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza

Starring: Jonathan Mellor, Oscar Sanchez Zafra, Ariel Casas, Pablo Rosso

From: Filmax

Here’s the sequel to the popular Spanish “found footage” movie [Rec], which I watched and reviewed last year, and which spawned an American remake, Quarantine, which is almost identical. Now, Quarantine 2 is completely different from this movie, funnily enough.

To bring things up to speed, this movie starts 15 minutes after the first one ends; as a refresher, the first film was about a film crew from a news station that followed around the local fire department. They get called into an apartment complex and it turns out that there was a sickness there and the government sealed them in due to what the sickness was, which would cause people to become blood-crazed lunatics. Here, a SWAT team and a guy who calls himself a doctor go into the apartment complex to see what’s going on there and if there are any survivors.

My opinion on the movie… well, I got done watching it about 10 before midnight, and since then I’ve been on a messageboard bitching about it, so that says a lot right there.

Now, I should have enjoyed this movie being like Aliens to the original’s Alien. Unfortunately, I didn’t. One thing is that as the movie expands on what you found out in the first, I wished that I knew less. The creatures ended up being changed and for the worse, I say. It’s so bad it almost ruins me watching the first movie as I now know more about those creatures and what they’re all about.

Then, there’s the bitching… throughout the movie you get a LOT of bitching, arguing, crying, moaning, whining, and so forth. I mean, sure you get that in the first, but it pales in comparison to what you get here. After awhile, it just becomes tiresome. Even the SWAT team isn’t as awesome as you’d expect. To steal a quote I saw online, all of them act like Hudson in Aliens. One of him is great, but all of them? No, doesn’t work.

Unfortunately, I have to give out a spoiler here but it’s important. The four SWAT guys and the doctor aren’t the only characters you see throughout. About 40 minutes in you’re introduced to some other characters in what seems like a sidetrack that is uncomfortably shoehorned in. Those characters made the regular ones seem levelheaded and sedated in comparison, as they *really* up the ante on arguing, bitching, crying, moaning, and all that. I loathed those characters and really wish they wouldn’t have been shoehorned in.

Things pick up but then the ending, and the preceding 10 or so minutes… it’s just stupid and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Once the movie ended, I almost wanted to throw my remote at the TV in frustration. What a disappointment this turned out to be. From the plot description, it could have been awesome; aside from some moments that I DID think were well-done, it otherwise was a real letdown.

I’ll be back Thursday night (or maybe Friday morning) with a new review.

Wattstax

Wattstax (1973)

Runtime: 98 minutes

Directed by: Mel Stuart

Starring: This is a documentary, so you’ll see many performances from people on the Stax label, but there’s also soliloquies from Richard Pryor

From: Wolper Productions

Here’s a documentary I first saw on PBS a few years ago (with the cursing bleeped out) and I later tracked down on DVD. It’s not only a documentary-something I’m inclined to like-but it also features great music. It’s about the title event, held in 1972 in the huge Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum; it was presented by the Memphis-based record company Stax Records to note the anniversary of the Watts riots of ’65.

Besides all the songs you hear from the likes of Isaac Hayes, Rufus Thomas, The Staple Singers, The Bar-Kays, Luther Ingram, and others, there’s also soliloquies you get to hear from Richard Pryor where he humorously talks about a variety of things, AND you also hear various people in the area talk about the Watts riots and whether or not things were changed for the African-American or not. It’s all very interesting and you can be any race, creed or color and enjoy the discussion, laugh at what Pryor says (oh, and Isaac the Bartender from The Love Boat also appears, and a dancer you briefly get to see is Rerun from What’s Happening!!) and enjoy quality songs back when R&B music was actually good rather than the lameness most of it is now.

You also get to hear a short speech from Jesse Jackson. No matter what you think of him and his ideological beliefs, you have to laugh at the afro he sports! At least that made me laugh.

If you enjoy any of the things I mentioned above, then you should track this down. The DVD is pretty cool too, with some nice bonus stuff.

I’ll be back tomorrow night something with something new.

A Quick Bit Of Randomness

Due in part to my schedule the past few days and also due in part to me being dead tired the past few days, I’ll do one of these now and tomorrow night will be a review. It’s just that I realized after the fact there are some things to say about the recent movies I saw.

Re, Apollo 18, the movie is starting to become worse to me in the days after I saw it when I heard and read more reviews of it; yet, it also became better after I realized something that I haven’t heard anyone say yet. I know I’m going to spoil the movie, but eh, oh well, I doubt that anyone cares by this point… what causes the problems on the moon is an arachnid-like creature that hatches from certain rocks. It wasn’t until a few days later that I realized this, but I swear they ripped off that idea from an awful movie that was on Mystery Science Theater 3000! I’m referring to The Giant Spider Invasion, a terrible film about spiders from space who hatch from what looks like rocks. The fact that this movie ripped out such an idea from a movie like this… that is pretty amazing. As for the MST3K episode, it’s tremendous as they just tear apart all the trashy redneck characters you see in the movie, and as someone from Illinois, I have to laugh at the anti-Wisconsin jokes.

As for Fright Night, on a messageboard I read discussion that the original and the remake actually has homosexual subtext to it with the vampires representing homosexuality, and people “converting” has a whole different meaning to it. That’s rather interesting and if I see the remake again and when I see the original, I’ll try to view it in that way. Of course it’s interesting that the original had at least two people in the cast who happened to be gay, and at least one other who has had rumors about his true sexuality.

In terms of Giallo, there is one scene I should mention just for it being gross. The killer views photos of the woman he just brutally attacked, and from his arm motions and sounds, you can tell that he’s “pleasuring himself” to those images. Not something I needed to think about, so of course I mentioned it here.

I’ll be back tomorrow night, this time with a review.