Annabelle

Annabelle (2014)

29% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 119 reviews)

Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: John R. Leonetti

Starring: Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton, Tony Amendola, Alfre Woodard, Eric Ladin

From: Warner Bros./New Line Cinema

Even though I heard from most people that this was awful, I still took the chance on renting it for streaming. Well... it's not the worst horror movie I had ever seen... I explain why in my Letterboxd review below why this was still bad:

To be honest, the main reason why I watched this is not that I expected this to be good, although there have been horror films I've liked more than the general public does. Rather, it's to mention that at one time I saw Robert the Doll, another famous haunted doll. It resides in a museum in Key West, Florida. I saw it in person almost 10 years ago. One big thing is that you're supposed to ask it for permission before you take its picture; really. I didn't do that as I didn't believe. Well, a little later during my time down there, I visited Biscayne National Park (it's south of Miami) and I tried to visit an island in the park that's only accessible by boat. Well, the one boat suddenly did not work so I was out of luck... some crappy luck has happened to me since then but it's just fate which caused it, and if that doll DID do anything (which I don't think it did), I can live with it trolling me by not letting me visit an island... at least everyone got back the money they paid to go there.

And yes I have heard that some people in the UK made an obvious Annabelle clone called Robert and it's a howlingly bad take on the legend of Robert the Doll and it makes this movie look like The Conjuring in comparison.

But anyhow, onto this film. It's a prequel and a spinoff of The Conjuring, where we follow the famous real life doll Annabelle and even before those young nursing students got it, it belonged to a young couple in swingin' 1969 Southern California; an incident happens where the newly acquired doll gets possessed by Annabelle Higgins, which fits the mythology of the real life doll but rather loosely. After all, it was a random little girl with that name who is said to haunt the doll and not the wacky woman in a cult who bled on it and apparently from that cursed it. Hell, the real life doll is a Raggedy Ann doll and not the creepy as hell porcelain doll that is in those movies; one of the many problems with this is that Mia the female lead loves dolls so she gets that one as a gift... it was absurd that she loved it right away as even before it was cursed it looked real creepy; after it's cursed and its appearance is more horrid, she still loves it and it becomes laughable.

To me the biggest problem with this movie is that what The Conjuring gets right, this gets wrong. I suppose that's what happens when you go from James Wan to a director whose only previous major film was the legendary Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. John R. Leonetti should stick with cinematography, as that at least looked fine here and that's what he usually does on films. The jump scares are lame and predictable. You don't really care about the lead couple; the most I can say about them is that I found it greatly amusing the lead actress's name in real life is Annabelle. You don't really care about what's going on with the story as it's all so silly. Really, there's no need to ever see this. Sure, there's some unintentional laughs and I shook my head when I saw that the movie credited its usage of the Spiral Starecase song More Today Than Yesterday and said that the band was “Spiral Staircase”... but otherwise this is just lame, and something where they use an obvious Rosemary's Baby reference and it reminds you that you'd be better off watching Rosemary's Baby instead.

Aside from some sort of creepy moments, this was as bad as I had heard most people say it was; talk about disappointing, considering how surprisingly great The Conjuring turned out to be.

The Hollywood Revue Of 1929

The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)

Runtime: 116 minutes

Directed by: Charles Reisner

Starring: Pretty much all of the talent under contract to MGM at the time, who were the ones that made this

This is a now obscure movie I saw late last night. I talk about it in my Letterboxd review below:

Back in September of '14 I saw The Show of Shows, a 1929 variety show by Warner Brothers which was 2 hours of most of the talent they had on contract doing a variety of skits and musical numbers, mainly to demonstrate the then new-fangled invention of “talkie pictures”. MGM was the first to do this and to show that this trend always existed in Hollywood, the other studios stole this idea and did their version. As this is hard to track down I couldn't turn down the chance to see it on TCM late last night, as that's how I also saw The Show of Shows.

As previously mentioned, this is a variety show with no plot to speak of. There are musical numbers, comedy bits, an acrobatic scene and a spoof of a dramatic scene with Norma Shearer & silent film star John Gilbert. The cast definitely is impressive considering those famous at the time and those who would be famous later: Joan Crawford, Bessie Love, Laurel and Hardy in their first sound film appearance, Marion Davies, Buster Keaton, & Marie Dressler, to list but a few people. It was hosted by Conrad Nagel and Jack Benny.

As expected, it's a mixed bag, with some bits and songs better than others. It's not the greatness that you'd see in those frothy musicals from the past, especially from MGM. At least the songs and choreography from all the dancers was fine. Still, even if I rate it average I am glad that I saw it and at least it's watchable. The highlights to me were seeing Laurel & Hardy in action, Buster Keaton pratfalling, the wonderous trio of Love, Dressler & Polly Moran, and the first time Singin' in the Rain was ever heard in a movie. There are also three segments that were in an early form of Technicolor.

While it's not a must-see in 2016, at the time I understand it was popular with both critics and the audience; that's probably why it got a Best Picture nomination, which does seem a little silly now.

The Conjuring Is Still Great

I finally saw that for a second time last night. The first time it was a less than ideal screening where there were too many idiots around. Now that I have given it another watch, I can say it's still great and I may go see the sequel on Thursday night, and I'll review it on Friday.

I Saw The Devil

I Saw The Devil (Ang-Ma-Reul Bo-At-Da) (2010)

Runtime: 142 minutes

Directed by: Kim Jee-Woon

Starring: Byung-Hun Lee, Min-Sik Choi, In-Seo Kim, Ho-Jin Chun, Joon-Hyeok Lee

From: Several South Korean companies

This will be gone from Netflix Instant in a few days, so I finally watched it; it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to experience, yet I can say it's great. I explain why below in my Letterboxd review:

I've known about this movie for a long while now, but as I know it wouldn't be an easy watch that's why I put off watching it; however, it will be gone from Netflix Instant on the 9th so I knew this had to be the time for viewing. I am not sure I want to put myself through the experience of watching this again... yet I can say it is great.

I am sure most are familiar with the plot of how a serial killer murders a young lady who happens to be the fiancee of someone who was in the South Korean version of the CIA; he decides to get revenge, but once he tracks him down, his idea of revenge is not killing him right away but instead constantly tormenting him, leading to a good number of incredibly tense and suspenseful sequences.

Like I said, this was not an easy watch; it's still of a very high quality. The performances from the two leads is quality and so is such things as direction, cinematography-the movie is very beautiful to look at-shot selection, and music. What makes this have a deservedly high reputation is that you are left to make up your own mind about the journey that the protagonist (Soo-Hyun) goes on and you can decide when or if he crosses the line and if he acts as terribly as serial killer Kyung-Chul; certainly, Soo-Hyun's actions started to affect his loved ones and he did not see the repercussions of what he was doing. I admit that some elements were a little on the far-fetched side, but I decided to let it slide and enjoy this & the themes it was presenting.

The best compliment I can think to give this movie is that despite how graphic it was, how many gross scenes were present, and how much of it is from the point of view of Kyung-Chul, I always found this super compelling and even if I had to look away a few times from the brutality, I was never turned off or made mad. This definitely isn't for everyone; those of you that can stomach this, though, this is a must-see. I have enjoyed all of Kim Jee-Woon's films and I'll see the rest in the future.

Mystics In Bali

Mysticsin Bali (1981)

Runtime: The version I saw was 81 minutes long

Directed by: H. Tjut Djalil

Starring: Ilona Agate Bastian, Yos Santo, Sofia W.D., W.D. Mochtar and people with names like Dis I Gusti Ngurah Lanang Jugutkarana

From: Pusut Perusahaan Film/Video Tape Corp.

I... I... what can you say about this infamous movie, except that it's easy to see why it became a cult favorite? It's on Amazon Instant Video for free if you have Prime! Really. I explain it all below via my Letterboxd review:

Yes... this infamous horror movie from Indonesia (made with an Australian company and this was somehow supposed to be made with a Western audience in mind; no surprise that when something with such a bizarre plot came out, distributors did not rush to the country for product to export) is actually on Amazon Instant Video, and if you have Prime it is for free, and if not it's only a dollar rental. That version is only 81 minutes long and there apparently is a version a little longer out there... what I saw was enough for me!

It revolves around the Leyak (i.e. Leak), an actual Indonesian mythological figure where at night the head actually does fly around with the spine and entrails still attached, as the movie demonstrates; in addition, they do look for pregnant women so they can have the blood of a baby; telling the world of your unique mythology is one thing... but maybe something not so strange to most people would have been better.... I can't say if in the mythology the evil queen constantly laughs maniacally, as is shown in the film.

Anyhow, this is about an American (or Australian, depending on which subbed/dubbed version you see; the actress is definitely Eastern European between her name and her-ahem-grooming habits) woman who has an Indonesian boyfriend. She has written books on all sorts of black magic and she wishes to research the Leak; despite some obvious warning signs she does this, and as I already explained, that was a horrible mistake. I won't mention all the weird crap throughout as I want people to be as shocked as I was that this was even more demented and crazed than I had expected.

Technically, the movie is pretty bad in terms of such concepts as direction, cinematography and pacing, and ooh boy, those special effects are charmingly primitive. Yet for sheer entertainment value this is great. The movie made me laugh often, that is for sure, as I was surprised often at the lunacy I was seeing. Rating it as average seems like the most appropriate thing to do. However, if you enjoy cult cinema-especially of the strange kind-then this is a must-see.

iTunes And Movies

Don't ever mix the two. Last night I tried to rent something from there and it was a disaster all around. I won't go into all that went wrong, but I never actually watched what I rented. The whole system is not intuitive at all and that's the biggest problem, but it turns out that instead of streaming like everyone else does, even if you are renting you still have to download the movie! What sense does it make? It never fully downloaded so no flick for me. 

Then again I shouldn't be surprised as I've had numerous problems with Apple and its products before, mainly because nothing is ever intuitive; why in the hell Apple is so beloved-especially considering its overpriced products-is beyond my comprehension. At least I'll have a film to watch tonight.

Halloween: Resurrection

Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Rick Rosenthal

Starring: Bianca Kajlich, Sean Patrick Thomas, Busta Rhymes, Daisy McCrackin, Luke Kirby

From: Dimension Films

This is a movie with a very bad reputation. Somehow, I did not hate it. I'll never call it good by any means, but I did note hate it. Let me explain why in my Letterboxd review copied and pasted below:

I figured I should finish off my long weekend of movie watching (which did not go as planned but circumstances beyond my control happened) by watching this movie immediately after Halloween H20 late Monday night, as it was only the natural thing to do. It'll definitely be a long while before I feel like seeing the Rob Zombieween films, as those have toxic reputations. Then again, so does this movie. It certainly starts off on the wrong foot.

I always heard this was putrid and I did try to go in this with an open mind, but after that opening scene at the sanitarium where Jamie Lee Curtis delivers a less than memorable performance, the retcon they did makes absolute ZERO sense if you know what happens at the end of H20, then how that scene ends and something huge happens to legendary figure Laurie Strode and that moment is just ineptly done all around. It even has a “kiss” as an attempt to get an MTV Movie Award (I swear this is true; the director said as much)... not a good way to start this off. Yet, after that a lot of the movie wasn't as painful as I expected it to be.

I do have to admit that the general plot does seem ahead of its time. It's based off of reality TV years before it (unfortunately) became really popular, and this was years before you had those terrible “ghost reality shows” like Ghost Hunters, Paranormal State, Ghostly Encounters, and all that other fake crap (this movie was ahead of its time in saying that this crap was fake)... then there's the conceit of spending a night in the house of Michael Myers and everyone has a webcam on them as it's being broadcast on the Internet... that sounds like the making of a found footage movie, and note that I never want to see a found footage Halloween and if this had been found footage it would not have been any better.

Also, I am amused that this was supposed to come out late 2001 (before the dreaded reshoots happened; I understand there's plenty of deleted footage floating around) and I remember distinctly to that time... web broadcasts weren't common as many people still didn't have broadband at the time. In attention, there actually were some nice touches, such as people at a party becoming more and more interested in the web broadcast.

As for the story, it's pretty silly, to put it kindly. Credulity is strained at least a few times by various preposterous things or discoveries. Discovering that there's a dungeon below the basement in the Myers house is quite the revelation. Some of the acting is not great and most everything involving Busta Rhymes... yikes. Him interacting with Myers usually did not do Michael any favors, especially that ending. Other than the really bad moments I already mentioned, I thought this was at least great to laugh at and sometimes with. It was a change from the dull H20, even though I rate it the same as that.

I know that people were excited at the time that the director of Halloween 2 came back to the franchise to lead this; afterwards... it made you wonder how much of an influence Carpenter had on Halloween 2. Point is, this harmed the franchise and that's why Rob Zombie ended up with it, which I know many think is the worst of all the bad things that happened to this franchise. Even with Busta doing martial arts on Michael Myers, I somehow did not loathe this.