Sunday, December 6, 2009

Slacking

Sorry to those that read this as I have been slacking for a little while as far as entries go. Honestly the movies that have been coming out as of late have pretty well looked like they sucked. The next movies I plan on reviewing are Sherlock Holmes and Avatar. Once I have a new review up Ill let everyone know.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity; a low budget no name film that was made in 2006, but is now one of the biggest movies of the fall. It seems like this movie came out of nowhere but thats not quite the case. I looked into the background of this movie and found out that is was made for virtually no money, but a very interesting fact came up in that this film was originally shown to Steven Spielberg. Mr Spielberg had the film for one night and promptly returned it to the movie studio saying that it was haunted and scarred the hell out of him.

So what is Paranormal Activity? The story follows a couple who is dealing with some ghostly presence in their house. As the story goes along we find out the the girl in the movie has been dealing with these strange experiences since she was 8 years old. The story picks up a few weeks after the activity has started again and the boyfriend has decided that he is going to use his newly purchased video camera to do his best to record these on goings in a attempt to figure out what the hell is going on. The girlfriend thinks this is a bad idea and initially wants nothing to do with it. Throughout the movie the camera is used for all of the scenes, as the camera is carried around by the main characters or sitting on its tripod filming them throughout the night.

The couple starts to experience more and more of this activity and the girl decides to try to get some help from a psychic. That is about as far as I will go into the details of the movie because to say more would start to ruin the movie for some. As you watch the film, especially the scenes shot while they are sleeping, pay close attention to the minor details such as the shadows on the door and the powder in particular.

In trying to keep this review short to not give away the details I am left thinking that if there is one scary movie to go see this is it. I have seen many "horror" and "creepy" films but this one by far takes the cake. The thing that really gets to you is the sense of vulnerability that you feel for the people as the activity takes place when they sleep. This is easily my new favorite creepy movie I have seen, as by the end I genuinely had a sense of unnerving going through my body.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Zombieland

I know that I have been lacking on the posts as of late but there has been two good reasons. For one is that there were not really any good movies coming out as of late, and for two I have had someone to hangout with that has been occupying my time in a good way. Regardless the time has come to review a movie I have been looking foward to since I first saw the previews; ZOMBIELAND!!!!

If you have yet to see the previews for Zombieland it is a movie about people who are trying to survive in a America that has been over run with zombies. The story follows the four main characters who all join the story at different times. The key thing to this movie is to follow the rules (once you see the movie you'll understand what Im talking about).

Lets start with the beginning with the the character called Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg); as the story goes on you learn that they have actual names but they use the name of the town they are from since friendships dont last to long in Z-Land. Columbus is a college kid who is trying to get back to his home town to see if his parents are still alive after the zombie plague spread across the country. Along the way he explains the way he survives in the post apocalyptic wasteland that America has become, all the while reminding us of his rules. As he travles along he meets Tallahassee (played by Woody Harrelson). Tallahassee can best be described as the one guy that you would want around in case of a zombie apocalypse, yet would hate to be friends with normally. The comedic genius between Tallahassee and Columbus is just unbelievable. The play off of each other so well with Harrelson being the loud mouth no rules type of guy and and Eisenberg being the over cautious rule following nerd that never left his house if it wasn't necessary. A little ways in they meet up with Wichita and Little Rock (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin), a set of sisters that even before the zombie takeover were a couple of con artists that would take advantage of anyone to make a quick buck. The two play there parts very well and add a lot to the story, if fact without them the story wouldn't really be anything but Columbus running around (rule 1: Cardio) and Tallahassee finding new and inovative ways to kill zombies.

The movie does have it share of gore and gratuitous violence but honestly thats part of what makes this movie so much fun. Watching the different ways they kill off the zombies is just amusing and had me cracking up most of the movie. For example how often would you see a zombie get beaten down by a banjo?

This movie could be called our country's answer to Shaun of the Dead, but with a way better ending. Within the first few minutes of this movie you will be laughing you're ass off and having a good time. One thing that real got me going was the appearance of a certain celebrity that I was completely shocked to see would do a film like this, but damn I'm glad he did since he was extremely funny. This is by far my new favorite zombie comedy and I would love to go watch it again. One last thing before I sign off until the next film is this: Always follow the rules and make sure that when the zombie plague hits make sure you have Twinkies handy since you never know who might want one.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Pandorum

Anyone that knows me knows that I like horror movies. Whether they are good or bad I like see what twisted stuff comes out of the minds of writers. Well this week Pandorum came out and watching the previews for it it seemed like the type of movie that was right up my alley. Well I was partially right on that anyways.

Pandorum follows a spaceship traveling through space to colonize a new planet for humanity. It seems we have finally got to the point where we have destroyed the earth and we need a new planet to live on. So they cram 60,000 people into a craft called a "sleeper ship". The whole idea behind this ship is that people are put into a type of deep sleep/freezing that causes them to age extremely slowly and helps store them for the type to this new planet. The trip is supposed to take 123 years and when the crew gets there they are to start colonizing and get everything ready for the rest of mankind.

The movie start up with the craft already in route to its destination and well on its way there. Two of the crew members wake up from the deep sleep to discover no one is around. The side effect of this deep sleep is that you have temporary amnesia. If everything is going right then there are people manning these pods so that when a person wakes up they can take them through the process to regain their memory. Once the two crew members are out of their pods they realize that they have no clue what is going on or where they are. Once they escape the pod room they begin to locate other crew members that are being attacked by strange creatures throughout the ship. As they fight these creatures off they start to understand the predicament that everyone is in. The creatures themselves are rather interesting as they are all different from one another. Luckily the origin of these creatures is explained as the film progresses (and no they are not aliens).

Once the film really gets going we are shown a message the crew received shortly after they left earth informing them that earth was destroyed and they are all that is left of humanity. This is shown in a flashback that reveals what is actually going on in the craft and what the truth is about everything. I wont ruin they twists in this story but they are somewhat easy to see coming if you are paying attention.

By the end of the movie I was impressed with the overall story and concept, but confused to no end about the time-line of what takes place. While the story does not jump around in time at all the sheer number of years that the crew have been living on the ship is a little confusing. While this wasn't the best horror/sci-fi movie I have seen it wasn't really all that bad.

Just a heads up I can already tell you that the next movie review will be Zombieland. Personally I think this looks like the American version of Shaun of the Dead and I am a little geeked to see it.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Inglorouis Basterds

A friend of mine sent me a message asking me to review this movie. Im not sure why I didnt do it in the original postings since I had seen it in that same time frame as the other few that first posted. I am glad he asked me to pst this review though since this is a great follow up to the end of my last post where I talked about original ideas since this is one.

This movie is exactly what this blog is all about. It is a movie made for guys that does not hold anything back. From the scalping of Nazi soldiers to the gunning down of hundreds of people this is a great guy flick that is right in the top ten of my favorite movies around.

The first thing you have to know about this movie is that it is not all about the squad known as the Inglorious Basterds (the misspelling is intentional due to Tarantino's notorious ability to constantly misspell words). The movie also follows the story of a young Jewish girl who runs a theater in France, in fact the story starts with her family hiding from the Nazi hunters in the French country side at a farm. The film as delves into a short side story about a French soldier given a special task by a French government officer (played by someone you would never see coming). By the end of the movie all 3 of the story lines come together into a amazing finish that is beyond words.

The second thing that you need to know about this film is it is done straight up "Kill Bill" style with chapters. In the first few seconds of the film you see Chapter 1 on screen and it cuts to the french country side with a man chopping wood. It almost makes you believe you are seeing part of the wrong movie. Hell you don't see Brad Pitt's team show up until about 30-45 minutes into the movie, but when they do they do with a bang. As the chapters progress you and you get closer to the final scene you begin to see how the 3 stories intertwine.

The real payoff of this movie comes from Brad Pitt's team "The Basterds" as they are called by the Germans. The team is comprised of various Jewish man looking to get revenge on the Nazi's from the acts they have committed. Of all the team members I have to say my favorite, and the favorite of most people I have talked to, was the "Bear Jew" played by Eli Roth. For people who don't know who Eli Roth is he is the director of some of the most fucked up horror movies around, such as Hostel and Hostel 2. This guy is seriously twisted in the head so for him to show up in this movie and put out a great performance makes me think he should consider a career switch. The "Bear Jew" is the one person on the team that most of the Nazi soldiers fear as he doesn't shoot people very often, instead he beats them to death with a baseball bat.

The end of the movie continues Tarantino's love of graphic violence. While I wont say anything about how the film actually ends I will say this I actually clapped at the end of this movie it was that good. Any guy out there who denies himself the chance to see this masterpiece is a nut-less coward who is afraid of truly seeing the horrors of war. On a quick final note at times the movie is actually pretty funny at times, especially the beginning of the final scene in the theater where Brad and 2 of his men decide to act as Italians even though they don't speak Italian.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

9

Im sure anyone who actually takes to time to read this blog has seen the previews for this movie (which Im pretty sure is only 2 or 3 people in the whole world). And of those people who do read this and actually know me in real life know that I have a little thing for animated movies. Well when I saw the trailer for this movie I was instantly intrigued by the premise and the style.

Lets jump right into this and explain the plot of this movie. See the movie is all about the downfall of humanity due to the invention of the worlds most advanced machines. There is a scientist who creates and machine that is basically a self automated A.I. based on the professors intelligence. The machine turns skynet on humanity and starts creating machines that are designed to eliminate all life on earth. The machines succeed in doing this but now before the original scientist that created the A.I. goes on to create the dolls that you see in the previews and that the film revolves around.

In total there are 9 dolls that are shown in the movie, each with a number in thier back shown the order in which they are created. Each of the dolls has its own personality that comes through as the movie progresses. The movie starts with the creation of 9 and just takes off from there. Within the first few minutes of the film you meet you of the films protaganist "The Beast". The Beast is a cat like mechanical creature that has a cats skull for a face. In the beginning you have no idea why the creature is hunting the dolls, although it is explained later. As the film progresses you learn more about what happened to life on earth and what the role of the dolls in the in the fight against the machines.

By the end of the film you feel for the dolls and their plight against the constant attacks from the machines. I have to admit this is one of the more original movies I have seen and recommend it to anyone and everyone as all ages can enjoy it. I can only hope that we see more films like this and "District 9" coming out of Hollywood in the coming years instead of these high budget, big name director pieces of garbage they have been pumping out.

Whiteout, should have been a Blackout

This weekend was a double feature of movies that I wanted to see so I decided since I have nothing better to do I would go watch both. Wow what a waste of time with the first movie. See I went to the theater to watch "9" but it wasnt playing again for around 3 hours, so I started trying to figure out how to waste some time before I could go see it. I had seen the previews for "Whiteout" and figured I would go see it, especially since Kate Beckinsale is hot.

I wander into the theater a few minutes before the movie started and should have known right then that the film was going to suck. The film wrapped while running through the trailers and stopped for about 5 minutes. I should have looked at this as a sign to leave, but saw it as a opportunity to get a few movie pass for "9". Once the movie started back up and we got to the feature thats when the crap started.

From the previews you see for this movie it appears to be a thriller/sci-fi movie that takes place in Antarctica. There is hints at a big twist or some unknown type of thing that is killing people off. Well niether of these is the case. The killer turns out to be someone that you realize is the bad guy within 10 minutes of the film starting. The whole time I was thinking "OK we are just being baited into thinking he is the killer and some huge twist will come along and prove us wrong"...NOPE. In the end I was sitting there thinking that this was a massive waste of time and annoyed that I had sat there for that long.

Lets talk about the special effects. The gory factor of the movie is ok with some decent cosmetic effects. The title of the movie is Whiteout so you expect some huge snow storm that adds to the story. Well there is a snow storm, the problem with it is that it doesn't add to the film it detracts from it heavily. The snow storm takes place during a big action sequence in the movie and due to the whiteout you cant see a damn thing that is going on.

My opinion is to stay away from this movie in any way that you can. Don't go see it or rent it. Hell even the "shower" scene with Kate Beckinsale in this movie was a huge disappointment. What a waste of my time, almost didn't write a review of it I was that annoyed with it.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Gamer

This weeks post is about Gamer, the new movie with Gerard Butler and Ludacris. Honestly I'm glad I don't have to write that opening sentence to often as I hate all these rapper turned actors who think they actually know what they are doing. So the basic premise of this movie is that there is a new live-action online game called Slayers in which a person controls a real live inmate in a brutal shooting game. If a inmate survives 30 matches then they are granted their freedom. Hmm this sound a lot like Death Race in which if a inmate won 30 races they are set free, coincidence or just another example of Hollywood having no real original ideals anymore?

The only real good thing I can say about this movie is that they gore level is quite high due to the exploding bodies. The idea of a real person controlling a actual contestant in a online game is cool but doesn't really have a lot to do with the movie's plot. The whole plot revolves around Micheal C. Hall's (from the show Dexter) ability to control the inmates with his mind, which thankfully is explained and isn't some X-Men type mutant power.

As is usually the case in the end the good guys win and the bad guy dies. The final shots of the film are somewhat vague as it just shows Kable (Gerard Butler) driving a truck out of a tunnel with his wife and daughter. Im guessing this means no sequel, not that we are clambering for one, but knowing Hollywood we'll probably get a sequel out of this along the lines of Scanners or some other garbage.

I know this weeks review is short but I really couldn't get into the movie that much. First it just wasn't that interesting and second my mind was elsewhere while sitting in the theater. I will say this next weekend is the release of 9. Now that movie I will be actually paying attention to since I am pretty interested just from watching the previews and the short movie that was made by the same people.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day

Normally in this blog I will be writing about movies that I have recently went and watched in the theater, this post is a definite exception to that fact. Today a trailer was released for the sequel to one of my favorite movies of all time Boondock Saints. For those of you who have never seen this movie (and if you call yourself a man you better have seen this fucking movie or better go find it as fast as possible) the basic premise of the movie is that two Irish brothers get a sign from God that killing mobsters is a good thing. Sometime later Ill post a whole review of the movie but it will probably be the most biased review a person will ever read. In any case the trailer for Boondock Saints 2 was released and I had to come and post it here. So without further ado click the link and see what the hell I'm talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if2-PYxgL50&fmt=22

Oh and thank you Heather for posting the link on you facebook page

Sunday, August 30, 2009

District 9

A few weeks back I went and watch District 9 and it was honestly one of the better movies I have seen in a long time. For those who have seen the previews but have no clue what this movie is about let me explain. in the early 80's a spaceship filled with aliens in flying past earth when it runs out of fuel. The ship comes to a stop over Johannesburg, South Africa. After sitting in the air for a good while the world's governments finally decide that we need to know why they are here and send up some crews to open the ship and see what is going on in the ship. The aliens on board are emaciated and dying. It is decided that the aliens will be given a place to live in South Africa in a area called District 9. As time passes the people that originally lived in the area have had enough of the aliens for various reasons and want them gone. Multinational United (a fictional agency in charge of the aliens) are tasked with moving the aliens from District 9 to the new District 10, this is where the movie starts.

While the movie is slow at times the story is engrossing and by the end you feel for the plight of these aliens and how they are treated. One thing that I loved about this movie was the cut in interviews of people commenting about how they want these unwelcome visitors gone and how they are disrupting their lives. As I later found out all of these interviews are real interviews with people that actually live in the slums shown in the movie and are about the black south Africans commenting about the black Nigerians and Zimbabweans that had come to their area. Gives the film a real deep feeling of hatred that the people feel about the outsiders, in this case the aliens, living among them.

The main actor in this movie is someone that I personally have never seen in anything I have ever watched, yet he blew me away with his performance. As times progress things breakdown for him and he conveys every bit of that breakdown through his actions and behaviors.

Finally I wanted to make a comment on Neill Blomkamp. This is his first big directing gig and he did a phenomenal job. This movie originally started out and the pre-shoot for the Halo movie but the studio pulled the plug. So Peter Jackson came along and told Neill we are already here lets just make a movie regardless and boy am I glad they did. This was a great breakthrough directing gig and puts Blomkamp on the map as far as I am concerned.

Halloween 2

Went and watched Halloween 2 and I have to say: WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? Now to understand where I coming from with that statement you have to know that I enjoyed the first Halloween remake from Rob Zombie and expected something similar in this installment. I could not have been more wrong. This movie was a fucking mind-trip that made no sense what so ever. When someone thinks of Michael Myers it conjures images of a unstoppable killer along the lines of Jason or Freddy. In the first film that exactly what we got, once we got past the initial telling of his childhood that is. In this one we basically get a homeless guy wandering across the country following a white horse and his dead mother. You would think that we would at least get him killing people everywhere like the first film, but again no. All in all I can only think of 12 people that get killed in this movie (2 of which never actually occurred). In the end I was severely disappointed in this piece of crap and wonder how high Rob Zombie was when he made this.

Next week I should have a review of Gamer up since that looks like the only thing worth watching.

The Whole Point

Some people may wonder why I decided to start this blog. The whole reason behind this is to review the movies I go watch. You see almost every weekend I go out and watch some movie in the theater that looks good in my opinion. The types of movies I watch are not always what you would call the best movies out there. I like everything from the deep stories right down to the cheesiest, corniest stuff you can think of. Now the problem I have is that I always see movie reviews from actual critics that pan nearly everything I like. Why is it that these so called critics have to take everything so seriously. I swear none of them can accept a funny movie for what it is; something to entertain people without them having to think about every single little thing that has occurred in the film? For example Happy Madison was completely tore apart for its corny jokes and crude humor. Yet to this day it is one of those movies that a person can just sit down and watch anytime even though they know damn near every line in the movie.

I digress, what you will find on this page is my honest review of the new movies that come out that I have actually taken the time to go watch. I will try to spoil as little of the movie as possible when reviewing them but I will also not pull any punches what so ever as far as my opinions go. I hope you enjoy and if you disagree with my opinion than leave a comment and tell people why, but don't be an ass about it.