Devil, it was pretty good!

Definitely it had potential...mainly the camera work was interesting but the excessive length of the film (almost 150 minutes!) made it annoyingly dull.

Outcast (2010)

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Bit slow paced but pretty interesting & well made. Liked it.

>>: B+

Headhunter: The Assessment Weekend (2010)

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>>: C-

Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010)

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A nice teen-action film from Australia which is based on the first book (of the same name) from a novel series. Overall I found it pretty entertaining where the main event of the story shows a high-intensity invasion and occupation of Australia by an unknown single or a group of foreign powers (:D).

>>: B+

I really liked Outcast - I thought it was pretty original.

And Soon the Darkness (1970). Moped menace. It's really fun to say, and even more fun to watch. I have always thought of mopeds as that form of transportation that removes any sense of threat from its rider, but And Soon the Darkness has breathed some unlikely dread into this little vehicle identified more with fat girls than murderous mayhem.

This English gem starts out nice and slow, and perfectly so. What a beautiful day for a bike ride. But as the title suggests, this ride quickly turns murky. And the barrage of information that follows only serves to create more and more distrust. Each character becomes more threatening, suspicious, and distantly foreign. Language becomes more a weapon than a vehicle for comprehension.

The acting was indeed splendid. As the lead, Pamela Franklin accomplishes more with her expressions than her misunderstood English could ever hope to do, even if she was amongst the English speaking set. Mystery man Sandor Elès instills a perfectly misunderstandable motive, solidifying a policy that none should be trusted.

The direction was stellar. The creation of a world where nothing makes sense, where the more we know the more confused we are, and where every new character is suspect, could have easily been off-putting in lesser hands. Every scene serves to fuel our imagination's sense of dread that only master of horror can accomplish without, at least without a guy in a green slime suit. But Robert Fuest handles the mystery with a deft hand, resulting in a movie classic fueled by the mistrust of foreigners.

The use of sound was biting, and the acutely creepy moments were amplified by sounds that would have left Hitchcock in a flurry. The camera work was ambitious and appropriately so, not so much recording events but spying on its touristy prey.

In an end that is not overly predictable , our worst fears are confirmed more in the groping ickiness of these filthy foreigners than in the origin of the horrors. And if creepy was the contest here, then freaky farmer guy gets the top honors. Just the thought of that guy's family life is enough fodder for a week of nightmares. Even so, I still want his hat. Merci.
d

"Two Mules For Sister Sara" (1970)
-Clint Eastwood, Shirley McClaine

Plot: IMDB
Set in Mexico, a nun called Sara is rescued from three cowboys by Hogan, who is on his way to do some reconnaissance, for a future mission to capture a French fort. The French are chasing Sara, but not for the reasons she tells Hogan, so he decides to help her in return for information about the fort defences. Inevitably the two become good friends but Sara has a secret..

Phantom's Review: Fun action filled western adventure. The film has kind of a spaghetti western feel about it although not quite as violent. Very enjoyable.

CYRUS: Excellent flick. How can you go wrong with John C Reilly and Marisa Tomai? Plus for once Jonah Hill didn't disgust me.

THE PONDER HEART: A very hard to find Hallmark movie. I bought it because Angela Bettis was in it. But, this is a great made for tv flcik. Much funnier then the norm. Excellent lead performance by Peter MacNicol. If you saw his face, you'd go "Oh him".

Five copies for sale at Amazon....Hmmm... not THAT hard to find, I guess...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...heart&x=8&y=13

Harlem Nights.... Funny every time. Never gets old.

Not really horror (or anything for that matter)
it was "BURIED"........don't waste money or time on it.

True Lies.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)

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Few days ago after watching 80's American slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night for the first time, I was thinking this would be another new take on Slasher-Santa kind of story. But I was completely wrong. This is a very original & interesting Dark-horror-comedy from Finland. My suggestion...when you're going to watch this film please don't try to predict the story or expect too much from it. This is definitely a good movie with a nice cast, great production value & sharp direction. The thing is for the first two-third of the film the way it build up the kind of hype (like in the creature feature or monster films) and left me waiting for a big-bloody-climax...that ultimately never arrives. But the ending wasn't disappointing at all which was rather pretty amusing also. May be it wasn't up to it's full potential but still I must say you won't be disappointed to see a very original & funny take on the dark side of Father Christmas.

>>: A-

The Last Exorcism (2010). Ambiguous is that person sitting across from me on the bus. Ambiguous is the origin of the meat in this here hillbilly pot pie. Ambiguous is my interest in my new 18 y/o neighbor. Ambiguous is not, on the other hand, the ending of The Last Exorcism, unless of course you are one of those rare people that suffers from anti-imagination complex.

Now if you hate docu-horrors, then stay away. You will hate this film. And that's fine. But that does not make this a bad movie, just a bad movie for you. My guess is that this film suffers from another complex, over-hyped post-production malaise. Nothing kills a movie more than an avalanche of media hype. But alas, where am I going with all of this? No idea really.

The story itself was actually pretty original. Heck of a time to be getting out of the business though. I rather enjoyed the way the story didn't fall prey to the normal patterns, but rather thrust and parried its way to its ending. It gave just enough details to make for a plausible ending, but still ended in a twisty, read not ambiguous, fashion.

The acting was pretty solid all around. Patrick Fabian was a treat to watch. I loved how his capacity to ridicule built slowly and surely, starting out as a nice guy but ending as a lovable prick. The rest of the cast was adept as well. I thought the son was exceptionally slimy. Some of their choices of action were laughable, but what horror flick exhibits characters that do right by reality and just turn tail at the first opportunity? Camera guy and sound chick really should have made good on their fears and fled, but then again that would have been the end of the flick.

Another word on the ending, hopefully without giving anything away. Yeah, it was a tad cheesy, a bit contrived, and the character's choices were a little less than genuine. I know that I would have been less than courageous given the circumstances. But to call the ending ambiguous and lazy- I don't think so. It made perfect sense and was even connected to earlier events. If you want to hate this movie, fine, and if you didn't understand the ending then, well, I can't help ya there. Sounds like someone needs some Ginko.

Thankfully moving on, that camera was pretty shaky, but it really seemed to give this flick a more authentic feel. The direction and other technicalities did their job and made for an authentic feeling movie. What did not work, at least in effecting a sense of authenticity, was the score. How in the heck did that music get there in the first place. Had Satan been involved I am sure that there would have been some rather different choices of music. Other than that the score worked fine.

Overall this was a fun horror entry for this emerging genre, which I thought had been born and then died with Blair Witch. I am now convinced that there will still be a messy plethora of bad, and maybe a couple more good, shaky camera horror flicks to watch and then dis. Merci.
d

Labyrinth. Ah, Jim Henson really knew what he was doing.

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Really good stuff...


FIXED.

Can't see that image... and I can't fix it either... I think because there are *** in the url.

Those are cheap too. When I bought it years ago I paid like $25 for a vhs. Well worth it though.

Four Lions: Written and directed by Chris Morris. Brilliantly funny, provocative story of a group of British Islamist terrorists. I'm not sure how well this would translate to an American audiance, but for anyone who enjoys British comedy and can deal with sensetive subject matter this is a must watch movie.

Yeh that one was a great watch. Been thrashing Motorhead since I watched it :D

Dying to see this. wonder when it comes out around these parts.

Look what I got btw. cant even begin to explain how stoked I am.
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I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
I Spit on Your Grave (2010)

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Last night gave a watch to the original again just before watching the remake. And this time Meir Zarchi's original film liked even more than the last time when I first saw it few years back. A simple story with a subtle horror of rape & revenge at a cabin in the woods. As usually you can guess it right that the remake tried to highlight more shock & gore value than the original. The rape scenes weren't that much explicit like in the original and before that the humiliation/beginning part was fine enough. But the revenge-torture parts of the film tells that before even planning for a remake of the 1978 ISOYG, it seems they first came up with the ideas about some distinctive ways of torture. So as a stand alone film it is not a bad entry in the realm of today's torture-gore flicks. But still this is a remake where the characters appeared with the same name as they were in the original (btw, here's they added an extra character who played a Major part throughout the movie) and there wasn't any scene like Johnny's penis cut-off part in the bathroom like the way Zarchi filmed in his original and last but not the least here's the main lead (though she tried her best but ) couldn't able came close to Camille Keaton.

Original-->>: B+

Remake-->: B-

I saw Motorhead open for Black Sabbath with Dio on vocals at Roseland years ago. Amazing show.

Green Zone


A very good, modern war flick. Matt Damon does well as chief warrant officer Miller on his pointless search for WMD in Iraq. Slick action sequences and solid political wrangling plot holding it together. Good film.

sin city :D

TOKYO GORE POLICE


F U B A R


in a really good way

Night of the Comet (1984). The 80s were a confusing time. Night of the Comet serves as an embarrassing reminder that I was not in a coma when argyle socks and horrible hair were in. But this fine flick is more than a cheesy zombie offering with its hooks firmly entrenched in a past that has earned millions for psychologists. Many have claimed this to be a tribute to schlocky sci-fi of the 50s and 60s. But more than that, it takes a circuitous route in the exploration of loneliness and isolation, weaving it seamlessly into this apparent zombie parody. Pretty neat.

The story appeared as a loose affair but was actually pretty tight. Though there were a couple of times that it lagged a bit, calling into question just what was I doing watching such silliness, Sam's incredibly biting valley girl dialog would remind me of how much fun I was having. Things really don't heat up until the third act, but a bundle of fun is to be had from here on out.

The acting, while not the greatest ever, would not have worked had it been better than it was. My guess is that the actors were almost held back from exhibiting their acting prowess to keep the feel of Comet from getting away from itself. That said, there was never a cringe-worthy moment elicited from the cast, and maybe their restraint is more a testament to their abilities.

The direction was solid as well. But what really caught my eye was the camera work. Where the rest of the talent felt appropriately in check, the photography was allowed to really shine, and not in that "hey look at me and how great I am with my camera" kinda way. Shot compositions were expertly framed to exact just the right psychological response from the viewer but sans the ego obtrusively butting in for obnoxious approval. Not that I am against that sort of thing, but here it would have been inappropriate. My guess is that the director's hand played a large part influencing the cinematographer's hand. Either way it works and we the viewers are the clear winners.

In the end, Comet is End of the World fun that can be enjoyed for both its schlocky simplicity or its cryptic profundity. Merci.
d

Wait... argyle socks are not in??

Green Hornet.
Never heard the radio show, never saw the show...so I'm not too sure how it compares. Though it was a pretty decent movie, fun to watch...and I really liked the image conscious "nice guy but bad guy" villain. Not a bad origin story, some pretty funny banter between the leads. Cool action scenes, and a fight between the leads that was funny to watch and not quite as one sided as I'd have expected. Cool music, the whole thing felt a little Gotham-esque, and yeah...who wouldn't love the car?
I wasn't actually wanting to see this movie at all...but, I ended up enjoying it.
But seriously, 3d needs work still.

True Grit
Again, never saw the original...actually, I don't think I've ever seen John Wayne film at all, not being a western enthusiast, it's understandable I suppose (although the Shootist had an interesting premise from what I know) but yeah, never have seen him in a film.
I really liked this new version though, it felt authentic enough and well, couldn't find too much fault with anyones acting - as I understand it, this was the girls first big acting job, if so, I'll look forward to seeing her in future, she carried herself VERY well for a kid of her age.
Bridges was solid as always (and FUNNY...could it be? was John Wayne actually FUNNY?:confused: ?), Damon was...different...but good.
The whole thing felt pretty authentic, not that I would know.
The tale was simple, yet I found it enthralling and I enjoyed taking it all in.
I'd recommend it to western enthusiasts (nitpick they may?) and those who haven't seen many alike. It's just a damn solid film regardless of genre.

The Green Hornet (2011)

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Yeah...the car was super cool but I think Seth Rogen turned it bit excessively funny.

>>: B

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F (2010)

A slow burn Britt school campus slasher where they didn't reveal the killer(s) at the end.

>>: C+

Rammbock aka Siege of the Dead (2010)

A pretty nice zombie film from Germany with a decent cast, good characterization and a simple story where an ordinary man...Michael comes to Berlin to seek his ex-girlfriend Gabi, and just after entering into her small apartment complex he faces head to head with an unknown outbreak that turns people into zombies!

>>: A-

Chain Letter (2010)

Crap story with a terrible script.

>>: D+

Die (2010)

>>: C

My Soul to Take (2010)

Yeah..it was very clichéd, typical, there's nothing new and a pretty weak entry in compare to Craven's any of the earlier masterpieces but still I quite enjoyed it overall.

>>: B+

Didn't we recently have a spammer who said that was the best horror movie ever? lol

the sixth sense
unbreakable

The Wrestler.
First time viewing. Personally I think maybe the acclaim was heaped onto this one a bit thick, but hey, it was well rounded, entertaining with pretty solid performances throughout.

Devil (2010). It's no coincidence that I always seem to be on the elevator when it is inhabited by a beautiful chick, but that is more due to stalking than the supernatural. This movie's titular antihero is ostensibly on holiday, and his hobbies, coupled with a love of coincidence, make for great horror fare. Devil is a simple story that offers nothing new to the genre, but who says that each and every movie to come out must contain some riveting new cinematic expanse?

The story, simple though it was, worked due to its tightly knit plot. Though we are given the pretense that this is to be a supernatural thriller, and the omniscient narrator has all but confirmed this, there is just enough room for doubt as to the origins of Devil's confined tragedies. And although the denouement should have been seen a mile away, it pops out onto the scene as a welcomed twist, paving the way to an ending that might have been epic.

The direction was splendid, coming from that guy that gave us Quarantine, a creepy little number that stole its puissance almost scene for scene from the Spanish original. Here he proves that his skills are not only derived through cinematic thievery. When darkness falls, he smartly let's our imaginations do the dirty work, and the result is genuinely frightening, even when there is not much effort in guessing who's next on the victim list.

The opening cinematography was fantastic, hinting that this flick is about to turn our world's upside down. Once the story got going, for all we knew, the camera was held by the Devil himself, nefariously pinpointing his shopping list of souls. For the remainder, the camera deftly captured each moment with aplomb, almost as if after having proved his skills, Mr. camera guy was simply keen on helping to reveal the story.

The score was used to really set the tone in the beginning, which left me worried that the remainder of this film would be a disheartening ballet of score scares. Thankfully this prediction fell flat, and though sound itself played a great role in getting the goosebumps to rise, the score simply did its job, sharing in the work without dominating it.

In sum this was a tight little thriller whose only bald spot was its ending. And even though this last impression seemed a lame and safe bet for the masses, such a detraction is not enough to gloss over this crafty flick written and luckily NOT directed by Shyamalan. Merci.
d

Shutter Island - An excellent movie although it did drag for about 15 minutes in the middle. Martin Scorsese really elevates himself to M Night Shymalan's smart arse levels with this. Typically brilliant acting by Leonardo DiCaprio, really tense atmosphere throughout and the sort of ending that really gets you thinking.

The Decent 2
entertaining, but the blood etc. looked really fake

"High Plains Drifter" (1973)
-Clint Eastwood

Violent tale of revenge with Eastwood perfectly playing his trademark role of "The Mysterious stranger". Heavily influenced by the Sergio Leone/Spaghetti westerns of the time. A classic of it's kind and one of my all time favorite Eastwood movies.

Who Can Kill a Child? (1976). Not the most charming title ever, if you don't like it then you can choose from the twenty or so other titles that occasionally adorn this classic 70s horror flick. The opening credits are similarly without charm, combining the silly giggles of playful children with horrifying footage of the carnage of war of whose obvious focus is on the children. Heart wrenching for sure, this beginning is both important to the story, for its foreboding imagery establishes a sort of motive, and also a warning for the viewer-the following may not be pretty.

The imagery of the story's onset betrays the the festive atmosphere that our protagonists are swimmingly engulfed in. Our love of fireworks, explosions of light and sound, belies the real meaning of these party favors, man's celebration of martial carnage in his drive for glory. And such worship is not to remain without just rewards. The story then moves to one of building questions. What is happening, why is this happening, oh good god how can this get any worse? The movie, as if listening, is more than happy to answer only this last question, with aplomb of course. It is only when the unthinkable is finally addressed that this relentless thriller finally comes to a close, but this grim ending only pricks the darker fathoms of our imaginations-how lovely.

The acting seemed a little cheesy at first, serving to lower my guard as if to administer even greater psychological damage when the sandpaper's grit finally grinds home. The use of little known actors was probably a monetary choice, but it worked wonders in that no expectations are available when the moment of truth arrives.

The direction is perfectly handled. This slow burner would not have worked had any sense of speed been applied to the plot. The impending sense that something is askew is adroitly executed, suitable to the greatest of horror flicks of whose honors list this must be included.

Collusion between director and cinematography must have been thick. From the DP that gave us Volver, the camera operates perfectly, with slowly drawn out pans that are brilliantly interrupted, psychologically discomfiting camera angles, a jittery camera that implies emotions of which words seem powerless, and my favorite, the scene of a character's slow demise as they are sucked below the surface of life using a shoulder as an ocean of death that is greedy for even more deadly summons.

Even the score was a hint left of right, not entirely unjustified, but suitable for distributing the slightest tweaks of a suddenly vulnerable spinal cord.

In the end, of all the macabre horrors just witnessed, of all the disturbing imagery that is lightly zapped into our psyches, most troubling of all is that we can no longer be thereabouts when an innocent's pinata is about to experience its climax. Merci.
D

The Town and The Social Network... Again.

2001 Maniacs: Field Of Screams

Utter shit. Enjoyed the first one and was looking forward to seeing Bill Mosely tear it up but fucking hell this was inept.

My Soul To Take

It starts out with a bang but never achieves the effectiveness of the opening. The killer just wasn't very effective or memorable and this flick is basically Scream without all the self reflexive cinema bullshit... there's a dash of Shocker in there too. I thought the characters were well crafted and likeable/similar in tone to the Elm St kids which I haven't struck in a modern era of this type for a long time. A flawed film but still enjoyable nonetheless. I think this will be a minor cult hit for the teenage market once it hits DVD (perhaps a gateway flick to those sick of Twilight) but those more well versed in horror have seen it all before. This has been universally trashed and a lot of the reviews have made me laugh with all the "How could the guy who made [insert classic title here] have made this" comments. Craven has always been patchy right from the get go so save your fallen master bullshit...