Just Watched Movies: 2009

[slayrrr666]

Oh, rats. I'll look it up on IMDb, I might recognize them since I'm good with faces and names. Thanks though.

Apt Pupil-See thoughts in Movie Genre thread.

[Heineken Skywalker]

GETTYSBURG (1993)

Recreates the events surrounding the three day battle in the Civil War, which was a major turning point. It highlights the fight for Little Round Top and Pickett's Charge, and is shown from the perspectives of both sides.
Using Civil War re-enactors and filming in locations where the battles were actually fought definitely adds an air of authenticity.
Jeff Daniels is very impressive as Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, and Tom Berenger, in his best performance since PLATOON, is very good as Lt. Gen. James Longstreet.
Martin Sheen plays Gen. Robert E. Lee, and while he's pretty good, I think that Robert Duvall actually did a better job when he took over the role for the prequel GODS AND GENERALS, which was released 10 years later.

It's about 4 and a half hours long so you'd probably love it, Slayrrr.

7.5/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

UNKNOWN (2006)

Five men wake up in a secluded warehouse with no memory of each other or of themselves. They are bruised and beaten, and a couple of them are restrained. They also soon realize that they are locked up inside the warehouse with no means of escape. As bits and pieces of their memories return, they, and the audience, try to figure out who they are, why they are there, and if all of their lives are in danger.
There is also a subplot, which holds clues to the main story, about a kidnapping and the dropping off of ransom money.

Low-budget independent film with a cast of familiar faces, James Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Joe Pantoliano and Barry Pepper among them, and it includes several twists I didn't see coming. Not groundbreaking, it recalls a few other movies, especially RESERVOIR DOGS and the original SAW, but it was entertaining enough to keep me interested.

7/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

DRAG ME TO HELL (2009)

Christine Brown is a young loans officer at a bank. In the hopes of getting an available promotion, and to prove to her boss that she can make tough decisions, she denies a mortgage extension to an old woman. The old woman begs for the loan to no avail and is soon escorted out by security. As bad luck would have it, she turns out to be a gypsy who puts a curse on Christine. Christine consults a fortune teller who warns her of the dark spirit that is haunting her and she sets out to resolve the situation before she is literally "dragged to hell".
From director Sam Raimi, who has gone back to his horror roots, after a detour into the world of big budget superhero movies with the SPIDER-MAN trilogy. Raimi is the director of the EVIL DEAD Trilogy and it clearly shows in this flick. Not content to make a straightforward horror movie, Raimi mixes in lots of that goofiness and slapstick and that same kinetic energy of the DEAD movies.
If you're not a fan of Raimi's horror/comedy style, then this is probably not for you. I am, but even I found a couple of moments that seemed a bit out of place. There's a twist at the end, but if you're paying any kind of attention, it's really not much of a twist.

7/10

[slayrrr666]

Horror House-Yet another in a long line of utterly terrible British Haunted House films from the late 60s, they just never got this genre right and all of them have been pretty terrible, this one included. When you have a true, on-screen title of "The Haunted House of Horror," but have a running time of 80 minutes and spend less than 30 actually in the house, with more people than is necessary so you don't know who everyone is, with no scares, attempts at scares or even the slightest hint that there is even the intent at scaring people for that time spent there, you have problems. Then the fact that the whole film is mostly some kind of advertisement for the "Mod-Squad" lifestyle and a haunted house film turns into a detective story as the police are too stupid to realize that a missing person is actually dead yet are conducting an investigation anyway just makes this one really bad to sit through.
1/10

Stephen King's Sleepwalkers-See thoughts in Movie Genre thread.

[Termination]

Dance Flick (2009) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 9/10
HD Audio dts-HDMA - 10/10

Land of the Lost (2009) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 9/10
HD Audio dts-HDMA - 9/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

THE STRANGERS (2008)

A young couple (Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) staying at his parent's isolated vacation house, find themselves under siege from three invaders wearing masks.
Simple, but effective set-up, and very suspenseful for most of it's running time, but then it starts to just spin it's wheels. "The strangers" just keep hitting the couple with these "hit and run" scare tactics, ie: they scare the couple and then disappear, scare the couple and disappear, etc., and then the movie just suddenly ends. You're left with all these questions about "the strangers" and an obvious set-up for a sequel. Call me silly, but even with a low-budget slasher/horror flick, I expect at least a little story.
The movie is great at creating a very tense situation, but it didn't really go anywhere.

6/10

[slayrrr666]

Stand By Me-See thoughts in Movie Genre thread.

Children of the Corn-See thoughts in Movie Genre thread.

The Dunwich Horror-If you've seen the original from 1970, you know it's a masterpiece of Lovecraftian horror, one of the most faithful and enjoyable adaptations of one of his works, and that works as a curse and blessing here. A blessing in that this one retains a wonderful and engaging atmosphere through periodic supernatural situations that are allowed to go full bore when appropriate and toned down at times, and it comes with some really good atmospheric moments at times. The finale has some energy and action thrust in to bring the film to a close with a bang, and the final twist is pretty good, but the fact remains that it pulls the same strings that the original did, and as a result, it hits the same storyline notes and uses the same game-plan as the original, so there's no surprise and everything here can be guessed incredibly easily and early on, making some of it's attempts for scares quite obvious. It should've been good, but it comes off barely decent in the end.
5/10

[Termination]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 9/10
HD Audio dts-HDMA - 9/10

I hate Bay's photography.
Whats wrong with natural skin tones? Why must grain present itself where no mood in film is present?
While I hate Bay's style of shooting these films the only real issue with the transfer is a few scenes with low contrast.

Personal hates,

Everyone person looks like they are painted red.
Grain, mixed with Blue hue = 0 fine detail.
Every shot where Sam & the girl get intimate the film suddenly goes out of focus.

The audio is almost perfect. I didn't care for the dilalog. Someone turned off the treble during mixing or something.

The films no good neither.

[Heineken Skywalker]

JURASSIC PARK III (2001)

Paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neil) is hired by a wealthy thrill-seeking couple to be their guide on an aerial tour of Isla Sorna, aka InGen's site B, the main location of most of the action in the second film in the series.
Of course, things don't go as planned, they crash, and soon enough the characters find themselves running for their lives. Grant also soon discovers that the couple have an ulterior motive for being on the island.
A fast-paced, light on plot, and shorter entry than the previous flicks in the series. Being the third movie, there's a lot less explaining of things and they get into the action of dinosaur attacks much earlier. As Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) said in the best line in the second movie, "Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming."
A critical mistake however is that because it's a smaller cast this time, you pretty much know who's going to live and who's going to die right off the bat, and the ones who are going to die all get killed off very early in the film, so while there are lots of attacks in the second half of the film, there are no actual deaths. The film probably needed a larger cast so there would be more victims to choose from.
The dinosaurs still look great, but being the third movie, they just don't have that "sense of wonder" anymore. And that scene with Grant "communicating" with a group of Raptors that has surrounded Grant and co. is kind of silly.

6/10

[slayrrr666]

I liked it a lot, much more than the first which pretty much rested on just that, a 'sense of wonder' and not a whole lot else. Part 2 was definitely my favorite, but I liked Part 3 as well. Sure, the fact that the deaths are telegraphed and some of the CGI looks bad, none of those are real deterrents at all.

Dolores Clairborne-See thoughts in Movie Genre thread.

Stephen King's The Night Flier-See thoughts in Movie Genre thread.

[Termination]

Friday Night Lights (2004) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 10/10
HD Audio dts-HDMA - 10/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

Oct 22, 2009 10:06:04 GMT -5 slayrrr666 said:

I liked it a lot, much more than the first which pretty much rested on just that, a 'sense of wonder' and not a whole lot else.

Are you kidding? How can you say, "not a whole lot else"? That brilliant attack on the jeep by the T-Rex, The Raptors stalking the kids in the kitchen, the attack on Dennis Nedry in the jungle, Muldoon realizing he's been set up just before the raptors attack him, the main characters running through that stampede, and on and on.
The sense of wonder came not only from how good the effects were in all those scenes, but just that we were seeing all this stuff for the first time. By the time the third movie came along, we were already used to how cool the dinosaurs looked so we, well, at least some of us, needed the story to be a little more different then what had already come before. The second one at least had some of the dinosaurs reach America, which was a lot of fun in a Godzilla kind of way. The third one is kind of a "greatest hits" of the first two flicks. The only really new and unique thing was the attack from the flying Pterosaurs. And like I said, while the third one is entertaining for what it is, it's kind of a throw away movie.

[Termination]

The Last Emperor (1987) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 8/10
HD Audio dts-HDMA - 9/10

Good film, I can see why Criterion choose to release it. I didn't dive into any features (there are plenty)
Its basically about, well, The Last Emperor of China. From birth to death we get to see the child at age 3 be crowned & grow up in the forbidden city. As he ages, he feels more of a prisoner because he can not leave even though he has absolute power over everyone. For someone who has everything & always will, it comes at a price of complete freedom. Educated on current events, he soon realizes his power of absolute ruler has boundaries & other leaders around the world have even greater ruler-ship. Because of this he sets out to achieve a greater purpose in his life but the world he knows does not acknowledge him the way he was raised.

For a film shot over 20 years ago this Blu-Ray transfer is quite solid. Preserving the Director's intended aspect ratio (2.00:1) the film exhibits minor contrast issues & some poor color saturation. Other than that most of the film is sharp & well defined with brief moments of softness & intention grain.

The audio comes with a dts-HDMA stereo track. Once again, a choice obviously for film purists. Dialog sounds a bit dated with no real sense of warmth. I didn't detect any DR compression & balance is evenly mixed throughout. Not a track that will bug the neighbours for sure since the LFE channel is MIA & surrounds are not present but for this type of film that never was a concern & overall I enjoyed the subtle track for what its worth.

[Termination]

Righteous Kill (2008) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 9/10
HD Audio Dolby TrueHD - 9/10

The Wackness (2008) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 8/10
HD Audio Dolby TrueHD - 9/10

The Women (2008) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 8/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital - 8/10