Just Watched Movies (2010)

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Henry Poole Is Here (2008) (Blu-Ray)

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

Igor (2008) (Blu-Ray)

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

King Kong (2005) (Blu-Ray)

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

Max Payne (2008) (Blu-Ray)

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

The Notebook (2004) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 8/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital - 7/10
HD Audio Dolby TrueHD - 8/10

Zombieland (2009) (Blu-Ray)

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

Black Dynamite (2009) (Blu-Ray)

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

Poison Ivy 4: The Secret Society (2008) (Blu-Ray)

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

Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) (Blu-Ray)

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

Saw V (2008) (Blu-Ray)

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

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Dinoshark-Melting glaciers in the Arctic release a prehistoric shark that proceeds to terrorize Mexico. I can't say enough good things about this one, quite possibly one of the best entries the Sci-Fi Channel has provided. Nearly everything possible to get right they did, and it mixes in a quite large amount of new ones that wouldn't even be close to a positive in the past. The leading runner for the award this year, as it's a hugely enjoyable experience.

The Telling-Hopeful entrants into a sorority house tell horror stories for their final initiation, unaware one of them has a secret agenda. Thoroughly mixed bag affair, as this one starts off awesomely with a truly fantastic tale, then somewhat slips with the next one and then the final one has a lot of potential and some good parts only to be afraid somewhat of getting to it's natural conclusion and feels really rushed. Even though the stories are really good, there's a small flaw in them that sticks out, and the wraparound is entirely ludicrous so this one drops down considerably after a spectacular opening.

Death by Engagement-A serial killer goes after the unwitting owners of an engagement ring that he initially offered to his fiance. Ludicrous, stupid, moronic and entirely lame are what come to mind here, since this one makes no sense, fails to remotely qualify as a horror film at times and contains numerous plot holes and lapses in logic that I figured out, and I have no interest in noticing such ideas. The kills and a couple of somewhat suspenseful stalking scenes save this one, but not that good.

Plus,since my pool game was canceled on Friday, a night with Ray Harryhausen-

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
It Came from Beneath the Sea
20 Million Miles to Earth

The first two were on TCM, but I busted the last one out when it was over so as to make it somewhat resembling a marathon of sorts.

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Beauty Queen Butcher-An obese teen is allowed admission into a beauty pageant so that she can be humiliated in front of the town, only for those who conspired against her to suddenly start popping up dead. Enormously cheesy affair, almost 80's-like in presentation and content than execution, but it's all handled so dully that whatever camp value to be had from this one (and there's a ton) is practically ran dry. Not bad, but there's definitely better attempts of this one out there.

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Underworld: Rise of the Lycans-Well, it's got more action than any, some great FX and some crappy ones, a fantastic final battle and tons of great moments, but for some reason, I just can't get into it. Could be the lame storyline surrounding everything, could be that I never bought into the world to begin with and now, on the third entry, going back to where it all started which is a tactic I utterly hate, so not too sure what to say here.

Undead or Alive- Two best friends and an Indian helper stave off an onslaught of the living dead, raised by Geronimo to punish the settlers of the West. I saw it before, but now I got an uncensored version. Better gore and comedy now since they're uncensored, and even some nice boobs as well. A really enjoyable zombie-comedy that isn't much of a parody, so it's a good thing.

Kwaidan- Four horror tales of the supernatural, told in a Japanese folklore-ish style. It is quite long, almost more so than I'm willing to indulge in normally and that really set-off some problems for me since there's always a part that could've been fixed. The best is undoubtedly the second story, about the ghost who saves the man from the snowstorm and reveals a deadly secret, then forces him to keep it. Stupid ending I saw coming a mile away because it's the one mostly used for these stories, but otherwise it's insanely creepy and atmospheric. The first one has two good scares but doesn't do anything to explain itself nor give us a lot of interesting scenes. The third one should've been dropped since it goes on for fucking forever with it's lame battle scene, and even though it finally gets good when it decides to become a horror film, again it's nearly an hour away from when we first started and it's too little, too late. The last one I actually liked, a creepy idea and it plays with it nicely, but it still doesn't match how good the second one was.

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2012 (2009) (Blu-Ray)

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

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Midnight Kiss-A cop and his partner find that a series of strange murders are the work of a rogue vampire who may have a more sinister agenda than they initially figured. Much better than expected, although there's some rather big flaws to be found within. With a languid beginning that really takes some effort to get involved in and some rather dull scenes to get over, as well as the film's adherence to the Ann-Rice-style of vampires being the big stumbling blocks, the fact that it manages to become watchable through it's few action scenes, graphic vampire encounters and a few tense sections are a big triumph. Nothing ground-breaking, but it'll service quite nicely.

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Lost Souls-A woman joins forces with a secret group of monks to prevent a conspiracy that will signal the birth of the Antichrist. Completely dull and not very involving, this one seems to be certain that the mere mention of anything Satanic in it's premise is going to draw chills and be suspenseful, as there's no action and nothing at all happening to do anything, and in the end it fails miserably. Not even a somewhat enjoyable finale can save this one.

The Order-A Priest is sent to ascertain the validity of a series of reports that an immortal is redeeming unsalvation-worthy people by eating their sins. Novel idea, lame execution as it's hardly worth a horror effort at all. We only see it one time during the whole film, and it's a less-than-inspired effect, and it commits the same sin that makes the early James Bond efforts so tired: the hero gets chummy with the villain and get to know each other, which takes all the fear away. Again, some action in the finale isn't enough to save this one.

Race with the Devil-A group of friends are witness to a Satanic Black Mass and are targeted by the group to be sure their violent acts go undiscovered. Typical 70s effort, such that when something's happening on-screen, it's a lot of fun, and it's mind-numbingly dull when there isn't. Not at all suspenseful, but more like an action movie so there's a lot of fun spots along the way, but nothing at all that requires immediate attention.

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The Darkroom-A young man and a recent escapee of a mental asylum with no memory team up to investigate his stepfather's strange activities and discover a shocking secret. There's some good stuff in here, mainly from the demon/ghost thingies popping up early on which look really good and quite chilling, but the majority of the film is a relationship drama focusing on the two men bonding together intermixed with sporadic moments of investigating the secret, as if it's on the back-burner of importance in it's own movie. It just makes the movie really dull and quite lifeless most of the time, and even though a rousing finale does bring it up, it's just not enough to overcome the boredom and the inclusion of one of the single most over-done cliches in these kinds of movies.

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Vampire Diary-A documentary filmmaker doing an story on an underground London vampire scene might have found a real-life vampire in her new lover. Pretentious nonsense done in true documentary style, offerings up nothing but dull, listless Britons rambling on about total BS that is supposed to show them being philosophical but is just utterly dreadful, and in the process makes for a completely lifeless, boring waste, just like most of the recent British horror fare are. Nothing much of interest here.

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Beyond Re-Animator-A young doctor requests Herbert West to continue his reanimation experiments at the prison where he is now confined in order to bring his girlfriend back to life. This one here is actually quite simple to understand: whenever West's experiments are on-screen, this one has something interesting going on. When he's not doing anything or not the focus of the sequence, it's not good. Since the experiments don't even get unleashed until the final half-hour, it's got a long time to go before something interesting is going on, and that leaves this one a little colder than I expected it to be.

The Unborn-A young woman finds that the evil spirit she sees everywhere around her is the dead soul of her stillborn twin brother attempting to reenter the world it should've been born into. Actually pretty interesting, I enjoyed this one far more than I should've. With a lot of pretty decent to above-average scares, a great sense of urgency and suspense due to a rather well thought-out and chilling storyline and a spectacular finale, this one earned some major points. A few flaws in here (the censorship is a big one) and some storyline problems, but far better than expected.

Saw IV-Just about everything about this one serves it up as a big-fat zero: the continuous going's back to the past three films to try to make sure that whatever BS they pile onto it makes sense, the relationship between the two and how he turned into a killer is just irritated, annoying and not at all scary, the traps are way too spread-out and not at all confined like they used to be (if he's such a masterful serial killer, why he is leaving his handiwork out in the open in order for others to see and follow him? It's almost as if they just decided to throw them in there in order to stay connected to the series since they've all had them so this one should've as well) the lessons are stupid and frankly, it's just not interesting at all. Only the gore, as usual, saves this one.

Saw V-Better than the others, and right now it's the one I like the most. It's still pretty terrible, but right now I can tolerate it more than the others. It's still utterly irritating and annoying (which one of these isn't?) as the flashbacks are the big one as well as the detective investigating what we already now and taking up a ton of time on that issue alone, but the game is fun, the traps are better than part 4 but not up 3, which is my favorite set, and there's a bit of a shock at the end that is about as good as the first one was. Not as flat-out terrible, but definitely up to a somewhat respectable status.

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The House Where Evil Dwells-A couple move into a new house in Japan that was the site of a murder years earlier, and the resident ghosts possess the couple in order to play the love triangle eluded to them in the past. There's a lot of things wrong with this one (namely the fact that the entire premise isn't explained and it's only guesswork about what's up there) the mere fact that it's also based on a premise that doesn't generate scares is a huge misfire that results in a lot of potentially-frightening scenes that don't work at all. Possessing others to force them into adultery isn't scary or frightening, yet the film is banking on that as the big creepy factor in here, which doesn't work. There is some good stuff scattered throughout to give it some pleasing moments, but the flaws here weigh out very highly.

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Fear No Evil-A series of strange incidents in a local high school have two fallen angels convinced the new student is the reincarnation of the Antichrist, and intends to raise locked demons in Hell to rule the Earth. An incredibly weak effort, mostly due to the fact that the film is just dull and lifeless, as practically nothing at all happens in here that really warrants much of anything other than the ending. Instead of actually making it feel interesting, there's just long periods of time where one of two things happen: either we get unrelated interactions with the group of school-kids that go there, being relegated to the usual characterization sequences that populate the slasher films of the time (concerned with getting drugs or alcohol or with trying to get their girlfriend to go to bed with them) or the time is spent with the angels trying to get others to listen to them while training for the final confrontation. It's also way too hard to keep track of what's going on, especially once the angels get involved. That they all go by different gender names when being referred to by another, yet there's still the fact that there's the names everyone else calls them as and it begins to get too much for the time. The really good parts come from a few early Gothic set-pieces and a rather fun finale that is more likable due to it's actually having something going on, but this one should just be skipped.

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Mega Piranha-A science experiment that creates a series of rapidly-evolving piranha is loosened upon Venezuela, and a special forces team mus stop them before they get to American soil. Pretty typical Sci-Fi Channel Creature Feature, so this one has a ton of stuff to like about it: crappy CGI, tons of action, great body count, simple story, and so much more that is pertinent to these films. Worth a watch, I'd say.

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The Skeptic-Man inherits house from deceased relative who later learns the house is haunted, but because of his skeptical nature, doesn't believe for a second that ghosts are responsible. Just utterly terrible, no horror, no scares, no suspense and no violence. Way too many other flaws, hardly anything good worthwhile. Stay away.

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The Land That Time Forgot-A group of survivors of a U-boat's torpedoed conquest and the boat that sunk them team up to survive an oasis in the South Pacific overflowing with giant dinosaurs and prehistoric cavemen. A lot of fun, actually a ton of fun despite the crappy looking effects on display. A lot of action, a lot of dinosaurs and nothing really standing out as a flaw. Really enjoyable.

The Objective-Commando squad is sent into Afghanistan to secure footage of a spiritual leader's endorsement of American occupation, only for the journey there to be much more difficult than they imagined. This was supposed to be a horror film, it was said so in the TV guide, and that part that is all I got into the film before turning it off. That there accounts for 50 minutes of the time, and I couldn't tell if it was a horror film or not by that point so it went off. Don't really care to know if there is anything which changes, it wasn't good enough for me to know what came next.