Just Watched Movie (2011)

[slayrrr666]

Game of Death-An actor in over his head involved in a group of criminals takes his revenge on them one-at-a-time after getting concerned of their actions toward him and his girlfriend. Bruce Lee's "last" film, although I can't really say he's involved since, as you all know, this was done about five years after he died and with the use of doubles for about 90% of his scenes in the film. The doubles actually look pretty close to him and are reasonably kept from having any real close-up looks although that makes it all the more obvious as to the tactic. The fights aren't that bad and actually have some good choreography to them that makes them pretty exciting, and of course the actual stuff with Bruce is miles better which is really good to see and makes the film that much better. If you can get around the tactics used to film it and can get into it, this one isn't that bad at all.

[slayrrr666]

The Magic Blade-A group of martial arts students race another school's students to find the location of a hidden sacred weapon that will level the balance in their decades-long feud with each other. A rather fun and generally enjoyable effort, relying a lot more on the hand-to-hand stuff than the wire-fu that was more prevalent at the time so it has a bit of loss-of-spectacle when compared to the others, and the fact that the dubbing more than likely misses out on the importance of the mystical sword as everyone seemingly comments on what'll happen if it falls into the other's hands, but it's never stated how it got that way or what'll it do, making for a pretty haphazard plot by jumping around all over-the-place during the journey. Thankfully, the martial-arts battles are plentiful and well-choreographed, keeping the ones who obviously have experience front-and-center for the longer battles and using the others as beating poles, making this one a solid if unspectacular effort.

Troll-After moving into a new apartment complex, a family finds the place under the rampage of a demonic troll and possess the youngest daughter to fulfill his quest, leading her brother to fight him to save her. Mistakenly watched as a horror film, this is pure flat-out fantasy, not that there's anything wrong with that but it's just not my sort of thing. Nothing here is done with any sort of intent to frighten or induce shocks, despite the possession angle displayed, but rather by keeping a light tone and introducing the presence of mystical powers, sorcery and other elements not usually found in such films, it's really hard to take this as a horror film. That the film is just slow as hell doesn't make it any better, spending such an incredibly long time setting up her possession through activities and behavior changes before anyone catches on makes for a boring watch, and the ending makes very little sense, but if this is your thing, it may not be all bad.

Troll 2-Plagued by nightmares about a bedtime story involving goblins, a young boy convinces his family to move to a small town where they supposedly live only to find the stories are true and must get away from the creatures before it's too late. Finally given this one a chance, and it's another massive disappointment, mostly due to the fact that it's just so maddeningly dully than anything. Nothing here happens that has any kind of semblance to moving the plot along, it just seems to go on forever without getting anywhere, making it just so uninteresting that you're likely to be bored to death before witnessing any of the hilariously bad and hammy attack scenes. The goblins are just terrible-looking, cast up like the zombies from Burial Ground but dressed down to the size of Ewoks and given more hair on their faces, only without the skill of that one so they look really bad. Still, a chance to see one of the worst movies of all time wasn't as bad as I thought it was, but it still sucked.

[slayrrr666]

Killer Bees-A small-town sheriff tries to warn others about a ravenous swarm of killer bees loose in the area after a shipment to study them accidentally releases them into the wild, and then tries to stop the swarm from taking over the town when they fail to listen. Rather predictable and ordinary killer bee movie, not a whole lot to get worked up about nor enough to really despise about it either. Some decent attacks, including a fun one at a rural farmhouse, the resulting panic when they hit the open-air festival in town and a big action-packed finale make for some rather fun times, but the lack of gore because of the creatures used, terrible CGI for the swarm in action yet use of real-life bees for most of the scenes and general clicheness running rampant (from the mayor who doesn't want to dirty his hands with the upcoming money-boosting festival about to hit, the companions failing to see anything out of the ordinary despite the crazy situation before them and the reconciling family brought back through the experience before them) as well as a lazy explanation for their release all make this one seem decent but unspectacular.

[slayrrr666]

The Lodge-While staying at a remote countryside lodge, a man and his girlfriend's planned weekend of carefree sex is halted when they learn the mysterious handyman has more on his mind than fixing up the place and must escape from his murderous clutches. Predictable, barely worthwhile effort that has pretty much everything we've seen in these types of films before and nothing at all new or original to this. It plays out pretty much as we expect it to, the ignoring of the obvious signs to continue on partying, the failure to recognize when they're in danger, and most of all it takes about an hour before he snaps and turns psycho, so there's nothing at all that's going on for the majority of the movie before the ending, which instead of dealing out torture, revolves around chasing, beating and running away, leaving little blood and gore involved as well. A major letdown in most regards.

[Fenril]

Jul 21, 2011 10:08:23 GMT -5 slayrrr666 said:

Resident Evil: Afterlife-Attempting to lead survivors to safety after becoming trapped in a prison overrun with the dead, Alice and her friends stumble upon the latest mutants sent by the corporation to take her down for exposing their past projects involving her. Again, this series is just a lot of fun with a lot of good stuff going for it. With tons of action, lots of gore, shoot-outs, explosions, mutants, zombies and much more, which is pretty much guaranteed to have a good time on my end even though there isn't much in the way of what's going on that would dictate this is a good movie. With a lot of lengthy time waiting around in the prison before the escape being the only thing that really hurts this one, this one turns into one of the better entries in the series for all the other, more important reasons that should be used to judge a movie anyway and make this another fine addition to the series.

Just saw this one, having missed it in theaters.

I agree, this was was just a lot of fun and possibly the best entry so far in the series; or at least, this one is just an over-the-top action movie with some monsters thrown in the mix.

None of the Resident Evil movies were scary (or at least I didn't find any of them scary), but they are dumb, unpretentious fun, and certainly deliver what they promise.

[Fenril]

Saw the first two adaptations of the classic vampire novel "I am legend", by Richard Matheson: The last man on earth and The omega man.

The plot is basically the same in both versions: a single man survives long days and dangerous nights fighting monsters [the first movie calls them "Vampires" and the second "The brotherhood"; both are more accurately described as mutates], reminishing about the last days of human civilization and yearning for company. But when a seemingly normal woman finds him, he'll learn just how much society has changed...

The first movie is a charming low-budget outing with stellar acting from Vincent Price and a bleak atmosphere that clearly inspired "Night of the living dead", among other genre classics.

The second is essentially a B-movie given a glossy hollywood threatment, which in this case works surprisngly well. While a capable actor, Charlton Heston can't quite hold a candle to Price, trough his love interest here is a very different character who gives a whole new dimension to the proceedings [both movies have very good female leads; mentioning their names here would be a spoiler, however].

Both are recommended.

There was a third version, simply called I am legend, starring Will Smith, but I haven't seen it yet.

[slayrrr666]

Fragile-While working on the nightshift at a soon-to-be-dismantled children's hospital, a nurse finds that the mysterious accidents towards the children are caused by the ghost still lurking within it's walls and tries to stop it's rampage to get them to safety. Certainly a lot better once it gets going, with it's rather pedestrian and snail-like pacing make for an incredibly slow-going effort that really doesn't get anything generated in terms of interest until the end, where the ghost finally comes out of hiding and starts to interact with the cast. These are helped along by decent hauntings that are pretty nicely done, certainly nothing new or really should be done since they're so CGI-heavy, but the action presented far improves the situation rather than knock it down, and with the film's incredibly European sense to make children not only a target but to portray violence against, it's certainly not all that bad at all.

[slayrrr666]

Brotherhood of Blood-As a team of vampire hunters tries to find the hideout of a deadly clan, a member joins forces with a kidnapped victim's brother to rescue him from their clutches before he's turned into one of them in order to lead them to a sacred talisman their leader desires. Frankly, this one should've been far better than it was, but instead is reduced to a pile of plot confusion and far too much time spent on storylines that have either nothing to do with the main plot or are featured for no reason other than to build up the cast of genre veterans. That seems to be the main problem here, as far too often we have to sit through something that makes no sense as to it's inclusion only because of who's playing the character that finally clues you in to it's inclusion. There's some good gore in here, though, and the action scenes are far more entertaining than they should be, but it's a little confusing and far too much built-for-star-power than it should be.

Necromentia-While trying to open a portal to Hell to retrieve a long-lost love, a man finds his quest of locating the designated victim to draw the symbols required to do so far more challenging than the Dark Angel who assigned it to him thought it would be. In a recurring theme from above, this one was just flat-out confusing and not all that easy to follow, tending to use far more flashbacks than necessary, most of those filled with going so far out of the traditional plotline (we do have about four or five of them, and none of them intersect until the finale) that overall it just becomes so confusing as to what's going on that eventually it just becomes mute as to what's going on. This one does have some wonderfully absurd images and ideas (there's one scene with a pig you have to see to believe, and the concept of what's going on works when it's kept to a visual standpoint instead of trying to spell it all out) but overall this one is just a jumbled, incoherent mess.

Killer Clans-A group of kung-fu fighters wage war on a rival group for control of a small-town in order to spread their own gospels to the citizens living within the area. Man, for such a supposedly awesome premise like that, this one is a colossal failure. The main part of that is due to the fact that this one isn't as action-packed as a plot like that would appear to be, relying far more on the two head's grumbling around complaining about the other or pontificating about their power stature than incorporating the fighting into the mix, leaving this one to feel far more dull than it should ever have to be. Even worse, the fights in here have very few of the appeal and dynamics of others from this time, making this one an overall uninteresting effort.

Drunken Master-A disgraced kung-fu fighter learns a new style from a respected master and sets out to regain his lost pride and ego from the master fighter who humiliated him. Finally have gotten to Jackie Chan's 70s works, the only part of his filmography I've yet to see, and it starts off with a masterpiece that's probably one of his best overall. The fighting is glorious, innovative, spectacular and filled with simply breathtaking choreography and execution, the numerous confrontations make it a joy to watch as it's never really dull, and the utterly hilarious comedy, both in the wordplay as well as slapstick, are some of the best gags in the genre and make it a real riot. One of his finest efforts ever.

[slayrrr666]

Slaughter of the Vampires-While trying to take care of an abandoned castle they're going to inherit shortly, a man and his fiancee find themselves under a vampire's deadly spell and try to break his hold over her before he can fully turn her into a vampire. An admittedly fun and enjoyable Italian Gothic horror romp, filled with all the usual trimmings and trappings of the genre: the large, mostly vacant castle going off in every direction, filled with hidden passageways, vaults and crypts riddled with cobwebs and dust accumulated for years, talk of curses and the dead coming back to life. It's all here, as well as the ever-approved women running around in low-cut blouses and lingerie, which considering who's doing that for the most part makes for some really enjoyable moments to come from oogling the women. Tends to be a bit too short, mostly though the second half which seems to be running through "Bram Stoker's Dracula" at a fevered pace in order to keep the film going, but the Gothic atmosphere and action make this one a real blast to watch.

The Addiction-While trying to finish her thesis, a college student finds herself bitten by a vampire and tries to come to grips with the deadly affliction as she's mentored in the ways of their species and tries to avoid giving away her new identity. Certainly has some pretty decent ways to go here, mainly through the use of the clever gimmick that gets this one over by having her compare vampirism through philosophical queries, but unfortunately that only has a two-pronged effect that doesn't do anything for the film at hand. On the one, it makes the film just incredibly boring and not really all that interesting, since she spends the majority of time simply doing nothing but complaining about the utterly useless knowledge given to her by the school and relying on other means to get through the change. Eventually, it all just comes across as pretentious nonsense that makes no sense at all and just tends to sound whatever it needed to do to agree with their principle ideas. The other factor, as mentioned before, is that not a lot happens in here and it tends to just ramble on, like she does, and nothing gets done because of that. Even the novel Black-and-White can't save this one.

[slayrrr666]

Suck-While trying to hit it big in the independent scene, a band tries to keep their freshly-turned vampire bass-player from killing all those trying to help them while a vampire hunter tries to end her reign of terror once and for all. In what has become a steady tradition with my watches, what was initially billed as a horror comedy in fact suffered greatly due to the comedy but still came across as rather enjoyable. While the situations itself would be regarded as funny, none of it really is, and it's only the fact that the people are put into those situations does the film seem to be funny, as the endless amount of cameo roles popping up in here provides the other amount of comedy and it's really off-the-mark, not knowing who they are initially until the end credits reveal who was who or just popping up merely to have a part in the film, a far greater offense. It's still pretty enjoyable, but this one really needed to fix some areas greatly.

[slayrrr666]

Perfect Creature-When a rogue vampire escapes from his detention quarters and starts to unleash a virus on the population that proves fatal to it's recipients, a police officer and a fellow vampire track him down before he spreads it to others. Really, really bad, more so in the sense that it never really feels like a true horror film, more like a deranged sci-fi film rather as the setting (a futuristic time that looks for all the world like 1800's England) and all these ground-rules about the society make it really difficult to get a handle on what's going on, and the near-total elimination of any traditional vampiric qualities (frankly, if the two leads weren't vampires, you wouldn't have any change at all in the story since it never makes them being vampires integral to the story and it just as well could've been an ordinary madman doing this) coupled with extreme amounts of boredom, fixed only by the final showdown which is pretty decent makes this one enjoyable.

House of Dark Shadows-When a mysterious stranger arrives at a family castle in a secluded countryside acting as a boardinghouse for girls, the owners come to suspect something might be behind the man's appearance and race to stop his nefarious plans. A Gothic soap opera that's actually pretty decent, if not entirely flawed to some extent. The setting and situations play right into the grandiose Hammer stylings, with basements, crypts, coffins and such, allowing for some pretty chilling situations and scenes that come off rather well, from his attack on the headmaster and the little boy's encounter in the crypt, leaving this one with some rather fun times when it wants to be a horror film. The flaws come about when it's not being a horror film, namely the scenes with the family or their growing distrust of each other, which are just boring and don't really go anywhere. Otherwise, this was a pretty good time.

[slayrrr666]

Dog Soldiers-Nothing big to report here, just finally have an uncut copy to add to my collection after all this time.

The Tournament-A slew of top assassins descends on London to compete in an annual tournament where they must kill each other to win the event. Absolutely enjoyable old-school action film that concentrates more on getting set-pieces together than any storyline antics, which frankly don't really exist at all and this one just becomes one big action scene after another. The stuff with the priest is a little grating at times since there's no real need for him to be there, but the rest of the film is great, with shoot-outs, tons of chases, lots of spectacle and a great sense of fun. One of the more enjoyable action movies to come out in a long time.

Legendary Weapons of China-When a kung-fu master is sent out to assassinate a potential threat to his clan's wellfare, he gets caught up in a series of deadly situations, encounters and fights as he struggles to keep the identity straight of his impending target. Far too much plot than what should be the case here, since it features just about everything under the sun: hypnosis, mistaken identity, voodoo dolls, mind control, cross-dressing (woman dressing like a guy) and supernatural martial arts, all wrapped up together in one package. That makes for an unbelievably confusing entry, but thankfully one that's a lot of fun. With some spectacular choreography (including one timeless sequence where one fighter controls another with a voodoo doll while trying to keep it out of the enemy's henchmens' hands while the battle goes on outside) some great humor and a pretty enjoyable pace, this one has a lot going for it and is pretty entertaining.

[slayrrr666]

Alien Opponent-After a spaceship crashlands in their junkyard, the owners offer up a reward to whoever will kill it, leading every person in town to enter the territory to attempt to take it down but finding the job far more difficult than they imagined. An admittedly cheesy and goofy entry, far more funny than it is scary (and a strong case can be made than it's not supposed to be a horror film anyway) but the high level of gore and rather fun action scenes are a joy to watch either way. The kills get pretty gruesome, leading to a lot of bloodshed, and that comes about from the high body count which is rather nice, and with the hunting and stalking scenes taking up a large majority of the time, it makes for some pretty entertaining scenarios. Some of the humor does fall a little flat, but the energy and momentum make up for that somewhat.

[Fenril]

Been away for a while, mostly because I'm moving.

Meanwhile, caught a couple "4" movies I had missed in the theaters:

- Scream 4. More than ten years after her ordeal at the hands of five serial killers became a series of cheap B-movies, Sidney Prescott returns to Woodsboro to promote her self-help book. Naturally, another murder spree begins soon thereafter.

This is just about more of the same and it's even smarmier than the first three movies, which is quite an accomplisment in itself. It's still a fairly entertaining slasher once you get past its pretending to be smarter than it really is, trough.

- Final destination 4 (aka The final destination). A group of random strangers narrowly survive a roller derby accident and then start dying one by one, just like in the last three times.

Again, more of the same and this particular series seems to become dumber with each passing movie. It's a very entertaining affair nevertheless, sufficiently gory and with a gleefully nasty sense of humor.

Enough Final destination movies already, through.

And to compensate, a genuinely good movie:

- High anxiety. Mel Brook's spoof of several Hitchcock movies is a brillant comedy that was considerably ahead of its time and must have left Brian de Palma green with envy. Very recommended.

[slayrrr666]

I agree on the fact that there doesn't need to be anymore FD films, but the funny part is that I still think they're fun. The only part I don't really enjoy is the fact that each one is essentially a remake of the last one, yet when I watch them, they're all really fun and enjoyable.


Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer-When his science teacher becomes possessed by a voracious parasite and turned into a savage monster, a plumber with violent behavior tendencies races against time to save his class from being turned into his violent slaves. A rather unusual horror-comedy, in the sense that the big joke is supposed to be that he's got a violent temper and is using it to fight back against the creature, which in itself isn't all that funny and just comes off as irritating since there's been so many who have used that gimmick before and here it does nothing with it. That said, it's still a rather enjoyable effort as the film has a decent amount of suspense in his professor turning, there's some good fight scenes and it has a really enjoyable amount of special effects from the creature and his turned slaves, which have some good gore moments. Overall, not a bad time but could've used a little more work.

Primal-While touring the Australian outback, a group of friends studying Aborigine cave art finds a site protected by a voracious predator that regresses those it comes into contact with into a primal state, forcing them to come together to kill their friends before it gets to them. Absolutely fantastic film here, I really don't have a whole lot to really bad-mouth against it. From the absolutely amazing set-up, from the pool to the claustrophobic cave, filled with it's cramped spaces, darkened surroundings and the film's biggest surprise waiting in the bowels of the location, to the frenetic and vicious attack scenes that rely a lot more on the set-up of their being reduced to an altered state and deformed along the way to match it physically makes for some good times. It's also pretty brutal and gets in some amazing gore gags that look really nasty and vicious, helping to sell it even more. A short pace that never lets up steam, some decent comedic attempts that showcase an actual group of friends ragging on each other without going overboard and a great sense of suspense all make this a highly enjoyable entry.