Just Watched Movies (2012)

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Movies you've watched in this upcoming year.

Spent New Years Day with Friday the 13th, watching parts 1,2 and 4-6 with commentary tracks and special bonus features off my box set.

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Visiting Hours-Having survived an attack by a vicious madman, a journalist tries to recuperate at the local hospital but finds herself continually stalked by the psycho intent on finishing her off and must rely on her friends to stop him from doing so. An incredibly bland and really overly boring slasher/psycho thriller that really doesn't have all that much going for it. The constant ability of the psycho to get in and out of the hospital without being caught stretches logic and believability in the worst ways with the constant ability to escape unnoticed and menace couples outside, taking away from the suspense of the situation where it takes time out of the main storyline to focus on another, nearly making the entire section of the film just utterly endless. It never really manages to be as suspenseful as it thinks it is by not really engaging in that much of a body count either, as there's hardly all that many in here to get worked up over and the deaths are very bland. The main stalking through the inner workings of the building do manage to get some good stuff in, and the investigative build-up of the identity to the police is rather fine, but overall this one wasn't all that great.

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Strange Behavior-A string of strange deaths in a small-town lead the sheriff to a rather obscure mystery he was involved with years earlier that has resulted in several youths running rampage over the residents that may have a more ghastly ulterior motive. Not really too sure what to make of this one, as there's a lot to work with that really shines through. The initial part of the murder mystery is pretty decent with a couple fun and admittedly enjoyable stalking scenes that definitely give off a tense vibe from time-to-time, and the finale offers some pretty interesting revelations that are definitely unnerving, but the fact that the film is just so slow-going and dragged-out that it really loses a lot of it's steam just by dragging out the investigation and doing nothing with what should've been a tense scene beforehand. Add to that a low number of kills which result in a tame amount of blood, a lot of broad comedy that really isn't funny and shouldn't be in the movie and a far more complex plot that normal really doom this one significantly.

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Christmas Evil-Bothered for years by a vision from the past, a grown man with a grudge against the holidays dresses as a Santa and begins a murderous reign of terror across town, forcing his own brand of extreme holiday justice on the wayward town. Well, we finally have a decent entry in the collection, though that still doesn't make up for the fact that this one is still monumentally flawed. The fact that this one takes a near eternity to get going is the biggest issue, as the nearly insane amount of time spent with the guy observing others and being berated at work in lieu of actually slashing others makes this a chore to sit through, with nearly an hour spent on these points without interruption that it's just nearly impossible to stay interested in what goes on. The severely low body-count and rather irritating manner in which he's constantly mistaken for the real thing grows rather old, but there's some spirited cheese on display, including an attack on reporters in full view of others and a fine finale, but it really can't overcome the beginning.

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New Year's Evil-While hosting a New Year's Eve show on TV, a hostess tries to stave off a psycho caller's increasingly twisted calls informing her friends are being murdered at midnight in all four time zones until she's the final victim of his slaughter. Bland, boring thriller masquerading as a slasher effort, only this one doesn't have all that much going for it. The fact that the premise doesn't really hold up that much weight requires it to be dragged out indefinitely with a series of endless and utterly innocuous songs that really aren't that great manage to be the prime motivator here, although the fact that, again, the premise isn't really all that spectacular enough to hold itself up is the main issue. Aside from that, the fact that there's just not a lot of suspense to be wrung out of the film makes this one feel all the more boring. A few interesting setpieces to be found here and there, but not a whole lot to get worked up over.

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- Fade to black. A young man's interest in movies starts degenerating into an obsession that eventually leads him to impersonate some of his favorite celluloid characters (among them Hopalong Cassidy, Cody Jarrett and Count Dracula) and reenacting famous movie scenes --with very deadly results for anybody who ever mistreated him.

Something of a cult film, this slasher has an okay premise and fine performances, trough the script starts running out of ideas somewhere along the third act and a subplot with a new-age police psychologist seems rather tacked on. Nevertheless, it's a very entertaining affair. It's also noteworthy for using non-horror movie reenactments for the murder scenes.

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Family Plot-After inheriting a family-owned funeral home and cemetery, a writer starts to go insane from the ghosts still living on the property driving him to murder his family to complete a cycle of violence continuously reenacted on the grounds and must stop it before it comes true. A rather uninspired effort, mainly due to the fact that this one just doesn't have a lot going on to stay interesting. Using the tired motif of staying around obviously changed and brutal behavior doesn't make the slightest sense, the actions aren't scary enough and it's a cliched element in and of itself, all of which conspire to keep this one down and barely all that good. There's some nice suspense-packed scenes early on that definitely set the stage for later on which is definitely the best aspect of the film, where the ghosts engage in enough trickery and prodding to enact a rather tense stalk-and-chase scene around the fog-enshrouded cemetery, but otherwise this one is just mostly undone with a whole lot of nothing in the first half.

Fall Down Dead-Finding herself trapped in an apartment building, a woman finds the culprit to be a dangerous psychopath that mutilates women and carves them up into works of art and considers her his next project, forcing her and the residents still inside to fight back against the deranged madman. A slightly flawed but still enjoyable enough slasher that has enough going for it that there's some good points to be had from it, but there's also some problems as well that are pretty hard to overlook. The criminal lack of a body-count here is the main issue, as there's just not a large enough number of victims to get killed off here, and the fact that this one has them done in by a gunshot or rather rudimentary stabbing off-screen highlights the thriller nature this was intended to be, yet still there's enough to keep interested in what's going on. The pace is still fast enough that there's not a lot of dragged-out spots, the killer is pretty unique and creative though saddled with a lame gimmick and there's some fairly intense stalking going on to keep it exciting. Overall, this one wasn't as bad as it could've been.

The Mechanic-After unwittingly carrying out a hit he didn't believe in, a master hit-man tries to shield the son from his actions as the two take on the crime boss who gave him the initial assignment. While this one initially looked to be a rather enjoyable and entertaining entry, this one here managed to end up falling just short but still not enough to be called a disappointment. This is mostly due to the rather dull training sessions employed in the middle of the movie, which is to be expected but there's not much that really happens to get interested about. The finale shootouts are a lot of fun and definitely provide plenty of action with lots of cool stunts and explosions going off, though it also misses the mark slightly with no real lengthy cat-and-mouse style stalking to show the learned skills off, a missed opportunity to overthrow the boringness of the middle moments. Not as bad as I figured, but not as good as it could've been.

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Out for a Kill-A former master criminal returns to his killing ways when a gang of Chinese drug lords planning on using him to smuggle stolen artifacts out of China murder his wife and force him to take action against them. Yet another in a long line of Seagal flicks I've overlooked and finally get a chance at seeing it, this one turned out to be quite enjoyable and even rather above the usual standards in his movies. Granted, the dreaded and utterly overdone stand-in, quick-cutting and stunt doubles are employed to an all-time high in this one as it's probably used for just about everything he does in here aside from the scenes supposed to show that he's there doing the work, but overall there's just no shortage of good action scenes to really make that just a nagging problem here. While a weak story that treats it all with a ho-hum manner in order to get to everything in the later half, it's still a decent enough Seagal effort.

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The Initiation of Sarah-Arriving at a college for the first time, two sisters find themselves at opposing sides of a power-struggle between two different sects of witches hoping to use them in a ritual to gain eternal power to vanquish the other sect. A surprisingly decent enough affair for a TV-movie about witches and sorority's ancient battle with each other, not a very intriguing starting point but it's definitely enough to remain interesting. While it's still too clean and sterilized in the beginning when it's about the discovery of powers and the usual cliched manners in which the two clubs go about acting with each other, there's certainly enough ground-work being put down that it makes the finale all the more impressive. That also makes the lack of anything spectacular during those scenes all the more apparent, as by being as casual and unassuming about it as they can be in trying to lure them away, it's not really giving itself away as a horror film until the finale, but that's not really all that bad overall.

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Flesh Wounds-A commando unit searching for the cause behind the loss of communication with a military base find the cause to be a genetically-altered soldier prepared for war and must fight back in order to get away alive. Sounds like a horror movie, yes, but this frankly is a 'Predator' rip-off through-and-through. Chop some of the extraneous dialogue scenes, lower the budget and the atmosphere, add in CGI gore and you have this movie right here, and I mean this thing rips off 'Predator' to no end, from the outright stealing of scenes placed at the same point in the story to the exact same camera angles and such, making for a rather odd and confusing watch if you're not too familiar with the film. Take it or leave it as to whether or not this is a good thing or bad thing to be so similar to another film, especially of the differing qualities between the two.

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Grey Skies-Gathering together for a weekend of fun, a group of friends at an isolated farmhouse find themselves subjected to visits from aliens looking to use them as hosts for their cross-breeding program, forcing them into an extreme battle to get away from the deadly creatures. Not much to really say about this one, another by-the-numbers style alien film, here with the unfortunate addition of some utterly unneeded subplot where each of the group has a side beef or problem that they need to fix which takes over the main focus of the film to the extent of excluding the main horror aspects of the film to the back half of the film, which has the effect of making the film feel incredibly drawn-out and far longer than it should be, not helped at all by the fact that the events themselves aren't moved along at a brisk enough pace. There's some good stuff in the actual attack on the group, and there's some rather chilling confrontations to come from that, but overall the film is a major let-down.

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Added uncut versions of Hard Ride to Hell and The Rats to the collection.

Species III-After creating a bioengineered woman from alien DNA gathered from previous generations, one of her creators sets out to protect her from another genetically-created mutation intent on using her to create a purer race of creatures. A not-all-that-bad sci-fi entry that wisely decides to turn into a T&A fest to hide the fact that all it's real good parts are stuffed into the ending. Since the film spends a large amount of time dealing with the biology of the girl and what they can do to make it viable in further tests, with only the occasional interaction otherwise shoehorned into the film to keep us from getting bored, it does give off it's hand that there's not a whole lot going on here during these parts save for the nudity. When it introduces it's other main threat in the other alien, it gets a lot more interesting due to a lot more action elements being brought in, which makes for some good times to be had when it relies on it's stalking, chasing and brawling with the two creatures, oftentimes in full alien garb so it looks even more impressive. Otherwise, this one was just a decent-enough entry.

Species: The Awakening-Realizing that his bioengineered daughter is turning into her fully-alien counterpart, a doctor takes her to Mexico for help in controlling the change, only instead unleashing a far more vicious side to her than he imagined. A lot more enjoyable than imagined, due mainly to the fact that the warring nature of her transformation is almost always present, resulting in the changes that force out more action and science fiction elements as well as the occasional jolt of horror with some bloody killings spread throughout that give off some good points every so often. Again with the added element of a lot of extra nudity, a far more ferocious pace and some minor bioengineering babble thrown into the mix, this one comes out far better than expected and actually has some fun, especially once the rebirth takes place and there's actually a confrontation between two alien mutations that is a lot of fun in a cheesy manner. Has a few minor issues to deal with, but surprisingly nothing too serious as this is a lot of fun.

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Just had a Seagal marathon on TV, this should make it his entire library of films I've seen now. I might be missing one or two, but I think I've got them all now.

Belly of the Beast-After his daughter and her friend are kidnapped in Thailand, a former thief reunites with an old friend to rescue her from the terrorist gang holding them captive. An absolute blast of a film, probably one of Seagal's finest in his entire career and one that holds so many good points it's an absolute blast. The amount of fighting in here is absolutely the best part, which has a rather large amount due to the number of confrontations in here, due in large part to a frenetic, relentless pace that never stops and keeps moving on to the next fight, which keeps this from being dull. The quality of the fighting is great as well, with ninja attacks, one-on-one fighting and a rather enjoyable finale all make for some incredibly fun times before it even gets to the other action, as there's a ton of shoot-outs and gunfights in here, almost as much as the normal fist-fighting especially in the final raid on the compound which is just pure action overload. Sure, Seagal's stunt double needs to to be given billing as having been given a substantial part of the film (and is all the more obvious due to performing stunts Seagal never did before, as he leaves the ground and throws jumping, spinning kicks for once) and the plot is paint-by-numbers standard action fare, but this was a lot of fun regardless.

The Keeper-Forced out of duty, a former police officer is hired by an old friend to bodyguard his daughter after her boyfriend gets involved with a criminal gang that's moving in on the family business. Surprisingly decent affair that's actually not that bad, but frankly suffers from a rather banal attitude in the beginning where he goes through the usual meeting-and-winning-over the reluctant prospects of his new employees, which doesn't have a lot of action and tends to get rather boring quickly when it goes by without really showcasing why they even need him there or letting him do something to prove why he's as good as they say he is. It does get better in the later stages, as that's when it brings him into the fold after the kidnapping and eventual rescue, which isn't handled all that badly even though it never really reaches a fever-pitch the way it could've. It's still pretty fun, but there's not a whole lot else about it.

Driven to Kill-An ex-Russian gangster heads off with the reluctant groom of his daughter to seek revenge on the group that left her in a coma on their wedding day. Probably number two on the best-of Seagal list, this one was pure fun as well and definitely had plenty going for it, with numerous shootouts, confrontations and fights, which is nice considering that the rapid pace makes this one as much fun since there's no stopping for much of anything. It moves along more with the gunfighting aspects more than anything which is nice since it's a great break from the fighting and lets Seagal do a lot more on-screen work instead of relying on his double to carry the movie, and it doesn't help that we get quality as well as quantity in that department, especially the final shootout in the hospital though it's spread throughout the film as well so it's not all that bad anyway. There's even some nice fighting thrown in as well so it's not all one-dimensional, and that makes for a rewarding film.

Kill Switch-After one too many bodies by the same criminal show up, a detective decides to become a vigilante to find the murderous mastermind creating havoc in a small city. Rather disappointing misstep here, as this one doesn't feel much like an action movie and instead comes off more like a police procedural drama without anything that keeps it interesting, which means this one is just mostly boring without all that much going on. There's a few decent shootouts to mistake one into thinking it's an action film, but that doesn't happen enough to really make it feel all that action-packed. It's almost the wrong kind of movie for Seagal to be in as there's only a few chances for him to really let loose or do much of anything, and it's really not his kind of film at all. A rather big misfire.

Born to Raise Hell-A European Task Force bands together with a criminal gang to catch a former associate looking to move up in the underworld by targeting the man's family. Far more enjoyable effort than expected, resulting in a lot of good stuff here as the fact that the film manages to make the resulting alliance between the two opposing sides come as a result of the action, rather than just for the sake of it, and it comes at the end of the film rather than all the way through, which is where it really makes some good points by focusing on the action rather than talking it all out, a really good move. Again, the focus on gunplay allows Seagal a lot of time in the film without his stunt-double, though he does get to do that from time-to-time, though the one part of the film really built for such an encounter is wasted by the inability to let one performer certainly gifted in such an area not do anything, which would've put this one over the top in his rankings, but instead doesn't really detract from a great overall movie.

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12 Days of Terror-When a series of vicious animal attacks strikes surfers in his beach-front town, a lifeguard joins others intent on hunting down the predatory beast responsible that continually manages to escape capture and prey on the townspeople. An absolutely paltry and worthless horror effort that really has almost no business being called a horror film. The majority of the film's running time is devoted to the different people around the town trying to understand what kind of beast is around and whether it should be considered an emergency big enough to actually get others involved despite the hero protesting, and rightly so, about what's going on to the oblivious folks in charge about the severity of the situation, especially after there's been several attacks. When that doesn't work, the fact that this one doesn't have any action scenes with the town out hunting the creature which is even more boring and the attacks being edited in such a way as to make it impossible to get any thrills out of it. Packaged together with an all-too-familiar feel and little in the way of excitement, this is a really bland, banal shark horror.

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Assault on Precinct 13-When a run-down and barely operable police squadron receives a haul of prisoners to handle until a vicious storm passes, they come under attack by a hit squad looking to off one of the prisoners inside and forcing everyone to work together to stay safe. Somewhat overlong with way too many scenes at the end which just drag this out far longer than it needs to be, but overall it's not all that terrible and gets some rather enjoyable shootouts amidst it all. While it would've been nicer had they lasted longer due to the fact that the total length of each one wasn't all that long, the continuous time they're done is a much more attractive feat and definitely helps this one much better than the other factors. Definitely not that bad but could've done with some minor work to make it even better.