Just Watched Movies (2012)

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They Crawl-After a series of strange accidents are found to be from a race of mutated cockroaches used in a secret military project, a man and a detective team up to stop the creatures' rampage and put a stop to the experiments. This is an entertaining if somewhat complex effort that comes off as quite enjoyable regardless. One of the better facets here is the fact that this one is a lot smarter than expected from a simple creature feature, with the investigation angle that eventually uncovers the different agencies working together through all the different clues coming together yet still being done without really sacrificing the pace to do so. This could've easily been a slow, agonizingly dull creature feature without much going for it had it used the mysterious death/investigation angle, yet it doesn't and it feels better for doing so. The attacks are also surprisingly bloodier than expected and we get more gore than it really figures to have, and with the use of the real creatures it makes for even more good times. There's some flaws to be had here, mainly in the far-more-confusing plot getting tough to swallow at times as it goes along its many winding turns that can grow wearisome quite easily. As well, the finale is quite underwhelming with its sudden twist that doesn't really make sense and tends to showcase a big CGI creation instead of the more restrained, realistic feel it had been going for all along. Still, this one isn't all that bad of an effort.

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Added an uncut copy of Skeleton Man to the collection.

The Curse of the Werewolf-After deciding to venture out onto his own, a man finds himself suffering from a deadly curse that turns him into a ravenous werewolf and must seek the help of his father and his lover in order to keep his affliction dormant before he kills again. This here turned out to be quite a flawed and wholly uninspiring werewolf effort. One of the major flaws here is the film's terrible pacing that leaves this one utterly, terribly disjointed, as the opening prologue that explains his condition taking over a half-hour to be revealed for what it really is before we get any sense of what's supposed to be going on with our following the royal and his treatment of the girl before the birth, which afterwards imparts another big flaw in the fact that this one doesn't really have much in the way of a true werewolf. There's none of the mysticism, folklore or anything imparted upon this one, and it's really hard to determine why a werewolf was needed in here as this could've easily been another creature inserted into the story without any difficulty or much change. As well, with the creature only on-screen for two sequences, it's really hard to get much fear out of it, although both of those scenes are pretty fun including the usual finale where it really lets the action fly with a superb sequence of it running amok through the town. Still, it's not enough to overcome the flaws here.

Burn, Witch, Burn-Attempting to get through to his hysterical wife that her use of charms and trinkets protecting against witchcraft are ludicrous, a man's life changes for the dreadful when he finds himself at the center of a series of strange supernatural hauntings after their destruction. This one turned out to be quite enjoyable for the most part, even though there's some pretty big flaws to this one. The biggest issue with this one that really hurts it is that the later half of the film doesn't really contain much in the way of horror, as what happens to them doesn't have a lot of scares, shocks or gruesome ideas that would turn this into a rather chilling, creepy tale. The threatening student and the resentful colleagues storylines go nowhere, and the rape charge does nothing that really marks this as a horror film, and then the fact that most of these segments are with her catatonic doesn't really offer up much, and with the film's British-like slow-burn pace it takes a while to get going. Still, though, there's a lot of good here in the rather impressive use of magical trinkets and their protective properties, there's some pretty intense scenes and the finale does inject some life into the proceedings by finally having something to do, which does overcome a couple of the flaws and makes it somewhat more enjoyable.

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Red State-When a group of thrill-seeking kids get involved with a fanatical preacher and his group of followers, they incur the wrath of the followers as well as try to survive the government agents outside the compound trying to bring the whole clan down. This here turned out to be a fairly heavily flawed and troublesome effort. The first issue to get over at first is the strongly perverted and twisted religious preaching going on, which doesn't make for an easy time to get into this one because it's so far removed from reality that it gets a little too hard to swallow. On top of that, the fact that the group's actions aren't taken up as to be done in a horror film, as hardly anything gets done here that can be called horror as soon as it starts to get chilling, it switches over into an action film with the take-over of the compound. While this is fun stuff with the majority of the stuff comprising of shootouts and stuff, it's a little out-of-tone with the first half and doesn't really fit in with the other half even though that's quite troubled on it's own as this is filled with flawed logic, unrealistic scenarios and a lapse in filling out answers until after the fact, which in turn makes it quite hard to get into. It's got some good stuff here, but this is quite heavily flawed.

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The Secret-After his wife dies in a car accident, a grieving husband comes to find her spirit has possessed their daughter and must come to terms with the situation as they go through the adjusting process. Not a horror film at all as it's a romance/drama about him coming to terms with the fact that his teenage daughter knows the intimacies of their relationship and tries to win him over to the truth rather than doing anything supernatural. Decent idea, absolutely mislabeled as such.

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Haunted Forest-Attempting to find a mythical tree reportedly cursed by an Indian shaman his grandfather found years ago, a man and his friends encounter the legendary ghost roaming the forested grounds where it's located and try to get away from the murderous spirit. This turned out to be quite an enjoyable if flawed entry. One of the best parts to this is that it manages to make a cliched notion, the black-haired ghost-girl, scary again by melding the concept with avenging Native American spirit of the land, so it comes out of the ground, trees or just thin air with remnants of the environment stuck to it, creating an even more threatening visual even though it really does get creepy without the branches, moss and twigs sticking out of it. As well, the introduction of the Indian folklore, which hasn't been explored a lot in normal horror films, really gets some work here and it's quite enjoyable being exposed so unusual fare as it is here since it gets quite good at times, especially the finale which is incredibly well-done for what it accomplishes, both in terms of visual impact as well as action with several really enjoyable scenes thrown in. That said, there's some flaws here in the fact that this one takes quite a while to get going, really meandering around with the group of friends without much in the way of giving them anything interesting to do. As well, the inclusion of the hunter/trapper storyline could've been dropped without incident as he tends to take time away from the ghost and doesn't offer much, but otherwise this was a fine entry.

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Madison County-Heading out to a small town in the country, a group of friends investigating a local legend of a vicious killer try to look past the spurned locals to get to the truth and find a more deadly version than they wanted. This turned out to be quite a decent slasher effort overall, although it does have some pretty big problems. The first one is that the film contains the all-too-familiar-and-irritating trope of having people with knowledge of what's going on purposefully keep it from those that would need such information to stay out of harm's way. Naturally, that would kill off the movie but in a realistic setting, it's ridiculous to continually feature such a proven irritating tactic. As well, for a slasher film this gets going pretty late in the storyline as there's a lot more time than expected dealing with the group and their individual romances that are built up a little too long before we get anywhere interesting. This is compounded by it's criminal lack of gore in it's killings, which are brutal in concept but criminally lacking in execution. That said, there's some fun to be had with it's back-half being loaded with all the stalking being done in a pretty creepy location, a rather imposing killer and his mask that make quite an impression, and a really intriguing mystery explored in the first half that make this one a lot better than it really could've been.

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Return of the Dragon-A visiting martial arts expert from Hong Kong helps a family member deal with the Italian crooks who want the land her restaurant sits on and who will do anything to stop it. Wasn't much else on so I gave this Bruce Lee effort a rewatch, and while the beginning half of his journey through the city and eventual dragging into the confrontations get old pretty quickly, this one makes up for it with a rather enjoyable second-half with all sorts of fun fighting and confrontations, including the legendary finale that still lives up to it's hype quite nicely. The twist makes no sense, but it's still really fun and quite entertaining.

Fist of Fury-After his master's death at the hands of fighters from a rival school, a fighter sets off on a mission of vengeance against the school while trying to avoid the authorities on his tail. A pretty pleasing effort overall, though this one is again hindered by the fact that there's not a whole lot going on in the beginning as the majority of the focus is on him hiding from the police and investigating the death, which don't really allow for a lot of fighting with the way it plays out, even though there's two incredibly fun sequences where he takes on an entire martial arts academy and when the academy returns to his school and begins a massive beat-down on everyone there. The second half again has a ton of incredible fights and showdowns, more so than the first half and make it a lot more enjoyable than it really is. Still pretty hard to get over the first part, but it's a lot easier.

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True Legend-When his brother betrays him and leaves a warrior for dead, he rises up from his despair and seeks vengeance against the group by learning a mystical form of kung-fu to carry out his plans. This was a pretty fun HK epic that really got a lot of things right, as this one managed to incorporate tired cliches and a predictable storyline without really falling into boredom. This is mostly accomplished by the film's high fight count, which is filled with the usual wire-fu trappings that look so good on-screen, but which are handled well by a veteran, competent cast that can perform the action well-enough. The themes of honor, vengeance and family tradition may be done better in countless other films, but at least here it makes the film just that much more entertaining.

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Bodyguards and Assassins-As China prepares to welcome Sun-Yat Sen to discuss the possible recourse of a revolution against the Qing dynasty, the news of a possible assassination attempt prompts his supporters to bring a small army of skilled martial arts masters in as protection until the talks can commence. A pretty entertaining and thoroughly rousing kung-fu affair, which is aided along by it's epic feel generated by the dozen recognizable names from kung-fu films to the grand story that unfurls through the grandiose action which is present here in large numbers since almost everyone here gets a showcase sequence that allows for a long-winded movie to go by quicker than expected. That said, the tendency to stop the fighting to go into yet another rousing speech about the necessity of unification and overthrowing the oppressive regime gets a little maddening, especially in the later half when we've already got the plot handled and don't need to be inundated with more scenes explaining their need to complete their protective duties. It gets a little overbearing at times and is when the film really feels it's length, but luckily we still have the kung-fu to fall back on which is quite rewarding and makes this a somewhat challenging but still enjoyable kung-fu epic.

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Added an uncut copy of The Grudge to the collection.

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The Moth Diaries-Going back to their boarding school for a new semester, a young girl finds that her best friend has fallen under the spell of a seductive newcomer and begins acting strangely under her spell while a rash of murders on campus point out the real truth behind the new student. This was a pretty disappointing and eventually not that worthwhile vampire effort that has precious little going for it. The main factor going against it is the whole drama approach, both in tone and content, as the fact that the film's so slow to get anything going it's barely able to showcase anything because it's got the wrong pace to do that with. While the romance and seduction of the student is nice, it's got the wrong victim as the lead is more damaged than the friend and is therefore more susceptible to the charms and advances, and moreso it doesn't show anything at all despite being set at an all-girls' boarding school as the whole romance takes place off-camera or behind closed doors. The rash of murders are never seen committed or raise anything for the students, and the whole subplot comes off as sloppy. It does have a few good moments, as there's some great imagery in the finale before their finale battle, and the fact that this is one of the cleverest ways to play out a book adaptation without hitting it on the head saying their doing so is pretty clever, but overall this one is just not that worthwhile.

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Added uncut copies of The Guardian and Mr. Frost to the collection.

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Dragon Wasps-After learning of her father's disappearance in the Amazon jungle while working on secret research projects, a woman and her friend enlist a group of soldiers to help them only to find their work on mutated wasps has produced fire-breathing creatures infesting the area. Pretty much another typical Sci-Fi Channel creature feature, so this one's pretty obvious about itself quite early and often. With the creatures' appearing to be the same bland and totally fake CGI that at least has the decency to give them a bright color design to somewhat hide the fakery, yet whenever there's a close-up of them it diminishes almost immediately. There's also the simplistic plot done hundreds of times over without variation or the rather mundane pace that deals with outside areas other than the bugs to take up the majority of the running time, thereby reducing the confrontations and interactions with the creatures and reducing the gore quotient considerably. That said, the few action scenes present are a lot of fun, generate some pretty interesting scenes within and are full of pretty wild scenarios. Of course, the finale is a bit of fun, full of explosions, gunfire-riddled shootouts and the application of one of the movie's best qualities as it uses a rather novel idea against the creatures, generating a bit of smarts in an otherwise mundane effort. All in all, it's about the same as would be expected in such an effort.

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Added uncut copies of Tremors and Orca to the collection.

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My usual birthday tradition. You should know by now.