Just Watched Movies (2012)

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Added an uncut copy of Sometimes They Come Back to the collection.

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Groupie-After a cursed band on a comeback tour picks up a strange groupie at one of their shows, they suddenly find their lives complicated by a series of strange deaths and accidents to others around them, forcing them to realize that a killer is among the group and trying to stop their efforts. An unbelievably lame, tame and just plain disastrous thriller masquerading as a slasher that really has nothing to offer beyond some nudity. The storyline is a joke as it's been done too many times before, there's no twist to it as it plays all the same notes over and over again in nearly every attempt at doing this kind of story and therefore makes it easy to guess what's going to happen and leaving no surprises at all. The motives are lame, the stalking is non-existent to wash away at least that point for slasher-fanatics, and basically with such a short running time that never leaves it with anything interesting by taking too long to get going and not being enjoyable when it does, this one is just not worthwhile at all.

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Added an uncut copy of Corridors of Blood to the collection.

Iron Man-After surviving a potentially fatal kidnapping in the Middle East, a technologically-inclined billionaire creates an armored-powered suit and uses it to fight the force behind the terrorists' weaponry. Overall, not going to say a whole lot about it, it's good for what it is when it's in Action-movie mode, as the shoot-outs, fighting and chases are all top-notch, if a little too CGI-dependent and takes away from the spectacle a tad more than it should. That said, the final fight is very underwhelming, as it doesn't last as long as it really should've and seems over quite quickly. Beyond that, it rarely dictates to logic and coherency, but again when it's in Action-mode, it's hard to find fault with it.

The Giant Behemoth-When a series of strange incidents and accidents along the British coastline alert the authorities to the presence of something out there, they find a giant radioactive dinosaur is responsible and try to deter the creature away before it attacks the city. A somewhat undervalued giant monster movie, which is understandable but definitely not warranted since this one did provide some good stuff to it. The initial build-up of the creature's existence is about as good, logical and even interesting as it gets in these kinds of movies, progressively getting more and more accurate pieces in a series of incidents that provide some fun about it. While brief and not as full of building-smashing as others, the rampage in the city is fine and has some good points about it, though this one does suffer from some dodgy special effects and a lack of explanation about what the creature really is during a period where it could've done so. Otherwise, this is a fine addition to the genre.

[Fenril]

Saw the following movies sometime during the previous weeks:

- The tree of life. A deceased man reflects on a few defining moments of his life (the death of his youngest brother and their childhood in 50's suburban America) and mankind's place in the universe. Or at least that's what I interpreted from the storyline.
Visually gorgeous "art" movie that doesn't quite work on a narrative level --it tried to do too much with a thin premise. Also, the lead character's relatives seemed far more interesting than him.

- Henry & June. A loose adaptation of the complex, sexually charged triangle between real-life writers Anais Nin, Henry Miller, and Henry's performance artist wife, June.
Great erotic drama salted by one of Uma Thurman's finest performances.

- The red violin. Five complex characters across five centuries are haunted by the titular musical instrument, a violin rumored to destroy everyone who comes in contact with it's secrets.
This is one of my favorite movies of all time (quite possibly my favorite, to the degree that's possible), a multilayered drama that rewards multiple viewings.

- Midnight in Paris. A scriptwriter at odds with his socialité fiancé falls in love with Paris and travels back in time to meet some of his personal idols, like writer Ernest Hemingway, painter Salvador Dalí and filmmaker Luis Buñuel. But he's not the only one obsessed with a past time.
Cute comedy and certainly of Woody Allen's best efforts of the last ten years or so. It's also one of Owen Wilson's few good movies.

- The avengers. (Either you all know the plot already or don't care about this movie).
A standard superhero romp, but very well-written and entertaining. I have no idea if this holds up to the previous movies from each of the leads (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk), but I had no trouble following the storyline, so I guess that's a plus point. In my opinion Scarlett Johanson steals the movie as Black Widow.

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The Bleeding-After finding that his thought-dead brother has been reborn as a vampire king looking to overthrow humanity, a soldier sets out to track him and his clan down before they can implement their plans. Not too terrible vampire entry, definitely could've used a little more oomph since it's barely over an hour and doesn't even reach eighty minutes so this one tends to rush through everything without purpose and it feels short-changed as a result. That said, when this gets down to it this is a rather enjoyable affair due to the inclusion of a ton of action setpieces that really drive the film along, from the car chase with motorcycles, buggies and a big rig, a great shootout in a nightclub while a raging dance track blares over the sequence and a couple of decent fights spread throughout that tend to make this one a lot more entertaining than it really should be. While the plan is a mess and the story feels like a cliche that's been done over and over too many times, there's still enough fun to make it a decent entry.

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Grizzly-After a series of accidents in the park prove the existence of a giant killer Grizzly Bear running around, the workers band together with several locals to put an end to it's rampage before more are hurt. Surprisingly a lot of fun, built around the film's exceptionally fast-paced story that tends to get this one going along nicely as there's really no let-up at all and it tends to remain incredibly focused on it's main points without much deviation, allowing it to maintain a vicious pace all the way through. As well, that allows for far more attacks than expected, which aren't that great but the sheer number of them is what really matters here. Of course, some are definitely fun and get some interest going, but mostly it's the fact that the blood and gore look really cheesy which is what hurts them overall. Still, the use of a real animal instead of CGI and some nice action scenes makes this highly worthwhile.

[slayrrr666]

Added an uncut copy of The Beast Must Die to the collection.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death-After moving to a cottage in the countryside, a woman begins to suspect something's wrong with her new neighbors, and when it gradually dawns on her their true intention, she tries to save herself from the fate awaiting her. Incredibly boring and hardly worthwhile effort, not least of which is the fact that the first hour of this is so hard to tell is a horror film that it looses so much during that point with a combination of nothing happening, no real uncovering of plot and general laid-back atmosphere that there's not much going on, leaving this one so dreary and drama-ish that it's hard to believe it's a horror film. When it does change over at the hour mark there's so little about this part as well that works it's hard to just take anything this offers with any real pressing interest or general horror attitude. The last parts are pretty enjoyable since some energy is injected into them, but overall this one is a monumentally boring effort.

Santo and Blue Demon vs. The Monsters-When the popular wrestler investigates the abduction of his girlfriend, he finds a mad scientist creating clones of his friends and using criminal's brains to revive a slew of monstrous corpses, forcing him to fight them off to save her. Unbelievably cheesy and thoroughly enjoyable Mexican monster mash-up, putting them all together in a single film that really lets them do what comes naturally to them, run amuck and cause devastation. That really allows for a frenetic pace here, since unlike a lot of these efforts it's got very little downtime, moving from one scene and confrontation to another rapidly and providing plenty to love about those fights, including several rousing and fun battles with the evil clone that's quite striking for the brutality inflicted upon each other, a pretty entertaining kidnapping venture that provides some fun and most of all, a high-energy finale in the mad scientist's lair that's got all sorts of action, plenty of fighting and uproarious amounts of cheese. Some of the monsters may look too much so, and it may not work for everyone, but this is still immensely entertaining.

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The Murders in the Rue Morgue-When a series of strange murders committed in a specialized district of Paris are revealed to be at the hands of a large ape, a doctor who holds a captive ape is found to be at the cause of the mayhem after unleashing it to find the perfect woman to carry out his experiments and race to stop him. Nicely done classic-horror effort that doesn't really do too much but manages to stay somewhat interesting the whole time. Largely due to it's pace and old-timey influence, this one doesn't get too bogged down in meandering sideplots and really stays on focus, really only stopping for a comically intrusive and ineffective questioning done at the scene of the crime to accuse a guilty party that really stops the momentum going forward. Still, the largely ineffective attack scenes are played for laughs due to the era as they feature a man in an ape suit that doesn't resemble the real one used for close-ups that are obviously done to make it appear to be in the same place but the backgrounds don't even match, ruining the image completely. Still, it's not the worst example of a film from the time-period.

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Island of Lost Souls-Stranded on a South Pacific island with a reclusive scientist and his deformed helpers, a man gradually comes to learn that those are the results of his extreme experiments on human beings that have turned them into vicious creatures, forcing him to try to escape before they overthrow the island. A lot better than expected creature feature that definitely features some better aspects than normal in these kinds of films. While the initial sabotaging and getting him stranded on the island is entirely way too lame and really feels stupid, the rest of the film isn't as it builds up a rather nice amount of atmosphere with it's tropical rainforest setting, the unusual sounds coming from behind the line of sight covered by the thick jungle, and the slowly-unveiled series of experiments that showcase what he's doing there, leading to the creatures themselves which look really good and creepy for the time-period. As the finale is really fun and enjoyable with a lot of action, it just ends way too quickly and seems to be over without warning, featuring a big action-piece then cutting it off for the credits, leaving it a little off-kilter but overall quite entertaining effort.

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Super Shark-When an oil-drilling machine revives a prehistoric shark buried beneath the sea-floor and begins dining on surfers and residents of a small sea-side town, the locals and the military band together to stop it's rampage before it gets too dangerous. Uproariously cheesy and enjoyable effort that manages to contain a large amount of material that really works. Starting off with the shark, the ability to make this thing far more dangerous with the ability to walk on land with a very specialized adaption that seems logical and nicely implemented into the overall design is rather nicely done and works quite well here, which is even worked into the film to provide numerous action scenes that are highly enjoyable, rousing and really entertaining. Combine that with some crappy CGI work, which looks fine in execution in most cases but but because of the action required tends to give itself away, and a healthy cheese level throughout and it's a mildly-flawed and entertaining effort.

Shark Zone-When the local business magnate of a small town discovers an ancient wreck bearing diamonds and other jewels under the sea, he enlists a diver to help him retrieve them only to have their guardian sharks get loose and prey upon others on the water, forcing them to take the creatures out. This one could've been much better than it is because the opportunities to be that good were easily apparent, but is overall too flawed to really move up the list more. The main problem is the plotline, which is essentially two films in one, the jewel-recovery and then the rampaging sharks, and only the rampaging sharks one works because it provides lots of creature attacks and plenty of gore with the live-action, real-sea footage intercut with the prosthetic shark head, whereas the jewel-recovery is just boring and feels tacked on for no reason, especially when that's the finale of the film and everything else is about forcing him into action to do so, which is really boring and not the wrong feeling you want in a killer shark film and dragging this one down accordingly.

Jersey Shore Shark Attack-After a rare species of shark are brought up from the depths due to the renovation undertaken at a small town on the New Jersey Shore, the colorful locals band together with each other to defeat the creatures after the authorities doubt their existence. If ever a film became 'so bad it's good,' it's going to be this one because it's just so ridiculous and cheesy that it's worth the effort. By parodying the lifestyle portrayed exactly to the letter, the utter joy gathered during those scenes provides plenty of laughs, chuckles and outrageous moments that are effective and truly funny. When it gets to the shark attacks, they're quite brutal and bloodier than expected, though it's still mostly the spreading-bloodstain-on-the-surface variety though it does have some some more fun stuff throughout. The sharks look cheesy, the action is totally cheesy and the story is cliche, but it's fun to watch and that counts more than anything else.

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Santo and Blue Demon in the World of the Dead-When the realization that a witch's curse appears to be fulfilled, a masked wrestler must battle her demonic hordes and henchmen to save his beloved from her plans of revenge for the crimes committed against her. My new favorite lucha movie, and which features a lot of great stuff about it. The cheese is on high-display here, with a silver-caped and masked wrestler engaging in a sword-fight with zombified servants, a sequence involving demonic possession by overlapping the two figures together, footage from other movies spliced into the film wholesale and much more, which makes this one so much fun. along with that, there's a ton of action here with numerous hard-fitting fistfights, a couple spectacular wrestling matches and a final confrontation in a sepia-tinted sequence in the titular location, which makes this one all the more enjoyable. There's enough horror as well with the opening Satanic rituals, possession and stake-burning to make this one still squarely such a film. It's a little hard to sort through the different time periods, but it's not that bad and is overall a rather enjoyable Mexican masked-wrestler horror film.

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Absentia-When her sister arrives to help a woman finalize her husband's disappearance, his sudden reappearance and odd behavior spark them to believe a legend about a mysterious tunnel being a gateway to a nightmarish world and must stop themselves from joining it's grisly legacy. Absolutely dreadful and utterly terrible horror effort, which has barely anything about it worthwhile. From the complete and utter lack of any horror activity in the beginning, which is played off as a mystery/drama mixture with the disappearance taken precedent in the story, which in turn allows the film to move along at a dreadful, boring pace as they go through the requirements necessary to do that in real life, and it doesn't even turn into a horror film until the last ten minutes when it becomes apparent something's going on. Even still, it's not a good horror film since the one horror scene is told as a silent flashback that never shows anything, features no gore, no scares or even any creepy moments, leaving this one to be a total bore.

[Fenril]

- The terror. A French soldier is separated from his unit; following a strange and seemingly kind woman, he arrives at a decaying castle and gets involved in a complex story involving old secrets, hauntings and fiendish plots.

Rather odd but strangely charming quickie from Roger Corman. The story feels a bit patchy at times (which is appropiate as this particular movie was pretty much built from leftover props and shots), but somehow manages to become a coherent mistery as it advances. It has one of Jack Nicholson's first performances and one of Boris Karloff's last. In fact bits of this movie are used for the opening of "Targets", itself Karloff's last good film.

- Shutter Island. A Marshall is called to the titual location to investigate the dissapearance of patient from an insane asylum. But the hospital crew and the Marshall's partner are not what they seem. Neither is he.

Glossy psychological thriller from Hollywood that is nevertheless very entertaining and suprisingly scary at times. In my humble opinion one of Martin Scorsese's best movies of the past ten years. For the record, Leonardo DiCaprio's performance is fine, but in my opinion Michelle Williams outdoes him in every scene they have together.

- A nightmare on Elm Street (1984). The original movie that introduced Freddy Kruegger to the world and rocketed Wes Craven's carreer.

Classic slasher with a fantasy premise that mantains it's power to this day. Almost thirty years later, after countless sequels, ripoffs and a remake [some of those were actually good movies in their own right, by the by] it's a shame this movie didn't use Craven's intended original ending (look it up). Still, a genuinely good "iconic" horror movie.

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The Silent House-Agreeing to look after a mansion for a friend, a woman and her father become convinced something is inside the house with them and soon make a terrifying discovery about the house's inhabitant that puts them both in extreme danger. Some mixed feelings about this one. Indeed, the set-up for this in incredibly nice and definitely allows for some genuinely good scares to come forth, most notably a scene where the lights go out and the intermittent flashes of a camera going off provide the only illumination in the sequence, which plays off for a long period of time to make it even more frightening, and with several other rather impressive scenes to make for some a great feel when combined with the creepy house setting. It does have a few major flaws, though, mainly in the final twist revelation that really makes no sense as it just seems shoehorned into the film for no real reason, feels rather lame anyway and has no real connection to the rest of the movie. On top of that, it's short pace and relative lack of explanations make it tough to get into initially. Overall, it's pretty decent but not that spectacular.

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Devil's Playground-When an experimental drug turns the trial recipients into blood-crazed zombies and manage to overrun London, a small band of survivors must found out why one of their own who was subjected as well never turned and what it could mean to stop the epidemic. A fairly decent British zombie effort, which isn't all that bad overall and does have some good stuff going for it, mainly in the blood-and-gore department as there's some pretty gruesome attacks in this one that provide some nice highlights. That also gives this one some nice action scenes as well, and it manages to move along with the attacks fairly nicely in that regard from scenes of the massive swarm overrunning their victims to single zombies against the group which makes it that much more enjoyable. The zombies look okay enough, but are never given a good enough look since this one manages to follow the utterly stupid look of running zombies which move and run about, making for a thoroughly dissatisfying taste. It's not enough to be completely disruptive of the movie, but it's enough to knock it down some.