Just Watched Movies (2013)

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Creature with the Atom Brain-Following a series of strange deaths across the country, a freak occurrence in the investigation leads police to a mad scientist working with a disgruntled gangster controlling reanimated dead people under their power to kill those who arrested him and must stop his deadly plot. This ended up being quite a bland and overall disappointing zombie effort. For the most part, the film remains solely on the investigation angle of the police trying to determine the cause of the strange deaths around town and interpreting the evidence left behind, running all sorts of different tests and experiments on the material and even debating what they mean for the majority of the film's running time, leaving large portions of the film completely without zombie action at all. Despite the appeal of doing so during the heyday of the 50s sci-fi monster movies running during the same time, in a horror film that type of story doesn't work for it lowers the on-screen amount of time the actual creatures take up, and that in itself is quite the opposite of what's supposed to happen in a genre-related film. Not that the zombies themselves are all that imposing, outfitted with Frankenstein-like marks around the forehead to denote an operation on their face has taken place but otherwise remain completely un-suggestive of traditional zombies or their behavior, and that remains the biggest portion of this one's problems as the lack of traditional zombie actions may make this a bitter pill to swallow for traditionalists, for the creatures are able to speak in a monotone voice, follow commands through a radio-receiver that also allows them to transmit video quality of their deeds and remain lifeless until called upon to act, so the purpose of reanimating the dead tissue for the process, a key component of zombie-lore, remains quite curious for it could've been done through hypnotized lackeys and the result is the same. Though there's some fun sequences here and there, mainly the finale as the army of creatures descends upon the military task-force assigned to take them out, there's just not enough to compound the boredom such a quick film implies.

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll-Determined to find a cause for human behavior, a scientist's experiments with a special serum inadvertently trigger his change into a boorish, violent degenerate that enables him to live out his inner most devious fantasies, which come to pass when he discovers his wife's affair. Despite having a rather interesting take on the famous story, this entry isn't really all that special. One of the biggest problems here is that the change-over into his new personality doesn't bring about any real reason to fear him, for he looks like himself without the facial hair and lack of old-age wrinkles, or in other words just an ordinary man. This isn't a change into a twisted, deformed brute that looks slightly different from modern society but rather exactly the same as the other people around him, so he doesn't exactly inspire a great deal of fear amongst those around him as he goes through the motions of the story. In fact, several times he's shown to be knocked-out or even manhandled with extreme ease, and it's really only minor details about what he wants his friend to do that inspires any sort of terror. In fact, those actions are downright lame in any sense, not making it seem like there's a big dramatic, horror-inspired fate for what's going on but rather just an ordinary man asking his friend to do some pretty weird things for about an hour, making this one take an eternity to get going. The last half, when he goes about setting on revenge for the affair does it get going as there's some life to the film, as well as the potential for the some chills as he finally engages in actions that put others in the line of his temper, and it goes somewhat towards restoring some fear to him, but the majority of the film is so bland that there's not a lot of good that can come from it.

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Curse of the Undead-Trying to resolve matters in a land-border dispute, a family's hiring of a strange gunslinger eventually causes them to realize he's the culprit behind a series of ghastly murders around town by draining women of blood and race to stop him before he completes his task. This is an overall curious and quite enjoyable effort. Basically this here turns out to be a cunning combination of Western and vampire horror, but for once the mixture is not a detriment to the other as they usually result in forsaking one part of the story for the other if the two chosen topics really have little in common with each other. Here, we get a typical Western about a ranch family involved in a border dispute with their neighbors who resorts to underhanded tactics to keep his side of the property without repercussions, involved in numerous shady deals with the authorities to keep himself in line and offers up plenty of shoot-outs, beatings and scenes of everyone wandering around on horse- back to fulfill that part of the storyline, and basically turns the script around by having the loner coming in to deal with the situation being a vampire. By still incorporating those tactics, where he resides in coffins, can't stay out in the sunlight for long periods of time and resorts to blood-drinking to carry out his orders all fall in line with known vampire lore, as well as the defense tactics used to stop his rampage that carries out on the outskirts of the story before being brought in by the land dispute where everything finally makes sense. The only real problems here is the last half, where the vampire far more often than necessary taunts the hero with long-winded speeches about humanity and faith of God, which really hurts his effectiveness as a villain since it all comes off so lame and stupid. Overall, though, it more than makes up for that one little flaw.

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The Mad Magician-Furious over his boss' repeated attempts to curtain his career, a famous trick maker finds he can utilize his craft to kill for the sake of his career, only doing so requires him to constantly repeat the act in order to stay away from his friend and the authorities on his trail. Essentially a remake of another film by the same star from the previous year with a new profession behind it that powers the revenge motif, there's not a whole lot with this one that really works. The fact that it's so similar with the exception of the profession change does little for this one, requiring it to introduce a few spectacular gags for the revenge aspect when doling out the deaths but beyond that we don't get anything hardly original in here. The 3D gags are lifted straight from the previous film, going around with masks on to commit his crimes is a plot-point from there as well and the romance angle is taken from there as well with just a few minor tweaks that would naturally come about due to the profession rather than anything else. The constant plot of him being under the bosses thumb is nothing more than a requirement to start the rampage and goes on way too long for what it should be, the bumbling authorities accidentally uncover the whole ploy through sheer accident without willfully doing anything to piece the puzzle together and moreso the comic relief couple are rather tired and irritating more than a positive force upon the movie. That said, it's still quite fun with a few good moments here and there, including a few spectacular tricks to be employed by the stage-show, the finale contains quite a bit of action with the brawl in the shop and as usual it's always fun to see Price get to do his thing every now and then where he just gets to monologue for a while spouting off the reasons for his revenge, the end result containing a rather twisted logic behind it all that sounds reasonable enough for the rampage to ensue and not come off like a hokey joke. While it's nowhere near the top of his career works and certainly not near the bottom rung either, there's just too much about it that doesn't work to say it does nothing more than be overall adequate.

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Zombie Night-After the dead rise from their graves following a worldwide epidemic, a group of survivors try to withstand the relentless onslaught of zombies against them as they wait for the one cure for the madness to save them. This here was an unbelievably fun and entertaining effort that really has a lot of fun times about it. The fact that this one just absolutely runs through a relentless pace that's all built around the zombies getting free at the opening, barely five minutes in which allows this to really just warp through it's paces with the numerous encounters that transpire here following this type of pace. With an exceptionally creepy encounter in the graveyard as the zombies slowly rise from the grave to the home encounter where the zombies break in and force them to keep their own children out of harm's way and the thrilling encounter on the abandoned streets that feature a whole slew of zombies shambling along after the heroes who have to avoid the ever-increasing mass. The final half, where the underground tunnels through the cemetery with the zombies falling from the graves above them into the tunnels leading into the bloodbath ushered in the mausoleum is perfectly handled with some absolutely chilling moments stretched out quite nicely, a multitude of gore shots that look quite impressive and a rather fun amount of action containing two incredibly creepy locations being utilized quite nicely. As well, the inciting spark for the zombie rampage is quite original and certainly creative, marking one of the only times such a concept was utilized and definitely made the fact that the heroes trying to deal with such overwhelming odds was a certainly fruitless endeavor look all the more impacting when there's some suspense to be wrung from this clever trick. As well, there's shuffling zombies brought back that play up the fact that it's the sheer number on undead that really makes them so frightening, and when called upon they do move about quite quickly when necessary so there's something for everyone. While the ending is just way too quick and completely lifeless despite having such a great gimmick attached to it, it's the only thing holding this one down.

Possessing Piper Rose-After adopting a little girl through nefarious means, a couple start to believe her attachment to her real mother might mean that her spirit is the cause of a series of supernatural attacks that they have to discover the cause of to keep their new daughter alive. Absolutely enjoyable Lifetime effort that sounds ludicrous in many ways but actually holds together far better than expected. With a few too many plotlines that seem perfectly suited to such a platform including the step-mom's relationship with her own mother that drives the last half of this, some rather fine hauntings and a rather enjoyable finale all make this quite enjoyable.

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The Watermen-Heading out for a relaxing cruise on a small boat, a group of friends learn their boats' troubles allow them to fall into the hands of a group of deranged butchers cutting up human flesh to haul in more fish and must try to get away from the group. This here wasn't all that great and really had a lot of problems. One of the biggest is the fact that there's just no way to really take the group of hunters here seriously enough as a threat. Speaking in mumbled accents that make their intended threats barely audible, working a storyline that makes no sense and basically offering nothing of any real substance here that makes it come together in any shape or form, all of which work to make the group of butchers completely ridiculous as threats. The fact that there's very few encounters between them and the friends also really hinders them since we don't get to see them in action beyond slicing up the bodies or hunting them down, so we don't get a sense of fear from them since there's no home-field advantage being in the swampy, forested areas with only one sequence showing that and they get easily out-gunned in the situation anyway which really just throws the whole thing for a loop. So much is spent on them being ruthless butchers that they get outsmarted, and really only have the upper hand with weapons since the hand-to-hand combat is to the way of the group so they don't even have that. An extra-long set-up time to actually get to the island makes for a rather distressing time since the group of friends are the typical uninteresting and self-involved jerks that make it easy to want them dead. Thankfully, it's saved by a fine last-half that really puts the confrontations back-to-back-to-back that allows for a lot of great action, some pretty gory dismembering that's effectively bloody and tons of nudity from those well-qualified to deliver it. All in all, this one is pretty disappointing.

[Fenril]

- The pact. When her sister and cousin mysteriously disappear inside her childhood home, a young woman investigates her family's past, and discovers her mother's link to a never-caught serial killer.

Lean but not quite mean thriller with supernatural touches whose script doesn't quite gel --it has plenty of arbitrary character motivations, supernatural rules made up on the spot and a fairly undercooked third act twist. It's not particularly bad, just not all memorable.

[slayrrr666]

So, computer's been acting up and I missed the Halloween festivities here, here's my complete watch history:

Beneath-Gathering together for one last trip following high school graduation, a group of friends' trip to a small nearby lake forces them to come face-to-face with the lake's monstrous fish creature living there and try to find a way to get out alive. This one here had just a never-ending series of problems against it that there's not a whole lot of good points for it. The biggest issue with the film is that the film thinks these kinds of callous, vile humans are worthy of being the center-stage for the actions in here, yet none of them are ever worthy of doing anything more than being cannon fodder for the creature as other, smarter characters fought it off. Relying on bullying, cheating, blackmail and deciding that others where more worthy of living and dumping their friends overboard to die with the creature in the lake with them is perhaps the biggest death-knell to each of these characters, especially since all the while there's more than enough tactics on hand to actually fight it off with a gallant effort without resorting to dumping your friends in with the creature that even thinking of resorting to that tactic is really hard to forgive. Of course, the fact that there's one who knows the truth about it but decides against telling the others so that he can win the heart of the group's resident slut doesn't do much to favor this either, and the fact that this one tends to focus solely on the group sitting in the canoe arguing with each other tends to make for wholly uneventful programming with nothing interesting happening. That said, the gore isn't half-bad for the mangled bodies really look like they've been munched on and the creature does have some realistic looks to it since it's kept to a more reasonable size without being too gigantic to live there undetected, and frankly some of the sequences in the later half with the rapidly- drowning boat do get somewhat suspenseful. Overall, though, there's not too much to like here.

Black Water-Deciding to take a special canoeing trip through the Australian outback, a small group of friends is stranded in the wilderness by a massive, flesh-hungry crocodile not letting them leave and forcing them to find a way to survive the desperate odds. This here turned out to be quite a lacking killer crocodile feature that really has to look at the main villain to understand the failure. This here has so little action with the croc that there's very few times where it has something going for it, as the film puts them in the water with it so early on but tends to make the more realistic route where it only shows up to attack that the main portion of the film is spent with everyone waiting in the trees for it to leave that it just grows deadly dull waiting for that kill scene or attack to happen and they just spend an eternity not having anything transpire that long which just gets old. As well, the utter lack of preparation for the unlikely event this happened really seems like it's just there to ensure they remain stuck in the situation longer than necessary, and for a film so enamored with realism that this one tries for is a little hard to swallow. That said, the whole effort to remain wholly realistic for a change is where this gets some positive points in that there's a real sense this could potentially happen as the crocodile is kept to believable actions and motions, the prop for the creature behaves beautifully and looks realistic as well, and the rather ironic sense of cruelty that runs through it provides some decent moments both in terms of kills and character actions. It's more than enough to save some of it but not enough to fix all of the problems.

The Mad Ghoul-After discovering a strange gas during his work on Mayan burial rites, a professor uses it on his assistant in order to murder for his girlfriend, the woman he loves, only for the trail of corpses left behind to lead the police right to him. This turned out to be quite an enjoyable if flawed effort, mostly through the complete inactivity presented here. Because the main just of the storyline is that he's trying to win his girlfriend over to marry her, a lot of his screen-time is spent running off to find her but never coming out with his feelings once he does find her, making the reason for the journey quite unnecessary when nothing happens and instead it just turns into a tedious drag when it launches into yet another trip around the world as he follows her musical tour with the doctor in tow. Even with his secret romance towards her being as cliched as it ever is, that these scenes here comprise the majority of the middle section of the film means that the main focus has nothing going on despite ample evidence that something fun could happen as the transformation occurs quite early on in the film due to the running-time constraints which just make this all the more obviously dull and dragging. As well, the finale is so rushed and just completely underwhelming that there's a dramatic lack of urgency over the entire affair and making it just seem all the more ludicrous overall as it transpires. That said, there's still some fun here with the storyline being quite original of utilizing the Mayan nerve gas and the regenerative properties being tied in with actual historical atrocities in a clever bit of retroactive rewriting, and the scenes of him in the laboratory operating on the different subjects early on make for a rather cheesy time with the portrayal of the classic cinematic mad scientist in such films. Several of the murders are quite creepy, and the continued marching off into the cemetery to recover body parts needed for the procedure make for a rather fun time and gets some chilling moments into the effort, and the make-up effects for the transformation look rather nice if pretty cheap overall. While there's problems, it does have some good points about it.

The Witches-Moving back to a small English village, a teacher learns her position in the school places her in jeopardy of the satanic cult of witches in the area looking to sacrifice one of the students to complete a pagan rite and tries to stop it before it's too late. This was quite an enjoyable and exceptionally fun old-school witchcraft horror that had a lot of fun about it. The slow-building mystery about the tribe slowly taking over the village is quite exceptional and just completely overwhelms with it's ability to utilize the Gothic atmosphere of the surroundings, with it's splendid outdoor landscapes, closed-off township and just off-kilter vibe of the residents who are harboring a grave secret in grandest Gothic tradition and making for a generally creepy time as it goes about it's paces. Though not really doing a whole lot in terms of action, the continuous references to the past troubles with the voodoo cult are just plain eerie and handled well, from the doll and the witch doctor in full costume appearing out of nowhere and the connection to the town as the small things begin piling up one-by-one where it becomes obvious that the whole town is witches. That culminates in the fun, chaotic finale of the interrupted ceremony that includes lavish decorations, a splendid Gothic dungeon and even a sacrifice that nearly comes through to fruition. All in all, there's a lot to like with this and it's inclusion of witchcraft powers and voodoo sorcery, yet this does tend to take a while to get going and really explore it's story. While it's never boring, a lot of the film is devoted to one of two scenes playing out: her freaking out by something that reminds her of the past battle or witnessing something horrific that no in town believes in since there's no evidence of what she saw, and those tend to repeat themselves throughout until it's all put together and really resolves everything, meaning this has quite a lot of repetition amongst the lack of action which can get old quite quickly. Nonetheless, this has a lot of good qualities to override that.

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf-After inheriting a family castle in Romania, a family discovers the dark secret behind the local legend of a vicious beast roaming the city as they race to stop a horde of vampires from taking control of the castle. This here turned out to be quite an enjoyable and entertaining kiddie-centered horror-comedy. There's a lot of good in this about making an even mix between tween-inspired parts and more normal horror motifs, and there's plenty to both sides in here. The tween backbone here is all well-handled with the different attitudes toward the single father dating, the romance for once isn't obtrusive to the story in detriment for the actual horror, and the beginning where they explore the castle is just filled with some quality gags that really showcase the goofier humor present that really appeals to kids. From the gags trying to scare the sister to the constant sibling-like digs on each other and the side-splitting recurring gag with a character's name, there's some really funny stuff in here and it gets better once the transformation occurs. The antics that depict the transformation, from the heightened sense and reactions to the lessening of objection towards previously-objectionable attitudes and how their date goes which is constantly threatened by her burgeoning abilities for some nice laughs but knows to transition into horror territory nicely as once those abilities creep in, the explanation and backstory about the creature amongst the town's history is wonderfully handled. It makes for a pretty enjoyable time by creating a pretty strong connection through the twisted mythology with the action in the last half which is just non-stop brawling between the two werewolves and the vampire clan through the catacombs under the castle, through the cemetery and finally into the neighboring warehouse providing plenty of fun times as the fight progresses, and overall this is mixed quite nicely with the humorous aspects of the story. The fact that the creatures are done with practical make-up effects that look rather impressive for the realism and great they look in design and movement is another key factor here, and the only real flaws come from the beginnings of their life. The trouble it goes to set her up as a goofy klutz only to be saved by the werewolf curse is way too clichéd and feels too overwrought to be of much originality. As well, the whole thing is dropped once they get to the castle anyway, leaving the inclusion rather curious. Otherwise, there's not much to dislike here.

The Curse of the Crying Woman-After she arrives at her family's estate in the countryside, a woman begins to suspect something sinister about her newly-arrived cousin who seems to fit the local of a murderous, wailing woman all too well and tries to stop her nefarious plans. This was a really enjoyable and entertaining effort that gets a lot right. One of the biggest pluses here is the extraordinary Gothic atmosphere at play, where the majority of the film takes place on a multilevel hacienda full of secret passage-ways, cobweb-infested tunnels, staircases into the other levels and so much more here that there's plenty of creepiness to get hooked on before adding in the dungeons full of rotting corpses with mashed-up faces, stringy hair and a loss of general bodily form that look effectively decayed and rotting away with sickly skin and just a look of complete and utter mess, effectively making for a great look here overall when placed into the setting of the house. As well, the look of the swamp where the creature appears is absolutely chilling and really sets off the opening ambush well with it's fog-laden surroundings, feeling of unease and general design that seems to make escape impossible. When combined with a large amount of action, from an opening ambush in the swamp, the journey through the hidden mirror in the bedroom and the encounter with the reanimated servant all conspire to give this a spectacular feel where it doesn't really slow down the pace at all. The fact that this still features a ton of jump scares is impressive, with images disappearing in front of a mirror and the unaffected still interacting with with real-time person who's not giving a reflection, hands emerging behind unsuspecting victims and even the work in the finale, where three separate brawls break out around the crumbling villa and a mad dash erupts to get out alive. While all this stuff works well, the fact that the rubber snakes in here look quite lame and really unconvincing, part of the whole special effects work that just looks really cheesy and fake and definitely looks really bad at times but not enough to detract from the more important matters.

[slayrrr666]

The Wicked-Trying to disprove a local legend about a haunted section of town ruled by a devious witch, a teen and his friends get caught up in the creature’s true exploits after stumbling upon its latest victim and forcing them to stay one step ahead of the creature’s evil powers to escape. This wasn’t all that bad of an effort and had some good things going for it. One of the better elements is the fact that there’s a lot more gruesome-ness that would be expected in such an effort, the majority of it tied to the deaths inflicted by the creature during the latter half of the movie. Filled with bodies being fed through a sausage maker, limbs being ripped off, scratches that act more like gouges in the flesh and much more,as well as the continued usage of severed limbs and entrails as general props makes for a rather bloody time. That the witch itself not only has a pretty creepy backstory in here, itself not really executed all that well but the idea itself is far and away quite chilling, works as a creepy character due not only to the backstory but also to the notion of using her powers despite already having the upper hand in the situation to gain an even more unfair advantage makes her that much more sinister and evil, just like a realistic being would be like if found in such a situation which greatly emphasizes the wickedness of the being. By trapping them inside the haunted house-style shack she inhabits that this whole thing takes place as well as the darkened woodlands surrounding the house, this pretty much focuses on a creepy character inhabiting a creepy location, and that's pretty impressive in establishing a fine atmosphere here. There's still some flaws here, as the fact that the human interactions here are so non-worthwhile that they make the film a pain to get through with their boredom in going through so many useless, unnecessary and utterly cliched plot-points that the witch loses the central value for most of the first hour of the film. By having the family feuding with each other, the misunderstood teen fighting with the police for no real reason, the search party trying to score with each other, and generally focusing on these issues to the detriment of the horror makes this a tough one to get into. The finale as well takes a bit of extreme suspension to swallow it for how it finally handles the witch's powers, and it doesn't come off nearly as well as it should. These hold it down from what could've been.

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Hypothermia-Attempting to have a relaxing vacation ice-fishing on a remote lake, a man and his family get caught up in a fellow fisherman's quest to land the prehistoric monster terrorizing the lake after they get stranded with the creature and must find a way to survive the creature's attacks. There's not a lot to like about this one. One of the biggest faults here is the fact that there's just no screen-time for the main beast to be seen, as the majority of the film focuses on the not-so-interesting dynamic between his family that are used to roughing it without much in the use of outside equipment with the newer family having the state-of- the-art tools that soon grows into them believing that makes the newer family easily adaptable to survive the creature's attacks while his family comes to believe they should all leave once things start escalating in danger. While that's pretty chilling on paper, in execution it doesn't come off at all and really only serve to drag out an already quick film without doing anything with it. That said, the creature isn't much better, given one of the most basic, simplistic and barely disguised costumes around that doesn't even try to cover up it's a wetsuit with a fanged head, fins and webbed feet attached which really does look better than CGI since it interacts with the cast from time-to- time but beyond that it doesn't offer much. The film does do some right, as there's pretty chilling moments as this accurately gets the feeling of isolation amongst the cold and freezing temperatures right, several of the encounters with the creature is handled nicely including a night- time scene illuminated only by generator flood-lights and a harrowing chase over the ice as it races after the escaping group to get away from it before the cracking ice gives way and plunges them in. All in all, though, there wasn't much else to this one.

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Catacombs-Traveling to visit her sister in Paris, a woman gets dragged along to a party underneath the city streets in the infamous maze of dead bodies buried there only to find a legend of a masked madman true who begins relentlessly pursuing her through the darkened, twisting corridors. While initially appearing to be something quite enjoyable, this here turned out to be a massive train-wreck. One of the biggest problems with this one is the completely and utter failure to utilize one of the greatest locations possible for a horror film in the catacombs of the dead buried under the streets of Paris. While we see mountains of bones and walls of skulls throughout, the fact that they're usually featured while the camera is shaking around violent trying to capture the intensity of a madman chasing after somebody or edited in a rapid criss-cross manner to render any amount of atmosphere present completely null and void by being unable to see what's going on. This is made even more evident with the ridiculousness of the finale, where it's revealed through two twist endings that not only was the entire effort pointless but also that a deranged killer is now loose on the world with an available assortment of bodies able to be traced right back to them. It makes no sense at all for the second one to come around, though the first is still pretty creative in content but just handled the complete wrong way as it was, and that really undermines the whole fact that the film spends an hour and a half with the one victim against the unseen killer that never really does any damage to her along the way, making the twist come around as a reinforcement of what happened rather than a big shock twist. It just doesn't work as it does and that makes for a rather disjointed and uneven time, despite the few good parts here. The backstory for the deformed killer is awesomely original and creative, the film is essentially one big chase sequence through underground caverns and leads to a series of impressive suspense scenes and general chilling moments, and the whole film carries on quickly enough to not get bored with her endless wandering around doing nothing for the main part of the film. Still, though, it's not enough to overcome the big flaws present.

[slayrrr666]

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning-After his family is murdered and he's left for dead, a man's rehabilitation leads him to discover he's a part of a genetically-enhanced soldier experiment and must hunt down the fanatical leader who's part of the organization. Frankly, I have to confess as I'm not entirely sure that's the plot to this, it's just so hard and confusing as to what's going on here that a great majority of the time there's no clue that was part of the plot. From multiple people walking around that are exact clones of each other but have no memory of the other to some people aware of the clone ruse yet unsure who's the person they've been with this entire time, the plot here is just a mess of epic proportions that has no way of ensuring that's the real thing going on. Since the first hour of the film only has one lone action scene and concentrating more on why he's having this strange visions and hallucinations as he tries to recover from the attack with the people in all of his clone's lives, it makes for some utterly confusing and haphazard film-making where we can't tell what's going on as we have nothing to distract us from this lame plot. It doesn't even feel like a true Universal Soldier movie as there's very little here to remind us of the past glories beyond the two stars and the superhuman ability to withstand pain, as otherwise this doesn't read as a prototypical entry in the series, so when combined with very few action scenes this is incredibly lacking. Really, those few action scenes are decent enough with a few hand-to-hand brawls with other soldiers not being very good and really only has one decent fight between Adkins and Lundgren that's any good, where Adkins and Van Damme have been together before to create some great fights where this one was just left lacking a little. Overall, a massive disappointment.

[slayrrr666]

Added uncut copies of Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico to the collection.

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The Fugitive-When evidence of his wife's murder places him as the culprit, a doctor who knows the truth goes on the run to provide evidence of the real killer and escape the fanatical government agent on his trail determined to bring him to justice. Overall, this wasn't a true effort I would normally watch with it being more of a suspense thriller than an all-out action movie which meant a couple of flaws right off the bat. The extended running time to this one is a big issue, running on far longer than it really should've as scenes get dragged on past their point or included for the mere sake of keeping the running time extended as the clues need to be put together to expose the real killer, both of which result in far too many individual scenes and others running on forever, including the action scenes which are wholly contrived in order to get him to escape in order to carry out the rest of the movie. While there is some fun to be had in several of these big action scenes, most notably the train escape and the sewer chase, the fact that it's got a lot of issues detrimental to my normal routine meant this one wasn't all that fun even though it's definitely a well-made film from a technical stand-point.

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Killer Elite-After learning of his mentor's kidnapping, a retired assassin is sent with a team of mercenaries to find the killers of the captors' sons in order to release him, only for the task to prove far more difficult than initially suspected. This wasn't all that impressive and really had a few glaring problems. The first one is the utterly terrible running time that just allows this one to drag on and on endlessly for no reason other than to continue feature more of the hunting and stalking rather than taking the group out. Since the group has to secure evidence and to dole out the requisite punishment to the guilty party, forcing them to spend so much time on that angle makes for an utterly irritating and engorged period of time waiting for the punishment to play out, and then it's so short there's hardly any real benefit gained from it, most of it due to Statham who still doesn't read like a true action star at all. The stunt-work is hit-or-miss, and after the ambush on the car in the very beginning, most of the action are too short to mean anything when brought into play with so much time spent on the espionage part of the story. The biggest offender, though, is clearly the end where it seems to play it too safe and render everything moot with a ham-fisted portrayal of keeping the stars alive and giving everyone a happy ending that it destroys the continuity of the story itself only to feel the entire effort was in vain. It leaves the whole thing on such a sour note that there's not a lot it can do to recover from, and with such a strong set of flaws elsewhere, this is left a massive disappointment.

[slayrrr666]

Computer troubles caused me to miss the weekend posting, no need to go into detail beyond a few choice bits of info:

The Bourne Identity-Still not overly impressed with this one and why it's been so highly touted is beyond me. The fights are simple and the choreography is hidden by the rapid-cutting to hide the fact that Damon is obviously not that well skilled in the process, he recovers his abilities far too rapidly for someone in his condition and there's just no sense of realism with the bank escape and confrontation with the henchmen on the streets. While the car chase through Paris is better than I remembered and the ending assault on the barn being okay but nothing spectacular, the rest of the film is so spent on it's suspense/thriller format it makes for a long, boring watch with nothing of interest happening.

The Bourne Supremacy-I really don't know what happened in this one, it's all such a blurring, confusing mess of shaking camera nonsense, rapid-fire cutting between extreme angles when nothing is going on and absolutely atrocious lighting that made it next to impossible to tell what's going on. While the action is fast and frantic and there's a lot more confrontations and chases this time around, it's hard to get drawn into any of them when the camera work for them is so haphazard.

The Bourne Ultimatum-Well, at least this one wasn't an unmitigated disaster with the technical work that utterly ruined the second one, and it really made for a more cleaner, tighter experience when coupled with a fine assortment of car chases, shootouts and hand-to-hand fighting that really brings the pace up on this one considerably. While the story is a jumbled, confusing mess regardless of how they try to convince it's the final chapter with all the puzzle pieces now put into place, there's a lot more elsewhere that makes this the best of the bunch, though it's really not saying much compared to the other two.