Just Watched Movies (2013)

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Phantom of the Rue Morgue-As a series of strange murders plague a small area of Paris, the lack of clues force the police to team up with the prime suspect in the case to find the maniac responsible when he claims a friend's trained killer gorilla is responsible and targeting his fiancee. This was a fairly impressive and fun effort that has a lot going for it. One of the better elements here is the fact that there's a large amount of attack scenes on the victims, which really drives this one nicely as these continuous sequences provide plenty of action, shocks as well as generating some sultry teases with the women being targeted being quite attractive overall. As the attacks are framed so the audience doesn't see the culprit, and the only times they are is when they're obscured or casting a shadow on the wall, it leaves a distinct impression, and the fun continues due to the investigation done to recreate the crime at the scene, and the evidence either way makes for some fun times overall. The fact that these investigations point to the main purpose of this one is a little troubling since they can drag on at times especially when they keep trying to pin it on the hero through flimsy circumstances that won't work in any real courtroom. The other real flaw is the romance angle that appears late in the film, which stops the film cold and comes out-of-nowhere to create a really confusing mess, though it does solve the film's murders quite nicely. Overall, this one was pretty enjoyable.

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Tormented-After his inactivity caused his mistress' death, a jazz pianist about to be married finds the dead woman's ghost haunting him wherever he goes and forcing him to resort to increasingly violent manners to keep his actions a secret. This was a pretty disappointing and really disjointed effort. One of the biggest issues present in the film is the rather banal efforts used in the haunting scenes that, while effective in continuing a present storyline, fail to really provide anything worth getting scared over. The scares are a never-ending series of floating voices only he can hear, disappearing appendages only he can see and whenever he goes to apprehend it finds it's not what he went after but something else entirely, and all the while this generates some lame scenes due to their repeating nature. As well, the lack of danger to the others around him makes it all pretty clear this might be simply a guilty conscience rather than a traditional ghost haunting, and the film does remarkably well at incorporating elements to make it seem that's the case here but that doesn't make for an exciting effort. The low-key nature of the material and middling pace don't help much either, and overall drag this one down enough to overcome the decent special effects to showcase the apparition which marks the film's only other bright spot.

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The Hypnotic Eye-When a series of strange self-mutilations against women occurs throughout the city, the police investigator assigned to the case worries a big-shot hypnotist is responsible and tries to keep his girlfriend from falling under his spell and becoming another victim. This here was a fairly entertaining if somewhat slightly flawed effort. The main crux of this one is the fact that there's just as much of a mystery angle as there is a horror angle, almost to the point of that being the film's interest rather than the horror since the mutilations take place before the film starts with us getting involved at the most recent attack while the majority of the film takes focus on the police trying to find the cause of the attacks with little effort before stumbling onto the whole affair at the end. This isn't bad at all despite the change in tactics because the mystery is handled nicely with a rather shocking reveal late in the film that makes it a lot more shocking than expected. The few attacks shown are quite gruesome and graphic for the time-period, with one being quite shocking overall. Coupled with a bevy of attractive women and a rather healthy viewpoint of hypnosis and it's effects, this one isn't all that bad.

[Fenril]

- End of watch. A documentary-style drama about two L. A. cops who stumble into the machinations of a deadly cartel and the way it ends up affecting their personal lives.

Surprisingly gritty action/drama combo, with fairly naturalistic performances and effects. While the plot does take a couple predictable turns along the way and the epilogue commited one of my least favorite Hollywood movie clichés, this was surprisingly moving and suspenseful. Overall, a fairly underrated effort.

[slayrrr666]

Over the weekend since my internet was down and couldn't reply at all to weekend activities:

Added an uncut copy of Riding the Bullet to the collection.

Rise of the Dinosaurs-When their mission to capture a renegade general and a kidnapped scientist goes awry, a team of soldiers learn they've stumbled onto an ancient valley filled with live dinosaurs and must try to get away before they all fall victim to the creatures. This turned out to be quite an enjoyable effort that could be fun once it overlooked the cheesiness. There's a huge amount of that spread throughout here, once again featured from the absolutely atrocious and ridiculous CGI used for the dinosaurs that don't have any sort of consistent movement beyond three general attack behaviors throughout as well as the constant size discrepancies in the scenes and totally ridiculous-looking animation effects for the attacks. While these look really bad, and there's a couple problematic storylines in play that don't make any sort of sense at all, there's some fun here with a lot more action than expected, including a rather fun takeover of the rebel hideout in the jungle which devolves into a series of fun firefights that are pretty enjoyable. As well, with the creatures continuously on the group that leaves for plenty of high-quality confrontations and kill scenes to make up for it's shortcomings. Overall, this one wasn't too bad even with a few flaws.

Yesterday-
Barricade-Heading out to a small cabin to get over the death of his wife, a man and his children find the location to be the source of numerous creepy goings-on and that someone or something is targeting them inside, forcing them into a desperate fight for survival. This here was just an absolutely paltry effort with very little to recommend about it. The fact that this one's restrained rating means that the film is constantly fighting an uphill battle that it will never win since there's never going to be any danger to the children in order to get a harsher rating, forcing the attack scenes to fall into a predictable pattern of fading out before anything happens to which he wakes up and thinks it was all a dream, or he sees something that distracts the attack and it focuses on another aspect of the situation which is quite distracting and really diminishes the film a lot. As well, there's very little to keep the film engaging when the attacks don't come, and the whole plot twist comes at you from a mile away despite the hint it's going to be clever, and the only thing this really has going for it is the creepy cabin with the raging snowstorm outside, which is quite a bit of fun and definitely has a great atmosphere to it, but otherwise there's not a lot going for this one.

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Hold Your Breath-After acting strangely during a weekend getting together, a group of friends learn they've invoked an urban legend by allowing a deceased serial killer to possess them on the anniversary of his death and must find a way of stopping their friends before they're killed. This was a pretty enjoyable effort with a lot to really like about it. There's some pretty clever ideas at play in here, mainly in the way it goes about tying in the urban legend for possession and how it works in the future, as well as the way in which they're forced to bring the past into the whole equation and how they're going to deal with the spirit. The scenes in the abandoned prison are a lot of fun with plenty of suspenseful moments with it's creepy atmosphere, and the action sequence with the oncoming storm makes for a rather tense moment, as does the chase through the cemetery at night and the final confrontation in the woods which has a lot to like about it. Coupled with it's high gore quotient and graphic kills, there's a lot to like here and manages to overcome it's few flaws, namely in the fact that there's not a great deal of intelligence among the group here which constantly puts them in danger for no reason than to keep the scene going, failing to recognize what's going on around or just plain refusing to go along with how to save themselves after being told what to do in avoid that, and it grows tiresome after a while. As well, it's pretty much all inference as to what's going on, since this doesn't reveal anything straight-out and gets a little confusing as to what's going on. Otherwise, this is a pretty enjoyable effort.

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Mostly Ghostly-Trying to overcome his tough childhood, a boy learns his house is haunted by the child ghosts of the former residents looking to prevent a sinister force from unleashing a great evil on Halloween and must band together to stop it from happening. This here turned out to be quite a disappointing effort as there really could've been a lot going for it. The main problem with this one is the fact that there's no real reason for the ghost to start his plan of action. It really makes no sense because it's never really hinted at and it really doesn't offer anything as to make the villain an imposing figure beyond the blatantly obvious ploy he utters and the terrorizing he does, leaving a big hole in the film if the main villain is wrapped in complete and utter confusion. Also of rather low regard is the decision in the later half to remove the one that's been captured and make it impossible to offer assistance, which effectively renders it a moot point as to it's inclusion. That said, there's still some fun to be had here with the rather fun effects on display, which make this pretty entertaining from time-to-time as it deals with the master ghost and the different ghouls in their make-up, the high-spirited finale has some great spectacle and there's one outstanding sequence where he must evade slumbering ghosts in a congregation without them noticing that comes off fairly chilling. As a full-on horror, this isn't that great but it's decent enough for children.

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Resident Evil: Retribution-Escaping capture from the Umbrella Corporation and heading off with a resistance movement, Alice finds herself and the group under attack by the mutants created by the company and must find a way to stop them before the viruses get out of control. This here was easily the best of the series and one of the better entries in the genre. This is all to do with the well-reasoned tactic of making this a full-on Action film for the majority of it's running time and making the horror come from what's doing all the chasing, as there's all sorts of ravenous zombies, soldier-zombies, a hulking dog-like gorilla and monstrous behemoths among other monstrosities human and non-human. That almost all the encounters result in furious firefights is great fun and makes for a highly enjoyable time overall during the encounter on the suburban locale, the car-lined city streets or the gunfight in the computer store that are only just part of what makes this one so much fun. The deaths are nothing new but provide enough gore to satisfy, and the few non-shootout scenes give it enough action to matter highly and overcome the lone flaw in the absolutely lame CGI used here for the 3D gags and other scenes, and overall make this the best in the series.

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Added an uncut copy of Boogeyman to the collection.

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Added an uncut copy of The Dark Half to the collection.

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Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine-Highly enjoyable and entertaining spy movie spoof/straight comedy about a goofy secret agent thrust into the middle of a plot by a madman to place robots as the wives of a number of important businessmen and trying to stop the whole affair from going down. Built upon a framework of what I love in comedies in side-splitting sight gags, a plethora of stupidity only used for the jokes and a goofy atmosphere, this is really a lot more fun than it should've been due to those stupid moments being so prevalent here. With some nice action scenes that include a sterling car chase through San Francisco several years before 'Bullet' did the same feat only here used for comedy, a few nods and winks to Price's career in horror films and a goofy atmosphere, this was pretty enjoyable.

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Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs-Even goofier and sillier sequel that really doesn't offer up anything new to the traditional formulas and really makes for a familiar watch at times. The fact that there's numerous amounts of slapstick gags throughout that range from hilarious to downright stupid are the film's bread-and-butter, which is great due to the high number that hit but the ones that miss are really troubling since they're not that funny and almost become painful at times. That there's a tendency to run with gags far longer than they should is a bad sign, but the mere fact of watching Vincent Price speak in a dubbed English accent while trying to disguise himself as a woman is worth the price of the whole movie alone, and the constant supply of jokes keeps it entertaining enough but not on par with the original.

[Fenril]

- To be or not to be (1983). Remake of the 1942 comedy classic having to with a theater troupe in nazi-occupied Poland having to resort to the performance of their lives in order to save their actual lives -- they must convince a Gestapo party that they are Hitler's personal guard in order to flee to England. That's assuming the actor's love foibles and humongous egos don't get in the way...

Not Mel Brook's best effort, but most definitely a good one; it keeps most of the humor of the original, this time with move explicit touches of real-life horror mixed in with suprisingly effective absurdist comedy [for instance, a scene wherein a gay dresser is labeled with a pink triangle (a real-life practice correspondant to yellow stars) to which he notes: "I hate this! ...it clashes with everything!"]. All in all, a solid entertainment.

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Saw IV-After finding himself involved in the latest version of Jigsaw's game, a man tries to complete the challenges in front of him as the surviving members of the inner circle try to stay ahead of the authorities on their trail for the last round of the game. This one really didn't have a whole lot going for it overall. The fact that there's just not a whole lot of time here on the traps is a huge mistake, as the needless series of flashbacks from everyone involved makes for way too many drawn-out scenes of boredom, especially with the types of flashbacks given where they concentrate on the personas of the people that are trapped and how they got there or on the different connections to the other entries in the series that just foul up the storyline continuity simply to have a twist in the film. Neither of those provide many interesting options to hold the excitement level up, and the lame attempts to make it a horror film by showing the stalking scenes with the hooded figures showing up makes it all the worse off. While the traps are bloodier than expected and several out-and-out inventive, including one where he must guide a fellow prisoner through a torturous maze in sweltering conditions, none of them give off a distinctly consistent tone with the past traps and really just don't have that flavor that makes them feel as though they were created through the same intentions and thought-process. As none of the other storylines including the detectives' investigation angle or the legacy of the will really have that much going for them, this one wasn't all that enjoyable.

[Fenril]

- Ravenous. "War hero" (actually a war coward with an incredible stoke of luck) Boyd is exiled to a fort in Sierra Nevada to keep up appearances. His experience with being buried alive under a pile of human corpses has left him with something of a crippling fear of meat. It is then appropiately ironic that the fort is soon visited by a desperate man claiming to have survived an horrible accident that left a crew of travellers alone in the mountain and forced to feed on each other. But as Boyd will learn, there is much more going on here than "just" a tale of human desperation --such as the frightening truth behind the legend of the Windigo. And an evil application of the concept of "Manifest destiny", herein applied onto incoming settlers attracted by the gold rush of the mid-nineteenth century...

Superb cannibal thriller with supernatural overtones that was quite underlooked in its' initial release but has since gained something of a cult reputation. 1999 was one of those transitional periods for horror --posmodern slashers were starting to fall out of vogue, while the wave of early 00's ghost movies and mostly forgettable remakes were competing with the reinassance of Asian horror. Then came torture movies, but I disgress. In the mix of all that, this black comedy / history drama / vampiric (as opposed to "vampire") horror combo got kind of ignored (I do remember enjoying this the first time I saw it, but definitely enjoyed it more on a second viewing). It manages to work both as a straightforward horror thriller, with our desperate protagonist trying to convince anyone who will listen about the dangerous madman in their midst and when all fails having to take arms himself, and as a black-humored satire, with the central theme that there will always be people (mostly authority figures) quite willing to feed on others to absorb their qualities.

It's also notable for being one of the few horror movies directed by a woman, through reportedly Antonia Bird wasn't the first choice (IMHO she does a terrific job with the source material and is certainly not afraid to mix in lots of gore with the more serious political subtext).