Just Watched Movies (2013)

[slayrrr666]

The Beast of Hollow Mountain-When their cattle herds start disappearing, rival ranches declare the other responsible and begin feuding with each other, unaware the true culprit is a reawakened dinosaur that lives in a cursed swamp nearby and forces them to work together to ward it off. This was a troubling affair as it did have some enjoyable moments spread throughout but really gets caught up in it's own problems. One of the major ones here is the Western influence on the storyline taking such centerstage that it doesn't allow the horror to sift through, making it into a monster movie out of nowhere with no real explanation for anything and really downplaying it overall as well. While the two sides warring over the cattle herds as well as the woman make for some fine moments at times, especially once the jealousy kicks in and they start actively fighting each other, the fact that this constitutes the majority of the film's opening hour makes it quite obvious there's no real intent to wage on anything else in here and renders the dinosaur's first appearance in the hour's closing minuets. As well, the shoddy nature of the stop-motion animation used to bring it to life is ridiculously cheap and cheesy and doesn't for a second convince otherwise of it's realism when the genre really should've done better by that time, and the laughable inclusion of many factual and physiological errors about the creature is another fun point of ridicule. While it does have some rather fun moments once the dinosaur's actually out and about which makes for a whirlwind finale, it's a little too late to save this one.

[slayrrr666]

The Thing That Couldn't Die-When a group of people farming on their land stumble upon a mysterious crate buried in the ground, the removal of the object causes them to stumble onto the terrifying truth about it's contents when a body-less head starts running around the estate. This was a pretty entertaining effort that has some good things to it that make it feel a lot better than it really should. The main thing here is the fact that the killer head is the main villain in this one, but rather than have him be the bloodthirsty creature he should be this one has him hypnotize those around him to do his dirty work so he can get his body back, and the film's decision to feature the hypnotized interacting with the unaffected others makes for some creepy scenes they attempt to manipulate them even further unwittingly towards the goal, and it's quite tense and creepy during these scenes. Also quite creepy are the scenes out in the cemetery where they unearth the crate in the darkness which feel quite like typical Gothic set-pieces that drive the creepiness up some, as well as the finale which generate some rather intense action scenes with the reanimated body running around make for some great thrills. It does take a while to start up here as the head doesn't get loose until quite late in the film for a quickie of this type, and some of the effects themselves look quite cheap, but the main problem is a rather disjointed storyline that never really makes a lot of sense overall as it careens between several different plot points that are interconnected through quite thin margins, making this somewhat flawed but overall enjoyable.

[slayrrr666]

The Brain that Wouldn't Die-After escaping from a car accident alive but his girlfriend decapitated, a man decides to utilize his surgical skills to save her and sets out to find a new body to transplant it onto, unaware of her desire to finally die and be rid of him forever. This here was a massive disappointment overall and really didn't have a lot going for it. One of the biggest issues here is the fact that this one doesn't really do a lot of anything during it's running time. Keeping the head inactive by chaining it up to the machines doesn't do anything but provide the visual of it in that condition and the only thing it can do is communicate with the grotesque monstrosity off-camera and nothing more, leaving it quite unsatisfactory as a villain capable of accomplishing fear or terror with it's swim-cap on as a hat to keep it in check, so the majority of the film amounts to the doctor walking around doing absolutely nothing just checking on women to be viable candidates for his surgery, and when that provides only teasing and not much else even that falls apart. The cheapness of the film really sets it down when the final monster looks too goofy to amount to anything anywhere imposing or threatening, and the climactic fight in the laboratory is really the only thing all that impressive as it goes out in a blaze the way all these films work. Overall, had this given the head something more imposing to do, it could've helped out as it's the main problem with this one.

[slayrrr666]

The Black Room-Aware of a vicious curse rumored to fall on them, a man murders his benevolent twin to continue rule in his stead as he has been doing, only to slowly see his plan unravel when he falls for a young woman and threatens to find his ploy exposed. This here has a lot of problems that really hold this one down a lot. One of the biggest problems here is the simple fact that not a lot happens at all, as there's very little happenings that really generate any suspense or tension at all because it's gone ahead with the switch at the earliest possible convenience. Rather than build up the possible effects of the curse driving him mad and then making the switch to everyone's complete shock, this has them go out in quite early fashion so instead of anything remotely horror based going on it's left with his attempted wooing of the family and romance with the daughter while everyone else at the castle is nary a suspect to the real situation, a possible product of the time that may have been scary then but instead renders the entire middle segment of the film a complete bore. The fact that it takes a completely obscure plot-point with the dog knowing the truth to finally undo the ruse, who comes out of nowhere and is treated rather flimsily anyway as it's ignored most of the movie, and while it does have some fun in the chase back to the castle as well as the attempts to hide amongst the different passages for an exciting conclusion, it's not enough to rise above the dreariness before it.

[Fenril]

This was one mixed-genre movie marathon last weekend:

- Cidade de deus [aka City of God]. The violent rise and hard fall of several notorious criminals in Rio de Janeiro from the 60's to the 80's as seen through the eyes of hard-working, perpetually down on his luck Buscapé, whose affection for photography may prove his one chance to escape the wave of violence that relenlessly consumes everyone around him. Based on a novel by Paulo Litin, itself based on a real-life case.

Amazing crime / drama / slice of life film, and one of the key movies of early 2000 that revitalized Latinoamerican cinema for the current millenium. This is one of the few movies I've ever seen that manage to use every visual trick in the book to actually improve the story (rather than sacrificing it to flashy graphics) and that make the violence by turns amusing and genuinely horrific to watch. Boistered by a clever script that skillfully blends a huge cast (reportedly only a third of the original novel) and fine performances. Nice soundtrack, too.

- Rain man. Self-absorbed yuppie Charlie spends a week with the autistic savant brother he had forgotten he had.

Immensely popular drama that more or less bought awareness of Autism to the mainstream. The script is terribly dated these days, not to mention enormously pandering to hollywood clichés. Still worth watching for Dustin Hoffman's amazing performance (for all that it's created a still-existing series of clichés about the way mental disabilities are portrayed in fiction).

- Race with the devil. Two middle-aged couples join forces to take a January vacation in an RV. After witnessing what appears to be a Satanic ceremony, they are chased and terrorized in a series of increasingly nightmarish, paranoid-inducing and even implausible set pieces.

Very 70's blend of satanic thriller and survival drama. Truth be told I found this a fairly dull affair, through the expected downbeat mood (and ending) helps some, as do a few effective sequences (an attack with two rattlers on a speeding vehicle is particularly memorable). Still, the overall plot is hard to swallow, the women come off as little more than hysterical victims and, memorable as it is, the ending pretty much comes out of nowhere. One curiosity about the script is that the characters actually act pretty sensibly for this kind of movie: they go straight to the police after the first encounter with a violent cult, they actually research what they are up against, they do think to arm themselves... and what makes their ordeal both paranoid and implausible is that somehow it all comes to naught --it'd seem that at least three entire towns have marked these unfortunate foursome for certain death. And their freaking dog, because why not.

[slayrrr666]

China Strike Force-Following a series of close encounters but unfortunate misses, a Hong Kong cop accepts the help of a Japanese Interpol agent to help take down the international drug kingpin looking to move into the territory. An extremely stunt-happy HK kung-fu flick, this one turned out to be a lot more enjoyable than it really should've. While the plot is ultra-simplistic and goes through the motions with extreme ease, the fact that it doesn't take the route of having the help provide all the newfound success and bail them out of every confrontation but now allows them to win is a nice move, not throwing their incompetence into the picture but shows the added muscle allows them to come out on top of the situation. That said, the real focus here is on the stunt-work which evokes the glory days of HK action films with a spectacular car chase on city streets using a drag racer, a brawl on the roof of a car being towed in mid-air from a helicopter and a fight on the dangling piece of window glass for an under-construction office building, among other fights and shoot-outs that are quite fun and thrilling, due about to their relentless pace brought about through the storyline requirements in such a movie. All in all, while flawed this one was quite enjoyable.

[slayrrr666]

Stash House-When a couple move into a new house in a secluded neighborhood, they find the house was previously used as a storage place for a drug cartel and must survive the night when several henchmen arrive looking to reclaim the items still inside. A completely banal and lame thriller that tries to hard to be creepy or action-packed and really fails at both. The use of the high-tech gadgets to monitor their activities tries to make it seem a lot more hip or modern than it really is and makes the film seem to drag on far more than it should when it cuts away to completely arbitrary scenes shot through the security cameras that bleed out the color into a pain-staking series of blues and grays like traditional security footage would be, and that makes it feel quite tired of ideas to use it for such scenes. The tired and cliched notion of throwing in mindless twists simply to keep the film's running time going by forcing the movie to keep going is another rather big strike against it, for as fun as the final twenty minutes are when the gangsters finally enter the house are, it's needless twist upon needless twist for absolutely no reason other than to prolong the running time, and that really conspires against this. A total waste of Lundgren as well.

[slayrrr666]

Van Helsing-Hearing of strange activity in Romania, a monster hunter travels to Romania to help a small village that stands in the shadows of Dracula's castle as he plans to unleash a swarm of vampire children in his possession that will help him overtake the world. This turned out to be quite a fun effort once you look past the one glaring problem here in the quite ludicrous and overblown CGI that runs rampant here. More often a distraction than not, this is for how busy the scene is when it appears rather than instilling any sense of realism, for what that's worth, into the moment and just looks blotchy and unremarkable, overall taking away from the desired effect. As well, rather than give it an epic feel that it so clearly was aiming for, the fact that the action scenes tend to drag on a little longer than they should ends up making this way too overlong, necessarily adding around fifteen minutes to this that really shouldn't be there when scenes like the Paris encounter, the first daylight village ambush and the carriage chase all last far longer than they really should've. That said, there's some huge action pieces that are quite fun, the story holds your interest throughout as Dracula's master plan comes unraveled and the past secrets get revealed, and it's always fun when something blows up nice and good, as frequently happens here. Overall, this was really enjoyable.

[Fenril]

- La Mariée était en noir [aka The bride wore black]. A mysterious woman is methodically hunting five men from several walks of life, methodically killing them by any means possible and crossing their names off a written list. What's the shocking secret that links them together? And how far will this woman go in order to quench her thirst for revenge?

Great French thriller that was later disowned by its' helmer (legendary director François Truffaut), yet is something of a boilerplate for several revenge movies -- films as different as "Basic instinct", "I spit on your grave", "Kill Bill" and even the drama "Un long dimanche de fiançailles" (aka A very long engagement) each were quite influenced by this. Based on a novel by Cornel Woolrich [also of "Rear window" and the Argentinian thriller "If I die before I wake"].

[Fenril]

- Chinatown. A sleazy detective in 30's L.A. is hired to spy on a water mogul suspected of cheating on his wife. Seems a clear-cut case --except the man appears dead shortly thereafter. And the woman who hired the detective isn't the real wife. And then things start getting curiouser and shadier...

Very effective noir from director Polansky, punctuated by his usual deftly-handled violent tableaux (check out the nose-cutting scene!). With a clever script and fine performances all around.

[slayrrr666]

Added an uncut copy of Project: Metalbeast to the collection.

[slayrrr666]

Inhuman Resources-Awakening to find themselves bound together in an office building, a group of people learn they're being held by a vicious killer to a crime they're all involved in and uses deadly means to force them to find the real killer in the case. This one turned out to be quite an interesting blend of efforts that never quite gets to where it wants to go. The fact that it starts off with the typical Torture Film genre set-up of the people chained together in a singular, dim location with a madman amongst them forcing them to play along in a demented game of his makes for a cliche opening that quickly appears to derail interest early on, but the fact that it then turns into a dark comedy about him forcing the gathered group to partake in crime solving on the case that sent him to prison that they were all involved in getting him tried on the charge, makes this one's rapid shift in tone quite unappealing when he's using far more vicious methods of forcing them along than what had happened to put him away yet continually claims innocence the whole time, a fact that's pointed out and glossed over with no real deterrence at all. While it gets a lot more enjoyable when they get loose and are stalked through the office building in the final half, forcing in some pretty brutal gags and blood-splatter along the way, it's not nearly enough to compensate for it's wacky opening.

[slayrrr666]

The Descent: Part 2-Found as a survivor of the original massacre, the lone woman returns to the underground cave system with a rescue team to find the other members but soon encounter the same group of ravenous creatures intent on feeding upon the new group in their home. This turned out to be quite an exciting and enjoyable effort that has more than enough to keep it interesting on its own. The fact that the caves are again utilized effectively, with their confusing lay-out, cramped spaces and sprawling design make for a chilling experience that makes for quite a terrifying setting for such a film, and when coupled with the dim light and the guides' acknowledged lack of experience navigating such areas allows that chilling factor to increase significantly. There's also a lot to like with the creatures, who are given quite a creepy-looking make-up job that makes them look just as feral and vicious as possible while still being believable as a creature of Earth-bound origins, and the scenes of a swarm amassing behind the unsuspecting victims are quite creepy. The action scenes are thoroughly entertaining and really work well with those additional elements brought about within, and as there's a lot of graphic, gory kills here it's got plenty to like there as well. The only real flaw to this, aside from the asinine reason to get the lead back to the scene of the crime, is the fact that the finale, where the rescue group assaults the creatures in their den, is shot with way too much light to be plausible in such a darkened environment, and while it lets everything be seen clearly it doesn't give off a sense of realism that it had really fought to establish. Otherwise this one was quite enjoyable.

[Fenril]

I actually enjoyed The descent 2 a lot, it's definitely better than you'd expect. Have you seen the original yet, slayrrr?

[slayrrr666]

Absolutely. I think it's better because it does a few things right the sequel doesn't (it stays appropriately dark throughout and keeps the crawlers, or whatever those creatures are called, as off-screen as much as possible and makes their appearance all the scarier while that one tends to be too light and free with revealing the creatures) even though I'm not as gaga over it because I think all the set-ups at the beginning are just agonizing and take too long. I get it, they're old friends, just get on with it already.

The Man with the Iron Fists-When a brutal warlord hides out with his clan in a small village, a mild-mannered blacksmith teams up with a royal emissary and the warlord's vengeance-seeking brother to recover the stolen gold shipment they're hiding in the area. About as effective an old-school HK kung-fu love letter as there can be, as this was a blast and ended up being a ton of fun. The plot is essentially what it should be doing, providing an excuse to display as much fighting as possible using all the available members of each side as possible, with all the performers being as skilled and competent as they should be for such a film. That allows for the non-stop fighting and brawls to be as fun as they are, with the brothel fight between the prostitutes and the warlord's clan, a showstopping fight between the two brothers and a special one between the blacksmith and the murderer of his fiancee who both wield exceptional weapons during the showcase. The multitude of gore works well considering the players involved behind-the-scenes, and the themes employed are all familiar and relatable as well, though it does seem a little too drawn-out at the first as it takes a while to get started, the sleaze present really could've been exploited a little more and it tends to focus a little too heavily on the introduction and dispatch of characters ready to fight for no real reason which makes the storyline a general mess at times. Overall, though, there's a lot to like with this one.