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Post by slayrrr666 on Feb 28, 2014 11:56:43 GMT -5
The Barrens-Hoping to reconnect together, an estranged family on a camping trip in the Pine Barrens learn the local legend involving the Jersey Devil is real when the voracious creature appears and forces the family to deal with it to escape the woods. This here is one of the more frustrating and problematic creature features around as there was a chance to do something special here. The setting here is a dark, creepy forest ripe with really terrifying layouts that are perfect for unleashing a voracious creature, it's quite a decent-looking creature with quite a chilling back-story to begin with, and there's some fun to be had when it gets the family lost in the back-part of the woods along the later half, but instead this one tends to involve a slew of increasingly bizarre and outright unnecessary subplots that make this one seem to go on forever. Adding in the usual family drama is more than enough and never really adds much new material to be influenced by this tactic, which feels like a continuation of the cliches anyway, yet the fact that there's so much extra happening going on here that the beginning to this one is so hard to get into it seems to go on forever dealing with the family issues, teen angst, the dead dog and the quest for closure about his father just makes for a tough time overall. All these subplots simply cause the actual attacks to get pushed back so much that the fun attacks in that second half come so late their inclusion is almost an afterthought and a case for being too little, too late to save this one from the potential it could've had about chasing down the revelers in the forest and them getting caught in the middle the way this starts off as, but even without this plot the beast itself and the action in the final half when he's mad and delirious do make this one somewhat interesting and save it somewhat.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 3, 2014 11:40:08 GMT -5
Much like last week with the '36th Chamber' series, this was the 'One-Armed Swordsman' series which follows a pretty set formula throughout that tends to bleed them all together at one point or another. Part 1 is pretty cut-and-dried, martial artist loses arm and must learn to defend himself with the lost appendage while seeking to honor the debt his late father put upon him years ago, following pretty much the standard of every HK kung-fu epic to follow of a a fighter training to overcome a vastly superior force that directly impacts his past. It's swordplay instead of kung-fu but the themes and ideologies are the same, the results are the same and overall it tends to work itself into enjoyability due to the fast, frenetic action. Sequel 'Return of the One-Armed Swordsman' dispenses with the training and themes to focus instead on dueling action, as he must free a swarm of friendly martial artists from a dubious tournament designed to eliminate the top fighters in the land. Nearly half-an-hour in he's at the tournament dishing out his brand of revenge on the patrons of the whole affair and is engaging in battles practically from that point onward, leading to a spectacular showdown at the finale with a masterful warrior every bit as good as he is and provides this with a spectacular battle in a film practically overloaded with them, making it just as enjoyable as the original but not nearly as influential or emotional. Third entry 'The New One-Armed Swordsman' plays off pretty much like a remake of the original to start off a new series as the franchise lead is gone and the whole effort is pretty much a carbon copy of how we got to were we did in part 1; man loses arm and must overcome the odds stacked against him with the disability to honor a debt paid upon him. Different means, same goals but we still have a large amount of good times getting there which leaves it understandably in third ranked against the others in the series.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 4, 2014 12:14:31 GMT -5
Byzantium-Arriving in a small seaside village, fugitive vampires hope the area gives them a break from the forces hunting them and try to blend in to their normal lives until their secret puts them in jeopardy and must fight to get away alive. This was a pretty enjoyable though somewhat flawed effort that really didn't need to be as so. One of the biggest problems here is the general structure of the story to where it tends to annoyingly go back-and-forth throughout the different eras as we get sporadic parts of the back-story to the girls and how they're afflicted with this condition and why they're being chased, yet there's very little that makes sense about doing it in this manner since it takes way too long to get the full effect of the story when we get so many pieces at irregular intervals that it just leaves so many unanswered questions about what's going on and why they're acting the way they are that it would've made more sense to work it into one singular sequence at a specific point in the film to really drive home what's going on. As it stands, this pattern gives the film a way too scatter-shot appearance that stutters the pace so much, already a problem in a film this long when it really doesn't need it to be, that it causes the dreary, slow-paced tempo that so many of these British films suffer from which only gets exacerbated here from these efforts. It's not all that bad, though, as there's a rather large amount of positives here that start with the progressive treatment towards the vampires. Shown here as being adept in sunlight, impervious to crosses and holy water and needing to be bitten by a singular entity rather than be turned by any individual, this one plays fast-and-loose with several of the established rules within the genre but gets away with them quite often as they make for a somewhat more thrilling enterprise here with the new-found experience. The central concept of needing to be bit by the individual on the island in order to be changed is quite impressive and wholly original as it results in a creepy concept in a creepy location that also leaves the film with an enduring image that's quite haunting. As well, the finale where they have to fight off the vampire hordes together makes for a series of thrilling encounters that are a whole lot of fun. Overall, there's some good points and a few flaws mixed together here.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 5, 2014 11:58:04 GMT -5
Butcher Boys-Returning home from a birthday party, a group of friends run afoul of a gang of devious cannibals looking to sell human skin to likewise investors and must try to fend off the deadly members before succumbing to their whims. This is an utterly wretched and nearly worthless affair that has almost no redeeming values. The fact that this is as brutal and vicious as it is does have some nice qualities about it, but the mere fact that this one has as much wrong with it as it does is the real hindering problem here. The fact is that this one tries so hard to be seen as an urban variation of "TCM" that it goes for out-and-out copying several points from that movie and passing them off as original scenes in here. The chase through the alleys and back-door shops is mirrored from the chase through the woods in the original, a bounty hunter looking for a kidnapped member of the family is straight from one of the sequels and most insulting of all is that it apes the dinner sequence nearly shot-for-shot with the exact same results here, though this one tends to use it as an homage to that film moreso than because it fits within the storyline construct because it makes no sense for the people in this film to behave like that for any reason other than outright pillage. That brings up the film's two biggest flaws, because nothing in here makes sense since no one says anything about what's going on. It tends to think that just because people are being vicious beaten and battered that they're supposed to feel sorry for what's happening to them, but it never says anything about what's going on. All attempts at expanding what the group's doing is mockingly laughed at and shot down, so it's a real mystery if they're cannibals, flesh peddlers or just flat-out wackos that have a fascination with the 50s' Greaser look since they all look like rejects from a hot-rod teen-angst movie. The other big flaw here is that this is done in an urban area of a major city, yet the police are shown as wholly incompetent and afraid of the gang while the locals are more than willing to live in the area as long as they don't mess with the group for there's several times where the police have the power to help them but choose not to, while the locals are shown to be abjectly afraid of interfering for fear of running afoul of the gang. This is unrealistic on a number of levels and is capped off by the frantic and confusingly irritating finale that upsets the whole nature of what's gone on before it. As well, there's a small dose of minor flaws like too much blackened screen-time without showing anything or being unable to find a topless actress for the role that it leaves this with a heaping slew of detrimental problems and nothing to save it.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 6, 2014 12:13:29 GMT -5
Hyenas-Following a series of grisly murders, a hunter and his protegee team up together to find the culprit terrorizing their small town and set out to stop the vicious shape-shifting creatures responsible from continuing their rampage. This turned out to be quite an enjoyable effort. One of the better elements is the new and somewhat original take on werewolves provided here where they're not portrayed as typical humans but more like rabid animals with the unique ability to shapeshift rather than be afflicted with a curse or other such condition. That, combined with their obvious pack-like attitude, creative back-story and absolutely cruel viciousness makes for an absolutely appealing creature that gets a lot right here, including times where it really drives up the tension as they stalk their prey or simply engage in stealth tactics to force their victims into a deadly situation. As well, there's a lot of rather fun confrontations here with the creatures including the opening encounter at the highway trap, the forest shoot-out that initially encourages belief in their existence for the skeptical aide and the garage encounter that really serves as the film's biggest and most chilling sequence as the trapped victim slowly realizes his doom in the darkened garage and slowly goes insane with their tormenting before springing the final trap. It's repeated to nice success during the woodland encounter but just doesn't have the same impact as earlier, and thankfully the final encounter at the house is where it gets to the highest mark with a spectacular assault on both sides from the creatures and the hunters' defenses coming into solid showings. There's still a few flaws here, including the absolutely inane CGI for the creatures in their animal form which looks inherently fake and quite laughable due to the rather distracting nature it implies throughout the scene. As well, the fact that it tends to employ a few extra plotlines that aren't needed is a little confusing which spreads the film out a little longer than it really should be, but overall there's a lot to like here if the flaws aren't too damaging.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 10, 2014 10:36:06 GMT -5
The Street Fighter trilogy, which having only seen part 1 ages ago that never appealed to me because I was so enamored with the HK style that his work never appealed to me as much as those did, and it continued here on a rewatch. Perhaps it has to do with the odd grunting and breathing noises he does while fighting, or the stuttering pace with which he employs which are nowhere near as fluid and steady as the HK counterparts, though I did enjoy the film more than I used to do which wasn't all that much thanks to more of a balanced and varied diet of kung-fu movies now than I did when I first saw it so there's a more favorable impact this time around. 'Return of the Street Fighter' is a little better off actually with a more streamlined plot (we get the reasoning for his rampage before the opening credits for he avenges the betrayal from that throughout the whole movie) a strong series of fight scenes that are a little more tolerable due to an increased exposure to his fighting style that's again employed here and a few incredibly brutal set-pieces that are just as gruesome and bloody as the highly-entertaining setpieces from the first effort. While it does resort to a continued usage of plot twists simply to get a character back on-screen to fight once again, there's still a lot to like with this one. 'The Street Fighter's Last Revenge' is somewhat of an anomaly, as I can't tell if I liked it or not. There's no big set-piece like the ship-brawl from part 1 or the police-station assault in part 2, people show up to get their ass handed to them quite easily and the constant pace allows for plenty to fighting and action to be had, yet it's not really that memorable and seems to stick to letting him punch, chop or kick someone every couple minutes rather than engage in extended combat or shootouts the way the others did to drive the action. It's still enjoyable enough, but not really as good as the original two.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 11, 2014 11:04:10 GMT -5
Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead-After getting drugged at a horror convention's after-party, a group of friends awake to find themselves forced to play a live-action role-playing-game based on a famous horror movie and must utilize their knowledge to get away alive. This turned out to be far better than it really should've been. Perhaps the film's greatest virtue amongst itself is the clever and highly original storyline present as the film does boast a pretty unique gimmick of trapping horror fans in a retelling of a classic horror film and forcing them to recreate the events of the film for their own amusement, and it does a fairly close job of recreating it throughout. The clothes, the setting, the general look and feel of the whole effort as well as the use of piping in the actual movie on a closed-circuit TV to rattle them even more makes for a rather unique and clever style here that really helps this one develop into more than just a loving homage and a chance to re-work some of the original bits and gags from the movie. This turns it into a rather fun and original way to do the homage in a different way and is certainly a very new concept that's employed here. That this allows the film to really up the gore and action content that was missing from the originally-aped film makes this even more fun with tons of splatter and gore that was missing from the original as well as bringing about some rather tense confrontations that arise here from the different encounters here. While the film does dip somewhat once we learn the truth about what's going on within as the twist about the intent behind the drugging does seem quite far-fetched there's still a couple fine chases in the later half to make for a rather fine mix of chills, blood-splatter and cheese. There's one rather glaring problem here, beyond the fact that this just seems like an excuse to remake the original for their own purpose, in that for such a landmark and legendary film they run through only one person has seen it among the group, which makes no sense at all and really stretches believability here with something that influential and massive. It would've been more fun had everyone been aware and fans so that they all have the ability to outwit the killers that way, yet here it's just the one and it really seems like a stretch. Otherwise, this one is a lot of fun.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 13, 2014 10:45:31 GMT -5
Nothing Left to Fear-Arriving in a small Kansas town, a preacher and his family find themselves the unwilling targets of a local group using one of his children as a conduit for an otherworldly demon and must stop the sinister act from going through. This turned out to be quite a disappointing effort that really could've been something good. While the first half is brought up as a big mystery about what the townspeople are trying to do to the family, there's some decent scenes about the mystery behind the small-town facade that makes for some really creepy ideals. As well, the moment the film hits the ceremonial possession mark it turns into quite an enjoyable effort with a series of strong elements including the sequence itself inside a darkened, Gothic-styled underground bunker, the slowly-appearing signs of the possession and transformation as well as the assaults on the family leading to the chase through town being quite thrilling and chilling with regards to how the children are portrayed as equal victims here, which is always a special touch. Unfortunately, as this constitutes the final half hour of the film, the rest of the film is beset with problems. The fledgling romance angle is so hackneyed the concept is groan-inducing with the entire sequence meted out in a dialogue-drowned-out montage that never once becomes anything close to believable. As well, the entire film's plot is only inferred through the actions undertaken and not by actually being spelled out which results in a lot of anger and confusion at the whole process. The purpose of calling the family to sacrifice one of them to a demon only to have to be forced to trap the demon-possessed-spirit in another dimension every time out makes no sense when the entire act is presented as a special secret between those actively engaging in the act who try to keep it a secret from each other. This leads to the first half being nothing more than repeating the same formula with each time the process is brought up since it has to be dismissed in order to be kept a secret, yet the process itself makes no sense as for why it has to be undertaken all the time and the entire thing becomes quite frustrating. Had this been spelled out, it might've been something decent moreso than it currently is.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 14, 2014 10:41:56 GMT -5
Added an uncut copy of Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings to the collection.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 17, 2014 11:21:40 GMT -5
Opium and the Drug Lord-After a sinister gang-member brings an opium shop into his den, a master fighter must fight his growing addiction to the drug in order to roust the bad elements brought about by the gang. A decidedly weaker offering from the Shaw Brothers as this is one of their later works that really doesn't hold up against their earlier classics but still has enough to be enjoyable if not inspired. The old mixed with the new is found with the storyline about the growing opium addiction and the need for redemption after being humiliated which falls right in line with how they offered up their heroes in the past, but done with the more modern influence of the drug addiction being the cause rather than far more loftier starting points. The fights are decent enough as well considering the cast especially for this one, but do hold up pretty well except for the finale which should've been the big show-stopper fight but instead is the shortest, weakest fight as the earlier humiliation fight takes the longest running time and tends to wander around with rather weak efforts just to really hammer in how lame he is as an addict which makes the fight last far too long and gets repetitive for no real reason. It's certainly decent enough when it's not focused on him trying to redeem himself, but again the movie's far too long to really make the most of what's going on with this one sense it again gets way too repetitive with him acting like a bumbling fool and not being able to take care of himself, yet tends to come off as weak melodrama to simply boost the running time. All in all, it's flawed but still enjoyable enough when it gets going.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 18, 2014 11:29:07 GMT -5
Sorority Party Massacre-Ordered to find a missing daughter, a detective's investigation leads to a small-town gathering of sorority girls for a special pageant only to learn the missing girl is the first in a maniac's rampage against them and must protect the remaining girls. This is decidedly a mixed bag of a slasher that has a lot going for it and a lot of flaws. One of the biggest issues here is the rather convoluted back-story to the killer that really makes no sense at all, especially with the ridiculous explanation given for the rampage which is quite shockingly stupid. As well, there's the fact that there's more than one. That really makes for quite a confusing set of actions in the later half when the movie twists itself around to throwing in twists for the sake of twists when it makes no sense. There's at least four different occasions when the film could've ended without so much as really raising an eye to the fact that there's a new twist coming about simply for the sake of showcasing something new or supposedly shocking but really does nothing. As well, for something supposedly set-up as being this sleazy it's really not with very little skin on display and almost acting shy about doing so when it does, for there's a lesbian character that repeatedly tries to sleep with everyone but never does except in clothed flashbacks, and the few times it tries to show it off they're hidden in obscure angles or generally try as little as possible to show them off, and it really stinks of false advertisement to supposedly be this raunchy and sleazy but really not. Finally, the fact that this is a missing-person's investigation for the majority of the running time means that there's very little slashing going on until the final half-hour, when things really get going but the majority of the first half is pretty much all shot with barely any action going on at all with the group running all over town trying to find out what's going on with the missing girls. That said, there's still some good stuff going on here as, though there's a rather lame back-story for the killer, the mystery of who's behind it is handled rather well and is a pretty competent guessing game overall. As well, the kills are shockingly brutal and provide plenty of variety and originality with them being based on the individual's own fears, which is a handy trick for further keeping the killer's identity a secret, and when it's all wrapped up with a great body count and plenty of action in that final half, there's some solid work here that does recover some of the flaws present.
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Post by Fenril on Mar 19, 2014 13:33:40 GMT -5
Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead-After getting drugged at a horror convention's after-party, a group of friends awake to find themselves forced to play a live-action role-playing-game based on a famous horror movie and must utilize their knowledge to get away alive. This turned out to be far better than it really should've been. Perhaps the film's greatest virtue amongst itself is the clever and highly original storyline present as the film does boast a pretty unique gimmick of trapping horror fans in a retelling of a classic horror film and forcing them to recreate the events of the film for their own amusement, and it does a fairly close job of recreating it throughout. The clothes, the setting, the general look and feel of the whole effort as well as the use of piping in the actual movie on a closed-circuit TV to rattle them even more makes for a rather unique and clever style here that really helps this one develop into more than just a loving homage and a chance to re-work some of the original bits and gags from the movie. This turns it into a rather fun and original way to do the homage in a different way and is certainly a very new concept that's employed here. That this allows the film to really up the gore and action content that was missing from the originally-aped film makes this even more fun with tons of splatter and gore that was missing from the original as well as bringing about some rather tense confrontations that arise here from the different encounters here. While the film does dip somewhat once we learn the truth about what's going on within as the twist about the intent behind the drugging does seem quite far-fetched there's still a couple fine chases in the later half to make for a rather fine mix of chills, blood-splatter and cheese. There's one rather glaring problem here, beyond the fact that this just seems like an excuse to remake the original for their own purpose, in that for such a landmark and legendary film they run through only one person has seen it among the group, which makes no sense at all and really stretches believability here with something that influential and massive. It would've been more fun had everyone been aware and fans so that they all have the ability to outwit the killers that way, yet here it's just the one and it really seems like a stretch. Otherwise, this one is a lot of fun. Just saw this one; I, too found it pretty good, and that it managed to do a lot of things with a very small budget and a simple premise. It's also interesting to compare with other "postmodern" and/or genre parody films [like, say "Scream", "There is nothing out there", "Cabin in the woods", perhaps even "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil"]. In this case it inverts the usual way characters are handled in this kind of stories. Ex., the genre-savy characters (the only ones who have actually seen the source film at that) aren't saved by their use of trivia for the simple reason that they aren't actually fighting what they think they are. My only real complain would be the use of the director character as an extremely obvious mouthpiece for the actual director and scripwriter of Mimesis. Having the stand-ins for the original "Night of the living dead" cast act differently for the simple reason that they come from different backgrounds (ex. the siblings who in this case are just strangers) is a pretty clever touch, too. Basically, a surprisingly fun low-budget romp that's much better than one would expect at first. |
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Post by Fenril on Mar 19, 2014 13:52:48 GMT -5
Also, saw a bunch of sci-fi films I had missed in theaters:
- Gravity. After a rain of space debris leaves her the only survivor in an orbiting space station, an astronaut must use her wits, training and just plain will to live in order to return to Earth.
Lean and effective character-driven thriller with suprinsingly convincing special effects and an interesting parable about life itself as the core metaphor. Fine acting from the two leads and a clever script, too.
- The hunger games: catching fire. After managing to survive last year's brutal death game, Katniss discovers her actions have had very far-reaching consequences. Indeed, she has unwittingly spurned a new rebellion movement, which is this close to developing into an actual revolution. And so, she finds herself drafted into a new and even more cruel version of the games --this time, she'll have to face a team of previous games' survivors. But perhaps she has more allies than she thinks...
I actually enjoyed this movie far more than the first one, which always stuck me as a PG-13 remake of "Battle Royale". This one is more like a political thriller which culminates into another survival adventure for the third act. I've never read the source books, so I can't say if this version is faithful to them but what we do have is pretty well-plotted and acted. The best scene has our lead using a clever trick to not just stop the game, but bring down an entire artificial dome in one shot.
- After Earth. After their spaceship crashes on a forbidden planet, a teenager and his seriously-wounded father must work together to survive and find the way to call for help back home. Unfortunately, their ship had a certain dangerous cargo --a creature that can smell fear and kills everything in its' path...
Largely discredited director Shyamalan brings us a story designed to showcase their leads, real-life father and son Will and Jayden Smith. It's actually not a bad actioner, but like most of Shyamalan's productions it has the oddness of using a huge budget for a story that could have been made for tv, and in fact would have probably played better that way. Basically... not bad, but really not at all memorable except maybe for an ending that refutes the vaguely militaristic tone of the
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 20, 2014 10:38:18 GMT -5
Stoker-I'm not entirely sure this is a horror effort or a lame and worthless coming-of-age drama/thriller that never featured anything happening of real interest or value. It wasn't scary, it wasn't exciting, it wasn't deep and it wasn't original, so I don't know what else to say about it.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Mar 21, 2014 10:47:04 GMT -5
Saturday Morning Mystery-Hired to investigate a supposedly-haunted abandoned schoolhouse, a group of paranormal investigators find the school is far more dangerous than they bargained for and must try to find the cause of the paranormal incidents to get out alive. This turned out to be quite the effective and entertaining parody effort while falling slightly short as a true stand-alone effort. Aping the TV show to it's fullest extent, right down to the set-up of the group and their relationships to each other, the continual use of finding bad guys in masks as the prime culprit and the same goofy humor throughout, even managing to bring a dog into the fray as a partner makes this one feel like a true homage yet it still manages to go in it's own separate path as the group manages to find an actual case of demons and satanic madness in their latest assignment, which proves far too much for them to handle and causing the middle section to be enormously entertaining with a series of sequences really amping up the terror and tension throughout. The sight of seeing them succumb to the actual torments and tortures inflicted upon them by the ghastly, creepy-looking demons and ghouls makes for some additional fun than expected due to the playing off the homage angle earlier and seeing the walls drip with blood-splatter, the group finally engaging in sleazier antics than usual and the entire actuality of the demonic origins of their protagonists is just endless fun due to incorporating this into the film. That said, without all that knowledge beforehand this does tend to follow the motions in just about every one of these haunted house investigation movies with the team not completely sold on the enterprise being what they think it is, they eventually get proven wrong when it turns out to be for real and must overcome the experience for the first time. It does grow a little thin to see it resorting to these cliches to keep going, but that's the way it goes here with this type of plot. It also really easily betrays it's low-budget roots quite often with a series of lame shots of the demons or really weak-looking special effects, but the rest of the movie is so fun it really overcomes that.
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