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Post by Fenril on Jul 15, 2014 18:27:13 GMT -5
Addiction, though, is right-on with how I felt about it and just seemed to go nowhere in a hurry (though if you want a more detailed write-up on it, I think it's in one of the Just Watched threads, just do a search for it in the Off-the-Chest board to make sure you find it). Cool, I'll look up your review, then. Meanwhile, saw: - The good, the bad and the ugly. Three gunslingers in the wild west (or the wasteland of a civil war, take your pick) set out in search of a treasure buried somewhere in a graveyard, double-crossing each other and dispensing their violent brand of entertainment along the way. The quintessential "Spaghetti-western" has lost none of it's power over the decades, with the impressive landscapes and the unforgettable soundtrack helping to its' almost mythic atmosphere. The story is simple, certainly, and the characters are pretty much what their titles say (through the performances from everybody are spot-on), but that works beautifully with the cinematography itself. Very recommended. - Rear window. A photographer stuck in his apartment due to a broken leg during a sweltering heat wave amuses himself in a somewhat unsavory manner: peeping at his backlot neighbors through open windows and composing stories about their lives. But when he suspects one of those neighbors has killed and dismembered his wife, Jeffries end up tangled in an intrigue that soon drags his policeman friend, his caretaker and his glamorous girlfriend into a dangerous sleuthing game. Solid and extremely influential suspense, remains one of Hitchcock's best efforts and the finale still packs a punch. Very recommended. |
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 16, 2014 11:15:17 GMT -5
You don't have to, I found it myself: The Addiction-While trying to finish her thesis, a college student finds herself bitten by a vampire and tries to come to grips with the deadly affliction as she's mentored in the ways of their species and tries to avoid giving away her new identity. Certainly has some pretty decent ways to go here, mainly through the use of the clever gimmick that gets this one over by having her compare vampirism through philosophical queries, but unfortunately that only has a two-pronged effect that doesn't do anything for the film at hand. On the one, it makes the film just incredibly boring and not really all that interesting, since she spends the majority of time simply doing nothing but complaining about the utterly useless knowledge given to her by the school and relying on other means to get through the change. Eventually, it all just comes across as pretentious nonsense that makes no sense at all and just tends to sound whatever it needed to do to agree with their principle ideas. The other factor, as mentioned before, is that not a lot happens in here and it tends to just ramble on, like she does, and nothing gets done because of that. Even the novel Black-and-White can't save this one. Hidden-After inheriting a decrepit hospital from his mother, a man and his friends decide to investigate the area only to find it inhabited by the ghosts of her former patients and must try to get out alive. This is a decidedly decent enough offering that does manage to overcome it's few problems. One of the biggest issues is the fact that there's never any getting around the fact that it's all-too-familiar and plays out quite much like the dozen other films that employ similar elements. The dark family secret, the isolated house, the group of friends visiting that are going to decide what to do with the rest of the property, it all feels too similar and reminds of other films quite readily, often-times making it seem like this one isn't necessarily all that important to get through. This is certainly compounded by the fact that the film's central plot comes undone by a character's speech to one of the victims whereupon the whole plot becomes unraveled and renders the entire film a moot point by doing so, forcing itself to correct this with an incredibly lame and convoluted excuse to try to save face when it really doesn't have any other choice here. That is certainly one of the biggest flaws a film can have, where a character ends up revealing a crucial plot-point that effectively renders the purpose of the entire film null and void, and it's not all that often a film can overcome that. Luckily, it does try with a truly wonderful and wholly creepy setting here that really does effectively capture the decrepit hospital look quite well with the dark, endless corridors, secret underground tunnels and blocked-off passages which give off a really unnerving feeling that entering it isn't the wisest decision in the world. That makes the ghost attacks quite chilling when they occur, with plenty of leaping out from behind doorways and walls, standing behind them unseen, blocking off escape routes or tackling someone and dragging them off-camera among others found here, so this tends to accentuate the creepy feeling of the building quite well. This also happens to give it a much bigger sense of action in the latter half so it seems quite thrilling at the right moments with he build-up to the finale, weak as it might be, but it does do enough to make it watchable if not extraordinary. |
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 18, 2014 11:30:40 GMT -5
Nightwish-Journeying to a house in the countryside, a group of parapsychology students and their professor find the area's past as a home for demonic entities has been unleashed and causing them to wonder if what they see is really there. This here is a rather enjoyable and somewhat entertaining effort that has some rather impressive moments but still has some minor flaws present. Among the good parts is the fact that the film clearly has a lot of ideas present about what it really wants to be, and that manifests itself in a really chaotic framework here with all sorts of creepy things going on. From the drive out into the hillside with a decrepit, run-down house that really should not be visited by anyone, the creepy procedures that must be followed before the seance scenes, all sorts of rather freaky scenes being utilized before getting into the twist involving the real reason they're there and the ensuing reactions they have because of this, which really drives this one all over the place but really remains quite level-headed about itself. There's never any real sense about this being too confusing or obscure in what it does to really hinder it all that much during these scenes by keeping the storylines going rather well, never really putting itself in place to become too confusing since the streamlined second-half keep their actions on target with how the rest of the movie has been going along, and this in turn forces the stories into pretty entertaining versions. By doing these different stories, it also brings about the enjoyable manners of forcing them into the story, so there's all sorts of rather creepy hallucinations and different settings about this being utilized for maximum effect, including the scenes down in the underground tunnels and the whole final half being a fine action-packed race to keep things on track as this heads into a rather inventive twist that really sells this quite well. However, there's still a few problems with this one in the fact that, despite how well it handles things, the film never really can settle on what it really wants to be because it has so many different elements wrapped inside it. Being a film about a creepy old house that was used to summon satanic demons first, then it turns into a demented captor forcing his students to do what he pleases and then finally an alien pod story that gets shoehorned into the film in an attempt to showcase a few nasty special effects scenes and then tries to make all these storylines make sense and it does so only through the finale's twist so this can get a little confusing with all the different elements in here. As well, the film does take a while to get going with there being quite a lot of useless time leading up to the house visit and forcing this to take a long time really getting going. Otherwise, this one wasn't all that bad.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 21, 2014 13:07:03 GMT -5
Battle of the Damned-After a devastating viral outbreak, a soldier is sent into a quarantined city to rescue the daughter of an important businessman and enlists the aid of an army of robots to stave off the advancing zombie hordes and complete his mission. This is a highly enjoyable and absolutely entertaining blast of a zombie/action film hybrid. Moreso than anything else in the film, the biggest factor at work here is the fact that the film is just as much of an action film as a horror one. The zombies are kept as a great threat throughout because there's so many of them in here, and that forces the survivors to have to find several ways of dealing with them safely as they're always around, so there's a ton of confrontations to come through with the group forced to deal with the swarm in here from the supermarket brawl to the chase through the ghettos and finally the assault on the compound which starts in the best part of the film, the last act with the reinforcements. Coming through in the form of armor-plated, machine-gun toting robots, the sight of the two sides, with the human-survivors and the army of robots taking on the snarling, massive horde of zombies is a frenetic sight that's made all the more fun by having a ton of screen-time to really take in the action spectacle that's presented and is really overwhelming. The horror scenarios come from the threat of the zombies themselves keeping a high course of screen-time that allows them to really be treated and feared quite logically, and that their look is quite enjoyable makes this even better. Follow up with a countdown clock that must be kept in mind and it does work quite well in that regard as well, though the action in this is clearly the more central part of the story. That really only leaves one small factor here that doesn't really work, which is the long amount of screen-time needed to convince everyone of the move and trying to get them to come along. Since these are spent in their compound not a lot happens here and it does have some rather long moments where it feels like it's just going in circles trying to get her to come along and refusing without going anywhere or getting anything accomplished, and this leads to a pretty boring middle section of the film in between all the fun action bits, but overall it's a lot more fun and enjoyable than anything else.
State of Emergency-Following the release of a deadly chemical in their small town, a man joins up with a fellow group of survivors to hold out the increased swarm of zombies affected by the chemical as they await the imminent evacuation by the military. This is an incredibly lame and really unworthwhile zombie effort that doesn't have a lot of positive issues for it. The film's biggest facet here is the low-budget work never really allows this much of a chance to do anything all that creative or enjoyable for the duration of its' running time, forcing this into a seemingly endless series of scenes showing the hero mingling with the other survivors in the hideout waiting for something to happen, but it never goes anywhere. The dearth of attacks here makes for a seemingly endless series of scenes that really don't show anything beyond their getting to know each other while attempting to survive, and because the attacks are really only placed in three spots in the entire movie it never develops any suspense, action or thrills during these moments to really put the group in peril that would've resulted from such actions. Forcing them into a series of confrontations in such a hold-out as they have here is highly entertaining but never results in anything significant happening during the running time because it just doesn't provide the film with anything all that exciting as we watch the film continually has them sit around talking or flashing back about their lives before the virus started. This brings about several other factors as well, in that the zombie make-up here looks utterly abysmal with what amounts to dirt smeared on their face and red contact lenses since we're never given a chance to see them in anything amounting to a good, solid shot of them in action because the low-budget doesn't amount to any kind of prolonged shot that utilizes them to their fullest. There's little blood and gore in here due to the few number of survivors found and the relatively inane finale that basically forces the survivors into a specific number in order to hold out on the attacks so the only resulting carnage given is to the zombies and it's all basically head-wounds with blood-splatter on the wall behind them and not much else. Overall, there's very little to like in this one.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 22, 2014 12:20:29 GMT -5
A Vampire's Tale-Moving into a new house in the countryside, a man and his family attempt to start over his career as an antiquities dealer when his charge of selling an antique mirror causes a demonic vampiress to be loosened upon the family. This was a rather decent if not all that great effort that really has some problems. One of the main issues with this one is the fact that the storyline is so off here that it never has much of a chance to do anything with it. This is especially true in the finale where it tends to offer about ten different endings to what's going on yet none of them are really engaging to begin with or do anything other than simply announce to the world that the filmmakers couldn't decide on a way to end this and just included everything as it leads into one another, forsaking storyline coherence, logic and a multitude of other areas here by the incessant manner of forging ahead with the ending here. As well, the fact that the film doesn't have a lot of attacks here really causes this to get drawn out quite early on with a seemingly endless amount of time between the family trying to get settled into the house, the adulterous relationship hidden in the wings and the way it finally gets the vampires out and into the story which is quite a difficult task when this goes on before any sort of horror-related efforts. Though when they do come, this turns into quite an enjoyable outing with some pretty decent moments on display, from the attack in the woods that sets up the ambush on the house and how they get into the confrontations with the creatures, and the final assault in the barn that's a huge fist-fighting brawl before finally being settled in the underground cavern is quite fun and impressive. Still, there's just way too much wrong here to overcome this fun stuff.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 23, 2014 11:05:30 GMT -5
Needle-After inheriting a strange box following his parents' death, a teen and his friends are the victims of a series of grisly and brutal deaths by unseen figures and realize the box is being used for revenge against the friends. This turned out to be rather flawed and an overall disappointing effort. Despite this being based around an incredibly enjoyable concept, the main storyline here is so off that it really does the film far more harm by being the way it is, which is all due to the way this plays out. The main killer's motive for targeting the friends is so inherently lame that it's laughed off if heard in real life, and the characters in the film react as such by being unable to take it seriously since it's never once treated as something other than a comical joke when the reasons are revealed so this makes for quite a difficult time adjusting to things if the characters themselves don't take what happens seriously. As well, this ends up making the film's final half come off even more lame and disappointing by subjecting the motivations for the rampage at this section of the film as the reasons for why they're being targeted is never explored at all and it really tends to focus so heavily on this section that the rest of the film is a long, drawn-out series of bland sequences that have nothing to do with the killer's rampage against them as it instead focuses on the strained-brothers angle for the majority of the running time. None of these segments end up doing the film any favors in finding out crucial information about anything here, as the killer is forced to explain their hilariously illogical motivations at the end and the central box itself is such a mystery that the majority of the fear it's supposed to garner is squashed by only one semi-literate sequence where they explain the history and legacy but in such brief, passing tones that it's impossible to really get a handle on what this is and why it's to be feared. Each of these flaws ends up hurting the film quite heavily because there's some rather engaging potential on display, most notably in how the deaths are meted out which are incredibly bloody and gory and offer up quite a lot of carnage that's quite effectively rendered. The bloodshed is made more potent by the fact that the mystery box is capable of striking anywhere so these early sequences leading up to the death are truly chilling and suspenseful and really go a long way towards making this something to be feared. However, the majority of this is so flawed that these segments don't do this much good.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 24, 2014 11:25:12 GMT -5
Knock Knock 2-Getting together one evening, a group of friends on a tour of famous Hollywood murder scenes stumbles upon a mysterious house on their trip and find it to be filled with far more dangerous entities then they ever expected. This here was one of the worst genre examples in this class and really has very little redeeming value. Most of this is based on the fact that there's just nothing happening in this one. The idea behind the film is quite cool and unique, but the fact that there's just endless, endless scenes of the group wandering around the house with the first-person perspective, based on the fact that this is a found-footage film, means that what little there is to actually be entertained by is so hard to make-out and realize what it is that it just becomes all the more confusing and disorienting about what's happening, rendering the effect completely moot and disastrous. Even still, the fact that nothing happens here is the biggest obstacle that really can't redeem the film because it can't offer up any real scares or potentially chilling moments based on the fact that the whole film is centered around the fact that it can't offer up any scares or thrills to overcome the limitations of the genre which results in keeping the camera pointed away from whatever is supposed to terrify us only to turn back and see nothing, shaking camera shots that are so blurry you can't tell what's going on, countless times where the safety of their well-being is forsaken for getting the camera to record it all and just so much blandness about what's going on with them that this becomes a chore to sit through and a boring effort once it gets going. The one thing that does work somewhat well here is the fact that the central premise for their trip is quite ingenious and really should be used in other efforts since there's some potential for some really chilling moments in a story like this should it get in a film that really deserves it, but by doing nothing with it as it is really just underscores how futile and wasted this one is.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 25, 2014 12:31:31 GMT -5
The Legend of Bloody Mary-Trying to overcome his constant nightmares, a man and his friends use the root cause of his sister's disappearance playing an urban legend and find the spectral being they summoned is connected to her and try to stop her rampage. Overall, this one is quite a missed opportunity that really doesn't get much right going. The fact that this one manages to really get invested in the backstory for the urban legend and tries to explain it does get some favors here with this settling on the wrongly-accused witch in colonial times as the subject matter, and the scene depicting this time are where it really starts getting good with the entire sequence played out as a mindless torture sequence really revealing in the gore and brutality inflicted upon her that starts this chain of events that it gets this off on a great note. Not only is this fully warranted for her wanting revenge, but the brutality alone is quite enjoyable, and while it's not in keeping with the spirit of the rest of the movie it still works quite well in delivering the gory goods. Beyond that, there's not a lot to really get invested with since the majority of the screen-time is taken with the duo tracking her down managing to investigate the sightings without really getting anything out of the film beyond those brief moments where the play-out of one of the investigations yields some rather tense images. By staying so focused on the investigation, there's not a lot of chances for the slasher to really be invested in this one and therefore it goes long periods of time without getting her on-screen or even involved with the goings-on in the story, and when it does happen it's usually in the form of long, unneeded showings of what happened to his sister years ago that sets off the whole search nowadays but doing so back-in-time, shuttling back-and-forth in the timeline so much it's hard to get a true handle on where you are it's done so much. This is the series of scenes that are supposed to sort out the thrills and suspense from her actions, but instead nothing all that interesting happens and the lengthy set-pieces for these scenes really undoes it all. Coupled with that lack of screen-time and this is a lot worse off than it really should be.
Spirits-Attempting to investigate a supposedly haunted house, a psychic and her staff soon come under attack by a group of demons that live in the place and must rely on a priest with knowledge of the demons to stop them. This is a really enjoyable and absolutely entertaining slice of prime cheese that gets highly enjoyable over time. One of the best facets about it is the utterly contrived plot that still manages to be quite entertaining and enjoyable during it's time due to the remarkable way it keeps the storylines moving along and staying interesting during it's duration. The initial start with the investigation is kept remarkably light and watchable considering the subject matter at hand, as the darkness it goes for is decidedly new and original enough to serve as the backdrop for the central mystery surrounding the house. These scenes, including the many walk-throughs that give us a great glimpse of the setting and how inherently creepy it is, serves as the basic formula for introducing the film's biggest plus, it's series of inherently cheesy and enjoyable hallucination scenes that crop up in this, which are truly fun for their cheesy attitude, rampant sleaze and demented qualities that truly make these scenes so much fun. The nude nun-demons tormenting the priests, the sex dreams with the former residents and all the possession sequences that play as straight-rips from other films that wonder throughout the running time before eventually winding up with the cheese-filled overload of a finale where the original demon manifestation is allowed to take shape and this one really gets a lot of fun. Still, despite all the cheese there's some flaws in this, mainly due to the fact that the film doesn't have a lot of action in here. Despite all the frequent and varied dreams and hallucinations present, this one still tends to waste endless time dissecting and analyzing what's going on without doing anything about it. This leaves the film with long stretches of time where nothing happens, and with the lower body count on display this manages to become quite infuriating if there's not a lot of extraneous action going on. As well, the cheese for some can be quite hit-or-miss with a lot of scenes not really working on more serious-minded individuals with a low tolerance or acceptance for such material that pops up here only due to individual merits rather than what the film does. Otherwise, there's still a lot to like in this one.
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Post by Fenril on Jul 26, 2014 22:20:23 GMT -5
You don't have to, I found it myself: The Addiction-While trying to finish her thesis, a college student finds herself bitten by a vampire and tries to come to grips with the deadly affliction as she's mentored in the ways of their species and tries to avoid giving away her new identity. Certainly has some pretty decent ways to go here, mainly through the use of the clever gimmick that gets this one over by having her compare vampirism through philosophical queries, but unfortunately that only has a two-pronged effect that doesn't do anything for the film at hand. On the one, it makes the film just incredibly boring and not really all that interesting, since she spends the majority of time simply doing nothing but complaining about the utterly useless knowledge given to her by the school and relying on other means to get through the change. Eventually, it all just comes across as pretentious nonsense that makes no sense at all and just tends to sound whatever it needed to do to agree with their principle ideas. The other factor, as mentioned before, is that not a lot happens in here and it tends to just ramble on, like she does, and nothing gets done because of that. Even the novel Black-and-White can't save this one. Cool, thanks! And yeah, that's about right. One detail that I'd have liked in another film and that I don't think I mentioned, is that according to the last scene the lead was born on Halloween. Oh, well. - The craft. Four troubled teenage girls decide to form a coven and dabble in witchcraft in the hopes that it will help solve their problems --being spurned by an almost-boyfriend, bullying from racist classmates, what appears to be an herpes skin condition and family trouble, respectively -- and it works! But power soon gets to leader Nancy's head, and she wasn't the most stable girl in the first place. Soon it's up to newcomer Sarah to learn how to use her powers to their max if she wants to live... Re-watched this 1998 dark fantasy. Gotta admit, this movie holds up surprisingly well, thanks to an honest script and good special effects. It's not really that scary (except for one impressive sequence where the lead's house is invaded by all kinds of vermin imaginable) and some of the acting is off; and yet, it remains a good mix of teenage drama and witch thriller, sort of a 90's teenage The witches of Eastwick (there's also a very mild callback to Suspiria in the opening scenes; hey, ain't nothin' wrong with alluding to the best!). |
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Post by Fenril on Jul 27, 2014 23:10:52 GMT -5
- Solaris. Astronaut/psychologist Kris is sent to a space station orbiting the mysterious planet Solaris, to investigate reports of strange behavior from the leftover scientists (and to decide whether the station itself is worth keeping active). Once inside he discovers something astounding: that the planet itself is attempting to communicate with the scientists by materializing their subconscious memories of past and future loved ones. What will Kris do when faced with the ghost of his suicidal ex-wife made flesh?
Portentous sci-fi film that requires a TON of patience to get through, but is quite rewarding once one adjusts, with several intriguing sequences and challenging questions re: the nature of human communication. I can't compare it to the book or to the other film versions because I've never seen them or read it, but I can say that while worth a watch, director Tarkovsky's other Sci-fi film, "Stalker" is even better. This one is still worth a watch.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 28, 2014 12:41:58 GMT -5
Zombies of Mass Destruction-Following a viral outbreak, life for a group of people in a small town grows even more complicated when they must deal with their troubled lives and the effects of the zombie outbreak that is overtaking the other residents. This is a slightly troubling but still overall enjoyable zombie effort. The biggest mark for this one is the simple fact that the zombies are once again treated as though they're a threat that should be taken seriously despite the constantly joking material and situations throughout. They attack at random and definitely leave an impression whenever they're around, hauling people to the ground and attacking them mercilessly, ganging up behind them in groups or slowly turning on someone unexpectedly when it's portraying them to be heroic in the situation before being swarmed by the zombies. That certainly helps them to still be taken seriously as well as the constant gore surrounding their appearances and the increasingly difficult manner it takes to finally get rid of them as well providing some chilling scenes at times even though there's some light-hearted tones spread throughout. That, though, is the biggest problem with the film is that it is too goofy and light for what it really wants to be, and that leads to a really dangerous clash throughout this. By focusing on the nationality of the female lead and making race such a big issue here, often-times erroneously simply for the sake of the comedy, there's not a lot of truly appealing jokes that work here despite the tone supporting the usage of such material and it contradicts the more serious and threatening zombie issue throughout. On top of that, the majority of the jokes are just flat-out stupid and lame and aren't in the slightest bit funny, leaving a large section of this at the end to be treated as some sort of monumentally-hilarious episode or joke that goes nowhere and has nothing to do with the movie at hand other than offering it's thinly-veiled political intrigue when that's the last thing it needs at the moment. These all knock the film down somewhat but otherwise this is pretty entertaining.
Descendents-After a devastating war has left the world polluted, a group of Chilean children who are able to survive in the toxic world navigate through the treacherous, zombie-infested world in order to find a sea-side sanctuary. This didn't turn out to be all that great of an effort. The main problem here is the decidedly haphazard manner it's story runs through all sorts of rather inane and useless side-plots that don't offer up anything remotely interesting throughout. The concept of a post-apocalyptic wasteland populated by zombies is a concept that in itself is done to death and hardly interesting in the slightest, and to counter this the concept of having children grow a gill-like appendage to breathe through but other than that it's hardly all that new and this feature isn't explored or even granted enough time to really make a mark on what it means. All sorts of clues are guessed at, but it never gives a definitive explanation for anything since it's too busy with the single most irritating flaw in this, the constant sentimental strains and melodramatic turns it provides. This plays out more like a dark children's fantasy tale about their survival in the landscape more than being munched on by zombies or forcing them to face any kind of fears or life-lessons along the way as this constantly has them sitting around talking about the world at large or what it means to miss their parents who are left behind. The dreams and constant memory-fades that this wallows in are for the most part the main source of inspiration through this so it really doesn't bring in a lot of opportunities for zombie carnage throughout though that is on offer as well. The make-up isn't bad and the gore is certainly serviceable as the early attacks at the compound and their escape attempt are about the main threats by the creatures throughout this, so they take on the main gist of the action scenes here but otherwise there's just not enough spread throughout the rest of the film to really justify the remaining flaws being so persistent and focused in here.
Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark-When a massive Megalodon shark is released into the ocean's waters, a Navy team is forced to utilize a monstrous shark-shaped submarine to combat the deadly creature before it's wake of destruction covers the entire planet. This is a massively entertaining and enjoyable effort that really has a lot going for it. One of the best aspects here is the generous helping of cheesy action spread throughout, since the massive shark is unleashed quite early on in the film which manages to get the new submarine into action as well which is quite an entertaining feat considering the amount of time the two spend battling each other is so high that they take an additional connotation that doesn't touch the past instances in the series by finally putting a worthwhile opponent into battle in an environment with the gigantic creature. The submarine being the same size makes for a truly worthwhile battle of the titans between the two and it happens frequently throughout the film, as the attack on the aircraft carrier, the assault on the carrier fleet and the later battle at the oil rig all allow for some really engaging battles between the two behemoths in an enjoyable cheesy manner, and by being spread throughout the film as a whole makes for quite a lot of fun that helps out in the latter part of the film. Having a full-scale city destruction sequence in the middle of the battle between the two accounts for even more exciting action to take place and the film is grossly overwhelming seeing the giant robot wade through the city leaving as much destruction as it does. Not to be outdone in that regard, it's certainly got the best rip on the airliner-out-of-the-sky routine here with an enjoyable cheesy take on the classic scene in the franchise which is a lot of fun. Again, though, the fact that the CGI featured here looks so bad as it does is something to get over when the robot never really gives off the metallic vibe beyond the overall design featured all sorts of different gears and lenses which reveal its' true nature even though the shark itself is easily the best-rendered of the series despite the frequent and annoying size fluctuations which have always plagued the franchise. Still, the only other true flaw on display is the finale, which has a lot of mention towards the sharks' spawning and breeding instinct but is overshadowed to make way for the city destruction sequences that contain all the action but undercuts the story since such a big deal was made about it throughout the last act of the film. Otherwise, this is a lot of fun overall.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 29, 2014 10:29:25 GMT -5
Added an uncut copy of Against the Dark to the collection.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 30, 2014 11:09:06 GMT -5
Added an uncut copy of Prowl to the collection.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Jul 31, 2014 11:45:52 GMT -5
Chilling Visions: 5 States of Fear-Anthology series with five stories: a man who buries a mistress alive in the desert comes to believe he didn't complete the procedure properly, a woman and her husband grow weary about her father's oncoming Alzheimer's and what it could mean to them, a couple venturing into the woods come across something unexpectedly dangerous along the way, a woman continually tries to appeal to her mother to kill the man who abused her, being crippled after a stroke awakens a man's hidden paranormal powers. Absolutely, utterly, unequivocally the worst Anthology series ever. All the stories are incredibly lame or deliver on twists we've seen so many times over to see them play out in the same predictable manner is such a drag. The segments are uninteresting, the set-ups are just stupid and frankly the only redeeming value in this is the two instances where we get bloody carnage. That's it, only two on-screen deaths in the entire film that produce any blood, so while those are gory it's about all that works in this one.
Sharknado 2: The Second One-Arriving in New York, a group of survivors are thrust into a familiar situation when the same storm forces bring monstrous sharks into the city and must utilize the skills they learned from the past to deal with the current threat. Quite simply, this was an unequivocal blast and has a lot to really like about it. One of the best elements at work here is the sense of fun this has playing around with such a silly concept. The fact that this starts off with the creatures moving along the storm into the city so that the confrontations can start immediately is where it really hits home since this allows for a non-stop, ballistic pace which crams in all the action possible to keep this interesting. Given the larger city-ground to play with, that gives this a much bigger scope with which to engage those set-pieces, and the confrontations are so much more fun including the chase through the streets by the dismembered statue's head, the battle on the subway car, trying to escape from the flooded streets of Times Square and even the initial attack on the plane that starts this off in grand style by focusing on a high-flying action scene to start things off and then brings about the rather fun and enjoyable pace which has all sorts of action spread throughout. Many of the one-off gags and cameos are designed to pay this off and follow the story throughout by constantly employing the sharks to serve as obstacles to overcome and that not only makes them a credible threat but also keeps the energy going. That also means there's plenty of blood and gore throughout this one, serving rather grisly moments and encounters with the sharks and the human victims getting plenty of carnage thrust upon them throughout, including tons of chainsaw carnage, being split in half and devoured, and other sorts of cheesy action-packed gore here. It all adds to the fun time this provides, as long as there's enough suspension of disbelief to buy into the story that's presented since this one is just plain cheesy and goofy. That's really about the only thing that really hampers this one as its a solid blast throughout.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Aug 4, 2014 11:17:45 GMT -5
Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda-After accidentally loosing the latest genetic bio-weapon, a team tracks down the last remaining sharktopus to use as their own muscle in bringing the mutated creature back under control while both creatures terrorize their sea-side community. This was a rather enjoyable and exciting creature feature that really has a lot going for it. One of the better elements here is the connection made between this and the original so that it can connect the two despite the creature having been definitively disposed of from that effort, and the way it goes about making sure that it's coherent with each other is quite a nice stroke because it plays such a huge part of the film as a whole. By having the marine biologist find it and keep it at the park, it's able to bring about the later scenes there where it gets captured and loosened after the other creature, which manages to be quite an interesting feat there. The fact that the two creatures are given plenty of screen-time here is another solid factor in keeping the action flowing along nicely and keeping this from really getting too dull and slow with the film quite easily being able to slip into an endless round of exposition about the two different creatures and where they came from, but instead this manages to forsake that with a few small sections to give us a great idea about what's going on while still providing this with the type of information needed to stay interesting throughout since we know what's going on here. The leaves the action to be quite enjoyable here with numerous attacks from each creature both on the locals and also attacking each other, which is cheese-filled goodness the first few times around with the prolonged battles providing exactly the kind of extended action scenes that keep these interesting while never forgetting its' target audience in the slightest, and that's an impressive feat to be accomplished here. There's a few small problems of concern, mainly in the fact that the subplot about the creature being stolen as part of some terrorist plot being quite unnecessary and generally provides the film with absolutely nothing positive about it in this regard. The story is crammed into the film for the sake of getting the body count even higher yet the purpose of setting it loose could've been accomplished without his involvement or forcing those extra-lame set-pieces into the film that hinders the overall pace to deal with this situation that really shouldn't have been there. As well, the usually-abysmal CGI for these efforts is still something that needs to be fixed due to the frequent size changes they undergo as well as the inability to interact with the rest of the people around them in the shot, which is what is starting to become a major problem in these kinds of efforts. Otherwise, this one is a lot more fun than it should be.
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