Just Watched Movies (2015)

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Night Watcher-Thinking herself over her mother's suicide, a teen finds herself involved in a deadly rampage through town of others who have also supposedly committed suicide and must stop the madman from striking more she loves. Frankly, this was a truly wretched and utterly abysmal slasher effort that really has little discernible value. What really undoes this one is the fact that there's just nothing at all that manages to be interesting here since the plot for this one is so predictable from the outset that sitting through this is just indeterminably boring and lifeless. The film manages to telegraph everything with the subtlety of a sledgehammer through glass by announcing the killer and his rampage the second they appear on-screen no matter how much it wants to try to play up the use of multiple red herrings throughout the course of the film which in the end makes those scenes truly boring and lifeless. Likewise, the fact that the film resorts to having everyone cry and whimper and moan about everything that happens here tends to cause this one just incredibly long stretches of time where nothing happens and it's low-key nature to everything around it causes numerous scenes to feel as if they're not important or scary enough since it really has nothing special about it to make those scenes really scary or terrifying and thus become part of the general boredom surrounding this. Finally, the killer itself here is just such a total joke that it really saps the rest of the life out of this one with a myriad of faults that pop up here. The biggest issue is the cause for the rampage here which is just plain ridiculous and never once manages to feel logical or worthy of instigating a rampage due to the inherent lameness of the concept which is simply stupid on various levels. Beyond that, the fact that this killer resorts to leaving VHS tapes of his crimes is quite lame as the ability to gloat over his crimes on an outdated source that he can't possibly be certain would be available for the couple to be able to view isn't all that suggestive of what he's capable of doing and really throws a lot of his scare-factor out the window. As well, the gimmick of turning everything into supposed suicides really strains credibility on the kills due to the enhanced amount of work that causes them to be overdone and quite clumsy causes them to feel contrived and set-up rather than realistic and logical, and overall these here hurt this film massively. There's a few moments where this one does become something sort of watchable where it features a few tense stalking moments of her friends around town, and the main sequence of the two having to elude detection at a suspect's house in order to find evidence of his wrong-doing is far better than anything else in this film, but otherwise that's all that works here.

Shattered Lives-Following the death of her grandparents, a woman's quest for revenge on the guilty party assumes a similar role that she undertook as a youngster when demonic clowns appeared to her in order to kill and has it continue on her new role. This was an utterly dreadful and completely worthless effort. About the only thing that needs to be watched is the opening massacre of the college students which contains some rather nice stalking, a few decent kills and a burst of energy that's completely missing from the rest of the film. That it has the nerve to replay this exact sequence at the end says it all about the quality of the rest of the movie for it couldn't be bothered to try anything else. The flaws here are numerous in both quantity and execution, the most egregious of all is the fact that the demonic clowns at the heart of the story are so completely uninteresting and non-threatening that they're a joke to be considered creepy, given lame design work that's completely cliché alongside computerized speaking voices that are obviously distorted human voices instead of truly demonic-sounding beings that really ruins their overall effectiveness with all the time we have to spend on these weak supposed-villains. On top of that, they're thrust into such a completely uninteresting story that even if they had been creepy it would've been hard to take the rest of the film seriously as this plays off more like a fifth-rate Lifetime channel affair concerning an adulterous mother and her clueless husband who are thrust into exaggeratedly overlong scenes that go on forever to clue us into her mental disorder that ends up beating us so over-the-top with that message it loses the impact and just becomes tedious to sit through. Lastly, the whole movie is rendered near unwatchable by the low-budget on display which causes the audio numerous problems of dropping in-and-out of the scene, never giving this anything to do so it just feels boring and is loaded with so many camera tricks and angles that try to convince us something's happening but ultimately highlights the futility of what's going on. Overall there's so little to offer here it's not worthwhile.

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The Cat O'Nine Tails-After inadvertently discovering a clue to a local robbery, a blind crossword-puzzle organizer and a reporter team up to unravel the murderous trail leading from the crime and must stop the killer once they're both targeted in the spree. Frankly, this one was quite an enjoyable and thoroughly watchable thriller that does suffer from a few minor miscues. One of the better elements within this one is the fact that there's a rather intriguing mystery set-up in here that runs the gamut from a purely coincidental theft all the way to murder and the ensuing witnesses start to become killed off. Taken into account for the fact that the crime was witnessed by a blind man who only remembers the voices of the perpetrators is a clever twist on the usual giallo gimmick of the man not seeing it clearly enough to provide additional help to the case and must try to help solve crime after that indiscretion places him on the killers' hitlist, it gets to that point in a slightly different manner which is all part of the fun. That also comes in handy with several utterly thrilling moments that play off his blindness quite convincingly as a stalking scene in a library and a later one in his home when he knows someone is there with him when there shouldn't be is quite unnerving and the general assistance he needs to get around makes for a completely enjoyable piece to cap all this off on. Plus it's enjoyable enough on it's own with some exciting chases here that give this some rather nice action as the car chase through the city streets at top-speed is quite exciting, as well as the encounter in the museum at the end where the chase includes several intense brawls with the killer and the attempt to get the hostage back safely, and when concluded with a marvelous sequence in the crypt searching for a discarded clue that really makes this more enjoyable than it should be. That still doesn't take into account the few flaws here, the most impactful of which is the utterly lame rationale for the killer's rampage and logic behind his killing spree, done because of a genetic condition that rarely produces such results anyway and had no predisposition to do so until the discovery and the resulting murders to hide it that only further the connection to the condition. It's quite far-fetched and really doesn't do much of anything for the film, and the fact that this one does have such a lame premise behind it's killings does hurt this somewhat. Likewise, the fact that the body count is so low here that it never really has a lot of chances to wow with inventive kills or dynamic stalking scenes that are usually associated here, instead coming across far more bland and pedestrian as well as slowing the pacing down to investigations over slashing to keep this one going which overall lowers this one more than it really should.

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The Visitor-After discovering the last demonic progeny on Earth, a man races off to stop a young girl from leading her mother astray into procreating a being like her that will signal the end of mankind before it occurs. This was just an overall confusing and just plain messy effort that was really troubling. One of the main problems with this one is the fact that there's just no sense at all to the storyline as this one is so over-done and jumbled together that there's hardly anything that becomes coherent about it. The concept of the astral-dimensional progeny of a satanic deity manifesting in a little girl is a fine-enough concept if only it stuck with that, despite how loony and hokey that plot-device actually is, but then it adds in a series of utterly twisted and jumbled plot-points including a pet hawk that's trained to kill, a holy Jesus figure recounting tales to bald-headed children in a garden-of-eden setting, aliens disguised as humans, abductions, satanic powers and two secret society's intent on the interest of the little girl yet both of whom seem malicious more-often-than-not including the supposed protectors so this thing is so stuffed with off-the-wall moments and plot-points that it's hard to keep track of anything. There's so much going on here with all these elements thrust into the middle of the story that elements start canceling each other out, drop off all together which makes their inclusion questionable in the first place or merely set-up in order to ensure that there's something on-screen to hinder the criminally slow-pace and lack of action that continually hurtles forth here as each of these presents it's own problems to the film as it sort of lumbers along without much grasp of how to actually utilize such seemingly independent ideas into a cohesive whole. It really does become such a burden trying to shift through the plot here that it finally outlives it's usefulness and renders the finale nearly moot by the time it finally comes around as the action of the chase through the hospital corridors, down into the street and finally back into the house of mirrors that it doesn't seem to matter how much fun and exciting all this becomes as the ensuing points to get there don't make sense and become quite troublesome to get through. There's a good film in this somewhere as the striking visuals and chilling origins state here, but it's just not found under the weight of the massive, messy-written story.

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The Visitors-Renting a house in the Swedish countryside, a family comes to believe the house is possessed by demons and consults a trained demon hunter to help rid them of the dangerous beings inside before it harms their family. Overall, this one was quite an exciting and enjoyable effort. One of the more enjoyable aspects of this one is the fact that there's quite a large amount of time taken up here with getting this one to the point of featuring the house as actually being haunted by real demons here as the entire middle section here is loaded with all sorts of paranormal hunting sequences that have been featured throughout the genre for ages here with all sorts of hunting techniques and scanning equipment being utilized to fight off the strange energy found throughout the house. Coupled with the tactics of haunting here with the pounding footsteps, slamming doors and ethereal voices throughout the night it really paints quite an effective picture that really sells the haunted nature quite well. As it adds these features with the previous sequences to denote the haunted nature of this effort, the complete picture of what's happening here is even more accomplished here and it really goes to add a more imposing presence to this one with it's chilling backstory involving the demonic rituals conducted in the walled-off room as well as the ghostly actions in the finale with the attacks that come into far more focus and impact with a spectacular burning-down-the-house Gothic finale to cap it all off with. These are enough to overcome it's few flaws here, most notably it's incredibly contrived and familiar story that mashes together two similar efforts without much difficulty in spotting where the influences came from which simply highlights the overall familiar ground it traipses through. It's not in the slightest original and doesn't do much to dissuade that viewpoint by taking on those common scenes without really making any big difference in them. As well, the film does take quite a while to get through here as there's not a whole lot of interesting action taking place early on with them moving into the house being just quite excruciating to follow and makes for a wholly difficult time with this not really getting the action going while it shows them settling into the house. It's a long series of boring scenes featuring them arguing with each other or goofing around before launching into the attacks well over half-way into it and that doesn't make for an intriguing effort at all. Otherwise, this one was quite enjoyable if you overlook those flaws.

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The Black Belly of the Tarantula-After a savage series of murders, a detective finds the clients of an upscale health spa are falling victim to a killer’s strike with the poison of a deadly wasp paralyzing them in order to kill and must stop the rampage from continuing. On the whole, this is one of the more impressive and enjoyable giallos in the genre. One of it’s better features is the fact that this one manages to fully indulge in it’s many lurid components quite well with many fascinating moments throughout here, which is where this one really holds up over time. The central murder angle here is accomplished quite well with the rather deft round of deaths centered on the central spa as the many frequent visitors and staff are roundly butchered in the centerpiece method of the paralyzing venom and the subsequent butchery all the while aware and obvious of the incidents proceeding around them which in turn leads to classic motifs including the obvious red herring, a series of blackmail plots against the many frequent visitors and the world-weary case getting to a hard-nosed detective all making up some of the common ground within this. That suitably aids the action within this one as there’s a lot of fun stalking about and chasing to be had, mostly a thrilling roof-top chase through the various equipment stored around there and a secondary car chase that makes for some rather fun times throughout here. As well, it knows how to work the suspense in here as well with the attack in a department store that gets continually halted by the mannequins strewn around the store as well as the several house-stalking scenes where the oblivious victims are all cut up and killed in lengthy, fun sequences. Added together with a generous helping of nudity delivered by those well-deserved to provide it and there’s enough here to make this one of the most essential giallos along with a few minor flaws. The fact that the mid-section of the film, right when the case should be getting it’s most active focus, is dropped for a series of lengthy discussions between the detective and his wife about this furniture arrangement makes this slow to a crawl at a certain point, and this only highlights the lack of action at that particular segment of the film as hardly anything really happens. Also, the usual giallo trapping of not making the plot all that sensible and logical for the resolution again rears its ugly head, none of the clues provided meshing with the real killer and their motivation at that point, but it’s dropped in favor of the shock revelation instead. Still, these don’t upset the good points in here.

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Hazard Jack-Deciding to engage in a game of paintball, a group of friends wrongly choose the location held by a PTSD-plagued war vet who sees them as a chance to continue his reign of terror and forcing them to stop him in order to get out alive. Overall, this was quite a surprising and enjoyable slasher effort that really gets a lot right. One of it's better elements throughout this is the prime location set-up here to take advantage of the intended target here of the paintball game in the abandoned hospital where he's secretly living. The winding corridors, endless darkened rooms split off from the main entrances, plenty of power-tools left lying around to make for handy weaponry and the type of dirty, grimy atmosphere gained from years of neglect and disuse that supplies this perfectly well with a great location and really makes the most of it. That also occurs with the rather frantic and enjoyable stalking scenes that are quite enjoyable if just a tad cliched of the use of running victims being unable to escape from the shambling killer but there's more in quantity that certainly make for an overall more enjoyable offering. Along with the locations and stalking here, the plentiful gore and bountiful nudity also supply this with a lot to like and really seem to help overlook the fact that the running time is so short yet never once overstays it's welcome or descends into boredom by constantly providing all of those features together at given intervals to continually creep further along and generally come across as quite positive. That said, there's still a few minor areas here that do hold this one down, mostly the two aforementioned tactics in its short running time and the cliched stalking scenes but also from the fact that it manages to once again feature such a wide-ranging group of people that they're hardly the sort of friends that would hang out with each other in real-life and it becomes upsetting to think they would be. It really casts a strong cloud over the film, as well as the fact of this one really doesn't do much interesting with its' killer beyond the silent, hulking brute. The ties to the disorder is fine and actually well-handled, but it tends to go off on several needless tangents throughout here which are just plain confusing and don't really offer much to the film beyond their confusing nature. These do hold it back somewhat, though what's on display is often enough to hold it off and become quite enjoyable.

The Day-Lame-ass post-apocalyptic action/drama disguised as horror film about cannibals but there's just nothing here. So not a horror film in almost every way, not worth anything else here.

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Lovely Molly-After moving into her childhood home, a newlyweds' psychological trauma from the past returns to haunt her and her husband as they come to realize they are not alone in the house and must try to save her sanity. This was an overall mess of a horror film that barely has anything worthwhile going for it. The biggest issue here is that nothing at all happens here which is what makes this one play out so slowly and agonizing that it really becomes a struggle to get through the first twenty minutes of this, much less the rest of the effort. Since this one throws in storylines about her past drug use and the increasing amount of time she's unable to sleep through the night that we get here, it makes for quite a logical turn that those would be given as the result of ghostly encounters with the past coming back to haunt her, but instead there's hardly anything about her encounters with the ghosts and it comes off more like her just going mad for no reason so that her completely lunatic behavior is the result of her coming unhinged for no reason. That's a far less interesting recourse here and when coupled with such needless and overlong sequences as her having trouble at her job and the completely filler sequences of hanging out with the sister complaining about her husband who's never home anyway so that there's a slew of endless talking scenes that just eat up time and come off as completely uninteresting so that there's hardly any kind of ghost encounters here that come off as terrifying which is the film's biggest downfall. This is way too talky and drawn-out for it's own good, but when combined with the fact that there's just not a lot of good encounters with the supernatural threat within this and it really comes off all the worse off with almost all the areas here needed for a successful effort working against it. That's not to say it's a total loss, as despite the fact that there's no good encounters that doesn't mean there's none at all here so that a few of these scenes are somewhat decent as a sequence where she nearly-sleepwalks through the house and tears up the basement to reveal an animal carcass buried in its' ceiling which makes for an interesting series of events against the low-key nature of the rest of this as well as a dark and twisted torture sequence that comes off a little better although it does hold back on the graphic denouement it was going for. Still, this one isn't all that impressive overall.

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Slaughter High-After attending their high-school reunion, a group of friends learn the entire evening was planned as a ruse by a former classmate to seek revenge on them for a prank gone wrong and must find a way to stop the deadly rampage. This here turned out to be quite the enjoyable and fun cheesy slasher effort. One of the best aspects of this one is the fact that there's just such an endearing and watchable charm to this one that transcends the obvious low-budget nature of the proceedings, from the rather exceptional use of adults playing off as teenagers, the continued desire to prank one of their own despite the situation clearly working against them as they continue to do so for no reason and the rather impressive amount of time here with the gang who are clearly trying to have fun and joke around with each other when they should be considering a way out of their environment which makes this a lot more light-hearted and goofy than it really portrays itself to be. This is pretty well endowed through the sound-effects and constant jokes flown throughout the film as well, making this quite too much like a spoof in the first half which is fun at times and overblown the next as the constant tone-shifts make for some uneven work in here. Still, there's still plenty of worthwhile elements throughout this with their being a lot of rather impressive horror sequences including the initial motivation for the rampage being a disastrous experiment gone wrong complete with the exploding school equipment and scarring acid that provides the motivations for one of the greatest ever masks in the genre with the old-man/jester-hat combo that works deliciously well in evoking the type of atmosphere warranted for the film and help highlight the finale wonderfully as the madly-ringing jester bells and held-aloft javelin through the school's hallways rival the best chase scenes in any classic slasher. Of course, the gore is also highly impressive here with the multitude of kills requiring a large amount of ingenuity and thrills which are quite memorable and downright graphic which has a lot of impressive moments about it. Still, there's a few problems here from the fact that there's the abrupt tone shifts throughout the first half as the cheese and silliness aren't exactly all that appealing for all involved which tends to distort their effectiveness. Likewise, this one really tends to highlight the inherent stupidity of the group more than any logical series of friends would ever be by their inability to recognize the set-up here is just for them, their willingness to sleep and screw around with each other after being provided plenty of opportunities to realize a killer's after them and the constant notion of staying in trouble by ignoring or even repeating mistakes made in the past by their friends continues to make them seem way too stupid for real-life. It's not a bad mark on the film, but it is noticeable and knocks it down slightly.

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To the Devil a Daughter-After running away from a Satanic cult, a man tries to have a cult expert keep him and his daughter away from the cult's mastermind who intends to sacrifice her to Satan and bring about the end of the world. This was an overall decent if not all that spectacular effort. One of the film's few bright spots is the rather impressive atmosphere here surrounding the use of the cult and their powers as this one really tends to let-loose with this more often than expected. Scenes like the snake transforming from the telephone cord or the hallucinations of the previous rituals make for quite a fun time here as not only are these scenes quite fun but the shock jump from the former and the sleaze and depravity found in the latter compliment each other nicely. The first flashback hallucination scene, which is the big shock here, also manages to get really creepy with its use of Satanic imagery and ceremonial artifacts to really make for a demented sequence before it really gets going with the implied impregnation at the finale which is quite surprising throughout here with this one really going full-on to match its contemporaries in the genre who were far more at ease with such demented showings. Likewise, the finale which is the epic battle between the two with the Satanic powers coming to full bore makes this one quite exciting with the full powers of each side getting a chance to show itself and really makes for quite a fun time. Still, there's not a lot else here that really works since this one tends to spend a large portion of time as a thriller rather than an out-and-out horror film. Not much of anything really happens here, as there's more talk about what happened to cause his exit from the priesthood and how he turned over to the Satanic arts than anything else, a lot of scenes of the father wandering around with a worried expression on his face and the tormented girl not doing much of anything else but complaining that this one tends to move about so agonizingly slowly it takes way too long to get going and doesn't really feature a lot of interesting marks when it does happen which ends up with the biggest flaw against this one. Likewise, for as much fun as it is to witness the final battle in here, this one tends to utilize it's powers so quickly it's over quite suddenly without much happening to really offer a lot of coherent basis for what happened. It's too sudden for all the drawn-out fun it could've had and really tends to lower this one a lot along with the really dreary and dull pacing throughout here.

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Added an uncut copy of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon to the collection.

[Fenril]

- Gloria. The sky-rocket rise and hard fall of singer / entertainer Gloria Trevi, with a special emphasis on the scandal that got her on the run from the Interpol for a couple years --her manager's habit of collecting prepubescent girls as his "harem", with her tacit help...

Biopics are hard to discuss when the person they are about is still alive (and in this particular case, still working!); the interest here is twofold: first, the recreation of the late 80's / early 90's Mexico, with an actually very interesting examination as to just what was it about her act that made her so popular here and in most of Latinoamerica: her "raw sexuality / worker class" image, in sharp contrast to her immediate predecessors (some of whom have blink-and-you-miss-it cameos in this production) and their "squeaky clean / girl or boy next door" images. Of course, there's the use of her most iconic songs from the era to chronicle her turbulent life (the real life Trevi had gone on record that her songs were indeed autobiographical and almost all about the manager, Sergio Andrade).
Then there is the examination of the real-life crime and in this aspect this movie doesn't quite work, alternating between exploitative (surprisingly, not so much on the continuous abuse of underaged girls, which is understated... but there is one notorious scene revealing just what Andrade did to the women's babies if they got pregnant and gave birth. Needlessly graphic, basically) and somewhat indulgent (the movie's decision to portray Gloria herself as basically a naive girl conned by Andrade has drawn a lot of criticism... to say nothing of the way their relationship is actually romanticized a couple times).

What you're left with is an actually pretty interesting movie that does have some interesting comments re: late twentieth century Mexico, but that is much more interesting as a biography than as an examination of the notorious case it's drawn from.

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Red 2-After being implicated in a missing nuclear weapon charge, a team of retired CIA agents reassembles to prevent the weapons sale on the black market and must stop a slew of various international agents also searching for the missing weapon. Frankly this one turned out to be quite a bit lower than the original which was a lot of fun and really should've had a lot going for it. The fact that this one simply feels like a retread of the original simply to get the cast back together one more time and have them basically humiliate everyone else around them doesn't really strike as all that impressive or enjoyable to watch as we've seen this all before and doesn't strike as being all that original, tending to make the action scenes a lot more low-key and not as thrilling as they should be. There's a lot of scenes, from the sneak-attack on the Kremlin to the later scenes of them together in the hotel awaiting orders and finally the double-cross at the embassy where it all seems like it should've been a lot more frantic and energetic yet they come off as quite dull and relaxed while the first one decides to abandon all that for a large dose of comedy instead which is where it really falters padding out the time unnecessarily. This one really could've been trimmed a tad and still been quite enjoyable with the quantity of action present rather than the quality since that's where this one really becomes quite fun. From the shootout in the library and the resulting chase following the escape, a blazing gun-battle in an apartment complex and the rather frenetic finale all managing to work fine as solid action scenes, this one does become quite a bit more entertaining with these sequences rather than the overall duration here as they're not all that long anyway, and every now and then a joke here works to it's advantage. Still, this one isn't all that bad but it just suffers from comparison against the first.

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A Good Day to Die Hard-Forced into taking a vacation in Moscow, Officer McClane and his son get involved in the plot by a former Soviet whistle-blower looking to take down a former associate who's now in the Russian bureaucracy. Frankly this is one of the most impressive and enjoyable entries in the franchise as there's a slew of exciting, thrilling parts to this one. As is usual for the series, this one features such a high amount of quality action scenes that it's virtually impossible not to find exciting in here, from the kidnapping rescue at the courthouse to the ambush on the safe-house which features a blazing shootout alongside some nice stunts in escaping as well as the incredibly fun encounter in the restaurant that again manages to mix stunts with action and shootouts into a rousing, high-energy affair that works magnificently here. Of course, this is without taking into account the film's two biggest and best action scenes, a car chase through downtown Moscow following the initial courthouse escape that ranks up with some of the best overall action scenes in the franchise by virtue of the absolutely hilarious mid-sequence break of him taking a phone call in the middle of driving an armored car over the congested traffic gathered in addition to all the usual dodging and weaving that goes into one of these and the finale which is the usually over-the-top explosion-happy, bullet-riddled extravaganza that finishes these types of films with all the villains getting blown up or shot in fantastic stunt scenes that resorts a little too heavily on CGI but still comes off rather well. This all makes for a breakneck pace and rather impressive sense of style here with this never really getting to boring with all the action and appropriate levels of humor throughout here as long as you don't try to think about the plot that much. It's pretty clever but does come off as overblown in terms of how to get there, taking a long time to get all it's tangents out in the open and really spell out it's true intention. Still, that's about the only thing really wrong with this one.

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The Darkest Hour-Arriving in Moscow for business, a group of Americans find the city is one of many around the world targeted by a race of vicious aliens and must try to find a way to escape the city before they're killed. This was a rather decent and somewhat entertaining alien invasion effort that actually manages to get some decent elements one. One of the better ones is the fact that this one really gets some pretty enjoyable scenes of carnage throughout here with this one's main ploy showing the alien attack's devastation on the city which requires some rather intriguing scenes here from the walk-through devastated Moscow the day after leaving quite a telling mark. Likewise, the action it brings in the film is top-notch with some exciting and thrilling sequences including the first encounter inside the crowded nightclub, a later chase through the deserted streets where it chases them through a town-square and through several different stores trying to catch them and a later scene inside an apartment makes for a series of fun and exciting scenes, as well as the finale throughout here. There's a few problems here, as the fact that the rationale for the alien invasion is given so late that it's nearly an afterthought to try to have something along those lines in the film when this was a rare time when it really wasn't needed at all so that it really manages to get some mileage out of not knowing since it's more about survival than examination so there's a pretty big and unneeded explanation scene thrown in at the very end that seems quite out-of-place. Likewise, the CGI for the aliens looks pretty hit-or-miss: it's fine in their gaseous state since it's really supposed to be hard-to-see which allows to come off really well along with the resulting explosion into ashes upon their deaths yet when we get a good look at them the obvious orangey fireball and robotic skeleton is quite distractingly fake which sorta ruins the scene. Beyond these issues, this one wasn't that bad.

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Riddick-Left for dead on a Sun-scorched, barren wasteland, Riddick tricks a group of mercenaries after him to land and force them into helping him battle the creatures roaming the surface in order to be able to leave the area alive. Overall this one was quite enjoyable if somewhat problematic. The biggest thing going for this one is the fact that there's quite a bit of frenetic action throughout this that really manages to make this one quite interesting, starting from the opening trials against the creatures there from the scorpion-tailed beings to the wild dogs and all the other creatures found on the surface which really sets this one up nicely. The dealings with the mercenary's are just as much fun with the cat-and-mouse hunting games coming along nicely although they do slow the action down somewhat since he never really gets to be utilized all that well with him basically just being as stealthy as he can without trying to draw suspicion onto himself so there's not as much of that once they come into the mix. Still, the final battle of the group trying to get off the rock alive and are forced into a series of gun-battles against the creatures makes for quite an enjoyable time with this one really getting the fun out and letting loose with a rather intriguing abandon that makes for a fun time here. The fact that the pace slows down for the plot does seem to cause this one some problems, though there's a few others here that do stick out including the nature of the films' action. It all seems geared to let him win out every time out so there's absolutely no suspense at all generated from any of the encounters because he's going to survive, and even at the finale when it would've been quite appropriate to kill him off there's a ridiculously shoehorned rescue scene that really doesn't belong here and just makes this all the more egregious in letting him win. The CGI doesn't do it much favors either in just sticking out like a really terrible sore thumb as well with just about all the creatures here being quite obvious about their creation due to the blurry lines and constant size-changes throughout their scenes which just underscore how obvious it all is. Otherwise, there's not a whole lot really wrong here.