Just Watched Movies (2015)

[slayrrr666]

Deathdream-After returning home from the war, a young man's sudden change of behavior alarms his parents who slowly realize the monster he's becoming and try to stop his insatiable blood-lust causing him to run wild throughout town. This one was quite a disappointing effort as there's really not a whole lot right here. What this one really does well is the rather innovative use of dealing with the subject matter at hand, detailing the condition afflicted here without really over-exposing it all that much. By going with the symptoms here for PTSD as a lynch-pin for the change in behavior here, this manages a pretty remarkable feat of giving the film a realistic-based backstory motivation for the horrific behavior but also a thoroughly unique and creative one that doesn't seem all that far-fetched here to possibly happen. Unfortunately, the only other working part here is the film's two horror scenes, where he traps and stalks a doctor in his office after realizing the truth, and the finale where a thrilling encounter at a drive-in leads to a frantic car-chase through the streets of town with a flaming car and a nice crash-stunt that makes this one all the more enjoyable as it's really the main part of this that works. Despite the originality of going with the backstory explanation for the film, the biggest problem is that nothing of interest is done with it. The film tries to make it seem like being cold, distant and completely devoid of interest in interacting with family or friends is cause for being the creepiest tactics imaginable, and yet all they do is drag the film out with scene-after-scene of the same behavioral tendencies and nothing is done about it, either his parents or anyone around him. Nothing about these are scary, and when combined with the majority of time spent here detailing the family life where the dad becomes convinced something's wrong and the mother is in absolute denial about everything doesn't help matters by focusing on drama rather than horror because what's shown isn't that scary which makes her behavior seem overblown and needless while his just drags the film along lifelessly. This is furthered by the fact that the supposed mystery about the mysterious soldier being responsible for the early off-screen death here is so clumsily done that it's impossible to come to any other conclusion here other than he did it as the evidence is so clear-cut and delivered in such a clumsy manner that the police look like incompetent fools for not seeing it, making these go on for what seems like forever. The last big problem is that the film really only deals with horror elements in two scenes which are completely unscary that their effectiveness is really questionable, especially the finale with the laughable make-up effects used here. These here are what really hurt this one overall.

[Fenril]

- The others. (2001, Dir. Alejandro Amenábar). In 1945, landowner Grace lives virtually trapped in her Jersey mansion with her two photosensitive children, forever waiting for news of the husband, who left to fight in the war. One day, three former servants of the house wander in seeking employment. Grace takes them in; however, bit by bit it becomes clear that there is something else inside the house, some presence that keeps removing the curtains and announcing itself in increasing overt manners. Could it have something to do with Victor, the boy daughter Anne swears has moved into the house with them? Or perhaps it has something to do with a day everybody in the house is forbidden to discuss, a day when all the previous servants left and something sorrowful happened? Or perhaps with those graves that gardener Mr. Tuttle keeps trying to hide...

Re-watched this, in my opinion one of the two best entries in the late 90's/ early 00's wave of ghost movies (the other one being "El espinazo del diablo, AKA The devil's backbone"), and I have to say it holds up extremely well. Director Amenábar constructs a story that both pays homage to the traditional ghost tale and updates it for modern sensibilities, bringing in elements such as mourning portraits, religious questioning and complex characters to help craft an atmosphere of gloom and fear. Fine performances all around and of course an ending that is memorable not so much for being a plot twist (really, that particular twist has been used a few times before and will likely stay around for a while) but for what it ultimately means about the characters we have come to know so well. That in the end, it's not illness or fear that keeps them trapped; it's quite likely themselves...

[slayrrr666]

Frogs-Joining their family for a holiday celebration, a photographer gets caught up in their struggle to survive when the local wildlife population suddenly turns on them with deadly intent and must help them get away alive. On the whole this was certainly a watchable if still really unremarkable effort. One of the few areas this one gets right is the fact of being able to effectively make the encroaching wildlife a force to be reckoned with, gathering a sizable number of beasts of all different backgrounds, varieties and deadliness to make a worthwhile run at the human group assembled. With all manner of frogs, lizards, snakes and other reptiles as well as birds and fish all involved here, the gathered army makes for quite an impressive lot and the fact that there's a constant presence here with the near-continuous croaking, screeching and calling out to each other here makes for a truly chilling time here that really gets it's worth the more it's utilized throughout here. Likewise, that alone makes the final half-hour here all the more enjoyable as it's basically a series of chases throughout the compound trying to get the remaining visitors to safety as the previous attempts fail spectacularly in a couple rather enjoyable encounters with an alligator in the swamps, a vicious spider assault out in the forest and the endless frog and snake attacks that lead throughout the finale as there's no shortage of these fun scenes throughout here. However, these are all that really work here as the film doesn't really offer much beyond that. The biggest mitigating factor is the fact that despite the best efforts to the contrary, the film is completely obvious about the hokey nature of having completely non-threatening animals turn vicious and tries several tactics to convince us otherwise that really come up short. The fact that the creatures' continuous presence is seen throughout the film always hanging out on the fringes of the property, that they never once pose any kind of active threat to the people nearby unless they're on their own is a big flaw, as they seem content to perfectly watch them go about their routine and never try any kind of attack instead of peacefully sitting around, much as the creatures ordinarily would in such an occasion. The close-ups of them constantly croaking or hopping along are nowhere near threatening as it would be just hearing the noises, and the fact that they literally have to drag the creatures on top of them during the attacks, are forced to wrestle with obviously tame and non-threatening beasts in their scenes or confuse non-poisonous species for deadly creatures makes the large majority of the attacks here quite hilarious rather than chilling. As such, with a long introduction that shows the patriarch's stubbornness as a storyline ploy rather than anything else to keep them in danger stretches the flimsy plot out far longer than it really should and makes for a really tough time getting into this one, which is another big stumbling block to overcome here. Otherwise, this one wasn't all that bad.

[slayrrr666]

April Fool's Day-Heading to a private island for spring break, a group of friends’ planned weekend of fun and pranks is halted by a series of strange deaths among them and must find the killer before it’s too late. This was quite the disappointing and overall overrated effort. What really turns this one of is the overall jokey nature of the film which really sticks out here by this one just constantly going for the jokes, insults and pranks here. Even the beginning with the knife set-up at the docks, it becomes obvious that nothing here should be taken seriously which is clearly the case once this one gets going. The shots of the group goofing off at dinner as everyone pulls a prank on somebody else, crack jokes and insults towards everyone furthers this and when everyone here goes off to bed having all sorts of cheesy, silly pranks pulled on everyone with exploding cigars, rigged doorknobs, lights that won’t turn off and malfunctioning furniture all give this one such a comedic tone in here that it pushes the horror elements so far out of the time here that there’s almost nothing in the first half that makes this read as a horror film. As very few of these incidents are even funny to begin with, it makes this even harder to feel for what’s happening as the comedy that pushes the horror out of the film is really not as good as it thinks it is. On tops of everything else here, the twist in the finale renders almost the entire film irrelevant by being so obviously set-up to put that in motion to get there that it feels so much like a cheat it just furthers the lower marks for this one. There’s a few good parts here scattered throughout these flaws, starting with the burgeoning mystery that unravels throughout the later half as the discovery of the new-clippings and different hidden sayings about the house are all perfect clues as to what’s happening, and along with the different behavior tricks utilized here sell this mystery as much as the discovery of the bodies, which are quite decent at times. That also brings up the only other god part about this one in the finale chase through the house which has a lot of great points here as they go throughout the house. From the basement encounter which is pretty chilling following up the portrait gag from earlier and the kitchen break-in has some tense moments, there’s a lot to like about the stalking overall here which ends this one nicely. Generally, that’s all that really works with this one.

[slayrrr666]

The haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia-After moving into a historic Georgia home, a family's increasing concerns for their daughter's continued claims of an imaginary friend prove true when the location's brutal history comes back to life to haunt them. This turned out to be quite the enjoyable and exciting effort that has a lot going for it. Among the better qualities here is that at it's heart there's a rather impressive and enjoyable mystery that slowly gets unraveled here which makes for quite the enjoyable time here. The imaginary friend concept is taken to a great extreme here as there's no way for sure to know which side it's on as there's never a clear-cut answer whether it means good or harm, as despite the warnings of danger and the revealing secret about the hidden money there's still the numerous times it leads her into something dangerous where she experiences the terror of meeting up with the ghosts first-hand that are all quite shocking encounters themselves but simply further the true nature of his means. Those ghostly encounters, all hidden away in the woods around their home and centered around the main tree in the backyard are all quite intense and make for some truly chilling moments as the supposed peaceful nature of their behavior is contradicted by their startling appearance, and as there's more and more of them spread throughout it really deepens the mystery quite nicely by generating more and more backstory to tell what originally happened. That leads into the series of impressive ghost attacks throughout here with the trailer park sequence showing the one ghost taking out the taxidermy skills on the sister or the later bathtub attack that's truly frightening for it's realistic scenario warped around a ghostly assault here. As well, the ghost ambushes out in the woods lead to even more thrilling encounters where she gets trapped in the underground tunnels and is tormented from the shadows while awaiting help which is truly chilling and frightening, as well as a later scene where the ghost continually approaches her sitting in the truck as the illumination from the truck-lights shows it getting closer but remaining unnoticed during that time before launching into a harrowing attack and getting the biggest factor here in the confrontation within the underground bunker that allows the utterly-chilling main skeleton-ghost plenty of stalking time and the dimly-lit area to work to it's best advantage. There's not a whole lot here that doesn't work, as it's mainly centered around the central family here. Not only is the concept of the mother on prescription pills causing her to doubt her story's completely uninteresting, but even after all that's gone on those encounters should still be enough to warrant moving out of the house, a concept brought up and dropped immediately afterward. Likewise, the fact that this one keeps going back-and-forth about the history of the main ghosts' behavior as being either good or bad gets a little confusing with all the switches as it's hard to keep track of whether we're rooting for him or not by switching it up all the time, never focusing it on one specific viewpoint until it's past the point of caring. Otherwise, this one was quite a bit of fun.

[slayrrr666]

Milo-Years after a terrible tragedy, a woman returning to teach at her home-town finds the little boy her and her friends accidentally killed is still alive and hunting them one-by-one, forcing her to deal with the deranged killer again. Overall this one was quite a disappointment and had very little going for it. One of the biggest elements working against this one is the complete and utter confusion generated over practically everything that happens here. The initial killing spree is a big one here, as the off-screen death is supposedly done to ensure the last friend makes it yet not only would he not know she would be coming but is also done so that she would stay when he had no knowledge of her going there to begin with, and all the different manners of going after the friends themselves just make no sense once they're around as well. His back-story is even worse, given no basis for being credible in a realistic manner other than to have a killer in the film, his resurrection is never explained at all and his purpose for doing this is never given despite the implication of hunting them down for killing him yet they themselves were never to blame for that incident anyway which is completely confusing and really seems to further damage the story here. The ideas of trying to be suspenseful early on here are probably even worse as it seems to place a serious credence on the clicking-cards-in-bicycle-spokes as the main source of fear within here yet that never brings up any kind of credible tension as the overblown hysteria and panic over the obviously child-friendly trick is simply laughable, the yellow rain-slicker is little better and the constantly feeble whispering grows tiresome and lame the more times it goes for the only-she-hears-them route despite being around others capable of hearing the neebish whimpers. Then it comes to the body-count, so weak and uninspired that there's hardly any room to kill anyone off in here as there's way too much time dealing with her torment over returning that the film doesn't boast so much as any on-screen kills with a potential resource at hand with the group of childhood-friends this one sets up only to waste one death off-screen and several others completely scattershot in feeble editing and jarring camera-work when they are on-screen. Combined with a total joke of a killer that looks to be quite easily over-powered himself considering his stature and constant whining, this one seems to fail at a lot of it's horror tendencies and comes off looking that much weaker against the few small, scattered remnants of enjoyment left in here. The final confrontation in the house is suitably enjoyable with the large layout and numerous rooms being utilized to decent effect as there's a large setting used for some decent chasing and stalking that includes sending them up into the attic and down into the basement where the bridal suite is utilized to great effect here in generating some nice action and a few chilling moments waiting for the knocked-out killer to come back. As well, the mystery over who's been tormenting her as she continues on with her life in town is handled nicely with a few decent moments, but overall the flaws here are just too much.

[slayrrr666]

Aftermath-Survivors of a nuclear strike hide out in a remote farmhouse to let the radioactive fall-out vanish only for a greater threat to emerge. I turned this off after about an hour of nothing happening as this is a survival drama about the various people living in the house during the incident rather than a zombie film which is what was promised. If it turned out to be one, then I'll give it another shot but this wasn't very promising or enjoyable.

[slayrrr666]

TCM's Christopher Lee Memorial Marathon, as though I missed out on The Mummy and The Curse of Frankenstein still managed to get Horror of Dracula, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave and Horror Express.

[slayrrr666]

22 Jump Street-Now taking an assignment at a local college, the mission to uncover the party drug spreading throughout campus forces the two cops to make serious decisions about their partnership while trying to maintain the mission. Overall this one was a whole lot better than the first one and provides this with a lot of great parts. The comedy first-and-foremost here is really hilarious with plenty of wicked one-liners, what has to be improved interactions between the two of them throughout here and a slew of slapstick sequences that completely belie their training and instincts but yet make for several utterly hilarious moments that are truly gut-busting. A couple of the action scenes here aren't that bad and manage to come off as quite good with the opening shootout, a rather thrilling car chase on the campus grounds and the finale brawling throughout the streets that all come off as quite nice which covers the fact that the story is really secondary here. So much time is spent on their relationship is merely done to make-up for the fact that the film is a retread of the first film only now set at college, which isn't all that big of a deal and manages to really stumble over itself with these endless, irritating scenes that merely prove how utterly annoying and aggravating he is in this one. There's so little investigation because it's not that big of a mystery, and to substitute it with these other scenes is just plain lousy in it and of itself. Still, this one wasn't as bad as expected.

[slayrrr666]

Need for Speed-Framed for the murder of a friend, a determined street racer sets out on a cross-country race against time to enter the illegal street set up by the guilty party in order to exact his revenge. This was quite surprisingly highly enjoyable as the initial set-up here about this one being more of a racing film than a chasing one based on the first half before the actual fatal blow was just what I was expecting the rest to be like as these scenes weren't all that exciting or interesting and take up way too much time. It should've gotten to the fatal accident much sooner to save on the wasted time in between the film's best parts here in the extended chases that actually make up the final half and there's a lot to like with that. From the shoot-out at the convenience store to the spectacular street chase to loose the pursuing police cars while being covered by the helicopter and then the big desert chase with the bounty hunters which is full of high-energy stunts and some rather impressive ideas that make the scene all the more enjoyable. Likewise, the final race is all sorts of fun with the whole thing being undertaken while trying to get past the various police tactics designed to stop the race, which not only allows for the racing dynamic but also the big action pieces of doing that amid the police-work at the same time, and the effect is wholly enjoyable throughout. Though it did get a little too overlong at first with that nonsense setting this one up, there's a lot to like elsewhere that makes this one surprisingly enjoyable.

[slayrrr666]

Ride Along-Determined to show him up, a veteran detective takes his sister's fiancee on a ride along to scare him away from her only to have them stumble upon an arms deal going down and must rely on him to get the job done. Didn't think this one would turn out this enjoyable but there's some decent stuff here when this is concentrated more on the action rather than the comedy as that's not entirely all too enjoyable. It mostly just plays off in the same one-note joke about his small size and inexperience in the streets as a result of his video game skills hampering him at every turn which starts off funny with the biker gang and the kid on the playground but soon turns into the same thing over and over again as they continue on. It's really tiring after a while especially after the turn into a more conventional action movie with the car chase at the beginning and the big warehouse shoot-out at the end which is really nice and manages to make for quite a fun time had this been played a little more straight instead of trying to showcase his utterly grating personality. Granted, it got funny at times but there's not as much as it should've been considering the situation and even moreso since the action movie part of this would've made for a solid time throughout here but it's still good enough to be enjoyable.

John Wick-After years of retirement, a veteran assassin is brought back into action to take down his former Russian mobster employers who left him for dead and exact's vengeance on the crew with his legendary underground skills. This one was quite a bit of fun and actually managed to get a lot of fun throughout here. Considering the only real downside here is the fact that the repeated tactic of simply firing one shot at the guy's head results in atrocious CGI blood-splatter that's distractingly awful there's a lot more here that's actually good. The fact that he tends to spend the entire film simply going with simple, easy kills is refreshing for it falls inline with the backstory given here and this one not only utilizes it effectively but enhances the film by allowing a cold, calculated approach that is highly impressive considering the effort utilized here. The relentless chase angle gives up plenty of fascinating, frenetic shootouts that are truly enjoyable from the multitude of gunfights at his house, the frenzy of action at the club, down in the basement of their hideout and the final assault on the safe-house are all enjoyable action scenes that come off really nicely, as well as the solid car chase at the marina for the finale that plays off nicely. While the fact that the organization has their own rules in place being a solid back-story in it's own right, there's a lot to like here and not much that wasn't impressive.

In addition, saw Godzilla vs. Monster Zero and Godzilla, King of the Monsters on TCM.

[slayrrr666]

Let's Be Cops-After finding more respect once they put on a policeman's uniform, two losers find themselves in trouble with a notorious gangster they've angered with their tactics and must rely on the real police to save the day for them. Frankly this one wasn't really all that great as the majority of the time here is basically spent on recycling the same joke over and over again. The idea of them finally getting respect and attention is certainly something that this one could've ran with, but instead the fact that there's far too many scenes of them simply goofing off and really testing their authority to the point that most sane people on the street would report their actions seems to be the biggest stumbling block to this one. Not only is none of it really funny, the over-the-top behavior they accomplish while partaking in these events would raise concerns among the citizens witnessing everything and certainly call it into question when they see the kind of antics they engage in. That certainly makes them fooling the actual police once they come into contact with them even more outrageous as them not knowing what's going on seems more like a plot-point to keep the story going rather than anything to do with how well they're fooling everybody else and tends to lower this even more. The fact that there's some actually nice amount of work done here showing his interest in solving the case with actual police-work and investigations seems to be quite enjoyable, and there's some decent action along the way here with the thrilling gunfight in the underground tunnels at the end, but overall this one wasn't really all that great.

[slayrrr666]

Brick Mansions-Asked to retrieve a stolen bomb, a cop is asked to team with a heroic prisoner to infiltrate a closed-off section of Detroit teaming with the armed men of the ruthless leader holding the city hostage with the deadly device and stop it. This one was a highly enjoyable and entertaining effort as long as there's not a lot of thought process put into the story for this one since this is basically only brought down by that one lone factor. The story to this makes little to no sense, a facet brought up by the characters in the movie itself who bring it up to each other about how easy their whole scenario was and that it suddenly dawns on them at that point how this is going down, all of this at the very end of the film. This, as well as the egregious stunt-doubled utilized to try to convince us Paul Walker is a capable martial artist which is just highly laughable as a concept but becomes obvious during the action scenes where everything is cut away from his face during the martial arts sequences and then back to his face to show him running away or turning to take on a new opponent are both enough to knock this back slightly from the fact that, outside of those areas this one has a lot to like about it. The action scenes, again when focusing on those that are competent in their actions, are a lot of fun with some spectacular stunt-work, tons of frenetic fights and the usual assortment of shootouts and chases to make for a great time here as the non-stop pace makes for quite a thrilling time keeping this one moving along enough to make for a great time when packed with all the action. While the bad stunt-doubling is still a minor point against, had this one been given more to work with it really could've been something.

[slayrrr666]

The Interview-Hearing of his interest in their show, a TV interview-show travels to North Korea to interview the brutal dictator while attempting to carry out the assignment given by the CIA to eliminate him for them. So this was quite a challenging time since there's some good and bad stuff here. The comedy here is pretty straight-forward and one-note throughout here which isn't all that bad except it wears thin about ten times too many here when it goes on for yet another rant about their duty to their country versus his growing interest in the leader's ways. Not only that, but the main focus on how ludicrous the assignment was makes for a large part of the jokes here that these two guys would be called upon as they are here makes this one seem even more off in terms of it's comedy. Still, when this one works it's pretty enjoyable and the titular situation here turns this into quite a rousing action effort with their attempt to flee the country turning into a rather fun escape chase to take them out, and as the comedy is never really bad to the point of shutting it off there's a few decent gags and jokes here that come off rather nicely and keep this one going along. It's a lot more watchable than expected which does go against the reputation this one has.

[Fenril]

- Jurassic World. (US, 2015; Dir. Colin Tevorrow). Twenty-two years after the collapse of the original "Jurassic Park" (and presumably erasing the other two sequels from existence), a new theme park has been built on Isla Nublar: Jurassic World, a state-of-the-art theme park with real live dinosaurs and the latest in entertainment technology. So much has technology advanced, indeed, that it is now possible to create custom-made dinosaurs, such as the latest Indominous, a literal dino pastiche and the upcoming attraction. If only the people in charge of security (both park and private), planning, and emergency had been at least marginally competent at their jobs...

Sequel / reboot of the "Jurassic Park" franchise is, curiously enough, pretty much what it's setting is: A made to the order spectacle. And yes, the movie itself is hard to take seriously for reasons that have nothing to do with science fiction or with the dinosaurs themselves (a common joke is that character Claire's high heels must be one of the most powerful materials ever created in fiction: She's able to outrun a Tyrannosaur while wearing them!), the characters are sketchy at best and there are several involuntarily hilarious moments (my personal favorite has to be the climatic battle wherein two different dinosaurs come this close to exchanging high fives and give the human characters a thumps-up...). But then the real intention of this movie is, again, the Spectacle. And in that sense... well, it's a good enough popcorn movie that is still rife with clichés, but that nevertheless proves entertaining.