Hot Tub Time Machine A silly 80's ride I was expecting, a little bit of silly 80's ride I got. Love some of the comedy on here. Hilarious. My favorite parts were in the beginning. The rest was so and so. I don't think it's the best comedy of the year, but for a few laughs, this was alright for that. Love the cameos, especially freaking Crispin Glover. My favorite part was the Lou in the garage scene in the beginning. That's the only part that really cracked me up.
Today is the last day of June. Which means we are exactly halfway through this year. So, with that in mind, I would like to share my top 5 favorite films of 2010 so far. 1. Kick Ass 2. Toy Story 3 3. Shutter Island 4. Edge of Darkness 5. The Crazies
The Crazies Entertaining. I like that they cut to the chase. This reminded me of the movie, Carriers, except this one was better. With George A. Romero being the Executive Producer of this remake of his own original movie, what can go wrong? Yeah, I didn't feel blown away. But, it's a simple story told very well and it kept me up. Love the song that comes out towards the beginning and the ending credits. I haven't seen the original, so I don't know if this was a good remake or not. I felt that this movie as a whole was a little better than decent. Not total awesomeness but somewhere near. My homework is to see the original.
Goth This japanese flick wasn't that good to me. It's original, in a way. But, the story dragged on for a while, and it made it boring for me. There's some wonderful shots and the sounds were great, but that's it. This came out on DVD a few weeks ago. My advice: If you haven't seen it, you ain't missing anything special.
She's Out Of My League When I first saw the trailer to this, I didn't want to see it at all. But then, I saw the Red Band trailer the other day, and I said, "let's give it a try." I went in with very low expectations. This movie is alright. Not funny (a few funny moments but not enough to make this good). As a matter of fact, I thought the bloopers were funnier than the movie. I like some of the characters here, especially the dude's friends. I wouldn't recommend this, so at your own risk.
Visioneers Love the concept but I didn't like the movie. To me, it was kind of boring and I couldn't understand some of the dialogue. I think it was decent for its budget. For some reason, I was expecting a dark comedy. This felt more like a drama. The head explosions were funny. Hate to put an indy film down but I just wasn't feeling it.
[I know I'm a little early in posting this (Friday June 25 11:00 am). Due to my work schedule this weekend, I decided to have my grindhouse night last night. I started around 11:30p.m and got done about 4am this morning.]
This month's Grindhouse Night, I decided to watch a triple feature rather than the usual double.
First up:
Torso Not bad slasher flick. Sleazy and entertaining. Love all the zoom ins and zoom outs. Not the kind of film I would see again. Simply, a one night stand. The first half was okay and the second half gets a little better with some suspense.
Next up:
The Candy Snatchers If you're a grindhouse fan and you haven't seen this, let me tell you that this is a must buy for your collection. It's rare to find, but this is one of the best exploitation films I've ever seen. It's cheesy but entertaining and it's got style, in my opinion. They don't make them like this anymore. A lot of twists and memorables scenes.
This is my first time watching this vintage flick that so many grindhouse fans make a big fuzz about. For it's time, it's a classic. To me, this was somewhat enjoyable. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. There's some okay scenes, but what I liked better was the dialogue (some of which you'll find in White Zombie's first album). The story is simple with today's standards, but I imagine when this came out, it blew people's minds away.
That's it for this month's Grindhouse Night. The treat today was The Candy Snatchers. And for the record, Friday at the Grindhouse is my favorite personal movie event. Can't wait for the next one. There's thousands of flicks out there waiting for me to check out.
This month's director is Sam Raimi. I've already seen The Evil Trilogy as well as Darkman this month. Now for the fifth Raimi film that I've never seen before:
The Gift Another Raimi satisfaction. It's nice to see Keanu Reeves playing a redneck. I could tell Raimi's style in here (especially in Annie's daydreams). I'm a fan of this decent story. I would buy it if I start collecting movies from Sam Raimi (and believe me, I might just do that soon). Now that I've seen most of his films, I can list my favorites in order. It's hard because he doesn't have a bad movie in my opinion. From most favorite to least favorite: 1. A Simple Plan 2. Spiderman 3. Evil Dead 4. Drag Me To Hell 5. Evil Dead 2 6. Army of Darkness 7. Spiderman 2 8. The Gift 9. Darkman 10. The Quick and the Dead 11. Spiderman 3
(The only ones that I haven't seen are: For Love of the Game and Crimewaves)
New Release Tuesdays Presents: Green Zone To me, this was the typical war flick with plenty of action. The plot kept me alert at all times. So, kudos for the pacing. The story got me upset a little because I think some of it is true about the war in Iraq. And all the conspiracies and political stuff gets my blood up. So, the story was good in that aspect. I didn't like some of the picture quality in this, especially the night scenes. Fans of The Hurt Locker and The Kingdom, give this a try. I think this is one of the best films this year but it won't be considered as one of my favorites. It kept me entertained but it didn't "wow" me enough. I wouldn't buy it personally, but if you're a war flick collector, this ain't bad to have.
The Book of Eli This reminded me of some spaghetti westerns. I liked the story. I noticed some minor flaws but nothing to make a big fuzz about. Good one night stand entertainment movie, in my opinion. I love the shots especially this one: Kudos!!
Animation Night Presents: Toy Story 3 The little kid in me came out tonight at the movies. Another Pixar masterpiece. If I had three thumbs, I would give this one three thumbs up. This felt like some rollercoaster ride in a theme park (kinda like The Simpsons ride at Universal Studios). Tonight was my personal "Animation Night" and this animation happens to be opening this weekend with tonight's screening. So it was a match made in heaven catching this late tonight. Now, the trilogy is complete. The best cartoon trilogy, I think. Didn't want to give out any spoilers or make any specific comments, just wanted to write that I enjoyed it a lot.
This month's director is Sam Raimi. I saw the Evil Dead trilogy this month already. The fourth Raimi film to see is:
Darkman Not bad of a film. Cheesy comic setup. It gets really good halfway through. This came out 20 years ago, with today's movie standards, the action here is not bad. So, those are my comments to this. Typical revenge story. Love the clone meets the original owner scenes.
White Wall Don't waste your time on this. This is literally the worst film I've seen all year. I thought the acting and the production sucked big time. I was lost through the whole thing. I wanted to turn it off within the first 10 minutes. I hate to be harsh but this is how I felt about it. After all, the reason for blogging about movies, is to share my opinion.
Valentine's Day This was just a tad better than Leap Year. That doesn't mean that I thought it was good. My wife Linda and I, both thought this was missing something. We were a little disappointed. It was a little mess having all these little undeveloped weak stories. A "clusterphuck" is the right term, substitute the "ph" with an "f." Yeah, you know what I'm saying. And for the record, Ashton Kutcher and Anne Hathaway both suck in acting.
This month's director is Sam Raimi. Saw Evil Dead 1 and 2 last weekend. This morning, I decided to watch another Raimi flick to avoid the World Cup madness.
Army of Darkness I seen parts to this before, but never caught my attention to watch it as a whole until today. I know a lot of people love this film. I don't think I love this film, but I thought it was pretty cool. I like all the silliness in here. It's Evil Dead meets Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Love the dialogue, especially the boomstick speech. My favorite out of this trilogy is the original Evil Dead. But, I'm glad I finally got to see this as a whole.
From Paris With Love The only reason I saw this movie was because it's the same director as District B13 and Taken. This movie was not as good as those two. It had some good moments but not enough for me to love it. I didn't like Travolta's character in the first half. But, as the story developed, I ended up liking the character more. Some okay action scenes. Kinda disappointed but little entertaining. Hated the music.
Spaghetti Western Night Presents: Captain Apache This is not your typical spaghetti western. But, it had a few okay moments. It didn't suck. The music sucks a little. It didn't fit this movie. Lee Van Cleef is a bad ass shooter as always. He always knows when someone is about to strike. I wasn't buying his Indian character. This movie was a bonus movie that came with The Grand Duel DVD I bought. If it wasn't for that, I probably would of skipped this movie altogether.
New Release Tuesdays Presents: Shutter Island This is Martin Scorsese doing his thing. He tackled on a genre that he's never done before, and to me, he didn't disappoint. It's not among his best works but among his average. Yeah, the story is very predictable. I think they did it on purpose. I mean, it's very obvious in the beginning. But, there's more to it than what it is, so I just enjoyed the ride. If this movie would of came out during the Hitchcock era, this would be Scorsese's masterpiece. So to me, this is kinda like a homage to those films from that era. Scorsese having fun playing with this genre. Good flick (my second favorite film to come out this year, so far).
Documentary Night Presents: Taxi to the Dark Side A lot of crazy information on here. It was very slow and informative. We practically brought back the holocaust but with terrorist looking people instead of the jews. And the whole Bush administration was a dumb version of Hitler. And a lot of people got away with a bunch of things. This was a decent doc but it wasn't enjoyable (obviously this shouldn't be enjoyable, this is about torture). I didn't like the pacing. Can't believe this won the Oscar for best documentary in 2007. But, good research and information.
Catching Up With A Director Segment and The Unnofficial Shame On Me Segment Presents:
The Evil Dead 1 and 2 screening.
This month's director is Sam Raimi. I'll be seeing five films I've never seen before by him. The only films that I've seen from him are: The Quick and the Dead A Simple Plan Spiderman 1-3 and Drag Me To Hell.
We'll start tonight with his cult classics.
The Evil Dead Shame on me for not seeing this movie as a whole before until today. I remember seeing scenes here and there throughout my life, but never complete. The other day, I saw the book of the dead edition on sale for dirt cheap, and I decided to take advantage of it for this month's director (Sam Raimi). I don't consider this a zombie film, but it's a bad ass classic horror. Love the gore and the low budget feel to this. We're stuck in a cabin and I feel a bit clausterphobic. Damn, I love all the shots and the ending.
The Evil Dead 2 I've never seen any part of this sequel until tonight. It's more comedy than horror, but the gore here is freaking hilarious. The gore is up there with Peter Jackson's Dead Alive. Chainsaw arm scene is cool. Not too fond of the ending. I know it's supposed to be a foreshadow for Army of Darkness, but, I wasn't feeling it. I like the first one just a tad better than this one, but this one is also a classic. Favorite part was the eyeball to to the mouth part. Shame on me for not seeing this earlier.
Rampage Decent violent flick. Another movie from last year's Fantastic Fest. I'll tell you what, if I was still in high school, this movie would be a cool thing to watch all the time. I didn't like some of the performances in the first act. But, the concept was cool. One thing that bothered me was: the main character is supposed to be this angry anti-social guy, but yet he seemed kind of happy at times. More things should of pissed him off rather than the few that was shown. This movie's worth a little peek if you're a fan of Natural Born Killers and Elephant.
Revanche Great film. Criterion didn't pick this up for nothing. It's a revenge flick from Austria but it's not your typical revenge flick. Very original and loved the performances. The movie is a slow drama, but every shot made it interesting. A must see for all fans who appreciate great cinema.
this is one of the best I've seen in that category.
But, when it comes to movies in general,
this was alright.
Nothing special. The story was a little predictable. I haven't seen the original. But, it wasn't disappointing.
The director's cut has a continuity problem towards the beginning. To me, this is another good one night stand movie. I wouldn't buy it unless I want to collect warewolf flicks.
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