Zombi 3

CATCHING UP WITH A DIRECTOR

October's Director: Lucio Fulci

#5:

Zombi 3

Let me comment on the last 20 minutes of this movie:
Decent for a zombie movie.
Good cheesy effects.
Zombies everywhere.
Liked it.
Now, let's talk about the rest of the movie:
Freaking sucked.
Every moment was not likeable.
Yeah, it was low budget stuff, but
sometimes that's alright.
Not here, everything had a totally different mood.
I was expecting something decent from
the guy who gave us Zombie (aka Zombi 2).
But, this is way too different than that.
Plus, the 80's music didn't help much.

So there you have it. The last Fulci film to see this month.
As usual, here's my list of most favorite to least favorite
Lucio Fulci films:
1. The Psychic
2. Zombi 2
3. The New York Ripper
4. Contraband
5. The Beyond
6. City of the Living Dead
7. House by the Cemetery
8. Don't Torture a Duckling
9. Four of the Apocalypse
10. The Black Cat
11. Zombi 3

The Black Cat

CATCHING UP WITH A DIRECTOR

October's Director: Lucio Fulci

#4:

The Black Cat
Didn't like it.
I like the first half but I lost interest right away.
As usual for a Fulci film, the shots were awesome.
The story was a little boring.
My favorite parts were the beginning where the first victim
crashes and burns and the couple who got stranded
in a room and died.
I'm not a cat person. I'll never be a cat person.
So, I thought the cat was annoying.
Fulci uses cats in majority of his movies.

I felt asleep towards the end, which is the
thing I hate the most, but luckily, I went back to
where I left off when I woke up.
My least favorite Lucio Fulci film, so far.

Contraband

CATCHING UP WITH A DIRECTOR

Lucio Fulci is this month's director.
The third film to see is:

Contraband
Badass Italian gangster flick with a Fulci touch.
Non-stop violence. Every five minutes,
there was someone getting killed or burned.
Love the burning of the female drug dealer's face.
Good for a Grindhouse collection or even
a Gangster collection.

Alright, so this is my favorite Fulci film so far this week.
I got two more to go.

The House By The Cemetery

CATCHING UP WITH A DIRECTOR

This month's director is Lucio Fulci.
The second film to see is:


The House By The Cemetery
Another awesome Fulci flick.
This one is more of his trademark.
Same feeling as "The Beyond" and "City of the Living Dead."
Right away, it starts off with a bloody scene.
By that point, I'm trying to figure out if this is a slasher
film or what? Great low budget scenes.
This one is my favorite so far.

I like how the kills make me shiver a little even though
it looks so fake. It's the exaggeration that I like.

Don't Torture A Duckling

CATCHING UP WITH A DIRECTOR

This month's director is legendary Italian horror filmmaker,
Lucio Fulci.
In these coming days,
I will be seeing five films I've never seen before by Fulci.
The only ones I've seen are:
The Psychic, Zombi 2, The Beyond, City of the Living Dead,
The New York Ripper, and Four of the Apocalypse.

This segment started this morning with one
of his early flicks:


Don't Torture A Duckling
This was a little crazy, in a grindhouse sort of way.
Young boys are being murdered one by one
in this whodunit film.
Love some of the actors on here.
Crazy eerie music mixed with other strange music
creates the perfect mood.
Love the use of the moving shots on here.
Definitely, one of Fulci's best.
Not necessarily a good favorite,
but, it's up there.

Not a lot of gore, but some of the scenes with gore
are pretty intense.

Winter's Bone (2010)

NEW RELEASE TUESDAY

Winter's Bone
Boring flick. Good solid story,
but, not my kind of film.
The reason I saw this tonight was
because of the film festival circuit buzz.
According to the buzz, this is one of the best movies of
this year. If that's the case, we're in big trouble this
year. I've seen my fair share of independent films
this year. To me, this doesn't come close to being
a favorite. I respect what they were trying to do.
I just wasn't feeling it halfway through.

I guess if you're in the mood for a slow character driven
drama, this might settle good.
But, do not, I repeat, do not see this late at night.
You might yawn and be a little disappointed like I was.
I should of seen this on a bright early Sunday afternoon.
Maybe, I would of liked it more.

Splice

Splice
Crazy sci-fi flick.

It was okay.

I heard the ending was weird.

It got a little weird, but nothing too weird for me.
I like the scene where the scientists presented

the new species to an audience and it goes wrong.
That was cool.

The rest was so and so.

Good rental for one night only.

It did have a David Cronenberg feeling.
If Cronenberg would of directed this,

it probably would of been a masterpiece.

[REC] 2

[REC] 2

While this movie is still entertaining,
it totally changes the direction the first one took.
Not going to spoil it here.
But, I wasn't too thrilled about some of the changes.
For the most part, I did like this movie as a whole.
Some good old classic scenes.
There's a scene where it looks like we're in a video game
and we're shooting these infected people.
It picks up right where part one ended.
The camera shuts down more here than the first.
It's not as great as the first,
but still delivers some good stuff.

I didn't expect to see this tonight,
but, as I was browsing the selection at I Luv Video,
I came across this official international copy.
This is supposed to come out in the U.S. sometime next year.
So, I took advantage. Alright flick.

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue / Road Games

Friday at the Grindhouse

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue
Decent zombie pic that gets better towards the end.
We hardly see the zombies in action until the last 30 minutes.
The first hour it's just one smart zombie
moaning and attacking people.
Love the fact that the main cop didn't believe in what was
going on until the end.
The characters here were pretty lame, they didn't
know what to do or where to go whenever there was a zombie
from a distance.
But, of course, we needed those kills.
The gore was alright.

The only way to kill a zombie here was through fire.
Better have a lighter and lighting fluid handy when you see this one.

Road Games
Nice ozploitation with Jamie Lee Curtis.
Here we have a slasher flick
with an interesting plot.
I like the main character, the truck driver.
There was some intense moments in the flick.
One that comes to mind:
The truck driver hears a noise from the
back of the truck.
He checks it out.
In those moments, the close shots made
it seem a little scary, didn't know what was going to happen.
Good dialogue and an awesome ending.

Nice grindhouse flick.

How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

Animation Night

How To Train Your Dragon
Surprisingly, this was one hell of a good animation.
I type surprisingly because, when I first heard about this
movie before it came out in the theatre, it didn't catch
my attention. I thought it was going to be uninteresting like Shrek.
I know, Shrek is not horrible, but I'm not into the Shrek movies.
This animation had a good flow and a good solid story.
I like the concept of it all, even though, it was a little predictable.
The voices were great.
My favorite moment:
A little dragon cuttles with Hiccup while flying in the air.
It was a small little moment, but, it was sweet.
The little things are important.

I give this a lot of points because I didn't know anything about
the actual story before, and when I saw it this morning,
I was entertained to the max. Good surprise.

A Tale of Two Sisters

A Tale of Two Sisters
Very quiet and strange Korean flick.
The director is Kim Ji-Woon
who later directed "The Good The Bad and The Weird"
and my second favorite film of this year, "I Saw The Devil."
Every shot here was wonderful.
The story was confusing, especially late at night.
This is considered a horror, but it's very subtle.
It's more of a mystery drama.
My least favorite Ji-Woon film so far.
But, that doesn't mean this was bad.
It was quite good.
It's a movie that I have to see more than once
to pick on some things that were confusing.
For the most part, I got the gist of it.

Spooky!!!

Predators (2010)

New Release Tuesday


Predators
I don't know, maybe because I went to Troublemaker Studios
for "Predators Global Press Day," that I ended up loving the hell out
of this movie. That experience was still in my head
while watching this movie for the first time today.
I couldn't help, but, enjoy this movie.
Yeah, the beginning was kind of random,
but as the story develops, this gets really good.
Love the ending.
One of my other favorite scene was the yakuza fighting the Predator
scene.

Definitely, great entertainment.
This brought back some memories from the first
Predator movie (which I haven't seen since the early 90's).
Maybe, I need to revisit real soon.
I always prefer Predator over Alien.
Would of wanted Trejo's Cuchillo character to live a little longer.
This is a must for Predator fans.
It does justice.

Drunken Master

Drunken Master
Everything you want in a kung fu movie you can
find here. I finally got to see this classic today.
I'm not big on Jackie Chan, but he kicked ass, even though
it took a while for him to learn.
Nothing wrong with getting drunk on white wine
and practicing your kung fu moves.
As a matter of fact, the special kung fu technique here,
requires you to be drunk.
There's a little bit of comedy and some action.
The director of this is Woo-Pin Yuen, who later
choreographed bad ass flicks like Kung Fu Hustle and Kill Bill.

Definitely a must have for kung fu fans.
And this will set well with a big bottle of wine
and a Chinese Buffet. Good times!

A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)

A Nightmare On Elm Street
Not bad of a remake.
Pretty much straightforward flick.
These stupid teens should of told their parents
that Freddy is back in he's the one killing everybody.
But, then again, this is just a movie.
Freddy Krueger wasn't bad here, wish he had more screen time.
Freddy Krueger and the Elm Street movies were a
big part of me while in elementary school.
Hell, I was Freddy for Halloween in 3rd grade.
I haven't seen those movies since then.
From what I remembered,
this kind of does a fair representation of those movies.
Love the ending and the song "All I have to do is Dream."
That's probably my favorite part.

This is alright to watch just for the sake of being a Nightmare
On Elm Street movie. Nothing special.
This is not a must buy unless you're
a big fan of the original movies.
Having Freddy come out more would of made it a whole lot better.

Doghouse

Doghouse
Fun zombie movie.

A little bit of Shaun of the Dead and a little bit of Dawn of the Dead

with female zombies instead of zombies of both genders.
The military tested this chemical in this small isolated village to

create superhumans for war. It only affects women.

I thought that was an alright concept.

This is more of a comedy than a gory horror flick.
Love the chemistry between these guys.

Kinda like The Hangover but instead of Vegas where in a small village

of Moodley with zombies.

The only complaint was the ending.

Could of been better.

Overall, pretty f-ing good.

Jonah Hex (2010)

Jonah Hex
I went in with low expectations and I still wasn't thrilled
or at least bit entertained.
Sometimes you gotta see a movie no matter what other reviews say
or how bad a lot people say it is, just so you can confirm it yourself.
For peace of mind.
Right here, it's a revenge story based out of a graphic novel.
That sounds good to me. So what happened?
This had a lot of potential for greatness.
Unfortunately, we have a movie that has no real development.
Everything was rushed.
The only character I liked was the character played
by Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds).

Don't waste your time with this movie.
Hell, the Punisher movies are better than this.
But, then again, I'm one of the few people who actually enjoyed both
Punisher (2004 version) and Punisher: War Zone.

Django the Last Killer

I been busy at work these past few days.
I was unable to watch any movies until today.
New Release Tuesday's movie was supposed to be Doghouse.
I'll be watching that this Friday.
And yesterday was supposed to be Spaghetti Western Night.
I moved it to this morning.
So, let's get on with it:

Spaghetti Western Night


Django the Last Killer
Decent but doesn't deliver as a whole.
Love the music (even though it's one song that keeps on repeating
through the whole movie).
This ending kinda took me by surprise.
The plot was typical for a spaghetti western.
Short, sweet, not complex, straightforward flick.
This is a rare copy I found at I Luv Video.
I don't think it's available anywhere.

It's alright to check out, but nothing special, in my opinion.

Frozen (2010)

Frozen
Crazy cold story by Adam Green
(who directed the Hatchet movies).
We're trapped in the air with these three people
and little by little we start feeling their pain.
Good set-up.
Decent one night stand movie.
Couple of predictable moments but
there's also a couple of moments where it got me going.

Can't go wrong with Frozen pizza!

The September Issue

Linda's Chick Flick Night

The September Issue
Linda's pick this month is this documentary
about all the work and process in making an issue
of a Vogue magazine.
I have no interest in this whatsoever.
So, of course, this will be more bias.
But, then again, this blog is my opinion on movies.
I lost interest right away, although,
there were some parts that were okay.
The editor-in chief, Anna, is a hardcore boss.
Wouldn't want to work with her.
Basically, the magazine industry is
a cut-throat world that can hurt people's feelings.
But, what job isn't?

Handled the whole 90 minutes of this like a champ.
Not a fan.
Linda loved it.
Instead of cupcakes, today we went to get a pie from "Cutie Pies."

2010: The Year We Make Contact

2010: The Year We Make Contact
This is my first time seeing this film.
This sequel to Kubrick's "2001" was okay.
It kinda changes my perspective of the first movie.
It explains more about the mystery.
In a way, I wish I hadn't seen this.
2001 is one of my favorite films of all time
and this one took some of the magic away from the first one.
But these are based out of books. There are four books total.
So the story continues here.
The ending felt a little bit like the ending of "Independence Day."

Let's see when part 3 and part 4 will come out.

Growing Op

Growing Op
Semi-decent stoner comedy.
There's a couple of scenes that were hilarious.
The rest of the movie was so and so.
Not a kind of movie I would see over and over.
The ending was cool.
My favorite parts were the creme brulee stoner scene
and the party scene.

This could of been so much more.
But, I bet with a couple of brownies, this can be so much more.

7 Days (2010)

7 Days
Another torture revenge film, this time

from Canada.
This is like "Edge of Darkness" but more independent,

more dark, and with a surgeon instead of a cop.
I like the whole story except for the mother.

She seem to not care about what happened to her daughter.

She didn't understand why her husband was torturing

their daughter's murderer.

The movie is almost quiet (kind of like No Country for Old Men).
The sledge hammer blow to the kneecap was the

best part.

A surgeon knows where it hurts the most and

knows how to maintain the pain.

The rapist/murderer messed with the wrong girl.
Overall, I thought it was decent.

The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

New Release Tuesdays

The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
I give this points for being different.
Entertaining and a little shocking.
This kept me going like a grindhouse movie.
As a matter of fact, this is like a modern grindhouse movie.
You have the B-movie feel, some annoying actors,
and crazy scenes.
According to the buzz around the film world,
this movie supposed to be the sickest movie in recent times.
I don't think it lives up to the hype, but,
it sure is interesting.
It's underrated. I think this was a fair movie.
It doesn't suck nor is it something bad ass.
There's some scenes that could of been left out,
but, of course they were there to create suspense.
I like that there were some stuff that was kept off-camera.
It makes you think and creates images in your head.

Crazy German doctor is a memorable character.
For originality and for curiousity, check this out at your own risk.
100% medically accurate.

The Thorn in the Heart

Documentary Night


The Thorn in the Heart
It was sweet, but, sad to say, it was a bit boring.
I'm a big fan of Michel Gondry,
that's the main reason for watching this.
He likes the subject of memories in his films.
This doc is about his aunt and her memories about being
a school teacher.
This is good for a Gondry family reunion, but,
not for the rest of the world to see.
I lost interest towards the beginning.

You have to be a fan, if you actually want to see this.
Either way, I don't recommend this.