Western Wednesday: Hang 'Em High

Hang 'Em High IMDb

Awesome.  Probably my favorite western I've seen this year.  I think this is Clint Eastwood's first major Western role.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love revenge films?  Well, I fucking do a lot.  And this here is a revenge film.  Right in the beginning, a group of 9 no good idiots spot Eastwood's character and they think he's responsible for a double murder and for stealing cattle.  Well, instead of taking him to be tried, they beat him and hang him.  But, they made one fatal mistake, they should have made sure he was completely dead before taking off.  Thank goodness they didn't because I was in for an awesome ride.  I noticed a few technical errors but fuck it, I ain't going to complain.  I love the story and that's it.  Bruce Dern is in it and he plays a mean son of a bitch.  He's the guy that comes out in a cameo in Django Unchained and he's the main character in the movie, Nebraska.

Definitely adding this to my Western section.  Highly recommended if you haven't seen it.

Hellion (2014)

Hellion IMDb 

I never heard of this movie until recently.  I was told by a Vulcan Video clerk that the director of this movie is a regular customer of theirs.  Shot in Texas.  It's a drama about a broken family and the troubles they go through.  Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad plays a widow father with an alcoholic problem.  His two kids are alone most of the time.  We focus on the 13 year old son and his mischief life.  One day, CPS finds out about the conditions these kids live in and they take the 9 year old kid to his aunt (played by Juliette Lewis).  It's a harsh little indie drama.  There were some okay performances.  Kudos for making Fireman's 4 the official beer of the movie.  Love that one. Anyways, shit goes up in flames in the climax with consequences. 

Overall, I thought it was alright for an indie drama.  So if you're in the mood, this is worth renting.

Zatoichi Night: Zatoichi and the Doomed Man

 Zatoichi and the Doomed Man IMDb
Zatoichi strikes again.  That's all I have to say every time I have Zatoichi Night! Love the story on this actually.  For the first time, we see Zatoichi in prison.  He gets lashes for his crimes.  While in prison, he meets this other guy who is on death row.  The guy is innocent and he wants Zatoichi to clear his name when he gets out.  So there's the plot.  Zatoichi is free and meets the people responsible for the "doomed man."  Zatoichi does what he does best: gives great massages and shows off his sword skills.  Oh, here we have an imposter who pretends he's Zatoichi.  Great little scenes there.  But, my friend, there is only one Zatoichi and you don't want to fuck with him.

Another Zatoichi movie bites the dust.

Eega (Makkhi)

Eega IMDb

Goddamn, this was an awesome experience.  I'm still tripping out and it's been a few hours since I saw it.  This is a love story, action film, and a reincarnated revenge film from India.  Nothing I've never seen before.  This was shown at Fantastic Fest last year and I missed it for some reason.  A friend of mine reminded me about it the other day when I was talking to her about my love for revenge films.  When my friend Mike invited me to some Indian food today, I immediately thought about this movie and wondered if for some strange reason in the universe, Netflix had it.  They did.  I typed in Eega and the title Makkhi came out.  It's the same movie.  So after a big Indian meal, saw this trippy revenge movie with Mike.  Fucking badass!  At first, it was a cheesy Bollywood romantic movie then shit happens and it turned into a cheesy cgi mean ass revenge flick.  The thing taking revenge is a fly who reincarnated from this one guy who got killed by this other guy all for this cute woman.  The revenge scenes were awesome.  Cheesy but fantastic.  My favorite moment is the car crash scene.  I applauded in many other moments as.    This is also a musical.  Duh, it's a Bollywood film.  For what it is, this shit delivers the fucking goods.

A long conversation was ensued after this, specifically about people that shouldn't watch this.  Inside joke.  As a sucker for revenge films, I'm adding this one to my collection whenever it officially comes out.

Here is the pic of the delicious Indian food I had before the movie at India Palace:

 

How To Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

How To Train Your Dragon 2 IMDb

Took my son Nates the Shakes to see this one at the discount theatre.  I saw the first one back in 2010 and I remember loving it.  This one was also sweet and badass.  For some reason, it takes a lot for me to see movies about vikings and dragons but whenever I do, I end up enjoying them.  This is a clear example.  This movie had its charms but fuck, it also had some emotional scenes.  I think it's that time of the month for me because I shed some tears twice during this.  Even though he didn't understand some of the emotional scenes, it was cool watching this with my son.  Good entertaining movie about dragons and vikings and forces of evil.

So far every Animation feature I've seen this year have been damn good.  My heart still goes out to The Lego Movie.

Gone Girl (2014)

 Gone Girl IMDb

Director David Fincher delivers a hard and very intense thriller.  He made up for his last movie, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo remake (which I wasn't a fan of, obviously).  Here we have some very awesome performances by both our male and female lead.  It's a movie that keeps you going and becomes very unpredictable.  I don't like to spoil very good movies so it's better to discover the surprises first hand.  I can tell you one thing, this movie just made me not want to get married ever again (maybe that's an exaggeration).  Still, marriage can be fucking scary.  Love how they portray the media here and how they twist things around.  Surprise, surprise.  This movie has my favorite theme: revenge.  Then it turns to something else.  A few great psychotic moments.  And, of course, you can't go wrong with a score with Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) involved.  I enjoyed it.  The actual ending was okay, though.  Expected something else but for what it is,  it was okay.  Everything else was perfect in my book. 

Can't wait to add this to my David Fincher section.  Worth watching.

The Signal (2014)

 The Signal IMDb

This mind bending sci-fi did its job.  Some of it felt like a Kubrick film mixed with a little bit of David Lynch.  There were a few unanswered questions about some of the minor characters including my favorite, the smiling old lady.  Good for an alien movie.  Didn't know what to expect. Area 51 conspiracies, paranoia of the unknown, and parallel universe are some of the things found in this movie.  Kudos for being original.  Now, I wasn't fully satisfied towards the end.  I guess I was wanting more out of it.  There were a lot of wtf moments but to me it fell a bit flat at times.

If you're a sci-fi fan and want to see something indie and original, give this a shot but don't expect something very special. Good sci-fi entertainment, though.