Fantastic Fest: Everly (2014)

Fantastic Fest 2014
Screening #5

Everly IMDb

Opened up my first full day at the festival with this action flick with Salma Hayek in it.  Disappointing.  One of the worst movies I've seen in Fantastic Fest history.  I mean, how could a movie with a half naked Salma Hayek fighting a shit load of yakuzas go wrong?  For starters, the acting sucked.  There were a lot of flaws with this.  From the beginning where a phone rings and Hayek's character picks up her phone and says hello and she realizes it's not her phone ringing but another phone to other nonsense scenes.  There were some good kills.  Cheesy but good.  And Salma Hayek showing cleavage through almost the whole movie was pretty awesome for me.  But, that's it.

It was a bummer but at least this got me to appreciate the other movies I've seen so far.  Let's see what the rest of the day brings.

Fantastic Fest: Wyrmwood (2014)

Fantastic Fest 2014 

Screening #4:

Wyrmwood IMDb

My first midnight screening of this festival is this Australian Zombie action flick.   Man, oh man, this had its promises but it got old after a while.  There were a few flaws, especially with the sound in certain scenes.  But, who am I to judge? At least people are trying to make movies.  Anyways, this movie at least brought something different for the zombie genre.  Zombie mind control.  There were some cool scenes in the beginning and throughout.  Some psychotic moments too.  This weird doctor is experimenting with zombies and with our main female lead who has a blood type that's immune to the zombie virus.  While being experimented on, she develops a gift:  she can control other zombies with her mind.  So she uses that as a weapon.  Another different thing for the zombie genre is that they are filled with gas and can be used as a fuel source.  They move slow during the day and fast during the night.  There was one character that made it at least a bit more enjoyable.  The black dude was awesome.  Good gore scenes too. 

Overall, this was okay.  Not a good payoff but still had its moments.

Fantastic Fest: Jacky in the Kingdom of Women (2014)

Fantastic Fest 2014

Screening #3

 Jacky in the Kingdom of Women

Now this is why people come to Fantastic Fest, to see unique and different films like this one.  This French dystopian/satire/absurd comedy was pretty awesome.  It's a twisted version of the Cinderalla story.  The gender roles are reversed in this kingdom but in a exaggerated way.  Oh, and everyone worships "the horsum," a little horse.  Lots of great comedic moments.  Had me going.  This would have been straight-A perfect but the actual ending moment brought it down just a tad bit.  Still loved it.  Pretty wild ride.  Everything is blasphemy here including eating carrots.  

Overall, give this movie lots of kudos for being different.  Great colors.  Good old time!

Fantastic Fest: The Man in the Orange Jacket (2014)

Fantastic Fest 2014

Screening #2 

The Man in the Orange Jacket IMDb 

Started this morning with my first Latvian film ever. I never even heard of this country.  A new discovery.  Another reason to love Fantastic Fest.  This movie is a home invasion/paranoia thriller.
It's got the revenge plot but the revenge takes place within the first 10 minutes.  After that, we follow our main character who took vengeance on his former boss.  He takes over his big mansion.  Things get weird.  I enjoyed the first half.  The second half didn't deliver.  It was promising.  I did enjoy certain moments like when our character was in a fancy restaurant eating meals he never had before.  This felt a bit like The Shining in certain moments. 

This movie was only 70 minutes.  For a home invasion flick, this was okay.

Fantastic Fest: Tusk (2014)

Fantastic Fest 2014
Screening #1

 Tusk IMDb
Popped my Fantastic Fest 2014 cherry this early afternoon with this movie.

Awesome start to the festival.  This is Kevin Smith's best movie since Jay and Silent Strikes Back.  It was twisted and some parts were wickedly funny.  Michael Parks plays an awesome psycho.  He's practically the main character.  What made it for me though was the surprise actor.  Well, he's no longer a surprise if you IMDb the movie and you do your research.  It's Johnny fucking Depp.  He plays the main detective here and he nails it.   This is a sick movie and I enjoyed it.  It's Human Centipede but with a human walrus instead.  Justin Long plays a good walrus.  He can put that on his resume now.  This movie will go good with a plate of fish.  Oh yeah!

Good start.  Unfortunately I had to go to work after this and do bunch of breaking news stuff.  Go weather coverage!  Planning on seeing three films tomorrow.  My first full day is Saturday.  I'm going to dream about walruses tonight.  Goodnight!

Jodorowsky's Dune

Jodorowsky's Dune IMDb

They say Jodorowsky's Dune is the greatest sci-fi movie never made and after watching this documentary, I believe it.  The ideas for the movie inspired other great sci-fi movies like Star Wars and Alien.  This was very inspirational, especially the ending.  "I am Dune."  Alejandro Jodorowsky is a controversial director.  I remember watching El Topo for the first time the year I moved to Austin and was blown away with the craziness.  This documentary is about him and his early adventures in trying to make a big sci-fi epic called Dune.  It was supposed to be a big acid trip adventure.  It shows how he got a talented group together to make this happen.  He got Salvador Dali, Dan O'Banon, Pink Floyd and even Orson Welles involved.  That was one of my favorite parts: how he persuaded Orson Welles to play a big mean fat bastard.  All the visuals and storyboards were thought out.  All he needed was back up financing by Hollywood.  Well, we all know what happens next.  Hollywood didn't believe in this artist.  A big producer took over the rights and David Lynch (one of my favorite directors) was hired to make it.  And for the record,  David Lynch was not happy with Dune and calls it his "biggest mistake ever."  That's a whole other story. Jodorowsky's Dune was totally different than the novel.  It was going to change the world before Star Wars did.  Good documentary to see.

I recommend this to any sci-fi and comic book fans, the visual and ideas shown here are awesome.  This documentary won the "Audience Award" at last year's Fantastic Fest.  And with that, I end this post by saying: 4 more days until this year's festival, motherfuckers!

The Amazing Spiderman 2 (2014)

The Amazing Spiderman 2 IMDb

I went in with low expectations and I was actually entertained with this sequel.  I was not impressed the first time I saw part one.  I saw it again today before this one and I liked it a little better.  Part 2 had a lot of cheesy moments and scenes that weren't necessary but overall, I thought it was pretty good.  I didn't really like Electro (played by Jamie Foxx) and I usually like villains more than the superheroes.  I thought The Green Goblin was good.  That character should have had more screen time than Electro.  Emotional ending.  Maybe I was in a comic book mood or maybe because I had my son with me today (who loves his superheroes), but I enjoyed my time with this movie.  Didn't mind the emo version of Spiderman today.

I might consider getting this with the first one someday.  Maybe when they release a box set.  Not in a rush.  Worth checking out if you like your Marvel movies.

This year has been great with Marvel.  First fav: Guardians of the Galaxy.  2nd fave: X-Men Days of Future Past.  3rd: The Amazing Spiderman 2.  4th: Captain America 2 (yup, I'm not too crazy about the Captain America franchise).