Showing posts with label classic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label classic. Show all posts

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Troll 2


Cast: Michael Stephenson, George Hardy


Synopsis: A family decides to high-tail it to the country in a bizarrely 'ahead of it's time' kind of plot (I hear people actually do this these days thanks to Craigslist) where the city dwelling family Waits swap homes for a period of time with a bunch of brainless country livin' hicks living in the suspiciously named town of Nilbog! Unfortunately for them the entire population is run by Goblins who try to make humans eat their delicious looking booger-covered green plastic food so that they can become half-human half-plant beings which are obviously Goblins favorite foods!

Really makes you wonder about how creatures like the Goblin evolved to like the taste of such a very specific and extremely non-existant food source, doesn't it? I mean when did they first dicover that was their food of choice? When the Goblin queen just decided on a whim to bake up a batch of "turn them into plant" muffins just to see what might happen if they devoured the bloody bark-like flesh of the Plant People? Perhaps they happened upon a man who had covered himself in bark and leaves, consumed him and discovered it was good but not perfect and so set about concucting a weird complex way to somehow merge the seemingly unmergable and create the ultimate snack! Bizarrely enough, it seems that not only is it their favorite food but they've also sort of gotten sick of eating anything that isn't a man-plant hybrid. Well, it's no wonder you don't see many Goblins around anymore, is it?

In case you're wondering how this bizarre plot becomes revealed to our young rapscallion hero (Because obviosuly the Goblins wouldn't take time ot explain all this to them, that would kind of put them off eating the already disgusting looking dishes they prepare) it's quite simple. You see, the young man's grandfather passed away recently and his ghost is using his time walking the realms of non-existance, haunting the young Waits boy by telling him crazy Goblin stories, hiding from his parents so that they think the boy's nuts, helping him set fires and largely being a bit of an incomprehensible dickhead. Makes perfect sense to me!


One man's reaction to this film.


Review: I've been putting off this review because it's fucking Troll 2! It's one of the most renowned bad films of all time and I really don't think I can add any humor, wit or charm to it at all above what the internet (and this documentary) already has.

Instead, I'm going to go continue to hide under a pillow in my closet until a more sensible film comes around and I can sufficiently gather my thoughts enough to form opinions.

thank you.

I will say this though, the story between the boy and his Grandfather (especially the scene where Grandad hands him a molotov cocktail) could have been the plot of an awesome sinister version of Drop Dead Fred!


"You can't piss on hospitality! I won't allow it!"


In Short: Too much Goblins, not enough dead Grandads.


Biggest Positive: The acting by the father in the Waits family, or perhaps just the script. It's like he's just opening his mouth and letting whatever words he can best remember come spilling out!


Biggest Negative: In spite of the name of the film, and it's predescessor (The aptly named "Troll") this film is about Goblins, not trolls. Not even a single Troll shows up. I guess it doesn't make much difference really, since arguably they weren't Trolls or Goblins, just midgets in potatoe sacks.


Trivia: No. No trivia. You go home now.





Sunday, October 11, 2009

Rambo (2008)


Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz


Synopsis: We find a somewhat retired looking Rambo hunting for king cobras in the wild plains of Thailand and selling them to some creepy underground snake-fighting pen (as you do) when suddenly and without warning a gimpy bald guy asks him to lead him and his group of bible bashers into the midst of a war-torn Burma. Being the hot blooded, war seeking, wild action hero he is he dives right in like so many blood thirsty lunatics before him! No, not really. He tells the dude to fuck off but when his slightly prettier blonde girlfriend says "paaaweeeeeeeaaaaaaaase?" how can he refuse?
Explosions and many many exploding blood-red bodies ensue!


Review: The perfect movie!

I kid you not. Rambo, as we all know, is an 80's action icon so there's two ways that a sequel this far away from the awesomely violent (non pg-13) blood curdling, foul mouthed action films of that era could go.

It could turn itself into a mock-up of itself and play to the inherent humor that lies underneath any super-macho action flick and end up with a bunch of stupid mumbling teens muttering that "Well it was fun but it wasn't as good as Hot Shots!". It would be hilarious and make millions! (And swiftly be forgotten about within a month of it's release)

Or Sly Stallone could say "Live to make an R-rated bloody, fucking serious motherfucker of a sequel, or die (Hard with a vengeance) for nothing!".And that he did!

Let's list the awesome things about this film

  • The film was filled with blood flying from every area of anyone's body that it could possibly splatter out from.
  • The "plot" and vague hint at any idea of a romance for John Rambo was short-lived and only served (rightfully so) as brief moments in between the carnage with which to catch your breath.
  • There were fucking gun fights. Not just gun fights, fucking gun fights. Never have I felt so invigorated when someone was blown into pieces than during some of the battles (Which were more like one sided massacres really)during this film!
  • Sometimes, after about a thousand people had been blown up, sliced, stabbed, shot or smashed they would play sad music to give you the sads thus making the movie deep - before getting right back to explosions and gun fights
  • It was only 90 minutes long! Definitely something lacking in the modern action flick is the film-makers ability to not jerk it off into a 2 - 2 1/2 hour fucking epic. Action films should be 90 minutes long and no longer! Any longer and it's a piece of trash trying to pass itself off as decent entertainment.

In Short: The only reason to not give this 5 smileys out of 5 is because there was dialogue in the film which frankly, brought me down.


Biggest Positive: The shakespearian quality the film has in that we, the audience, the observers are aware of the inevitability and the fate by which all the characters in the film will fall even before they, the characters, themselves could be aware of such.
(i.e. you know whenever Rambo shows up some fucks are about to get their shit fucked up, son!)


Biggest Negative: Too much romance, not enough human killing.


Trivia: Before this film was filmed there, Burma was a neutral peace-loving country but the film's explosions and gun fights sparked off a civil war that has raged the country for the past 60 years. For this reason Sylvester Stallone was unjustly sought out and captured by the United Nations for crimes against humanity. A crime which he is only partly responsible for. He promptly escaped his maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, he survives as a soldier of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help and if you can find him, maybe you can hire Sylvester Stallone.


The Official Rambo Movie Website


Tuesday, September 22, 2009

House By The Cemetery


Cast: Catriona McColl, Paolo Malco, Giovanni Frezza, Ania Pieroni's amazing caterpillar eyebrows.


Synopsis: A New York couple move into a house in New England which is, as one might guess, not next to a cemetery at all... what? Well a cemetery at least plays a role in the film but I fail to see why this film wasn't called "House With A Cemetery Within Walking Distance". Whatever. Killings ensue blah blah.


Review: While it's true that the acting is pretty awful, the unnecessary close ups of people's eyes are pointless at worst and shaky at best and the child in the film is so obnoxious that you're wishing death upon him as soon as you see his smug little albino-looking chops enter the screen, if you're looking for a film with the longest, most drawn out, gory, bat killing sequence in cinema history then look no further than The House By The Cemetery!


In Short:
This movie was directed by Lucio Fulci which means it's both great and awful at the same time. The plot is wafer thin but the gore is fairly abundant.


Biggest Positive: The gore, quite clearly was the most redeeming feature of this film...


Biggest Negative: Everything that wasn't gory.


Trivia: This film was shot in less than two minutes and in five different languages.

A Review of House By The Cemetery by someone who possibly gives a flying fuck about actually reviewing things properly

Friday, August 21, 2009

Plan 9 From Outer Space (RiffTrax Special Event)



Cast: Some dudes from RiffTrax and 3 Different Bela Lugosi's.


Synopsis: RiffTrax is a format in which you pay money to watch an incredibly bad movie while three guys talk over it making snarky comments. Plan 9 From Outer Space is basically the worst movie ever and the commentary is therefore about 57.6% more snarky than usual. Why do grown well-thinking people spend money to watch something awful while some weird people ruin the movie, you ask? Well, I guess you have to be there...

Review: Can I really review this? I mean, do I review the film itself or do I review the RiffTrax guys commentary on it? Do I review the surprise appearance by Mr. Jonathan Coulton? Or do I review the amazingly awful (in a good way) 'sponsor' videos from Something Awful? Or do I just ask a bunch of questions about who I should review and not actually really say a damn thing about it?

Yeah, that sounds good.


In Short: RiffTrax are awesome and, while I wish they were still using little robot puppets to make their commentary, they are still it seems equally as amusing as MST3K. We recently purchased their RiffTrax DVD release for Night Of The Living Dead, so you can look forward to a review of that as griping and informative as this one.


Biggest Positive: All things of the evening combined (The audience, the movie, the slightly confusing yet mildly intriguing 'O' faces Jonathan Coulton makes when he reaches high notes), I basically felt like I was right in the middle of "Giant Nerd-Fest 2009".


Biggest Negative: All things of the evening combined (The audience, the movie, the way that a nose flute has never been so masterfully used during a screening of an Ed Wood movie - at least this year), I basically felt like I was right in the middle of "Giant Nerd-Fest 2009".


Trivia: Bela Lugosi is still alive and living in the back of your fridge behind that potatoe salad you just won't throw away.




www.rifftrax.com/


Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The Crow


Cast: Brandon Lee, Rochelle Davis, Ernie Hudson


Synopsis: A hipster goth-like musician and his girlfriend are killed in a brutal needless murder but luckily for goths everywhere a magical crow decided that it would be cool to bring back the lanky hippy from the dead to seek revenge on his killers (apparently every other horrific murder in history doesn't matter to the magical crow and only people who look cool in white make up and a trench coat can be brought back from the dead.). Madness ensues.


Review: For years random people have been astounded when I tell them I haven't ever seen The Crow. Their heads fall back on themselves, their eyes bug out and some have even melted into a pool of their own self-loathing right in front of me. The reason, I always assumed, is because I used to have long vaguely curly hair, wear a big ol' leather trench coat and could be found occasionally wearing dark make up and leaping from building to building seeking my revenge on criminal underworlds so it seemed like a surprise when I hadn't seen the movie on which it might have seemed I based my entire existence... or so I thought! Until at work, where I wear a uniform and am not allowed to wear make up or kill people, a co-worker who hasn't seen me out of work expressed the exact same exasperation that I "of all people" had not seen The Crow. Thinking there must be something to this I decided (Was given a copy of The Crow by said co-worker and told if I didn't watch it he'd hunt me down and kill me) to finally get around to watching The Crow.

Having now seen it I realize now that when people said that I "had to see The Crow" what they actually meant was "You look like an obnoxious prick who likes shitty vaguely dark over-hyped movies that are only popular because someone died during filming".

Bummer.


In Short: Between this and Reservoir Dogs I realize that when everybody in the world says you need to see a movie it actually means "This movie sucks but everyone likes it because it's edgy without being close enough to the edge to be interesting!"


Biggest Positive: Heath Ledger clearly took some notes from this film, threw out all the shit and amplified the few decent parts a billion times to play the Joker. Then he died too, so it goes to show you should never ever do anything to associate yourself with this film, ever.


Biggest Negative: The hype behind this film is it's hugest flaw. I hope my review paints a picture of a truly awful film so that if you haven't seen the film and you finally do you'll maybe finish saying "Well, it wasn't that bad..."


Trivia: In an inronic twist of fate, exactly one year after his death Brandon Lee was still dead.

The Crow's Loft - fan page

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Snakes On A Plane


If you need a review of Snakes On A Plane to tell you anything about it then I truly have nothing more to say to you...

"First I was like..."

"Then I LOL'd!"

Monday, December 22, 2008

Prom Night (1980)

What is it that all major horror films are lacking?
One thing that you just know deep inside each and every one of them should have had.
A single film element that would have spanned all the horror franchises into longer lasting, epic, billion dollar movies.
Dance offs!

After seeing Prom Night I can safely say that no slasher flick should be complete without an old fashioned test of power via the medium of dance.
And Jamie Lee Curtis was involved? That only makes me realize that John Carpenter doesn't have the eye for talent that we may have inadvertently attributed him with. Why was there no dance competition with Michael Myers at the end of Halloween?
Epic fail, Mr. Carpenter.
Epic.
Fail.

And what's Activia's deal?
With a few simple convincing boogie steps, Jamie Lee could have us all replenishing ourselves with vomit-like substances from dawn till dusk.


Me: What's that Jamie Lee? You want me to take the Activia challenge? No thanks, I don't really like yogurt things and besides I don't really know that feeling 'irregular' actually means anything and it's probably just a ploy to get me to think I need your product.

Jamie Lee: *breaks out into disco fever*

Me: *buys ten years worth of Activia*


The only thing that could have possibly made the dance-offs better is if somehow a ninja were involved, but unfortunately we all know that could never happ... HOLY SHIT The bad guy's a ninja???

I speak the truth. A motherfucking, full fledged ninja (kind of)!! Well, he looks like one and he jumps around like one and yes, the final battle with the ninja-like evil doer is on the dance floor as the disco ball revolves.

So why haven't you seen this film?

You have? Great.



Additionally, Slick is the coolest character I have seen in any film ever.

Monday, December 1, 2008

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)


I must admit that when I decided to watch this for the first time over the weekend I felt I was in for a bit of a laugh fest (ala War Of The Robots), but what I got was a well acted and thought provoking little film about a lovable alien coming to Earth with threats to annihilate us all. But in a nice way!

The special effects, though obviously dated somewhat, struck me as being relatively believable.
I was thoroughly impressed and it actually made me look forward to the new version, starring Keanu Reeves, a little more than I already was. I'm just sort of curious as to how they pan it out as it seems from the trailer that Keanu comes to Earth with a much more threatening position than the lovable Klaatu played by Michael Rennie who just doesn't seem to want to scowl at all.


Anyway, the facvt is I only reviewed this to try and snatch some gullible fools looking for The Day The Earth Stood Still reviews!

Gwahahahahahahahaha!

No, really, I did watch it though


That's me, rambling about the remake



The Day The Earth Stood Still's Wikipedia Page

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Ocean's Eleven

Remember when people said things like "Did you know they're making a sequel to Ocean's Eleven?... it's called Ocean's Twelve!" as a joke?

It was funny! Get it? Because "eleven" is just part of the title and not a number indicating the film's part in a series? GET IT? Hilarity!

And then remember how they went ahead and made the sequel and went and called it Ocean's Twelve... like they were in on the joke?

Was George Clooney just trying to mess with our heads?

That's all.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

Take.. your damn hands.. off her

As is carefully explained on the back of the DVD case, this is the fourth installment in the Friday the 13th series, not the final one as the name might imply. I guess the film-makers didn't know there was going to be five thousand and thirty two sequels after this so they can't really be blamed...

It's pretty hard to review this film since it is in every way identical to every other Friday the 13th film ever made. Seriously, they're all the fucking same!
I'm secretly trying to drudge my way through the series in sequence so I can eventually make my way to "Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan". I mean, how the fuck does that transpire? I'm really curious, but in the mean time I have to sit through parts I - VII...

Only 3 more to go before I hit the motherload!


Anyway, let's focus on the obvious flaws in this film... number one: Crispin Glover was in it and playing someone who wasn't completely awkward.

If Crispin Glover is in your film and he gets laid, you've failed.
Moving on...
Corey Feldman was in this film and wasn't completely awesome!
What?!
It's true... he was this little weedy kid who stayed in his room peeping at boobies and spending way too long making latex masks that didn't really come into play much in the film at all.

Then he shaved his head for no reason.

I' have to admit I'm a bit disappointing in these early editions in the Friday the 13th series (Except for part 1, obviously), the death scenes are really under-emphasized when they should be the main part of these films, and the characters are all detestable... I know some of the later sequels pick up on the death scenes a little so I have that to look forward to.

Anyway, now that Jason's finally really dead (Really, really this time) it'll be interesting to see how they bring him back.

Not really, I already know and of course it's not interesting... half the time he comes back from the dead for no reason at all so I'm not really sure why they feel a need to explain it at all in the next film.

I probably won't review another Friday the 13th until I get to Jason Takes Manhattan. I can't imagine anything interesting is going to happen until then.

Below is the most awesome clip you'll ever see of Crispin Glover dancing in Friday the 13th part IV:



(If you're reading this on Facebook you'll need to click on "view original post" below to see the clip)

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Ichi The Killer

There is something remarkably weird about this film!
I'm not talking about the content, in fact I cannot for reasons about to be disclosed.
No, I'm talking about the fact that I've tried to watch it several times and every time, 30 minutes in, I inexplicably slip out of consciousness... bizarre!
No matter how many times I've tried, I always wake up 2 or 3 hours later drowsily awakened by the DVD title music once again... it's uncanny. The film is far from boring, so it's not like I'm trying to sit through a Michael Bay marathon and dozing off, and I find myself fairly captivated by the story so my only guess is the film-makers put in some sort of subliminal tone in the soundtrack that has a frequency that affects only certain minds (if it affected everyone then no-one would have ever seen Ichi The Killer, and we would have some sort of a world-wide bizarre-o phenomenon going on!) and sends them off into a deep unconscious state (otherwise known as "sleep"!).

It's truly bizarre and I have no explanation for it!

Oh yeah, did I mention that every time I wake up there are gallons of blood splattered everywhere and a mountain of bodies mysteriously appears in my basement?

How queer!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Friday, January 18, 2008

Carnival Of The Souls

"A Weird Tale Of The Unnatural"

Best. Tagline. Ever.

I'm talking the 1962 flick directed by Herk Harvey here. Not the 1998 film presented by Wes Craven in which a clown rapes a woman... apparently... I've never seen that one or even heard of it until I was searching for the tagline for the 1962 which I did see.
Have you seen it?
I don't care!
This review is for the classic Carnival Of The Souls which the newer film clearly tried to cash in on by naming their film the same thing! Those rat-bastards...

It's clear why this film is a classic horror film and none of the other films we find in the $1 bin at Wal-mart and the Dollar Store are! This one's almost worth $2! And it came with another filmon the disc that I'm not sure I watched yet... anyway!
This film follows the story of a crazy bug-eyed lady who narrowly escapes death only to be haunted by some creepy "I like turtles" looking guy, who seems to be both angered and terribly excited to be stalking this woman without much explanation on his part, though this is clearly terrifying as we see the bug-eyed lady run around gasping and placing the back of her hand on her forehead in an "Oh my God, I'm a helpless pre-equal rights movement sort of gal" way.
The film is gripping enough to keep you interested though some of the concepts, the acting and the filming style are somewhat dated. The acting is fine, though there's some slightly over the top drunken wiseguy type in the film who I'm not sure had a purpose... I think it's possible he was meant to be some sort of "comic element", but I'm almost certain the film had absolutely no need for a comic element and all it did was take away from the thriller aspect of the movie, in my opinion...
Anyway, point is, though this film was extremely well made it did lag a little, and only because of the age of the movie I think and I couldn't help but think that dreaded word while watching it...

Remake!


Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Short Circuit

Watched this little treasure last night. And I should stress very carefully that I wasn't in the mood for it. As soon as that tape started rolling (Or rather, as soon as those little electrical signals started sending, as we watched it on NetFlix - Watch It Now)I was launched into the mood! This movie is every bit as awesome as I remember, with the added bonus that you suddenly realise that the Indian (As in, next to Pakistan) Doctor guy is fairly racist! Ah the joys of the dark gloomy doomed racist era of the 80's before anyone really thought we were all born equal! Hold on, that sounded like communist propoganda! It also sounded like I supported racism! This film was a blatant exercise in neo-nazi inflammatory evil mind-washing and should have all copies burned and destroyed save for one copy, which should be kept in a glass case in a museum in Auschwitz to serve as an example. Years from now people can pass through and see the darkness that once, many decades ago, fueled enough racial hatred and radical ideas about machines having minds of their own to send the world toppling into the greatest depression it has ever seen. Not to mention the great "Short Circuit Wars" of '91. It's a little known fact that both conflicts in and around Iraq were a direct result of Presidents' viewing this very film. This clip is actually only referencing Short Circuit 2, in which Johnny 5 learns the true meaning of Christmas.
Johnny 5 Fan Site