Priceless

So had a complete reversal of film genre after Joy of Torture. Went for a French dramedy. Honestly, the main reason I chose to watch it is because of Audrey Tautou. Ever since seeing Amelie I've been enamoured with her. Course that's not to surprising because that happens with many many actresses I watch. The other reason is that I actually enjoy watching romantic comedies. Go ahead and make your jokes... I'll wait.......... are ya done? No? I'll wait longer..........OK so on to my thoughts on the movie.
The route that this little love story takes isn't one that I expected. Of course, being that it wasn't made in Hollywood, this isn't surprising that it wasn't formulaic. I was hoping for more comedy than it ended up having. The movie itself was light and enjoyable for the most part and there were a few laughs in it but mostly it just pulled out a bunch of smiles from me. This however didn't keep me from getting a little bored about half way through. It wasn't that I disliked the story, it just felt like it meandered way too much. I liked the two main characters but didn't really care about much else in the film.
I will say that I was completely captivated by Tautou throught the whole movie. I found that I couldn't keep my eyes off her. That being said if you are a fan of hers, this definitely movie is worth a watch. Her co-star Gad Elmaleh played a great bumbling charmer but he wouldn't have been able to hold the movie on his own. The two of them seemed to fit well together and you can't help but enjoy most of their interactions.
So overall, would I recommend it? Sure if you are a big fan of Tautou or are just a big sap for romance flicks. If you're looking for a romantic comedy, there are better ones out there but you could certainly do way worse.

BTW if you haven't seen Amelie DO IT NOW! Or at least soon!

Shogun's Joy of Torture

Hello again world of blogging. I've strayed away from this blog for a while and I'm trying to get myself posting again. I have Blogger on my HTC Evo so hopefully that will give me more of an incentive to post here.
Okay so where to start on this movie... I found this flick on one of two sites I ran across that sell OOP (Out of print) cult movies. This one was found on www.cinema-de-bizarre.com. I also bumped into www.twistedanger.com from which I bought Ilsa: Shewolf of the SS. Both companies have a great product. The one from Cinema de Bizarre came in an amaray case with cover art and a simple title printed on the disc. Twisted Anger came in a CD case with a good amount of detail printed right on the disc. Both companies have some lead time on shipment (about 2 to 3 weeks) but the product is definitely with the wait in my opinion.
On to the actual movie. What's there to say about this? Honestly, not a whole lot. I got distracted by the internet part of the way through, so I was only half paying attention to it. That being the case, it still seemed like a long movie. Basically the movie consists of a few vignettes set in Feudal Japan which end in women being tortured for various reasons and men being murdered to mix it up. None of the stories are very compelling but on the same token they aren't the worst stories.
The special effects are not horrible for the time period (released in '68). Nothing tremendously graphic or overly believable. Pretty tame in light of some movies I've seen in my lifetime.
So what's so special about this flick? Not too sure. I think the fact that it was done in the late 60's means it's one of the earlier exploition flicks from Japan but I haven't done any research to confirm that.
Would I recommend Joy of Torture? Not really. There certainly have been better and more insane movies to come out of Japan since this movie, for example the Guinea Pig series. But I guess you have to start somewhere.

Dead Snow

Dead Snow... I knew I wanted to see this movie from the first few shots in the trailer. A movie that almost immediately mentions Evil Dead 1 and 2 and has a guy wearing a Brain Dead (Dead Alive) movie T-shirt has my attention immediately. Also... Come on, how can you pass up frozen Nazi zombies!

I thoroughly enjoyed myself with this movie. I will be buying it ASAP (I watched it on Netflix streaming). If you enjoy kind of goofy yet over-top-gory flicks, then this is perfect for you. BTW for you whiners out there about subtitles, it is subtitled when you watch it on Netflix. I prefer that to dubbed any day, but I know some people are sensitive about having to read while watching a movie.

Dead Snow is rather typical in many aspects for this type of homage horror film. A few examples are:
References to other horror movies to establish that the makers of this flick love horror films.
The expositional character that knows the evil history of the area so that viewers can't say the film lacks some sort of a plot.
Visual "reenactments" of scenes of horror films that pushed the filmmakers to make their own horror film.

I think this film did a great job of combining horror, homage and comedy. There were some great scenes that made me cringe then laugh out loud. This type of film walks a fine line. It's kind of like tight rope walking. Think of the comedy and horror as being the tight rope walkers balancing stick. Comedy is on his right and horror is on his left. The farther out you go comedy-wise, the more over the top the horror needs to be. If you don't balance that out, the movie is too lopsided and it falls on it's face. I believe that's why this film works well.

The acting was good enough that I didn't even think once about it until just now while writing this blog entry. Guess that is a good way to judge that. I also loved the crazy gore juxtaposed to the sometimes slapstick comedy. I really love the whole Nazi zombie idea also. They could have easily just made a normal zombie flick, but instead added the Nazi aspect which just made this that much more bizarre.

This is one of those gems that I believe will become a cult classic. It has definitely been added to my list of favorites along side with the likes of the Evil Deads, Re-Animator and Dead Alive. In fact, writing about it a day later makes me want to see it again, right now. Maybe I will.

Terminator Salvation

I had put off watching this movie because I had heard mixed reviews on it. I also know that it didn't do nearly as well as it was expected to in the theaters. It made 125 million worldwide and cost over 200 million to make. But I don't usually take those kinds of things into consideration when choosing a film to watch because there is a huge amount of "crap" movies that I love. That being said. I'm not sure why I didn't see this movie right away.

I ended up enjoying this flick. Multiple times the little critic voice in the back of my head would start to creep up and I would have to distract him and smack him over the head with a 2 by 4 to continue enjoying the movie. There were no glaring plot holes that I noticed. Some of the stuff was very minor. One example, and this doesn't ruin plot at all, is when a motorcycle terminator is taken down and then "overridden" so the person can ride it. My question is... if these are machines made by machines, why are there manual controls? By the way, yes I said a motorcycle terminator. There are many types of terminators in this flick. Large ones, small ones, flying ones, swimming ones, you name it. After reading about McG's (the man behind the Charlie's Angels movies and the short-lived Fastlane TV series) idea about this film, it proved that his vision fit the final product. He said this is a war movie at heart. That it is. Between his high energy action sequences and Danny Elfman's (who scored nearly every Tim Burton film and many, many more) music I knew I would enjoy the film.

I was right. I had fun watching it and can't wait to buy it on Blu-ray to watch it again.

Miss March

Ace Ventura imitation done not so charismatically and set in a somewhat raunchy teen movie. It think that sums it up.

This is a movie that had some original laugh out loud moments, but somewhat annoyed me. Trevor Moore playing Tucker Cleigh was way too much like a bad Ace Ventura (down to the unbuttoned Hawaiian t-shirt) to get past and enjoy. It was one of those things where it seemed to forced and over the top. The movie itself is crazy enough and adding all the nuances of  Tucker Cleigh to it was a bit much. I think it would have played better if the character was just eccentric not a wide-eyed, nearly insane, person.

Besides that, there were a good amount of times where I burst out loud laughing. Some of the things that drew some laughs:
The crazy firemen (all firemen are crazy cuz they breath toxic fumes)
Watching the atrophied Eugene Bell played by Zach Cregger pumping gas had me in stitches.
Then there's the fun with epilepsy and strobe lights.
Poop. That's all I will say.

If any of that sounds like it could be funny to you, then you'll get some good laughs out of this movie. Will you want to see it again? Probably not. Will the laughs be worth sitting through the whole movie... Close call. It depends on your expectations (Hint, keep them loooow.) and how far in the gutter you mind is.

Surrogates

I remember being in and around LA last year and seeing billboards everywhere for this movie. I had never heard of it before that and didn't hear much after either. Only things I heard before I watched it was that it was about robots, Bruce Willis was in it, it wasn't the smartest movie and that it was an action flick. So naturally, I wanted to see it.

I love Bruce Willis' movies. Even Hudson Hawk! I enjoyed almost all of the The Die Hard series (Except 2. That was awful!) The series is completely ridiculous now, yet at the same time is totally entertaining. But besides that... I was talking Surrogates.

The concept of the film is very interesting and some could say plausible with the way technology is growing in the fields of human control over virtual worlds and robotics. The movie definitely didn't delve too deep into the subject, but I think it jumped in enough to be somewhat interesting. The characters are a bit empty. You don't really have an opportunity to get attached to many of the characters.. The action was entertaining, but the CGI was pretty bad at times. Right at the start, as they are doing their setup montage, there's an awful digitally imposed monkey controlling a robotic arm that made me cringe. It kinda sets up the quality of some of the special effects, so at least they were consistent.

All together, I would say that Surrogates is a decent, but hollow, action flick. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again, but I wouldn't necessarily turn down watching it if the opportunity arose.

National Lampoon's: Robodoc

National Lampoon's Robodoc... Hmm Let's start by saying this string of names... Parker Lewis, Bud Bundy, Sgt. Larvelle Jones, Bug Pollone, Dr. Jason Seaver. Add to that blatant imitations of characters such as Data and Ben Jabituya. Then of course you can't forget about the characters like hot nurse Fonda, Fonda Johnsons, with a bell jingle when she adjusts her boobs and Dr. Sosume (Yes it's pronounced So-sue-me). To top it off, in the first few minutes of the movie I believe I also heard "Paging Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard."

Any of this sound funny or familiar to you? If you answer yes to most of these, they you maaaaay like watching this flick on a Friday night when you're bored and sittin on your couch scratchin your ass and seeing how many boogers you can flick into the garbage. Although this was my Tuesday because I filled my Friday night drooling on myself in a bored, near comatose, state then watching a couple of the "Teenape" movies. Yeah I rock. I sat and watched two movies in a row where the main character is played by a guy wearing a cheesy gorilla mask and gorilla gloves. I was gonna write something on those movies, but all I have to say about them is that if you can get through the first 10-15 minutes, you'll laugh a couple times throughout the rest of the flicks. If you can't stomach the first couple minutes, then you'll want to gouge parts of your brain out with a bums toenail by the end. Okay... Wait... What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, sorry I trailed off on talking about Data the android doctor, Uh, I mean Robodoc... kinda like how my mind trailed off while watching the movie.

I wouldn't say it was bad in the sense that it was poorly done. I would say it was bad in the stupid-Airplane/Naked-Gun-sense-of-humor kinda way. Don't get me wrong, I loooove those types of movies and it gave me a couple quick chuckles but ultimately this one only came close to being almost worth watching. Somehow it felt hollow. It wasn't for lack of trying, though. Part of me wonders if the problem was in the fact that half these actors were popular at one point. Maybe now they are depressed that they have to work on a crappy National Lampoon straight to video flick. I think if it wasn't for all of them being in this film, I would have to hate it.

Basically, I've seen better and I've seen way worse. Watch it mostly for a bit of nostalgia for funny TV actors of yore.

Flash Point

Well Just finished watching Flash Point and wanted to write a few thoughts about it. When I watch a flick like this, I usually know what I'm in for, thin plot and (hopefully) good action. I think that's part of their charm. If I see great action, I'm always satisfied. One thing that's nice about not expecting too much from them story-wise is that every once in a while you hit a gem that surprises you with great action AND a great story. This is not one of them...

This is a part "I do what I need to to bust a guy" and "We got a guy deep undercover" cop movie. Basically it's like half the movies out of Hong Kong. So that being said, plot... yawn, lets mention the action!

The fight scenes in this movie were few and far between. There's a nice short one in the beginning then a couple long, pretty fantastic ones in about the last third of the movie. The final fight scene is nice and long. I would almost rather prefer a movie to be like this. Instead of placing many short scenes here and there, save it all up for the end!

I would say that if I were to judge this flick by how many times I exclaimed things like:
"Whoa!"
"Geez!"
"Oh man!"
"Oh crap!"
"Damn!"
"Whoahaha!"
"Nice!"
"Niiiiice!"
"Wow!"
I would give it an A!

Is it the best I've seen? No. Am I glad I watched it? Yes. Would I recommend it? Yes, if you are up for just chillin and watching some great fight scenes. Thanks for stoppin by.

Scrapbook

Well. I'm about three quarters of the way through this movie and I can say one thing... These actors are really dedicated to making this work. They put their all into it. Unfortunately, it doesn't make it a good movie. It makes it pretty creepy and disturbing, but not good. It is extremely low budget, which I don't fault any of these kinds of movies for. Not everyone can have the budget of James Cameron. I like watching films with no budget, because they are doing it because they are trying to make films, not necessarily money. I also believe that with movies like this, they are more effective with a grainy, low-quality look to them. If they were bluray sharp, they would feel extremely fake (well, more than it already does).

Some of the gore effects are as bad as mannequins done up with makeup. Other effects are quite nasty. This is a movie that is way longer than it should be, it's about 2 hours. It's kind of amazing with a movie like this would be this long. Most movies of this sort are lucky to even come in at an hour and fifteen. It's also amazing that they held out that long with only three actors in the entire film. This is a pretty brutal movie. There are some rape scenes that are really cringe worthy. In fact, I think my face was scrunched up in a disgusted scowl for nearly half of it.

As I said before, I give the crew props for putting all they had into it, but it still falls a bit short. Would I recommend this movie? Only if you are a cult cinema buff and you are running out of movies to watch or you are looking to be rather disgusted with yourself afterwords. That being said, I think I'm gonna go take a shower to wash this movie off me.

Surveillance

I finally was able to sit down and watch Surveillance from the beginning again. I don't like reviews that talk about plot and have spoilers in them. If I'm reading a review, all I need to know is what you thought and what you liked/didn't like. So there will be no spoilers or rehashing of the film here.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit.  I liked the tone of the film, very "off kilter" for lack of a better description. I also really enjoyed the acting. Bill Pullman plays a great socially awkward character and French Stewart does a great job showing he can portray the polar opposite of his Harry character in 3rd Rock From the Sun. Man I miss that show... Anyway, I think that all the characters are completely believable and almost all of them have enough awkwardness or craziness to keep you a bit edgy while watching. It's gory enough than a typical suspense flick, but not enough to be considered gory or shocking. I may be a liiiitle biased on that last statement seeing as I have watched many whoppers of gore films, but I'm sure it wouldn't be considered gory by many people.

Lastly, I'd like to say that the story isn't a shocker. It's somewhat standard fare for movies now-a-days, but it's not boring or unoriginal.(*Cough*Avatar*Cough*) =)

I look forward to seeing more from her in the future. I went and purchased it on bluray and the bought the DVD for Boxing Helena. I remember really liking Boxing Helena. I wonder what took her so long to make another movie? Boxing Helena was made in 1993...

All-in-all I'd say this movie has just enough of everything to make it completely worth watching. It isn't the best movie ever, but I completely recommend watching. So if you're in the mood to be wide-eyed and kinda creeped out, this  movie is definitely up your alley.