Recently watched movies!

[Psycho Soldier]

I watched Monster Brawl with a friend a couple months ago. It's a bit empty for sure, and it takes a while to get going, but I thought the actual fights made it passable. Also, Kevin Nash's character was not as brutal to watch as I thought might be the case.

[MekaGojira3k]

Just watched Lake of Dracula (1971).
It was superb. Riichiro Manabe's scores have never been as well used as they are here. It suits this film perfectly.
I also love some of the effects here, Nakano's stuff here just seems more interesting than his Godzilla effects work.
Then again, he has less to do here.

[jellydonut25]

Return of the Living Dead 3 - Yeah...and now I want to have sex with a zombie...so, thanks for that, movie.
with a better score, this movie could have been fantastic. As it is, I just wish I had found it as a kid...I would have unabashedly LOVED something with such a crazy premise, even with the stock score. As it is, I like it, and then I loved the third act.

[Silver Kamen]

[jellydonut25]

[MouthForWar]

[Silver Kamen]

[MekaGojira3k]

Watched the Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971). It took a while for me to sort of 'get it', but once I understood what the movie was going for it was great. Not quite as much of a home run as Lake of Dracula was, but pretty neat. I know there's a sequel, but I don't really feel like watching it. I think this told the story it needed to and ended perfectly.

[Psycho Soldier]

Dr. Phibes Rises Again is okay, though certainly not as good as the first. The Abominable Dr. Phibes is one of those movies that clicked with me right away. On just about every front, it works very well. Some of the deaths are less credible than others, but I have to say that the deaths by frog and beast are awesome. It's one of my favourite Vincent Price movies.

[jellydonut25]

Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis - this movie SUCKS.

The first one is an awesome zombie comedy with elements of horror. The second one is a pretty dull affair with WAY worse comedy. The third one is a bat-sh*t insane movie.

ALL of them, however, keep the notion that the zombies are either completely invulnerable or have a weakness unique to these films, as in, something other than the standard bullet to the head. They also ALL maintain the notion that the zombies have personalities and memoires.

This one, is a typical zombie movie. The zombies are mindless shufflers (well, except one, but by then I wasn't even paying attention anymore) who can be stopped with a bullet to the head, AND it's a bad zombie movie on top of that. Poorly acted, poorly written, and I would have SWORN this thing was made in the 90s until I randomly heard Godsmack singing "I Stand Alone"



Oh, I'd also just like to say I HATE the movie cliché of someone going to fire a semi-automatic weapon, and it's empty or something, and they keep pulling the trigger over and over.
That's not how semi-automatic weapons work. In fact, that's not even how all revolvers work, only double-action revolvers that work that way. Single-action revolvers require the hammer to be pulled back every time, and semi-automatic pistols need either the force of the weapon being discharged, or the action to be run manually by hand in order for the trigger to be pulled.

[Dr Kain]

This is the End - I have to say, I laughed quite a bit, but in the long run, I really don't care if I ever see this movie again. I just did not like any of the characters at all because they were all unlikable. If these are truly how the actors are personality wise (and I can definitely say I do expect Seth to be that much of a douche in reality) then good riddance. I loved the designs for the demons, and like I said, I did laugh quite a bit, so not all of it was bad, but the movie was 20 minutes too long, the ending was stupid beyond comprehension, there were way too many penis jokes, and again, the characters just plain out sucked. Overall, I give the movie a 5/10.

[jellydonut25]

I doubt if ANY of those guys are like that in real life, honestly.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

I watched This is the End also and I found it great, yeah it had it's dull moments but overall it was pretty funny.

[Dr Kain]

Dracula - As always, the movie moves at a slow pace but is still very enjoyable to watch, especially with the Philip Glass score attached to it. While Bela is not my favorite incarnation of Dracula, he pulls off the performance extremely well, but I actually like this version of Van Helsing the best out of any of the incarnations of this story. He might not be an expert with guns (at least on screen), but I really like his personality and the actor who plays him. I also have to say that Universal did a fantastic job remastering this movie for BD. The blacks look incredible, the shadows stand out, and they got rid of the majority of scratch marks and imperfections within the film. I have never seen it look this great and everyone that enjoys this movie should get the BD of it. Overall, I give it a n 8/10.

John Carpenter's Vampires - I haven't seen this movie since it first came out to VHS and I remember why now. The movie isn't bad by any means, and it is better than most of the vampire movies out there (especially these days), the music is great, but the movie is just boring to watch. Plus, it is still missing that John Carpenter cinematography charm the likes of Halloween, The Thing, Escape from NY, They Live, and The Fog have. I don't hate the movie by any means, but I probably will never bother to watch it again and I give it a 4/10.

[jellydonut25]

I'm a Vampires apologist. I think it's great fun. Woods is awesome, I love the padre, the music is great. I like it.

[Dr Kain]

Bram Stoker's Dracula - This is without a doubt my favorite incarnation of Stoker's story in movie form and one of my favorite movies of all time. The set designs, the costumes, the clothing are all gorgeous. The music is incredible and the atmosphere rocks with a lot of colors and beautiful backgrounds. Not to mention Gary Oldman absolutely steals the show as the best Dracula ever done in the media thus far. There are some negatives I have with the movie, as I'm sure they could have chosen someone better for Jonathan and Mina, but they fulfill their roles nicely to bring justice to Stoker's novel compared to the other incarnations. Of course, I do wish there was a bit more of Renfield in this movie, for Tom Waitts was excellent, but that is just something minor in a movie that I consider to be a masterpiece. Overall, I give it a 9/10 and it is nice to see all of Dracula's powers used throughout the entire thing instead of just being mentioned.

And now we are going to be ending our vampire day with the Simpsons THOH that has Bart Simpson's Dracula in it.

[lhb412]

Watched Army of Darkness. You know, I feel the original, post-apocalyptic ending is more appropriate for the franchise but the the theatrical ending is more appropriate for this movie.

I think everyone has a favorite skeleton for this movie. Mine's not the 'Let's get the hell out of here' one, but the one following behind that one.

The Fly (1958)

Because of the fame of the remake I feel the original doesn't get as much love as it should. I actually prefer it because it's such a sweet, weird film (I'd say it's stranger than the remake, which was actually a bit more standard in the 'man becomes beast' formula). I also completely love the look of Andrefly when we eventually see him. The simplest monsters are often the coolest looking to me.

Paprika

The only Satoshi Kon anime I'd ever seen was Paranoia Agent when it aired on American TV all those years ago. Very distinctive style, very beautiful. In a way this is the type of film I wanted when I saw Inception. Not that that movie wasn't good in it's own way, it's just I was disappointing that it didn't really feel like it had much to do with actual dreams. This film managed to get that surreal, embarrassing and iconic feeling of dreams across.

[jellydonut25]

The Faculty - a neat piece of sci-fi. I rather enjoyed it.

[Dr Kain]

Zombie Halloween - Holy ****, if I thought this movie was bad before, it just got a whole lot worse, if for nothing else, for the fact that IT JUST DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!!!!! The movie spends 50 minutes developing a character that Carpenter developed in 10 minutes. Not to mention Carpenter's version was full of suspense and mood. What the hell does this movie do? Throw in blood after blood and ups the body count by like 300,000. However, nothing even comes out of the development of Michael because it was all pointless. Why do we need 50 minutes spent on a character that does not need developing when that should have gone to giving me a reason to care about this version's Annie, Laurie, and Lynda. It's like Zombie figured you have seen the original so he doesn't need to give those three any sort of development and wastes no time killing them off (or trying to kill them off). Not to mention Danielle Harris was a much better actress when she was 8 because her acting in this movie absolutely sucks. However, the worst part is that Michael's motivations just do not make any sense. In the original he killed Laurie's friends to get at her, but here, he kills nurses, doctors, janitors, truckers, cops, and other random people just for the hell of it. However, it is the fact that he brings Laurie to his house that makes the least sense. What was the point of it? He should have just killed her when he first grabbed her. Oh my god this movie sucks!!!! The only reason I can give this movie a 1/10 is because Zombie pretty much just ripped off Carpenter's score for this pointless and insulting remake. Oh yeah, and because McDowell seems to just go with the flow of the movie and pulls off what he can with what he has to work with. The movie drags on for far too long, wants us to feel sorry for Michael by dragging out his stay at the madhouse while butchering any sort of characterization for the characters we are supposed to care about.

Ugh, I have ranted for far too long on this movie, but it will get worse because my retarded ass is watching Halloween II tomorrow. I really shouldn't, but I cannot help myself.

[jellydonut25]

Zombie's H2 is my second-favorite Myers film. Yeah, really.

As for your point about Michael killing Laurie from the get-go, she's his last remaining link to some sort of attempt to be human. Then she attacks him, and that goes away. Whether or not you think that is GOOD, to have rationale behind Michael's actions, the point is, it makes sense.

[XvGojira]

Ah, Rob Zombie's Halloween. For nearly three years my friends and I had a Halloween decoration of a skeleton poster covering a street facing window proclaiming it as bullshit.

There's only three good things in that movie: Joe Grizzly and Danielle Harris' chest.

His obesssion with trailer trash ruins the mystique of Michael Meyers. That was the creepy part of the original. He was just a normal kid from a normal home that one night snapped. No abusive, incestual father, stripper with a heart of gold mother, etc etc.

And poor McDowell, he was an inspired casting choice but they made his character an incompetent twit, instead of a man facing a deadly enigma like in the original.

And Halloween 2, it's bad man. So bad that it's almost kind of good.

[jellydonut25]

I personally LIKE the twist on Loomis in Zombie's Halloween. Had he changed nothing else, I still would have liked him to make that change. It's kind of a neat twist to think that not even the man who knows Michael best understands the true depth and breadth of his power. Turning Loomis into a sellout is the one significant change Zombie makes that I can't think of a good argument AGAINST that doesn't involve "tradition". It's also true to the times of today: everyone involved in some sort of major story tries to make their name for themselves and get their fifteen minutes and their big paycheck.

Unlike all the changes to Myers, which can definitely be argued against.

[DannyBeane]

Both Return of the Living Dead III and John Carpenter's Vampires are awesome. They are both the good type of cheesy and I will defend them all day everyday. I remember watching Return of the Living Dead III when I was 8 on HBO. I think it was one of my first zombie movies. Yesterday I just watched Gravity and while there is an insane amount of suspension of disbelief required (mainly the ease at which Sandra Bullock travels from space equipment to other space stations etc) It was a good movie. There is a lot of heart pounding suspense and the movie will make you be afraid of space. I would definitely watch it again.

[jellydonut25]

The Howling II - Okay, this movie gets a lot of flack and while it definitely earns being dubbed a BAD movie, I'm surprised by how HATED it is. Maybe it's because it's the first sequel to well-loved horror film and one of the best of its sub-genre but...this movie was so insane, so non-sensical and so haphazardly edited that I couldn't help but have fun with it.
Yeah, it sucks, but werewolves having weird sex parties and Christopher Lee spouting off nonsensical lines about power and mystery or whatever and lots of women in latex and leather and that awesome theme song and the scene of sybil danning tearing her top off replaying over and over and over just for no reason whatsoever...it's so god-awful, it's brilliant.

The Howling III - another hilariously bad pile of trash, and it may well be the origin of 'furries'...


These movies suck, but I couldn't help but be entertained. but yes, a FAR cry from the original. Biggest dropoff in quality from original film to sequels that I can think of...

[Silver Kamen]