Recently watched movies!

[lhb412]

I've been watching several of these horror films with my sister, who loves Halloween and has been eager to see as many of the great old horror films she's never seen before (and my collection is a decent resource for that). She's loving Hammer, loving Vincent Price, and while she was lukewarm on Frankenstein she liked The Wolf Man a lot. Anyway, she was delighted with Brides of Dracula (and why should she be? It's one of the best Hammer films) but then during The Bride of Frankenstein she... rebelled. At various times she had me stop the movie and complain about how cruel the movie was, how it was tortuous to see Karloff's monster be treated so horribly and never finding any peace or happiness. Right before the creation of the Bride (so, the last 10 minutes) she tells me she can't stand it anymore and doesn't!

... considering it's pretty much my favorite movie ever, it kinda bummed me out.

[XvGojira]

Hocus Pocus - For some reason I remembered it being a bit "darker" but it's very kid friendly. There were a few jokes I never caught as a kid that were pretty good, like when a bus stops in front of the three witches they tell him they want children and he responds "Hey, it may take me a couple of tries, but I don't think there's gonna be a problem." Comedy gold that line.

Little Monsters - Still just as great as when I watched it as a kid, although I noticed a lot more swearing than I remembered, might have just been watching TV edits growing up though. The scene with the TV showing the end of The Fly always creeped me out. Forgot how "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" creepy Boy was, surprised that didn't scare me more as a child.

The Wtiches -haven't seen this since it came out. I vividly remember being scared of the whole "figure in a painting" story in the beginning but beyond that and it having mice it was basically all new. Great effects work on the Grand Witch was fantastic. Although the kid acting wasn't all that great, most everything else made up for it.

Dracula - While I hate movie slobs who can't stand "older" movies, but watching this (and I'm currently 10 minutes into Frankenstein) I can't help but marvel at how far we've come in just simple editing and composition of film. I kept having to knock my mind into reminding myself that this was made in the 30's every time it wondered off in the hissing silence of the movie wishing for some music or something to strengthen my interest. There are moments of great atmosphere, Dracula meeting Renfield in his castle oozed gothic creeps. And modern movies might want to take a cue from the past movies with their brevity.

[MekaGojira3k]

[XvGojira]

Frankenstein - Not sure if it was because I became accustom to the format of these old movie or not but I enjoyed it more than Dracula. Maybe it's because other than Drac, Ranfield, and Van Helsing everyone was a straight man of sorts while Frankenstein consisted more of a bunch of characters with a few straight men. And even today, close ups during the monster's reveal are pretty creepy. Although with the pop culture inference of most of these stories taking place in older times (although I think that's more of Hammer's doing than Universal), it was odd seeing more modern clothing and hats when expecting something to take place a few centuries earlier.

Scooby-Doo FrankenCreepy How I miss my half hour dose of Mystery Inc. I just have to get by with yearly DTV instead I guess. Loved that they referenced and used footage from the original show. It emulated Edgar Wright's quick edit montage several times, almost too many times but the gags in there were pretty good. While they didn't do really anything grand with the characters, at times they almost seemed like parodies. Especially Fred with his love for the Mystery Machine. And then there's this...



And they say Daphne is the hot one.

[Dr Kain]

Creature from the Black Lagoon 3D - This is absolutely one of my favorite Universal monster movies of all time and getting to see it in 3D was down right phenomenal. The opening bit when they first find the fossilized Gill Man arm was nothing short of stellar and the 3D as a whole puts most of the movies done today to shame. There were some moments where the screen did seem to get blurry during fast motions, but aside from that, it was wonderful. The movie is amazing. The Gill Man is amazing. And getting to meet the actress from it was awesome. Overall, I give this movie a nice big 9/10 stars.

[jellydonut25]

[XvGojira]

[jellydonut25]

I do love Scooby Doo on Zombie Island. My little brother had that one as a kid and watched the crap out of it. I never minded (but it was in my "angsty" teen years when I was "supposed" to mind, so I pretended I didn't love it as much as I did)

[Dr Kain]

Today was a nice cold and rainy Sunday, so we spent the time cranky through a few movies.

Friday the 13th - This movie is an oddity because it started a franchise out of what was supposed to be just one single stand alone movie with no sequels. The plot of the movie is simplistic but done in such a manner that it mimics the best of both Psycho and Halloween while also giving the killer a true motive. The downside is that the cast is pretty much there just to die, but they are at least enjoyable characters for what little they have when it comes to personality. One of the movie's best aspects is its first person view for the killer and that makes it really unique. Overall, I give this movie a 7/10 stars and it is easily one of the best in the franchise.

The Thing from Another World - This is an interesting odd ball movie being based on the same story that John Carpenter would go on to re-adapt thirty years later. There is a nice build up to the finding of the UFO and the creature and while the dialog is written naturally thanks to people constantly talking over one another,the actors deliver their lines very seriously and wooden. There are lines that end up funny and I'm not sure if they were meant to be because the actors have such serious faces and responses. The other issue is that every just acts so nonchalantly about the whole thing. A dog is found dead, drained of its blood and those that find it just treat it as nothing at all. The story itself is fine for what it is, but there really isn't any sense of suspense in the last half because of how everyone just blows off everything that is going on. A little bit of paranoia could have been a major help in this movie. Overall, I give it a 6/10 stars as it was enjoyable for what it was, but it was nothing ground breaking or even the least bit terrifying.

Rob Zombie's Halloween - This movie just does not get any better with each viewing. Yes, it is definitely better than Resurrection, but not by much. A lot of the movie just doesn't make sense even without thinking of it as a remake. The characters are just giant jerk monkey and seem to care more about making sex jokes and swearing more than having a real conversation. There is little to no character development at all. Loomis is a money grubbing douchebag. The theme music is played in parts of the movie where it does not make a lick of sense. There is a lot of unnecessary gore and violence. Did Michael really need to kill all of those people in the sanitarium? And the cops? Annnnnnnnnnnnnd Laurie's parents? Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd Judith's boyfriend? Did we really need to see those two guys rape a girl? Did we need to have Annie's pointless boyfriend there to die? Why did Michael take Laurie to his house? How did he get her there without anyone else noticing? Why would Lynda and her boyfriend go to the Myers house? Plus, the movie does not even have an ending, it just stops. ARGH!! This movie is just straight up a Rob Zombie movie and is as crappy as The Devil's Rejects. Overall, I give this garbage a 3/10. The best thing about it is that it does at least have a great looking Myers mask.

Friday the 13th 2 - When I first watched this one in 2009 I was not all that impressed with it. This time around though, I liked it a lot more than the first time. It is actually a pretty good film with some nice creativity in the kills and it is nice that they did not just kill off the entire round of people in it. Nevertheless, the movie is far from its problems. The majority of the characters are there just to die, so they have very little development. The other issue is that the editing seems poorly done as shots seem to abruptly cut and what not. It is distracting and does take away from it. Overall, I will still give it a 7/10 because, while not as good as the first one, is still a decent entry.

[MekaGojira3k]

Gods and Monsters - I loved this. Now to finish up some more Dracula/Frankestein/Wolfman films.

[Dr Kain]

Friday the 13th 3 - This movie sucks. None of the characters have any sort of development and their acting is down right atrocious. It's like they just offered people they saw walking down the street a role in this movie because they didn't have the time or money to actually hire actors. The back story of Chris makes no sense because Jason does not have hair even though he had it just a day or two ago from the incident of 2 (even though he seems to have lost it again in the matter of 12 hours). Granted, it was nice that they wanted to do some type of back story, but the lack of any acting skills on the main character makes it hard to believe. The worst part is the staff seemed to prefer putting in as many 3D gimmicks as possible rather than write a good movie because the plot is just awful. Not only that, but the three bikers and the married couple at the beginning served no purpose other than for someone to say, "Yes, we now have a higher body count than before." Sure, Jason is a lot better in this movie than the last one, but still, for someone who had a machete sliced into his shoulder a few hours ago he seemed to have healed quite quickly. And now he gets an axe to the face that will not be present later. Overall, I give this movie a 4/10 stars.

[jellydonut25]

^The axe to the face is one of the few things in the F13 series that affects ALL the movies. The notch in the mask remains for the next SEVERAL films and Jason's eye is marred forever. It's one of the only bits of tangible continuity in the entire F13 series.

[lhb412]

Son of Frankenstein

The most unjustly underrated (but at the same time incredibly influential) of the Universal Monster films. Lugosi, Rathbone, and Atwill are fantastic. Sure, Karloff's monster is more marginalized role, but there's an in-story explanation as to why, and considering that the movie revolves more around the idea of a Frankenstein legacy having the Monster be a brain-damaged shell of himself fits. Everyone has a strong conception of what the Monster is, what he represents, but he's just pawn to those around him.

The Creature From the Black Lagoon

The importance of always being equipped to fight monsters.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

My sister said she wanted to see a really scary movie. This didn't disappoint, but she was mad at me for repeatedly spoiling the finale of this film over the years, because it's one of those films I never shut up about!

[Dr Kain]

RZ Halloween II - Well I'm not really sure where to begin, as this movie does some really great things, but at the same time, it does so much wrong. First off, I will say that the movie was not as bad as I initially thought it was last year. It does have an interesting premise of showing Laurie's life after Michael and how messed up she is from it. Unfortunately, this movie really should have been called Hoboween as Michael is just that, a hobo. I also do not like how they have him making grunt sounds whenever he kills someone or has him talk. Another issue is the timeline is all messed up. In the first one, it says 17 years have passed after Michael's mom killed herself but now it says 15. That just does not make sense. Nor doe this new kid even pull off young Michael. His mannerisms are completely different from the last kid and he does not even try to act messed up. He is just there. Nevertheless, the biggest problem with this movie is that it is just way too damn long. There was no reason for it to be 2 hours when 90 minutes would have just been fine. In fact, if they were to cut out every scene with Sheri Moon in it, along with the pointless kill run at the Red Rabbit (which for some reason I thought had Michael setting the place on fire), that would probably fix all of the movie's pacing issues. Other than that, this movie is still terrible, but it could be worse. As such, I'm going to give it a 2/10 because it is just slightly better than Resurrection, but Michael has been humanized way too much to give it anything higher.

[XvGojira]

I've only seen RZ' H2 once before and I don't recall him talking. But I did find it kind of funny that the farmers he first kills had run ins with him previously, based on how they talked to him.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

X-men Days of Future Past. It was pretty decent, though it seemed to drag on a bit in some parts. I probably should have waited for the Rogue edition next year which will restore Anna Paquin's scenes into the movie but oh well. Looking forward to AoA.

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

I like the grunting thing. He grunts like crazy when he's killing people in the original Halloween. People always seem to forget that.

[Dr Kain]

The Thing - Getting to see this on the big screen was freaking amazing. I have nothing more to say about this movie that I haven't said in the past outside of that it features the two greatest F bombs in cinema history. Carpenter's best movie with a 9/10 stars.

[Dr Kain]

Zombieland - I just flat out love this movie. It is hilarious, has good characters, and the music kicks ass. Not to mention the awesome cameo towards the end of the movie is just amazing. I always go back and forth between whether I like this more than Shaun of the Dead or vice versa, but either way, you cannot go wrong. Although, it is funny to see how many times Tallahassee could have had his Twinkies if he had actually looked more closely as there are bags of them sitting in the Hostess truck on the right side where they don't look and there is a box of them in the super market when he is beating the fat zombies up. I give this rollercoaster ride an 8/10 stars.

[XvGojira]

John Carpenter's The Fog - God I love this movie. Although in hindsight Jamie Lee's character seems sort of a twit. After one night of weirdness in that town I would've booked it straight out, no matter how good a lover Tom Atkins was. But the slow creep of the movie and minimal music (mostly just constant low tones) are effective as hell.

[Dr Kain]

[XvGojira]

Half hour into The Fog remake. Turdiest dog turd of a movie. I'll see if they explain the wet ghost footprints showing up without the fog. But damn. It's so bad it almost hurts. Selma Blair's "too cool for this town" attitude, the stupid sudden loud jump scare knocks from the ghosts (again without the fog present), the the stupid "spooky" whispering when the fog is present, and the overly massive fog. It's like something out of the Brendan Fraser Mummy movies.... AAARRRGGGHH!

I'm seriously thinking turning it off. Aside from time constraints, I rarely do that, no matter how bad the movie.

EDIT:

Freaking stupid random flashbacks telling us the plot. And the ghost blowing people up. URGH!

That was one of the stupidest goddamned endings to a movie I have ever seen. They just leave? That's it? Captain get's his ghost girl back and calls it good? Why did she turn into a ghost? Was she reincarnated? Transparent zombies are way less scary than shadowy figures. And the town suddenly became post-apocalyptic with all the off screen screaming and parked burning cars.

Also I found it hilarious that the statue ceremony had like 12 people there when they acted like the whole town was going.

So so so stupid. I got to cleanse the palate with something.

[Dr Kain]

I tried watching The Fog remake when it first came out on DVD and couldn't get through it. Now that I have seen the original I want to attempt it again so I can compare the two even though the results will be obvious.

[Dr Kain]

Friday the 13th VII - This is such a weird movie. It has an interesting idea, what would it be like to see Jason take on a telekinetic, and yet, it does so little with it in terms of execution and plot. That just flat out ruins it as none of these characters are there to be anything more than canonfodder. Yes, that sounds weird, as most of the time, the characters are there to die, but at least the previous movies try to make you want to see one or two of them survive. Here, none of them are worth saving, even Tina as she is just a freaking idiot. It does have some great kill scenes though but I think even Jason was tired of it. I do love how much battle damage Jason was shown to have on both his mask and on his face, so that was nicely done. Nevertheless, I just don't give a crap about the characters, which is where this movie ultimately falls flat. Another thing that seems strange is how the name went back to Crystal Lake after being Forest Green for several years. Did they just decide to own up to it? And why would anyone want to still live there? Overall, I give it 4 points as a movie, but I'll give it one more point for its awesome music, so it gets a 5/10 stars.