Recently watched movies!

[walshiam]

I've noticed that the Universal Legacy Collections content was expanded to include all movies that featured the monster instead of making them exclusive to each creature. That's why I purchased the recent Frankenstein Collection to replace an older release. It has ALL of the features with the creature even if the same movies are on other creature collections. I've been watching these films a lot lately and feel that they still don't get the credit they deserve. Just the sets and makeup alone are things to marvel about. The only talent as far as makeup is concerned that even comes close is Rick Baker. They just don't make movies like that any more and it's a shame.

[lhb412]

^One thing I've noticed is that while Jack Pierce was eventually booted from the studio for not keeping up with changing technology (like time-saving latex prosthetics), his 'from scratch' approach to makeup, while laborious, did a much better job of preserving the actor's facial mobility, making it easier to perform.

Karloff's Monster and Imhotep, Cheney Jr.'s Wolf Man - still incredible makeup jobs in spite of the 80 years of advancement since.

[Dr Kain]

[mr.negativity]

[Dr Kain]

Friday the 13th VIII Jason Takes Manhattan - or better yet, Jason Takes a Boat to Manhattan that is Sometimes Vancouver. Seriously, this movie is a mess. It takes over an hour to even get to Manhattan. The chronology is messed up as there is no way this movie could be 30 years later when there was 15 years after Jason died to when his mother got killed, 5 years for the events of the second through the fourth movies, ten years for the sixth, fifteen years for the seventh, and now this. That makes it at least 40 years. Jason has suddenly developed the ability to teleport. On the positive side, I can at least say this movie proves he does not have ADD since he has hundreds of people he can kill at his whim but only sticks to going after the main characters. Of course, he doesn't help then Renney seems to have her character shields on at all times since there were multiple occasions when Jason could have just killed her back on the boat. Finally, that ending is just flat out stupid. Why is NYC flooding their sewers with toxic waste each night? Is that part of a new "Get Rid of the Alligators" initiative? And how does this waste make Jason turn into a boy? That makes no sense. Now the movie does have some great moments in it, especially when it came to the scenes in Manhattan. I love the scene when Jason first emerges from the bay and there is a hockey mask sign. Also the death scenes are awesome, especially the one with the boxer. It was a cool idea to bring Jason to a big city, as I love everything about that, but this movie takes too damn long to get there and spends too short of a time there. At least the pay off is good for the most part. Unfortunately, most of the characters are just flat out stupid to be likable, assholes, or their acting is just really really awful. Some of the worst in the entire series. Overall, I give this movie a 4/10 as it does at least make a good ending point for those who find the next set of movies to be pure crap.

Jason Goes to Hell - Just like its title, this movie can go straight to Hell. It absolutely sucks. There is absolutely no character development. Hell, the movie doesn't even really have an ending as we don't even really see the remaining characters once Jason is gone beyond them walking away in the background. The deaths are bland and dumb. There is nothing creative to be had. Suddenly Jason has a sister and only his bloodline can kill him for good? I think I have heard this plot before. Jason himself looks like a mess. They couldn't even get his mask right. Also, now it is suddenly only twenty years after the events of the original movie? WTF? Who wrote this thing? Did they not pay attention to anything before it? Oh, and for a house that has been left to rot for the last (at least 20) years, it sure is hell looks to be in such great shape. I won't even bother getting into the concept of Jason having the ability to transfer bodies now as that makes absolutely no sense. Add on top the pointless characters like Duke and you have one stupid dumb ass movie that was made by someone who had no idea how to even make a horror film. THe previous entries might not have been the greatest pieces of cinematic history, but at least they felt like an attempt was made to make them entertaining. Here, there is nothing except, "HEY, LOOK, IT IS A JASON MOVIE, GIVE YOUR MONEY!!" all around it. I give this piece of **** a very high dishonorable 1/10 stars. Not only that, but it is also one of the worst movies ever made. Lastly, you know that not even the movie studios care about this movie when every movie in the entire box set has bonus feature documentaries on it, even Jason X, EXCEPT this one.

Jasonator X - How do you know you have no ideas for a long running horror series anymore? You bring the main killer into outer space, that is how. The only positives I can give this movie are for the cool death scenes and that it was at least better than the previous movie. Other than that, this movie sucks ass and gets 2/10 stars from me.

Freddy vs Jason - Normally I do not think crossover movies work, but in this case, it does. In fact, I would say this is the best crossover movie to date. It is fun, it has a lot of great death scenes, and some really cool action scenes. Funny enough, this movie was my introduction to both the Freddy and Jason characters. It does have a lot of issues, such as it's hokey plot, the fact that they completely jacked up Jason's look (he is not supposed to have a left eye), and Jason is suddenly afraid of water. The fight scenes between the duo is down right awesome and brutal though. Robert Englund is definitely at his finest here, but I don't really get why they did not have Kane return as Jason. Sadly, the character development is what your are expected, but at least it is vastly superior to the development found in the last two Friday movies. Overall, I give it a 7/10 stars.

[Hybrid Gojira]

I watched Fury last night.

I'm a sucker for anything WWII related, so I enjoyed it, but the characterizations have mostly been done before. It's still a well made movie, but I think the end is slightly overdone. I'd give it a 7-8/10.

[hanshotfirst1138]

[Dr Kain]

[Hybrid Gojira]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Hybrid Gojira]

[hanshotfirst1138]

I like Freddy vs. Jason. It has all of the requisite blood and boobs for genre fans, and the screenwriters did their homework and tie together the mythologies quite well. Ronny Yu Yan-Tai has that kinetic Hong Kong style and gives the movie a lot of visual razzle-dazzle, the cinematography is pretty stunning, and the fight scenes are well put-together. The characters are stereotypes which wouldn't pass a creative writing class-goody goody virgin with big boobs, smart nerd, token black girl, stoner, good guy with a dark secret, but it's much better than a mashup of its type has any right to be, and it has the damn sense to know how silly the whole enterprise is, so it's kind of fun.

The Nightmare films are mostly run-of-the-mill slasher stuff, but the two directed by Craven are brilliant. The original is flawed, but it's a surreal, intelligent, very scary film which unfortunately lives in the shadow of its own cash-in sequels. The seventh film, New Nightmare is an ingeniously witty deconstruction of the horror genre with great brains behind it, and IMO one of the most underrated horror films of the past twenty years. The remake is one of the five worst films I've ever seen in my life, avoid it at all costs.

[XvGojira]

The Mummy - Having only seen the Brendon Fraser Mummy films, I was kind of surprised at how many thing sort of tie in with the orignal (Imhotep, Anck-es-en-Amon/Anck Su Namun, Ardeth Bay, the viewing pool etc). With all these old films I find it kind of funny how quickly characters fall in love, but then they only had 70 minutes to tell a tale . They exchanged maybe three lines and suddenly they're lovers. And I think I've gotten used to the age of these movies now. The make up on Karloff was wonderful. He was exceedingly creepy as Imhotep/Ardeth Bay.

The Invisible Man - The invisible jerk. I understand the "it makes him mad" aspect of it, but one would think stark raving mad not "I'm going to conquer the WORLD!" mad. And movies like this, I wish I had a time machine to go back and watch people's reaction to the effects. They're still pretty damn good, in my book.

Something Wicked This Way Comes - I read the story a few years back, I like a lot of it but I had a hard time getting through it. The movie was a fairly accurate adaptation, aside from a few things, from what I recall. When I heard Mr Dark's voice I instantly knew it was Jonathan Pryce and he seemed like he enjoyed playing that role. I'm sure this would have scared the crap out of me as a kid. The spider scene alone. And I felt icky that they actually stepped on one. Poor little guy (I hate house spiders, but not too bothered by tarantulas).

[lhb412]

[Dr Kain]

Friday the 13th Remake - This was the first true Friday the 13th movie I ever saw and it was pretty good. Now that I have seen the others, I still think this is a good one, certainly better than some of the sequels to the original series, but it is heavily flawed. I do not really like this version of Jason as he seemed to be more Leatherface than Jason, taking hostages and overall, acting more human than anything else. THe guy who also played Jason sucked when it came to movement. On the other hand, there were some pretty cool death scenes, but most of the characters were unlikable, especially Trent, who makes the rich "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" from VII appear lovable. Overall, I'm going to drop this movie down from my original 7/10 from 2009 and move it to a 6/10. It isn't bad by any means, and it is certainly superior to the Halloween and Nightmare remakes, but it still is pretty subpar compared to the best of the series.

ANd thus brings an end to the entire Friday the 13th series. While it is not my favorite horror franchise, as a whole, the series is subpar, they are still quite enjoyable and there are some truly good movies within.

[jellydonut25]

[Hybrid Gojira]

I like Jason takes Manhattan for the sheer stupidity of it. The boat scenes are fine. The characters are basically what you come to expect at this point in the franchise. The film isn't good, but for some reason I can enjoy how dumb it is that Jason gets a boxing match and takes a cruise all in the same film.

Jason X is utterly trashy...but it's so bad I kinda like it. It features one of the best kills in the series (Jason crushing a frozen face into pieces). It's also Jason...in space! If that didn't tell me how terribly awesome this movie was going to be, nothing would. I guess I can take it in spurts.

And for some reason, Jason in space reminded me of critters in space...I always did like critters.

[jellydonut25]

[MekaGojira3k]

I tried to watch Friday the 13th again, the first one, on AMC...but I didn't even last as long as I did the first time. 5 minutes in and I was saying to myself "Godd, this is boring." So I turned the television off and put on Return of the Jedi.

[Dr Kain]

[MekaGojira3k]

[jellydonut25]

The Friday the 13th series is my least favorite of the 3 major slasher franchises (the other two being Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street).

I find none of the films to be of quality higher than "Cheap, mildly enjoyable trash", and a lack of recurring characters and actors really makes it hard to get invested or care.

There are certainly a couple of them I do REALLY enjoy as cheap trash: 4, 6, 7, Freddy vs. Jason...but the rest range from "yeah...this movie exists" to "this is the worst thing I've seen and makes me want to tear off my own face and feed it to stray cats"

(there are also a couple slasher franchises not in that big 3 that I like better than F13...well, namely one: Child's Play)

[MekaGojira3k]

The cheap trash part just isn't drawing it in. I think I'll eventually make it through the series, just to have that frame of reference for the genre, but it's going to take an evening with my having absolutely nothing of interest around me.

[Dr Kain]

I prefer the Friday series over Nightmare, which only has 2 and a half good movies. I absolutely hate the second movie in the series with a passion. Although, compared to the remake, it is not so bad anymore. I don't remember the fifth and sixth ones at all though as I haven't watched them in about 10 years. The best ones are the original and New Nightmare. Most of the third movie is good, but I hate that they just kill off Nancy like a second rate nobody.

[Hybrid Gojira]