Recently watched movies!

[Dr Kain]

The Mummy (1959) - The Boris Karloff version of The Mummy is by far my favorite Mummy movie of all time. Growing up though, I enjoyed The Mummy's Hand as I liked the idea of Kharis even if the rest of it was lackluster. Thankfully, Hammer does a great job of doing the Kharis saga better in one single movie that Universal was able to across five movies. Christopher Lee is pretty awesome for having little to no dialog and Peter Cushing really rocks in this movie. It drags a bit in the middle, but it is a very enjoyable one and is also one I would rebuy on BD if WB were to ever release it. I give it a nice 7/10 stars.

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

Because her character feels like a complete waste in the movie as a whole. It feels more like they brought her in just to sell tickets than because they wanted to continue the story of the first one.

[XvGojira]

In The Mouth of Madness - Carpenter and Lovecraftian horrors. Got to love it for that alone. But this time through I noticed how many pointless jump scares there were in this movie. Wish there was more time spent with the monstrous things at the end. Both David Warner and John Glover seemed like cameos, Vigo the Carpathian gets more screen time than either of them. While not holding up to memory nor being a shining example of his work, I still like this movie.

[lhb412]

Ghost of Frankenstein

When I saw this for the first time in years on Svengoolie months ago I was quite hard on it, but not so much this time. It has some fun actors in it. The ending is fun. Not great, but enjoyable.

Also watched the original, silent F.W. Murnau film Nosferatu as well as the Werner Herzog version of Nosferatu from the '70s. Murnau's version surely has the greatest, most perfect images ever in a vampire film, and Max Schrek's vampire the most visually impressive - but I'm a bit sheepish to admit that I might like Herzog's version just a bit more. The story and characters have been fleshed out and that makes the movie more engrossing. I like how it mostly sticks to the silent version's events, but gradually introduces things from Stoker as well as original twists. The real stroke of genius here is making the Mina character (here called 'Lucy', the names were switched for some reason) into the hero of the film, and making my beloved Van Helsing into a doddering old fool!

[XvGojira]

TMNT - I went in expecting to despise this movie and came out liking more than I thought would be possible. That said, it is a very very very bad movie. There are brief glimmering moments that are done right. Some jokes that Mikey does (the sleep walking gag) are great but there's not characterization or development between the turtles. But my god this movie is so bad. From her acting, I think that Megan Fox doesn't understand words that have too many syllables. The designs are just terrible. Splinter reminded of the fuggly rat that the Grand Witch from The Witches turns into in the end. Shredders' fan of knifes was so massively stupid I was waiting for him to flex and reveal that he has a set of angelic knife wings. The plot is basically the same as ASM. There's no explanation as to why the mutagen would heal Splinter. The "learn ninjutsu by book" was stupid. Them being April's childhood pets was even more stupid. The Foot being a mercenary force with Mongolian/Original Series Klingon masks was confusing. The only thing consistent and "good" was Will Arnet".

[Dr Kain]

I have never liked Ghost of Frankenstein even when I try hard to like it. It is just a down right boring movie.

As for TMNT, I'm going to watch it when it is on Netflix as I have heard the scene where they start playing their weapons like instruments is pretty damn awesome.

[lhb412]

Bram Stoker's Dracula

There's a lot to love here with the use of practical, early 20th century effects; the visual callbacks to previous Dracula films; and just the sheer audacity of the costumes and style of the thing. In the end, though, I feel like other adaptations had the right idea in stripping the story down a bit. Plus, I don't particularly like the characters here, and am fairly ambivalent to a Dracula that's just bad because he's sad about his dead wife.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Avengers - I've already seen this, but I watched it again a few weeks back. It really is a fun movie. I can't decide if I liked this or Cap America 2 better. I'd also rate Guardians pretty high.

[XvGojira]

[Dr Kain]

The Thing from Another World is okay. The reason Carpenter's movie is so great is he did a remake right. You don't remake amazing movies, you remake mediocre ones.

[Dr Kain]

Book of Life - Love triangles have been done to death. In concept, this movie is nothing new as it is pretty much the plot of The Corpse Bride. On the other hand, the movie is done with great passion that you can not help but ignore its flaws and just enjoy the movie for the ride it brings. It is funny, it has a lot of mature themes, a great mix of music from various eras, excellent voice acting, and overall, it is just a fun ride from start to finish. I also got a big Oberon/Titania vibe from the underworld's lords, which was also good. THere are some truly excellent one liners and puns here and it makes up for the crappiness of The Box Trolls. If you don't mind unoriginal plots that have a unique execution, this is definitely a movie for you. Oh, but don't waste your time on the 3D as it sucks. I give this movie a 7/10 stars.

They Live - THe first time I saw this movie last year I instantly fell in love with it and it became my sixth favorite Carpenter movie. After watching it again, I think it might have moved up to the fourth spot as it is just so damn good. Not only that, but its political message holds up even truer this day, which is odd. Both V for Vendetta and They Live are two of the most prophetical movies I have ever seen. Easily an 8/10 stars.

The Shining - As always, this movie has wonderful sound design, editing, cinematography, and visuals. The heart beat sounds when Jack is in Room 237 is just awesome as is the lengthy long camera shots like in the beginning with the beautiful angles and when Wendy is walking towards the radio to call the station. It is full of suspense and has some excellent scares in it. The only downside to the movie is Jack Nicholson himself. His descent into madness does not feel legitimate as Jack seems to be on the edge of the coin to insanity from the very beginning. It takes away from him supposedly transforming from good guy trying to right for his family into maniacal murdering psychopath. Also, Wendy is kind of a moron at times, but Danny does a great job of acting between both Danny and Tony. Overall, this is a fantastic movie and one of my favorite Stephen King movies to date. I give it an 8... er... maybe a 9 out of 10 stars.

[jellydonut25]

[XvGojira]

[klen7]

[jellydonut25]

[lhb412]

Alien

For my money nothing's else in this franchise beats this first film. Superb haunted house movie or cautionary tale about working under dangerous conditions for an unscrupulous company? You make the call!

[Dr Kain]

The Fog Remake - What the hell did I just watch? Okay, to be fair, it makes far more sense that Nick and Elizabeth knew each other rather than Nick just picking up some hitchhiker and that hitchhiker just sleeping with him out of the blue, but still. This movie has no idea what suspense is or how to even build tension. There is no build up to anything going on, it just happens. There is way too much exposition in the sense of constant flashbacks and the ending is completely ripped off of an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark. Not only that, but the ending makes very little sense as it is just random. I get that she was a reincarnation of the captain's lover but why... how... HUH?! There are a lot of scenes that serve no purpose (such as her searching for the runes in Google only to have the computer go out so she has to look them up in a book five minutes later and the dude with the dogs) and it seems like the ghosts can perform all of these super powers to everyone BUT the main characters. Overall, this movie sucks ass and gets a lucky 2/10 stars only because... well I'm not sure why, probably because it isn't one of the worst movies ever made

[XvGojira]

[Dr Kain]

Trick r Treat - This movie just flat out rocks!! It has a great set of stories and an interesting way of telling them. The characters have little development, but the movie knows what it wants to be and what it wants to do that you really forget all about it. It is unique, original, and is something I would love to see a sequel to (although, it would probably be only half as good). It is also a shame this movie never got a theatrical run as it is better than 95% of the horror movies that have some out in the last five years. Not to mention Sam is an adorable monster. I give it an 8/10 stars.

[XvGojira]

Last I heard they are working on a sequel, which I hope not only happens but will be as good as the first. I love anthology films and something like this could easily take a spot on the October release calendar and not get as stale as quick as other movie series.

[jellydonut25]

I love Trick 'R Treat. I think it's a bit overrated by people, but I try not to let that affect my own personal enjoyment of it. It's a movie I love, and I'm not gonna say a bad thing about it, even if people overpraise it a little much.

[lhb412]

The Mummy, which has risen in my estimation of the classic Universal films as the years have gone buy. Also watched the first 20 minutes or so of Dracula '31, which is the best part of the movie (and I watched the whole film a few months ago anyway).

[Hybrid Gojira]

Halloween (original) - I forgot how frightening this movie actually is. The main theme is fantastic...one of the most memorable scores from any movie.

X-Men:DoFP - I watched this in theaters and loved it. The second viewing has made me cool off on it. It's still a well made movie and very fun at times, but I'd rank Avengers, Capt America 2, and Guardians higher.

[Dr Kain]

Halloween - 9/10
Halloween II - 7/10
H20 - 6/10
Halloween III - 7/10
Nightmare Before Xmas - 8/10
Rocky Horror Picture Show 7/10

Also watched this thing called Short Peace today which featured a bunch of anime shorts. To be honest, they all sucked. Possessions was the most creative of them though, but made very little sense. The rest were just blah, especially the last one titled something like The Last Weapon, which was flat out boring as hell.