What I'm Watching: Mama

I completely forgot about this!  Watched it last week, and promptly never got around to reviewing it.

Long-time readers may recall I wasn't too thrilled with the last movie that had Guillermo Del Toro's handprint on it, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.  It wasn't bad, but something about it never clicked.  I wanted to see Mama, but never bothered in the theatres, in part because of that (Even though Del Toro was only producing) and because the trailers made me cringe just a little bit, and not in a good horror way.

Which makes me SO pleased that after watching the DVD, I so enjoyed it!

The story is about a man who one day snaps and kills his co-workers and wife, and while taking his kids away to escape capture, he crashes deep into the middle of a wintery nowhere.  He finds his way to a shack and uses it as shelter for himself and the kids, but it's not long before something attacks and kills him.

Cut to several years later, when his twin brother, who never gave up searching, finds the cabin, and the kids, still alive and having gone a wee bit feral over all this time in the woods and no other human interaction.

Note the 'human' part of that sentence.  Because while the kids were left out there, they were not alone.  Whatever killed their father took care of them.  A something that follows them back to civilisation to watch over them, and something that they call Mama.

The plot unfolds quite well from there, with a lot of good creepy moments and scares, in that definitive Del Toro style.  He may have only produced, but you can tell he had his hands in this.  In good ways, and bad ways.

Del Toro's style is often quite terrifying, but also has this tendency to switch in an instant over to something more...whimsical.  And that is located here as well, sadly enough.  It doesn't ruin the movie, but the occasional silly or cute look to something we are supposed to be afraid of undercuts things just a little, in those few moments it happens.

Fortunately, it only happens when we're supposed to be sympathising with the creature, seeing its human side, both figuratively, and literally.  So at least it makes sense thematically, and makes it more palletable.

Most importantly, the movie actually ends with a satisfying ending.  Something that can be so rare in hrror these days.  It's not necessarily a HAPPY ending, but things are resolved, and explained adequately enough, and you are left with a sense of closure and hope.  I'm all for ambiguous endings, or sequel baiting, but these things have become so prevalent in horror movies, you almost forget what a legitimate *ending* is!

Probably the biggest problem is that the movie may not have the most original elements to it.  You will find many familiar tropes.  But they are put together in a new way, with its own style, that you can almost forget that nagging feeling of familiarity it sometimes has.

The cast is great, with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau doing a dual role of the brothers, and you really feel his pain at losing his family so many years ago, and the hope at rebuilding it again.  Jessica Chastain as his girlfriend who gets put in the unenviable position of trying to take care of the kids when she doesn't want to also puts in a way better performance than such a role would normally receive.  Even the kids aren't annoying.

Mama was a real treat to watch, both from a storytelling point of view, and visually.  Even on his bad days, even on a movie Del Toro just sneezed at, the movie has a distinctive style that is entrancing.  It may not be the most original horror movie, it may have its own quirks, but those are also its charm, and I think it works.

What I'm Watching: Agent Beetle

Since I looked at one awesome superhero movie last week, let's stick with the divergence and talk about another superhero movie I watched.

Is this one awesome too?

Pffffahahahaha, not really.

Agent Beetle is...special.

It is a very independent, very low budget movie, and almost every frame of film shows that to its fullest.  The plot revolves around a cop who goes undercover as a criminal so he can be injected with a serum that gives people insect-like abilities.

Just how insect-like those abilities are can be highly questionable, but eh, whatever.  I can roll along with the plot device.

Dan Garret runs around...wait, what?  Dan freakin' Garret?  So, Agent Beetle is THE GOLDEN AGE BLUE BEETLE!?

What the what??

Yep, they've adapted the golden age Blue Beetle into a modern story told on the cheap.  The plot is simple and straightforward, it does nothing original, and is so simple that the 80 minute run time is highly padded.

Long scenes of people walking around, extended fight scenes I can forgive because of the content, but then there's a nearly five minute scene of a bikini pagent that is there for no purpose, other than to drag things out, and boobs.  One of our villains walks into the club, watches the thing, then leaves.  No real point, no real dialogue.  Whatever.

The sets are downright laughable, if they can be called sets.  Half the movie takes place clearly backstage at a theater.  I recognise those curtain setups all too well from my days in drama clubs.  Seriously, the evil mastermind scientist's office has black curtain walls?  Yeah, no.

When they're not backstage at the Apollo, I'm pretty sure the rest of the sets are just various other rooms in the theatre.  They have that distinct blandness of no set dressing and waiting for the cast of Cats to walk in at any time.

Much like you would expect from a movie that LOOKS like it was filmed by the crew of a college film project, the acting is about on the same level.  Everyone is stiff with little emotion, going through the motions, and with such bland, unoriginal dialogue, it's no surprise.

Uninspired is the watchword for Agent Beetle.  The best thing I can say about the movie is that the opening credits look bloody amazing.  They blew their effects budget on those, I suppose.

But since this is Trisk, being a bad movie does not mean it's not a fun movie, and this movie is just so crazy, so silly, it is mindnumbingly fun.  It is a blast watching this silly, pointless plot wind down every cliche path you'd expect, the actors stumble through their scenes, and how the lack of sets is like something right out of a Rob Liefeld background.

Agent Beetle may be a bad, dumb movie, but...we kinda love you anyways.  I had a blast watching it, even if I shook my head the entire time.

What I'm Watching: Stitches

Up on the chopping block today is the...rather interesting movie, Stitches.

What we have here is a mix of horror and comedy, much in the same vein as Shaun of the Dead.  It has that dry British wit, and some great effects, and some very off the wall humour.

The movie opens up with our titular clown, Sitches, banging a girl shouting, "Fuck me, clown!"

Much like Father's Day, just that mere description kinda gives you an idea of what you're in for here.

This is the story of Stitches, a clown who is accidentally killed by the mischief-making of a group of eight year olds at Tommy's birthday party.

Eight years later, when Tommy has finally put to rest the demons of having seen a clown die with a knife stabbed into his face at his last party, he agrees to throw another birthday party when he turns 16.

This event calls forth the corpse of Stitches to enact his entirely appropriate revenges upon each of the kids that fucked up his day, in ways that were surely handed down from the ironic punishments division of Hell.

What that transpires is about 45 minutes of the clown stalking through the party, killing everyone in his way, and basically having a laugh of it all.

LOVED this movie, plain and simple.  It never takes itself seriously, obviously, but it still is insanely bloody and brutal.  Even so, that violence remains purely in the realm of cartoon violence.  One of the kids gets killed by a bike pump being shoved into the back of his head, and getting his noggin inflated until it explodes.

Ross Noble plays the clown, and oh my god, is he hilarious.  Stitches comes from a long line of surly clowns who hate their job, but have nothing better to do.  And his demeanor does not improve upon his rise from the grave.  In fact, he seems more perturbed that he's been woken, than being killed in the first place.  He is grumpy, not very nice, and just wants to get this over with.  I love this take on a clown, and having a bad guy only going through the motions so he can be done with this shit, is a fun twist, and seems like something that would only appear in a British movie.

The movie is very satisfying, in so many ways.  Many of the kids grew up to be little shits, thanks to the traumas of watching a clown bite it, so you are so pleased to watch them get what's coming to them.  Plus, the bad guy actually gets taken out in the movie, which is ALWAYS a plus, and there's even room left for a sequel, if they want to do one.  Which I would welcome.  They even manage to fit in a little bit of coming of age story tropes for Tommy, as he recovers from his birthday clown death, and struggling to overcome.

It hits all the right notes of horror and humour that you want this movie to have.  It hits a few tasteless notes, but even with those, this is such a fun movie, with some great writing.

Definitely check this out!

What I'm Watching: Crush

Many moons ago (HA!) I posted my thoughts on Teen Wolf season one.  I really ought to post my new thoughts on the show, given season two, and seeing season one a few more times since then.

But instead, I am going to talk about a movie starring the female lead of TW, Crystal Reed!  Who was *easily* the highlight of Teen Wolf's first season for me.

Crush is the story of Bess, who has (That's right!) a crush on her schoolmate, Scott.  Scott also has a friend who has yet another crush on him, but she's a bit more open about it than Bess is.  Bess is your typical quiet, shy, loner girl, who doesn't know how to interact with people half the time, let alone guys.  I can kinda identify with her, really.

There's also another guy who has a crush on Bess that is just as unrequited as all the other love in this movie.

Things quickly take a turn for Basic Instinct territory for the teenager demographic though, when Jules starts to be targeted by some other girl crushing on Scott.

HMMMM, who could it be??

Surprisingly, the movie doesn't go the obvious route.  In fact, Bess is a little too obvious, so it becomes a question of whom it is messing with Scott and everyone else.  It's good to have the twist to the plot, but at the same time, it comes just a LITTLE out of nowhere with a character who could have used a little more build up before the reveal.  Once the true antagonist is revealed, Bess sadly falls by the wayside for FAR too long in the movie.

The creepy obsessed stalker genre of film is a tried and true cliche, and this movie doesn't really do anything THAT new with it, but it does hit all the right notes.  It's surprising that there aren't more movies like this, especially with the advent of technologies that make it so, so much easier.  It's usually the adults that are the stalkers, but there should be more teen stalker movies.  Their bodies are all messed up, hormones are everywhere, and our brains are still developing, so getting a little crazy makes sense.

It's also a nice twist that the girl they are setting up to be the stalker, KNOWS she's bad at this, she knows she gets obsessive, she knows she's awkward and all those bad things.  It's a nice thing to have her be incredibly self-aware.

Crystal Reed is easily the best actress in this, giving a performance that is all the more powerful if you're familiar with her other work.  I am SO used to seeing her being confident and kicking ass on Teen Wolf, that to see her playing the part of this shy, quiet girl, the absolute opposite, and she does it SO well with the way she speaks, the way she carries herself...this girl is already quite a talent, and she should have a long, amazing career ahead of her.

The rest of the cast is pretty solid too, but they all do what they do, and do it well enough.  Crystal just knocks it out of the park, perfectly.  Another good thing is that almost everyone in this movie exhibits a bit of that stalker mentality, good and bad.  We all have those moments, we all check out the Facebook page of the person we like.  It all depends on where we draw the line, where we stop, and how far we take things.  They could have explored those ideas a little more.

Crush ends up being a decent enough movie that doesn't quite try hard enough to be original, but it's fun, it's at least trying to carve out a new niche, and has at least one great performance worth watching, even with a few flaws.

And for the hardcore horror fans?  Leigh Whannell from the Saw films puts in a small role.

What I'm Watching: Guns, Girls, & Gambling

This is a bit different, but feels right at home.

I came across this movie pretty randomly when I was seeing what was coming out this month, and it instantly caught my eye as just being...odd.

And the more I looked into it, the odder it got.

And the more awesome and tempting.  So yeah, I had to get this.

We've got Christian Slater, Powers Booth, Gary Oldman, and a lot of familiar character actors all hunting down an Apache war mask (or is it?) stolen from a Native American casino by one of any number of Elvis impersonators.

No one can be trusted, everyone lies, everyone has secrets, everyone has greed in their hearts.  These are the themes in the movie, and they are explored as the mystery unfolds with a ton of laughs and just utterly insane circumstances.

The plot is very grindhouse, in its over the top ideas and execution of them, although it never goes for the grindhouse style in the filmmaking, which is probably for the best.  We saw how well that went with Modus Operandi.  But the DNA is still clearly there, in just the right amounts.

This movie is IN SANE.  Just...crazy.  It takes a bit to get going, but once it does, it does not let up.  I am sure there are plot holes large enough to drive a bus through, that only get wider as the final act reveals twist upon twist, but it still adds up pretty well.  And is fun enough that I do not care.  I was along for the ride 100%.

The movie is far from perfect.  The acting is cheesy, the plot is insane in bad ways too, maybe a little too crazy, but this is likely entirely intentional, much like Hudson Hawk.  So I don't hold it against the movie, and in fact, it is part of the charm.  But the flaws might not be for everyone.

I absolutely had a blast watching this, and it is surely worth a look for anyone who is a fan of a good, if insane and maybe not entirely coherent mystery.

And how can you go wrong with a bad-ass woman quoting Edgar Allen Poe at every turn?