What I'm Watching: Among Friends

Happy Labor Day, horrorheads!  What better way to spend it than...AMONG FRIENDS??

Okay, seriously.  Among Friends is a movie I watched this past week, directed by horror icon Danielle Harris.  It's about a group of friends getting together to throw an 80s themed murder mystery party as one last big bash before one of them moves away.

During the course of the night the murder mystery becomes all too real, things go horribly wrong, and secrets are revealed, secrets that they've kept even from themselves.  Their friendships are tested in ways they never expected, and nothing will ever be the same amongst the group.

But hey, that's what happens when you allow someone to cut off your friend's fingers for shits and giggles...

The movie ends up being what is termed in the tv biz as a 'bottle episode', where most of the action happens in one room.  You really could do this as a play, almost.  Because of that, and because most of the cast is tied down for 2/3rds of the plot, not a lot actually HAPPENS.

A lot of that gets broken up with flashbacks via video recordings taken by the evil mastermind, everyone's supposed friend Bernadette.  Because of her cameras and (I think?) her trade as a psychologist, she knows everyone's secrets, and sets about revealing them.  Fortunately Bernadette also remains free and pretty violent, so while there's a lot of sitting tied up around a table, her actions keep things lively.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie.  It harkens back nicely to those cheap slashers of the 80s, and if you're a fan of this site, you know what that means.  The story is also pretty solid, and things unfold at a good pace and how everything ties together is well done.  The hints dropped early in the story all come back and most of the questions are answered in a satisfactory way.

The only scene that did NOT work for me at all, was when one of the character, who took mushrooms unexpectedly, has her bad trip kick in, and the movie diverts into tha for longer than was necessary.  It's a fun scene where she trips out and sees the entire cast as part of a movie, with the roles being recast by well known actors, like Michael Biehn.  It's cute, and silly, but really adds nothing much to the overall plot than wackiness and a bit of humour.  Laughs like that CAN be a welcome release, and that is the point where they should have come, but the way they were brought in just ended up feeling more forced than anything.

I really liked what the movie had to say about friendship, how in some cases we may not really know our friends very well, if at all, and in other cases, those friendships may well mean nothing when they need to mean the most.  It's a great commentary on the nature of friendships and shallowness, and whenever a horror movie can slip in some metaphor, it is always good!

Harris's directing is very good, especially for a first time director.  I've always enjoyed her acting, and seeing her take things to the next level was a treat, and I will continue to follow her to directing, if this keeps up.

So, a maybe sometimes cheesy movie that gives lots of nods to 80s style and movies, with some nice metaphor and a decent enough story?  Even with that one scene that I could do with out, I would say anyone who enjoys the movies I already talk about should at least give this one a chance.

What I'm Watching: American Mary

American Mary is the story of a medical student, played by one of my all-time favourite underrated Canadian actresses, Katharine Isabelle.  Last seen gracing these reviews via 13 Eerie.  I won't ramble on about her any more than I have to for the sake of this review.

Mary's a typical student in debt, trying to stay above water while also trying to keep her grades up, and not doing a great job of it.  At the end of her rope, she goes to try and get a job as a dancer at a club, and while there, a friend of the club owner comes in with some major injuries and an unwillingness to go to the hospital.  So, Mary's medical prowess is called upon, and she does her best to save the guy.

Word spreads of her skills to the most unlikely of places, people in the body modification community.  She does a few surgeries for a woman, which only solidifies her reputation.  After a most horrific event with her teachers and colleagues, Mary drops out of school and devotes her life full time to the body mod circuit.

Things go from bad to worse as she gets revenge on her attackers, all on the backdrop of fulfilling every clients whim to make them look the exact way they want.

Boy, I watch some weird movies with some weird kinks in them, huh?

This movie never quite goes the full-on Human Centipede route, and it treats the body modders with, I think, a fair amount of respect, treating them as people just trying to find themselves, and not as freaks.

The story is pretty damned unique, does not go where you might think it goes sometimes, and is not afraid to get VERY dark at times, with a little bit of black comedy to make you feel all the more uncomfortable.

Mary is played superbly by Isabelle, which is no surprise to me.  She nails the life of this student who has everything taken from her, and yet still finds a way to survive.  Survival really is the word for her character, as most of the darkness surrounds her, and when she is attacked midway through the movie, Katharine does a great job of switching gears from the almost submissive, meek Mary to a more serious, colder, distant person.  I've seen some reviews comment on how they didn't understand the switch in personality, and feel it was too sudden, but uh...after what she went through, it's not surprising she would become withdrawn and go to some pretty dark places.

This movie is NOT for everyone, especially if you're a little squeamish.  Like I said though, it doesn't go all the way like Centipede, but there is still some scenes of intense surgery.  But that's not what the movie is about, and more a backdrop to Mary's life, and to inject some thrills and chills into the movie.

I really enjoyed it though, so if you're in the mood for a dark, sexy, revenge thriller that looks into a lesser-seen corner of society, this movie should hit the spot.

What I'm Watching: Warm Bodies

Sticking with the theme of supernatural romances adapted from novels, here's some thoughts on Warm Bodies!

Now, I *know* this movie was hit with backlash because I saw a lot of people saying, "Ugh, no thank you.  it's just Twilight with Zombies."

And that, that is a shame, because Warm Bodies is a genuinely entertaining, if not great, movie.

The story is set in a world with two levels of zombies.  There's your recently dead zombies, who still have a sense of self, ability to think, and sadly, an overwhelming urge to eat human flesh.  Eventually, their humanity fades away, along with their consciousness and memories, and devolve even further into skeletal zombies that  have zero humanity left in them.

We follow the adventures of one such still-humanoid zombie, whom is later named R, as he meets a girl and falls for her.  It's your classic love story of REALLY forbidden love, especially when she starts to fall for him.  Julie can't quite figure out why, but it probably helps that R isn't trying to eat her.

The biggest fault of the movie probably comes from a need here.  They made R too pretty.  You need to make him look dead, look enough like a zombie, but still have him not look like you will lose your lunch by looking at him.  And so R ends up with a look that made people think of Edward's pale sparkliness, and that made people judge the movie before even seeing it.

The relationship between R and Julie somehow works, and the build up is done very well.  They have ups and downs, it isn't really love at first bite...er, sight, and their struggles are believable.  For one of them being a zombie, that is.

Warm Bodies succeeds in actually making you feel for R and the zombies.  The movie is rife with dark humour, which you kinda need, and expect, from the self-aware zombies.  It pokes fun at tropes, and embraces a few others, but runs with them in fun ways.

Rob Corddry as R's friend M brings a lot of humour, as you would expect from the Daily Show alum.  Any scene with him in it, is great, and his performance is worth watching.  And if he's not enough, then you've got John Malkovich as Julie's father and the military leader of the human settlement featured in the movie.

My only problem with the story, is that the zombie plague is turned back by the power of love?  This was just poorly explained and handwaved, more than I would like.  But turning the tide of the undead isn't really the thrust of the story, and save for being important to literally humanising R, it's not that important.  Just more of a, "Oh, come ON!" moment for me.

Warm Bodies is charming, fun, and funny, with a great cast, and good chemistry between the two leads.  It was much more enjoyable than Beautiful Creatures, and I definitely recommend it to fans of zombie movies who want something a little different.

What I'm Watching: Beautiful Creatures

Hopefully this won't be as long as the Man of Steel review!

This is a *little* off the beaten path for Trisk, but there's magic, there's witches...sorry, 'casters' as the movie insists on calling them, and curses.  I can work with that.

Beautiful Creatures suffered a bit from coming out at the same time as Twilight fever.  Which is understandable.  Supernatural love stories are super huge right now, so everyone and their dog wants to make one and cash in on that.  Which there's nothing wrong there, but the movie probably was hit by some backlash from the sparkly vampie abominations.

Which is really a shame, since this movie wasn't bad.

It doesn't blow me away, but it was a fun two hours.  The cast is solid, mostly.  The biggest problem was everyone having to do Southern accents, and not everyone in the cast should be allowed to do that, in this movie.  Some were better than others, and some were just painful, to me, and got on my nerves.

But dialect aside, the performances still come through just fine, especially Jeremy Irons who can be known for chewing scenery with the best of them.  Yeah, I'm looking at YOU, Dungeons & Dragons...

The story resolves around a kid haunted by dreams, until he meets a girl whose family is spoken about in hushed whispers and rumours.  He's intrigued, and finds out everything rumoured about the family is true.  He gets sucked into their crazy world of magic, destiny, and curses, and does his best to help his new girlfriend not turn evil.

I was a little uncomfortable with the movie's mythology that established how every caster reaches a point where they go either to the light or the dark.  The women are forced into the role by their 'true nature' and have to stay that way.  But the males are able to choose at will, being good or evil whenver they want.  Gee, that's not too sexist, is it?  I'm probably being too harsh, but it did make me roll my eyes.

The movie's use of magic was creative, and sexism aside, it have some good mythology to it, that built for a unique view of magic in this world.  And setting it against a Southern backdrop and the Civil War gave it a bit of history and substance to it.  The Vampire Diaries does much the same with its initial mythology, and it works well.

There were a few moments that made me wince though, and it was usually during any sort of magic battle.  Partly because of effects, and partly because of acting.  Magic is a tough thing to sell, magic battles even more so, since actors have to act big to sell whatever they're doing, while having no idea WHAT it is they're doing, and it sometimes comes across as silly.

Still, there's a good story here of trying to find your place in the world at that awkward time in your life known as high school.  It's something we all go through, and a common source of supernatural allegory.  Beautiful Creatures might not be the most unique take on a crowded genre trope, but it does a fair job, and is worth a look.

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?

What I'm Watching: Looper

Happy New Year!

I kicked off 2013, with one of the movies I wanted to see most in 2012, but just could not manage to do so, Looper.

Sadly, and it may have been my high expectations for what looked like an amazing and creative time travel movie, but it just did not grab me.

The movie WAS creative, and did some interesting things with what their idea of time travel was, and how changing the you of now would affect you of the future if he was in the present.  Fun, fun stuff, and damned creepy too.

The acting was solid, and while I never buy into JGL being a young Bruce Willis, they're both great to watch on screen, and he captures enough of Bruce's mannerisms and quirks that it's good enough.  Heck, movies ask us to belive people are related all the time, and we go with that, so this is fine.

I think where the movie stumbled was that it just didn't feel like it needed time travel.  It really is a pretty simple storyline, and all the time travel does is make the storytelling tricks become increasingly complex, when they don't really need to be.  The movie almost outthinks itself in this way.

But there's enough here to like, for many people, it just didn't grab me.  And that may well be my wanting to see it so bad, and waiting so long.  It may also be a matter of my mind being in 'critic mode' the first time I watched it, like it often is.  I can tell there's good in there, and this movie has a high probability to grow on me over time.

If you want a unique take on time travel theories, told inventively, then you really should see this movie.  I'm just not sure what else the movie is beyond clever narratives.

It certainly isn't a BAD movie, it just didn't click with me today, but maybe it will tomorrow.  Definitely give it a chance!

Or maybe it will yesterday. ;)

J

What I'm Watching: Osombie

So they made a movie.

A movie about an undead zombie Osama Bin Laden.

Called...Osombie.

HOW COULD I SAY NO??

This...sounds like it's gonna be terrible, isn't it?

I had major fears that it would come out and be nothing more than people running around, shooting zombie terrorists, and basically using it as an excuse to shoot Muslims.

And while you can kinda look at it that way, I think that would more be the case of the viewer seeing what they want to see.

This movie...well, it surprised me.

Fortunately, the actual "Osombie" is a very minor part of the overall plot.  Yes, there is some zombie Osama, but most of the movie is about the terrorist zombie horde, with him in the distant background, and really little more than a MacGuffin.  Whew.

The soldiering was WAY better than Zombie Strippers.  I'm no expert, and I'm sure a real soldier would nitpick the HELL out of this, it was fine enough by my standards.  If an actor believes what they're doing, makes ME believe what they're doing, they can usually do the most absurd shit and I'll buy it.  And they mostly pulled that off here.  The acting and soldier stuff was credible enough.

The acting was pretty decent, or decent enough for this sort of thing.  I'm not expecting Shakespeare, right?  They did their jobs well enough.  The writing helped, too.  Each soldier was well defined, and not just a fighting caricature.  They came away with depth, histories, and personalities.  VERY surprising in a movie like this, and even more so in the insane sort of plot this movie has.

You really come into this movie expecting nothing.  Nothing but sadness and pain.  So with such low expectations to have a movie with a decent enough story, even if it is very straightforward from point A to point B, then fill it with three dimensional characters, and even THEN handle the situation with us dealing with Muslim civilians with something of a deft touch and respect...

Yeah, I came away actually enjoying myself.

Granted, you should be warned that a lotta Muslim zombies go down, and a few American soldiers too.  Those things could push some people's buttons, but I think with them going into this movie knowing what they were going to have to do, they handled things well enough.

I'd actually say this is worth seeing if you get the chance.

Huh.

Whoda thunk?

What I'm Watching: ParaNorman

Sure, this is stop-motion animation, and aimed kinda towards the younger crowd.  But it IS a movie about zombies, and also aimed at the horror crowd, so I have zero problem talking about this here!

I *loved* ParaNorman.

Honestly, I'd probably say it's better than Brave, for me, which I also liked quite a lot.  But ParaNorman really resonated with me.  Mainly because of my interests, and the themes they dealt with.

The basic story is about a kid in high school in New England, who can talk to ghosts.  He tries desperately to get through the day, not be noticed, not be made fun of, and just try and survive school when he's seen as a freak.  He also has something of a destiny to deal with, so there's that on top of everything else.

This is something so many people can relate to.  I was one of those outcast kids, I'm sure many people reading this were, and there are moments where this movie really goes for the gut, and speaks to that part of me, even though it was a long time ago that I had to deal with any of that shit.

While watching the movie, I almost instantly thought, "Wow, this looks so much like my hometown!" and lo and behold, it did turn out to be set in New England, as evidenced by the talk of pilgrims, the Mayflower, and witches.  But it got even better when it turns out they actually did some location scouting for inspiration in Salem, Massachusetts and other New England areas, so yeah!  It pretty much was my hometown!  I'll admit this helped endear the movie to me that much more.  But I loved the movie before knowing that for certain.

The story is set up wonderfully, and humourously, and really books along at quite a good pace.  The stpp motion is just...amazing.  We have come so fat with this sort of stuff, that you forget it's puppets being moved at a fraction of a second at a time, and I swore this was CGI for the longest time!

I will say, I wasn't quite in love with the movie for the first half of the movie, which isn't to say it was bad.  It was great, but just kinda doing good stuff that wasn't really latching onto me.  But once the second half kicked in, once things got turned on their head, I instantly went from really liking to loving this movie.  Quite a few unexpected turns that make the movie something special, a great message or two for kids trying to deal with their own damage in school, and a great wrap up really made for a great film.

There are SO many nice little nods in this movie for the long-time horror fan.  My personal favourite is, naturally, a certain hockey mask. ;)  I'll leave the rest for y'all to find on your own.

ParaNorman doesn't shy away from the scares for the kids, which is SO SO damned refreshing.  This doesn't try to be clean and sanitised.  It's very much got a little Grimm Fairy Tales in its storytelling DNA.  And like all good family movies, it is good for kids and adults alike, as I can atest to.

If you're a horror fan, I would say this is a must-see, or just an animation fan, or just a fan of good, family movies that don't talk down to you.

ParaNorman is easily in my top ten for 2012.

J

What I'm Watching: Best Worst Movie

So, right after watching Troll 2, I watched the documentary made almost 15 years after the fact that took a look at the strange cult following the movie has aquired, where the cast is now, and a little behind the scenes.

This is such a fascinating story.  It really centers around the actor who played the father in the movie, who's real career is as a dentist.  Not surprisingly, his acting career was mostly unknown, until the weird popularity of Troll 2 took off in the 21st century.

He's just as baffled by the popularity as I am, but he goes along with it, is swept up in the whole craziness of the fandom, going to showings, having a blast, getting annoyed at convention appearances (With some seriously scathing commentary that is both true and a little infurating to me), and eventually he tires of it and goes back home to his dentistry practice.

There's more to it than that, but the rise and fall of his interest in the fandom (He still has it, don't get me wrong, but even he says the joke wears thin after awhile), is a great throughline to follow this movie.  It gives you an in on all kinds of things, and just works as a way to explore the weird movie known as Troll 2.

The best stuff here, for me, is the behind the scenes stuff.  Finding out just what the hell went wrong with this movie, and how much of it WAS DELIBERATE is just mind blowing.  The director thinking his little movie was a serious project, and is more or less exactly what he wanted, and spends a lot of his appearance in BWM *defending* Troll 2 is crazy.

I'm not a big documentary guy, but this was good to watch, and packed with even more footage on the DVD going even more behind the scenes of the making of Troll 2.  It manages to have a decent story to it and be more than just "And this happened, then this, and this".  If you're a fan of Troll 2, or if you can't stand the movie and want to see what the hell went wrong, this is worth a look.

J

What I'm Watching: Iron Sky

And back once more!

I first heard about Iron Sky something like two, three years ago, it seems.  The first trailer was amazing.  It was low budget, but still looked great, and had this amazing premise of a lost colony of space Nazis hiding on the far side of the moon.  Yet, it did not take itself too seriously, which is probably a good thing when you're talking Nazis.

Finally, the movie came out on DVD recently, and I gotta say, this is yet another great, great movie to come out this year.  How awesome has 2012 been?

Anyways, you get the premise.  Space Nazis.  Who finally have the means to come back to Earth, and wreak a little havoc.

The movie is wonderfully shot, filmed on this grand scale, which was only achievable with their budget by using copious amounts of green screen, but it totally works for them.

The cast is great, the story wavers from making you laugh, to dead seriousness, to political satire, and back to social commentary.  All wrapped up in some clever, unique scifi trappings.  A movie described as "Space Nazis hiding on the Moon invade the Earth" should NOT be this good.

Sometimes it gets a bit weak, as the low budgetness shines through, but they know their limitations well enough to not try and go too far at times.  Even though they still pulled off an epic space scene or two.

There are a few moments of uncomfortableness, such as the Nazis Aryanising a black man, but that plot thread serves some purpose to the overall narrative, and ends well, at least, so the squirming it gave me turned out okay.

I would probably describe Iron Sky as one of the biggest little movies I've seen in awhile.  It is a must see for any science fiction fans, and likely you already want to see it, if you've seen the trailers.

What I'm Watching: A Cadaver Christmas

As y'all know, I will occasionally grab or watch something random because it looks fun, and might fit in with my tastes, and what this site is all about.

That's what drew me to Cadaver Christmas.

C'mon, just look at that title.  You know I *had* to watch it, right?

This...

This may be one of my favourite Christmas horror movies.

It's a simple story.  A janitor shows up in a bar on Christmas Eve, covered in blood.  He casually goes to the bathroom to clean up, while the barkeep calls the a cop friend of his.  Once the janitor comes back out, he starts telling his crazy story of walking cadavers in the local college.  The cop doesn't quite buy it, naturally, and they all rush off to verify the guy's tale.

And hilarity ensues.

No really, hilarity.

This is very much a horror movie, with the same tropes, lots of blood, and a few jumps.  But it also comes with many jokes, and a strong sense of humour.  Many movies have tried to be the "American" Shaun of the Dead, and I think this one comes the closest.  It's more humour than "Shaun" by quite a bit, and doesn't quite have us much pathos in the end, but it is still a solid story told with humour and horror.

It is cheesy, yes.  They're going for a bit of the Grindhouse feel, and they come pretty close, without being annoying, or TOO faithful to that genre, or letting it get in the way.  The dialogue is badly recorded, deliberately so I presume, and they graded the film to make it scratchy and off.  The whole feel of this is like something from the 80s, and it works well.

If you like the sound of an 80s style, low budget, hilarious and fun movie that has a zombie massacre take place to Christmas songs, then you have GOT to check out Cadaver Christmas.

There's a character named Officer Sam Sheriff, for Kaufman's sake!  That's a double pun right there!!

J

What I'm Watching: Dark Shadows

So many movies this month I want to see!  But for now, I am stuck in the land of DVDs, and I just watched the theatrical remake of Dark Shadows.

Now, I am no fan of the original show.  My first experience with it was when NBC tried a remake in...the early 90s?  I really don't remember it well.

But I have seen a few episodes, thanks to Scifi Channel and such, so I am not completely clueless.

I was a little concerned at the looks of it from trailers, though.  I love me some camp, and if you're a fan of Dark Shadows, you gotta be one too.  But those trailers seemed a little too much, maybe because ALL they were showing was the campier bits.

But what I got, was a pleasant surprise.

The first twenty minutes of the movie were especially enjoyable.  They set a mood and a tone, and the voiceover did a great job.  I really enjoyed the whole setup.  It really helped draw you in.

But then...the camp began.  It wasn't TOO bad though.  They didn't dump it in like the trailer would make you think.  It was there, and it did get a bit cringeworthy at times, but for the most part they held back on it for only some moments here and there.  It never quite overtook the plot.

A random note is that I loved them giving Christopher Lee a few moments he is THE campy horror movie Dracula, and while he didn't play a vampire here, it was nice to see him given a role.  He's the grandfather of Hammer horror, and DS owes a lot to them.  And them to Hammer, I believe.

The cast is actually good all around.  Depp gives a great performance, as expected.  He feels perfectly cast as this man out of time, and he delivers the overblown language perfectly.  His look before becoming a vampire is actually MORE creepy, because of how boyish he looks.  But everyone does their job well, and are fun to watch.

The movie is VERY Tim Burtony, but that's to be expected.  It has his usual themes and tropes, and if you're a fan of Burton, there's a lot to like here.  It is a visually entrancing movie.

It's not really until the last 15, 20 minutes when the movie really falls apart.  They seem like they are in such a rush to finish up the plot, and if it was just Barnabas and one or two others, it wouldn't be so bad.  But they had to bring almost EVERY character into it, and then reveal all their little troubles, how Angelique is involved in all their sucky problems, and it just becomes too much, in too little time.  You could not catch your breath as the weight of too much plot crushes everyone.

But overall, it's a fun movie that everyone had fun making, and while it gets a bit cheesier than it needs to be, it is pretty damned watchable and entertaining.

J

What I'm Watching: Piranha 3DD

"Josh cut off his penis because something came came out of my vagina."

That line alone...oh gods, the price of admission right there.

My three word review of this movie is thus; dumb, but funny.

FUNNY.

It had a LOT of laughs, but VERY little plot.  But you aren't really watching this for plot, are you?  Still, an attempt at a story would be nice.  Character arcs are basic, if there at all.  The extent of the story is 'piranhas show up, we shoot piranas, piranhas are dead, movie is over."

Along the way though, the cast does some hilarious shit though.

There's nothing to this movie but boobs, blood, and laughs.  It is unashamedly nothing more than that.  It is entertaining as all hell, but SO lacking in any meat.

Unless you're a piranha, in which case there is plenty for you to feed on here.

It is hard to recommend this movie.  The first was fun, and had something to it, but this tossed aside everything that was good, for the sake of boobs and blood.  It's a bit of a letdown.  But if you don't mind an utterly pointless movie that WILL make you laugh, go for it.

J

Still trying to figure out the name...

What I'm Watching: Hunger Games

Okay, first thing is first.  I am not a teenaged girl, nor have I read the books.  My sole exposure to this fandom is pretty much the movie, and nothing more.

So it turns out, I *really* enjoyed the movie.  I can't compare it to the book, and how it differs and holds up though.

It was well made, the acting was almost across the board amazing, the directing was good...  My only real complaints come from the design.  I totally get what they were going for with the fancy, bright colours of the capitol and its people.  I get making everyone there look like an over the top fancy person.  But it really grated on me more often than not.  I wish it had just been toned down just a bit, and a little less theatrical.  But it was a good contrast to the worn down look of everyone else in the movie, so take it as you will.

They did a fair job building this new world, and things pretty much made sense and followed logically.  There were maybe a few stumbles, a few moments that needed a little more fleshing out, but that's not uncommon, and there is only so much time a movie can spend on exposition, when a book can really delve into that stuff.

The other tributes besides Katniss, Peeta, and a few others were terribly underutilised and under characterised.  Again, the limitations of the medium, really.  I wanted to care about all these kids as they died, but really the only ones you care about are like, three people.

The villains of the piece are maybe a little too clearly villains.  A little arch even.  The president especially.  But hey, he's Donald Sutherland, so we forgive that, because he's awesome and you totally buy his arch.  The tribute kids that were our main antagonists, again could have used a little more fleshing out.

But those admittedly small things aside, it was a very good ride, well told and well made.  One of the best scenes for me, that really touched me, was the riot in District 11 when the little girl died during the games.  That really struck a chord, and was handled exactly the way it should have been.

I heard a lot of complaints about the movie becoming Twilighty and romancy at the end, but I didn't get that impression at all.  Yes, the romance subplot did grow towards the climax, but it was a logical outgrowth of events, and did not overtake the larger plot, but instead complimented it.

I definitely recommend seeing this if you haven't yet, and I am tempted to actualyl read the books before the next movie comes out.

J
How could I not love a movie with a girl that gets set on fire and shows off phoenix-like burning wings??

What I'm Watching: Shuffle

Before the new Triskanalysis goes up, I wanted to squeeze in another movie, and I picked this one up on a whim, because the story tickled my interests.

Shuffle is the story of Lovell Milo, a man out of time, who is living his life out of order.  The first thing he remembers is waking up in bed as an old man of 92, and when he falls back asleep almost immediately, he awakens at another age in his life.  Every time he goes to sleep, he wakes up on another, different day of his life.

The mystery of why this is happening, and what he needs to do, is reminiscent of some of my favourite stories.  Shutter is a little bit Slaughterhouse Five, a little bit Memento, and a bit of Quantum Leap.

It stars TJ Thyne from "Bones" as Lovell, and he brings a few of his Bones castmates along with him for small, if important roles.  Although, they do get a bit distracting, having the chunk of a cast from another show.

But even with that distraction, I really loved this movie.  The story is laid out well, the time jumps are clear, and having the component of sleep being the go-between for points in Milo's life, really make it clear when it happens.  There's no surprise shifts in time, outside of what age he'll be.

The story moves along at a brisk pace, the acting is decent enough for a low budget movie, and they are smart enough to not get too bogged down in being clever with their premise.  The time travel never gets in the way of the narrative, which flows strangely naturally.  Having Lovell still be experiencing this in a linear fashion, and having it all building up to a crescendo, and most of it mattering, it really feels like a story, and not just slices of a person's life.

My biggest complaint is the camera work and lighting.  The director likes to make things washed out, and while it gives the world a dreamlike quality to it, it just made the entire movie fuzzy and feeling out of focus.  It's not bad, but it did distract me a few times.

There is one line in the movie, midway through, that completely blows the plot out of the water and gives away the game.  I wish they'd not laid that card on the table so soon, before they actually reveal what's going on, since you kinda are waiting for the characters to catch up with you for the next 10-20 minutes.  But there's fortunately more to the plot beyond that, as Lovell needed these events to occur in his life, and there is at least a reason behind the reason.

Shutter is heartwarming, heartbreaking, gut wrenching, and uplifting all at once.  A truly touching, interesting, almost unique movie.  A very high recommendation from me.

J

What I'm Watching: ATM

And we keep rolling along!

ATM caught my eye for having an interesting plot, and one I don't recall hearing before.  At least not specifically.  We've all seen variations on this theme, though.  Anyways, originality and quality catches my eye, so I decided to check it out.

The plot is basically thus: a trio of investors (I think that's what they were.  It's ultimately unimportant...), get trapped inside an ATM kiosk in the middle of a parking lot by a crazed madman.  Oh yeah, and it's Christmas Eve.  And cold.

Many of the obvious concerns are addressed, like why they don't just walk out, when the man brutally savages another guy who stumbles upon the scene.  While a few IQ points get sacrificed for plot convenience and plot contrivance, I think most of the stuff makes sense, and they react within the limits of most people.  Sure, there's three of them and one of him, but he smashed the head of a security guard against the pavement.  This guy means business!  None of them were about to sacrifice their lives on a maybe.

The movie then revolves around the trio trying to escape the kiosk, while the hooded stranger takes his time tormenting them and making things ever more difficult with every passing hour.  Also, the mystery of just why the person is doing this slowly unravels.  Although, that end reveal of just why this happened is a bit of a disappointment.  I *did* like the twist with the male lead at the end though.  It's an easy enough one to get out of, but still a good way to screw with expectations.  And yes, I am being vague for spoilers.

Still, the ending being a bit of a letdown, although I do like it on one level, and the pace of the movie does drag a bit, so ATM isn't great.

It's entertaining, once they reach the kiosk.  It's very entertaining.  It's always fascinating to watch just how fast societal norms can break down, even just amongst three people slowly freezing to death.  The first ten, fifteen minutes though, are an almost typical romantic comedy.  It's like they took scripting notes from Birdemic.  Still, this wasn't as off-balance as that, and at least they got to the plot quickly.

So yes, ATM amounts to yet another entertaining movie I don't say rush out and buy, but it's at least worth catching some late night on tv.  If it sounds interesting or fun to watch a trio try and outsmart a killer lurking out of reach, then hey, give it a shot.

J