74 posts tagged “movies”

I am not much into musicals... out of all of the movies and music I am a nutjob over you would think I loved musicals.... well I can tell you that I like a couple.

This may be in that list...

Ok, now for my 2 word wrap on the movie 'The Mist'

FUCK YOU

Look out... we have SPOILERS

I watched an amazing movie the other night and have been entirely too sick to say one word until now. You would think that a movie where the main character kills himself in the first five minutes over a girl would be pretty depressing.

How could it not right? Suicide is sad.

However, we are watching "Wristcutters: A Love Story" and this is not a sad movie.

Instead, we see what happens to this guy in his new life... in a new world, populated by those who have committed suicide.

This world they live in is just like our world now... well ok there are a few exceptions.

1. You can't smile. Oh it is not a rule, you just literally cannot smile. It is as my daughter would say "Unpossible".
2. You have the scars and physical damage to remind you every day what you did to yourself.
3. The world is like the slummiest part of Detroit mixed with a good old fashion 1930's dust bowl.
4. Everything is broken
5. Miracles can happen, but they are all pointless things and they never happen when you want or need them to... they always happen when it no longer matters.
6. Blackholes tend to exist underneath car seats, so seriously don't drop sunglasses, CDs or ... people... on to the floor of your car.
   

So... we have Zia now in his life working at Kamikaze Pizzeria and living with a really crappy roommate. This is his life, day in... day out, since the day he died.

He spends his off time in a bar, drinking and playing "How did they die?" games with the local girls.

Then one day he meets Eugene, a Russian rocker who fried himself on stage and now lives with his mother, father and brother and yes only people who committed suicide live in this world, what a family hey?

Zia then has a chance encounter with someone he knew in life, Brian and Brian tells him that  "I guess suicides really do happen in threes." Through this conversation you find out that the girl who broke Zia's heart killed herself a few weeks after Zia did it.

So it is now a road trip movie through this afterlife as Zia and Eugene are looking for the woman Zia loves.

It might have gone smoothly as well until they pick up a hitchhiker, Mikal and she is pretty pissed off. She says she is looking for the bosses of this land and that they have to fix things. She says she was sent to this world by mistake.

I looked at my wife and I lamented the fact that this movie would end. The characters of Zia, Eugene and Mikal are so incredibly well written that you could watch their lives forever.

"Wristcutters: A Love Story" will need to find a home on my shelf.

Zia: I'm not going out tonight. It just makes me depressed.
Eugene: So, what you gonna do? Kill yourself?

I watched an amazing documentary tonight.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

I kept hearing about this over and over and over again and I finally shot it to the top of my NetFlix queue.

It is a documentary about a man named Steve Wiebe as he attempts to take the world high score from Billy Mitchell on Donkey Kong.

The premise sounds stupid and while you are watching the first ten minutes you are thinking "Dear God, I have a bathroom I could be grouting."

But then... after those first 10 minutes, you are pulled into this compelling real life drama.

It really is worth a watch.

I caught on to more about what the South Park episode "More Crap" was parodying.

I rated it 5 stars on NetFlix.

I have been spending a bit of time this morning working on my NetFlix queue and checking out new releases. I have however found most of my time spent reading the synopsis of horror movies that just came out.

I personally grew up on the franchises of Friday the 13th, Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes (The originals), Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Nightmare on Elm Street... I also was scarred as a child watching the movies 'Life Force' and 'The Shining'. I love a great horror movie... from Zombies, Homicidal Maniacs and vampires... I can see why my daughter loves them, she gets it from me.

However, the newer breed of horror movies seem to go in one of two ways, the comedy ridiculous horror movies such as 'Black Sheep', 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'The Mad', which I love by the way, or they go into a glorified snuff film, 'Hostel' and the 'Saw' franchises. The glorified torture and snuff films are just not my thing. I am sure many people love them, there is a reason that 'Saw' is up to number IV now.

But the point of this post is not what I personally consider good horror movies... no instead I wanted to post the synopsis from NetFlix of horror movies I have been reading that is causing me to laugh hysterically like a hyena on novocaine.

Return of the Living Dead 5
Taking the Living Dead franchise another step further, this campy sequel finds the survivors of the Necropolis reviving bad habits and snooping around Uncle Charles's experiments. When they uncover a container filled with a substance called Trioxyn-5, they assume it must be safe and start selling it as a party drug. But when a Halloween rave

transforms hundreds of Trioxyn-5 users into flesh-eating zombies, the scene gets way out of hand.

And that is why they have these stickers, to keep children away from poison.

The Necropolis survivors must be college students because only college students ever put things in their mouths they don't know where it comes from. lol this sounds like a great movie to make fun of with a bunch of friends around.

The Mad
It was just an ordinary outing to the country for a doctor and his daughter. That is, until the flesh-eating zombies showed up. Stopping in a quiet town famous for its organic beef, the travelers run up against a mutated strain of virus that turns people into the undead and hamburger patties into ravenous killers. Billy Zane stars in this tongue-in-cheek horror comedy where the cows aren't the only things that are mad.

YES.... Ravenous Killer Hamburger Patties... This somofabitch is heading to the TOP of my queue.

lol, I just love that they stop at a quiet town famous for it's organic beef...oh my god, that is rich. I am giddy with excitement over seeing this one.

Dead Clowns
The residents of Port Emmett prepare for a hurricane that will churn up a 50-year-old secret, awakening an army of zombie clowns. Left to die after a circus train accident, the clowns rise from their muddy graves to get revenge. The guilty can run, but they can't hide from the truth … or the undead.

Not since Killer Klowns from Outer Space have I been this pumped about murderous clowns.
I hate clowns, I mean I really REALLY hate clowns...so this movie should scare the crap out of me right? Either for the clowns or the absolute horror of watching something so hideously bad.

Cadaverella
Writer-director Timothy Friend's decidedly wicked version of the classic Cinderella tale substitutes horror for happily ever after. When her psycho beau (Ryan Seymour) snuffs beautiful Cinder (Megan Goddard), she returns from the grave (thanks to a voodoo curse) to wreak bloody havoc on her murderous Prince Charming and the evil stepfamily who made her life a nightmare. Kieran Hunter, Santiago Vasquez and Christopher Booth also star.

Grimm Fairytales huh?
How about an entire anthology of tales from Sleeping Beauty and onward?

Sleeping Beauty could be a ghost, haunting the witch from her near deathness. We could call it ... the Ghostly Beauty and the Seven Demonic Animal Spirits.

Perhaps I should write and direct a horror movie? I know nothing about the process of film making, but it appears from many of these films... they know nothing about the process of film making either.

It would be a riot... I would have an aging rock star attempt to claim immortality by opening up a dimensional rift into hell with a perfect voice in a post apocalyptic cityscape where everyone looks like rats....

Oh wait... that was the plot for 'Rock and Rule'.

Perhaps I could make a movie about a demonic bed that eats people....

SHIT... that was made too...

The wife and I have been really digging the Sarah Connor Chronicles series. I was going to skip it and I was only partially interested because I really like Summer Glau.

I initially missed the premier episode until iTunes offered it for free and I was shocked that I really enjoyed it... then I was further shocked as the series kept getting more and more interesting.

The series kept going back and referencing things from the first two movies and it even has a ton of flash forwards and we get to see life during the war with machines.

Well, this was all good for me... however the wife has never seen the movies.

We are going to spend the day watching them...

There are two new X-Men movies in production, both titled X-Men Origins. While one is about Magneto in Nazi Germany (Which is kickass, Nazis make awesome movie villians), but the Wolverine one is in full swing casting right now.

The casting decisions have been all over the place and only a few of them are set in stone right now.

Of course Hugh Jackman is back as our favorite mutie... Wolverine. This is great, I really love the way he plays Logan and I am so happy that the character means enough to Mr Jackman to continue to play this awesome role.

Ok, so we know that obviously a Wolverine movie will feature well... Wolverine... but who else is coming in?

The story appears to center around Sabertooth running around offing mutants involved in the Weapon X program.
A Sabertooth being played by Liev Schreiber... yeah, I was pretty confused about Liev playing Victor Creed, but this could really work.

As always Avi Arad is executive producer and lately he has really been putting the screws down on the Marvel licenses he used to be Editor in Chief for over at the Marvel house. With a new Hulk movie coming with Iron Man around the corner, Avi has been making sure that quality is back up to par.

Dominic Monaghan has signed up for the movie, he will play the mutant with the hollow bones... Beak. I am not familiar too much with this mutant, however if they can do the makeup right, this could be very cool visually.

Gambit is coming... that's right X-Fans... we are finally getting our Remy Lebeau. I sincerely hope that he is not a quick cameo and instead has a fleshed out role. Gambit is a kickin hero and been one of my favorites since he first appeared in the X-Men (Which I own that particular issue). Gambit will be played by Taylor Kitsch.

The Blob will be in the movie from what I was hearing, but I have not heard who would play him.

Silver Fox, yes Silver Fox... The love of Logan's life for a time will be in the movie. If they go back and do the origins of what happens between Wolverine and Sabertooth because of the fate of Silver Fox...then this could be a brutal battle and I may not be able to watch Liev Schreiber in another movie again.. Sabertooth is freakin evil. Silver Fox will be played by Lynn Collins.

Daniel Henney will be arriving in the movie as Agent Zero... which I was under the impression that Agent Zero was German and not Asian. But hey... it's all good. I could be wrong or it won't matter.

And now the big ole rumor...

Deadpool is supposed to be in the movie. Deadpool, the wise cracking psycho we have all come to love. He is insane, he is out of his mind, he is deadly and the rumor is... he will be played by Ryan Reynolds.

If this Deadpool rumor is true and A. He is in the movie and B. Ryan Reynolds is playing him... well all I can say is "Spin-Off Movie". Deadpool is the only mutant that in my mind rivals the awesomeness of Wolverine and Gambit. I cannot in my mind picture anyone, but Ryan Reynolds playing Deadpool.

I am there opening night ladies and gentlenerds...

John Alvin passed away.

If you have seen a movie in the last 30 years, than you basically know who John Alvin is. You may not know his name and if you saw him in public you would not really know his face.

But John Alvin was a movie poster artist... not just any movie poster artist. He was the guy who single handedly made me dream as I waited in the lobby of a movie theater as a child.

E.T.
Blade Runner
Willow
The Lost Boys
Spaceballs
The Goonies
Blazing Saddles
The Little Mermaid
Aladdin
Hook

And soooo many more...
These posters were John's creations.

Thank you John... your posters excited me as a child. I would point at them and jump around my parents... or as I got older I would stand around and stare at them with my friends or dates.

Reported From: Aint It Cool News

John Alvin's Works

I am sitting in a kind of pleasant shock at the moment. This evening I watched a movie that so incredibly impacted me that I have no other choice than to add it to my list of top movies ever made.

This is England (2006)
This is England: Mods, New Romantics, and Skinheads are the major youth sub-cultures of this very English summer of 1983 and young 12-year-old Shaun is left wandering aimlessly alone and lost during the start of his school holidays, until his chance meeting with Woody and his fun and friendly Skinhead pack. Finding a new lease of life; girls, parties, Ben Sherman shirts, Doc Martin boots and shaven hairstyles young Shaun is welcomed, life during this summer holiday has got a whole lot better. That is until Combo arrives on the scene bitter, dangerous, racist, militant and psychotic life for young Shaun has just approached his first major crossroads. This is England is a look back at the early eighties of British working-class life through the eyes of young Shaun and his new gang, and dealing with the bitterness of outside influences such as racism and xenophobia, of mass unemployment and the fall out of the Falkland's War; Thatcher's Britain: Did we ever have it so good? When you see Shaun, ask Him. -IMDB

This movie had me a bit worried before I began to watch it. I have known and currently know skinheads and not a single one was or is a racist, but that does not change the typical bad guy is a nazi skinhead formula in movies. This movie however quickly quelled those fears and what we get is a dose of truth regarding that culture. As we are introduced to Woody and his friends... we are introduced to Milky and when I saw him my fears instantly went away. Here was a black man, a Jamaican in Woody's gang and I knew that the director would tell an honest story.

With his father recently killed in the Falklands War, Shaun wanders aimlessly alone and constantly is picked on when has his encounter with Woody. Woody instantly is a lovable character and he takes an immediate liking to young Shaun and he quickly brings Shaun into his little family. This is the best thing for Shaun and he finds true happiness with friends who really want to be with him and fully accept him and life is looking up and it should be happily ever after...that is until Combo arrives, played to perfection by Stephen Graham. Combo is very much racist and as the summary above reads, he is bitter, psychotic, militant and he is so impressionable on Shaun and the combination is dangerous.

We begin to mourn Shaun's journey from his true friends and his true nature as he spirals out of control into a world of hatred. My heart was wrenched apart and I was so incredibly moved by the things this child goes through.

I love this movie, it was written and directed so well and done in such a way that it felt like the movie was filmed in 1983.

If this movie would have continued on for four hours longer than the 102 minutes 32 seconds it clocks in on, I would still be sitting there watching...so engrossed in the life of Shaun.

This post contains SPOILERS... You have been warned.

Ok, so I watched 'Shooter' last night with a great cast made up of Mark Wahlberg, Danny Glover, Rade Serbedzija and Michael Peña. The movie was directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Jonathan Lemkin from Stephen Hunter's novel.

Here is the IMDB Synopsis: Bob Lee Swagger, one of the world's great marksmen and the son of a Congressional Medal of Honoree, is a loner living in the Rockies. He's left the military, having been hung out to dry in a secret Ethiopian mission a few years before, when he's recruited by a lisping colonel to help find a way that the President of the US might be assassinated in one of three cities in the next two weeks. He does his work, but the shot is fired notwithstanding and Bob Lee is quickly the fall guy: wounded and hunted by thousands, he goes to ground and, aided by two unlikely allies, searches for the truth and for those who double-crossed him. All roads lead back to Ethiopia.

Now my take on it...

The character of Bob Lee Swagger is played brilliantly, while I have never read the books I felt that Mark Wahlberg was very believable as this sniper being screwed over by our own government. He is, without them ever saying it, one of the best snipers in the world and he is approached to plan the assassination of the president.

While they do not want him to actually do it, they want him to plan it as they have intel that someone will do it, but they need Bob to step through it to find the sniper and they can take him out before he has a chance to do harm.

However, nothing is as it seems and Bob is soon betrayed and framed for the assassination of the Archbishop Desmond Mutumbo of Africa.

While at first Bob Lee is on the run, he soon turns back around to take apart their grand scheme.

The action scenes are very exciting, I have been a long time fan of the snipers in movies, from Jude Law and Ed Harris's characters in 2001's 'Enemy at the Gates' and Barry Pepper's role in 1998's 'Saving Private Ryan'. I love the suspense of someone looking through that scope and waiting and waiting... the patience causes me to hold my breath and I get a little scared... will they do it? Will their aim be true? Or will a glare give them away? Will a sudden cross wind cause the bullet to miss? This is the edge of seat suspense that just kills me.

I think it is the reason I like the tv show 'The Unit' so much as the characters on that show have all held the sniper position before.

The premise of a sniper being framed for an assassination is perfect for me, I am sold. You then mix in an awesome cast who acts perfectly and then toss in a director who paints and conducts with his camera and finally writer's that give us interesting dialogue and you basically have a perfect movie right?

Well, almost, this movie had me at first and even when it ended I was on the edge of my seat. However the entire overall story was nothing more than paranoid delusions and conspiracy theories. I am not talking about the film itself, but the writers. You get the feeling that they truly believe that 9/11 was a hoax and the 9/11 commission is entirely wrong and that all senators are out for money and oil and that any differing view point makes you some right wing nutjob and you are dead wrong and evil and the world is going to end because you obviously drive around in gas trudging SUVs while you go to your child raping churches.

I am not going to get into my zealots are the real problem rant right now, however that is exactly what I was thinking while watching this movie and I was not the only one who caught this as my wife in certain key sections of the movie groaned loudly and rolled her eyes.

She could not understand why this movie could not simply stand on it's own two feet and just be a movie. I told her that art mirrors our lives right now, in politics and in society and so while disappointed in this direction the movie took I was not surprised. This is how people think right now and not just a certain subsection of society, we all have our fears of the future and perhaps if it was less obvious I might have overlooked it, but this movie reminded me of the ending of the movie 'District 13' when the actor looks into the camera and tells everyone how they can be responsible citizens.

To me, the best stories, the real life changing ones are the ones where the moral of the story is subtle but clear. Where your audience is respected enough by the director to allow us to use our intelligence and put one and one together.

I am insulted when I have to have every little nuance and plot line explained to me.

I am very disappointed in this movie overall because of the blatant hand holding done to me because of this. It ripped me out of the movie, out of the suspension of disbelief and I could no longer just enjoy this ride.

If I would go the star rating route... I give it 3 out of 5.

The acting is very good, the directing is awesome and the action scenes and suspense was top notch.