tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76765919683329503302024-03-08T10:37:23.962-08:00UMUSTBEBOREDUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger213125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-49242997890108244522020-01-12T12:57:00.001-08:002020-01-12T12:57:41.599-08:00BUDDY COPS: THE STAKEOUT IS COMING SOON!!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The makers of the short film BUDDY COPS: THE STAKEOUT has released a slew of character posters and behind the scenes photos as well as a trailer in preparation for it's release.<br />
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Here is the official synopsis.<br />
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Newly formed St. Louis police duo John Barrow (Raymond Roberson) and Jack Slate (Tyler Meyer) are assigned the task of tracking down and stopping the dealers of a powerful drug ring. Action meets comedy in this new 80's style homage to Buddy Cop action films.<br />
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The release date is to be determined with an estimated date of mid February of this year. Look for it on YouTube. <br />
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<u><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJVDtfRzQNY">Click here for the trailer!</a></u><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-18793283155608885542019-06-01T12:31:00.000-07:002019-06-01T12:31:14.600-07:00THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT. Great Title Equals Great Film!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT (MHB from here on out, folks.) is a film that needs to be appreciated and admired for what it is and thanked for what it is not. While the title pretty much tells you what happens in the film it does not tell you what the film is really about. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised to find a slower paced and emotionally layered film instead of a zany hodgepodge of craziness the title may lead some to imagine. No, this is not some kind of stupid nonsense created to surf the wave of shocking success the SHARKNADO movies created. MHB could have 'LOL'd itself into obscurity along with so many other absurd titles meant to achieve quick easy views based on how extremely crazy the names are such as SHARKTOPUS, FRANKENFISH, 3-HEADED SHARK ATTACK, 5-HEADED SHARK ATTACK, 6-HEADED SHARK ATTACK. You get the idea. Its all stupid. MHB is the opposite of all that jazz. This is a film that not only earns it's title but your respect too.<br />
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Sam Elliot was meant for this lead role as Calvin Barr a man that lives his life in quiet sad obscurity carrying the unseen burden of remembering the past. No one knows that back in the day that he killed Hitler. Calvin never speaks of it except for once in a moment of weakness to his brother the barber played by the wonderful Larry Miller who usually plays sarcastic jerk characters. Calvin only mentions that he killed a man in the war still keeping the secret of the man's identity. Being a man of great intelligence and skill during World War II made Calvin the prime candidate to hunt down and kill Hitler behind enemy lines. But killing Hitler brought him no peace or pride nor fame. The war didn't end. Nothing was accomplished. Instead Calvin suffered loss. He lost the opportunity to live the life he wanted with the woman he loved. Now he just gets by still living in the past never having the motivation to move on. When the government shows up to ask him to hunt Bigfoot down before it spreads a deadly disease to the world Calvin reluctantly accepts the mission.<br />
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MHB is mostly a touching and somber film about living an unintended life. It's focus is on emotion not exploitation. Would anyone expect such emphasis from the title? Calvin is a man about life and love but he finds himself being defined by death having to kill an evil man and eventually an innocent one of a kind creature. Throughout the film we are treated to flashbacks of Calvin's younger self showing us how this chum became so glum. We see him with his girlfriend as they date and fall in love. Calvin tries to find the right time to ask for her hand in marriage but that perfect time never happens. Instead World War II happened. Trying to win the war cost him the life he was truly meant to live. How do you continue with the empty life you were never meant to live? How do you go on without the person you were meant to be with? How can you? You just do, I suppose. I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that one out myself.<br />
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After hearing the title and that Sam Elliot was the lead I figured this was going to be an exploitation tongue-THROUGH-cheek, over the top, action comedy similar to what the disappointing MACHETE films ended being. Was Sam Elliot going to punch an armored tank or something stupid? I figured it would be more along the lines of a crazy SyFy channel original movie that would ripoff the movie GRINDHOUSE with the film purposely made to look old and scratched up with cringy and tired REEL MISSING gags popping up throughout the film. Instead we are given a low key but epic film full of thought and imagination. There are more moments of quiet reflection and human emotions that build upon Calvin and his personal struggles to find meaning in his life. I love the pebble in the shoe that slightly plagues Calvin throughout the film. He tries to get it out but it seems to be lost in his shoe forever. At the end he is able to accept his past and move on. Then like magic the troublesome pebble falls out no longer an irritant. That is where the real imagination is. It is in the smaller moments that have bigger meanings and make this a special kind of film.<br />
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Nazis, wildfires, government officials in bio-suits entering menacing giant bio-domes, cursed shaving, and a diseased zombie looking Bigfoot populate the film but they do not overshadow the core meaning of the film. That is thanks to a single vision brought to the screen by writer/director Robert D. Krzyowski. He manages to give us a lot visually with a smaller budget without major distracting influences of a studio committee trying to market the film to the masses and their expectations. Life, love, loss and regret are the real focus of the story, When the story switches over to hunting the Bigfoot those themes are not lost. There is a strange relationship that forms between Calvin and the Bigfoot during their battle. They are the same. The last of their kind both try to live in an ugly unforgiving world yet only one of them can continue to live. In a way hunting Bigfoot is his way of dealing with his past. He doesn't want to kill an innocent creature. The ugly thing is even a vegetarian. But fate has deemed him to have to die and that sad duty falls into the hands of our man Calvin. It seems that killing an evil man couldn't save the world but sacrificing an innocent creature will. Bad things happen to the good. That is the way of things. Calvin comes to some kind of personal resolution and appreciation for the life he does have. Though his past is still a part of him he can continue with hope of a brighter future.<br />
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If you ever lost love due to pursuing a career then I would suggest you give MHB a try. You might reach some kind of catharsis by the story of Calvin Barr and how he lives his life of regret. The movie has a bit of gore but not much to remember so if you are looking for that kind of thing only then I still highly recommend it. I think most monster movie lovers who give this drama with its eccentric name some attention will discover an engaging story that has never been done before. A rare achievement. Thank you, Mr. Krzyowski for taking risks and delivering an entertaining film that highlights what an incredible actor Sam Elliot is. He deserves important more mature films like this. Give it a watch and see for yourself.<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-47039403619471461152018-01-25T14:13:00.001-08:002018-01-25T14:13:49.312-08:00PUNISHER: THE NETFLIX SERIES is very "Bourne-ing."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Let me tell you something, folks. I am a huge fan of the Punisher. I have the character's first appearance in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #129. I have just about every issue of every volume of the Punisher's main run of comics as well as a ton of his appearances in other characters' comics. I think he is just the tops! Superheroes are often the outsiders of society. If that is so then Frank Castle is the outsider of outsiders. He cannot rely on his superpowers to save the day because he has none! What a fascinating hero in a world of super powered superheroes. I tell you all of this to assure you that this review is not going to be one of those "It sucks because the show isn't like the comics" kind of reviews. I promise. I will say, however, that Netflix's THE PUNISHER is terrible for so many other reasons. Yea, that's right. I didn't care too much for this show. Everyone else seems to love it but I found the show to be a 13 hour endurance test of boring. It's a thin unimaginative story populated with a bunch of characters that serve as oversize luggage that drag down and get in the way of anything interesting happening. Oh, and the show is nothing whatsoever like the comics!<br />
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The story is another origin story! Can you believe it? How ballzy do you have to be to put out another origin story of the same version of the character? It is like the creators of this show don't know what to do with this guy or are too afraid to write stories that concern what the Punisher actually does. So in DAREDEVIL season 2 we are introduced to Frank Castle who is hunting down those who murdered his family. By the end of the show he gets them all. Now for his new show he discovers that there was one more person left and he spends the entire 13 episodes trying to find out who he is and kill him. You can rest assure that season 2 of the PUNISHER will feature yet another character tied to the death of Frank's family that he will have to go after for another 13 episodes.<br />
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The show starts off with Frank Castle played by Jon Bernthal running around killing the little fish that were tied to the death of his family. He is wearing the white punishment death skull prominently on his bulletproof vest so I took that as a good sign. I thought all that stuff with his family was over. The show can move on into new territory. But then after he kills them all in the first five minutes of the first episode he burns the vest and retires to hitting concrete walls with a hammer. What is he going to do for the rest of the season? Oh, he is going to go around and yet again uncover the conspiracy that got his family made not alive anymore with the help of his new friend and computer whiz, Micro. Fun?<br />
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Jon Bernthal really isn't playing the Punisher. He is playing a character that should have been called the Revenger. His motivation is based only on getting revenge on those that wronged him. The Thomas Jane movie of the same name also made the same mistake. Once the Punisher has dealt with those who murdered his family what is left for Franky to do? What would motivate him to go on and wage war on bad guys? It feels wrong for him to go on killing unless he is unstable mentally which this show insinuates with his apparent PTSD. If there was any doubt that Frank Castle is not the Punisher the scene where Frank has a gun to the head of Turk, the gun runner who also helped traffic people in the slave trade. Turk is kind of a running gag always popping up in the previous Netflix Marvel shows like DAREDEVIL and LUKE CAGE. What was funny about his character is that you knew that he would show up in the PUNISHER show and that he was going to die because Daredevil and Luke Cage don't kill but the Punisher does. We knew it was too good not to happen but it didn't. After finding Turk with all his weapons ready to be sold to the city's bad element Netflix's Punisher just knocks him out. That is when you know that this is not the Punisher. He is the Revenger. Turk had nothing to do with the death of his family so Frank had no reason to kill him.<br />
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When you see Punisher fan art you usually see Frank Castle armed to the teeth carrying two big guns with two rows of grenades strapped criss-crossed to his vest and ammo magazines protruding from every possible pocket stitched to his clothing with all that weight doing nothing from disrupting his aim as he, with his face frozen in a warriors scream, blasts away at the unseen baddies that most likely lay dead in a hail of gunfire. This is how we sum up what the Punisher does and how we want to see him do it. The Netflix seems embarrassed by this character. Frank doesn't go after drug dealers and rapists. No, he instead meets and gets involved with Micro's family or dreams of his dead wife over and over again with additional flashback sequences to constantly remind us that he misses his family. Micro too has his own flashback sequences with his family too. How many times do we see Micro looking at a computer monitor watching his family on camera? How many times does Frank dreams or flashbacks to his family? The show creators can't seem to think of anything interesting to put on the screen. But they sure do make it a priority to stop any possible momentum the story may have made with these family moments<br />
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The name of this show should have been titled THE JASON BOURNE SHOW. What we have here is an uninspired remake of the Bourne films. The bad guys are all CIA, FBI or politicians in suits who did bad things during the war. Now they have to kill the rogue soldier because he knows too much. Now he has to run from the authorities, beat up two cops then jump down a stairwell and get into unimpressive car chases while killing former military henchmen. There is nothing in this show that we haven't seen before. Its a typical American action film in episodic form.<br />
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The Netflix original THE PUNISHER simply tells the wrong kind of story. It should be an action show about a one man war against crime. This show is more of a family drama wrapped up in a police procedural. Bernthal could be a good Punisher but his portrayal as a PTSD ridden homeless guy is just sad. He doesn't emote badassery. He just cries sometimes or comes across as an upset dock worker. It should be simple not a bunch of conspiracy nonsense with the usual twists and turns. The Punisher show should break the formula of telling one long story arch over 13 episodes. Every episode should be about him tracking down a killer of killers and killing them like a monster of the week kind of thing. DEXTER did it on occassion. <br />
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So what will happen in season 2? I predict that he will once again go after another former military bad guy that is revealed to be involved with the death of Frank's family that will also be involved with a bunch of White Supremacists. Expect more dream sequences and flashbacks of Frank's family too. I am surprised about how many people who are Punisher fans love this show. I just don't get it. I never read or watched a single negative review of it. I'm sure there are some out there but I didn't look very hard. I figure they are caught up in the Disney/Marvel hype unwilling to accept the fact that the show does not deliver the most basic motivations of the character. The PUNISHER never moves forward always stopping to look at the past developing a character that was already developed in DAREDEVIL season 2. Just like Frank at the beginning of the first episode hitting walls over and over again with a hammer the show accomplishes nothing and bores the audience with redundancy. Next time, Netflix let me write the dang show.<br />
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Jason<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-78577375509703210612017-07-30T04:50:00.001-07:002017-11-07T20:41:56.950-08:00THE ANIMALS is worth a look!<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v9pYg3HHp5k/WX3Ed9PF2oI/AAAAAAAABPY/WiGfbgw1D90Hftl9vwtJPqBjMHbsF-BxQCLcBGAs/s1600/theanimals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="182" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v9pYg3HHp5k/WX3Ed9PF2oI/AAAAAAAABPY/WiGfbgw1D90Hftl9vwtJPqBjMHbsF-BxQCLcBGAs/s1600/theanimals.jpg" /></a>THE ANIMALS tells a cautionary tale of four friends who succumb to the temptation of easy money through breaking and entering burglary to solve their financial troubles. This is a straight forward character driven drama about the disastrous results of believing the ends justifies the means. Director Sam Mason Bell has given us a simple but compelling tale that comes together rather nicely through expert cinematography and down to earth actors who bring a true sense of realism to this indie film. What is really great is that you can watch the whole thing for free at Streamnowtv.com. Who doesn't like free? The characters in this movie certainly do. But unlike watching the free shows on Streamnowtv.com, their idea of free comes with a price. Guilt. Watch it here instead of reading my review. I think you are going to like this one. Here is the <a href="http://streamnowtv.com/drama/the-animals/">link</a>. Go on now because the rest of my review is going to be rather spoilerific. <br />
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Unable to get a job to provide a better life for his girlfriend, George (Ross Doney) decides create a small trusted crew to rob houses for easy cash. This crew consists of Simon (Rishi Ghosh), Perry (Ben James Archer), and Bill (Jackson Davies). All are friends from childhood. During their more rebellious years they had taken up burglary to a small extent with little consequence. Now that they are adults they figure they can dip their toes into the grimy waters of crime and leave whenever they want. They learn the hard way that they can't. Though their crime sprees are successful with no interference from the law none of the four seem to be happy with their success. George still can't find himself a job and always has to resume his career in burglary. With each break-in the chances of something bad happening increases. They never seem to realize that until it is too late. <br />
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THE ANIMALS is an intimate look into this circle of friends. Each man has their own reason for joining the crew. George needs money. Perry sees a life of crime as a real career choice. Bill thinks its fun. Simon who may be the most tragic character of all is up front with his reluctance but chooses to go along with his mates out of loyalty. In the end they have to face the consequences on their own as individuals.<br />
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When caught red handed by the person whose house our misguided heroes were burglarizing a death occurs. It turns out that Bill is a Wild Card and goes into a fit of rage and murders the home owner. From then on the consequences of their actions weighs heavily on their conscious. This is where the film really gets uncomfortable in a good way. These men have to return to their loved ones and try to pretend that everything is normal. You can see the guilt wrap around each character like an invisible snake choking them to death and bringing about the destruction of their personal lives and relationships. <br />
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I cannot stress how spot on the acting has to be to make a film like this work. There are no car chases, explosions or action scenes to distract the audience. If the actors are unbelievable then the whole film falls apart no matter how good the cinematography looks. Every actor and actress needs to be commended for their excellent performances. The main characters are doing bad things but you sympathize with them. That is hard to do. I personally can relate to George wanting to provide a better life for his girlfriend but finding closed doors everywhere he turns. The hot headed Perry makes you hate him at first but as the world of crime becomes more and more unpredictable you can't help but feel sorry for the guy. When you learn that Bill is unstable unaware of his violent rages and see how these fits destroy his life you will feel sad. Simon, who is the level headed one in this group loses the love of his life when he is compelled out of guilt to confess to his boyfriend that he participated in robberies that lead to murder. His boyfriend wants him to turn himself to the police but Simon cannot do that. The guilt reveals their inner character. Have they become animals themselves?<br />
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I have only watched the film once but I keep going back in my mind replaying the events of this film appreciating the films intimacy and character arcs more and more. This is an excellent little movie that needs to be seen. The writing, acting and direction gives the audience many levels of the art of film to appreciate. I think for the modern you audience looking into film and wanting to make a crime story THE ANIMALS can be and revelation. You don't need to be 'Tarantinoesque' or bomb the screen with explosions and car chases to make a great crime film. THE ANIMALS is proof of that. See it for yourself and decide. Remember it is free thanks to Streamnowtv.com.<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-27405648817603099522017-01-29T07:45:00.002-08:002017-01-29T07:45:27.402-08:00TRAIN TO BUSAN is a thrill ride you need to catch!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The zombie genre is a funny thing. The concept of the dead coming to life to feast on the living has been done to redundancy. Every possible idea has been thoroughly explored on the big and small screen. Ever since the first RESIDENT EVIL movie came out back in the olden days of 2002 there has been a nonstop wave of zombie films of all ranges of quality. Some good. Most bad. Just when you think the genre is being laid to rest, another clever, well made movie or show comes out and inspires a whole new generation of movie makers to go out and make their own cheap knock-off. SHAUN OF THE DEAD or THE WALKING DEAD are great examples of this phenomenon. Now the WALKING DEAD's ratings are slipping. All the newly made zombie films are not getting bought up in film markets. If they are lucky they might end up on Chiller T.V. or the SYFY Channel. Yet just when you think the movement is over, here comes TRAIN TO BUSAN to reanimate the whole genre once again. I don't care. I like zombie movies and I really liked TRAIN TO BUSAN. Even though I am a die hard fan of zombie movies, I think even the most casual fan of horror or movies in general will like this movie. It is a bit unique.<br />
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The movie is about a father who is taking his daughter to visit his mother via the train to Busan. He is a man consumed with work which has resulted in a failed marriage and a daughter who can't stand to be with him. After getting on the train, however. zombies happen and now he is fighting along with the other passengers to survive and make it to Busan, possibly the only city on the route that is safe.<br />
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With its sharp focused shots, smooth camera movement and brightly lit and colorful cinematography TRAIN TO BUSAN stomps the trend of ugly and bland looking horror movies. The subject matter might be grim but the film doesn't have to look it. The result is that TRAIN is energized with life. The film moves fast from scary moment to scary moment. The characters are alive revealing who they are through their actions throughout the film. The zombie thrills are spontaneous making it almost impossible to predict when the next attack will happen. It is an exciting film through and through bolstered by the audience fear that their favorite characters might die. You are going to care and have the 'feels' for these people. Everyone is motivated by something whether it is the fear of dying or fear of the one you love meeting the horrible fate of being a chew toy for the undead.<br />
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The movie feels more like a disaster movie than a straight up horror film. It is more about the characters surviving a cataclysmic event more than showing a bunch of gore and gross stuff usually associated with the genre. The zombies are treated more like a natural disaster reserving them for the road blocks that our heroes need to either run from or come up with some desperate way to get past. The movie is about surviving, not figuring what happened and trying to stop it.<br />
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TRAIN TO BUSAN's zombies are of the WORLD WAR Z variety. They are fast moving, with the ability to jump somewhat, and seem to be motivated by the desire to spread the zombie plague rather than eat people for their flesh or brains. People are treated like chew toys spit out before they can be torn apart allowing them to become fast moving double jointed zombies too. It is rather mesmerizing to watch a character turn. They kind of do some erratic Break Dance moves complete with the cracking sound of bones before going all grey eyed as they succumb to Zombitis. They are scary screaming freaks that swarm like army ants. Also it doesn't help that nobody has any guns. That means when you are on a train full of undead crazies you are going to have to punch, kick, wrestle and use anything you can find to fend off the attackers. They make killing zombies look so easy in THE WALKING DEAD, don't they?<br />
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Let me tell you my favorite part of the movie. It is near the very beginning before all Armageddon breaks loose. We are introduced to the real world troubles of a father trying to ineptly form a bond with his daughter who wants nothing to do with him. When he is driving her to the train mentioned in the movie's title it is completely uneventful. The quiet of a sleeping city is broken by the sounds of roaring sirens heading to a building on fire out in the distance. We, as the audience, know that all hell is breaking loose all around them but the chaos has not yet broken their little bubble of what is left of their former lives. They are unaware that they are running in a race of life and death as slowly as possible. Even when boarding the train all the passengers do not realize the danger biting at their heals. The tension is immense. You just want everyone to get on that train as fast as possible and get the heck out of there! Move, people! Really great zombie movies have these wonderful calm before the storm moments. <br />
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TRAIN TO BUSAN isn't SNAKES ON A PLANE. This is a zombie movie that you can't help but get emotionally involved. It's funny at times. It is heartbreaking at times but always exciting. If this movie was made in America it would be treated as just another exploitation movie and given the obvious title of ZOMBIES ON THE TRAIN or LOCOMOTIVE OF THE DEAD or some other stupid title that is just a knock-off of a much more successful franchise in the genre. No doubt there will be a North American remake starring Mark Wahlberg. Ugh....<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-17130851128582447092017-01-18T08:29:00.002-08:002017-01-18T08:29:46.791-08:00THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (2016) When is a remake not a remake?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well they did it, didn't they? They finally did it. The Hollywood Remake machine has finally claimed another American classic. Never in my wildest dreams would I have believed they would have the tenacity to attempt to redo a nearly perfect classic film. How much more taboo can you be? The film that I am talking about of course is WORLD GONE WILD. The post apocalyptic action western starring Bruce Dern is about a hippie from the sixties living in a world ravaged by nuclear warfare. He lives in a small settlement of peaceful pioneers in the desert who find themselves under threat of Adam Ant and his cult of followers. Out gunned Bruce Dern goes out and recruits about five other tough guys who manage to fight back and save the town from the weirdo attackers. Of course the most memorable moment in the film is when Bruce Dern kills a bad guy by flipping a hub cap into his throat with the flick of a stick. Oscar worthy and totally possible in real life I am sure.<br />
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Of course I am being silly. Yes, WORLD GONE WILD is a remake (or homage) of the classic western, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, which was a remake of the classic samurai film, THE SEVEN SAMURAI, directed by Akira Kurosawa. But we are here to review the new Denzel Washington film directed by Antoine Fuqua. I bring up WORLD GONE WILD to make a point. WGW has the spirit of the original as well as some lines of dialogue and some visual cues as well. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN 2016 only has a few lines of dialogue from the original. The spirit of the original is completely absent from the new film. The new MAGNIFICENT SEVEN barely even qualifies as a remake. I would argue that it is not a remake at all, but just another "Men on a Mission" movie. However, the idea that this is not a remake does not make the new movie better. There is no fresh or new approach to the material.<br />
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THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN from 2016 is about a gunfighter named Sam (Not Chris!) who accepts a request from a recently widowed woman to help save her town from an evil rich guy and his army of bearded, duster wearing, professional gunmen. Of course along the way Sam (The Denzel) recruits Chris Pratt and five other cohorts to lead the revolt against the army of TOMBSTONE movie enthusiasts. <br />
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I was shocked to see according to IMDB that the new MAGNIFICENT SEVEN was two hours and thirteen minutes long. That is five minutes longer than the 1960's version! How can the longer film have less story? The new movie has gutted the story and replaced it all with guns, guns and more guns. The movie becomes more of a standard revenge Western than an epic tale of men of questionable character deciding to fight for a noble cause with little chance of winning. Yes, that is right I said "revenge Western." Spoiler!!!! At the end it is revealed that the rich bad guy, Bartholomew, had murdered Sam's family. That revelation undercuts the whole point to the story. The story narrative is incredibly important. The filmmakers didn't trust the audiences to understand a motivation that wasn't revenge or getting gold and stuff. The concept of fighting because it is the right thing to do seems to be too much of an abstract concept nowadays. When Sam says the line from the original "I have been offered a lot, but never everything" it now suddenly has no meaning because he is only joining the cause for revenge. Contrast that with Yul Brynner's character, Chris, who is moved by the gesture of poor farmers scraping together everything they have just to hire him to fight. Which movie has more depth of character? Which movie is going to move you more on an emotional level?<br />
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Akira Kurosawa's film was called THE SEVEN SAMURAI. It is about seven samurai. The 1960's MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is about seven gunfighters. The new movie's cast of characters have different occupations. You have Sam and the Mexican as gunfighters, a knife expert, a former Confederate who is now a sharp shooter, a Native American who joins for no reason, a mountain man and a gambler. The diversity of their occupations doesn't hurt the modern film because there is no attempt to bring a connection between our protagonists and our super rich and super mean antagonist. There is no time for character development despite the longer run time. Longer run time means longer gun fights at the end. 1960's MAGNIFICENT had a cast of nothing but wandering gunfighters just like the wandering samurai from the source material. These seven gunfighters are fighting a large band of outlaws who are also gunfighters. They have similar job occupations. Eli Wallachi leads the gang of outlaws who steals from the poor defenseless farmers. Near the end he out smarts the heroes and takes over the small village but he doesn't kill them. He respects them. He sees himself as one of them even though he doesn't understand why they are fighting for some pathetic farmers. The new movie has a stereotypical wealthy bad guy. Only at the end is there an attempt to establish any connection our heroes and villain and it is only the deflating revelation that the bad guy killed Sam's family back in the day. Standard stuff you would find in any Western. That is why I really don't consider this a remake. It is too far gone from the source material. It is in name only that this is a remake. <br />
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Location. Location. Location. The location is so important to both versions of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. For the original it helps emphasize the thoughtful nature of our heroes. They choose to fight the odds in a foreign land far away from anyone who will ever know their sacrifice. There is no reward for what they are doing. No one will remember them except for the farmers and villagers they help save. They are alien to the Mexican culture. Through the course of the film, however, the gunfighters envy the farmers for having a life worth living full of family and friends. The farmers and the gunfighters learn from each other and develop a kinship. Also the village is in the middle of nowhere far from any form of law enforcement which is ideal for Calvera and his men to take as they please. The villagers are so desperate to hire men that are good with guns that they scrounge all of their most valuable possessions together making themselves even more poor than they were before.<br />
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The location of the remake takes place in the United States. The townsfolk are not poor when compared to the farmers of the original. The townsfolk gathering up their possessions to pay for their own Magnificent Seven isn't as meaningful. They probably have more wealth where that came from. Just look at how prosperous their town looks. These people have jobs. It feels disingenuous. Being in the United States means there is some kind of government law somewhere about. I know the film gives the classic cliche that the evil rich guy owns the law but if you are going to seek help from an army of bad guys, you don't buy gunfighters. You go to a nearby fort and find the United States Army and ask them to help for free. Does the bad guy own the Army too? Not bloody likely. Maybe there is some kind of HEAVEN'S GATE situation going on the movie doesn't mention.<br />
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Calvera played by Eli Wallachi is bombastic, deadly and a true threat. He is a bandit, a killer, a man who has lived the life of adventure. He lives outside of the law just like our heroes. Contrast that to Bartholomew Bogue the wealthy murdering businessman. Peter Sarsgaard is a great actor and he does his job well playing the antagonist but his diminutive size and stature does not present much of a menace to our stalwart band of larger than life heroes. Being a man raised in great privilege makes him look soft having armed guards do his dirty work.<br />
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So what are we left with? A descent action western and not much else. Its not great but it is entertaining for the most part. All the actors are great in their respected roles. Denzel is always good. You can never accuse the guy of giving a bad performance. Chris Pratt is pretty much an early relative of STARLORD but that is a good thing for this film. The Seven do have some good chemistry between them all that musters some attachment from the audience. I like Byung-hun Lee as Billy Rocks the knife expert and his partner Goodnight Robicheaux the sharpshooter. These two have an fun and sympathetic friendship where Billy keeps Goodnight in check from completely falling apart from his past experience in the Civil War. If they had survived the movie they should have had a spin-off movie exploiting their further adventures. Oops! Spoilers! Antoine Fuqua is a really good action director and he brings his "A Game" for this one. There is a ton of glorious six gun blasting action in this movie and it's well staged and easy to follow. No busy editing to distract form the action. I particularly like all the horse stunt work Denzel does shooting bad guys from atop his magnificent black steed. He is like a gymnast on a pommel horse. Don't worry, folks. The horse survives. With all the shootings, stabbings and other major impalement issues I am surprised that this film managed to squeak out a PG-13.<br />
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Its funny. Antoine Fuqua made another actioner that came out back in the old days of 2003. It was TEARS OF THE SUN. It starred Bruce Willis as a Special-Ops commander who leads a small group of soldiers who are sent into Africa to retrieve a doctor played by Monica Bellucci but find themselves ignoring orders to save a bunch of refugees fleeing a murderous army that seeks to kill them all. Its an okay movie. Tom Skerritt pops up in the film as an added bonus. TEARS is way more closer to a MAGNIFICENT SEVEN remake than the Denzel movie. Men in a foreign land who fight against a much larger army to save some people they have no apparent commonality with. Sure it doesn't take place in the same time period and it lacks the memorable dialogue of the original but it does have the same core concept of few against many for the lives of strangers and the greater good. See it for yourself. <br />
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THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN has more in common with any generic action movie (WORLD GONE WILD) concerning men recruited to undertake a dangerous mission than it does with the classic Western the movie steals it's title from. Still the new movie is enjoyable with it's colorful cast and impressive amount of shoot'em up fun. It is just too bad they didn't approach the material as an epic rather than just another BANG-BANG action movie.<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-42723596163416172312016-12-27T05:53:00.002-08:002016-12-27T05:53:45.490-08:00ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS (What if) STORY!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Just like THE EWOK ADVENTURE and EWOKS: THE BATTLE FOR ENDOR, ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY is a stand alone film that takes place in the STAR WARS universe only without Ewoks. The film is about Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) being recruited by the Rebellion to locate her father who was taken from her when she was a child to work on weaponizing the Death Star. Eventually this quest leads her and some new allies on the path to steal the plans for the Death Star and get them to the Rebellion. The story is serviced by a forgettable music score, some breath-taking visuals and horrible horrible fan service. If you like STAR WARS for it's explosions, lazers and spaceships then ROGUE ONE is the greatest movie of them all. If you like STAR WARS for its endearing timeless story and memorable characters then you will be disappointed.<br />
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When I first saw the trailer for ROGUE ONE I was immediately impressed by the character of Jyn Erso. The trailer portrays her as a Snake Plissken type character. My favorite line from the trailer is when she says "This is a rebellion, isn't it? I rebel." That's a great line. Unfortunately that line was cut out as well as any other possible scene or moment that would make her a strong or even memorable character. Instead she comes across as a scared little girl forced into a situation she never would have put herself in. Yeah, the film makes it a point to show her beat up a bunch of storm troopers but that doesn't make her a strong character. She is just an action figure. Jyn has no good moments. She gives a couple of speeches that come across as out of step with her character. Jyn is a non-character in her own story. She has not earned the right to be the biggest character on the movie poster. She never really seems to be a part of the Rebellion even though she has experienced personal loss at the hands of the Empire. You would think she would have been in the Rebellion from day one. I'm not even sure what she was doing before being rescued/captured by the Rebellion and setting her on the mission to find her father.<br />
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Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna is a spy for the Rebellion. His character has a little more of an arch. We see him having to kill one of his own as to not let him fall into the hands of the Empire. He has had to do a lot of bad things for the sake of the Rebellion Bad things not wrong things I will point out. He can't escape the guilt that he has from doing those things. That guilt actually interferes with his secret mission which is to kill Jyn's father. When given the chance he cannot bring himself to pull the trigger. Wanting to make up for the bad things he has done he joins Jyn on the mission to steal the Death Star plans. You would think he would be an interesting character but he is also kind of forgettable. He is rather bland. Him and Jyn are the perfect couple. They both fail to bring an emotional attachment to the film. That is why so many people view the first hour or so as kind of boring while the action packed third act impresses. If we cared about the characters then the beginning of ROGUE ONE would just as entertaining.<br />
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Is ROGUE ONE a war story? Nope. ROGUE ONE is no different than A NEW HOPE or RETURN OF THE JEDI. Essentially ROGUE is an adventure film about a woman and a small crew who go to find her father but by the third act find themselves in a large scale battle with the Empire. Its really no different or more grittier than A NEW HOPE or RETURN OF THE JEDI. Heck, they even show the cutesy lovable Ewoks getting killed in JEDI. I don't remember seeing any gory severed arms in ROGUE ONE either.<br />
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Darth Vader Force chokes Director Krennic for no reason except for fan service. Director Krennic did nothing wrong except show his ambition to show off for the Emperor. He didn't insult Vader for his sad devotion to an ancient religion nor made huge incompetent strategic errors that cost the Empire huge victories against the Rebellion. This is an example of writing a character and not knowing who that character is but knowing the character actions in previous stories. Vader has become the guy who Force chokes and uses a red light saber. He even makes hand into a weird hook shape to let the audience know that he is using the Force to Force choke Krennic. Its dumb as well as the line Vader says about not choking on your own ambitions. It made no sense. The dirty little secret for making ROGUE ONE is not to tell the story of those who sacrificed their lives to steal the plans to the Death Star. No. This movie was just an excuse to show Darth Vader (going against character) charging down a hallway like a Force sensitive Jason Vorhees slaughtering Rebel soldiers like they were made of paper. The general audience just wants Vader killing people with the Dark Side of the Force and using his cool looking red light saber. Don't be surprised if we get a stand alone Darth Vader film. Hopefully the next time we see Vader he isn't voiced by James Earl Jones. He just sounds too tired now. The fire is gone. Also hopefully we get a better body double that can match David Prowse's imposing presence. We really owe David Prowse a debt of gratitude for bring Darth Vader to life in the physical sense. Oh, yea and give Vader some better dialogue too. In fact never make a movie with Vader in it.<br />
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The biggest problem of the film is its need to bridge the ROGUE ONE directly into A NEW HOPE. The makers didn't pay attention to what was going on at the beginning of A NEW HOPE. For them it was just two spaceships shooting lazers at each other followed by storm troopers boarding and shooting lazers at the escort soldiers. On a side note why didn't Vader just storm in by himself and mow everyone down with his red rocket light saber? Maybe he was just too tired from doing it five minutes ago because he is old and stuff. It is the small details that paint a bigger picture to what is going on. When Vader boards he chokes a soldier for information. The soldier says that this is a counselors ship on a diplomatic mission. Why would he say that if they had just escaped from Vader during a large scale attack against the Empire? They know that Vader personally witnessed their ship escape. Then when Princess Leia meets Vader she says that only he would be sold bold to attack a diplomatic ship and that the Imperial Senate will hear about this. Why would she say that if she just escaped from a major battle against the Empire again right in front of Vader himself? According to Princess Leia she is part of the Imperial Senate. When she is going on these diplomatic missions for the Empire she is secretly working for the Rebellion. Secretly means she isn't partaking in full blown military excursions. Vader attacks the ship because he knows that the plans to the Death Star were beamed directly to that ship by rebel spies via several transmissions. That tells me that the spies are still alive too by the way. The only way Vader knows that Leia is a spy is by those transmissions. Capturing her is done in secret because it may generate sympathy for the rebellion. This also shows that the Empire doesn't have full control of the universe Only when the Death Star is complete do we have the Emperor disbanding the Imperial Senate. On the surface level what happened in A NEW HOPE is that a diplomatic ship flying through the universe is attacked by an Imperial Star Destroyer. In reality Princess Leia was using her diplomatic status to fly out and retrieve the plans via transmissions from Rebel spies as well as bringing back Obi-Wan Kenobi. After retrieving the plans she races home only to be pursued and captured by Vader. If ROGUE ONE is to be accepted everything that happens at the beginning of A NEW HOPE makes no sense. <br />
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I didn't hate the film however. Despite things getting stupid at the very end I did like seeing Grand Moff Tarkin return via some impressive C.G.I. The actor they imposed the C.G.I. on to bring Peter Cushing back to life also did the voice. Even though it sounded slightly different it still felt genuinely like how the character would sound as oppose to Vader. Another surprise seeing Red Leader and Gold Leader brought back via footage from A NEW HOPE. I like seeing the cannon fodder from A NEW HOPE given more life. I also loved how the beginning of the film looked like an Akira Kurosawa film with wide stretches of empty skyline with imposing figures decorating the horizon of an open field. I like that kind of nod to the franchises inspiration.<br />
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Ultimately it is the supporting cast that puts some actual emotion in the film. Donnie Yen as Chirrut the blind Jedi wannabe and his best friend Baze Malbus played by Wen Jiang give some much need personality to the film. Their brotherhood is the only relationship that comes across as genuine. Alan Tudyk provides most of the comedy as the voice of K-2SO, a former Imperial droid that now serves as a badass C-3PO. These three characters are the best thing about ROGUE ONE besides the grand and awe inspiring visuals. You care for them and feel a sense of loss when they die.<br />
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I was hoping for something different but by the end we got another regular STAR WARS adventure film. The only difference is that all the main characters die at the end. The fan service ("I have a bad feeling about"..."No!") makes this film no better than films like TERMINATOR GENISYS. An enjoyable film but not worthy of its original predecessors. Yes it is the best prequel but that isn't saying much. I would say about 80% of ROGUE ONE is terrific but that 20% of bad really hurts the film and the franchise as a whole. The continuity is ruined again. It is because of it failings to fit into the STAR WARS continuity without taking away from the originals is why ROGUE ONE is only a "What If" story and not true canon.<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-82648242673611423862016-12-15T11:25:00.000-08:002016-12-15T11:25:41.064-08:00A TASTE OF KILLING needs a re-release!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Tonino Valerii has directed about five Spaghetti Westerns in his day. DAY OF ANGER aka GUNLAW is probably his best with the help of the two main stars Lee Van Cleef and Giuliano Gemma. His most famous is MY NAME IS NOBODY which stars Henry Fonda and Terence Hill and may have been co-directed by Sergio Leone. It is terrible and boring. The ending is good but it belongs in a better film. The movie as a whole is bad which is why I find it strange that so many critics familiar with Italian Westerns would often have it ranked somewhere in their top ten lists. I guess they need to see more Spaghetti Westerns. If they had then maybe they would have seen the far more satisfying A TASTE OF KILLING. <br />
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The film stars Craig Hill (A sort of cross between Eastwood and Bronson) as Lanky, a bounty hunter who has been tasked to protect a shipment of gold locked in the town's bank vault from a small army of bandits. The leader of the bandits, Gus Kennebeck (George Martin) also just happens to be the man who killed Lanky's brother back in the day. Time for some payback, right? Well sort of. Lanky may not be the hero we have been so accustomed to in other Westerns from Italy.<br />
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At the beginning of this tale of bloodshed and greed, Lanky is traveling on horseback watching a column of cavalry soldiers escort a shipment of gold through a valley in the desert. From atop the valley Lanky has a birds eye view of the escort. Through the scope of his rifle, he sees bandits waiting to attack. Lanky sets his sights on the first leader of the bandits, Sanchez, played by Fernando Sancho. Character actor Fernando Sancho always plays bandit leaders in Spaghetti Westerns. I will just assume he dies in all of them. With his sights set on Sanchez, Lanky waits. Then the bandits begin shooting. Lanky does nothing. All the soldiers are murdered mercilessly and the gold is stolen along with some money. This moment tells us everything we need to know about Lanky. He is in it for the money. Lanky's motivations are dictated by his plan to get more money. He is just like Franco Nero's Django. The only difference is that at the end Django redeems himself while Lanky continues in his amoral ways.<br />
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Before there was Quigly Down Under there was Lanky. Lanky likes using a scope on his rifle to scout from atop and kill from a distance. That doesn't mean he always kills from a distance and not adversed to shooting someone in the back. Sanchez and two of his goons found out early on that Lanky is fast and deadly with a pistol too. The scoped rifle is a symbol of Lanky being distant from humanity. He kills bad guys but he lets innocent soldiers die too when he could have easily helped out. Lanky is only interested in money. I don't think this makes him one dimensional though. His distance stems from his experience with loss. Well at least I think so. We learn that Gus, the new and more dangerous leader of the bandits, murdered Lanky's brother. Lanky states that he would kill him for free even though he can wait while the bounty on Gus's head keeps going up. Lanky is a man of simple motives. He wants money and keeping things simple. Surprisingly he is illiterate but he can read the amounts of money for bounties on wanted posters. Reading is only important enough to read dollar signs.<br />
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The characteristics of a hero's story are dispersed to other characters in the film. This makes the movie's characters a little more intriguing. Just a little. Gus has more noble intentions than Lanky does. Gus wants to steal the towns gold so he can provide a better life for his wife who struggles raising their son in the criminal lifestyle. The movie doesn't make us like him much though because every so often he gets upset and starts slapping the wife around. I think the movie would have been stronger if Gus was actually more identifiable and sympathetic. Being too interested in financial gain Lanky does not have a love story. That story goes to a bandit who is in love with the wife of a former bandit who has changed his ways and now works for the bank protecting the gold. Yeah, it's kind of confusing with all the subplots that form to stretch out the run time. I don't even remember who any of these people are.<br />
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All the subplots and the stupid plan of Lanky's hiding the gold as the front steps of the bank to fool the bandits don't really take away from the film. The movie is full of enough gun play to keep everyone entertained. In fact I think this might be the first movie where someone is shot in the eye while they are looking through the scope of a rifle similar to what happened in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and HEROES SHED NO TEARS. My favorite moment in A TASTE FOR KILLING is at the end when Gus tries to shoot Lanky with his own scope rifle. Lanky shoots him through the scope with his pistol killing Gus instantly. Then Lanky picks up the now broken and grimaces. Its a quick and funny moment. Lanky showed more emotion over his ruined rifle scoped than he did for the dozens of soldiers left behind to become vulture meet. At the end Lanky follows the gold he just rescued and once again watches from a distance as another band of outlaws gun down the new cavalry detail and begins to steal the gold. Lanky's true intentions are revealed. He makes money chasing gold shipments. That is when you realize he let all those soldiers die on purpose at the beginning of the film and he let it happen again so he can make some money. You have to wonder how Lanky gets his own hero theme song.<br />
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A TASTE OF KILLING needs to be better known. Its good. Maybe it's not as great as I think it is but with lots of bad guys to shoot and some good dialogue from time to time the movie never gets boring. I like Craig Hill. He is a great alternative to Eastwood or Bronson without coming across as generic. Despite some choppy editing this is a pretty slick film with a story that doesn't follow the typical 'Stranger comes to town and starts trouble' formula. Usually it is the rich bankers and business men that the hero fights. In this movie the hero works for them and they are played by Franco Ressel and Piero Lulli! These two actors always play the main bad guys in Spaghetti Westerns and they always die by the end. In A TASTE FOR KILLING they don't suffer a scratch. Its rather refreshing. If this film was made a few years later Lanky and Gus would team up to take on the greedy bankers and rich land owners. <br />
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Unfortunately the DVD is out of print and rather expensive to buy. I can only hope that someone out there puts this movie that plays to a different beat out on Blu-ray soon. PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! I am not above begging. If you are in to Italian Westerns this is a must watch especially if you are looking for something outside of Leone. Director Tonino Valerii was a student of sorts under Leone if that peaks your interest. This was Valerii's first film in the director's chair. Also Lanky's theme song by Nico Fedinco is catchy. I need the soundtrack which is probably out of print too. Ugh!.<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-16173776521528112372016-12-06T08:51:00.000-08:002016-12-06T08:51:00.084-08:00SHOOT FIRST, DIE LATER (1974)<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I851O5s4gbs/WEVpXUe6XUI/AAAAAAAABKs/CfKiVTMBn-IfAb714WABhUQTHN5htjxIQCLcB/s1600/shootfirstdielater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I851O5s4gbs/WEVpXUe6XUI/AAAAAAAABKs/CfKiVTMBn-IfAb714WABhUQTHN5htjxIQCLcB/s1600/shootfirstdielater.jpg" /></a>SHOOT FIRST, DIE LATER sounds more like a title for a Spaghetti Western than a modern day Eurocrime. I'm sure this film has many different titles and translations depending on what market of the world it was distributed to. Director Fernando Di Leo has made an excellent entry into the genre. The first thirty minutes or so I wasn't very impressed. The film is kind of ordinary in it's initial appearance. Most likely the film was quickly shot. There isn't any well thought out creative camera angles and compositions to make the film any different from all the other hastily made Dirty Harry knock offs from seventies Italy. I can't even remember the music. However, if you wait you will be rewarded with a simple but very compelling story about the consequences of police corruption. Its the story that makes SHOOT FIRST worth a watch. The ending is great too which I will be spoiling completely in this review because I love it!<br />
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SHOOT FIRST, DIE LATER opens with a large bow tied mafia boss named Pascal having a bunch of local drug dealers shot in the legs for doing business behind his back. Later an eccentric old man tries to leave his house to get milk for his cat but his gate has been blocked by a couple of cars to where he can't get out. This prompts the old man to file a police report. Meanwhile police officer, Domenico (Luc Merenda) busts some gun runners. After being glorified for busting them Domenico gets word to show up to a meeting. That meeting ends up being with Pascal. Domenico is actually working for the mob! They inform Domenico that there was a report filed involving the parked cars that links Pascal to a recent murder. Domenico is to get rid of that report. The problem is that with the escalation of the murder investigation everyone involved with filing that report is now a witness and Domenico knows it. The police officer who wrote down and filed that report just happens to be Domenico's father.<br />
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Domenico is a carefree kind of cop. He busts the bad guys, gets into high speed car chases through the crowded streets of Milan and at the end of the day goes to his girlfriend Sandra's apartment to make sweet sweet love. He does all of this and helps out the mob with their coffee and tobacco trade. For Domenico and his partner Garrito (Rosario Borelli) this is small time harmless crime and easy money. They see no wrong in it. He doesn't realize that the Mafia are expanding their trade into guns and drugs until Domenico busts two Portuguese gun runners that are dealing with Pascal. Domenico learns the hard way that working for the mob is not harmless fun and the only thing he needs to buy with his ill gotten gains is a fancy new casket.<br />
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What a great movie! The first thirty minutes sets up the true drama that comes later almost unassumingly. The movie comes across as just another silly tough guy movie but the moment you see that Domenico is corrupt everything changes. There is an invisible noose around Domenico's neck that tightens with every passing scene as he tries to get that report out of the hands of his father. We see that his father is very proud of him. When Domenico has to reveal to his father that he is working for the mob it breaks his father's heart. His father reluctantly brings Domenico the report breaking the law and making his father corrupt too. His father never forgives him and he isn't given time to do so because he is murdered after giving the report to Domenico. This propels Domenico into going after Pascal but doing so costs him everything. <br />
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SHOOT FIRST, DIE LATER is about the price one pays for being corrupt. Though he doesn't realize it, Domenico has lost his soul. Our protagonist is not any better than the bad guys he gets revenge on. One of the best and most revealing moments of the film is when Domenico, Garrito and another cop who we see early on is not part of the police corruption go to Sandra's apartment to save her from some hitmen. After pulling up to the apartment Domenico sends the innocent cop to the front door to ring the bell. Domenico just watches and waits as if he already knows what is about to happen next. BOOM! The cop dies from a rigged explosive after ringing the door bell. Domenico shows no concern as he charges into the apartment only to find his girlfriend dead on the bed. He sent the cop to die and it didn't bother him. Domenico is truly lost to the world of sin.<br />
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Throughout the film Domenico tries to stay ahead of the mob. He avoids their traps and bullets. Finally he strikes a deal with Pascal's lawyer and second in command, Mazzanti played Richard Conti. A meeting is set up where Domenico meets with Pascal face to face. Pascal offers his hand to end all the trouble but Domenico shoots him in the face. Mazzanti and his men leave but Garrito walks up behind Domenico and shoots him in the head. And that is how the film ends. You can never truly escape the consequences of corruption. Its a cruel and unforgiving ending. Garrito was a trusted friend. At the funeral for Domenico's father Garrito is the only one with tears in his eyes. After going back and watching the movie again I have to wonder if he is crying for Domenico's loss or is he upset that he has already been tasked to kill his best friend? Will Garrito have a similar fate in the future? <br />
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SHOOT FIRST, DIE LATER has some good tough guy moments to help pass the run time but it is the story that makes this a definite must watch. Luc Merenda as Domenico is a surprise. At the beginning I dismissed him as just another tough guy actor but his acting chops shine through in the scenes involving drama between him and his father. You feel for him as he tries to persuade his father that what he did wasn't all that bad.<br />
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The Italians know how to have a good surprise ending. They have to for having so many similar films produced at the same time. I like the endings where at the end when all is said and done our hero still manages to get themselves perished at the hands of a friend or random thug. BIG GUNS has a similar ending. If you feel like you have seen everything then let me recommend the horror and Eurocrime films from Italy. You never know what you are going to get. Over the years I have become a reluctant fan and now embrace them looking for the next surprise. The search never gets old.<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-79106801140643368122016-11-15T05:54:00.000-08:002016-11-15T05:54:04.329-08:00DOCTOR STRANGE is Magically Delicious!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have to admit that I didn't expect a lot from DOCTOR STRANGE. ANOTHER ORIGIN STORY?!!! Is it really necessary to do another story about the beginnings of another super hero? I know next to nothing about Doctor Strange but I don't feel the need to have my hand held and explained how he came to be even with all the magic mumbo-jumbo. I have seen enough to know how this whole super hero thing works. The whole movie looked like it was going to be some kind of INCEPTION knock-off. Now that I have seen the movie I can say that I was wrong. Not only is DOCTOR STRANGE good, it's one of Marvel's best!<br />
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Dr. Strange is one of the best surgeons in the world. He is a man of great arrogance fully aware of how much smarter he is than everyone else around him. Not a bad guy but he has a couple of large character flaws. After a car wreck of his own doing, Strange finds himself no longer able to be a surgeon due to the crippling of his hands. Humbled in body but not in mind, Strange's desperation to get his former life back leads him to look into possible magic remedies. This journey leads him to the discovery that there is real magic in the universe and there are unseen threats that will use magic to bring destruction to our world.<br />
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DOCTOR STRANGE opens our minds to the Cosmic side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There is not just other countless universes but other dimensions and realms too. All of it is connected. Dr. Strange who considered himself the biggest man in the world, is shown that he is just a small part of a much larger reality. That doesn't make him and his existence meaningless but it does mean that everyone has value. Everyone is important and worth fighting for. Overtime Dr. Strange learns to use magic of the universe to help others instead of himself. He becomes a Master of magic but insists that you still call him Doctor.<br />
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The film only gets better and better. At no point does the story get bogged down with boring exposition or a pointless love story that will not last into the certain sequel. This is an origin story after all. We know how origin stories progress. We know that we will see set ups to future films in the franchise. We should be bored but we are most definitely not. Part of that reason is Benedict Cumberbatch is perfect as the title character. Dr. Strange is rich, smart and arrogant like Tony Stark only not as funny or likable. There is some deep complexity to his character. He loves himself more than anyone and this blinds him to why he can't build a strong relationships with others. He does care for his patients but he likes the glory a bit more. You can't help but get involved of his story as the prideful doctor the humbled but super powered super hero.<br />
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A big positive to this film and all Marvel films is that DOCTOR is part of a much larger story. While watching DOCTOR STRANGE you have to wonder where this is happening in the MCU. How are they going to use this character in the Infinite War? Are any Avengers going to show up? What is going on in the MCU while this story is going on? The idea of all these movies sharing the same universe helps boost interest even in the most lackluster Marvel movie.<br />
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Magic gives more room for imagination. The fight scenes are more creative because magic is being used in a creative way. There isn't just a bunch of shooting and punching. In fact there is an almost subversive nature with the use of magic in the fights. At the end the bad guys had pretty much won but thanks to Dr. Strange's willingness to break the rules of magic he is able to rewind time with the Time Stone and save everyone and defeat the bad guys while time reverses all around them. There is time travel and dimension bending and out of body experiences that are used in the battles between good and evil. Imagination is used the right way. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe we haven't seen these things before except for the Quantum Realm in ANT-MAN. You do see the Quantum Realm briefly in DOCTOR STRANGE.<br />
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DOCTOR STRANGE is a fast paced eye opening experience. It is a welcome addition to the MCU and a course correction from the BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE ripoff CAPTAIN AMERICA; CIVIL WAR which was somewhat of a disappointment. Hopefully DOCTOR is the last of these origin stories. The formula needs to be changed to tell a story of a newly introduced character. PUNISHER: WAR ZONE is the best example of that. My only real complaint for DOCTOR is that the some of the fight scenes are too heavily edited at times. Other than that this movie will surpass the most highest expectations. Go see it and be amazed!<br />
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Jason<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-90344884606344057862016-10-16T08:53:00.000-07:002016-10-16T08:53:01.906-07:00THE NEON DEAD is worth a look.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When it comes to low budget movies made by people who actually care about film I am very forgiving. Low budget films obviously have more challenges and obstacles to overcome to get made and shown in the public eye. I am a big believer in art through adversity. The challenge and limitations from the lack of money and resources can inspire wonderful results. THE EVIL DEAD is a terrific example of this. I am always looking to low budget films for inspiration since I myself am part of the world of no budget film making. I want more people to know about the good ones and get motivated to support these films and maybe make their own. I am looking for horror movies that are not homages or at least influenced by THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. I like that film but it has been too big of an influence on many horror films in the last 20 years or so. There are so many horror film makers that seek to out shock that classic movie through the on screen suffering of characters that a new genre of horror was created. Torture Porn. You can't count the number of horror movies whose plot summary is about a group of young teens and twenty-somethings who go out to the middle of nowhere and become the victims of a crazed cannibal inbred family of yahoos. I bet there are more movies about crazed cannibal inbred families than there are about Dracula and Frankenstein combined. People looking for new ideas to be inspired by to create new kinds of horror need to limit their intake of such films unless they just like that kind of film. I myself like the WRONG TURN movies for some reason. But if you are looking for something new and different I would recommend THE NEON DEAD.<br />
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When Allison discovers a violent ghost in her house she calls Desmond and Jake, an amateur paranormal exterminating duo, to find out what is going on in her house. The investigation leads our two ghost fighters to uncover the bigger problem of an interstellar demon trying to get to earth and destroy all life as we know it.<br />
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What I love is THE NEON DEAD's ambition. This a small movie with big special effects designed to make this movie look and feel different than so many other horror films. THE NEON DEAD has zombies but these zombies glowy grey eyes and are painted in grey that look like they would glow in black light. The zombies actually side with our heroes and fight these robed undead wizards (At least I think they were the wizards.) that look like the Blind Dead but with glowing red eyes. The zombies are used differently. They aren't just stumbling around looking for brains or living flesh to eat. That is part of the charm of THE NEON DEAD. The creators are using old horror elements and doing something more with them. I love the interstellar demon-thingy that is brought to life through the magic of stop-motion. They don't just show it once or twice either. There is a whole sword fight with it that is rather spectacular for a film like this. <br />
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The film has a lot of color to it. Color is used to emphasize the supernatural world clouding the normal world we live in. I like bold color in my fantasy horror films. Films like this are eye candy and candy should be colorful. Horror doesn't have to always be bland and ugly. Bland tends to be forgettable and THE NEON DEAD is not forgettable. <br />
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At 120 minutes run time I will say that THE NEON DEAD is way too long. There is a lot of story here that really could be trimmed down. The script itself needed to be tighter focusing on the relationship between the main trio of Allison, Desmond and Jake. Their newly formed friendship needs to be the foundation of the film. They do try to do this but because there is so much going on with the details of the story that the characters never fully develop believable growth. The film has too much talk. Too much explanation. NEON has a lot going on and the film feels the need to explain it all. Its not necessary. The result is that the film is kind of a slog to get through. It is very unfortunate and will turn many people off from the film. There is a lot of talent behind and in front of the camera that people should take notice of.<br />
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The other problem with the film is its lack of imagination with it's choice of camera angles. Of course this is because of the limit of budget but even the dialogue scenes are mostly shot reverse shot in close ups and mediums with little change. This confines the visual scope of the film adding to the film feeling slow even though there are a lot of different locations. However, there are some good camera movement at times too especially with the sword fight that has the camera following smoothly around the actors capturing the excitement of the fight in every detail. <br />
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I recommend THE NEON DEAD. You can learn what to and not to do with your next film. You can tell that the makers love the horror genre and want to make something that stands out from the rest. Be sure to stay to the very end for the stinger for the potential sequel. I hope there is one. I like what they are trying to do even if it isn't fully successful. I want to know who that mummy guy was. Don't know who I am talking about? You are just going to have to see the film for yourself.<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-69151952693488158322016-10-09T07:39:00.001-07:002016-10-09T07:39:07.145-07:00FINAL GIRLS!<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RVWU-SSlcUk/V_pWF-HR7sI/AAAAAAAABIA/C2Yise7MlHgLX0-TMsGkGKV6a-7ICDX3QCLcB/s1600/finalgirls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RVWU-SSlcUk/V_pWF-HR7sI/AAAAAAAABIA/C2Yise7MlHgLX0-TMsGkGKV6a-7ICDX3QCLcB/s1600/finalgirls.jpg" /></a>I would compare FINAL GIRLS to THE LAST ACTION HERO but that might infer some negative connotations to the film. I can't deny that FINAL GIRLS does have a similar concept of people getting trapped in a movie through the magic of cinema. Instead of getting stuck in JACK SLATER part IV starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, our protagonists find themselves in a slasher flick from the 80's titled CAMP BLOODBATH having to battle a Jason Vorhees type slasher named Billy Murphy. Both are highly imaginative but LAST ACTION falters by being too zany with the concept adding an out of place cartoon cat that is a detective and having that annoying kid from PREHYSTERIA as the lead actor. FINAL GIRLS does a better job with the concept. It manages to stay on the line between between horror and comedy to deliver a sincere heartfelt drama that is surprisingly effective.<br />
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Max (The exceptional Taissa Farmiga!) loses her mom (The also exceptional Malin Akerman!) in a car wreck at the beginning of FINAL GIRLS. Her mom was an actress who played one of the doomed counselors in the cult classic CAMP BLOODBATH. Max is talked into going to see her mom's film playing at a nearby movie theater. When a fire breaks out in the theater Max and her friends escape through the movie screen and find themselves in the actual movie. Trapped Max and her friends try to work with the fictional characters to fight off Billy the invincible slasher who gave the camp its notorious name of CAMP BLOODBATH.<br />
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The film is about Max dealing with the loss of her mom. Seeing Nancy, the character her mom played in CAMP BLOODBATH alive and well, Max takes it upon herself to try and save her from her inevitable death at the hands of Billy Murphy. If Max can save Nancy in the movie world then maybe somehow she will have her mom back too. You can see that FINAL GIRLS has a lot of heart to it. In most horror films nowadays you only see heart if it is literally torn out of a characters chest with liberal amounts of red stuff strewn about.<br />
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FINAL GIRLS doesn't rely on gore at all. There is barely any blood anywhere! How brave! Blood is replaced by an imaginative story. Max and her friends find themselves in a horror movie. This means they are experiencing every scene in the movie. They see the movie credits. They get absorbed into the flashback scenes. They teach one-dimensional counselors to have more depth to them. Its all rather interesting taking your mind off the fact that there is no gore. The PG-13 rating doesn't hurt the film.<br />
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Billy Murphy looks exactly like the Jason Vorhees from FREDDY VS. JASON except for the mask of course. Billy's trademark mask is more of a wooden block carved to look like an angry frog totem. Billy's back story of how he became disfigured is similar to Cropsey's in THE BURNING. Not a bad combination. Having to abide by the rules of slasher films only the 'final' girl can kill Billy at the end of the movie. This presents a problem for Max's plan to save Nancy. Max is now a character in the film and there can be only one female protagonist alive to defeat the killer.<br />
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My hope is that FINAL GIRLS continues to find a bigger and bigger audience influencing the next generation of horror film makers. Horror needs that. For the last 20 years or so too many creators of the horror genre have been overly influenced by the classic TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Bleak and bland horror has now taken up too much of our time. In contrast the look of FINAL GIRLS is bright and cheery with beautiful flowers growing about in various colors. It takes a daring director to try such a thing in a slasher film. Granted CAMP BLOODBATH is a fake movie meant to look different from the real world presented in FINAL GIRLS but I think a bolder look to horror that is more visually vibrant and not so colorless would be a refreshing approach. At least it is a good way to get your slasher film to get noticed. Slasher films can be artistic too.<br />
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Jason<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-69471976296006688442016-08-06T05:24:00.000-07:002018-04-10T15:19:47.192-07:00Thank You, Zack Snyder for BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE!!!<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kddRbK84ZxQ/V59gClDBqfI/AAAAAAAABF4/eUQGoPfQs0QcX-4Ecljyscc3FswnMU0CwCLcB/s1600/batmanvssupermanzacksnyder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kddRbK84ZxQ/V59gClDBqfI/AAAAAAAABF4/eUQGoPfQs0QcX-4Ecljyscc3FswnMU0CwCLcB/s1600/batmanvssupermanzacksnyder.jpg" /></a><br />
Spoilers Ahead!<br />
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I want to use this post to write about my love for BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE and use it as a 'Thank You' to Zack Snyder and everyone involved in making one of the greatest super hero films ever. The hate this movie has received is unwarranted and quite perplexing. I thought the theatrical cut was great but the restored true version was perfect and I mean that in all sincerity. The movie delivers a serious story that treats the audience with respect. It doesn't dumb down the plot by adding action beats every ten minutes or comedy at inappropriate times just to appeal to mainstream audiences who view the super hero genre as nothing more than "leave your brain at the door popcorn fare". Thank you, Zack Snyder for this film. Like Superman doing great deeds and still being greeted with fear and hate, you too have given us a great film that has received the same. Everyone is entitled to their opinions but I find it so strange that this film and MAN OF STEEL have been held under a higher magnifying glass while other films with more problems are given a pass. See the CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR for example. CIVIL WAR is pretty much the same freaking movie yet receives high positive ratings! Don't get me wrong. I loved CIVIL WAR too but I think BVS was way better. By the way the Ultimate Edition of BVS is what I will be writing about. That is the true intended version of the film. As far as I am concerned the theatrical cut no longer exists.<br />
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Essentially BVS is a Man vs. God story. Because of the abuse he had to endure as a child by his father, Lex Luthor (Jessie Eisenberg) has grown into a man who believes that there no such thing as a god who is good. To him people only pretend to be good but deep down inside they are selfish frightened creatures. Superman's existence contradicts Luthor's religion undermining his whole wold view by giving people hope of a better future. Lex sees no such future.<br />
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There are people who revere the man from another world as a god. Lex's view of Superman (Henry Cavill) is that he is a great lie that needs to be exposed. In a nut shell the whole movie is about Lex exposing that lie with an incredibly complex plan to pit Batman against Superman with the hopeful result of the death of the 'False God'. Despite all his wealth and intelligence, Lex Luther is a jealous man envious of those that Superman saves. Why couldn't Superman rescue little Lex from his monster of a father? After all, the young head of a billion dollar company is surely more important than the average person!<br />
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Jessie Eisenberg's Luthor is a man wearing a mask that has already began to crack from his growing ego and resentment of all those around him. His intelligence is unmatched and he knows it. The problem is that nobody else does. He wants everyone to know! He wants everyone to know that he is the one that figured out that Bruce Wayne is Batman! He wants everyone to know that it was he that discovered the great Superman was nothing more than a farm boy from Smallville pretending to be a human with delusions of being a reporter! Of course letting anyone know would jeopardize his plan on destroying the Son of Krypton. All he can do is toy with them. <br />
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One of my favorite scenes is at Luthor's charity party. He had invited both Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent. Luthor introduces the two neither one knowing who the other is and Lex in the middle knowing all. You can see he wants to scream it in their faces but Lex can't. He can only play along all the while going more and more mad from his own extreme narcissism. <br />
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Jessie Eiesenberg's quirky and slightly unhinged performance of Lex Luthor disarmed me. I figured he would create Doomsday judging by the movie trailers and that would be about it. So what? I wasn't impressed. However, when Martha Kent is abducted at the diner I quickly realized that Lex Luthor already knew who Superman really was. I was shocked! I did not see that coming. Lex became a villain that was a threat. He brings Superman (God!) to his knees by simply throwing a few photo's on the ground of his kidnapped mother. Luther's plan is unique in that it isn't about gaining more wealth or blowing up the whole world by the press of a button. He wants Superman to bow before him and die not caring (or maybe unaware) that creating Doomsday would have destroyed the world if Superman hadn't stopped the nearly indestructible creature.<br />
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There is a line in the movie ANGUS about Superman not being brave since he is nearly indestructible. That is a good line that makes you look at Superman a lot differently. With his bravery questioned he seems not so great even though he is all powerful. Batman himself almost quotes this line in the finale at the moment he is about to kill Superman. One of my favorite things about this movie is that it addresses this issue. The writers of BVS have created a Superman that can be destroyed with something other than kryptonite. Bruce Wayne is shown a future where the world has been seemingly destroyed and Superman leading an army of stormtroopers for the new world order. Superman has become what Wayne has feared most. Evil. How can that be? Superman is still just a man. His name is Clark Kent. He has a choice. Clark can live the quiet life with his love Lois Lane. It would be a good life. Yet he can't. He cares too much and knows he can do more to help this troubled world. Even though he is a man, he is a good man. That is a choice he makes even as he struggles to find his place in society as helping those in need of saving. Yet his good deeds are met by some with fear and skepticism. Sometimes doing good may even lead to bigger disasters later on. Lex Luthor does all he can to push Superman farther and farther from society's trust and love. The evil billionaire doesn't see a bird or a plane. He sees a monster in need of being destroyed and he wants the world to see the same.<br />
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Batman (Ben Affleck) is succumbing to the darkness that has changed so many in Gotham. He too has lost faith in his own beliefs being an empty shell of a man symbolized by the rundown vacant Wayne estate. This Batman brands the criminals he captures marking them for certain death once they enter the prison population. In the heat of the moment he does not go out of his way to make sure bad guys are not killed in his crusade. If they get in the way shooting, he shoots back. At first the idea of a Batman that kills really bothered me. It took me awhile to think about it but I realized that if Batman wasn't willing to kill then there would be no real conflict between him and Superman. BVS gives us an older Caped Crusader who has seen good people go bad. Batman is becoming a criminal himself. You can't but help wonder who Wayne is referring to when he tells Alfred about good people gone bad. Is he talking about Harvey Dent? Perhaps Jason Todd? Harley Quinn? It is exciting to think about considering that there are at least three Batman movies coming after JUSTICE LEAGUE.<br />
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Martha....One of the most profound moments in BVS is when Superman tells Batman to "Save Martha!" This moment is when Bruce Wayne sees Superman as a person and not a monster. Superman has a mom. But that is not all that is happening. If you remember the beginning of the film we see the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. We as an audience just assume that we are seeing, yet again, another origin of Batman. Even though this scene is a dream showing us that Bruce Wayne is still haunted by his past, we don't understand what we are really watching is the set up to the moment when Batman realized that he had become a criminal. All this time Batman had been fearing Superman becoming evil when he should have been fearful of himself becoming the same. The mugger who killed Bruce Wayne's parents murdered them out of fear. The murderer ran as soon as he shot them, too afraid to even stick around for a quick minute to take any valuables. The 'Martha' moment has been much maligned by the film's detractors reducing it's importance to nothing more than two super heroes whose moms have the same name. They are willingly ignorant if you ask me. I think it's an ingenious way that the writers came up with for our two heroes to find something in common with each other.<br />
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Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is so important to the story. In a big way she is the main character. Through her and her street smarts she slowly uncovers the devious plan of Lex Luthor to isolate Superman from society and kill him. She is the link between Superman and the world. Without her Superman has no future worth living for especially with how negative society can be toward him. She is a reminder as to why he fights for good. It was she who saved Superman at the end from Batman informing the would be slayer of a god that Superman has a mother named Martha.<br />
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I think it was a great disservice to BVS to feature Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) in all the promotions for the film. The movie itself makes you think she might be Catwoman with her stealing from Bruce Wayne a flash drive that he was using to steal information from Luthor. They have some chemistry together and her name is never mentioned until the end. I think the reveal of Wonder Woman would have had a greater impact on the audience if they found along with Bruce Wayne when he sees the old photo of her from World War I. A big surprise like that could only help surpass audiences expectations.<br />
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There is a lot hate for this film. I have no idea why. Partially it comes from some fans who have a preconceived notion on who Superman is and how he should act. They see him as an all wise man always zipping through the clouds with a smile on his face brimming with confidence in his abilities. That is all well and good but not realistic for a man who is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. I think if he was always smiling then the nay sayers would change course and accuse him of being too happy. Superman has a unique relationship with the audience. Just like the people of Earth have a love/hate with Superman so does the audience. The audience always questions Superman's reactions to events. Why couldn't Superman save his dad from a tornado? Why couldn't Superman stop the destruction of Metropolis and save everyone? Can't Superman go back in time and fix everything just like in SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE? It is just like when people are in bad times in their lives ask God why. It is a different kind of fourth wall breaking. <br />
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Who is Superman, really? I believe he represents all of us. No matter who we are or what we look like, we all can do great things with whatever abilities we have. Like Superman, we have to choose to do so.<br />
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I read an article about Kevin Smith watching BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE 8 times in an attempt to fall in love with it after it released on Blu-Ray. He sees that there is something good here but can't quite see it. I hope someone shows him this highly positive examining of the film. I hope it helps in why he should love the movie. This isn't a dumb fun movie. The characters are respected giving them deep convictions, motivations and flaws. There are many layers to every character and event depicted in this film. It is as epic as it is serious with many elements to endlessly ponder. That is a good thing. It's not trying to be just like the Marvel films. There is no need to course correct future films except maybe give the movie creators more creative control. BVS has found its own unique style and is a better more exciting film than all the Marvel films put together. That's right. I said it. Come and get me, Internets!<br />
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Let me just thank everyone again for the time and effort put into this film. Just like the excellent WATCHMAN, the cinematography is stunning and boundary pushing complimented by the rousing music scores by Hans Zimmerman and Junkie XL. There is a hyper focus on detail especially with the super hero costumes. There is weight to our heroes movement grounding them in a sense of reality. They don't look like a bunch of C.G.I. characters flying about more like cartoons than real people. It truly is one of the greatest most epic comic book movies ever made. Batman kung-fuing the mercs in the warehouse with all his bat gadgets was exactly what we wanted in a Batman fight. It was just like the Arkham games! The fight between Superman and Batman is legendary worth the price of admission. Everyone involved in making BATMAN V SUPERMAN has raised the bar. Thank you, thank you and thank you! <br />
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Zach Snyder needs to direct THE FLASHPOINT PARADOX movie!<br />
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Jason<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-55864854494775120882016-07-29T08:58:00.000-07:002016-07-29T08:58:30.418-07:00GHOSTBUSTERS (2016) : Be afraid of this one.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Beware! There be spoilers ahead!<br />
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The new GHOSTBUSTERS is not funny or imaginative. You kind of need those two main ingredients for a good Ghostbusters film. The jokes falter due to over reliance on improvisation casting suspicion that there wasn't much of a script to begin with. The jumbled, poorly paced, nearly incoherent story is evidence of that. Worst yet the characters have very little on screen chemistry and provide absolutely no laughs no matter how hard they try. Being a Ghostbusters fan I wanted to love this movie but I couldn't. To put it bluntly this film insults the fans of the old generation while dumbing down the new.<br />
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As the film plays before your eyes you can't help but imagine better ways to tell a story about the Ghostbusters. It would be so easy to put out a third film in the franchise and still have the four protagonists be the new all female Ghostbusters. We wanted a sequel. What we got is remake that is suppose to reboot the franchise. Oh, goody! We get the same old story of four friends getting together to form a business about catching ghosts and at the end a big giant thing stomps through the streets of Manhattan. I guess that is the only story that can be told about the Ghostbusters in movie form. They have told this story three times now! If you stay to the end you get a mention of Zuul during a post credits scene. Oh, no! Ghostbusters is a prequel!!! What is the deal with Sony and their reboots? It takes two movies to tell one story that has already been told in a previous film. It took two new AMAZING SPIDER-MAN movies to equal the amount of narrative put to screen in the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man.<br />
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Intentionally or not GHOSTBUSTERS (2016) is subversive with its insults toward fans of the original films. The main bad guy, Rowan, is a nerd not too unlike the average male Ghostbusters fan. He is full of hate and decides to destroy mankind by turning himself into a very large version of the ghost in the Ghostbusters logo. The sight of four female Ghostbusters shooting a Ghostbusters logo in the balls is all you need to see to understand how director Fieg feels about this franchise and its male fans. Okay, that is probably not true but I couldn't help but get that feeling.<br />
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I want to call the new film Bizzaro-GHOSTBUSTERS. This is a movie that seemingly comes from an alternate dimension that is complete opposite of us. We get four actresses that belong in the background filling in the title roles while the people we want to see play the Ghostbusters are reduced to nothing more than awful cameos that do nothing more than aggravate the audience and remind us of what could have been. Once again Ernie Hudson shows up at the end just so the camera can cut away from him as soon as possible giving him as little screen time as possible. He is my favorite, you jerks! Bill Murray's cameo as a skeptic and paranormal debunker comes across as a dig against all us who waited years for a true sequel. It's actually heartbreaking. He was the life of the party in the original GHOSTBUSTERS. Now he seems resentful of the whole franchise. To me Murray's appearance is a nod to Harrison Ford in THE FORCE AWAKENS having himself killed off by a ghost so he doesn't have to appear in anymore Ghostbuster films. How weird is it that a Ghostbusters film now has a body count?<br />
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The cast and the director are all wonderful talented people. It is so strange that everything in this film is so misguided. I don't understand how four funny actresses that have proven themselves in the past can be so unfunny. Part of it comes from the lazy writing. If you pay attention to what is being said in the real GHOSTBUSTERS there is a lot going on with the story. Ray and Egon are always going on about Tobin's Spirit Guide providing an incredible back story to the reason why all of these supernatural shenanigans are taking place. They are setting up the villains that eventually show up in the third act. The story is well crafted allowing several layers to be noticed and appreciated upon future viewing. Counter that with the new GHOSTBUSTERS and their mishandling of the story. We have yet another origin story in an already crowded reboot era of film. This time we have the origins of the Ghostbuster logo explained horribly. The evolution of the proton pack is shown. I guess that is neat.........(cough).......The containment unit finally makes an appearance but only at the end as if the writers forgot about it and wrote it in last minute. Where were they going to keep these paranormal apparitions once they caught them? In the original GHOSTBUSTERS that was one of the first things built! You kind of need a containment unit to start a ghost catching business.<br />
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The movie is filled with all these weird scenes of random talk that is meant to provide the hilarity. It all comes across as improved sketch comedy and not from the actual script. It kills in the worst way possible as in not funny at all. Instead of propelling the story forward we get nonsense banter about a dog named Mike Hat and some character backstory about Kristen Wiig being a nerd in high school. It is so painful to watch that you are going to wish you were an actual ghost because that means you are dead and you don't have to deal with this crap anymore. Every scene is off it's intended beat. There are no highs and lows to the plot it just is what it is. Meandering and pointless. The editing is atrocious. How did that dragon ghost end up on the shoulders of Leslie Jones anyway? Judging by what was shown in the advertisements there was a ton of footage cut out. The whole scene of soldiers dancing like Michael Jackson's THRILLER is removed and put in the end credits for some reason. Either way whether it was in the film or in the credits that scene is stupid and doesn't belong in a Ghostbusters movie.<br />
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I did like the new ghost busting equipment even though they use it to turn the film into an action comedy and make the proton packs themselves useless. The ghost grenades and vacuum are the stuff of cartoons but it works in this film. A better explanation as to why this equipment is needed would have helped improve the film and make it stand out from it's predecessor. The idea of ghosts that are too powerful and need to be deionized is an idea the story should have expounded upon. The new GHOSTBUSTERS needs more science and paranormal babble. I don't think the writers knew much about that stuff though as evidenced by EVP being explained as "Electro Voice Phenomena." It's "Electronic Voice Phenomena." I bet they fix that in the extended DVD release just like they fixed "Four scientists" to "Four friends" in the first trailer released for this film. Boy, that was a bad omen of things to come!<br />
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At the end after Rowan becomes giant ghost man and explodes out a skyscraper (Miraculously all the debris avoids crushing the soldiers frozen in Michael Jackson pose below.) the four Ghostbusters defeat him and send him back to the ghost world via a portal. Before being sucked down, Melissa McCarthy is grabbed and taken down with him. With rope around her waste Kristen Wiig heroically jumps in to save her as the skyscraper magically rebuilds itself on top of the portal. Time is of the essence! Oh, wait. No it is not. Both Wiig and McCarthy are pulled back into our world even though the skyscraper has fully reformed. Its a weird moment because the portal has closed. Our two heroes should be trapped in the ghost world. Instead they are pulled to safety through concrete and glass doors as if those obstructions weren't there at all. Shouldn't they have been pulled out before the building reassembled? Did the writers not think of that? You get a sense that the movie wasn't well thought out. I think the attitude of the producers was that it is a GHOSTBUSTERS film. It will sell itself!<br />
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Even as a remake GHOSTBUSTERS could have been good. There are modern day elements that didn't exist thirty years ago that could have been capitalized on to make this reboot stand on its own. Those people from a ghost hunting show that is referenced in the film could have been used as a secondary villain. Bill Murray's character could be more than a cameo. His comedic style would be an interesting twist for an antagonist to our new Ghostbusters team. The mentioning of Zuul at the end post credits scene seals the fate of the sequel in the new franchise. Its gonna suck. However, when they make a third movie five or six or seven years from now there will be renewed promise of better things to come because they will have to come up with new ideas. It has to be good then. I guess as a fan of the original GHOSTBUSTERS I have become accustomed to waiting long periods of time for a third film in the franchise.<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-47558480195804711972016-04-09T07:27:00.001-07:002016-04-09T07:27:31.862-07:00PEELERS has arrived!<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7R8XxkjoXXk/VwkQ0CkhQBI/AAAAAAAABE0/nCPynIXC8ykK1WHgkuCX0qBAItrjExVwg/s1600/peelers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7R8XxkjoXXk/VwkQ0CkhQBI/AAAAAAAABE0/nCPynIXC8ykK1WHgkuCX0qBAItrjExVwg/s320/peelers.jpg" width="216" /></a><b style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">The director of SKEW, </b><span style="font-size: small; text-align: center;">Seve Schlenze,</span><b style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;"> has finished his next film titled PEELERS! I reported on this one a while back when the creators were promoting their kickstarter. The film is done and looking awesome judging by the trailer. Read the press release below for more information. </b><br />
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<b>Jason</b><br />
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<b style="font-size: 12pt;">MEDIA RELEASE</b></div>
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FOR IMMEDIATE AND GRUESOME RELEASE</div>
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Contact: Sevé Schelenz</div>
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Tel: 604.889.4805</div>
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<a href="mailto:sleepapneaprods@hotmail.com" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer;" target="_blank">sleepapneaprods@hotmail.com</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">March 9</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, 2016 –</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span> <b style="font-size: 12pt;">Independent Horror Feature Film <i>PEELERS</i> set to have WORLD PREMIERE at Palm Beach International Film Festival, Florida (April 6<sup>th</sup> – 14<sup>th</sup>).</b></div>
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The makers of the Independent Cult Horror Feature <b><i>SKEW</i></b> (2011) step it up a bloody notch as they begin their festival run with their follow-up horror flick <b><i>PEELERS</i></b>.</div>
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<b><i>PEELERS</i></b> - What starts out as the last hurrah on the closing night of an infamous small-town strip club, quickly turns into a night of bloodshed when a crew of coal miners shows up and with them a deadly contaminant. Former baseball player and current club owner, Blue Jean Douglas has decided to hand over her bar to a new owner and leave town for good. But Blue Jean’s plans are thwarted when she discovers the magnitude of the epidemic that has been unleashed. With victims piling up, Blue Jean must step up to the plate to protect her family, her friends, and her bar before it's too late and she loses everything she holds dear.</div>
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<b><i>PEELERS</i></b> destroys the cliché stripper horror sub-genre by giving us a story packed with exciting twists, baseball, strippers of unusual talents and a strong female lead. What’s being described as “Rodriguez meets Tarantino” and “Not just a great indie film, but destined to be one of the funnest films of 2016”, has Director/Producer Sevé Schelenz pretty stoked about giving genre fans a whole new ball game of horror.</div>
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Want more carnage?</div>
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Website: <a href="http://www.peelersthefilm.com/" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer;" target="_blank" title="Cmd+Click or tap to follow the link">www.peelersthefilm.com</a></div>
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Trailer: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emkSNaAAsEk" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emkSNaAAsEk</a></div>
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IMDb: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2769828/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer;" target="_blank">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2769828/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-14208542853623089542016-01-29T07:37:00.000-08:002016-01-29T07:37:02.972-08:00The correct order to watch the STAR WARS movies!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For some strange reason there seems to be profound confusion as to exactly what order you should watch all the STAR WARS movies. Back in the old days this was not a problem. It was simple. You watched STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE followed by its sequel THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK which naturally makes you want to see how this whole space opera ended in RETURN OF THE JEDI. But then came the extremely unnecessary prequels and ruined a whole generation of Star Wars fans who just do not know any better. The scary thing is that several generations are going to still be ruined as long as the nerdos out there insist that the prequels are canon. Potential fans are turned away from the franchise because they started watching the odd and clunky prequels first. I am here to stop that if possible. I will show you the way and hopefully explain why you should watch the movies in this particular order. Get ready for a long, rambling, incoherent rant on this one, folks.<br />
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The first movie you should watch is STAR WARS IV: A NEW HOPE. Why? This film perfectly introduces the audience to this new wonderful universe through the eyes of our hero Luke Skywalker. We learn about the Empire and their main henchman Darth Vader. The Force is introduced as well as Han Solo, Chewbacca and the Millennium Falcon. Ben Kenobi tells us about Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker, who at one time was a Jedi Knight who was murdered by Darth Vader. This gives Luke ambition to be a Jedi Knight and go after the evil jerk that betrayed and murdered his father. How Obi-Wan explains his relationship with Luke's father is very important. More on that later. Luke is raised by his aunt and uncle which means one of them is related by blood to Anakin Skywalker. More on that later too.<br />
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Next up is STAR WARS V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. This in my opinion is the greatest movie ever made. Yes, even better than CITIZEN KANE. It is not my personal favorite in the franchise but it is such a great film that builds upon its predecessor expanding the universe discovering new worlds and characters that are all amazingly memorable to the point of becoming pop culture icons. The greatest moment in cinematic history with Luke confronting Darth Vader only to discover that Vader is actually Luke's father. How profound! How tragic! This revelation is so damaging that Luke commits suicide rather than join Vader only to survive by sheer luck falling into a disposal tube thingy and dropped out of Cloud City. He has reached lower than low. Also another important knowledge bomb was the explanation of the Force by our new friend Yoda who is the very embodiment of what a Jedi is. It is very important to point out that Yoda does not use a lightsaber and even discourages Luke from taking his weapons when confronting the Darkside of the Force in the swamp.<br />
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RETURN OF THE JEDI is my personal favorite in the franchise. I like seeing how long sagas end and how the characters have changed over time. This one ended the best. Here we see Luke can use the Force to his will yet Yoda tells him he is not a Jedi until he confronts Vader. That is very important. Just because you have the skills of a Jedi does not mean you have the mind or morals of a Jedi. We also learn that Leia is Luke's sister. Luke doesn't tell her right away. Instead he asks her to tell him about her mother. Why? Luke then admits that he has no memory of his mother. Leia was raised by their real mother and he wanted to know what she was like. That is not what happens in the prequels. Near the end Emperor Palpatine refers to Luke's lightsaber as a "Jedi weapon". He is pointing out that only Jedi use lightsabers. Vader used one because he was once a Jedi which made him unique. In the end after dying, Anakin Skywalker appears next to Luke as an older man next to the ghost of Yoda and Obi-Wan to let Luke know that he was okay.<br />
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The next film to watch is of course STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. This is a fun adventure that is a worthy successor to the trilogy. It may not be as perfect or as deep as the original "unspecialized" trilogy but it's missteps are easily outweighed by all the good. It's worth repeated viewing in the theater. The following sequels would come next in the viewing order by what number they come in the episodes. I am not sure what to think of the stand alone films. If they are good watch them whenever. If they are bad consider them fan fiction. If they make a Bobba Fett movie that takes place after RETURN OF THE JEDI that automatically puts them in the fan fiction category since he died in the Sarlac Pit. <br />
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But what about the precious prequels?!!!!!!!<br />
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Easy. You don't watch them. They do not fit into the saga. Worse yet they spoil the revelation that Vader is Luke's father, a crime worse than "specializing" the perfect trilogy. The only reason Disney included the prequels was to sell more toys in my humble know nothing humble reasoning's. Even though Disney has made the prequels official canon the stories contradict the originals therefore they are not canon. In case you just missed it I wrote THE STAR WARS PREQUELS ARE NOT CANON!<br />
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A NEW HOPE sets the stage for the Star Wars Universe. You have to pay close attention to everything that is said, implied, or not said. I know that is confusing but blame George, not me. Obi-Wan talks about meeting Anakin (Vader!) and he was already the best pilot in the galaxy and strong in the Force and Obi thought he could train him. Here he is saying he met him in the Clone wars and it is implied that they were about the same age because they also became friends. The important details that are left out (if the prequels are cannon) are that Anakin was just a child, who was a miracle birth, and Qui-Gon Jinn wanted him trained to be a Jedi. You would think that Anakin was only a child strong in the Force and a miracle birth would get a mention at least once somewhere along the original saga. The whole prophecy and Jedi not being allowed to love would also have come up at some point too. Why is Qui-Gon Jinn training Obi-Wan when we learn that it was Yoda that trained Obi-Wan in EMPIRE? A NEW HOPE says for a thousand generations the Jedi protected the Republic where the prequels state that it was only a thousand years. That is a big whoops!<br />
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Either Aunt Beru is sister to Anakin or Uncle Owen is his brother. They speak of Anakin as if they know him personally or at least who he was. Even though these two characters are in the film briefly they give tremendous clues to Luke's family past. Take this exchange between Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen.<br />
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Aunt Beru: "Luke is not a farmer, Owen. He is too much like his father."<br />
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Uncle Owen: "That is what I am afraid of."<br />
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Interesting. In the prequels Beru and Owen meet Anakin briefly and afterward Anakin slaughters a village of Sandpeople, kids included. Is Aunt Beru insinuating that Luke is too much like a violent murder? If the prequels are canon she is. That is not the original intent of that scene from Episode IV. She knew Anakin before becoming Vader and that is how she remembers him. Also why would Luke refer to them as Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen? Why not just Mom and Dad? What is the point of taking Luke who was an infant and tell him about his real father? It makes no sense. If everybody was concerned about keeping Luke a secret or not wanting him to follow in his father's footsteps why tell him his real father was Anakin Skywalker? The smart thing to do would be to let Luke think he was the son of a couple of farmers. That way Luke will not have the expectation of following in the greatness of his father's footsteps.<br />
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The prequels tell a story we know the ending. We already saw it. The story of Anakin Skywalker was told through the trials and ordeals Luke faced to become a Jedi. It was that realization that he was walking in his fathers footsteps on his way to the Darkside that saved him. Luke Skywalker became a Jedi the moment he dropped his lightsaber. He chose to trust in good and not hate to get resolve. In the prequels the council decides. That's not the way of the Force. You become a Jedi by your choices and not by the decisions of others. <br />
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The prequels ruin everything. Now Vader is not special because the Sith (Whoever they are.) use lightsabers including Palpatine and have the word "Darth" put at the front of their new names. The Force is no longer spritual but physical being reduced to microscopic organisms. If that was the case they would never have called it the Force in the first place. How does Anakin Skywalker show up at the end of RETURN OF THE JEDI when it is established in REVENGE OF THE SITH that it requires super secret training to come back as a ghost?<br />
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Remember that one time when Vader Force choked that commander guy for making fun of Vader's reliance on an ancient religion that produced no results in obtaining the secret plans to the Death Star? Basically that scene lets us know that by the time Vader was being trained to be a Jedi he was one of the last. People no longer believed in the Force. Jedi were becoming myth. There weren't a bunch of Jedi's with a big temple where everyone knew about them. How could a commander at his age not know about the Jedi who fought so prominently making strategic decisions in the Clone Wars? <br />
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You can see how the prequels have changed the intent of many scenes in the original trilogy. I could go on and on. When Obi-Wan Kenobi says "So was I when you trained me" to Yoda he is no longer telling the audience that Yoda was the one who trained him to be a Jedi. Now he is saying "When I was a child I was taught by you the ways of the Force because I had midichlorians in my blood but when I got older I was trained by Qui-Gon Jinn whoever that was." It's makes a great story bland and that is why the prequels cannot not be part of the saga. Search your feelings. You know that it is true.<br />
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Jason<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-91812684845115320572015-12-26T06:48:00.001-08:002015-12-26T06:48:19.322-08:00STAR WARS EPISODE 7 THE FORCE AWAKENS SPOILERIFIC REVIEW!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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THE FORCE AWAKENS has put STAR WARS back on top again. It has also renewed our imaginations for a universe that has long been put to death by the stiff and wooden prequels and blasphemous special editions. Now we have another film in the franchise worthy to carry the Star Wars title. Director J.J. Abrams has delivered a thrilling adventure tale that succeeds in accustoming the audience to new main characters while maintaining the overall look and feel of the original trilogy. THE FORCE AWAKENS earns its spot as the forth best film in the franchise.<br />
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AWAKENS is the Cliffs Notes version of the original trilogy. There is a ton of familiarity with the story and its characters. The film starts out like EMPIRE with a STAR DESTROYER sending a ship or probes out into space similar to Vader sending out probes to look for the rebels base. Then as stormtroopers land on a nearby planet they storm a village with an ensuing gun battle similar to the one at the beginning of A NEW HOPE in Leia's ship. Later we see a Yoda type character, Maz Kanata, in a bar where she crawls across a table similar to Yoda crawling around Luke's camp in EMPIRE. Shortly after meeting Maz, Rey (A new character you will like) goes into a dark area of the bar down in the lower levels and finds Luke's lightsaber and has a strange vision of the past. This dark and foreboding moment of course hearkens back to EMPIRE again with Luke going down into a dark place strong in the Darkside of the Force and confronts what he fears most. Also A NEW HOPE gets homaged with the lightsaber being kept in a trunk. Yes, I am thinking that it is why the lightsaber is in a trunk. The finale of the movie of course ends with the RETURN OF THE JEDI scenario of a group of fighters on foot taking down a shield protecting a Death Star so the good guys can fly inside and blow it up. We even have Captain Phasma as a Bobba Fett looking character being dispatched in a comical fashion similar to Fett's demise in RETURN adding in the mention of a trash compactor from A NEW HOPE. <br />
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Hitting the same story beats from the originals keeps the new movie from being completely satisfying. The film makers almost seem too afraid to make something new in case it doesn't look like something that belongs in the STAR WARS universe, See the prequels for examples of that. There are many many examples of that in those awful films.<br />
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Poe Dameron, Finn and Rey are our new main characters. Each one is fun and likable with their own roguish quality preventing them from being mere clones of the original main characters. I feel like the franchise is in good hands following these three. Of course most of the older characters show up like Han, Leia, Chewbacca, Luke, C-3PO and R2-D2. Where's Lando? You can't help but get drawn into the action as you see all of these characters work together throughout the story. One of my favorite scenes involves Finn, Han and Chewbacca being captured by the New Order. Fortunately for our heroes, off in the distance skimming the top of the nearby lake in their X-Wings comes the Resistance. My excitement was so overwhelming that when the shooting started I wanted so badly to take up a controller in my hand and partake in the action fighting along side Han and Chewy by playing STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT on my Xboxone because I am a big lame nerd that way. Scenes like this make the movie great and just about all of them have something memorable to keep the audience interested. Like EMPIRE, this is a pretty dark story but there is a lot of comedy too that doesn't take away from the drama. There is a good balance with the tone. The comedy makes us like the characters and the dark moments make us concerned for them.<br />
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In a couple of ways AWAKENS seems to throw out the prequels and t.v. shows. It states in the opening title crawl that Luke is the last Jedi. Now I am not familiar with the STAR WARS REBELS show but I do believe that it takes place between RETURN and AWAKENS and concerns some kid learning the ways of the Force. Is he dead now? On an artistic level the film falls in line with the lived in look of the original trilogy and not the soft, sterile computerized fake environments that paint the prequels into blandness. Even the "Special Editions" are not immune to J.J.'s wrath. In what I assume is a slap to the notion that Han shot second in self defense we are given a scene where Han punches and grabs a guy hiding from a rampaging monster and throws him into the mouth of the beast to save his own skin. Lucas would have had Han help him out instead of flat out murdering him. One of the first elements shown for the new movie came in a charity video featuring J.J. Abrams on set of AWAKENS. Out from behind him came a practical effects creature walking into view. It was a person in a creature costume with additional puppetry to enhance the look of being alive. It was glorious to those of us that appreciate the original trilogy. Abrams making a statement. That statement was simple but harsh if you were George Lucas. Abrams was assuring the fans that this was not going to look like the prequels. He, like us, is a fan of the originals. Abrams is us. I appreciated his use of alien wildlife to show us a living universe that isn't just a bunch of C.G.I. cartoons added to the background just so the characters can seemingly ignore. Again Abrams understands how to flesh out this universe with alien biology even adding a little bit of blood just like when that guy got his arm cut off in A NEW HOPE.<br />
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One of my biggest concerns comes from this nagging feeling in the back of my head. It's the same nagging feeling I had after THE PHANTOM MENACE. I had questions I assumed would be answered by the following films but never were. AWAKENS has one question I need answered. How was Luke's lightsaber found? That is a big deal since it was lost on Cloud City along with Luke's hand. I'm surprised there wasn't a skeleton hand in that trunk too. Will the following films explain? We will have to wait and find out.<br />
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The one thing I actually hated in AWAKENS was the death of Han Solo. Its a good moment that builds on the story of Darth Vader wannabe, Kylo Ren. However, Han is too good of a character to kill off in the cliche of dying for a greater cause. He is the biggest reason why AWAKENS is so good. He still can carry himself as the daring lovable scoundrel he was from the original trilogy. Han should have lived happily ever after with Leia. No one would expect to see that coming. I applaud RETURN OF THE JEDI for not listening to Harrison Ford when he wanted Han to die. I bet Harrison Ford only came back if he could die thus freeing himself from future excursions into the STAR WAR universe. He has no time with all this wacky sci-fi foolishness. He would rather keep on making terrible compromise Indiana Jones sequels. I am afraid the next two sequels for AWAKENS will suffer from his absence.<br />
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For the future of the franchise I really hope the film makers follow the example of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. EMPIRE built it's story on the back of A NEW HOPE without feeling the need to repeat everything we saw before. There wasn't another big ship star base thingy that needed to be exploded. The story was more personal. We are given new environments and characters to discover. There were no constant sight gags from the first movie to wink at the audience. I groaned when Fin pulled out the floating lazer ball thingy that Obi-Wan used to help train Luke on the Millennium Falcon. Please, don't give us more winks, nods, homages and big planet destroying Death Stars. STAR WARS was great because it was a new realistic universe to discover. We need more of that sense of discovery and less "It's like poetry. It rhymes...." nonsense!<br />
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I am excited by the promise of more quality STAR WARS films in the near future. I just hope it is not too much of a good thing. Do we really need a ROGUE SQUADRON movie? A young Han Solo movie is a terrible idea. We don't need a movie for every single thing that gets mentioned in the Star Wars universe. I certainly hope we never see a Bobba Fett movie just to satisfy the fan boys. Yea, I know he was all cool, mysterious and a total badass but let the poor guy rest in peace as he is being digested for a thousand years in the belly of the Sarlac Pit.<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-65772716543222600782015-12-15T09:25:00.000-08:002015-12-15T09:25:26.533-08:00JAR JAR BINKS IS A SITH LORD FAN THEORY DEBUNKED!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Back in the day when I was a kid I saw BEASTMASTER. I was so impressed by the swords and sorcery opus that I declared it better than CONAN THE BARBARIAN. Then some time went by and I entered my teens. On the TBS channel BEASTMASTER came on. It had been many years since I had seen it so I was eager to be reminded as to why I would be so bold as to praise the film so highly. After about ten minutes into the film my appreciation for the movie changed considerably. I would be lying if I said I wasn't embarrassed by BEASTMASTER. It was hokey, silly and nowhere near as perfect as CONAN THE BARBARIAN. BEASTMASTER had flaws that I was too young and naive to noticed. I was too amazed by the spectacle of sword play, wizardry and monsters. Older me became aware of the weaker aspects of the film. I had grown up. <br />
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Then came the STAR WARS prequels.....<br />
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I admit that when the prequels came out I loved them. You could not find a more hardcore defender of them than me. Jar Jar even made me laugh. However the prequels bothered me somehow. I would not acknowledge the nagging feeling in the back of my head that formed after my initial viewing of them. I had questions the films never answered. What was a Sith? Are we going to learn more about Midichlorians? Who was Jedi Cypher Deus? (Name misspelled I'm sure.) Thanks to my friend from <a href="http://www.catchaflick.blogspot.com/">Catchaflick</a> I was shown the Mr. Plinkett review of THE PHANTOM MENACE. I had to admit to myself that the prequels were terrible and not only that but the "Special" editions were an absolute abomination and a true travesty against the storytelling arts. It wasn't exactly that hard for me to denounce the prequels because I had the privilege of having the original unaltered STAR WARS trilogy as my childhood. Unfortunately for the kids of the 90's that grew up in the early 2000's they had the inferior prequels. That is their childhood when it comes to STAR WARS. Naturally they are going to defend their childhood inspirations and one way of doing that is coming up with fan theories. I haven't looked into these because they have no real foundation. Yet the most ridiculous one seems to be converting people as evident by people sharing the articles about it on Facebook over and over again. Now there is a Youtube video getting passed around. Apparently Jar Jar Binks is a Sith Lord....Say it with me in the best Mace Windu voice you can "A Sith Lord?"<br />
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The video or videos (Since there are a few on Youtube and they all say the same thing.) I am addressing assert that George Lucas intended for Jar Jar Stinks to be a Sith Lord all along. Parallels are drawn between Jar Jar and Yoda as both were kooky characters but Yoda reveals himself to be a Jedi Master. The belief is that in the following prequels Jar Jar would do the same only he would be a Sith Lord. The videos go as far as to boast that Jar Jar Binks is the master of Palpatine! All of this is obviously absurd and reeks of 90's kids trying to give credibility to their childhood by trying to make Lucas a secretly smart storyteller and not the guy who forever will be known as the man who ruined the STAR WARS saga.<br />
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Now I am not going to go into great detail taking each point the videos make about Jar Jar's secret role in the Star Wars universe. Almost all of those points are pure assumptions and stretches of the imagination. There is no need for this. Instead I will point to the movies themselves to prove that Jar Jar was just some dumb character Lucas put in to appeal to children in an attempt to make a movie that appeals to all ages and in turn bring in the most monies of all time. I knew before watching any of these "Jar Jar is a Sith Lord" videos that two key scenes would not be shown. These two scenes discredit entirely the bizarre hypothesis of Jar Jar's questionable morality and reasserts George Lucas's original intent for the character.<br />
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The first of these two scenes come from STAR WARS EPISODE 2 ATTACK OF THE CLONES. So Jar Jar is sitting in a room with Chancellor Palpatine and some blue guy with horns lamenting that if only Senator Amidala was there she could introduce legislation to create a clone army. The intent of the scene is quite clear with Palpatine clearly speaking to plant the idea into Jar Jar's tiny brain to propose the legislation himself. Jar Jar is being tricked. You can see Jar Jar realizing that he has the power to propose the legislation himself. The idea would not have occurred if Palpatine hadn't passively suggested it himself. Only Jar Jar is dumb enough to fall for such an obvious ploy. That is probably why Palpatine kept him around as some kind of puppet to pull the strings of when something important needed done and no one else was stupid enough to do it.<br />
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The second damning scene comes from George Lucas's not canon "Special Edition" fan fiction versions of the original trilogy where scenes and special effects were added to make them flow with the prequels. One such scene that has been added to was at the end of RETURN OF THE JEDI where a series of shots showing different planets rejoicing the demise of the Empire are shown including Coruscant and Naboo. During the shot of Naboo as the camera pans across the rooftops of the city if you pay close attention and listen very carefully you can see and hear (With great horror I might add.) the one and only Jar Jar Binks standing next to a steeple joining in the rejoicing by proclaiming "Mesa fwree!" I poop you not! Here we see the end of Jar Jar's story. He sounds, acts and dresses exactly as he was depicted in the Star Wars prequels. Heck, it looks like he hadn't aged a day in over 20 years! I guess the Force kept him young, right? He is the same character. No change. Why act silly now if it was done all along for an act? Why is he happy to be set free from the evil Empire if he himself set it up and is evil? Jar Jar was just supposed to be a loony Chewbacca replacement that accompanied our main characters in their adventures through the prequels. That is all.<br />
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Thankfully the creators of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS have come out and stated that Jar Jar Binks is not in the new movie. The Jar Jar theorists believed the wacky cartoon abomination would play a pivotal role in the sequels. Good grief!<br />
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I guess now the Jar Jar theorists will have to make up some story that explains the RETURN OF THE JEDI scene. Good luck with all that. While you guys are at it try explaining why Qui-Gon Jinn (Name probably misspelled but who cares?) is training Obi-Wan Kenobi instead of Yoda which was established in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Or why was Yoda using a light saber in the first place if he was an all powerful Jedi? Why use a lazer sword when your very being is far more powerful? Its like using a wooden stick to fight your battles when you can just use the gun in your holster. Or what was the ultimate point of evil Jar Jar manipulating everyone anyway? To create Darth Vader? To create the Empire? Why? The theorists don't cover that topic. Whoops...<br />
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In closing my advice is to grow up. Learn from Lucas's mistake. Here we have a great example of the difference between good and bad storytelling in film form. Its okay to like or love the prequels but don't make elaborate excuses for them. I love all kinds of bad movies. BEASTMASTER RULES!!! I just don't believe that they are secretly smart that only a few people understand. Accept and move on. No more fan theories, please.<br />
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As the old saying goes, "80's kids had THE NEVERENDING STORY. 90's kids had THE NEVERENDING STORY 3."<br />
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Jason<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-28891202603686693542015-10-01T00:00:00.000-07:002015-10-02T08:38:53.312-07:00THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Two of the scariest horror films ever made are in the 'found footage' genre. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY are the go to examples of how it is done right. I do like the sub genre. The problem is that there are too many of them flooding the market making the gimmick an immediate turn off to any movie that uses it now whether it is good or bad. Once you see that you are watching a BLAIR WITCH knock off it is hard to maintain interest. Us horror enthusiasts are all too familiar with this style. Been there, done that. Sometimes the film makers try to add digital special effects to their found footage movie in an effort to actually show us something. C.G.I. is too noticeable and betrays the reality the found footage genre tries to reenact. The audience response is immediate disbelief followed by boredom. The worst thing about found footage is that it can hurt what otherwise should be a good solid horror movie. That is where THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT comes in.<br />
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THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT touches on a real life fear concerning haunted house attractions and the possibility of genuine horror actually happening in those houses. Are the fake dead bodies displayed gruesomely for our thrills really fake? How stable mentally are the employees at these yearly events? Do they have criminal records? Five friends go on a road trip to film haunted house attractions throughout Texas to explore these questions. They search for the scariest house possible going off the main roads and into the back woods attractions. They tempt fate searching for something a little more dangerous following word of mouth for an attraction that moves about never staying in one place. The five thrill seekers do interviews with employees at the various haunted houses they go to. As the documentary crew explore they learn that there is a potential danger and seedy shenanigans that could be going on without public knowledge. This is the real underlining strength of the film. This is the real horror that the film builds upon. The concept of not knowing if the guy behind the mask in the dark put there to scare you is a normal guy having fun or a psychopath ready to snap and unalive you at any moment is truly frightening. After watching this film you may think twice about going to a haunted house for the rest of your life.<br />
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Sabotage! Someone sabotaged this film. That is the only way I can explain it. Whoever was the super genius who decided to shoot HOB found footage style sabotaged this film. There are some terrific Halloween costumes the killer's wear that are amazing. Some are so good that they hint that the killer's may possibly be of the supernatural variety. The Doll Headed girl is horrific. Truly she is the stuff nightmares are made of. She is amazing to look at but not for too long. The make-up effects artist that brought her to life deserves an Academy Award. The other killer's dressed as various psycho killer's and clowns are equally menacing and do manage to stand out from one another. That is hard to do since once you have seen one bloody killer clown you have seen them all. The found footage style mires and blurs the monsters of the film hiding what could have been iconic characters to make this film stand out from the flood of other horror. The set pieces from the haunted houses are probably wonderfully horrific in person but shot found footage style they too dark to see the details. The camera shaking about doesn't help either. I really wish the cinematography of the film looked like the awesome movie poster. The poster is oddly beautiful in a dreadful kind of way.<br />
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THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT is worth a watch. There is truly a scary premise that hasn't been fully explored yet concerning the unsavory character of Halloween attractions. Having to explain over and over again why things are being recorded is rather annoying but if you can get past all the found footage stuff you will find a good horror mystery. If you haven't watched a ton of horror movies this one may rank higher on your list. As for me I found the movie to be an entertaining but flawed exercise in the genre. If it wasn't for the found footage aspect and rather obvious ending this could have been a modern horror classic. The talent is there in the story, make-up effects and set pieces. The makers just decided to hide it all with dark shadows and shaky cam. Strange.<br />
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Jason<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-63745127059800552522015-09-13T08:19:00.000-07:002015-09-13T08:19:41.932-07:00Why 2015's FANTASTIC 4 bombed.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So everyone seems to hate the new FANTASTIC 4 movie. But why? Its not a bad film at all. Read my review <a href="http://jason-umustbebored.blogspot.com/2015/08/fantastic-4-2015-is-actually-good.html">here</a>. I didn't think it was going to be any good either but I went and saw it out of morbid curiosity and gosh dang it I liked it. I think it is unfair how maligned the film has been received. Nobody went and saw it yet everyone talks about how bad it is. The professional critics have been extremely negative but when have they had any integrity? So what is the deal? Why all the hate? I figure I would use this post to try explain the poor performance and hostility toward the FANTASTIC 4. I don't think it has anything to do with all the supposed behind the scenes troubles. All productions have problems. I could be wrong but I do believe that those stories didn't come out or become big until the early word was that the film fantastically sucked. The studio had already announced a date for the sequel indicating FOX had high hopes for the franchise.<br />
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The Fantastic 4 franchise maybe big in the old days in the comic book format but nowadays the mainstream audience probably doesn't even know what a Fantastic 4 is. The Marvel Cinematic Universe started off strong by casting Robert Downing Jr. as Iron Man. His appeal spreads across two major demographics in the mainstream audience. I am not talking about fans of comics or movie fans. I am talking about average movie goers that simply want entertainment. He is sexy for the ladies and funny for the guys. Chris Evans as Captain America is sexy for the ladies and an action hero for the guys. The same can be said for the male leads in THOR and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. THE HULK doesn't have a sexy funny lead and that movie didn't do so well. Its a shame really. Now look at the new FANTASTIC 4. Miles Teller is not the macho sexy funny actor with the broad mainstream appeal. He is an excellent actor and despite his youth is the right choice for Reed Richards. He got snubbed for an Oscar nomination for WHIPLASH which is an excellent film by the way. Also in today's world the powers of the Fantastic 4 may not be as appealing. Having the powers of a Stretch Armstrong seems a little silly. Being able to turn invisible or flaming into a human torch and being able to fly is kid stuff compared to today's more deadly heroes. The Thing is another name for Hulk as far as mainstream audiences are concerned. <br />
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The entire approach to the new FANTASTIC 4 is all wrong. We do not need a down to earth, realistic as possible origin story of these characters. We already have an origin story. When Spider-Man got rebooted it did not do so well as the originals. It was too soon and audiences didn't want to slog through the same old origin story hooplah. Who wants to see the same movie twice? We want to see our heroes at the height of their careers. There seems to be endless build ups to potential bigger stories that never come to fruition. The newer Spider-Man films are examples of that. It took two movies to tell a love story of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy with a hint of things to come. Those things never came. The new FF movie spends almost the entire run time on their origin. Only at the end do they become the Fantastic 4. It is too forced with Dr. Doom making an appearance only to be killed off too easily and quickly for a villain that has such a huge reputation in the comics. FOX doesn't care. Only name recognition matters. The movie seems to be ashamed of the comic books opting for a more realistic approach.<br />
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The biggest contribution to the FANTASTIC 4's failure is the Marvel fans themselves, the very people FOX supposedly wants to see this film. There appears to be a concerted effort by the Marvelites to push for the supreme failure of this film. I have seen Marvel fans implore people on Facebook and message boards to boycott the film in hopes of it's demise forcing Fox Studios to give up the rights to the film version. Even without the geek-roots social media campaign there seems to be a desire for all comic book fans, myself included, to see Fantastic 4 in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Just the thought of the movie's failure to possibly get FF into the M.C.U. is more than enough temptation to avoid the theaters like it were the D.M.V. There is no need to get into the bland marketing campaign. It wouldn't matter if the advertisements dazzled and amazed. No one wanted Fox to put the movie out. They wanted Marvel Studios to do it. As of the writing of this post the "Tomatometer" at Rotten Tomatoes has a score of 9%. That to me is extremely unfair. Me thinks that people rated it low without seeing the movie first. I can't prove that of course but the Fantastic 4 is a far better movie than WOLVERINE or THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. Heck, BATMAN AND ROBIN has a score of 11%! <br />
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Maybe people shouldn't rely on a score to tell if a movie is good or not. Just see it for yourself and decide. Be a movie lover and not a coward too scared to like something the cool kids may not like. <br />
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Jason<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-48742127918448222372015-08-15T09:26:00.000-07:002015-08-15T09:26:05.543-07:00FANTASTIC 4 (2015) is actually good!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I remember seeing the trailer for the new FANTASTIC 4. I couldn't help but laugh. It didn't take a crystal ball to know that this movie was going to fail. And fail it did! The trailer depicted a bland colorless film that was going to use the tired old superhero movie formula of telling an origin story but confining the comic book element to a realistic Christopher Nolan approach with our heroes finally appearing in costume in the final act when the movie is over. There was nothing new here. It was also obvious that this movie was made just so Fox Studios could keep the movie rights to the FF franchise. Worse yet there was an embargo on reviews for the film before opening day. Were any of us surprised? Of course when the embargo lifted all the reviews were negative. Despite all of this I had a strange desire to see it. So I did.....and....I....liked it. WHAT?!!!<br />
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FANT4STIC(?) tells the origin story of the Fantastic 4. That is a good idea to start off a franchise......if it was the year 1999! When it comes to comic book movies we no longer need to spend an entire movie telling a story we already know the ending to. We have had two Spider-Man origin movies as well as a Ghostrider origin, a Green Lantern origin, Wolverine had one, Superman and Batman both had one Punisher too. Enough already. Nowadays it is extremely painful to sit through a trailer for an origin story let alone an entire movie. That is the first big problem with this movie. Oh, yea I said I liked this movie. Maybe I should start with the positives.<br />
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The story is a good telling of our hero's origins. This is more of a science fiction film rather than a straight up super hero film. That's a good start. From what I have been told (I am no expert on the Fantastic 4.) our heroes are more like explorers of science rather than traditional super heroes like Spider-man and Captain America. All the actors are great in this movie. If anyone complains about the acting ask them to compare them to Sandra Bernard in HUDSON HAWK. That is an example of bad acting. As a bad actor myself I can tell you with absolute authority that the acting in the new FF is good. Kate Mara, Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell and Reg E. Cathey are terrific portraying a make shift family that formed from the tragic event that gave them their powers. These people are a genuine family. That is very important and ultimately what FF is all about. This is probably why I like this movie so much. I sympathized with them. When they suffer from their trip to the alternate universe or whatever that place is, I care what happens to them. I want to know how they are going to deal with their physical changes and how their personalities have changed because of it. Don't let the negative people who probably never even saw the film as evident from the box office results say that the acting sucks. It doesn't.<br />
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When he finally appears, Dr. Doom is quite a scary presence in the film. Ignore the internet memes. Toby Kebbell is not given much to do with the mishandled back story to the Fantastic 4's most iconic villain. But as a testament to his acting ability he has made Victor Von Doom, a flawed jealous driven individual, likable. He has a too brief scene drinking at the lab with Miles Reed Richards and Johnny Storm. The three are building a short lived camaraderie that works. This scene emphasizes the tragedy of losing Von Doom in the chaos of the alternate dimension planet thing. They lose a real friend. When he returns as Dr. Doom he lives up to his name. Walking through corridors of the army complex killing soldiers left and right with "Force" powers is truly frightful. He is a monster that wants to return to the alternate world to build life his way. I kind of like that even though I would have preferred a more accurate to the comics story of Dr. Doom. I think the end fight was really good too even though it is extremely predictable. Apparently the Fantastic 4 was too busy doing science stuff to watch the original TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES movie. If they had they would know not to attack Dr. Doom individually but together as a team. Watch more t.v., kids.<br />
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Like all comic book movies there are some changes. Reed Richards is young, Johnny Storm is black. So what! None of this detracts from the movie. Even Dr. Doom's origin isn't terrible. Its just different. There is a lot of negative to write about with this movie but it is not a terrible movie. Its way better than THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and THE WOLVERINE. Those two movies have more problems than the new FF movie but receive all kinds of praise. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES shows that Joker defeated Batman in the previous film since Wayne stops being the Caped Crusader. I don't think the creators of TDKR meant to imply that. Wolverine in THE WOLVERINE pretty much just beats up some old guy in a supped up wheelchair after having his own butt handed to him by a bunch of ninjas. FF didn't bomb because its a bad movie. There is more to it than that. Give this movie a watch. See for yourself. If you had lower than low expectations like I did going in you may just be surprised. I plan on writing a part 2 to this review dealing with the problems of this film and the circumstances that I believe led to the box office failure and poor review scores but that is for another time.<br />
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Jason<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-37628802334046008812015-08-10T09:04:00.000-07:002015-08-10T09:04:08.886-07:002014's TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES is 'TURTLE-BLE!'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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What a lazy and horrible title for this post, isn't it? You probably clicked on this post just to mock the writer of such a title and you would be right to do so. But let me ask you this. Does the new TMNT movie deserve a better effort? I think not. What a way to mess up a potentially terrific franchise from the start! You would think that a movie about teenage mutant ninja turtles would be full of originality and with today's special effects the look of our heroes in a half shell can finally be made to look right. Nope! This movie is a rehash of what we have already seen before which is fine to establish key elements of the Turtles but then you realize that you have seen all of this in recent movies from the past few years as well. Heroes in a half shell? More like heroes in a half-assed story.<br />
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I am going to get real stupid when describing the plot so bear with me on this one. I want to show how stupid the story is by being stupid myself. So a rich guy and a ninja watched THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and THE TRANSFORMERS and decided to be bad guys and put a thing on top of a building that makes a poison cloud to poison the city for the sole purpose of being rulers of the world and really really rich. They are already rich but whatever. Don't pay attention to that part of the story. Teenage mutant ninja turtles show up and stop them. There are some hijinks that happen along the way, some weirdo shows up in what looks like an inflatable Whoopi Goldberg costume but very little in the way of real character development or bonding occurs. We the audience are never drawn into the story. Maybe we are amused by the colorful special effects and flashy camera work or distracted by the haphazardly strewn random shots of movement that make up most of the poorly staged fight sequences. In any case it looks like a wreck..<br />
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The good news is that the turtle characters are each unique individuals. Each one stands apart from the other in personality and design. Other than their disturbingly too human faces they look great. There were a couple of times Michelangelo actually said something that made me laugh. He is the funny one. That is what he does. Leo is still the leader. Don wears googly goggles to indicate that he is into high tech gadgets and stuff. Raph is still the wannabe loner that loves his brothers too much to be apart from them. They are likable enough to give me hope for a better sequel. The turtles are fine except for one glaring problem.....<br />
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They are not ninjas!!!<br />
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Remember when us Turtle geeks were in an outrage because supposedly the studio was making the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aliens instead of mutants? I remember. Studios love jacking up important details of characters from comics and cartoons when making a movie version of them. It happens to them all but this was too huge of a change. Apparently that whole story was a lie or the studio changed it back to not upset the target audience. Now that the movie is out and I have seen it and had time to ponder it I have realized that the 'Ninja' part of the Turtles is not true at all. Master Splinter isn't a master of anything. He found a book of martial arts in the sewer that was probably written by Napoleon Dynamite and suddenly they are well trained ninjas. What would a rat know about ninja stuff? The only thing I know about ninjas is that they wear black pajamas and have their butts handed to them by Michael Dudikoff. Its a good thing Splinter didn't find a cook book. What would motivate them to train so hard and become martial artists anyway? Its not like they had any connection to Shedder or expected him to show up sometime in the future. He was just in the same building they were kept in before they became mutated. The foundation to build a strong character confrontation is absent. They have no past together. When Shedder and Splinter meet for the first time down in the sewer they act like they know each other but we know they don't. The whole scene has no effect except to highlight the badly written first draft story.<br />
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Shredder poses no threat to the Turtles whatsoever. The movie hyper sizes everything. The Turtles are pretty much four Hulks running around with super strength. There is no reason for them to have martial arts training. Their mutation has made them super strong and super fast. Shedder who is trained in martial arts and ninja stuff could do nothing to them. Thankfully he is really really into the TRANSFORMERS movies and made himself a fully functioning Megatron suit. If he hadn't happened to make that suit he would be no adversary. Why would a ninja who relies on his own physical abilities create a robot suit? No reason. I guess originally Shedder was the white dude. That would explain the suit sort of.<br />
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There are all kinds of weird moments that don't make much sense when you think about it. Splinter gets mortally wounded and the Turtles decide to get the ooze that transformed them because that will heal him. Since when did the ooze have healing powers? I could be wrong but the ooze was never considered something that could heal. It just mutated you into whatever thingy that could be made into an action figure and sold in stores. In TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2: SECRET OF THE OOZE was the secret that the ooze had aloe vera in it? Did I miss that part? I think it would be funny if the Turtles got the ooze to Splinter and tried pouring it down his throat and he said "Why are you feeding me toxic waste?" That is what the ooze is anyway. Another time Raphael is the only one not captured by Shedder. Raph goes to save them but when he finds them Shedder shows up as Megatron and beats the poop out of our turtle hero. Instead of killing or capturing Raph, Shedder just abruptly walks out of the room like some kind of badass. Maybe Shedder was just caught up in the moment to realize that he just left Raph alone to free his brothers and eventually ruin Shedders plans.<br />
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People need to stop blaming Megan Fox for the film not being very good. She does a fine job with what she is given. Her character is given plenty to do even if we the audience don't care. She is just a victim to the bad script. Hopefully in the next installment things will come together with a more pleasing outcome. Hey, at least they have casted Steven Amell as Casey Jones in the next installment. That's a good start.<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-23003690776321246452015-03-21T04:41:00.001-07:002015-03-21T04:41:51.562-07:00The new ROBOCOP is ROBOCRAP!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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What makes a movie smart? What qualities must a film have to be considered intelligent? Good acting? Terrific cinematography? Big name actors? Perfect directing? Complex stories and characters? I will tell you. It is knowing what kind of movie you are making. That is the first thing that must be established before writing your script. ROBOCOP 2014 doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be. It doesn't understand what we the people for the most part want to see in a movie about a cop that was turned into a robot. ROBO2014 wants to be a personal drama about a man losing his body and humanity while obligingly putting safe and slick action pieces that is also punctuated with corporate satire. The problem is that the film never finds the right mix or balance. The result is a boring, forgettable bland experience which is the ultimate crime for a film.<br />
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ROBOCOP 2014 tells the story about a corporate big wig played by Michael Keaton who wants Congress to pass a repeal of a law that prevents robots from policing the country. The rest of the world allows it which makes him already rich but I guess he wants America to allow it so he can make a little more money. He employs a scientist to create a robot that is part man to be a loop hole to the law that will lead Congress to rethink it's stand on the whole robot policing the world issue. Excited yet? Then this cop who everyone keeps calling "Murphy" shows up and starts telling his police Captain this long back story about him and his partner busting bad guys and getting into a gun fight to keep the audience interested in the film. He gets blown up in a car explosion reminiscent of the first PUNISHER film starring Dolph Lundgren and then turned into a robot. The rest of the film is about Murphy dealing with being a robot and connecting with his family and eventually solving his own attempted murder. After the main bad guys are dead the film still has 30 minutes left so Michael Keaton has to do something bad enough to justify Robocop going after him and killing him so there can be more action and stuff happening. In the end Robocop lives and gets to be a cop and spend time with his family. A perfect happy safe non challenging PG-13 ending the kids will enjoy.<br />
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This is a long film. It tries to be smart but ends up being stupid by cramming many different stories in an attempt to hit all the complex concepts of the original film. We are left with the feeling that we are not watching a movie made for the theater but a pilot to a t.v. show that was made in the mid 90's. The whole narrative is a wet noodle, limp and derivative. The rhythm never develops. Clumsy scene after boring scene follow one after another taking great pains to explain everything. We have to explain the back story of Murphy to fit him into the larger story of a corporation trying explain why they need to get robots to police the U.S. We are constantly told that Murphy is part robot and he has his own will and then the movie becomes about the scientist Gary Oldman taking away his will for a short time and feeling bad about it. So what? Who cares? This is not what we want to see. We want to see a clever shoot'em up. It is that simple.<br />
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The first ROBOCOP was a revenge film. It was about Alex Murphy regaining his humanity as he tracked down the bad guys that murdered him which led to him being recreated as a cyborg. The film has a sharp wit that is never heavy handed and never slows down to explain itself. The film never compromises with it's depiction of violence nor bogs down into the mire of showing his family being sad and going around making scenes uninteresting. The original ROBOCOP is impossible to forget making it an iconic film of the 80's. Who is going to forget toxic waste guy who explodes into gory wet pieces when hit by a car. That guy haunts me even into my thirties. The movie filled the screen with bad guys who are more entertaining and interesting than a mother and kid and scientists and boring corporate suits.<br />
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Why bother making a sequel if you are not going to out do the first? The horrible realization is that this is a film made only to cash in on the name recognition. ROBO2014 is nothing new. The new Robocop design looks generic and over used from all the soldiers who have appeared in all first person shooter video games made in the last ten years. Some of the over view city shots with drones flying in the sky look heavily inspired by the recently released much superior DREDD film. Maybe if you are new to film and was just born in the last 10 years the new ROBOCOP might hold some interest if you can get by all the boring dialogue and miss handled action scenes that fail in every way to excite.. <br />
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ROBOCOP 2014 serves as a foreboding premonition of things to come. The makers didn't understand ROBOCOP. Why would Robocop have one single human hand? To show that he was more human? That is what I would consider and rather large chink in his armor. I hope a bunch of soldiers and robots don't shoot thousands of bullets at him all at once. Oh, wait! They did! I guess we just have to assume that they didn't shoot his detached human hand somehow. Do you think the makers of THE CROW remake know what kind of film the original was? It was a Hong Kong style revenge action movie in case you were wondering. They put an action star in the lead role by the name of Brandon Lee. Have they done that with the remake? Nope. Good luck with that one. I am just going to predict right now that the CROW remake is going to suck and be sloppy with it's story and concepts similar to ROBOCOP 2014 or that LONE RANGER movie. We will have to wait and see or not see which is what I might do.<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-43038359251632417542014-10-30T23:59:00.000-07:002014-10-30T23:59:50.572-07:00THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cSvXcMkiJRA/U9p5KRth4MI/AAAAAAAAA8A/HkTr3VO15EU/s1600/thelegendofhellhouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cSvXcMkiJRA/U9p5KRth4MI/AAAAAAAAA8A/HkTr3VO15EU/s1600/thelegendofhellhouse.jpg" /></a>There will be some mild spoilers. If you haven't seen this movie then make it your duty to do so this and every Halloween. <br />
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Dr. Barret his wife and two psychics are tasked to find proof of the afterlife in an old mansion with a deadly reputation during the week of Christmas. That's right, folks. This here is a Christmas movie. The doctor wants to use this opportunity to prove that random psychic energy is to blame for paranormal happenings and not intelligent beings existing just slightly beyond the reach of the living. He has disagreements that get a bit heated towards the end with the lady psychic Florence Tanner to the point she tries to bash his energy eliminator machine on the off chance that he may be right. You have two thoughts on the subject of ghosts and they butt heads with each other from time to time. Both acknowledge the paranormal but one views it in strict scientific terms of energy while the other leans to the spiritual. <br />
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THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE is in my opinion one of the scariest films ever made. The film stirs the imagination with its bleak gloomy atmosphere, foreboding dark mansion and giant black cat that doesn't seem to want to stay dead. There really is no need for special effects. The movie lets your mind do all the work. I love the idea of two opposing views challenging one another as the group tries to figure out how this home is so haunted. The movie follows the #1 rule for a really good horror movie and that is 'Anyone can die at anytime.' The movie is quiet and solemn luring the audience into a guarded calm that is suddenly shattered when something frightful happens.<br />
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Roddy McDowall's character had actually been in the house before being the only survivor of a group investigating the house years before. He keeps a reserved demeanor protecting himself from the psychic energy that is all around him. He comes to life though almost stealing the show when he discovers what is really going on. I love how he figures out that both the doctor and Tanner were right. He challenges the entity exposing it for the small man that is truly behind all the horrors of the house. It is almost like the Wizard behind the curtain in THE WIZARD OF OZ. The large foreboding house and all of it's ghastly fame comes from the insecurity of a small vain dead man.<br />
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On Halloween night if you are looking for a scary double feature I would recommend watching this one side by side with the original THE HAUNTING. There is a good story to think about with a solid conclusion. Just don't think too long about it. This one may give you nightmares.<br />
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Jason<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676591968332950330.post-86773530829778786812014-10-30T00:00:00.000-07:002014-10-30T08:33:07.387-07:00LAMBERTO BAVA'S DEMONS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am not the biggest fan of Italian horror films. I do recognize their influence on modern cinema today but I find so many of them to be either redundant ripoffs of other films or they flat out don't make any sense whatsoever. Often these horror films are appreciated for their atmosphere or shock value. The story doesn't seem to matter. I kind of like things to make sense in the movies I watch for the most part. DEMONS directed by Lamberto Bava and produced by Dario Argento is one of the good ones even if some of it doesn't make sense. <br />
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The story is about a young college student, Cheryl who accepts a free movie pass to a new theater called the Metropol from a strange man who wears a metal mask that covers half his face. It is important to note that the actor playing the strange man is Michele Soavi who was also the film's assistant director and would later go on to direct one of the greatest zombie movies ever made, DELLAMORTE, DELLAMORE or CEMETERY MAN. She and her friend go to the movie which turns out to be a horror movie about some young people discovering a mask that turns one of them into a demon possessed killer. The mask in the movie happens to look like the mask on display in the theater lobby. A pimp (played by the always awesome Bobby Rhodes) comes to the movie with two of his ladies and one of them gets cut when she puts the mask on playfully. Like in the movie they are watching she becomes a monster and goes around killing other movie goers which makes the victims turn into more monsters. The whole movie becomes a survival horror situation as the theater patrons try to escape the demons that keep growing in numbers.<br />
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The story seems simple enough but if you are paying attention, the film gives you clues as to something much bigger going on. It took me a couple of watches to notice one of the actors in the movie playing in the theater is actually the creepy guy handing out the free tickets. What does that mean? Are we watching a moment from the past explaining how the mask in the lobby got there? What about the strange room to nowhere that is discovered when everyone was trapped on the balcony pounding on the walls to catch the outside world's attention? Is the Metropol the old building depicted on the big screen where the mask was found? Who reopened the old theater and set up this free screening anyway? The characters in the movie are too busy trying to not get their faces ripped off to try and find out for us. DEMONS gives no answers but just enough to connect some of the dots. Perhaps there are no answers just like in a nightmare. Things just are what they are.<br />
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The strong visuals, colors and lighting give DEMONS a nightmare look like as if you were watching someone's actual dream rather than just another horror movie. Sometimes whole scenes are bathed in one color including blue, red or yellow adding to the dreamlike atmosphere. Every camera angle is perfect and inspired. The director knows how to evoke the audiences' imagination with his camera. Often I wondered what was waiting around the next corner for our heroes simply because of how the camera was stationed. So many iconic moments are captured making sure DEMONS is not a film soon forgotten. Just look at the movie poster! The rock soundtrack generates a sense of anarchy throughout the film which plays well into the extremely satisfying climatic finale. Argento's films have a tendency to inappropriately break into eighties big hair rock music (aka "Butt-Rock") for no reason (See PHENOMENA) but here it is done just right and fits perfectly into the spirit of the film.<br />
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DEMONS created a formula that was copied a few more times for the sequels. The follow up films failed to generate the rich atmosphere and scares the original did. Nothing new conceptually was ever added except for the locations the story took place. They were merely copy cats that re-staged moments from the first film with disappointing results. The freshness was gone. Still they can't sour the awesomeness that the original DEMONS has brought to our eyes. If you haven't seen it then by all means go out and get it before the inevitable demon apocalypse descends upon us and turns us all into goo spewing wicked abominations. How about that ending credit sequence?<br />
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JasonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0