November 16, 2009
This past weekend I watched a terrible movie called Albino Farm. I really didn’t want to write about it on here because the movie was so bad, but if I can save one person from wasting their time than I will have done my job. The movie was written and directed by Joe Anderson and Sean McEwen. There were no well-known actors in the film, except for a small part by wrestler Chris Jericho (that alone says something).
The movie is about a town in Missouri that has a hidden legend about a ‘farm’ where mutants were kept and not let out. A group of four college-aged students are doing a project about rural history and want to examine and find out more about the legend. The four actors were soo bad and if their goal was to be the most obnoxious characters ever, they acheived that. Basically they go to the farm and three of the four are killed/eaten by the mutants. One survives but ends up going crazy. There were religious overtones throughout the movie.
This movie could have had potential if they had focused less on the college students and more on the town’s legend. The legend was glossed over with a one-sentence summary. Just don’t see it…it’s bad.
November 8, 2009
As much as I am a lover of scary movies, I have an equal love for rom-coms that have girls drooling and men gagging all across the world. On Saturday after viewing Trick ‘r Treat we switched gears and watched Ghosts of Girlfriends Past – a guilty pleasure I’ve been wanting to see for awhile now. By the end I had lackluster feelings for it.
The movie stars Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner, who play Connor and Jenny. Connor is the ultimate beef-cake, complete with the inability to show his feelings and commit to a relationship and of course he’s the biggest womanizer around. But there is some background with that, he was raised by his womanizing uncle played by Michael Douglas. Anyway, Jenny and Connor used to date but that ended badly when he ditched her after their first hook-up. They are reunited years later due to Connor’s brother’s wedding.
Connor is such a jackass and in hopes of a wake up call occurring he is visited by three ghosts – past, present and future. They all try to talk some sense into him that his days of abusing women needs to be over because he will end up alone with only one person attending his funeral. It was really unbelievable that Jenny would ever take back Connor because she is the only sensible woman in the film.
One thing that ticked me off about the movie was the poor way women were portrayed. (Which sometimes they are asking for.) But in this movie, every woman was absolutely pathetic. It fed in great to the stereotype that women want to be insulted by ‘bad boys’. Granted the movie did have some really funny parts but I don’t recommend it.
November 7, 2009
On Saturday night I watched Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat and it was soo good! It was the perfect Halloween movie. It touched on a lot of the typical Halloween plot lines – werewolves, serial killers, town legends, sexy costumes, and the Halloween spirit. The film’s creepy tagline is: Poison, Drowning, Claw, Or Knife. So Many Ways To Take A Life. Dougherty both wrote and directed the film and has also written movies like X2 and Superman Returns.
The movie connects four separate story lines. They include a school principal who is anything but your ‘pal’, a group of girls looking for a good time, a couple with opposite feelings for the holiday and a group of prankster teenagers. The film takes place in a small Ohio town called Warren Valley.
The movie was so enveloped in the Halloween spirit that I didn’t want it to end. It was so entertaining and fun and had me asking questions left and right. But at the same time there were a lot of creepy moments! No character is who you think they are. I recommend this movie to any one who enjoyed Halloween as a kid and loves fun but eerie things.
The movie also has a great cast, Anna Paquin, Leslie Bibb, Dylan Baker, Brian Cox, etc. I liked how the director would show a scene and then move the film backwards or forwards in time and you would see it from a different angle. That was a really cool touch.
November 6, 2009
On Friday I finally went to see Paranormal Activity. I was super excited to see this movie because I love, love, love scary movies. There was tons of hype surrounding this movie and I was excited that I would finally see a movie that actually scared me, since movies usually don’t. Well, I was sorely disappointed.
This movie is really not scary. It is formulaic and you know when something is about to happen. The only scary part came within the last 5 minutes. The plot line was definitely creepy. The way that it was executed throughout the film was also creepy, it just wasn’t scary. I really enjoyed the acting and the way the viewer gets to know the characters and therefore can really feel sorry for them as the haunting gets worse. The movie was definitely a slow-build. I wanted to see more action with the demon. Once the demon got really heated up the movie finally got exciting. I wish the pace of the movie had started quicker and just picked up from there.
Overall, an okay movie that wasn’t scary at all. Good plot line but the pace is entirely too slow. I would not see the movie again.
November 5, 2009
I recently screened the 2001 film In the Bedroom directed by Todd Field. This was my second time viewing the film and it is wonderful! One word to describe this film: TENSE.
The movie is about a soon-to-be-divorced woman played by Marisa Tomei. She does such a wonderful job portraying the confident, yet vulnerable Natalie. She is dating a much younger man, Nick Stahl’s character Frank. Spoiler: Natalie’s abusive husband kills Frank.
In steps the real tension. There is a lot between Natalie and Frank’s parents. His parents, Ruth and Matt, are played by actors Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek. So as you can see the cast was stacked! Besides tension between Natalie and the parents, there is a lot of tension between the parents themselves. They both blame each other for Frank’s death, before finally coming together to better understand the situation. There is understandable tension between the killer, Richard and the family whose son he murdered.
Matt Fowler, father of the deceased, is faced with a really tough decision to make. Does he take revenge into his own hands, or leave it up to the legal system? Well he certainly does one of those two, which I will be kind and not reveal to you. But the viewer really empathizes with Matt and understands why he makes his choice.
The director Todd Field has acted in a wide range of T.V. and film. He has directed a handful of movies, including the 2006 hit Little Children (which I highly recommend).
November 2, 2009
So I screened the film Eu Tu Eles, a.k.a. Me You Them for a class and I wasn’t impressed. The plot line is a very sad story about a woman who has four children all from different men. Darlene is the main character and she marries Osias, a cold man who treats her like a work-horse. Darlene ends up sleeping with three different men while married and has children from all of them. All of the men and children live in the same home as Darlene and Osias in Northeast Brazil. Osias is either oblivious throughout most of the movie, or just doesn’t care that his wife is sleeping around. I kept trying to figure out Darlene’s motives but she didn’t seem to have any. She just liked sleeping with numerous men and having their babies.
It may have been because the movie is Brazilian but there wasn’t much character development other than the superficial things the viewer finds out. By the end of the film all I knew about Darlene was she is unhappy about life, loves birthing children and likes the thrill of sleeping with new men. The viewer finds out more about the male characters. Osias and his cousin, Zezinho who also impregnates Darlene, both seem to be in love with Darlene for different reasons. Osias just likes having a woman to control and boss around. Zezhino really does love Darlene and is hurt when she sleeps with Ciro, another baby-daddy. The movie ends with Osias registering all of the children as his known, and I don’t know if his motive is sincere or not, but I want to think it is.
October 25, 2009
I went to see Couples Retreat last night and was pleased overall. I had heard a lot of good reviews and less than favorable reviews so I didn’t know what to expect. The cast was hysterical!
Basically the plot line is about four married couples who go to a couples retreat to work on their marriages. Only one of the four couples actually feels the need to work on their marriage and the other three couples just want to party in paradise. The couples come to the harsh realization that they all have to partake in the marriage counseling. Humor ensues with all the ridiculous couple-related events…like yoga led by an over-sexualized European, snorkeling gone wrong and couples skill-building.
There were some really hysterical moments in the film but at the same time there were quite a few dull moments. The movie ended a little too cookie-cuttery for me. I expected at least one couple to break up…and no that’s not my pessimism coming through, I’m just realistic.
The film was directed by Peter Billingsley, who is better known for his acting and producing. This was only the second film he directed. But he’s produced Iron Man, Four Christmases, and The Break-Up. The cast worked amazingly together…I mean Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Malin Akerman, Kristin Davis, the list goes on, are all hilarious actors. Vaughn and Favreau co-wrote the script along with Dana Fox. Fox has written for films like The Wedding Date and What Happens in Vegas, so she knows the rom-com genre pretty well.
October 18, 2009
Toby Wilkins’ Splinter was a very well done film. The plot line, character development and visuals all helped to make this movie great. Wilkins co-wrote the script as well as directed the film. He’s directed a number of films, most recently The Grudge 3.
The movie opens with a lonely gas station clerk getting attacked by a creature of sorts. All the viewer gets to see are quick glimpses of a dog-like animal with large black splinters all over. The suspense and intrigue are great at this point because of how little the viewer actually gets to see. Then the movie moves to criminals Lacey and Dennis, whose truck breaks down. At the same time couple Polly and Seth are celebrating their anniversary by camping in the woods. Their tents breaks so they decide to go to a motel. While on the road they are stopped by Lacey and Dennis and become hostages. The movie begins to get much stranger at this point.
They run over something on the road, and it turns out to be the splinter creature. They stop at a gas station, where Lacey runs into the original gas station clerk. The splinters have taken over his body and feed off of him. He infects Lacey and the three remaining characters are left inside the store fending for their lives.
It’s an interesting dynamic between Seth, Polly and Dennis. Dennis is a jerk at the beginning because of being a criminal but we eventually find out his acts are out of kindness – stealing so he can provide for others. By the end of the movie the viewer has sympathy for Dennis. The characters actually begin to work together as a team to survive and cease to be hostages. I really liked how the film depended on character interaction as the main drive. There were only three main characters so it forced the movie to focus on their relationships instead of relying on action.
The imagery in this film was great. The way the splinter parasite takes over the body was so neat to watch. It really made my skin crawl. The production value was great.
The cast was also great – Shea Whigham, who plays Dennis, has been in a slew of movies, such as Lords of Dogtown and Wristcutters: A Love Story. The geeky Paulo Costanzo plays Seth. He’s recognizable from the T.V. show “Joey” and movies like 40 Days and 40 Nights and Road Trip. The two female actresses Rachel Kerbs and Jill Wagner are lessen known.
October 8, 2009
I watched Martin Scorsese’s The Departed Tuesday night. I first saw the movie when it was in theaters in 2006 and got the urge to re-watch it after seeing a clip during a recent English class. Since I hadn’t seen it in three years, it was like watching it for the first time. The film was amazing all over again because I didn’t remember much about it from the first time.
The film takes place in Boston and surrounds the Massachusetts State Police and the Irish mafia. Matt Damon’s character Sgt. Colin Sullivan grew up with Jack Nicholson’s Frank Costello, the head of the mafia, as his mentor. Sullivan acts as the eyes and ears within the police force in order to benefit Costello. On the other side of the coin Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Billy Costigan buddies up with Costello while actually working as an undercover cop helping out the police.
The characters begin to unravel as the plot unfolds and both the mafia and the police work to find the rats (Damon and DiCaprio) within their own units. The tension in this movie is powerful and infectious, I was anxious and excited through the entire flick and I didn’t know what was going to happen.
I found myself really liking Colin Sullivan as the movie began and disliking Billy Costigan. By the end of the movie, this changes 180 degrees. Billy Costigan ends up being a very honorable character while Sgt. Sullivan is a total prick who will literally kill anyone who gets in the way of his ‘perfect’ reputation. Despite being a mafia man and doing lots of illegal things, I really liked Frank Costello. He was a pretty straight-forward character through the entire movie and was a badass!
The cast was fabulous, especially with supporting roles by Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, and Vera Farmiga. The soundtrack was great, I mean any movie that opens with Gimme Shelter by the Stones is bound to be a great movie.
