Saturday, May 8, 2010
New Nightmare
So, I saw the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street. I have added to the original reviews to include the new addition. Also have a review of the Boogeyman franchise in the works.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Eye Spy
Time for another horror franchise review. Yay! This time, I went a little further than normal, to check out the Hong Kong horror series The Eye. We have 3 movies, plus an American remake.
The Eye: So, first in the series. In this, we have a woman who was blinded at age two (never are told how it happens, not that it matters). She has eye surgery to replace her corneas with those of a donor, allowing her to see again. This, unfortunately, allows her to see the spirits of the dead. It also lets her see the shadows that guide dead souls on to whatever final resting place they happen to have. At first, she is freaked out, but eventually is able to come to terms with it by finding out where her new eyes came from. The idea itself is nothing new. There are a lot of horror movies and stories with the premise of replacement limbs carrying on the lives of their original owner. What made this so good is that there was a lot of creepy to it, and a good reason for the eyes doing what they do. Very little gore or violence until the end of the movie. Just some healthy unsettling imagery at times. The movie is so wonderfully shot, with amazing close ups to show how the woman is seeing things for the first time. Really, quite enjoyable. Except for how it all ends, which was a little unsatisfying. Also, I had a slight gripe about not resolving the little boy with his report card thing (which you will have to watch the movie to understand). Could have used some better closure on that.
The Eye 2: Holy crap, I almost vomited within the first 15 minutes of this thing. Not from excessive gore or anything like that. From watching the main character get her stomach pumped. The sounds she made were nauseating. So, that aside, what have we got here? Woman who has just had a bad break up with her boyfriend. She tries to commit suicide. Obviously she only nearly succeeds and lives. Now she can see dead people. She gets freaked out a few times, finds out what is going on with the one woman's ghost that keeps following her, and the movie is resolved. Throughout this, there is the pregnancy of the woman to deal with as well. Pretty much nothing scary with this. A few shocks with dead people, yeah. But not really horror. There's also some strange Buddhist teachings to tie it all together. There is actually no connection between this movie and the first, other than the seeing dead people angle and the same directors. Fun, but not what I was looking for.
The Eye 3 (aka The Eye 10 or The Eye Infinity): So, we get some monks who are meditating or praying around a woman who seems to be possessed. She floats, licks them all at range, and then the movie shows the actual characters. Bunch of friends who decide to use this book to see ghosts. There are 10 ways, two of which are the plots to the other movies in the series. The rest get used throughout the movie. A couple make sense, a couple are too complex to work for me, and a couple are too silly. Mostly, the movie is ok. Some decent visuals and all that. Not really scary. More funny, in fact. Proof of this: Ghost Possessed Dance Battle. Want more proof? When out of breath (which scares ghost) just fart, that will knock a ghost out. The ending was ok, though.
The Eye (American Remake): What we have here is an 85-90% remake. Many of the scenes are lifted pretty straight from the original. The difference here is that they lack all subtlety and emotion. Where the original will hint at things being wrong, this version will throw it in your face with fire and jump cuts. Hell, they give away a couple of the surprises early on with the way they shoot a couple scenes, and the way the beginning shows part of the climax. Speaking of climaxes, the big scene that was so shocking and held most of the gore and violence of the original was completely rewritten. In fact, it is changed to have the exact opposite effect on the story and the viewer. I saw what was happening almost immediately this time, and was yelling "bullshit" at the tv the entire time (and for a good 5 minutes after the movie ended). Where the Ring or Funny Games were good remakes, this was kind of meh.
So, overall, these movies fail to really work for me. The original was good. Lots of fun. Then you get the not-so-scary sequel, the funny-not-scary three-quel, and the poorly done remake. So, overall, meh. Not bad movies, just nothing as classic or good at other franchises.
The Eye: So, first in the series. In this, we have a woman who was blinded at age two (never are told how it happens, not that it matters). She has eye surgery to replace her corneas with those of a donor, allowing her to see again. This, unfortunately, allows her to see the spirits of the dead. It also lets her see the shadows that guide dead souls on to whatever final resting place they happen to have. At first, she is freaked out, but eventually is able to come to terms with it by finding out where her new eyes came from. The idea itself is nothing new. There are a lot of horror movies and stories with the premise of replacement limbs carrying on the lives of their original owner. What made this so good is that there was a lot of creepy to it, and a good reason for the eyes doing what they do. Very little gore or violence until the end of the movie. Just some healthy unsettling imagery at times. The movie is so wonderfully shot, with amazing close ups to show how the woman is seeing things for the first time. Really, quite enjoyable. Except for how it all ends, which was a little unsatisfying. Also, I had a slight gripe about not resolving the little boy with his report card thing (which you will have to watch the movie to understand). Could have used some better closure on that.
The Eye 2: Holy crap, I almost vomited within the first 15 minutes of this thing. Not from excessive gore or anything like that. From watching the main character get her stomach pumped. The sounds she made were nauseating. So, that aside, what have we got here? Woman who has just had a bad break up with her boyfriend. She tries to commit suicide. Obviously she only nearly succeeds and lives. Now she can see dead people. She gets freaked out a few times, finds out what is going on with the one woman's ghost that keeps following her, and the movie is resolved. Throughout this, there is the pregnancy of the woman to deal with as well. Pretty much nothing scary with this. A few shocks with dead people, yeah. But not really horror. There's also some strange Buddhist teachings to tie it all together. There is actually no connection between this movie and the first, other than the seeing dead people angle and the same directors. Fun, but not what I was looking for.
The Eye 3 (aka The Eye 10 or The Eye Infinity): So, we get some monks who are meditating or praying around a woman who seems to be possessed. She floats, licks them all at range, and then the movie shows the actual characters. Bunch of friends who decide to use this book to see ghosts. There are 10 ways, two of which are the plots to the other movies in the series. The rest get used throughout the movie. A couple make sense, a couple are too complex to work for me, and a couple are too silly. Mostly, the movie is ok. Some decent visuals and all that. Not really scary. More funny, in fact. Proof of this: Ghost Possessed Dance Battle. Want more proof? When out of breath (which scares ghost) just fart, that will knock a ghost out. The ending was ok, though.
The Eye (American Remake): What we have here is an 85-90% remake. Many of the scenes are lifted pretty straight from the original. The difference here is that they lack all subtlety and emotion. Where the original will hint at things being wrong, this version will throw it in your face with fire and jump cuts. Hell, they give away a couple of the surprises early on with the way they shoot a couple scenes, and the way the beginning shows part of the climax. Speaking of climaxes, the big scene that was so shocking and held most of the gore and violence of the original was completely rewritten. In fact, it is changed to have the exact opposite effect on the story and the viewer. I saw what was happening almost immediately this time, and was yelling "bullshit" at the tv the entire time (and for a good 5 minutes after the movie ended). Where the Ring or Funny Games were good remakes, this was kind of meh.
So, overall, these movies fail to really work for me. The original was good. Lots of fun. Then you get the not-so-scary sequel, the funny-not-scary three-quel, and the poorly done remake. So, overall, meh. Not bad movies, just nothing as classic or good at other franchises.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
2099
So, I recently got my hands on of the final 2099 comics missing from my collection (not counting the new Timestorm stuff or the Spider-man 2099 appearances in Exiles). So, I am thinking of rereading the entire series and doing reviews of them. Maybe a comic a day. That would give me about 274 issues covering the core 2099 comics plus the Marvel Knights 2099 stuff. Adding in the loosely related comics would bump that up a little more. Off the top of my head, I think there were a couple 4 issues minis plus an issue of X-Force that are in there. If I manage to get funds together to buy the Timestorm stuff and the missing Exiles issues I have, I could probably stretch this out to a year or so.
Question is, do I want to limit my reading to one a day?
Also, if I was to do this, do I think I could stay on top of it?
Finally, do i read the comics in the order they came out, or do I read entire series in one go (i.e. do I read all of Spider-Man, then all of Ravage, etc...or do I read an issue or two of Spider-Man, then an issue of Ravage, and then alternate between the issues as appropriate). The thing with this is that I kind of want to read entire story arcs all at once, but i know there was the crossover part way into the runs that would require me to read an issue of each to properly understand. But, I don't know if I want to do the work to organize the comics in publication order.
I will be sitting on this for a while until I can decide how I want to do it. So, keep an eye on the blog to see what happens.
Question is, do I want to limit my reading to one a day?
Also, if I was to do this, do I think I could stay on top of it?
Finally, do i read the comics in the order they came out, or do I read entire series in one go (i.e. do I read all of Spider-Man, then all of Ravage, etc...or do I read an issue or two of Spider-Man, then an issue of Ravage, and then alternate between the issues as appropriate). The thing with this is that I kind of want to read entire story arcs all at once, but i know there was the crossover part way into the runs that would require me to read an issue of each to properly understand. But, I don't know if I want to do the work to organize the comics in publication order.
I will be sitting on this for a while until I can decide how I want to do it. So, keep an eye on the blog to see what happens.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Quickie
Runaways v3 #10 is possibly the best issue of the series, in any volume. Considering how good the original series was, that is saying a lot.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Couple Relatively Quick Reviews
Wolverine: Better than X3. Not good. Right after the movie, I said it was a disappointment but that I liked it. The more I think on it, the less I like it. Shoehorning in Cyclops was a bad idea. Changing Emma was a bad idea. Not using Deadpool well after the opening bits, also bad idea. The end fight was lame. I really wanted to like this, and was willing to accept some alterations for a movie. i was not willing to accept the changes they actually did. Did enjoy the flashbacks in the opening credits. I really did like how they did Blob, and loved the new Sabretooth. I will watch a sequel, because I am gullible like that. I really want to see how Sabretooth manages to change from the guy we saw here to the guy we saw in X-Men.
Star Trek: So, not really a huge Trek fan. I am a geek enough to like it, and know a bit more than I should. But, never really got into the shows. I liked Data. I liked Odo. I watched Voyager until 7 of 9 showed up, then got bored. Been meaning to go back to watch DS9, since i hear it is good after the first season. Should try to catch some Next Generation as well, since it is actually not bad. So, yeah, going in to this I was pretty much not expecting much. That said, i loved this. I found out I knew a lot more than I thought. Not enough to really notice stuff that may have been changed, but enough to get a lot of random references. If this is what Trek would have been when I tried to watch it, I would have been a Trekkie long ago. I hope there are a lot of movies to follow in this new continuity. It looks like it could be a very successful series. Actually made me want a new Trek show, but not sure how it would work out properly.
Star Trek: So, not really a huge Trek fan. I am a geek enough to like it, and know a bit more than I should. But, never really got into the shows. I liked Data. I liked Odo. I watched Voyager until 7 of 9 showed up, then got bored. Been meaning to go back to watch DS9, since i hear it is good after the first season. Should try to catch some Next Generation as well, since it is actually not bad. So, yeah, going in to this I was pretty much not expecting much. That said, i loved this. I found out I knew a lot more than I thought. Not enough to really notice stuff that may have been changed, but enough to get a lot of random references. If this is what Trek would have been when I tried to watch it, I would have been a Trekkie long ago. I hope there are a lot of movies to follow in this new continuity. It looks like it could be a very successful series. Actually made me want a new Trek show, but not sure how it would work out properly.
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