Vampires. i have loved vampires in all their forms since at least 3rd grade. Probably further back, but that is when I remember becoming obsessed with them. Enough so, I managed to get myself into trouble by writing about vampires at inappropriate times. So, of course, when I heard about the Lost Boys, I knew I had to see it.
The Lost Boys: This is one of my all time favorite movies. So much so, I doubt I can be objective in reviewing it. It has the two Coreys in it, who were my favorite actors (always have loved Feldman more, though). It has vampires. It has music that really works for me in a sick 80's kind of way. It is so ridiculous in places that I should completely hate it, but I can't help but love it more for the faults. I have nothing rally to say other than this is a great movie and a classic example of what a vampire should be.
The Lost Boys: The Tribe: 20 years is too long to wait for a sequel. It is also, apparently, to long for anyone to be able to keep said sequel interesting. Instead of a follow up to the original, we get some sort of strange surfer vampire thing taking place in the same small town at the original. Feldman is back, doing the same character (though the voice is now just stupid). We get Keifer Sutherland's half-brother playing a role, so there is more of a connection to the original. Really, all this movie has going for it is that Autumn Reeser is pretty hot. Otherwise, not that great.
The Lost Boys: The Thirst: Thankfully, the last sequel (so far). this takes place, I am assuming, before the last one. Hard to tell. It seems to imply an earlier time, but also could easily be a later one. I dunno. We get raving vampires this time, with some blood-as-ecstasy drug stuff. In this movie, however, we are treated to some fun vampire-hunting equipment, a bit of back story as to why the Frog Brothers no longer hunt, and a loose attempt to open the franchise up for further expansion in non-vamp ways. I did like the sort of twist on the real villain, and the attempt to add new supernatural creatures was a decent idea (even if poorly executed). I liked this better than the last sequel, but think the idea is now dead.
Not a lot to say in summary. Great original, weaker sequels. If they had made the original sequel plan of The Lost Girls, it may have been better. If they had not waited 2 decades to do another movie, they may have been better. If they had not gone direct to video, they may have been better. As it is, the sequels tarnish the awesome of the original and that makes me sad.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Head of the Class
My introduction to a Troma movie series. I have seen Troma movies before, but never an entire franchise. Kind of sorry I did it now.
Class of Nuke 'Em High: The first movie in the series shows a school that is close to a nuclear reactor, and those prone to outbreaks of bad shit happening. Due to a leak in the reactor, the school is irradiated. Due to a cover-up, nobody figures it out. Even when the chess club become crazy punk bikers or a nerd melts in class. The hero and his girl end up getting sick as well, which causes a mutant child and a case of extreme 'roid rage. The movie has a bit of humor to it, but is mostly plaid straight for the violence and nasty gore/goo. Forgettable enough, I don't remember the ending.
Class of Nuke 'Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown: Now we get stupid. While the first was mostly a straight up horror kind of thing, this is pure camp. We have bad puns, bad plot, and bad acting. The old high school is now a college. Nuclear and genetic experiments are still going on. We get some sort of attempt at a plot with the introduction of subhumanoids, which are pretty much people with mouths where their navels should be who also have a habit of melting down into fuzzballs with mouths. Yeah, dumb.
Class of Nuke 'Em High 3: The Good, the Bad and the Subhumanoid: The sequel to the last, which follows up with more of the same. If anything, this is even more stupid. Now the hero from the first plays both his original character and that character's 10 year old son (who has grown up to a 20-something man in those 10 years). The "kid" falls in love with his wet nurse, who is a dumb blonde that leaks water from her mouth as a joke on the wet nurse thing. The movie is peppered with ridiculous sound effects, more bad jokes, and even less of a plot. I actually hate myself for watching this one at all.
Overall, the original isn't bad. Not a great movie, but worth watching if you have nothing better to do. Beyond that, I cannot recommend highly enough that you avoid the sequels unless you like low-brow trashy movies. Which, if you are watching Troma, you probably do.
Class of Nuke 'Em High: The first movie in the series shows a school that is close to a nuclear reactor, and those prone to outbreaks of bad shit happening. Due to a leak in the reactor, the school is irradiated. Due to a cover-up, nobody figures it out. Even when the chess club become crazy punk bikers or a nerd melts in class. The hero and his girl end up getting sick as well, which causes a mutant child and a case of extreme 'roid rage. The movie has a bit of humor to it, but is mostly plaid straight for the violence and nasty gore/goo. Forgettable enough, I don't remember the ending.
Class of Nuke 'Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown: Now we get stupid. While the first was mostly a straight up horror kind of thing, this is pure camp. We have bad puns, bad plot, and bad acting. The old high school is now a college. Nuclear and genetic experiments are still going on. We get some sort of attempt at a plot with the introduction of subhumanoids, which are pretty much people with mouths where their navels should be who also have a habit of melting down into fuzzballs with mouths. Yeah, dumb.
Class of Nuke 'Em High 3: The Good, the Bad and the Subhumanoid: The sequel to the last, which follows up with more of the same. If anything, this is even more stupid. Now the hero from the first plays both his original character and that character's 10 year old son (who has grown up to a 20-something man in those 10 years). The "kid" falls in love with his wet nurse, who is a dumb blonde that leaks water from her mouth as a joke on the wet nurse thing. The movie is peppered with ridiculous sound effects, more bad jokes, and even less of a plot. I actually hate myself for watching this one at all.
Overall, the original isn't bad. Not a great movie, but worth watching if you have nothing better to do. Beyond that, I cannot recommend highly enough that you avoid the sequels unless you like low-brow trashy movies. Which, if you are watching Troma, you probably do.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Monday, May 10, 2010
A Tale of Two Lists (Part Two)
So, in the first part of this post, I mentioned my goal of watching the 100 best movies. Both lists.
Well, once I finish that, I am going to work my way through the worst movies. This will be harder to do for a couple reasons. First of all, the worst movies will not be easy to watch for the simple fact that they are so bad. I may end up going crazy trying to watch these, or may get so bored or disgusted I turn the movies off. Hopefully I can power through that.
The other reason it will not be easy is that it is not easy to find lists of the worst movies ever made. The American Film Institute certainly doesn't have reason to compile such a list. I did look at IMDB, but their list changes constantly, and is full of foreign movies I cannot access. So, I turned to Wikipedia. By combining the list of Golden Raspberry Winners and the list of the worst films ever, I managed to compile a list of 60 movies that are generally considered the worst. Of these, I have seen two already, with a handful of the nominees (which are not part of my list at this time).
Along with this, sort of as a fun little diversion between the two herculean tasks, I am adding in a list of the 23 Strangest Movies that I stumbled upon a while back. Seems like it would be a fun thing to do. I have already seen a few of these as well, though will need to rewatch some of them since it has been a while.
Big picture, by the end of this experience, I will have seen the 123 best, 23 strangest, and 60 worst movies of all time. A total of 206 movies, comprising the opposite ends of the spectrum. At that point, I think I can officially call myself a movie buff.
Well, once I finish that, I am going to work my way through the worst movies. This will be harder to do for a couple reasons. First of all, the worst movies will not be easy to watch for the simple fact that they are so bad. I may end up going crazy trying to watch these, or may get so bored or disgusted I turn the movies off. Hopefully I can power through that.
The other reason it will not be easy is that it is not easy to find lists of the worst movies ever made. The American Film Institute certainly doesn't have reason to compile such a list. I did look at IMDB, but their list changes constantly, and is full of foreign movies I cannot access. So, I turned to Wikipedia. By combining the list of Golden Raspberry Winners and the list of the worst films ever, I managed to compile a list of 60 movies that are generally considered the worst. Of these, I have seen two already, with a handful of the nominees (which are not part of my list at this time).
Along with this, sort of as a fun little diversion between the two herculean tasks, I am adding in a list of the 23 Strangest Movies that I stumbled upon a while back. Seems like it would be a fun thing to do. I have already seen a few of these as well, though will need to rewatch some of them since it has been a while.
Big picture, by the end of this experience, I will have seen the 123 best, 23 strangest, and 60 worst movies of all time. A total of 206 movies, comprising the opposite ends of the spectrum. At that point, I think I can officially call myself a movie buff.
A Tale of Two Lists (Part One)
So, a couple years back, I started myself on a quest. A simple thing, really. I vowed to watch the 100 best movies of all time. This seemed like a noble thing, as I am a movie lover. It seemed easy enough, and I knew of a list to go off of. The problem is, there were two versions of the list. The American Film Institute compiled one list in 1998, but then did an anniversary update to the list in 2007. Looking at both of these lists, it was painfully clear that there were some amazing movie on both. So, I did what any self respecting movie lover would do. I combined the lists and set forth.
Here I am, two years later and not much further on my journey. I have 51 movies left to watch. Not to impressive, until you realize that between the two lists, there are 123 movies total on there. That means I actually only have about 41% of the movies left to watch. Not to shabby, overall.
Anyhow, I have recently tried to renew my drive toward this goal by watching movies more often. For the month of May, I am trying to watch a movie every day. Not all will be from the list, in fact many will not. But, if I happen to have access to a list movie, I will be watching it. Just for fun, I am linking to the two lists.
How many have you seen?
Here I am, two years later and not much further on my journey. I have 51 movies left to watch. Not to impressive, until you realize that between the two lists, there are 123 movies total on there. That means I actually only have about 41% of the movies left to watch. Not to shabby, overall.
Anyhow, I have recently tried to renew my drive toward this goal by watching movies more often. For the month of May, I am trying to watch a movie every day. Not all will be from the list, in fact many will not. But, if I happen to have access to a list movie, I will be watching it. Just for fun, I am linking to the two lists.
How many have you seen?
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.
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