Category: Movie/Long Subject Reviews

Best Part: Brief clip of Norm MacDonald trying to get Hasselhoff to mention Germany.

When Shatner attempts to put himself in the same company as Patrick Stewart, a classically trained Shakespearean actor, it should be funny…but it’s not, really.  That’s Shatner…he’s always thought of himself (Whether as Captain Kirk or as himself) as a lot more than he really is, and that’s part of his charm, I suppose.  At least he’s sincere in his self-absorption, there’s no false modesty here.

As a fan of the original series and certain of its offshoots(but not certain others), I think the attempt to chronicle the “Captain” experience is an abysmal failure…it’s more a blanket commentary on the stresses of being a full-time performer.  So it’s certainly not a must-watch for Trekkies, and because it’s not all that great as a documentary, it’s not a must-watch for anyone else.  What is it? 

It’s relaxing…very, very relaxing.  Ahhhhh….bop de doo be doo wop…

Grade: D

1/17/13: See ‘Pupdate: Documentary Grade Edits’.  Grade: F

It’s not going to convince non-fans to watch horror films, it’s not going to make intelligent horror fans believe Roger Corman films/Friday the 13th/other schlock doesn’t suck, and it’s not even well-made enough to convince really STUPID horror fans of anything. 

I mean, come on…yes, there are horror films that have “messages”, but there are a lot that are made cuz the director wants to make money and knows that people are stupid enough to watch sh1t that can be created with very little effort.  Every movie shown here is “analyzed” by “experts” and given a deep meaning…most of those meanings are probably gonna be news to the directors.

The 2009 American Cr@p Horror Film Party version of ‘Triumph Of The Will’.

Advice to pretentious roundhead goatee/glasses guy- “Why don’t you get a toupee with some brains in it?” – Moe Howard

“Yeah man!”

“Well turn it OFF, man!”

Guest Review: “Groovy.” – Ash

Any random late-night infomercial is more convincing than this.  Too bad Joel/Mike and the bots didn’t take a crack at it.  Iz good, ya?

Now, when I watch it, I’m surprised about the opening scene (that it exists, and that it isn’t anywhere near as cheezy as I figure the movie experience is going to be) and then I’m mostly just amused/nostalgic/rolling my eyes/saying “oh gawd”. 

The thing is, plenty of movies were made in 1983 or before that HAVEN’T become comical after being released as “thrillers”.  So I think that, despite a few moments of genius/brilliance/burnt-into-the-social-lexicon-ness, this is a (relative) failure today because so much attention was devoted to concept and message and so little was devoted to dialogue/believability/continuity/acting.

Favorite Character: Joshua

Grade: C+

It’s a cute, sweet, amusing, well-meaning little sci-fi drama that succeeds because it doesn’t aspire to heights it cannot attain.  The same cannot be said for most other Trek movies.  It’s ‘The Trouble With Tribbles’ to II’s ‘Space Seed’/’Balance Of Terror’/’Mirror Mirror’, II being the only Trek movie I’ve seen better than this one.

If you’re going to San Fran cis-co, don’t forget to pick up some humpback whales…

Inspirational Quote: “Ah…the giants.”

It just has to be well-written and well done.  But not over done.  Maybe over under…

This is the first and (as is usually the case) by far the best in the eventual “franchise”.  The extreme violence that made this movie so controversial when it was released, even with the scenes that were edited to tone down said violence restored, is highly unlikely to shock or offend anyone in the target audience today.  At least, anyone that has seen what violent films have so commonly devolved into…useless bore and gore fests that feature nothing except shock value.

The admitted cheeze is offset by the intentional cheezy commercials and constant satire throughout, and by the precision and focused direction of the film.

I think, having seen many of these types of films (sans script/interest), and being fairly convinced that the brilliant filmmakers of this generation have conceived and realized every possible gruesome, disgusting, and pointlessly sickening violent idea imaginable while still, AMAZINGLY, failed to generate interest for the most part, that this is a welcome blast from the past.  If only movies like this had…you know…stories, anymore.

Inspirational Quote: “Iiiiii LIKE it!”

Imagine watching the shot-for-shot ‘Psycho’ remake.

Now imagine expecting it to be different in some way before starting to watch.

For hard-core goths only…the same way the animated ‘DragonLance’ movie is for hard-core D+D geeks only.  But unlike that movie, not quite laughable.

Grade: D-

Take said world and introduce into it first a character (Michael Douglas, in the best performance I’ve ever seen him in) that seems to amplify the chaos of every situation by ten, and produce it where there is (or seemingly is) none (at least on the surface).  A character whose focus becomes more and more clear in his mind as his mind becomes more and more chaotic and without focus.

Introduce into that scenario a character (Robert Duvall, who is excellent as per usual) whose life is the very definition of tame, sedate, tranquil…non-chaotic.  A character whose focus gradually but surely lifts him out of that sedation, re-invigorates the true “will” in him, makes him alive again, so to speak.

Place these characters at such a point so that only one of their focuses (focii??) will be realized.

And one will.

Two ways to escape “drudgery”…fantasy and reality.  I’ll take reality.  (That would be Duvall).

Inspirational Quote From Another Movie That’s Strangely Relevant: “Not the bees, not the bees!  No…they’re in my eyes! No!!!”

It’s got nothing else that isn’t elsewhere in vast quantities, some better, some worse, a lot just as good.

It’s competent.  Totally, completely, boringly, meaninglessly.

To take the potential of the original ‘Day’ and squeeze everything out of it that made it interesting and replace it with professional dullness is such a mystifyingly stupid act that I had to watch this several times to confirm they had in fact succeeded in this.

Romero’s original had only one weakness, albeit a glaring one: EXTREMELY cheezy acting/dialogue.

This does away with that, and replaces it with nothing.  Worthless if you’ve ever seen any halfway-decent zombie/infected/undead/deadalive/etc movie before at any point in your life, ever.

This movie is just tepidly tender.

Then, for quite a while, it becomes a cute, sweet, amusing-bordering-on-funny, fun comedy.

Then, when that’s done with, it turns back into a cheezy sci-fi movie, plus sappy.

If it had a real beginning and ending they’d really have something here.

Grade: B-

Bill Zebub(yeah, he’s searchable, go ahead.  Or just find any local BDSM scumbag) apparently HATES organized religion, especially Christianity.

Which makes sense.  I mean, since he also hates and detests women, he can’t really ascribe to anything associated with Jesus Christ, who did NOT hate women.

Why does he hate women?  Who knows…there’s always the small penis theory, or maybe he’s just a misanthropic, misogynistic sadist.  OR…maybe it’s all an act. 

But if it’s all an act…what’s the point?  An “act” should be entertaining in SOME way, however trivial.

Bill calls women…I MEAN “scream queens”…”useless except for their *insert least witty term for breasts here*” 

Well…what the fck does that make you, Bill, since you don’t have them and can’t direct any more than the worst “scream queen” can act?  I mean, you tie up your victims before you do anything to them, you miserable little coward.

The character, I mean…

Scorsese/DeNiro >
Burton/Depp >
X/X >
Y/Y >
Z/Z >
McKee/Bettis >
Weintrob/Bettis

Where X = Decent, Y = Mediocre, and Z = Poor

Make it STOP, Jimmy…make it STOOOPPP…

Inspirational Response: “No.  It never stops.”

Grade: F-

And it has Willem Dafoe.

But it’s neither as powerful and sweeping as ‘Schindler’s List’ nor as emotionally moving as ‘The Diary Of Anne Frank’.

If you’ve seen both already, you don’t need to see this.  If you haven’t…why?

Moves with the ultra-slow mesmerism of a Dream/Nightmare you can’t awaken from.

This documentary of a 12-year-old girl’s two-year-long quest to make a movie is fairly informative, quite amusing, thoroughly positive and quite uplifting, the last two of which are the most refreshing/surprising considering it’s a zombie movie.  Kids have certainly changed, as they do every generation, but for what it’s worth this shows that not all modern teens focus most of their energy on making fun of bus monitors and waiting for the momentous day when they can finally drop out of school.

Inspirational Quote: “You…die right there…where do you wanna die?”

Grade: B

I mean, what are people seeing in this that they call it a classic?  Or that they ban it?  It’s about as offensive as ‘Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster’ (in terms of cheezy stupidity and laughability quotient) or, if you wanted to be extremely charitable, ‘Hobo With A Shotgun’…only it’s not nearly as interesting as ‘Hobo’ because the intent here was to make a meaningful, provocative film. 

Great intent, really…fascinating “idea”…but this succeeds about as much as ‘The Last Man On Earth’ did, which is sad given that this was made AFTER people (I thought) came to expect good acting in EVERY movie, including horror flicks.  I mean, it’s so HOKEY…it’s so completely and utterly shallow you might as well just read the script and imagine it, because there’s ABSOLUTELY NO WAY you can imagine anything WORSE than this realization of the concept.  Abysmal.

It’s a Tim Burton film, so here’s the usual summary:
Depp:  Unusually not included
Burton: Apparently not over his Ed Wood fascination
Elfman: Cruising…even when he’s bad he’s ok

Only laugh of the movie: Tom Jones singing

As completely, amazingly, and unwaveringly awful and tasteless movies go, this is a complete…success?  It keeps on suckin’ right to the end.

Most of these type of movies actually make the mistake of trying to slip in a random bit of intelligence or sentimentality or sense or character development or humor at at least one point in the film…but this resists all those urges throughout.

As Joel Hodgson said of ‘Manos: The Hands of Fate’ this movie was “filmed on location in a vacant lot.”

Suggestion for sequel: ‘Hobo With A Shotgun 2: Double-Barrelled’

Inspirational Job: Lawn-mowing

Grade: I can’t grade this…it’s a complete success at being a stinking pile of cr@p.  Make up your own grade based on your taste for stinking piles of cr@p.

I’d rather watch The Decision again. (That was The Amusing Reference).

The Plot centers around The Husband who is also The Father and The Misogynistic Sadistic Rapist.

The Movie is a pile of The Sh1t.

“Dentist going psy-cho, it’s ser-i-ous…”

And how, some other times, you really can’t tell for a while?

And then, some other times, you get 30 seconds in and realize that to sit through the pathetic sh1t-for-brains attempt at filmmaking it surely is would be not only a waste of your time but an insult to your intelligence?

But to make it even worse, they show a clip from an even worse MoH episode during this one.

One good thing: It’s shorter than ‘Contagion’

Grade: F

The rest is pretty generic…script, acting, cr@ppy special effects, porn-star-turned-wanna-be-actress…you know, the usual.

Grade: D

Some of the commentary is redundant/irrelevant/boring.  And Courtney Love’s name in the credits is a lowlight.

But Butch Vig’s commentary about the making, actually showing/explaining how different tracks were made/mixed makes it worth watching.  And by definition the soundtrack is good.

Inspirational Quote:  “I don’t think it was cynical, and you know the media had it all like “cynical grungy despair uhhh” but it wasn’t, it was like a shot of life.”

Grade: A-

8/3/12: Sure, it’s worth watching.  But it’s flawed enough that you could get by without.  Grade: B

Highlight: Dwarf taking a dump.

If I were to take a Psychology 101 swing at it, I’d say the director has a LOT of issues with rejection and women in general.  Or maybe he’s just weird.  Cuz this is.  It’s also amateurish.

But despite all this, there’s a certain sly intelligence running just under the surface as well as enough of a level of interest and the unexpected to allow me to have a guest review, courtesy of Spock-

“Fascinating…”

Grade: B-

Is that because it’s dated, because it takes a lot more to make a disturbing movie nowadays since things have gone more and more to sh1t in the world, or because I was just a kid then?

Probably a little of 2 and 3.  It’s not really dated…

It’s just really sad that 2 is applicable.

It’s certainly bleak and since it’s based off an autobiography I won’t question the “reality” of it.  But it won’t convert anyone from either side to the other, and it has absolutely no light moments.

As Dillon’s character might have said of it, it’s a real bummer.

Notable only as a then-rare source for a horny, virginal 13-year-old boy to see a bare breast, even if it did belong to a woman named Jeremy and only briefly before she was consumed.  In my day, we didn’t have the “internet”…we had to watch sh1t movies like this and hope for a boob shot.  Get over it, I was 13.  Upped a notch for nostalgia.

Until then, Depp/Burton/Elfman create the marvelously beautiful, dark, and surreal vision that is every “goth” auteur’s ultimate and most fervent desire/dream, and then proceed to slam it into the ground.  Repeatedly.

In short, it’s goth without pretension.  Bravo.

Grade: B+

He’s suave, sophisticated, intelligent, cunning, physically attractive, a brilliant liar, and he preys on people’s deepest pains and weaknesses as if they were objects to be manipulated as easily as possible and then discarded when they ceased being useful.

Why does that sound familiar?

Zane is great here, and Jada Pinkett (later -Smith) is the second-best character, IMPO.

It could use more depth to the flashbacks (you know, more than two time periods in 2000 years), but otherwise this is a good supernatural horror flick.  Meaning, it has humor and intelligence with the gore.

Inspirational Quote: “I lied.”

Grade: D+