Found footage I'm incredibly picky with. This is because the found footage I've watched usually has no middle ground to it; it's either really good (The Poughkeepsie Tapes, the second half of Megan is Missing when the abductions happen, when Amber Alert switches from a thriller to a horror movie) or really bad (all the Paranormal Activity movies, especially 3 and 4, Gacy House). This usually means that I don't go actively looking for found footage movies unless they're either heavily recommended to me (Amber Alert by my dad, The Poughkeepsie Tapes by this thread) or I stumble across them on accident (Megan is Missing, Murder Collection V.1).

Yeah, I generally hate found footage movies too. All it means is I have to put up with shitty, shaky camerawork for an hour and a half, a dogshit story, and annoying characters/dialog, all for the dubious reward of verisimilitude. Seriously, just because you're making a found footage movie doesn't mean the camera has to be seesawing all over the place and your characters have to talk and act like fucking idiots.

I don't really like the idea of found footage movies, and for a long time I didn't like any of the ones I saw either, but recently there have been too many good ones to ignore.

Sounds like an accurate summary of modern action movies as well to me.

Saw three movies today:

Sound City - This was pretty cool, follows the little, semi run-down studio where many great/famous albums where made up until it's demise. Then it goes to Dave Grohl's Studio 606, where the amazing sound board that Sound City used ended up going. Also explores the digitalization of music versus a more traditional approach. I enjoyed this one.

Toast - Based on the true story of a British food writer's shitty childhood. It was alright, but nothing spectacular.

Battle: Los Angeles - definitely not the best alien invasion film I've seen. It focuses on the marines and their battle against the aliens, and while not absolutely horrible, could have been a lot better. Nothing I'd want to see again.

So I just watched Dredd. Really good action film if you ask me, violent, good plot, true to the original comic, right to the point. Great use of slow mo. Great female role too, Olivia Thirlby is so hot might I add. Better than the one with Stallone. Good for a few beers and a bowl.

I am The Law!

Well I just watched The Impossible, and all script writing aside it was really good. The tsunami looked real as hell, as did all the horrific injuries, as a whole the film excelled as a monument to human suffering, and it's put together really well as it pretty effectively makes you assume people have died and whatnot, mostly due to well structured passages where it will focus on one or two characters instead of jumping back and forth between all the various groups. Since the look of the film is so outstanding I could have done with a little bit more devastation porn of the aftermath, since it does always look very convincing and is consistently moving. And the film nicely places in passages of joy and relief, rather than just being a monotone misery, one of them even managed to make my girlfriend cry tears of joy haha. With that said, the dialogue was terrible 95% of the time, with narmy sentimental stuff through and through ("I thought I was a brave boy Mum, but I'm scared" *Cries* "I'm scared too" *cries*, blech), and the music choices were often jarringly awful, such as showing long shots of the beautiful ocean and beach with foreboding villain music, and dramatic chase music as they tediously look through name lists, it always seems quite silly. Overall, a very effective, well made film, that manages to successfully impress despite laming it up every now and then, good stuff.

Watched an old Italian zombie movie last might called 'Le notti del terrore' which had subs. I believe there was a dubbed version called 'Nights of Terror' in the UK. Anyways pretty decent film for this vintage with a creepy child who looked about 40. Nice win for the Zombies!

Watched the two Grave Encounters movies. Both are found footage ghost stories revolving around a haunted mental ward. The first one was alright, with some spooky stuff happening, the only effective scenes of which are in the second half, with only two good actors out of six and some incredibly predictable jump scares. The second one mostly sucks, with only one good actor (he being a holdover from the last movie), some terrible CGI, and an ending that will completely negate any possible reason you ever would like the main guy.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/127 ... t-happened
With 5 days to go this is going to need a serious kick to reach it's goal. Jon Schnepp seems like he
would make this of high quality and spend a plethora of time getting it polished for the screen.
It would be a shame if this potentially fun documentary never saw the light of day.
http://www.facebook.com/TheDeathOfSuper ... atHappened

Very possibly seeing the Evil Dead remake next Sunday. Will report my findings back here once I've seen it.

Yeah especially with the creepy, incest-y relationship he had with his mother. It's been ages since I watched it so my memory is a bit hazy, but doesn't he fondle her breasts at one point?

Anyone here every watch the Italian movie "Mountain of the Cannibal God"? The Cinema Snob mentioned it in a review of his as "an Italian cannibal film in which someone fucked a pig". I'm trying to find a copy of it solely because that description made me almost choke on my food when he said it.

The Cinema Snob is the man.

Snob is my favorite of the TGWTG reviewers. The stuff he does under his real name is pretty awesome too, particularly Brad Tries and his reviews of current movies, be it his couch videos or the midnight screenings in his car.

He's pretty much the only one I like on there, and I watch all his stuff. 80's Dan and Flaming Brian's Kitchen are my current favourites. I watched one of his movies recently too, Hooker With A Heart Of Gold and it was actually pretty cool. As for the rest of those guys? Doug Walker is pretty damn annoying and I've dabbled with the rest and found myself uninterested. Phelous is the one other exception, he's a natural storyteller.

The only of Brad's movies that I've watched is Cheap, both by itself and with the commentary from him and David. It's pretty good and very much a nice little reminder that just because a movie has zero budget doesn't make it automatically bad.

How gorgeous is Sarah though? Internet crush, I think so.

Eh, I've never been too crushy on any of the female Team Snob members. My favorite member of the group aside from Brad is Jake, if only because he has to deal with Brad sending him to nothing but bad movies.

Plus Jerrid and I have a mutual enjoyment of each others' bands as well as Rush, so he and I always talk on Facebook about music.

80s Dan is hysterical...I need to watch more of Brad's stuff, but his site was down last I checked and he just puts out so much that it's difficult to watch everything. I like Doug's stuff a lot and Phelous cracks me up. Don't really watch anyone else on there...

Doug's old stuff was alright, but for the past long while his material is just screechy and focuses on 2 or 3 unfunny jokes that he sort of runs into the ground. Spoony's review of Yor is probably my favourite of all of those TGWTG reviews.

I'm subscribed to Brad's site updates, so whenever he posts something on there I get an email with a link to it. As for other TGWTG people, I like Doug, Spoony (although he doesn't really count anymore since he got fired last year), and Linkara the most. Todd in the Shadows I prefer his few movie reviews to his music reviews (I LOVE his crossover with Film Brain about Sunday School Musical).

My favorite 80s Dan is Halloween III, mostly because it's Brad playing Dan playing the Snob.

Doug seems like a genuinely cool, likeable, down to Earth guy, and his passion for movies really comes out - plus I just like his general style and the zest with which he tackles all his subject matter. He's not always laugh out loud funny, some jokes get run into the ground, sure, but he's always enjoyable.

As for Phelous, this is just unbelievably hilarious.

I mostly like Brad a lot because he sounds very close to what I sound like when I talk about movies with my friends and he tackles material that I really dig and nobody else does.

Brad's general tone of voice has kinda rubbed off on me in my own general talking, mostly in terms of his sarcasm.

Dammit. The Evil Dead remake opens on April 5th, not March 5th.

Once again, dammit.

Get The Gringo: this movie didn't really work for me and it sure isn't the Mel Gibson action comeback some are still waiting for. The stakes never feel high, and story changing plans are made and executed in like 5 minutes. The end results just don't feel satisfying. That and the whole FUCK SO GRITTY, WE'RE MUTING EVERY COLOUR IN THE SPECTRUM and try-hard-look-how-clever-and-expositional-I-am narration really drag it down. It's too bad because the story, while pretty unoriginal was not overly bad really.

Sinister - 3.5/5

A haunted house movie from 2012, isn't that just so original? All sarcasm aside, this really isn't that bad. It starts off pretty goofy, with Ethan Hawke pretty much playing the most incompetent horror protagonist ever - seriously, he's a total douche. And generally the slow pace and lack of any real atmosphere starts to drag the film down, but there are enough good moments to keep watching, and the film does get better in its second half. Once it kicks into gear, Sinister does pack some pretty OK scares and a plot that is unique enough not to fall into The Possession/The Devil Inside levels of suck, and there is a fair amount of feral energy at work. The last act is probably the best one, and the ending is actually very dark. Not a great film, but worth watching if you feel like a decent B-level horror flick.

The House at the End of the Street - 2.5/5

There is only one reason to watch this, and her name is Jennifer Lawrence. She is awesome in everything she does, from Winter's Bone to The Hunger Games, and she even does a good job in a piece of hack work like this movie, which is otherwise a fairly standard and cliche thriller that belongs back in the bowels of 2002 or so. Everything about this is pretty weak, except for Lawrence, who works the generic script and creates some cool moments - bonus points for not being a typical girl in these kinds of films and actually DOING SHIT and FIGHTING BACK. Whodathunkit? The rest of the movie is crap, but she brings it up at least a half-point.

Sinister I really could not get into the mood for. Something about it just felt incredibly non-genuine to me. I think the fact that there were jump scares and orchestra hits and annoying low string backing music played underneath almost every friggin scene really took me out of the element required to enjoy it. Even the snuff film reels I couldn't get into, and those I've heard nothing but praise for.

As for HATES, I didn't see it. Winter's Bone I HATED though. Jennifer Lawrence is the only good thing about it, and even she gets swept up in the snorefest that the movie is. Dear gah, is that movie boring.

Yeah, that was about my problem with Sinister. Just too generic to really be as scary as it wanted.

Winter's Bone was really good. Slow moving, yeah, but really well done acting-wise and it had a fuckton of atmosphere. A very solid, well put together film.

Cosigned. Great movie... and not the type of movie that should be anything but slow as I think it really added to the atmosphere you speak of. Very abysmal and desolate vibe to the film that complimented the story perfectly.

You niggas is gay.

Sinister was incredibly dope until the last half-hour. Annoying string pieces? Bro, the soundtrack was like 90% dark ambient done by the amazing Christopher Young. Droning soundscapes, strange tribal chants, weirdo discordant pieces - shit was tight - especially during those snuff film scenes.

Also, it has the best opening scene to a horror movie in recent memory.

But yeah, it shoots itself in the foot around an hour and ten in. It gets blaahhhhh

It was pretty average overall. The snuff film scenes and the last ten or twenty minutes were the only parts that really made it stand out for me. The annoying Ethan Hawke tried his best to counteract that stuff...

Anyone ever see Windigo? It's a found footage movie based on the whole Slender Man thing that's free to watch on Youtube.

For a second I thought you were talking about Wendigo, a very respectable atmospheric horror film by Larry Fessenden.

I remember seeing that movie when I was about 14. I actually liked it...was weirdly atmospheric.

I might check that one out just because Patricia Clarkson's in it.

But yeah, Windigo I plan on watching tonight once there's no noise around me since I like to (try and) become really engrossed in the whole found footage thing. I expect it to be at least alright since Slender Man when done decently can be very suspenseful.

I'm surprised. I knew you hated Fessenden's next film, The Last Winter, and both shared quite a few similarities (as all of his films do). You should try watching Wendigo again, now that you've curated a taste for films you like and films you don't.

The only thing for me is that when I read the term "atmospheric horror" I instantly think "artsy fartsy horror", like what Antichrist is.

Speaking of Antichrist, I do not get why everyone is so head over heels for that movie. It's just an art movie that has a porno scene and an admittedly somewhat uncomfortable vagina mutilation. Beyond that, I don't see what the big deal is with it at all.

The main thing I had with The Last Winter was how annoying all of the characters were, and how banal every single line that came out of their mouths was - mostly a lot of horrible hamfisted propaganda type stuff, when it wasn't just silly attempts at drama. Ruined any kind of atmosphere I might've gotten from it...yeah I may see Wendigo again sometime, I remember not totally loving it either, but it had a kind of charm to it anyway. Who knows. I'll track it down sometime.