You know you're a metalhead if you read this:



And the first thing that pops into your head is, I wonder what music it was?

Unbreakable - 3.75/5

An M. Night Shyamalan movie I actually liked? I guess all those people who said this was his best were right, because this movie, despite some boring parts and some goofy camera angles, is actually quite bleak and atmospheric, with a pretty original, cool storyline and some solid acting. I have to say this suffers simply from being a Shyamalan film as I just never find his stories all that arresting, and his style doesn't really gel with me as far as an emotional reaction goes, but here he composes what is probably his strongest film. There are some dead spots, and I can't say I am in love with the directing and camera choices he makes - holding on shots way too long, too many silly gimmicky moments like seeing a whole scene reflected in a TV screen...it's just not always great. But the unique, personal and subtle atmosphere and feel this movie has, along with strong performances from Willis and Jackson, make Unbreakable worth watching.

Rare Exports - 2.5/5

This could have been good, but seriously, less than 90 minutes with large spots of boring nothingness doesn't really make for a very appetizing film...mostly I just didn't care about these characters, didn't find it as funny or original as apparently some critics did - it's mostly just a rip off of The Thing with a way stupider premise - and I was just waiting for it to end. I can't say there's much wrong with this, but there's not much right either.

Convenient you mention Rare Exports. I was JUST watching it and was bored as fuck, trying to determine wether I should finish it.

I actually just watched this the other day because I remembered seeing the trailer way back and thinking it looked great in a terrible, Finnish kind of way. And yeah, there really is a lot wrong with it. It's largely terrible for most of the film, but my god, that ending. Just...so, so many moral problems going on there and I really couldn't tell if they were on purpose or just weird and Finnish.

So, just finished watching Splice. Good, unique movie for today's standards, but also extremely creepy and disturbing in quite a few ways. It borrowed a bit from Alien's sexual overtones, but played them up in both such a human and monstrous way that, for moments, my brain was alternating between "hey, this is rather sexy" and "FUCK'S SAKE WHAT AM I THINKING?!"

Still, cool movie.

Splice was fucking horrible, but Cube and especially Cypher were pretty good for their straight-to-dvd budgets.

Hulu Plus has like 90% of the Criterion collection...oh my god. what should I watch? i'm alone all day tomorrow and don't leave for Cleveland until Sunday....so, I can watch like ten movies....

There's a shitload of films in that, bro. But just off the top of my head you should watch Antichrist, Being John Malkovitch, and Easy Rider. You really can't go wrong with Easy Rider.

Unbreakable is the best adaptation of comics unto the real world, if you know what I mean.

Sin City would like to have a few words with you.

Though Unbreakable was great in its own right.....

Disagree. The acting was rock solid, and the pacing was amazingly well done, you could easily follow Dren's (the creature) evolution as a character. Actually, I think it was the first time when I felt that a creature in a horror movie was an actual, fleshed out character instead of a mindlessly destructive force of nature. Plus, all of the stabs that the movie gives at stuff such as parenthood and unprotected sex (which I only fully realized after the movie ended) are quite fascinating on their own.

The main problem with Splice that I remember is that the main characters are very stupid and unlikable. The movie should have had us on their side so we'd be sympathetic to their plight, and had their experiment get out of hand through a series of understandable mistakes, rather than a bunch of really stupid decisions. Instead they give us the guy, who is greedy for fame/money to the point of being stupid, and the woman, who has serious psychological issues to the point of being totally irrational. Their experiment gets out of hand because they keep making fucking idiotic decisions that anyone in the audience could guess would be a bad idea, even without knowing it's a horror movie and things will obviously get out of hand. Honestly I think the concept had potential, and the actors weren't terrible or anything, but it just turned out really stupid. Also I thought the ending was rather weak; 'monster rape' is one of the cheapest horror gross-outs there is, because it's so unimaginative and manipulative.

Basic Instinct: An overrated thriller that is basically an excuse for a bunch of sex scenes and Sharon Stone being super hot and seductive. No amount of suspension of disbelief could make me go along with the series of events that happened, the pacing was shit, it wasn't a ''smart'' thriller but tried painfully hard to be, and Michael Douglas' character was a complete moron that it was impossible to feel anything for. Without the charisma of the two leads, I would have turned it off. It's the kind of movie I would have creamed myself over if I was 14.

The English Patient: An epic film (in length as well as scope). Superb acting, great visuals and scenery, engaging plot, and sweeping soundtrack. My only problem with it was

The Big Lebowski - 9/10.

Ho-Ly-Shit. I was laughing from begenning to end with this movie. It was funny and so unique as far as films I've seen. Everyone in this pulled out a stellar performance, and this cast has fucking Tara Reid in it (then again, she's playing a blond whore, so she's not really challenging herself). You also know a movie is great when you can quote problebly 90% of the dialogue in humor.

"It's down there somewhere, let me take another look!"
"Clearly, your not a golfer."
"Shut the fuck up Donney."
"Man, I had a rough night, and I hate the fucking eagles, man."
"You said it man, no one fucks with the Jesus."

The only reason it didn't get a full perfect score was because sometimes it was hard to fallow with so many storylines and characters. Still, this was so much fun to watch and I'm looking forward to seeing it agian.

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was ass. I can now *finally* declare Guy Ritchie one of the worst director's alive today.

It deserves a 10, Aurone. You fuckin' nihilist. But this will become clear with further viewing.

@Aurone: Well part of the concept of "comedy of errors" to emphatise with the confusion of the protagonist(s) who are thrown into absurd situations. The Big Lebowski does this well because the confusion doesn't degenerate into randomness and everything kinda makes sense in the end (so your negative point is none) while it still manages to deliver a satisfying portrayal of the beautifully conceived characters. 10/10 would be an overstatement for a movie that is more cult than brilliance though.

Yup.

Well, Sin City was almost replying the exact comic into the screen, but I was refering to the context of comics in a real life situation, not picking up a comic and successfully translate it into a movie, which is what Sin City did flawlessly (I even got it in blu-ray).

Yeah the last twenty minutes or so of Unbreakable were very good. They were dramatic in a downbeat way, not at all like the overblown nature of a lot of other superhero films.

Spoilers much?
Anyway, I thought that the characters were believable enough to carry the film and engage the audience in their decision-making; I thought that I understood their motivations well enough to see why they acted as they did. I don't see why characters should be likeable and act in a way that exonerates them for a film to be successful, especially when it - in my view, anyway - was trying to offer a version of the Frankenstein/'mad scientist' trope. The film seemed to reference the conventions of that kind of narrative while cleverly playing with them here and there, and/or taking them to limits many movies of that type shy away from. The ending, especially, was pretty stunning in that regard -

Also, I know the conversation's moved on now, but I just wanted to agree: yes, Unbreakable is good (and certainly Shyamalan's best); and, yeah, watch Brazil. Always watch Brazil.

The Toxic Avenger - What can I even say about this movie? I'm a newcomer to Troma, having only seen Class of Nuke 'Em High before this one. I'm guessing you have to be a certain kind of person to appreciate these movies, and fortunately, I seem to be one. This movie's a total riot. Lighthearted yet gory as can be, it recalls the early movies of Peter Jackson, as well as the first two Evil Dead movies (though not nearly ask dark, of course). Troma definitely goes for the gross-outs as often as possible, and even though I'm no gore-hound, when a movie is this damn funny, I'll take it. I'd love to see The Toxic Avenger vs. Batman. Toxie would mop the floor with him!

Yes, I'm sure all the people who've never seen a horror movie before are very annoyed that I spoiled that things end up going wrong with their science experiment.



It's not characters in general - it's characters in this type of horror movie specifically that need to be sympathetic. The reason is quite simple; the audience has to want good things to happen to the characters, to want them to escape a shitty fate, in order for the threat of that shitty fate to actually create decent tension. In Splice I thought both of the main characters were dumbasses who totally deserved whatever awful crap was going to happen to them, so I didn't care when things inevitably started going bad. In Frankenstein both the monster and the doctor himself are quite sympathetic. In Cronenberg's remake of the fly, another classic "mad scientist" movie, Jeff Goldblum's character is very likeable and sympathetic, and the decision to use himself as a test subject seems rash at the time but not totally idiotic (plus he's drunk and stressed out over his sudden publicity), which makes his deterioration all the more poignant/terrifying.

The Frighteners (1996) 4.5/5 {*}
I have no idea why it has taken me so long to to see this one, its like the total epitome of what I love! A hilarious horror-themed film directed by Peter Jackson who is responsible for two of my other all-time favs, Dead Alive and King Kong. This was laugh-out-loud funny with a rather sick story and a nice twist. A real life psychic uses his abilities to hustle clients but happens upon a terror killing from beyond the grave. Man I'm dumb for having put off watching this for so long.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) 4/5 {*}
Beautifully shot, much in the same style as the LOTR series. I saw the regular version, so I dont have anything to add about the new super high def. Nice to see people reprising their roles (even a few who I dont recall being in The Hobbit, actually). I dont know how Azog, the Brown wizard, and Galadriel got such a large role in this film, Azog's to almost almost to cartoonish effect. I had a few other problems with the story as well, but cannot honestly remember if I am recalling the book or the cartoon, so I'll let it go. The film really left me wanting more much as Fellowship of the Ring did upon initial viewing.

I'm planning on seeing The Hobbit soon. Really should be worth the hype I suppose. Considering I liked LOTR, I'll probably like this one too.

I know the Asian woman with black hair infront of her face that acts like a zombie is a part of Asian folklore, but how many films actually don't feature one of these? I'm currently watching A.P.T and I've got no idea how often I've seen these kind of figures already.

C.H.U.D. (1984) 3/5 {*}
Tramps, streetpeople, vagrants, bums, drifters, hobos, urchins, ragamuffins, and other assorted displaced persons start to disappear, especially those which have chosen to live underground (ala the mutants in New New York). When the wife of a high-ranking police officer goes missing, the investigation into the multiple disappearances becomes a focus of the police force. With cover-ups at the highest level, the true reason behind the missing persons remains secret until the cannibalistic monsters become more brazen above ground. Of course, this being the 80s, the reason the monsters were created was through mishandled nuclear waste. Decent for the budget, watch with Street Trash, Slime City, I Was a Teenage Zombie, Deadbeat at Dawn, Combat Shock, and Brain Damage.

C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D. (1989) 4/5 {*}
A totally different style and mood from the first in the series. This takes place as the C.H.U.D. program is being shut down. A C.H.U.D. escapes and is found by a pair of high school A&P students. It gets reanimated and hilarity ensues. The military is searching for their missing property while the students hope to cash in on their discovery and a zombie outbreak begins. Damn good stuff, really captures what the 80s-early 90s comedy-horror films had going for them. I put this on par with Frankenhooker, Return of the Living Dead, or Night of the Creeps. Some GREAT dialogue here including a very cool anti-broccoli joke. Robert Vaughn and Bianca Jagger star in this. Cool stuff!

Man, you always watch movies I want to watch before me. Keep it up!

I'd rather pump bolts into my eye sockets from an airpowered nailgun than sit through the latest Tarantino spunk-fest.

This Django will most certainly remain chained, at least from me (and hopefully other non-idiots).

Well, I thought darkeningday was a decent person for about a month or so. But there he goes ruining it

Yeah. I wanted to see it today, but for some reason we get the dubbed version before the original version... So tomorrow evening I'll be seeing this bitch. Unfortunately I'm not as much of a spaghetti western snob than I should, but I'll enjoy this for sure. And I watched the trailer yesterday, and DiCaprio looks genuinely good (or interesting) for once. He truly looks like a dick.

I'll be seeing it this week with a friend. I'm seeing Les Misérables in an hour with my sister. Never read the book or even fully know what it's about but I've heard good things so who knows.

The one you're seeing is a film adaptation of the off-broadway musical with the hideous Amanda Seyfried .

The musical wasn't all that bad, if I recall correctly. Except for that horrible Susan Boyle song.

Pretty much this. Fucking hate Tarantino.

EDIT: Okay maybe that came off a little harsh. Let me amend that to "Tarantino is a poopoo-head."

So you really came here to make this comment about a movie nobody brought up, just to say you don't like Tarantino and won't see his latest movie which you're somehow also sure is bad? Fuck dude, if you don't want to take a chance on a movie from a director whose other stuff you don't like that's fine; however, you also forfeit your right to mouth off about it, especially since you seem to have done so here just in order to start an argument. There's zero content to your post aside from some "witty" insults and the insinuation that anyone who even goes to see the movie is an idiot. How is that not trolling?

That's basically all he ever does though. If you don't like what darkeningday likes, and if you even think anything he hates is worthy of a cursory viewing, apparently you're a total idiot with no real value to his opinion at all...

Eh, forgot Django Unchained was even coming out so soon, but I'll give it a watch. Not sure what to really expect but Inglorious Basterds was awesome, so that's on the plus side. That was his best movie in years.

Bloody hell was Les Misérables boring. It's the longest movie ever, yet few things happen, most of the characters are one dimensional, except Hugh Jackman's who is TWO DIMENSIONAL, it's utterly impossible to care about any of them or what's happening, long songs are dedicated to a character speaking about one feeling yet somehow not getting fleshed out, Hathaway overracts, Seyfried abuses falsetto the whole time and mostly sounds horrid. Just urgh. And every single thing is sung, which would be okay if the melodies were memorable but they're not. Most of it, beyond a few Russel Crowe moments, isn't memorable in the least and is basically just mind numbing sing talking. None of the events feel like they're really given any weight, feeling rushed despite the movie being infinitely long. The revolution sort of casually pops up and major characters are absentmindely introduced almost three quarters into the movie. I can't really think of any positives beyond the sets looking good right now so I'll leave it at that. The title is appropriate really, watching it was a miserable experience.

Sounds like someone doesn't enjoy great musicals.

It truly was NOT a great musical. It was pretty much mostly shit. Your response was so weak that it was almost a non-sequitur.

It's perhaps a bit unfair to judge the quality of a musical, which was specifically tailored to be enjoyed in a live setting, by the Hollywood film it spawned. For example, The Producers on Broadway was absolutely unparalleled on the stage (granted, its main competition at the time was the abysmal Wicked), but the film version was fucking horrendous and its soundtrack was way worse than any of the live Broadway recordings.

I'm kind of a musicals enthusiast and with a tiny bit of self-appointed, mostly unearned authority, I can say Les Mis falls in about the top 20% of mainstage musicals. Not a bonafide classic or anything, but definitely not "pretty much mostly shit."

Haven't seen the film, though. Not sure I will. Amanda Seyfried

A terrible execution will ruin a decent story every time.