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Calling this movie "the Burning" is like calling Friday the 13th " the Drowning".
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy in the Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile, 1979
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I don't know what I would think as an aunt, opening the door to my nephews room seeing him cuddle with a full size pumpkin.
Friday, October 28, 2016
Doctor Strange, 2016 - ★★★½
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Doctor Strange, the newest entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is strangely different while also being the same as every other Superhero origin story.
In many regards it was classic marvel formula: main character finds a new source of power, learns to control it, is good at it, another guy with similar powers is better than him, they face off, the end.
Also it's similar jokes, a similar Stan Lee cameo and the usual references to the universe. In story structure this movie really doesn't give you anything new.
The new things it brings to the table are great though. We learn about multiple universes and the handling of time. And more importantly we get to see it. And whenever we leave the real world I was blown away.
Our very first trip to this crazy world is visually stunning. We see influences from inception but also from classic paintings of Salvdor Dhali and similar abstract artists.
I loved the magic and the idea of adding magic to the universe, just wish they'd slip away from their formular a little more. I'm rating this movie 3.5 out of 5 stars and a like.
I just hope his powers will be used in future movies and he won't feel useless like Vision.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
The Host, 2006 - ★★★★½
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Review #18 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
Slowly South Korea is turning into my favorite movie country. The Host is a great mix of monster movie and comedy. The characters, weird as they are, are all great, loveable and lots of fun.
I actually cared about the characters, and some deaths actually impacted me. On the other hand there was great comedy, mostly through the funny characters thrown into a serious situation. Somehow Joon-ho Bong managed to have a heartwarming, inspiring speech (delivered perfectly by Hie-bong Byeon) while inserting words like fart into the speech. And it even makes sense in the context.
Kang-Ho Song, who followed the director to his project Snowpiercer, is such a great comedic actor. There are two very impactful moments that are directly correlated to his chafacters stupidity and he manages to make you laugh and feel sad at the same time. And he also delivered when it came to "standard acting". You just beloeved him.
The story was tight and inventive, really interesting and, as far as I'm concerned, had a great climax, really satisfying you.
The only bad thing I have to mention is the CGI that was pretty well done for its time, but looks dated by now. That's just a very small negative though.
All in all I had lots of fun watching this movie, and there is really not much bad I can say about it so I'm rating it 4.5 out of 5 stars and recommending it to everyone.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Aftershock, 2012 - ★
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Review #17 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
Well this was a waste of time.
I try to see the good things in movies. I don't hate torture porn movies. I think Hostel is an important movie in horror movie history. Hell, I like Eli Roth. But this movie feels like they sat together and thought "I wanna kill as many people on screen as possible. Where do I best set that in?" - "How about an earthquake in Chile? Let's put a tsunami in there too. On and how about prisoners breaking loose?"
The beginning is actually a fun party movie a la Eurotrip maybe. They set up (stereotypical) people and you think it leads to something but in the end it does not. One guy is a rich asshole, and that's pretty much his whole character. They even had Eli Roths character just be an awkward jew. If he didn't have problems talking to women he was mentioning that the food wasn't koscher.
They just want you to feel miserable. After the party fun is over they just kill off chracters, bring in new ones, but you never care. It's all about killing off random people and the main crew. Usually there is some sort of gratification, like seeing bad guys die. Nope, don't really get that here. But maybe that's because just like in real life, sometimes there is no gratifiction at a natural disaster. Sometimes no one survives. Maybe that's the real meaning behind this movie... so why is there a Selena Gomez cameo?
All in all this was not a good or enjoyable movie. Some movies are art, maybe not exavtly to have a fun time, but at least they look fun. Other movies are very standard, but are at least entertaining. This movie is neither. Maybe with lots of drinks and a few friends you can play "drink when someone dies" or "drink when someone does something stupid". You'll be hammered quick. I'm rating this movie 1 out of 5 stars.
Stoker, 2013 - ★★★★★
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Review #16 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
I love Chan-Wook Park. He is one of my favorite directors of all time. Stoker is his first English-language film and I was a bit cautious. What if his style doesn't translate. Also I've only ever seen the poster so I thought this would be a period piece, which didn't exactly excite me.
But damn do I love this movie. The acting is great, especially Mia Wasikowska. I only knew her from Alice in Wonderland and she is much better in this.
And even though he came to America, this movie felt exactly like a Chan-Wook Park movie, even a little bit more than Thirst did. I was reminded of Olboy, which is always a good thing.
The story is great, full of twists and turns, you never know what will happen next.
As you can maybe see I loved this movie and everything about it. Great acting, great score, beautifully shot. Also that Piano scene.
I'm rating this movie 5 out of 5 stars and a big like and recommend.
Alone in the Dark, 2005 - ★
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Review #16 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
I really tried paying attention to this movie. But I couldn't even enjoy it in a "so bad it's good" kind of way. I actually fell asleep watching it the first time so I had to finish it this morning.
The acting was bad, either they were overacting or not at all.
Tara Reid, the star of Sharknado, is totally miscast. Christian Slater does at least fit his role a little.
I read that Boll got 10 million dollars in additional funding and put them all into CGI. Sadly it's still early 2000s CGI, so it still looked shitty.
I can't really say anything good about this movie. Even the action looked kinda stale and boring.
But I wanna rewatch it some day with audio commentary by Uwe Boll because it is incluced on the DVD. Wonder what he got to say about this shitfest. 1 star out of 5.
Goodnight Mommy, 2014 - ★★★★
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Review #15 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
Children are scary. I say that every time. They are especially scary though when they start singing German childrens songs while staring at you creepily.
Ich seh, ich Seh is an Austrian horror movie about a mother and her two children. The mother had an operation on her face so she needs it to be quiet, she needs to chillax and she needs to wear a fucking scary face bandage. To be honest I'd be scared having my mother run around like that.
Soon weird dreams involving maggots start to happen and the question is: is it still mommy or is it an imposter?
To find out you gotta watch the movie, also to be genuinly creeped out and still get a marvelous looking movie. It is really worth your time. I'm rating this movie 4 out of 5 stars and giving it a like and recommending it to all of you.
Now can please somebody explain to me why it sais the movie is 99 minutes long everywhere while my uncut bluray is only 95 minutes long????
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, 2010 - ★★★½
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Review #14 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
I heard quite a few good things about this movie. Produced by Guilliermo del Torro, this movie certainly feels like one of his.
Except for a few scenes this feels a lot like a childrens horror movie, similar to Poltergeist. With the main character being a little girl and her problems with moving into a new house, with her estranged father and his girlfriend it felt very "childish".
But soon it gets dark, and I mean "a child should not watch this" kind of dark with little scary monsters stabbing an old man with knives. Now thinking about it in the 80s this could still go through as a childrens film.
I liked the reveal of the creatures, first only hearing their voices, soon getting to see their shadows and shapes before we finally get to see what they look like.
I enjoyed this movie quite a bit, the acting was well done, it managed to be fairly scary without resorting to cheap jump scares and with a pretty short running time it didn't feel slow at all.
I'm rating this movie 3.5 out of 5 stars and a like. Go watch it.
Friday, October 21, 2016
The Vatican Tapes, 2015 - ★★★½
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Review #13 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
I went into this completely blind. Expected some low budget found footage film. What I got instead is a well done entry into the possession genre.
The characters are nothing special, but interesting enough. I liked the dynamic of the loving boyfriend, hated by the father.
The possession is well done.
I especially liked the ending which put a new twist on the possession genre.
It is nothing special, but a good watch and an enjoyable time. I'm rating it 3.5 stars out of 5.
Thursday, October 20, 2016
High Lane, 2009 - ★★★½
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Review #12 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
I once got 25 movies for 15 euros on a flea market. This was right in that pack. I knew nothing about it, except that it was french. So I never really felt the urge to watch it. Nothing drew me to it.
So now for my most recent list I decided to watch it. And I actually really enjoyed it.
It's about a group of friends (and the one girls new boyfriend) going on a climbing tour in Croatia, when shit goes down.
At first we get a few great climbing scenes. I really wanted to go climbing as well. It is really well shot, could have been just a climbing documentary.
But then, as we are used to by this genre, from one second to the other everything changes drastically, and that's when it get's really interesting. And it happened at just the right time, I actually wouldn't have minded some more climbing action, but it didn't feel too long.
I won't spoil the movie, but I really enjoyed it. It's not totally original, but it's not annoyingly standard.
I'm rating this movie 3.5 out of 5 stars and giving it a like.
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Ghost Ship, 2002 - ★★★
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Review #11 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
I expected this to be shit. I had around the same expectations for it that I had for House of Wax. Except that I heard even less about this one.
It's about a ship crew checking out a ship that just turned up out of nowhere. But this ship is weird and scary.
Of course it isn't a masterpiece and it's pretty forgettable. But for a 84 minute long movie it is really not too bad. The acting is alright, nothing to bad. Emily Browning, playing a creepy little girl, is actually really good. Maybe it's just me but she really plays creepy well.
I liked the idea of this ship that has ghosts on it, and about a crew that's really close to each other. The deaths of the characters are not that good and kind of skipped over. But it could be that what I own is a cut version of the movie which would explain why the deaths were really more on the side.
I didn't hate this movie, it was good on the side, didn't feel like a total waste of time and the sets were actually well done. I'm rating this movie 3 out of 5 stars, because I feel generous today. If you really feel like a ghost movie this isn't the worst one to check out.
Saturday, October 15, 2016
AVH: Alien vs. Hunter, 2007 - ★
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Review #9 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
This is even worse than Alien³.
Alien³, 1992 - ★★
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Review #8 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
I've started watching this movie years ago but couldn't finish it for some reason.
Started it again a few days ago and again couldn't finish it. Went on watching it a day later, still didn't manage to finish it. Finally today I watched the last 20 minutes. And I didn't like it.
I first liked the idea. Ripley, stranded on a prisoner planet, with the alien following. Can't be too bad, right? But yeah, I was pretty much underwhelmed. I just didn't manage to pay attention. And the Alien CGI was so bad that I wondered if I was accidentally watching a Rip-off that was made to get more money.... well to be honest, I probably did, just a rip-off by the owning studio.
Yeah, I'm rating this movie 2 out of 5 stars because it was just boring and left me not caring at all.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
House on Haunted Hill, 1959 - ★★★★½
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Just rewatched this movie. And it is even better than I remembered.
House on Haunted Hill is really the classic ghost story: some (usually rich) guy invites a few random people to stay at a haunted house for one reason or another, in this case to "win" 10,000 dollars for surviving the night. It starts off like a horror movie but feels more like a murder mystery if we're being honest. We still get the whole "blood oozing out of the walls and stuff like that, but all in all only 3 characters ever really believe in ghosts in this house, the rest think there is a killer on the loose.
It is shot very well with some great fourth wall breaking.
The characters are fun and all in all it's just a great enjoyable movie, perfect for Halloween (or october). I'm rating this movie 4.5 out of 5 stars and a like.
Also, this movie has probably the best ending in movie history, just saying.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch, 1990
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Review #7 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
This movie is just bonkers. Completely insane. What do you do after a great little horror comedy with an ending and really really good? You can't just make the same movie again.
I guess that's what Joe Dante thought, so he decided to just go bananas. This movie is a meta-festivity. This movie is so meta at one point the screen rips because the Gremlins attacked the cinema and changed the movie on the reels. That is until Hulk Hogan stands up in the crowd and tells them to turn the movie back on.
Also this movie has Christopher Lee, one of the greatest of all time.
I just can't give this movie a rating to be completely honest. Because if I would, it'd be 5 stars, but we all know that isn't really true. So let's go with no stars but just a like.
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Maggie, 2015 - ★★★★
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Review #6 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
I guess we've now officially transcended the zombie genre. Zombies are not the main focus of Zombie movies anymore. They are basically a MacGuffin.
This movie is about Maggie, the daughter of Arnold Schwarzeneggers character. She was bitten by a Zombie and now has only a short time until she will turn into a Zombie. That time she can spend at home with her family and her friends.
Zombies are really just a side note. This could really be about any terminal disease. Turning into a Zombie makes the story a little more interesting because basically after your death, you can still be harmful to others.
The acting is great, Arnold doing just a little bit of Arnold and mostly playing a real human being.
The Zombie effects are well done, we get a few different stages of becoming a Zombie. I think throughout the whole movie we see maybe 5 Zombies, but they are well done.
I really enjoyed this movie because at its core it's a drama about death, just set around Zombies. I'm rating this movie 4 out of 5 stars and a like.
Saturday, October 8, 2016
House of Wax, 2005 - ★★½
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Review #6 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
This was better than I expected. That being said I expected the worst.
House of Wax is a lose remake of House of Wax from the 50s, which I haven't seen yet but I'm guessing that classic chiller starring Vincent Price is not a teenage-slasher film.
I'd say the biggest actor in this is Jared Padalecki, who just came off Gilmore Girls and just started Supernatural when this movie was released. On the other hand we have Paris Hilton, winner of a golden Raspberry for Worst Actress.
It's the classic scenario, a group of teenagers, only thinking about partying, on their way to a big sporting event of some sort (already forgot what it was 1 hour after watching the movie). They accidentally reach this town with almost no people in it. And that town has a house of wax that is literally made of wax. Killer alert.
I was honestly positively surprised. I expected a sub-par horror movie, and I got a decent teenage slasher. Of course, there are a lot of logical flaws, bad acting, not great or compelling characters. But the gore is actually pretty well done. Also while it's not used to it's full advent, the idea is really good, putting people into wax to kill them and have them as figures. Sadly I didn't care about the characters at all.
I'm rating this movie 2.5 out of 5 movies, it is watchable and maybe even a fun time, but nothing to think about at all.
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years, 2016 - ★★★
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I think this is the first documentary I ever watched in cinema, and it was worth it.
Eight Days a Week is a documentary about the Beatles from 1960 to 1966, or "The Touring Years". We follow them on their tours all through the world, with lots of footage from live concerts, interviews, behind the scenes, and with pictures.
It looked gorgeous. Everything we saw was remastered and looked great. When we got pictures of the Beatles there was still some movement (on a rainy concert we get animated rain, when someone holds a cigarette the smoke moves etc.).
But I didn't feel like I heard anything new. Of course it's not that easy to put 6 years into around 90 minutes, so we never go too deep into the material. We get to see a lot of live footage, showing how the fans went crazy over them, and we got the "bigger than Jesus" debate. But I knew most about that before. The only "new" info I got was a view behind the scenes of their recording sessions, which were interesting to me as a musician.
All in all it was very interesting to see the footage and hear the Beatles talk about it themselves, I just wished there was a little more to learn about them. I'm rating this movie 3 out of 5 stars, but still a like.
Now, one quick info after the official review is over. You might have seen me writing "90 minutes" earlier and you might wonder because the runtime is 137 minutes. Well, if you stay during the credits you get a quick Christmas message from the Beatles and if you stay after that, you get around 30 minutes of remastered live-footage from their 1965 concert in Shea Stadium, in a great quality sound- and filmwise.
That's how you do an after credits scene, Marvel!!!
Werewolf of London, 1935 - ★★★½
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Review #5 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
I guess this is the less famous werewolf movie, even though it's still one of the first. At least I didn't really hear about it until I got it in the Universal Monsters Legacy Collection, as a second movie on the Wolf Man legacy collection.
A botanist is in Tibet to find a special flower called Mariphasa. On this trip he is attacked by an animal and even bitten. Shit happens, so he doesn't think much of it and travels back to London where he plans to study the plant. Soon, he starts turning into a Werewolf.
I have to say I enjoyed this movie. The Werewolf looks different than what we are used to, but that's because this movie was before Jack Pierce designed the famous make up. What I especially liked were the transformation scenes, he walks by a post and suddenly looks a little more wolf like, it's great editing for the time.
Also, unexpectedly, this movie has a lot of comedy, funny characters (mostly aunts of the main character and his wife) and is relatively fast paced. That's of course connected to the short runtime of only 76 minutes.
All in all, this was a quite enjoyable movie, an interesting take of the werewolf and a fun time. I'm rating it 3.5 out of 5 stars and a like.
Monday, October 3, 2016
Last 10 Top 10 #31 of 2016
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Wow this is probably the first time a Letterboxd Movie Night watch doesn't take the last spot in a last 10 Top 10.
My Top 10 Last 10 #26 of 2015
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Note: I watched the Lord of the Rings movies in succession, in one evening. I cannot say which one I like more, so I just put them here by the order they came out, they basically share spot 1.
Grace, 2006 - ★★★½
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This short was on the BluRay of the movie Grace, that is based on this movie.
So basically it's the same story as Whiplash.
But in this case, the Short is, in my opinion, better than the feature. This is because this movie takes it all to a minimum, not overexposing you with information, as it should be in shorts you get the bare minimum.
It was well shot and the car accident actually looked pretty good for this kind of movie.
I'm rating it 3.5 out of 5 stars and a like.
Grace, 2009 - ★★★
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Review #4 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
This movie was actually better than I expected. It was well shot and had an interesting idea. I wish the German title wasn't Vampire Baby, so I could have gone into it knowing even less.
It is actually a good movie for a fun horror film, just watching it on the side. I'm rating it 3 out of 5 stars
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Making the Grade, 1984
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Watched for the Letterboxd Movie Night.
The movie with the highest "users leave during the movie" rate ever. Even higher than the "Worst Horror Movie Ever Made".
Knock, 2011
You can also find this review on Letterboxd
Watched for the Letterboxd Movie Night.
Started off alright, then went interesting, then I didn't pay attention for a second and then it was over. I don't know what happened but it feels like the rest of the chat didn't get it either so I feel okay.
Bram Stoker's Dracula, 1974
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Review #3 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
I watched this in a bad quality with a shitty German dub, so I can't really talk to it that much. There are some points I want to mention though.
Jack Palance brought something new to Dracula while looking similar to Lugosi's version. I liked that mix.
This version holds actually pretty close to most other Dracula versions, it's still the same story.
I didn't hate it but it is not my favorite version of Dracula for sure.
The Haunting, 1963 - ★★★★
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Review #2 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
On the one hand I heard that this is still one of the scariest movies of all time. On the other hand I knew it was old, black and white and probably slow. Still, I got the Blu-Ray to see what it's about. And I don't regret it one bit.
Yes this movie is old. It's black and white and it has no annoying jump scares. Yes it has jump scares, but they are deserved and do not annoy. The Haunting is all about the ambiance. All throughout the movie you are wondering if it's all real ghosts haunting the place or if it is all in Eleanor's head.
And the Haunting actually managed to scare me. Maybe not as much as some of the more modern movies, but it got the mood just right. I watched it at night, in my dark room, which helped a lot.
The characters were great, each of the main characters had something to them, they were all unique and special. And all likable for who they were.
I really enjoyed this movie and can only recommend it to everyone, I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars and a like.
28 Weeks Later, 2007 - ★★★
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Review #1 of My Horrible Collection: Shocktober list.
This movie started of very promising. Just as the title says, this movie is set 28 weeks after the Zombie outbreak that only infected Great Britain. And in a way we've probably not seen before, the apocalypse is foiled because the US interfered and stopped the outbreak. Now, only 28 weeks after the Rage-Virus emerged, everything is under control.
I loved this premise. Hey, there were Zombies, but since we are strong and have weapons we actually killed them. So the whole first 30 minutes maybe were really good.
Then everyone behaved as stupid as possible. Not only stupid but outright nonsensical. First of all why would you let some random guy into a room with someone that isn't clear to not be infected? And then, when there is an outbreak again, why would you put EVERYONE in one giant room? Wouldn't it make more sense to put the city in lockdown? Just please close all your doors and hit the alarm button if you find a Zombie in your room.
Then after it was too hard to identify between Zombies and normal people the next step is to just kill everybody. And for some reason not as in "if you are not sure then kill". No, just kill everyone, even if you know it's just a group of humans.
One problem I had from the beginning where the action scenes, which were shot so that it was hard to make out what was really happening.
Positive is though that it was well acted and if you just turn off your brain it is still an enjoyable action-horror film. There are giant logic flaws, but hey, we are used to those in horror movies. It is still well shot and enjoyable to watch. So even though I just had this big rant, I did not hate this movie, I'm rating it 3 out of 5 stars. Just don't take it too serious.
Saturday, October 1, 2016
Descendents, 2008 - ★★
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Aka Armageddon of the Living Dead. Yes, that's the German title.
This movie is just really boring. I always lost interest, stopped watching. I probably missed too much to really say anything about it but that just helps telling that it is boring.
What I have to say is that it looks great, especially for such a low budget movie. They made the choice to have all colors muted except for red, and I liked that.
Else there was not much to take out of this movie, 2 out of 5 stars.
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