Going On Vacation

Is it the end of March already? Just seems like yesterday the new year came in. I've heard it only goes by faster the older a person gets. I'm not sure if that is a good thing since I already feel like there isn't enough time in the day to get things done as it is. Mostly I just wish I had all the time in the world to just sit around and watch movies. Oh and post reviews of them too of course. I did managed to work in the movie Turistas (2006) yesterday. I started to post a review of it but changed my mind once I found out I didn't watch the deleted scenes yet. Turistas has both the unrated and rated versions on the disk. I watched the unrated of course but learned later there is only roughly two minutes worth of added material in the unrated.

Alex (Josh Duhamel) and his sister Bea (Olivia Wilde), along with Bea's friend Amy (Beau Garrett), are on a bus somewhere in Brazil. I have no idea where they are going but they are going somewhere. They have been backpacking it through Brazil seeing the sights. On the bus are Finn (Desmond Askew) and Liam (Max Brown), two friends from down under I believe. You will also find Pru (Melissa George). The bus driver is driving rather wildly, all over the road and going a little fast as well. After avoiding some people walking on the road and almost going off the side of a cliff, everyone realizes they have to get off the bus in a hurry. Everyone manages to get off before the bus goes flipping down the side of the cliff. The bad news is there won't be another bus for two hours. It is durring this time, while waiting on the other bus, that everyone I talked about already gets to know each other and team up. They notice two women from the bus walking by with some drinks and ask where they got them from. They are told there is a bar on the beach so they all decide to go check it out. What they find is a nice beach with a bar on it, they decide to stay there and party instead of going back to wait for the bus. As they party they meet two other people that are travelers. The bartender makes a call to someone and tells the person that these people are there at the bar and they are all his. Eventually we notice that they are all acting a little strange.

In the morning they figure out that they had been druged and all their stuff is missing. Even their shoes! At least they got to keep their clothes on their backs. Anyways, they can't find the couple they had met the night before (because they had been kidnaped are being taken through the jungle) and make off for the town that is near by. They find Kiko (Agles Steib), a guy they met at the bar and he tells them that he will take them to his uncles house because it isn't safe for them in the town. The "uncle" is actually a doctor (Miguel Lunardi) who...well I will just let you watch the movie and figure that out on your own.

The effects, while well done, aren't really what I was expecting for this movie. Ok, that is only a half truth. It was what I was expecting but I thought there would be a lot more of it since it seems to go out of its way to compare itself to Hostel. Fingers get sliced off. Someone else falls and goes splat. The big money shot is that of a surgery that is taking place while the person is still alive and somewhat awake. This is no minor surgery either. I'm not sure how realistic it turned out but was rather gross looking all the same.

The acting was good as well. No real character devolpment though. Desmond Askew could be pretty funny at times and you have to like the accent. The real stand out to me was Josh Duhamel. He did a great job with his character and I also liked the character a lot as well. Alex was a smart guy, always questioning what was going on. Everyone did a pretty good job of acting. Just that with so many characters, it was hard to flesh them all out but then again, maybe they didn't want to since they knew not all of them would make it through the movie. That is find but it works better when we get to know a character and care for that character when something bad happens.

As you can see, I have liked the acting and effects. What I didn't like was the story itself. It wasn't a bad story, actually made a little sense as to why tourists were disappearing. The reason I didn't like it is because it is so full of plot holes. The bar tender tells the doctor there are eight people for him to take and they end up only taking two. Why? Kiko ends up taking the rest to the house but again, why? He never appeared to be part of the set up. His reason is explained in a deleted scene which really should have stayed in the movie. Zamora (the doctor) kills one of his henchmen because he messed up but they all seemed like a bunch of screw ups to me. There is a big chase scene in a network of caves that is partly in water which was pretty cool. They had some nice camera work through this. The ending was ok but again there was a plot hole there that I won't get into here. The alternate ending was only slightly better.

The other problem is something I said earlier, that Turistas goes out of its way to compare itself to Hostel. American tourists who are backpacking it. Something bad happens to them. They even have a quote on the box saying how much of a better movie it is to Hostel. While this is all fine and good, it suckered me in after all, Turistas is nothing like Hostel in the end. I could explain the difference here but that would, in the end, ruin the movie. I try not to do that unless the movie just sucks really bad to begin with. If you want to see this movie that is fine, it isn't to bad of a movie, just not a great one. But please don't think you are getting a Hostel knock off because you will be disappointed.
3 out of 5 Will screen my henchmen better

Tribute: Tobe Hooper

Welcome to my second director tribute. Even though these types of posts are a bit more work for me since it is a tribute with a review tacked on, I still enjoy doing it. I just hope all of you like these type of posts. I did have a slight change of plans with how I was going to get to post #200. I was going to review a couple of more movies that are still on the big screen. I may still yet if they are still around after the new movies come out tomorrow. I went to see Reno 911: Miami at the cheap theater and discovered just how cheap it truely is there. The screen is a little to small, not all of the picture made it on it and it was also off center. Of course, considering I only paid 50 cents to see it, I can't complain a whole lot. One movie I wanted to review for here is also at the same theater but I may just wait now and rent it once it is out. It will probably cost more to rent it but at least I will know I can see all of the screen. The other movie I'm just not sure if I want to spend the money on to see on the big screen. Maybe I will change my mind but I have a hard time not buying popcorn and coke (which always costs more than the movie itself). Anyways, here is my tribute for Tobe Hooper.

Tobe Hooper was born on January 25, 1943 in Austin, Texas. In college he convinced some students to help him with a film that eventually became The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. To most fans, this is his most popular film. Shot on a low budget and barely making it to the big screen, once it was out it became a hit. The title suggests more violence than is actually in the movie but it gives people an unsettling feeling all the same. In fact, I have heard some people describe the movie in a more gory way than the film actually shows. Tobe's next film was Eaten Alive. This one features some of the same cast from his first movie (actually his first movie was called Eggshells so I guess I should say from his second movie) and is also set in an out of the way place. The main difference is this time the big baddy is an animal. Another film I often hear brought up is The Funhouse. Outside of his first movie though, none of his films have made it big with one exception. That would be the movie Poltergeist. Many people claim that producer Steven Spielberg had directed this himself. They point to how polished the film looks and how it feels more like a Spielberg movie as proof. Both men have denied this. Tobe Hooper has also done a lot of tv work which is where he seems to be a little more known at. He directed Salem's Lot as a mini series. He has also directed episodes of Amazing Stories, Tales From The Crypt, Freddy's Nightmare, Taken and of course Masters Of Horror to name a few. For a more complete list you can go here.

I picked Tobe Hooper for this because most people seem to give him a somewhat bad rap because he has never really equaled what he did with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. While I tend to agree with that, I don't think he should have a bad rap because of it. Going through his list of films, I was actually a little surprised at how many I have watched. I haven't reviewed them all here though. None stand out like the above mentioned movie but some are still good movies. The one that stands out to me is Lifeforce which I didn't even realize was directed by Tobe Hooper. My favorite Tobe Hooper film is the same as probably everyone else, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I first watched it because it is a state law to watch any movie with Texas in the title. Ok so I made that up but I do like say that. I think the reason why is just the overall feel of the movie. Some of that is in part to the directing and some of it is due to the acting. The acting is something that has suffered in some of his films. I don't really blame the director for that for the most part but some people would disagree with me saying that is part of the directors job, to get the best performance out of his/her actors. Even so, I have to agree with Showtime and call Tobe Hooper a Master of horror.

Reviews of Tobe Hooper movies you can find here:

Eaten Alive

Crocodile

The Funhouse

Like the last time, I chose a Masters Of Horror episode to review for this tribute. I picked out the opening episode for the second season: The Damned Thing. The Damned Thing starts with the Reddle family eating dinner. John (Brent Stait), his wife Jodi (Georgia Craig) and his son Kevin (Ryan Drescher) are all having a nice time. When Jodi and Kevin go to get a surprise for John, John shows up with a gun. He complains about hearing voices and then kills his wife. Kevin takes off and manages to hide for a little while before his father finds him in a tree. Before John can shoot his own son though. Some force stops him as he whispers that the damned thing has found him. He is then gutted in a very gory scene.

24 years later, Kevin (now played by Sean Patrick Flanery) is grown up and is the Sheriff of the little town he lives in. He has a wife (Marisa Coughlan) and son (Alex Ferris) of his own but is currently seperated from them because he is still haunted by what happened in his past. We start to see some strange things, like one man smashing his face with a hammer over and over again, as Kevin starts to figure out that this force that took over his dad is coming again. Will he be able to save his family or even himself from the madness that will soon take over the town?

The effects are very well done. The only one I didn't care for was the gutting scene. To me it was easy to tell it was effects because his chest seemed to get bigger once the gutting started/happened. The hammer to the face was very well done and probably my favorite effect out of all of them. Another good effect is the missing legs but I will let you watch and see for yourself what I mean. The Damned Thing doesn't skimp when it comes to blood. It's not as bloody as Jenifer was but it still holds its own.

The acting is also a nice point to this one. I felt that Sean Patrick Flanery did a good job but at times his acting felt a little flat to me. Marisa Coughlan was believable as his wife and I totaly missed the fact that I knew her from another movie. The two boys both did wonderful jobs. Brendan Fletcher playes the Deputy. The person that seemed to get the attention of most reviewers though was Ted Raimi. He plays the part of a priest that goes mad. In truth it wasn't all that hard to figure out he was going to be infected by the madness.

The only problem I had with Tobe Hooper's directing was at the end of episode. It gets very jerky and I for one don't care for that to much. That being said, The Damned Thing didn't work for me to well. The problem wasn't with the director but with the script. This episode probably would have worked much better as a full blown movie instead of a one hour episode. The characters are fleshed out a little but could have used a little more. This force, or whatever you want to call it, could have been explored more as well. I just felt like the plot could have been expanded on so much which is a shame it wasn't since it could have been great.

For example, we hear the towns people going crazy while the Deputy is talking to the Sheriff. This was fine with me since I like to think what is happening instead of actually seeing it some of the time. The problem I had with it though is the whole town has gone crazy yet the Deputy is standing around by his car talking on the phone. The Sheriff is also a bit guilty of the same thing. For him though I can understand much better, he is more worried about his family than anyone else. We don't see to many characters in movies do that. Most seem to put their job first, family second. I did like The Damned Thing but I felt it could have been so much better at the same time. Worth checking out for sure all the same.

3 out of 5 Hoping I never get that crazy with a hammer near by

The Eyes Have It Part Two

As you have probably noticed by now, the recent remake of The Hills Have Eyes made my rare 5 star list. When I found out there was a sequel in the works, thanks to Final Girl, I wasn't sure what to think. The teaser trailer was kind of neat but it didn't say what kind of movie it would be. In way that sounds stupid. Of course I knew what it be about, I just didn't know how close to the first movie it would be. I wanted to be excited by the sequel but at the same time I know that sequels rarely live up to what came before. So today i went out and braved the some what cold and rainy weather to watch The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007).

The sequel starts with a beautiful thing, childbirth. Leave it to a horror movie to make something like that look ugly though. A very naked woman, who is tied down, is in the middle of having a baby. The baby seems to be having trouble making it out, all we get to see at first is an arm. The woman screams in pain and someone that we can't see decides to help the baby out. What follows is some very sicking sounds as the baby is being pulled out. Seeing the baby is alive, the mother is killed. Next up is some soldiers in combat. Well it looks that way but we end up finding out it is only a training mission. The group of people we get to follow around are from the National Guard and well...they are not doing so well. In the training missing they managed to kill 17 friendlys and the whole squad. So they are sent to Sector 16 which is where the family from the first movie was attacked.

Before they get there though we see a team was already there trying to set up some things so that they can keep a better eye on the happenings around that area. Needless to say, they fail to do so. The squad knows there are people already there but once they arrive they find no one around. Sgt. Millstone (Flex Alexander) gets a radio transmission from someone but with all the interference it is hard to understand. Thinking someone is trouble, he orders his squad out for a search and rescue mission. He leaves Napoli (Michael McMillian), or Napoleon as everyone calls him, behind because Napoleon manages to piss off the Sgt. before they pull out. He also asks Amber (Jessica Stroup) to stay behind and try and make contact with base. It isn't hard to figure out that they will soon be meeting up with the savages that live there.

The effects live up to the first movie at least. That was one of the things that really impressed me about the first movie. While they didn't go all out this time around there is still plenty of blood and gore to be found. More than once do we see brains being splatered. Hands cut off. Legs going in directions they weren't meant to go in. A couple of people go squish after long falls. Gun shots to the head and my favorite of the day, head smashed in by a rock. One of the people fighting back picks up a rock and goes to town. We see some blood being splatered around but it is after the camera pans out that we see the damage, close to half the head is missing. Pretty impressive for a mear rock.

The acting....what can I say about the acting? It wasn't bad but it didn't stand out to me. The one flaw I found in this movie is that the characters aren't flushed out very well. We find out a little bit about some of them but not all. What we do find out is fine and dandy but in truth doesn't really add anything to the character. We discover that Missy (Daniella Alonso) has a son and they miss each other. All that really does is give her more of a reason to fight which is fine but doesn't flesh out the character all that much. Napoleon is against the war and violence. Again this is fine but all it does is give us another character like we had in the first movie, someone that hates violence but in the end has to use violence in order to survive. Besides the people I have already talked about some, you will also find Jacob Vargas, Lee Thompson Young, Eric Edlestein, and Reshad Strik. I also wish to give a nod to the actors that played the savages, very well done.

Unlike some sequels, this one does tie itself to the first one by at least telling us that a family had been lost there and only half of that family made it out alive. The army was sent in and then recently they decided to set up electronic equipment to keep an eye on the area but never officialy said why. None of the characters return but in truth, why would they want to? They lived and got away, I wouldn't want to return either. The end of The Hills Have Eyes 2 is also wraped up nice and neat. At least I think it was, I was a little confused by what was said. I won't say anything more since it could spoil things for those that haven't watched it yet.

As it turns out, this is a film I have mixed feelings about when I try to give it a rating. I loved the effects but didn't care so much for the characters. I have had all day now to think about this and I decided that since it made me jump a couple of times at least I will go with the slighter higher rating. I guess there was one thing I did like about the characters. Most of them refused to leave, even though they had plenty of chances to do so, when one of their own was being held by the savages. Missy is taken by one of them and it was estiblashed more than once that the women would be kept alive for sexual and reproduction reasons. This was shown while the others went looking for Missy, she was being raped. Yes I know I jump all over the place sometimes. If you loved the first one then I don't think you can go wrong with this sequel. I didn't love it as much but it still gets my love.
4 out of 5 Can this can be considered a remake since there was a sequel to the orignal film?

Bugs Acting Human Part Three

Well, here I am already at the end of the Mimic series. It has been a fun but short ride. As far as I know, only three movies have been made for this series so far. So far only the second movie was left open in a way for there to be another movie. Maybe that was the intent since two years later Mimic 3: Sentinel (2003) came out. Mimic 2 sort of picked up where Mimic left off but Mimic 3: Sentinel goes off in a different direction.

This one starts with Marvin (Karl Geary) who survied the disease from the very first movie. This has left him where he basicly needs to be inside all the time. He does leave sometimes but it is rare for him to do so. He lives with his family, his siser Rose (Alexis Dziena) and his mother Simone (Amanda Plummer). Marvin passes most of his time watching his neighbors in the apartment building next to his own. He watches them mostly through a camera and has a wall full of pictures he has taken of his neighbors. One night, Rose notices that the local drug dealer Desmond (Keith Robinson) is bleeding. When Marvin takes over looking through the camera, it appears that someone murders him but it is hard to tell for sure from his point of view since just about all of it is hidden from his view. Still, they call the police and Detective Dumars (John Kapelos) arrives to find out what happened. He doesn't really believe what Marvin and Rose has to say but he does find interest in Simone and begins to date her.

Marvin begins to watch Carmen (Rebecca Mader). Rose seems to notice that her brother likes Carmen and eventually invites her over to meet Marvin. Carmen seems to have an interest in Marvin as well since she makes some changes in her life (stops smoking for one) so that Marvin will feel more better while being around her. Eventually they notice that people in their little part of the neighborhood are starting to disappear. They team together in a way to find out what is happening to everyone. They think it is someone who Marving has named the Garbageman (Lance Henriksen) but it actually is something much worse.

The effects take a different turn this time. In the other two movie the big bugs used up almost all of the effects. This time though we don't see the bugs all that much until the movies end and even them we just see them stabing people with their legs. No, this time there is actually more human blood than their is bug goo. While we do see the bugs attack, it was a slow pan through an apartment after an attack that was more shocking to me. Sometimes it is better to show what an attack looks like after the fact instead of the attack itself. Some of what we see of the bugs was done in CGI. While it didn't look bad, it didn't look near as good as it did in the other two movies. It was much easier to spot this time around.

Mimic 3: Sentinal is a slow paced movie. I like this in a movie for the most part. There have been times when I feel very bored because of that but it doesn't happen to often. In this case it didn't bother me at all. We get to know the characters better and the acting really helped get through everything. Most people didn't seem all that impressed by Karl Geary. I guess they figure playing a sick person isn't very hard. One thing that surpised me was the people they managed to cast, Amanda Plummer, John Kapelos and of course Lance Henriksen. Of those three, none of them had what I would call a major roll but they all had their share of screen time. It was nice seeing all of them in this movie. The biggest surprise for me though was Alexis Dziena. I will admit that part of it was her looks but I was also impressed by her performance. Enough so that I will be looking for her other movies to see if she is just as good in them.

I don't think I like this third installment as well as I did the previous two but I did like it all the same. It is very different than the others. The first one had a lot of action in it, the second one did as well but not as much since we got to know the main character better. This one delves more into the characters than it does the action. It is still there but doesn't really get going until the end of the film. The slow pace may turn off some people for this one though. The plot was ok at best but made up for it in the acting. Another thing I didn't really care for was the ending. At least it let us know who survived but I just felt it could have used a stronger ending. It is also pretty short, the credits started to role at the 72 minute mark. Maybe it could have been longer but actually it felt just about right. Not for everyone but I think you all should give it a try. If you don't like it then I am sorry but by now, if you have been reading my reviews, you should know what I like and if you will like it just as well.
3 out of 5 Wondering if this is the end for Mimic

Bugs Acting Human Part Two

Sometimes when I get ready to write up a review for a movie, the start of the review can be the hardest part for me. I guess at times I just have trouble finding things to talk about. I know I don't really have to talk about anything but I like to. I'm a woman and we are known for talking peoples ears off right? I have to live up to the rep. Anyways, I watched Mimic 2 today. I think I started to watch this one at one point in time but didn't get far or decided against it because it had already started. Mimic 2 is a direct to dvd sequel. It never got to see the big screen which seems a little odd to me since I thought the first movie did fairly well at the box office. Of course, after the movie was made the higher powers may have decided it wasn't that good of a movie to try and release on the big screen. Lets see how I felt about it.

Mimic 2 never mentions Susan or Peter from the first movie. There is a connection to the first movie for two reasons. One is that instead of following Susan's story, we now are following Remi's story. The other reason is that they do say this is the same bug as was in the first movie. Remi (still being played by Alix Koromzay) goes from a supporting character to the main character in this sequel. She is still very much into bugs but is now working as a teacher. Some people are either missing or being found very dead and they all seem to have a connection to Remi. Either she was dating the guy or was last seen with the guy. Det. Klaski (Bruno Campos) is looking into the connection and while some others on the force believe that she is guilty, he doesn't. After all, one guy that weighed over 200lbs was found strung up and hanging in an ally, it would be rather hard for someone who weighs a mere 125lbs to be able to do that.

Remi, in the meantime, finds out that the parents of the kids that she teaches is not to happy that she is being questioned about some murders. The principle, Morrie Deaver (Jon Polito), basicly told everyone but doesn't get to live much longer anyways. Remi, along with two students Sal (Gaven Lucas) and Nicky (Will Estes), are now traped in the school with at least one of the giant bugs after them. Will they be able to make it out alive? Will Klaski be able to save them? And why does it seem this bug is following and killing people that are around Remi?

The effects are still very good. There still isn't all that much blood and not near as much bug goo either. In fact we don't see the bugs near as much as we did in the first movie but they are still there. At times I would almost dare to say that the bug was improved upon. The acting is also very good. Alix Koromzay does a great job as the lead character. Some say her character changed since the first movie (some even think they through out the character in place of this one) but I feel that people change as their lives change with them. In truth, we were only given a small glimpse of her life in the first movie. It is greatly expanded upon in this one.

While it would have been nice to know what happened to Susan and Peter, I did like the direction this movie took. It is always a little bit of a disappointment when characters are basicly forgotten from one movie to the next. I understand that it is hard to bring back the actors. Since Remi worked with Susan though, it would have been nice if she had maybe said a couple of lines about Susan so we know what happened to her. In the end, this had no real effect on the movie. What made this one interesting is that the bugs are still evolving and they are showing us how they are doing that. In the first movie they did pass as human as long as you didn't get up close and personal with then and as long as there wasn't much light on them. In Mimic 2 though they are starting to look more human. While if you did get close or could see them good you probably would notice that something is very wrong, it looks better than it did before. By movies end, you will be surprised at how it looks.

I didn't like this one as well as the first movie but it was still pretty good. Considering it is a direct to dvd movie, it actually surprised me with how good it was. The only thing that bothered me is that they were heavily suggesting that the big bug was after Remi in order for Remi to be the bugs queen. It was said outright in a deleted scene. I don't care how well a bug can look or even act human, there is still no way that a bug would be able to mate with a human. It can try that is for sure but there is no way it would be able to do so. Even so, if you liked the first movie then you should give this one a watch. It may have droped the main characters but it picks up the story nicely.
3 out of 5 At least no bug bathrooms this time around

Bugs Acting Human Part One

After searching four different stores, I found a dvd lens cleaner! Did it work? I sure hope so. At least it was reading a disk it wouldn't yesterday so that is always a plus. Now for some more news. Upcoming events right here at Mermaid Heather! As you might tell from the title of this post, I have offically started the next series review. This one is a smaller series than the last one but should be fun. At least I'm hoping it will be. After this I have at least three newer horror films, that have yet to hit dvd that I hoping to go see on the big screen. Two are new while the other happens to have been out already but is now at the cheap big screen. At some point I will be also working on the next director tribute. I have the director in mind along with the Masters Of Horror dvd that was so kindly given to me. (Remember to watch that series folks, it really is that good.) After that or maybe before that, I will have the Movies To Die For set to work through. All of this is leading up to my 200th post! Lots of good stuff right here so be sure to keep checking back!

Mimic (1997) starts with a very short back story. There is a disease that is being spread by cockroaches that seems to only effect children. The CDC gets Dr. Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) to recruit the help of entomologist Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino). Susan ends up creating a new breed of cockroach that has a very short life span but lives long enough to kill off the cockroaches that carry the disease. All of this is told in a mear 9 minutes at the start of the movie. Just like all horror movies that involve changing the DNA of something, things don't alway go according to plan. Two boys discover a bug in the subway system and sell it to Susan. It turns out to be one of the bugs that she released 3 years ago and should be long dead. She pays off the boys to find out where the found the bug for sure. Susan and Peter (who happen to be married) break into an office and get busted by Leonard (Charles Dutton) who happens to be on duety at the time.

Peter comes back with his partner Josh (Josh Brolin) and recruit Leonard to help them explore the subway network below. Meanwhile, Susan meets up with her partner Remy (Alix Koromzay). Remy has a friend that found another bug but this one is much bigger. We are also introduced (actually before this last part so I got a little ahead of myself) to Manny (Giancarlo Giannini) and Chuy (Alexander Goodwin), father and son. Manny shines shoes on the platform while his son watches and seems to know every type of shoe there is. He also sees some of the bigger bugs and is able to mimic their clicking talk with some spoons. This interests the bugs it seems and they take a liking to him. Once everyone is in the subway system, people get seperated and start to die. Will everyone make it out and be able to save the rest of clueless humans from this new threat?

The effects are actually really good considering it is a giant bug movie. There isn't much blood but we do get to see a lot of slime and bug guts. What has also impressed me with this movie was the bugs themselves. At no point durring the movie did I really think that it didn't look real. The only moment I can think of that made me question it just a little is when one of the big bugs took off flying on the subway platform. Didn't really seem like there would be room enough but maybe there was.



The acting was also very good. I personaly have always like Mira Sorvino. Not only is she nice to look at but she is also a good actress. I have liked her better in the action movies she has been in but she does do a great job in this one as well. Jeremy Northam and Charles Dutton also put in strong performances. James Costa and Javon Barnwell play the two kids who end up being bug food (Yes, dead kids!). F. Murray Abraham is also in the movie as something a mentor to Susan.

Ok so Mimic isn't the best killer movie out there. To be honest I don't know which movie to give that title to. However, I have always loved this movie. Whenever I know that it will be on I tune in to watch it. I think it is because no matter how many times I have watched it, it still makes me tense up durring certain scenes. Not to many movies can do that to me in repeated viewings. It is hardly perfect. The science behind the bugs is a bit flawed and I think that is maybe they couldn't explain it in a real way or maybe just because they tend to brush the science part of it under the rug for the most part. Even so, that part has never bothered me to a point that I can no longer stand Mimic.

There are also a few plot holes that don't really make much sense except that it helps move the plot along. Both Susan and Choy are taken by the bugs and not killed. Why? Choy can be explained a little bit. Like I said, the bugs take a liking to him because he can make the same clicking sounds they make. Would that be enough not to kill your enemy though? That leaves us with Susan where there is no reason why she shouldn't have been killed. Unless one of you has a suggestion on this, I'm clueless on it.

One thing I found interesting about Mimic while reading up on it is that director Guillermo del Toro is unhappy with the movie as it is currently released. It seems he had a different ending set up for the film and when test audiences didn't seem to "get" the ending, the studio had a different ending put on it. You can read about this and other things del Torro had to say about the film here if you wish. Hardly a perfect film but one I still love. Worth checking out, at least once.
4 out of 5 Hoping the sequels leave out the bugs bathroom

Film Club Day Part Five

After missing the last film club entry, I decided I couldn't let two films go by without reviewing one so here I am with the latest Final Girl Film Club entry: Deathwatch (2002). I have waited all week to sit down and watch this one so today after I got ready for my day, I put the disk in my dvd player, only to have it say disk error and spit it back out. This seems to be a recurring problem with my dvd player so I'm hoping once I find a way to clean it, it will stop acting up and I won't have to get a new dvd player. I did take the disk to a friend and asked if I could watch it there. Lucky for me she let me and it played fine on her dvd player. Only problem was she had all kinds of lights and windows open so there was a glare on the tv which made watching the night scenes nearly impossible. Once she left I corrected this and made the room darker. Anyways, here is what the movie was about.

Deathwatch throws us right in the middle of WW1. There is a very big battle going on and a handfull of British soldiers try and make a break for it and manage to do so but they don't seem to find anyone else for a long time. Eventually they come across some more trenchs that are being guarded by a small group of German soldiers. They seem to be more worried about something in the trench more than the Bristish soldiers though. The British soldiers take over the trench and their Captain (Laurence Fox) decides that they will hold the trench until reinforcements arrive. When they call back to command they are informend that no one survived the attack they escaped from so they can't be who they say they are. Weird huh?

They manage to find out through one of the German soldiers, that they didn't kill, that the trench is evil. Of course no one believes him but they should have. It doesn't take long before they start hearing ghostly sounds like an army is about to descend onto them at any moment. The noises stop only after the Captain shoots one of his own soldiers by mistake. One of those classic opps moments. Eventually the noises and a few other events drive most of the men mad and they even turn on each other. Can they live long enough to fight the evil? How will they even discover what the evil is?

I may have missed some effects at the start of the movie but what I did see I was nicely surprised from. There was nothing outstanding about them really but what was there was nicely done. You will find plenty of rotting corpses and one of the soldiers even manages to put a foot through one. One man is attacked by barbed wire that suddenly has a mind of its own. There is also a shock moment when one soldier finds out that the loss of his legs turns out to be the least of his problems.

In truth, I had a hard time getting into this movie. It was the acting, and then the story and effects, that eventually got me interested in what was going on. As Final Girl noted, you will find these same types of characters in other films but that is easy to over look in Deathwatch. Along with Laurence Fox, you will also find Jamie Bell, Ruaidhri Conroy, Hugo Speer, Matthew Rhys and Hugh O'Conor. Everyone, even those I didn't list, put in great performances. Maybe some could be a bit over the top at times but all can be forgiven this time around.

This was director Michael J. Bassett's first movie. Deathwatch really managed to impress me. Not only with the acting but also with the use of sound. This was something else that helped me get into this movie. The ghostly sounds and more importantly perhaps, the soundtrack. It really helped set the mood once things started getting very creepy. The only thing I can complain about is that the movie was a little to dark at times. Even when I made the room darker, there were times I was still having a little trouble seeing what was happening.The setting and time period added something to this one. I can't say I have watched a lot of movies that are set durring WW1 so this was a nice change of pace.

Deathwatch leaves us guessing as to what is going on. By the end of the movie it is explained but it is also left open enough so that you the viewer will have to do some thinking in order to figure out what the ending means. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone but from what I figured out, it seems to be a more common theme running through horror movies now days. If you like war/action movies and horror movies, you can't go wrong here. Worth a watch for sure.
4 out of 5 Finding new reasons to hate rats

Cry Me A River

Since Netflix is screwing up my plan a little bit here, I decided to pull another movie that I own but haven't watched yet. You see, I have the next movie series in wait but Netflix is taking its time sending me the last movie (so far anyways) in the series. Since the Film Club is coming up on Monday and I won't get the last movie before then, I hate to review the others and then do the Film Club before I finish with the series. So I'm puting off the series for a few more days at least. Cry Wolf (2005) was a movie I bought durring my Holloween shoping spree. I do believe this was the last one I had left to watch so I am caught up with those at least.

Cry Wolf starts with us meeting Owen (Julian Morris). Owen has a little bit of a history as a trouble maker. To me he does things to get the attention of his dad (Gary Cole). His dad never seems to have time to answer his son's calls. The first person he runs into is Dodger (Lindy Booth). He helps Dodger (who came up with this name anyways?) get out of a little bit of trouble and because of this she invites him to a game that a bunch of the other students play sometimes. The game is a liar game. One person is selected as "the wolf" and the others have to figure out who the wolf is why the wolf has to try and get ride of everyone else. To make it more fun, money is envolved as well. The person that figures out who the wolf is wins the money or if the wolf makes it through everyone then that person wins the money. Shortly after this, Owen and Dodger make up a story based on a murder that happened recently. They get their friend involved with the story as well and describe how each will be killed by a serial killer they have made up. They make an email and send it to everyone at the school. Then Owen gets an instant message from somone called Wolf. He thinks it is Tom (Jared Padalecki) playing a joke on him but then Tom walks in so it can't be Tom after all. Then he keeps seeing someone dressed just like the killer they described in the email. Could this all be a joke or is the person that did kill someone just pissed off about the email that was made around him?

The effects are actually hard to find. There is some blood but in truth we never see anyone actually get killed. I take that back, one person is shot but there isn't even much blood involved in that. The version I watched was the unrated version and I didn't see anything in it that couldn't have been in a rated version. The acting wasn't half bad. Outside of the leads you will also find Jesse Janzen, Sandra McCoy, Ethan Cohn, Kristy Wu and Erica Yates. As with last movie, there was a surprise cast member even in Cry Wolf. That would have been Job Bon Jovi. His role is that of a teacher that just happens to be messing around with a student or two. I won't say that his performance was great but it wasn't to bad. One advantage I'm sure he has over other actors is that he is used to having people watch him.

The problem I had with Cry Wolf wasn't so much the acting or even the effects, even though I thought it could have used a few more effects. No, the problem for me was more the writing of the movie. The plot was an ok plot and I think maybe could have done better with a couple of changes. The movie drags along for more than an hour before anything really starts to happen. Now normaly I don't mind a movie that takes its time to build things up but in the case of Cry Wolf the characters just aren't all that interesting. You might as well say that Cry Wolf is Urban Legends meets April Fool's Day. That will describe this movie very well. Another thing that hurt Cry Wolf is that it is billed as a horror movie when in truth it is nothing more than an alright thriller. A lot of the negative reviews I was reading complained about the same thing, that this wasn't really a horror movie at all. It is part of the reason I am giving it the rating I will. The ending has a nice little twist to it but by then I didn't really care anymore. If you would like to watch a fairly good thriller then you might want to pick this one up. As a horror movie though it is a miss.
2 out of 5 Drama queens should always die first

Resting Up

What happens when a movie ends up confusing most of the people that watch it? You get a love it or leave it movie. For me it really depends on how well the movie was made, the acting and maybe even the confusing plot itself. Most of the time I like a movie that makes me use my head to figure it out. While the movie leading me by the nose isn't always a bad thing, I just perfer to try and figure out the plot on my own. Rest Stop (2006) is one of those movies that, while I ended up enjoying it, confused me very much at the same time and still does some.

Rest Stop starts with a woman at a rest stop and getting attacked by someone. This is just a short sequence but it does come into play later on. Next we find Nicole (Jaimie Alexander) quickly packing some things and then leaving with her boyfriend Jess (Joey Mendicino). They are sorta running away from home. They are old enough to do this without really being a runaway but Nicole knows that her parents would never approve of such a move. That is part of the reason she is heading to California with her boyfriend, to show her parents she can make up her own mind when it comes to her life. Along the way we discover that Jess can be a bit of a jerk at times and Nicole tends to talk to herself at times. Oh and also that pot makes her want to have sex. After getting high they pull off the road and have a little outdoor fun while still in the car. Don't they know they could stain the seats doing that?!? Anyways, this is the first time we see a yellow truck that is at first just sitting there, then it drives away.

After this they head off again and get into a little bit of a fight over being lost. Nicole can't find the road on the map and Jess doesn't much care since they were still heading west. Nicole decides she needs to pee, yet again, and makes Jess pull into the rest stop that is coming up. Nicole heads for the bathroom and discovers one very dirty bathroom area. Instead of taking her chances outside, like I would have, she sort of hovers over the seat. She sees all kinds of writing on the stall walls but doesn't pay to much attention just yet. When she heads back out she discovers that Jess and his car are gone. She knocks on the door of an RV that has been parked there but gets no answer. She eventually breaks into an office and hangs out in there for a long time. Why doesn't she leave? We are shown a sign that she looks at that says that the next service station is some 60 miles away. I don't think it would much matter if she did leave because the few times she did she just ended up back at the same rest stop again. As she leaves the office she finds Jess's car and then the real terror begins.

The effects are actually very well done. There is a special feature about the effects and by looking at that you would think that the effects may not turn out so well but by editing they manage to get around the parts that may not look so good on screen. You will find a finger getting partly bitten off. Some brains being splatered by gun shots. A tongue being cut off. Letters being carved into skin and a drill to a leg to name but a few. There is also lots of blood to be found. One thing that impressed me wasn't really an effect but the after effect of something that was done. After the finger is bit off, the actor shows pain when trying to use that hand. Something that is often over looked by some actors.

Speaking of acting, for the most part I enjoyed it as well in Rest Stop. Jaimie Alexander does a very nice job but at times I was getting very annoyed with either her or her character. I hate to say this but Jaimie's voice was really grating on me at times. Even so, she acted out her role very well. I was even more impressed when I learned that some of the things she was reacting to were shot on different days without the other actor being there. That was even more impressive to me since I would never have guessed that from watching those scenes. Someone who was also in the film but didn't figure out until later is Joseph Lawrence. He plays Officer Deacon. I thought he did a good job with his short role.

There are a lot of things about this movie that never really make much sense and this is where most people get lost, including me. There is a family, a very weird family, in the RV after all. What they have to do, if anything, with the plot is never explained. There is a clue after the credits role at the end but that only confused me further. As I said before, Nicole seems to always end up back at the rest stop. She gets into the RV and travels with them for a little while and when they make her leave the RV she is right back at the rest stop. I first thought it was a different one but no it was the very same one. Something else that is a bit confusing about this is Nicole never seems to question why she is still at the same rest stop.

Nicole eventually finds a woman, from the start of the film, in a closet in the bathroom. She wasn't there before or if she was she never said anything. It turns out that she isn't there after all so that made me ask if anything in the movie was actually taking place? Are we watching something that is happening now or sometime in the past? Am I watching a slasher movie like I thought I was or am I now watching a ghost story with slasher elements? I was really hoping for a commentary track by writer/director John Shiban but no such luck. I was interested to see what his point of view he had on Rest Stop, if he has one that is. Some other reviews think he wasn't sure where to go with the plot so leaves it hanging. The ending of Rest Stop does nothing to explain anything and really only adds more to being confused. Still though, what I thought of as a slow, almost making me start to go to sleep movie, turned out to be a nice little thrill ride. The unknown killer, we barely get to see him and it is never explained why he is doing any of this, puts Nicole through hell and back. Even though most of the reviews I got to read hated this one, I ended up loving it. I didn't understand everything about it but maybe that will make the next viewing that much more fun for me. Check it out sometime and maybe we can all sit around and try and figure it out together.
4 out of 5 Wishing more movies had unknown killers

Bone Crushers

I am somewhat sorry for not keeping the blog up lately. Things have been fairly busy for me with spring break coming up along with the birthday (thanks Mike for telling everyone by the way) as well. I have still been watching movies, I can't get enough of movies sometimes. Just that lately I have been getting away from horror movies and indulging in a few other movies. Anywhere from things like Beerfest to Vampyros Lesbos. While the latter movie is considered to be a horror movie, I decided to skip it for a review because, well, it isn't really a horror movie. Sure it is about a vampire (a lesbian vampire at that) but there was next to no gore/blood and it wasn't scary at all. If anything it was just a lame excuse to get two women to make out. It ignored all rules of a vampire, she was out in the sun all the time and they said the only way to kill a vampire was to kill the brain. Since when?? Of course my dislike for this movie explains why it is just over 5 stars on IMDb so what do I know?

The subject of my review for today, Slaughterhouse (1987), however, is more of a true horror film. Slaughterhouse is a low budget movie so I wasn't really expecting to much from it. The plot basicly breaks down as Lester Bacon (Don Barrett) owning a slaugherhouse that is run down because he refused to upgrade and keep up with the bigger and better slaughterhouses. An old employee who now runs his own slaughterhouse is willing to buy out the place but Lester won't hear of it. His son Buddy (Joe Barton) is very protective of his pigs and his home. Buddy has been killing a couple of people for bothering his loved pigs and when Lester finds out he decides to use this to his advantage and invites those that want to buy him out over so that his son can kill them off for him. Of course since most slasher movies are about teens being chased around and being killed, they had to throw in a group of best friends for this movie as well. They tie into this by having one of the girls, Liz (Sherry Leigh), be the daughter of Sheriff Borden (William Houck). The Sheriff has to kick Lester off his home if he doesn't agree to be bought out since he hasn't been paying his taxes you see. The teens are there not to really bother anyone but because they get very bored after a power outage messes up the big party they were all at. They go to the old run down slaughterhouse mostly because they are bored and looking for something to do and run into Buddy and his father. Can everyone survive or will Buddy hack them up with his bone crusher cleaver?

The effects, while not great, get by for what they are. At one point I thought one of the characters got his face cut off but later you see his corpse, face still there. Maybe I just didn't see it right since some of the effects are so quick that if you blink you might just miss them. There are some that stand out though. One guy gets ground up and other gets his head squished by a car. I could be wrong but it seems the guy that got ground up was a little to well done. All you see is torn clothes and a meaty pulp. This was a slow moving single screw so it made me wonder if he would have been ground up that well. Still it was fairly gross to look at. I shouldn't forget to say that a different Sheriff gets a hand cut off when he goes sticking it through a doorway. Remember that folks, don't go sticking your arms into places they don't belong!

The acting is much like the effects in that it is good enough to get by. Buddy never talks, he just makes pig sounds so you probably wouldn't think much of him if you actually met him. At the same time though he is a big guy at over 300lbs. He doesn't sound like the typical serial killer but Joe Barton manages to pull it off. Don Barrett can be over the top at times but that just added to his character really. Lee Robinson plays a lawyer trying to help Lester because they are old friends but firmly set on Lester selling out. You will also find Jason Collier, Jeff Grossi, Hank Gum, Linda Harris, Jane Higginson, and Joel Hoffman. Jeff Wright plays Deputy Dave (the other Sheriff). Overall it was an alright cast.

Slaughterhouse is really just an average horror film. It is hardly great but it is far from the worst as well. What I did like about this one was the fact that they tried to give Buddy a personality. They took some time away from killing people to show Buddy hanging out with his pigs. Taking the sheriff's car out for a spin. Things like that. Not much but it added a little something to the character. Another thing that was nice was the location that they used. In an interview with the writer/director, he said that while the location wasn't an actual slaughterhouse, they didn't have to really change anything. Everything they needed was already there, they didn't have to bring in anything. There was some really nice extra's on the dvd. A pretty loaded dvd really with the extra's. It always surprises me to see a dvd like this full of extra's and then I buy a big name movie that barely has anything on it. There are interviews with the director and the guy that did the distributing. Trailers of course but the one I liked most wasn't really a trailer. It was a reminder not to smoke in the theater. It reminded me a lot of the same type of things they use in theaters now to remind us to turn off the cell phones and what not. "Buddy says not to smoke...or else."

If there was anythink I didn't like I guess I would have to say it was the whole story line with the teens. It really felt more like a filler than anything else. The plot line that was the main plot (the buy out) wasn't a great one but it was more than what you normaly get in slasher movies. I just felt they didn't really need the teens to be there but it did up the body count. While I liked the ending, there was also something about it that I can't really put my finger on that disappointed me. All the same I think if you like slashers then you should give this one a shot. Not a great one but you can do a lot worse.
3 out of 5 Why do tires sound like the peel out of a hard surface instead of gravel?

Skeletons In The Closet

I have been debating on if I should review today's movie since it isn't truely listed as a horror movie. However, I did find it in the horror section, and still see it there, at the local Best Buy. I actually picked this movie out two christmas's ago. I can be so slow when watching movies sometimes, that is why I hate to borrow a movie because I'm never sure when I will get around to watching it. The Skeleton Key is actually listed as a supernatural thriller and that is what it is. I've always thought though that some thrillers could easily by called horror and some horrors could easily be called a thriller.

The Skeleton Key (2005) starts with Caroline (Kate Hudson) working as a nurse in either a hospital or nursing home, couldn't really tell witch it was but I'm pretty sure it is a nursing home. After one of the guys she has been taking care of passes away, she decides to look for a different job. She finds one an hour away at a plantation house. A man there, Ben (John Hurt), suffered a stroke and his wife, Violet (Gena Rowlands), needs help taking care of him. Caroline is told by the couples lawyer (Peter Sarsgaard) that Ben can't speak or move but she soon finds out this isn't completely true. Caroline also starts to explore the house more and more and finds a door that is partly hiden and she doesn't have a key for it even though she was given a skeleton key and was told it would open every door in the house. She also notices that every mirror in the house is gone. What, if anything, does this have to do with Ben? Eventually she finds a way into the locked room and discovers hoodoo (yes hoodoo, not voodoo) things there. Can she figure out what is happening before it is to late?

Since this isn't a straight up horror movie, you won't find any horror effects. I can't really recall any in fact except for some camera tricks and the like to represent flashbacks and images in mirrors. So I will skip to the acting instead. Most people, even most that gave The Skeleton Key a bad review, said the acting is what carried this movie. Even though I enjoyed the plot, which I will talk more about in a moment, the acting did shine. Kate Hudson did a wonderful job even though some people complained that she is a little to curious for being nothing more than a hospice worker. Gena Rowlands nearly steals the show though with her performance. John Hurt is also very good even though he rarely has a speaking line. He does a great job of showing things through his eyes. Joy Bryant is also in this film as Caroline's best friend.

The main reason I decided to do a review for this movie is because of the bad reviews I was reading through. I read about two complaints from these people. First and most often was the complaint of they figured out the plot within the first 15 minutes of the movie. How anyone can do that is truely beyond me. I like to think of myself as a smart person. At least in some subjects I am. I do sometimes overlook or miss plot points though. Even so, I have yet to figure out how a movie will end by watching a mear 15 minutes of the movie, unless it was the last 15 minutes of it. Ok so some movies are real easy to figure out but I just can't see anyone figuring this one out so quickly. I thought I had the plot figured out, about half way or a little later, and I was only partly right.

The other complaint was that people didn't think the ending made any sense. It did for me with no real problems following the plot and its twists. This is a movie you really need to pay attention to though in order to catch the twists, and understand them, as they happen. Over all I would say that I really enjoyed The Skeleton Key. My only real problem was that they started out making it seem like this was going to be a ghost story and they switched it around to it being about magic. I can only think of one horror movie that had to do with magic that I was effected by, that would be Lord Of Illusions. Most of the time I just don't find magic to be scary. I didn't hear either so if it wasn't for that it would get a higher rating. Even so, the location was beautiful and well shot for this movie. It really added to what was going on and helped set the mood. Watch it when you get the chance!
4 out of 5 Wanting some of that red dust