Reviews

This Icelandic film is a much better movie than the title suggests. In fact the title is a lurid and stupid one. The original title is closer to the truth. (promoted in Iceland as "Tryllir" meaning something between Thriller and Horror) More a Thriller than a straight up slasher film, it is well acted and has the grace to add some truly interesting moments into the mix: a girl suddenly getting on a ship's intercom and singing IT'S SO QUITE when a character dies in a freak accident, a mousy Japanese tour guide becomes Ninja smart, and a black, gay man ascends to be a true action hero. It is also shot well.

However, the ending twists are highly confusing, illogical and unsatisfying. You find yourself saying "WTF?" a hell of a lot in the last 20 minutes, where characters suddenly shift motivations with no apparent reason just to satisfy the public's stupid need for stupid twist endings. I do appreciate that most of the bad guys (a racist whaling family) get it worse than their victims and that the violence and gore, while brutal and bloody, is not overly extreme or pandering. (but only in the R-rated version, the uncut version is gorier) To me though, that ending translates to: doesn't matter if you are a good person; brave, strong, sympathetic to other humans, or that you have been through a lot already BEFORE the psycho family decided to hunt you down, you will still most likely die and greedy people who weren't good people will get away alive. It may be life, but it ain't entertainment in the Book of Jaimes.

INTO THE STORM is an exciting experience. Too bad as a movie it actually blows.

Is what I thought I might expect to say after watching the movie. And well, the movie does blow and even suck, but that's MOSTLY because it's a movie about a REALLY big tornado. The truth is, it is not even close to being a great movie, but not as terrible as I would have imagined it to be. The movie is too ambitious: it wants to be a spectacle (and succeeds madly in that WOW! department) but then shoehorns a tired gimmick (found footage) that it contrives mightily to explain over and over again; there is a camera crew on-board storm chasing vehicles, as well as cameras on the vehicles themselves, as well as cameras and cell phones used by various characters.

The gimmick worked in CLOVERFIELD and CHRONICLE, but here it was just distracting. Needless too. The movie could have been strong enough without the gimmick.Not to mention, the movie abandoned the gimmick when it was necessary to show BIG things. I mean, WHO was filming the destruction of the airport? The movie begins with slasher movie undertones as 4 teens are mercilessly killed by a freak tornado. Thankfully this is the most blatant quasi-snuff -film the film gets, and after this teaser it actually tries to give us some characters to like and root for.

Unfortunately, the plot is cribbed from DAY AFTER TOMORROW (father faces many obstacles getting to his son after they left on bad terms) and probably many other disaster films.

There are also two obnoxious, offensive, caricatures obsessed with JACK ASS type stunts, obviously meant to be comic relief. I wanted these annoying, unfunny guys dead, but they just kept on living.

The rest of the cast was surprisingly good, adding shading to a script that had very little depth and less wit.

Even, Matt Walsh, as the guy set up to be the villain, finds ways to humanize his character, so you actually start to sympathize a little, when he stumbles into danger.

But the heart of the film was Richard Armitage as the dad desperately trying to save his son. He grounds the film from start to finish and makes everything he does believable. The (also tired) subplot of his son having a crush on a girl which leads them into, literally deep water, is also made believable by Max Deacon as the son and Alycia Debnam Carey as the girl he crushes on.

Sarah Wayne Callies, (in maybe the most surprising twist for a commercial movie,) does not become Armitage's love interest. She is also believable, but the script gives her very little to grasp on to.

Yet, in the end, this IS a disaster movie and, as mentioned before, the WOW! factor is up to 11.If the script showed as much creativity towards it's characters and plot, as it does to the various intricate set pieces of wholesale destruction, this might have been a keeper.

Sure, it's a wild ride. Somewhat satisfying in it's bombastic, manipulating way. But mostly: it's 89 minutes in a nice, air conditioned theater and at home I would have been cooking in humidity. In that respect, it was masterful.

OK first off, I have seen this episode and liked it very much. Particularly, I liked the music. (the score was good, but I am primarily talking about the song I DISCOVERED YOU.) After 1/2 an hour of muddling through IMDb's myriad of FAQS, I could not find a way to alert them to a very glaring error. And it involves the ACTUAL composer and writer of that song. His name is NOT John Mayer and he is not dead yet. (as far as I know)His name is John Meyer, and he IS listed as one of the writers, but he also composed the song. When I first heard it, I could have sworn it was Sondheim. Proof you say? Well John has an album out with THAT song (I bought it on I-Tunes,it's good, though I wish there was the Amazing Stories version available) Also there is an article in the New York Times where Meyer describes his battles with Gershwin's widow during that episode. Google him.Second off, if anyone knows who the singers are in that song, the information would be greatly appreciated. IMDb lists Sheryl Lee Ralph as a singer. It is possible. She also sings (and amazingly so) on the MIGHTY QUINN soundtrack. But I seem to recall the singer was white and Sheryl is black...

Certainly the top idiocy's on the never ending bad porn parade are girls that appear in porn and never even get naked, CFNM, camera work that should require Dramamine and this imbecilic,ever escalating trend towards the gross and extreme. The one thing in College Rules #12 favor is that the gross is kept to a minimum. Everything else is maddening. First off, these "reality" porn companies insult our intelligence by claiming this garbage is real. The reason they do this is because it gives them an excuse to A.)not pay an editor B.) not pay cameramen C.) Not pay the porn girl extras to have sex or even disrobe. The DVD contains four "episodes". In the first:THE GIRL'S SCHOOL THE NEWBS, we are led to believe that video games hold the guys attention more than naked girls. Rigggghhhttt. Three girls have very badly filmed sex, a 4th, completely disappears. In TOMMY GETS WHAT'S COMING TO HIM a girl gets revenge on her cheating boyfriend. Three girls have very badly filmed sex. A fourth only shows her butt. (even though on the cover, she is topless) In HALL PASS, an odious group of women decide to "test" their boyfriends. Four women have adequately filmed sex. One gets naked. One only topless.Finally, in HOW MANY CUM SHOTS CAN WE GET. Only three of the girls have sex. The others only flash their breasts quickly and give blow jobs.(in the special feature menu all the women show their butts too-the DVD copy I have would NOT let you access that feature though) All in all, this is just another example of interminable blow jobs, and a callous disregard for the porn consumer. In other words, like 99% of all modern porn. Porn companies keep ruining porn and sadly, nobody can corner the CEOS, slap the tar out of them and scream into their frat boy mentality faces: IT'S NOT THE SEX, IT'S THE FANTASY! Sex is part of the fantasy but without the fantasy, the sex is redundant and dull.

In interviews Will Ryder (the director and semi-genius behind X-play videos) talks about his projects like they were genuine Hollywood movies. Yes, they are definitely a cut above your normal porn pap and the production values are good but they are NOT real movies. Maybe that is the problem. First off, I never found any of these parodies laugh out loud funny as many have. Amusing, yes. Funny, no. Secondly, Will talks of casting like he has Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp and Scarlet Johanssen but I never found the acting particularly great or believable. You see,Will Ryder seems to think he is making real movies. Well,they do frustrate like many real movies do, and like David Lynch, (in Twin Peaks) Will seems to have forsaken his audience. Well, at least in the two most recent projects. He did this by the all too familiar trend of having beautiful girls NOT get naked. This is one of my biggest pet peeves (and frustrations) in modern porn. This inane trend of CFNM must die! And preferably die at the hands of a chainsaw wielding maniac! In NOT MARRIED WITH CHILDREN XXX Will completely ruins the best scene-what could have been a great group scene between three girls and a guy turns out to be 2 girls topless watching a guy and a girl. BALLS! I say! BALLS! Doesn't help that the two topless girls were the outrageously cute Emy Reyes and Alyssa Hall! ARGGGGGGGG!!! In NOT THE COSBYS XXX Will commits an even bigger crime: 2 of the main characters don't even get naked! In the Behind The Scenes footage we are teased with a promise of a sequel that has yet to materialize. This is worse than blue balls; this is outright mental whiplash! Seriously, a letter to all porn directors: having beautiful women in your films NOT (at least) get naked defeats the entire purpose of porn for most of your audience. This whole-let's-spend-15-minutes-at-a-time-on-dick- sucking-while-the-women-stay-clothed- is not only borderline homosexual but for people like me it is TORTURE! This especially goes out to your Eromaxx, Mofos, and VIP Parties, but it also applies to 3rd Degree and their TMSleaze (holy cats what missed opportunities for great group sex scenes!) and to X-Play. I just hope Will, you don't ruin the NOT SAVED BY THE BELL project.Hopeful but skeptical.

Clever! Witty! Beautifully written! Emotionally satisfying! Coherent! these are descriptions that do not apply to Harper's Island.

When Harper's Island began we quickly came to the conclusion that it was silly, shallow and a waste of a great idea. We kept watching because; A.) there really was nothing else on, and B.) because we wanted to know how they were going to explain everything.

If anything characterizes Harper's Island it's stupidity. Stupidity in the writing, (and silliness-what the hell was all that supernatural stuff that was jettisoned pretty quickly) in character's actions and motivations, and especially in any scene with the little girl. (who apparently was a reject from THE SIXTH SENSE PART DUEX!)

About the third episode we noticed a definite improvement. The acting was more sincere, there was some subtlety and some humor. For a few episodes it looked like it might actually turn out to be something worthwhile. Something closer to Agatha Christie than slasher movies. We were wrong. The last three episodes went back to the same old stupidities:stupid actions from supposedly smart characters, contrived plot devices, more idiocy with that infuriating little girl and one undeserved and incoherent twist after another.

Several times I was astounded at the unbelievable depth of stupidity these characters displayed. Several times they completely abandoned logic and more than once conveniently forgot key information that could have saved lives. Not to mention: when you have caught a serial killer who has killed everyone of your family and friends,at the very LEAST shoot off his damn legs!

I also had trouble with the way actors were asked to change their performance so that they could act as "red herrings". There was never any logic or subtly to these changes. (this was clearly the director's and screen writer's fault, the cast has proved skillful in other productions)

I did not buy when they tried to make certain characters' look evil. Similarly, I did not buy for one second Wakefield and his sudden bid for sympathy in the jail cell. Here is the thing: psychos are psychos for a reason. Yes, Ted Bundy seemed like a nice guy but he didn't kill his friends. He killed strangers.

For some one to kill ALL their friends-including their fiancée(!),you need to reach a certain point where you snap and become anti-social. There is NO way they would be able to hide it; to act so loving and "normal" for years. Also, it was never explained why everyone had to die. I'm sorry but "they were in the way" is NOT sufficient! The final resolution reads more like a parody than a dramatic flourish: pretend to fall in love with the most beautiful girl, have a wedding to lure the one you truly have loved since you were kids (oh and don't even bother about the fact, that technically you are brother and sister) and with the help of your real father kill everyone in various and bloody ways. Then you and your intended can be truly happy and alone for, what, at least ten days...

Other points of contention:never explained how Uncle Marty was sliced in half on a very tall bridge, never explained what the hell happened to ALL the townspeople, (one episode the town was full and the next it was completely deserted!) why spare certain characters only to kill them later?, (other than because the script said so!) the little girl vacillated between creepiness to complete and utter vapidity so much that I really wish SHE was the killer.

Too many other things irritated me about this show but I think the worst was that they took the three most interesting and likable characters; the Englishman, his girl and, Trish, (the would have been bride) and killed them off.

That is just inexcusable and shows the complete lack of humanity the writers of this show possess: everything and anyone is just a commodity in the end to be used as convenient plot devices. Interesting characters do not matter. Beauty does not matter. Only the body matters. Preferably degraded and made as ugly as humanly possible.

Well, at least the scenery was quaint.

I have to agree with many of the reviewers here. Have Vol. #1. Stupid and unfair that 20th Century Fox (they own the rights and pulled the plug in the fourth season) haven't released Vol#2. What a cheap and tawdry ploy for extra money that they only released Vol. #1. It's unfinished you morons. I am getting beyond aggravated that the studios pull this bottom of the line garbage. You should have released ALL episodes at one time. It is a complete slap in the face to me personally that you keep doing this kind of garbage. Oh, I say me personally because I know you 20th Century Fox. It's because I slept with your wife. I told you we only SLEPT. We did not even kiss! But Noooooooo! Mr. Jealous Studio, you did not believe us. That is why your wife left you! (I hear she has taken a vow of Unmitigated Chastity and joined the Holy Order Of Lets Bonk Things On Our Heads To Praise The Lord) But seriously, 20 Century Fox, the demand is there. The 3rd and 4th seasons had some of the best stuff. Like John Ritter's cameo story arc. (his company produced the show) And somewhere in the 3rd and 4th seasons are truly great parodies of Murder On The Orient Express and Twin Peaks... The limbo non-release of Vol. 2 is especially galling when you release everything from shows that are pure garbage. Frustrating. Harshes my mellow!

I completely disagree with the previous reviewer: this movie has amusing moments but hardly a laugh riot. (unless you really think sipping from a septic tank and heads exploding in a vice are a laugh riot) In fact, the only reasons I gave this a 2 instead of a 1 are because a.) two of the actors are decent b.)the soundtrack is above average with some tuneful pop songs thrown in for contrast and c.)the monster truck is pretty terrifying.

Other than that, this is a movie with some intermittent, creepy or interesting ideas which are overwhelmed by unrelenting crassness, crudity and vileness. The former best friend character is one of the most annoying I've ever seen and the small grace that the hitchhiker character had disappears in yet another contrived twist ending that makes little to no sense at all.

A waste of the lead actor who shows some nervous charm and the aforementioned actress portraying the hitchhiking character...

WARNING: there kind of, maybe, in a small way, perhaps, might be spoilers in this review. (unless, of course you have ever watched ANY movie on the Sci-Fi channel)

If you happen to be a Sci-Fi Channel executive or one of the millions who have made these zero budget, gore fest/ torture porn chunks of tripe, passing off as entertainment, popular, (not to mention those who have created these "films".) SHAME ON YOU!

I for one have watched my last Sci-Fi channel movie! This last one especially angered me to no end and wasted the talents of several good actors including Sean Patrick Flannery.

What REALLY ticks me off is the Sci-Fi channel saves the good programming for the daytime which most of us miss because of work. This is where they do marathon showings of the "good" stuff: the new Dr.Who, Outer Limits,Tru Calling, Wolf Lake, Jake 2.0, etc...

But the night is reserved for tripe like these stupid faux "Sci-Fi" travesties, wrestling (!!!) and scads and scads of boring reality programming.

These movies are all the same; they start out with a promising plot and then, after 10 minutes, throw it completely away in favor of decapitations, blood-lettings, and very bad SPFX.

In almost each of these movies most of the action occurs in forests or deserts, is hideously edited and filmed and no one survives except maybe two or three-usually the ones with the strongest back story.

Please join me and STOP watching these movies! If you want to really see a good Sci-Fi thriller check out CLOVERFIELD. It doesn't just treat death like a voyeuristic kick but actually has living, breathing characters who, when they die, other characters actually grieve for. It also has a smart script, a little humor, a realistic love story and incredible SPFX.

Or look into Sci-Fi channel series like Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Painkiller Jane and Special Unit 2 when (and if) the Sci-Fi channel deems to bring them back or show in re-runs...