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jimmysmithx2
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Snowpiercer (2013)
Muted Colors turned me off, but good movie
I caught it on Netflix and I gave it a 7. Not a bad movie, but I think they could have done a bit more. It kept my attention all the way through but I thought it was a bit slow at times... that could also be with the color choice of the film. Since the colors were dulled to a white and muted- gray, I think it took away from the energy and kept a lot of the feeling on the same level negating an arc of energy and suspense to some degree.
The ending also made me drop my rating from an 8 to a 7. The acting was good though and it was shot pretty well. The visual effects were good. The train flying around tracks and all of the snow looked pretty real and kept me into the movie. The crash also was well done.
I've always liked Octavia Spencer and she was great. When I see Chris Evans, I can only think of Not Another Teen Movie so it takes some of the credibility away, although he didn't do a bad job. Ed Harris was good, but maybe a bit too casual in his performance. I think he could have had some more fun with the role.
The movie is also a bit long. Overall, a definite good one to check out, but, in my opinion, no need to really see it more than once.
Cut! (2014)
Not perfect, but worth a watch.
I watched this movie not really knowing what to expect. I checked some of the reviews which seem up and down, but there were several comments about the bad reviews were by those only watching for a little bit and not seeing it all the way through. This peeked my curiosity.
I can see both sides as the first 30 minutes or so seemed to be just kind of following a journey without a clear cut path. It wasn't that it was bad, I just didn't know where it was going. I think that if I stopped there, I probably would not have liked it either. After seeing it all the way through, the path became clear and I see why it went that route.
After the first death, the entire tone of the movie changes from a frat-boyish/bullying comedy to something much more dark and serious. I think this may be the problem with some people not liking this movie because they did not quite get this far in. It is a movie within a movie, but also seems to be a comedy that gets covered up by a dark drama.
In the opening scene, there is a guy shown in the booth who we know is some kind of bad guy and then we see him drag someone off. As this happens, the voice over narrates about how a serial killer can be anyone and there are some great images of "death tools." After that, we sort of forget that part existed, which I think must have been intentional since it came back to play later.
We learn what a jerk Lane is because he is violent and against all authority. I think the acting was pretty good. Maybe a bit over the top during a few moments early on, but still believable and well done. Lane likes to hear himself talk and doesn't care who he offends. We are meant to hate Lane and I think the actor does a good job of making that happen.
"Brenda" from the original Hills Have Eyes is in it as herself, which is cool for the horror world, but I haven't seen the original film yet. The comments they make in the movie about that movie do make me want to see it though.
The girls are all attractive and all do a pretty good job with the acting too. The locations are fairly simple so they probably didn't spend a lot of money but it doesn't scream low budget at all. Most everything seemed fairly appropriate.
A few cool visual effects look pretty good too including one with a guy getting hit by a truck and Lane almost getting hit by a train. For me, this is where the movie started to pick up and really engage my interest. I wanted to see more of the deaths happen on screen, but figured they didn't show for budget reasons.
Part of the film is wondering if karma would come back to get Lane, which plays into the twist at the end. I honestly did not think this film was going to be smart enough to have any kind of twist, which is why when it hit, I was caught off-guard (even though I had read there was one). The movie instantly became so much smarter than I ever imagined and everything made sense, including the way the deaths were filmed.
I probably would have rated this film a 5, but the ending hit me so hard that it brought everything together and actually made me smile. If you are looking to see a straight up horror movie, it's not this one, but if you want to see something sneakily smarter, you may enjoy it. I give it a 7. Not a perfect movie, but a good one and worth a look.
The Cottage (2012)
A bit slow and unexciting, but OK
The movie seemed to never really develop enough for it to be credible. I think that the potential was there, but it, unfortunately didn't happen. The house and cottage was a beautiful location and the family seemed to be like a real everyday family.
I didn't really like the movie too much, but did give it a chance all the way through. It's not horrible, just too slow for me. I also wasn't expecting a lot, but did hope that it would be more dark.
Lorraine Nicholson (Jack Nicholson's daughter) appears just briefly in the movie and the first time is at the beginning to allegedly set it up for the new guy (Arquette) to move in when talking about the hit and run. I guess this was all part of an existing plan by Rose to help Arquette's character get close, but was that really even necessary? Why did he have to move into the cottage to achieve his goal of ending up with Rose as part of his clan? The entire goals seems that it could have been accomplished at his compound where he already had others, even if his goal was to kill a family (similar to Charles Manson). Perhaps the production had access to that fantastic house with the cottage and just tried to write the story around that.
I never saw Rose with any motive to be willing to kill her family. If there was brainwashing, I would have liked to have seen more. The dad seemed to care about her, her step mom seemed to have beef with the other sister. Rose was just kind of there and along for the ride. She has a personal sister rivalry, but nothing that most family members don't go through anyway.
The movie was a bit slow early on and really didn't seem to move any faster until the kidnapping of the friend. I would have liked to have seen more of the captures though and not just a cut to them in a sack in the back of the truck.
I thought the overall acting was OK. Arquette played his normal quirky character type, just more dark. The tattoos seen during the pool scene helped this. The girls playing the daughters were OK as well. The one playing Rose had a nice demeanor for the part, but overall, there was nothing too spectacular from the overall acting arc. Most seemed to play the parts pretty safe and somewhat flat. They weren't bad, but I would have liked to have seem more emotion from everyone involved, especially during the climactic ending.
Halloween (2007)
Like the real feel
I really like what Rob Zombie brought to this franchise. He took some of the cheese out of the original and made it more real and graphic. To me, this is more scary. He did show everything, which I would prefer some of it left to the imagination, but this also kept me on my toes wondering what would happy next. I think that he killed Ismael, the only one who really cared for him once he was institutionalized, to show that he has no compassion for anyone or anything. I would have rather seen him show a moment of compassion since Ismael had been good to him, but I guess that's not what Rob Zombie wanted. His choice. I think that if you can have a little empathy for a killer, it makes them more human and relatable, but that's just me.
Bully (2001)
Mimic their actions
The movie kept my attention but I wasn't sure about the gay aspect of it and why that was important. Overall, I liked the film. I like the use of some of violent scenes where they did not show it. The scene where they brought the bat down in front of the car was pretty graphic by imagination only. I like that. The use of sex is pretty accurate of that culture and is the same location and energy of most high school spring break trips... there, it's just all year like that. I don't think we needed to see all of the full frontal, but I don't think it took away from the film. The hot wax and things like that were things that were mimic'd in my high school because of this movie. We used to joke about some of these things, but would also do it to be cool. Ah, the ignorance of our youth.