Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Movie 11 of 2008: Knocked Up

I had been wanting to see KNOCKED UP even before it came out. I loved the trailer for the movie, but just now got the chance to see it. I watched the TV show UNDECLARED when it was on (though very short-lived... 17 episodes) and was disappointed to see it go off the air. So... it was refreshing to see both Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel in a movie together. The movie was just as funny as I expected rather than being one of those comedies where all of the funny moments appear in the trailer. I highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys a good comedy and doesn't mind some college humor to go along with it.

And for Cindi/Laura... I rate it 3 snorts!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Movie 10 of 2008: Cloverfield

This blog should've been done almost a week ago as I saw this last Friday night, but... I haven't had time, so here it is!

If you have not seen this movie yet... GO! It was awesome! (albeit very short... only like an hour if you don't count trailers and credits... the credits were like 15-20 minutes in themselves and with a crappy song playing... though that was the only part of the movie I didn't like!) The movie was intense and had you on the edge of your seat wondering what was to come next, who would survive, what would be left (if anything) of the city, etc... VERY action-packed! There actually weren't a lot of visuals of the monster within the movie, but... I think that made it that much more "scary" (for lack of a better word). I believe I jumped once or twice in the movie, but the movie itself wasn't scary... just suspenseful... and sometimes that gets me worse than so-called scary movies.

A lot of people were concerned about whether or not this movie would cause motion sickness. I don't typically get sick in a car unless I'm trying to read or if I get overly warm, but... I honestly don't think this movie was bad in that sense. Yeah... the camera was shaky a lot of the time (I honestly feel that in some scenes it should've been shakier, but I'm sure they were trying to limit that out some) but it needed to be based on what was going on. As for the guy carrying the camera around everywhere... good god he had some balls! If I'd been in his predicament, I would've lost the camera way in the beginning of that movie!!! But again... it's what needed to be done.

At any rate, this movie (so far) is my favorite of what I've seen this year. I'm sure that there will be others that rate as highly or almost as highly, but this was a REALLY good flick. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys suspenseful movies and/or movies that are filmed a bit differently from the norm.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Movie 9 of 2008: The Exorcist

As many people know, I'm trying to go back and watch a bunch of horror movies that I missed out on, including many "classics". I ended up picking up The Exorcist after a discussion in The LAIR about why people actually laughed during this movie. I had to see if I'd be another one to laugh or not... ha ha! So... I watched... and I enjoyed! I didn't like laugh out loud or anything, but I was amused at some of the antics of Raven and also because I kept spotting scenes that had been spoofed in SCARY MOVIE (peeing on the floor, spitting the pea soup, etc...). At any rate, I am glad I finally watched this film and am excited about continuing my movie journey. I want to thank everyone yet again for all of the recommendations... NICK YAK, CHRIS RAMONE, BETH, TOM PICCARILLI, DAELITH!!! Keep 'em coming!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Movie 8 of 2008: A Tale of Two Sisters



Okay, I heard many good things about this movie and I enjoyed it while I watched it, but... I had no clue what was going on!!! There was a scene that made me "jump" so that always makes for an interesting movie. Ha ha! Anyway, back to the plot... since Tom Piccirilli was one of the people that highly recommended this to me I had to message him and find out if he could explain it to me, which he did... in quite detail I might add. I can't believe how much I missed about what was going on within this flick. Of course, I think my multi-tasking and lack of complete focus might've had something to do with it... though most asian films tend to be along the weird & bizarre side and hard to follow a lot of the time. I'm definitely going to re-watch this movie to see if I can grasp a better understanding of it though because the movie is extremely interesting and now that I've had it explained a bit I think I can try to follow it quite a bit better. Thanks Tom!!!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Movie 7 of 2008: Dead & Breakfast



Upon Beth's recommendation and also the video clip she posted on her blog, I HAD to rent DEAD & BREAKFAST. I was right... this movie was frickin' hilarious!!! I absolutely loved the soundtrack (and thank you Chris for correcting the fact that I was told originally that there was no soundtrack made for this film... I MUST get it!!!) There was a bit more blood-shed in this movie than I wanted to see, but even the scene where the guy had the chainsaw stuck in his head was cracking me up. I am going to have to re-watch this movie because I have a feeling that I probably missed some stuff due to laughing so much.

Below are 2 videos about the movie... the first being the trailer and the latter being the clip Beth posted that I was laughing so hard at...












Saturday, January 12, 2008

Movie 6 of 2008: Rock Star



I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED this movie!!! I didn't realize that Mark Wahlberg or Jennifer Aniston had even done any movies early on, but this movied kicked ass! The soundtrack to the movie was kickin' and the whole cast was really cool. (I'm starting to see that the guy who played Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter movies actually is doing a lot of other stuff as he was both in this movie and Sweeney Tood) I absolutely loved the scene where Jennifer pierced Mark's nipple and also the scene where he was practicing talking about how his vocals have improved from "eating pussy" (as he put it) and Jennifer was in the background asking him if he was going to talk about it all day or do it. HA HA!!! I'm so glad Chris suggested this movie as well because I loved every minute of it!!!

Movie 5 of 2008: The Fog



After re-renting this movie because I had the remake rather than the originally I finally got the chance to watch this movie to see what all of Chris Ramone's hype was all about. I have to agree with him though, THE FOG was a great movie! It was very different from other movies I have seen. I was very happy that they didn't show all of the gory details of each killing, though, because I have a feeling that I would've been sick from seeing all of the murders done with that hook the main bad guy was carrying around. I'm looking forward to checking out more of John Carpenter's works. Thanks for introducing me to his stuff Chris!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Movie 4 of 2008: Phone



I just finished watching PHONE. I have to praise the young little girl that played Young-ju, Seo-woo Eun, beyond words. WOW!!! Her acting in this movie was awesome!!! If you don't mind Asian films, definitely give this one a watch... if nothing else, to watch Seo-woo. Her facial expressions alone in this movie made the movie for me. She would have the sweetest little angelic face one second and the next she would have the most horrific, evil look you can imagine. I think her best scene was right before she fell down the stares. I don't have any idea how young this little girl was in the movie, but she is going to be a great little actress if she keeps this up!

As for the movie itself, I thought it was quite suspensful and entertaining. No, it didn't really scare me, but then again... I don't think I'm as scared easily nowadays. I did find the movie quite creepy an had the soundtrack been more creepy and less classical it's quite possible the movie would've seemed a lot scarier to me. I believe this is my first Korean film I've ever scene, but I thought it was very well done and I plan to check out some other Korean films in the near future. I think I'll be trying to track down A TALE OF TWO SISTERS based on strong recommendations from both the following horror authors... Nick Cato & Tom Piccirilli.

Movie 3 of 2008: The Station Agent

Still working my way through the DVDs I picked up at Hollywood Video Friday night. Last night I watched THE STATION AGENT upon Nick's recommendation. I have to agree that this was a great flick! I probably would've enjoyed it even more so had I not been trying to multi-task at the time, but I still really liked it. I was more focussed on it than the work I took home to take care of at the same time. LOL! Peter Dinklage, as well as the rest of the cast, put forth an astounding performance. The story behind this movie was unique and very heartfelt in my opinion. If anyone else has seen this movie, I'd love to hear your opinions. If you haven't seen it, I recommend checking it out.

For more info on this movie, check out the movie's site.

Tonight's movie... either HALLOWEEN or PHONE!

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Movie 2 of 2008: Kamikaze Girls



Just finished watching my 2nd movie of the new year and I have to say I enjoyed it much more than the first one. However, I'm really not sure how to explain the movie. LOL!!! I think that Japanese movies/shows/etc... are something one has to aquire a taste for as the Japanese have a tendency to create extremely weird and bizarre things. This movie started off completely weird and had a lot of oddities in it. There was a major story line in it about two completely opposite girls becoming friends and all, but I just loved the outfits and the weird stuff in the movie. LOL!!! I definitely am interested in rewatching it as there is a special mode on the DVD called "Sideways Mode" that supposedly gives an extra look into the Kamikaze Girls throughout the movie. It's just a really interesting film. For those that enjoy Japanese films and such, definitely check this one out. If you are someone who does not enjoy weird Japanese stuff, I don't recommend it because it is odd. I was laughing a lot during the movie though... especially the first half of it. Two thumbs up from me! :) Check out the trailer...








Now... off to try finish reading my first book of the New Year as I'm already falling behind on my 2 books a week goal... eep! I also need to get myself doing crunches tonight... that's an even more difficult goal to force myself into. Ugh!

Movie 1 of 2008: Night of the Living Dead



So I watched my first movie of 2008 yesterday. After visiting the LAIR of the YAK so often I decided I needed to give horror movies a try again. When I was younger I used to get scared of them, but I've always been able to read the books so assumed it was just the music and visuals that got to me. So... I took some recommendations from Nick the Yak and Chris Ramone on what some good horror movies would be. Nick's first suggestion was NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD so I started there. I gotta admit, I realy didn't enjoy the movie. (sorry Nick!!!) Granted, this movie is from the 60s so I'm sure some of the cheesiness is from that because a lot of older movies are quite cheesy, but I just didn't think there was much to the movie. Maybe that's the way it was supposed to be though... if so, well, they did a great job. LOL! I will admit that I enjoy the chase scene at the beginning of the movie after the first zombie killed Barbra's brother. She did pretty good with her acting job in being numb after the death and with the occasional hysterical outbursts. At any rate, it was probably a good starter horror movie for me, but definitely not a scary movie. Last year I watched 1408 based on a short story by Stephen King... now THAT movie made me jump... granted, only once. But... 1408 was also more of a suspense/thriller rather than a monster movie. So... I'm wondering if it's just the monster movies that I'm not into, but I'll give some more a try and see. I currently have HALLOWEEN here to watch so that's coming up later this week. I'll try posting my opinions regarding all of the movies I've rented and hopefully Nick and Chris get to pop by and read what I had to think. If not, I'm sure we'll get to talk about it in the LAIR. (assuming Op11 finally get up and running properly again *sigh*)

Beth (or anyone else)... I know you're quite into the horror movie scene as well... any recommendations? I don't like a ton of gore in my movies though so please keep that in mind. I don't mind killings and some blood, but it can be too much and I really don't like seeing the insides ripped out of a person's body. Bleech!