Saturday, February 23, 2008

Movie 15 of 2008: Jaws



Movie Description:

Steven Spielberg's film is generally considered one of the scariest movies ever made. The frightfest is based on the book by Peter Benchley, son of author Nathaniel and grandson of author Robert Benchley. The plot is simple: The tourist season of a resort island is devoured by a great white shark. The ensuing "fishing trip" to catch the monstrous man-eater is filmed with power and suspense and plenty of scares that has had audiences jumping out of their seats for decades--and staying out of the water.

Movie Trailer:







My Opinion:

Okay, so I gave in and watched Jaws as I was getting tormented for having never seen it. Twenty minutes into the movie I was questioning why it was considered such a great movie, but I kept on watching. I can't say that I loved the movie by any means, but it did improve and the way they ended up killing the shark was pretty cool. When the shark had his "last meal", I thought the close-up of the shark made him quite fake looking. (though not nearly as bad as the homemade plant we had in Jr. High for our production of Little Shop of Horrors... LOL!!!) I doubt I'll go on to watch Jaws 2 or 3, but I'm glad that I at least gave this one a try. I guess I'm just not the movie fanatic like a lot of people are. Had I read Peter Benchley's book I probably would've enjoyed it better than I did the movie, but having seen the movie now... I'll probably never bother with the movie. (which reminds me, I should probably get rid of the Lord of the Rings books since I ended up watching those movies last year. ha ha!!!)


Friday, February 22, 2008

Movie 14 of 2008: The Girl Next Door



Movie Description:

In a quiet suburban town in the summer of 1958, two recently orphaned sisters are placed in the care of their mentally unstable Aunt Ruth (Emmy winner Blanche Baker of HOLOCAUST). But Ruth's depraved sense of discipline will soon lead to unspeakable acts of abuse and torture that involve her young sons, the neighborhood children, and one 12-year-old boy whose life will be changed forever. William Atherton (DIE HARD), Catherine Mary Stewart (NIGHT OF THE COMET) and Grant Show (MELROSE PLACE) co-star in this devastating drama adapted from the controversial best seller by Jack Ketchum that Rue Morgue Magazine called "one of te most disturbing reads in the history of horror literature."

Movie Trailer:







My Opinion:

While I was reading Jack Ketchum's THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, I was informed that their was a movie adaptation of the book just coming out on DVD. I was doubtful that the movie would be very good just because I usually hate move adaptions of books (with the exception of BIG FISH where the movie is sooooooo much better than the book!!!). After watching THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, I have to say, I was impressed. When it first started I was recognizing the dialogue straight from the book and was happy that it seemed the movie was going to follow along with the book well. When Meg first came on the screen, however, her voice just really grated on me for some reason. It just didn't seem like what I was expecting of her. Of course, this isn't too big a deal considering the majority of the movie she is gagged and can't be heard speaking anyway so it didn't really take away from the movie. My next complaint was how choppy the movie seemed. It was following along with the book quite well, but the scenes just didn't seem to transition. It was like they just jumped from one thing to the next with no tie-ins. There were also many scenes cut out, though not anything majorly important from what I recall, but that's to be expected in order to cut the story short enough to squeeze into the movie. The latter part of the movie, when the torture scenes took over, seemed to flow a lot smoother and the scenes blended together well. My one big complaint about the movie was the ending. I was very disappointed that they didn't follow closer to the book. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but the chain of events here did not flow the same as the book and the "final battle" seemed to be cut way too short. Also, when the story goes back to the adult version of David I was unhappy that they had cut out the part about what his mom had written on a newspaper article... and even the newspaper article for that matter. That scene seemed very powerful to me when I read it and even gave me the chills. With the movie being only 90 minutes long, I just think they could've taken the time with the ending to follow closer to the novel.

I don't watch the "extras" on DVDs all that often, but I was curious about the making of this movie so I watched the 20 or so minute segment in order to learn more about how things were done and hope that maybe it explained some of their reasonings on why they did some of the things I have complained about above, but instead it just made me realize something else that I think should've been done differently... for at least part of the movie anyway. The actress who played Aunt Ruth said that her and the director had the same idea about how Ruth should be played. They thought her character should be stern and talk normally rather than sounding like a lunatic, but in the book as things progressed, Ketchum described her character as having started to go crazy and such... I thought that should have been depicted in the movie myself. *shrugs*

Anyway, overall I thought this movie was done very well. My complaints above are more because I had just recently read the book and am picking it apart quite a bit, plus I'm very biased and prefer books over movies. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone that isn't feint of heart because it is a great story (as well as inspired by a true story), however, I also recommend that the book should be read first as to not spoil the wonderful book Ketchum has created. As my profile on here says...


Thursday, February 14, 2008

Movie 13 of 2008: Ratatouille



Movie Description:

A rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family's wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau. Despite the apparent dangers of being an unlikely - and certainly unwanted - visitor in the kitchen of a fine French restaurant, Remy's passion for cooking soon sets into motion a hilarious and exciting rat race that turns the culinary world of Paris upside down.

Movie Trailer:







My Opinion:

This was a really cute movie. I can't say I liked it as well as Pixar's other works, but it was rather cute. Hmmm... that's the second time I said cute, huh? LOL!!! Well... that's the best word for it. I thought Pixar did a good job with the animation and the storyline was creative. I mean... c'mon... would you expect a kitchen full of mice to cook YOU dinner? HA HA!!! Anyway, I recommend it as a good family movie or one to keep the kids occupied. :)

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Movie 12 of 2008: Ju-on: The Grudge



Movie Description:

Directed by Takashi Shimizu, The Grudge follows volunteer homecare worker Rika Nishida (Megumi Okina), whose altruism leads her to Chiharu (Yui Ichikawa), a catatonic old woman slowly dying in a home filled with years worth of accumulated filth. Rika's suspicion is aroused when, during the course of her volunteer duties, she can't help but sense an overwhelming feeling of dread. Eventually, Rika opens an old wardrobe only to discover a malevolent boy who introduces himself as Toshio (Yuya Ozeki). It seems as though the house was formerly occupied by a young couple -- Katsuya (Kanji Tsuda), Chiharu's son, and his wife, Kazumi (Risa Matsuda). Sadly, Kazumi was killed thanks to Toshio shortly after moving in, and it wasn't long before Katsuya met a similar fate. When one of Rika's colleagues alerts the local authorities, an investigation turns the house inside out and exposes an ancient and deadly history.

Trailer:







My opinion:

I typically enjoy Asian horror movies, but honestly... this one didn't do much for me. There were some moments of the movie I enjoyed and due to watching it with a friend who hated it even more and made bad jokes throughout, I was laughing a lot. I just didn't think it was very creepy. Granted, the kid and other ghosts in the movie were freaky looking, but there weren't really any "jump" moments as I'd call 'em and it just wasn't good. LOL! A lot of the Asian movies (whether horror or not) are VERY hard to comprehend and this one did follow somewhat with that pattern as you had to try really hard to keep track of what all was going on in the movie and who was connected/related to whom. Maybe J-Horror movies just aren't meant to scare me. I mean, everyone told me how THE RING was the SCARIEST movie. I thought it was poorly done. I had read THE RING by Koji Suzuki and I then wathched the American movie. And for those that HAVE seen THE RING... there are NO horsese in the book... not a one!!! I have NO idea where that came from. I then went on to watch the Japanese version of the movie, RINGU... it was better and followed closer to the book, but at the end when they told about how the girl got in the well, well... let's just say, it was a different person in the book that put her there. I'm not sure why they switched it for the movie. *shrugs* Anyway, I recommend the books by Suzuki... just skip the movies! LOL!!! Anyway, back to Ju-on... I definitely won't be renting the sequels to this one and I don't really recommend watching it. I also don't plan on watching THE GRUDGE (the American version of this movie) because after THE RING fiasco, I won't bother with American re-makes.