Category: Home Video

Ravenous is one of my favorite movies from when I was in high school.  It was passed over by a lot of people, but it has David Arquette’s name on the box, so I forgive them.  The reviewers for the most part were not kind to this movie, but I think it holds up well and it is worth a look.

The story is a about a soldier who during a battle fakes his death and as a result is thrown under a pile of bodies.  He wakes up and is enraged and turns the tide of the battle, and it is promoted for his ‘victory’, but his commanding officer guesses at his cowardice and sends him to the middle of nowhere.  At his new post he finds that his power and strength may have come from the blood dripping in his mouth, and he may not be the only person that knows how to harness this power.

So right now you are thinking “great a movie about cannibals and David Arquette, that means I am out!”, but it is still awesome, and David Arquette has a minor role and gets eaten, so that is a plus.  This movie is so unique and fun, it is hard not to have a good time, and for the record Roger Ebert agrees with me.

My buddy TK and I must have watched this movie like 30 times.  TK even had the soundtrack which is one of the best parts of the movie.  The music is so offbeat it just adds to the character of this movie.

If you are looking for something different to watch, and aren’t afraid of a little blood, you should give this movie a try, and if you don’t like it you can blame TK and me.

Prometheus was the long awaited prequel to Alien from Ridley Scott, and while it got good reviews, people tended to be disappointed with the film.  I am not sure this disappointment was fair.

The movie is about a group of scientists that find messages all over the earth that seem to point to one planet way out in space, as where our forbearers came from.  So like all good scientists, they commission a space ship, the Prometheus, and head out.  Now I am not going to spoil the rest of the film for you, but since it is a prequel to Alien, I guess you at least know that things do not go well for the group.

Most people’s complaints about the movie tend to center around the fact that all these people are scientists, and yet they are always doing very dumb things.  I would counter that just because they are book smart that does not mean that they are going to know what to when their lives are on line and they are being chased by unknown beings.  True they choose the guy with the map to get lost, but I think they do a good job of showing him as an idiot before then.

The main thing I like about this movie is that they truly tired to make a good Sci-Fi movie.  They tried to make a movie that would scare us and make us think, and while the movie was not excellent it was very good.  And I think because Alien was excellent anything less then that was considered a let down.  I would watch this movie a hundred times before I had to watch Total Recall again, because the effort showed, and I am looking forward to the sequel .

Despite the negatives you may hear about this movie, you should give it a try.  I believe that it will still entertain you.  It may not be as good as Alien, but it is better then ninety percent of the garbage out there, and since so few good Sci-Fi movies make it, we should show our support.

I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised by Total Recall, a remake of a movie with the same name by Paul Verhoeven, but I wasn’t.  Instead I was just bored.  It is easy to see how this movie was made, Sci-Fi is big again thanks to Avatar, and it is based on a well liked short story by Philip K. Dick, but it is laking that spark that makes a good movie.

The basic plot is that a factory worker dreams he is something more, and he decides to go to Rekall to make memories to support his dreams, but when he goes there he finds out that he is indeed a double agent on a mission to save The Colony, post bio-war Australia, from the British Federation, post bio-war Britain (why do they get to keep their name?).

This movie screams, “made in a boardroom”.  A bunch of executives got together and went through a check list: find a Sci-Fi script, “Hey what about Total Recall?”, check.  Find cheep director that can handle action, “Hey Les Wismen did Underworld!”, check.  Get beautiful known actors that don’t demand a lot of money, Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, and Jessica Biel, check, check, and check.  Set design, “Didn’t Philip K. Dick also write the story Blade Runner was based on? So lets steal that look!”, check. Film, print, and release.

What do you get after all of that?  A film that lacks passion.  When watching this movie I could just tell that no one on this project really wanted to make a new Total Recall.  They were just doing their jobs and picking up a pay check, and because of that it is hard to care about what is happening on the screen.  It is like a pretty flip book.

The movie is competently made, and I don’t think anyone embarrasses themselves, but they should all pick projects they truly want to do in the future.  I am going to do my best to forget about Total Recall.

 

 

 

 

 

In late 2011 and early 2012 two movies with a similar premise came out.  Kids go up to the woods find a cabin and bad things happen.  Now I know what you are thinking, this is the plot to a ton of movies why pick these two to talk about, but they both take this basic plot and turn it on its head.  They are also both entries in to the seldom used genre of horror comedy.

It is interesting that both creators, Eli Craig, and Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, and The Cabin in the Wood, respectively decided to pay their respects to foundations of horror and horror comedy, with very unsubtle homages to the Evil Dead series.  They have the same cast of characters for their victims: an easy girl, a jock, a smart kid, an idiot, and a girl of virtue.  Tucker and Dale throw in a couple extra just so they have people to setup their gags.  But that is where the similarities stop, and they both decide to make different points.

Tucker and Dale has one reason for its existence: to make you laugh, and it succeeds.  It makes the real enemies the kids’ prejudice and stupidity, and poor Tucker and Dale are just trying to enjoy their new summer home.  The way they setup every gag is spot on, and it uses what the kids think they know about these horror like situations against them.

The Cabin in The Woods on the other had is all about you, and why Joss thinks you need horror movies, and why they all have to be pretty much the same.  Thanks to his great writing and Goddard’s good directing it just happens to be very funny as well.  I would love to tell you more but that would just spoil things.

It was great to see two movies take a shots at all the standard horror tropes, and succeed.  I would say that Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is the funnier of the two movies, but The Cabin in the Woods is smarter, but in the end it is a character flaw of mine that I like to laugh more then I like to think, so I like Tucker and Dale better, but not by much.  Hopefully Hollywood takes notice and more of these genre bending movies come out.  I think it would be fun if Joss did a The Cabin in the Woods type movie for all the major genres, and it will interesting to see if Eli can use this movie to build his career.

Also I would be remise if I didn’t link over to my buddy Daniel’s reviews of The Cabin in the Woods and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.

Last night I re-watched one of my favorite movies.  Please don’t judge me: Speed Racer.  If you look at a lot of other reviews of this movie you will understand why people tend to give me dirty looks when I admit my love for this movie out loud, but I think it is a misunderstood masterpiece and I am going to try and explain why I feel this way.

Speed Racer is a movie based off a Japanese Cartoon from the mid-sixty’s.  Speed Racer is the name of the main character and all he wants to do is be the best race car driver in the whole world, and his dad runs Racer Motors, and builds his cars.  The basic plot of this movie is that small independent race car companies are good and the big sponsors and builders are bad.  Oscar worthy I know, but the plot is not what makes this movie great.  It is the visuals, and the slavish devotion to the source material.

This movie is like cotton candy for your eyes.  There are shades of neon in this movie that you didn’t even know existed.  And the way they make the cars move, is like how every six year old makes his Matchbox cars move: turning three-sixties, jumping, spinning, sliding around every corner.  It is the stuff of every little boy’s dreams.  Fantastic.

The Wachowski’s also took a risk by turning a live action movie in to a cartoon with real people in it.  All the sets are animated, and so is the entire world around them. They made characters in the movie exactly as they are in the show which is amazing since the show was never that popular, and I don’t think any but a few of us got all the references.

Like I said before in this movie is like cotton candy.  I know this movie is pure visual sugar, and I can’t watch it all the time, but sometimes there is just nothing better then giving your eyes a treat.  Even if you disagree with me about if  this movie is good or not, I still think everyone should own this on Blu-Ray, not on DVD or streaming but Blu-Ray, because watching this movie puts your Hi-Def screen through its paces, and seeing those crazy colors pop and spin will make your jaw drop.  I can’t wait for the 4K Ultra Hi-Def screens to come out, so I can melt my eyes out with this movie.