This blog covers Movies, TV, and other Geeky things...... Movie Reviews (over 3,400 movies rated so far) Countdowns of my top movies by year.... and much more.
I'm always making lists of my Top movies of the year or my favorite action movies or favorite comedies. After a couple of really bad movies lately I thought it was time for a worst of least. So below is a least of the movies that were at the bottom of the last 10 years. These movies achieved the status of worst movie of the year (out of the movies I saw for those years).
The Worst movie of 2013 so far goes to Blast Vegas 1 out of 10
This movie was absolutely terrible and came fresh on the heels of Sharknado (a so bad it was good gem). There is nothing good to say about this terrible film......But I wrote about it anyway in a previous blog
The Worst movie of 2012 Jules Verne's Mysterious Island 0 out of 10
If you thought Blast Vegas was terrible wait until you see this dreadful movie that blasphemously has Jules Verne's name on it. This one got a 0 out of 10 which is very rare. For my thoughts on this turkey....go here
This movie that tries to steal some of Marvel's Thor thunder is definitely not the Thor you are looking for........Let's face it ---it isn't the Thor anyone was looking for.
The Worst movie of 2010 Gulliver's Travel 1 out of 10
This movie cemented for me the fact that I'm not a fan of Jack Black. He has starred in 3 of the worst movies I've ever seen. As a supporting character in a movie he is ok. As a lead NOT SO MUCH. For more on this movie that currently sits as the worst movie I saw in 2010.....go here.
The Worst movie of 2009 Transmorphers :Fall of Man 2 out of 10
Transmorphers -------Less than meets the Eye" a truly terrible movie...Like Almighty Thor ---the thought process on this one only went as far as the rip-off title.
Bruce Willis must have enjoyed making 12 Monkeys. When he saw the script for this movie near remake he signed up for it again. This sci-fi movie is part12 Monkeys, a little bit Terminator, a little bit (Twilight Zone) and a little bit Logan's Run.
Part Terminator/ 12 Monkeys
The main character (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a hit man in the year 2044, whose job is to kill people sent back in time by the mob in order for them to be killed without it being tracked in the more advanced future. He is called a Looper because eventually his older self will be sent back to be killed and close the loop and he will then be retired at an early age to enjoy his life. Everything goes to hell for him when his older self (Bruce Willis) is sent back as one of his victims and gets the drop on him. The movie has an interesting plot even though it is derivative of so many previous sci-fi films.
His older self has come back in order to kill one of 3 kids that will eventually become a Hitler type of evil syndicate ruler in the future. This brings up the ethical dilemma of whether it is worth killing 2 innocent kids in order to make sure the one evil one doesn't live to become the villain that he does. The future version of the character is set on killing the kid since he will eventually be responsible for killing the innocent women he loves. The younger self wants to kill the older version in order to restore his current life and so is protecting the kid.
Part Logan's Run
While all of this is happening his fellow Loopers are trying to chase both version of him down. I find it not too coincidental that he comes back 30 years from the future (30 years was the age in the movie when you were supposed to die in Logan's Run)
Part Twilight Zone Episode --It's A Good Life
Well the kid turns out to have special telekinetic powers almost to the point of Billy Mummy's character from that famous old Twilight Zone episode where he wishes people out in the cornfield. The movie ends with the younger version sacrificing himself and letting the kid live. His thought process is that the mom dying trying to save him will be what sends him down the bad path. Personally I think this was flawed, wishful thinking. The kid had already shown a dark side. I don't believe the mother's love was going to be enough to keep this kid from becoming the villain in the future that he does. I think the kid should have been eliminated. You don't let the kid that can make people explode with his mind live in hopes that the mom can make him a better person. He has already murdered people. Anyway it was an entertaining movie --very much along the lines of a 12 Monkeys, yet not as good.
A Security expert (played by Adrian Paul) is sent to check on a group of scientist in the desert that contact has been lost with. Instead all he runs into is a hot blond and a mystery. The experiment that scientists were working on was drilling into the Earth's crust and while doing so they unleashed something. It may be a strange gas that is causing hallucinations or it may be a the gateway to hell. Anyway things aren't quite what they seem and the movie does a pretty good job of making you constantly change your opinion of what is really going on. The movie would have had a perfect ending if it had ended about 5 minutes earlier than it did, but it felt like pulling and putting the rug out from underneath you a few more times. It probably would have been an 8 out of 10 for me if it had ended at the right point. Still it was an interesting movie that engaged my attention.
It starts out promising with some over the top bas Asylum special effects that include a car tumbling out of control down Lombard street in San Francisco and then a small zombie uprising on Alcatraz. Here is a rundown of what is good and bad about this zombie film.
List of what I liked in the movie:
1. The Best thing in the movie was Danny Trejo who has carved out a niche for himself ever since he started showing up in Robert Rodriquez movies. He would of probably ended up a forgotten supporting actor and now stars in C movies as well as the occasional theatrical release. Watching him kick zombie ass is entertaining.
2. Some of the cheesy, over the top bad Asylum special effects can be entertaining. The car crashing in Frisco and the later Red Car Trolley crash were funny for their cheesiness.
3. The movie attempted to bring in some known actors to the cast Mariel Hemmingway, Danny Trejo, French Stewart, Ethan Suplee and LeVar Burton--which added a little bit to the movie.
Things I didn't like:
1. The pacing at the start of the movie was decent and I had hopes it might actually be fairly entertaining , but then it got worse and the story began to drag once they left the prison. All Zombie movies will now suffer in comparison to the Walking Dead. The first 2 episodes of this years The Walking Dead blow away anything in this zombie movie. It is hard to walk badly choreographed fight scenes in a movie while we get kick ass scenes like Zombies falling through the ceiling on a TV show.
2. The Zombie makeup felt like it was almost an after thought. You feel like you are at a local zombie walk instead of watching a zombie movie.
3. If you are going to do a zombie apocalypse movie where supposedly the streets are empty---don't use helicopter shots of the city that clearly show cars driving around like it is a normal Sunday afternoon. There were several flaws like this that were noticeable.
4. Despite the list of known actors they really added nothing to the film, since the rest of the acting and dialogue were so poor. I really didn't need to see Levar Burton trying to get all serious in this low budget Zombie movie. It isn't Roots Levar....embrace the cheese.
All in all it I give it about a 4 out of 10 for being just an average nothing special zombie movie. At least it wasn't as bad as Day of the Dead 2.
I recently posted a question on facebook asking how people would rank the top 5 Zombie movies of all-time. Well let's just say that Day of the Dead 2:Contagium will not make the list. This was by far one of the least entertaining, dull, silly and boring zombie movies I've ever seen. I won't attempt to tell you what was good about the film, because I wouldn't be able to find anything redeeming about this flick. It focuses on a mental institution that in the 1968 had a zombie outbreak as a result of an experiment into a chemical weapons. The 1968 outbreak was contained, but the incompetent government apparently could not find the one missing vial, even though one of the modern day mental patients is able to find it many years later in broad daylight in a metal flask. That is how this bad zombie movie starts. They open it of course and start turning into weird hive mind like talking zombies with peeling skin. One of them bites an evil hospital worker which begins the spread of the virus that turns everyone else in the hospital into typical zombies. The plot was lame the acting was bad and silly and the zombies looked horrible (and not in a good way). I don't know how or why this was able to use the title Day of the Dead 2 since it is not an official sequel to the original. This movie is definitely at the bottom of any zombie movie list. It was just a lazy and unispired effort.
Have you ever felt like you were living in a computer simulation?That there were too many coincidental things happening in your life?Have you ever said “It is such a Small World” when something weird happens?Well this movie answers that question.
(Possible unintentional spoilers)
I wanted to revisit The Thirteenth Floor since I’ve referenced this movie many times when things that make you feel like you are living in a digital simulation happen. My wife had never seen it so I recorded it when I saw it was going to be on. It is a really interesting Sci-Fi Noir movie about Virtual Reality.It starts with the death of the owner of a company that is working on virtual reality program.The plot plays out like a Film Noir detective story, with a detective trying to solve the murder and the main character who seems to be the main suspect trying to solve it as well.He ends up going into the virtual reality version of the 1930’s in search of answers after a clue.The people in this digital simulation don’t know they are in a simulation (It is there world).The revelation of this fact completely rocks the one character in the simulation that discovers this fact.The movie has some cool twists, including a big wow moment reveal.It was fun to re-watch it knowing the twist to see the excellent foundation laid down throughout the film that you may not catch the first time around.I love the noir feel to the film and love the high concept storyline.I love films like Truman Show, Dark City, and Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind, oranything based on a Phillip K. Dick book. This movie made me think of several Sci-Fi books that I've read in the past. If you are a fan of Sci-fi or film Noir check this film out.I think it is an under appreciated film.
It's halloween night and some sexy college students decide to throw a halloween party in the wrong house. Having parties in old houses where something tragic happened years ago is never a good idea. The first 25 minutes of the movie is basically a bunch of college girls in slutty halloween outfits. Then the party gets busted by the cops and group of people get left behind and locked inside. They find some old skeletons in the basement and one of them gets bite by one of the skeletons. She turns into a demon and one by one the demons try to take over their bodies so they can unleash their wrath on humanity. It was an okay horror flick if you like watching scantily clad girls in Halloween costumes turning into gory demons.
The movie is a remake of a 1988 Horror movie by the same name that I never saw or have forgotten about. I guess you could place this movie in the genre of Evil Dead type films (although not even close to as good as that). The demons are pretty gory and once the possessions start taking place the movie doesn't really slow down for too long between deaths and gore. It stars Elizabeth Shannon (American Pie) and Edward Furlong (Terminator 2) and Monica Kenna. It is a decent halloween diversion if you are looking for demonic movie you haven't seen yet.
Here is the trailer for the original 1988 movie which I'll have to check out at some point to compare the 2 films
I found myself uncertain exactly how to feel after watching Oblivion. It was directed by the director that did the stunning Tron Legacy so I was excited to finally see it. The film had great special effects, but the movie itself wasn't so great. This sci-fi movie stars Tom Cruise in a "Last Man on Earth" type movie about a worker whose job it is to go down to the planet and repair patrol drones. He has a girl partner that operates out of a platform above the earth they are stationed on. Earth was devastated by a war that happened after an interstellar invasion and is pretty much void of life. Of course ever Last Man on Earth story you find out that they are really the Last Man on Earth and Oblivion is no different in that respect. The movie suffered from the same problem that most "Last Man of Earth" films suffer from....a really slow pace with only that one character on screen for quite ahwile. The movie develops and has on ok, but predictable story until a certain interesting twist. The only problem is that by the time the twist happens I'd lost interest in the main character and the story and started looking at my watch wondering how much longer the movie was. Despite the cool twist the movie ends with a very lazy and typical sci-fi invasion ending that I've seen dozens of times before. After watching the film I went online and was surprised to see great review after great review from people talking about how stunning and amazing it was. I have to disagree and I probably wouldn't see this movie again. The best I can give it is a 5 out of 10.
I saw that Day of the Dead was showing on Chiller the other day and it has been at least 20 plus years since I had seen this zombie movie. Of the three movies in George Romero's zombie series that started with the Classic Night of the Living Dead 1968 (a movie that created the modern zombie genre) Day of the Dead was my least favorite. Re-watching it all these years later, I actually appreciated it more than the first time around. The movie takes place sometime after the events of Dawn of the Dead in focuses on a military base in which the some scientists are trying to learn more about the Zombies and what makes them tick, while some scraggly looking military guys are trying to protect them. Here is the rundown of the good and bad about Day of the Dead.
List of what I liked in the movie:
1. The zombie effects and blood and gore of the film was excellent including scenes with a guy getting his head slowly ripped off his body.
2. The soundtrack at times had a cool John Carpenter style vibe to it
3. The dialogue and acting were really cheesy, but that isn't always necessarily a bad thing. (also see this as something on the What I Didn't Like list)
4. Looking at this movie years later, I was able to reflect on its contributions to the genre. One of the focuses of the movie not seen in the previous films was the notation of trying to understand what makes the zombies the way they are and working towards either a cure or a way to control the zombies. As far a zombie films or shows like the Walking Dead..... you have to give props to the movies that set the foundation for the genre.
5. Bub the zombie that can learn and remember a part of his former life was an obvious inspiration for the storyline in The Walking Dead in Woodbury where the scientist was trying to figure out if any of the former person was still in the undead creatures. Bub is a classic big screen zombie
Here is Bub trying to make a phone call
.
Things I didn't like:
1. The pacing of the movie was way too slow and you really don't get much good zombie action until the third act of the film. The movie is more about the people which works great in a TV show like the Walking Dead where we have the time in each episode to explore the characters and their relationships and motivations. In a stand alone movie this drags the story down and was clearly the reason I didn't like this movie many years ago. Coming on the heels of Return of the Living Dead....which spun the Zombie genre off into a whole new direction and was relentless and entertaining throughout, the slow pace of Day of the Dead was a disappointment
2. The acting and the dialogue could have been straight out of the Toxic Avenger.
Of course this may be a reason to put it on the like list.
3. Despite the great and gory special effects the sense of peril wasn't at a level that it should be. I mean the zombies are slow and plodding and just don't strike the terror that the Zombies of The Walking Dead do. Maybe part of that is not having a connection with the lackluster characters in the movie, but again I feel it struggles in comparison to Return of the Living Dead or its own predecessor Dawn of the Dead, which had one of the setting ever for a Zombie movie.
All in all it I give it about a 6 out of 10 which is a better rating than the first time
around mainly because of its contributions to the genre.
Although the story lines are totally unbelievable it doesn’t really matter.The first episode of the season was absolutely ridiculous and out of controland yet –the show remains totally fun.And this year they will be adding Jorge Garcia(from LOST) as a recurring character which will only make it more watchable.
4. Sleepy Hollow
An interesting new show featuring a fish out of water character trying to help a small town cop save the world from ending.In the tradition of shows like X-Files and Fringe –this show has captured my attention with its twisted mystery stories and cool mythology.
3.Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Joss Whedon strikes again.The man behindBuffy, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse.The show is off to a good start and knowing Whedon will only get better with time.It has a spy show feel to it and immediately made me miss Chuck.It isn’t as good as Chuck yet, but I’ve loved all of Whedon’s shows and it is already my favorite new show and number 3 on my Fall TV List
2. The Big Bang Theory
This season is off to a strong start.This weeks episode centered around Sheldon trying to get back at his “girlfriend”for ruining Raiders of the Lost Ark for him. With the exception of Raj whose character seems expendable at this point the rest of the cast is stellar.I’m sure this nerds will continue to please.
1. The Walking Dead
One episode in and already my favorite show for Fall 2013. Zombies were literally raining from the ceiling in episode 1.We start the new season off many months after last season’s showdown with the Governor.There has obviously been some changes to the group in that time period as they have incorporated theless violent members of the Governor's community and others as well. The first episode ends with a mysterious death that could spell doom for our favorite survivors.The show looks like it will have another really strong season, I can’t
The Fall TV Season is in Full swing. For a look (or listen) about the new Fall TV Shows I'd like to introduce you to a new Podcast. The Super, Fantastic, Terrific show.
Episode one is all about what we are watching in the 2013 Fall TV Shows.
It was horror in the corn day, having already watched Scarecrow, I decided to give the 2009 version of Children of the Corn a chance. The first 45 minutes of the movie was basically just a unhappy couple bickering at each other while the Amish looking corn kids stalked them and hide behind things. The cult of corn children are just not that scary. Kids that don't know how to fight in Amish outfits are just not that scary even if they are killers. I really don't know how they ever killed the adults in the first place unless they did it in their sleep. They keep talking about He Who Walks Behind the Rows which is who they worship and fear, well He Behind the Rows should have showed up at some point in the movie if it wanted to be scary. The original Childre of the Corn didn't scare or entertain me. This version was no different.
This Scarecrow is scaring off more than just crows. He happens to have a craving for human flesh. It is the 100th anniversary of the local Scarecrow festival in the small town that the characters from the movie inhabit. As punishment for some inappropriate internet photos that were spread around school this fake breakfast club group of kids is punished by being sent with a teacher to help move some Scarecrow from a farm into town for the festival. Well it doesn't quite work out as planned as they end up stranded at the farm and picked off one by one by an evil Scarecrow. The settings are effective as the cornfields make a great setting for the unseen creatures introduction. There are no red headed cult kids in this cornfield and this defintely isn't the Wizard of Oz Scarecrow, instead we get something that looks like a bunch of burnt skeleton made out of fibers. For a low budget horror movie that follows a formula that has been seen many times, it does a pretty good job of it. The use of good locations and sound effects make this standard low budget horror movie work effectively. It stars Lacey Chabert ( the youngest sister from Party of Five) as a part of the family whose old farm the evil Scarecrow was buried under over a 100 years ago that apparently the creature wants to kill really badly.
The second Hammer Horror movie for the morning was The Devil's Bride from 1968. Starring Christopher Lee who is trying to save the son of his old friend from a Satanic mind control cult.
The movie is basically a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil (represented by the Angel of Death and the Goat of Mendes). Our heroes end up hunkering down in a circle to protect themselves from the evil that will tempt them. The movie was interesting and Christopher Lee was excellent as usual. The movie could be ripe for a remake as the concept has such potential that seemed unrealized on screen. I'd love to see this movie concept with modern day special effects that could intensify the battle between good and evil as the characters face challenges to their circle of protection. (as seen below).
October is here and that means all the channels are starting to run Halloween programing..... which translates to Horror movies. TMC had a Hammer Horror films double feature this morning. The first movie was The Gorgon from 1964 starring Hammer horror legends Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. The Gorgon centers around a 20th century village that has the spirit of Megaera (one of the 3 Gorgons from mythology) taking human form during the full moon and turning people to stone. So basically it is just a version of the werewolf story with a Gorgon instead of a wolf. The story centers around who the Gorgon is (which can be figured out really early in the film --despite an attempt at a red herring. It had the typical feel and style of many of the 1960's Hammer Horror movies, both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing were great as usual they both have such great screen presence. They are similiar to Vincent Price in that they elevate the low budget horror movies that they are in simple by their prescene on screen. I enjoyed the tone and feel of this Hammer movie.
Hammer Horror legends Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee together again.
