CONTEST 2

CONTEST 2

      In my own way of thanking everyone for reading my blog and for the blog hitting 30,000 hits I'm running another contest. This time the prize is:

One blu-ray copy of Near Dark

and

One think pack dvd copy of Aliens

     Now to win this you must answer three questions and they are

1. What one word is never mentioned in the film Near Dark?

2. What film had Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen in it?

3. What film had Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, and Jenette Goldstein in it?

Send answers to

     mouthofcontest@gmail.com

Make sure you have the heading Near Dark in the email
Make sure your name and address are in the body of the email with the answers to the questions
The contest will run for two weeks at which time I will randomly pick a email. If the email has the answers wrong I will then choose another email randomly until one with the correct answers are found.
By sending in your answers you are electronically signing that you are 18 years of age or older.
The contest is open to US and Canada only.
And last but not least, good luck to all

ghostwound

PROMETHEUS

PROMETHEUS (2012)
US
Directed by Ridley Scott

CAST:
Noomi Rapace - Elizabeth Shaw
Michael Fassbender - David
Charlize Theron - Meredith Vickers

PLOT:
     A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

REVIEW:
     I usually start my reviews with random thoughts and such, yet with this one I decided to put down a quote from H.P. Lovecraft instead as it says everything quite perfectly about the Alien franchise including this one,

    

"The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain -- a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the dæmons of unplumbed space."
― H. P. Lovecraft, 'Supernatural Horror in Literature'

      While everyone is saying how much the film is stolen by Michael Fassbender as David, I'll get to him in a second, Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw to me is the best actor in the film. Rapace's character will no doubt be compared to Ripley as both are strong female leads in a hopeless situation. The reason why I'm saying this is plain and simple the film is about her and the faith she has then loses. Rapace adds a softness to the character that all the other characters are lacking. This doesn't mean that she is the weakest character, in fact this adds a humanity to her that saves her life at one point in the movie.  Michael Fassbender's David is the quirkiest character in the film as we the viewers can tell that he is always thinking, or processing if you want, of the other characters and what makes them different and what motivates their actions. There is a childlike quality to David that Fassbender adds to the role that almost makes you feel betrayed after watching some of David's actions he takes against the crew. These actions aren't out of cruelty or revenge, but out of more curiosity and wonderment at what would happen and his questioning of his own role among humanity. Charlize Theron's Meredith Vickers was the one true question mark out of all the characters as she is mostly always seen standing away from everyone and tries to keep the entire crew at arms length. The reason for this is explained later on in the film and up until a certain point the viewers may think that Vickers is actually a second android next to David, though you find out that she is in fact human and a very weak one at that as she seems to lose composure whenever her authority is threatened or a order is disobeyed. Despite Vickers' icy exterior inside she is severely insecure and is trying to overcompensate for that fact.

     I will admit that before I saw Prometheus that I read a couple of reviews. One thing I've noticed about them is that they either loved the movie or hated it. So much so in fact that the two sides have broken down to name calling on some boards. And do not doubt that you will either love the movie or hate it as there really is no in-between when it comes to this. This has to do with that the fact that the movie asks you to think, which is almost a unheard of these days. It asks us to get the notion of God out of our heads and in it's place to put in a notion that takes hold throughout the film. What if we were made by another alien race. Would you be willing to have all that you hold true, that wall that we built, knocked down to truly know the truth. These are lofty questions that most everyone can understand and it is these questions that are the foundations of the story to Prometheus. On the flip side is the mythology aspect of Prometheus. The one where the Gods become pissed at the titan Prometheus and punish him for giving fire to the humans. For giving them knowledge. What is not widely known is that by giving humans knowledge, it is this knowledge that helped mankind stop their own destruction from the Gods.  The knowledge being sought in this is why did, as Elizabeth Shaw puts them, the Engineers create humans. For what purpose. Yet by the end of the film this question has changed to why are they, the Engineers, trying to destroy us. Did we overstep our bounds by learning and asking to much? While not all the answers are giving in the film some are answered. Another interesting story point that is brought up in the film is that the planet the crew find the Engineers on turns out to be a staging point, or to put it more simply, a military installation. The one bad aspect of this is that how they came to this conclusion or found out is not giving. This is more than likely from a cut scene that explains how they found out. This is the only real slight I found with the film. Ridley Scott set the film up this way for a reason and I can't thank him enough for making a film that is smart and doesn't take the idiot route that most do.

      Director Ridley Scott has done something that I thought really wasn't possible after so many years of bad movies that had the xenomorphs in them and that is to make the alien films mean something again, while creating something completely new with something that could be just as deadly and potentially more dangerous with the Engineers, or as they are more well known as the race that is the Space Jockeys. The film is beautifully shot with a even hand that doesn't pull away from a shot. When what action there is happens the camera doesn't pull away from it, try to hide or make the camera shake to make it seems like there is more going on than there really is. What we are seeing is what is happening, nothing more or less. Prometheus is more about the tension and the unknown. Most of what is happening cannot be explained, and that makes the film more powerful. As we are there as an observer only, not everything is explained and I think that is what makes most people hate the film. There are stand out scenes that are amazing to watch and see and I'm not going to go into those scenes as to go into it will ruin it. What I will say is that if you can watch it in 3D, do so. While a lot of the films that are using the format to make things pop out on the screen or for a quick jolt to the audience, Scott does something different. Scott uses the format to help the film and not for thrill, but to enhance what is shown and help add depth to what is being seen. The reason for this is that this is not a small movie, in fact Prometheus is a far reaching film that has ideas that pushes the audience and what is being seen has to match it as well. And the visuals do. What also helps with this is the use of as much in-camera effects as possible. Prometheus is a film that will with time become more accepted such as a lot of Ridley Scott's other works have become. But to me this film is a classic already as it pushes boundaries and ideas and isn't afraid to leave it up to the viewer to think for theirself.

BEST DEATH:
      Fifield's melting doom.

BEST LINE:
     You know what this place is? Hell.

FUN FACTS:
     Designer and artist H.R. Giger, who worked on the original design of the Xenomorph Alien, was brought in to assist in reverse-engineering the design of the Aliens in the film.

     Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski convinced Ridley Scott that it would be possible to shoot the film in 3D with the same ease and efficiency of typical filming. 3D company 3ality Technica provided some of the rigs and equipment to facilitate 3D filming, and trained the film's crew in their proper operation. Since 3D films need high lighting levels on set, the traditional dark shadowy atmosphere of the Alien films was added in post-production through grading processes, while the 3D equipment will be based on post Avatar technology. Supposedly the first quarter of the film was finished filming when the decision to film it in full 3D was agreed upon causing the shot scenes to be re-shot in 3D.

     During production Ridley Scott kept the use of computer-generated imagery as low as possible, using CGI mainly in space scenes; Scott recalled advice VFXpert Douglas Trumbull gave him on the set of Blade Runner: "If you can do it live, do it live", and also claimed that practical VFX was more cost-effective than digital VFX. And in my opinion look better as well.

     Ridley Scott and James Cameron both were working on a sequel to Alien franchise in 2002 together that would explore the engineered origin of the aliens in the film series, when both dropped out due to Fox's greenlighting of Alien Vs. Predator. Cameron was very vocal about the potential of the cross-over ruining both franchises and wanted nothing to do with Fox's influence on any Alien sequel do to it.

     According to Ridley Scott, the film's plot was inspired by Erich von Daniken's writings about ancient astronauts: "Both NASA and the Vatican agree that it is almost mathematically impossible that we can be where we are today, without there being a little help along the way. That's what we're looking at: we are talking about gods and engineers, engineers of space. Were the Aliens designed as a form of biological warfare, or biology that would go in and clean up a planet?"

ALIENS

ALIENS (1986)
US/UK
Directed by James Cameron

CAST:
Sigourney Weaver - Ellen Ripley
Carrie Henn - Rebecca 'Newt' Jorden
Michael Biehn - Cpl. Dwayne Hicks

PLOT:
     The planet from Alien has been colonized yet contact with them has been lost. A team of Colonial Marines is sent to find out what happened.

REVIEW:
     Aliens was the first film in the Alien series I saw. I got to watch it when it first came on HBO back in the late 80's. I remember hearing my sister's friends talking about it and how when they saw it in theaters it scared the shit out of them. By this time my love of horror films was growing at an exceptional rate with having watched multiple films on VHS that my dad rented for me as I would watch them on Friday nights after my parents went to bed. Also during this time HBO would show really odd horror films late at night on the weekends also as the USA network would show unedited films sometimes on Up All Night on their networks. Well anyway, Aliens came on HBO finally and I was able to watch it despite my parents protest that I wasn't quite old enough yet to view it and understand some of the situations involved in it. Needless to say I understood everything in the film, but it still gave me nightmares for about a week anyway. In fact I can easily say that this film is probably what started my love of H.P. Lovecraft stories and the Mythos involved with it as well though Alien is more in line with it.

This is a review for the Director's cut of the film.

I complained about Sigourney Weaver, who reprises her role as Ellen Ripley, in my review for Alien, and I'm sticking by what I said. Yet in Aliens, Weaver's acting is almost as if there is a whole nother Weaver acting. The emotions she shows are believable, and she actually draws the viewer into the world. Weaver just has a presence in this where as in Alien she was more like a background wall or a mouse. It's her confidence in her ability as an actor that is such a relief to see.  Michael Biehn, who plays Cpl. Hicks, also grew as an actor since his last role he was in, which was also a sci-fi film. There's two really interesting characters in Aliens that stick out from the rest, one of which is Pvt. Hudson played by Bill Paxton. Paxton's character is one of the two as in the film as at first he's the jokester who with the rest of the marines think nothing can defeat them and that they are the best there is. His whole world is changed in minutes once he and the rest of the marines go up against the aliens for the first time. The other character that sticks out is Newt played Carrie Henn. Henn for a first time actress and in her only film role brings a fear to the screen that isn't seen by someone her age very often. But it's her growing trust and her ability to show that trust as it grows that helps the character seem more real and that helps draw the audience into the relationship she has with Ripley which I'll go into next. But I do have to say that every actor and actress in Aliens does an amazing job.

I would be remiss to not mention Lance Henrickson's Bishop. His character is a major plot point in the film as it shows a maturation in Ripley's character. When Ripley is found after 57 years she hasn't moved on but the world around her has. Her mistrust of androids due to Ash is engraved into her after her old crew was betrayed by it. Bishop shows that there has been improvements in science and that what she once feared can be more human than the actual people around her. Yet the main story is about  Ripley as she is a person misplaced in time and a person that lost everything, including her daughter due to the passage of that time. Ripley up to the point where she finds Newt at Hadley's Hope is almost a basket case due to nightmares and PTSD. It's in Newt that Ripley finds a way out of her fear as she views Newt as a replacement for her daughter. As someone she she can protect and in that way she is Ripley's one hope for a life she lost and in a way to try to have a normal life throughout the craziness surrounding her. Newt is in the same position as Ripley as she has lost everything in her life; her family, her home, her peace, and her hope of surviving. Newt sees Ripley after their first meeting in suspicion, someone who won't be able to keep her promise. Yet by the end of the film the bond between Ripley and Newt grows more into a mother and daughter relationship. Newt even calls Ripley mother after she saves her from the alien queen which makes the story all the more powerful as you were seeing the bonds form but didn't realize it as the action was front and center.

I mentioned before that Aliens scared the shit out of me when I watched it. The reason for this is the aliens plain and simple. Unlike in Alien, the aliens in this one are much more animalistic and can be seen as thinking animals as they learn through experience. Also previously we only were able to see the alien in shadows or very quick shots. In Aliens the creatures are in full view even though we don't know that until it's to late as they are fully camouflaged within their environment.  By the time we see them another body is added to the count. The design for the aliens is also updated and they are much more mobile than in Alien. James Cameron has done something that few directors have managed to do and that's to make a sequel that outdoes the original in every way. Cameron tells a story that starts out slow and then slowly builds as his characters we as viewers know are heading to their death. Even though most of the characters seem cartoonish in certain ways, we find ourselves rooting for them to survive though we know they won't. It takes almost an hour for the action to kick in and by that time over half of the crew  meet their end, but during that time we get to know them and their quirks and how they are one hell of a disfunctional family. After everything goes to hell Cameron does what Alien didn't and that is to ratchet the tension up minute by minute where it's almost unbearable, but at the same time the film is still fun as we are still hoping those that are alive will stay alive, though again we know not all will. The office fire fight is one of the best action set pieces I've seen and even with repeat viewings it has never lost any of its power. The same can be said for the film as a whole as there is always something new I see every time I watch it.  And that is the true sign that Aliens stands the test of time and is considered a modern day classic film.

BEST DEATH:
     Even though it's not a death, Bishop's splitting meeting of the queen.

BEST LINE:
     We're on an express elevator to hell, going down!

FUN FACTS:
     During the scene when they have landed and deployed in the troop carrier, Apone tells the Marines they have 10 seconds until they arrive. If you count from here until the first Marine jumps out of the carrier and his boots hit the ground, it really is ten seconds.

     Was voted the 42nd Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly. They describe it as the "greatest pure action movie ever."

     One of the alien eggs used in the film is now exhibited in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

     In both the standard and special edition versions, the fifteen minute countdown at the end of the film is indeed fifteen minutes.

     To bring the alien queen to life it took anything between 14 and 16 operators.

     United States Colonial Marines personnel service numbers:

• SFC Apone, A A19/TQ4.0.32751E8
• Pt Crowe, T A46/TQ1.0.98712E6
• Cpl Dietrich, C A41/TQ8.0.81120E2
• Pt Drake, M A23/TQ2.0.47619E7
• Cpl Ferro, C A71/TQ9.0.09428E1
• Pt Frost, R A17/TQ4.0.61247E5
• Lt Gorman, S A09/TQ4.0.56124E3
• Cpl Hicks, D A27/TQ4.0.48215E9
• Pt Hudson, W A08/TQ1.0.41776E3
• Pt Spunkmeyer, D A23/TQ6.0.92810E7
• Pt Vasquez, J A03/TQ7.0.15618E4
• Pt Wierzbowski, T A14/TQ8.0.20034E7

THE SEA OF PERDITION

THE SEA OF PERDITION (2006)
UK/IS
Directed by Richard Stanley

CAST:
Maggie Moor - Sly Delta Honey

PLOT:
     A Warren Comics style short portraying a stranded cosmonaut on Mars.

REVIEW:
     I originally intended this review to be put up a couple of days after the review for The Theatre Bizarre was up for a couple of days . The main reason why I decided to really focus on Stanley was to show that with the constraints he had while working on Mother Of Toads, it isn't a fair showing of his ability. If giving free reign to work everything out in a film he can accomplish a impact-full film even if the film is actually a short film. It's just too bad that Hollywood truly doesn't understand film making anymore and the people that bring something different to the screen are the ones left out in the cold.

     I can't really judge Maggie Moor's character Sly Delta Honey all that much due to the dialogue in the short is kept to a bare minimum. She has to act more with her body as she explores the barren planet's surface in search of a way to get in touch with anyone. But what I did see of it, Moor does a decent job as a astronaut lost and separated from the rest of the crew. Yet at the same time Moor also plays a alien doppelganger of the Sly Delta Honey as well who seduces the astronaut it's copying. Moor in this role has no lines yet has to let her body do the acting for her. Even though Moor is the star and carries the short, it's the appearance at the end of it of an alien that just makes you smile.

       This short I have to admit isn't really about story but more about feel of it. This is demonstrated within the first 30 seconds of the film where it open in space and a flying satellite passes by playing a Pink Floyd song. The colors in this shot weren't bright, but somewhat muted. As someone would expect a lot of blacks due to it being in space, instead the main color is an off color purple and light browns mixed. Once the short moves planetside, director Richard Stanley knows how to use barren landscapes to show just how alone the main character truly is. The main shot showing this is when Sly Delta Honey is scanning for radio frequencies on top of a what looks like a mountain while two planets are visible in the background. I love the look and feel of this short as I used to read old horror and sci-fi anthology comics that had to tell a story quickly while also being understandable by all readers. Even though not much story background is giving, Stanley's short film captures the feel of those old cult comics perfectly in its simplicity while also being very well shot that actually left me wanting to see more of this alien planet.   

BEST DEATH:
     Sly Delta Honey's massive information brain drain.

BEST LINE:
     -Traigan a mas astronauts!

FUN FACTS:
     Maggie Moor is the great-grandchild of internationally known, Vaudevillian song and dance team Charlie Brown and Mae Newman.

     Dario Argento is one of Richard Stanley's favorite directors.

     Richard Stanley turned down the directing gigs for both Spice World and Judge Dredd in the '90s.

TEASER!!!!

  
After seeing the teaser in two different forms on line (both crappy) I and everyone else can enjoy in the joy that is this clean and crisp teaser trailer for Prometheus finally!

     I think I've watched this at least 10 times already!

     I'll be back later on this week, with a review for Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Till then.........

ATTACK THE BLOCK

ATTACK THE BLOCK (2011)
UK
Directed by Joe Cornish

CAST:
John Boyega - Moses
Jodie Whittaker - Sam
Nick Frost - Ron

PLOT:
     A teen gang in South London defend their block from an alien invasion.

REVIEW:
     This is another one of the festival films that I mentioned about in a earlier post. The cool thing about these films is that they don't play by anybodies rules and do what they want and make no apologies for it. Sure most of the films won't ever see wide national release, but that's fine by me if the directors make the movie they want to make and don't have to compromise on the finished product. I applaud their convictions and their will to make their vision their way whether it be for good or bad.

     Well here's something that I wasn't expecting. I was expecting the film to be good, just not as good as it was. The reason for this is that at the start of the film you come to loathe the central teenager characters through and through, though you do start to like their characters slowly toward the end of the film, especially the character of Moses. But make no mistake, the kids are not heroes. Now there is social commentary about how lower class youth is being treated and how gangs have formed up to help protect themselves from other gangs, though this usually leads to the oldest or the toughest of the gang leading and in turn getting them in trouble due to that the other members want to look cool or just want acceptance. So they'll follow and imitate the others with no regard for the consequences. Remember this as it will come into effect later. What's also funny is that all the gang members, excluding Moses, all come from stable homes though lower class, which just drives in the whole point of them following who they consider to be the cool kid and following his lead and just looking for acceptance.

     John Boyega, who portrays Moses, at first is completely unlikable in any form, yet it's when he starts to let his tough exterior down some you find out that he actually cares about his friends, but yet you still know that he's not a decent person, and he does things just for the thrill of it whether it be mugging someone or killing animals (or assumed animals). Now I talked about consequences earlier and this comes into effect with Moses toward the end of the film, as you find out that having killed the first alien he in turn brought down all the trouble that happens to everyone through odd run-ins or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yet Boyega does show that Moses is suffering for what he did as his friends are getting killed around him and he realizes that only he can really stop what is happening.  Jodie Whittaker, who plays Sam, in the movie is about the one sympathetic character out of the whole cast as she was always at the wrong place throughout most of the film from when she is first mugged by Moses and his friends to actually understanding why Moses is the way he is after seeing how he was raised. Sam though is always the voice of reason through most of the film, yet doesn't shy from having some revenge on her muggers when they come to her for help. Whittaker does a decent job as she doesn't play the role of the usual lady in distress, instead adds a aire of dignity to her character through all that she faces.

     This movie won't win any awards plain and simple. What it does do really well is give us a "B" movie that is fun even with a lack of true likable characters. The creature effects for the aliens is really quite genius in its simplicity. What even impressed me more was that most of the aliens are all practical effects with a man in a suit as the alien through most of the film which in turn gives the aliens true weight and space in the movie. I've always liked in camera effects more than digital effects and Attack The Block is a good example of why that is. As for the look of the film, Director Joe Cornish was more than up for the challenge to make a smaller movie and make it seem larger thanks to the different camera angles used and had a good grasp on what should be shown when fights occur after the first half of the movie was done. The one fault the movie does have to me is that the script seems just a tad uneven as the first part of the film just seems to go everywhere, yet when the film gets centered inside the apartment complex, everything just seems to click and starts moving quicker. So if you don't mind most of the characters being complete assholes and bangers the film is actually fun and really funny in parts which helps to lighten the mood that is being built up. And for those that were looking for Nick Frost being a major part of the story? Well he is in it, but he's basically used for comic relief and isn't in the film that much, thankfully he's funny in those scenes.

BEST DEATH:
     The four course meal that is Hi-Hatz's  face.

BEST LINE:
     Maybe there was a party at the zoo and a monkey fucked a fish.....

FUN FACTS:
     Members of the gang compare the film's aliens to various fantastical creatures, all British in origin, namely: Dobby the house-elf from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Novels, Gollum from the Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolken, and Gremlins, who were blamed for electronic malfunctions on fighter planes in WW II which two movies were based on in the 1980's.

     In the scene where the meteorite breaks open, a female alien cocoon is revealed director Joe Cornish expressed interest in having it for a back yard center piece.

     Joe Cornish also is a screenwriter for the movie The Adventures of Tintin and is working on the script for Antman.

THE THING

THE THING (JOHN CARPENTER'S THE THING) (1982)
US
Directed by John Carpenter

CAST:
Kurt Russell - R.J. MacReady
Wilford Brimley - Dr. Blair
Keith David - Childs

PLOT:
     Scientists in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people that it kills.

REVIEW:
     One of the fun things about doing reviews is I get to go back to older movies I haven't watched in awhile. Then there's movies I go back and watch every year, just because they're personal favorites. The Thing was one of those movies my dad rented for me to watch on a spring break one year. Well, the movie did a good  job completely freaking me out. Now this was when I was about 12 or 13 years old, but happily that night after watching it, I didn't have nightmares (that was saved for when I saw Alien and Aliens a couple years later). Anyway, I really didn't connect this movie with being a Mythos type till later on, yet here we are at the movies almost 30th anniversary and a "prequel" coming out later this year so this is a good time to go back and re-watch it as well as review it.

     I'm going to start off with the acting in this film. As all the characters aren't giving a back story where they came from, it was up to the actors to make the audience care for them through their actions and personalities and each one pulled it off brilliantly.  What's even more striking is that everyone isn't talking twenty four seven. When something is odd or they can't explain it, the characters just keep quiet instead. This adds a lot more to the characters than one might imagine as you don't know what they are thinking. Kurt Russell, who plays R.J. MacReady, to me gives the best performance of his career in this film. Nothing he does is hammed up, he speaks more softly, yet with authority, plus he can't stand computer chess. Kieth David, who portrays Childs is very effective as the pissed off black guy. Yes, I know that's basically type casting him, but that is exactly what David is playing and does surprising well.

     One of the main reasons this movie works so well while others built around the same premise is because of the setting of the film. The isolation that is present in the film is palatable to the audience as there really is nowhere to run. All the scientific team can do is stay in one place and rely on each other to help them stay sane in their environment. So what happens when an outside presence is introduced  that can take the shape of the living around it is really no surprise as they're trapped. As the paranoia sets in as the team finds out that there is a alien presence among them that is killing and taking on that said dead form. No one is what they seem and that  helps feed the unease among the characters as well as drive some to madness. Even in scenes you know will go bad, the shock of watching it happen doesn't really fade over time, no matter how many times this movie is watched. Part of the reason for the tension that is built up during these scenes is the score by Ennio Morricone. I say this because with most horror movies when something bad is about to happen, the music swells to a forceful level which basically lets the audience know something is about to happen, and in return kills part of the surprise. Morricone though went the opposite way and killed the music so where all that you here is the background noises and characters talking. This might not seem that big of a thing, yet in reality it just adds to the tension of the screen.

     Another aspect of the film is the special effects. While CG creatures is what is mostly shown on movie screens now, nothing will ever replace practical in camera effects. The reaction of the cast is real when they can actually see and interact with something in front of them. I'm not saying CG effects are terrible, in fact I love what is possible with CG now, but it can never replace practical in my mind. The closest I can put the creature in the film is a shoggoth from Mythos stories made real as it is always taking on a new form. Thank you Rob Bottin for this nightmare creature. But I would be remiss to not mention Carpenter himself who brought all these elements together and put it on screen for all to see, as this is his movie and unlike other movies during that time it has withstood the test of time to become a classic not in just horror, but also in films in general that still has the power to scare, shock,and gross out viewers after all these years. Besides, I love the nihilistic ending where you don't know if Childs is really himself or the Thing. 

BEST DEATH:
     Dr. Cooper's forearm mini-meal.

BEST LINE:
     You gotta be fucking kidding.

FUN FACTS:
     Kurt Russell was almost injured in the scene where he blows up the alien Palmer with a stick of dynamite. Apparently, he had no idea exactly how big of an explosion it would produce, and the reaction that he has in the movie is genuine.

     Both Nick Nolte and Jeff Bridges turned down the role of MacReady.

      This is the first film in what Carpenter calls his "Apocalypse Trilogy". In order they are:
     The Thing (1982)
     Prince Of Darkness (1987)
     In The Mouth Of Madness (1994)

     For a scene where Dr. Copper arms are severed, a real-life double amputee stand-in was used wearing a mask in the likeness of Dysart. The audience focuses on the bloody stumps while the mask goes unnoticed.

SUPER 8

SUPER 8 (2011)
US
Directed by J.J. Abrams

CAST:
Joel Courtney - Joe Lamb
Kyle Chandler - Jackson Lamb
Elle Fanning - Alice Dainard

PLOT:
     After witnessing a mysterious train crash, a group of friends in the summer of 1979 begin noticing strange happenings going around in their small town, and begin to investigate into the creepy phenomenon.

REVIEW:
      I'm a child of the '80s, so those movies I got to see when I was young are of fond memories. Whether it be seeing The Goonies in the theaters a every Saturday for a month or being able to see Return Of The Jedi in the same theater for an even longer time frame, those movies gave my young brain an escape for an afternoon from baking in the Virginia sun. There was just a magic to those films I saw during that time that is hard to find in recent movies. The main difference now and then is that every movie now is trying to be a "A" movie. There's barely any movie trying to be a "B" movie and fully embrace that stigma, where the whole aspect of the movie cannot happen but the actors fully believe in their roles, which in turn makes the world on screen believable for the audience . Now comes Super 8 which is a homage to those movies of my youth, and that of the director, J.J. Abrams' youth as well.

     I must say that J.J. Abrams has been impressing me more and more with each movie he puts out.  With this one he brought back the feel of those movies from when I was growing up while combing genres of sci fi, horror, and adventure while putting a fresh take on it. Yet at the movie's heart, it is a monster movie and it doesn't try to hide it. It isn't afraid of trying to shock the mass audiences with what is happening. It doesn't try to hide the fact that childern are in danger. In fact the movie is at it's best when it is trying to scare the crowds watching it. The movie is just beautiful to look at as it transports you back in time, when there was less worry about the country collapsing and the Soviet states were the true worry.  The story for the film is just fun, and on top of that it wasn't stupid or dumbed down for the mass audiences.

     As for the main actors in the movie I have to say that both Joel Courtney's Joe Lamb and Elle Fanning's Alice Dainard are the emotional attachment to the audience in the movie. In the movie Courtney's Joe just lost his mother months ago and is trying to survive by hanging out with his friends making a super 8 zombie movie for a contest. This is what brings in Fanning's Alice. There's some on screen relationships that feel forced in movies and some that feel like, "Why is this happening". With this one in feels natural and unforced. Yet it is a innocent relationship. This is truly evident when Alice sneaks into Joe's room late at night. The whole time is spent just talking about their past and their parents and is the last time their is actual quiet in the movie, in the peaceful sense. The other stand out actor is Ryan Lee who pays  Cary. Everyone had a friend like him, or close to him when they were growing up. He loves explosions and fireworks and that love shows as you can tell he's having the time of his life at the end of the film when the military takes over the town he lives in and turns it into a war zone. Cary is leaving his dream at that moment and it is infectious to the entire audience. Even though I only mentioned three of the actors, everyone in the film did an amazing job.

     As this is a creature feature type movie, I'll end with saying that the alien is ugly, vicious, and brutal. Yet you can also sympathize with it. It was being held against its will, and the whole time it was just trying to get home. Yes, it killed lots of people, yet it can be said that it did what it believed was right after what the military did to it. Unlike recent alien movies, this alien, "Cooper", you can tell has emotions and has been wronged. Just the creature design is fascinating to look at and watch. I just have to say even the silent moments between kids and their parents carry weight that is missing from most movies and that weight helps move the film along. The real sad thing is, is that you see a movie like this come along that is this fun, with the perfect mix of horror and comedy while being able to convey actual emotion once every couple of years only. Yet thanks to that, it makes what is being seen special.  This is what "Summer " movies used to be, and I'm happy and proud to say I loved it.

BEST DEATH:
     Basically all the Air Force soldiers on the flipped bus hit hard. Each one is different yet brutal. Sorry I don't have a picture of it. So here a picture around the time where everything is set off.

BEST LINE:
     If you talk about this, you and your parents will all die.

FUN FACTS:
     Abrams named the film's setting, Lillian, Ohio, after his grandmother.

     During production, Judd Apatow was shown some completed footage, which he praised as "awesome". Subsequently, Abrams placed Apatow in the "special thanks" section of the credits.

     The creature's nickname on the set was "Cooper".

      Since the kids were making a zombie movie, there are several references to director George A. Romero in the film.

I SELL THE DEAD

I SELL THE DEAD (2008)
US
Directed by Glenn Mcquaid

CAST:
Dominic Monaghan - Arthur Blake
Larry Fessenden - Willie Grimes
Ron Perlman - Father Duffy

PLOT:
     A grave robber reflects on his life of crime.

 REVIEW:
     This movie was another one that I heard about that was playing on festival circuits but was never able to get hold of or go and see. So once I got a copy of it, I had plans to watch it right away. Yet here it is a year later and I finally got around to watching it with JeNee (it was her pick for a movie).

      Dominic Monaghan has to be giving credit more than anyone else in the movie cause he's the audiences connection to the film and he does a admirably good job at it. Not to mention him describing sandwiches is one of the best scenes in the film. While the flash back scenes are the true story and are fun to watch, as it's Monaghan and Larry Fessenden's characters making one mistake after another as grave robbers, it's his scenes with Ron Perlman that truly made his character become more fleshed out.  But it is Larry Fessenden who draws the most attention when he's on screen. His look is perfect for his role as the senior grave digger Willie Grimes. But to really see the fun he has, wait until the end of the movie. Not going to say what it is, but it is classic! Not much more can be said of Ron Perlman as he does what he does best. That is to say he's just awesome!

     The look of the film is truly amazing as you can tell it barely had a budget, but what the filmmakers pulled off, just goes to show how a little ingenuity can go a long way. From old country roads to cemeteries that seem huge, each set piece looks like it belongs in a big budget movie. The plot while it seems disjointed when put all together, as it does jump around a lot, it's that way due to the original script for  the movie was as an anthology type of movie. Due to this the movie feels like a couple of episodes of Amazing Stories put together with couple of Tales From The Crypt for good measure. Not that this is a bad thing, but it does make the film lose focus in parts. Or you could say that it slows the movie down more than it should be, mostly in the interview scenes. I'm not going to go into the different scenarios that happen as that's where most of the fun in the movie is, but I will say the third mini-story is just a "what the" type story that it puts levity in the movie that wasn't needed, but yet it just adds to the film.

      The only way to describe this movie is that it is a homage to the horror films of Hammer and EC Comics. It has the atmosphere of those classic films down to a science. It has the look of those old films as well, lots of fog from fog machines, backgrounds that aren't really there unless it's of the countryside or a actual location shot. Even the gallows humor is there that was present during those old movies. While it isn't the most original movie ever made, it is fun and a quick way to spend an hour and a half. The only problem I had is that I waited so long to actually watch the movie. All in all I don't have anything I can really complain about in the movie as it doesn't try to be more than it is, but what it does do it does surprisingly well!

BEST DEATH:
     Flying knife from out of nowhere.

BEST LINE:
      Sandwich.

FUN FACTS:
     A graphic novel of the film was released by Image Comics in 2009.

     Scareflix has plans a sequel.

     Look for a cameo from Angus Scrimm, the Tall Man from the Phantasm movies in the role of Dr. Vernon Quint.

GANTSU

GANTSU (GANTZ) (2011)
2011
Directed by Shinsuke Sato

CAST:
Kenichi Matsuyama - Masaru Kato
Kazunari Ninomiya - Kei Kurono
Natsuna Watanabe - Kishimoto

PLOT:
     Kei Kurono and his friend Masaru Kato who die in a train accident and become part of a semi-posthumous "game" in which they and several other recently deceased people are forced to hunt down and kill aliens with a handful of futuristic items of equipment and weaponry.

REVIEW:
     I have actually seen some of the anime this was based on and read the first volume of the manga as well, so when I found out there was going to be a live action movie I had to see what they would do with it. The thing about going from anime or manga to live action there is always going to be some loss in the material no matter what or a change in the pacing due to time constraints. Some times it's not a bad thing as this could mean a part where something slows down in the source material is thrown out and speeds up the story, but at the same time it also usually throws away character development that happens during that time. So adaptations are always a mix bag and sometimes past knowledge of material can sometimes hurt going into a movie.

       While watching this I kept going back in my mind about the original source and how mean, vicious, and perverted it was and was wondering what happened with that. There was no snide, nasty comments about the other people made by Kazunari Ninomiya's Kei Kurono and I was saddened by that fact. part of the reason why the original was interesting was seeing how low and repugnant people can get. I don't mind the fact that the film makers washed away most of the sexuality for the live action movie, but part of what made the character of Kei is his maturing from a horn dog that doesn't mind seeing people die just so long as he get's his release sexually, into someone that actually becomes a leader that actually somewhat cares in a screwed up way about the other people around him. The same can be said about the other characters in the movie, as you can tell something is missing in each character as most of them seem somewhat flat even though back stories are hinted at, yet no real time is spent exploring those backgrounds of the three leads.

     As far as the transposition of the source material to the big screen I was quite surprised by how well it looked and translated. The body suits and weaponry looks just like the drawn and animated version do and act just the same as well. The aliens are perfect and varied throughout and at times funny. One thing that can be said is that the violence is still intact, as this movie gets wet and messy when ever the games begin with only destruction being the end result of each battle, and usually on a larger scale. Even when the action becomes more large scale, with each new alien the special effects never falter nor does the camera work fail to keep up with what is happening on screen nor does the camera try and hide what is going on.

     This was quite a surprise as this movie translated better to the screen than I thought it would and was acceptably done sci fi movie that tries to translate a dense story into a fast paced action movie that works amazing in some parts yet fails in others. If there is one complaint I truly have, it's the disservice the dubbing company did with Gantz. The voice actors performance is lifeless in most parts and the timing of speech to lip movement is just horrendous in most other spot. If you can see the subtitled version, do yourself a favor and watch that one instead. Yet I'm not going to discredit this movie for that as the movie gets better as it moves forward. The translation of source to film is one of the better ones I've seen and if you get a chance watch it enjoy it for what it is as it's better than most other sci fi movies being made at the moment.

BEST DEATH:
     The very wet and sloppy death of Onion.

BEST LINE:
     What doe the scores mean?

FUN FACTS:
     Hiroya Oku, the creator of the manga, first thought of Gantz's story when he was in high school.

     The idea for Gantz came from the Jidaigeki television program Hissatsu series and Robert Sheckley's Time Murderer novel.

     This is the first movie of a two movie story.

PAUL

PAUL (2011)
UK/US
Directed by Greg Mottola

CAST:
Simon Pegg - Greame Willy
Nick Frost - Clive Gollings
Seth Rogen- Paul (voice)

PLOT:
     Two British comic-book geeks traveling across the U.S. encounter an alien outside Area 51.

REVIEW:
   

     I must say I'm surprised. I said in a earlier review that Seth Rogen doesn't understand that being excited doesn't mean yelling. Well, he proved me wrong in Paul. He actually is learning how to act from what I can tell in this movie. Even though it's just his voice, you can tell he put emotions into his role which have been missing from his other films.  Plus, he's really likable in his role as Paul as he plays it more laid back and with a wisdom I haven't seen in any of his previous roles.

     Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are always good together as they play so well off of each other, that no matter what they're in I'd probably watch it. If you've seen Shaun Of The Dead or Hot Fuzz that should be enough to tell you about them in this. Jason Bateman is fun to watch as the no nonsense Agent Zoil who is always one step behind the protagonists almost the whole movie as no matter what he's outsmarted at every turn. Kristen Wigg's Ruth Buggs as well is fun to watch as the religious nut who gets her eyes open in more ways than one thanks to Paul, who happens to have a indulging love for cussing, including some I've never heard put together before, but was good for a laugh as well. Yet the film could have done more with the religious sub-plot they started with her. Here's a warning though, if you're really religious stay away.

       I will admit that the first 15 minutes of this movie had me kinda scared due to that it just moved very slowly setting up Frost and Pegg's characters as well as their run-in with rednecks, which the whole scene just seemed a little more forced than what is usual in their movies. Thankfully it picks up after Paul is introduced and doesn't slow down really after that. I would like to have seen more of Paul past, as he says himself in the movie that a lot of the pop culture from the 80's came from him. There's one scene in particular that had me laugh and remember my childhood at the same time as Paul is talking to a famous person (yes, that is his actual voice you are hearing) while sitting in a undisclosed warehouse filled with crates that stretches for what seems like miles. It's scenes like this that are pure gold in this movie, and there are plenty of them. I won't go into those scenes cause I feel if I do it would ruin the surprises that the movie holds.

     The best way I could really describe this film is it's a love letter to 80's movies. There are so many cool parts that come out of nowhere that you can't help but to laugh with what happens on screen. While it's been said that the movie is raunchy, the fact is it's not as bad as what was being said about it. While some of the movie is predictable, it doesn't tarnish the film in any way. What the movie has though is a heart and plenty of it. While Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz is a send up of movies more than anything else, this feels like a "Thank you" to past filmmakers.  If anyone fell in love with the movies from the 80's, you should go and see Paul as it's fun and enjoyable.

BEST DEATH:
     Sigourney Weaver's compressing close encounter of the third kind!

BEST LINE:
     See. I told you you'd recognize it when you saw it!

FUN FACTS:
     Seth Rogen had to get help from Andy Serkis on how to work with a motion capture suit.

     Due to scheduling conflicts though, Joe Lo Truglio,  who also plays O'Reilly in the film, took on the part. He studied Rogen extensively in order to impersonate his voice, performed on his knees to capture Paul's physical presence and even improvised in character as Paul.

     The movie was written by both Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.