Sinestro
Samurai Cop
I wonder how many words I can fit in this spot. Probably not many, but maybe a few. Yeah that many
Posts: 2,275
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Post by Sinestro on Mar 2, 2009 3:19:38 GMT -5
Heck I got mine at Walmart. (Along with the SpaceBalls 2 disc set for 4 bucks. )
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Lick Ness Monster
Dennis Stamp
From the eerie, eerie depths of Lake Okabena
Posts: 4,874
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Post by Lick Ness Monster on Mar 2, 2009 10:42:21 GMT -5
Confession time: I have never seen any of the Feast movies. I know, tomatoes, tomatoes on me!! Today's horror history lesson... I've stated it many times, but I'm a huge fan of Italian horror director Dario Argento. I've heard the complaints about his work; that his giallo thrillers are all, essentially, the same movie filmed over and over again. The sad part is that they're right. Even the films in his early-70s to mid-80s heyday period are all the same basic formula - young male protagonist, often with an artistic or literary job (and often an American living in Rome, to make the formula even more specific) witnesses a murder, gets attacked by murderer, makes it his mission to find the identity of the killer and solve the crime. And at random intervals throughout the film, a gloved, cloaked killer commits heinous, gory crimes for no other reason than to give the hero his metaphorical trail of breadcrumbs to follow - and often, the killer is someone who had been a fairly minor player in the film but is suddenly present for all of the big climax scenes. And you know what? None of that matters to me. All of his movies ARE essentially the same thing, but for those that point out this fact as a negative, you're missing the point entirely of an Argento film. Dario's movies obviously aren't that big on plot; the plot is really secondary to these movies, hence their "rinse-lather-repeat" nature. Argento was, in his prime, a director who was unabashedly a horror director, and PROUD of it. As big of a John Carpenter or Wes Craven mark as I am, both have admitted at different points in their careers that they had aimed for more "serious" careers, but settled into making horror movies after their first financial breakthrough was a horror film. Dario Argento is a HORROR director, plain and simple, and he is because he actually WANTS to be. While his work since his last truly great film, 1987's Opera, has been hit or miss at best, he has nonetheless crafted a body of work that makes him truly deserving of the "Italian Hitchcock" moniker that he has cultivated. His films, including the supernatural-themed "Three Mothers" trilogy of Suspiria/ Inferno/ Mother of Tears, are labyrinthine, hallucinatory films that do indeed treat the plot as an afterthought; Argento's bread and butter is the gory, raw, savage, spectacular set pieces that he is famous for. Argento took things one step further than Hitchcock dared, not only suggesting the horror that lay within his famous brutal killers, but showing their crimes in all their grisly detail. Deep Red is a 1975 thriller that more than lives up to that billing. It is a movie that is labeled today as one of Argento's true masterpieces along with Suspiria, and is considered by some critics to be the very finest giallo film ever made. While I believe that Deep Red is a less than perfect film, it is nonetheless a logical extension point from the early stages of Argento's career to his true peak period, and is essential viewing for every horror fan. The film tells the quintessential Argento story by the numbers: young artist living in Rome (in this case a jazz pianist played by David Hemming) witnesses grisly murder, takes it upon himself to solve the crime when the police are clueless, love interest (Argento's real-life girlfriend Daria Nicolodi) tags along while murderer, for whatever reason, goes into a killing frenzy as young artist takes up the case, which makes it much easier to zone in on the frenzied murderer. Rinse-lather-repeat. But just like all other Argento films, the plot is really secondary to the overall effect of the film; this movie hits you over the head in the very early goings first of all with its memorable score by Goblin, and within twenty minutes we've seen a shockingly graphic murder. The Hemming character is also strangely likable; like many Argento heroes, he starts off as a clueless wiseass, but eventually transforms into competent protagonist by the film's third act (often through the act of pure obsession with solving the perplexing crime he is investigating). There is also one absolutely perfect sequence in Deep Red - a murder scene that builds, and builds, and builds, until the tension is unbearable - then builds some more after we believe the murder about to take place. Awesome, awesome stuff. Suspiria is the only Argento film that comes close to perfection; Deep Red is not a perfect film. Perhaps Dario's biggest single weakness as a director is his propensity to cast real-life lover Nicolodi in all of his early movies; simply put, she's not a very convincing, nor a very good, actress. In addition, this film also continues the trend set in Argento's first film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (and would later be continued in Tenebre), of having very cartoonish, stereotyped gay characters. And by this point, the surprise killer angle had already become old hat with Dario, with the murderer in this particular movie being guessed by me on the very first viewing; it was indeed a genius stroke that the first two chapters of the more supernatural-themed "Mothers" trilogy followed, as it made the giallo formula all the more fresh. Still, Deep Red is a very tense, well-acted film. Perhaps its best attribute is that much of the film's second act - consisting of Hemming's character flagging down various leads - actually manages to remain tense and interesting. The film is one of the best Italian giallos of all time, and startling early proof that Dario Argento was a director who was 100% horror - and as evidenced by his desire to push the envelope when it came to onscreen violence, not ashamed of it in the slightest. *** 1/2
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Mar 2, 2009 11:35:45 GMT -5
Confession time: I have never seen any of the Feast movies. I know, tomatoes, tomatoes on me!! Today's horror history lesson... I've stated it many times, but I'm a huge fan of Italian horror director Dario Argento. I've heard the complaints about his work; that his giallo thrillers are all, essentially, the same movie filmed over and over again. The sad part is that they're right. Even the films in his early-70s to mid-80s heyday period are all the same basic formula - young male protagonist, often with an artistic or literary job (and often an American living in Rome, to make the formula even more specific) witnesses a murder, gets attacked by murderer, makes it his mission to find the identity of the killer and solve the crime. And at random intervals throughout the film, a gloved, cloaked killer commits heinous, gory crimes for no other reason than to give the hero his metaphorical trail of breadcrumbs to follow - and often, the killer is someone who had been a fairly minor player in the film but is suddenly present for all of the big climax scenes. And you know what? None of that matters to me. All of his movies ARE essentially the same thing, but for those that point out this fact as a negative, you're missing the point entirely of an Argento film. Dario's movies obviously aren't that big on plot; the plot is really secondary to these movies, hence their "rinse-lather-repeat" nature. Argento was, in his prime, a director who was unabashedly a horror director, and PROUD of it. As big of a John Carpenter or Wes Craven mark as I am, both have admitted at different points in their careers that they had aimed for more "serious" careers, but settled into making horror movies after their first financial breakthrough was a horror film. Dario Argento is a HORROR director, plain and simple, and he is because he actually WANTS to be. While his work since his last truly great film, 1987's Opera, has been hit or miss at best, he has nonetheless crafted a body of work that makes him truly deserving of the "Italian Hitchcock" moniker that he has cultivated. His films, including the supernatural-themed "Three Mothers" trilogy of Suspiria/ Inferno/ Mother of Tears, are labyrinthine, hallucinatory films that do indeed treat the plot as an afterthought; Argento's bread and butter is the gory, raw, savage, spectacular set pieces that he is famous for. Argento took things one step further than Hitchcock dared, not only suggesting the horror that lay within his famous brutal killers, but showing their crimes in all their grisly detail. Deep Red is a 1975 thriller that more than lives up to that billing. It is a movie that is labeled today as one of Argento's true masterpieces along with Suspiria, and is considered by some critics to be the very finest giallo film ever made. While I believe that Deep Red is a less than perfect film, it is nonetheless a logical extension point from the early stages of Argento's career to his true peak period, and is essential viewing for every horror fan. The film tells the quintessential Argento story by the numbers: young artist living in Rome (in this case a jazz pianist played by David Hemming) witnesses grisly murder, takes it upon himself to solve the crime when the police are clueless, love interest (Argento's real-life girlfriend Daria Nicolodi) tags along while murderer, for whatever reason, goes into a killing frenzy as young artist takes up the case, which makes it much easier to zone in on the frenzied murderer. Rinse-lather-repeat. But just like all other Argento films, the plot is really secondary to the overall effect of the film; this movie hits you over the head in the very early goings first of all with its memorable score by Goblin, and within twenty minutes we've seen a shockingly graphic murder. The Hemming character is also strangely likable; like many Argento heroes, he starts off as a clueless wiseass, but eventually transforms into competent protagonist by the film's third act (often through the act of pure obsession with solving the perplexing crime he is investigating). There is also one absolutely perfect sequence in Deep Red - a murder scene that builds, and builds, and builds, until the tension is unbearable - then builds some more after we believe the murder about to take place. Awesome, awesome stuff. Suspiria is the only Argento film that comes close to perfection; Deep Red is not a perfect film. Perhaps Dario's biggest single weakness as a director is his propensity to cast real-life lover Nicolodi in all of his early movies; simply put, she's not a very convincing, nor a very good, actress. In addition, this film also continues the trend set in Argento's first film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (and would later be continued in Tenebre), of having very cartoonish, stereotyped gay characters. And by this point, the surprise killer angle had already become old hat with Dario, with the murderer in this particular movie being guessed by me on the very first viewing; it was indeed a genius stroke that the first two chapters of the more supernatural-themed "Mothers" trilogy followed, as it made the giallo formula all the more fresh. Still, Deep Red is a very tense, well-acted film. Perhaps its best attribute is that much of the film's second act - consisting of Hemming's character flagging down various leads - actually manages to remain tense and interesting. The film is one of the best Italian giallos of all time, and startling early proof that Dario Argento was a director who was 100% horror - and as evidenced by his desire to push the envelope when it came to onscreen violence, not ashamed of it in the slightest. *** 1/2 Good review there, TR, but you may want to fix the image at the top. I didn't even know you were reviewing Deep Red until about 5 paragraphs in.
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Lick Ness Monster
Dennis Stamp
From the eerie, eerie depths of Lake Okabena
Posts: 4,874
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Post by Lick Ness Monster on Mar 2, 2009 12:14:03 GMT -5
Good review there, TR, but you may want to fix the image at the top. I didn't even know you were reviewing Deep Red until about 5 paragraphs in. Fixed it. Weird, the stupid thing worked when I first posted it...
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Sinestro
Samurai Cop
I wonder how many words I can fit in this spot. Probably not many, but maybe a few. Yeah that many
Posts: 2,275
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Post by Sinestro on Mar 2, 2009 12:27:38 GMT -5
Deep Red is also a Public Domain movie. I downloaded my copy from Archive.org. So if you haven't seen it, you can for free and legal.
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erisi236
Fry's dog Seymour
... enjoys the rich, smooth taste of Camels.
Not good! Not good! Not good!
Posts: 21,904
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Post by erisi236 on Mar 2, 2009 13:51:24 GMT -5
Confession time: I have never seen any of the Feast movies. I know, tomatoes, tomatoes on me!! The Feast Trilogy is much like the Basket Case trilogy, the first is a slightly goofy yet trying to be serious horror, the second pretty much played as a silly over the top gore fest and the third just plain weird for weirdness sake.
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Post by DSR on Mar 2, 2009 14:10:14 GMT -5
Tonight I shall watch The Last Man on Earth, arguably the best adaptation of I Am Legend, and since it's in the public domain, it's a free download. What are you're guys' thoughts on this flick? Well basically...I really like it a lot. For one thing, a movie where there's really just one guy for the duration needs a solid actor to keep the audience from losing interest...and of course, Vincent Price is an incredible actor. And I like that, even as it's supposed to be an update of vampire mythology, the film actually plays more like a precursor to Romero's "Night of the Living Dead." I may have to re-watch the film myself in the next couple of days in order to give a more detailed analysis.
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Lick Ness Monster
Dennis Stamp
From the eerie, eerie depths of Lake Okabena
Posts: 4,874
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Post by Lick Ness Monster on Mar 2, 2009 21:14:40 GMT -5
Deep Red is also a Public Domain movie. I downloaded my copy from Archive.org. So if you haven't seen it, you can for free and legal. Yeah, I was a little surprised when I was looking at one of those incredibly cheap "50 horror movies for $9.99" pack deals and saw Deep Red on there of all things. Almost makes me a little angry that I paid $7.50 for my DVD on Amazon. The Feast Trilogy is much like the Basket Case trilogy, the first is a slightly goofy yet trying to be serious horror, the second pretty much played as a silly over the top gore fest and the third just plain weird for weirdness sake. As long as you brought up Basket Case, while I don't have the huge boner for Henenlotter the way some horror fans do, his new movie Bad Biology looks to just be too epically weird to miss out on. In a day and age of tepid remakes and formulaic haunted house flicks, I think this is the type of movie that horror desperately needs right now - just some crazy, knock-your-balls-off, unapologetically cheesy gorefest. www.imdb.com/title/tt0974977/
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andrew8798
FANatic
on 24/7 this month
Posts: 106,084
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Post by andrew8798 on Mar 2, 2009 22:51:31 GMT -5
Details for the My Bloody Valentine 3-D Blu-Ray and DVD
As reported, both the DVD and the Blu-ray will include the 2D and 3D versions of the film. As for the supplemental features expect the following:
Audio commentary Deep Inside My Bloody Valentine featurette Sex, Blood and Screams featurette Deleted scenes Gag reel Digital copy Four pairs of 3D glasses
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Mar 2, 2009 23:02:00 GMT -5
Even though Blu-ray is supposedly better for 3D, I'll still be buying the DVD. I'm at least a couple years away from affording a full-fledged upgrade to Blu-ray (TV and all), so I'm going to have to bite the bullet on this one. I will admit though, I'm looking forward to seeing the film - they didn't show it at my local cinema, and I've heard a lot of good things. I expect this to be in my hands on the day of release.
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Chainsaw
T
A very BAD man.
It is what it is
Posts: 90,480
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Post by Chainsaw on Mar 3, 2009 2:16:37 GMT -5
Details for the My Bloody Valentine 3-D Blu-Ray and DVD As reported, both the DVD and the Blu-ray will include the 2D and 3D versions of the film. As for the supplemental features expect the following: Audio commentary Deep Inside My Bloody Valentine featurette Sex, Blood and Screams featurette Deleted scenes Gag reel Digital copy Four pairs of 3D glasses 4 pairs! So you'll have 2 pairs when you have to wear 2 glasses to actually get the 3D effect! *Not actually true*
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Sinestro
Samurai Cop
I wonder how many words I can fit in this spot. Probably not many, but maybe a few. Yeah that many
Posts: 2,275
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Post by Sinestro on Mar 3, 2009 4:25:00 GMT -5
So wait a minute. This gets 4, and Friday part 3, only came with two? (As did Freddy's Dead, but the less said about that flim the better). I call shenanigans.
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Lick Ness Monster
Dennis Stamp
From the eerie, eerie depths of Lake Okabena
Posts: 4,874
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Post by Lick Ness Monster on Mar 3, 2009 11:01:29 GMT -5
I posted a review of My Bloody Valentine 3D somewhere in the previous thread, but I'm just feeling way too lazy to sift through that thread and look for it. Suffice to say, it's a pretty awesome experience to see it in a movie theater, but for some reason I think it may be one of those movies where, upon further inspection, might be a tad bit lamer when viewed at home rather than in a packed screening filled with people rocking in the aisles to the amazing 3D effects.
Don't get me wrong - I still enjoyed the flick's story, and the movie actually has MUCH better acting than the Canadian original...but I suspect you all know what I mean. With 3D movies, it's just not the same at home when it's just me and my loser self wearing cheapo red-blue glasses on a Friday night. ;D
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Post by Rorschach on Mar 3, 2009 15:18:08 GMT -5
I posted a review of My Bloody Valentine 3D somewhere in the previous thread, but I'm just feeling way too lazy to sift through that thread and look for it. Suffice to say, it's a pretty awesome experience to see it in a movie theater, but for some reason I think it may be one of those movies where, upon further inspection, might be a tad bit lamer when viewed at home rather than in a packed screening filled with people rocking in the aisles to the amazing 3D effects. Don't get me wrong - I still enjoyed the flick's story, and the movie actually has MUCH better acting than the Canadian original...but I suspect you all know what I mean. With 3D movies, it's just not the same at home when it's just me and my loser self wearing cheapo red-blue glasses on a Friday night. ;D Agreed. Fell asleep on LAST HOUSE last night...but I just had a biopsy done on a patch of skin on my shoulder blade, and was pretty worn out, not to mention the pain killers. I'm going to try and watch it again tonight, free from drugs, alcohol, and other distractions. ;D
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Lick Ness Monster
Dennis Stamp
From the eerie, eerie depths of Lake Okabena
Posts: 4,874
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Post by Lick Ness Monster on Mar 4, 2009 13:45:21 GMT -5
I posted a review of My Bloody Valentine 3D somewhere in the previous thread, but I'm just feeling way too lazy to sift through that thread and look for it. Suffice to say, it's a pretty awesome experience to see it in a movie theater, but for some reason I think it may be one of those movies where, upon further inspection, might be a tad bit lamer when viewed at home rather than in a packed screening filled with people rocking in the aisles to the amazing 3D effects. Don't get me wrong - I still enjoyed the flick's story, and the movie actually has MUCH better acting than the Canadian original...but I suspect you all know what I mean. With 3D movies, it's just not the same at home when it's just me and my loser self wearing cheapo red-blue glasses on a Friday night. ;D Agreed. Fell asleep on LAST HOUSE last night...but I just had a biopsy done on a patch of skin on my shoulder blade, and was pretty worn out, not to mention the pain killers. I'm going to try and watch it again tonight, free from drugs, alcohol, and other distractions. ;D Damn, man - hope that turned out okay for you (the biopsy, I mean). BONUS REVIEW ACTION! Yup - I'm breaking my code of silence on the movie that I have outright refused to review up until this point... First off, I lied way back when I did the F13 franchise review and said that the reason that I refused to review this movie was that it would just make me too angry. The real reason? I just didn't want to watch the movie again, I didn't own a copy and, quite frankly, I didn't feel that the movie was worthy of the $2.49 it would cost me on Amazon. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the way you look at it, New Line just released a nice, convenient "Jason Slasher Collection" on DVD consisting of this, Jason X, and Freddy vs. Jason. Completionist that I am, I gobbled the set up, meaning that I now own every movie that both Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger have appeared in. There's a veritable laundry list of complaints about this movie in the fanboy community. That it's not a true Friday the 13th movie, that it's not even really a Jason movie, that the film's main plot of having Jason jump from body to body is, to put it in as nice of a way as possible, incredibly asinine, etc., that no explanation is ever given for Creighton Duke's wealth of knowledge about the new mythology of Voorhees, etc. I actually appreciate what Cunningham was, in theory, trying to do with Jason Goes to Hell - perhaps the series needed a little rejuvenation, but this movie is, by all accounts, just too much rejuvenation. My main beef with this film is that it seems focused, for all intents and purposes, of taking away everything that fans liked about the series; as DSR once said, this movie is basically the equivalent of Cunningham telling the loyal Friday fans that they were, in essence, stupid for loving the movie series that he had created growing up. Essentially, Jason Goes to Hell is a possession movie; it is set some time after the events of Jason Takes Manhattan, and no explanation is ever given for how Jason (a) got back to Crystal Lake from New York City, and (b) resurrected in the first place. In perhaps the film's only scene that harkens back to the original series and gives fans a nice sense of nostalgia, a beautiful young woman strips down to take a bath, only to be interrupted by Mr. Voorhees himself. As it turns out, the film's opening sequence is a sting operation by the FBI, and Jason is blown to bitty bits by the trigger-happy task force. From here, the film turns into a chase movie for its duration, with the soul of Jason jumping from vessel to vessel; meanwhile, a bounty hunter (Steven Williams - always a treat to see him) claims that he knows the true nature of Jason Voorhees and the way to dispose of him, and there's a subplot in Crystal Lake itself involving Jason's long-lost relatives, the Kimble family, along with our main protagonist for the evening, Steven Freeman (John D. LeMay) tagging along for the ride. I mentioned earlier that this movie seems focused on removing the fun aspects of the F13 series; gone are the laughable yet relatable characters, and in its place is a laughable, whiny hero played by LeMay; gone is Kane Hodder's awesome, angry portrayal of Jason, and in its place are about five random stock characters who don't look menacing in the slightest attempting to look pissed off scampering around Crystal Lake; and gone is the simple, campfire scary story nature that makes the F13 experience so awesome - instead, we get a rather convoluted horror story where everything is hinted at, including some of the specifics of how Jason meets his demise, but nothing is ever really fully explained. More than anything, this movie is just desperately missing the sense of fun - unlike the earlier films in the series, we could at least see that the directors and cast members were having some fun making the movies. In this movie, it's definitely not the case. There is one sequence in this film that is pretty damn fun to watch - and not coincidentally, it involves the criminally underused Hodder - in the late goings of the film, Jason is able to be reborn in a new body (complete with worksuit and hockey mask), and in one long, protracted scene, beats the holy hell out of the LeMay character. Just watching Hodder in action again after being forced to sit out for the previous 87 minutes makes the scene all the more special; Hodder's mannerisms and acting are still amazing and, for a character with no speaking lines, Hodder pulls off the impossible and continues to give the character a personality. However, the rest of Jason Goes to Hell is an absolute washout - it's an amazingly boring film for a movie that should be a flat-out spectacle (who would've ever thought a movie about a body-hopping undead serial killer would be so taxing to watch?), none of the characters are memorable with the exception of Williams' Creighton Duke, and even the deaths are pretty damn cookie cutter and pedestrian. 1/2 *
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erisi236
Fry's dog Seymour
... enjoys the rich, smooth taste of Camels.
Not good! Not good! Not good!
Posts: 21,904
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Post by erisi236 on Mar 4, 2009 16:44:52 GMT -5
Yeah, I remember in my Friday thoughts thread when JGTH came up the word "boring" was brought up. It's almost as if nothing in particular happened, and the film was just kind of wandering around with really long drawn out scenes that go nowhere, seriously, 10 minutes dedicated to those random campers, why? Like I said earlier this flicks best accomplishment was to remind me to watch 3 other much superior films, Creepshow, Evil Dead and The Hidden.
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Mar 4, 2009 17:03:20 GMT -5
Ouch, that's a pretty scathing review there, though, at least in part, deservedly so. I have more love for this film than a lot of other Friday fans. Not so much for the story (the body hopping thing was a bit random and unneeded), or the portrayal of Jason (Hodder barely gets any screen time), but because this is easily the bloodiest film in the franchise. The beginning of the film and the scene with the campers are both classic Friday the 13th fare. The tent spike impalement from the campers' scene ranks among the top kills in the entire franchise, IMO. In terms of the overall story, like you said....probably not the strongest of the series. Despite the story (and the film's other obvious shortcomings), I think that this film, and to a lesser extent, Jason X, get way too much flack from the fans. After 8 straight-up stalk and slash movies, they had to try SOMETHING different, even if this particular idea fell kind of flat. I guess I'm such a big fan of the series that I'm able to enjoy even the less-stellar entries, like this one.
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Post by Rorschach on Mar 4, 2009 17:09:48 GMT -5
Heh. Then, along came FALLEN several years later to show this mess of a movie how "body swapping serial killer" action is REALLY done. "T-i-i-i-i-ime is on my side.....yes it is...." *BRRR* Well, the results of my little surgery won't be in for up to six weeks, so I'll know more about that then. Meantime, I've gotten around to rewatching several little gems that I'll be posting reviews to here in the next couple of days. Starting off.....the special collectors edition of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. The remake is coming up, but I encourage those of you who have never seen the original to go out and get this edition. It's well worth it in my books, because this version has stuff never before seen anywhere. So this film tells the story of two not-so-innocent young ladies named Mari (Sandra Cassell) and Phyllis (Lucy Grantham), and how after venturing out to the big city, they are taken in by a brutal gang of thugs, kidnapped and driven back out to the country, where the two girls are demeaned, menaced, raped, and in Phyllis' case, butchered. The thugs (Fred Lincoln, David Hess, Marc Sheffler, and interestingly for the time period, a female played by the gorgeous Jeramie "Jerry" Rain) then lead Mari to a nearby lake, where they shoot her and leave her for dead. Discovering that their car no longer runs, the thugs then decide to hike to the nearest house they can find.....which, in an ironic twist, belongs to Mari's parents. LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT really raised the bar for horror films back in it's day, and was so intense, it prompted it's creators to give it the tagline, "Just keep telling yourself....it's only a movie! It's only a movie!" Make no mistake about it, this film IS nerve wracking...and that's what makes it the masterpiece that it is. It's not well shot....the acting is sub par, and the gore is tame by today's standards. But what really kicks this film up a notch is the depravity of what is depicted on the screen. Lincoln, Keffler, and especially Hess are all too believable as scummy street thugs who could honestly do something like this with clean consciences. This makes them all the more easily hated by the audience, and by the time the finale rolls around, you really, really, REALLY want them to get what's coming to them. This version of the film has been cleaned up, and some scenes extended and re-inserted so that the film is presented the way the director intended it. Also included are several featurettes, a deleted scene and some raw test footage that only confirms what the three lead male actors tell you in their commentary: Craven sucked as a director at this point in time. Ahhh.....the commentary. David Hess (who also scored the film, and is quite frankly brilliant as a film composer) Fred Lincoln (who of the three, is the most vocal critic of Craven) and Marc Sheffler all get together some thirty plus years later to discuss the film that launched their respective careers....or failed to, in most cases. This is truly the reason *I* bought this film (well, that, and my other copy was scratched all to hell by a buddy who borrowed it using it as a beer coaster) and it delivers, in my opinion, exactly what a commentary should. There's no "Oh you were so brilliant in this scene" verbal blowjob like you might find on a big studio release....no, this is three old chums busting each other's balls and giving you the straight info on the film they made. It's fun, easy to listen to, and provides some great insight into the making of this film. Some choice info: *Sandra Cassell, who played Mari, was one of the worst actresses ANYONE involved had ever come across, and could not emote to save her life. So, in a case of extreme frustration, actor Marc Sheffler actually grabbed her by the shirt, drug her over to a medium sized cliff, and threatened to throw her off for real unless she started crying "right that f***ing second". Craven yelled "Action!", Cassell burst into tears, and they got the shot they wanted. Makes me wonder why no one has tried that with Jessica Alba yet. *Apparently, all three leads either had straight intercourse with, or got gratification from, Lucy Grantham, who played Phyllis. They compliment her amazing body to no end, as well as her acting chops, which honestly surprised them all. *Fred Lincoln was constantly helping Craven to direct the film, as Craven didn't know what the f*** he was doing, at one point attempting to shoot a chase scene with a stationary tripod. Lincoln, whose character is the recipient of the infamous "bitten off dick" actually wanted Craven to shoot the woman spitting something out into the lake, just so audiences would get what actually had happened to him. They didn't get the shot, but in the long run, it was obvious enough as it was. *David Hess talks of how the movie actually made him so infamous in New York that people would cross the street to get away from him. *All three leads agree that the film could never be remade....at least, not without them! In all seriousness, they simply do not think that the lightning in a bottle that was LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT could ever be recaptured with a new cast. In the end, like I said, there is a lot to like about this edition, and in my mind, it's purchase, especially with the upcoming remake, is a no brainer. Movie rating: *** Extras: **** for the commentary ALONE.
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Post by GuyOfOwnage on Mar 4, 2009 17:39:08 GMT -5
Heh. Then, along came FALLEN several years later to show this mess of a movie how "body swapping serial killer" action is REALLY done. "T-i-i-i-i-ime is on my side.....yes it is...." *BRRR* Well, the results of my little surgery won't be in for up to six weeks, so I'll know more about that then. Meantime, I've gotten around to rewatching several little gems that I'll be posting reviews to here in the next couple of days. Starting off.....the special collectors edition of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. The remake is coming up, but I encourage those of you who have never seen the original to go out and get this edition. It's well worth it in my books, because this version has stuff never before seen anywhere. So this film tells the story of two not-so-innocent young ladies named Mari (Sandra Cassell) and Phyllis (Lucy Grantham), and how after venturing out to the big city, they are taken in by a brutal gang of thugs, kidnapped and driven back out to the country, where the two girls are demeaned, menaced, raped, and in Phyllis' case, butchered. The thugs (Fred Lincoln, David Hess, Marc Sheffler, and interestingly for the time period, a female played by the gorgeous Jeramie "Jerry" Rain) then lead Mari to a nearby lake, where they shoot her and leave her for dead. Discovering that their car no longer runs, the thugs then decide to hike to the nearest house they can find.....which, in an ironic twist, belongs to Mari's parents. LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT really raised the bar for horror films back in it's day, and was so intense, it prompted it's creators to give it the tagline, "Just keep telling yourself....it's only a movie! It's only a movie!" Make no mistake about it, this film IS nerve wracking...and that's what makes it the masterpiece that it is. It's not well shot....the acting is sub par, and the gore is tame by today's standards. But what really kicks this film up a notch is the depravity of what is depicted on the screen. Lincoln, Keffler, and especially Hess are all too believable as scummy street thugs who could honestly do something like this with clean consciences. This makes them all the more easily hated by the audience, and by the time the finale rolls around, you really, really, REALLY want them to get what's coming to them. This version of the film has been cleaned up, and some scenes extended and re-inserted so that the film is presented the way the director intended it. Also included are several featurettes, a deleted scene and some raw test footage that only confirms what the three lead male actors tell you in their commentary: Craven sucked as a director at this point in time. Ahhh.....the commentary. David Hess (who also scored the film, and is quite frankly brilliant as a film composer) Fred Lincoln (who of the three, is the most vocal critic of Craven) and Marc Sheffler all get together some thirty plus years later to discuss the film that launched their respective careers....or failed to, in most cases. This is truly the reason *I* bought this film (well, that, and my other copy was scratched all to hell by a buddy who borrowed it using it as a beer coaster) and it delivers, in my opinion, exactly what a commentary should. There's no "Oh you were so brilliant in this scene" verbal blowjob like you might find on a big studio release....no, this is three old chums busting each other's balls and giving you the straight info on the film they made. It's fun, easy to listen to, and provides some great insight into the making of this film. Some choice info: *Sandra Cassell, who played Mari, was one of the worst actresses ANYONE involved had ever come across, and could not emote to save her life. So, in a case of extreme frustration, actor Marc Sheffler actually grabbed her by the shirt, drug her over to a medium sized cliff, and threatened to throw her off for real unless she started crying "right that snorking second". Craven yelled "Action!", Cassell burst into tears, and they got the shot they wanted. Makes me wonder why no one has tried that with Jessica Alba yet. *Apparently, all three leads either had straight intercourse with, or got gratification from, Lucy Grantham, who played Phyllis. They compliment her amazing body to no end, as well as her acting chops, which honestly surprised them all. *Fred Lincoln was constantly helping Craven to direct the film, as Craven didn't know what the snork he was doing, at one point attempting to shoot a chase scene with a stationary tripod. Lincoln, whose character is the recipient of the infamous "bitten off dick" actually wanted Craven to shoot the woman spitting something out into the lake, just so audiences would get what actually had happened to him. They didn't get the shot, but in the long run, it was obvious enough as it was. *David Hess talks of how the movie actually made him so infamous in New York that people would cross the street to get away from him. *All three leads agree that the film could never be remade....at least, not without them! In all seriousness, they simply do not think that the lightning in a bottle that was LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT could ever be recaptured with a new cast. In the end, like I said, there is a lot to like about this edition, and in my mind, it's purchase, especially with the upcoming remake, is a no brainer. Movie rating: *** Extras: **** for the commentary ALONE. Thanks for the review, Rorschach. At least now, I can be confident that pre-ordering this new edition was the right decision, and not a waste of my money. I'm looking forward to seeing the film for the first time in about 4 years. March 17th (the expected delivery date) can't come fast enough.
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Post by BoilerRoomBrawler on Mar 4, 2009 19:34:09 GMT -5
I'm going to have to get that since I still do not own it yet.
I remember when I first saw the trailer for LHOTL and I was thinking to myself, "Oh no, they didn't..." and as the trailer unfolded I realized that the entire damn movie is given away.
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