andrew8798
FANatic
on 24/7 this month
Posts: 106,084
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Post by andrew8798 on Mar 10, 2011 2:12:46 GMT -5
A Doom Reboot?
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Post by Rorschach on Mar 10, 2011 5:35:25 GMT -5
The Reef (2010) Directed by: Andrew Traucki Starring: Adrianne Pickering, Gyton Grantley, Zoe Naylor, and Kierran Darcy-Smith. Ok, quick preface to this review: As a HUGE fan of sharks, and a supporter of shark conservation, films with sharks as the villains have begun to strike an off chord with me. I don't mean science gone amok sharks like Sharktopus, or long extinct Dinosharks or Megalodons either. I mean your garden variety sharks; last year they killed six human beings...while we killed ONE HUNDRED MILLION of them. 1 in 3 shark species (including the majestic, iconic Great White) is on the verge of extinction, and yet shark fin soup continues to propel the brutal and savage finning industry while governments and those with the power to stop it look the other way. Look at those numbers again and tell me...who is the true "monster" here....us or the sharks? Seems like sharks ought to fear humans more than we fear them, to me. All right....that being said, enough soapboxing and animal activism. The only reason I bring any of that up anyway is that The Reef is the story of a group of Aussie boaters whose sailboat capsizes on a coral reef. One thing leads to another, and before you know it, the six people on board are left with that famous old "hard decision": sink or swim. One teeeeny little thing is different from that old adage here though: see, if these people choose to swim back to the mainland, they're gonna have to do it through NOTORIOUSLY shark infested waters. And a particular shark has already begun to check out their boat.... The Reef doesn't make the sharks malevolent villains here though; that's kind of what's different about it. In this film, the humans have f****d up BIG time, and they're in the shark's prime hunting grounds...and it's never played as if the shark has evil intentions in coming back to this group again and again and picking them off...it's merely behaving like a shark WOULD in this instance...checking out the flailing, splashing, thrashing creatures in it's domain, and seeing if they're good to eat. In fact, it really isn't even noted if this is in fact the same shark coming back again and again, or several different sharks hammering at the group of survivors. The fact that there IS no ominous JAWS theme before the attacks, and that the producers have used REAL shark footage for most of the fish's scenes lends The Reef a very tense atmosphere, and even though you THINK you know when an attack is coming, just as in real life, these sharks are unpredictable, popping up when you least expect it (and dammit to hell, they scared the BEJEEZUZ out of me at one point doing that, it was so sudden!) so that the tension the group in the water feels is translated to you. Unlike Open Water which lagged a bit in the middle, The Reef is non stop from the moment that boat capsizes until the last survivors make a desperate race for a slick coral beach against a surging Great White intent on capturing it's prey. I really enjoyed The Reef, and feel just as with Rogue this "killer animal" flick will find it's audience as a DTV film, even though it OUGHT to have been released theatrically. EDIT: I do believe this may have been released theatrically in Australia, but dammit, it should have seen theatrical play over here in the States, too as seeing the AWESOME cinematography and beautiful Australian scenery on the big screen would have enhanced this already cool flick even MORE. **** out of five from me, and a recommendation to check it out.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2011 18:59:27 GMT -5
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Post by Michael Coello on Mar 10, 2011 19:06:49 GMT -5
God, just give it to the Asylum. At the very least, we could have Sherlock Holmes vs. The Wolfman.
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Post by Rorschach on Mar 10, 2011 21:45:40 GMT -5
I actually liked the Benicio version, with my only complaints being A)that the attacks were too "shakey cam" like for me. It was like they copied the vampire attacks from 30 Days of Night or something. Really irritating. And B) That last fight between the werewolves was re-goddamn-diculous. But yeah, for all that THAT film went through, that it came out as good as it did is nothing short of amazing. Don't see what rebooting it already is going to solve. It's like we've come to the point in cinema (not just horror, see the recent Spider-Man "reboot" for evidence of this in other genres) where if a film is not a solid gold blockbuster, you just go back and have a "do-over" and reboot it. It's getting annoying, because no real progress is made in making the same movie over and over and over again. Also, I watched Bear last night on Netflix, and since that movie was SOOOO bad, it doesn't even warrant a full review. I'll just say this: 4 EXTREMELY annoying people stuck in the woods + 1 marauding grizzly out for revenge x WAAAAAAY too much bitching and fighting - ENOUGH bear vengeance = aggravating waste of time. And this movie even has the gall to have what could have at least provided a satisfying ending happen offscreen. In the immortal words of the Foywonder: F*** THIS MOVIE!
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Post by Michael Coello on Mar 10, 2011 22:07:22 GMT -5
Didn't mysterydriver review that movie? And I think it got the same rating.
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Post by Rorschach on Mar 10, 2011 22:38:21 GMT -5
Didn't mysterydriver review that movie? And I think it got the same rating. It was either him or Yellowjacket. And I should have heeded their words. URRGH. You know you're in for a rough movie when one of the main characters, even in a life or death struggle with a huge bear, cannot STOP BEING A F*****G PRICK FOR FIVE SECONDS. And no, the bear didn't eat him FIRST, like it should have. You have to suffer through his dickheadedness for the WHOLE goddamn movie. Seriously....you want a "crowd pleasing moment"? For that film, it would have been ol' Gentle Ben mauling that dude's face clean off with one colossal paw swipe, leaving the shocked-looking skull-face shining through. I would have popped for that like it was Steamboat beating Flair all over again. ;D
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Post by YellowJacketY2J on Mar 11, 2011 10:18:43 GMT -5
mysterydriver reviewed Bear. I was going to review it, then was supposed to write a Movienalia article on it, then finally rented it for free from Redbox, but never watched it. I'd heed both you and md's advice and skip it, but I'll most likely watch it on Netflix when I'm bored, since I'm a cinematic masochist.
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Post by mysterydriver on Mar 11, 2011 10:38:47 GMT -5
Yep, I reviewed Bear. Had a nice review wrote out for it in one of the older threads. When I started my Direct to DVD reviews (Disturbingly Cheap Reviews) I knew I needed to include it.
Sorry you had to go through that Rorschach. And yes, I hated the jerk character. Very, very much.
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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 11, 2011 11:02:39 GMT -5
That Bear review is one of my favorite reviews in the history of these threads. Good times.
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Post by Michael Coello on Mar 11, 2011 11:27:02 GMT -5
Yay! I know my Bear reviews!
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Post by mysterydriver on Mar 11, 2011 11:43:41 GMT -5
Nothing like seeing the written review and realizing how it was 95% of the script for the YouTube video.
On a sidenote:
I watched the movie Husk and while not having a full review wrote up, I enjoyed it not having traditional cliche characters but think it tries to hard to play killer mystical scarecrows completely straight.
Oh, and I solved the "how to survive" equation 10 minutes into the movie which is never a good thing because you spend the rest of the movie watching the character try stupid ideas when the obvious answer is right there.
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Post by YellowJacketY2J on Mar 11, 2011 12:16:07 GMT -5
Damn it! Now I have to see Bear now. Damn my cinematic masochism (I need a term for that)!
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Post by mysterydriver on Mar 11, 2011 12:18:55 GMT -5
You're a Cinemasochist?
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Post by YellowJacketY2J on Mar 11, 2011 12:25:27 GMT -5
Why was that so hard for me to think of? Thanks!
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Post by DSR on Mar 11, 2011 14:21:01 GMT -5
And if you take delight in hearing about other people suffering through horrible films, is that called Schadenfilm? Also, last night I watched THE LOST SKELETON RETURNS AGAIN, the sequel to the parody/satire/pastiche THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA. I don't have time for a full review, but just about everything that was great and hilarious about the first one is back in the second one. {Spoiler}And in the case of dead characters, back in the form of a twin brother nobody knew about. But yes, there's ridiculously bad dialogue, filled with non-sequiturs and sentence structures that would make Michael McGillicutty proud. There's crappy looking spaceships and foam rubber monsters. And of course, the Lost Skeleton, now simply a skull missing its body, is back to insult everybody. But there's also new bizarre characters, a trip to the Amazon, Dr. Paul Armstrong's fallen out of love with science, and half the film is shot IN COLOR! 4 stars out of 5. Very very funny.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2011 14:23:43 GMT -5
Thanks for the term, MD. We need something to call ourselves around here.
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Post by Rorschach on Mar 11, 2011 20:39:35 GMT -5
Yep, I reviewed Bear. Had a nice review wrote out for it in one of the older threads. When I started my Direct to DVD reviews (Disturbingly Cheap Reviews) I knew I needed to include it. Sorry you had to go through that Rorschach. And yes, I hated the jerk character. Very, very much. Oh GOD...watching that review brought back even MORE of the things I found wrong with that movie. And you know what? Had they been going for INTENTIONAL comedy or "bad horror" a la Troma....they could have had a great scene with little brother giving poor Bear a good old fashioned "Double J" guitar shot (complete with strut), Bear no-selling it and mauling him down, and big brother (aka Colossal Prick) giving the bear a Ric Flair "ballshot" from behind. Just turn that last battle into your basic two-on-one handicap match from pro wrestling. Bear would be the babyface, of course, and would win with a Vader Bomb from the top of the minivan onto BOTH brothers, ending with a spray of gore that just SOAKS the forest. As for the pregnant wife? Bear turns her over his knee, spanks her bottom, and lets her go. See? I just made that film INFINITELY better. ;D
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Post by mysterydriver on Mar 12, 2011 22:55:26 GMT -5
They made...a direct to DVD sequel...to Quarantine. Set for release later this year.
While the original was a nearly shot for shot remake of [REC], you may be surprised to find out that this movie is choosing to ignore [REC]2 and do its own thing.
And that thing?
Zombies on a Plane.
Daggone it.
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Post by Rorschach on Mar 13, 2011 2:23:42 GMT -5
Heh. And I'll choose to ignore Quarantine 2 in favor of [REC]2.
;D
Thanks for resurrecting the thread by the way, MD. I was beginning to think it might drop off to page 5 (!) for a minute there!
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