Fiv Nits at Froddys

I have never played the games, but I watched others do so, and watched far too many Theory videos, so I know too much lore going into this.

It's possible knowing too much lore is useful, so I know that Mike is important, and what happens in his history is important, without the movie needing to tell me... which is handy, because we only get the basics in the movie. Vanessa turns up, and we can go "Hey, it's Vanessa!" as we know who Vanessa is, and she is very basic in the movie. Then Freddy and co turn up, and it's all them! And finally we get the reveal... and how the hell do the protags just jump to that as the answer? We know it from the movies, but there is nothing in the movie to lead Mike and Vanessa to know what's going on, but they do...

Speaking of Freddy, I will say that the animatronics look damn good. These are full puppets, by the Jim Henson company, no CGI creatures there. Very well done, and about the only real decent thing in the movie to see. Otherwise, the story takes too long to get going, and the odd cameo isn't going to help pass the time.

No doubt this will be successful... but as it went straight to VOD, that will undercut money it could have made. Scott has a second and third movie in mind, so we might be back here yet...

[END]

Read more!

I Saw it Ten

Did we need another one? No, but it was a successful series, so of course why not make more?

John Kramer gets scammed by the medical equivalent of faith healing, so goes on a revenge streak. But of course he isn't to blame, they are their own victims, he's not the one making them hurt themselves to get out of the traps he puts them in! He's completely innocent!

Or so this movie pretends. He's not, and this movie doesn't even really get there. There are moments when the players should be winning, but the script and the expectation of gore is against them, so of course people have to die. Although I will give a lot less gruesomely than we have seen in previous movies. Are the writers maturing? Certainly there is a lot more set up here to get to the expected traps than in other movies, because this has to be more self-contained that suddenly trying to shoe-horn in previous characters (although that is done too).

I'm sure Tobin Bell is willing to do this, but the other actors look like they are putting up with being in this rather than enjoying it. [Still, if I had the chance to die in a Saw movie, damn skippy, I'd sign that acting contract!]

In the end, this is seriously mediocre, and no doubt we haven't seen the last of this series.

[END]

Read more!

It Lives Inside

Hey, how about a horror movie based on Hindi ideas? Yeah, it's good!

It's tough being an Indian-American teenager, especially when your previous best friend keeps turning up carrying around jar and being really weird. There is a monster inside, and soon it threatens her. Will anyone be able to help?

And that is one thing that is really weird about this movie... she talks to adults, and they listen and try to help! What's up with that? Adults never understand! They just either abandon their kids to a grisly fate, or get grisly fated themselves... But not here!

That is just one aspect of why this is a really good movie. This is well shot, well acted, and the CGI and monster effects... are on screen. Yeah, okay, not the best, and the monster does look a little goofy, but the atmosphere generated works great.

Thumbs up for this directorial debut!

[END]

Read more!

Expender 4 Boys

I thought Three was fun, other people disagreed, so was kinda looking forwards to watching this.

We start with the Expendas having a casual time, mucking around, and flying a long way over countries... and in the same time, Bad Guy Minion attacks an army and gets his hands on some MacGuffin devices, and then the Expendons turn up. After that scene, we get to the need for a more personal mission, and eventually we get the long second act that is the rest of the movie.

When you think Expendables, you think a bunch of big names, they show up, do a thing, get a decent time on screen.. and other famous actors get to have random cameos. However, this movie... this is Expendables: Jason Statham edition. This could easily have just been a Jason movie with a minor script changes to accommodate a scene or two with the others in them. Now, we get some good names in there, Garcia, Gox, Jaa... but really, did the rest of the cast not want to be involved? Certainly Stallone checks out for most of the picture.

Hang on... scans through trivia... "Was originally intended to be a spin-off film from The Expendables, starring Jason Statham as his character Lee Christmas. It was to be titled "A Christmas Story" until it was reworked to become the fourth Expendables film." Well, that explains that.

And apparently this is the start of a set of trilogy movies... so we'll be back here again some time.

[END]

Read more!

The Nuun

Sure, why not continue this prequel to the sequel to the main series?

Picking up from the previous movie, the Nun is about and hunting after... a complete McGuffin of an item, to be honest. And Sister Irene from the first movie is also in this, as are some other characters, and we have a surprising revelation about her past that is as believable as it is baldly inserted into the script.

We spend the first half of this movie with characters experiencing all sorts of visions, so we are prepared not to believe anything we see.. and then spend the second half of the movie running away from things that are there. Not much really happens (although a lot more happens, in a far more interesting way, than in the first movie), making this movie feel like a lot of filler in the bigger arc. If you are going to have the Nun around, and know that it appears in the (second?) Conjuring movie, you know that whatever happens here is a stopgap at best, so while we have the fight to see if these current characters can survive, we know the "big bad" will only be mildly inconvenienced. And we do get the hint at the end that this sub-franchise will continue.

Still, there's adequate performances all around (no-one is really standing out) and hey, I see that Susan Pensieve grew up! Apparently the magazine sequence was done practically, so well done for that.

I'm not sure who will be wanting to see this, but there are worse ways to spend time.

[END]

Read more!

Final Demeter Trip

This is making a large mountain out of a molehill...

Dracula travels from Transylvania to London via ship... and from that an entire movie was made. Watch we are introduced to a whole crew of people, of whom we already know who survives.

Actually, that is a point. Are people seeing this who don't know the story, at least in a general sense? How many people are seeing this as some "ship with monster" story without knowing where it originated? I doubt everyone who sees this has read the original, but likely know that this is Dracula by osmosis... although this movie never names him as such.

What we get is a slow stalking of the crew, and they are picked off one by one (or sometimes more than one). Dracula is very much in beast mode, which doesn't really jibe with the book, but clearly the makers thought this more cinematic. However, usual beast stories end with the beast being dealt with in some way or another and a Final Girl getting away, but as I mentioned, this isn't that story, so we are not getting out with happy feelings.

And yet, I can't bring myself to get to invested, as this is making much out of a few lines in the book, so these are completely original characters that the movie wants us to care about, but again we know nothing will come of them... unless the movie really wants us to invest some spin off series with "the one man who stood against Dracula... despite never having been mentioned before." [Now Dracula is public domain, so the movie can do what it wants, but it's already decided to dabble in the exact dialogue of the book for the main "plot" of the movie, so odd it would think this is the way to go.]

More excited Dracula fans that me may be into this, but from looking at the rating on IMDB, I don't think we'll be getting a Dracula-verse just yet.

[END]

Read more!

No One Could Save You

What if Signs... BUT GOOD????

It's a small town, and one young woman is being shunned by the town... but then aliens arrive! I haven't seen any ads for this, so I don't know what is given away, but I wasn't expecting that... Sure, okay. And I know there is an Ending Explained movie, so I did also expect METAPHOR, and I think I got it...

But I don't really want to say more. This is a really good movie, good creatures, actual tension, and stuff definitely happens...

I'll just link Amanda's video here as inspiration.

[END]

Read more!