I loved this movie - one of my favourites in a long time

I fully agree.

I was thinking SNL as well. Many of the sketches needed closure or a punch line. But what the hell... It was fun and entertaining.

Hey, she's a hot blonde. Can you blame me?! ::wink::

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Loved it. One of the best action films in recent times.


* * * *

a quiet character driven western i quite liked.
it had a big showdown finale that lasted quite a while but even that was subtle and realistic .. not shot with all the typical action and music …

it's no Dances With Wolves but it's a solid watch,

Duvall steals the film - as usual
He goes under the radar a lot but he's one of our finest actors

Yes, I've seen Wilderness, but Scum is new to me. I just put it in my queue. Thanks so much for the rec!

Scum is great. My favorite prison flick along with Ghosts... of the Civil Dead.

Scum is on Netflix?

I've only seen the American remake of Scum. "Dog Pound". Good movie.

Really disliked Wilderness. More a bad survival horror flick than a youth prison flick.

I liked The Onion Movie and even Darwin Awards better than Movie 43... to me it felt less like celebs making their own comedy skit and more like celebs bound by a promise they made to do this movie. I think two of the shorts got a laugh out of me, the wrap-around story was boring as hell, and I just expected more from everybody involved. Except Halle Berry, I was surprised by how far she went for her skit.

Yeah, no youth prison but still young prisoners.
I liked it because it's a bunch of criminals instead of the usual gang of teens.

The Iceman (2012)

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>>: B

There is also 2 versions of Scum - personally I prefer the remake (DESPITE David Threlfall BEING IN THE ORIGINAL).

A Single Shot

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Fantastic character driven thriller. I went into this blind and I'm glad I did. I was expecting something different than what the film delivered. Gritty and captivating stuff.

I just watched the foreign short “Aftermath/Genesis”. I'd seen Genesis a while ago when it was streaming on Netflix, though I wasn’t actually aware Aftermath existed until I saw it on someone’s “most disturbing horror films” list. Of course, I underestimated the film’s ability to actually “disturb” me, like I originally did with Martyrs. So of course, I feel like an idiot now, because Aftermath did, in fact, disturb me deeply.

As always, I’m of two minds about films like this. I want to hate it because it just seems so wrong, but on the other hand, it did horrify me and isn’t that the main purpose of a horror film? Maybe I’m being ridiculously pretentious, but the film (however grotesque) does resemble a fine work of art. For example, the role sound plays in Aftermath is essential, the squeak of the gloves, the click of the camera, the sound of blood and organs being slapped around, it all seems so carefully orchestrated. Therefore, can this film be considered anything other than an exercise in deviance? I don’t know.

On the other hand, I dislike this film immensely, because it supports the untrue stereotype that those who deal with death on a daily basis are perverted ghouls. I’ll be honest; I have a very close familiar member who works as a morgue technician. Whenever people ask him what he does, they either react with revulsion or morbid curiosity when he tells them. Too often, I find myself having to defend him, because after all, his job is just a job, a role in society that needs to be filled by someone. In light of this, I found it hard to watch Aftermath, because it certainly isn’t promoting a new view of morgue techs, just reinforcing old clichés. And we all know that the horror genre already has plenty of clichés, so maybe this film doesn’t really deserve that much credit.

Again, I don’t know. Either way, I definitely need a little brain bleach. Off to watch cute puppy videos on YouTube, hehe.

I'll have to check out 'Aftermath/ Genesis'. I haven't seen a horror movie that disturbed me for a long time. Maybe this one will.

I myself just watched 'All Is Lost' starring Robert Redford and ONLY Robert Redford. Was pretty good, and managed to inspire some feelings of tension and dread, but I left the film with a feeling like I'd seen all this before in a dozen other survival movies.

Oh well. 3/5

NEBRASKA. Good show. Great music. Worth the time and money it takes to see it.

Going to give this a try....

I am doubtful about your Walter Mitty comments though.

Curse of Chucky (2013)---When I was a really little kid, I once saw the first 20 minutes of Child’s Play and it scared the crap out of me. Now that I’m older and maybe a little wiser, I’m disappointed that Curse of Chucky didn’t scare the crap out of me.

You’re Next—Liked it a lot, although I thought the twist was predictable. The blender scene caught my interest, though.

Flowers in the Attic—I gave in and watched it. This remake is better than the original, but still not a very good movie.

Agreed.

It's just not a very good story. The incestious relationship was the only believable part in it.

"Whip It" 7/10

The womens "Dodgeball" starring Ellen Page, Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis and a Zakk Wylde look-alike as the coach (he was funny).

An entertaining feel-good movie.

If only the director had edited out the hipster boyfriend. God what a douche..

The twist caught me by surprise! What did you think of the dialogue between the family? I think they rushed the family fight a little bit during the dinner scene. It would have been better if the run time was a bit longer and they developed the characters a little bit more.

Flowers in the Attic is sort of universally known as a poorly written novel. I haven't read it myself, and have sworn that I will get around to it one day. Is it a horror movie?

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Just about to watch the remake of 'Carrie'. Will post here with my thoughts.

No, it's a depressing drama.

Looking forward to A Single Shot - Thanks for the rec, EC!

I'm curious about Flowers in the Attic... I'll have to see if the remake is On Demand...

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I love that movie! And I agree about the hipster boyfriend, though I like that they didn't make the movie about her finding love - He wasn't the end-all-be-all of her self-discovery and happiness - She was finding herself.

And MAN that was cheesy! ::embarrassment::

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Funny Ha Ha (2002)


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Not my favorite of the mumblecore genre. Also, I had decided that Mark Duplass was going to be in it so I spent about half of the movie waiting for him to appear and was disappointed when he didn't.

The acting and directing was fine, definitely amateur, but I just didn't connect with the characters.


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Would You Rather? (2012)


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Yeesh. I'm really not much into the torture, Saw-like movies, but this is definitely a well-done movie for that genre. The cast is fascinating and eclectic, from My Name is Earl's Crab Man to Trailer Park Boy's Ricky to Jeffrey Combs! Combs, by the way, was just a blast to watch. I want to see him in more movies. He seemed to be having fun and he was certainly a despicable host.

But back to the movie - Well... Definitely gruesome and cringe-worthy at times (I had to cover my eyes more than once, I'm ashamed to say), I was impressed by the movie's ability to keep me interested when it's just not my kind of movie. I'd say it's a recommendation for fans of Saw and the like.


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The Spectacular Now (2013)


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This movie is getting a LOT of buzz in the dorky Pop Culture podcasts that I listen to so I probably went into it with high expectations - It's a good, solid, coming-of-age movie, but I just didn't connect with it. Could be that our main character isn't very likable (which is on purpose; we find him at a pivotal moment in his young life as he graduates high school - he's the sad side of the partyer - Someone who at 18 is already showing signs of being an alcoholic) - I appreciate that the movie definitely makes its characters more realistic and not just teenage archetypes... I also loved Brie Larson in her smaller role as his ex - But the movie left me feeling sort of empty. It might have been that when I look back to my high school years I mostly see my time wasted on a loser boyfriend and struggling with undiagnosed bipolar - Not a great time for me -

Anyhoo - I do think it's a good movie; I just didn't connect with it as much as I was hoping to. More melancholy than I was expecting. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I think I needed something more uplifting (after watching Would You Rather?!). Ahhh, well.

I am going to presume that I can post about non-horror films here as well. Yesterday, I watched several films (not really horror though except possibly one):

Titanic (1997): 10/10

This is actually one of my favorite films. If somehow you have never heard of this film or its (basic) plot here it is:this film is about two star-crossed lovers (think Romeo and Juliet) falling in love on the fated ocean liner known as the Titanic. Of course, it is so much more than this description depicts. It is an excellent period piece. Additionally, it was one of the most, if not the most, accurate portrayals of the event. Furthermore, it featured an excellent score and some pretty good performances, especially by the supporting actors and actresses. The drama prominently featured in the second half is perfect. I am not a fan of the romance aspect, but despite that it remains one of my favorite films. If, somehow, you have not managed to see this film, I highly recommend it.

Note: I have seen this before. I would say 150+ times.

Dante's Peak (1997): 6/10

I was expecting it to be alot better. The film was about a volcanologist who goes to a small town named Dante's Peaks that is located near a dormant volcano that is about to become active. Pierce Brosnan (although it is hard to picture him as a volcanologist) played a pretty good role and Linda Hamilton was not bad. Other than that, the acting was pretty bad, in my opinion. The story was okay, but it was definitely lacking. It seemed like a big ripoff of Jaws. There were some unintentionally funny scenes. The "bridge scene" cracks me up. The look on the character's face is hilarious. It was entertaining, but it could have been alot better. I feel ,although many disagree, that Volcano (1997) was a much stronger film that dealt with this theme that came out the same year, despite its scientific inaccuracies. I would not recommend this film myself, but, if you do wish to see it, at least it is entertaining. By the way, I seem to be in a minority on my opinion of this film.

Note: This was my first viewing.

Inception (2010): 10/10

This film was nominated for Best Picture in 2010 and it definitely deserved it. The film is about someone being contacted to see if he could place a thought in someone's head, via their dreams, in exchange for a complete forgiveness of their crimes in their hometown. The story was quite interesting and the film featured some strong performances especially by Leonardo DiCaprio. The premise, being able to enter people's dreams and manipulate them, was very interesting. In the way it was done, it also appeared to be pretty unique (although I am sure there might be some obscure movie it is similar to). The direction was also very well done and the dream sequences are very surreal. Definitely an excellent mind-bender. The ending is a topic of hot debate with, I am sure, hundreds of different interpretations. I would definitely recommend this film, one of the best films of this decade, so far.

Note: This was my first viewing

Argo (2012): 10/10

This film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2013. While it was not my first choice for that year, it is an excellent film nonetheless, in my opinion. The story was based off a real CIA operation to get six individuals, who escaped the embassy in Iran in 1979, out of Iran safely. In order to do this, the CIA pretends to make a fake movie named Argo. This film is well made. It is filled with plenty of emotion. The appropriate scenes are quite tense. Furthermore, there are some terrific performances especially Christopher Arkin and Ben Affleck. John Goodman was really good as well. The atmosphere was also perfect. Anyway, I would definitely recommend that you see this film, if you have not already.

Note: This was my second viewing.

Donnie Darko (2001): 10/10

Donnie Darko is about a troubled teenager who believes that he can see the future through a figure in a bunny suit and this bunny says that the world is going to end soon. I have to say that I absolutely love this film. I would honestly put it in my top ten-15 movies of all-time. There were some terrific performances, in my opinion. The best, by far, is Jake Gyllenhaal who was brilliant as Donnie Darko. His character is very well-developed character and I, personally, can identify with him even better because I have my own psychological problems. While the others are not as good as Gyllenhaal, the delivered some solid performances, in my opinion especially Drew Barrymore and, I will admit, that Swazye was perfect as the "motivational speaker" (it seemed to be quite different than his roles in other movies I have seen him in). I will say that all of the characters, from the most to the least developed, were pretty well-developed, overall. I found the story and premise to be quite interesting and well-paced as well. On that note, I thought the atmosphere, which was dark, was perfect. The music, which was from the 1980s, complemented the film quite well, especially Mad World (originally performed by Tears for Fears). This film is definitely a must-see, in my opinion.

Note: This was my first viewing.

You're Next

i dug it..
I know that i would

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

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**SPOILER ALERT**
It succeed to give me chills several times as it's been more than a month since I last saw a solid horror flick. As a James Wan film there's some regular good, creepy set-pieces but I think instead of the plot's 'Jack Torrance' take on Josh Lambert character it'd be better & more interesting if they could further explored The Further world here more twistedly or kinda bizzaro way. And just like the first one, it also ended with a rush & disappointment, IMO. Thought it was kinda lame that in a world like The Further, a spirit like Elise could beat such a wicked ghostly entity Mrs. Crane with a rocking horse and kills her!!

Anyway, overall it's not a bad sequel at all, a decent time passing horror flick but could have been more interesting & better.

>>: B

a lot of people like this one but I was turned right off from the beginning
the movie didn't take two seconds to breathe before it started with all the little creepy moments .. it seemed forced and desperate.

I'm not settled into any one style but I appreciate films that have a more subtle approach - at least in the beginning...

"Carrie" (2013) 7/10

The only reason i could see for this remake was to make the ending more spectacular. And it was pretty good.

All in all i thought it was one of the better remakes, that i might even like better than the original. Of course, it lacked John Travolta and William Katt who was replaced by two standard forgettable teens. But i prefered Chlo� Grace Moretz in the lead role. Especially because she was 16 when she played the role as a teenage girl and not 26, as the case was with Sissy Spacek in the original.

FLUKT

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2076850/?ref_=nv_sr_1

From the director of "Cold Prey"

excellent movie

lolz! Agree but I guess they did that because of it's a continuation story of the 1st installment & starts right after the events of that "chapter 1" with almost zero subtle approach & straight jumps into the creepy business...cause there's also a good or even larger number of people out there ("target audience") who just expects lots of jump scares all over (from the beginning to end) in a haunted house flick.

"Excision" 7/10

Gross and original with a crazy ass main character. Traci Lords and especially AnnaLynne McCord were terrific in it.

Now I need to find more movies with AnnaLynne McCord. She was remarkably ugly in this one.

I was really impressed with that one... FANTASTIC cameos and Traci Lords was great.

It's funny to see McCord in that movie and afterwards see her in Bad Girl Island where she looks like a supermodel. Damn she was unattractive in Excision..

Machete Kills
Not as good as the first one but just as entertaining.

"Bad Girl Island" 3/10

I was completely surprised. A horror movie where a truck actually stops before collision. Probably wasn't in the budget.

Poor James Brolin, that good looking old man..

Train -

I glanced at some of the IMDB reviews before watching this movie. I should have listened to those reviews and passed. This is Hostel on a train basically. I now believe that the director, writer, and producers of all these bad horror movies are just a committee that maybe claim to be horror fans but go to TVTropes and follow the bad / overused blueprint. In this movie you have the stupid kids you don't care about, torture porn, evil dirty Europeans that are for some reason the new backwoods American characters, and a few crude nude scenes. And of course those nude scenes involve a club in which anything seems to go. Add in violence against women which in the old horror movies, at least the good ones like Halloween was always quick. Here you have women getting punched and kicked by large men and a few of those dirty Europeans fighting over who will rape a girl. The really bad thing is when you find out what's going on you'll ask why are the people going about doing it in this very brutal manner in dark rooms. Of course the reason is not related to the situation but because it's a torture porn movie. All of this equals a horrible waste of time modern horror "movie" if you could call it that.

The Bell Witch Haunting- the new one from Asylum. Ok, in my defense I did not know it was an Asylum picture going in. It never said that in the opening credits or anywhere. Anyway, of course the movie was terrible. But you know what, the first half hour was tolerable and didn't give much indication about how bad it was going to get. So yeah, I watched the whole damn thing. It was obviously a quick and dirty knock-off of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activities. I was expecting that. As such, I found the first half hour to forty minutes not all bad for a cash in.

The movie became so bad though. Idiotic character decisions and a near complete absence of logic.
For example why did that kid never mention to his parents that the house was built on a famous haunting site? Why not take your daughter to a doctor if she is having night terrors all the time? At least have her sleep in a different room when the room is acting funny. Or, you know, maybe move out of a haunted house. Why are there palm trees in Tennessee? Why doesn't it bother the main characters that all their friends are being murdered? Why isn't that park sealed off is murder after murder keeps happening there? Why isn't there an investigation into all those murders? You would think that cop would need some therapy after discovering body after body, night after night, in the same park. Or maybe someone would wait there to see who is leaving all those bodies there? What does the Bell Witch even want? Her purpose is never explained. Even the Ghosts actions are inconsistent and illogical. It directly murders one person and then just throws pots and pans around another.

The best scene was with that dog who wondered around in the scene where the father was having a seizure. You could tell the filmakers wanted the dog to be freaked out by the seizure and all the ghost stuff, but it thought the actor was just playing a game so it was wagging its tail and looking back and forth from the camera crew to the actor. I can't believe they left that in there. If you want to see this hilarious bit of ineptitude, the movie is streaming on netflix and you can just skip to the 59:00 minute mark, watch the dog cheerfully enter the scene in confusion as to what is expected of it.

Anyway, I'll give the movie this, it did have one good jump moment.

Carrie (2013) 3.5/5

Was not as bad as a lot of critics have made out. I actually enjoyed it. I guess the film-makers shouldn't really get too much credit as it is very close to the DePalma version, and they are working from Stephen King's source material, but it was overall a competent film.

The Good:

- Chloe Grace Moretz's crazy face at the end of the film. It sort of borders on camp, but was awesome nonetheless. You really get the sense that she is a woman in the middle of a telekinetic frenzy!
- The bittersweet scene where Carrie dances with Tommy and actually experiences joy is just as powerful as DePalma's version imo.

The Bad:

- Moretz's doesn't really sell Carrie for much of the film. Not as well as Sissy Spacek at any rate.
- A few plot points that are just complete throwaways. Like when the nerdy photographer teaches Carrie to maximise Youtube windows, and I'm thinking maybe he might play a bigger role later, but doesn't at all.
- Julianne Moore is under utilised. She's a great actor, and I was expecting a little bit more.

The Ugly:
- Some of the visual effects are a bit tacky. Didn't like the super slow mow gore shots (such as when the bad chick smashes her head through the windshield), because they obviously CGI and didn't look realistic.

Ultimately, a good movie that is an acceptable remake for the current gen of teenagers who wouldn't have heard of the original version.

Gravity (2013)

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Gravity convincingly depicts the uniquely challenging works of astronauts and provides quite an amazing closer look as well as the very uncertain, eerie-hopeless nature of the space. Surely it's a visually stunning movie to better watch in the theater. The only thing is though the premise here is truly exceptional & very different than others but as a survival story including the lead character, I didn't find it as moving or as great as any other survival flicks even made in recent times i.e. Life of Pi or 127 Hours. Loved that symbolic 'human evolution' sort of ending though.

>>: B+

Escape Plan
Good but not great. Would have been average with an ordinairy cast.
Should have been made 20-25 years earlier.
Still worth the watch.
Loved the classic Schwarz moment towards the end.
They do this slow motion close-up thing and you instantly know what's gonna happen.