The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler, Amy

Write Up.

Remastered and on the big screen! Was really fun to watch with a crowd and in a cinema. So manic. Man Franklin annoys me, I'm so glad once he's out of the picture.

Time Lapse

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Oooo cool! A really neat time travel mechanic and one that doesn't break the rules it sets up or create a paradox just to support the plot or a happy ending. Writer/director Bradley King's feature debut is a craft little thriller that slowly ups the stakes as the character keep digging a hole for themselves trying to keep up with their futures.

The young cast, all of whom I recognise but couldn't place a name to, do well. Sometimes the dialogue is a little clunky, especially towards the beginning but once things kick in it's a pretty steady downward spiral with a few twists and turns along the way.

John Rhys-Davies! Although only in photographs. But still...

Really enjoyed this one, I'm a sucker for time travel done well. And they use it well here, good fun. 

Willow Creek

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

Bobcat Goldthwait's found footage Bigfoot horror film. Seems like an odd fit but it worked surprisingly well. I figured it might be a comedy or a parody but no, it's straight up and worked the late night festival crowd effectively. 

Sure we've seen similar set ups before with Blair Witch and the like, a really really simple set up. This time, there's just one camera, two characters and the woods. Sometimes not even that, a good portion or the film is just a very very long single shot from inside the tent. 

But these two leads are so effective and charming in the looooong set up beforehand and wonderfully naturalistic that I had no trouble buying into the situation. The whole film's effectiveness rests on them and a few noises in that one long shot and it was wonderful. 

I'm so lade to have seen this at the cinema, I don't think this would work  nearly as well at home. Added bonus, we were sitting right behind a guy who was a real screamer. I don't think I've heard a guy yell like that in a cinema before. It was amazing.

Really simple little film, very effective and enjoyable.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Write Up.

I think I may be misreading that epilogue. I dunno, I like the idea of a closed time loop far more. It fits with the tone of the series much better. So this one and Conquest sort of parallels with Dawn. I'd say this is the weakest of them but theres still some interesting things. They really make the Gorillas the bad guys here. Poor stupid Aldo.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler

Write Up.

This one is just punishment. Slavery, torture then uprising and battle on the streets. It's the bloodiest of all 5 I'd say. Especially the directors cut that we watched.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler

Write Up.

I said before that this is the lightest of the bunch. Well, it's the funniest of the bunch but watching it again, there's nothing light about it. This is probably one of the more upsetting of them all. The ending isn't as bombastic as the others but it really packs a punch because of how much they successfully make you care about the two leads. I like this one more now.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler

Write Up.

I always remember those crazy harmonies the mutants sing at the church. Creepy and awesome. And some more amazing makeup fx.

Planet of the Apes

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler

Write Up.

A Classic. Love it. But now no-one can watch this without sining the musical from The Simpsons.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

I really really love the original Planet of the Apes series. And I was pleasantly surprised by the recent reboot, despite its more upbeat tone and ending. There's two things I really want from my ape films, apes on horseback and a dark and upsetting tone and message. This film has both in spades.

Matt Reeves is directing this time around and he gets to play with Weta's latest toys. I know fur clumping was a big issue on this one, it'll probably go unnoticed, like a great deal of their work but good lord it's stunning. I'm sure it cost a fortune. They really push the digital characters to the spotlight here, it's their film and boy do they hold up well. As an added bonus, we get some human characters to care about in this one too which is really nice. And because we have characters to care about on both sides this slow decent into conflict is just agonising to watch unfold. As many have already said, it's the only recent action blockbuster film where you want to spend more time with the exposition and stop the action from starting. 

But like the classics, this is a great tragedy and once the wheels are in motion, there's no stopping them. The action is remarkably staged and there's sure to be some new iconic imagery created here. There is a final showdown that seemed a little cliched but I was totally onboard with everything else. 

I have some small issues with Michael Giacchino's score. He might be trying to pay homage Jerry Goldsmith but it felt inappropriate in this environment. Also I think I'm just getting tired of a few of his trademark sounds but that's not something anyone else will notice. 

So if Rise was a lighter version of the original and supremely dark Conquest, this plays like a super successful version of Battle, the least successful of the original series. It's genuinely upsetting for a great deal of the running time. There's action in this that you won't be cheering for, they make it hurt. The realisation of the Ape world is beautiful. I can't wait to see it again and I hope Reeves sticks around for wherever they take the story next. There's no real roadmap from here, not that they've really been following the path laid by the original series but they have stuck to the basic concepts of films 4 and 5. It's all pretty much open now. 

But we'll worry about that later. What's most important to note is that this film is glorious and you should go out and see it in 3D. 

House

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Kate

Write Up.

So crazy. Watched the Criterion Bluray. I love that I have this on Bluray now.

Bad Words

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

Jason Bateman's directed a lot of television and now he has his own feature. It's good fun too and he revels in playing a complete asshole. I enjoyed all the bad behaviour so when the mandated heartwarming comes I was a little less interested. But I guess you need that to have some kind of character arc. The story works okay, the amber colour grading was a little odd but really not much to complain about. A pretty fun film.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler

Write up.

Just a brief refresher before the impending sequel.

Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler, Kate

I watched the first Dead Snow very late one night and only have very general memories of it. Again this was a late night viewing but seeing it in a cinema helps greatly. It also helps that it's a really fun film that well executed too. Some wonderful new ideas and great gags. I'm surprised there are still new action gags left to do with zombies but Tommy Wirkola has come up with some. And they are very funny.

After a brief recap of the first film for those that didn't know, it picks up right where that film left off and continues on. It then proceeds to get crazier than anything that happened the first time around.

They add in a bunch of Americans to the mix, which will probably help with box office for all the people that don't like reading subtitles. While it seems pretty obvious they are written by foreigners They aren't that detrimental to the film, just some of their jokes don't really land. Especially anything to do with Star Wars...

But this is great. Silly and hilarious, really well put together and Norway is just a pretty place to look at too. Great fun.

The Congress

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

Odd film. Robin Wright plays a fictional version of herself. An out of work actress whose last offer from a big studio is to have herself digitally scanned so she can be animated in future films. Bit of hollywood satire that was fun. Then the second half of the film jumps 20 years into the future and becomes animated, as everyone in the future takes hallucinogenic drugs to create their own reality.

It's really trippy animation too. Apparently this is the part that's closest to the book it's based on, I don't know much about it but it sounds completely surreal, which is what this film becomes. Whilst the two sections share ideas about what makes our reality and what we choose to be reality they have wildly different tones. The second half is much more esoteric, intentionally so, and while I enjoyed the lovely animation the story became a little convoluted.

It's a real mixed bag, with some great filmmaking, acting, animation and really great ideas but a few of them aren't pulled off completely cohesively. I'm pretty sure I did like it though.

American Mummy

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

So apparently Perth held the world premiere of this film, a very silly but kind of fun low budget horror film about some archeology students that uncover what appears to be an Aztec mummy in the American desert. Shot in 3D no less.

After a brief prologue we're introduced to our cast of various typical sock characters that you just can't wait to see come to some sort of grizzly end. The mummy's curse is unleashed and sure enough, people start vomiting green slime and hacking off limbs with an axe. Sadly the mummy itself remains pretty inert, so it's more like a zombie drone film.

The Luna cinema's 3D capabilities aren't really that great, I don't know of any other cinemas that use the heavier and much darker active shutter 3D glasses. Add to that some inconsistant interocular distances and focal points and you get a film that can be difficult to keep your eyes focused on at late session after 2 earlier screenings that evening.

The pace was pretty slow too, I kept waiting for things to ramp up but to a climax and whilst the gore gags certainly become more outrageous they are still spread thin. I guess that usually the nature of Mummy movies, the slow moving creepers. However this film didn't have enough of an atmosphere to be creepy, it's just too silly. So whilst there's certainly some fun bits you'll have to wade through a lot of expositional stuff to get there.

The film's ending sets up possible sequels but doesn't really have a very satisfying conclusion of its own. Admittedly with the right crowd this could be fun, but we were spread pretty thin last night.