The Lawnmower Man

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

Ahh yes, The Lawnmower Man. Starring that pilot from Lost and Pierce Brosnan giving it his all. It's kinda hoaky but there's some fun stuff there. I remember just watching the cg in this film over and over again as a kid, I was so fascinated by it. Man it looks primitive now, although isn't supposed to be realistic, they are supposed to be computery.

According to IMDB "The eight minutes of computer generated special effects took seven people eight months to complete on a budget of $500,000." It was the very early days and this would have been a huge job but it does play to the strengths of what they could do, not having to replicate real life in any way.

The story is pretty simple, I think Ghost in the Machine has more fun horror elements in it and is probably a better put together film overall. The story of this one is pretty much a digital Frankenstein and it's ok for what it is. But it's the effect work that probably makes this one a significant film.

The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter

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

I'm on a 1990 binge it seems. Much like int he film, I saw this one sitting on the shelf and something drew me to it.

Sad that Jonathan Brandis died young, but I have to admit now I find him a little too aww shucks all american boy wonder in this film compared to Barret Oliver in the first film. Obviously the first film is a far superior film, but this was the first one I saw at a cinema and one of the first memories I have of seeing a film on the big screen. Those giant black crab things scared me bad but they look kinda stupid now.

I always like the evil castle being in the shape of a hand. A hand that shoot lazers. The metaphor of losing memories and having an emptiness inside make far more sense to me now than when I was 5 but it's nowhere near as cool as how the first one works.

But it's an alright film, I barely remember the 3rd at all but I did remember a lot of this one. Now I'll probably have that damn theme song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Home Alone

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan, Amberly, David, Breeahn

Christmas in July party. Not complete without a christmas movie and this is what ended up play. Why not. Kinda fitting after just watching Harry Potter. Chris Columbus had a cray mega hit with this one too although this one was a little more surprising. Although I was only in pre-primary when this was released. Still many childhood memories.

A lot of that has to do with the John Williams score, every note is ingrained in my memory. John Hughes apparently bashed this out over a weekend for a laugh. I would love to get my hands on all those other scripts he wanted made but they didn't pick up. No doubt they are still floating around Hollywood offices somewhere, so even though he is sadly no longer with us there is still a chance we could see something new from him.

The bluray has a commentary with Columbus and Macaulay Culkin! Awesome stuff. And some nice extras. A lot of trivia was spouted during the viewing. I especially like the theory that Elvis is alive and appears as an extra in this film.

Also we all seemed to notice Kevin's passport being thrown into the garbage the night before the flight, a somewhat important plot point and something none of us had picked up on before. Thanks Bluray. Thuray.

Catherine O'Hara is just the best. Her and the crazy awesome stunt guys that do some of the best prat falls in modern movie history. Change the sound effects and music in this film and it becomes a horrific nightmare. Crazy violent! But funny.

A lot of logic holes were pointed out watching the film, nothing I ever really though about watching it before, it's just such a cool kid wish fulfilment scenario, being home by yourself doing whatever you want and of course the downside to that, being afraid and alone. Simple. Fun to watch through again. And we did notice a few Radcliffs in the credits...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Mum

The series comes to an end. As I said previously it's completely satisfying to me and certainly the most epic of the series. The Battle of Hogwarts is something I wish they could have spent more time in because it was awesome, but I'll take what I can get.

These films are really remarkable, quite a feat of filmmaking. As much as it's all J.K. Rowling's story I give huge credit to Warner Bros. and the producers for sticking to their guns, for meeting Rowling's demands of an all British cast, sticking closely to her work and for keeping the same cast through a decade of storytelling. It's a film series that's grown up along with its viewers. The chances of something like that happening again is very slim.

The biggest problem with this film is it's so full of stuff there's hardly any time for emotional payoffs. First kisses and beloved character's deaths have to be passed over very quickly to keep the story moving.

This time I saw the film with a younger crowd and there are a lot of tough moments in the film. Snapes death is rather brutal but to finally have the payoff to his story is great. The dead Voldemort foetus thing caused a few audible gasps too, which is great. Conversely, moments from McGonagall, Mrs Weasley and Neville got a round of applause even with the smaller crowd I was in today. That's a very rare thing indeed and I think it speaks volumes to how much these films have made their way into peoples lives.

Besides the Battle there are still quite few sequences that stand out. I love that dragon in the bank vault, he has such character compared to the others in the series. Seeing the Chamber of Secrets again was good too, I'm sure it much have been all created digitally this time as they would have no time to reconstruct that massive set for the brief screen time it appears. Actually there were a lot of callbacks to the 2nd film, the Spiders, the Pixies, obviously the fang and the sword are very important.

The music in this instalment is quite different to most everything that came before. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, some of it really works though.

After a whole film away from Hogwarts it was cool to get back (and then see it destroyed). I like the very militant turn the education has taken with Snape in charge. For this first time though I found the courtyard and the bridge to feel like a real place, outside. It feels like hey shot all those scenes outdoors, where normally those were still sets inside. Whatever they did I'd be interested to see, but it works much better for me.

Again this film is graded down to being barely visible, except of course the startling contrast of the Harry in the train station. I still haven't seen the film in 3D and I think I probably won't. My eyesight isn't bad or anything but if you add the tinting of those glasses to this already dark film I think you'll have a hard time discerning much of what's going on. Anyone that's seen it in 3D care to comment?

Last I'd just like to say that the epilogue completely works for me. I do tear up on that last shot, I'm not entirely sure why, but it does feel like the completion of this journey and it also makes it definite. There's not speculation as to what happens after the battle left in the viewers minds. I don't want more stories after that scene, it feels whole. And I think the make-up is astonishing. It's probably easy to pull off a very old exaggerated look but this has to be subtler and you don't want to finish off the series with something ridiculous, it'll taint everything that came before it. A daunting task and one I think they pulled off.

Very satisfying and an incredible achievement.

Panic Room

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

This is a great tense little thriller from David Fincher. It's not as heavy going as some of his other films, it's nice the throw on and have fun with. Jared Leto is pretty funny and once again Fincher delights in destroying his face.

This has his typical very polished look in visual style and editing and he uses quite a few digital tricks and virtual camera moves to keep a film that take place pretty much entirely in a few rooms of an empty house as interesting as possible. I think he possibly even goes a little too overboard with some of these shots. As much as I love them they do draw a lot of attention to themselves. I think Zemekis managed to pull of a few crazy shots that never took you out of the film in the similarly toned What Lies Beneath. Nevertheless the whole breaking in sequence done in one take is impressive.

Jodie Foster is great in this, I really can't imagine what it would be like if they ended up with their original casting of Nicole Kidman. She does make a brief cameo as a voice on the phone though. This is the first film I saw Kristen Stewart is and she does look remarkably like Jodie Foster's daughter.

I'm still waiting for that long rumoured special edition disc but so far this film doesn't seem to have been popular enough to warrant it's release. I still enjoy this one from time to time, it's a great looking and paced thriller.

Alexandra's Project

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Geoff, Owen, Amberly, Jordan

Previous thought here. neat to watch again and see different reactions.

Zathura

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

As much as I love Jumanji I have to admit, despite the heavy nostalgia value, I like Zathura more. Jon Favreau made a great adventure film with two wonderfully realistically portrayed kids and some awesome retro sci-fi vibes.

It's also one of the last films Stan Winston worked on and there's a lot of great practical effects in this one like the creepy Zorgons and the Robot. The effects are great.

My biggest problem with the film is the paradoxical resolution for some of the characters. It makes sense but it depends a lot on how you think the game works and what it means. I don't like the easy resolution it provides though, it raises a few more questions than it answers (although it does lead to hilarious incestual consequences, which I find delightful in a children's film).

The story and characters work much better for me than in Jumanji, as does the comedy. That's probably the biggest factor in my preference. Well that and I'm a nut for retro sci-fi. This one works much better for the adults in the audience as well as the kids. If you've never seen it you should defiantly give it a shot, I love it.

The Ruins

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

Here's my previous thoughts. I have a lot of fun with this film. I love how these stupid kids just get in a really really shitty situation and have to try to manage. Good fun. Lots of blood.

Super Mario Bros.

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

Wow, it's been a while. This one is such a mixed bag. The biggest problem with it is that is just feels completely wrong for the franchise. But it's hard to think of what they could have done with a live action shoot back then and make it at all believable. It's a strange dark grimy city in a parallel world that doesn't much and resemble the bright shiny world of Mario where you jump on creatures heads and collect coins to save a princess.

What we do get is Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo doing their best to keep up, Dennis Hopper being delightfully nuts, some cool dinosaurs and creatures (even though they don't look much like their game counterparts) and very very early CG effects. Oh and Fiona Shaw, I always forget she's in this.

I instantly recognised Alan Silvestri's compositional style in the very comedic score. Pity they didn't use more themes from the game. Pity they didn't use more anything from the game really. It's the first video game adaptation I know of and it doesn't set the bar too high.

But some of the action is alright. I can see what they were trying to do with the story adaptation but it's not entirely successful. It's a strange mix.

Krull

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

Here's my previous write up. Give it a read, I say it all there.

Man I love this film so much. It just makes me super happy. Especially good when you have to pull an all nighter doing tedious rotoscoping work.

Videodrome

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

Where to begin? Well what about that trailer. Wowza.

I have watched a lot of David Cronenberg this year already. This one is iconic though. It's a very trippy film. I don't understand people wanting to remake this, how could it work today? No one uses vhs anymore, unless they made it about youtube clips or something stupid like that.

It's very much a product of it's time, despite many themes being relevant today. A lot of the make-up effects don't hold up that great but they get the job done. There are some interesting ides brought up in here, some of them are a little overt but once the mind bending starts you forget about a lot of that.

It's not without it's problems but there's some exciting and downright freaky things to witness in this cult classic. I'd say it's a must see.

Phantoms

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

This is one of those late 90's Dimention horror films that I have a lot of nostalgia for. These were my high school horror films and a lot of fond memories are associated with them. This one in particular seems to be a lesser known title than the others, but there's a lot here that appeals to my sensibilities.

I love the set-up. The deserted town, where everybody's dead and strange things are happening. At the start you don't know if it's going to be a slasher film, and viral outbreak, a monster movie, something supernatural... It could be anything and it plays up as many of those things as it can. In fact it manages to be quite a lot of them all rolled into one.

The way the story develops you really have no idea where it's going to go and when the situations keep getting bigger and more dire it really feels like a big journey you've gone on, even though the whole film takes place inside this small town.

There's a cool cast assembled here, in particular, the great Peter O'Toole being classy as ever and Liev Schreiber whacked out of his mind. Always a delight.

There's some cool imagery and sequences although some of it seems a little heavy handed to me today. The effects don't look that great today but they were cool for the time.

The explanation for all the crazy happenings is one of the more bizarre and interesting I've come across. It's something I'm not sure how I'd take had I been watching it for the first time now, but I do like it, even the cheesy coda at the end. It's a great creepy little movie.

Prom Night

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

Well why not? Jamie Lee Curtis is in trouble again. Leslie Nielsen isn't being funny. And this one features some of the BEST prom dance sequences ever put to film. Fantastic. I love the disco music that's consistently in the background of every scene in the finale.

I love that the fat kid get's a date and it's not ironic or a joke or a bet. Too bad they all get killed.

It's not one of the best slashers but it's a worthy entry. My threshold for these kinds of films are very low though so probably best not to heed my advice too much when it comes to these...