The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

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First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan, Tyler, Claire

Couldn't resist show this one again. Here's my original write up.

Fargo

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First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan

Ahh, so good to watch some classic Coen Brothers again. And on bluray too. I think I've watched more of their films this year than I ever have before, but hey there's nothing wrong with that.

There's something about a gritty crime film done with those pleasant Minnesota accents that's just charming and hilarious. The cast are all great. The script is impeccable. I just can't comprehend how they mix their great characters with tense drama and humour so well. That scene with Steve Park and Frances McDormand meeting for lunch still makes me cry with laughter. Love it.

13 Assassins

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First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan

I'm always excited for a Takashi Miike film. The man is prolific, he does anything and everything and consequently he can be a bit hit and miss but he is ALWAYS fascinating. The last time he did a samurai film was back in 2004 with Izo, but that was a completely different beast. Miike's cut back on his penchant for post-modernism in favour of creating a far more traditional (and easily digestible) samurai few-against-many film. He's even cut back on the extreme violence. There's still a great deal of blood letting but he's far more restrained, not just with the violence but with his editing and use of CG. It's old-school and it's great.

There's a great cast of characters and familiar faces lead by Kôji Yakusho who I recently watched again in the brilliant Cure. They manage to set up the band of samurai and give them each a unique little backstory. The story is very simple and you've probably seen it told before in Samurai films or Westerns or Sci-fi, what have you. An evil lord is about to come to power so a bunch of guys team up to take him out for the good of the country. But it's the characters and the action that make this film what it is.

The final battle, against the obligatory impossible odds, is just awesome. It really does feel like a classic film. I have to admit, I've only seen a handful of Akira Kurosawa films, something I hope to rectify soon, nor have I seen the original 13 Assasins, but I can understand the comparisons. It just feels like good cinema.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

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

Here's my write up. Give it a read.

This is a very underrated film in my opinion. It's is utterly joyous. I find it to be the funniest animated film I've seen in a very long time and it's just so much damn fun! Really love this film! Never fails to perk me up and leave me with a smile.

April Fool's Day

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

Well this was much better than I was expecting on all fronts. Actually I think I was expecting a different film that goes by the same name but seems to be more commonly known as Slaughter High, which does look much worse, so a pleasant surprise all round.

I recognise some of the cast too which is always fun. This whole film generally seems to be more fun than horror. There are some good suspense moments before then end though and it did keep me guessing as to who the murderer was.

And the ending! My god. It's such a cheat but I think I love it more because of that. Ridiculous and amazing. If you've seen it you'll know what I'm talking about.

Really liked this one.

Win Win

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Amberly, Jordan

Less of a comedy than the trailer makes out. I was kinda expecting that though after Thomas McCarthy's The Visitor and having finally seen The Station Agent earlier this year. Once again, it's a great cast of character actors. I didn't know Melanie Lynskey was in this, always a nice surprise to see her pop up, although I may have been overly sympathetic to her character just because I like her so much.

It's a funny mix of indie character study with a bit of motivational sports film thrown in. You can pretty much see where everything is leading once they introduce the kid. Pleasant enough but nothing overly memorable.

The Deadly Spawn

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

Wowza, what a delightfully bad movie. Actually there were some parts that were pretty darn fun. The creatures are just ridiculous but they have some neat gore make up.

Pretty funny.

I Saw the Devil

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

Another violent crime revenge thriller from Korea? It's a good thing they do them so well. This is a cool little cat and mouse game, a slow corruption of evil.

The story was enjoyable enough, it's pretty straight forward. I just had a little trouble believing the motivation of the detective not to kill the serial killer when he has so many opportunities. Granted there would be no revenge in simply killing him (also no story) but as the running time dragged on towards the end I thought it could have used with some tightening.

Still there are some great sequences of suspense, the cinematography is immaculate and it's not as overly stylised as some other recent Korean revenge films. Pretty cool.

Beastly

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First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan

nyeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh

Beginners

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

Not too sure what to make of this one. I like Thumbsucker fine enough to go see this, it had a good cast. I'm pretty sure I saw Lou Taylor Pucci pop up in one scene at a party too.

Well it was pleasant enough, perhaps trying a little too hard to be quirky with its editing and storytelling. But it never held my interest for long. There's nothing particularly wrong with the film, I just don't think I was in the mood for a little indie love story today.

Just look at the trailer, it pretty much tells you everything you need to know. If you're one of the hipster art-house crowd I'm sure you'll love this. For me it was just ok.

The Descent

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First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan

That trailer gives away far too much, so avoid if you can.

Neil Marshall's Spelunking horror film from a few years back is pretty damn great. Works wonders in a theatre. Especially with a bunch of girls who don't know anything beyond that there are some chicks and they are in a cave. The survival horror of the first half is effective enough to be scary but they crank things up a notch from there.

What I love about this film as opposed to that other cave horror film from the same year "The Cave" (which was essentially the same story but rated pg-13 and with less interesting characters) is that the setting doesn't feel like a stage. It doesn't look lit by studio lights. You can't see around the corners, the space isn't magically visible by ambient light. In The Descent the frame constantly trails off into pitch black darkness and the lighting motivation is more clear and believable. It's probably not that big of an issue for most people but it really helped sell the situation and up the suspense for me.

Forget the sequel, which doesn't even make sense here as it picks up from the happier U.S. ending of the first film, while we have the original european ending which somewhat negates the possibility for the sequel anyway. This is the one that works for me. It's tense, pretty brutal and manages a few good scares too.

Arcane Sorcerer

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

L'arcano Incantatore was mentioned by Guillermo del Toro in an interview on my new Cronos bluray. I thought I'd check it out, I haven't seen much (relatively) recent Italian films and this one came with good endorsement.

Being a slow burn kind of film it took a while to get into but by the end it surprised me at how effective it was, conveying this creepy atmosphere of the unknown with nothing but good film technique, no cheap tricks or effects.

The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous. The majority of the film is lit by dim candlelight, moonlight or out in the beautiful countryside at twilight. Everything has an autumnal golden glow, which suits the period nicely as well.

Unfortunately the story and characters don't really go anywhere much which makes he resulting film an exercise purely of style and atmosphere without a strong substance to back it up. It's an interesting film and successful in many ways but left me wanting a bit more.

Cowboys & Aliens

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

Here's my first write up.

I forgot how many studio logos appear at the front of this film. Everyone wanted a piece of this pie, it got passed around so much and through so many different writers it seams something may have been lost along the way.

As Michael said, I like cowboys and I like aliens but not necessarily together.

Silent Hill

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

I think this is the first modern video game film where I was actually a huge rabid fan of the games before I saw the film. I love the Silent Hill games. The first one I played was number 3, I rented out on a whim and was totally horrified and engrossed. And even then I thought the main girl looked an awful lot like Radha Mitchell and if they ever did a film she should star. So imagine my delight when they announced Roger Avary writing, Christophe Gans directing and Radha Mitchell starring, albeit in a different role.

The most incredible thing about this film from a fan perspective is how well it captures the look of the games. Many scenes look like shot for shot recreations of moments, the production design is impeccable. And the fact they used much of the infamous and iconic music and sounds directly from the game helps as well. And the monsters look great.

The cast is great all around although you can sort of tell they didn't realise there were no male characters in the film until the last minute and added in all those scenes with Sean Bean and the detective.

Where the film falters is exposition. Something they barley worry about in the games but is needed to make a more coherent film. Dumping it all in one big heap at the end of the film is tiresome and really drags it out. A little clunky. There's something to be said for the Japanese style of just keeping everything vague and unexplained. It does make it creepy but doesn't exactly translate well to western audiences in a narrative form to well.

I'm really jazzed there is a sequel coming out, that much of the same cast are returning and that the additions are great as well. This time it looks like they'll be adapting more of my favourite game, the 3rd one. As it stands this first film is potentially mystifying and probably a little inaccessible to non-fans, I can't be sure. I only know that as a fan it was great to see the world so perfectly realised on the big screen and even with it's flaws, I loved this one.