2011 October Horror Movie Challenge Movie 1: Them (1954)

I've waited long enough to watch this movie. I bought it years ago and haven't gotten around to watching it until now. Surprisingly, for a 1950s era sci-fi movie about giant ants, it holds up pretty well. The script tosses in some explanation about how the atomic bomb dropped 9 years before the movie's release date had a hand in mutating the ants to giant proportions, but it's wise enough not to try and over-explain everything, thus making the plot seem even more ridiculous. The acting is good as well. The little girl in the opening sequences plays shocked and scared very well, and the small-town cop Ben is likable (even if he seems to be perpetually on duty 24/7 despite having a pregnant wife and two kids). The giant ants are creepy and surprisingly effective (with today's technology we seem to have only been able to make giant insects look WORSE with our computer generated imagery than this movie from the 1950s). We get to see some people get chomped by ants, hear some freaky ant-communication screeching, and listen to precious lines like "Saliva is the only thing holding me together right now, too." This movie is a fun watch. Good way to kick off the festivities.

Beach Bums (2011)

This is the latest film from the award-winning filmmaker Anthony Spadaccini, who is also responsible for the "Head Case" films. This film is considerably lighter fare than those serial-killer films, though, so you don't have to worry about watching this comedy with the whole family. The tagline for this movie is "And you thought YOUR vacation was bad." Actually, I've taken a beach vacation in my life, but nothing that rivals the experience of the main character in this film, a clumsy, down-on-his-luck guy named Trevor who can't seem to catch a break. This movie kind of made me want to go to the beach, but if I ever do decide to try taking a beach vacation again, remind me to book it as far away from the people in this movie as possible.

Trevor is the first character we meet in this film, and he's a goofy guy who sleeps with a teddy bear and has a dead-end job and a boss who seems to want to seduce him, so it's easy to feel sorry for him at first (even as we wonder how he can afford to book a beach vacation when he just lost his job...needless to say, Trevor's not the brightest bulb on the tree). Also, I have to say that once Trevor arrives at the beach, he really is responsible for most of what happens next: an escalating fight that starts when Trevor decides to steal from a fellow beach bum. The bulk of the movie shows Trevor's feud with this guy, and I don't know why he thought he could win a battle like this when he can't even figure out how to work an umbrella, or a screen door, or a folding chair...he can't even eat an ice-cream cone without injuring himself somehow.

Fortunately, injury for Trevor means fun for the audience! The comedy in this movie is of the slapstick variety, with the oafish Trevor getting into one ridiculous situation after another and managing to trip, fall, and nearly drown several times throughout the course of the film. One particularly funny sequence finds Trevor buried in the sand, trapped helplessly while his arch nemesis throws wet wads of paper at his head. I'd like to try that with a few people I know.

This movie is a fun throwback to the fun slapstick comedies of the silent film era. It really is fun for the whole family, too - the eight year old girl I was babysitting was giggling right along with me.

Insidious

This movie gave me about five heart attacks and a few images that will stick with me and probably pop up whenever I try to go to sleep for the next 30 years. great. The only downfall of this movie was the two techs who helped investigate the paranormal happenings with the psychic woman, Elise. I think these guys were supposed to be "comic relief" but like most comic relief when it's shoehorned into a movie where it doesn't fit, they were annoying instead of funny. I got over it, though, since everything else about this movie was good. It reminded me of other movies and horror stories (Stephen King's novella "The Sun Dog," the movie "Poltergeist," the movie "Wes Craven's A New Nightmare") but not in a bad way, more like they were reminiscent of things that had used similar themes in the past, but it definitely put a new spin on the "haunting" subgenre. In fact, I had managed to forget about "The Sun Dog" and how it scared me so badly I never wanted to take pictures again, so thanks a lot for reminding me and making me afraid of my camera again, "Insidious."

All in all, highly recommended.

The Matthew Shepard Story

Because I enjoy ripping my own heart out and pouring napalm into the gaping hole, I watched this movie tonight. Don't get me wrong, it's an excellent movie (one of those TV movies that give TV movies a better reputation than they usually deserve) but I knew it would be heart wrenching and painful and I decided to watch it anyway. This movie needs a trigger warning bigger than the sun, because first of all, the brutal beating of Matthew Shepard is shown in more gory detail than I expected, and they keep showing it throughout the movie in flashbacks (because it wasn't disturbing enough the first time) plus there's a rape scene in the movie that I didn't even know was coming, so anyone reading this who might be triggered, I want you to have more warning than I did.

Otherwise, there's much to recommend here. The performances are great. I love watching Stockard Channing and Sam Waterston in anything, and Shane Meier did a great job portraying Matthew. For those who don't know the story, Matthew Shepard was a college student in Wyoming who was beaten to a pulp and tied to a fence and left to die in 1998. Fred Phelps (the infamous founder of the Westboro Baptist Church - which pickets at the funerals of gay people and soldiers telling people that "God hates fags") protested outside Matthew Shepard's funeral and outside the trial of his killers, so he and his merry band of hatemongers figure largely into the movie. This movie focuses on Matthew's life before he was killed and how his parents cope a year after his death with the trial and the issue of whether to seek the death penalty for their son's killers.

Seeing Fred Phelps and his followers protest is always hard for me because it hits so close to home - Fred Pehlps protested locally five years back at the funeral of a local soldier named Matt Webber - you can read
my earlier post about that protest here. The movie does end on a hopeful note, but there's a lot in it that's harsh and cruel and angrymaking, so enter at your own risk.

Disney Movie Marathon Continues Some More!

I love Sherlock Holmes and detective stories in general when I was a kid, so I would have loved this back then, but it still wasn't bad today. It holds up very well and it was a lot of fun.

Disney Movie Marathon Continues!

I think this one might be better than "Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure," though I like both of them (yes, I am five years old...deal with it). I like the lonely little girl who wants to learn about fairies, and I even like her father, who is so sure that nothing is "real" unless he can see it and touch it and measure it. I like the little girl's assertion at the end of the movie: "You don't have to understand. You just have to believe." It's very difficult to have faith, and harder still to hold onto faith when you don't understand what's happening in your life. I think these movies have lessons that adults could stand to learn as well. Plus they're so pretty! My inner five year old is pleased.

Disney Movie Marathon!

comedies that suck

Cop Out

Holy not as bad as everyone says it is, Batman! I guess it's because everyone I talked to was expecting something totally hilarious, and by the time I saw it I'd talked to everyone else who acted like this is the worst movie ever made, but I enjoyed myself. The movie was definitely trying too hard to be funny, and Tracy
Morgan was getting on my last nerve (I've seen him BE funny before, so why was he acting like an unfunny guy trying to be funny in this movie?) but otherwise...you know, I've seen worse. And the ten year old in me kept giggling at things that the 29 year old me probably shouldn't have found funny. If I were ten, this would have been the best movie ever, but since I'm not...it wasn't bad. It was juvenile and immatiure and annyoing, but it had its moments and I've definitely seen worse.

Red and Case 39

Devil

I've recently seen two movies from two of my favorite directors, and it's given me a lot to think about. "My Soul to Take" is a movie by Wes Craven, who's been one of my favorite directors since I was a kid, and who's recently made movies that a lot of people don't like, which cause them to say he's "lost it" ("it" being whatever he had once that made his movies good to begin with). Since I like the movie, I don't agree with the,, but I can definitely see what people are talking about when they call the movie dumb, or incoherent or whatever they hate about it that makes them dislike it so much.

M. Night Shaymalan is another story. He burst onto the scene with "The Sixth Sense" (he directed "Wide Awake" previously, which is actually a good movie that deserves more attention than it gets, but "The Sixth Sense" is the movie everyone remembers Shaymalan for) and then made a name for himself as the director who always brings the "twist" ending. The problem with that, of course, is that when people come into your movies expecting a twist, they're wise to your game, and it makes it harder and harder to actually surprise them. The "twist" endings got more and more elaborate over time, and most people were pissed at the "twist" in the movie "The Village" (I liked it, of course). Then when he made a movie where he tried to do something different, drawing on folklore and fairy tales and exploring the nature of belief and doubt, everyone hated it (I of course loved "Lady in the Water"). Then he tried to return to the "twist" genre, giving us "The Happening" which remains the only movie of his that I've seen that I DON'T like. I haven't seen "The Last Airbender," but it's based on a beloved kids show with a cult following and so it pissed almost everyone off. Lately, people have been so annoyed with his ego and his overblown plot twists that they're all going back an complaining about movies that they all liked back when the movies first came out (I was around when "Signs" was in theaters, I remember how everyone raved about it, so they can't pretend they didn't like it now).

My biggest problem with M. Night Shaymalan isn't that his movies are BAD. I've actually enjoyed moist of his movies, even when they're pretentious and overwrought and sinking in their own melodrama (that's what finally killed "The Happening" for me in the end). I think he's got an ego the size of Rhode Island, but it would be hard not to, what with everyone going on about how brilliant he was for such a long time. When he's on his game, he can actually do a great job weaving complex plotlines together into a story that's fun to watch as it unravels. In "Devil," I think he's totally on his game. This movie was fun to watch from start to finish, and the twists add to the story instead of distracting from it or getting in the way. I think "Devil" is a true return to form and it reminds me why I liked Shaymalan so much, back before everyone got so sick of him. The man knows how to tell a story. Maybe he forgot that when he decided to spend all his time trying to pone-up himself, but when he sits down and tries to actually tell a story, he can do that better than a lot of other directors I know. That's what made me a fan in the first place. If he sticks to that, it will KEEP me a fan.

Saw: The Final Chapter

I believe this is the "final chapter" like I believe there's a Santa Claus, but I'm also not upset at the prospect of more movies. This movie had problems, but it's FAR better than the seventh installment of any film series has any right to be, and it still managed to bring the twists, turns, and suspense. I also loved the gore and cared about the characters, so I really enjoyed it.

My Soul to Take

Everyone else hated this, so of course, I loved it. Story of my life. It's far from perfect but I think it does some really interesting things. It's a very experimental movie for Wes Craven to be making this late in his career. Of course, my friend Jes says "Experimental? Is that what we call it when it doesn't make sense?" so to each their own.

Dance Flick

This is one of those movies that is going to offend most people, and everyone is going to say that it's immature and juvenile (it is) and that it's not funny and blah blah blah. I'm used to that. Of course, I thought it was funny, but I've seen all the movies it's spoofing (I love dance movies) so I got a kick out of it, but you probably shouldn't watch it since most people didn't like it. It's rude, crude, and it does its best to offend everyone everywhere. I mean, the big dance number in the middle, "I'll be Gay Forever," which spoofs "Fame," made me laugh hystericaqlly, but I can see how it would piss off most of my friends. If that sounds like a fun time, then check it out.

Movie Marathon!

What I love about these four movies is that seeing them all together here makes me realize what a weird freak I am that I thought these four movies would go together in a movie marathon. But really, they do. I mean, three of them are love stories (yes, "Zombieland" is a love story, fuck off) and "Attack of the Giant Leeches" well...the less said about that movie the better. But it was fun to watch and mock anyway. So yay.

"Eclipse" and "Letters to Juliet"

The Hangover

"The Hole" and "Surviving Crooked Lake"

This movie wasn't bad. The acting is actually very good for amateur acting, and even though the characters aren't brain trusts, they're four scared thirteen year old girls, so what they do is believable, if not very smart. My only complaint with this one is the ending. It's literally like they ran out of money and decided to have the narrator tell us what happened over shots of nothing happening, because they ran out of money to actually shoot the ending. It was a cheap shot, and I would have been happier if they'd filmed enough to give us some closure and THEN had the narrator tell us what happened after that, but as it is, the ending feels like a cop out. but the rest of the movie is surprisingly good even though you kind of want to reach through the screen and smack these girls. I remember being thirteen, so I think I probably would have done what they did in that situation (and even if I wouldn't have, I do understand why they did it...it's not like anyone is completely logical all the time now, let alone when they were thirteen).




I had the poster for this movie hanging on my wall when I lived in my first house after graduating college, but I haven't actually seen it until now. It's not bad. Now I've seen movies like "Cry Wolf" and "High Tension," so I know better than to trust anything I see until I see the movie all the way through, so the ending didn't come as a surprise as much it might have if I'd watched it back when it first came out, but it's still a good little movie. The acting is good all around here, so there's no complaints there. I'd probably like this movie better if I were eighteen though. I'm getting too old now. :-p

Frozen and Winter's Bone

Furry Vengeance