Box Office Top 10; weekend of October 28th
October 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Saw IV dominated the box office in its opening weekend; no surprise there. It’s a pretty bad movie but when has that ever stopped a studio from making bank with a 3rd rate sequel? In this case, it was to the tune of 32.1 million dollars. All alone in second place was the romantic comedy Dan in Real Life with 12 million.Â
 The ‘also-rans’ this week were 30 Days of Night, Game Plan, Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?, and Michael Clayton; all in the 5-6 million dollar range. In the ‘Dead Film Walkin’ category this week we find Gone Baby Gone, The Comebacks, We Own the Night, and the 3-D rendition of the Tim Burton classic(?) The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Yes, we’re in the slow time of the year for the box office. Right now the studios and theaters are taking a deep breath and getting ready for the holiday movie rush. I just hope we survive Fred Clause and Christmas in Wonderland intact. *shudder*
In any event, here’s the full top-ten list for this past weekend:
1. Saw IV – $32.1m
2. Dan in Real Life – $12.0m
3. 30 Days of Night – $6.7m
4. Game Plan – $6.2m
5. Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? – $5.7m
6. Michael Clayton – $5.0m
7. Gone Baby Gone – $3.9m
8. The Comebacks – $3.45m
9. We Own the Night – $3.4m
10. Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D – $3.3m
Popularity: 16% [?]
Free Movie Monday: take your pick!
October 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It worked last week, so we’re gonna do it again this time.. the winner will be able to choose one title from the Prize Library. A couple new titles have been added since last week, and at least one more will be added before FMM actually starts.
Also, this may be the last week that the FMM winner will be chosen from the forum, next week they may have to post a reply to a post here on the new site. And to celebrate the change, I might just put something special in the library…
So, in about an hour, FMM will start up over in the forum.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Believers
October 29, 2007 | 2 Comments
Quantum physics tells us that there are an infinite number of universes, and that all possibilities are happening in one universe or another. In some universe, I’m a hot looking blond chick (who most likely spend a lot of time in her bathtub) and in another moviesforguys.com is the #1 movie website on the internet.
The idea of multi-verses seems nuts and it’s not that hard to make one imagine the belief in such science to be a religion.. or cult, and that’s exactly what Believers is. Apparently one really bright math/science guy discovered The Formula to life, a formula that tells of multi-verses and the fate of our own. He shares this knowledge with a small group of other math/science people and together they get together in an old missile silo to study their numbers and to check and recheck what they believe to be true, that the earth is doomed.
The Formula has a way out though as they believe they can escape this earthly realm if they can just “leave their physical bodies” at the exact right time. Sound a little more like a cult now? Well, one of the scientist got cold feet and tried to leave the group, and got as far as a gas station before she apparently had a heart attack. Her daughter was smart enough to make a 911 call on a pay phone and a couple of paramedics arrive just before a group of scientist show up to grab her. You’d think they’d just back off when they saw the paramedics.. but no, they take them all back to the silo, at gunpoint.
Why you ask? Remember Schrodinger’s cat? Same basic idea here.. knowledge of the group and/or their plans can in fact alter the outcome, thus nobody can know what they are doing (this doesn’t mesh AT ALL with the opening of the movie where one of leaders is on TV doing an interview, but let’s ignore that.) To this end the paramedics must be quickly converted (the end is near!) or killed.
The production quality of Believers is quite high, and the acting is spot on as well. I was quite surprised at the quality of this film and can’t say enough good about that aspect of it. It’s not quite perfect though as there are some inconsistencies in the story that bugged me, and once again you have a studio marketing a film as “unrated” in an attempt to make you think there’s a bunch of sex and violence in it, when in fact there’s very little of either. It’s also not scary in any way, other than perhaps a bit creepy in parts, but even that is more on an intellectual level than a visceral one.
Great movie though, and I recommend it to anyone who has any appreciation at all of quantum physics or the ideas behind it, or anyone who just happens to like a good, smart, somewhat thriller of a movie. A strong 4 stars.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Saw IV
October 29, 2007 | 1 Comment
Just a year ago I was complaining about how Saw III was a mess, well, they obviously didn’t listen to me.. Saw IV is worse.
The problem is quite simple to explain actually, Saw is just like Star Wars. Remember back when the original Star Wars came out? It was a single movie, and there was the Force.. a magical, mystical thing that surrounded all creation that some people could tap into to let them pull off amazing stuff. Well, it made money, so the trilogy was formed. Still, the Force was a magical, mystical thing. Problem is that they started with Episide IV, and when it came time to tell the back story Lucas struggled to make the new/old stuff mesh with the old/new stuff. The end result was a mess.. and the Force became nothing more than science.
Saw was a low budget hit that was never intended to have a sequel, but it made so much money the studio had to have more. Saw II used the same formula but had a budget, and was a great movie.. but they didn’t know if it would be enough to continue the series. It made tons of money and they had to keep going, so to explain what was happening they started telling a bit of back story using flashbacks, and it sucked. Saw IV has that same problem, turned up to 11. Jigsaw is dead, no doubt at all about that, so they’re telling this story through the liberal use of flashbacks to let us know exactly why Jigsaw became who he was, and how others were recruited into his cause. The real problem here is their doing it by expanding on some scenes from earlier movies, to let us know what was “really” happening. But it doesn’t ring true. By trying to pull more out of the early movies than was actually there it just comes off as desperate, and is quite hard to follow at times. I’m 90% sure I got it all at the end, but it took lots of concentration and thought to figure it out, and that’s annoying in a horror movie. And, I could still be wrong.
Is it full of blood? Yep. How bout the traps, are they gruesome? Yep, of course, this is Saw after all. I did like some of the traps this time around. The wheelchair was nifty, and the classic “guy on an ice cube” had a nice twist to it. But the story was confusing, disjointed and annoying. I’m sure they’ll make Saw V since this one made so much money, I can only hope the new Jigsaw (and yes, stick around to the end and you’ll find out who it is) will go back to the formula from the first two movies and breathe some new/old life back into this series.
Popularity: 23% [?]
Theatrical Releases for Oct. 26th
October 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Well, a few films are opening today, but given that we’re in one of the doldrum periods for the year, there’s not really anything that is a must-see. If you’re in the Halloween spirit and liked the previous installments, then Saw IV may be for you.Â
Your only other *real* choice would be Dan in Real Life, but that one is looking to be very risky. The last of the big releases is The Darjeeling Limited. It’s three brothers on a “spiritual journey” by train through India. Yeah, ’nuff said.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Metalocalypse
October 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I didn’t really expect much from Metalocalypse, just some lame attempt at metal with some crappy animation and dumb voices. What I got was absolutely the best show on Adult Swim, hand’s down! The music actually kicks, the animation is better than expected, and the voices are perfect… PERFECT!
Metalocalypse is about the metal group Dethklok, the biggest band in the world. They are so big that they have the 12th largest economy in the world (just ahead of Denmark.) There’s a group that monitors Dethklok that’s made up of some military and religious figures, looks like the U.S. Army, the Pope and some other “shadowy” types. There’s a quick segment during each episode where they discuss Dethklok and what they should do about them, either monitoring or destroying them is the end result of these meetings. Obviously, they fail each time.
Each episode follows the group through something ordinary for a metal band.. writing a new album, finding a chef, doing employee reviews.. all in a way that’s just so METAL! The employee videos the band made for the annual meeting are priceless.
I’m having trouble describing just how awesome this DVD is, so I’ll just sum up. If you like or have liked metal music in the past, buy this. If you have had friend who likes or has liked metal, buy this. If you know people who like or have liked metal, buy this. All you need to really enjoy Metalocalypse is a general understanding of what metal band and metal fans are like. If you’ve got that, you’re gonna have a METAL time!
Dethklok RULES!!!
Popularity: 21% [?]
Death Proof
October 26, 2007 | 2 Comments
GRINDHOUSE was the homage Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez made to 1970s exploitation movies (Previously reviewed here on MoviesforGuys). Unfortunately the movie bombed at the Box Office. I suspect part of the reason was because of the boneheaded decision to release the film on Easter weekend.
It was a fun movie, but the experience of watching it isn’t quite as fun as someone else telling you about the experience of watching the movie. Particularly if that person is Quentin Tarantino being interviewed.
The two films contained in GRINDHOUSE, DEATH PROOF and PLANET TERROR, were split up and released on separate DVDs. The theatrical version of DEATH PROOF was about 90 minutes long; this new version is 113 minutes. Some incidental dialogue, and two major scenes have been added (or put back in, as the case may be).
DEATH PROOF tells the tale of Stuntman Mike, a serial killer who targets women with an unusual weapon: his car. Kurt Russell does a great job of making him both charming and creepy.
The first half of the movie involves him terrorizing a group of women. The second half involves another group of women, who may get the opportunity to strike back.
One feature of many 1970s exploitation movies was that the audience gets to experience the action from both sides. They can be frightened as the victims run from evil baddies, but they also get to have the vicarious thrill of seeing through the eyes of the sadistic bad guy. And, in the end, the Bad Guy gets his come-uppance, thus assuaging any guilt the audience may have for enjoying the pillaging a little too much.
DEATH PROOF captures the feel of those 1970s movies better than PLANET TERROR. The pace of the movie is languid. This is a talky movie, and even more talky in this expanded version, with people spending a lot of time shooting the breeze in restaurants and in cars. In this case, it’s all women, but, lest this veer into chick flick, they like to talk dirty. How much you enjoy this probably depends on how much you enjoy other Tarantino movies during the chatty non-violent down-time parts.
But this movie is also something of a Shaggy Dog story. The first 3/4ths of the movie is a gradual setup to get you to buy into a completely preposterous but outstanding finale. I can’t say “one of the best car chases ever” with movies like THE ROAD WARRIOR in existence, but this is a pretty amazing chase. It also spectacularly displays the talents of stuntwoman Zoe Bell, who plays herself… sort of. At least, herself as seen through Quentin Tarantino’s eyes.
If you’ve seen the theatrical version, the major additional scenes are the lap-dance we didn’t get to see (”REEL MISSING”), and then a sequence in black-and-white. And lots of minor extra lines of dialogue here and there.
The movie tries to look like a film you’d see in a second-run theater by having the film scratched, with skips, as if it’s been broken and spliced many times.
This 2-disc DVD doesn’t have any commentary track, but the second DVD has a variety of Making Of documentaries.
Note also that this DVD set doesn’t contain any of the fake trailers from the theatrical version of GRINDHOUSE.
I strongly suspect that eventually a super-deluxe double DVD “Grindhouse” edition of DEATH PROOF and PLANET TERROR will be released, which will probably have commentary tracks and those missing fake trailers.
Popularity: 27% [?]
Dog Bite Dog
October 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Pardon the hyperbole, but I have to say that watching ‘Hong Kong Action Movies’ is a lot like climbing Mount Everest. Sometimes you’re rewarded with an exceptionally special sight. Other times all you get is frustrated and depressed. But either way, you’re always completely spent and in need of a long recovery. And most times you have at least one moment where you wish you could slit your wrists.
Dog Bite Dog is certainly no exception to the above. Director Soi Cheang has created a tale of a savage assassin who sneaks into Hong Kong from Cambodia to assassinate the wife of a local judge. In his attempted getaway, the cops react quickly and arrest him…but not until after he turns one police officer’s neck into a shish-ke-bob. On the way to police precinct, he manages to escape his handcuffs and cause a wreck, allowing him to escape. One of the cops, a true renegade name Wai, embarks on a violent quest to exact revenge for the deaths of his comrades.
The assassin is more than a bit unusual. He dresses in tattered clothes, he is illiterate and can barely speak, and he apparently doesn’t get many good meals. He’s less like an assassin and more like a homeless psycho you’d see sleeping under a bridge. Additionally, he’s a complete homicidal animal. We later find out that he was enslaved as a child and made to fight deadly gladiator matches and, now that he has survived to adulthood, he’s farmed out as a killer to whoever needs some dirty work done cheap.
The cop, on the other hand, while being unorthodox and insubordinate, is gifted and his fellow cops have high hopes about his career. He has daddy issues, however, and is under investigation by Internal Affairs. His captain is also about 3 seconds away from firing him at any given moment.
This is where someone got an idea that, for SOME insane reason, they thought was completely original: during the pursuit, lets show how civilized men can be turned into animals, and vice-versa. Oh, yeah, THAT’S never been done before.
With a very heavy hand, the “lesson” is orchestrated on screen with sluggish precision and copious amounts of blood and brutality. In one particular scene that almost made me laugh out loud, the sounds of growling animals were dubbed in over the actor’s own noises! Come on! Haven’t they heard of subtlety in the far east?!?
Over time, the savage assassin becomes a lot tamer after he meets a woman. She apparently took all the steam right out of him…but I digress. At the same time, however, the cops get more and more desperate to find their man and begin doing things to their informants and other innocent people that would make Al Quaeda operatives flinch. Yeah, yeah, we get the point…can we PLEASE get on with the story?!?
Complaints aside, however, the action scenes are choreographed extremely well and most of the movie flows along rather nicely. I have to admit that I find myself *wanting* to like it more than I do. But the truth is that it simply isn’t a great movie. With the aforementioned flaws, it’s only just “pretty good”.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Buried Alive
October 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Buried Alive is the typical cheesy horror movie, where college kids get drunk, naked, run through the woods and get killed. Sounds perfect, right? Eh, not quite. It’s not that Buried Alive is a bad movie, it’s just not that good of a movie.
After an initial scene where we see Lester (Tobin Bell, that guy from Saw) digging for gold in a cellar, then a scene with Rene in a tub (no nudity), we’re introduced to Zane and Phil, with Zane being a rich-kid-but-only-if-he-graduates and Phil being the computer-nerd-who-helps-him-out. Seems Zane can’t keep it together long enough to get a degree and is looking to find the long lost treasure his great grandfather apparently had, and Phil is searching Google to help him find it. OK, so we now know that Zane is too stupid to use Google, that’s impressively stupid.
Rene is Zane’s kissing cousin (yeah, he wants her) and is also handling a couple of pledges for her sorority. In order to help scare the girls, Zane agrees to take them all up to his great grandfathers house in the desert.. this lets him dig for gold! Now, why he couldn’t just go up there anytime he wanted? Unexplained. In reality this is just an excuse to get a couple more babes on screen, and that’s all the excuse we need.
OK, Tobin Bell is the caretaker for this property, which turns out to be a hell of a nice house on 10,000 acres, and it doesn’t look that much like the desert to me with all the big trees lining the driveway.. but whatever. He’s a creepy dude who’s also looking for the gold.. and has been for years. Now, if you were looking for buried treasure and had had years to do it.. don’t you think the FIRST place you would have checked would be the cellar?! Man, the people in this movie are stupid.
When they arrive the first thing Lester tells them is to stay out of the cellar… so of course, the first place Zane goes is.. the cellar, where he discoversLesters digging. Ya know, all of this doesn’t really matter that much. Let’s skip ahead. Eventually they figure out that the place is haunted by great-granpa’s first wife, who was a Native American, and who really wants her necklace back.. one that Zane gave Rene (told you he wanted her.) Instead of going right for it she takes out a few of the kids first, for the heck of it I suppose.
This is all pretty standard fare for this type of movie, so what’s the problem? Well, couple things.. it’s a bit slow. There’s no “horror” until the last 30 min or so, with only a few chops before that. And more importantly, there’s virtually no nudity! Keep in mind this movie is marketed as “unrated” and states on the box “… packed with sex…” so obviously you’re expecting to see these sorority sisters get jiggly. Well, the blonde does show some boobage a couple of times, but other than a couple of butt shots, that’s it. For that matter, when the brunette has to run naked through the woods, she keeps her arm over her breasts and is actually wearing panties. Slow-mo and a line doubler reveals all folks. You’ve never heard of the actresses before, so how hard would it have been to find a couple who were willing to show it all?! Very disappointing.
The special effects aren’t so hot either, but that’s ok, I’ve grown tired of the constant one upping between horror franchises these days as they try to compete on who can show us more entrails. The old school effects employed in Buried Alive were quite refreshing.
So why did I give it 3 stars? The ghost is kinda creepy, and the simple methods they use to move her around the screen is quite effective. I’m not sure why a partially rotted old woman with an axe was creepy, but it was. In the end the movie was enjoyable if you’re in the mood for this sort of thing, just keep your expectations in line and you should have a good time.
Popularity: 27% [?]
Squidbillies Volume One
October 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I see elements in Squidbillies that should be funny, things like the rich (and bad) guy in town being named Dan Halen, and writing his initials like the old Van Halen logo.. the sayings on the hats Early wears… lots of little things that kinda make me smile. But somehow when this is all put together, it just falls flat. I want to like it, but I don’t.
Is it that I can’t relate to the characters? Let’s see.. it’s full of a bunch of redneck hillbilly stereotypes, but some of them are squids (and other various creatures.) Think Beverly Hillbillies with some meth thrown in. I grew up in Georgia and had friends into hunting and farming, some had livestock for pets, so I have some ability to relate here. Maybe that’s the problem.. nah, I poke fun at rednecks so that’s not it.
Is it the animation? After all the style is much like South Park.. but wait, I like South Park. I don’t care about animation quality if the characters and stories are funny, so that’s not the problem.
Voices! Yeah, must be the voices! Nope, the voice acting is actually one of the really good things about Squidbillies. Early is great, and all of the voices have a good quality to them. I also like the music/lyrics you head in the background of the episodes that comment about what you’re seeing. Good stuff.
I think Squidbillies is one of those shows that you’re either gonna get or not, and I just don’t get it. But since I did smile a few times, I’ll give it 2 stars.
Popularity: 29% [?]
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Gun Play
Blood & Gore Car Chases T&A Chuckles |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
