Yearly Archives: 2011

30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010)

A sequel to “30 Days of Nights”, which was actually a better vampire/mild horror movie than I had expected.  But this sequel is definitely not!  Boring, poorly written, and quite obviously cobbled together to simply take advantage of being a sequel and the current vampire popularity.

Don’t waste your time on this, sink your teeth into something better.

4/10

Scream 4 (2011)

Scream 4 is actually a lot of fun.  Simply because it doesn’t take itself or any of the slasher films it makes fun of too seriously.  It’s a comedy/horror movie that is well made with some good actors, walking the line between a serious role, satire and graphic slash horror.  They pull it off and it’s a fun watch for those that enjoy this style.  I loved it.

8/10

X-Men First Class (2011)

The storey of the beginning of the X-Men series.  Where many of the main characters are children to teenagers.

It’s not a bad movie, production values are high, as expected.  But the biggest problem with this flick is the lack of character in the characters.  The only person that receives proper character building is the eventual villan who names himself Magneto.  I ended up caring more for this character than any other in the storey.  The only other character that had depth was the Nazi villan played by Kevin Bacon.  All other characters are completely flat in comparison.  So I was very disappointed with the lack of depth of this movie.

6/10

Blitz (2011)

Definiely not one of Jason Stathams better action movies, in my opinion.  As movie styles go, I’d consider it to be very British.  I found it hard to follow and often it could not hold my attention.  It has the production values of a TV movie.  It’s overly graphic at times, almost to the point of a cheap horror movie, but without being scary.  The graphic violense is not portrayed in a way that does the story any favours, and gives you the feeling of amateur movie making.

The story it very disjointed and poorly told.  I wouldn’t have wasted my time on something like this if I had been prewarned.

3/10

Thor (2011)

A modernized version of the myth or the ancient Viking god Thor.

This movie turned out to be far better than I expected.  After watching trailors for the movie, I expected a period piece, and I expected this movie to be a complete loser.  However, this flick has considerable substance, and in my opinion, was poorly marketed based on ads I saw personally.  If you enjoy sci-fi, fantasy and action films, then you will no doubt enjoy this one. 

Forget about any stories of Thor you might be familiar with, and simply take this version for itself as a new tale.

9/10

Spread (2009)

The storey about a young hustler who seems to destroy every relationship he has, by always making bad decisions.

Not a bad movie.  Rather dark and sad.  And without a happy ending.

6/10

Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009)

Light hearted satirical British comedy about two young misfits on vacation that unexpectedly are thrown into the position of being lesbian vampire killers. 

I enjoy a good vampire movie, but lesbian movies not so much.  But it’s a fun, well made, though possibly low budget flick.  I enjoyed it for what it was.

6/10

Pirates of the Caribbean – On Stranger Tides (2011)

I loved the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, like most people did.  The following ones, not so much.  On Stranger Tides is long, boring and tedious.  Well acted, production quality is there, and of course excellent special effects.  It simply isn’t interesting, and I had difficulty staying awake.  Like all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies since the first, they could have cut 1/2 to a full hour out and made a better movie.

4/10

Fast Five (2011)

The latest in the Fast and Furious series of car movies.

Vin Desiel is back in this one, though don’t expect to see him much below the chest.  He doesn’t appear to be in as good a shape as in many previous movies.  As in he appears to have gained some weight.  Still has big arms and the most monotone voice you’ll ever hear, but it’s painfully obvious from the camera work that they constantly try to shoot around showing his stomach whenever possible.  It feels like watching a TV series where an actress is pregnant in real life, but they don’t write the pregnancy into the show, so they never show her from the torso down, accept from the back.  It’s much like that here.  So much so it was really annoying me.  So what if he has a belly now!  Shoot the movie properly!

This odd camera work isn’t the lamest thing in the movie, the rediculous final robbery where two and even one car can pull a huge bank safe around without effort throughout a city on hot pavement.  I’m talking about a bank wall safe that appears to be about 10 feet by 10 feet by 10feet.  Pulled by a small 2 wheel sports car.  Not only down the street, but through buildings, concrete barriers, street poles, endless vehicles, like it weighs as much as a feather.

Did I mention this movie is well over 2 hours long?  Apparently it takes that long to convey this complex storey.  This is by far the worst Fast and Furious so far.  It should have been an A-Team episode 28 years ago.  It would have worked then

4/10

Pandorum (2009)

Pandorum is a Sci-Fi thriller/horror movie.  Not a great movie, nor does it have a large cast, unless you count extras with monster makeup.

The premise is the sending of the last of society into space in cryo-sleep in hopes of repopulating a newly discovered planet after nearly destroying this one.  Why the universe would rent us another one after the way we treated this property is beyond me.  You’d think we’d be on a black list of some sort.  But faulty cryo-sleep systems and genetic alterations intended to allow the people to adapt to the new planet turn many into humanity hating monsters.  It’s funny how mosters always get along with each other but hate humans.

This movie has poor acting, slow plot, and it’s certainly not that well written.  But as is typical these days, special effects are well done, and there are some interesting concepts.  And we actually end up with a surprise ending, unlike most films.

5/10

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