The People Under the Stairs

I think I saw The People Under the Stairs when I was a little kid, but I didn’t remember any of it. So, I didn’t categorize this as a rewatch, but I will say that I’m glad I watched this.

This is definitely one of Wes Craven’s best, up there with Nightmare on Elm Street and Last House on the Left. When did Craven start to deteriorate as a director? Anyways, this film tried to have a plot with a socio-political context concerning class tension in the early 90’s. But, as were Candyman succeeded at this same time by having something to say about perpetuating stereotypes, The People Under the Stairs just comes off as having unintentional camp sensibilities.

The film is fun as it is flawed, creative and original. When a young African-American boy named Pointdexter (nicknamed “Fool”) goes to steal gold coins with his uncle he ends up on an adventure in a house owned by a bizarre couple.

The couple is what makes the movie, and they are played by Everett McGill and Wendy Robbie (both who also played husband and wife in Twin Peaks). If you were a fan of their characters in Twin Peaks then you won’t be disappointed. Their “zaniness” makes the film well-worth watching.

Also, Ving Rhames as Uncle Leroy is hilarious with such great one-liners as, “Maybe the president is going to make me the secretary of pussy.” Overall, the film is a little drawn-out and has a pretty stupid ending, with 90’s hip-hop-do-gooder music. The People Under the Stairs feels like an awkward mix of a kid-friendly Disney horror film and the gross-out scenes of a Clive Barker movie.

7/10

Rewatch: Commando

What can I say about Commando that hasn’t already been written in lengthy, scholarly essays? I can just say that it was a movie of its time, and it all worked due to Arnold Schwarzenegger. No other actor could have pulled this off madness.

The plot follows retired special forces operative John Matrix as he tries save his kidnapped daughter from a bad guy. Just a bad guy with a funny mustache, who appears to have an orgasm when he gets close to killing Matrix.

I’m pretty sure this movie won an Academy Award for best picture. From the amazing opening where Schwarzenegger eats ice cream and pets a deer to the “in-your-face” closing that I posted above, this film is one hell of ride. Strap your seatbelt on, right?

Eh, well…people probably didn’t find it funny back then, or maybe some people did. It’s Schwarzenegger at his prime before the Terminator, and it makes you want to watch more bad/funny action movies. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. No chance.

7/10

The Collector

I vaguely remember hearing about The Collector when it was first released. I think my dad and little brother went to go see it at the movie theater. I’m not sure why this was released theatrically as it had a straight-to-video feel from beginning to end.

This film had a lot of laughable parts, and for me that’s a good thing. There’s two kinds of people that would watch a horrible film like this: 1) People who actually get scared by and enjoy this crap. 2) People like me who find humor in bad horror movies.

Horror films have always really been dark comedies anyways. And, I give it to The Collector in reminding me why I need watch more bad horror movies. For the humor.

Apparently, The Collector was going to be a Saw prequel as it was made by the same writer or whatever. I personally can’t stand the Saw films, but I might go back and watch all of them for the giggles.

The main protagonist is made out to be an anti-hero as he breaks into a house to rob a safe to save his own family he ends up trying to save another family from the…duh, duh, duh…THE COLLECTOR.

Or, whatever. The dude isn’t the least bit scary. If you realize from the horribly made and hilarious opening credits that this is going to be a funny movie than you’re in for some sure-fire lols.

Let’s see….the collector dude just likes torturing and collecting people and wears a ski mask. Okay. He enjoys booby-trapping the house Home Alone style with wires, bear traps and knives dangling from a chandelier. Okay.

The cat scene was ridiculous. The flaming dog in the waste basket being used as a weapon (Why didn’t I think of this?) was ridiculous. The drawn-out psych-out ending was ridiculous. This entire movies was funny and ridiculous.

All I learned from it was that it’s good to steal from rich peoples’ houses because you could end up saving lives.

6/10

Rewatch: District 9

I haven’t posted any reviews in a few days, as I’ve been busy working, studying and doing other things. Basically, I didn’t make time to watch many movies over the weekend. I did, however, watch more of Season 2 of Alias, which I’ll write up a review for later.

Friday night I viewed District 9 for the third time. It was the first time my wife had seen the film and it was the first time seeing it on Blu-ray for me. The first time I saw it was at the theater and then on TV in HD.

The Blu-ray is great and has some awesome bonus features. The images are much crisper then when I watched it on TV, and the surround sound in wonderful.

Not a lot changed in my opinion of the film in the third viewing. I did feel that I didn’t care as much about the prawns, and I actually think Christopher wouldn’t come back for Wikus. I was little more positive the first time watching it, a lot more negative the third time.

I just love the image of the entire mothership that is continuously shown in the background and blends so well with the Johannesburg scenery. This film will definitely go down in history for it’s creative, modest budget and documentary-style. Though, my biggest complaint has always been that it seems the documentary feel gets somewhat lost in the third act.

Watching District 9 again just got me excited for Neill Blomkamp’s next film, Elysium.

8/10

Buried

Rented the Blu-ray of Buried and watched it without any expectations. I may have been a little bias with my preconception of absolutely finding Ryan Reynolds to be a bad actor.

The film is a little hokey, but delivers for the most part. If you don’t know, the entire is film is simply Reynolds trapped in a coffin. We stay in that coffin for 94 minutes!

The plot reminded me of something like Phone Booth, and the premise is actually very similar. However, what makes Buried more suspenseful than most “intense” action films is the break-through performance by Reynolds and the carefully anxious directing of Rodigo Cortes.

Reynolds still acts like a smart ass in a couple of scenes, but mostly he gives a believable performance. The film goes deeper than just plot and can be viewed in a strong socio-political context.

Also, the psychological pathos displayed in hostage situations is delivered in an almost exuberant and surreal manner. In the end, the trained viewer will ask questions that dig deeper than what was intended.

Overall, it’s not for everyone. There should be a disclaimer that the duration of the film takes place in a coffin. It’s as unconventional as mainstream can get, and Reynolds gave me just a tad bit of hope for The Green Lantern.

8/10

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Nerd alert! Resident Evil: Afterlife wants to go back to what made the first film tolerable for horror/zombie fans and fans of the video game series. The series somehow made it over the horrible hump after the disastrous Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and Paul W.S. Anderson came back to direct the fourth installment.

The film series has tried to include elements from the games, and Afterlife includes characters from both Resident Evil: Code Veronica and Resident Evil 5 (two of my favorites). It’s nice to see Claire and Chris Redfield in action, but it’s also really only semi-appealing to fans of the game. Also, I thought Wentworth Miller was really the standout actor in the film as Chris Redfield, but not enough was done with his character.

The film was made for 3D and was just fine in the appearance of 2D on Blu-ray. The Blu-ray also has some nice features, including Zombie picture-in-picture vision.

The opening scene was pretty neat with the zombie Japanese girl, though I’m not sure how it really tied into the entire film. That’s also one of my biggest complaints is the lack of zombie action and the reliance on 3D action sequences that quickly become cheesy. For example, the battle scene with the Executioner was more cartoonish than it was dark and suspenseful.

Wesker was actually done better than I thought, and did become too corny in the end. And, of course the film is cheesy and mindless. But, luckily it’s not too mindless for fans of action films and the Resident Evil games. Something like this often borderlines into Uwe Boll Alone in the Dark territory, but manages to regain consciousness due to Anderson and Mila Jovovich actually caring about their work to some extent.

4/10

Rewatch: Southland Tales

I probably shouldn’t admit that I own Southland Tales on Blu-ray. It’s not a good movie by any means, but inspires thought and creativity throughout – no matter how pointless it may all seem.

Critics and audiences notoriously panned this film. Even fans of Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko were unimpressed. But, how do you follow such a cult-hit like Donnie Darko?

You go all out. It’s almost tradition or insanity for modern independent directors to bite of more than can chew after a magnum opus of a film. Think Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain following Requiem for a Dream or even Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York.

The over-ambitiousness is endearing and often viewed as self-indulgent. However, these films always tend to reach cult status eventually.

The biggest problem with the film is that it’s hard for the audience to detect the satirical take trying to be achieved as the plot seems to only derive from nonsense. The main casting of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Mandy Moore and Justin Timberlake is questionable enough.

The supporting cast of John Larroquette, Bai Ling, Kevin Smith, Cheri Oteri, Jon Lovitz, Amy Poehler, Janeane Garofalo and Will Sasso is more than enough proof that Kelly meant for his epic to not be taken seriously.

If only the captivating could simply overshadow the bad, boring and pretentious scenes. For example, the handheld cam scenes at the beginning are almost better than anything else. The Liquid Karma-vision scenes echo Donnie Darko SFX as well as the slow-paced musical montages (wonderful score by Moby).

Kelly was going for Lynchian humor, but Kelly’s humor isn’t as full of odd wit. Though, it is as absurd as satire can be, it’s too abrasive and not seemingly self-aware. The Blu-ray is worth it for those surprisingly good CGI moments and the inclusion of the prequel graphic novel is a nice touch.

7/10

Winter's Bone

Winter’s Bone received a lot of praise and made many top ten lists of 2010. However, it seemed that not too many people saw the film and that it was quite underrated.

I found it to be overrated. Maybe since 2010 was such a poor year for film, Winter’s Bone stood out. It’s not a horrible film, but it's lacking in many ways. Based on the book of the same name there is a neo-noir twist of white trash country realism. In hindsight, the plot sounds interesting enough, but the film is too slow and the characters are too one-dimensional at times for this to truly be a great film.

The film follows 17-year old Ree on her quest in the Ozark “slums” of Missouri to find her meth-cooking dad, who has disappeared after mysteriously being bailed out of prison. The sheriff (“the law”) tells Ree she’ll lose her house (where she cares for her younger brother and sister), if her dad doesn’t appear for court. Comedy ensues.

Jennifer Lawrence gives a subtle, but decent performance, but John Hawkes' portrayal of meth-addict Teardrop is probably the best and most underrated performance of Winter’s Bone.

I rented this on Blu-ray and nothing really stood out, even with some of the more nature-type shots. Winter’s Bone was directed well, but unfortunately took its self too seriously.

6/10

Cyrus

As a fan of the Duplass brothers’ films, including The Puffy Chair and Baghead, I was really looking forward to seeing this film. It was really just what I expected, which was a mumblecore aesthetic mixed with dramatic performances from Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly.

The plot is simple and straigt-forward. Reilly is a divorced man who meets Molly (Marisa Tomei) and then soon bumps heads with Molly’s son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill).

I like when Reilly does his sincere loser act, like in Boogie Nights and Magnolia. It’s nice to see Reilly take a break from the zany Ferrell-partnership and Steve Brule roles. More surprising than Reilly’s decent acting in this film is Hill’s acting, which showed what Hill is really capable of.

This is a movie that people are either going to love, hate or just go “meh,” and I suppose that’s how it is with any film. Critics and viewers alike may or may not accept the zooming and shaky camera work that is supposed to serve a purpose for adding emotional depth, but can also be overwhelming.

Also, this isn’t a Step Brothers comedy, so people may see who is in the film and then be extremely disappointed. It’s more of a drama than anything, but there’s some really compelling and genuine scenes – something the Duplass brothers are keen on. I don’t think it’s a typical indie comedy; it’s an honet mumblecore film with well-known actors.

8/10

The Green Hornet (continued rant)

I forgot to mention in my review of The Green Hornet that the biggest disappointment of the film for me was this over-used cliché of romanticizing the newspaper industry. It was fantastical to see such a swanky building for the newspaper empire featured in the film. There’s even a huge printing press in the same building with robots!

Comic-book/superhero films have been fetishizing newspapers and news reporters since the golden ages of print. Well, now is the chance for such a film to capture the realistic dark ages of the newspaper industry. Just another thing to point out with how an irrelevant film could have been relevant.

Also, the plot/characters had too many comparisons to Pineapple Express. That may be a good thing to fans of Pineapple Express, but really Rogen/Goldberg are going to need to switch things up a little next time around.

The Green Hornet

A Seth Rogen super-hero film directed by Michel Gondry? Nobody has been buying this idea for quite some time, and The Green Hornet was destined to fail.

Is Rogen’s acting stale and lacking any depth? Of course. But, if you’re a fan of his “dude-ism” one-liners than you won’t be disappointed.

Is the dialogue and story bad? Well, the team of Rogen and Evan Goldberg have proved in the past that they have talent with Superbad and Pineapple Express. The story is surprisingly not too ridiculous or convoluted. Rogen definitely did a better job writing this than Drillbit Taylor, though that’s probably not saying much.

Jay Chou is the star of the film as Kato, and really works well with Rogen. Rogen and his character are quite pointless (Cameron Diaz just as much), but if you like typical douchebag-style Rogen then you’ll be happy.

Gondry also could have done more with his directing, but his little spurts of artistry make the film stand out somewhat. I thought the marketing for this film was absolutely horrible, and the Black Beauty appeared to have top billing. However, the film was surprisingly entertaining and a decent distraction.

The Green Hornet is the closest we’ll come to a big-budget, mindless and fun summer action-comedy in January.

6/10

Splice

Not really sure if this movie happened. But, apparently it did. I paid attention most of the time as the film played, but knew it would be silly. When it was over, I thought that it was better made than most silly bad movies.

Adrien Brody wants to do creature features in nerd-meets-badass way. I’ll go on record though and say I enjoyed Splice more than Predators. For one, the CGI wasn’t as horrible, and this film wasn’t set out to ruin a franchise.

There’s pseudo-intellectual stuff going on throughout the film, but the film is mostly too silly to be thought provoking. Once Dren (Nerd backwards…lame) grows adult-size, the character becomes was too annoying with its squeaks and hyper-sexuality.

It’s nice too see Sarah Polley in a newer film, but she could do much better. Really, Splice, we all could do much better. And, word to the wise – if you create some kind of creature in a lab, you should cut off its stinger immediately. If the stinger grows back, it was not meant to be.

3/10

Trapped in Paradise

There’s not too much I can say about Trapped in Paradise. It’s an awkward film that wants to be genuine. It was around the time that Nicholas Cage veered into more comedic-type roles (Raising Arizona), and he really is the star of this film.

The plot is simple – three brothers rob a bank at a small town, Paradise, and end up getting stuck in said town after a snow storm. Though the plot is simple, the dynamic of the characters is more complex, and surprisingly in-depth for such a film.

Though, no one is ever going to write an analytical essay on Trapped in Paradise, it was nice to see John Lovitz and Dana Carvey try something different. And, surprising they don’t fail as hard as they could have.

4/10

Death at a Funeral

According to Wikipedia Death at a Funeral is a comedy. Actually, I did not look up what Wikipedia had to say about this film. I did, however, view this film.

The film is new to streaming on Netflix and apparently was released in theaters last year (2010). I’m not sure what compelled me to watch this film. I was doing homework and needed something in the background that wouldn’t be distracting.

Also, I am a fan of black comedies and films full of black actors. Death at a Funeral gives me both. Nothing really comical happens. I think Danny Glover diarrheas all over Tracy Morgan, and that’s just sad if anything. I think I heard Danny Glover say, “I’m getting to old for this shit.”

Maybe this film wanted to be funny or have a point, I don’t know. Perhaps this film’s purpose was to have no real point other than to black brothers finding out that their deceased father was in a relationship with a midget (Peter Dinklage looking for a paycheck).

In matter of fact, everyone was probably looking for a quick paycheck. And, what the hell else is Luke Wilson going to besides get fat. Chris Rock should have rocked this film, but pretty much all of his films have sucks.

2/10