The Cabin in the Woods the Review

Simply one of the best horror movies to come out in years. That’s my summary. Cabin is such a fun and inventive take on horror movies. The core of the movie is why people are horror fans; it’s intense, it’s creative, it’s funny. it keeps you guessing and you see people get fucked up.

It’s a mash up of the entire horror genre. The set up has been done forever: five college kids go to a cabin in the woods for a weekend break. Bad, mysterious things happen to be at the cabin waiting for them. The explanation and execution for the madness is such a good idea that it’s amazing it hasn’t been thought of before. But that’s usually the case, brilliant stuff is usually really simple and straight forward, it just takes the right mind to come up with it.

It’s best if that’s all you know about the movie before seeing it. The screenwriters tip their hat to countless horror movies and their established hooks and cliches. It’s like a amusement park ride that never physically moves you, but when it’s done you have a stupid grin on your face. Joss Whedon is on an unbelievable roll. Go see it!

The Cannonball Loop

New Jersey is full of urban legends, Action Park being one of them. But it’s not a legend, that place was real and it was CRAZY. Not in the good way. It was a water park built on a ski resort that had little to do with safety in mind when it was built. It’s hard to believe that the place was allowed to be opened let alone in use for nearly 20 years. I mean, people showed up every summer despite 6 deaths and countless injuries (mostly ripped flesh). The stories about the place were rampant and often exaggerated, but most of it had a true story behind it. It got the name “Traction Park” for a real reason. They advertised the shit out of the place too.

Cannonball Loop is the most notorious. And dangerous. I went to Action Park once, but drove by it a lot as it was on the way to my grandma’s house. I vividly remember seeing it there, long since closed. It was something that looked like it never should have been built, there was just no way it could work. I also remember wondering why there was no pool at the end of it, just this plot of land. It was like a torture device that was just left to rot. That article explains it. I remember getting a weird vibe from the place too, it just didn’t feel like a safe place. A lot of rickety construction, literal holes of water that had been turned into “rides” by putting a plank and a rope swing over a 20 foot drop. The place was a dump, I mean they left Cannonball Loop standing because it would have cost money to send it back to hell. I haven’t even mentioned the Alpine (read: concrete) Slide. That thing messed people up.

More in depth horror here! You have to read it to believe it.

Rise From Your Grave

I was sick for most of April. Started as a stomach virus early on that I thought I made through in about 24 hours. That thing hung on to me and tried to rearrange my DNA. A vice like grip on my stomach which spawned into acid reflux (horrible and bewildering if you’ve never had it) made me afraid to eat. Which is a also a horrible feeling to have. You eat every day and it’s generally really enjoyable, but when you are convinced it’s going to make you feel like hell, not so much. That gave me anxiety along with some other real world stress. I’d be sick and then feel fine for about a week and then it came back again with a vengeance. The passed 2 weeks I was sick pretty much every day with some relief here and there. I went to the doctor on my birthday, then 4 days later. Just getting medicine to get a handle on this was stupid (wrong dosage from a stupefying lack of communication between Dr. and pharmacist).

I think I have it behind me now. Of course I pulled a groin muscle on Friday night, but that wasn’t too bad. 3-4 days for that to heal, nothing like my January blitzkrieg. It’s been a dumb 2012 so far, but I’m starting to feel like I’m getting myself back now. That feels good. You don’t realize how important something is until it stops working.

The Hunger Games the Review

The Hunger Games has been a long time coming, the ravanous fans of the book series devouring every bit of news from the production. So now it’s out, a few box office records have been broken and I just saw one of the most disappointing adaptations in my recent memory. I read the book about a year ago and leaving the theatre I felt like the essence of the book was missing.

First the good. Loved the cast. Great choices, mostly great performances and everyone looked how I thought they would in my head. Soundtrack is equally solid, music and sound effects really work in every scene. Special effects were mostly good as well. The presentation of the Tributes is a good example of the teeter totter effects work. The fire costumes for the Boy and Girl on Fire was nailed…but the crowd looked so fake it was distracting. Clearly a green screen backdrop that’s done in countless movies but just didn’t composite well here. A mild complaint, but that kind of stuff really jumps out at me.

Now the big draw backs for me: the script and the direction. Most of the book is Katniss’ internal dialog and that’s how you learn about most of the world she’s in and most importantly her feelings and intent toward the Games (and Peeta). In the movie, a lot of that is done with facial expressions or added dialog from other characters (like the explanation of what Tracker Jackers are). This was a really hard book to adapt and I really don’t know how else to tackle it. I never felt like I understood Katniss all that well or most of the people around her. Plus, the pace of the movie is really fast (and still clocks in at like 130 min) so that compounds the feeling that there are these big gaps in the story telling and characterization. While some of the scenes worked just as intended (Katniss and Rue is probably the best) others come off as really hokey and melodramatic (the cave scene with Katniss and Peeta).

Now for the direction. Holy crap, did Gary Ross ask Paul Greengrass to do most of the work for him? I can’t think of a movie with more close ups in it. It’s insane. The camera shake during action scenes is completely out of control. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that was done because they were terrified of getting an R rating. The very start of the Game at the Cornucopia is a prime example. That’s a very important scene and it’s very chaotic on the page. But it’s shot so wild that your spacial reasoning is sent reeling, it’s so hard to understand where and what anyone is doing. The violence is extremely vague, you more or less see flailing around cut with running, a still shot of someone hiding, more flailing with shaking and then maybe a spot of blood cut back and forth with shaky running and a body that is laying on the ground. Shortly after that scene, it’s announced that 13 of the 24 tributes have been killed. I think I saw three. It was a complete surprise that so many were killed. Every action scene is shot like that. I understand their concern with the violence part of it, but consider the source material! It is kids forced to kill each other, you can’t avoid it. Now I’m not saying that it should be a slasher movie, but the way it was done here just wasn’t right.

The close ups drove me nuts too. I was honestly shocked at how close up just about everything was filmed. It made everything feel so narrow and claustrophobic. The Potter movies feel like they exist and operate in a complete world, Hunger Games felt like it was taking place in 3 rooms, a train car, a gym and a 1 acre plot of a park. It seemed so weird to me, it felt like the story was so compressed that the visual scope of the world was too. Was it budget constraints? You just see tiny pieces of things, and when they do blow things out (like the Presentation of the Tributes I mentioned earlier) it looks fake. So that just made me think “well, they’re just in a room surrounded by green screens, not in an huge arena or open area. I could never sustain the belief that I was watching an event that takes place in the future.

A lot of people compare this to the book and movie “Battle Royale” that was made 12 years ago. They share the same core concept; the government forcing the young population picked by a lottery to fight to the death in contest as punishment. But that’s about it, they exist on 2 opposite sides of the same line. The set up, story, characters and execution are completely different. Battle Royale knocked me for a loop when I first saw it. It totally embraces and never looks away from the horror of it all. It’s more of a thriller/horror movie than HG and I really enjoyed that a lot more. The Lighthouse scene in that movie is one of the most intense things you will ever see. In fact, BR just hit English DVD/Blu for the first time and I highly recommend it.

This experience reminds me a lot of what I thought about The Last Airbender. Phenomenal source material that just didn’t survive the cramming and smashing to get it all into a 2 hour film adaptation. It’s just not as good as it should and could have been.

Movie Review Triple Threat!

Some quick hits to completely catch me up!

Contagion– Remember the movie Outbreak? This is a new viral threat movie, but minus those pesky monkeys. Director Steven Soderbergh continues his solid legacy with this one. It’s a straight forward epidemic movie that’s going to make you want to wash your hands the second the credits roll. Gwyneth Paltrow is close to patient zero, in fact she brings it to the States. Never trust her.

Outrage-Yakuza! A big name boss needs a group of drug trafficers to be brought under control. He tells his right hand man to handle it who then passes it on to the guy below him. It doesn’t go well. Mistakes and misunderstandings are made and a whole lot of people end up paying with their lives. Beat Takeshi is the most well known actor here and he does his standard quality tough man gig here. Pretty good, but I’d only recommend it to yakuza genre fans.

30 Minutes or Less– This one got alot of weird looks when it came out because it kind of mimics a real life event where a pizza delivery guy actually had a bomb strapped to him and forced to rob a bank (he didn’t live). I don’t really see how this teased or made fun of that mans unfortunate end, but that might be just one of those things that people who like to get offended over cling to.

I watched this for the cast as I really like Eisenberg, Ansari, Swardson and McBride. It’s not a laugh a minute, but there is some great dialog and character interaction here and at 80 minutes long it doesn’t overstay its welcome. McBride and Swardson are a pair of dummies who get the idea of opening a massage parlor, but they don’t have the money to invest in it. But, McBride’s father does! They hire a hit man to take him out so McBride can get the inheritance but need 100 grand for the hitman. They spot Eiseneberg and decided to force him to rob a bank to put their plan into action.

It’s not going to win any awards, there is a love plot that really doesn’t mean much in the end and it’s not the funniest movie ever made, but I don’t think the movie deserved all the hate it got. Good rental to kill a rainy afternoon.

The Adventures of Tintin the Review

Tintinis an old comic created by Herge. Huge in Europe, Tintin never really caught on here. He’s a young detective who solves wondrous globe spanning mysteries with his trusty dog Snowy. A menagerie of characters accompany and hinder Tintin in the many stories that Herge wrote over a 50 year span.

This movie, spearheaded by Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson merges 2 stories, “The Crab with the Golden Claws” and “The Secret of the Unicorn”. The film feels and looks a lot like an Indiana Jones movie ( a lot better than Crystal Skull). It takes place in 1930 in various dusty locals around the world. The visuals are the most striking of all, by far the best motion capture based animation films I’ve seen. Realistic character movement and facial animation, incredible environmental effects. Easily on par with the best Pixar has offered to date. Given the virtual space, Spielberg went with a full digital camera system (as first used in 2006’s Monster House I think). This allowed him to move the camera around in ways that’s impossible to do in real life. The action set pieces often use these sweeping and long camera takes that are pretty breathtaking to be hold.

It’s a really well made movie, a lot of care and work went into this. Not being familiar with the original works, I can’t comment on how well they translated Tintin to the screen, but I liked what I saw. It’s a fun, adventurous story with memorable characters and great action. Recommended to everyone.

21 Jump Street the Review

Remake or reboot? Either way Jonah Hill took on the task of reimagining the 80’s show for the movies and it works surprisingly well.

21 Jump Street is an undercover cop unit that infiltrates high schools to stop the growing scourge of illicit drugs. Here it’s a new synthetic drug that the authorities want stopped before it spreads to other schools. Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) went to this school 7 years ago and became friends while going to police academy after graduation. A botched arrest puts them on this new task force where they need to find the dealer and then the supplier of the drug.

It’s a funny buddy cop movie, Hill and Tatum have a real chemistry that the movie really relys on. While the movie does go through the motions, some slight twists and bumps were wisely put in to keep it new and interesting. Great cameos by the main cast of the TV show give a nice final touch on the whole experience. I’d say it makes a quality rental.

Cowboys & Aliens the Review

Cowboys & Aliens has some pretty serious names behind it. Director Jon Favreau, stars Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford are the headliners. The idea for the movie is cool too: in 1873 a alien invasion starts abducting people in Wild Wild West Arizona. The local law and natives are forced to work together to get their people back and fight off the aliens.

The movie is well made too, all the quality Hollywood production is there and accounted for…but it’s a really average flick. Nothing about it feels new or fresh, like it’s just going through the motions. It’s not a bad movie, it’s just surprisingly dull. A rental at best. Like if you’re sick and need something to distract your soupy brains for a bit.

Movie Review Mayhem

The first backlog of 2012! I have a few flicks under me that I haven’t talked about so let’s get to it.

Horrible Bosses– A great dark comedy. Three friends each have horrible bosses (is that where the title comes from?) and when things get to the boiling point, a tri-murder plot is hatched. Being average guys of average intellegence and a nice nature, they’re not too sure what to do. Bumbling and awkward situations ahoy!

Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day are awesome together. Great casting really makes this movie work, I had a good time with it. Perfect length for a comedy, full of funny and memorable characters.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes– A mouthful of a title, but a hell of a movie! There was a lot of raised eyebrows on this one before it came out, but it surprised everyone (me included). Really well made, damn good cast, nothing that insults the audiences intelligence. Some of the best special effects bring these Apes to life, making them appear to be actual characters than just something made in a computer that can be easily dismissed. Excellent writing and pacing, the motion capture and animation makes for some really great story telling since the scenes with just the apes have no dialog. Powerful stuff a big congratulations to everyone who had a hand making it. Highly recommended.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides-The franchise was pretty much saved with this one. Not as good as the first, but a big step up from the third which was a mess of a movie (2 was good, but didn’t live up to the original). Johnny Depp does his thing here which is all anyone really looks for. A much more cohesive plot and action pieces with a satisfying ending. They really pulled things together for this one while keeping the crazy production values.

Conan the Barbarian– I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. It’s just really lopsided. Maybe the script was really good but it just didn’t all make it on screen as it should? The cast is good but the acting is all over the place. It looks good, the special effects are all done well for the most part. Some fun action scenes, but it’s all forgettable. I can’t really pick out why, it’s just an average at best film. You really aren’t missing anything if you don’t see it.

Kung Fu Panda 2– A solid sequel. If you liked the first one, jump right in. The best from Dreamworks Animation since How To Train Your Dragon. Po’s adventures continue with all of your favorte characters back with a great new villain. It looks fantastic too!

Fast Five– I can’t believe I didn’t write about this earlier, I watched it awhile ago. Probably my favorite action flick of 2011. I’m not a big fan of the FF franchise, but this one knocked it out of the park from beginning to end. Such a a great idea to get everyone back, really well written and some expert direction at work here. All the best characters are back and The Rock is a great addition as the law. He fits in perfectly and watching him and Vin Diesel butt heads is a ton of fun. The bank heist angle is a great twist for the franchise and the special effects are amazing (the should have gotten a Oscar nom).

Super 8– Another movie I liked a lot. The hype behind this JJ Abrams flick was massive and while it didn’t meet everyone’s expectations, I think it got the job done. A throw back to 80’s Spielberg, Super 8 is the adventure of a group of young kids who’s town is the epicenter of an alien escape. A fun movie with an awesome cast, check it out.

Waiting For Superman the Review

If you want to watch really good cinema these days, you can pretty much turn to documentaries to see the best stuff you could ever want to see. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world and a lot of people brave and talented enough to cover it.

Enter Waiting For Superman. It’s about the failing US Public School system. The system has been on the decline for about 40 years now and the growing global economy is exacerbating the problem(s). Soon the United States won’t have the higher educated population to fill the high demand/paying jobs of the coming job market(s).

It’s a problem that has festered in a system that hasn’t changed to adapt to the changing world. There are people in power (two massive teachers unions in particular) that refuse to admit the problem and will not allow forward thinking people make the new steps we need. Time and a mind boggling amount of money is wasted every year. Waiting For Superman gives a very clear picture of today’s education system by following 5 students; showing what is really happening to real students all over the nation of every economic class.

A must watch.

Your Highness the Review

They don’t make many fantasy comedy movies, especially since comic book and remakes have taken over Hollywood. I’m a fan of Danny McBride’s style of comedy (rude, crude and obnoxious) and that mixed into a fantasy setting really clicked with me. There aren’t too many movies like Your Highness out there. It sticks to the fantasy formula (damsel in distress, magic, sword fighting, mythical creatures) but has enough ideas of it’s own to keep things interesting. The creative cursing helps too.

Thadeous (Danny McBride) is a bum of a prince and reluctantly goes along on adventure with his brother Fabious (James Franco) to save his girlfriend from an evil wizard. McBride and Franco are an awesome team (as first seen in Pineapple Express) and the whole movie pretty much rides on them. They’re surrounded by some great people (Natalie Portman and Rasmus Hardiker in particular) which results in some really funny moments. The laughs come in a few bursts, but on the whole I thought it was pretty funny. The movie is helped greatly by some quality special effects work, they managed to get a legit budget for this goofy project and hooked up with some companies who really knew what they were doing.

McBride and director/friend David Gordan Green know and work really well with each other and it really shows in their projects. I look forward to all the stuff they do.

Repeater: We Walk From Safety

I contributed to Repeater’s Kickstarter back in August if I remember right. It was to get the Ross Robinson produced album “We Walk From Safety” into physical form. Got it last week!

More people need to hear this band, they are so good. The first 3 videos listed are Repeater. Real, honest and creative rock music. It’s a great album as a whole, there is so much to like. These guys are so good at what they do, Steve has a ridiculous voice. The bass is consistently awesome, drums are creative, sweeping and crushing guitar work.

Knowing Every Weakness has officially entered my Favorite Tracks Of All Time List, I can’t get enough of it. Rocks so much I put it on repeat (no pun intended). Please check these guys out!