A Nightmare on Elm Street is a historical horror film. It created a horror icon in 1984 that saw 6 more movies in 10 years with Freddy Krueger’s last appearance in Freddy vs Jason in 2004 (considered the 8th Nightmare movie, the 11th Friday movie).

Over the years the series became more and more campy, pushing visual effects over the true vision of the Fred Krueger character. If you think about it, it is pretty weird that a child killer would become a merchandising gold mine with dolls and lunchboxes with his image all over the place.

So it’s been a long time since Freddy was scary, his one liners got worse, his prancing around more pronounced. But that became part of the series charm for better or worse. There are some real stinkers in the series, but they are all mostly fun to watch (except for the second movie which really is unwatchable). Robert Englund made Krueger his own, no one else could be seen as him, until this reboot. Which I think was necessary. Don’t get me wrong, Englund’s performance and all too brief scenes proved that the character and the idea of a dream killer is incredibly scary. Englund is andn always will be synonymous with Freddy Krueger. Now it’s been years since a proper Nightmare movie so a reintroduction, I think, was necessary.

While this Nightmare is far from perfect, I really liked much of what they did here. The dark and brutal tone was back, necessary to make Freddy Krueger a monster again. They followed the original, but broke off in the right ways.

I really like Jackie Earl Haley as Krueger. His body type is similar to Englunds, he had the right mannerisms and I liked his take on the voice (which is pretty opinion based. This one is love it or hate it I think). A lot of people have a huge problem with changing Krueger from a child killer to a pedophile. I don’t understand the outrage. Both versions prey on the young and hurt them in unimaginable ways. They’re both pieces of shit. Freddy Krueger isn’t someone you should like or care for. He’s a villain, he’s a demon. I’ve even read that he’s a “pussy” now. Well, what really changed? He haunts kids, exploits they’re weaknesses, chases them down and brutally kills them. And really, what’s the statistic on the creeps who kill children but didn’t harm them in any other way? I really don’t understand the complaint here. He should make your skin crawl. This movie even follows the rules set by creator Wes Craven closer than most of the sequels did! He gets his power through memory and fear, he can’t jump in and out of dreams at will or make people pass through solid walls (I’m looking at you, 2 and 3). In all honestly I’m not a big fan of the new make up, I kept thinking of Voldermort from the Potter series when seeing his face. There are some nice touches though (like the holes in his head where his ears burned off and the cheeks). I thought Jackie did a great job with what’s there. He was a real menace, there was some great (if brief) moments of tension….he made a real dirt bag come to life. I even felt for him when you’re led to believe for that moment that he’s innocent.

The soundtrack is really fantastic and the film looks great as well. There are some terrific transitions, the lighting/cinematography is quality and most of the effects are well done. There’s some poor CG at times (when Freddy stretches out Nancy’s bedroom wall) but all the practical stuff looked great and the kill effects were superb.

Speaking of kills, there weren’t many. Which a lot of people are also up in arms about…but why? This series never really had many per film if these “fans” would recall and the level of gore even went down as the series went as well. Same amount of deaths as the original is present here and they changed them all to be different, even if paying homage to the original (Tina’s). For all the cries of being unoriginal, has anyone scene New Nightmare? That one was directed by Wes Craven himself, used Tina’s death again almost exactly and had one of the lowest kill counts! The first death in this reboot is pretty fantastic by any measure. There’s 3 or 4 deaths alluded too which would have padded the number, but also would have made the film run way too long. I don’t understand the venomous hate. This isn’t a Friday the 13th movie where Jason hides his kills in catwalks and boathouses.

I’ve seen a lot of hate on the cast as well and I think the cast is fine. Nothing award winning to be sure, but none of them were offensive. They all seemed like believable people to me and the adults were more or less window dressing. Now the movie was staged oddly, for most of the picture you think Kris is the heroine until Nancy steps forward as the cast dies off (she’s there from the very beginning, but her involvement seems like she’s a side character). But it follows Freddy’s intentions (which the movie makes clear). Nancy was his favorite and he works up to her, gaining strength as he goes and biding his time until she can’t stay awake any longer. I really liked how Nancy discovers Freddy’s kill path with the class photo leading to her and her friends (I thought Marcus’ video blog was really cool). The concept of micro naps is really cool and worked really well (for the most part, I’ll get to that in a bit). By the end the last kids don’t know what’s real or a dream any more which leads to some great scenes. I liked the homages to the original, like the sticky floor that turns to blood that acknowledges some of the most memorable scenes from the original while doing it’s own thing. I appreciated those tweaks.

Now, while I did really enjoy this new Nightmare, it’s got it’s fair share of problems. First, there’s a lot of peaks an valleys. The intro is very strong, but the movie never quite reaches that point again. It’s really well done, sets up Freddy (he’s got a great line) and the death is really well done. The movie goes into lulls at times and then perks up whenever Freddy hits his stride again. While the idea of micro naps is great, it isn’t used right The first half (at the very least) of the movie needed to be more subtle. Actually, there is no subtlety. There’s never a question of if someone is dreaming or not. You see the lighting change and the creepy music kicks in right away. That ruins the advantage of catching the audience off guard. Strangely it’s done the best in the last act of the movie (around the pharmacy scene which was the most creative part of the movie) as Nancy and Quentin can’t stay awake for more than a few minutes anymore. As a result to this, jump scares are used as the only real method of scaring you. But that’s not really fear at work, just startling someone. If you need to rely on a orchestra hit to scare people, you’re not doing it right.

Also, there was a lack of imagination at work here, but I’m on the fence about it. This is probably the biggest problem people have with the movie. Being a new Nightmare movie, fans expected crazy dream sequences which there really weren’t any. But this was a reboot, not a sequel. The sequels always tried to top the last one with new and outlandish dream sequences. So in the idea that this is Krugers first killing spree, they kept it simple (just like the original). He doesn’t transform into creatures for example and holy shit, how about some more dream locations? Over use of the boiler room and the “claws against the wall” trick. It’s defiantly a legit complaint, it just doesn’t really bother me much. The tone and direction of the film was pretty clear to me, but I expect all new crazy shit if they make a sequel. That said I would have changed Jesse’s death to something that made more sense (and was more clear) given the circumstances (although Freddy’s parting words were brutal). Finally, if you’re going to copy a scene from a 26 year old movie, make sure it doesn’t look worse in the end (Freddy stretching Nancy’s wall being the main offender). The last scene in the movie is a great homage to the original but is marred by horrific CG as well.

As an aside, I wonder if they should have made the sense of time passing more clear. I figure that the movie takes place around a week. Watching it, we find out Freddy has killed quite a few kids before we see his first in the movie. Nancy is crossing off her former classmates on the picture she found and we see two newspaper clippings and the video blog of the (possible) last 3 before Freddy gets Dean. The 70 hour “micro nap” time limit is clearly established so odds are the first person who remembered Kruger did it at least a week prior. Now this is a lot to fit into the movie, we’re talking about 7 or 8 more characters which is unrealistic for a reasonable run time. It does make for a good background though, I wonder who started the chain of events that started the domino effect of everyone beginning to remember and passing along Freddy’s legend (and how they died!).

There’s a lot of talk that this is the worst movie in the series which is just not true. Part 2 holds that honor steadfast. That movie was a mess. Broke the dream rules, had horrible kills and the tone of that movie is just bizarre (it remains the only movie in the series with a male lead) and is pretty boring. I was pretty psyched to see a new Nightmare movie in theaters and I think it hit many of the correct notes. I’d put this in the top 3 or 4 of the series. Freddy’s back, I just expect the bar to be raised higher with a new, refreshing direction if a sequel gets made. The foundation has been re-established, let’s get the effort done to make a new house that Freddy built. Please no 3D!

Astro Boy is a completely forgettable CG animated movie. I wasn’t going to write anything about it, but it really exemplifies how amazing Pixar’s movies are.

The animaion is good, there was some good work done by IMAGI, the action set pieces are fun to watch. It’s the story is so half assed and awkward, it seems like the script never went beyond the first draft of a 12 year old. Astro Boy is originally a manga character created in the 1950s. He’s a robot boy with a cute design, what’s not to love? Everything in this embarrassment. Astro Boy starts as a real boy who get’s killed in an accident and his scientific genius father builds a robot in his image and puts his “DNA memories” into the robot to try and get his son back. Using some Blue energy magically obtained from space as a power source, Toby is seemingly the same good matured kid. But of course you can’t bring back the dead, much to his fathers dismay.

Everything is closed over in the story. Sure it’s outlandish about a robot boy can talk and have feelings (a big plot element in any sci-fi robot story) but you accept it as part of this world. It’s in the future! But good lord, there is so much garbage at work here. The Blue and Red energy idea is so childish. The DNA memory concept is absurd, the robot guardian that absorbs just about everything it touches, there is an apparent war between Metro City and the Surface of Earth that only 2 people say is happening. There’s this juvenile political angle to the movie that is so out of place and handled poorly it makes any adult scratch their head. Astro Boy doesn’t even seem surprised when he discovers he has rocket feet when he thinks he’s a boy. The part with Toby’s death at the beginning is so quick and awkward I wouldn’t want a kid of mine to see it. See Pixar’s Up to see how masterfully such an intense life lesson can be carefully and masterfully handled.

All the voice actors sleep walk through this. Just lines on a page to read. Astro Boy is a prime example of a poor animated movie. It’s aimed very low and comes off as such. Pixar movies are aimed at everyone. They don’t insult the intelligence of the audience, regardless of age. Pixar painstakingly makes amazing stories with real character(s). They can make serious parts and comedic parts that everyone can enjoy (even if they are too young to understand it). It really struck me at how much better Pixar can make a movie.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the movies and Kick Ass brought me back to the picture house.

Based on the Mark Millar (many Batman books, Sin City…) comic, Kick Ass is the story of Dave who is your average kid who wonders why no one has tried to be a real super hero. One day he gets the courage to try it out, makes a costume out of a wet suit and proceeds to get his ass kicked.

This movie was a ton of fun, just what I was looking to watch. Funny, exciting, crude and rude. There’s a solid dose of violence (that has been hyped up much higher than it really is) and the action is really well done. I really enjoyed the direction and cinematography. The movie looks great outside of some rough blue screen and CG, but there are some great transitions and set ups. The 3D comic back story of Big Daddy and Hit Girl was terrific, the fight choreography was really well done and one of the better soundtracks I can remember in quite some time.

Kick Ass is just short of 2 hours long and the story hits a lull half way through. But the characters really kept me engaged, the entire cast was really good. And that includes Nicolas Cage! His resume is filled with craters but he was really enjoyable here, his Adam West homage as Big Daddy was brilliant. He had a real chemistry Chloe Moretz who plays his 11 year old daughter Hit Girl. They are in every major action scene together and their last one was actually really touching at the end of all the carnage (which oddly enough had both the best and worst looking sections of the movie). I’ve never heard of Aaron Johnson (a bloke from the UK) before but I gotta say I’m a real fan now. His American accent is perfect and he made Dave into a completely realistic and likeable person. Dave isn’t a complete nerd, he’s not obnoxious and I could really relate to him. When he gets beat up you feel sorry for him and when he gets the girl you’re totally psyched for him. And Christopher Mintz-Plasse (of Superbad fame) is great, as always, as Chris/Red Mist.

Kick Ass is one of the best movies I’ve seen in awhile. It takes the standard comic book conventions and mixes them up to keep it new and interesting. The characters are great, the action fun, everything I really look for in this type of movie. It’s been getting shit reviews from old critics, but this movie isn’t meant for them. It certainly isn’t perfect. It pushes for shock value that often times doesn’t work, but it’s a small complaint in an otherwise terrific movie. The audience I was with really liked it. I’m thinking this is going to have a terrific opening weekend and beyond as the release was timed perfectly.