X Game (2010)

No it isn't a movie about fliping motorcycles or spinning on skateboards.  X Game is a story of bullying and revenge.  The movie has some okay Gore, it isn't quite over the top like Tokyo Gore Police or Machine Girl.  It wasn't a bad movie and it kept my attention, but it is hardly a memorable movie.  Psychological horror fans should enjoy this. 

Vanishing on 7th St.(2010)

I saw the previews for this movie while watching I Saw the Devil and immediately liked the concept.  Darkness is making people disappear en mass.  The only light you can trust is your own, yada, yada, yada... I wondered why I hadn't heard of it before.  Then I saw the cast of John Leguizamo, Thandie Newton, and Hayden Christensen.  Not exactly "B" movie names. 

Upon watching, I realize why I had never heard of it before.  It was because the movie isn't very good.  It suffers from some pacing issues that probably evolved from the director trying to build suspense by having lights flicker but our main cast stay together for most of the movie.  The movie would have been better served with a larger cast (group of survivors) being picked off in various ways to establish "the rules."  What we get is a lot of confusion and the exposition of what the rules are after the fact. 

Hayden Christensen didn't suck, so that was surprising, but Thandie Newton's performance wasn't that good.  Leguizamo and the kids did all right. 

My biggest issue with the movie is that nothing is explained.  We don't find out how Leguizamo lived in the dark for 3 days only to be killed by it upon finding others.  We don't find out anything about the nature of the darkness or how it causes electricity, even combustion, to not work.  Sure it is likely supernatural, but the days get real short and the nights last forever. That is some pretty strong magic.  We also don't find out how widespread it is.  Why is the movie called vanishing on 7th street when an entire city full of people disappeared. 

The DVD has an alternate ending special feature.  I hope you don't waste your time watching it.  Whoever put it together doesn't uderstand what an alternated ending is.  An alternate ending is an ending that has been changed in some fundemental way so that the movie ends differently.  It is not how many different ways you can edit the last two minutes of footage or at what point you start the music to take you into the credits. 

Overall-The movie was a disappointment.  It could have been could and had a great concept but was executed at an incredibly poor level.  The studios realized this and that is why you have never heard of this movie either.  It has cussing, but no graphic violence (I mean people disappear, but that is it) or adult content.  I would say 10 and up should be safe as long as you don't object to them seeing bad movies.   

Monsters (2010)

I have been meaning to watch this movie for a while now and finally did.  I had heard a lot of comparisons to District 9.  I think both movies move at the same pace and that both movies are about aliens living on earth, but that is where the similarities end. 

     Monsters is one of those hidden monster movies that doesn't really reveal the full monster until the end.  All you get are little snips or obscured views.  These types of movies usually drive me nuts as I tend to get into the action with the mindset of how am I going to fight this thing.  It is very hard to have that mindset when you don't know what the thing you are fighting actually looks like.  This movie it wasn't so bad as we were seeing things through the eyes of the characters and they hadn't really ever gotten a good view  of a living alien yet either.  The payoff came with the long, steady, two alien scene near the end. 
     The plot is a trying to get back home story.  The main characters are stuck in Mexico and need to get back the USA.  The only way to get back seems to be by crossing through the infected zone.  According to IMDB, the film was shot oppurtunisticly with very little scripting.  The actors pretty much made it up, within the contstraints of the plot, as they went along. 
     The acting was okay.  I am not familiar with either of the main actors.  The guy, when he was talking to his son, did a pretty good job.  While it wasn't noteworth great, nothing jumped out at me and said bad either. 
     Special effects in an Alien movie, you don't say.  This movie cost less than a million dollars to make.  considering how cool the aliens actually were, they must have spent almost every dollar on special effects.  Yeah, less than a million dollars.  compare this movie to War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise (132,000,000)and the bang you get for your buck is enormous.  Not to mention that this was a way better movie than War of the Worlds. 
     Overall, this movie was a pretty entertaining watch.  I have seen some comments about it being boring or slow, but I think I was aware that this wasn't going to be an action/adventure movie from the start.  While the journey does take time, they do a good job of character development in those slow spots.  I think most people will like this movie and should be okay for kids that won't get scared (you know who they are).  Check this one out. 

Devil (2010)-Spoiler Free Review

We all though M. Night was the devil, but he isn't here.

M. Night produced and wrote Devil.With his recent history (I am looking at you The Happening and Airbender) I wasn't really looking forward to this one.  I also wondered how good a movie about people stuck in an elevator with the devil could be.  He redeemed himself a bit.

Plot- Five people stuck in an elevator.  The lights will flicker and one of them will die or get hurt.  Who is doing it?  Actually, that is just part of it as one of the security guard builds the mythology of the Devil coming to Earth to torment souls before he takes them to hell.  The story was actually really good and a pretty good mystery.  It had a good story outside of the elevator and a pretty good twist.

Characters-  I wasn't familiar with any of the actor's but they provided really good performances.  They were engaging and pulled you into the story.

Overall-  It was a pretty good movie that surprised me.  I didn't think it was scary but my 10 year old did.  She wanted to see it so I let her.  She said it was good.  While I think it isn't a child's scary movie it is kind of light for an adult horror movie.  It fits fairly well with his other movies.  Kind of horrorish but more of a mystery.  I would go 13 and up on this one due to gore.  

Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

I am an unashamed fan of the first two resident evil movies.  Even the third one was pretty cool.  They all deliver on zombies and crazy mutations.  They are a lot of fun.  So, of course, I was going to check out Afterlife.  I was a bit disappointed right from the start.  The actor that played Wesker was wooden and had some horrible lines.  Also this movie had zombies in it, but they were not really the focus.  The humans were mostly isolated from them and really only had to fight of the mutations. 

Plot-  The movie picks up right where it left off.  Alice is out for revenge against Umbrella.  This really wouldn't work as a stand alone movie as you need to have watched most of the previous movies to understand what was going on.  I think you can get by with just the recaps in the other movies.  So, Alice defeats Umbrella and now fears that she is the last living person.  She finds some people holed up in a prison and can't help but stop to help them.  Of course, her timing is impecable as all hell is about to break loose. 

Characters-  Paul Anderson wasn't really on his A-game here.  He wasn't getting the best performances from his actors.  Milla is Alice, you can't go wrong there, but the other actors just weren't cutting it, especially but not limited to the guy that played Weskers.  It was probably a bad script and bad lines, but I really didn't care about anyone in the movie.  Of course all the characters went completely undeveloped, so why should I care about them. 

Prettyness-  The movie is shot almost too polished.  Resident Evil is about monsters and zombies at its core.  This movie is just too bright and too pretty looking for most of the film.  It fails to set a mood and creep you out.  This was also a problem with the third movie. 

Time-  97 minutes.  Really. . .Really. . . Really. . .  The movie was practically over once it got started.  Hey Paul W. S. Anderson.  How about 15 minutes of character development or maybe 10 minutes of fighting zombies.

Overall-It was just okay.  It wasn't a zombie movie or a horror movie, it was an action movie.  I don't agree with that direction for this franchise.  They even forgot that you can't kill zombies by shooting them in the body.  Yes, many zombies were taken down with body shots.  What are people learning from watching this sloppiness.  Anderson could be costing folks their lives with his laziness.  I am not going to tell you to not watch the lovely Milla, but I can't really recommend the movie either.  Just know that it is an action movie you are watching. 

Skyline (2010)



This is me watching the movie

 I saw the poor reviews for Skyline from people that I think have good taste in movies.  I didn't want to believe them, but I held off on watching this one till I could do so for free.  Going in with low expectations made me not think it was absolutely horrible, but it wasn't great.  I was entertained as long as I didn't think, kind of like the first Transformer's Movie. 

Plot-Aliens attack and some people try to "survive."  I say survive, because everyone in this movie is apparently an idiot.  They seem to want to run away from these aliens even though they have no idea where it would be safe.  Network TV is off the air, so maybe this isn't just an LA thing. 

The aliens themselves somehow run on human brains, which makes it surprising that they ever got to earth in the first place.  We learn nothing of the aliens except that they can't be killed, or at least not for very long.  I am not sure if they were using the electrical impulses of the brains for energy or if they were eating them.  If you need electrical energy to operate it, we have it in more abundant supplies than the brain produces.  in the little wires leading to all the buildings.  If you eat brains, you shouldn't gorge on us because we are alone in the universe so you might not want to wipe out your only, very specific,  source of food.  The plot holes only get bigger from here. 

Characters-  A bunch of stereotypes.  The cheating husband, the nagging wife, the man that is completely clueless that his GF is pregnant and then has a really bad reaction to the news.  The acting wasn't bad but they didn't really have anything to work with.  Turk was in it, so that is awesome. 

Overall-  It is fun if you can turn your brain off.  I have this ability when it comes to action type movies, so I get maximum enjoyment while watching and only get the bad taste upon reflection afterwards.  It goes a different direction than most movies and had some neat if misguided concepts that were not thought through as well as they could have been.  It was a pretty movie and it is the only place that you will find the lumbering stealth bomber in a highly agile dog fight (because, you know, that is what it was designed for).  I say pop some corn and crack some sodas and give it a watch when you just want to kick back and watch explosions.