Cabin in the Woods-Spoiler Free Movie Review

Wow, just wow.  I came into Cabin in the Woods with just the most basic information; the cabin was a construct being controlled.  This isn't a spoiler as it is revealed from the very start.  The rest of the movie was a surprise to me though.  A great surprise at that.  There were three other people in the room and this movie had us all laughing and groaning in sympathetic pain.  It had us hook line and sinker. 

The story was good and a pretty unique take on your general horror movie fare.  It doesn't seem that original at first (group of kids going on a road trip to a cabin) but quickly becomes very intriguing. 

The cast are amazing.  The people in the "lab" are great.  Thor does a pretty good job.  The red head (Kristen Connelly) was scortching hot.  The stoner guy was the perfect comic relief.  There is even a cameo at the end that was excellent.  Slasher films aren't known for their acting but this one is very good. 

Overall, it was a great movie that everyone in the room enjoyed a great deal.  We were doing a double feature and were really worried that the movie that followed it would be a massive let down in comparison.  I say the movie is probably okay for 13+, but only for horror fans as the film can be satirical to the genre and some jokes can be missed.  If you like horror movies, you should get a pretty good kick out of this one.  I give it 5 out of 5 slashes. 

Have you seen it?  What did you think?

Your Highness (2011)

You know, I thought Your Highness would be funny, and would be a rather stupid fantasy movie.  Turned out it was only a little funny, but managed to be a pretty decent fantasy movie.  Who knew.  Zooey wasn’t even that annoying and you get to see Natalie Portman in a metal bikini. 

The Humor is rather vulgar though.  I might have thought it funnier about 15-20 years ago, but a lot of it just made me feel uncomfortable.  I would say that the funniest part was the hanging at the very beginning. 

It isn’t a movie for kids and most women (any woman reading this blog are obviously excluded as they may tolerate it more, but be warned) aren’t really going to care for the crude humor. 

X-Men: First Class (2011)

So, I watched X-Men:  First Class.  I guess technically, as a movie, removed from the comic, it was a good enough movie.  But, I am unable to separate the years of comic book reading from the movie.  I did have problems with the plot as well so on to the review.

Plot-I have no doubt that there are people that exist that would love to see the world burn.  I don't doubt this.  But to have Sabastian Shaw, a very wealthy womanizer, be the person that wants to see the world burn doesn't make sense.  For whatever reason, he thinks all mutants will survive nuclear annihilation and start a new world. Even if they were able to survive the nuclear blasts and fallout, they would inherit a dead world.  They also has a character named Darwin that has the ability to adapt to conditions around him to survive.  In order to establish Shaw's power we get to see how Darwin can't adapt to everything regardless of the fact that it was established that he could.  He was also the one black guy in the movie.  Yes, the black man dies.

Acting-  I can't fault the movie here.  The acting was pretty good.  Well, I didn't care for the constipated Professor X, but everyone else was pretty good and I would like to see them in a real X-Men movie.

Characterization-  The X-Men are almost 50 years old.  They have a 50, oft times convoluted, history, but they have a history.  The comics have epic story arcs that are critically acclaimed.  I understand that they wanted to do something original and I am not opposed to someone doing that, but why mess with the characters.  I mean, they put characters in the wrong place in time lines.  Alex Summers is the brother of Cyclops.  Having him as a 20 something in the 60s means he is 40 years older than his older brother.  That is just one small example.  They took 50 years of characterization and continuity and crapped all over it.

Some people will say that the first X-Men movie did the same.  To a degree, it did.  But that was a different time and I think folks were just excited to see the X-Men  on the big screen.

Overall, it was an okay movie if you separate it from comics.  As a comics fan, I just felt cheated.  I wanted to take a shower after watching the movie.

Red Riding Hood (2011)

Amanda Seyfried stars as the titular character in this modern interpretation of Red Riding Hood.  This is modern, apparently, because it involves werewolves and has a romance in it.

Plot-  I mean, as stories go it should have been good.  It had werewolves and a pretty girl.  I think it was trying to cash in on the twilight market, but from what my wife told me the vampire guy wins in that story so it this one is a movie about the losing side.  Because it was a twilight inspired film, it was missing the nice hard edge that generally makes a good horror movie.  For a movie about people that can turn into monster wolves, it was guilty of a most grievous crime for a horror movie,  It was boring.

Characters-  You just don't really care about the characters at all.  The movie doesn't do a good job of making them relatable.  I actually found myself hoping that Red would be turned to a werewolf in the end.  You will have to watch it to find out if she does.  Nor even Gary Oldman could make me care.

Overall-  I am pretty sure that the Red Riding Hood you grew up with was pretty gruesome.  It involved women being eaten by wolves and woodcutters cutting said wolf open.  This current edgy version is much less edgy than the original.  It has werewolves and is less edgy.  It really has very little resemblance to the original story.  The original was a thinly veiled warning for child molestation and stranger danger.  I think you could give this one a pass.  Might want to keep the younger ones away due to some sexuality.  That is some as in not enough to be interesting.  

Happy New Year

Image by Express Monorail via Flickr

A year ago this blog was dead.  I and several other had made approx 50 posts in 3 years.  It had no followers and had not been updated in a while.  In March, contributor NickyP posted a Wolf Man review.  I remembered that this blog existed and set out to make it more prominent.  In 2010, since march even, we have posted 143 times with various book and movie reviews, rants, and news items.  New contributors have been added to not only give more content but to expand the scope of that content.

As with all blogs, feedback is important.  We couldn't have done it without the readers.  Thanks for everyone that is following us.  We have 35 blogger followers and people you subscribe to the RSS feed.  According to the statistics, you guys like to stop by on Mondays around 10am.

Going forward we plan on continuing with the great content and making 2011 a better year than 2010.  We now have a page on facebook, so look for us there.  I don't know what the other contributors have in store, but I have some movie and book reviews coming up and SteveB has promised a quiz on redheads.