MZ's Movie Review Thread

**MinionZombie** · 10-Dec-2012

Hatchet II, Fatal Attraction, Man With A Movie Camera, Young Adult, Contagion, and Iron Sky:
http://deadshed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/...ler-bunny.html

1) Fanboy servicing in Adam Green's low-on-ideas sequel to his Friday-the-13th-franchise-ripper-offer.
2) Catching up late with the bunny boiler.
3) Dziga Vertov's hypnotically excellent 1929 silent semi-documentary.
4) Charlize Theron plays the bitch from high school, who's now a loser and wants to break up the happy marriage of her ex-boyfriend.
5) Lots of stars, lots of style ... not recommended viewing for germophobes!
6) Nazis on the moon ... nuff said.

**MinionZombie** · 16-Dec-2012

Project X, Das Boot, Paprika, and Don't Look Now:
http://deadshed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/...s-parties.html

1) Morally repugnant tosh that celebrates twats and twattish behaviour.
2) It's running time is daunting, and it took me 9 months to get around to watching it on my Sky+ box, but it was ruddy good.
3) Nowhere near as Inception-like as I'd been lead to believe, but cracking.
4) Took me long enough to catch up to this one, and it's bloody good - Aldo Lado's "Who Saw Her Die?" makes a good companion piece to this too.

**shootemindehead** · 16-Dec-2012

'Das Boot' is probably the finest depiction of war I've seen put onto film. I've been reading about WWII since I was 8 and my dad who was in the Royal Engineers, threw books at me about the battle of Britain etc, so it's a bit of an obsession of mine. Although there are a number of issues with budget etc, 99% of the film is a masterpiece and its attention to detail, particularly the Type VIIC U-Boat itself, is extremely commendable.

In fact, I wish the Gerries would make more war films.

'Don't Look Now', on the other hand I believe to be one of the most over rated pieces of blah ever and I'm frankly sick to death of seeing it in top ten horror lists. A turgid chore that's neither spooky, nor interesting. I just cannot understand some people's trumpeting of it.

**MinionZombie** · 17-Dec-2012

Originally Posted by shootemindehead

'Don't Look Now', on the other hand I believe to be one of the most over rated pieces of blah ever and I'm frankly sick to death of seeing it in top ten horror lists. A turgid chore that's neither spooky, nor interesting. I just cannot understand some people's trumpeting of it.

Interesting ... I personally don't consider it a "horror film", so I feel that assertion by others out there to be an ill fit for the film. It's a mystery with touches of thriller and touches of the supernatural to it. I got quite wrapped up in it though.

Aye, a German take on a war movie isn't that common-a-thing, or so it seems anyway. Downfall was ruddy excellent too - I presume you've seen that flick - it's a cracking piece of filmmaking, isn't it?

**shootemindehead** · 17-Dec-2012

Yeh, 'Downfall' is an excellent take on the last days of the war. My only issue with it, is that it chickens out on what actually happened to Traudl Junge after she left the bunker.

It was however very refreshing to see SS men presented as human beings and not the cardboard stereotype that's usually presented in war films. One of the more sympathetic characters was Ernst Gunther Schenk, the bald SS doctor, or Wilhelm Monke, but André Hennicke is a little too old for the part and he looks nothing life the real life person.

Gantz was an excellent choice for a late war Führer though. Probably the best portrayal of him in that period that's been put on screen.

**MinionZombie** · 29-Dec-2012

Ted, Safe House, Sliver, The Descendants, and The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn...
http://deadshed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/...ucy-bears.html

A saucy teddy bear mimicking a double-jizzshot-to-the-face, Denzel Washington doing that laughy/smiley thing as Ryan Reynolds does his wide-eyed action man thing, 90's raunch and 4:3 televisions, George Clooney in sandals, and finally, barn-stormingly good action adventure with not-as-creepy-as-expected Zemeckis-style CG-motion-capture.

**MinionZombie** · 10-Jan-2013

The Hobbit, Berberian Sound Studio, and Cockneys vs Zombies:
http://deadshed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/...ts-sounds.html

1) Your opinion will depend entirely on whether you were, or weren't, into the LOTR trilogy.
2) Aural horror that references giallo cinema.
3) What it says on the tin.

- - - Updated - - -

Oasis of Fear (Umberto Lenzi, 1971) DVD Review:
http://deadshed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/...-1971-dvd.html

Mystery/Sexploitation - Two hippies (including Ray "Living Dead At Manchester Morgue" Lovelock) fund their European holiday by flogging porn to Italians, but on-the-run from the coppers, they end up at a rich woman's villa - but the nervous woman who suddenly warms up to them has something to hide.

**MinionZombie** · 14-Jan-2013

The Funhouse, Hugo, Inferno, and Sherlock Holmes 2 A Game of Shadows:
http://deadshed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/...s-carnies.html

1) Tobe Hooper's 1981 carnival-based horror.
2) Martin Scorsese, the man who once showed us a Casino cheat's head in a vice, exposes his love of movies in an unashamedly pleasant way.
3) Dario Argento's beautiful follow-up to Suspiria (dodgy script, mind).
4) Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, and Guy Ritchie bring more action-oriented sleuthing, with plenty of homoerotic subtextual cheekiness.

**krisvds** · 14-Jan-2013

I saw Inferno in the Brussels film museum last year. Architectural porn someone called it once. I agree.
What a gorgeous film to see on a big screen with nothing but likeminded horrorfans.
Even if you have seen certain classics countless times before on DVD or homevideo there is something about the cinema experience that brings out the best in film. The bigger screen is one factor but the shared experience is also very important.

**MinionZombie** · 14-Jan-2013

Originally Posted by krisvds

I saw Inferno in the Brussels film museum last year. Architectural porn someone called it once. I agree.
What a gorgeous film to see on a big screen with nothing but likeminded horrorfans.
Even if you have seen certain classics countless times before on DVD or homevideo there is something about the cinema experience that brings out the best in film. The bigger screen is one factor but the shared experience is also very important.

I agree. I've seen The Shining a bunch of times, but I went on Halloween night to check out the extended American version at the cinema and the screening was packed (well, it was an "Orange Wednesday" afterall) - the audience were totally into it, laughing at Jack's wild eyes and things he said, but there was also this palpable tension. One thing I never noticed before watching it on TV is just how hysterical and in-your-face the soundtrack is. In the cinema it was like having a nightmare grab your face and scream at you at point blank range in a really disturbing, yet alluringly mysterious, way.

Also, there was this girl in the row behind us and she was petrified by the film - she exclaimed to her friend as the credits rolled and everybody was heading out "I've never been so happy for a film to finish before" - but in such a way that it was clear she enjoyed the movie, but was absolutely terrified by it (she burst out of her chair and screamed when Jack came out from behind that pillar swinging that axe.

There's definitely a certain magic to the shared cinema experience, particularly with stone cold classics. During Back To The Future's 25th anniversary run, we went to see it and everybody was digging it - what was most heartening though, was there were parents just a little bit older than us who were bringing their kids along to see the movie for the first time, and the kids were totally into it. Quality never ages - remakes be damned.

**shootemindehead** · 14-Jan-2013

Originally Posted by MinionZombie

Also, there was this girl in the row behind us and she was petrified by the film - she exclaimed to her friend as the credits rolled and everybody was heading out "I've never been so happy for a film to finish before" - but in such a way that it was clear she enjoyed the movie, but was absolutely terrified by it (she burst out of her chair and screamed when Jack came out from behind that pillar swinging that axe..

I'd love to be still like that.

**MinionZombie** · 15-Jan-2013

Originally Posted by shootemindehead

I'd love to be still like that.

Aye, sometimes I think that myself. It really takes something to scare me as I'm so used to the horror genre. I can still greatly enjoy the genre, but I never really get scared by it ... sometimes chilled by it, and the odd jump shock, but it's a rare thing indeed to be scared by something. That said, watching The Shining in the cinema, I had chills running all over my skin throughout the entire movie - so being unsettled by something is still an option, even if it's a flick I'm very familiar with, just in this case transposed to a new setting and viewing experience.

**MinionZombie** · 21-Jan-2013

Father's Day, Wanderlust, and The Iron Lady:
http://deadshed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/...e-hippies.html

1) Troma-produced nouveau-grindhouse grot from filmmaking collective Astron-6 about a bloated beast of a man who exclusively rapes and kills fathers.
2) Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston get their hippy freak on.
3) Great central performance, but piss-weak material in a political biopic directed by the woman who directed Mamma Mia ... hmmm...

**MinionZombie** · 29-Jan-2013

The Grey, The Muppets, J. Edgar, and The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists:
http://deadshed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/...gs-wolves.html

1) Liam Neeson punching wolves in the face.
2) Good, clean, silly fun.
3) Leonardo DiCaprio in old-man make-up.
4) Aardman animation.