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prfsnl_gmr wrote:Awesome review, as always, Michi.

Thanks!

Also, you’ve seen Birdemic, right?

Oh, absolutely. And after watching this I'm still not sure which one would be considered better. I wanna say Beaks, because at least they used real birds. But then again, they also stapled birds to actors in order to keep them in the shot, so I don't really think you could consider it all that "better".

Rewatched the original Dawn of the Dead last night. I opted for the European cut, overseen by Dario Argento.

Rewatched Steven Universe: The Movie tonight. In this animated musical set two years after the series, Steven returns to Earth but a new adversary threatens his happily ever after. Riding on a strange-looking injector filled with an evil pink substance, this new enemy reverts the Crystal Gems to how they were when they first emerged and strips Steven of most of his Gem powers, which doesn't bode well with the very Earth he sought to protect mere hours away from total annihilation.

Great, but strictly for SU fans.

New write-up of the week:

Ghost Keeper



A group of snowmobile riders get lost and take refuge at an isolated, empty lodge while they wait for a blizzard to pass. But unbeknownst to them, the elderly caretaker is harboring a dark secret.

This is essentially a poor-man's take on The Shinning. And when I say poor, I mean they literally ran out of money half way through filming, and made the whole second half of the movie by the seat of their pants. Naturally, the plot after that point sort of went to shit. As did the inclusion of the film's main protagonist, the evil spirit known as the Wendigo, which ironically made it's portrayal more closely resemble the actual Wendigo legends. But unfortunately it also mucked up the set-up of the first half of the film. These poor filmmakers just couldn't win. It does have a pretty strong and effective atmosphere though, so it still ends up being pretty creepy, even if the plot sort of starts to fall apart by the second act. Oh well, still interesting.

I watched Kung Fu Hustle yesterday.

It was my friend's birthday and he wanted to show it to me.

Honestly, I thought it was okay. A couple of the jokes got a little snark from me and I thought the action was kind of neat, but that was about it. I think my friend may have over-hyped it a bit because I was a little bit disappointed in it.

My favorite part of the movie was probably the 1940's setting. I love the cars, outfits, Tommy Guns and look of the movie. That was neat to see.

New write-up of the week:

The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane



Rynn, an independent young girl, and her father have just moved in to an isolated home in a small town in Maine. People go over to the house to introduce themselves, but every time someone comes over, Rynn's father seems continuously absent. Rynn doesn't seem to mind, but the more people keep coming around and invading Rynn's privacy, the more suspicious they become of the stand-offish girl who seems to have an answer for everything.

This is really a nice little "light" psychological thriller with some underlying horror elements and was one of 5 films Jodie Foster was in that year (my, was she busy). It's got a great cast, wonderful atmosphere and a simple, but creepy story (thanks Martin Sheen). The one downside is it's odd inclusion of a child nude scene that was wholly unnecessary, but beyond that I thought it was an enjoyable film.

New write-up of the week:

The Strangeness



An old mineshaft was closed decades ago, thanks in part to a partial collapse, following a series of suspicious incidents reported by the miners. When an earthquake reopens the mine, naturally the company that owns it doesn't give one flying f@%# about those stories, and sends a group of scientists and excavators into the mine to see if it’s worth crawling down there to try to retrieve some gold. Hint: it's not, and another quake closes off the opening, forcing the team to travel further into the caves and closer to the source of all those old miners 'tall tales'.

This is the type of movie where you really only need to watch the first 15 minutes and then skip ahead to the last 30. Everything in between that is just the members of the team slowly meandering through excessively dark cave tunnels so that you don’t notice that the walls are cheaply painted tinfoil. Yes, it’s that kind of movie. Though the last half hour does turn out to be surprisingly fun for a cheaply made monster flick. The creature’s design doesn't make much sense (it looks like it belongs in a body of water somewhere), but they made it using stop-motion, so watching how it was implemented is quite interesting, even if it's head looks like a certain part of female anatomy.

Last movie I saw at home: Godzilla vs Kong.

Markies wrote:

I watched Kung Fu Hustle yesterday.

It was my friend's birthday and he wanted to show it to me.

Honestly, I thought it was okay. A couple of the jokes got a little snark from me and I thought the action was kind of neat, but that was about it. I think my friend may have over-hyped it a bit because I was a little bit disappointed in it.

My favorite part of the movie was probably the 1940's setting. I love the cars, outfits, Tommy Guns and look of the movie. That was neat to see.

Stephen Chow's style is not for everyone and not all of his movies hit the mark. I think Shaolin Soccer is a more fun movie than Kung Fu Hustle, but you HAVE to see it in its original, uncut form. There are anime and games that have also done the over the top soccer idea, it's fun to see a live action take on it

New write-up of the week:

Dead Pit



An evil doctor, long thought dead, resurrects his equally dead test subjects and unleashes them on the unsuspecting patients of a mental hospital.

This is like a combination on slasher/zombie flick, with a little One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The beginning is fairly slow, plot-wise, but is also filled with a lot of super creepy ambiance (when it's not focusing on the scantily clad main character.) But if you can stick it out through some of the drudgery and cheesiness, then you'll be treated with a rather over-the-top ending full of 80's zombie goodness and buckets of blood. It's not the best zombie movie out there, but it ended up being a pretty fun one, even with all the cliches.