Evil Dead

I had seen Evil Dead before.  In fact, I had seen the entire trilogy, but I wanted to take a few moments and reexamine this film after having watched the musical over the weekend.  In case you're wondering, the musical is hilarious, watch it if you can find it.

When it comes to movies as they are now, we take a lot of things for granted.  Often times, we don't look to the past, to the history of cinema to see the origins of things.

If you're seeing Evil Dead for the first time in 2011, you're going to think you're watching a campy horror movie with terrible make-up, awful dialogue, and feel a very been there, done that before approach.

If you're seeing Evil Dead for the first time when it was released in 1981, you'll have an entirely different experience.  It is with that thought that I will be reviewing this film.

Evil Dead was released in 1981, written and directed by Sam Raimi.  The movie follows five college students who choose a remote cabin to get away from it all.  The mood of the film is ominous from the get go as townsfolk stare at them on their way to the cabin.  As they cross over a bridge, they note the sign telling them it's a dangerous bridge and to cross at your own risk.

The students arrive at the cabin and begin to settle into their surroundings.  The cabin is dark and foreboding, incredibly creepy overall.  Our main character here is named Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell).  He is accompanied by his sister, Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss), his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker), his best friend Scott (Richard Demanicor), and Scott's girlfriend Shelly (Theresa Thilly).

They should have listed the house as a character in the film as well, it has a personality all its own.  The house reveals its basement to the students, daring them to come down, and whispering for them to "join us."  Scott and Ash go down to the basement, they return with the Book of the Dead and a tape recorder.  Upon listening to the tape, they discover the book to be bound in human flesh and inked in human blood. 

It's a very chilly opening that sets up the downfall of each character quite well.  The incantations played on the tape wake the dead from their slumber and they rise to possess each one of the students.  Can they survive?

I had to do a lot of research for this review as 1981 was a long, long time ago.  We take a lot of things for granted now, not thinking of the movies that came before that set up the consequential genre.

For its time, Evil Dead was shockingly violent.  It was immensely controversial due to the violent nature of the movie and how Raimi chose to depict his vision of the violence.  This movie is still banned in some countries, all these years later.

The visuals this film managed to conjure with a budget of only $375,000 is rather fascinating.  I had a great time looking up articles and interviews with Raimi and Campbell about how they were able to pull this movie off with that low of a budget.  That they managed to make this movie at all shows how creative they are and how much of a labor of love it was for them.

If you're watching this movie for the first time in 2011, you'll laugh and think the movie silly.  Do me a favor, forget what you've seen before and take the movie for what it is.  Think back to a simpler time and then watch this movie.  I guarantee you'll be impressed.

I give Evil Dead 4 Chocolate Chip Cooke Dough Bites out of 5.

21

My second review today is for the movie 21, released in 2008 and directed by Robert Luketic.

21 is very, very loosely based off the true story you may have heard about, the MIT blackjack team that cleaned out Vegas.  It centers around an MIT student named Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess).  Jim's aspiration is to get into Harvard medical school.  He's got the grades, but he doesn't have the money, he needs $300,000 for the tuition and as perfect as his grades are, he's applying to a school where perfection is the norm.  He doesn't stand out enough to get the prestigious Robinson Scholarship which would pay his way through all of school.

Jim leads a rather normal life.  In fact, because he's always been working to attain perfection, he really hasn't had time to experience the joys of life that are common place to most people his age.

Enter the MIT blackjack team.  Jim is recruited to join the highly secretive team after showing a rare aptitude for math in Professor Rosa's (Kevin Spacey) class.  Jim refuses to join at first as he struggles with the morality of it.  He feels that they are cheating the system and wrestles with his conscience.

Ultimately, the allure of money wins out.  After some convincing from Jill (Kate Bosworth) and an overwhelming desire to go to Harvard, Jim joins the team.

The intoxication of money, the lifestyle, and Jill start to control Jim, will he be able to quit the life?

Why does Professor Rosa watch from the sidelines?  He takes the students to Vegas, provides the fake IDs, the plane tickets, and the hotels?  Why does he refuse to actually play blackjack?

Will Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne), the old school enforcer catch the blackjack team and prove his worth over the rapidly spreading face scan technology?

The movie's plot is formulaic.  It's been done many, many times before and doesn't really offer much of a different spin from anything else you might have seen in the genre.  The characters themselves are often rather bland.  I had a hard time feeling anything for the main character.  He wasn't really likeable or relateable.  Kevin Spacey does a good job of fluctuating between imposing, mysterious, and warm.  The team itself came off as bland.  The film doesn't tell you much about their motives, their history, or their personalities.  Quite frankly, you won't really care either.

I liked a lot of the themes that were presented in the film.  I've always enjoyed watching anything involving a system, beating it, and the repercussions for beating it.  I liked the exploration of the consequences of the pursuit of perfection.  Perfection can be had, but at what cost?

Overall, though, I found the movie to had a very been there, done that feel about it.  I found it to be entertaining, it kept my attention, but it's nothing you'd want to sit down and watch more than once.

I give 21 3 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites out of 5.

Poolhall Junkies

Well, I missed doing a review yesterday as hanging out with friends is more important than doing a movie review.  However, to make up for it, I will be doing two reviews.  We'll start with a movie I've seen before and then move to a movie I have not seen before.

We're starting with Poolhall Junkies today, a movie directed by Mars Callahan and released in 2002.

Poolhall Junkies follows the exploits of a pool player, who in his words, "could not miss."  We open on a scene with a younger Johnny playing a game of pool.  He's talking about a game he had played a little while back where he won a truck in a bet.  There was a fellow watching who goes by the name Toupee Jay who was so impressed by his skill that he wanted to offer Johnny a spot playing professional pool.  He's telling his opponent about this when his handler, Joe (Chazz Palminteri), walks in and tells Johnny he's playing a hustler.  He makes Johnny stop and intercedes on his behalf telling Johnny he knows what's better for him.

Joe then walks over and gets the mail sent to Johnny at the pool hall and reads a letter from Toupee Jay offering Johnny a spot playing in the professional pool league.  The scene ends with Joe throwing the letter out and we fast forward 15 years to a now adult Johnny (Mars Callahan) playing pool.  Johnny seems to be just as good as ever and is playing for serious amounts of money.  He runs into Toupee Jay who remembers him as the "Side Pocket Kid" and is telling the person he's with about Johnny's skill.  He tells Johnny that he always wondered what happened to him and why he never came to play as a professional.  It is then revealed to Johnny that Jay had sent multiple invitations and even called to try and get him to come play.  Jay tells him that he spoke to some handler by the name of Joe who said that Johnny's parents wanted him to finish school and wasn't interested.  Johnny gets furious at this news and bumps the bet up to twenty thousand talking a lot of trash about no one wanting to play him.  Joe tries to back him down, but he insists on playing.  He finds a game for $20,000 and scratches in the middle of it and tells Joe that it's over.  The man Johnny's playing against is not to be trifled with and roughs Joe up and dumps him out back.

Johnny stops playing pool and attempts to find a job in the real world because he hates what he's become, which he sees as a "hustler."  He's not good at his new job as a carpenter and has a hard time coping with the disparity between the money he makes as a pool player and a carpenter.  His boss calls him in and offers him a promotion if he'll make some things disappear from time to time.  Johnny, wanting to leave his hustler image behind him, refuses and quits on the spot.  He goes back to playing pool, determined to do it the right way this time.

The owner of the pool hall Johnny frequents, Nick (Rod Steiger) gets him a game against a professional.  He tells Johnny that if he wants to be someone he'll play the pro, otherwise he'll be a bum for the rest of his life because that's who he plays.  Johnny cleans out the pro and gets his swagger back.

Joe returns bent on revenge against Johnny.  He breaks Johnny's wrist and targets his little brother, Danny (Michael Rosenbaum), who even after repeated warnings from Danny about following in his footsteps will not be deterred.  Joe finds himself a professional, Brad (Rick Schroeder), and takes Danny to the cleaners, to set up the climax of the movie where Johnny has to play someone every bit as good if not better than him in Brad to save his brother.

There are many reasons why this movie is enjoyable.  All of the characters have an innate chemistry with one another and the relationships between them are believable.  The dialogue is fantastic and fun.  There is a lot of banter between the characters and the viewer does not feel like an observer, but someone very invested in what happens with the characters and the outcome of the movie.

While the movie is centered around a pool hall, ultimately it is the relationships and Johnny himself who keep you watching.  The conflict between who Johnny wants to be and what he turns out to be is well played.  The film also does a great job of examining the role of father figures in a person's development and life.  Johnny's family never really cared about him, so he looked to Joe as a father figure and Joe betrays his trust.

Johnny finds another father figure through sheer coincidence in Uncle Mike (Christopher Walken).  Uncle Mike is the father figure that Johnny needs.  He supports his endeavors in pool and in life.  There aren't enough words that can be said about Walken's performance in this movie.  Walken dominates every scene that he's in and his presence is absolutely fantastic.  In the climax of the movie, he squares off against Joe, their battle is every bit as good as the fight between Brad and Johnny.

Everything about this movie is charming and entertaining.  You'll find yourself so engrossed in the movie that you'll be sad when it ends.  The film touches on important issues regarding the role of father figures and the battle between being who you want to be and who you are, but it does a nice job of always keeping a sense of humor about it.

I give this movie 4 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites out of 5, go see it if you haven't already!

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra

Who thought this was a good idea?

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during the pitch meeting.  The person who pitched this movie is some sort of con man.  For this person to have been able to sell this movie to a studio is nothing short of impressive.

It's been an ongoing trend and something that infuriates me to no end.  It seems as though good ideas are in short supply, so Hollywood has decided to resurrect long dead franchises, whether it be comic books, cartoons, or what not.

/End of rant

Alas, onward to the review:

G.I. Joe is set in the not too distant future.  I'm wondering if that disclaimer at the beginning of the movie makes it okay to take your normal suspension of disbelief and multiply it to the power of ten.  Nothing in this movie is even slightly plausible and perhaps it would have been okay if they rooted something, anything, in reality, but they decided against that.

Our movie starts off explaining the technology of nanobites, something oft dreamed up in movies such as these.  It's explained as an all powerful technology, that is of course multifaceted, and can do anything from create soldiers that feel no pain and obey every command to destroy anything it sets its sights upon.

James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston) is the pitch man for this new technology and has made 4 prototype warheads for use by the military.  These warheads are to be transported somewhere for some purpose (I'll get to the plot momentarily) and the men chosen for this task are our heroes, Captain Duke Hauser (Channing Tatum) and Wallace Weems aka Ripcord (Marlon Wayans).

As they begin their transport operation under heavy guard, they are beset by an unknown entity with unknown, yet powerful technology.  In the following skirmish, Duke is confronted by a ghost from his past whom he recognizes as his ex-fiancee Anna (Sienna Miller).  The fight ends abruptly with the arrival of the good guys, the Joes.  Anna scurries off quickly sans the warheads.  Her and Duke seem incapable of hurting one another due to their past history.

Duke and Ripcord are reluctant to give the warheads to the Joes as it is their mission and obligation to protect the warheads.  General Abernathy aka Hawk (Dennis Quaid) appears through hologram and invites the two soldiers to bring the warheads to the Joes secret base somewhere in the Sahara.

Upon arrival, Duke and Ripcord are relieved of their duties as guardians of the warheads and relinquish their duty to the Joes.  However, Duke cannot shake the thought of Anna as a bad guy and pleads his case to Hawk to let Duke and Ripcord become Joes.  He blackmails them by saying he knows Anna and will give them everything they want to know if they train him to be part of their elite super secret club.

Ok, that's it, I'm done with trying to explain the plot.  This was obviously built as a popcorn movie.  Every 5 minutes or so, something goes boom, the plot is unspeakably bad, and I haven't seen a movie so CG reliant in a long while.  Nothing in this movie is rooted in reality, which of course makes sense, given it being based on a cartoon, but still why even try to make a pretense of it being based on reality?

We'll start with the problems I had with this movie, the list is long so bear with me.

-This "film" is enamored with technology, it loves the things it can do with special effects, everything seemed blue screened.
-The maker of this movie saw the Matrix a few times....over and over again we see the slow motion effect made popular by the Matrix used as a weapon against viewers trying to watch a movie.
-Two quotes that made me groan, "When all else fails, we don't" "Knowing is half the battle"  Thanks Dennis Quaid, your delivery of the second line ruined my childhood
-The female Joes wore low cut BDUs around the base, helping to highlight their ample cleavage.  Do those sort of BDUs even exist?
-"Real American Hero" was uttered, again my childhood died some more
-Anna and Duke's falling out was due to the loss of her little brother, Rex (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)...when he was introduced in the movie I scribbled down, "I bet he dies."
-I was humming We're Gonna Need a Montage as Duke and Ripcord took on the Joe training
-Brendan Fraser was in this movie, just thought I'd throw that out there
-Snakeeyes and Stormshadow, the movie made every effort to show how cool ninjas are, they even had their own backstory!  Fantastic.....
-Hello obvious product placement?  How are you?  I'd like to thank Cisco and Double Bubble for helping to make this movie possible
-"Everything about this movie is over the top and ridiculous." ~ me
-Scarlett (Rachel Nichols) serves as a romantic plot device for Ripcord, that's nice.  She has some sort of device that makes her completely invisible, but when the bad guys attack the Joes secret base, she doesn't decide to use it until she's in an actual fight.  This seems counter intuitive, but most of the movie was counter intuitive, so there is that.
-The flashbacks were silly and unnecessary.  There was one sequence where the two ninjas met that was especially silly.  They meet and immediately begin fighting, the boys being of about age 10 or so.  The seemingly untrained ninja is able to fight well against the trained ninja.  How?  I have no idea.
-This was offered up by roommate Jon who sat down for about 5 minutes before running away in terror, "Most ridiculous scene I have ever seen." I think this had something to do with the fight in Paris over the weaponizing and launch of the warhead.
-Maybe it was explained at some point, I couldn't really tell, but the warheads containing the nanobites, how were they not weaponized in the first place?  They are contained in a warhead, how is that not weaponized?  I suppose we needed a plot device to kill Anna's husband.
-There was one particular scene in a flashback when Duke, Ripcord, and Anna's brother Rex are in a fire fight in some unknown place.  Two soldiers open a door to a building and immediately start shooting in.  I'm fairly certain that's not how they do it in the military.
-In this same scene, they called in an air strike that of course arrives early, and it only strikes one building and nothing else....really helps my suspension of disbelief.
-Our fearless hero Duke should have died in the resulting blast as he ran to save Rex.  He didn't though, he is our hero afterall.
-The movie's run time was 2 hours.....why?
-At Rex's funeral, Duke arrives on a motorcycle wearing sunglasses in the pouring rain, I immediately started humming I Wear My Sunglasses at Night
-In the Paris chase sequence, the bad guys are driving around in a hummer, they saw fit to CG a wedge that can be activated to the vehicle, seeing the wedge activated through CG against an actual vehicle hurt to watch.
-As our heroes ran around Paris causing umpteen millions of dollars in damage, they had the good sense to have many chuckles about it
-Why must Anna always have her sunglasses?  At one point, she makes a special effort to rescue her sunglasses before leaving a burning vehicle.  I didn't really see anything important about them.
-As Duke runs off after our bad guys, he ditches the helmet to his very expensive suit.  Said helmet has his targeting system and other important things, but really who needs that?
-Our hero Duke disarms the nanomites after they descend upon Paris by pressing a button on Anna's belt.  Why couldn't she rearm them by pressing the same button?
-The police!  They arrive just in time after a 20 minute fighting sequence between the Joes and the bad guys to arrest the Joes, how convenient.
-When the bad guys arrive at their secret lair on the polar ice cap, they aren't wearing coats or anything special.....isn't it bitterly cold there?
-More plot holes!  McCullen is adamant about getting these particular 4 warheads back into his evil clutches, why couldn't he just have Rex make more for him?
-Despite their amazing technology, the bad guys couldn't detect the Joes' sub?
-The ninjas have their penultimate fight sequence in a generator room of some consequence.  There is electricity visible throughout the room, yet the ninjas don't get electrocuted.  Wow, ninjas really are cool!
-Further evidence against my suspension of disbelief: In all these fights, no one bleeds.  Hurray PG-13!
-I find it fascinating how the bad guys can use the good guys technology and vice versa with no training whatsoever for each other's toys.
-This movie set itself up for a sequel, save me.

My apologies for the list of problems I had with this movie.  I know I wasn't the target audience for this movie, but I should have been!  I grew up watching G.I. Joe, playing with the action figures, I love G.I. Joe!

I did not love this, though.

Thanks to a suggestion, I'm changing my ratings slightly.  I had settled on sticks of butter as I didn't have a better idea, now I do thanks to Natalie Wilson!

I give this movie 2 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites out of 5.  I gave it two because I know I'm not the target audience and I suppose it could be entertaining if you shut your brain off.

Shutter Island

I keep a notebook to write my thoughts as they happen while reviewing movies.  I underlined this thought three times:

"This movie is beautiful."

From the beginning to the end of the film, the cinematography of this movie was masterful.  I could not take my eyes off of the strong visuals conjured by Scorsese.  The film was mostly shot in Massachusetts and they could not have picked a better place to shoot the movie.  The setting was picturesque.

As for the actual review, I watched Shutter Island today.  The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as two U.S. Marshalls called to investigate the disappearance of an inmate named Rachel Solando.

Shutter Island is explained as a remote island that houses dangerous psychotic criminals.  The prisoners are separated into three separate wards, Ward A for the males, Ward B for the females, and Ward C for the island's most dangerous criminals.

From the first moment after arriving on the island, the viewer can tell it is an ominous place.  The score for this movie was perfect as the music sets a great tone for the film.  As the marshalls start their investigation, they are introduced to a Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) who is to help them in any way that he can to find the missing woman.

Teddy (DiCaprio) and Chuck (Ruffalo) have a hard time gaining any leverage against the doctor as he constantly stymies their efforts to ascertain information regarding Rachel.  Teddy suspects mischief afoot and wants to find out what is actually going on in the island, he suspects that all is not as it seems.

As the plot begins to unfold, Teddy has lucid dreams of his deceased wife Dolores (Michelle Williams) who tries to give him hints as to what he is looking for.  Teddy confesses to Chuck that he requested this case specifically as the island houses the man who murdered his wife, Andrew Laeddis.  This becomes especially important when Rachel is found and Teddy's purpose becomes clear to expose what is happening on the island and to find Laeddis.

At first, I was going to knock DiCaprio's performance, but as it turns out he gives a commanding performance as Teddy.  He demands your attention through every part of the movie and is absolutely convincing as a marshall.

I was also going to knock Ruffalo as Chuck.  I, at first, thought he was a throwaway character, but I was sorely mistaken.  He gives a very subdued, but important performance and is absolutely critical to the plot development.

Kingsley is fantastic as Cawley.  He plays the part of smarmy doctor well and never reveals what he's hiding until he absolutely has to.

Michelle Williams is haunting in her role as Dolores.  She comes out of nowhere, yet leaves the longest lasting impression.

The overarching theme of psychology versus those who dismiss it gives great weight to the constant tension of the movie.  The line between what is real and paranoia/delusions blurs quickly, yet it is not hard to keep up with.  The pacing is excellent and the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next.

The constant verbal jousting between DiCaprio and Kingsley is a delight to watch.  We are allowed to witness two great actors match wits with one another throughout the movie and they deliver very commanding performances as a man of science and a man of law.  Kingsley is cerebral, while DiCaprio is instinct.

I only had two real problems with the movie.  The first is that I would only watch this movie once more.  It lacks a certain rewatchability.  My second problem is the resolution of the climax.  There is a very tense buildup and I was a bit let down by its resolution.

Overall, it was a great experience and certainly something anyone who enjoys movies should watch.

I give this movie 4 sticks of butter.

My Mission Statement!

Welcome to my newly created blog!  It's shiny and new, oh so very wonderful!

I'd like to start off by saying that I am a hopeless movie addict.  I love movies, I have watched somewhere in the neighborhood of about 3,000 movies in my life and I want to spread my love of movies to as many people as I can reach.

The first movie I remember seeing in theaters was Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.  My parents took me to see it, I was so excited, I had never seen anything in theaters before!  Little did I know that it would be the start of a long and lasting relationship in my life.  There has been an awful lot of love with movies.  There has also been burning hatred for seeing good talent wasted, few things upset me more than a movie with a fantastic premise going to waste via terrible performances. Whether it be writer, producer, director, actor, or actress, the thing I dislike most is a good idea wasted.

I watched a lot of movies throughout my childhood.  I had exposure to movies I shouldn't have seen at that age.  Looking back at it, though, I appreciate the exposure I had and the broadening of my horizons to where they are now.

The purpose of my blog will be to watch and review a movie every single day.  It will be difficult, as I do have a life that sometimes gets in the way, but armed with a subscription to Netflix and a passion for spreading my love of movies to others, I think this can go a long way.

With that out of the way, we shall begin with the movie I watched this evening entitled Lo.

I'm not entirely sure what sparked my interest to watch this movie.  Admittedly, it has been harder and harder to find movies that surprise me, are original, or contain actual substance.  The summary of the movie appealed to my curious nature.  I've always longed to know if Heaven and Hell exist, what they are like, what happens there, and what not.  You'll quickly find that out about me, I have a very active imagination.  I love to see other people's views and imaginings regarding things we cannot possibly know anything about.

The movie is very simple.  It has the look of something you would see in your local art house, a play if you will.  Often times, I find that simple is for the best.  The people behind making movies often get enamored with CG, special effects, and making things go boom.  They often lose sight of their purpose, which is to tell a story.  The film makes great use of a small, cramped room, and draws on the tension between the two main characters.

The story is also rather simple.  A man falls in love with a woman.  This woman is then captured by demons and dragged to hell.  Said man journeys to find the aid of a demon named Lo  (Jeremah Burkett) to help him find and retrieve her from the depths of hell and back into his arms.  You know, the oft told tale of man meets woman, falls in love, and then journeys to hell to save her.

You'll find that I have used the word simple to describe this movie twice and it truly is.  You can tell it is a low budget movie, made from a shoe string budget, but I found it to be immensely enjoyable.  As is the case with demons, you can never seem to trust them, they lie out of both sides of their mouth and Lo is no exception to this rule.  Lo lies to Justin (Ward Roberts), our main character,  and attempts to confuse him in an attempt to bring Justin out of the circle of protection (pentagram) he made for himself against the demons so that Lo can devour him.  Lo makes his contempt of humans rather clear and desires nothing more than to break the circle and swallow Justin whole.

Through a series of flashbacks told with rather dramatic flair, we find out about our hero's love interest, April (Sarah Lassez).  She has a seemingly interesting past and comes out of nowhere into Justin's life.  The two hit it off immediately, each seeming more awkward than the other.  They are, however, endearing and a believable couple, their chemistry is evident.

I was amused the film was told through flashbacks, through song, and through trickery.  The way this movie goes about telling a story is rather charming in that it never loses sight of the story and keeps it rather, you guessed it, simple!

I won't ruin the ending of the movie for you, dear readers, however I would recommend you giving it a watch if you're curious to see the imagery used to describe hell or what one man would go through to save the woman he loves.  The demons alone are worth the viewing as they use great costume design to conjure these foul hell spawn. 

I found the movie to be enjoyable and well worth a watch.  It's an engaging tale told through unconventional means.  The dialogue is excellent throughout and you never can quite tell who has the upper hand between the would be master Justin, and his summoned demon servant, Lo.

This being my first post, I've had to give thought to how I will do a ratings system.  I have decided to use sticks of butter as my ratings system, butter going with popcorn and the like.

For Lo, I give: 3 out of 5 sticks of butter.