This post was originally written when Shutter was still in the theaters, for some reason I never got around to posting it. But now Shutter is finally out on DVD, so thus my review is no longer out of date.
So here's my 5 word review:
Wasn't scary, she was dead.
Enjoy.....
Originally written on 3/27/08
Last night while on an evening with with The Best Friend he said "Hey, The Boyfriend and I are going to go see Shutter, you wanna go?"
"When's the show?" I asked. "7:35" was the reply, less than an hour away.
So we stopped our walk and hustled instead to the train and made our way North to the movie theater.
One good thing I can say about Shutter is that it's a short movie.
The most interesting thing about the movie was that it was set in Japan. From what I understand this movie is a remake so it is interesting they didn't change the locale but only the characters.
Overall it was a very predictable movie, there was only one "thing" that surprised me, other than that you know when something is about to "happen" so you can brace yourself.
The female lead was a bimbo, ho and jealous wife all rolled into one!
Several times during the movie the woman would say "I don't know why she's here" I would then raise my hand and say "Oooh...ohh....I know why....I know why...."
The "ghost" wasn't scary in the "oh my god it's a ghost" kind of scary, she was just there and happened to be dead.
Having just watched the Ringu (the original Ring) with a friend, this was nothing by comparison.
As a side note, I rented the original Shutter (which happens to be a Thai movie) and it was much better than the remake - but then isn't that the way it typically goes?
Showing posts with label movie review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie review. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Cloverfield - A Movie Review
I was glad that it was only 74 minutes long. Now don't get me wrong, I liked Cloverfield and I had been following it as closely as I could without finding out too much about it to spoil the movie. Abrams did a great job of keeping the monster "hidden" from public view and seemed to even release images that had nothing to do with the movie to give people what they wanted. I was even mad at myself for coming across an image of the "monster" and looking at it after it was posted on someone's blog. The funny thing......the monster that was posted wasn't ANYTHING like the actual monster - what a great idea from Abrams - leak the wrong image, people will get what they want and be satisifed and then still be totally shocked when they find out it wasn't anything they thought it was.
Cloverfield was a good movie, but the handheld camera action makes for a very difficult viewing, several times during the show I had to close my eyes and take a few minutes to "calm my stomach." It was very much "Blair Witch"esque. As a side note, a few years ago some friends and I made a movie, my one friend loved to use zoom on the camera, I kept telling him "NO ZOOM" while we were watching Cloverfield I leaned over and said "Now do you see why I said NO ZOOM?"
The story overall was good, the images of what happened was very reminiscent of 9/11, it made it feel as though you were there experiencing it yourself, which wasn't necessarily a good thing. There was a point where the movie got ridiculous and made me ask myself "why would someone do that" regardless of the situation that was going on around them.
I did keep asking myself though "Wow, these people were in the wrong place and the wrong time where ever they went in this movie, I'm so glad they had a video camera with them to capture it." Oh yeah and "What the hell kind of batter do you have on that camcorder that it lasted for 12 hours?!? Mine usually dies after an hour or so, I guess those New Yorkers have better batteries.
Will I buy it when it comes out.....hmmmmm.....maybe, I'm not sure yet. Go see it, but be sure to take a Dramamine before you go, you'll thank me.
Cloverfield was a good movie, but the handheld camera action makes for a very difficult viewing, several times during the show I had to close my eyes and take a few minutes to "calm my stomach." It was very much "Blair Witch"esque. As a side note, a few years ago some friends and I made a movie, my one friend loved to use zoom on the camera, I kept telling him "NO ZOOM" while we were watching Cloverfield I leaned over and said "Now do you see why I said NO ZOOM?"
The story overall was good, the images of what happened was very reminiscent of 9/11, it made it feel as though you were there experiencing it yourself, which wasn't necessarily a good thing. There was a point where the movie got ridiculous and made me ask myself "why would someone do that" regardless of the situation that was going on around them.
I did keep asking myself though "Wow, these people were in the wrong place and the wrong time where ever they went in this movie, I'm so glad they had a video camera with them to capture it." Oh yeah and "What the hell kind of batter do you have on that camcorder that it lasted for 12 hours?!? Mine usually dies after an hour or so, I guess those New Yorkers have better batteries.
Will I buy it when it comes out.....hmmmmm.....maybe, I'm not sure yet. Go see it, but be sure to take a Dramamine before you go, you'll thank me.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Cloverfield - A Review
A gaggle of us girls went to see Cloverfield tonight. All I'll say is that it literally made me sick, and not in the sense of made me sick like disgusted, no made sick as in literally sick to my stomach and gave me a headache.
I loved it.
More later, I have to go put my head down.
I loved it.
More later, I have to go put my head down.
Monday, December 03, 2007
A Movie Weekend - In Review
Inspirational, Fucked Up, Enchanted
Those are the words that I would use to describe the movies I saw this weekend.
First I saw "For the Bible Tells Me So" a documentary about how the right wing Christian conservative has used select phrases from the bible to condemn homosexuality to improve their agenda.
This movie is currently making the "Art House" theater run, and if it's in your town you should really go see it. Whether you're gay, straight, lesbian, transgender, it doesn't matter this movie will help you understand how the "church" uses only select pieces of select verses to explain how god thinks homosexuality is a sin. This was an amazing movie, but after about 45 minutes of facts things started to get muddle. It's not the movies fault, An Inconvenient Truth was the same way.
Then I saw "It is Fine. Everything is Fine." All I can say is FUCKED UP! Read about it yourself, because those descriptions make more sense than this movie. It was the weirdest most fucked up movie I have ever seen. The thing that was more intriguing than the movie was the audience. Everyone sat stoned faced and totally drawn into the movie while my friend and I sat there looking at each other - me with my hand over my mouth laughing harder than I've ever laughed and him with a look of disgust on his face.
Here's how I'd describe that movie - uhm.....I can't. Although they do show a lot of boobies and a man with cerebal palsy gets a blowjob from a woman who then straddles him and puts his penis in her vagina (yes I know the proper words for those things).
It was THE MOST DISTURBING thing I have ever seen.
Fortunately the last movie I saw as Enchanted and Enchanted was enchanting.
Have you seen it yet? You really need to! It was funny, it was sad, it was predictible but I will definitely buy it when it comes on DVD and I've already purchased the soundtrack.
Those are the words that I would use to describe the movies I saw this weekend.
First I saw "For the Bible Tells Me So" a documentary about how the right wing Christian conservative has used select phrases from the bible to condemn homosexuality to improve their agenda.
This movie is currently making the "Art House" theater run, and if it's in your town you should really go see it. Whether you're gay, straight, lesbian, transgender, it doesn't matter this movie will help you understand how the "church" uses only select pieces of select verses to explain how god thinks homosexuality is a sin. This was an amazing movie, but after about 45 minutes of facts things started to get muddle. It's not the movies fault, An Inconvenient Truth was the same way.
Then I saw "It is Fine. Everything is Fine." All I can say is FUCKED UP! Read about it yourself, because those descriptions make more sense than this movie. It was the weirdest most fucked up movie I have ever seen. The thing that was more intriguing than the movie was the audience. Everyone sat stoned faced and totally drawn into the movie while my friend and I sat there looking at each other - me with my hand over my mouth laughing harder than I've ever laughed and him with a look of disgust on his face.
Here's how I'd describe that movie - uhm.....I can't. Although they do show a lot of boobies and a man with cerebal palsy gets a blowjob from a woman who then straddles him and puts his penis in her vagina (yes I know the proper words for those things).
It was THE MOST DISTURBING thing I have ever seen.
Fortunately the last movie I saw as Enchanted and Enchanted was enchanting.
Have you seen it yet? You really need to! It was funny, it was sad, it was predictible but I will definitely buy it when it comes on DVD and I've already purchased the soundtrack.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Poltergeist - 25 years later
Last night we went to a "One Night Only" screening of Poltergeist - the 25th Anniversary.
Holy Bat Fuck! 25 years?!?
I remember going to the movie theater, which was 20 miles from home and used to be a single theater until the balcony was converted to a second theater and being scared while watching it behind clenched fingers.
I was 13 at the time, I don't remember who I went with, but I may have been friends, it may have been my family?!? I don't remember, but I do remember seeing it in the theater.
The funny thing about watching a movie on the big screen that you originally saw on the big screen is looking at all of the ephemera that is usually found in a movie, but is typically not viewable on the "boob tube" For example, I do not recall at ALL in the beginning of the movie that the parents were in their bedroom smoking pot?!? I remember that scene, but I just thought they were smoking, I didn't know they were smoking the wacky tobaccy! And there were other references to that as well, like when they were getting ready to bury the bird in a cigar box and CaroleAnne said "tweety doesn't like that smell" (of course referring to the smell of mary jane).
And the kids room was COVERED in memorbilia from the 80's, a rubik's cube, star wars galore (this was just a few years after Star Wars was released) as well as a vintage Cheeto's bag which was hilarious to see in it's red-white-and blue!
Watching the movie though was fun, I'm sure I laughed at different places now than I did then, being a big adult and all now and actually "getting" the humor instead of going "Why did everyone laugh, I don't get it?" Craig T Nelson was YOUNG and although he had been in a lot of movies before this, he was still a relatively "unknown" as well as JoBeth Williams.
It is, of course, dated, but that's what makes it so great. It was one of the first horror movies that wasn't all slasher and actually made you think that it could really happen. Watching it again, I was a little more criticial of it because some of the editing seemed to be off and the story seemed to jump around a bit, but that may have been just been the version they showed.
The worst part of the movie though was watching it with my companions, one who was 23 (who had NEVER seen the movie ) and one who was 27 (and had only seen it on TV) , you know I felt as old as a box of rocks when I had to admit that I actually saw this on the Big Screen the first time around.....god I'm getting old!
Holy Bat Fuck! 25 years?!?
I remember going to the movie theater, which was 20 miles from home and used to be a single theater until the balcony was converted to a second theater and being scared while watching it behind clenched fingers.
I was 13 at the time, I don't remember who I went with, but I may have been friends, it may have been my family?!? I don't remember, but I do remember seeing it in the theater.
The funny thing about watching a movie on the big screen that you originally saw on the big screen is looking at all of the ephemera that is usually found in a movie, but is typically not viewable on the "boob tube" For example, I do not recall at ALL in the beginning of the movie that the parents were in their bedroom smoking pot?!? I remember that scene, but I just thought they were smoking, I didn't know they were smoking the wacky tobaccy! And there were other references to that as well, like when they were getting ready to bury the bird in a cigar box and CaroleAnne said "tweety doesn't like that smell" (of course referring to the smell of mary jane).
And the kids room was COVERED in memorbilia from the 80's, a rubik's cube, star wars galore (this was just a few years after Star Wars was released) as well as a vintage Cheeto's bag which was hilarious to see in it's red-white-and blue!
Watching the movie though was fun, I'm sure I laughed at different places now than I did then, being a big adult and all now and actually "getting" the humor instead of going "Why did everyone laugh, I don't get it?" Craig T Nelson was YOUNG and although he had been in a lot of movies before this, he was still a relatively "unknown" as well as JoBeth Williams.
It is, of course, dated, but that's what makes it so great. It was one of the first horror movies that wasn't all slasher and actually made you think that it could really happen. Watching it again, I was a little more criticial of it because some of the editing seemed to be off and the story seemed to jump around a bit, but that may have been just been the version they showed.
The worst part of the movie though was watching it with my companions, one who was 23 (who had NEVER seen the movie ) and one who was 27 (and had only seen it on TV) , you know I felt as old as a box of rocks when I had to admit that I actually saw this on the Big Screen the first time around.....god I'm getting old!
Monday, August 13, 2007
Stardust - A Movie Review
You know I'm bad at giving movie reviews, so I'll leave that up to the professionals.
Friday night I went to see Stardust at our local cinema, well not local really because I had to take two trains and walk 4 blocks to get there and it's in a different area code, but local nonetheless.
I like going to the movies, I won't say I LOVE going to the movies, only because there are typically other people in the movie theater that ruin it for me when I'm immersed in the experience of watching a movie.
I knew it was opening night of the movie so I procured my ticket online via Fandango (have you used Fandango, it's fabulous) and planned on getting to the theater early to get my favored seat, four rows from the back directly in front of the seat that lines up with projector. It has to be four rows from the back because every other row in this theater has the "reclining" seats (think of how far airplane seats recline, you get the idea) and directly under the projector so you don't have to move your head from side-to-side to catch all of the action. I know, preferably I should be a few rows further south so that I can catch the "true surround sound" experience, but that means less to me so I don't care.
I got to the theater early, picked up my ticket (I don't do the 'print your ticket at home' stuff because I like to have my ticket [I know, I'm a freak]), purchased my medium bag of popcorn and smuggled my bottle of water and bag of M&M's into the theater. As I entered the theater I saw two queens were already in my preferred seats, obviously they didn't get my memo! So I was forced to sit two rows back (remember reclining seats). I had plenty of time to spare, so I pulled out my Entertainment Weekly and started reading (of course skipping over the reviews of the movie I was about to watch).
The Movie Theater is such a microcosm of society, don't you think? You've got the early adopters (like me that want the seat they want), you've got the noisy howler monkey children who don't understand the concept of a movie theater and parents who don't know how to discipline, you've got the talkers, the ones who constantly have to run to the snack bar.
The ones that kill me the most are those that arrive just as the previews start with their crew of 6 people on a sold out opening night and all want to sit together and then proceed to get upset when the only place where there are 6 seats together is in the front row - I just want to ask those people - "Did you JUST now decide to get 5 of your friends together and come to this movie? Didn't you plan at all?" But if I did that I'd face the potential of losing my own seat.
The other ones that kill me are the ones that come up and say "Oh could you please move so we can all sit together?" Uhm, no, it's not my fault you're a bad planner, I got here early so I could sit where I wanted to, you should try to do that next time.
Stardust was a really cute movie, if you enjoyed the Princess Bride then you'll enjoy this, its a fantasy/romance/comedy. Long story short - Boy likes Girl who is out of his reach, they live next to "magical land." King of Magical Land dies, 7 brothers vie for Kingdom by "catching" the fallen star which the king created right before he died. Boy tries to impress Girl by bringing back fallen star, instead falls in love with star all while trying to outrun brothers who are trying to take over the kingdom and a witch that wants to eat the star so she can remain young. Only to find out that his true love isn't who he thought it was to begin with.
My favorite part were the ghosts of the dead brothers, each one appears as they did when they died (one brother falls off a cliff so his face is smushed, another was in the bath so he's naked). Everytime someone would die and they were around they would "rate" how that person died.
There were a lot of knife fights and killings, but they almost never showed it on camera - so it's kid friendly in that respect, instead they let you imagine what it must have looked like.
Would I buy it? Yes
Yeah, that's all the review you get.
Friday night I went to see Stardust at our local cinema, well not local really because I had to take two trains and walk 4 blocks to get there and it's in a different area code, but local nonetheless.
I like going to the movies, I won't say I LOVE going to the movies, only because there are typically other people in the movie theater that ruin it for me when I'm immersed in the experience of watching a movie.
I knew it was opening night of the movie so I procured my ticket online via Fandango (have you used Fandango, it's fabulous) and planned on getting to the theater early to get my favored seat, four rows from the back directly in front of the seat that lines up with projector. It has to be four rows from the back because every other row in this theater has the "reclining" seats (think of how far airplane seats recline, you get the idea) and directly under the projector so you don't have to move your head from side-to-side to catch all of the action. I know, preferably I should be a few rows further south so that I can catch the "true surround sound" experience, but that means less to me so I don't care.
I got to the theater early, picked up my ticket (I don't do the 'print your ticket at home' stuff because I like to have my ticket [I know, I'm a freak]), purchased my medium bag of popcorn and smuggled my bottle of water and bag of M&M's into the theater. As I entered the theater I saw two queens were already in my preferred seats, obviously they didn't get my memo! So I was forced to sit two rows back (remember reclining seats). I had plenty of time to spare, so I pulled out my Entertainment Weekly and started reading (of course skipping over the reviews of the movie I was about to watch).
The Movie Theater is such a microcosm of society, don't you think? You've got the early adopters (like me that want the seat they want), you've got the noisy howler monkey children who don't understand the concept of a movie theater and parents who don't know how to discipline, you've got the talkers, the ones who constantly have to run to the snack bar.
The ones that kill me the most are those that arrive just as the previews start with their crew of 6 people on a sold out opening night and all want to sit together and then proceed to get upset when the only place where there are 6 seats together is in the front row - I just want to ask those people - "Did you JUST now decide to get 5 of your friends together and come to this movie? Didn't you plan at all?" But if I did that I'd face the potential of losing my own seat.
The other ones that kill me are the ones that come up and say "Oh could you please move so we can all sit together?" Uhm, no, it's not my fault you're a bad planner, I got here early so I could sit where I wanted to, you should try to do that next time.
Stardust was a really cute movie, if you enjoyed the Princess Bride then you'll enjoy this, its a fantasy/romance/comedy. Long story short - Boy likes Girl who is out of his reach, they live next to "magical land." King of Magical Land dies, 7 brothers vie for Kingdom by "catching" the fallen star which the king created right before he died. Boy tries to impress Girl by bringing back fallen star, instead falls in love with star all while trying to outrun brothers who are trying to take over the kingdom and a witch that wants to eat the star so she can remain young. Only to find out that his true love isn't who he thought it was to begin with.
My favorite part were the ghosts of the dead brothers, each one appears as they did when they died (one brother falls off a cliff so his face is smushed, another was in the bath so he's naked). Everytime someone would die and they were around they would "rate" how that person died.
There were a lot of knife fights and killings, but they almost never showed it on camera - so it's kid friendly in that respect, instead they let you imagine what it must have looked like.
Would I buy it? Yes
Yeah, that's all the review you get.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
The Pursuit of Happyness - A Review
Can you blieve it, they actually showed us a movie on the airplane…..and a recent movie at that, not one that was released in 1978. It’s been a while since I’ve been on a flight that was more than 4 hours so I’m not used to seeing entertainment of such caliber.
The plane didn’t have those nice little personal video screens like I hear they have on JetBlue, instead it had the monitors mounted to the middle of the ceiling over the aisle, and since I chose to sit by a window I could only see two-thirds of the screen without leaning over and sniffing my neighbors hair – which I can tell you did not go over well with her, perhaps if it would have been her husband sitting there it may have been different.
The show started with a review by Ebert & Roper only it was Roper and that Aieisha Taylor girl from Comedy Central instead of Ebert. Me and my seatmates bundled up together and got ready to enjoy the show.
I’d been wanting to see this movie – but didn’t want to buy it so I was looking forward to the next two hours of free movie watching.
Long credits……lots of panning……lots of credits….music cuts out……finally some talking.
About 10 minutes into the show the sound goes off abruptly, I fiddled with the headphone jack and realized my seatmates couldn’t hear either. But then the sound came back on…..and went off again.
We at least got to the part of the movie where you understood why the word Happyness is spelled with a y instead of an I, so that is good.
When the sound didn’t come back on we realized that our row was the only row without sound – how amazing is that. So we decided to join arms and sing Christmas carols instead…..no….we made friends with the flight attendants and got free cocktails since we were the only ones not watching the movie or sleeping.
At first we tried to figure out what was going on….ok he can solve the Rubik’s Cube….ok he can read a sign looking for help…..some lady steals his thing (not his Thing Thing…the thing he’s trying to sell) and then we got bored and decided to drink full time instead, but we couldn’t stop watching the movie even though we know we had no idea what was going on. Although I think we had all seen the previews enough times that we did actually know what was going on.
After a while thought even that became boring and we just decided to either sleep, chat or even read a book.
Next time I say that I want to see a movie I need to be more explicit and say that I want to “See AND Hear” the movie.
The plane didn’t have those nice little personal video screens like I hear they have on JetBlue, instead it had the monitors mounted to the middle of the ceiling over the aisle, and since I chose to sit by a window I could only see two-thirds of the screen without leaning over and sniffing my neighbors hair – which I can tell you did not go over well with her, perhaps if it would have been her husband sitting there it may have been different.
The show started with a review by Ebert & Roper only it was Roper and that Aieisha Taylor girl from Comedy Central instead of Ebert. Me and my seatmates bundled up together and got ready to enjoy the show.
I’d been wanting to see this movie – but didn’t want to buy it so I was looking forward to the next two hours of free movie watching.
Long credits……lots of panning……lots of credits….music cuts out……finally some talking.
About 10 minutes into the show the sound goes off abruptly, I fiddled with the headphone jack and realized my seatmates couldn’t hear either. But then the sound came back on…..and went off again.
We at least got to the part of the movie where you understood why the word Happyness is spelled with a y instead of an I, so that is good.
When the sound didn’t come back on we realized that our row was the only row without sound – how amazing is that. So we decided to join arms and sing Christmas carols instead…..no….we made friends with the flight attendants and got free cocktails since we were the only ones not watching the movie or sleeping.
At first we tried to figure out what was going on….ok he can solve the Rubik’s Cube….ok he can read a sign looking for help…..some lady steals his thing (not his Thing Thing…the thing he’s trying to sell) and then we got bored and decided to drink full time instead, but we couldn’t stop watching the movie even though we know we had no idea what was going on. Although I think we had all seen the previews enough times that we did actually know what was going on.
After a while thought even that became boring and we just decided to either sleep, chat or even read a book.
Next time I say that I want to see a movie I need to be more explicit and say that I want to “See AND Hear” the movie.
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