Reviews

It took me a while but I finally got around to this one and, wow. Even though there's a first rate cast, I just wasn't expecting it to be this good. The blend of Action and ultra mean-spirited comedy isn't something that's easy to pull off, but due to the sheer force of one Rob Corddry and some uber tight direction from first timer (!) Fouad Mikati, this thing comes together perfectly. I can see where this is not something that everyone could appreciate, but I can see this one getting a lot of replay by a select certain few. At the risk of dropping anything even resembling a spoiler, I'll keep this short and sweet (just like the movie's running time). If you loved the humor and dialog of "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell" then you've found your movie. Get it.

I gotta admit that I only had mild expectations for "Carver". I wasn't very familiar with Franklin Guerrero's work and having missed out on "The 8th Plague", I just didn't have much idea of what I was in for. After spotting this one in the video store, I blindly picked it up, expecting another one of my trash-fests. Funny thing, back when I was younger, I used to watch these straight to video horror flicks to make fun of them. Now that I'm older, I actually ENJOY them on their own merits. Inept film-making or not, I ususally find something to like. However, what I was expecting from "Carver" was far from what I got. This actually turned out to be a very well-done, engaging, and disturbing little film. Yeah, the initial setup is pretty well-worn territory, but this one took some chances, took some unexpected twists and turns and came up with something pretty fresh.

The story immediately got my attention as this group of twenty-somethings head out on a camping trip at an old childhood haunt. After stopping off at a local pit stop and meeting up with a good ole local fellow, they get caught up in helping him out with a favor (hey, the guy's a cripple). In exchange for their kindness, he allows them a free party night in his tavern. All is going well. The group does a little exploring in a seemingly abandoned house and find some film footage and a projector and then....things kinda take a turn for the worse.

The look of the movie really drew me in. This is by all means, a low-budget, independent effort and it looks incredible. Of all the films in the last few years that claimed to be a "throwback to the 70s", "Carver" has actually come the closest to getting that feel. The sets were authentically creepy and real. The actors looked like REAL people and all did admirable work. The characters were fleshed out enough that you actually liked most of them. Guerrero really knows how to set up a shot and build tension. Then there's the gore....sweet Jesus, the gore. When party time came to a hault, it got messy (and painful). Let's just say that if you found "Hostel" to be cringe-inducing and if you looked away during the eye-scene, then just stay away from "Carver". One scene in particular really stands out. Also the killer here really seems to have a fondness for "Turkey in the Straw" (so do I for that matter, but that's neither here nor there) and after seeing this, you will never think of it the same way again.

It's hard to say how well this one will hold up over time, but as far as the straight-to-video line goes, "Carver" is going to be a tough one to beat for a while. I'm sure I'll end up adding it to my library and I'd recommend it to anyone who's serious about their horror. I'll also be keeping an eye on Franklin Guerrero. He's got potential, for sure.

It took me a long time to finally get around to tracking this one down and checking it out. I first saw the box for this in a video store well-over a decade ago and that cheap-looking box art has stayed in my head for so long it's a wonder that with all of my b-movie obsessiveness, I didn't find this one earlier. I really wish I had because now that I've seen it, it joins the ranks of "The Burning" and "Sleepaway Camp" as one of my favorite 80s horror flicks. Although it's less-than-perfect, there's a certain charm to it that kinda defies explanation.

Although it doesn't have quite the replay value of "The Burning" (I dunno, maybe time will tell), nor does it have any recognizable faces or an abundance of gore. What it does have is pure originality. This is one crazy little flick. That's for sure.

(Note: The movie starts with one of the strangest openings I've ever witnessed. I don't want to give too much away but the same five-minute scene is repeated half-way into the movie. Yeah, it's a cool scene and all and it definitely gets your attention but it kinda spoils a little of what's about to come so I'm going to start my summary of what happens after that scene)

See, this twelve year-old kid Jamie is that awkward-looking, somewhat introverted kid you might remember from your own school days. He's got this vibe about him that tends to repel and creep people out, while making him the target for constant abuse and rejection. A born-loner, it goes without saying that he has no friends. He's taunted by a little girl for looking at her bicycle, yelled at and called a "hippie" by an elderly blind woman in a wheelchair(for no apparent reason), and punched in the face by an older kid for asking if he can join his club. To top things off, his folks are about to leave him with a babysitter for an indefinite amount of time (why they're leaving is never really explained, although it's presumed that they just want a break from their son). In fact, things are going so badly for the kid that I really sorta felt sorry for him at first. See, people are creeped out by Jamie for a purpose. He's more than just a little creepy. He talks to his teddy bear, "Teddy", and (get this) the bear even talks back. Oh, and did I mention that Jamie is a perv with a capitol "P"? He's already developed a crush on his new babysitter, Sandy, and he's not above a little peeping-tom business either. Jamie also has four other friends who reside in a hole in the ground out in the woods. When Jamie takes it upon himself to start feeding these troll-like critters ("tralalags"), he discovers that they are indeed carnivorous and a twelve-year old kid can't afford that much hamburger meat. Well, you probably see where I'm going with this.

It's never made clear if Jamie was this screwed up from the beginning or if he was supposed to have just snapped at some point. Maybe it was a gradual thing. Who knows and who cares? All I know is that I'm glad that the film-makers never took the matter serious enough to delve too deeply into Jamie's noggin because "the Pit" is so much fun to watch that any explanation for Jamie's insanity probably would have dulled the overall effect. It seems like the crazier that Jamie gets, the more crazy the film gets. While it may be predictable in places, there's so many odd moments thrown into it that you won't even care. And the ending is a force to be reckoned with. Those last twenty minutes are a hoot and just thinking about it makes me want to watch it again right now.

Yeah, there's LOADS of stuff for any MST3K-wannabes out there to have a field day but a lot of the laughs, I'm sure, HAD to be intentional. First off, this "pit" is a 15' by 6' hole that's maybe 10' deep. A decent sized hole, but yet half of the victims run right into it without even noticing it's there (in broad daylight, no less). Good stuff. What about the scene where Jamie takes an old lady in a wheel chair, wheels her out in the woods, dumps her in the hole, and then later rides around in the wheelchair? Oh, and what about the scene where a Sheriff finds the very same wheelchair, sits in it, then runs it into a wall. You can't tell me that there's any director in the history of cinema who could've ever filmed a scene like that with a serious-minded approach. Then there's the matter of the dialog. I can rattle off at least a dozen quotes right away and I've only seen the film once. This has some of the quirkiest dialog I've ever seen in a horror flick and that's a good thing.

All in all, "The Pit" sounds like something that shouldn't work at all, but somehow, as a whole, despite it's flaws and its (awesome) weirdness, it works way better than you would think and it's loads of fun to watch.

Like many other true horror fans, the original is an all time favorite and being more than a little sick of all the sequels and cash-ins (with the exception of the just-okay remake) I was more than a little leery of this one, especially after learning that this was a prequel to the remake. I even scoffed at the poster when I saw it hanging in "coming soon" section. I couldn't help but think that they are riding this horse to death and yes, the "the saw is running out of gas" line popped into my noggin. However, this did not stop me from doing a few searches online. After reading some positive buzz and a few good reviews from some credible horror sites, I soon found myself, wife in tow, at the multiplex albeit, still with fairly low expectations.

Surprise surprise. I was dead wrong and this turned out to be the best one since the original. Jonathan Liebesman (spell that right?....probably not) did one hell of a job, delivering a pure ass-kicking film that could definitely stand on it's own two feet. The connections to the remake are definitely there and it does explain a lot, but if you missed out on it, you're okay. This is everything a great horror film should be. The story, although not very original, works very well, as the first fifteen minutes tells us how our little family came to be and also how Hoyt became self-appointed Sheriff. R. Lee Ermey (the BEST thing about the remake) delivers a knockout performance and has some truly hilarious lines. Check that. EVERYTHING out of his mouth had me in stitches.

This is one of those rare horror flicks (much like Hills Have Eyes) where you actually give a rat's ass about the victims. There's just enough character development for us to see their motives, to see them as human beings, for us to be scared for them and with them. Kudos to all involved. The suspense is genuine, even if the last segment is just a tad formulaic and let me say this: This "Saw" has some of the most extreme violence/gore of any major studio film in recent memory. The gore even topped out "Hostel". Very brutal indeed. I've never seen anything like that done to a cow before. Also, wait till you see what happens to a very unfortunate (and purely unlikeable) biker.

All said and done, THIS is how to revive a franchise and if there's only one flaw, it's prequel-ing a remake that wasn't all that great to begin with, but fear not, this is everything the remake should have been. I'm now left wondering where they can go if they decide to do another one. Well, if Liebesman is on board, I'll probably be there to find out and you can most certainly be that I will be adding this one to my collection once it hits DVD.

Something told me, from the first time I saw the trailer, that I was going to love this movie. I'm glad that I can trust my instincts because Shaun of the Dead rocked. Hard. This has to be, without a doubt, the best movie of it's kind since Peter Jackson's "Dead Alive" and it's one of the funniest movies I saw all year.

The plot is simple: Shaun is a guy (not much different from me) who works a droning job, spends most of his free time with his roommate Ed, playing video games, and downing beer after beer at the local Pub. In fact, when we first meet him, he's being dumped by his girlfriend Liz, who is tired of the same old routine. Yeah, it takes a while for the zombie action to kick in, but I was having such a good time with Shaun and Ed, I really didn't care. The dialog is so well-written and the chemistry between the two are so good, I would've been satisfied had this been a straight comedy, without zombies. Anyway, on a very bad hangover, Shaun slowly (and I do mean SLOWLY) begins to realize that all is not well in London. He finally puts it all together when a girl shows up in the backyard, falls on a pipe (which impales her), then gets up and proceeds to attack. After watching the news, the two slowly begin to realize that people are starting to turn into zombies and eat each other. In what is probably my favorite scene, the two devise a plan to escape their house, pick up Shaun's mother, kill Phil (Shaun's stepfather, because he's been bitten) pick up Liz, then find a nice, safe place to hide out and wait for things to cool down. The way that the whole thing is shown is flat-out brilliant and if something of it's kind has been filmed before, then I'm just unaware. Love that sequence.

I can't begin to count the reasons why I loved this movie. The acting was topnotch, the dialog will have you quoting for years to come, the directing was brilliant, and then there's the zombies and the gore....Let's just say that "Shaun of the Dead" had one of the most gruesome death scenes I've ever witnessed in any movie EVER. All in all, this movie is flawless.

On a side note: I watched this movie ONCE and was able to remember all of the characters names without having to go back and double check myself. Taking my short-term (almost nonexistent) memory into consideration, that's really saying something.

I was a little intrigued when I saw the preview for this one. It looked, to me, like a fun way to kill an hour and a half on an uneventful Saturday night but having not been too thrilled with "Dude, Where's My Car?" four years ago, I was a little skeptical. I finally picked up the DVD a couple of days ago and I'm happy to report that "Harold and Kumar..." is the funniest movie of it's kinds since "Road Trip". The plot is irrelevant. If you've seen the previews, then you know what you're getting into. Two Stoners do their thing, see a commercial for White Castle, get the munchies and decide to take the 80 mile trip to satisfy their craving. Needless to say, absurd things happen...That's all we get in terms of story, but what really keeps it all together is the chemistry of the two leads. I loved every minute of their bantering and Neil Patrick Harris's cameo as himself still has me laughing when I think about it. His bit about the "offscreen relationships" with the cast of Doogie Howser MD. had me crying and rewinding. Someone get this guy some more parts like this one. He's great.

Bathroom humor has never been one of my faves, but I didn't mind it so much here. I could've done without that one sequence (if you see it, then you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about) and I was a little bored during the whole "Freakshow" bit. Coulda done without that too..However, the rest of the movie is so good that those two gripes are easily forgiven. True, this may be a stoner comedy, but you don't even have to be a fan of that genre to enjoy this one. I watched it with a 12 pack and had a blast. I can easily see this one joining my collection in the near future. Please give us a sequel.

There's no telling how many times I watched this movie as a kid and I still watch it at least once a month. Back in the day, I'd get bored, pop this one in the vcr, and then go outside and try to court death by bicycle, in attempt to imitate the insane tricks that I'd just watched in this movie. I wanted TO BE Bart Taylor (yes, I know that we were supposed to be rooting for Cru Jones) and I forget how many scrapes, gashes, and bruises I got from my Haro. In one of many failed attempts, I even tried to rig my backyard into my own makeshift "hell track". I'd even hum my own soundtrack (gotta love that "break the ice" and "thunder in your heart") and even though this lead to a lot of pain (and embarrassment), I'd keep trying.

Well, needless to say, the 80s are gone and I never became a professional BMXer..but I still have this movie. If you've never seen it, well, it probably won't do much for you now. It's one of those that if you didn't embrace it when you were young (anybody with me on that?), you won't get much out of it, aside from a little unintentional comedy, okay LOADS of unintentional comedy. But the story all centers around the local paperboy/bmx badboy, Cru Jones. He's not all that likable and he's pretty obnoxious to boot, but he gets wind that Hell Track is coming to his little podunk town and the grand prize is $100,000. He wants to race real bad, but the problem is, the big race falls on the same day that he has to take his SATS and his momma won't let him race. Bummer. So now, Cru has to step up and be a man and make his first big decision in life. What's a young man to do? I'm tired of writing....I hear my Haro calling my name...

When was the last time you loved a movie so much that you spent more money renting it over and over than you would have if you had bought two copies? When I first heard of Cabin Fever, I was foaming at the mouth. I had read nothing but praise for it, and was just dying to see what Eli Roth had committed to film. I read all the flack about "...return to 70s" and interviews with Eli about what he was trying to accomplish. I thought, "Thank God, someone has come along with enough love for the genre that he could possibly resurrect from the stream of crap that it has become. All this just made me want to see it even more. When the day finally came, I was there, in the theater waiting with glee, wishing there were some way that I could hit the fast-forward button and skip through the trailers. I was a little nervous. Had I built it up too much? Had I set myself up for a big let down? No and no. "Cabin Fever" was even better than I had anticipated. My (then) girlfriend was repulsed and furious that we hadn't gone to see "Matchstick Men" instead. Me, being the selfish jerk that I am, found myself in the theater again, the very next weekend for a second viewing. I couldn't get enough. I was completely hooked.

Why am I so obsessed with this movie? Well, I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe a shrink could figure it out, but I can tell you what I LOVED about this movie: First would be the characters. I loved every single one of these guys and gals and was with them all the way. For one, they were all REAL, not some cookie-cutter stereotypes that we're so used to seeing. These are real, flawed human beings. Ryder Strong did great as Paul and Joey Kern was very good as Jeff. He's the one that you love to hate. Cerina Vincent was wonderful as Marcy and Jordan Ladd was good as Karen. My personal favorite (aside from Deputy Winston) was Bert, played with great energy by James Debello. Yeah, he's the "comedy relief" and all and he's supposed to be annoying, but I love his carefree attitude and his laugh had me laughing. His squirrel shooting antics were hilarious and I still laugh when I think about the Snickers bar. Many have complained about Deputy Winston (Giuseppe Andrews) showing up midway through the movie and supposedly "wrecking everything". To me, these were some of the comic highlights and he gets most of the best lines in the movie. Just the idea of a party-hard Deputy puts a big smile on my face and his reaction to the truck still gets me. In fact, his reaction to anything odd gets to me.

I love the look of the movie. I guess it's supposed to be Spring, since they're on Spring Break vacation, but to me, it looked like Fall. Whether this is a goof or not, I don't really care. It gave the film a great look. I loved the set-design of the cabin. That cabin is a character in itself. Next time you watch it, pay close attention to the detail.

The pacing: I love it. The first half is relatively tame and plays more like a comedy. You meet the characters, spend time with them as they party and do their thing, and begin to feel sorry for them because you know all is about to be ruined. I especially loved the campfire tale about the bowling alley. Classic indeed. Once things finally kick into gear, the last third moves at a breakneck pace. THAT was great directing and as for the ending, well, (notice how I'm avoiding spoilers for those who haven't seen it) I really hope that Eli gets it in him to do a sequel because I want it to continue.

In short, I love this movie so much it's downright scary. I don't know for sure how many times I've seen it over the last years and there's no telling how many times I'll watch it for years to come. Clichéd as it may sound, this is by a horror fan FOR horror fans. Easily in my top 5. HIGHLY Recommended