Monday, January 19, 2009

My Bloody Valentine in 3-D

First off, I would like to say that this movie should only be seen in 3-D. The whole advertising of this movie was to see the new technology of 3-D and if you don’t end up seeing this in the new format you will be greatly disappointed. The new technology is definitely an upgrade from the last time 3-D movies came out but as far as the plot for the movie, we get a decent, not great, throw back to the 1980’s hack and slash films.

The movie takes place in a mining community where there was a collapsed mine that trapped six miners. Eventually, one survivor was found, a guy by the name of Harry Warden. Although once the public finds the other bodies, Harry Warden falls into a coma because the other miners were killed with a pickaxe. All this back story was shown with the 3-D newspaper clips and radio clips flying by.

Cut to a few years we see Harry wake up and start his villainous rampage again, this time in a hospital before heading back to his beloved mines. Though, in true horror movie fashion what’s going on there today? Well a bunch of teenagers drinking and throwing a party.

Four of the kids at this party become our main characters. First we have Sarah and Tom, and for Sarah, Tom is the love of her young life. Then we have Sarah’s best friend Irene and her boyfriend Axel. Once these kids enter the mine they begin to get scared because no one else in the mine is left alive. Harry Warden jumps out and ends up mentally scaring each and every one of them because they actually have the smarts to run and drive away.

Then we jump ten years into the future where Axel and Sarah got married, Tom left the town because of the trauma that he ended up having to deal with but comes back only to sell his fathers mine. Irene, well, Irene no longer becomes important to the story line.

From this point on you go through the same motions of any typical 80’s horror flick. If you’ve watched the Scream movies where they lay out the horror guidelines, then clearly you know what I’m talking about. Apparently, the writers of this film decided to stick as close as they could to this time tested formula. The slut get killed really quick but not before falling down when trying to run away, etc.

Not to say that this is a terrible part of the movie, not at all. It’s just this movie was specifically designed to follow the guidelines to show off the 3-D, which it does great. This is really shown through the deaths of the various characters in the movie. At one point, a pickaxe goes through someone’s eye and the eye jumps right out at you making the whole theater jump. Another great piece of 3-D was Harry Warden throwing his pickaxe at the four kids as they begin to backup their truck.

Although, this movie is nothing special, it was very entertaining to watch and a fun ride to go through to see the new features of 3-D tech but the story was unfortunately lacking in some aspects. The twists of this movie were pretty well hidden, although they were hidden right where you can see them. The run time for this movie is roughly an hour and forty-five, which for any other movie these days would be a good length but with the glasses on, your eyes begin to hurt and makes it to long.

All in all though, if you’re a fan of horror, and interested in this new 3-D tech you might find this a fun ride. It’s definitely a new way to look at the horror genre. But on the flip side if you don’t like either of these, horror and 3-D, then the price of admission for this doesn’t warrant the time. I was rather interested in the 3-D tech and I love horror but this movie still just jumps in at a 5 out of 10 but if you don't see it in 3-D it's going to drop down to a 2-3.5 out of 10. So do yourself a favor and if you do see it, only see it in 3-D.

Friday, January 9, 2009

The Spirit

With Frank Miller's solo directorial debut, he puts together a beautifully looking movie with the Spirit. Immediately, you can see the influence that was shone upon him when working on Sin City. This movie is shown in black and white but with very carefully placed colors which really bring out the emotions in this movie.

The Spirit is about a super hero who's only powers are that he cannot die. Spirit fights crime while speaking to himself in his monologues. Gabriel Macht plays the Spirit beautifully as he woos all the women that come to his city. Samuel L. Jackson, one of my personal favorites, plays the Octopus who is bent on none other than becoming immortal and a god.

The women in this movie, Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, etc. are all placed in this movie for simply eye candy. While their characters are important in their own special ways, they are nothing more than gorgeous to look at in all their scenes.

Eva Mendes plays the stunning Sand Seref. Sand is the love interest of the Spirit who left when they were children to collect shiny things. Now when I say shiny things, I mean she calls them shiny things. The main treasure for her, which I shall not name, is mentioned as "the shiny thing to end all shiny things."

The dialogue and visual effects just put this movie to be nothing more than a moving graphic novel. Clearly this movie was designed to be this, but is just so beautifully done that you will sit on the edge of your seat laughing and fully enveloped in this movie. Sometimes the dialogue can be a little cheesey, but at the same time, its the kind of cheesey that one would expect from a comic book.

As an avid comic book fan, it was truly interesting to see someone finally make a movie that was designed to be a graphic novel movie and not just a movie about a super hero that has been done up to this date. There is very little blood since they cleverly disguised it with bright reds. You immediately recognize this as blood but it's such a bright red that it almost becomes comical.

Overall this movie had very few down points, unless you go into this movie thinking it is going to be anything other than a graphic novel movie, to it and clearly puts its best foot forward for this to get the rating 8 out of 10.