The Quandary of Horror Films and I

So with my friend’s free Red Box rental we decided on The Woman in Black and thus began our evening of torture.  At the beginning we thought, or at least I did, “hey, alright, I can do this…” Then Harry Potter…I mean, Daniel Radcliff went in the house and I gave up all hope of coming out of this one unscathed.  I think it was the kids… I’m not ok with small children doing creepy things… you know, like singing, or staring at you, or jumping out of windows just for the hell of it… NOT COOL MAN, NOT COOL!!!  And this freakin movie piles that on like makeup on a model…

            The way I deal with horror films is like the way one would deal with a really nasty shot of some kind of strong alcohol… a chaser.  After I drove home from my friend’s house (in which I hit all the stop lights in front of all the creepy places between her house and mine which includes a graveyard, a hospital, and a condemned house…) I plopped myself down in front of my computer and watched National Lampoon’s Endless Bummer, thus painting over all of the scary stuff that I had just got done watching with a sort of opaque varnish. I could still see that creepy lady floating around and screaming at Daniel Radcliff, but there was a sort of California sunshine and beach curtain in front of it that I could look at instead.  Still slept with a light on for the next two nights.

            I’m like this with most horror movies that involve a sort of human entity as the problem, or haunt, or nemesis, or whatever you call it in horror films.  When I went to see Paranormal Activity 3 I think I slept with the light on for a week or so.  Of course, that one was much worse because A) I saw it in theaters and B) I did not have a chaser… Just came home to a dark apartment with my roommate who wasn’t helping maters.  I just don't like the idea of ghosts and haunting things is suppose.

            Which leads me to movies like 1408 and One Missed Call.  In 1408 the nemesis, if you will, is a hotel room that is inherently evil, there’s not much of an evil human presence in the place so much as the room itself is horror.  That movie I made it through fine.  One Missed Call was a possession and death notice sort of trip, somewhere along the lines of Final Destination.  There wasn’t really a human presence until the very end unless you count the creepy daughter, but she wasn’t a heavy plot point until you understood her and all she did was appear every once and a while and rush the camera with some weird sound effects.  I made it out of that one fine too.

            Perhaps this should be an ongoing thing, trying to subdivide the horror categories to find out why some scare me more than others, sounds interesting… I’ll keep it in mind.  Any insights?  Anyone else have this problem with horror movies?

Movies with Merit (the first installment)

If you’re looking for something to do with your life here are…

FIVE MOVIES WITH MERIT  (the first installment)

LIMITLESS

           
        
           From what I understand, this movie didn’t do too well in the box office, but I’m really not sure why.  Here are my reasons why it makes it into my current top 5:

1.     It addresses drugs, but in a way that was new.  I know there are movies about drugs out there, or movies that have drugs as a major plot point (like The Fighter for a random example), but Limitless was different.  A) Because it’s about a non-existent drug called NZT but it represents the effects of other drugs i.e. addicting and health deteriorating.  

2.     It is a beautifully made film.  The effects used to represent the effects of the drug were really… stunning, for lack of a better term. 

3.     I’m really not much of a Bradley Cooper fan, but I’ll be damned if he didn't do an excellent job in this movie.  The other actors did wonderfully as well.  Robert De Niro, of course, he’s excellent in all his movies really.

4.     It’s a really interesting movie that really isn’t boring at any point.  You just keep watchin the thing and then when it’s over you sit there and think about it for a few days… at least that’s what I did...

GANGS OF NEW YORK

             

           Again, This movie didn’t make the biggest splash when it came out and many viewed it as not one of Scorsese’s best works, but it is really a movie everyone should watch.  Here’s why:

1.     The historical value.  According to Wiki, it was not 100% accurate by any means, but it does paint a semi-decent picture of what life would have been like in New York City in 1862 as the city was being built.  It depicts the gang wars between the “natives” and the immigrants, has some representations of real gangs, as well as real people such as William Poole (Bill the Butcher in the movie) and depicts the draft riots of the civil war.

2.     Daniel Day-Lewis’s performance is unbelievable.  He won a ton of awards for it and is scary as all hell.  Dicaprio and the other members of his gang (Henry Thomas, Stephen Graham, and Lawrence Gilliard Jr.) do a wonderful job in their roll of going against Bill the Butcher.  Not to mention Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Liam Neeson, and Brendan Gleeson all give wonderful performances that are believable, which brings me to…

3.     The richness and depth that this movie brings.  The costumes, set, acting, and the LANGUAGE are all unbelievable.  Especially the language; not that I’m and expert by any means on the lingo of New York in the mid-1800’s, but the writers sure did make it sound authentic. 

4.     Go watch it, it's violent eye candy.

HOT FUZZ

           

  If you want a good laugh and some decent action then go watch this one.

1.     Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.  The movies that they make together are usually classic (I haven’t seen Paul and I didn’t hear too much about it, so I’m not to sure on that one…) and this movie is no less.  It is hilarious and full of all sorts of over the top action.

2.     It is, in fact, a mystery so you can sit there and try and figure out the killer before the movie tells you if you’re into that sort of thing.

3.     I now notice that Jim Broadbent is all so in this movie.  (He was also Slughorn in the Harry Potter movies, the professor in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Zidler in Moulin Rouge… he is one sneaky actor… the man is EVERYWHERE).  He also does a wonderful job as playing Nick Frost’s dad.

4.     This movie is painfully quotable.  And you can watch it over and over without getting bored.  Pretty much just makes me smile.

MIRRORMASK

            

           … you’re gonna be confused, but you’re gonna be happy about it.

1.     This is a compounded effort between Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean so you know it's going to be weird.  I’m not too familiar with Dave McKean, but Mirrormask defiantly wreaks of Gaiman, which is a good thing.  Technically it's a family film, but if you’re into artsy films I’d give this one a go.

2.     More on the ‘art’.  This film is a mashup of drawing and film.  The parts in the dream space feel like you're crawling around in a slightly tamed version of Gaiman’s head (as I mentioned, it is for children).  The characters are some of the strangest I’ve ever encountered.

3.     Which brings me to the acting, which was excellent for putting on the characters these people had to.  The lead, Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) did a wonderful job because I did not end up hating her in the end like I do with most main characters.  She is very expressive and genuine in her role.  There is also the supporting character Valentine who Jason Barry does and excellent job portraying with all his quirks and strange movements… all while wearing a mask that looks like it give you about 5 inches of vision.  There is also Stephen Fry voice… just for extra incentive.

SUNSHINE

             

             The sun is dying... whatcha gonna do about it?

1.     So this movie came out of freakin no where for me… I don’t even remember how I found it. But I am REALLY glad I did.  Coined as a Adverture-Sci-fi-Thriller on IMDB (which, btw, all the titles I have listed are linked to… just for extra research and whatnot…) this movie just takes you into outer space, slaps you around a bit, then puts you back on Earth like nothing ever happened.  And you sitting there going… oh Lord I hope than never happens… but I would TOTALLY watch it again!!!

2.     The plot of this movie, though a little bit hard to believe, it very interesting and psychological.  It deals with everything from the end of the world to losing your mind from staring at the sun… don't understand? Good, go watch the movie.

3.     There a few things that took be by surprise about the actors.  I watched this way before I knew who Chris Evans was and when I went back and watched it again I was like… Really? AWESOME!  Cillian Murphy didn’t scare me as much… he kinda freaks me out sometimes (though I like him the most in Inception… I think).  Mark Strong is runnin around in this movie the whole time and you don’t even know!! (don't understand? Good. GO WATCH THE MOVIE)

So this was my first installment of Movies with Merit and another will be up once I have another 5 movies I can rant about at length.  Yay!  AND be sure to check my tumblr for random bit and bobs about movies.

(Also, comments/feedback is awesome!  Tell me which movies you love so we can share in the joy of cinema!!) 

And So it Begins!

            How does one really start a blog?  I don’t know.  So I’m just gonna throw down and see what happens.  Here we go!

            So this blog is gonna be about movies predominantly so to kick it off I’mma share my lovely trip to Kualoa Ranch in Hawaii.  

If you’re a movie enthusiast I would suggest you check it if you’re on the island of Oahu.  They have a pretty cool tour that takes you on a run of all the locations that movies had been filmed on their ranch.  These movies include:

• “Karate Kid” (1984)
• “Jurassic Park” (1993)
• “Mighty Joe Young” (1998)
• “Godzilla” (2000)
• “Pearl Harbor” (2001)
• “50 First Dates” (2004)
• “Journey to a Mysterious Island” (2011)
• “Battleship” (2012)

The location for Pearl Harbor was very interesting because the bunkers in the scenes are actual bunkers that were used in WWII.  According to the Kualoa ranch site the US military operated an auxiliary airstrip there.  

They even left the footprints from "Godzilla"

 Feel the need to hide from stampeding dinos?  They'll let you. :)

They filmed some TV here too:

• “Magnum, P.I.” (TV, 1980-1988)
• “Lost” (TV, 2004-2010)
• “Hawaii Five-0” (TV, old and new versions)
• “Off the Map” (TV)

            You don’t even have to be big on movies to go because the place it beautiful.  Check it:

They even have cows! :) (it is a ranch after all)

So, if you plan on going to Hawaii... or live in Hawaii... (see above) ;)