Review: "Saw 3D"(2010)-The Final Chapter

It is the best 'Saw' movie, it is the worst 'Saw' movie. The Opening scene WILL blow you away, you WILL be on the edge of your seat, you will love it, and you will hate it. YOU WILL feel more grief and sadness then you have ever before in a 'Saw' film, you Will be disheartened. The gore is Amped up so much-if you thought that the previous movies were barely watchable or the traps were as bad as they could get, you haven't seen anything yet. You will feel so much. "Saw VI" had the tag-line: "The Game Comes Full Circle". Yet that tag-line is better suited for "Saw 3D", everything really comes together. This definitely is the best "Saw" movie, but it takes away so much that you can't love everything about it. It IS a great ending to the franchise, and it does not fail at being a great final chapter. The 3D is excellent and does not disappoint. The movie only let me down in one area, it seems that the writers were not that willing to grant the gift of life. I wish I could say more but, I am drained by this movie. Game Over.

Review: "Halloween II"(2009)-written October 28, 2010

For what has been too long in my opinion, since I when I promised, I have been slacking off in writing this review. Anyways, to be specific I will be reviewing the Director's Cut, but first why am I reviewing the sequel? Well Rob Zombie's remake of "Halloween" is a good movie but there are too many things that I personally find distasteful about it. Seeing "Halloween"(2007) would definitely be helpful in understanding its sequel, but I do struggle wondering if seeing it is Necessary. Moving forward....
"Halloween II"(2009) does have some really graphic and brutal violence with amounts nudity and Strong coarse language. However all of that is just stuff I don't care about, so what is it that makes this one of my favourite horror movies? Scout Taylor-Compton, Laurie Strode, and her connection with her brother Michael. Now I mention the actress Scout and her character in the movie separately because the story and the acting are both so great, they both deserve mention. A substantial difference between the Director's Cut and the Theatrical version is that most of the scenes/footage is about Laurie Strode. This shows So Much more of her and really gives her more depth. You may start to feel attached to Laurie and sad for her. The emotional connection with Laurie Strode is what gives this movie a foundation and excellent visual. She is at the heart of Halloween II. The way that Taylor-Compton acts on screen is like an extravagant fireworks display. Whenever she says 'Fuck', it is with great emotion and a deep penetrating punch. Brad Douriff, who plays the sheriff, also has great acting and is to be commended for his emotional display in a particular scene. As for the connection with Laurie and Michael, it's something else. The Ending is a beautiful sorrow which makes the movie wonderful. There is only one fault character wise and that's with Doctor Loomis. His actions are egotistic and unreasonable, but still, "Halloween II" is a great film.

Review: "Valentine"(2001)-written October 21, 2010

"Valentine" misleads you into thinking that it might be a good movie whereas it becomes obvious that it isn't, but for some reason changes its mind and is clever for the last 30 seconds. However there is another clever moment a few minutes before the end but you may have to see the end to get that 'clever moment', and also have a decent memory. Yet the movie is still awful, there are so many scenes where it would have been just as effective to go to black and hear crickets. "Valentine" is not a good revenge film, there's a big gap where nobody gets killed. It also strays from being a 'revenge movie' by killing  a number of people who weren't related to the offending of the killer. Not a recommended movie but if you stumble on it just remind yourself of the word "dance" at the end.

Review: "Tormented"(2009) +bonus quick review-written October 20, 2010

Bonus quick review: "Sorority Row"(2009)-The premise of the movie interested me when I first saw the trailer. Person gets killed by way of a joke gone wrong and when people responsible start getting killed off, it is implied that that person is getting revenge. From what I remember the movie did have violent blood and gore yet it also had a disappointing reveal as to who was the actual killer. 

That said...

"Tormented" is about Darren Mullet, an overweight asthmatic student who is tormented relentlessly by a group of of students. The movie starts off with Darren's funeral(stating that he's dead) and goes on to show the aftermath of his tormentors. Similar to the movie above, it does seem that the person who died is responsible for the killings. Which leaves the question: How? or Who?. "Tormented" does at least a decent job of answering these questions, and definitely answers them better than "Sorority Row". This movie has a lot of language with no graphic look at sexual parts. However the gore could reach the level of disturbing, at least in one scene, so a bit of warning. There is a reference to Edvard Munch's "The Scream"/"Skrik" which I personally thought was funny, try to find the humor in the scene when someone dies looking at 'that' painting. Overall the movie was pretty good and worth watching. It also really makes you feel for those who get bullied and especially those driven to suicide by it. This movie, along with "Let the Right One In" and "Let Me In" to lesser extents, shows how horrible bullying can be and also has the message that bullying is F*C*I*N* WRONG!

Review: "Grace"(2009)-written October 15, 2010

The trailer for "Grace" makes the movie look better than it actually is. It tries to get to the point where the baby is born too quick and the movie has a dull tone to it, both make for not caring about the characters. "Grace" also takes too long in getting to the point made in the trailer, the fact that Grace needs blood. The movie Never turns into something where the mother has to kill lots of people off to feed her baby, though the trailer and ending may insinuate that. There is a side story which eventually merges with the main one but it was just as dull. However the very last scene does something unexpected. Other words to describe the last shot would be: yikes, whoa, and 'INTERESTING'. Overall, not a good movie but just an okay bad movie. Very bland throughout and is basically made of nothing.

Review: "A Nightmare On Elm Street"(2010)-written October 7, 2010

Before I saw the movie, the only reviews I heard were bad ones(not implying that I am now hearing good ones). The movie starts off with an uninteresting and partially stupid half hour or so but then it did capture some attention hinting at Freddy's origins. As the story progresses you may or may not believe part of the story which could lead to a surprise. The movie isn't really gore or violent focused as there are only 4 deaths, none of which are extremely brutal(maybe). The story was satisfying and I found few faults. I don't know much about the original Freddy but this one is definitely evil and you might have positive and or negative feelings about him. This was definitely not a bad film, just have to be in the mood for a Freddy movie. It is worth seeing, at least in my opinion. One more thing, the ending has nothing really to do with the movie- it's just there for fun.


Aside:I generally have an emotional connection with or to the movies I watch, so that is why I may give something a good review.(because of the emotional content). Also, I will soon be reviewing one of my favourite horror movies-"Halloween II"(2009). Stay tuned.

Review: "High Tension"(2003)-written October 7, 2010

"High Tension", also known as "Switchblade Romance" or "Haute Tension", is a masterpiece of a movie. The film takes place on a remote farm(like) house in France. Alexia takes her friend Marie there to meet her parents. When everyone is settled and sleeping, a mysterious person rings the doorbell. The father of the house goes to answer it yet when he does so is killed. The man searches the house for people and kills who he finds, except for Alexia who he chains up and Marie who eludes him. From here its about Marie trying to save her friend, which is tense to watch. This movie is excellent and has a very satisfying ending, it is Highly recommended.

Review: "After.Life"(2009)-October 4, 2010

"After.Life",with Christina Ricci, Liam Neeson, and Justin Long(Mac) just wasn't good. The way it answers the questions doesn't really answer them and just adds more questions. Has a meaningless side plot and was overall uninteresting. Skip it, there are better movies you could watch. Really, just skip it.

Review: "Frozen"(2010) written September 10, 2010

WOW, "Frozen", Masterpiece, gory, scary, and very emotional. If you can handle significant gore, and scary, intense situations, Wow, see it, just amazing, and a Great Score too, wow...

Review: "Hard Candy"(2005)-written August 1-3, 2010

WORST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!! I DO NOT KNOW IF I CAN EVER RESPECT ELLEN PAGE, YEAH I KNOW I LIKED INCEPTION, BUT THIS WAS AWFUL BEYOND ANY DEGREE I HAVE EVER SEEN. I'LL EVEN BLAME EVERYONE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING THAT MOVIE. I HATE HER CHARACTER IN THIS, JUST FLAWLESS AND PERFECT. MAYBE IT TAKES INSANE IN A DIRECTION MOST PEOPLE LIKE AND THAT'S WHY I HATE IT. WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF IT? Other than being a stuck up know-it-all, Ellen Page's character was also something much worse. Now I think a lot of us could agree that a movie with scenes of child abuse would be quite disturbing, the movie was 'like' that except, it's the child that's doing the abuse. A young Ellen Page spends over half the movie taunting and insulting a grown man who she drugs, bounds, strips, and performs a surgical
operation on?She even tries to force him to kill himself.Her character is MERCILESS, but I did say she was the hero didn't I?Well that's because she's getting revenge, in a way ...that society can't. The reason for punishment, and the black heart of vengeance was conflicting. So how do I wrap this up? I would strongly suggest NOT watching this film, the same way you would want to warn your past self from watching something you REGRET seeing. There was nothing to like about it, everything that happened made it worse. I hated it, I HATE hard candy.

Review: Cube trilogy-Originally written August 23, 2010

Do you want to see the most brilliant, suspenseful, intelligent, scary, thrilling masterpiece ever made? Then watch the movie "Cube"(1997). It was awesome, terrifying in a claustrophobic sense. You just HAVE to see this movie. WARNING of some violence, gore, and language. It would also help if you knew some math like permutations and X,Y,Z coordinates. See it.

 "Cube 2: Hypercube"(2002) is a worthy sequel. Yet it is NOTHING like the first. More violence, craziness, language is still there, and some very brief nudity. See it after the first.

"Cube Zero"(2004) the third installment was good until the end, whereupon it became BETTER THAN THE SECOND! I suppose you don't have to see "Cube 2" to see this, it delves into the 'why' and 'how' these cube things work, seeing who operates them, good story and change of pace. A LOT more gore than the others. "Cube Zero" was more like the first, pertaining to the style of cube used in that movie. The ending, to reiterate, was AMAZING.Though less than half of the movie was inside the cube. Really awesome trilogy.

Review: Doomsday(2008)-Written August 28, 2010

Reviews I have written before the blog will be posted as I feel it necessary to do so. Here is one...

"Doomsday"(2008), at first I just didn't think it would be good. Yet it was mentioned by 'Movie Bob' from the eSCAPIST- and anytime he brings up a past movie and doesn't mention how bad it was, it was probably decent. So I gave it a shot. It was Really Good, close to excellence. A bit slow beginning but it had great action and very different settings throughout. "Doomsday" is about Scotland being infected by a virus that 27years later resurfaces in London. It is discovered that people are still alive in Scotland and a team is sent in to find what may be a cure to the London outbreak. Though those alive in Scotland are.., Punk Cannibals-that kill off many team members and chase them nearly back in time. Main characters escape the PCs, encounter more problems and such."Doomsday" has similar elements of Resident Evil minus the zombies, contains lots of violence, lots of gore, a scene of nudity, strong language throughout, and the awesome chick pictured.

Review: "Let Me In"-October 1, 2010

"Let Me In", the remake of "Let The Right One In", doesn't just match its Swedish predecessor. It Surpasses it. I don't know how to describe it, but something Great happened in the refresh. It was different from the first in many significant ways but it kept its two main characters at its center. It might be doing better for telling it in such an easily graspable way, giving less screen time to secondary characters. There was nothing I didn't like about it. It had parts of the book the first movie never had, left out parts of the first and the book. It kept itself perfect. Keeping some exact dialogue, changing some, and taking some away. Copied scenes but with a visual twist, changed some entirely. Overall was just great, "Let Me In" was great. I should also mention it deserves its R rating for violence/small gore, some swearing, realistic portrayal of bullying, and you do see a couple start to get intimate and even see the woman's breast early on in the movie. Whatever you are familiar with, the book and or the original Swedish movie(or none), you are likely to be pleased with this movie.

Shawnee Reviews

This blog will feature reviews of many movies, most being of the Horror genre. I started reviewing on a social network and was receiving many comments on my reviews, one friend suggested that I start a blog. So here I am. Let's begin.