Hooptober 11 #25
There are some really cool ideas in here and some fun parts for sure. In fact it starts out very promisingly. But boy, oh boy, does it ever fall apart as it goes along. By the end it's nothing more than a swirling storm of silly nonsense being thrown at the wall. It's just a bunch of stupid shit happening with no clear plot progression and worst of all with no sense of horror at all. Yes,…
Hooptober 11 #24
This has a really good premise. Unfortunately, a movie is not a premise. A movie consists of a plot, characters, dialogue, editing... All of that stuff, the stuff that actually constitutes a movie, is executed disastrously here.
Some of the critique of corporate America is pretty well thought-out (some, not all) and the in-universe advertising for The Stuff is pretty good. But that's it. I get the impression that someone had an idea for a cool premise…
Hooptober 11 #16
This is a very fun movie in parts, but I don't love it as much as most people seem to. I feel like this should have gone further than it does given the silly over-the-top tone. Something like Braindead works so well because it gets so insane in the third act. This just doesn't go that far.
This is much more polished and professional than its predecessor, so it's a lot better paced and performed, but it lacks the first movie's charm for me. Still, there are some great highlights and some very creative camerawork.
Hooptober 11 #10
How could a severed head breathe without being attached to lungs? This doesn't make very much sense at all.
Hooptober X #22 - country: United Kingdom, decade: 1980s, based on a Clive Barker story
I really enjoyed this for the most part. I greatly appreciate that it's secure enough in itself to have such a serious approach. Despite having some pretty silly elements, it has a completely serious tone, not one drop of self-awareness here. And it results in some pretty effective sequences and an enduring atmosphere of dread.
For a while there I thought it was seriously great,…
Hooptober X #21 - country: United States, decade: 1980s
I'm honestly not the biggest fan of George Romero's first two Living Dead movies. I like both of them quite a bit, but neither wows me like they do most people. Dawn of the Dead came close with a fantastic second half, which was unfortunately let down by a pretty weak first half.
But Day of the Dead continues that stellar forty-five minutes or so from its predecessor and maintains that…
Hooptober X #20 - country: United States, decade: 1980s
The Return of a Living Dead is a horror comedy that gets the balance right. Obviously, this isn't the only way to do it, but this movie manages to be fun and amusing while also managing to have genuine horror and stakes. It isn't exactly trying to be scary, but it features some genuinely horrific elements, albeit executed in such a way so as to not be too upsetting. And for…
Hooptober X #13 - country: United States, decade: 1980s
Hey, it's Friday the 13th of October. So I figured it was the perfect day to watch the original Friday the 13th.
Anyway, I feel like all I've ever heard about this movie is how boring and unremarkable it is. And that's kind of true, but it's mostly all right. Obviously the plot is really generic (even for 1980), the characters are flat (with some breathtakingly halfhearted attempts at fleshing them…