Archive for the ‘Horror’ Category
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is an origins story of Lucian and the Lycans – Werewolves that can control ‘the change’ and aren’t cursed to live out their lives solely in werewolf form. Instead, they are cursed to serve their vampire masters as daytime guards and workers. The original Underworld is up there for me for favorite vampire movie, so I was pretty excited to see this one. I have to say, it was good, but not great. Everyone did a fine job – especially Michael Sheen as Lucian, Rhona Mitra as Sonya and Bill Nighy as Viktor. This movie was definitley more story-driven than the other movies in the franchise… I felt like I had already seen it to some extent between the flashbacks in the first Underworld, and the trailer. I suppose I was expecting a little more, but I honestly don’t know what they could have done differently.
Because it takes place almost 1,000 years ago, it’s a pretty dark movie in that there’s no electricity to light the characters up. There were times when it was tough to see what was going on… There also weren’t the more exciting weapons like guns, and no cars for great car chases… just swords and arrows – which are great, but when the film is so dark, it loses some of the drama in the fight scenes. I do enjoy all the battle armor and fighting on horseback, and wish they had more of that. I guess I just expected it to be a bit more ‘epic’… I also felt like the visual effects were really good in some scenes and a little distracting in others. The one thing they got right were the crazy light blue contact lenses for the vampire eyes. They were hypnotic. lol… [exhibit 'A', photo above...lol].
I did enjoy seeing the origin of other regular characters in the franchise. This is a classic case of me probably liking this movie more each time I watch it, after knowing what to expect. I went in expecting a little too much. In the end, this was a pretty decent movie – a sort of typical ‘Romeo & Juliet’ type romance… with monsters… and Underworld fans will like it, but it isn’t realy on par with the original. And what’s funny is, I can’t figure out if this is a better movie to see first out of the Underworld series, or if seeing Underworld first really is the way to go… if you have an opinion for those who haven’t seen it, let me know! You can read my review for the first Underworld HERE.
3 out of 5.
One thing to note – they ended it hinting at another movie to detail the origins of other characters, which I think would be pretty cool… we shall see.
Add’l Info: Released: Jan 23, 2009 • Runtime: 92 minutes • Rated R for bloody violence and some sexuality • Photo credit: © Screen Gems Entertainment, via allmoviephoto.net.
Posted in Action, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller | Tagged Bill Nighy, Craig Parker, Kevin Grevioux, Michael Sheen, Patrick Tatopoulos, Rhona Mitra, Steven MacKintosh, Tania Nolan | 1 Comment »
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Jet Li in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
New for this week are a few movies, but there’s only one I think we’re even considering seeing… We’ll probably go for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor so check in this weekend if you need a second opinion before you decide to see it or not. We’ll probably go on Friday night. You can check out more info and the trailer HERE
Photo credit: ©Universal Pictures, via allmoviephoto.com
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Also opening this Friday:
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Swing Vote
“One ordinary guy is giving the candidates a reason to run.
Starring Kevin Costner, and a ton of other great actors like Stanley Tucci, Nathan Lane, Dennis Hopper, Kelsey Grammar & more… You can view the trailer here: Swing Vote Official Site
Add’l Info: Runtime: 100 minutes • Rated PG-13 for language
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The Midnight Meat Train
“The most terrifying ride you’ll ever take.”
A New York photographer goes after a serial killer… I can’t say the name of this one without laughing. I’m sure my hubby will rent it when it’s on DVD, but I don’t think we’ll be paying money to see it in the theater… You can check it out for yourself HERE if you love horror movies and think this might be up your alley… Based on the short story by Clive Barker and starring Brook Shields, Bradley Cooper, Vinnie Jones, Leslie Bibb…
Add’l Info: Runtime: 100 minutes • Rated R for sequences of strong bloody gruesome violence, grisly images involving nudity, sexual content and language]
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In Search of a Midnight Kiss
“It’s not just another kiss.”
This romantic comedy sounds like fun… about a guy who’s friend convinces him to place a personal ad after a particularly tough year… where he meets a woman who is bent on finding someone to be with at midnight on New Year’s Eve. You can check out the official site with trailer HERE
Add’l Info: Runtime: 90 minutes • Untrated • Grand Jury Award for Best Film, 2008 Florida Film Festival
Posted in Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Preview Only, Romantic Comedy, Supernatural, Thriller | Tagged Bradley Cooper, Brandon Fraser, Brook Shields, Clive Barker, Dennis Hopper, Jet Li, John Hannah, Kelsey Grammar, Kevin Costner, Leslie Bibb, Luke Ford, Maria Bello, Michelle Yeoh, Nathan Lane, Rob Cohen, Ryuhei Kitamura, Stanley Tucci, Vinnie Jones | Leave a Comment »
Monday, July 14, 2008
This weeks previews were all over the place in terms of genre and release dates. I’m going to put them all in one post vs. devoting separate posts to each… Here’s a quick summary of each with the current release date [we all know they change them at will, so these could be wrong next week for all I know...].
Jump to read about College, Clone Wars, Quarantine, The next Mummy and Death Race…
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Posted in Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Preview Only, Thriller | Tagged Brendan Fraser, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Joan Allen, Maria Bello, Michelle Yeoh, Rob Cohen | Leave a Comment »
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
“An Immortal Battle For Supremacy.”
If you read my blurb on the right about ‘the perils of movie going…’ then you know what happened the first time we went to see Underworld. Despite being completely inconvenienced, in the end, seeing the first half again for the second time allowed us to catch anything we may have missed in this fast-paced vampire romp. We have since bought it and watched it many times…
Underworld is the story of two clans fighting for supremacy, a fight that’s been raging for almost 1,000 years [unbeknownst to us mere mortals] between the Vampires and the Lycans [werewolves]. Nobody on the vampire side of things seems to know the real reason behind this rival clash, because delving into the past is ‘forbidden.’ In an effort to stop the war, the lycans are working on a way to end the feud, which leads to Michael Corvin [Scott Speedman]. It’s up to Selene [Kate Beckinsale], a vampire ‘death dealer’ to figure out why the lycans want him, which leads her to the ultimate truth, and questioning her very existance…
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Posted in Action, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller | Tagged Bill Nighy, Kate Beckinsale, Kevin Grevioux, Len Wiseman, Michael Sheen, Mike Mukatis, Richard Cetrone, Robby Gee, Scott Speedman, Shane Brolly, Sophia Myles, Wentworth Miller | Leave a Comment »
Monday, June 2, 2008
“The Last Man On Earth Is Not Alone.”
I Am Legend was one of those rare movies we pay money to see and walk out wanting our hour and 41 minutes back. Now, before I say what we thought of it, I know many people who saw this movie and loved it, thought it was really scary… We didn’t. It wasn’t scary [well, the CG quality towards the end was scary, as in scary BAD... and that was about it]. This movie was GREAT for the first half. When you don’t know what’s going on yet. Then it’s all downhill. They make things so obvious to the audience, yet ‘Legend’ can’t seem to figure them out, even though he’s supposed to be some brilliant scientist. And the ending was boring, and seemed like a giant cop-out. The worst part was the animation of the ‘monsters’ at the end. They are SO cartoonie that they completely take you out of the movie. We just laughed, but not the happy kind of laugh, the angry, ‘this is stupid’ laugh. We stuck it out just to see how they ended this debacle, but we should have just left and saved ourselves.
So… if you don’t care about animation quality and realism and you love Will Smith [and don't get out to the movies much and like cheap scares], I’d check this out… but if you have fairly high standards for animation and you don’t like wasting your time, [and you love dogs] skip it. I’d give I Am Legend 2 out of 5 – the 2 are for the first half, which was decent.
~ HELENA
Add’l Info: Released: Dec 14, 2007 • Runtime: 101 minutes • Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence
Posted in Action, Drama, Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller | Tagged Francis Lawrence, Will Smith | Leave a Comment »
Sunday, June 1, 2008
“Hell wants him. Heaven won’t take him. Earth needs him.”
We’ve seen Constantine so many times, I’ve lost count. It’s not often a movie comes along like this one. Just so cool and creepy and fun. I have to preface this by saying that I wasn’t a Keanu Reeves fan until the Matrix movies, and after seeing him on Leno, watching him in an interview. Seeing him talking outside of ‘acting’, I realized that what I took for his lack of acting, was just his… accent…? Or just the way he talks in general. It’s different from other actors and once I figured that out, it didn’t bother me anymore. I also read about some tragic stuff he’s been through and I guess I related to him more because of it. You can see it in his eyes… [but I digress... again...]
So, Constantine. It’s brilliant. It’s based on the DC/Vertigo comic book character in HellBlazer. A man born with the ability to see the ‘half breeds’ that walk among us from both heaven and hell. He’s a tragic character because this ability drove him to take his own life when he was a teenager. He was revived after being dead for 2 minutes, but they felt like a lifetime… in hell. So he’s spent his life since then trying to get back into God’s good graces…
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Posted in Comic Book, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural, Thriller | Tagged Djimon Hounsou, Francis Lawrence, Gavin Rosedale, Keanu Reeves, Max Baker, Peter Stormare, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Rachael Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton | Leave a Comment »
