The seventh and final?

Saw 7.

I have seen every Saw film in the theatre but this one. The 3D just killed it for me, so I was forced to wait for DVD.

I am a fan of Saw and always have been. I actually think its the best horror series to come out in decades. Iconic villain, with great theme music (that doesn’t change every movie) all the same actors return for all sequels, good gore, and good story Saw basically proved that you can make a good horror movie that is has gore and story! This is something I always wanted to do and I respect the film makers for succeeding.

So on to 7. This again was a great movie. I don’t know, this series is crazy. Every instalment is just as good as the last.

If you loved the others, than this is a great entry. They left it open for a sequel BUT if they choose to end it here, it would be a good ending. Not much more to say, you have seen the rest of them, so you will enjoy this one!

I have only 2 small criticisms – one I cant tell you, since it’s a spoiler and the second is that Tobin Bell (guy who plays Jigsaw) isn’t in it much – only one scene really. But that one scene was great.

Now to bash my 2 criticisms – well the first one can be explained by “behind the scenes” stuff - which is something to do with the making of the film and the rights and franchise payouts etc. The second gripe – well Tobin Bell wasn’t really in the first movie either. He was just laying down and in a couple of flashbacks. It was the skinny guy that was doing everything, but he was just part of the game being forced to do it. We like Jigsaw cause of part 2 and 3 where he was the star and he was great. In this one, there isn’t much flashbacks and he’s dead in the series, so there’s not much for him to do!

I will be looking forward to a nice box set of the series.

PS – this 7th in the series has the most gore of all – and the most traps by far! There is a trap like every 5 mins!
hahaha

4.5/5

J-Man.

No, it's not a remake of Halloween 3.

Season of the Witch.

I have discovered a formula for how well movies will do. I know what you are thinking – they do well if the movie is good right? Let me note Speed Racer, Watchmen (did well, not well enough in my view), Wizard of Oz (yes it was crap when it came out), Dracula 2000 (which starred Gerard Butler – before he became famous to women because of his ass roles in rom-coms), Dune, Rambo 4 and the list continues. But then shit movies do well, like Hangover, 40 Year Old Virgin etc. I have discovered the formula.

Fun movies = people hate them
Stupid movies = people say they are fun
Super serous movies = great (whether or not they actually are)
Semi serious movies = they suck

Season of the Witch is a fun movie that pays tribute to the old Hammer Studio / Roger Corman productions that were meant to be creepy and enjoyable with over the top sets and effects and some nice gore thrown in. Of course the Corman stuff was pretty low budget, but they were still fun! The Hammer’s seemed a bit better in production, but again, these were fun popcorn movies that are meant to be enjoyed and not over analyzed. I DO NOT think that is BAD. People now equate fun movie with cheesy or stupid. That is NOT THE CASE. I am ALWAYS criticized for over analysing stuff, but then when I like a movie for pure fun I am told that it sucks and people cannot understand why I like it.

Season of the Witch fits right in with those Hammer films. In fact, while watching I was thinking that if this movie come out in the 70s or 80s people would be dying over it. Christopher Lee is even in it! (see imdb for his bio of Hammer stuff) But in today’s attitude (if its not over-hyped online then it must suck) movies that are enjoyable just don’t get their fair share.

I really enjoyed this a lot and I am happy with the treatment of all the characters (which are unique and fun) and I thought the Witch (played by Claire Foy) was really cool. All the actors did a good job and there was some really cool moments. Each scene featured something neat.

The opening had a great witch execution scene, then we got the Crusades montage, then we got to see some plague victims, a wooden bridge that is just dying to break apart, demonized wolves, giant demonic monsters, zombie monks and Ron Pearlman head-butts a Monstrous demon – TWICE!!!!!!!! You’re not gonna get that in films like BLACK SWAN, or THE FIGHTER.

Eat that Oscars.

4/5

J-Man.

Mission to Soundstage.

Capricorn One.

3 astronauts are about to travel to Mars, but right before launch they are asked to stop out of the ship and are taken to an island. Once there they find a warehouse that is set up like film sound stage, that looks like the surface of Mars. They are there to film a fake Mars landing, and if they don’t, then their families will be killed.

There are reasons for this and they make sense. The dialogue is very realistic and this whole movie was really well made.

You can tell intelligent people wrote it and the story is something that could very well happen! In fact, some claim the moon landing was faked too. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 sure as hell looks real and that was shot BEFORE the real moon landing – so the government could easily fake something like that.

I don’t want say to much about this, but I loved it. It’s one to own for scifi fans, or just fans of good films!

5/5

J-Man.

Double Big Mac Attack.

Super-Size Me.

I only got to see this now! I know it’s old news, but this film was very disturbing. The film maker decides to eat McDonalds for one month for all meals of the day and he must super-size his meal if asked.

He gains 25 pounds and doubles his chances for a heart attack and starts to get headaches if he doesn’t eat McDonalds. Big deal right? We all know fast food is bad, but the point was that even eating a bit here and there isn’t good either. Sure we wont gain that much weight cause we are not eating it every day, but still, there were a lot of alarming results, that even doctors weren’t expecting.

Check it out.

5/5

J-Man.

The greatest show on Earth.

The Great Ziegfeld.

Biopic of a Ziegfeld, who was a great Broadway show producer. The film recounts his whole life and its pretty good. He has ups and downs and goes through different women too.

The best sequence in this film is a one take performance where hundreds of performers rotate around this enormous cone shaped staircase. This scene is so unbelievable that it may be the best onstage sequence I have ever seen in any movie!

This Ziegfeld guy was really the master of Broadway shows!

4/5

J-Man.

Voyage of the Yawn Treader

Thanks to the magic of 3-D...I had to find other means of viewing this movie. Anyhow, I own parts 1 and 2 of this series, and despite the universal groan that seemed to come from everyone, I actually liked part 2...better than 1 even, though one was still really good. I liked the excitement and the battles, and the creatures, and all that good stuff from the first two films...now I haven't read the books, so this one may have followed the book, and if so...hoo-boy.

There just wasn't a lot of excitement for me in this movie. Firstly, and I know they're probably just following the books at this part, but I didn't like having neither Peter or Susan there. That was my one and only problem with Prince Caspian, and it's just as I suspected. It's not that I don't like Edmond or Lucy...it's just...to make an analogy, it's like the Beatles if it's just Paul and Ringo. Now, there's nothing wrong with Paul and Ringo, but you know what's better? All four Beatles! It just seemed something was missing, and I know why it was done, etc, etc, I'm not saying it was dumb, but it doesn't feel the same.

Worse though, is there is really no action in this movie. I mean yes, there's a fight near the beginning, and there's a decent creature battle at the end, but you have Edmond, Lucy, Caspian and the crew of the Dawn Treader walking around for most of the movie, looking for magical swords. Now, a clever writer would have had them go through big trials and tribulations for these swords. After all, they're integral to beating the main villain (more on that later). So, you would think they'd have to go through a lot to get the swords. Nah. They're mainly just lying around. You can just go and pick them up. Wah? Where's the adventure! Where's the danger and peril, if these damned swords are so important, why can I just go up, pick them up, and beat the villain? What's the point in even having these characters here if all they're going to do is ordinary stuff?

I didn't like the villain, either. Look, in part 1, we had the White Queen, and she was awesome. Part 2 had Caspian's uncle, and while he was not as cool as the White Queen, he still lead this big human army, and there was a hell of a battle. In this one, there's a mist...and it's going to corrupt Narnia...okay. So, you have to beat a mist. Okay. Then the writer's threw in (and believe me, this might all be C.S. Lewis' fault, if they're following the book) "if you think of something scary, it will be manifested in the mist". Okay, so it's Ghostbusters. The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man (or in this case, a big sea serpent) will show up, and fight the good guys. The sea serpent was cool, but I'm like, how is this mist going to corrupt Narnia? By swallowing people? Okay, but I'm not afraid of a mist...unless it's John Carpenter's mist. I don't care if it manifests something scary, or something tempting, or whatever, at the end of the day, you can blow on it, and it disappears.

It was cool to see some of the characters from previous films, and of course they had to work the White Queen and Aslan in there. I liked the characters who appeared previously, and the new major character, Eustace was alright (though it was better when he was turned into a dragon). All in all though, I think they could have done something better with this movie. I heard they wanted to make it more kid-friendly...the run time is a lot less than the previous films, so they probably condensed the crap out of the story...and they condensed all the action and excitement out as well.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (just because of how much I liked the characters from the first 2...it's closer to a 2.5, really).

- Stephenstein

Top 10 of 2010

Another year, another batch of movies that have passed. I've already reviewed my first film of 2011, but have now decided to officially wrap up last year, and name my top ten list. Note those who are curious, that I will include movies I did not see in theatres, but saw elsewhere.

10. Saw 7 -- I wish I'd been able to wrap up the series properly, but the 3D nonsense they insisted on foisting on me convinced me otherwise. It's too bad too, because like the other ones, I really liked this one. If this is the end, then they wrapped it up well.

9. Salt -- I didn't think this one would make the list, but Angelina Jolie was too good in the movie. It was one of those rare action thrillers that stayed with you, and it was pretty smart.

8. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief -- I got turned off by the trailer for this one, which was my mistake. I saw it later, and saw how cool it was. It blew the inferior Clash of the Titans out of the water, and was one of the few kid friendly movies that didn't annoy me.

7. Centurion -- Another one I missed, but that's due to the poor release for the movie. I don't know why it wasn't released well either, considering it had plenty of action, gore, and story to keep people entertained.

6. The Expendables -- I had to put this one on the list, just based on the awesome cast alone. It was a pretty damned good action movie nevertheless, and it goes to show you what you can accomplish when you really set out to make an awesome movie to please the fans.

5. The Book of Eli -- This one grew on me, as I wasn't sure how I felt about the ending to this movie, but watching it again, you have to love Denzel, and his big mission. Plus, the shootout in the house was just crazy.

4. Inception -- I think I actually like Chris Nolan's original movies more than the Batman movies...at least I don't feel like he's screwing up something I really like. This was another engaging film, where even though I knew what was coming next, I wanted to see it anyway!

3. Predators -- Wow. You got to hand it to Robert Rodriguez. He said "I want to make a Predator movie for fans of the original". That's exactly what he did, and being a fan of the original, this one blew me away, when I wasn't even expecting much.

2. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World -- The most entertaining film of the year, this movie had everything for pop culture fans who grew up in the 80's, and wish our films had a little more fantasy. It's too bad this movie didn't dominate in the box office because it damn well should have.

1. Tron: Legacy -- Hands down the #1 movie of the year. Forget the talk that there was no story, and this and that, this movie brought the Tron world back to life, updated, but still with a feel for the first film. Jeff Bridges excelled in his duel roles, and this one is the perfect companion to the original.

So that's it for 2010, see you all again this time next year!

- Stephenstein