Friday, October 25, 2013

Ulasan Dari Rumah: World War Z



Memandangkan saya sudah amat jarang menonton layar perak. Hanya sedikit masa di rumah sahaja dapat diluangkan untuk menonton, itupun selepas selesai urusan keluarga.

Banyak juga filem sudah ditonton sejak beberapa minggu yang lepas tapi kurang masa untuk menaip ulasan di blog ini. Terima kasih abang Reza kerana masih beri peluang kepada saya untuk menumpang. Love you long time.

World War Z adalah gegambar bergerak dibintangi Brad Pitt atas arahan Marc Foster yang sebelum ini mengarah Quantom of Solace, sebuah aksi James Bond. Filem-filem arahan beliau yang lain saya tak pernah tengok atau mungkin sudah lupa isi kandungannya (contoh: Stranger than Fiction).

Filem ini yang disadur dari buku yang bertajuk sama tulisan Max Brooks, dikatakan tidaklah mengikut bulat-bulat ceritanya. Cuma mengambil semangat dan serpihan-serpihan yang boleh dijadikan episod permulaan (bakal ada sambungan bukan?).

Mudahnya, filem ini dipenuhi dengan aksi-aksi pantas. Mayat-mayat hidup yang pantas dan menakutkan, gerak kerja kamera yang baik (walaupun kebanyakkan aksi adalah gabungan imej perkomputeran), dan lakonan Brad Pitt yang matang (sebab dia memang dah tua tapi tetap cool).

Watak Brad sebagai Gerry Lane, bekas penyiasat untuk PBB perlu mencari asal-usul atau akar-umbi dari mana wabak Z ini datang. Beliau bergerak dari atas kapal ke Korea, kemudian ke Israel dan seterusnya singgah di Wales di mana tempat permulaan manusia untuk benar-benar melawan wabak tersebut.

Saya bayangkan filem ini seperti Batman Begins, apabila watak utama perlu keluar dari kepompong keselesaan meninggalkan yang disayangi untuk mencari pemulih kepada keadaan yang sedang berlaku di tempat asalnya. Oh, mungkin saya silap. Tempat yang Gerry pergi pun hadapi masalah yang sama.

123 minit yang saya tempuh untuk cerita ini terasa singkat. Tahniah untuk tuan pengarah sebab memuatkan semua yang sesuai dan tidak menjadikan setiap babak meleret dan bosan. Bagi saya hanya babak terakhir sahaja sedikit meleret itupun sebab Gerry Lane bermonolog sendiri.

Saya akan tunggu sambungan filem ini walaupun mungkin kena tunggu DVDnya juga.

3.5/5

Monday, October 21, 2013

Horror Movie Documentary

Continuing the Halloween theme I managed to track down the pretty much sought after Crystal Lake Memories : The Complete History of Friday the 13th...the documentary was 6 hrs plus long! Goodness! ...took me 4 days to finish it up but it was all worth it.


I consider Friday the 13th (along with Halloween and Scream) my top horror franchise regardless of the fact that the flicks are panned by the critics..Baahambug! So far there's 12 ..yes 12! Friday the 13th flick. Here's a a quick rundown of how I rate my Friday the 13th flicks from Awesome to Poo

1. Friday the 13th : The Final Chapter
2. Friday the 13th (1980)
3. Friday the 13th : Jason Lives!
4. Freddy VS Jason
5. Jason X (yes haters!..I love Jason X)
6. Friday the 13th (2009)
7. Friday the 13th 2
8. Friday the 13th 3D
9. Jason Goes to Hell
10. Friday the 13th : New Blood
11. Friday the 13th : A New Beginning
12. Friday the 13th : Jason Takes Manhattan

Each chapter? is feature like 40 min - 1 hr in the documentary. Each chapter gave insights or the behind the story of the makings of each Friday flick..some I already knew about but most I have no idea bout like the directors and stuntman cause honestly I mostly focus on the kills and actors in this flick.

RIP
Each Friday flick they call up some of the actors (that are still alive..and not a A grade actors..yes Kevin Bacon I'm talking bout you!) to tell their story..what surprises me the most was that Adrienne King (the original final girl) was supposed to comeback instead of being killed off in the second Friday. Also was sad to know that some of the people worked/acted in the Friday movie have moved on..was specially sad to hear Melissa (arguably the prettiest bitch in the Friday franchise) have passed on due to cancer..RIP.

Oh forgot to mention that even Friday the 13th the series was featured in this documentary as well. This is the only Friday stuff that I have not seen and I guess I gotta pick it up someday...someday. Now I was also pleased that they showed some of the deleted scene (poor quality though) that was never revealed, unfortunately according to the director, we never see the light of a director's cut of The New Blood which supposedly to have lots of great on screen kills ( Paramount burned the footage..according to em lah )

Near the end the actors lamented that it'll be cool to make a 13th Friday the 13th flick where they bring back all the surviving final girls and guys to duke it out with Jason...I would be so down with that idea..would love to see my fav Friday final gal Trish Jarvis from Final Chapter go against Jason again..don't know if that'll happen though cause I read few months back they're gonna do a Friday the 13th 2 (remake) ..but whatever as long as they keep making these Friday movies...I'LL BE THERE

Trish and Tommy Jarvis (played by Corey Feldman!)

Second documentary is My Amityville Horror (2012)

True story or not, that house does look scary
Amityville Horror is a horror flick based on the "true story" of the Lutz family which moved in a haunted house. The flick spawns 11 sequels (wow) and a remake...I've only seen 4 out of those 12..but really I'm not interested to watch all...one of the sequels even revolve around a haunted dollhouse ..which unfortunately was one of the 4 I watched but fortunately I did not remember much about.

The original one however scared the crap out of me when I saw it around 7 I guess, that demon pig and red eyes image were imbedded in my brain forever. Okay so back to the documentary, Daniel Lutz recounts back the horror that happen in the house which to this day he believes did happen. You see, a lot of people were skeptic bout the family's experience ..people believe that the Lutz were just in it for the money.

According to Daniel though it was all real, he kept to himself for the past 30+ years but now he is ready to tell his side of the story, not only bout the haunting but also bout his step dad George Lutz which he obviously hate. Going through the documentary, I don't know what to think...I can see that the dude truly believes it did happen..but what shocked me is the appearance of Lorraine Warren ...

Familiar?...well she's the Parapsychologist in which The Conjuring 2013 was based on. Her husband and herself were one of the investigators. According to them the house was truly haunted...brrr. I guess the Warrens were legit paranormal investigators...overall this documentary was just okay cause he did not really talk much bout the house and the horror abound it but more on the dad...which yeeeeeeeeesh


Tuesday, October 15, 2013

So it's Halloween

It's Halloween month baby!...unlike last year in which I have ample time to watch movie daily..(yes daily) this year am not gonna do a weekly horror movie pick..not time ma. Fortunately .. this week, with the long weekend and all (oh Happy EID Qurban) ... I managed to catch...Insidious 2 (weee!) , V/H/S 2 and The Purge..so of to the movies.


Insidious 2

The other movie I've been waiting for this year. Continuing right after the events of the first flick..Elise is still dead (awwww) but all is fine with the Lambert family..they got their kid back...unfortunately an entity hitched a ride back to the real world..ooweewwuuuuweeeeee


Let me start with;
I preferred the first one..no surprise there cause it's really hard to surpass the 1st flick for any franchise (or a 2-part flick) The lady in black is less scary this time around..in #1 I was shit scared with that ghost...then the other ghosts that linger around the Lamberts..yep nothing much..the only truly scary parts are when you don't see these ghost but can tell that they are around the dark corners..but when they show their ugly mugs..meh.

I also did not like the addition of the time traveling concept..hello this is not Back to the Future 2 where it is slightly connected with the events of the first movie. Plus, this is a horror movie...however there are an aspect or two that I like bout this concept, will get to that later.

The Further world, I did not like this mambo jumbo world in the first one, which I felt dragged the film down a lil. This world is still featured in #2 and yeah..me still no likey. And lastly 3rd act felt a bit meh

Now the good, Patrick Wilson is the man! There's this one scene where his face expression change from a sickly man to a somewhat devilish grin was so awesome it brought me chills!..I was scared! Patrick..you rule man!

The ghostbuster dudes in the first movie that provided few laughs are back, and they are funnier! Love em. They provided much needed relief during those tension moments. The new medium was just okay..I still love Elise.

Now back to the time traveling aspect, I don't like it but..it is cool cause it felt like the movie was planned to have a sequel from the get go, just like say....How I Meet Your Mother... :)

Overall it is still a good flick, just not as good as the first and The Conjuring ; 7/10

The Purge

I'm gonna make this short cause I have no time now all of sudden.
Once a year Americans are allowed to commit heinous crimes w/o being convicted, this day is called The Purge, and it was sanction by the government

The Purge has a great premise, great idea ... an idea where movie fan can talk bout "what if..this was real" ... "is this politically correct" ...however I was not rooting for the family in trouble here..especially the kids...my friend and I who watched this flick thought the same thing.."just sacrifice the kids and make a run for it!" ..the villain was cool...he looked / sounded menacing. His team was also awesome. And then we have the 3rd act which sucked so hard...the makers tried to add in a twist but yeeeesh..the twist sucke!

Overall 6/10

V/H/S 2

5 shorts in 1 film..all flicks are kinda like those found footage film which stories ranges from ghost to aliens! ..yes aliens!

I liked the 1st one better (big surprise) ..the zombie and alien story kinda suck. The ghost and cult story (cult flick is Indonesian made!) was good. I wanna focus on the Alien flick..it sucked..the hand held cam was shaking everywhere to the point of annoyance ...honestly there's no redeeming qualities from this short alien flick.

As for the Indon cult flick...wow!...gory...weird..gut wrenching you got it!..The only problem I had was the demon that appear at the end..ha yeah that's it gotta leave

Overall 6/10





Monday, October 07, 2013

In a nutshell

Ok a fast one, 2 ++ since my last update..yikes!..here's an short update of the movies I saw circa last month till now..some of em are actually short updates of mine via twitter.

Riddick
I waited 13 freakin years for this?!?!?!? yeeeeeesh! (no I won't count Chronicles of Riddick)
Rating 4/10 (yeah I was really upset with this one)

The Lords of Salem
Sheri Moon - Sheri Moon! woo wooo! Lords of Salem is a step up from that WANNABE Halloween 2 remake, not saying it's really good..but Rob Zombie is heading the right way..at least this flick is original..never seen something like this
Rating 5/10

Evidence
Predictable ending but the flick have one excellent on screen kill..oh Stephen Moyer sucks in this..made me wonder how he's one of the leading dudes in True Blood (never seen TB btw)
Rating 6/10

This is the End
 It's funny but I think I'll enjoy The World's End (which haven't even premiered in Malaysia yet!) better 
Rating 7/10

The East
 Political flick, I myself wondered how I managed to finished this but I was intrigued , flick lost it's steam though near the end
 Rating 7/10

Prisoners
 Struggled at the beginning cause I was dead tired after doing overtime but the payoff at the end was so good that alone made me give this a good rating..but again, if only the pace is faster at the beginning.
 Rating 7/10

Hangover 3
Zach Galifianakis character now officially got on my nerves..what an annoying dick..but on the plus side at least this one was better than the 2nd
Rating 6/10

Rush
 For someone who does not know JACK bout F1..who lobbied the channel to be changed to MTV Movie Awards when everyone else wanted to see the race...who had to be dragged into the cinema to watch this...I kinda like this flick...great story
 Rating 7/10

Aftershock
Could've been better, great gory kills though
Rating 5/10

Curse of Chucky
 Chucky gets a facelift, I didn't like the new look..but try sticking out till the end..good ending, did not see it coming.

Rating 6/10

Fright Night 2
 Did NOT like this...after it ended I asked my friend the youtube link for Mr. Vampire 3 to cleanse myself off this shitty movie...a pity cause flick had Jaime Murray (whom I love from Dexter) in it

Rating 4/10

Gravity
Houston in the blind....THIS IS AN AWESOME FLICK with great visuals / story / character development and suspense..I especially like the fact that we rely on visuals instead on sound when the satellite blew up ..this one is  a win!

Rating 8/10