Jaime's Judgment: Reviewing Films and their Features

I've just started watching Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night Two, kin of a hard movie to get your hands on, at least of a decent copy. The first time I watched this movie, I was pretty young. It scared the shit out of me; I didn't really like to watch it alone.

The credits have just ended; I wouldn't really mind seeing some of the movies that were previewed. The Rosary Killer and Prayer for the Dying are the only ones that I can think of.

What happens in this movie is there is a girl, Mary Lou who is killed at her prom before she is able to get her crown. She is killed by the guy that brought her to the dance when he tried to set off a smoke bomb and it caught her dress on fire.

Anyway, that is what happened in the past, the main character of the show is a meek, Carrie White kinda character named Vicki Carpenter (Wendy Lyon) had a small role in Anne of Green Gables) who is a lower middle class good girl. She has a boyfriend (Justin Louis--- the main cop in Savage Messiah), and they are very close, but her mother disapproves.

Anyway, she isn't allowed any money to get a prom dress so she eventually goes looking in the props at school for something and that's where she comes into contact with the spirit of Mary Lou.

The gradual possession is done really well, there are some really creepy scenes in this movie, some of the most disturbing that I can think of at the moment, but then, that's what I'm watching.

One of the scenes (more disturbing when I was younger because I didn't really know what gay was) but Vicki (possessed by Mary Lou) follows her best friend into the shower and starts to kiss her and stuff, but like I said, it was really confusing for me when I was little. Anyhoo, SOOO the scene that follows that scene would probably remind anyone of The Faculty, when the alien lady is stalking around the locker room naked and trying to find Hartnett and Wood's character's. (Casey and Zeke, I think).

The scenes that are really disturbing to me still is this fucked up rocking horse in her bedroom and, as if it isn't evil looking on it's own, it's eyes roll and crap and it sticks out its tongue and it's all slimy and stuff, and at first it really freaks her out but then later (just before the most demented part), it seems that her relationship with the horse has changed (get your mind out of the gutter! It's not that bad) it just scares me.

The following part (she's in her prom dress by the way), her dad comes in and starts talking about when he and her mother were dating and stuff and then Vicki gets off the horse and starts to kiss her dad (this should have definitely went with that Oprah Winfrey/ Danny Glover kiss.... UGHH! I could vomit.

There's a lot of crude, but fitting, language in this movie (most of it's sexually based humor) and stuff like that. I saw Sleep Away Camp 2 and this probably within the same month as each other and until rewatching them this year I realize that I couldn't have understood a lot of the "stuff" that happens in them.

This is a pretty good horror film, a lot of the stuff is more disturbing than frightening, but if you like 80's horror shows, this won't disappoint you, in fact, it's better than most.

This movie has a really crappy ending, I want to say that. The soundtrack consists mainly of oldies tunes and one more modern song (that is repeated throughout at separate intervals... that song that goes something like "Song city, that where I'm going... or something like that...)

it's directed by Bruce Pittman. Not too much else to say. The acting is pretty good actually, it's not a very cheesy movie---surprisingly.. Like I said before, if you like 80's horror, you will like this. I guarantee it. Well, I would think you would. God, I feel like I've been writing forever.

I hope that I can find some decent sites for the actors and stuff for this one, but I find that I can really never tell what's out there. Some people who have been in relatively nothing have thousands of sites while others have a very limited amount. I'm not sure which I'd rather. For the purposes of this blog, I think that it's great, keep um coming! Just make sure that I like them! But, on the other hand, I'm not really into that whole stalker persona that a lot of fan sites seem to take on. This obsessive, "God! I heard that bitch so-and-so is going out with blah blah blah..." HEEEELLLOOO PEOPLE!! they do have lives outside of your TV sets!! Anyway, that's a little peeve of mine. Not that I don't obsess about things. I obsess about Spider-man, Lord of the Rings, and a little come and go interest with the cute little Pokemon characters, but otherwise, I'm a pretty decent person Anyway, just a little rant there, but anyway, I hope I can find some good stuff on these actors, but I always hope that.

Okay, about Wendy Lyon’s link at the side… it really is the best I can do… I’m friggin’ sick of looking…

The first time that I saw they was when it was first released on DVD. I was pleasantly surprised by its originality and the good acting of most of its characters--- very good acting, as far as I’m concerned.

I popped in this movie last night and thought that the second time through that I might not enjoy it as much, but I still liked it, though not as much as the first time, but I think that’s true for most movies. There were some things that were clinically wrong with the story, things that I think people with a significant understanding of psychology or psychiatry couldn’t stand, but because I just noticed some things and didn’t know a lot of the specific details I was able to ignore it.

I will explain that later as I get into the plot of the film. What it’s about is a girl in particular (though there are four other people in the film that suffer from her problem) who suffers from night terrors.

The night terrors seem to manifest in things more physical, they live in dark places, waiting to collect the people who had these night terrors as children, and the main girl, Julia Lund (Laura Regan--- who bears an uncanny resemblance to Mia Farrow) is one of them (the victims).

Okay, the mistake; a night terror is when a person wakes up and feels anxiety and fear, but they don’t/can’t remember why they felt that way. I’m not going to really go into it too much because then I will end up writing this whole thing and it will be one long bitch about a movie that is really, really good.

There is an alternate ending on the DVD, DON’T WATCH IT!!!!!!!!!!! It really sucks compared to the one that they leave it at… I mean, neither is a happy ending, but this one seems cliché` in some way.

Another thing… I don’t hate ANYONE of the main characters of this movie. I can usually NEVER say that. NEVER!

I don’t really remember the music of the movie, except that I thought I remembered some songs that I liked in it.

This movie is so good, monsters and darkness… you know, it taps into one of people’s most common fears, more a fear of the dark than of anything else. It’s an edge of the seat kind of movie. People are always doing things that you just hate them for doing because you know that they are at great risk of being killed and stuff. It’s great.

Okay, now for the boring stuff.

They was released in 2002. It was directed by Robert Harmon. Of the movies that he’s directed, that I’ve seen, this is the only one that I’ve liked. He’s directed things like “The Hitcher.” This is a Wes Craven film, which means that it will either be really good or really suck. This was really good.
Here’s what some other people said:

After witnessing a horrific and traumatic event, Julia Lund (Laura Regan), a graduate student in psychology, gradually comes to the realization that everything which scared her as a child could be real. And what's worse, it might be coming back to get her...
Summary written by Anonymous

THEY are coming for you, January 7, 2004
Reviewer: Shyamalanluver
Okay, I must say this. I can see why people didn't exactly, or didn't like this movie. Most horror movies are ruined by the endings, and this was one of them. Even with the alternate ending, the whole movie would have led to sadness. There was really no way out for Julia from the beginning because THEY had her trapped from the start.

Julia (Laura Regan) is a Psychologist in training at college. As a Psychologist, she would come up with a logical explanation for things that are happening. But there is no way to get out of the reality that her world will fall apart around her. When her lifelong friend Billy tries to warn Julia that THEY, the monsters in their closet which may not be so imaginative, are coming back for them, she knows he must be teetering on the brink of insanity. Billy shows her a strange scar that he believes came from THEY so he can be identified, she still thinks there has to be an explanation. When he takes his own life right in front of her, she finally realizes his overactive mind may not have not been so fake after all. When several people she meets end up with a strange and mysterious mark, just like the one Billy had, out of nowhere, she knows he may have been right. When the same mark appears on her forehead, and something comes out of it, she knows she doesn't have much time to live. As she tries to escape the horrorfick vortex that THEY have caught her in, THEY finally come after her in a way she cannot escape.

The acting in the movie was okay. I have to say the only good acting in the whole thing was done by Laura Regan. She was great. The plot was good, but if only they could've made it a better ending. Like someone said before, the alternate ending would have given it the Wes Craven idea. Somewhat like Alfred Hitchcock, or John Carpenter. But why was it called Wes Craven presnts They? He didn't even write the story. That was probably ...for publicity just to get attention. I thought the movie would be somewhat perdictable, but it wasn't nearly as perdictable as I thought, considering THEY would jump out at any time, all of the sudden. That's what it gave you that scary feeling. I give it four stars because of a good plot.


P.S. Every review that I read about this movie said that they were dissappointed or didn't like it! I don't get it. I thought that this was one was the get horror movies to come out in a long time! I'm so dissappointed--- IN EVERYONE WHO DIDN'T LIKE IT!!!! Just kidding, but I was really surprised. when I started looking and no one liked it.... and people gave good reviews to the third Crow movie??? I might as well never review again..... : (

And to a lesser extent… Titus: Starring Anthony Hopkins

Sorry It’s been a long time since I put anything up. I wrote a review… the one before this and then forgot that I hadn’t put it on the blog…. So anyway… I’m in the library and need to kill some time before my first class. The (first) movie that I am going to be reviewing today is Titus…. Ahhh Titus….

Rented Titus the other day… HIGH EXPECTATIONS for this film after having seen a trailer for it… Released in 1999 when I first saw the trailer… REALLY REALLY wanted to see it…. Rented Titus and looked forward to seeing a masterpiece of cinema in result of the champion of the art himself, Anthony Hopkins… Rented Titus and couldn’t stand to continue after only fifteen minutes. Shakespeare probably haunts Titus director Julie Taymor…. I hope so anyway. (FYI, Titus is based on Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus….) I am repulsed by the reviews that were given to this film by people at IMDB… REPULSED!! They actually have the audacity to suggest that this defocation on film could possibly be better than Shakespeare’s own… MY ASS!!! Taymor also did a remake of the Tempest… my FAVORITE play by Shakespeare…. I could vomit…

A little different than what I usually do… because I reviewed a movie that I really really hated I am also going to review a movie that I liked…

I am really into realism when it comes to movies… Which is kinda funny because I don’t like reading it at all… A lot of independent movies take on the real world in a sometimes all too real… sometimes gut wrenching… sometimes horrendous and frightneing… The movie that I am going to do now is L.I.E. as in Long Island Express Way… Right? Only kind of….

L.I.E is the story of a boy named Howie Blitzer (Paul Dano), his mom has just died and he is living with his father and a lot of insecurities. His dad is selfish and a hypocrite, he’s also seeing a woman that Howie doesn’t think is good enough to replace his mother… we really get the sense that Howie and his mom were really close and because his dad is so selfish is also seems that Howie has had to deal with the loss all by himself and sort out his feelings alone too. Neither Howie or his dad have any idea what is going on in the other’s lives… his dad is in trouble with the law, his lawyer has just died and he’s always whining and complaining about all the things that he has to deal with.. His wife probably really pampered him, I think. Howie on the other hand is dealing with the death of his mother, problems in school, detatchment toward his father and issues of his sexuality.

Howie presents all the symptoms of someone who is desperately seeking their father’s attention and love… he’s getting into trouble, breaking into houses, taking on his friends as family and maybe confusing male to male affection with the love that he desperately wants from his father.

When busting into a house and leaving evidence of him having commited the crime, Howie comes to know a man called Big John (Brian Cox, you might have seen him in The Ring or will in Troy)… Big John is a pedophile and a blackmailer… He scares Howie into thinking that the only way that he can make up for what he’s taking is to submitting to the sexual advances of this much older man. Howie, having been obviously confused about his own feelings toward his once best friend Gary (Billy Kay), grows closer and closer to Big John because it is affection that he didn’t have otherwise and is in denial in a lot of ways… I never really decided if he was gay or not.. I’m really not sure.. By the end of the movie he’s never really done anything with Big John.. John, more or less, turns out to be much more of a father than what he had…

There’s also a young man living with John named Scott (Walter Masterson). Scott is my favorite character in the film… He came to live under the rule of Big John in probably nearly exactly the same way that Howie did, Scott’s mother is also dead. Scott is the bed warmer at John’s house… he’s more or less a servant and unappreciated. He’s simple in a lot of ways and can come off as simple minded too, but I feel like when John took him in that Scott never went to school, that he was treated like a child as long as John could continue to do so because that kept Scott a worthy lover… Scott is the only character in the film that to me gets to come full circle… he is the only one that’s story feels satisfied in the end… Gary leaves… we never find out what happens to him… Howie is left hanging… his dad is locked up… Howie’s other friends are complete losers so I didn’t really care one way or another, but Scott (although he gets small parts in the movie) is a character that you have to think about a lot…

Here are some plot summaries or comments from the IMDB… to give you some other points of view…

Fifteen-year-old Howie loses just about everything and everyone in the space of a single week, but ends up finding himself in the process. His mother has just died. His father, a building contractor, can barely keep tabs on his young girlfriend, let alone his own son. Thusly, the teen must navigate his adolescence virtually unsupervised. Floating towards an ill-behaved existence, Howie and his crowd begin robbing houses in the middle-class neighborhoods off the Long Island Expressway. Together, he and his best friend Gary break into a place belonging to an old guy named Big John, a local man who is a respected pillar of the community. When Big John fingers Gary for the crime, Howie learns that his pal has been leading a secret, dangerous but also alluring double life. Subsequently, we also discover that Big John has secrets of his own. Summary written by Sujit R. Varma

Here’s another…

An oddity: a movie undone by its own unconscious. The director, Michael Cuesta (who implausibly cowrote the screenplay with two other people--and the picture still feels amateurishly underwritten) is reported to be married with kids. I wonder what the wife and kids made of the scene in which the teen-boy hero accompanies his pretty-boy friend on a break-and-enter spree, and the pretty boy, entranced by his stolen swag, puts on a string of pearls and a fur coat, sexily putting a "Shhh!" finger to his lips. (Lot 49 Films, the movie's distributor, knew well enough to make this image the cornerstone of their trailer--which is in every sense smarter than the movie.) Or how about the ostensibly straight boy hero's pining for his mom--which expresses itself in his putting on lipstick? (He even knows enough to make a lip-smacking "Mwwaah!" to stick it on correctly.) Or what about the wrestling tussle that turns into a near-love scene? Cuesta seems clueless about what he's making, and the tone he's setting. I suspect he genuinely thinks this is a "gritty" after-school special. Instead, it comes across as un-self-aware Larry Clark.

The rave reviews--indeed, the theatrical release--of this movie are a mystery; the movie is so ineptly written and directed there seems to be nothing in it of interest, except for pederasts. And the British actor Brian Cox, who won performance-of-a-lifetime raves in Deborah Warner's production of TITUS ANDRONICUS, doesn't do himself any favors as the kindly, fatherly paedophile Big John. Implausible as an American and as a Marine, Cox is so creepy from the get-go that part of the movie's point--the ability of predators like Big John to fit in--gets lost. And the putative subject of the movie, the oddly chaste and tender friendship that develops between Big John and the hero, takes up about five minutes of screen time--less than is given over to the movie's vealcake shots.

Much of the movie is bafflingly bush-league. The hero's dad (Bruce Altman) gets hauled away by the Feds, but no one bothers to look in on his kid; he just gets to hang out on his own, unsupervised. And the ending plays like a term paper whose author gave up, exhausted, ten pages from the finish line. So what accounts for the packed house I saw this movie with late on a Sunday night?

This was written by matthew wilder

Here are some quick things about the movie… The soundtrack was good, nice music which can sometimes be kinda rare for Indy films because of their budgets… Ummmm the movie was directed by Michael Cuesta

That’s all I guess… I’m kinda tired of writing and my eyes are gonna fry off if I keep looking at the computer screen…

My general take on the film… Just about everyone gets what they deserve which can’t be said about many films… I really agree with a lot of things that Wilder said so make sure that you read his review here or on IMDB… I’m not sure whether to recommend it or not… I like it, from a psychological stand point it’s very interesting, but it definitely wouldn’t be for everyone. It’s definitely not one of the best movies that I have seen to tackle the issues that are subject in this film, but it is probably one of the most realistic.

Okay, well I watched this movie yesterday or so and this movie is awesome it is so frighteningly real…can you say Jonestown?? (for anyone who doesn’t know Jones town was a place created by a cult leader Jim Jones who had all his followers drink poisoned kool-aid).

Anyway this movie is real good, it’s based on I think a true story about a “commune” in Canada; I’m not sure right now if the story is based on fact but I think it is. Anyway if it’s not it really could be, it’s so realistic.

So what can I say about this well I don’t really want to give anything away about the story because it would be no fun for anyone who might decide to watch it but, if you know about Jonestown or any other “cult” type group you get the general idea.

The acting is wonderful, the main lady Paula gets progressively more annoying the more I watch the movie (yes since I saw it I’ve watched it quiet a few more times) but that’s really the only down fall. The guy who play Roch is absolutely brilliant he’s very convincing. My two favorite actresses in the film are Isabelle Blais who plays Marie-Claude and Pascale Montpetit who plays Lise; the reason I like these two so much is that their acting seems so natural like the film is actually a documentary rather than a movie, as a matter of fact most of the actors present a very real persona as if they were actually the people – which is what acting is all about so they really did their jobs well.

It’s kind of funny actually for any of you who have seen Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou the son of the principal from that is in this film as a cop; it’s really weird – anyway plus one of the women the one who plays Suzette, Roch’s wife sounds just like Belle from Beauty and the Beast in this one part at the beginning when a store keeper asks her if she put any dope in the bread the commune made. It’s really weird, so if you ever watch it look away when she says it and image her as Belle it’s uncanny.

Anyway that is totally irrelevant and a bit off subject. Speaking of being off subject I’m so pissed I went to both Blockbuster and the Movie Gallery to find a couple movies I really wanted to see and they didn’t have them there but while I was looking I noticed a load of totally retarded movies that I couldn’t fathom people renting.

Do you notice how when you really want a movie that isn’t main stream it seems impossible to find?? Maybe it’s just me. The only time I wasn’t disappointed was when I found American Gothic at Blockbuster, for anyone who likes the old horror films this is for you it’s one of those really odd fucked up shows that everyone enjoys you know.

Anyway this is about Savage Messiah, but I don’t really know what else to say about it, it’s a really good movie that’s pretty much what I have to say, it’s one of those shows where it’s better to watch it than have people tell you about it, if you know to much it just ruins it.

My sister rented Gothika last Friday ( along with a couple other movies that I may review.. Uncle Buck, Savage Messiah and Titus) and so I sat down to watch and relax or whatever…

So Gothika is a horror film, and like so many horror shows that are really big star big budget… they suck (Darkness Falls is a perfect example of a horror show that had wonderful potential but was a complete burn out) anyway, enough about old wounds, time to open some new ones…

Gothika was THE WORST movie that I have seen in at least a year… I thought that it would be really good, maybe a little cliché, but that’s not always bad or intolerable…

The movie is about a psychiatrist who meets a ghost and is possessed and ends up in an asylumn or whatever (the same one she worked at… which I think is pretty stupid I mean put someone who has just murdered someone in the same facility where they once worked an ex-psychiatrist no less who knows the procedures and the building really well… no less stuck there only three days after the murder… I really don’t think so… she hadn’t even gone to trial or anything…)

The basic plot… like so many others, person becomes receptive to spiritual influence and is guided in serving the ghosts vengeful purposes… blah blah blah…. BUT the movie wasn’t as good as that…. IMPOSSIBLE… you might ask? No…. this movie was a real shit hole…

The plot has been used so many times, but if done well it isn’t really bothersome… this movie was so weak it was like decaf and every other movie ever made is like eating folgers right out of the can… The point of the story (ghost doing their thing or whatever) came on really really fast, so fast it was kinda like Huh??? And the “twist” of the film, you know, the “OOOHHH I wonder who killed them!?!” was so predictable, I knew what had happened even before the ghost had been introduced… to be perfectly honest the killer, the plot, the everything was obvious within the first five minutes after the credits… no lie. That’s how fast the “Plot” point of the movie went by the rest of the movie…. Felt like hours and hours and hours….. The balance of when things are learned, when things happen was really screwed up so it felt like a 20 hour car ride and the most exciting thing was passing through a town where you might see something and be like “ooh neat” or whatever and that was it….

There was only one moment in the movie that made me jump, the rest was so predicable that it was nearly sickening… There were some things that make the movie a big disturbing though…. ONE… about maybe ten maybe fifteen minutes into the movie there is a little “kiss scene” NO NOT WATCH THIS!!! As it is one of the most disgusting kisses in the history of movies that I have seen… right in the same area as Meryll Streep and Clint Eastwood’s first kiss in Bridges of Madison County (I love that movie) and Lisa and Marty’s beach kiss in Bully… and last (that I can think of) is the trembling lusty sickening kiss between Oprah Winfrey and (I can’t think of the actor’s name) but the guy who plays Paul Dee in Beloved… NASTY NASTY NASTY… but there are others that are kinda floating in my mind.. maybe I should put up a list of nasty kisses and then really good romantic moments…. The second disturbing part is the shower scene for two reasons… one… the hallucinations she has are kinda creepy and second is the shower scene itself… like any of us want to see that… I won’t say what THAT is… you’ll have to watch it yourself…. But I wouldn’t recommend it…

I do not recommend this movie to ANYONE, in fact… It’s just plain stupid…. I think Halle Berry is a really good actress, but her performance in this movie would, I feel, even dissappoint her biggest fans… It’s really too bad.. I had big expectations for this movie, but… oh well…. Now I’ll just have to wait for the second Ring movie to come out (the sequel to Ringu – the movie that The Ring was based on—was just released and the director of both Ringu and its sequel will be directing the sequel to The Ring… so I look forward to that… also.. if you like M. Knight Shaymalan, he’s coming out with a new movie tentatively called The Village or something.. Joaquin Phoenix will be in it, if you like him.

This has nothing to do with the review, but I’ve been telling everyone for about six months now… FFVII sequel “Advent Children” (a movie) soon…. Very soon….. I really love video games (especially Final Fantasy) I’ve played all but XI (XII is coming soon!!!) but XI was for online since they didn’t consider us people who don’t play online games… even though-------- WE ARE FF FANS SO WHAT THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO!!!! Anyway… more reviews in progress….

By the way… if anyone knows where the title (of Gothika) came from please let me know..

Periodically I am going to give a complete list of all the films that you can find reviews for here, just incase I forgot to post their movie link (which I doubt that I have) on the side bar... so here's what I've done... 38 reviews

Street Fighter II
A Cry in the Wild
Interview with the Vampire
The Crow
The Crow: City of Angels
The Crow: Salvation
Willow
Kids
Bully
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
LotR: The Fellowship of the Ring (and somewhat TTT and RotK)
Immortality
Fatal Attraction
The Seven Samurai
Philadelphia
Conan the Barbarian
Sleepaway Camp
Sleepaway Camp II
Sleepaway Camp III
The Order
Hellraiser
Black Hawk Down
Finding Nemo
Cabin Fever
Alien
Wilde
Poltergeist
The Meaning of Life
Silence of the Lambs

(Kids shows)
Sagwa: The Chinese Siamese Cat
Arthur
Zoom
Dragon Tales
Clifford: The Big Red Dog
Jakers!
Cyberchase

REMEMBER!! If you don't find it in what's up... look back through the archives... you'll find it!

This movie is based on the popular arcade and video game Street Fighter... pretty much the point of this movie is to let you meet a lot of the characters from the game.. Ryu, Ken, Balrog, Fangief, Bison, Cammy, Chun Li, Vega, Guile, Dhalsim, Fei Long, Honda, DJ, T Hawk...

For action and fighting or whatever this movie has some really awesome parts... the best fight is that between Vega and Chun Li, but there are a lot of really good fight and some great music if you like Alice in Chains, Korn and Silverchair.... really good music.. I haven't seen the unrated version, but I still want to... I felt like there was probably a lot of gore and stuff cut out.

If you like the game, don't mind a simple storyline and crave action and martial arts then there's no way you can't like this movie.

(NOTE: This is not in any way like the Jean Claude van Damme Street Fighter movie, so if you saw that and were intimidated, don't let it keep you from watching this movie.)

This movie is based on the awarding winning story by Gary Paulsen Hatchet. The first thing that I want to complain about is the actor himself... alright, he plays the part pretty good, but he doesn't look anything like how I imagine Brian, the main and pretty much only character in the show. The cover of Hatchet has a picture of a young man with dark eyes and hair... kind of a Josh Hartnetty kinda look or whatever so that is how I have always imagined him to be, despite that's how Paulsen describes him in the story. I don't really want to go off on the subject too much, but that's my biggest complaint. The actor plays the younger brother of the neighbor family in "Honey, I shrunk the kids." PICTURE IT... Something else to picture... he has several "nude" parts in the movie.... kinda nasty,.... anyway......

They follow the story pretty well, I guess, but it was released as part of a series of videos on "white wolves" so they made it kinda fit in and changed the story some... it could have been an hour longer or so to have put in some of the better parts of the story... I think that most people (or I'll assume that most people) have read the book or at least heard about it so this is going to be really a pretty short review... There isn't really anything more to say about this... It's okay and its a movie that should have been made (I'm really surprised there isn't a better version of "Hatchet" out there...

The IwtV was the first show that I ever saw with Brad Pitt, the same night I also saw Legends of the Fall. I found that there was a lot of similar things about the characters and I believe that the films were made relatively close to one another so I can understand why a mode that he might have put himself into might have carried into the next film or whatever. Anyway, I was grubbing through my movies last night and I decided to watch IwtV. This was only like the fifth time that I have seen it so I still felt that I needed to keep an eye out for things that I didn't notice. In comparison to it's sequel this movie is like the best movie ever made... Anne Rice was really tough on Cruise throughout the making of IwtV because she didn't think that he made a very good Lestat which makes me think that she had absolutely nothing to do with QotD's production or anything because it truly truly sucked.... Just thinking about that, sorry... I am always tempted to do a review for that movie, but when I don't like something I find that I don't want to write much about it.

Last night I also watched Home Alone, Heidi, Amityville: The Possession and Golden Girls (6 hours it a relative had taped) while I was working on homework and stuff. I have really been in a mood to watch movies about ghosts and stuff. But anyway....

So this movie is about a vampire who gets a guy to "interview" him and stuff and then most of the rest of the movie is a flashback of a short amount of time before he was a vampire and when he met Lestat and eventually becomes a vampire through Lestat. So that is the general storyline, not that it isn't complex, but what makes it so is more through the characters feelings than through the story itself which is not so. There are a lot of questions about the world, religion, society, self and morality and stuff that the characters are consistently asking themselves and their companions. This movie would be a good companion to the movie Immortality that I reviewed earlier, not that I really think that any of the characters are anything alike, but that I think that the torment of people (portrayed so realistically) in situations that none of us can truly understand is a thing that is truly captivating and powerful... it opens a doorway to human understanding and situation that heightens our awareness of self and of other's. I think that either movie asks the right questions about morality and love and sacrifice, questions that make us better people whether we can answer them or not (for certainly the characters in either never could) but that they were asked and considered is enough. Some questions are never meant to be answered and that's what makes them important.

I don't really know what else to say about this show, the characters are played so well, they themselves are so well thought out... The cinematography is fantastic at setting the mood that I think heightens your awareness of Louis, for it is often as gray as his state, or fiery as his anger... it seems to me that the mood of the filming always mirrors the way that (at least I interpreted) him to be feeling at the time. A fine fine movie...

I rented these movies the other day, even though having seen all three previously, knew what I was getting into….

The first one, which was released in 1994, starred Brandon Lee (1965-1993). This movie is actually kind of autobiographical for the writer of the Crow comic books, of which the movies were based. The comic writer (James O'Barr) was dealing with some simliar type issues of his own. The Crow character himself is loosely based on (I can’t remember which) and this is SO bad, I think it was either Iggy Pop or The Cure’s Robert Smith… but I can’t remember which…. Iggy Pop is actually in the first two Crow movies. This show is actually pretty complex and I’m going to talk more about some of the things that it means to me in a bit, but here are a couple plot outlines that I liked from IMDB…

"People once believed that when you died, a crow took your soul to the land of the dead.....but sometimes, just sometimes, the crow could bring that soul back, to make the wrong things right..." Eric Draven and Shelly Websyter were engaged to be married on October 31.....they were brutally murdered the night before. A year later, the Crow brings Eric's soul back to seek vengeance and earn his eternal rest.

Summary written by Madison

On Devils night 2 souls are happy as they are to be married the next day - Halloween. But in the corrupt city that they live, happiness is one of the qualities quickly extinguished when found. Eric Draven and Shelley Webster owned a building and when they complain to the authorities of problems, the authorities send round a ruthless gang to "deal" with the problem. As they rape Shelley while her fiancee' is out shopping, he comes home and is promptly shot and thrown out the high story window, killed on the road below - Shelley dies 30 hours later in intensive care as a result of the attack. 1 Year later... the forces that seem fit to bring these people to justice, as Eric is reincarnated with the spiritual guidance of a crow, as he tracks down the gang members that killed him and his fiancee', appropriately leaving crow symbols as he does, but on the searching of the last and final member, he comes across the power behind the gang, who seems fit to kill off this crow - as he is the ruler of the city. So how does it fall... Is justice sought and done,or is evil the winner overall?

Summary written by Russell Miles {Zeus_gb@hotmail.com}

The deal with this movie is a lot to do with faith, it has a lot to do with trust and devotion… ALL the biggies… The questions that it asks about your faith in yourself in your will in what you give to others is really in question here and I think that it sends a good message. Eric kicks ass, but he has to, he’s driven to.. this is what he is brought back for. But for some reason, the same urgency and heartfelt pain does not exist with the other two.. so what does this one have that the others don’t. The first thing is that this is the first… the story hasn’t been done twice or three or five times already.. it’s fresh and truly felt by the writer (as I indicated earlier). FYI I’m about to really go off on a tangent…
I am actually quite terrified. I was looking for stuff on the third Crow movie and I think that there is one that I didn’t know about… it’s called Wings of the Crow, it was released in 2000… there’s this girl named Erika and she and her rockstar boyfriend are murdered on the Eve of Halloween and a crow ressurects her so she might avenge them… her name is Erika Drake… the character in the first Crow movies name is Eric Draven…. If this isn’t a Crow movie it’s a huge fuckin rip off… if it is then I probably wouldn’t need to see it… but I’m guessing that it is a Crow movie because there is a girl in it named Sarah that is a main character in it and if you have seen the Crow movies then you would understand that…BUT if must have really really REALLY done shitty, because the new Crow movie (that will star Eddie Furlong and is due for release next year) is called the fourth Crow movie so… I dunno…I am checking this out though…. I think that it may have been a made for tv “movie.” It MAY have come out in 1998… but I never heard of this and either I am stupid or it was stupid so I’m not really sure… But I keep looking at some of the crap on this and I can’t figure it out… if anyone knows PLEASE tell me… I didn’t need this on a Monday morning… Apparently it is legitimate… it’s a Crow movie… but it must have got sweeped under a rug somewhere.. One site said that it had nothing to do with the other Crow movies or just the first one (It was kind of confusing)… any more information will help…

The second one, The Crow: City of Angels, released in 1996, starred Vincent Perez (see his character Marius in Queen of the Damned) as Ashe Corven. Actually the first time that I saw this movie was not too long after I saw the Queen of the Damned and hated it and I couldn’t believe or didn’t want to believe that this highly sympathizable character was in (and co-starred in) such a flop.

Here are some of the best plot summaries from IMDB (these are the suckiest parts of these reviews to write…)

The second film based in James O'Barr's cult comic, talks about another Crow. After Ashe and his little son are murdered violently for no reason by Judah's men, he returns from the dead to take his revenge. One after one, Judah's people face the power of the dark angel...
Summary written by Chris Makrozahopoulos {makzax@hotmail.com}
This sequel to the 1994 cult classic which ended in the real life death of Brandon Lee has "the Crow" revive a new character, Ashe Crowe. This time, a man and his son are killed by a deranged gang after witnessing a murder. The father is brought back to life by the crow to exact revenge on his murderers. Directed by Tim Pope of music video fame, this plays like a long music video. Vincent Perez's thick accent often makes his dialogue less than understandable. A very dark, brooding revenge story.
Summary written by Kale Whorton {nikko11@mind.net}
I didn’t really like the second movie… I thought that it went by really fast, that the person (his son) that he came back to avenge was kinda a bratty little demon and that I really only cared what happened to him… he was the only likable character, as far as I was concerned and he was the only good actor. This movie, in a lot of ways was a lot like Queen of the Damned. It was a horrible sequel, the soundtrack is awesome, the acting and characters were crappy, the story was crappy and it did not have the mood that should be consistent in movies that are linked… The biggest difference is that the villain in QotD was awesome and the bad guy in CoA was a fucking joke and the good guy in CoA was so likable that it made the show more hatable and the only good thing about the “good guy” in QotD was that he was hot… by the way, the sountrack for the first Crow movie is awesome, especially The Cure’s “Burn” which was wrote specially for the movie…. I recommend them if you liked the QotD soundtrack (they are mostly rock and metal and stuff… a lot like the Strangeland soundtrack, but better)

This movie was really confusing because there was some really good moments and then some (a lot more than really good moments) of really cheesy-shit moments.. I still haven’t decided exactly what I think about this movie… I will tell you what I REALLY REALLY hate though, and hopefully not ruin much for you… I HATE some of the things that they allow to happen with the crow and with Ashe and I HATE the bad guy and the ending is SO FUCKING STUPID! A mantra of “dumb, dumb, dumb” just subconciously comes over you and then you realize that it is the end and too late to turn back… BUT there are some awesome scenery/cinematography.

The third one, The Crow: Salvation (also released in 2000) stars Eric Mabius as the Crow (Alex Corvis… I think his real name sounds better….)

I REEEAAAAALLLLLLYYYYYY hated this movie, so this is going to be VERY VERY brief.. namely I will say that I didn’t like it, the story sucked, the characters sucked, I didn’t even like the soundtrack… I have high hopes for the new Crow movie because it isn’t being made in the wake of the first one’s success like these others were, its just being made in the fad of comic book movies… FYI the plot for the new one kinda stinks… I will leave off with some other people’s comments/summaries….

The third entry in 'The Crow' series follows Alex Corvis, who was framed for the murder of his girlfriend and is executed. he is then brought back from the dead by a crow when the legend says 'Love is stronger than death'. He returns to discover that a corrupt police force is behind her murder and for him to go after the killers, he must find out the mystery behind everything that happened.
Summary written by Josh
Josh!!! You didn’t tell us how much it sucked!!! BUT… I did find some people on the Amazon reviews (Also an awesome place to learn more about a movie before you get it or watch it) that seem to have the right or close to the right idea… that being, what I think (sorry, that REALLY REALLY arrogant thing felt strange…)

Far worst than you can imagine
Reviewer: Robert from Dallas, Tx
I am a HUGE fan of The Crow series. I loved the first one starring Brandon Lee. The second fell alittle behind, but it was still worthy of the Crow name. This one on the other hand actually made me feel ashamed that I even rented it. I wanted to turn it off and throw it out the window. I watched it just cause I loved the others. But this one is not worth checking out. The acting is terrible, the directing is bad, and the chemistry between the characters was not their. The feel of the whole movie was just bad.


OH YEAH!!! TELL IT LIKE IT IS!!!!

Reviewer: Jason Wilkerson from Green Bay, WI United States
Okay, honestly, I think that you some of you guys are watching The Crow: City of Angels rather than Salvation. But then again I could be bias. I was a late comer to The Crow series and was introduced to this one first. I saw The Crow next and City of Angels last. This one will truly never live up to the original (Brandon Lee was truly his father's son), but there's no way you can say that City of Angels out does this one. First off, there's no chance in the world that the same person will ever see two people brought back by the crow in their life, that was the first mistake of the second one. Also, in this one, they did follow the comic more tightly in the fact that Corvis knew what he was brought back for, that's the way the comic originally had it. Also certain things about this showed more feeling than all of the parts of City of Angels combined, and Corvis acted like someone who had pure hatred for those who took his reason for living away in the same way (but not as good as) Brandon Lee did in the first one. This, in my opinion, is the only other movie besides the original that has the right to bear the name The Crow in the title.

You were doing pretty good up until the end there Jase… Anyway… that’s what I have for you… hopefully some good advice.. or rather (for the most case) warning…

P.S. I'm adding a link to Eddie Furlong's official site, just incase anything is put up there about the new Crow movie or if you are a fan or whatever...