Movies of 2014, Horror pt1

Horror

            First I will list a few movies that fit into this bandwidth that I haven't seen just to give a more complete look at what I have and have not covered, mostly because I think several of these are not straight up horror and many straight up horror movies did come out this year.  "Deliver Us From Evil" and "Dracula Untold" are the only other horror movies I would want to watch, the others seem like the sort of hack crap put out to keep a franchise in a holding pattern or to capitalize on momentary trends, "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones", "Annabelle", and "Devil's Due".

            Let me start with the best, and then work toward what I think of as the worst, even though my bottom picks (for the year) are both showing up on top 10 lists for some critics I follow and I disagree completely.

"Oculus" (I am intentionally not linking to the trailer, as it is rubbish)

            It was basically this or "Babadook" for best horror movie and this one just did a better job in my opinion.  The acting is good, the premise is good, the balance of psychological versus outright supernatural elements is well done.  And it (along with "Babadook") joins a long list of movies in recent times that was obviously inspired by "The Shining" but deftly avoids being a boring slog.

            I have no deep complaints I can point to, it is just a well made film that I highly recommend to people.

Overall: 8/10

Not a bad poster.  Symbolic of what is happening in the movie.

"Babadook"

            Much like "Oculus" this movie is pretty well done.  But while I feel that it has some higher highs (and is more resonant with themes) it also has some lower lows.  First the highs, the idea that the monster in question is some compulsion that gets inside of you and causes you to harm your loved ones, and that maybe the monster is not a monster it is just that the mother is cracking like an egg because her insufferable child is ruining her life... That is really strong.

            But...  They end up showing the monster too much to the point of it being a little silly.  There is also the name Babadook, initially the name seems to indicate door noises "baba" being a mild rumbling of a door in its frame and the "dook dook dook" being an ominous knocking... and then they have the monster saying "Babadook" like it is a freaking pokemon.  And I really did not understand the final confrontation or ultimate resolution to the story which I won't spoil, maybe I just need to meditate on it a bit.  It is a good movie definitely worth watching.

Overall: 7/10 

This is a good poster, but boarders on being too minimalist.

"Odd Thomas" (Awful trailer)

            I already talked about and rated this one (I initially gave it an 8/10, having seen it in the lagging months of June and July, leading to me liking it more than I do in retrospect).  Really I feel mostly the same about it now as I did then and still think people should see it.  It is a lot of fun especially to people who like shows like "Supernatural", "Sleepy Hollow", or "Grimm".

Overall: 7/10

 

Another shit poster.

"I, Frankenstein"

            Strangely not the worst movie I saw all year this movie has the sort of self serious bullshit attitude that I loath with characters being overly macho and stiff for no reason.  The movie has no humor and is mostly just a grim dark obnoxious tour thru... I honestly have no idea where this takes place, clearly an alternate history of some kind, I do not feel like I should complain about that because at the very least a world in which a 700ft tall cathedral is the tallest structure for what seems like miles of maze like houses is actually a cool thing.  The strange otherworldly city and the fight scenes are pretty much all I can complement this movie on.

            Boring hack plot with a bad guy who is just awful at management, characters seem to make decisions at random with zero development or characterization.  It is a mess.

Overall: 2/10

 

Good Poster.  I actually feel this is not all that horror-ish, more of an action movie much like "Dracula Untold" almost certainly is, but of all my arbitrary groupings this seemed the best fit.

"Enemy"

            Last year my favorite movie was "Prisoners" a dark and intensely well acted movie about the kidnapping of children and the means people use to try and get them back.  It was engaging and straight forward so that I had no trouble following the characters thru the story as the mystery unraveled.  "Enemy" is made by the same director and one of the stars, I wanted to like this.

            Heavy handed imagery, a plot that makes no sense, and an ultimate resolution that left me baffled.  I do not care for this sort of boring obtuse crap.  I sat thru the whole thing, but I have no idea how I managed that.  I hated this movie.

Overall: 1/10 

Another excellent poster.

"Under the Skin"

            Here is another one that looked interesting that ultimately disappointed me.  I walked out.

            This movie is sold on two gimmicks 1) Nudity, most notably the nudity of mega-star Scarlet Johansen; and 2) Hidden Camera Improv.

            The premise of the movie is that Scarlet plays a woman going around and picking up strangers by offering them a ride leading them back to a mysterious black room in which they are put into a stasis and then processed into blood and meat.  The people she is talking to are real people, not actors, she has to interact with and seduce them.  After a while Scarlet grows to empathize with humans and... THIS IS SO BORING.

            I have seen and heard this type of story so many times that the only thing the movie has going for it are the gimmicks and the nudity is the least sexy, most fumbling, medical type exam that you can imagine.  She is an alien and as she tries to explore what makes humans human she stumbles around in a daze with no one to talk to and no voice over... MARVEL AS SHE ATTEMPTS TO EAT CAKE AND FINDS IT MAKES HER SICK... I DON'T CARE!

            This movie has enough story for a 40 minute episode of the "Twilight Zone" or "Outer Limits", it did not have to be and 1 hour and 48 minutes.

Overall: 1/10

Not perfect, but still good.  Why are good movies saddled with shit posters and bad movies get good posters?

The long overdue part 2 to the Horror of 2014.

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Some Netflix Reviews (pt2)

Three movies I watched on Netflix this weekend while playing video games.

I ranked them least to most spoiler ridden.

The People vs. George Lucas (2010)

6/10

            I am unsure, but I might have seen this, or just numerous clips of this before, and considering it was made before Disney bought the Lucas empire, both of those things probably lessened the impact of this content dramatically.  That being said this movie does have a very deep exploration of the nature of fandom in popular culture and the sheer size and cult like fervor that caused backlash against George Lucas in the last 15 years.

            I recommend this movie if you enjoy discussions of popular media as much as you enjoy popular media, especially if you like to pick apart different things (like me).  On the other hand, if you have heard enough about the prequels and the turmoil involved then you should give this a pass, because while its content does use "Star Wars" as lexicon for talking about broader ideas like marketing and the auteur theory... Mostly it is about "Star Wars".

I somewhat love this poster.  It very much captures the tone of the movie.

Odd Thomas (2014)

8/10

            The trailer to this is god awful.

            I kind of loved "Odd Thomas".  It is the sort of thing I would write (though, you know, markedly better) with a super sarcastic and self aware tone, coupled with a supernatural mystery that is tight and works. It is like "John Dies at the End" but with a better budget. I am so sad that do to legal troubles the movie will not be a franchise, but it makes me want to read the novels (which I found wonderful, thru the whole movie I kept saying to myself "this dialogue sounds like it was lifted from a novel", and I was right).

            The stakes of the conflict consistently raise, the effects are cool, and even in the context of a small town the locations of conflict vary considerably: Pool Party, junk yard, abandoned prison, mall, dinner, Church, etc.  It is cool.  Best comparisons I can make would be to "Jack Reacher" and "Constantine".

Shit poster. I do like that Anton Yelchin is becoming a big wheel in genre movies (Star Trek, Fright Night).

Oldboy (American version; 2013)

?/10

            This god damn thing has me confused.  I appreciate it on a technical level, though I have no affection for director Spike Lee so I am unsure how much of the credit should go to him.  Especially since I have heard this movie is so similar to what it is remaking.  It is one of the hardest R movies I have seen in a while with graphic violence, hard language, issues of substance abuse, and a LOT of sexual abuse.  I feel people should watch it because it looks pretty, and has some interesting ideas.  That being said... I kind of hated the story and I can only really explain why by making this section of the review full of spoilers for the movie, and a lot of the movie is built on a twist, so if you don't want it spoiled feel free to go watch the movie.  If I had to compare it to something, "The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" because of the subject matter, and a similar unfulfilling twist ending ("Girl" was considerably better in overall plot), but a good technical side.  I should also say that there is a lot of good acting on the part of Elizabeth Olsen and Josh Brolin.

            Spoilers: The movie starts with an alcoholic businessman failing to land a client because he is a douche, not going to his daughter's birthday because he had to try and land a client, and then getting kidnapped.  He finds himself in a cell made to look like a motel room, with only the TV and regular deliveries of Chinese food to keep him company.  There he learns of the murder of his wife and that he is the open and shut suspect in the investigation, DNA evidence having been taken from him and planted at the crime scene.  He then spends the next 20 years in his cell trying to better himself, watching martial arts shows, training, and writing letters to his daughter that he plans to deliver upon his escape.  Then he is let go.

            He is then told by a mysterious voice to solve the mystery of his imprisonment and in return he will receive wealth and the means to secure his freedom and innocence in the murder of his wife.  Along the way he gets help from an old friend who owns a bar, a young nurse, and people from his past.  Turns out the vastly rich and powerful man who is responsible for his imprisonment was the brother of a woman the protagonist had bullied in school.  The Protagonist had reviled a family secret that had so shamed the whole clan that it led the patriarch to try to kill everyone, and only failed to kill the son.  This is because the son, much like the daughter had been in a long running incestuous relationship with the father and blamed the murder spree on the shame of the protagonist's revelation.  Honestly as far as motivations go it makes evil-sense even if it is not the logic of healthy Earth minds.

            But then the movie goes crazy.  The villain, as part of his ultimate revenge, reveals the full scope of his manipulations, that the young love interest of the protagonist, a woman he has already slept with, is the protagonist's daughter.  The protagonist then begs to be murdered while the villain kills himself, after that the protagonist gives his wealth and a letter to the daughter not explaining things, and then has himself locked up in the motel cells again.

            Here is the thing, this plan is just too elaborate and doesn't really make sense.  The villain sees the incest his father was committing as a perfectly healthy expression of affection, and only blames the protagonist for the public shame he cast on the family, so ultimately the plan results in the protagonist feeling private shame and being free of the societal scrutiny... See how that is backwards?  If the bad guy doesn't see anything wrong with incest, how can getting someone to commit incest a revenge?  Really, the plan should be to reveal to the protagonist his ideas that incest is okay, have the protagonist agree, and then reveal this to the public so he has to live with the same public shame, like the villain's family did.

            What is more, this movie takes place (this version) in the American South, incest is not quite as stigmatized, especially accidental incest.  It is pretty clear this is not the raping or indoctrination of a child into a sexual relationship, but the result of a massive misunderstanding... So a lot of blame is off the characters, it could be that the protagonist would be able to come to terms with it, and while sparing the daughter the confliction of it, breaks off the relationship like he did in the movie but not punishing himself (he was imprisoned for 20 years, I think he paid his dues ahead of time).

            Then there is the deity like levels of manipulation that the villain is able to accomplish.  His plan could have failed 10,000 times, at one point the protagonist is fighting 2 dozen people all of which are armed with the intent of killing him, he makes it out (with a bowie knife in his back).  If the protagonist had died, or been rendered comatose by trauma, would the bad guy have just shrugged his shoulders and forgot the 20 year tantric revenge plot?  What if the daughter had just died in car accident when she was 12?  What if the father and daughter not been attracted to one another?  What if the protagonist had just bothered to Google anything having to do with himself to instantly dispel one of the key plot points of what was happening?  It breaks credulity, keeping me from enjoying the movie.  Also, I kind of saw it coming, so..."bleh".

            In conclusion:

            Technical stuff = Great

            Story = Bleh

Lame poster.  But better.