Don't Breathe (2016)
Don't Breathe is another entry into the R rated horror genre, one that seems to be on an upswing, at least financially speaking. Made for only 10 million dollars, and having already grossed over 66 million, this movie is definitely a financial success. If you add in the international box office, it has made about 90 million. Definitely a nice haul for a new R rated horror film, which is good for those of us that like our horror a bit more bloody, dirty or boob filled.
For the few of you that haven't seen the trailer or heard, this movie is about 3 young people in a rough town who decide to rob a blind guy of his money. They figure it would be really easy since he's blind, so they bust in and try to rob him. Needless to say, he may be blind but he is not disabled, so he decides to terrorize them.
Let me get this out right now. I WANTED to like this film, I really did. But there are a few key things in this film that almost guaranteed that I wouldn't. First, we have the three young people who are basically robbing a blind guy. This does not make you sympathize with them in any way, no matter what their back stories are, or their reasons for wanting a blind guy's money. Second, we have the blind guy, who is not exactly a sympathetic character for reasons I will not disclose, since it has to do with some of the deeper plot points and twists. Third, we have the three thieves who, while battling the blind guy, do not use any brains or intelligence at all when trying to figure out how to get out of there. As someone who grew up on Helen Keller jokes, we all know there are multiple ways to fuck with a blind person, the most simple being to rearrange the furniture. Blind people expect things to be in the same place at all times. Move a chair, throw some shit down on the floor. There were so many options that were not taken advantage of it was shocking.
You see, many of the classic horror films have you rooting for both the bad guy AND the good guy(s), like in some of the Nightmare On Elm Street series. While you like Freddy, you also root for the teens fighting him. You also get teens who are smart, able, and have their wits about them. They make plans, try things out, come up with new ones when the old ones don't work. In Don't Breathe the blind guy is not very likable, and the kids are not very bright. Not much to root for in that bunch.
Even if you do get behind one of them, for whatever reason, they never really prove their worth by making smart decisions during the movie. They just keep doing the same stupid shit over and over, without any forethought at all. It makes you feel like they deserve everything they get.
Now, it is not like this film has nothing going for it, in fact, it has multiple positive points. It is shot really well, even in the scenes where it is dark and hard to tell what exactly is going on. They give you the illusion of it being pitch black without making you struggle to see things. This is a huge issue in many other movies, one they avoided completely here. Overall the cinematography is top notch, and I was impressed with it.
The actors were fine, my issues were mostly with the writers and how they wrote the motivations of the characters. But everyone played their parts well, there was no stand out terrible actor ruining this movie. I read that a bunch of them had worked on the Evil Dead remake, so I guess that helped.
There were some surprises in the movie, some plot twists which were interesting, and at times amusing. I was thankful they didn't spoil any of them in the trailers I had seen, so they were actually a surprise to me.
All in all this was a movie I wanted to like, but ended up feeling unsatisfied as I left the theater, never a good feeling when seeing a horror movie. Needless to say, many people did enjoy this movie, for one reason or another, so I might be in the minority in my view.
By the way, I saw this at one of the Dolby Atmos theaters, and boy was I impressed! It was so much better than the 4DX experience I suffered through a few months back. I really want to see other films in this theater, to see if it holds up over multiple films.
6 out of 10 stars.
Location : AMC Empire 25 , theater 8, NYC
Date and time : Wednesday, August 31st, 2016 at 8 PM
Format : DCP in Dolby Atmos
Audience : about 40 people
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
The Screwfly Solution - Masters Of Horror (2006 episode)
The Screwfly Solution - Masters Of Horror
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
Normally I would not review an episode of a TV show here, but since this was shown in his retrospective and I did bother to go to a theater to watch it (since it was free and I had already seen the last movie), I felt it appropriate to do a quick review on each of the 2 episodes they showed. The Screwfly Solution was the 7th episode of season 2 of the Showtime anthology horror series called Masters Of Horror. Each one hour episode would bring in another horror director to create a standalone episode. This episode revolved around the spread of attacks on women by men, at first seeming to be some weird religious thing, then possibly a virus.
Once again art is being imitated by life as disease after disease is being spread, like SARS or Zika, threatening many humans in the world. Will one disease just affect men and make them kill women one day? Who know, but let's hope not.
This episode was not as good as the last one, but was still enjoyable, especially since it had both Elliott Gould and Jason Priestly in it. I am a fan of Elliott Gould in general, and of course I have some residual love for Jason Priestly due to my love of Beverly Hills 90210 from back in the day. For me, seeing these episodes on the big screen, rather than on my computer or TV at home makes a huge difference, as I like to be in a dark room with no distractions, and that just cannot happen at home.
7 out of 10 stars.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 9:30 PM
Format : DCP
Audience : 17 people (3 people left between episodes)
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
Normally I would not review an episode of a TV show here, but since this was shown in his retrospective and I did bother to go to a theater to watch it (since it was free and I had already seen the last movie), I felt it appropriate to do a quick review on each of the 2 episodes they showed. The Screwfly Solution was the 7th episode of season 2 of the Showtime anthology horror series called Masters Of Horror. Each one hour episode would bring in another horror director to create a standalone episode. This episode revolved around the spread of attacks on women by men, at first seeming to be some weird religious thing, then possibly a virus.
Once again art is being imitated by life as disease after disease is being spread, like SARS or Zika, threatening many humans in the world. Will one disease just affect men and make them kill women one day? Who know, but let's hope not.
This episode was not as good as the last one, but was still enjoyable, especially since it had both Elliott Gould and Jason Priestly in it. I am a fan of Elliott Gould in general, and of course I have some residual love for Jason Priestly due to my love of Beverly Hills 90210 from back in the day. For me, seeing these episodes on the big screen, rather than on my computer or TV at home makes a huge difference, as I like to be in a dark room with no distractions, and that just cannot happen at home.
7 out of 10 stars.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 9:30 PM
Format : DCP
Audience : 17 people (3 people left between episodes)
Monday, September 5, 2016
Homecoming - Masters Of Horror episode (2005) review
Homecoming - Masters Of Horror episode (2005)
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
Normally I would not review an episode of a TV show here, but since this was shown in his retrospective and I did bother to go to a theater to watch it (since it was free and I had already seen the last movie), I felt it appropriate to do a quick review on each of the 2 episodes they showed. Homecoming was the 6th episode in Masters Of Horror, a Showtime horror anthology show that would bring in a horror director to produce a one hour episode. This one in particular dealt with zombies and politics, and although that may seem a bit odd, many zombie movies have political and social issues being dealt with in a zombie crisis.
The basic plot is that it is an election year (just like now!) and the George Bush type candidate has a new problem on his hands. Soldiers have come back from the dead, and they want to vote. It seems that something that a speech writer said on a talk show set this premise in motion, and the speech writer and an Ann Coulter type try and figure out how to deal with this.
Watching this during an election year where Trump is running made the politics of this episode even more funny, and timely. In fact, the whole thing was ridiculous in that way when the real world seems to mirror what writers wrote 10 years before.
While this would not be up there in my must see horror or even zombie things, it was an entertaining hour which amused me in the way that Joe Dante tends to do. I preferred this one over the other episode he directed, which I will review next.
7 out of 10 stars.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 9:30 PM
Format : DCP
Audience : 20 people
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
Normally I would not review an episode of a TV show here, but since this was shown in his retrospective and I did bother to go to a theater to watch it (since it was free and I had already seen the last movie), I felt it appropriate to do a quick review on each of the 2 episodes they showed. Homecoming was the 6th episode in Masters Of Horror, a Showtime horror anthology show that would bring in a horror director to produce a one hour episode. This one in particular dealt with zombies and politics, and although that may seem a bit odd, many zombie movies have political and social issues being dealt with in a zombie crisis.
The basic plot is that it is an election year (just like now!) and the George Bush type candidate has a new problem on his hands. Soldiers have come back from the dead, and they want to vote. It seems that something that a speech writer said on a talk show set this premise in motion, and the speech writer and an Ann Coulter type try and figure out how to deal with this.
Watching this during an election year where Trump is running made the politics of this episode even more funny, and timely. In fact, the whole thing was ridiculous in that way when the real world seems to mirror what writers wrote 10 years before.
While this would not be up there in my must see horror or even zombie things, it was an entertaining hour which amused me in the way that Joe Dante tends to do. I preferred this one over the other episode he directed, which I will review next.
7 out of 10 stars.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 9:30 PM
Format : DCP
Audience : 20 people
Saturday, September 3, 2016
His Kind Of Woman (1951) movie review
His Kind Of Woman (1951)
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
This night's double feature was sort of a triple feature. First up was His Kind Of Woman, followed by two episodes of Masters Of Horror, both directed by Joe Dante. His Kind Of Woman is a slightly bizarre film. It has a great cast, with Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Jim Backus, Raymond Burr, and to top it off, Vincent Price! Here Vincent Price plays a rare non horror character, instead, playing a egomaniac actor who is in love with himself.
The plot, which is more than a bit convoluted, has to do with a mob guy who has fled to Italy and is not allowed back in the US. He concocts a scheme to get back into the US, and that's where Robert Mitchum's character comes in. Robert Mitchum is offered money to go to a resort in Mexico, and hang around for a while. He is told he won't be able to come back for a year or so, but he gets $50,000 in return for this. He takes the offer as he is broke, and on the way he meets a woman, played by Jane Russell. When they get to the resort, he meets Jim Backus, a rich real estate guy who is also a gambler. There is also Vincent Price, an actor who Jane Russell is trying to get back together with, even though he is still married. All the while Robert Mitchum doesn't REALLY know what's going on, but he keeps trying to find out anyways.
Now, this is where I will stop with the plot, except to mention there are like 5 more sub plots, and the whole thing is a bit of a mess. To be honest, the whole film is a mess, in so many ways. While Mia Farrow's father John Farrow is listed as the director, after he finished shooting the film and went home, Howard Hughes, the millionaire producer of the film, decided to bring in Richard Fleischer to shoot a couple extra scenes, and supposedly he re-shot much of the film.
So while the movie starts off like many typical noir films, it slowly turns into a noir comedy of sorts, partially intentionally, due to Vincent Price taking over the film by the end, and partially by mistake, with scenes that run way too long, or are just ridiculous. And while all this nonsense and silliness was going on, I was oddly enough loving the results! At 2 hours long, this one IS a bit too long, and shaving off 15-30 minutes would have made a much tighter and more enjoyable movie, but the is one where the sum of the parts equals more than it should.
All in all I really enjoyed this uneven mess, and suggest anyone who enjoys entertaining train wrecks to try and catch this movie when it plays.
8 out of 10 stars.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 7 PM
Format : 16mm
Audience : about 40 people
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
This night's double feature was sort of a triple feature. First up was His Kind Of Woman, followed by two episodes of Masters Of Horror, both directed by Joe Dante. His Kind Of Woman is a slightly bizarre film. It has a great cast, with Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Jim Backus, Raymond Burr, and to top it off, Vincent Price! Here Vincent Price plays a rare non horror character, instead, playing a egomaniac actor who is in love with himself.
The plot, which is more than a bit convoluted, has to do with a mob guy who has fled to Italy and is not allowed back in the US. He concocts a scheme to get back into the US, and that's where Robert Mitchum's character comes in. Robert Mitchum is offered money to go to a resort in Mexico, and hang around for a while. He is told he won't be able to come back for a year or so, but he gets $50,000 in return for this. He takes the offer as he is broke, and on the way he meets a woman, played by Jane Russell. When they get to the resort, he meets Jim Backus, a rich real estate guy who is also a gambler. There is also Vincent Price, an actor who Jane Russell is trying to get back together with, even though he is still married. All the while Robert Mitchum doesn't REALLY know what's going on, but he keeps trying to find out anyways.
Now, this is where I will stop with the plot, except to mention there are like 5 more sub plots, and the whole thing is a bit of a mess. To be honest, the whole film is a mess, in so many ways. While Mia Farrow's father John Farrow is listed as the director, after he finished shooting the film and went home, Howard Hughes, the millionaire producer of the film, decided to bring in Richard Fleischer to shoot a couple extra scenes, and supposedly he re-shot much of the film.
So while the movie starts off like many typical noir films, it slowly turns into a noir comedy of sorts, partially intentionally, due to Vincent Price taking over the film by the end, and partially by mistake, with scenes that run way too long, or are just ridiculous. And while all this nonsense and silliness was going on, I was oddly enough loving the results! At 2 hours long, this one IS a bit too long, and shaving off 15-30 minutes would have made a much tighter and more enjoyable movie, but the is one where the sum of the parts equals more than it should.
All in all I really enjoyed this uneven mess, and suggest anyone who enjoys entertaining train wrecks to try and catch this movie when it plays.
8 out of 10 stars.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 7 PM
Format : 16mm
Audience : about 40 people
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