ghost-9

IMDb member since June 2001
    Lifetime Total
    50+
    IMDb Member
    22 years

Reviews

Mean Guns
(1997)

Movie inspired Battle Royale
Mean Guns came out a couple of years before the script for Battle Royale was written and it seems to me the movies are TOO similar to be coincidence. I'm really surprized no one seems to have connected them! And then Battle Royale went on to inspire Kill Bill and more closely, The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games almost seems like a loose remake of Battle Royale. Anyway, without Mean Guns you might not have had the movie Battle Royale and without Battle Royale we wouldn't have the Hunger Games. Yea, I know the writer of the Hunger Games says she never heard of Battle Royal but few of us really believe that.

8 Murders a Day
(2011)

Documentary about an important subject that could have been better.
8 Murders a Day jumped out at me as an important documentary about an important subject, the drug war and the problem with the cartels and corruption in Mexico. It falls short though, adds very little in the way of facts and information, contains mostly very blurry footage and a repetitive soundtrack, and soundtrack is stretching it, the same sound loop is played over and over throughout the documentary even through the final credits. This causes the movie to be especially boring and although one isn't supposed to enjoy this movie about atrocities, it is very distracting. Yes, legalizing drugs in the U.S. would put the cartels out of business and probably stop most of the violence on both sides of the borders, but because leaders get so much money and power from it on both sides of the border, it isn't likely to ever happen. People in positions of power like the status quo and will fight any efforts to change it.

Year One
(2009)

Blasphemy and Atheistic world view poorly disguised as comedy....
I only gave this movie a 2 instead of a 1 because IMDb moderates extremely low and extremely high scores. Year One, while looking like a spoof on Quest for Fire, 1000000 Years B.C. and other "prehistoric" movies is just a painfully blasphemous and sacrilegious movie making fun of the Bible and Judaism with the primary theme being that it's a sham and people should make their own destiny because God and religion are just made up ideas to control people with. A typical blasphemy in the film, Jack Black refers to his privates as the "holy of holies" in one scene that should be particularly reprehensible to mainstream America, regardless of your religious or anti-religious persuasion because it isn't funny, it's disrespectful. Then, there is the poor writing, poor acting, and generally juvenile hi jinks usually associated with Jack Black films (excepting King Kong, which was excellent).

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
(2008)

Good movie, we need more movies like this!
While in some parts of this movie, they treat the word "creationist" as if it were a dirty word, somewhat like the treatment of a "conspiracy theorist", when, in simple fact, if you believe God created life, then you are a Creationist, period. So since most people claim to believe this, then Creationist should not be an insulting title to anyone, whether layman or member of the "scientific community". The fact that this documentary has a low rating is most likely because of people who haven't seen it, rating it based on how they feel about the creation/evolution debate. I notice that instead of critiquing the movie, most people want to critique Darwinism or Creationism here. Ben Stein has made an important and entertaining movie about people being unfair, closed-minded, elitist, and in some cases, hypocritical. This is an important movie and I hope many people will see it and give the topics presented a great deal of thought. The amount of contempt and animosity that this topic stirs up in people almost makes you wonder if there is some diabolical force behind people that desperately wants them to believe there is no God.

The Girl Next Door
(2007)

Feels like a kick in the gut-ouch! We cried.
While the movie should not be banned, I think it should come with a strong warning on the DVD box as some people not familiar with writers like Jack Ketchum, Edward Lee, and Charlee Jacob, might not know what they are in for, as these are some of the most hardcore writers getting published today, they are known for writing very explicit, visceral horror that makes Stephen King look like a pussycat in comparison, (no offense, Mr. King, we love your work!)

I've enjoyed reading the comments for this movie, and I see from reading these that the movie affected other viewers much as it affected my wife and I. Wow, this is really a nasty, vicious story and hard to watch. Unlike some horror movies where you might laugh at the killer, i.e. Freddy Krueger or even root for him, like the lovable killer Christian Slater played in Heathers or the girl in American Psycho 2, or perhaps the charismatic Hannibal Lector, this is really a grueling torture movie where the victim is particularly helpless and as many reviewers have pointed out, children are taught to torture and to enjoy it, which makes it very subversive (and realistic), indeed. I think it relates to current events as well, and addresses the questions of the morality of torture in an excellent fashion. While humans are not the only species that tortures(ever seen a cat play with a mouse)we are the ones who should know better. The way this builds in a slow fashion leaves us almost like the frog in the water which is slowly heated on the stove. Before we know it, we're boiled.

Pathfinder
(2007)

Loved this movie!!!
Sure Pathfinder is dumb in places. I don't have any spoilers but pointing out some things to look for. The movie seems to have borrowed most of it's story from other movies. It's quite a bit like Dances with Wolves, with a bit of Rambo thrown in. It seems to borrow the ice scene from King Arthur. The sledding scene that everyone thinks is so funny goes on and on. Some people have asked where he learned to use his sword but the movie shows him practicing with it. Besides, we see no fancy swordplay in this movie, it's just hacking and slashing for all your worth. Of course, this is a formula picture in which one person takes on an army by himself basically but there are a few surprises thrown in and some failures that you might not expect from a heroic fantasy. I really liked this movie in spite of its goofiness. My wife absolutely hated it and wouldn't quit squirming in her seat. It's not a chick flick by any stretch of the imagination. Why did I give it a 10 then? Because artistically it's in a class all by itself. Never have the villains looked cooler or crueler than in this movie. Though Conan and 300 are tons better than this movie, no other movie I've ever seen has better looking villains. This look like Vikings from your worst nightmare. Both beautiful, demonic and seemingly invincible. Also their armored horses look absolutely stunning. This is Frazetta brought to life. You just have to see it to believe it. They look great throughout but be forewarned, you've seen the story before, many times, in many films. Silly but artistically wonderful and I just loved it.

300
(2006)

Beautiful movie, one of the best.
I've seen thousands of movies, if not tens of thousands of movies in my lifetime and this was artistic, thoughtful, well-acted and very exciting. Though we all know the movie makers took artistic liberties with the historical authenticity of the subject matter (as is done with all historical movies, even those that try to stay as true as possible to historical fact), even considered as a work of fantasy, this is an excellent one. Like some epic tale out of Heavy Metal magazine, the imagery here is not to be missed. This is surely one of the best war movies ever made and I would go as far as saying that it is one of the best movies ever. The action is fast-paced and reminiscent of most modern action movies. The dialog is well-written though I'll admit, a couple of lines were cliché. But the style and beautiful imagery more than make up for this movies few short-comings, an easy 10/10.

Autumn Born
(1979)

Beautiful Dorthy Stratten!
It's really much too bad that Dorthy Stratten, who was probably one of the prettiest females to grace this planet, wasn't around longer to make more and better movies. We are left with Galaxina and Autumn Born, the former being the much better known of her two movies. This movie Autumn Born is good at what it is, which, in addition to being a "sexploitation" movie, is almost a perfect, text-book account of how to brainwash someone. Though certainly an unpleasant subject, people should realize that this is a real technique that is used upon unwilling people to cause them to be subjective to other people "the masters". It's a fairly well-made film, for a low-budget feature and one of the only two movies you'll find Dorthy Stratten in, so if your a Stratten fan or interested in brainwashing, then go for it.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
(2006)

Very brutal movie!!
They made a continuously brutal movie and must have skirted that beloved R rating very closely. I think that's the explanation for why you didn't see more actual cannibalism and stuff. They probably opted not to show you his childhood torment and abuse because it might have caused you to feel some sympathy for him and instead they just wanted you to see him as a source of nightmares, a bad-ass killing machine. I think it could have been a stronger, better movie, but it's hard to imagine they could have made it much bleaker, or more sadistic or brutal. I really hope audiences know what they are getting into when they go to see this movie. They are setting themselves up for a little PTSD when they leave the theater! This is bound to happen, with the current influence of the "anything goes" Asian horror cinema, the movies like SAW, HOSTEL, WOLF CREEK, THE CELL and High Tension all competing to see who can make the most sadistic, most brutal movies, and those aforementioned movies having to compete with the crimes witnessed weekly on CSI and the nightly news. So movies will continue to try to break new ground in trying to disturb audiences which will in turn cause audiences to become more jaded to those kinds of crimes and violence. Ermey provides the films much-needed comic relief in small but effective doses and barely keeps this from being one long fake snuff film. Still it does violence well/but jaded horror fans may feel cheated because they kept it down to a R rating, when we are really talking X rated type violence here.

City of Rott
(2006)

while this is amazing for a one man show......
Frank Sudol has done an incredible job of making an animated movie by himself and it looks somewhat reminiscent of a Cannibal Corpse cover throughout. I was initially attracted to Sudol's artistic style but quickly became bored because of the repetitiveness of the movie. While this would have been fine as a 5 or 10 minute short, there just wasn't enough story to fill a movie length feature and it became almost unbearably boring to watch. I'm sure there will be those that watched it with friends and maybe under the influence of chemicals, they will have found it to be hilarious or entertaining but as I watched it sober and alone, I really felt it needed to have been a short feature only.

Subject Two
(2006)

excellent "little" movie
I love this kind of movie and this one is really good. I only gave it a 8/10, because I think, for the climax, they should have had something that would really blow your socks off. I hope they make a sequel. It was a little like THE TRUE STORY OF FRANKENSTEIN and just a little like the REANIMATOR but a fine film by itself. I may have rated it a little high because I love zombie movies but this is one of the better ones in that genre. It brings out some points and ideas about this that have not been explored in any great detail in previous zombie movies. And with recent breakthroughs in medical technology, this film is a very timely one.

Ultraviolet
(2006)

This movie is just way ahead of it's time.
This movie is just way ahead of it's time. Some of the action and effects seem ridiculous because it's so futuristic but many of the things we enjoy today would have seemed utterly outlandish to people in the 1880's. Now I will give any movie a ten/ten that has Milla Jovovich in it but I didn't enjoy this one as much as the Resident Evil movies. I'm a zombie man, myself but this is a lavishly colored, beautiful movie with good special effects and I'm glad I finally took the time to watch it. If it didn't have Milla in it, I'd have given it a 7 because some of the visual effects didn't work, I've seen more dramatic and more exciting movies and because the soundtrack sounds so much like the soundtrack to Robocop that it seems almost plagerized. But Milla makes any movie a ten.

Satanic
(2006)

Not too bad.
I liked this DVD and feel like it is better than people are giving it credit for. Not a bad story, the acting is fine and the effects are brief but well done. Nothing special here but better than most straight-to-video horror features. The couple that runs the halfway house are a hoot and unfortunately a fairly realistic duo. I found a few laugh-out-loud moments in the video and the catch at the end which I can't reveal here mirrors a recent real-life event. Wonderful to see horror greats Jeffery Combs and Angus Scrimm in this. Would love to see them in more horror movies. They are under-used here but still do a great job in their roles.

Wedding Crashers
(2005)

Just another formula romantic comedy....
I kindly gave this a 7/10 because it was cute and funny in places. I chuckled a few times. The actors in the film are fairly top notch comedians. There are attractive females in the film. The best actors are under-used with the exception of Vaughn. If you watch many movies, you will probably feel like I did, and that is that I'd already seen it a hundred times before because it really follows that romantic comedy formula, the one where the good-hearted con man finally meets the woman of his dreams but he's been such a jerk that he has to clean up his act or come clean so he can woo her. Nothing is really rotten about this movie. Nothing is really great about it either. Would I have watched it if my wife didn't rent it, no. Would I watch it again, no.

BloodRayne
(2005)

Not as bad as everyone says
Or maybe it is, but it was still entertaining enough that I didn't feel like leaving the theater like I did in House of the Dead. Since there are no firearms in this movie Uwe Boll really couldn't screw it up as bad as some of his previous movies. While I'm not a fan, I think it was as entertaining as most movies of this ilk, such as Deathstalker, Blade 3, and most modern remakes. I enjoyed Billy Zane's silly performance and above that, Michael Madsen looked like he was going to roll his eyes after every line. Ben Kingsley is still a fine actor, even after being in this movie. Michelle Rodriguez looks delicious as always. I enjoyed seeing her in this. I enjoyed the bloody fight scenes and the vampiric sets. It was a fairly good-humored movie. I can 100% assure you that this isn't one of the 100 worst movies of all time. I can understand that people hate Uwe Boll and deservedly so but this is pretty typical b-movie swashbuckling fare. Nothing really great here but nothing really terrible either. I mean we're not talking about Gone With the Wind here or American Beauty. This is a video game movie and I liked it better than either of the Mortal Kombat movies, which should have been bloodier like this. Well, I hate to find myself defending this movie but it's more fun than most of the reviewers are saying.

Devour
(2005)

A fairly good occult thriller.
This is a fairly good occult thriller in the tradition of THE OMEN and ROSEMARY'S BABY. I thought it was a little like BRAINSCAN and THE DUNWITCH HORROR with a slight Lovecraftian feel to it. It was better than many of the low budget offerings in this genre. I felt they could have done a little more with it and the ending but it was satisfactory. The acting was fine and the story kept my interest. I think it is also a little like the books by EDWARD LEE which I really enjoy. I rented this DVD because it has Dominique Swain in it, who I think of as the new LOLITA, but I was pleasantly surprised that the movie kept my attention all the way through. The acting is fine, along with the story, soundtract, cinematography etc. It has the feeling of an A movie.

Frankenstein Reborn
(2005)

I could have enjoyed this movie if it weren't for the sound.
This would have been a nice low-budget horror movie. I enjoyed Rhett Giles rendition of the good doctor. Only thing that bothered me was during the dialog, the score would annoyingly drown it out. I kept having to turn the sound up and down and I still couldn't catch all of what was said. Movie makers take note, please add English subtitles so we can read the dialog if we can't hear it over the crappy score. Whoever did the sound for that movie should never be allowed to mix again! Other than the lousy sound, the actors did fine and were believable enough (except for that part with the little girl not being scared!) for a horror movie. The violence and gore were over the top, the way I like it and the monster looked just great! I wish more of the Frankensteins looked as good as he did. Please, if you otherwise have an OK movie, don't ruin it with bad sound and do add subtitles.

Feeding the Masses
(2004)

Just misses but still interesting and entertaining enough
This is a worthy effort for a low-budget zombie film. Out of dozens of such films this one has some entertaining moments and food for thought(no pun intended). Rarely is this social commentary hilarious and in places it seems a little repetitive. My main criticism of this film is that in too many scenes the zombies just have a little makeup on their faces and are wearing clean clothes with normal clean arms and necks etc. They look no way as good as the one on the video camera. The weapons and uniforms used in the film are certainly not current military issue. Also the eyes of the "zombies" look perfectly normal. There's no attempt to disguise them with contacts. There is a fairly decent story and plot. The acting is pretty believable. What more could you ask from a low-budget horror movie? I would've beefed up the makeup a little bit and I think you'd almost have a classic here. Militias are made to look stupid in this film but so is the government so I guess that balances things out. I hope to see more and better films like this.

The Last Man
(2000)

Cute, neat, sad, funny low-budget, thought-provoking flick.
I watched this with my wife tonight and she couldn't understand why they would choose to live in a mobile home in the desert if they were the last people alive and could live anywhere they wanted. I said it was his home and he had all his stuff there. Also, whatever killed everyone might be more prevalent in the cities and the cities would reek of death. Your average home might have at least 3 or 4 bodies decaying in them which would leave most neighborhoods smelling pretty bad. And water and electrical services would tend to stop fairly soon after the collapse. But we all know that it was an inexpensive set and being out there, you didn't have to worry about people stumbling on to the set or planes flying by. I enjoy these kinds of movies with Vincent Prices' THE LAST MAN ON THE EARTH, and ON THE BEACH being dismal masterpieces about the end of civilization as we know it.

THE LAST MAN is more light-hearted than most of these types of films and the psychology here is good and believable, though the effects of being the last man are far better shown in the aforementioned films. This was a fun and intellectual waste of ninety minutes and better than most of the mindless drivel on t.v. like Big Brother, Blind Date and other crap programming that seems all the rage these days.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare
(1994)

A certain implausibility factors into this.
Spoilers Now, the basic premise of this story being that all the people who watch the Friday movies believing in Freddy in their subconscious caused him to come into being in reality. The idea is flawed as you will see. If this were possible, we'd have a real King Kong, a real Godzilla, Frankenstein, Jaws, Darth Vader, ALIEN etc. walking around because numerous people were thinking of them. Now, while this might be cool, it is completely inconceivable and shows the Freddy writers were running out of good stories.

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
(1988)

This is my personal favorite of the Friday series
This is sort of a JASON meets CARRIE. It was nice to see someone besides Tommy give Jason a good fight. There are few of these in the series. A neat movie with a neat ending. I enjoy rewatching this one more than all the rest of the Jason movies. I hope to see Jason fight Michael Meyers or Leatherface in a theater soon! hehehe

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
(1985)

awesome, at least the second best Friday
I liked this and thought Tommy was really cool in it. I also liked the aspect of nothing in the film being supernatural. This is the only one since the first in which (spoilers) Jason kills no one. This is also the only one besides the first one in which nothing supernatural happens giving us a break from the perhaps overused "unstoppable zombie killer" routine that is used in both the Friday series and the Halloween series. I like both kinds of movies but this was a nice diversion from the norm. The copycat killer story makes a nice intermission in the Jason series and is perfectly plausible in the Crystal Lake mythology. It certainly adds interests to the series.

House of the Dead
(2003)

Worst movie since TERROR TOONS
SPOILER ALERT-Based on a good video game that had good art and graphics, this movie managed to disappoint me on almost every level. The opening credits start with footage taken from the game with a "find edges" filter so that it is an almost indistinguishable, psychedelic mess. It would have been more interesting to have shown unadulterated footage from the game to show off some of the great art to people who aren't familiar with the games. Instead they do this in half-second clips inbetween scenes in the movie which is both cheesy and distracting. Or I could say it's stupid and unbelievably annoying but it really is all of these things. The bad acting we could put up with in zombie movies but the bad editing only accentuates the bad acting. Now, if this movie was supposed to take place on an island off of Florida, it looked more like Alaska. Young adults in their mid-twenties are going to a Sega-sponsored rave on the mysterious Island of Death out in the middle of nowhere. Does Sega really sponser raves on islands in the middle of nowhere? If so, you'd be way better off to skip this movie and go to the rave instead. The wealthy youngsters arrive 15 minutes late and so they pay a weirdo and his rather menacing captain a thousand dollars for a boat ride to this rave party. They argue over this instead of finding someone else to take them. This is supposed to be a bay in Florida, I guess boats were very hard to find there. The captain whose name is Kirk turns out to be one of the most enjoyable characters in this unenjoyable show. They give him a few hundred more dollars to run away from the Coast Guard. Now once they make it to the island, they find bloody clothes at the rave and no one else is around. This doesn't strike them as too odd so they quickly split up to explore and become zombie bait. Apparently, people have been disappearing by the dozens over the years on the island of death but this has never been investigated by the authorities. Captain Kirk temporarily saves the day by having a hidden arsenal on his boat. Now, the editing in the fight scenes with the zombies is atrocious and includes lots of multiple angle spin-arounds and slow motion with poorly made-up zombies which aren't frightening in the least. By this point I wanted to leave but since my family was watching another movie, I was stuck in this golden turkey to the bitter, boring end. There is an interesting lab where zombies are made but it is far too late in the film to add much interest. It's like spitting off the Titanic to keep it from sinking so fast. I love zombie movies but this sucked and it gives an already questionable genre a worse name. I give it a generous 3/10.

Freddy vs. Jason
(2003)

This was one of the better ones, like a bloody, warner bros. cartoon
This is one of the better ones of late. Nice cgi violence make this like a bloody, warner bros. cartoon. Nice looking cast but the acting is nothing special. Freddy is especially nasty this time around but doesn't have many funny lines. As usual, there is a very loose continuity with the rest of the series. A fun way to waste an hour and a half. Better than watching t.v. for the most part. But what are those little red dots I kept seeing on the screen that look like a Predators targeting lasers? Now bring on Michael Myers and Leatherface!

Bowling for Columbine
(2002)

documentary is interesting but doesn't tell whole story
This is an entertaining documentary film. You won't be sorry you watched it. You won't feel like you wasted your time. I would like to have seen the whole interview with Nichols. Like in the documentary, WACO:THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, the way the film is edited leaves one wondering if perhaps what is left out was meaningful as well. Guns can be a deadly nuisance in the hands of the wrong people and the lack of gun safety can always lead to deadly tragedies however, the right to keep and bear arms helps to secure freedom in this country, and, as a matter of fact, there is no right to self-defense without the right to keep and bear arms. Millions were killed in the twentieth century in countries where the people could not own weapons or defend themselves. Does it make sense to sacrifice freedom or millions to save thousands? Now, much of the film is poiniant and much of it needs to be heard and pondered. I enjoyed it and found it educational. I agree with much of it. I don't think Kmart or anyone else should stop selling guns or ammo, but I certainly wouldn't sell them to anyone under 21 like the Kmart does in the film. I recommend this film but it saddens me that many will not see that it tells an incomplete story that might lead many to false conclusions. 4/10 (good for a documentary)

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