Scream 4

After two pretty solid films, the Scream series hit bottom with Part 3. Actually the whole horror genre kind of went downhill in that early 2000's time frame. Ten years after Scream 3 came Scream 4.

Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell ) is back in Woodsboro after ten years to promote her new book in her old town. Ghostface however is back and has struck again killing off a new set of victims.

The film has a difficult task of reviving a series after ten years. It does brings us new cast members and characters from Emma Roberts as Jill Roberts to Hayden Panettiere as Kirby Reed. Some of the old stars are here also including David Arquette and of course Neve Campbell. The actors seem to be giving a pretty good effort but without a good plot which we don't have here, it doesn't matter much. The plot is full of dull antics with poor kill scenes marked by bad gore. The new characters are a little hard to get used to and the movie does have a rather long opening and ending too. The first couple of Scream films were not really scary they could possibly scare someone. That said, if you are scared by this one, you don't what scary is.

While Scream 4 is marked by flaws and holes, there are some highlights. The new killer is an interesting idea and there is a movie club that felt right up my alley. Also a couple of party scenes felt like the good old Scream films were back.


I know people still love this stuff but to me the Scream series is gone and played out. It really has no ideas to it, tries to go over old successes and really feels like something that was just thrown together. The Scream series should have never gotten to this point.

2/5

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Blast Vegas

I have said it before and will say it again, films from Syfy are not my favorite. Most are low budget with bad plots but the bottom line is you know what you are getting going in. These films are not designed for the whole world but instead for a very small audience. Blast Vegas works on this level.

Blast Vegas has a very cheap Vegas vibe going on and involves a group of college kids that head to Las Vegas. They eventually take out a sword in a casino and put it in the ground which set off an ancient curse that causes the entire city of Las Vegas to be attacked.

The plot is full of holes and loose ends but the movie does work as a cheap flick with some ups and downs. The police are nowhere to be seen and there are some cheap storm scenes with awful special effects but it is original and that's what matters to me. The ending is laughable no doubt but Blast Vegas is full of adventure and fun. As usual, Vegas works as a magical town that it is and it is a setting I don't think I will ever get tired of.

As with most Syfy films, many of the actors are actors who's career is in decline. Frankie Muniz from Malcom in the Middle is the lead and plays the same type of offbeat character. Muniz is likable and has a love interest which is not very common for this type of film. He is a nerd who does not fit in but he finds his way. Barry Bostwick plays a cool guy who plays the piano at the casino. Maggie Castle is the love interest even though she's a little stiff here.

As mentioned before, Blast Vegas is a film that is not for all and certainly isn't going to win any awards but it is a fun cheesy movie. I say cheesy in a positive way and frankly this one is better than the recent Syfy hit Sharknado. Call it a mixture of the Hangover and Mummy films.

3/5

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Sharknado

 

 

On July 11, Sharkndo made it's debut on the Syfy channel. It was a twitter sensation that had non-stop talk on any film site for days and you could probably call it a cult movie by now. An Asylum film and one of the few types of films I don't follow because we know the lack of quality of these. The films are usually rehashed from popular films like Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies, Snakes on a Train and The Almighty Thor. I do appreciate that a small market film like Sharknado had such a big impact on it's release but it's still a film I can't recommend.

In Los Angles, a hurricane has swept over the city with sharks attacking due to the heavy amounts full of flood water onto land. Restaurant owner Fin Shepherd (Ian Ziering) leads a survival group ready to fight the sharks.

After doing some research, I see that only two storms of this size have hit California since 1900 so this something that really doesn't happen. This is no doubt a original film but science here is awful all the way around. The survival teams are driving around in the floods and police and rescue teams are of course nowhere in sight.

I do enjoy shark movies but I do not find sharks enjoyable when they are shown as green things and obviously the effects are lacking on this low budget film. The budget really doesn't allow any spectacular kill scenes and the action scenes are just not exciting and frankly dull. The ending is lacking and there is no logic here anywhere.

The funny thing about the film is that the cast is pretty good. Lead Ian Ziering who is most known for his tv work is above average, though just barely and that's enough for me for a film like this. American Pie star Tara Reid works but is in the background for most of the film. Long-time actor John Herd has a silly role that is very limited but he does help carry the first act. Though I like the cast members, we still don't care very much about the characters and their development is shallow all the way around.

When it's all said and done, maybe I shouldn't criticize a film that is not supposed to be serious in the first place. Well it might have cheese to it but it's not the type of cheese that produces a lot of good laughs and you can't really have a fun time with it. In some ways it is a film that was made to feel like a real film which it isn't and is one reason it fails for me.

2/5

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The Birds

In many ways, The Birds is quite a strange film. It's got a plot that is very different for the time period let alone now and flaws that would ruin most films. That said, it's still one the finest horror films around. It's 60's horror that still works.

Set in 1963, it has a simple plot involving an island plot getting attacked by killer birds. It was a highly anticipated film for Alfred Hitchcock as it was the next film after his massive hit, Psycho.

Even though common but always to me to be a flaw regardless of the director, is how Hitchcock creates suspense. Set through the first act, he creates an act that makes the film progressively slow and loses touch with these characters and the film is much longer because of this set-up. The leads of Rod Taylor and Jessica Tandy put out good performances that continues on through the later acts and it's career marks for both of them.

 

The film enters what I call it's "legendary style" in the birds scenes. The effects are no doubt showing age close to fifty years in but it is still groundbreaking. From the attacks at the school to it's ending, the horror here is revolutionary with a creepy vibe with 60's blood. These are the type of scenes that create inspiration to come and created one more of a mark in the film world for Hitchcock.

This is not my absolute favorite Hitchcock film nor my favorite horror film but it is still great for the nostalgia, it's purpose and to see one of the greatest filmmakers with another memorable highlight to his career.

4/5

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Machete

You could say I grew up with Robert Rodriguez movies. I've sat through all  of the Spy Kids films when I was little guy. As a pre-teen, I liked the forgotten The Adventures of Shark Girl and Lava Boy and saw it at a drive in. As I got older, Rodriguez' Planet Terror turned into a favorite with Machete coming out in 2010.

Machete follows Machete Cortez (Danny Trejo) on a story set on the Mexican-American border. Machete is a former Mexican Federal who is set up in a complicated plot involving the attempted assassination of a U.S. Senator. An interesting cat and mouse game follows.

The highlights of this movie is the action. As he did with Planet Terror, this movie is shot in grindhouse style that gives off an old style. The atmosphere is different and the cast includes familiar name such as old star Steven Seagal to Lindsay Lohan.

Another highlight of the film has to be Danny Trejo. He's a guy you can say never turns down a role but regardless, he does a good job here. His character has many qualities and Trejo portrays it all very well. A very rough character that's not in Hollywood often.

The big flaw in this movie is the CGI. They are very poor and cheap and the film definitely could have used better effects. Machete also does get around very easily for the character he is. With a film that surrounded by so much though, it's comes as only small flaws.

Machete is a fun solid film that should not be overlooked. While it's not the best film from Rodriguez, nowhere is it the worst either.

4/5

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Rock of Ages

Being born in the 90's, you would expect me to be to listening to current music. Not really though. 80's music and 90's music a little is where it's at for me even though this is not really common for people in my age group. It is music that brought me to where I am now as a teenager and in some ways how I found my friends. That being the case, I really should have liked the 80's - themed musical Rock Of Ages. It appealed to me because of the music but there were many problems that caused me not to like it.

Rock of Ages is set in Los Angles in the 1980's, Sherrie (Julianne Hough) ditches her Oklahoma hometown and family and sets off to LA for a new start. She meets the handsome Drew (Diego Boneta) and a relationship forms with both working at The Bourbon, a rocking bar where rock bands perform. Rocker, Stacee Jaxx ( Tom Cruise) is the main subject in the film and his interactions with Sherrie causes Drew to be distant with her.


Actually you are not going to find a finer collection of 80's music in one piece. You get Journey, The Scorpions, Guns N' Roses and other big names from the 80's but actually this is the main problem with this film. Who really wants to watch an actor who is lip-syncing one of your favorite songs when you know the band who really plays it and you would rather watch them? Also at times the song's rhythm and message don't really fit the story. On the other hand, the atmosphere depicted is pretty wild with good lighting on the stage which makes you want to be there. 


After struggling with the music, the plot is not all that strong either. The story is one of a middle-age person running away where that's not really common. The supporting cast includes Russell Brand who sports a terrible wig and also Paul Giamatti who seems lost here. The lead characters are thin and about as cheesy as they come. Tom Cruise is not very likable and it is hard to follow what he wants or where he's going. There is also a rap idea that added nothing for this film. Further, the main  band here is something called Wolfgang Von Colt and I can't come close to figuring what they are all about.


I am also not sure why this movie was sanitized to give it a PG-13 rating. Drugs and sex were a big part of the 80's music scene and the movie needed more of this to be realistic. The ending is also a little weird with amateurish bands who seems tame and that's dates back to the PG-13 idea.


In short, this movie does not really depict the 80's music scene very well. The setting of the movie is one cheap bar with nothing special to it. The filmmakers just did not show the 80's very well and many more ideas could been used to get the full 80's effect.


Rock Ages is a film that kind of makes me want to listen to 70's or alternative music and makes me forget how much I was into this type of music in the first place. It was that bad for me.

1.5/5

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Monsters University

Since 2011, you could say Pixar films have been a little down. Cars 2 was a poor sequel that struggled with it's story and did not the capture the heart of the original. Brave from 2012 has a solid following but you can  find non-fans of it unlike most other pixar films. This would make you wonder what was left of such a powerful animation company especially when you had a prequel coming in 2013 to a very poular movie Monsters Inc.

Monsters University, prequel to the 2001 movie Monsters Inc, and follows the characters of Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman) during their university days where both of them have dreams of becoming scarier monsters. Their ultimate goal is to work for Monsters Inc. at a job involving scaring kids to provide energy for the city. At Monsters University, they play in some university scare game, interact with the popular monsters and groups at the school and learn how to be friends with each other.

In a way, the film rehashes much of what we have seen before. The lead characters are the same and we know their in's and outs and the university games idea has been played out in other movies like Revenge of the Nerds. Of course, Mike Wazowski and Sulley are characters you can root for with one being a nerd and jock and its should be noted that the voice work solid with both of them all the way through. Mike and Sulley makes us look at what a friendship is all about and can happen regardless of people's different interests and background.

The animation is solid, crisp and on par with previous Pixar films. The scares challenges and games are creative and full of adventures and provide an interesting atmosphere while bringing in new fraternity characters. Through it all, the whole university idea is new and original to the animation world and it really worked here.

While this is not a ground-breaking movie nor Pixar's best, Monsters University is still quite solid. It is a sequel (but as mentioned earlier really a prequel) geared towards the whole family that has a big heart and really works.

4/5

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