The Terror (1963)

It's october and I'm following Cinemassacre's Monster Madness every day, this is where James Rolfe (Angry Video Game Nerd) reviews a horror movie everyday from October 1st until Halloween. He started this back in 2007, he reviewed some of the best horror movies ever made, year after that he did all the Godzilla movies and a year later he did some lesser know horror films but good ones, but this year he is taking out some of the worst best made horror movies ever. We've had fucked up shit like "The Exorcist II", "Robot Monster (see picture), "From Hell it came" wich is about a tree killing peopleAnd now he has also reviewed a movie called "The Terror", it starres Jack Nicholson in one of his earliest films, before he was famous, and horror legend Boris Karloff (Frankenstein 1931) around the end of his career (5 years before his death). The film intrigued me by his cast and the story behind it.
This film was directed by Roger Corman, who was know at the time for some quick and I think shitty movie making, when he finished filming "The Raven" he was 3 days to early, instead of letting that time go to waste, he decides to use those days to film another movie with some cast members of "The Raven" (Nicholson & Karloff), and a script was no problem to them, they made stuff up minutes before filming a scene. they shot stuff like Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson wondering around in a castle and them talking about plots and stuff. after 3 days of shooting he sent some crews to shoot the outdoor scenes, one of them suprisingly was Francis Ford Coppola, even Jack Nicholson directed some scenes while Corman was sitting on his lazy ass at home. Nicholson even almost really drowned during a scene where he is in the water.
Imagine we almost had no Jack in "The Shining" or The Joker in "Batman" over some lazy ass piece of shit director.
but I'm gonna talk about the film a bit.
The movie takes place at the beginning of the 19th century in france. Nicholson plays a french officer stranded at some beach as he sees a girl and falls in love with her inmeadiatly, he searches for her all trough the movie, but according to The Baron played by Karloff, it's the ghost of his wife, but actually it's a girl who has been put under a spell by a witch who wants to take revenge on the baron, there are twists at every move, but it all doesn't makes sense and it's just confusing, especially in the end with the baron spirit and shitt
The only reason this film can be enjoyable is for seeing young Nicholson and old Karloff, they are just great actors, and just knowing the whole story behind this film. (+ a kinda cool gory scene)
Fuck of a movie but fun to watch
I was lucky to find a DVD copy of this at my local DVD store, good old second hand bin. I payed 5 euro for it though. The DVD cover claims that the movie is a Horror Classic, Not sure if we can call it that.
At it's runtime of 1hour and 20 min, it's worth a watch if you are a Nicholson/horror fan.

Inception (2010)

Inception... this movie was fucking goooood, it has beaten Kick-Ass for me for best movie of the year. It's really original, intelligent and pure EPIC from beginning to end, a dazzeling movie you NEED to follow from beginning to end.Christopher Nolan, know for it's take on the recent Batman movies, finally got his take to make a big budget movie (200 million) with a script of his own, thanking the Batman movies for this chance. Christopher Nolan has made some great movies in the past like "Memento", "The Prestige" "Batman Begins" and the personly fail of a movie for me "The Dark Knight".

Inception really stands out of them with really well done script, it's intelligent, creative, TOTALLY unpredictble. The pacing is also very well, no flaw there. The cast was great, you have Leonardo DiCaprion, Ellen Page, Michael Cane and some great supporting actors (wich names I can't remember)
DiCaprio really did a great performence here, way better than in Shutter Island, where I think he sorta overacted a bit, but this movie (again with wife issues, coincidence?) he did better, definatly oscar material.
When you see this film you REALLY need to pay attention well, especially in the first half hour, where they explain everything on how dreams work and all, very complicated stuff where probably 80% of the people leaving the theatre still don't understand half of it, but then again is what makes it so great, it just makes you really think about reality after and you just want to see the movie again. It's probably a classic to come, was it just me or did some stuff refere to Blade Runner?

PLEASE comment what you also thought about the movie!

I give this mindfucker 5/5, or am I just dreaming?....

PS: I just love the posters for the movie to! :D

Toy Story 3 (2010)

I've juuuuust come back from seeing Toy Story 3.
I desided to risk it to see it in flemish, and not 3D.
I love the first 2 Toy Story movies, their one of my all time favourite animated movies, I remember seeing Toy Story 2 in theatre when I was 7 and having a blast and a tear. 11 years later now I see Toy Story 3 as an adult and with a highly movie critical point view. I found it to be a nice closure to the franchise, I wouldn't say the best Toy Story but a very good and moving ending.

All characters were back and still the same as I remember, + we got some new funny ones to.
Rex was nice to see again, although I was disapointed that it wasnt't his original voice like previous 2 movies.
Suprisingly there were a lot of returning flemish voice actors, Woody's, Buzz, Jessie, Mr Potato head, and I think Mrs Potatohead to.
They were back and full action and hilarity!
And the bear suprisingly creeped me out in some scenes

The story was ok I guess, didn't had the same power as 2 previous movies though. The timing of the film was ok, It didn't feel rushed or dragged on. Beginning was ok, middle of the movie ok, sometimes funny, and the ending... like wauw... grab a tissue people, it was so beautiful and heartwarming that I really felth good at the ending, although there are some sad scenes though (wich got my girlfriend to the tissue).

The only complaints I have that it was just sometimes predictble, especially if you have seen 2 previous movies, wich was a problem for me in a scene.
SPOILER ALERT!
The scene were everybody held their hands and accepted the fate that awaited them should have been touching, but it wasn't for me cause they were obviously gonna get saved somehow of course.

My first look is a huge thumbs up, pixar, you did it again!
And when you see the movie, watch out for those Easter Eggs, look out for the Pizza Planet car!
Feeling old? Watch all Toy Story movies =)

PS: End credit song is sorta funny xD

4/5

Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut

First off I wanna thank Tristan for selling me his incredible DVD of Donnie Darko's Director's Cut, wich was hard to find.
I'll be talking about my experience in this movie, and yes with spoilers, if you haven't seen the film then why are you reading this? GO SEE IT!
Donnie Darko is about a teenager with some psychological problems, but the movie goes on to be a pure Sci-Fi and horror, deals with religious topics and asks hard questions. Is there a god? is it possible to travel trough time?
When I first saw it (the theatrical cut) I was blown away, and totally confused, I had no idea what I was loving, and I still don't after seeing the director's cut, this movie is just a pure mind fuck thinker.
So I'll try to make a theory in my own words and I can be very corrected.

Donnie is sorta special, he can see the space sorta spheares to see people's fate of were to go, and in order to save the world he needs to die? he was definatly meant to kill frank cause his spheare lead him to the gun to kill Frank, but why? what's frank? does he turn into some evil force that later travels back in time to save Donnie to end the world?
And by killing Frank he killed himself? and by that he saved the world by dying by staying in bed ? WATFFFUUUCK.
and there are all these little things, what's up with the fat guy? He appears 3 times, or even more for all I know.That's the hard part of the movie.

I really liked Donnie as a character, and some of his friends, they were just hilarius.
"You are the fucking antichrist man"
The songs used are great, and fit the scenes well, especially the scene where they introduce the school and the end scene with "Mad World", just gives you the creeps.

They made me do this review

After watching the Director's Cut, I inmeadiatly digged in some of the extras, the first was the "Darkomentary"
It's a short documentary made by the 1# Donnie Darko fan, he shows how much he loves the movie, it's hilarius and creepy at moments, he has like 20 DVD copies of the movie, he stalks the director by calling him and kissing him at comic con, jumps up to actors that were in the movie, making them say lines from the movie, has pends days watching the movie, has like a room dedicated to all Donnie Darko pictures, and he sometimes even talks to pictures of Donnie Darko and Frank from the movie, I don't know if he is really like that, or just acted like that to get on the Director's Cut DVD, still fucking hilarius and creepy.
Next I watched "They Made Me Do It: The Cult Of Donnie Darko".
It's about the british DD fans, and how the film really hit on in the UK, how it affected some of the interviewed people life's, it's insane.

I I give 2 thumbs up to the DVD box for it's glorious front
RATINGS:
DVD: 4,5/5
Film: 4,5/5

-Stijn Heirstrate

The Hammer Collection movie reviews: Part 1

Sorry for the long delay, but it's FINALLY here!

First review:

Plague Of The Zombies (1966)

Hammer digs into a zombie flick (this was 3 years before Night Of The Living Dead). And I must say my overall experience was good.You get a creepy atmopsheric, balls to the wall cheap horror flick, with some dry blood. The characters in this movie are dull though, they act to weirdly and to kindly for me. The girl character really needed to get laid (in my opinion should have been raped), she goes around stupidly, with a stupid looking face and just feel useless. some male characters did better but not good enough. However the the strong parts in this film for me is the use of great scares and the low budget, you can see how some of the effects are obviously done, but that is what makes it good, it gives that extra dirty feeling and sickness to the movie.
The movie really had me jumping at times, the scene where the guys wife became a zombie, scared the shit out of me (I couldn't even look), or the dream sequence with zombies rising from the grave, just pure horror movie gold. The movie deserves extra credit for it's 60's gore! (head chopped of, walking burning corpse!)

It's a good start for me in the Hammer box
4 out of 5 burning corpses



Dracula Prince Of Darkness (1966)

back to back played in theatres with Plague Of The Zombies, Hammer makes Dracula returns after many years (don't know what happened there...). and they bring a sorta disappointing sequel.
Dracula rises again and bites the lady's, same shit, but this time Peter Cushing disapointingly isn't back as Van Helsing, but instead have these british boredoms doing the male roles. The movie gets strong with it's violent, but ends unsatisfying where people probably expected more from Dracula, he has no dialogue... AT ALL.... I read somewhere that Christophere Lee (Dracula) refused to say some dialogue because it was REALLY, REALLY bad dialogue... maybe I can't blame him.
If the film had Peter Cushing it would have been way better.
2,5/5




The Nanny (1965)

DAMM THIS MOVIE WAS GOOD

Hammer's last B&W film The Nanny is a suspensfull, well written and acted film. Bette Davis as The Nanny just OWNS, for a sweet old lady she scared the crap out of me. I almost could feel that this is the british low budget version of Psycho. The B&W definatly helps here.
Everybody thinks she's the best Nanny in the world, everybody goes with it, until the kid starts saying she killed someone and really slowly starts to build to a point that you need to believe the kid, and ends with a smart plot and feels very satisfying, not a 100% satisfying, but way more satisfyinger than Dracula Prince Of Darkness...
This one I REALLY recommend to horror fans, this one scene is just brilliantly directed.

4,5/5

PS: Sorry for the long delay, and I'll dig deeper into the movies next time.

Kick-Ass (2010)

I went to see it this weekend, and it was KICK-butt!
Totally fucking awesome

The movie revolves around teen-geek Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), who wonders why nobody hasn't tried to be a super-hero in real life ever. He desides to become a super-hero himself despite not having any superpowers or training or anything. He gets his ass kicked very much the first time, after recovering in the hospital he breaks trough in becoming a super-hero and saves a guy from a gang, he got filmed while saving the guy and the video breaks trough on Youtube and myspace and all sites and becomes inmeansly popular. Soon later he meets other Super-heroes: The Batman figure "Big Daddy" (Nicolas Cage) and the deadly "Hit-Girl" (Chloë Morez). Father and daughter super-hero seek revenge on crime boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong). They ruin Frank D'amico's bussines so D'amico goes after Kick-Ass thinking that he is the super-hero who is ruining his bussines.


Kick-Ass starts of for me as a realistic comic book feeling film about a regular geek seeking to pursue his fantasie of becoming a super-hero, he first fails and succees at this, while refering to movies like Spiderman and Watchmen. When Hit-Girl and Big Daddy enter the picture, the movie looses it's realistic tone, wich I found a downer, but pays amazingly off with KICK-ASS action scenes with Big Daddy and Hit-Girl (I hope some saw the Watchmen reference on Big Daddy!) The scenes are really comic book style stylish looking with great directing and great view on the action. From there the movie pretty much is what the title of the movie is + referring to other Super-Hero movies, although I hoped the realistic tone would return, but didn't. The acting is super sollid in this, people have been prazing Nicolas Cage in this one, but he didn't really do much for me though... (I've never have actually been pleased with Cage) The actor and character that captured me was Aaron Johnson as Kick Ass of course, I really could feel along with him when he becomes Kick-Ass and fails and succeeds, I found it a downer that he was sorta pushed asside when Big Daddy and Hit Girl came in the picture. The actress who did Hit Girl did a really good job at portraying this badass fowl mouth little girl. The movie ends pretty baddass and feel good, and also thinking... this needs a sequel... IF they have a original idea for it, wich I think wont come with the box office fail...
BUT OVERAL; Love movies, comics or both? DEFINATLY go see this Kick-Ass movie. it came close to brilliance

4/5

PS: Yes, the Hammer reviews are coming soon.

-Stijn Heirstrate

The Hammer Collection DVD Box

Last weekend I was in London, and I purchased The Hammer Collection, wich contains 21 Hammer films.
What is Hammer?
Well, it was a filmstudio in the UK that made hardcore horror movies for it's time, they brought back the horror classic monsters Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy, they also did some adventure films and Sci-Fi, but they are still very known for their Horror.
I recently got a copy of Dracula (1958), their first Dracula, and I loved it. It had huge hairy balls for a movie in the 50's, lots of blood!
So I decided to purchase this Hammer collection Box, the box contains the movies:

'Blood From The Mummies Tomb', 'Demons Of The Mind', 'The Devil Rides Out', 'Viking Queen', 'Dracula, Prince Of Darkness', 'Fear In The Night', 'Frankenstein Created Women', 'The Horror Of Frankenstein', 'The Nanny', 'One Million Years BC', 'The Plague Of The Zombies', 'Prehistoric Women', 'Quartermass And The Pit', 'Rasputin The Mad Monk', 'The Reptile', 'The Scars Of Dracula', 'SHE', 'To The Devil A Daughter', 'The Vengeance Of SHE', 'Straight On Till Morning' and 'The Witches'.


The box design is great, simple box, cool horror feel illustration with also Dracula and a girl on the side in a graveyard cross. Inside the box you get like 6 postcards with posters of some of the movies containing in the box on the front of the postcards + a little book on the history of Hammer films and info about every film in the box, you have the 21!movies and DVD's sorta placed in this book, but nicely keept and not to annoyingly to get out.
all the books stacked on each other makes a form of a graveyard cross, like the one on the cover of the box.
The menu is simple and not cheap, some movies has commentary's of actors, producers and director's, and there is a documentary on Christopher Lee and a Feature doc: To The Devil...The Death of Hammer + some trailers and stuff to waste a min or 2.
Over some next blogs I'll be reviewing these movies at 2 movies a blog. So get ready for some Hammer fun over the next few weeks from this blog!
There are some shit hammer flicks and some of the best Hammer flicks, I am prepared :)
The only dawnfall I find in this box is that there are only 2 Dracula flicks of them in it, they made 6 flippin Dracula movies, they could have added at least 1 more Dracula flick :-/
And a Frankenstein one...

-Stijn Heirstrate