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The Disturbance (1990)
Not really a horror movie
Sorry to get PC, but to me this movie is just exploiting someone with mental health issues. The main character has schizophrenia, or something along those lines (it's never really stated). So someone who did no research into the topic wrote a movie script about 'here's what happens when someone is off their meds, they turn into a psycho killer.' I was surprised to find out that this movie was made in 1990. The treatment is more like a 1960s or '70s mentality. It would have been better had they just made it a movie about a psycho killer.
The Assam Garden (1985)
This movie could have been much better
Having read about Henry Cook and his "subtropical garden," the setting for "The Assam Garden," I was really eager to locate a copy of this movie. However once viewed I was sadly disappointed. Deborah Kerr does a good job of representing an English woman who was a 'somebody' in India, the wife of a tea plantation manager, but in England is, essentially, a 'nobody' -- a relic of a forgotten time, and not a particularly sympathetic one at that. Her reluctance to adjust to the changing times reminds me of many of the older people I knew growing up. Madhur Jaffrey, on the other hand, turns in a rather wooden performance. I have seen her work in other films and so I can only assume that either the script or the directing, or perhaps both, are to blame here. To make my point, I would refer to the scene where Helen has fallen off the ladder and is lying unconscious on the ground. Ruxmani approaches as if nothing in particular had happened, which made the entire scene rather irrelevant.
The last scene of the movie was totally out of character, and seemed like something thrown together after the end of a long day when everyone's creativity was exhausted.
Apparently this was a made-for-TV movie, which explains the production values -- or lack thereof. The movie is not entirely awful, and overall the tale of what happened to people after the Raj makes for an interesting story. Perhaps it's a matter of point of view, but I would not compare "The Assam Garden" to "A Passage to India." Instead it reminded me more of "Staying On," the follow-up to "The Jewel In The Crown." I can easily imagine Helen having tea on the porch with Lucy Smalley, reminiscing on 'the good old days' which were probably not as good as either of them remember.
Oh, one last nit-picky note: despite what Helen tells Mr. Philpot from the garden society, the banana plants shown in the movie were NOT Musa ensete (now more correctly called Ensete ventricosum), which is a quite distinctive plant, but more likely Musa basjoo or some other more commonly found nursery banana.
This Is the End (2013)
More like "Will This Ever End?"
The first third, perhaps even half, of this movie was quite funny, even hilarious at times. Then it slowed down, waaay down, and got -- dare I say it? -- boring. I was sitting there thinking to myself that I should just leave, but talked myself into staying because I figured it would only be ten more minutes or so until the end of the movie. That was the trap, because what seemed like an hour later I was still sitting there waiting for this movie to end -- OR get funny again, one of the two. Of course, when it comes to the Apocalypse perhaps there is only just so much humor to go around.
As others have said, if you are easily offended then avoid "This Is The End" at all costs. Otherwise, if at any point during the movie you get the inkling that you'd kinda' like to leave, GO! It won't get any better.
P.S. I marked this as having "spoilers," even though it doesn't, because some people think everything is a "spoiler."
Possession (1981)
Weird, weird, weird! (and not in the good way)
I read an article recently about "the scariest movies you've never seen" and this one was on it. So I sat and watched this movie. The title was the same, the actors were the same, but I'm not sure I saw the same movie as they did. The movie I saw was bizarre beyond belief. Characters go into convulsions for no apparent reason. That this all occurs in an apparently depopulated Berlin (or perhaps some other large eastern European city) is one of the most bizarre things. Then the ending has no connection to the rest of the movie -- again with no explanation. If you like strange European movies that make absolutely no sense, then this is the movie for you. Otherwise avoid at all costs!
Dracula 3000 (2004)
86 minutes of my life I'll never be able to recover
There are two kinds of 'bad' movies: 1) movies that will never win awards, never get a thumb's up from Ebert & Roeper, and will never be remembered outside of genre devotee circles, but are still fun and entertaining. Get some popcorn, check your brain at the door, and enjoy the movie. 2) movies that are genuinely, irredeemably bad, to the point where you consider electroshock to remove the memories of it or, for the sake of humanity, you want to gather up every copy in the world and toss them into an incinerator. "Dracula 3000" is without question in the second category! Trust me, don't succumb to curiosity just to see what all the fuss is about. If you're THAT curious, jam screwdrivers into your eyes. The result will be the same.
The Item (1999)
I thought I'd seen everything
This is probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and I don't mean "bad" in the 50's Sci Fi B-movie way, I mean "bad" as in bad! Bad script, bad acting, even the blood and gore is badly done. The "item" itself, nothing but a horney muppet, isn't even the worst thing about the movie. An hour and a half of my life that I'll never get back.