Reviews

Since it was hard to find anything decent info wise about this film i thought what the hell so here it goes;

The good:

• after 30 minutes or so a decent story develops with some good scenes - minimalistic setup works most of the time - female lead acts okay - if you like to see all the possible variations on groundhog day its one for your list.

The bad:

• cheap flick with amateur hour acting. - takes long to get the good stuff going - dumb decisions from both of the leads, for example if you have the choice to cut off your own finger or really go ballistic on the Windows of your room where you are locked in nobody is going to just give up after some feeble attempts.unless of course if you make a movie on the cheap and you rented an expensive boat and you don't want to damage it. - final twist just sucks -many loose ends, why is -i guess its the devil - torture the lead ..no reason at all - devil Guy is a joke, looks like an extra from an early 90's video clip.

So this movie just barely redeems itself from the bottom of the barrel through a couple of decent scenes and a few good ideas. Don't be fooled by the cover though; looks a hell of a lot more exciting than the movie really is.

for at least the last 2 years, probably longer but with seeing so many crap movies your memory tends to fade a bit, I saw virtually nothing on the screen that got hold my attention, made me feel engaged and - like the good old action films could when we were little- more alive somehow.

I remember myself cheering and shadowboxing the screen with Rocky 4 when I was 15 or so, that feeling.

There were some highlights, the expendables 1 which floated on nostalgia, guilty pleasures like resident evil but thats about it.

The came Dredd. I saw the one with Stallone and it was well.. in those times a movie with Stallone and you went to the cinema.. nothing special.

I can honestly say that Dredd is a movie which has about everything right and the sum of the parts makes it even stronger.. Karl Urban is Dredd, he breathes and lives the part, the action is over the top and the music is topnotch. But what this movie makes for me ( and this is the main reason I compared" The Raid" to a porn movie..the same again and again,and never a pop shot) this movie is one long pop shot ;everything leads to an almost primal experience. Basically if you are a guy and you have some testosterone somewhere you will feel it if you watch this movie. And yes its a guy ( and/or a tough chick) movie, and sure its pure popcorn but it works.

And how many movies can actually make that statement, that you are not googling some guy in spandex with CGI, or robots with CGI or whatever crap - yes twilight series, I am looking at you! - is thrown at you? Not that many..almost none. Thats why its a disgrace that this labor of love ( read in some background of this movie) produced by an independent studio got wasted at the box office. that this great film got its chances blown for a decent sequel and is basically condemned to straight to video hell if there is a sequel somewhere. This is a disgrace and a shame and it says a lot about the current type of viewers that flock the theaters. I can only say to director, actors and writers, thanks guys and girls for having the balls to do something different and to give us - and at least one grumpy viewer from the Netherlands- a chance to see your vision of Dredd. It was a great ride and an exhilarating experience.

The expendables brought together stars that fitted exactly in my world when I was in my teens. As an 80's child the first movie was really a dream come through, to see all those old muscle bound wisecracking stars of old fire it up once again. When you get a certain age the nostalgia factor comes into view more and more and the first movie delivered on every front. It was a " mans" movie.

what made it even more appealing was the fact that Stallone bet everything he had on that single movie ( after medium success with the new parts of the Rambo and Rocky series). the behind the scenes clearly showed all of his efforts in this regard. And in my opinion you could sense that in the first movie, everyone involved wanted it to be a success, understood the rarity of having all those guys at once on the screen and combined with a certain ferociousness and blood thirst not seen in todays films ( especially in the hand to hand combat fights) made it in ways an almost primal testosterone experience.

And now we have - of course- part 2.

Because the first movie was a well deserved - and by me well applauded- success the heat isn't on for Stallone and his friends. There is still much riding of course on this second effort but it isn't personal anymore, this is just movie-making. Which doesn't mean this movie doesn't deliver the explosions, gunfights etc but something is missing. There are no more primal fights in small corridors, the - agreed somewhat overdone- sadistic undertones from the first are gone and there is never the sense those guys are actually fighting an outnumbered fight and fighting with everything they got.

Instead you get the - agreed it is funny most of the time- one liners and the making fun of there past careers sequences. It takes itself not serious at all but the difference with the first is that the jokes are not in between the fighting anymore; which makes it too much of a parody. Standouts are the underused VanDamme and Scott Adkins - very good in undisputed- that didn't get enough screen time to use there skills so to say. It still shows that VanDamme can easily carry a movie and that Adkins really deserves a breakthrough. The Statham - Adkins and the Van Damme - Stallone fights are too short but do bring the blood and guts feeling from the first movie back, somewhat. Locations and stunts are plenty full, although from a technical standpoint the editing is lacking here and there. the East European Scenery is rather dull to look at, its just too overused in countless other action movies. Cameo from Norris is almost a little quiz how much you know from his antics back in the day. Schwarzenegger is lacking form in the way he presents himself and one wonders what made him - also for me back in the day- such a big star to begin with.

All in all this outing lacks the no holds barred, everything is riding on this and we are going to make it gritty feeling of the first, in a certain sense it lacks a heart.This is far more laid back, humorous then the first. The people involved know this is going to be a ( still deserved) success and you can feel it. In fact in some ways in felt like " the last action hero" which overplayed its hand in the parody department.This doesn't mean it is a letdown, its still miles above the polished everyman hero movie ( new total recall anyone) that flocks the screens nowadays and as an action fan you still owe it to yourself to watch this on the big screen. Because Stallone is right; seeing all these guys in the same movie is a small miracle and still very cool to look at. There aren't that many actors left that actually put in the effort in front of but also behind the camera in regards to working out, or doing martial arts. The whole physical side of action stars is disappeared out of todays movies, which in my opinion is a shame.

It has been a while; well a long while that a movie came round that is actually really good. 9.9 out of 10 times the reviews i put up here come from a disappointed viewing, leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth and desperately trying to get my 90 or so minutes of my life back.

So when I put in this little film..no name actors - at least for me- and a story that didn't make me blush with anticipation I expected a similar experience.

I couldn't be farther from the truth.

This movie delivers; from the great photography to well played and fleshed out characters..it works.. and then the plot. A number of you probably know cliffhanger and there is another - as far as i can recall a French movie- that also takes place in the mountains. the mountains somehow always give the right isolated " you are screwed if you get into trouble here feeling". This movie builds and expands on this vibe. Besides doing almost everything right in the build up of the scenes there is a relentless deliverance like experience while viewing; you can easily imagine that our main characters - which are fleshed out real people so you give a crap- feel hunted, unsafe; there is a great scene near a river where the main characters are hunted with telescope rifles which is relentless and breathtaking. And the best of it all is, the characters still make real life choices. And when a number of them do get their demise it feels realistic and non heroic. It has been a very long time I cringed from time to time when another burst of violence ( which isn't gory but because you care you do feel sorry) hits the screen. The only very small thingy I have is the side story of the money exchange and the father of the girl that is underdeveloped, but it doesn't have an effect on the overall experience.

And it looks like the actors did their part on the mountain slopes ( or otherwise they concealed the stunt people very well) which is an extra point in my book. and the main actress is not only very convincing but extremely beautiful too which is of course never a punishment either.

Go see this one now, it is really that good.

french (horror) cinema has made a few good films the past years, somehow the Eurostyle filming, the landscape and the violence proved to be a rather stylish mix.

However with a couple of gems the road is clear for sub par stuff floating to the surface, and this movie is one of the latter.

the setup is cliché, girl picks up hitchhiker, hitchhiker disappears , girl investigates and finds more then she bargained for. First the good stuff:

• Scenery.. yeah take a look at that great gloomy french countryside and you would probably turn into a killer too, or commit suicide, in other words, scenery and photography is great. - the ghouls..or monsters, original make up work, decent back story -the main villain..great acting work

and the bad stuff

• plot.. come on guys, you got enough in the mix to make this worthwhile, good monsters, even a siege.. but it doesn't connect with each other and the loose elements remain just that..even the big buildup ( illogical but hey) towards the siege amounts to a whimper, blink and it is over. the " twist" ending is pathetic and misses any logic.. Even genre movies need some sort of structure and have to abide by their own logic, this movie doesn't and basically betrays the viewer with the ending.

• Our main female lead isn't strong enough, this part asks a lot of emotions which she clearly cant handle.

• the monsters are underused to a degree its an insult, teasing us with images and a couple of minutes of action ( not to mention an intriguing back story).

Getting a cookie for the effort, nothing more.

this is a prime example of a movie where you read some favorable reviews about and somehow you never get around to watch it. Until a slow evening comes by and you decide to fire it up.

And yes, so i did. And around 90 minutes later i found myself in front of the TV set, baffled, bored and frustrated. This movie is a pretentious little sucker, it mixes drama, crime, some nasty violence and an over spanning arc consisting of a cult that likes to hang people while running around naked with masks on that your kid could have made at kindergarten. The plot, as far as I could follow consists out of a middle aged guy who is down on his luck with his finances, has a troubled marriage and a friend who is coming to visit him..fast forward a little bit and he and his friend are killing people..and some other stuff I cant be bothered with. Thank god there is an absolutely nonsense ending which looks and feels like it has been thought up on the spot, so everyone expecting a payoff after sitting through this till the end will be disappointed.

There are many problems with this movie; first of all the center character doesn't convince one little bit as a hardened ex soldier; he looks like a fat middle aged civil servant. the fights he has with his wife are insane one moment and a minute later its all good and peachy. there are so many loose ends ( why on earth does the gf of his friend scribbles strange symbols on the back of the mirror in the bathroom, why is there a high tech rifle just lying in a case in the shed, where does the whole cult thing come from, why ..why..blah, etc). The violence is only in one scene and it is indeed rather nasty..hostel quality for the ones that like it. but you can watch it without giving a crap because by that time you have given up on our two hit men who are not convincing at all.

a special loving side note is for the English spoken in this film, for anyone not from the UK its not understandable at all, mimicking the way Brad Pitt talked in "Snatch" which makes the incomprehensible plot even harder to understand.

The funny thing is the comments on the IMDb message board for this movie in regards to the plot, a lot of people "explaining" what the writer meant..if you need to "explain" the plot - preferable looking misty in the distance fondling your imaginary beard- it is just lazy and sloppy writing.

Only redeeming factors ( somewhat) is the actress playing the wife and the actor playing the friend, fairly convincing. don't waste your time.

We all known this story. genetically altered monsters lurk in the dark and a bunch of twenty somethings are being preyed upon. Especially in the 80's and 90's i could rent a film like this on good old VHS almost every week.

Nothing much has changed plot-wise or execution wise; however there are a few standouts produced between then and now and with this film the descent comes to mind.

what makes this film somewhat different from countless others is the fact that it takes a while ( almost too long) before our group is able to fight back. when that moment comes though we are given some intens and claustrophobic fight outs that make the most of the limited budget.

There is a flow in this movie that makes it work, there is no light note to be found, its all played very seriously ( which is a refreshing turn). There are enough claustrophobic and tense moments to keep your attention.

there are a few bad points of course; 1 it takes a long time before the group fights back, which means that for most of the movie they are just running, getting grabbed and getting munched on. 2 the evul doctor side plot is not needed and is a distraction; i mean they even gave the guy a zjerman accent.. way too much. 3 could have been edited a little tighter, 10 minutes less of running and screaming wouldn't have hurt the movie at all.

All in all a recommended timewaster. especially if you see the menu consists nowadays of Sci-FI orginals and indie flicks that are a disgrace to the viewer.

After spending a portion of my evening yesterday watching Nailbiter i knew my conclusions about independent films are right. It IS possible to make a decent film with a low budget if your plot is okay. i was kinda depressed when watching Cell Count (awful) a few days earlier and became even more depressed when I read the reviews that were stating over and over again that even though that film had such a small budget it was really okay..no it wasn't.

Nailbiter on the other hand knows its limitations, it spends its money well to set up the scenery using some workable weather effects to imply impending doom for our 4 main characters ( instead of just using radio and television to say the weather is really bad and a storm is coming) so its easy to get the feeling for the film way in the beginning.

Our four main characters ( all women,which is refreshing) are on the road to pick up dad who is coming back after doing a tour abroad. They have to flee for an upcoming hurricane and their hiding place gives them more then they bargained for.

Although most of the events take place on 1 set; a cellar, the interaction between the mother and her three daughters is good enough to maintain a serviceable amount of tension and excitement, which is needed because it takes a while before something happens. The script uses this time wisely to gives the characters some ( not too much) meat on their bones so that you actually care what happens to them ( and yes not everyone is going to make it).

Problems ( both for the survivors and the viewer) arise when they finally get out of the cellar, budget restrains kick in, the twists near the end don't really work and it all ends with a whisper instead of a bang. And you come to expect more because of the fact that the main characters are quite expendable.

Good points; A lot thank god, decent acting from most of the actors. A decent story with a fair amount of tension and serviceable FX.

Weak points, key actors like the mother don't always convince; the turnaround from one of the daughters from a rebel teenager to channeling Alice from Resident Evil or the godmother of monster fighting Ellen Rpley isn't that good. and the lazy plot device regarding a cellar that has all on its shelves to fight the monsters and survive the night is a bit too easy for its own good.

all in all a nice little monster movie and a decent time waster, recommended.

I have read a number of reviews for this movie. All these reviews were positive based on the fact that this is an independent movie with a small budget, no name actors and an inexperienced director and that if you take all that into consideration it is really a good movie...

Well what happens if you take all these things out of the equation, do you still have a movie that is worth your time or not. This is - in my opinion- the question to be asked; otherwise you are left with the feeling you have as a parent when your child performs at a school play; " they really did their best". Now I don't get me wrong, by the time my son performs in a school play I will be very forgiving and proud, i am not forgiving for a movie that takes at least 90 mins of my time and doesn't give enough back for that investment.

Which is of course the case here.

The plot is simple, a handful of strangers with a " disease" ( its never explained which disease this is) are selected for a cure in a facility with questionable treatments by a scary doctor. Of course things go wrong, the cure has side effects and people get killed.

This is basically not only the short version but all there is to tell. The first images of a husband at the bed of his dying wife and the choices presented to him ( either you keep trying to pay the bills to watch her die here or sign her up for experimental treatment) are powerful and set the mood for things to come; realistic choices.

But the moment the couple arrives in the facility things go bad - not only for the couple but also for the viewer- the first mistake is to make the next scene " 3 weeks later" ?? I mean, what happened in the previous weeks, why does the husband have a scar, why is the wife suddenly better, who are those other people? What follows is a collection of loosely tied scenes. Couple of standouts ( there is an interesting vomit scene and you see a flash of the bug like creature the evul doctor uses as a cure, well a flash, more like two legs)but there is no cohesion. The facility - including a resident evil like promo that is played for the, well lets call them inmates, which is cool- is flat and not much of a background. Its the porn set mantra; every scene looks the same because they have just one background.

Acting and dialog feels unnatural at best and just plain bad at the worst and because things "just" happen without any explanation or fleshed out background story individual scenes can be judged just as that and the movie crashes time and time again.

So is this a recommended movie? I read reviews which compared it to early David Cronenberg; don't be fooled, it doesn't even come close to his work. An other review compared it to the equally flawed " Bane" which comes closer to the truth. The movie does have its merits and some good ideas behind it but the sum of acting, plot, no budget backgrounds and disjointed scenes makes it a chore for everyone watching it with half a brain. The ending which gives you one of the Baldwin Brothers for a cameo is half baked and lacks any form of logic; pleads for a sequel that hopefully never comes. Making a movie on a small budget must have its difficulties, but a coherent plot is the very least I expect from any movie.

I must be getting old. after reading rave reviews in regards to this title ( best action movie in decades... sjeez..decades is a very long time, lots of movies)I sat down with anticipation. And I grew up on a steady diet of Jean Claude van Damme movies and all the copy cats, so my former education in this genre ought to be sufficient I guess.

I am not going into the plot,basically there is none and what there is is just a letterhead to get people into confined spaces where they can beat or shoot or mame the crap out of each other. When watching this movie my thoughts drifted away to another movie which had the same sort of rave reviews ( Laid to rest 2) which I also found a bit of a letdown. A completely different type of movie and genre ( this movie is far better made then laid to rest 2 will ever hope to be), but the same type of reviews promising - in that case- wall to wall gore. The problem I see with these type of movies is that there is no plot to speak of, just stages like in a video game where either a masked killer with a big knife ( laid to rest 2) or a guy who is REALLY good in kicking people asses gets into situations where he can do just that..again, and again, and again.

Its in a sense like a porn movie compilation, you leave all the not needed tidbits out and go right to the money shot, and put as much of those as you possible can into the running time.

Its a tiring experience to watch, and yes the main character - and basically all those involved- show an athletic skill that is off the chart but it gets repetitive..there just so many ways you can hurt someone with your bare hands, gun or knife. there is a parallel to the porn movie example I made somewhere here but I wont go into that.

And what I sensed after an hour or so is that I just didn't give a crap anymore who was beating who to pulp and I completely lost interest by the time the two good guys were beating up one bad guy who didn't get down even after getting a healthy portion of a light bulb stuck in his neck; talking about dedication. there was a feeling that the director also lost track of the proceedings because before I knew it they entered the liar of the main bad guy without to much resistance and the movie was basically done( rather literally because it was announced that every bad guy could go home because the show was over??) I read in another review that this was comparable to John Woo's hard boiled and that is in a way correct, although Yun Fat Chow has a lot more charisma then this main character and the character development was on a level you actually gave a crap what happened. And that is saying something because John Woo is no thespian in the plot department.

Of all the external reviews I found the one from Mr Ebert the most of my liking in the way that his experience was the same as mine.

So is this a bad movie, not really, just get the right mindset and go with the brainless, plot less flow..and be amazed what people can do when trained in martial arts with their bodies and with other peoples bodies.

I just reviewed " Sand Sharks" which has a lot of things in common with this little flick; however some of the good parts are unfortunately not to be found in this one. Which is a shame.

The good stuff:

• cool monster, which is shown a lot. The Asylum brought in a little bit more money so there are not only the so so CGI images but also the practical " someone is getting munched on" effects work. - Carmen Elektra.. enough said. She is 39 years old and she still has killer looks and a great body. - lots and lots of kills, a lot of them somewhat original. - okay, a semi lesbian threesome make out scene. - Brooke Hogans acting is really okay, which was a surprise for me too but it is.

Unfortunately now the longer list of bad stuff

• the acting is awful, really I don't expect any academy awards for these type of movies but sweet lord this was even for this genre cringe worthy. - the story drags, they even throw in a sinking island but that doesn't help. Running time is something like 87 minutes including titles but feels longer, a deadly sin with these kind of movies. - the story contains plot holes that are simply too big, people get eaten ( of course because they wander off to make out in a semi lesbian threesome) and are not missed until the final third of the movie. - the climax simply sucks, of course the shark needs to die but this was done in a duh manner. Another sin, golden rule is that the payoff needs to be cool and fun.

So there were all the ingredients, boobs, blood and a monster and a goofy story but somehow it doesn't cement right. In my opinion because the actors ( besides Brooke) looked simply bored and didn't see the joke or couldn't act. And what was left was killed by the pacing.

However.. Carmen Elektra and her sunbathing scene gave this review one point extra, same with the surprisingly solid acting skills of Brooke.

Like others pointed out before me, complaining about goofy CGI or story lines in a movie called " Sand Sharks" is useless. The basic fact that these kind of movies have these treats for us makes them fun to watch and if you have problems with the fore-mentioned goofy parts this isn't the right type of movie for you.

I was planning to see this as a doubleheader with 2 headed shark attack, another gem which has roughly the same premise and one actress in common; however my gf objected. We saw 2 headed shark attack yesterday and while she was trying to sink away in the pillow on the couch she murmured that it was like watching a porn movie without the porn; acting and set wise. So I choose to save the Sand shark adventure for today, while I was alone..which was the good choice relation ship wise. Anyway, back to the movie at hand; Sand Sharks.

I am not going to tell you what the film is about, like all " monster name in title" movies its rather self explanatory. The makers did make the smart move to not show the beasties too much - however, lots of people get munched on- and what we did see was the usual clunky CGI, mostly fins and sharks popping out of the..mmh.. sand ( really, how anybody can resist that with " Tremors" or "Bloodbeach" in their nostalgia bag I don't know).

We have the usual town festival on the beach ( " thousands of kids"; more like 30 extra's) and we have the colorful figures that run around between the sand shark attacks. And those figures are colorful, we have a guy channeling a Johney Depp impersonation, we have the Robert Shaw derivative with even the exact same way of talking and last but not least..Brooke Hogan as a shark expert. And everyone is in on the joke, nobody takes themselves or the story really serious and the acting - for this kind of movie- is above par. And you need that in a movie like this were there isn't enough budget to do great action scenes or big set pieces.

And truth to be told, Brook isn't doing a bad job. I remember seeing asylum movies with 80's singers like Tiffany that were a hell of a lot worse. She doesn't have to make room for any Oscars in the near future but she does an okay job ( which she also did in " 2 headed shark attack"). I mean, don't get me wrong, nobody is going to believe that she is a shark expert even if her life depended on it but she delivers the lines and on this level movie wise her acting chops are more then enough.

So all in all a good viewing experience, just get into the right mindset, manage your perceptions and you will have a fun 90 mins.

In the good old days ( the 80's) there were plenty of movies that had a big scary looking house and creatures running wild in it, puppet master, ghoulies and countless others come to mind. Now I don't say those movies were masterpieces; if you remove the fluffy nostalgia look and see them again they might crumble under scrutiny but what the best of those movies had was one magic word..pace.

And this is besides the fact they knew what they were and didn't take themselves that serious, which is always charming.

So now we have basically the same sort of movie but with a better budget and the man who brought us "Hellboy" and the very underrated " Pan's labyrinth". Needless to say expectations were rather high. I was hoping to find the tongue in cheek from the old days combined with the fairy tale like evil this director ( here screenplay writer if I am correct) brings to his movies.

Nothing like that can be found here. I hit the fast forward button twice..near the end, to keep myself from nodding off. So short and not so sweet what do we have;

1. pacing is dreadful, although a lot happens it feels boring and long 2. the main lead, the actress who plays the little girl creates just about the level of sympathy that you actually hope that the little creatures get her in the first 10 minutes, which is a sin in this type of a " child in peril" movie..you need a basic feeling of caring for the lead, cheering for the evil grey smurfs to get her wasn't part of the plan, fairly certain of that. 3. Guy Pearce, great actor, has nothing to do and is forced to behave like an idiot from going overprotective at first to self centered to protective again 4. Plot holes big enough to hide Godzilla and his ( or her?) luggage in. My favorite; the handyman is attacked by the creatures, crawls on the stairs bleeding, is whisked away to a hospital and no one really refers to it or even visits him until in the final part of the movie. Although it is clear that the description " accident" is moronic. Same with keeping the little girl in the house where it is really clear it isn't safe just because its a needed ( and crude) plot device. Or another one, one of the creatures gets mushed,a corpse and a little arm are clearly visible and a whole bunch of people enter that room seconds later; no one refers to it or finds it strange and they keep the girl in the house after that event??? Duh; lazy writing. 5. the creatures are as big as a small smurf, no one - well on occasion 2 times- thinks of stepping on them or doing them harm. If I would be besieged by grey smurfs from the netherworld and my salvation would lie in a big boot on my foot I would use it, but hey, perhaps I am too assertive. Only 2 evil hairy grey smurfs where killed during the making of this movie.

So any redeeming points??

Well Katie Holmes is surprisingly good, she tries hard to make something of her one dimensional character and Guy Pearce is good but - sigh- wasted. Photography is nicely done, the atmosphere of the house is spot on. Creatures are digital ( in the old days it was stop motion..ah well) but well done. Origin of the story ( NOT the execution) is original.

I never saw the original version but this felt as a compromise to please all audiences and as a result a miss on almost every level, which is a shame, because there aren't that many creature flicks out there with a budget. Seems that Guillermo del Toro keeps the best material for himself. Not worth your time.

With the " people that brought you Shaun of the dead" on the cover my expectations for this movie were pretty high. This means in my case that instead of downloading it I actually planned - with my new GF- to go the cinema. So one could derivate off the topic to ponder about what girl you can take to a monster movie that involves kids, but I am not going to do that, I will save that happy smile all for myself. Anyway, back to the movie. Expectations and hopes were high and for me it failed to deliver. The setup is cool enough.. young teenagers vs aliens. Where it goes wrong however is that the kids themselves play well enough but don't come across as particularly nice or people you can root for. Besides that - and this is for the non UK's - the English they talk is kinda hard to understand and the - pseudo- authentic use of street slang gets tiresome after 30 minutes. And then the aliens.. the meat on the bones. Well, their teeth are cool..green and glowing, the rest of them look like a panda from hell and they don't have that much of a personality screen wise. Besides the scenes they hunt or stalk in packs - CGI all the way- the up close and personal scenes don't look good. The director choose - wisely - to keep most of the close stuff off screen or with practical effects but its never good.

So halfway through the movie my thoughts wandered off. I noticed I didn't give a crap about the obnoxious young delinquents or the aliens and their business between them. The tone of the movie is uneven, its either the Goonies in an apartment building or an urbanized - and poor mans- version of Aliens. A couple of chase / action scenes work, ending is a letdown.

So to resume, a download or a rent. No Shaun of the Dead,not script wise, not for the excitement. And to conclude: I am glad I didn't took my new GF to this movie, although she is still cool to actually agree to come along purely based on my enthusiastic kids are eaten by monsters synopsis.

Sidenote, movie does have the balls to break the unwritten law of children in peril, two of them actually get it, relatively in the view of the camera.

there are a lot of urban legends surrounding the moon landings. One is we never went to the moon ( excellent Capricorn One with good old James Brolin can tell you more), Other conspiracy theories consist out of complete alien moon bases on the dark side and the deal the developed countries ( meaning the ones able to build rockets) made with those same aliens to leave the moon alone.

I like these conspiracy theories or urban legends, I really do. I was a little boy when I saw Capricorn One and I liked it. I think in a way liking these stories helps you like this movie. Plot is already given away by countless ( not so positive) reviews; found or better put salvaged footage from the Apollo 18 mission that officially never took place. Why , one can ask..well because they found something or something found them.

In my opinion what they found - think "Ticks" from outer space- isn't that exciting. What made the movie was the realistic quality of the footage, including smudges, grain, out of focus etc. Its a " real" looking lunar landing that goes wrong. The fact that there are 3 people - 2 one the surface, one in orbit- that are completely isolated and later on abandoned by their own people is chilling and played out in a realistic manner. The feeling they are screwed and have nowhere to go really comes across. So in the end it doesn't really matter that we are talking space bugs, those thingies are no more then a catalyst of things going wrong and the dynamics of the two or three people that have to respond to this to stay alive. The only real flaw I found to be in the whole movie is the epilogue in writing consisting space rocks.. that was just a bit too much. the rest of the movie - thank god moving at a swift pace of just 74 minutes- is really recommended.

worth a view.

I may be one of the few that dislikes this movie; a disclaimer I don't usually start with but after reading some of the early reviews it seems that everyone is praising this second part.

Well where to start, we are back with our chrome mask wearing killer..the silent type that wears black and carries around large custom made knives and we have Brian Austin Green - yes, that guy from 90210 and after that nothing- who is also wielding large knives, we have a shadowy organization.; we have; pff ah well, why bother.

The first part worked because it was a road movie of sorts; the pacing was high, the kills where imaginative and the characters, well, you actually gave a damn about the characters. And the killer was cool, he didn't speak but had a menacing presence and the guy kept on coming,and okay, he had a nice car, which always helps.

At the end of part one the killer was dead; yes people, his face was gone and I am pretty sure the female lead from part 1 actually bashed the remains of his skull in with a baseball bat; they don't come more dead then that. Which was cool and concluded a nice little indie flick that used a good story,good actors and a small budget to its advantage. But the problem is that if there is a small film that makes a buck and gets known a bit the Almighty dollar, or euro if you are smart.. gets itching.

So here is part two, now I can swallow the fact that the killer is still alive and is glued back together,so far so good. But then the first mistake, they kill off the female lead from part one in the first 15 minutes. Now I seem to remember she was either the wife of the director or co produced part 1.. cant be bothered to find out, but anyway, she was able to successful build a character you could root for. With her gone we are stuck with the wimpy kid she drove away with in part one who has the screen presence of a fruit-fly; and as it goes with fruit flies there are a lot more where that one came from. Almost no one in the entire movie is capable of putting in a character that is remotely believable. And its a shame to conclude that the most convincing actor of the bunch is; yes there he is again, Brian Austin green. The guy must have gotten his milk money cause he co produced this one. Sigh, back to the story, as it turns out our favorite masked villain was part of a shadowy organization where everyone is dressed in black and glooms into the camera.

They patch him up; one of the more interesting background flashbacks is the chrome skull as a little boy with his father,blink and you miss it and it is left on the floor, never to returned again to in this film. They might save it for an origin story, spare me. And while he is patched up - they use star trek technology on him because they pull out one of his eyeballs from the mask and place it back; sure-

Brian Austin green or B.A.G. as I am going to call him runs amok, slashes people and kidnaps a girl who is getting blind,slowly ( this reminded me of that crappy movie with Madeline Stowe.. also a stinker) Anyway,she is kidnapped, it all ends in a warehouse, the wimpy kid gets it, some keystone cops get it, BAG gets it and of course the -sigh- open ending.

So to resume; BAG does a good job in the part that he is gotten for himself - helps if you co produce doesn't it BAG- The kills are creative and in your face,most of the extra milk money went to the effects, although near the end the pacing which stinks through the whole movie goes to a crawl and there aren't enough kills.

The story is crap, really, in a desperate attempt to give the killer more of a personality he is made some sort of a semi government uber mensch, this is dumb cause the movie hasn't the budget to deliver and makes stuff overly complicated. There are plot holes you can hide Godzilla in - the most head bashing example being the following.. one cop goes missing, then another 2 cops go missing and the rest of the police station goes in full force.. yup, 4 more cops..sure guys..that budget and those aspirations, and the lazy writing. The only interesting nugget is the flashback I described.

Pacing is dreadful, I was too bored to go for the fast forward button but this sucker drags. Which doesn't help is the static environments, in the first film they didn't have any real money either but the surroundings were more dynamic. In this part you have the warehouse and some porn sets. Which is in this case probably located in the same venue

Acting is on high school level,if BAG is the best you have got you have a problem. The female lead,who is going blind , that female lead cant act her way out of a paper bag if her life depended on it, and she is still better then the rest of the cast;except for BAG.

It may sound that i am overly harsh on a slasher; but after sitting through countless cut' em ups part 1 was a nice surprise; no nonsense, lean and mean. This is just a failure.

And a side note; the way the camera is really in there when a woman is killed in this movie; without anything of a story or character development this feels kinda voyeuristic and depraved.Especially because with the women that are killed they go for the extra mile in this movie.

I was a little surprised by the harsh reviews ( a whole 2) that this movie got. When I first heard about it more then a year or so ago ( after seeing " the car" way back in the day and movies like " duel" ) the idea sounded intriguing.

After that the movie kinda went off the radar to pop up again through the usual channels not too long ago. And I must say its a nice little movie. In the " evil car" sub genre there aren't that many peers..at least not besides the fore-mentioned titles that I can remember and this is a worthy addition. The movie deals of course with a car that eats people, the way it lures them into its interior is reasonably self explanatory after watching the trailer and reading the synopsis..but it works. The car is sufficiently menacing and if you you buy into the idea that it lurks an underground parking garage / impound yard ( after being towed there because it was involved in an accident); you have yourself a nice little cat and mouse thriller. And yes, the characters aren't that fleshed out ( although better as you might expect). The ones who survive and wont comes as a mild surprise and the idea behind it - the car- is actually rather cool.

What I always found lacking in the fore-mentioned " the car" is that you never see who or what drives it, just dives of a cliff if memory serves me right and that is it. Here you do see what.." drives" it. The transformation scenes - from model to model- are nicely done and there is indeed a thrill or two to be found here.

So..yes of course there are " better" movies, however in this sub genre to my knowledge there are not..and no duel doesn't count. So forget the fact that it was shelved for two years. Put your mindset to a nicely done little thriller that wants to entertain in a somewhat gritty and serious manner and its a good way to spend 1.5 hrs.

When I was little I saw the 1981 triffids version on TV. We are now a couple of years later and arrived in remake hell. So before I start mumbling that in the old days things were better ( in most cases they were) and showing everybody I am getting old lets begin.

What I remember from that "old" version was the sense of dread when ordinary people are confronted with extra ordinary things. Combined with the helplessness the blind had confronted with the scary looking plants that so slowly but so surely came and came was enough to keep the memory vivid even after all these years. Ah well, you know how it goes when you are about 8 or 9 and you managed to convince your parents to stay up just for a little while.

anyway, back to remake hell, or in other words the 2009 version of the triffids. Away are the Venus flytrap like plants that were - I confess- rather rubbery like but still very menacing. We now have triffids that are pure cgi and have tentacles. I guess a new and improved model. We have the regular band of nobody's you don't give a crap about and the most cursed sin of all, not enough triffid action. Basically the triffids feel like an afterthought..stumbling around here and there but never menacing. No this film focuses on the breakdown of the world as we know it which is good but basically the only thing that happened was that everyone who saw the comet went blind. This of course isn't a pleasant fate but where are my beloved triffids. This whole affair felt like a soap opera most of the times. a couple of good scenes in the beginning and a good villain hamming it up makes a rather long and boring watch. and what the hell was that guy from 90210 doing in this film?? Good thing he brought his leather pilot jacket because, well he is a pilot of course.. bleh.

And a rather noteworthy choice.. in the old film they used flamethrowers on these nasty triffids. In this film however they use handguns and machine guns on them... I mean, if you do that you deserve to be whipped by these plants. There is a hilarious scene near the end where the bad guys empty clip after clip on these plants with little result but they keep doing it anyway. CGI fire a bit too expensive people?

And realize that if you are in an airplane that is about to go down in an urban area the only thing you have to do is to steal life jackets, inflate them in the bathroom of the plane and you are all set...which leads to a funny scene with a plane in the background broken in half after crashing a building and our main villain leaving with a couple of scratches on his face.. give me a break here!!

The final head shake came when the remaining survivors escape the triffids by... ah well.. the hell with it, its so crap you have to see it to believe it. it is kinda heartwarming however that our main character connected to his inner child just in time..ooh the terror of remake hell.

So a warm advice, for the people who love the 1981 version, rent or download this version and have the fast forward button handy.. and just ponder while fast-forwarding how old you are with a smile.

I can agree with the first 2 reviews. If you are going to see a film like this you expect nearly nothing. And the truth of the matter is there isn't a reason to expect anything. The world has seen by my count around 4 universal soldier movies and basically they are all rubbish. And yes this is also true for part one which is nothing more then a dumb action flick only made to propel JCVD higher into the food chain.

So with that in mind I sat down for this official part...3? with no expectations and got a pleasant surprise. I wont run down the plot, the other reviewers already did that. I will comment however on how old the two action stars of yesterday look, which only means that I have too aged a lot since bloodsport and rocky 4. Both Dolph and JCVD look tired and used up and that was rather a shock seeing the other great actioner of yesterday Sylvester Stallone in good shape for the expendables. But hey, we all get older I guess. The worn look of the main characters ( and Dolph has basically an extended cameo)does fit right in with the background and the grim storyline, Because this film does take itself very serious; the on screen violence is brutal and everybody plays his or her part with a very straight face. And it works, the atmosphere in the movie works, the camera-work is great and the action is gripping. In the first place helped by the main henchman who fights brutal and bloody.

So there is hope for at least JCVD ( which I did find impressive in wake of the dead to name a more recent title), he would fit right in the parts that James Caan used to play when he got older; more serious and grim action movies. Because the guy can act. Dolph just goes through the motions for the couple of days work he got on the shoot.

There is one loose end however in this movie that keeps nagging me.. I seem to remember that good old Dolph ran into a combine machine in the first Uni Sol movie and was turned into hamburger meat.. mmh sure patched him up good;-)

I stumbled across this movie and although the artwork was a feast ripoff it had an interesting plot ( who isn't afraid of the dark) so I gave it a chance.

plot rundown, some people - where one has armed himself with not one but two guns.. still curious what his plans for that party were before the monsters came, might be an interesting movie hidden there somewhere- get trapped inside a building when a blackout happens and are stalked and killed by scorpion like monsters.

Running at a pleasingly short running time, by my accounts it didn't hit the 90 mins mark its a mixed bag.

I can agree with most of the other user comments in regards that it is a very low budget movie ( must be the only building in the city with around 10 people living in it) and speaking of the building; they used a very different building for the outside shots, clearly visible if you look at the windows. It had some crap acting and some CGI that makes a play station graphic look state of the art. And yes the story had some holes in it you could drive a truck through.. but..

The idea behind the movie is cool, the monsters are at least somewhat original and it has a minimal ( but still there unfortunately) amount of padding. So if you catch on to the idea behind this you can be forgiving. What makes it hard at times are the awful actors ( nobody makes anything of his part so you have a small dozen of cannon fodder entries) the plot holes and goofs that are so evident it becomes disturbing ( best example is the climatic..yeah well, I give them a break.. climb through the elevator shaft where it is clearly seen the camera is tilted and nobody is actually climbing.. kinda kills the scene). And if you try to convince even the most forgiving audience that there is an earthquake, please try to let the wine in the glass move too instead of just shaking the camera.

But all in all for a micro budgeted, main actor produced and funded end of the world movie you can get worse. At least it is a hell of a step up from your normal micro budgeted zombie, slasher, inbred, cannibal movie you normally encounter. You could see that the ideas were there, some skill was there but the budget was too tight. The ending however does make for a nice sequel in the veins of resident evil 2.

As an avid monster film fan I was following this title for a number of months and was very excited when a trailer came out. This trailer gave me exactly the stuff I was hoping for, aliens like action, loads of nice looking monsters and big guns. Yes I know.... but hey, at least I am honest.

having seen the whole movie, finally, it has left me with mixed emotions. Yes it gives you aliens like action ( in the broadest sense of the word), and it has monsters, guns, slime but a lot is lacking. First of all the acting is sub par to say it nicely. Now I know this is an indie film but the girl who gets the ax.. thank god for poetic justice. Speaking of that scene, this movie littered with nods to deep rising, aliens, resident evil and such. Now I can forgive the acting but what is harder to forgive is the crappy editing and the way the story is set up. In the trailer you see a bunch of guys going to the rescue to a facility buried deep underground. This appeals to logic. In the movie however you get your resident evil 2 scene and then a bunch of guys shooting, crawling to air vents, more shooting etc. and there is something wrong when the trailer is more coherent as the movie itself. The guys you see in the trailer aren't coming to the rescue at all and appear near the end..mmmh It all comes down to budget of course,we see the same air vents and steamy corridors over and over again and somehow all those high tech soldiers still use Beretta's and AR15's ( thank god for them there is a room somewhere in a steamy corridor which says "armory".) Which gives you some scenes that will baffle you why these guys have survived the onslaught that happened before the movie started ( "I lost 13 men coming down here" damm Darwin wasn't right after all I guess) Of course we have our survivors hold up in a room - padding time- and a remarkable scene where one of the characters is seen actually pushing the door open to keep the monster out instead of trying to keep it closed.

the payoff - where do all the monsters come from- is rather cool and begs for a flashback, which isn't shown because of the budget and the finale is rather nice too. Unfortunately because of the sloppy editing, crappy acting and storyline that incomprehensible it just doesn't work.

Clearly this has been a labor of love, you can see that in the make up effects, in the setup of the scenes but something is lacking, which is a shame because this is a really good effort. Which comes up short just a tad too much.

and we have yet another winner in the never halting parade of movies that waste valuable time.

What do we have on the table, yet another virus kills almost everybody and leaves the few survivors stranded and on the run. The latter because the dead come back to life.

Ah well, I saw the poster and against better judgment I gave it a shot, for around 30 minutes and then the worn down fast forward button came in handy. Nothing really happens in this movie, within minutes everyone except a few are dead, this is shown by a couple of people vomiting blood interlaced with scenes with leaves dropping. I can just imagine the brainstorm session that went into that one. Trying desperately to come up with an arty beginning..subtle yet gripping.

Yawn, oke well, after a couple of days the dead come back to life, dwindle about and to nothing. The survivors talk a lot, dwindle about and do nothing. A yawn inducing scene have them capturing..uhm.. guiding one of the zombies indoors where the survivors are to examine it, where it does nothing but bump into furniture.

Somewhere in the movie David Carradine is hiding, poor guy and while fast forwarding I saw some scenes of zombies besieging a house and some running about, but trust me, you gave up way before that.

Pretentious, overlong, boring, no budget crap. Don't waste your time.

Spoilers ahead! Before I start I must say that I am a parent myself with a little one a couple of months older then the baby in this film. For me and my wife viewing this movie was a disturbing experience because a number of scenes are realistic - the scene that the baby is washed in the little bath for example- and take a very uncomfortable turn. Actually, why this movie works are exactly those scenes; common and recognizable things like hearing the baby over the speaker thingy- don't know the English word- in your bedroom in the middle of the night. Combined with a hearth wrenching still birth which is pictured in a painfully realistic way are things that will haunt you for days.

The film needs this gems to make it the winner it is, the beginning takes its time and the fact that a lot of what is happening is brought in a realistic way is almost ruined because of some of the "mood enhancers"like the constant slaughtering of animals on the kitchen TV set - which mother can watch that 24/7-.

These scenes telegraph events to come way ahead and are blunt objects in a very subtle film. the same mistake is made in the last 20 or so minutes where the mother goes postal. Those things might work in a dumber movie but this movie is to subtle and smart for those things. The actress that plays the mother hits most of the heights and lows the character needs but sometimes barely and the other parts in the movie are not that interesting or plainly unbelievable ( the mother in law part was stretching it), the ending was oke although a faint thelma and louise ghost was hovering around.

If they ever made a sequel for this movie it would be wise to show the development of both the mother and the baby a few months or max a year later, this film leaves the audience caring and curious what will happen with them. A way older child would be less interesting in my opinion ( somehow a painfully obnoxious Drew Barrymore in Firestarter comes to mind, please no).

But like I said, the small scenes will stay with you long after the movie ended and with the current offering in mainstream and indie horror movies this one stands way out of the crowd, highly recommended.. and new parents, brace yourself.

I never read the novel by Mary Shelley, but I sincerely hope it is better then this film.

Where to start... no production values.. well one can live with that. The fact that there is no money for large scale scenes( which an apocalypse movie does need), no money for decent cgi ( I can live with that, I chewed my way through countless Scfi channel originals).. I can all still live with that.. but who on earth found the lead actor, well basically all the speaking parts. I rarely saw such inept acting in a movie, its incredibly bad and the term "unconvincing" is the understatement of the century with this flick. Which poses a direct problem since the title is of course the last man, which basically means not that many actors. And I do give some credits to the director and the producers, I did some reading about this film and it seems it is all a very enthusiastic effort from all involved, The problem is however that if your lead is a crap actor and the rest of the actors involved are also crap, the rest starts to irritate very quickly.

I rarely turn a film off halfway but this one managed to do just that. Don't waste your time.