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Reviews
The Revenant (2009)
THE REVENANT caught everyone by surprise!
I am still blown away. Imagine the scene: Sitges Fantastic Film Festival in Spain. Last weekend, with the Zombie Night Marathon, already a festival classic. And the first movie of the night is "The Revennt". Nobody knows what it's about. Nobody knows a damn thing about it and the festival director introduces it as a long movie. OK, whatever, we'll sit through it...
BAM! In these marathons people normally cheer, applaud, shout and whatnot. I never saw it done more than with this film. We were all laughing our guts out every five minutes with every new situation and scene. Damn, what a movie. Talk about having fun in a movie theatre.
The two main actors were superb, the storyline coherent, the situations hilarious and what's even bettr: at some points it has some sadness tones to it which makes it even a deeper, richer movie. Just on ething: it was featured in the Zombie Night in the festival, but it is not a zombie movie in the classic sense of the word. Like a reviewer said before me, think the "Deathdream" kind of zombie.
I can only thank the director/writer for making this one. This has to become a cult classic, it has all the elements of dark humor (and the gore, too) that all the genre lovers like. GREAT MOVIE!
La noche del terror ciego (1972)
People make classics of everything
I just saw "La Noche del Terror Ciego" after all the impressive reviews I had read about the film. And once again, a movie failed to deliver, at least in my humble opinion.
First of all, I'll say that I saw the uncut version in Spanish. It also came with the English subs, but the translations are not too accurate, but rather generic. However, the original dialog is rather lame anyway, so that's not a problem.
On the good side I'll say what everyone has to say about this film: it's creepy and drips with atmosphere. The creatures look really cool, and I like the fact that they are so slow yet they always end up trapping their victim. But where do the horses come from? Yes, it's very visual and poetic that they are horse riders but, seriously, where were the horses when the Blind Dead were in their tombs? I'll admit the scenes of the creatures look pretty good. Even Peter Jackson ripped them off for a couple of sequences in Lord of the Rings "The Fellowship of the Ring" (1- when the Nazgul surround Frodo before hurting him with the morgul blade 2- when the Nazgul pursue Arwen and Frodo on horseback when Frodo is fading from the wound mentioned in point 1). But in my opinion, that alone doesn't make the film good.
I don't complain it is a slow movie. I love Lucio Fulci movies and they are the slowest you can find out there. I don't complain about the lack of gore, I know there are other types of horror film, and I love them (I can think of a good combination of lack of gore and atmosphere in "Lemora" for instance, and I love the film). What I complain about is a bad script, a lack of interesting situations, the plot holes (what was the deal with the dead friend that came back to life? It is never explained why and after that she dies in a second engulfed by flames. I was like "HUH?"), the introduction of new characters that never appear again to have a ROLE in the situation (the policemen, the mad scientist that explains the legend, the creepy guy at the morgue that looks like a good character but in the end he does nothing...). That's what really bothered me about this film.
I can even forgive that in the last sequences when Betty is running to the train pursued by the Templars, she falls down and when the young guy jumps to help her it looks that she is actually preventing him from helping her, so that the Templars get them. It's a horror movie, we all know that the protagonists do dumb things, so I can bear with that. But not the fact that 40+ minutes of the film deal with characters and situations that will have no impact on the final outcome. I mean, Betty and Roger might as well have waited in the citadel when they first go there to look for Virginia, and De Ossorio would have saved us 40 minutes. The outcome would have been exactly the same (for the record, I think the last scene and its idea are fantastic even though it could have been filmed a little better).
I give it a 4/10 for the cool creatures, the atmosphere and the good ideas. Any horror buff has to see this one, but maybe it's not as good a movie as you expected. It certainly wasn't for me.
Alias (2001)
Great first seasons, downhill from there
When I saw the Alias plot I had so much fun I found it hard to believe. After that I checked on the following episodes and I was hooked. And after a few weeks I bought the first two seasons in DVD to devour the show (up to 6 shows per day on weekends when I had nothing to do). I am the first to understand that there are impossible situations (come on, a gadget that neutralizes all sounds? what's with that?!?), that seeing Sydney change outfits every 10 seconds gets boring soon, that going from Los Angeles to Europe in a couple hours is not possible (at least the CIA HQ could be in NYC to make it a little more convincing?) and whatnot. But the plot line involving Rambaldi had me hooked and I kinda liked the characters especially Jack Bristow and Arvin Sloane.
After that however, Season 3 was a letdown. You spend like 10 episodes wondering what had happened to Sydney during those two years and one day a guy comes in and explains it to us. After that the show forgets about it and moves on to build a climax for the season finale. The new characters, people that die and then come back, the clones, and especially the good guys' inability to KILL the enemy started to make me not love the show as much. How many more times will Sark escape? How many more times will Sydney beat Anna Espinosa in a fist fight to only let her escape in the end? Do CIA agents have to go with tranquilizer guns while the bad guys have UZI's, M-16's and whatnot? As the plot went wilder in Season 4 I started to lose interest.
Now I am watching Season 5 because I know it's the last one and heck, I want to see how it ends. Some episodes are good but something tells me that the series finale won't be what we are expecting. Anyway, it was good while it lasted. The first season is stunning and I would recommend it to anyone to see. Season 2 is also great even though the plot comes and goes too much again. From there, better forget it. The problem is that if you like the show and become an addict like me, you won't be able to keep from watching the rest just to know how it ends.
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
Wonderful!!
I don't know the words that can match how I felt while watching this movie!! As a big Elvis fan, I think Bruce Campbell delivered an amazing performance. A performance to be remembered. Also, Don Coscarelli's script is so powerful and flawless due to its simplicity, and I love that. It shows, for the millionth time or something, that big bucks have nothing to do against a good idea and the skills to make it breathe. The best movie I have seen in the last three years, period. Come on, what can you say about a black guy who says he's JFK? And what about a mummy that sucks people's souls off their a**es? All that, together with the biopic feel of the movie make it an enjoyable artifact for all kinds of audiences.
Hell Asylum (2002)
one of the 5 worst movies i've ever seen
i can't believe there are actually people who will give "hell asylum" a 10/10. you can try to praise that these people made the movie on a low budget and in about 10 days of filming, but that's it. the acting is sooo bad, the camera work sucks, the lights work is awful except for two or three details, and you miss most of the action because it's too dark, the ghosts are laughable at and you end up hating every and each of the five contestants. leaving aside that's it's a "house on the haunted hill" rip-off, "hell asylum" is plain boring and you only laugh with that guy who is supposed to play the fake ghosts of the house to scare the chicks. in my opinion it might have been a little more decent if at least they had tried to find a set which resembles more a haunted house, but the place looks like a high school and you wonder where those stupid teenagers might have been hidden. nice try, but i'm sorry, i don't buy this. i gave it a 2/10.
The Frighteners (1996)
a good movie for a real good time
is to many unknown that peter jackson was already capable of delivering the goods with his movies before the hugely acclaimed (i agree) "lord of the rings" trilogy, and it is such a shame. already from his first gory works such as "bad taste" or "braindead", jackson showed a great capacity for writing intelligently funny scripts and for delivering well-crafted movies whatever the budget was. after a few efforts arrived "the frighteners" where he co-writes the story again, and manages to combine horror and comedy at a level that nobody had reached before. the story advances at a steady rhythm as we follow the adventures of michael j. fox as frank bannister, a medium who collaborates with ghosts to scare people and clean their houses up for a living. much like if the ghostbusters paid slimer to scare people away. however, he seems to discover a link among the many deaths that are sweeping the small village he lives in. if to this mix we add amazing performances by jake busey, dee wallace-stone as the freaky updated version of "carrie" and a superb jeffrey combs as the psychotic fbi agent obsessed with bannister, you will not notice how time flies until the end of the movie. i just have one objection: what's with that shotgun that has so many bullets to be shot? i gave it a 9/10.
Scarface (1983)
a great rags to riches epic under the palm trees
"scarface" is probably the best movie i've ever seen. with that said, i can only try to justify my words. even though i'm not a big de palma fan, he really stood out with this revision of the 30s classic. however, instead of chicago, we are set in miami as tony montana arrives from cuba as a criminal, and tries to sneak into the drug business to make big bucks. now the performances on this one are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G especially, of course, al pacino's who plays tony montana perfectly and delivers a rather strange cuban accent when he speaks spanish, but in my opinion, that only adds a sense of uniqueness to the character. all the other actors are great as well, especially stephen bauer and my much hated michelle pfeiffer. as in "the godfather" this long movie moves on from classic situation to classic situation leaving no room for breath to the spectator. i don't want to give any details about any scene so i don't spoil them up, but i cannot put enough stress on how much i liked this movie. i'll just say one thing: "say hello to my little friend!!" totally recommended. 10/10