Notes on my life » Movie reviews

Michael’s Nightmare about Raising Corn on Friday

Rafiek — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:58:20 +0000

Wel I succeeded in putting a reference to five very good Horror movies…. No Horror/slasher Franchises in my titel
Let me break it down for the people not really familiar with Horror’s
Michael = Michael Myers from the Halloween series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_(franchise)
Nightmare = Nightmare on Elmstreet series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nightmare_on_Elm_Street_(franchise)
Raising = Hellraiser series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellraiser_(film_series)
Corn = Children of the Corn Series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_Corn_(film_series)
Friday = Friday the 13th http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th_(franchise)

Why an I talking about this?? well because I just had myself a little Children of the corn marathon last weekend. And I was thinking. Those old horror movies really scared the bejezus out of me. The new horror movies just don’t seem to do it for me.
So what is it about these old once?? The suspense. The Story.
The old Horrors have a good scary story. So the movie is not only scary in a visual aspect, but the story itself without all the blood and gore is also scary. In this case Friday the 13th is an exception. Because that is just a lot of blood and gore. But not a bad movie if you like horror/slasher.
Today’s Horrors are more about giving us the scary visual effects. The stories aren’t really scary. The visual effects are.
The movie companies have noticed this, I think that is the reason they green light all the remakes. Remakes that fail miserably.
I think if by some reason you NEED to remake a movie, get the creative team that made the original a success. Of course using moderne effects is cool.

I’ve heard there will me another “nightmare on elm street” movie. A reboot of the series. Now I’m asking myself, is this a new part of the series?? Or are they gonna remake the original movies? I hope it’s the first. To bad Robert Englund is not gonna be playing Freddy. I don’t know if there is an actor that is gonna be as scary and fun to watch as Robert Englund in the rol of freddy.
Here is hoping they do a good job.

Game play?? Movie play??

Rafiek — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 06:38:28 +0000

Take a populair game based with a plot you can find in a lot of bad action movies. Throw in a few good actors who try to do a bad job(and succeed) and add some good special affect that have absolutely nothing to do with the bad story.
What do you get?? The Max Payne movie.
Yet another failed attempt to base a movie on a game. But of all the game-movies this was one that you could have counted on failing.
In the game you do not really have to have a good story. Most of the time it’s walking around, solving a few puzzles and shooting the bad guys. Although it’s a little story, max payne (the game) has a story.
Cop’s wife and kid are killed and he’s out for revenge. He finds out his wife was killed because she knew to much. And an old family friend is the murderer. Good story for a game. Bad story for a movie. There are dozens of movies with the same plot.
Games have an extra advantage that movies haven’t. The user interaction.
It’s frustrating if you don’t succeed and it’s a relieve if you do. But the players actions determine the story.
This can’t be done in a movie. So the bad story works for a game and not for a movie.
After a lot a failed game adaptations why do they keep trying??

Here is a list of movies based on games I’ve seen

Movie/Game	My comments
Super Mario Bros	Bad movie. Story was horrible and the acting worse.
Double Dragon	Only the characters names are based on the game. And they came up with a bad story for them.
Street fighter	Was this an action?? or a failed slapstick comedy movie??
Mortal Kombat	Acceptable story and not so bad acting.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation	First one was acceptable. This one wasn’t
Wing Commanders *	The movie wasn’t bad, not good ether. But since I don’t know the game I cant compare.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider	Angelina Jolie in a tight suite?? Who gives a damn about the story.
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The cradle of life	Same as above.
Resident Evil	Loosely based on the game, the story in the movie is was better. The story is loosely based on the game. One of the better zombie movies. This movie is the exception to the rule.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse	Did not really live up to the success of the first.
Resident Evil: Extinction	They should have stopped after two movies.
House of the dead	Only the name and some bad zombies where from the game. And it was a very very bad movie.
Alone in the Dark *	Never played the game, not a bad movie, just not my type.
Doom	On of the worst game adaptations I’ve ever seen. No THE worst. I’d rather cut off my left arm then look at the movie again.
Bloodrayne *	Why do they always rape the vampire legends?? Hated it. Now I’m never gonna wanna play the game
Silent Hill *	Pretty scary movie. Did not really get the story, but I’ll try the game.
Dead or Alive	Another failed martial art tournament movie.
Hitman *	I like it.
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale *	I liked the movie, But I never knew it was based on a game if I didn’t read it somewhere.
And Max Payne	Bad story, bad acting, Pointless special effects.

* = I haven’t played this game

So most of the movies based on games did not do very good.
There are a few exceptions. But not enough for me to start loving this movie genre.
There are rumours about a upcoming “prince of persia” and a “god of war” movie. I love these games. Let us hope they are gonna do the games good.

Crystal skull Aliens???

Rafiek — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:44:03 +0000

Until a few days ago I did not see the fourth Indiana Jones movie. I loved the precious movies so I wanted to see the fourth one on DVD or in the theater. Now since there is one theater in Paramaribo and they did not show it, I did not see it yet.
I am a loyal fan of south park. In episode 1208, the China Probrem, the south park guys accused Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas of raping their good friend Indiana Jones. Translation…. They still love the character but the plot of the movie was very bad.
This harsh ‘review’ made me wonder just how bad the movie was. So I downloaded it and watched.
The south park guys where right. Indiana Jones was brutally gang raped by Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas and all the writers of the movie.

Lets make a list of the plots of Indiana Jones movies and you’ll understand I hope.

Raiders of the lost ark –> Indy is looking for the biblical arc.
Temple of Doom –> Indy is looking for the legendary Adi Shankara stones.
Last crusade –> Indy is looking for the holy grail.
Kingdom of the crystal skull –> Indy is looking for Inca Gods that happen to be Aliens. In El Dorado that later turns out to be a spaceship.

I mean come on. Al of the former movies where mystery, adventure and some magic. And all of a sudden they put science fiction in it?? Have they lost there minds??

Okay to be honest the movie has it’s good parts. We see Dr Jones as we all know and love him. He is smart, gets in trouble and gets out of it. He also makes a lot of jokes about getting old. The story gives us a good character that could possibly follow in his footsteps. Lets face it, Harrison Ford is getting old. He can’t keep playing the part. And another actor?? I think not. There is only one Indiana Jones. Those are the good things about the movie

BUT THEY RAPED HIM WITH THE ALIENS. There are a lot of legends they could use. There are a lot of plot endings they could have used and the bastards choose Aliens.
They could have gone with Atlantis, Camelot, The Roanoke Colony, Sodom and Gomorrah, King Solomons mines. But they choose Aliens in a El Dorado that turns out to be a 500 year old spaceship.

In a Indiana Jones movie we want to see legends, mystery, booby-traps etc.
We DO NOT want to see Vampire’s, Werewolves or Aliens.

If you guys want to see this movie go ahead. I’m never looking at it again. I’m taking out the previous DVD’s and out of respect for Indy I’ll look at those and I’ll never ever buy Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls.

More than meets the eye

Rafiek — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 23:51:36 +0000

Transformers is a movie made by people who loved the cartoon a child. It’s a movie made for the people who loved the cartoon as a child. I’m one of those people.

The coolest robot ever made (in the movie world) is Optimus Prime. I imagine it was a lot of work making this autobot look real life but they did it. I know the transformers are CGI generated but it still looks real.

Every movie has his ups and down. For the people who haven’t seen the movie yet and hate spoilers, stop reading right here.

STOP READING… SPOILERS

The movie begins with a decepticon attack on a us army base in the desert. A helicopter that supposed to have crashed flies to a base turns into a robot and attacks the base. Almost everybody dies.

The movie is about a young man “spike” who gets his first car. A car the dealer doesn’t know and somehow the car takes out the competition. While trying to impress a girl the car does a few funny trick, like play the right song at the right comical time. He does make a good impression on the girl. So far this part looks like a herbie movie.

That night Spike’s car is stolen. Or so he thinks. The car Bumblebee just went to signal the other autobots to come to earth because.

The decepticons are looking for a cube with the spark that gave the transformers live. And the directions to it are embedded in the glasses of spike’s grandfather. You have to see this one to understand how.

The decepticons attack spike in order to get the information. Bumblebee saves him and brings him to the other autobot. The autobots take the shape of the cars they see. They drive to the meeting point ant transform into robots.

Man the moment we saw Optimus the whole theater stood up and applauded. And then it got better. Optimus spoke.

I’m not gonna spoil the rest of the movie. But believe me, if you are a transformers fan you need to see this movie.

The movie also has a few downsides.

Megatron doesn’t look like megatron. I can understand that they can’t make a robot that is as big as a house and turn him into a gun. But he doesn’t even have megatron’s face. In this movie megatron turn into a alien spaceship. That was a cool move but please keep the face. The face of megatronis the face of evil. It’s a face we all love to hate.

Good news for all the fans. It looks like there will be a sequel. To many meanies survive the movie not to make a sequel.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yey.

GO SEE THE MOVIE