dibot Blog

Under discussion:

The Fall  (2006)

For some reason, I thought The Fall was a foreign film. It's not. It's just a beautiful, tragic story of a little girl in the hospital and a young man who tells her stories while they heal. Only it's way more. It broke my heart. I cried and laughed and enjoyed the visual delight of the stories. See it.

Under discussion:

Look Back in Anger  (1958)

Safe Men  (1998)

Day Watch  (2006)

The Haunting of Molly Hartley  (2008)

The Haunting of Molly Hartley seems to be getting terrible reviews, but I enjoyed it. The story revolves around a girl whose parents sold her soul to the devil when she was a baby. On her 18th birthday, she'll become evil. But then the mom has second thoughts and tries to kill her. The story starts slow and just builds and builds on the creep factor. A couple of scenes stuck in min mind long after the movie ended. However, the climax is pretty rushed, especially coming after all that build up. The end of the story is very satisfying. Plus, the film has prep school and secret societies. Two of my favorite movie themes. Definitely worth a rental.

I didn't know anything about House until it was time to watch it, at which point, someone mentioned it was a Christian-based horror movie. So I spent much of my time trying to puzzle that out. I wish I hadn't known going in. In fact, I probably shouldn't be mentioning it here, but it does help the end make a little more sense. Anyway, besides the end, the movie is not much different than any other horror movie. Two couples take refugee from the rain in a creepy inn where the owners are weird, to say the least. Then they get trapped inside, and all their seedy secrets are revealed. The editing is ridiculous and the acting terrible. I wish I could say this is a good movie, jut it's just not.

Based on a play, Look Back in Anger has Richard Burton ("1984") snarling and yelling all over the place. I can't say I really understood all the character motivations. Burton lives with his wife and a roommate in a small London flat, and then the wife leaves because she can't take the emotional abuse, and Burton takes up with her friend who he seemed to hate before. It's not visually exciting, but Burton is so good it's almost impossible to look away as his eyes burn through the screen.

Safe Men is a consistently amusing comedy starring four greats: Sam Rockwell ("Choke"), Steve Zahn ("Strange Wilderness"), Mark Ruffalo ("Blindness") and Paul Giamatti ("Fred Claus"). Rockwell and Zahn are performance artists who get mistaken for master safe crackers. Hilarity ensues. Some of the movie is laugh out loud funny, but all of it is entertaining. Check this one out.

Day Watch is the sequel to the Russian hit, Night Watch. The story picks up pretty much where the other left off - a group of good super naturals and a group of bad super naturals try to maintain the ancient balance of power. Only one group is ready to tip the scales. The visuals are again fabulous, ant the mythology interesting. I don't know if I liked it better than Night Watch, but it's definitely a good follow up. It could also stand on it's own. I'm anxious for the third installment.

Under discussion:

Pet Sematary  (1989)

Step Up  (2006)

Stephen King's The Mist  (2007)

Saw V  (2008)

I loved The Mist. Another pairing of director Frank Darabont ("The Majestic") with material from writer Stephen King makes me want them to work together all the time. King knows how to create characters and they all work here. The story starts fast. The claustrophobia is great, as well as the reactions of the people trapped in a supermarket when a strange monster inhabited mist descends on the town. Marcia Gay Harden ("Into the Wild") is in top form here. Excellent, gut wrenching ending. See it now.

Control is the biopic about Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division. I don't know much about the subject matter, but the film seemed to paint a pretty honest portrait. Shot in black and white, Sam Riley ("24 Hour Party People") as Curtis, is sometimes painful to watch as he deals with epilepsy. Samantha Morton ("Elizabeth: The Golden Age") is equally good as his wife, Deborah. The film uses much of Joy Division's music, as well as other music from that era. I didn't love it, but that may have been because it was so bleak and depressing.

Step Up is pretty much everything you could want in a teen dance movie. There's a love story between two people from different worlds. There's angst. And, of course, lots of dancing. Quite entertaining and a feel good ending.

I caught Pet Sematary on AMC during their Halloween Horror Fest, and it was just as creepy as I remembered. However, the acting's pretty bad. I didn't remember that. But director Mary Lambert ("14 Women") handled Stephen King's story well, and all the parts that are supposed to be scary totally deliver. And we can learn something from this - Never bury your pets, or children, in an old Indian burial ground. Side note: to this day, I cannot spell cemetery correctly. I blame this book and film.

I don't really have anything good to say about Saw V. The series, which is not my favorite anyway, just ground to a screeching halt. Sure, even though Jigsaw's dead and the movie ends setting up a sequel, the fun has gone out of it. No interesting characters. No really cool traps. I tried to take a nap, but it was too loud. Just watch some old Friday the 13ths. They may be bad, but at least they're entertaining.