It seems that in the past couple of years vampires have become popular in our pop culture once again. Now we have the Twilight saga, numerous books, a TV show, and a new saga based on a book called Cirque Du Freak. Now, in my opinion, there's also another trend with these vampire shows/films...they STINK! Sorry Twilight fans but "Twilight" was one of the worst movies ever made. Well this trend continues on with John C. Reilly's new film, "Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant."
At the start of the film we see teenager Daren(Chris Massoglia) who has a great life and parents that seem to have his life all planned out for him. Then there's Steve his best friend who's the exact opposite. Steve is a bad influence that doesn't really care about his life and tries to drag Daren down with him. Soon the two friends receive a flier for a freak show coming to their town. At the show they see all kinds of weird people including a vampire named Larten Crepsley(John C. Reilly). After the show Daren steals Crepsely's spider which results in several things. Steve gets bitten which results in Daren pleading for help from Crepsley which results in Crepsely making a deal: The antidote in exchange for Daren becoming his assistant. This means that Daren must become a half-vampire. Soon after Daren embarks on a mysterious journey with Crepsley to find out his destiny.
As you might see from the paragraph above, the story itself is very interesting and has potential but instead it ends up being confusing and all over the place. Too many characters, though creative and unique, are introduced throughout this film and make it all the more hard to follow. It seems like there were too many things we have to comprehend in the film and everything was scattered. The main plot and concept of the whole saga isn't really revealed until three/fourths through the film so basically, "Vampire's Assistant" is setting itself up for a sequel. We see set-ups like this many times mostly in comic book films (X-Men, Spider-Man) where the first film is devoted to the back stories and origins of the main characters (the set-up film) and the sequel gets right to the action. That is the proper way to do set-up films. This film does it the wrong way focusing more on plot rather than character development and that is a large problem for the film.
That being said, the story for "Vampire's Assistant" is an interesting one and it is fun to see all of the "freaks" the are created for this story. Each one is creative with their shape, size, and even their personalities(an example of this is a teen who looks like a lizard, despite his deformity, he wants to be a rock star and tries to sell records at the shows). Like most vampire stories, we see several new powers the vampires posses like super spit and knock-out gas. All together, these things combine to show us a new world that is fun to see on screen.
Sadly, what helps bring this film down is the dialogue. The movie was filled with unneeded cursing, bad dialogue, and awkward moments which prevented the movie from being an entertaining action film. Also, the names of the characters are kind of disappointing and just plain weird. Some of the names are Mr. Tall, Mr. Tiny, the snake boy, etc.
The acting wasn't anything truly special, although I was impressed at how well John C. Reilly played his part. The action scenes were entertaining but the thing is, the things that I just mentioned only make up about half of what a good movie should include. Things like character development, plot, dialogue were absent in "Vampire's Assistant" and so this is what I have to say: "Cirque Du Freak"...a freak show indeed. I give it two stars out of five.
"Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" has a running time of 108 minutes. The film is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense supernatural violence and action, disturbing images, thematic elements, and some language.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Zombieland in a Nutshell.
Occasionally, if I see a movie a week or two after it comes out I'll do what I'm calling a nutshell review which means that it will only be one or two paragraphs summarizing the film. My first nutshell review is the R-rated zombie flick, Zombieland.
Within the first five seconds of the film you see a zombie tear out a piece of human flesh and start devouring the person's insides. Then it flashes to all kinds of cannibalism with people being eaten, zombies being shot, people getting thrown out of their cars and splattering on the road...and that's just in the first five minutes. Yes, Zombieland is defiantly the most disgusting movie I've ever seen. But it had plenty of laughs, loads of great action and showed us a crazy world where in order to survive you have to "nut up or shut up."
In Zombieland we see two characters, Columbus and Tallahassee, who, we find out later on, are both looking for a family to not feel as alone in the apocalyptic world. However, at first, Tallahassee doesn't show it. Instead, he does all he can to kill all the zombies he can find in a number of different ways. Soon the two find two other girls that are on their way to California and eventually they decide to team up. Together they travel across the country fighting zombies and growing closer to each other and becoming a family. One of the last lines of the film were, "We had hope, we had each other."
This film had plenty of laughs throughout the entire film both physical and verbal. This film also featured the best actor cameos and one of the funniest scenes I've seen all year. The action was amazing. It was a truly fun film to watch. Just to give you a little taste...Most of you know the swing rides they have at all the fairs where you get into a chair, it lifts you up, and it swings you around right? Well in the climax, Tallahassee runs up, jumps on this ride holding on with one hand, and shooting zombies with a machine gun with the other. AMAZING!
The only downsides to this film to me was that, since I don't have a strong stomach, I felt disgusted with the first ten minutes of the film. Also, the movie was decorated with f-bombs and other cursing that was unnecessary. However, Zombieland was a great film that I won't mind spending money on when it comes out on DVD. 2 stars out of 4.
Zombieland is rated R for horror/violence, gore, and language. It has a running time of about 80 minutes.
Within the first five seconds of the film you see a zombie tear out a piece of human flesh and start devouring the person's insides. Then it flashes to all kinds of cannibalism with people being eaten, zombies being shot, people getting thrown out of their cars and splattering on the road...and that's just in the first five minutes. Yes, Zombieland is defiantly the most disgusting movie I've ever seen. But it had plenty of laughs, loads of great action and showed us a crazy world where in order to survive you have to "nut up or shut up."
In Zombieland we see two characters, Columbus and Tallahassee, who, we find out later on, are both looking for a family to not feel as alone in the apocalyptic world. However, at first, Tallahassee doesn't show it. Instead, he does all he can to kill all the zombies he can find in a number of different ways. Soon the two find two other girls that are on their way to California and eventually they decide to team up. Together they travel across the country fighting zombies and growing closer to each other and becoming a family. One of the last lines of the film were, "We had hope, we had each other."
This film had plenty of laughs throughout the entire film both physical and verbal. This film also featured the best actor cameos and one of the funniest scenes I've seen all year. The action was amazing. It was a truly fun film to watch. Just to give you a little taste...Most of you know the swing rides they have at all the fairs where you get into a chair, it lifts you up, and it swings you around right? Well in the climax, Tallahassee runs up, jumps on this ride holding on with one hand, and shooting zombies with a machine gun with the other. AMAZING!
The only downsides to this film to me was that, since I don't have a strong stomach, I felt disgusted with the first ten minutes of the film. Also, the movie was decorated with f-bombs and other cursing that was unnecessary. However, Zombieland was a great film that I won't mind spending money on when it comes out on DVD. 2 stars out of 4.
Zombieland is rated R for horror/violence, gore, and language. It has a running time of about 80 minutes.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Weekly Update
-Director Michael Bay announced yesterday on his website that Transformers 3 is now in production. Bay stated that they now have a story and that the film will be released in the summer of 2011. http://Rottentomatoes.com/, a popular movie site stated that this piece of news is their "Rotten Idea of the Week.) Hmm, I wonder why, OH YEAH...BECAUSE TRANSFORMERS 2 WASN'T THAT GREAT! Now don't get me wrong it wasn't a horrible movie but I don't think a 3rd film is necessary frankly because I think they've done all they can do with giant talking robots.
-There has been a great deal of Marvel Comic films announced in the past month that already are, or soon will be going into production. Plans are already made to make a second Wolverine film and a X-Men First Class movie, which will be based on the mutants when they were younger. Producer Laura Donner also said that an X4 could possibly be coming in the next few years which I don't think anyone expected. Other films that we will see in the upcoming years are Ghost Rider 2 and maybe even a film based on the popular Spider-Man villain Venom. Right now Venom has a writer and is in production so it will be interesting to see what Marvel does with this character. I think it's safe to say that Marvel is nowhere near done with their comic book films.
-There has been a great deal of Marvel Comic films announced in the past month that already are, or soon will be going into production. Plans are already made to make a second Wolverine film and a X-Men First Class movie, which will be based on the mutants when they were younger. Producer Laura Donner also said that an X4 could possibly be coming in the next few years which I don't think anyone expected. Other films that we will see in the upcoming years are Ghost Rider 2 and maybe even a film based on the popular Spider-Man villain Venom. Right now Venom has a writer and is in production so it will be interesting to see what Marvel does with this character. I think it's safe to say that Marvel is nowhere near done with their comic book films.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Surrogates
A world without limitations or boundaries; that's what the people are entitled to when they are plugged in to a robot that lives their lives for them. But, are the machines safe? That question is answered in Bruce Willis' new sci-fi action film, Surrogates.
Right off the bat we see that almost everyone uses a surrogate that they designed to live their life from the safety of their home. The function of a surrogate? Well, they can do anything that a human being can except for the fact that their strength and agility are perfect, allowing superhuman physical abilities such as the ability to jump off high places and endure large amounts of damage. If a surrogate is destroyed, the operator can simply get up and call in for another with no damage done to him/her. For this reason, there have been no homicides in years until a boy, who happens to be related to the son of the inventor of Surrogates(James Cromwell), dies when his Surrogate gets fried by a new kind of weapon. FBI agents Tom Greer(Bruce Willis) and Agent Peters(Radha Mitchell) are brought in to investigate this new danger. As more and more humans die due to this dangerous weapon, Greer must find out who is behind this plot before the lives of all surrogate users are threatened.
Surrogates is a movie that doesn't give much to talk about as far as CGI, script, action, etc. goes. The story is in most ways original even though it is a lot like both The Matrix and I Robot(in fact the man who played the inventor of the machines in I Robot played the same role in this film.) The script and acting in the movie is nothing special, the pacing is good, but overall most of the elements in Surrogates are mediocre. The good thing is the action and suspense, which seems to move the film along, kept me interested throughout the film. Bruce Willis has once again entertained moviegoers by letting them watch as he beats the crap-ola out of all the bad guys.
The main thing that set Surrogates apart from other sci-fi action films is that it does a great job of teaching us a message. Humans very often tend to hide behind our "masks" and try our best to conceal our past or who we really are so that others can't judge us. In Surrogates, the same thing happens but it's actually even worse. People choose to hide in their machine and become addicted to it to the point where they never want to leave their home so that the world can never see their real face and real personality. Throughout the movie we learn that we need to be strong and brave enough to let the world except us the way we are and not be afraid to be judged. This is the main reason why I liked Surrogates because it has a big moral that is easy to see and makes the film better all around.
Surrogates is a passable sci-fi action film that presents us with fun action and a great theme. The only thing is as I said before, the concept of Surrogates has been seen before in other films so the originality just isn't there. With that said, If I went to a movie rental store, this one would probably not be the one I decide to check out. 1.5 stars out of 4.
Surrogates is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing images, language, sexuality, and a drug-related scene. The film has a running time of 89 minutes.
Right off the bat we see that almost everyone uses a surrogate that they designed to live their life from the safety of their home. The function of a surrogate? Well, they can do anything that a human being can except for the fact that their strength and agility are perfect, allowing superhuman physical abilities such as the ability to jump off high places and endure large amounts of damage. If a surrogate is destroyed, the operator can simply get up and call in for another with no damage done to him/her. For this reason, there have been no homicides in years until a boy, who happens to be related to the son of the inventor of Surrogates(James Cromwell), dies when his Surrogate gets fried by a new kind of weapon. FBI agents Tom Greer(Bruce Willis) and Agent Peters(Radha Mitchell) are brought in to investigate this new danger. As more and more humans die due to this dangerous weapon, Greer must find out who is behind this plot before the lives of all surrogate users are threatened.
Surrogates is a movie that doesn't give much to talk about as far as CGI, script, action, etc. goes. The story is in most ways original even though it is a lot like both The Matrix and I Robot(in fact the man who played the inventor of the machines in I Robot played the same role in this film.) The script and acting in the movie is nothing special, the pacing is good, but overall most of the elements in Surrogates are mediocre. The good thing is the action and suspense, which seems to move the film along, kept me interested throughout the film. Bruce Willis has once again entertained moviegoers by letting them watch as he beats the crap-ola out of all the bad guys.
The main thing that set Surrogates apart from other sci-fi action films is that it does a great job of teaching us a message. Humans very often tend to hide behind our "masks" and try our best to conceal our past or who we really are so that others can't judge us. In Surrogates, the same thing happens but it's actually even worse. People choose to hide in their machine and become addicted to it to the point where they never want to leave their home so that the world can never see their real face and real personality. Throughout the movie we learn that we need to be strong and brave enough to let the world except us the way we are and not be afraid to be judged. This is the main reason why I liked Surrogates because it has a big moral that is easy to see and makes the film better all around.
Surrogates is a passable sci-fi action film that presents us with fun action and a great theme. The only thing is as I said before, the concept of Surrogates has been seen before in other films so the originality just isn't there. With that said, If I went to a movie rental store, this one would probably not be the one I decide to check out. 1.5 stars out of 4.
Surrogates is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing images, language, sexuality, and a drug-related scene. The film has a running time of 89 minutes.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Weekly Update
There isn't that much exciting news this week as far as movies go but there are a couple of small things that you might like to hear.
-First of all...a brand new New Moon trailer premiered last week on the MTV VMA awards(the one where Kayne interrupted Taylor's thank-you speech) and oh boy was it cool. This film already looks so much better than Twilight. You can find it at the bottom of the page!
-Many fans who saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine were disappointed that Ryan Reynolds(who played Wade Wilson/Deadpoole) didn't have that much screen time and that the character swayed away from the comics. Producer of the films Lauren Donner said that the new spin off film titled, X-Men Origins: Deadpool, will be going back to the comics and will be a complete reboot. The only thing that won't change is that Ryan Reynold will be returning despite his current involvement on Green Lantern.
That's all I have this time around that is remotely interesting. Hopefully as the winter movie season grows closer there will be more interesting news. Also, come back this weekend to read my review of Surrogates.
-First of all...a brand new New Moon trailer premiered last week on the MTV VMA awards(the one where Kayne interrupted Taylor's thank-you speech) and oh boy was it cool. This film already looks so much better than Twilight. You can find it at the bottom of the page!
-Many fans who saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine were disappointed that Ryan Reynolds(who played Wade Wilson/Deadpoole) didn't have that much screen time and that the character swayed away from the comics. Producer of the films Lauren Donner said that the new spin off film titled, X-Men Origins: Deadpool, will be going back to the comics and will be a complete reboot. The only thing that won't change is that Ryan Reynold will be returning despite his current involvement on Green Lantern.
That's all I have this time around that is remotely interesting. Hopefully as the winter movie season grows closer there will be more interesting news. Also, come back this weekend to read my review of Surrogates.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
9
On the 9th day of the ninth month of 2009, I saw a film that had nine characters, whose protagonist's name was nine, a movie in which there were nine heroes, and the film was called "9". What is the deal with all these 9's? I guess it's just marketing because there was nothing about it in the film. Anyways, director Shane Acker has given us a whole new realm of animation in his post-apocalyptic animated film, 9.
At the start of the movie, we see a scientist who is sowing together a stitchpunk(named by the director of the film) whom he named 9(voiced by Elijah Wood). Then quickly, before we see anything else, the scene flashes to when 9 wakes up and all human life has been dimolished. 9 then walks out into the broken world and soon finds another like him whose name is 2. "2" explains that the world has been taken over by machines and that the stitchpunks are the only things left to destroy them. Soon 9 finds the other 7 of his kind and embarks on his journey to finish the mission that the scientist created him to do.
Let me say that 9 isn't the film you want to take your young children to see. This movie is both dark and violent despite the fact that it's animated. The machines themselves are very menacing and frightening and they do their best to cut up, capture, and kill the stitchpunks and many times they succeed. While the film has no blood because they're all machines, there is still tons of violence and several deaths in which the stitchpunks get they're souls sucked out by machines.
What stunk for the film is that it's a little under an hour and a half so there isn't much time to explain the plot or get to know the characters. We get to see a little about each stitchpunk's personality but the movie doesn't have much time for that so it immediately gets going into the action. But, while the machines taking over the world isn't original, the fact that sown up rag dolls are trying to destroy them is and for that the makers of the film get brownie points.
The main accomplishment with "9" is that the film is visually amazing. The texture and detail that is seen in this film does a great job of throwing the viewer into the world of "9". No surprise there because almost everything with Tim Burton's name has great and unique animation. A few other things that added to my enjoyment of this film were the script and the music. I usually don't expect things like that to be in an animated film so I was pleasantly surprised.
"9" is an impressive film to watch but in the end...the plot just doesn't make sense. The stitchpunks were created in order to "protect" the future and keep civilization going but the things themselves have no reason to fight. So what if they do or don't destroy the machines, either way there will still be no humans when all is said and done. Why must the stitchpunks fight for a lost cause? That was the question that never got answered. However, "9" shown us a new kind of animated feature and had just enough spark to keep me interested till the end. 2 stars out of 4. "9" has a running time of 1 hour and 19 minutes and is rated PG-13 for violence and scary images.
At the start of the movie, we see a scientist who is sowing together a stitchpunk(named by the director of the film) whom he named 9(voiced by Elijah Wood). Then quickly, before we see anything else, the scene flashes to when 9 wakes up and all human life has been dimolished. 9 then walks out into the broken world and soon finds another like him whose name is 2. "2" explains that the world has been taken over by machines and that the stitchpunks are the only things left to destroy them. Soon 9 finds the other 7 of his kind and embarks on his journey to finish the mission that the scientist created him to do.
Let me say that 9 isn't the film you want to take your young children to see. This movie is both dark and violent despite the fact that it's animated. The machines themselves are very menacing and frightening and they do their best to cut up, capture, and kill the stitchpunks and many times they succeed. While the film has no blood because they're all machines, there is still tons of violence and several deaths in which the stitchpunks get they're souls sucked out by machines.
What stunk for the film is that it's a little under an hour and a half so there isn't much time to explain the plot or get to know the characters. We get to see a little about each stitchpunk's personality but the movie doesn't have much time for that so it immediately gets going into the action. But, while the machines taking over the world isn't original, the fact that sown up rag dolls are trying to destroy them is and for that the makers of the film get brownie points.
The main accomplishment with "9" is that the film is visually amazing. The texture and detail that is seen in this film does a great job of throwing the viewer into the world of "9". No surprise there because almost everything with Tim Burton's name has great and unique animation. A few other things that added to my enjoyment of this film were the script and the music. I usually don't expect things like that to be in an animated film so I was pleasantly surprised.
"9" is an impressive film to watch but in the end...the plot just doesn't make sense. The stitchpunks were created in order to "protect" the future and keep civilization going but the things themselves have no reason to fight. So what if they do or don't destroy the machines, either way there will still be no humans when all is said and done. Why must the stitchpunks fight for a lost cause? That was the question that never got answered. However, "9" shown us a new kind of animated feature and had just enough spark to keep me interested till the end. 2 stars out of 4. "9" has a running time of 1 hour and 19 minutes and is rated PG-13 for violence and scary images.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Big Deal
UPDATE: I just had a thought...I think one of the reasons Disney did this is because of the new Harry Potter world at Islands of Adventure. Maybe Disney's afraid of not getting visitors and needs to think of some new rides.
It was confirmed yesterday that Disney has bought Marvel for the huge sum of FOUR BILLION DOLLARS( Hey Marvels worth it.) As many of you know, Marvel is the company that as made comic books, video games, TV shows, and huge blockbuster movies based on our favorite super heroes like Spider-Man and The X-Men. This means that Disney can immediately add Marvel hero's to their theme parks across the world. The only park this excludes is Walt Disney World in Orlando because of the existing deal between Marvel and Universal(Islands of Adventure.) I read that the Island of Adventure theme park has a perpetual deal with Marvel for the Amazing Spider-Man ride and the Incredible Hulk coaster so we will never see those attractions leave that park(Thank God.) Right now it seems that the biggest changes will be in advertising, merchandise, and television. The Disney cable channels(preferably Disney XD) will now probably develop more TV shows based on Marvel characters. Besides that, we will probably see more Disney adds in upcoming comic books. Right now it seems that the deal is not effecting the upcoming films being made by Marvel in any way.
It was confirmed yesterday that Disney has bought Marvel for the huge sum of FOUR BILLION DOLLARS( Hey Marvels worth it.) As many of you know, Marvel is the company that as made comic books, video games, TV shows, and huge blockbuster movies based on our favorite super heroes like Spider-Man and The X-Men. This means that Disney can immediately add Marvel hero's to their theme parks across the world. The only park this excludes is Walt Disney World in Orlando because of the existing deal between Marvel and Universal(Islands of Adventure.) I read that the Island of Adventure theme park has a perpetual deal with Marvel for the Amazing Spider-Man ride and the Incredible Hulk coaster so we will never see those attractions leave that park(Thank God.) Right now it seems that the biggest changes will be in advertising, merchandise, and television. The Disney cable channels(preferably Disney XD) will now probably develop more TV shows based on Marvel characters. Besides that, we will probably see more Disney adds in upcoming comic books. Right now it seems that the deal is not effecting the upcoming films being made by Marvel in any way.
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