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[Mighty Midget]

20 Million Miles To Earth


(Sci-fi, Nathan Juran, USA, 1957, b/w)
A space rocket ship crashes into the Mediterranian Sea, with some local fishermen witnessing the crash. Two men are rescued from the wreckage, a ship on it's way back from waaaaay out there. On board was also a container with an alien lizard-sort-of-thing-creature. This creature escapes both the container and the people wanting to capture it, dead or, preferably, alive.
This is actually a very decent flick, nice photography, pretty good acting and not the dimwit dialogues one usually expects from these sorts of movies. Also, the special effects are above average for it's time. Nice stop-motion lizards, not the worst double projection in history, and clever enough not to overdo it, but rather show the good bits and leave the excessive garbage out.
The pace is nice, it starts with a bang, literally, calms down then progressively picks up speed as the movie goes on, until the climax, where it, sadly, falls a bit apart due to the movie wanting the hero to be everywhere and do everything, just to really hammer it into our skulls he is the Hero. Ok, I get it, he's the hero, now give the others a chance to be anything but extras and props, will you?
One more thing that pulls this film down from being a real goodie, is the moster. It's not a bad monster, visually, far from it, it's just that it... well... bellows a lot, and I mean A LOT! After the first 30 minutes of non-stop alien bellowing it gets kinda silly, and after another 30 minutes you really, really want this noisy dino to just shut up, permanently. Too bad really, as the movie shows a bit of sympathy for the bugger, only wanting to be left alone, but is instead chased all over the place by our omnipresent hero and his merry bunch of trigger happy soldiers. I guess they got a headache and wanted it silenced too.

Personal opinion: Way above average, but doesn't make it to the top. The first half or so is pretty damn good, but as it gets busier, it sticks out like a sore thumb how they could use one or two more characters, instead of cramming 20 into one. Beside, that goddamn bellowing really got on my nerves near the end. But ok, even though it's nothing like an A-movie by today's standards, I won't call it an outright B-movie either, more of a B+-movie.

[Mighty Midget]

The Ladykillers


(Comedy, Alexander Mackendrick, UK, 1955, b/w)

A criminal mastermind (Alec Guinness) rents a room at an old, eccentric lady's house. His plan is to rob a money transport with the aid of his gang, all of them pretending to be hobby musicians practicing in the house. The old lady is completly unaware of all of this but still manages to make life very hard for these hardened criminals. They decide to put an end to her, but it soon is evident that will prove to be a very difficult task, due to the lady's innocent, eccentric behaviour and her luck.
This is a very good movie, with very good actors (also including Peter Sellers), with a good warm feeling to it. I will even call it a sweet movie. The story has quite a few surprising turns along the way, and isn't boring at all, if you appreciate the, yes, calm tone throughout the film. Not to say it hasn't got it moments of "suspense", it does, but the main plot revolves around the old lady who constantly botches it up for the robbers.

Personal opinion: A nice, sweet comedy with a good old crime story twist that makes it in my opinion a good comedy for the whole family. The violence is as non-explicit as it can get and is only there to spice up the crime element, while still having elements of the absurd in it. It's not a I-am-flat-out-guffawiing comedy, but there are plenty of those quiet, non-spectacular moments where you will let out a good, merry laugh. Recommended.

[Blood-Pigggy]

Army of Darkness is the worst in the series.
The original was campy horror and its sequel a even mixture, AoD just went way over the top and lost the charm.

[Mighty Midget]

AoD is indeed a different story altogether see how AoD is the only ED film without "Evil Dead" in it's title? I believe Raimi knew full well this wasn't a "real" ED film, but just something he wanted to do. Yes, it's over the top, but it's so coooool it just seems right anyway \o/

[STFM]

Depending on the country, the film was also known as "Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness" and "Captain Supermarket" in Japan
Also the plot (Ash going back to medievil england) was the original plot concept for Evil Dead 2.

Shop smart, shop S-Mart.

[zafo999]

Thought i'd copy a bunch of my short reviews from Flixster. A lot of them don't really review and are only one or two sentences summing up my experience. Some of them I spend time on and say something that's more thought out, some of them aren't even really reviews but are me just being a snob and swearing about how I loved it or hated it.

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - (4/5) - The concept is fantastic, the execution is moderately flawed. This may be the most (maybe the only) intelligent film to fit into the 'slasher' genre. Horror buffs will be able to see past the mediocre acting and sometimes awkward dialogue to find a surprisingly clever satire and tribute to classic slasher films.

Day of the Dead - (5/5) - The best of the trilogy.. or... quadilogy? Whatever. While it gets a bum rap from people who just want to see people fighting zombies, I think it is very progressive for the genre and one of the most profound in it's social commentary. Summarizing personalities between scientists, soldiers and civilians (similar to Akira).. making human ignorance the primary threat, the zombies themselves being secondary.. a Lord of the Flies feeling among the stranded survivors.. and an interesting 'humanity' angle with Bub, a zombie who is being trained to behave as a living human.. are all very original concepts to find in a zombie film. Day of the Dead transcends the horror and zombie genres.

Casino - (5/5) - My very favorite Scorsese movie and I believe his masterwork.

GoodFellas- (3/5) - I'm really not crazy about Goodfellas, and i'm a huge Scorsese nut. I don't even think it's anywhere among his best. It's a good movie but the main characters may be the least interesting characters. I found Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco to be somewhat annoying and lackluster. The interesting "mob life" story focuses mainly on the aesthetics and seems slightly pandering. Especially in contrast to 'Casino' or 'Raging Bull' which presents the setting secondary to the characters, making for a deeper, more emotionally attractive story.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - (5/5) - Holy damn it, this is a great movie.

Chicken Run - (4/5) - This movie kind of came and went too quick for anybody to notice. It actually is one of the best stop motion films I've seen. It's rare to see a 'family' comedy that isn't so cheeseball that it makes you wince, while also not stooping to pop-culture references and 'this-ones-for-mom-and-dad' innuendo a la Shrek.

The Matrix - (3.5) - Revolutionary special effects that revived the American action movie for about 2 years.. combined with some philosophy crap to keep people from feeling too stupid from watching an action movie starring emotionless blocks of wood wearing leather and sunglasses... That's not just a shot at Reeves, by the way... They all kind of sucked. But a big-budget cyberpunk film will always get a thumbs up from me.

Hot Fuzz - (5/5) - I hate to say it, but even funnier than Shaun of the Dead. I wish every movie was made by these guys. Even pornos.

Freddy vs. Jason - (3/5) - You probably decided to love or hate this movie before you saw it. I know I did. It's not really a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but if you were a kid who was waiting 10 years of his life for two un-killable killing machines to try and kill each other for 2 hours, then you and I should hang out sometime. It's all fan service, and fans of these franchises are idiots anyway. That being said, I goddamn love this movie. It's everything I ever dreamed it would be. And compared to the majority of the movies in the two franchises, it's actually very good.

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride - (2/5) - UGH!! UUUUGGGH!!!! What a disappointment. If we can learn anything from this, it's that Henry Selick deserves way more credit for Nightmare Before Christmas, and Tim Burton deserves much less. Yeah, Henry Selick. Look him up, simpleton.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou- (4/5) - Whoever didn't like this movie is garbage. Why can't comedy be this subtle more often? Oh yeah, people have taste for s**t.

Dead Alive (Braindead)- (5/5) - Peter Jackson's master work. An unprecedented bastardization of genre. A horror that goes for no scares and a comedy that deeply disturbs you. Big points for remaining the most relentlessly gory film in history, all with an almost Looney Tunes-style delivery!

Bad Taste- (5/5) - Holy crap, Lord of the Rings turned Peter Jackson into a piece of s**t. This is his first movie and remains the greatest no-budget movie of all time. I, for one, do not believe that production values = good movie, even though America generally disagrees. In fact, fans of Spider-Man and Pirate movies should probably keep away, as the production values won't be enough to equal entertainment in your tiny brain. Whereas the bizarre grossout humor, ugly-as-sin actors and overambitiously homemade sets, props, and costumes are the perfect combination for geniuses like myself.

Rocky - (5/5) - Perhaps the greatest sports film in history. It's a shame Stallone blew his proverbial load with it and went on to a career of garbage.

Rocky IV - (2/5) - Yeah, yeah. Ivan Drago is cool.. blah blah blah. Easily the worst of the series. The majority of the film is irrelevant scenes put to songs that last way too long. Even if other Rockys had crappy stories, at least they had A story, not like this mess which can't decide what it's about. But hey, it's still Rocky...

Garfield - The Movie - (1/5) - I didn't last 15 minutes...

Free Willy - (1/5) - I hated that short period of time where they would put out movies starring little kids with shaggy hair and jean jackets, and they almost always had divorced parents and were named "Jessie". So annoying, even when I was a kid it was annoying!

The Dress Code - (0.5/5) - This might be my least favorite movie of all time. Either this or High Fidelity.

Waterworld - (4/5) - Why did everyone hate this movie again?

Mortal Kombat - (3/5) - Probably the best video game movie.. although that still isn't saying much.

Bride of Chucky - (2/5) - I've got a huge hard on for Jennifer Tilly.. but not quite enough to watch this all the way through.

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous - (5/5) - I've never seen it, nor do I plan to. But god damn it, that is the most brilliantly stupid movie title in history!

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 - Freddy's Revenge - (1/5) - The worst of the series. In a series whose only merits are violent deaths and cheesy one-liners, Freddy 2 delivers few-to-none of each.

The Nightmare Before Christmas - (4.5/5) - I would have given this movie 5 stars, but ever since it's become the frontman for Hot Topic culture, I don't even feel right saying that I liked it. It deserves 5, but I have to make sure people know i'm not an awkward 14 year-old Skinny Puppy fan so 4.5.

Batman - The Movie - (4/5) - Still the best Batman movie. "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!"

Falling Down - (3/5) - Probably won't blow your mind. But it's extremely fun watching a man crack and do pretty much whatever he wants to do for 2 hours.

Meet the Feebles- (3/5) - Flawed in many ways, but there's an odd appeal in seeing puppets do just about everything that a puppet should never do.

The Ring - (2/5) - If this movie scared you, you should be ashamed. Also, I wish horror was more than creepy special effects anymore. My inner snob wants me to tell you that the japanese original was better, but I never saw it. This is a bad review.

Titanic - (2.5/5) - The ultimate middle of the road film. Not bad enough to be bad, not good enough to be good. Just lowest-common-denominator enough to be the biggest box office smash in history.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - (2/5) - I've seen this movie twice and I swear I can't remember what it's about or why it was so popular. Pirates run away from special effects for 2 hours. I suppose kids would love it.

White Chicks - (1/5) - Will the Wayans Brothers ever do anything worth your time?

Ocean's Twelve - (1/5) - Holy s**t, I sat through this whole movie and I have no idea what it's about. I couldn't get past the annoying oversaturated reds and greens in EVERY F**KING SCENE. Same thing goes on in the movie Swordfish. I guess it's supposed to be edgy-looking or something. The lighting guy should be shot.

Scary Movie - (1/5) - Stupid. Not like funny stupid, just annoying stupid. 90% dick and fart jokes, 10% actual parody.

[Blood-Pigggy]

The Batman movie is only considered to the be the best because the fans who want to be babied with their series can't handle that Batman Begins is a far better movie with way superior acting.

The accuracy of the film is secondary to its quality really, and Tim Burton's Batman had the most annoying Bruce Wayne ever.

[Eva02Soul]

I like Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne, but his actual Batman wasn't the best. I liked Michael Keaton's batman, but found him an annoying Bruce Wayne. Maybe we should have Christian Keaton in the next film

[zafo999]

I'll have you know sir that the Batman movie I was talking about refers to the ridiculous 1966 Adam West one. The only one that just accepts the fact that a man wearing pointy bat ears is just silly.

[Lulu_Jane]

I actually really liked the Adam West movie version. It's one of the funniest and campiest things ever committed to celluloid.

Cat Woman's special cat-shaped transmitter with the flashing eyes is hysterical.

Then again, I though that Teenagers From Outer Space was utterly awesome, so who am I to judge