Sunday August 7, 2011

Little Monsters- A fun kids movie from back in the day that is a good watch but there is so much to pick on that its partially hard to enjoy. Howie Mandel's impression of Betelgeuse only goes so far, and it's the mean spirited attitude of the monsters that provides odd humor for a children's movie. Even if the kid has a bully that makes fun of him and picks on him, does that really give him the right to sneak into his house late at night and pee in his apple juice container. But I can forgive that, only there's more. At the end of the film, their entrance way to the mortal world from the monster world is closed because the sun is up. This should mean that the kids are trapped and will become monsters. Only the loophole is that they can go to a different state around the world to find a place where they can exit without the sun. Doesn't this mean that nobody has to become monsters? Was everyone too stupid before them to run to a different time zone? Oh well, this is a 'Goonies' level movie with a horror lime twist to it, so its all in a playful spirit, but if I'm watching something with my future kids or am feeling nostalgic, I should probably just go with 'The Goonies'… also, I feel like this one could scare kids, so obviously that's not great for the family.



Don't Look Under the Bed- Another horror kids film, this from the Disney Channel Original Movie brand (though I found a copy of it on Youtube after feeling nostalgic for this one after 'Little Monsters') and I like it much more than Little Monsters… although it is much creepier. Despite overusing the Dutch 'Sideways' Angle to create an eerie abnormal effect probably way too much, it is used for the right purposes. Anywho, I wanted to begin by saying, now this is quality for an old kids movie. It is certainly scary (gives me a bit of chills after its done, but when I saw it when I was younger, I was fearing' like crazy cause of this one… Well, not as bad as 'The Ring', but you get the idea. Anyways, the leads are both solid, it is filled with fun moments and creepy ones, and everything almost ties up perfectly. Except for never telling us why the lead could see the imaginary friend but not the Boogeyman character, and then letting her see the Boogeyman character at the end with no explanation, this is a kids film I mark with an appropriate amount of good nostalgia.



- Jeff Bassin

A Few New (and more unknown) Films to Look Out For and Why

Catfish- A "documentary" with some incredible buzz. It's about some guy who starts a relationship with some chick and her family on facebook, and eventually he finds out she lying about herself so he travels to accuse her of this. Reason to watch: Think Dateline the Movie, but way more interesting.

Post Viewing: Awesome. It's not the "Hitchcockian" thriller it suggests, but it is very interesting and very modern. Watch it.



Enter The Void- Gaspar Noé's trippy ambitious film about a dead drug addict who's ghost looks over his sister because of tragedy in their past. Blah, blah, blah, incredible visuals, blah, blah, blah, acid trip. Reason to watch: "What's going on? (Pause) Woah, pretty colors"

Post Viewing: Weird as it seems, maybe even more, but it's striking, original, and very great would be the words to think of before watching it. Take out the 3 hours required to view this (it's only 2 hours and 40 minutes, I think, but you'll need the 20 to recover) though don't watch it with friends (or at least don't talk during it). This is a movie to take on by yourself, but then to discuss like crazy nonstop afterwards.



Monsters- While Gareth Edwards' new sci fi film may seem like the next Cloverfield with a more natural shooting environment (Mexico), it is actually a drama/love story so don't go crazy if it wasn't like you expected it to be. Reason to watch: Edwards is a skilled FX man, who shot this feature for only 7K. It looks great. Plus, the man released it on iTunes rental early, so why not? CON: Well, it's 10 bucks for the rental, so maybe you can wait.

Post Viewing: Not great. I mean, it's mostly cool sites around Mexico, with some talking placed in. There is only like one or so Alien bits, but that's not really my complaint. It's that I just couldn't believe the love story, and I think that should have been the first concern of the film. You would think that a movie focusing on a relationship would be able to paint one you wanted to happen, but really, I just didn't care. I was just wishing for an alien to attack them already. It's not terrible. Just not great. I really would only recommend this to people who want to see how Edwards uses effects to even alter props in the scene, changing a sign saying "Stop" to "Contamination (or something)".



127 Hours- Danny Boyle's Slumdog follow up with James Franco. Well see how it lives up. Reason to watch: Boyle's fast paced kinetic style in a scenario of James Franco trapped under some rocks. Wonder if it will show him amputating his lower right arm with a dull knife in order to escape like the true story it is based on. Interesting.

Post Viewing: Really great editing makes Franco entertaining and keeps the movie fast paced and fun (maybe not the right choice of words). I enjoyed it. Although, since you kind of know what's going to happen, either from movie hype or just plain old knowledge of Aron Ralston's amazing story, you might as well skip to the Arm Cutting Scene that everybody wants to see so bad. But then again, if you want to see how he got to that point (which is pretty interesting), I will certainly be the one to push on that idea.



Miral- Julian Schnabel, director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, has got a lot to live up to after his 92 metacritic score and world wide acclaim, and he chose to direct a drama about a orphan Palestinian girl during the Arab-Israeli war. Reason to watch: It's apparently going to be in English.

Beginners- Thumbsucker director Mike Mills' first narrative based since the former, and he's got a rockin' cast to boot. Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, and Mélanie Laurent. Also, look at the cute dog.



- Jeff Bassin