HOT FUZZ

Hot Fuzz Movie Review

London policeman officer Nick Angel (Simon Pegg) is so good at what he does that he is making the rest of the force look bad, so they have him transferred to a small country town; there, he joins an incompetent force, including his new partner Danny (Nick Frost), the police chief’s bumbling son. This is the second in the “Blood and Ice Cream” trilogy to feature Pegg, Frost, and director Edgar Wright, the first being Shaun Of The Dead.

The ice cream

While Shaun was a nod to zombie flicks, Hot Fuzz is dedicated to cop-buddy action films. Like Shaun, this one packs tons of action, gore, and comedy into a fantastic film. This movie hits every cliché known to action movies without missing a beat, and it gets funnier every time you watch it. Pegg and Frost, of course, are fantastic in this movie, and the supporting cast is really good as well. The story actually has an interesting plot to boot. The humor will not be for everybody as it is very British, but I absolutely love it, and love this film...and I will forever repeat "The greater good" every time I hear somebody say it. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 9

Hot Fuzz Movie Trailer

THE GORE GORE GIRLS

The Gore Gore Girls Movie Review

A serial killer is murdering strippers in very brutal fashion as a detective and reporter attempt to track him down. This movie is one part horror, one part comedy, one part mystery, and is not good at any of them. This is basically stripper dances, gets killed, repeat, with lots of bad dialogue and terrible acting in between. If you can make it through the first hour, however, the last twenty minutes aren’t so bad—unless maybe the first hour is so bad the last twenty minutes seems better than it actually is. At any rate, the last twenty minutes are full of death scenes and stripping, so at least something is happening. For some reason, many horror movies in the 70’s seem to throw in painfully unfunny comedy as well, and this holds true in this film. The death scenes are gory, with brains being crushed and eyeballs popped out, but it all looks so fake it is more laughable than scary. Strangely, this movie received an X rating when it was released—I have no idea why. The Gore Gore Girls really doesn't have much going for it. Skip it.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 3

The Gore Gore Girls Movie Trailer (It's much better than the movie itself) 

THE LOST BOYS 3: THE THIRST

The Lost Boys 3: The Thirst Movie Review

Edgar Frog (Corey Feldman, The Goonies, Dream A Little Dream) is broke and being evicted from his home when he is offered a chance to kill the head vampire, destroying all other vampires. The third movie in the Lost Boys series is considerably better than the second, but still fails to come even close to the original. The acting is pretty bad throughout and the plot has holes all over it. Thankfully they dropped most of the really bad CGI from part two, giving a more original feel. The vampires are really hit or miss, with the more powerful vampires being by far the least effective. There are several references to the original film, including rehashing lines from it, and there are even a few scenes from the first movie included as Edgar has flashbacks. Unfortunately Corey Haim died before filming, making it impossible to get the Sam vs. Edgar battle teased in part 2, but the character is included in the story and Haim is featured in flashback scenes. It is mentioned in part two that Alan Frog (Jamison Newlander) is dead, but he is in part three, albeit as a vampire.

The meanest, the baddest...and a chick

Most of the major characters from the original film are mentioned in the movie as well, telling us what ends up happening to them. They also sort of ripped on the Twilight phenomenon and reality television as well, both of which earned points from me. This really isn’t a bad movie—it’s not great either, but having watched part 2, I was pleasantly surprised here.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 6

The Lost Boys 3: The Thirst Movie Trailer

DEAD AND GONE

Dead And Gone Movie Review

Jack Wade (Quentin Jones) brings his comatose wife to a small house in the middle of nowhere, waiting for her to die so he can collect insurance money. Jack is soon haunted by visions of his wife and the ghosts of dead people. This low budget film really doesn’t have much going for it--the directing is bad, the acting worse, and the dialogue is awful. Most of the gore scenes are so fake looking they’re laughable. For the most part the movie crawls at a snails pace with nothing happening. The plot makes little to no sense at all. The only interesting thing about this movie is some of the somewhat familiar faces that turn up. Kyle Gass (music act Tenacious D), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), and Marilyn Ghigliotti (Clerks) all have small roles. And Zack Ward (A Christmas Story, Titus) has top billing on the cover of the movie but is only in it for maybe forty-five seconds.

Dead And Gone made me say uncle

None of these people are exactly “great” actors, but they are head and shoulders above the rest of the cast here. They are not well known, but considering their total screen time adds up to about five minutes, they probably had a sense they were better than this movie. I agree.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 3

Dead And Gone Movie Trailer 

BURIED

Buried Movie Review

Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds Amityville Horror, Finder’s Fee) is captured in Iraq and buried alive. Equipped with a cell phone and a couple lights, he makes calls to attempt to be rescued, while also trying to get five million dollars the terrorists are demanding for his release. This is a very simply shot movie—literally the entire movie is Reynolds in a box. As such, almost the entire is movie is dialogue between Conroy and various people on the phone, and his emotional reactions to being trapped, as well as his reactions to the phone calls. I have to say I was rather bored with the first half of the movie but midway through it starts to take off as we get to know Paul better and know more about his life back home. He becomes very likable, and I found myself cheering for him. Some of the shots are questionable, as they show Reynolds from a distance, giving the impression the coffin is much larger than an actual coffin, as if we are seeing him through tunnels that do not exist.

Like this

This seems the opposite of what they should have been going for, which is the actual small space he is locked in. Reynolds, who is a hit or miss sort of actor for me, is really good in this, and brings a ton of emotion to the role, particularly towards the end. Some of his phone calls and messages, such as the ones with his mother and his son, are absolutely heartbreaking. We are also given an ending that is pretty unforgettable. If you can force yourself through about the first 45 minutes of this film you will be rewarded.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 7

Buried Movie Trailer

DEVIL

Devil Movie Review

Five strangers are trapped in an elevator.

What could go wrong?

As the building security and detectives attempt to get to them, they begin dying off one by one and everybody realizes there may be more in that elevator than they realize. This is a fairly suspenseful film, as you spend a lot of it trying to figure out which character is killing off the others (or which one is the Devil, if you will). The film also looks at the idea that nothing is coincidence, and the story really plays out well as we learn more and more about the characters as we go along. There is not a lot of gore in this one (in fact hardly any at all) but it does provide several freaky scenes/images. The acting is fair—nothing standout but nothing offensively bad either. There is a bit of a twist ending which is sort of cool. I sometimes complain about movies being too long but seldom say a movie is too short—Devil, clocking in around 80 minutes, is too short. There are some part of the movie that drag along a bit, but there always seems to be something happening to advance the story. This is the first movie of a trilogy being written by M. Night Shyamalan (he did not direct this) titled The Night Chronicles, three stories of the supernatural in the modern urban world. He kicked it off pretty well with this movie.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 8

Devil Movie Trailer 

SORORITY ROW

Sorority Row Movie Review

A group of sorority sisters decide to play a prank on a frat guy by convincing him his girlfriend is dead, but the prank goes wrong when he actually kills her. They all dump the body and  agree to tell nobody what happened, but now somebody is killing them off one by one. This is a remake of the 1983 movie The House On Sorority Row, and like many remakes of the past few years, it is fairly weak. This movie feels a lot more like I Know What You Did Last Summer than The House On Sorority Row. The sorority girls are all pretty much interchangeable and unlikable, making them pretty close to real life sorority girls. I enjoyed watching them get knocked off, but unfortunately, we don’t get enough of that. One standout among the girls is Leah Pipes as Jessica, the meanest of them all. She was so good at playing that character that you wonder if she is actually like that in real life or if she was just THAT good in the role. I was surprised to see she was just 21 at the time of this film, however, as she looks at least 30.

Did I ax for your opinion?

There are a couple pretty cool kills that kept my interest, and it does a decent job of keeping you wondering who the killer is, but the payoff is disappointing. For the most part this movie is a lot of bad acting, bad dialogue, and even worse music. This is just a really average movie.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 5

Sorority Row Movie Trailer