The Final (2010)

Director:

Joey Stewart

Writer:

Jason Kabolati

             Have you ever gone balistic because someone treated you wrong for no apparent reason and you would gladly skin him alive so that he would apologize and have regrets about it? In reality you never had the guts to do anything about it and not even wanted to do it for real but kept dreaming about it? (we feel many of you are noding your heads, oh, we almost feel like Oprah and Dr. Phil :) )
Well, these kids certainly had.

             Plot story : The story is about bullied high school kids that have had enough. They devise a sinister plan to get their revenge on the ones who did them wrong. 

             We must admit we weren't expecting a lot from this movie since we're not thrilled that much about After Dark Horrorfest movies. In fact, the most of them did not impress us at all. This one is a far cry from that scenario. It delivers much more than expected, especially if you start off with low or no expectations. The movie grabs your attention from the very beginning which is supported by the fact that there is nothing worse than a scared face. We dare to say that the first and the last scene were the most interesting ones. Although this is a low- budget movie and is limited by it in its possibilities, we didn't feel it. Those funds were obviously used rationally (unlike the funds used by our goverment). The thing that is not so good is the costume design. Halloween costumes were not interesting at all and those that were supposed to be scary did not succeed in its purpose (they all looked like a cast from a porno movie audition). That could have been done much much better. Acting also isn't worth of applauding and maybe Marc Donato and Lindsay Seidel stood out the most. Photography, camera work and the direction were all well done masking the movie's (in)abilities. Ruminant premise of the movie and the message that wants to be given is very commendable since this is everyday in this world.

             Anyone of us can relate to some of these characters but if we choose the violence as the answer to violence, what makes us different?! We are just stepping into a dangerous magic circle with power of negative and destroying act. Young kids all over the world do not understand that being different is better than being part of the mass (except in China :) ) and the parents are the most responsible for that because they don't talk enough with their kids which can also be seen in this movie.
The intention of this movie is good trying to show us that we can't beat someone not our size and to respect diversity which is, let's face it, impossible especially in the world of teenagers who can be really cruel. The thing that worries us is that bullied teenagers watching this movie might come to an idea of realizing something like this. The Final is not the type of horror movie which you watch on the edge of your seat and there is not much blood or torture. Torturing scenes are not disturbing and are far from originality but they are kind of playing with your mind so we would rather call it a psychological thriller than a horror.

               The confusing thing about this movie is that you can't choose the side. As much as you sympathize with the bullied kids and wish for a revenge at the beginning of the movie, that much they become very unlikeable at the end of the movie because the students have become the masters.
Also, writer's insecurity is delivered to the screen because there is lack of a concrete idea and just as it is about to reach the top it plummets down suddenly. In other words, it's missing the dot on the i to make the story complete.

              Despite of all of the defects, there is still the feeling that remains. This one will stick with you and and will make you think about it and will leave you wondering if you are treating other people properly yourself.
This movie is ''what you see is what you get''. There is nothing less or more than the plot story says.
Do we need another movie of pissed off victims of bullying after so many of greatly done ones (Ben X, Bully, Elephant....)? Probably no, but we're glad that this one exists because it entertained us and it doesn't leave a bitter taste in your mouth.

Our score:
Liz: 7/10
Kyle: 6.5/10

Ils (2006)

Director: 

David Moreau, Xavier Palud

Writers:

David Moreau, Xavier Palud

               Don't you love it when a horror movie starts off with a notice that it's based on a true story? In a way it makes you feel more anxious to see it because you know that it actually happened and at the same moment you feel lucky that you are the one watching this movie and not the one that the movie is based on. This is one of those movies where that feeling of luck mixes with disbelief, anxiety, adrenalin and discomfort making it a perfect experience for the horror lovers. This one will grab your attention from the very beginning.

                Plot story: French School teacher Clementine and her husband Lucas recently moved to Bucharest, Romania. They live in a big suburban house. One night Clementine is awakened by the strange noises from the outside of the house. Suddenly they see their car being stolen and moments later the lights go off. They find themselves surrounded and isolated in their own house by some strange people.

                The movie is short in its duration, the run time is only 77 minutes, but that is more than enough to pull you in. You know, good things come in small packages, and this one is the real bomb and scares the living daylight out of you :) If it were any longer it would have lost much of its dynamic and probably would result with lots of absurd and non sense situations. The two main actors Olivia Bonamy and Micahel Cohen did a great job of presenting us with people in fear struggling to survive by all means necessary. They convincingly embodied reactions of a person that finds itself in a such situation, deprived of random idiotic acts. Directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud (The Eye 2008) made a good choice of the locations and the way in which the movie was filmed (we are not sure if the locations portray the ones from the true events but the ones selected were really scary). Movement of the camera, the dark and the old house isolated in the woods emphasized the overall tension.
The camera work and lightning are the most interesting thing in the whole movie. That was director's ace in the sleeve and it proved once again that the less is more. It gave it a level boost portraying fear and anxiety. Without any special effects, that many nowadays directors use and still do not achieve scariness, this one gave the chills to audience with some simple, ''old school''  tricks. The most memorable are banging on the doors, barely visible and scary outlines of the bodies, creepy sounds etc.

                It's not a secret that we are keen on horror movies and this one kept us on the edge of the seat through the whole movie (which is a success since we saw too many horror movies and almost none of new ones cannot satisfy our expectations).From the moment that the lights go off till the movie ends you will be on tenterhooks and at some moments you will probably want to help the characters in their ordeal. While the story is simplistic and maybe sounds like you seen it a hundred times, this is not just another horror movie. Simplicity is used so well that it is precisely its advantage and makes it better than many of those with complex story and forced twist at the end. In the last review we said that it was well done because the director could not do much with one location and not many characters, but this one on the contrary proves us wrong and crashes all of the stereotypes. We're blown away how it manages to pull you in without giving you any space to blink. Feeling of claustorophobia and panic is conjured credibly and you feel like you would get your fingers burnt. It's very frustrating to feel that helpless as they do when there is someone that is always one step ahead of you. It is as though someone was playing with them. One of the most interesting things is the fact that there is not too much blood or violence and it still successfully makes your blood run cold. It was nice to see that there are still horror movies which suceed in their purpose without unnecessary gore scenes. Special applauds go to the last scene with Clem which portrays the meaning of tension and adrenaline rush at its best. This movie also has a little twist and it keeps you wondering about the creepy things that you pass by every day on the street and take for granted.

              Still, if you are devotee of gore and harsh violence and not that much of psychological horror movies, this one is not for you, and if you are one of the others, this is a must see and try to watch it before sleeping (like we did) because it will make you sleep with one eye open.

Our score
Liz: 9.5/10
Kyle: 9/10

P2 (2007)

Director:

Fracnk Khalfoun

Writers:

Alexandre Aja

Gregory Levasseur

              Have you ever been in one of those underground parking lots late at night? Imagine that you get stuck in that situation, the doors are closed and the only way out is for you to wait until morning. But what if that wasn't your biggest problem? That's the situation in which our main character got herself into.

               Plot story: It follows a workaholic Angela that got stuck in a multi-level underground parking garage in New York on a Christmas Eve. But she didn't get stuck by an accident. There was somebody down there with her, somebody that wanted to share this Christmas with her.

               The movie quickly moves from the introduction to tension and action. Angela, was one of the last people to leave work, she promised her family that she would be at their place in 20 minutes or so . She got packed and was on her way to the underground garage. There was nothing unusual about it until a serious of events got her stuck in the building. It all looked like a series of unfortunate events until the security guard from the parking lot showed his true intentions. From that point the movie keeps your attention by an interesting dialogue and scenes. Direction and photography is nicely done followed by great acting. Wes Bently successfully embodied the character of the psychotic man and again proved he got skills just as he had shown in his first more memorable performances in the classic American Beauty. Rachel Nichols also put the great performance embodying strong and brave woman fighting for survival, and off course while doing that she was successfully using her physical attributes to let us know how brave she really is (even Liz noticed that :) ).
There are not too many characters in this movie and the only location is that parking garage. That sounds like the breath of fresh air, but unfortunately, that remained the only original thing. The play of cat and mice is "been there done that" kind of scenario which includes all possible events of saving your ass and we guarantee that you have already seen most of them at least once (The Hitcher, When a stranger Calls are just a few of the examples of that kind of movies). Not to be very harsh, this movie was undeniably entertaining and what more could you want from your average psycho, busty chick victim, evil dog and a garage? Well, maybe that's the main problem of the movie. The idea sounded interesting and the movie which could have been done in 30 or so minutes had been prolonged on purpose which consequently led to a drop in tension and too many absurd situations which didn't make any sense. So the problem with this movie is that though it has some good and thrilling moments, which you might enjoy (but only if you don't take it too seriously), is the missing dynamic. That means that the movie becomes diluted almost 40 minutes before the ending, and the absurd scenes start coming at you in waves. For example our psycho can teleport, read minds, fix remote cameras that had been destroyed a few minutes earlier etc. On top of that he is an Elvis Presley impersonator :). If it weren't for his tendencies to kill people we would be even willing to hang out with this guy :). In other words he is not scary, he is a clumsy guy that needs a girlfriend and has a wrong way of showing his needs.

               All in all we don't know if here is an unintentional presence of a black humor, but we sincerely hope it isn't so judging by the previous works of this coordinated trio (funny credits may also confirm this conclusion). That  would be the only excuse of making this movie which, in the best case scenario, could be taken as a guilty pleasure type of slasher flick.
If you, however, seek for a clever, twisted horror movie (which Haute Tension at least tried to be) with a dose of goreness (spoiled by the brilliantly done The Hills Have Eyes) skip this one because here you won't find any of these. To give it a neat finishing touch they could have at least revived Tom one more time at the ending.
Did I say Tom? Ups, Tom really hates when someone calls him by his name. I'll stop here and leave Tom alone. Sorry Tom :)

Our score:
Liz: 5.5/10
Kyle: 5/10

Hachiko: A Dog's Story (2009)

Hachiko: A Dog's story (2009)

Director:

Lasse Hallström

Writers:

Stephen P. Lindsey (screenplay)

Kaneto Shindô
(motion picture "Hachiko monogatari)

            "I tend to think that there's an element of music that cannot be captured. Life cannot be captured. Human heart cannot be captured. The moment of creation itself is fleeting."

             Liz's side of the story: Since I'm not a a big fan of family movies, especially not of the ones with animals as main characters, I've been avoiding this one for a long time though it catched my eye on IMDB because of high ratings and, of course, Richard Gere. 

I thought: "Oh no, just another movie about the dog" (but little bit more interesting judging by the rating). Then, my dad (also a movie freak, he got me into it as a little kid) told me this was a terrific movie. I must admit I was a little bit jealous that he forestalled me because usually I am the one who gives him movie recommendations :).

Kyle watched it one day later based on my recommendation. I still remember how enthusiastically I told him about it (she sure did :) ).

Hachiko can be everything but just an ordinary family story about the dog.

             Plot story: Hachiko is an American remake of Hachiko monogatari (which we haven't wathced) based on a true events. If you want to know more details about real Hachiko you can find it on wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachik%C5%8D - contains SPOILERS). No wonder this dog got his own movies, books and also video games. Movie follows the life of the music professor Parker who takes an abandoned dog into his home and in time gets emotionally attached to him. This special dog accompanies his master every day to the work on the train station and greets him after work at the same place.

             The real event of this story took place in the 1920's but we don't mind that this movie doesn't cover the same period, although it's a bit unrealistic that a stray dog would wonder freely without being noticed by the pet control and taken care of in contemporary time. 

The direction is excellently done deprived of excessive characters and places. Richard Gere's charisma worked perfectly in portraying a family man of great heart and gentlemanly manners.

Not only is he an actor in this movie but also the producer. Despite of great actors (Joan Allen as Parker's wife - "The Bourne Ultimatum", Sarah Roemer . "Disturbia", Jason Alexander - there's no need of special introduction for legendary Seinfeld's character, or is it? :) ) the dog and Richard Gere steal the show just as they should. Their on - screen chemistry works just perfectly. Just as peaches and cream go  together. Special praises go to the scenes when we see things and events through Hachiko's eyes that are made in different imaging technique which relates you more to him and his feeling successfully making him the main character of this movie. Few people would remain indifferent while watching this movie because almost every human being is part of Hachiko symbolizing goodness, joy, vulnerability and loneliness.

I'm almost sure there's no human or animal that would be so much faithful as he was.

They say he chooses his master and not vice versa. Unlike most of the people, animals express their feelings with more ease and unconditionally love their masters. And then we think that we're at higher level. That's our big problem, people always tend to be better, stronger...

It's very frustrating how his wife and daughter abandoned Hachiko with such ease without even visiting him when he was practically part of Parker, but we do understand why it was made like that.

        I will never forget this movie because of tears I cried off and I dare to say that never in my life I have cried that much (and I cried many times). The thing that contributed to it was my lack of expectation for something like that since I haven't read or heard anything about it before watching it. I cannot put this movie in any drawer, not even in "a sad story" one.

I was not prepared for crying and buying tissues (and I almost ran out of them).

The night I watched it my sister got back from the party and I was just finishing the movie. She asked me what had happened when she saw me.

Unlike me, Kyle was well prepared for crying because I had the need of expressing my emotions so he did not cry emphasizing that he is a guy :p (what else was I supposed to say :) ).

The sad part of the story starts relatively soon and rest of it was a real masterpiece perfectly portraying Hachiko's feelings of loneliness, emptiness and sadness.

From many of the sad scenes we would never forget these three heart breaking ones:

Hachiko lying on the rails, the old and dirty Hachiko still full of hope, and of course, the last and the most devastating one.

           So, what we did expect was a sad story, but we didn't expect an emotionally charged masterpiece. 

It was almost like getting a cherry on top of the cake.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, hurry up, because this is a must see. Don't forget that crying is not a disgrace. Go and release Hachiko in you and launch yourself into this magic.

Don't forget the tissues :)

Our score:

Liz: 10/10

Kyle: 9.5/10

History of Violence (2005)

Director:
David Cronenberg
Writers:
John Wagner, Vince Locke

             Arnold Schwarzenegger - no, he is too old. Silvester Stallone - nop, he is also too old. Bruce Willis - yap, you got it, he is also too old. Jean Claude Van Damme - no, he had a heart attack recently. Steven Segal - no, he is busy beating up his wives. Chuck Norris - He - Who - Must - Not - Be - Named :)

Ok, so you are wondering why we listed all of these action heroes here, well there is a good explanation for that. Prepare to meet THE hero of the heroes, the best of the best or simply put the chosen one.

You would never suspect who he is, but after watching this "masterpiece" of a movie you will realize His greatness.

             The movie, based on graphic novel, follows an ordinary family living their American dream. There is nothing unusual about them, until one day the family father, Tom Stall, becomes a local hero after killing two violent men trying to rob and hurt his customers in the diner which he owns. His act of heroism gets the attention of the local media and some unsuspecting people.

              In the beginning of this movie we see two guys doing some killing. We don't know who they are or what their reasons are, but we soon get to find out. Those same two guys were the ones that half an hour later tried to rob our Tom. Until that point we were following Tom and his family preparing for the usual work day. Tom owns a diner in the center of the town where he works and where he, the next day, becomes the local hero by killing those two guys from the beginning of the movie. The thing that catches your attention is the way and ease in which Tom got rid of them. It was as if Tom had been born with a gun in his hand. 

Until that point the movie was quite interesting. Tom became the instant news and was all over radio and TV.

Off course, Tom didn't want any fame or publicity as most people would react. That didn't prevent the news of this event from spreading and getting unwanted attention. When Tom get's back to work his diners is full of people who all came to see the hero. Among them were three suspicious people that start to provoke Tom by calling him Joey. These people are convinced that our Tom is this Joey guy although he repeatedly denies it. We could see that Tom is anxious and that there was going to be trouble, but before any incidents could have happened the three guys left. We had a feeling they would be back.

The next 20 or so minutes were boring as hell as those three guys were persistent in trying to convince Tom to accept that he is Joey and that he should go with them. When these three guys pushed Tom far enough he fought back, and when we say fought we mean he became RAMBO, dodging bullets, snapping necks etc.

              Now this is where the opening sentence of our review gets its full meaning. Tom beats every action hero up to date. Who could have ever imagined that a guy selling coffee and pies could be so dangerous. The last 15 minutes of the movie was like watching Steven Segal an Chuck Norris mixed in one person or better said like Superman in redneck outfit.

Tom is never tired, he was driving for 15 hours and when he gets to this bar he immediately orders a beer like any warm blooded American man should do. Not to forget the night in America, it lasts 24 hours. 

Anyway if you or any other member of your family did anything wrong to Tom we wouldn't like to be in your shoes. We wish our dad was like Tom.

             The Director decided that this much action could not go without sex so throughout the movie you could see some juicy sex scenes: "naked hairy pussy, 69, rough sex...". Nobody expected that, right?! So what's the problem with this movie? We have some great actors and some great acting, which we couldn't say for the actor that plays Tom's brother (you'll know what we mean), but the rest of them are great. 

Ed Harris put on the best performance of the bunch proving once again his greatness of acting skills. We think that the movie was saved by terrific cast and that it's success relies on Cronenberg's old fame (remembering The Fly, Naked Lunch, ExistenZ). No doubt Cronenberg's fans would like it. So the actors are not the problem, the problem is that the first part of the movie was interesting and professionally done, but the rest of it was like the Director decided to let his 12 year old son have some fun. In some reviews you could have read that the movie is full of brutal scenes, well, by our standards we didn't see any (if you want brutality rather watch Martyrs). Many people are overblown by this movie's premise, so to clear this out, we do understand the point. It tries to show how any of your neighbors or even member of your family who seem to be normal can turn out to be violent monster.We also see relation between past and future.

In the end we were disappointed by this movie and we don't recommend it to anyone.

Our score:
Liz: 3/10
Kyle: 4/10

Shallow Grave (1994)

Director:
Danny Boyle

Writer:

John Hodge

            ''Oh, yes. I believe in friends. I believe we need them. But if one day you can't trust them any more, well, what then... What then?''

             Perhaps it's ungrateful to review a 90's movie in 2010 but never the less we are about to do that now since we just finished watching this movie. We came across it on the (www.imdb.com) web page, it scored a promising 7.4 points. Does it justify that high score? Let's find out!

            The story follows three young people: Alex, David and Juliet who seek a new roommate. After a long search and making fun of bunch of weird candidates, the decision was made. Hugo was the new roommate and what ruled the decision was his ability to pay in advance.

The next day our characters find his dead body and a suitcase loaded with money. What to do? Take it or leave it and call the police?

             In the beginning there is a brief moment when the screen is totally red, and for that moment we were reminded of the recent movie we reviewed, Calvaire. Luckily that moment was very brief and we soon realized that this movie was nothing like it.

As you could have read the movie has a simple storyline.

Of course, here we have a classic problem of human morality.

Who wouldn't love easy money? It's unfair to say that you wouldn't at least think about it. The two of us had an opportunity like this, we found a lost wallet with some cash in it but we decided to return it.

I have to point out that there was a very small amount of cash in question :)

But imagine if you had a suitcase full of money... would you return it or would you already be on some tropical island with a few gorgeous ladies or gents, depending on your preference :)

           Although simple in its premise Shallow Grave is definitely a decent little thriller, enjoyable to watch, with a few thrilling moments, nice and almost unpredictable twist.

If we had the opportunity to watch it in the 90's when it was made, we would have been thrilled by it, but judging from this time I would say that calling it a decent movie is more than fair.

The movie is made with secure formulaic scheme full of cliches which, for movie of this type and age, cannot be taken as a bad thing.

Despite all of that we can say that this movie is better than majority of pointless new thrillers, so it still was kind of delightful. It was almost fascinating how a low budget movie can turn out to be watchable and enjoyable experience. We took as an advantage the fact that main characters are unlikeable from the very beginning because it suits the atmosphere. In a situation like this it's better not to relate too much with characters because they are supposed to be shrewd.

Still, the most likable character of the movie was Alex. You wish you knew him because of his young spirit, living on the edge type of life and laziness. Juliet, on the other hand, was flirty and somewhat uninteresting, and David...David was the quiet one :) The other characters worth mentioning were the two policemen, notably the inspector who made the atmosphere even more suspensful.

We would even go that far to say that he put on the best performance.

           All in all, is the money worth losing your friends, your personality and life? No. 

But is it worth trying to take it on to the next level? Now, that's the question which doesn't have an answer until you get an opportunity like that yourself.

Our score:
Liz: 7/10
Kyle: 6.5/10

Calvaire (2004)

               

             We were so excited to see this movie because we like disturbing movies and this one, judging by the reviews, promised to be one. So one night we rented too many movies and couldn't decide which one to watch.

Since we haven't watched horror movies in a while it was obvious to both of us that this movie had an advantage over the others. Watching horror movies could always turn out to be a two sided experience. On one side you could be having an amazing adrenaline rush, and on the opposite side you could get totally frustrated. Since we already had bad experiences with previous European horror movie (Sheitan), we weren't certain what to expect from this one.
To be specific this is a Belgian movie. An atmosphere and feeling that remains after watching Calvaire really does remind of ones after watching Sheitan.

             Plot story:  a travelling singer breaks down in woods at Christmas time. And so begins his ordeal...

             Movie started with a handsome guy (Liz said so) singing some stupid songs to a bunch of old deflated women that look totally lifeless (sorry old people but you do look like that :-). The first scene that grossed us out was a granny trying to sexually harass our singer wannabe. Unfortunately later on in the movie we realized that that first gross scene was actually a child's play compared to the rest of it.

   

            Our intention is not to give out spoiler and ruin the "joy" of watching this movie, but we want to give you our honest opinion about it as a couple of horror lovers. Not only were we disappointed by this crap they call movie but after watching this for ninety minutes we just couldn't find suitable words to describe how we felt.

There should be a new word for this feeling in the dictionary. The most frustrating thing about this movie are the reviews written on youtube etc., such as: "brilliant, amazing...". Reviews like that could be written only by sick people or those people that can't understand the point of the movie and immediately think that this is some kind of "awesome" art piece.

            We do understand that the point of this movie is to show how everybody, even mentally sick people, seek for love and care just as ''normal'' ones. And not only that, but also difficulty of expressing and giving love. In that manner, our Boris and Bartel just took the opportunity of  helpless Marc (and cow) to have one family reunion in order of having perfect Christmas..
Despite of understanding and noticing the point of the story  (and even great acting) taking bunch of horny mentally retarded gays to represent love and loneliness didn't work for us.
Sorry mr. screen writer and mr. director but showing "metahpores" like snow in one shot and then a green field in the other doesn't give any additional depth to this anyway disastrous movie. But we have to point out one positive thing about this movie, you actually have an opportunity to learn new dance moves with which you can leave an everlasting impression on the dance floor :).

Enough said go and watch this movie yourself at your own risk.

Our score:

Liz: 0/10 (it's that low because there isn't any lover mark than that :)

Kyle: 2/10