This past weekend I finally got to see the second movie of “The Girl/Millennium” trilogy, “The Girl Who Played With Fire.” Definitely an interesting experience as where I saw it, the theater was filled with old people! I thought to myself, do they know what they are here for? Am I in the wrong theater? Watching a fairly graphic lesbian sex scene sitting next to two grandmas was . . . . uncomfortable.

The movie picked up a year after the first one left off. Mikael, the reporter, is out of jail and back working at the magazine Millennium. They are working on a new story involving a sex trade industry that several government and police officials are also involved in. Meanwhile Lisbeth, the girl, returns to Norway to deal with her mother’s death. Their paths cross once again when two people connected to Millennium and the story end up dead, then a third person ends up dead, and Lisbeth is fingered because the gun used to kill all three had her prints on it!

We find out a lot more about Lisbeth’s past in this film, and why she is troubled the way she is. It’s a great interweaving of a lot of characters from the first film and new ones introduced in this film. What I wasn’t too fond of was the fact that Mikael and Lisabeth don’t interact at all in this movie except through the computer. Their chemistry made the first film so great, so I missed that here. Also the end leaves a lot to be desired for. I kid you not when the entire theater groaned when the credits started to roll. From what I understand the final part is set to be released around October. It’s gunna be a long wait!

Another Two Thumbs Up for ass kicking goodness by Lisbeth! And some well deserved just deserts a few character had coming!

Last night I finally got to see this movie “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.” You may or may not have heard about it. It was a limited release in the theaters at first, but picked up some steam word of mouth. I kept seeing it on a local movie bilboard and was curious. It’s a Swedish mystery/thriller based on the first book of a popular Swedish trilogy. The second movie/book comes out Friday in limited release (much like the original). After watching the first, I’m gunna be at the movies on Friday for sure!

If you like mysteries then this is a movie for you. However, a word of warning . . . it’s very violent towards women. Apparently the proper translation of the movie (& book?) title is “The Man Who Hates Women.” I guess they didn’t think that would sell tickets in America! It is also somewhat of a spoilerish title as well . . . .

The movie is about a man/journalist who is hired and to look into a 40 year old mystery surrounding a missing girl who belonged to this strange, bizarre, yet loaded family the Vangers. The old man who is the family head loved her, favored her, and thus she was a target of the rest of the family. He wants answers before he dies and nobody has ever been able to solve the mystery. A computer hacker (the girl with the dragon tattoo) gets involved in the search as well . . . . and to really say more is to give away some serious spoilers to the movie unfortunately.

This was a great mystery, lots of tension, and yes pretty sick and twisted too. Two thumbs up!

PS if you have a Netflix account, you can currently stream it for free. Unless you have a way to do that to your TV, I recommend renting it to watch on the big screen.

So last night I watched this movie “The Final.” Honestly I wasn’t expecting it to be good, because it’s part of this “After Dark Horror Fest,” similar to the “8 Movies To Die For” series of indie horror flicks that never make it to the theaters. Usually there is a reason, they are fairly bad. This one I was surprised by! I think however the subject had a lot to do with it.

I normally don’t go in for torture movies, but that is exactly what this is, on many levels. I also admit to FFing a few scenes cause I couldn’t watch. This movie could probably best be described as “Saw” meets “Heathers.” The story centers around a group of kids at a high school, the outsiders that everyone picks on . . . . tortures you might say. They decide they’ve had enough and plot their revenge, inspired by a history lesson. They invite all the cool kids, and the kids who stood by while the cool kids tortured them, to a cabin in the woods where a party has been planned. The kids arrive and promptly drink drugged drinks. When they wake up they are all chained to the floor in the center of this cabin, the outsiders are dressed in ghoulish costumes and begin the torture. They tell them off the bat, “We won’t kill you, we’ll just make you wish we did.”

Like I said, the movie is a torture movie, but on several levels. The torture bullied kids go through, and the physical torture they inflict upon their tormentors. You really want these kids to get away with it, but things of course get out of hand, and you know there is no way they’ll get away with it . . . yet you still have a little bit of hope they do. The end however is as fitting as the moral of the whole movie. It touches on mainstream societies need to basically ignore this problem of bullying, to cover it up, to try and pretend it doesn’t exist or isn’t the problem it really is.

If it wasn’t so violent, it’d be good mandatory viewing for all high school students. Then perhaps the majority of asshole kids wouldn’t grow up to be asshole adults. Though there will always be assholes in the world, and they’ll be the ones who when they die the only thoughts about them are “good riddance.”

For me this movie came at the perfect time. For months I’ve had this little asshole coming to my blog leaving nasty homophobic comments, like I have AIDS or I’m a deviant and I need to stop molesting children. I am not dumb, I know where he came from, I tangled with him on NJ.com back in December. Since then I guess he’s decided to gay cyber-stalk me on my blog. He reared his ugly head again last night after months of being gone with his idiotic comments. I turned the shoutbox off for awhile cause unlike him, I had better things to do on a Friday night than sit here on my blog banning him over and over as he keeps trying to get back on. I put the box back up this morning, but may just remove it all together honestly since only my mom seems to use it anymore But anyways after I turned it off, I watched this movie and felt a lot better. Karma is a bitch to assholes. In the end, it always gets them!

So on Friday I went to see the new version of “Nightmare on Elm Street.” The original has always been one of my favorites, so I was wary. After the suckfest that was the “Clash of the Titans” remake, was I ready for another disappointment? The recent horror film remakes have mostly been disappointments for me, be they remakes of Japanese/Asian films or remakes of classic American films.

This one I feel was MUCH better than some of the recent remakes, such as “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th.” I couldn’t even make it through “Texas Chainsaw” to be honest, it just grated on my nerves and I can’t stand those “back woods killer” horror flicks anyway.

Everyone under the sun knows what this movie is about, and if you don’t you should be slapped on your ass with a wet fish! Rent the original if you haven’t already seen it for sure. I’m not going to spend time recapping the movie. I’m going to steal Sean’s method of movie reviews for this one. So here are 5 for and 5 against for the new “Nightmare,” then my final verdict.

5 For . . .

• Freddy is a child molester rather than killer in this one, which works in this day and age (as opposed to the “Adam Walsh” period of the 80s). They give a good back story without the snore fest that Rob Zombie dragged out far too long in his remake of “Halloween.”
• There are several jump out of your seat moments in this one. Yes even I got got!
• The acting, for the most part, is top notch. Of course they did use the usual “let’s cast adults as high schoolers” approach.
• There is a fairly good twist in the movie as well, which I won’t give away. Bravo for actually doing something new that works!
• It really is one of the best remakes of a horror film to come along. Not perfect, but not too bad.

5 Against . . .

• They changed one of the best lines of the movie “This Is God!” and made it bland and dull.
• The story was out of whack in comparison to the original. I found myself saying one too many times “this is supposed to happen later!” or “this happened to a different character in the original!” It’s not that it didn’t work, it just felt like they were picking the most memorable scenes to reuse but wanted to try and do them differently.
• The new Freddy look, while looking more realistically like a burn victim, just wasn’t as scary. The sense of dread also wasn’t there, just a lot of seat jump scare tactics.
• Nobody can replace Robert Englund in this role. You can’t help but just feel something or someone is missing from the movie. That would be Robert.
• The new Nancy was atrocious. I mean nothing likable, I really loathed her. Not only was she the school outcast, she was some bohemian hippy painter and WEAK. The original Nancy was strong and took on Freddy on her own. In this one she had to have her boyfriend help her figure out half the mystery as well as help her fight Freddy.

If you love horror movies, I’d give this a see it. If you are a purest and every little change will annoy you, wait to rent it. I’m sure it will be on DVD within 2 months.

So New Years started out with a good inch or two of snow falling all morning, then by evening it was just miserably cold and at times pouring down rain. Fun! We ended up staying home as predicted, a friend came over, and we just kept it low-key with lots of movies.

On New Years Day John and I headed out to take in a movie. We finally went to see “Avatar.” All I can say is wow! This is a film you must see, must see on the big screen, and assuming it doesn’t make you ill see in 3D. We really wanted to see it on the IMAX, but those shows were all sold out.

I basically agree with comments almost everyone else has said. The story is not original and has been done before, as well as mimics history. It’s colonialism taken to the level of space/other planets, with greedy corporations looking to exploit the natural resources of the planet, not caring about the destruction they bring or indigenous life they kill in order to exploit the resource and doing so with the muscle of a bought army behind them. While the story is not original, and you will see every single “twist and turn” coming a mile away, even up to how the movie ends, it is just a really fun ride. It’s a beautiful film to watch and a marvel of technology. I predict it will also be used to market the Real3D technology line of HD TV’s set to be released late next year.

Now however, with the weekend over, we turn to making sure we have everything set for our trip. We leave for my mom’s on Wednesday, and assuming there are no snow and ice delays take off for Florida on Thursday . . . . where it’s apparently cold and freeze warnings are in effect . . . . At least it won’t be cold in the Caribbean . . . I hope!

So when I heard about this movie, I rolled my eyes. They have made a lot of straight to DVD ones about 2012, but this was an epic disaster blockbuster on Hollywood scale. I guess even Hollywood couldn’t pass this one up. Seeing I taught the Mayan Doomsday prophecy to my class in the spring, and I was sure the batch of students next semester will have seen this, I decided to take the movie in. Plus it did look like it could be a lot of fun (or horrible, it wasn’t going to be one of those in-between films). You’ll either come out of it liking it or hating it most likely. I actually liked it, I thought of it as a fun roller coaster ride, which in a lot of ways it was.

There have been a lot of movie trailers put out for this, as well as extended previews shown during Fox shows like “Glee.” If you have any interest in the film you probably know the main story. The film starts in 2009 with a group of scientists discovering that increased solar flare activity is heating up the earths core and destabilizing the crust. The president of the US gathers the heads of all other nations and a plot is formed in secret to save humanity and the world as best as possible. They begin secretly building ships, financed of course by the richest people in the world, whose financial contributions buy them and family members a ticket to ride. The rest of the world of course is left oblivious that the end is near.

Meanwhile as 2012 nears, the world begins to fall apart, literally. Earthquakes are happening all over, breaks in the earths crust. In walks John Cusack’s character, who while on a camping trip with his kids runs into a crazy pirate radio host (Woody Harrelson) and learns about a government conspiracy to build space ships to save select people, and gets a crash course in the doomsday scenario of December 21st, 2012. Shockingly Hollywood did its research here, well partially. They got the theory right, but Einstein’s support somewhat wrong.

The current theory is that on December 12, 2012 an alignment of the earth, sun and several planets will occur, one that only occurs every 640,000 years or so. Of course this date is also recorded in the Mayan calendar as “end of time.” In reality, it’s the end of a very long cycle of the Mayan calendar, which would begin a new cycle. As for the alignment, scientists actually say this will happen. However the doomsday part of course is anytime there is some astronomical event, it means the world will end according to a portion of the population. In this case the theories have it that the alignment will cause a magnetic pull, reversing the north and south poles magnetically, which will wreak havoc on earth and lead to earth crust displacement . . . basically the crust of the earth comes loose from the core and begins to rotate over the core’s surface. Einstein did write an intro to the 1950′s authors book who came up with this earth crust displacement idea, saying it was possible small shifts in the crust could happen . . . but then the theory of plate tectonics was discovered and so forth. In the movie though they only give this scenario in the crazy guy’s blog ramblings. The scientists attribute it to the solar eruptions sending down neutrinos to earth which are destabilizing the core. But in the end, the same thing happens, the earth’s crust comes loose and shifts. Continents sink, others rise.

Okay so basically you end up having John Cusak’s character realizing crazy radio guy was right, and he begins the quest to save his dysfunctional family (a son who hates him, the ex-wife disappointed in him and the 2nd husband who is seemingly perfect) and get them to one of these ships. This leads to them encountering a bunch of other characters in the film, all who have separate stories going on, all who end up connected in the end somehow.

The film is long, like 2 hours and 38 minutes long. So don’t take a large drink in if you have a small bladder! However I was able to somehow sit through the whole thing without a pee break (yes you did need to know). I really didn’t want to get up and miss anything. The idea that this guy could escape with his family as many times he did is completely ludicrous. He would have died in the first limo escape scene honestly. There are many of these “Oh please, you’d so be dead moments.” However it’s a movie, so we have to suspend disbelief, otherwise it wouldn’t be fun. This is where the movie is a winner, it is fun. The special effects are absolutely amazing. I don’t think once did I think to myself “That’s some bad CGI right there” as I have with many recent movies. There are several white knuckle moments in the unbelievable escape scenes. There were also several “Oh shits!” from people in the theater.

Two thumbs up! If you like action movies, disaster movies, special effect movies; you’ll probably love this. If you are someone who will be like “Oh no, this could never happen . . . ” well you’ll hate it. Oh and there are two shouts outs to “The Poseidon Adventure” in the movie. I’m sure there other disaster movies also referenced throughout as well, but I’m not that well versed in them all.

I only found out about this remake last week, and now there is a trailer out. I don’t know. It looks awesome, but it’s a remake of a movie I love as is, so will it live up? Probably not This time around at least my students will probably have seen the movie so I can use it in class next semester.

Enjoy!

Via Puntabulous

So tonight I went to the movies. Originally I had intended to see “The Forth Kind,” but I have enough sleeping issues as is and I figured being paranoid aliens might come for me wouldn’t help. So I opted to go see “A Christmas Carol” instead.

Now I honestly had no intention of seeing it this early, since it is too early for Christmas. They could have waited for Thanksgiving when Santa arrives at the Macy’s parade. However long-time blog readers know I love my Baby-Jesus’ birthday related specials, and “A Christmas Carol” is probably my favorite. I have seen every version, I own most of them. So Disney and Mr. Robert Zemeckis had a big fan to please! I’m happy to report the movie was amazing! I could even tolerate Jim Carrey, who normally annoys me to no end. He was in fact really good in this movie.

I think I don’t have to tell you what this movie is about. If you don’t know what it’s about, well then I’m afraid you’re going to burn in hell. The story is faithful, and really if you’ve seen enough of them (or read the story) then you will be like me and anticipate almost every line.

So if you know the story, you’ve seen it a million times, why should you see this one? Cause it’s in 3D of course! Disney knew what they were doing, putting it out in 3D would make sure people came to see a story they could watch at home for free a million times over next month.

Not only is it in 3D, but it’s done in that creepy computer graphic style of “The Polar Express” where they use the actors for inspiration for the creepy 3D models of the character. Thankfully the technology has improved a lot, so people and especially the kids aren’t as creepy as they were in “Polar Express.”

While “The Polar Express” was a fun kids movie, at times this one is not. Parents need to research this movie (or read this review!) to determine if it’s appropriate for their kids. This is a movie about ghosts, and the ghosts are exceptionally well done. This is the other reason to see this movie, because of how well done the ghosts are. Scrooge, while not a ghost, is incredibly creepy with skeletal hands. Marley is the scary classic ghost who is also a rotting corpse. The Ghost of Christmas present starts of jolly and happy and as he reaches the end of his one day life on earth . . . well . . . I don’t want to spoil it. Of course there is the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, who is a wraith and definitely dark. Should you choose to take a small child, if they are prone to nightmares, you’ll be up all night!

The movie is amazing, but if you see it see it in 3D. There is no point seeing it any other way unless the 3D makes you ill. I saw it on a very small screen, but I will probably see it later on IMAX at some point. There are a lot of very fast moving segments where the ghosts are whipping Scrooge around. So the bigger the screen, the more motion sickness that will probably ensue in these parts!

Two Thumbs Up. See it, or Baby Jesus will cry.

“Trick’R'Treat” was a movie I meant to review awhile back. Given Halloween is coming up, I wanted to post it as an option for people to rent.

The movie is actually four short stories that occur on Halloween night in the same town and are all intertwined. If you remember the old “Creepshow” movie, it’s very much like that. However here the stories are connected in fun ways that are made known throughout the movie. It’s actually hard to talk about the stories honestly, because to do so gives too much away. I can say there is a story about a group of girls looking for a party, some kids searching for an old school bus accident that is a local legend, a principal who is a nasty individual in secret and uses Halloween to his advantage, and a neighborhood recluse.

The movie is fairly gory, I jumped several times, and the effects are well done. It’s not your normal cheap straight to video flick at all. It also have a cast of good actors, including Anna Paquin. Give this one a rent. The stories aren’t going to deeply move you, but the movie is a fun horror flick and is just about screaming and being grossed out.