Review: Pontypool (2008)

Pontypool 

IMDB rate: 6,8

Genre: Zombie

Let's start of with saying that I know that it's listed as zombie movie, but really, I'm not sure what it is. Pontypool is a tiny bit zombie like, but not in the "braaaains" kind of way.

It's a difficult movie, and I'm not sure if I understood I completely. But I do think I get the main thing of this movie, and the things I understood where actually really good.

Pontypool isn't much of a standard movie. In fact, it's a low budget one, and most of it is left to our imagination. Now, there aren't a whole lot of cases where this works out good, but in some cases they do (for example, The Blair Witch Project), and I think Pontypool is one of those good low budget movies. 

Pontypool is seen from the view of radio makers Grant Mazzy and Sidney Briar. They report all sorts of news and talk a lot about things. This time though they have a weird breaking news report, a doctor office is flooded with people that keep repeating stuff and attack others.

The main thing of this movie is that people become Zombie like by understanding (or not) a word. They say a word, and keep repeating it, until the moment that it becomes the weirdest word ever (we all have this sometimes). Then they start getting aggressive because they can't figure out what the word means, and start chewing through their cheeks in some sort of way to literally put the word in someone's mouth. 

Kinda confusing, I know. And believe me, I'm still not sure if I understood this movie properly. Apparently this only happens in the English language, so it's some sort of criticism to the English language. The English language is literally infected in this case. 

Luckily, the movie plays in Canada, so some people are able to speak French to each other, instead of English. 

Now, what was good about this movie was mainly the talking. We never saw anything of what happened outside, but we got to know about these things through communication. Grant talks to his reporter on the phone, while on radio and we never saw what actually happened, but it was so incredibly tensive. Such a good scene. 

When the virus starts to hit the radio center we finally see it happen close, the radio girl (who looks an awfully lot like Anna Farris) gets infected and somehow needs to hear words. She starts running into the sound booth, unsuccessfully. This is really a brutal scene, because she gets more and more injured. Finally, she dies because 'she couldn't find her 'cure for words' or something.

I already mentioned that I was a bit confused by the movie, not too strange since it really is a difficult one. But somehow I was still impressed by it. Man, the goosebumps I got from hearing what was happening with the reporter were huge. And I didn't even see anything! How brilliant is that?!

Besides the confusing storyline there was another weird moment, some mature guy who was also infected made baby noises. Or better said, he called for his 'Momma' in a baby voice. It was creepy as hell, but it seemed useless for the movie to be honest, because it was never explained, and it only happened once unfortunately. 

I really recommend watching Pontypool. It was a surprising and a fresh movie. Good acting and the voice of Stephen McHattie (Grant Mazzy) is very soothing. Even though I thought it was a confusing movie I still liked it, it was something very different from what I've seen before.

My personal rate: 7/10

Review: Identity (2003)

Identity

IMDB rate: 7,3

Genre: Thriller

You have no idea how long I've wanted to watch this movie already. Every time I forgot about it unfortunately, but now it became available on Netflix, so finally I could watch it. At the beginning of the movie I wasn't too sure about it, it seemed kinda standard. 

Strangers from all different walks of life: a limo driver escorting a fading television star, parents with a young son whose marriage is in crisis, a cop transporting a dangerous convict, a beautiful call girl, a couple of young newlyweds, and a nervous motel manager are caught up in a severe rainstorm, stuck at a motel in desolate Nevada. Soon they realize they may be at the motel for another reason when one by one, people start getting killed off. As tensions flare and fingers are pointed, they have to get to the bottom of why they're there. Meanwhile in an undisclosed location, a psychiatrist is trying to prove the innocence of a man accused of murder in an eleventh hour trial. 

Let's start talking about the acting. I have to admit that this bunch of actors are definitely not in my top 100 of favorite actors, but in this movie they weren't all too bad. John Cusack for example, I really dislike him as an actor. He plays the same type of characters over and over again, it's getting a bit boring really. But well, in this movie he was quite alright. Then we have Ray Liotta, again, I'm not a big fan of him. He always plays some sort of bad guy, just not very surprising to be honest. In this movie his character wasn't very different from his previous roles, but well it was acceptable in this movie I think. I wasn't too annoyed by it. John C. McGingley also plays a part in this movie. Damn, how much I hate that guy, and to be honest, it's mostly because of this role in Scrubs. He's just annoying and he was one of the few that wasn't very good in this movie. Then there's Clea Duvall, and I'm 100% sure that this is her most annoying role ever, really, she's quite a stupid hypocrite crying whining bitch in Identity. 

While following this kinda standard storyline we also watch some guy who was sentenced to death and at first it seems kinda random. As if he was the killer or something. Sometimes his parts were even annoying because the 'motel-storyline' was so tensive. It's actually rather quick that we find out that he does have something to do with all this, luckily. 

Now beware, there are a few spoilers ahead! When we finally think that we know who the killer is, something big happens. We switch back to the convicted guy who is apparently Ed. Now how is this possible, since he looks nothing like him? Apparently the convinced guy had multi personality disorder and creates each character of the motel in his head. So basically, he's all of them at some point, but we watch it from Ed's view. The motel thing never happened actually, it's all some process that the convicted guy goes through to kill each one of his personalities. At the end each one of his personalities is killed off besides the girl, but she wasn't the killer so the convicted guy proved that the killer inside him was murdered, which made him more stable again. This was all to save the convicted guy from death penalty, and inside his head he lives further as the girl. But then, a small plot twist happens... 

I thought this storyline was very interesting. It had lot of twists that I really didn't expect at the beginning of the movie. I expected some sort of standard motel slaughter movie, such as Vacancy or something like it. At some points it even reminded me of 1408. It's really a good and surprising movie I think. Good acting and a great surprising end.

My personal rate: 7,5/10

Review: Shutter (2008)

Shutter

IMDB rate: 5,2

Genre: Ghost

I have never seen the original movie unfortunately, I believe it's from Thailand. I'm not too sure what i thought of this movie. It wasn't bad or anything. I even thought it was slightly good. Now, please forgive me but this will be a short review since it has been quite some time already since I saw it. Or well.. I saw it not too long ago but it was too long ago to remember everything about it. I wanted to write this review for such a long time already, but every time I had trouble writing about it. So that's why it's a short review!

A newlywed couple Ben and Jane move to japan for a promising job opportunity - a fashion shoot in Tokyo. During their trip on a dark forest road they experience a tragic car accident, leading to the death of a young local girl. Upon regaining consciousness, they find no trace of her body. A bit distraught the couple arrives in Tokyo to begin their new life. Meanwhile Ben begins noticing strange white blurs in many of his fashion shoot photographs. Jane believes that the blurs are actually spirit photography of the dead girl who they hit on the road, and that she may be seeking vengeance.

I liked it, although it had a few flaws. Such as the actress. Rachael Taylor plays Jane in this movie, and she's not a very good actress I think. It's often as if she waits until she can say her line, more like a play rather than a movie. It was the same in The Darkest Hour, I'm just not too much of a fan of her. I do like Joshua Jackson though, who plays her husband Ben. His acting is a lot more natural.

 Now about the story. I liked how it was set up. Personally I enjoy a ghost movie much more than for example a slasher movie. The story goes a lot deeper in most cases so it's a bit more interesting I think. It was a cool twist to see that the girl haunting them wasn't after Jane, but after Ben. The double body weight and the bruised shoulder was a good adding to what was really happening.

In my opinion the movie was a bit too slow, it was hard to keep focused. Quite a shame really, since the idea of this movie is excellent if you ask me. Also, some scenes are a bit far-fetched. Perhaps I will watch the original movie one day to review that one.

My personal rate: 6,5/10

The Walking Dead: Season 4, episode 14: The Grove

Well, it was about time actually. Finally, an excellent episode from The Walking Dead again. It's a tiny bit sad actually because it was quite a brutal episode, but it had hardly anything to do with the walkers. Well.. it had something to do with walkers of course, but not in a way that anyone was bitten by them.

As always, !SPOILERS!

We follow Carol, Tyreese, Judith, Lizzie and Mika. A bit of an odd combination, Tyreese is tough and seems way too hard to be with these children. Carol is the one who killed his girlfriend and at this point he doesn't know this yet. So, a slight tension perhaps between them, mainly coming from Carol's side. 

Perhaps you still remember the beginning of the fourth season where someone seemed to fed the zombies with rats and stuff, and well, I already had my suspicions about who it was and this episode finally confirmed my suspicions. 

Since the beginning of the season we already got a few moments where Lizzy seemed a bit... odd? I don't know but she seems way too calm with all these walkers around. And well, that's exactly what she was in this episode, way too calm. In fact, she cared so much about the dangerousness of these walkers that she played 'tag' (I'm not sure what the right word for this is) with them. 

Carol is of course kinda shocked by this and she kills the walker, something that Lizzie doesn't appreciate a whole lot. She screams towards Carol and says that Carol 'killed her friend'. Well, calling a random walker your friend doesn't say a whole lot of good about a person. 

Apparently, Lizzie sees these walkers as actual human beings who have a few strange eating habits. She sees them as their friends and feeds them, she claims that they whisper to her and that they invite her and her sister to become one of them. 

Like that wasn't enough already... Carol and Tyreese leave the girls unattended for a short time and when they are back at their camp they see that Lizzie killed her own sister. She stands next to them, smiling, and says they'll have to wait and see that she's just like everybody else. 

Tyreese and Carol talk about the disturbed girl and the can't longer be under the same roof again. The next day Carol takes her to the forest and shoots her in the head. 

I was afraid that this would become one of the more boring character development episodes again, but that was definitely not what it was. Instead, we see two very different little girls, one of them is scared of them, but doesn't like to kill them, while the other seems to be somehow impressed by them, leading to emotional difficulties. It's a simple way of saying that this world isn't a good place to grow up in. The sweet ones get killed, the tough ones will be messed up in one way or another. 

It was incredibly brutal to see that Lizzie killed her younger sister, only to prove something to Carol and Tyreese. What was even more brutal was the fact that Carol killed her, for their own safety. I can totally relate with that though, I wouldn't feel safe at night with her in being in the same house. 

All together, it was an incredibly impressive episode. Great acting, and astonishing things happened, finally. I'm very interested in the last two episodes of this season, perhaps they will make up a lot for the rest of the season. 

Review: Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

IMDB rate: 5,1

Genre: Slasher

The fifth Halloween movie! Okay, this time I got my hopes up a bit too high. If you've read my previous review about Halloween 4, you will know that I quite liked Halloween 4 -absolutely not what I expected- and I was very curious about how the story will continue further on. Unfortunately, this time the movie indeed sucked. Quite a shame really, since the last one ended with a few good possibilities.

It's one year later after the events of Halloween 4. Michael survives the shootings and on October 31st he returns with a vengeance. Lurking and stalking, Jamie, Rachel, and Rachel's friends. Michael forms a plan to lure Jamie out of the children's hospital where events lead up to the confrontation at the Myers house.

The movie was released only a year after the previous one (just like in the movie!) and to be honest, I think they really rushed this one. Since the ending of the fourth movie was pretty impressive I expected that they would continue with that storyline. Well, they of course continued with Jamie and Rachel, but definitely not in the way I expected.

Jamie is now mute for the first half of the movie, no one knows why, and she's in a children's hospital. Not too strange since in the previous movie she killed someone, but if you compare the way that Michael got treated after he killed his sister (he was locked in an institution) and Jamie is being held at a children's hospital, where she can walk around and see people and stuff. They both did exactly the same thing, and get treated very differently for it.

Perhaps that had some influence to Michael's recent behavior? What's also similar is the fact that Michael never spoke again after he was institutionalized, and Jamie became a mute, even though it was only for a short time. I suspect that they want to show the differences between Michael and Jamie this way, Jamie wanted to talk but wasn't able to, while Michael voluntarily gave up his speech.

I thought it was a shame though that they didn't make Jamie some sort of side-kick of Michael, that's really what I expected after the last scene in Halloween 4. That would be very awesome and it would be a bit different from the usual slasher movies.

It's actually quite strange because Michael stayed with some stranger for almost an year. Without any 'accidents', and as soon as it's Halloween he goes nuts and starts killing again. Poor old homeless man. Personally, I don't get why people are still walking the streets on Halloween when the body of Michael was never found. Seriously, after all these killings on this specific date, how can you still walk around smiling for candy? 

Somehow there's a connection between Michael and Jamie, which is what made her attempt the killing, is what explained later. A bit of a lame excuse if you ask me, it would be so much more awesome if she was also messed up. 

I really thought that they had good opportunities with the concept they ended 4 with, but unfortunately they messed it up. It was quite a boring movie actually, rather predictable. In the previous movie Danielle Harris played an excellent role, but in this movie she's a mute and her role actually isn't very big. Rachel is killed off quite fast so she has no use at all in this movie. For some reason Michael is after her friend Tina the entire movie, we don't know why but since there isn't a clear reason for his chase, it seems rather useless. Not a very good movie unfortunately.

My personal rate: 4/10

The Walking Dead: Season 4, episode 13: Alone

Luckily, a much better episode than previous weeks episode. We follow Maggie, Bob and Sasha and Beth and Daryl. 

!Spoilers!

Maggie, Bob and Sasha are planning to follow the posters and go to the so called safe town. Sasha doesn't want to, but Bob and Maggie do so she doesn't have another choice than go with them. Maggie is sure that the town is where Glenn will go. At night Maggie leaves the two because she knows that Sasha doesn't want to go. Bob however worries about her and takes Sasha with him to go after her. After awhile they split up because Sasha wants to settle herself somewhere safe and Bob continues to go after Maggie. But when Sasha's in some building she looks outside and sees Maggie lying on the floor while walkers walk towards her. Sasha runs to her to help her and they manage to fight of the walkers. Sasha admits that she's scared and they both continue to catch up with Bob, towards the safe haven.

If you think about it it wasn't much interesting. Bob and Sasha share a romantic moment and we see how Bob got in with the group. Basically, it's about how they split up and got together again. So... not too interesting. I am curious about this safe place though, another Woodbury? Or perhaps something actually safe? 

We also see Beth and Daryl who got inside some neat house, there they settle and find nice food. But unfortunately it got surrounded by walkers and chased them away. Because the house was so neat it gave the impression that someone lived there, I'm quite curious who it was since they seemed to make quite a big deal out of it. Probably we won't ever find out though. Also, they found a living dog! Very cute and stuff, but the first time it ran off. And the second time... well the dog was dead. Another useless addition, which also broke my heart a tiny bit (DON'T KILL ANIMALS IN MOVIES ETC!!!)

Anyway, Daryl manages to escape the walkers while Beth was already outside, and then she got kidnapped! Finally something good happens! We don't know who took her, so finally, something to look forward to again.

Daryl breaks down on the middle of some crossing and suddenly he is surrounded by the bastards that also invaded the house where Rick stayed a few episodes back. At first he seems hostile towards them, but at some point he seems to feel 'home' in the group or something, and goes along with them. 

Now, how much I hated the Beth/Daryl combination, or Beth's character as a whole, I am very curious about what will happen next. Who kidnapped Beth? And how is Daryl going to react in this new group of bastards? I do hope that he won't become one of them, because they are rapers and murderers and stuff. Not any cool stuff.

The Walking Dead: Season 4, episode 12: Still

Probably the least interesting episode of this season this far. We follow Beth and Daryl, and unfortunately only them. Now don't get me wrong, Daryl is probably my favorite character of this show... but in combination with Beth... *yawn*.

I think I can say honestly that Beth is the most boring character ever, annoying and she's only good for singing. And well, playing piano with loud singing doesn't seem to be the smartest thing around in this zombie dominated world. Beth seems to forget about that small thing quite often unfortunately. She's quite an useless character I think. She only talks and sings, can't fight, complains a lot and seems to think she's better than everyone else. If that isn't worse enough yet, she also changes Daryl drastically this episode. 

We finally find out what Daryl did before the apocalypse, which was nothing. He was just a redneck that followed around Merle, and to be honest, I liked him better when he was that mysterious guy. Of course, his previous life isn't much of a surprise, but seeing that it's now official makes him somehow less interesting. Sure, it's part of character development and it's needed in a show, but don't spend a whole damn episode on it. You need to develop a character through the seasons, not tell everything in one episode. It's about the zombie apocalypse, not about character development. Unfortunately, this seems to be often forgotten the last few episodes (this was also the case in the third season). 

With this episode you won't miss a thing if you haven't watched it. It's just dull talking with a slight bit of character development. Beth is putting hers and Daryl's life in danger because she wants to have alcohol, they encounter a few zombies but it's nothing serious really. Also, the episode ends with some lame action where they both burn down the house that reminded Daryl of where he used to live, and Beth practically forces him to give it the finger. It's was just quite lame. 

Terrible episode, it's easier if you'd just skip this one. 

Review: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

IMDB rate: 5,9

Genre: Slasher

I'm a bit lazy nowadays with writing new reviews, I'm quite busy with school and I developed a World of Warcraft addiction and along with a Netflix subscription I don't get to watch a whole lot of horror movies. Sure, Netflix does have a few horror movies, but I've seen all of them already. 

Anyway, I finally took some time again for watching another horror movie, and this time I chose Halloween 4. A few weeks ago I watched the second one, so I think it's best to watch all of them not too far apart so I won't forget stuff. 

For those who don't know this, there isn't an official third Halloween movie. At least, not in the Michael Myers way. There is a Halloween 3 movie, which is called Season of the Witch but that one isn't related in any way to Michael Myers. At first the Halloween movies were intended to release scary stories about Halloween, and the first two happen to be about Michael Myers, the third one indeed followed that intention and it released and completely unrelated Halloween story. But the movie wasn't received well and people wanted to see more of Michael Myers, which lead to Halloween 4. This explains the gap between the second and fourth part.

It's October 30, 1988 and Michael Myers has been in a coma since his pursuit of Laurie Strode, 10 years ago, was finally stopped. However, when he is transferred from Richmond Mental Institute to Smith's Grove he awakes when he hears that he has a niece in Haddonfield and after killing the transfer crew he escapes. In Haddonfield, the niece, Jamie, has been adopted by the Carruthers family but keeps having nightmares about Michael (but she doesn't know who he is). On Halloween night, Jamie goes out trick and treating, little knowing that her murdering Uncle is following her and her step-sister Rachel. Rushing to her aid is Dr. Loomis and with the help of Sheriff Meeker starts to search the town for Michael and to find Jamie to protect her. But can anything stop Michael this time?

Most of the time with these kinds of slasher movies all the sequels suck. I must admit that I didn't expected anything else from this movie. In almost every case the sequel is probably reasonable (big exception with A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, which was just unbearable), and everything else after it is just terrible of just entertaining. I must say that I actually quite liked Halloween 4, which was absolutely not what I expected. 

Now there are a few things unclear in the movie, Laurie apparently got a child and gave it up for adoption. I would have liked to hear more about that, why did she do it for example? What I would also like to hear is why Michael even has the slightest interest in Jamie, who is just a kid. And of course, the most interesting question of all: How the f can Michael survive all this shit?! The storyline is interesting in some sort of way, at least the ending is, but it isn't going in much depth. 

What I of course loved most about the movie was when Jamie walked in her Halloween costume (a clown suit). For those who don't remember, it's exactly the same one that Michael wore when he killed for the first time. This is quite a nice touch I think. The ending was amazing too, -beware, spoilers ahead- because we hear screaming and we see a vision through someones eyes, with a mask on that is. Now, is Michael again still alive? Is he again in the house? It's exactly the same vision we witnessed in the first Halloween movie where Michael is walking around the house as a child. But this time, it wasn't Michael. It's actually his cousin Jamie with a mask on, the clown suit on and with a pair of scissors in her hand. Personally, I loved this twist and I'm actually quite curious about the fifth movie now.

Danielle Harris plays the young Jamie. Danielle Harris isn't a stranger to horror movies nowadays, which isn't strange since she started with it quite young. Nowadays we can watch her in horror movies such as Urban Legend, Left for Dead, Hatchet, Stake Land, a few sequels that come after Halloween 4 and even in Rob Zombie's Halloween remake. I think she's quite a good actress, even though her roles are almost always the same. Anyway, she was 11 years old in the movie and I think she acted very well  for someone of such a young age. Again, curious about her character development in the next movies. 

Overall, for a sequel it was quite a decent one. The ending was incredible and surprising. The storyline itself wasn't much interesting. The town people were very dumb and didn't add anything special to the story. But again, the acting is good. Not only by Donald Pleasance, but also by the young Danielle Harris. Halloween 4 is a watchable sequel, nothing too weird going on and it's staying quite true to the story. 

My personal rate: 6,5/10

The Walking Dead: Season 4, episode 11: Claimed

Again, a bit late. I'm sorry, but sometimes it's a bit hard to keep up with the Walking Dead, since the episodes aren't much exciting anymore. I will continue watching it though, in hope that it will become better again someday.
I haven't seen the twelfth one yet, and tonight the thirteenth episode will already air, so it's time to catch up again, I guess.

!Spoilers!

This time we follow Michonne, Carl and Rick and Glenn and Tara. 

Michonne, Carl and Rick search a house to stay in overnight. Carl and Michonne search for supplies while Rick stays behind to rest. While they are gone a few new people decide to stay in the same house, and they aren't the nicest people around. In the very first minutes that we hear them they killed someone, and talked about rape and stuff, so definitely not good people. Carl and Michonne are searching other houses, and while doing that Michonne finally opens up a bit to Carl. It's a very sad story actually, but it gives a lot more depth in her character, which was kinda needed.

Rick tries to escape the house, but of course there is somebody who lies in the same bed where he hides below. Basically, this is a very predictable story for people who are familiar in the horror genre. He hides in the bathroom where he needs to kill someone. He manages to escape through the window and he gets to Michonne and Carl in time, before they came inside the house.

I must say that this was kinda exciting, even though the outcome was kinda predictable, you still would hope that he manages to get out, without being seen.

We also follow Glenn and Tara who met three people, I don't know their names at the moment but they claim that they have found an answer for this virus. Of course, they say it's 'classified', so we still don't know anything yet. You shouldn't be too surprised if the doctor guy gets killed before getting to Washington, that's kinda what normally happens.
They argue the entire time, then they fight loudly. Walkers show up and almost attack the doctor, who shoots with some big gun, and shoots the car also, which of course broke down because of that. Very predictable, but I'm curious where they are going with this. I don't know the comic, so I'm absolutely clueless with these people.
Not sure what to think of them either, they seem like a few rednecks with no good intentions but this might be a wrong observation. Anyway, quite curious!

Claimed isn't a bad episode. It gave a bit of insight in Michonne's life, and it had a few tensive moments with Rick. It also gave a small introduction to new characters, so hopefully the better episodes will continue.