10 Year Anniversary: Promethious

 

                           During the month of September, I slowly began to realize that I'm way behind on movies I wanted to review that mark their 10-year anniversary, but luckily, I've just in the nick of time brought out and watched a film by Ridley Scott (still doing the Ridley Scott tribute for last year) that's I somewhat consider both science fiction and horror at the same time? Ah screw it the movie is Prometheus that is a misunderstood prequal to the Alien Franchise but there is no Alien's involved for some reason. Back in 2012 I was excited for this movie to come out because it was Ridley Scott and at the time, I figured he couldn't do anything wrong especially since this was his first time coming back to Science Fiction genre since Blade Runner. Now watching this film, I feel like there a lot of unanswered questions that I'm defiantly confident I will ever get the answers.

                        The discovery of a clue to mankind's origins on Earth leads a team of explorers to the darkest parts of the universe. Two brilliant young scientists lead the expedition. Shaw (Noomi Rapace) hopes that they will meet a race of benevolent, godlike beings who will in some way verify her religious beliefs, while Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) is out to debunk any spiritual notions. However, neither the scientists nor their shipmates are prepared for the unimaginable terrors that await them.

                        I will say now having watched this movie, I must strongly admit that this wasn't as good as I remembered. For many reasons this was supposed to be a prequal to the original Alien but yet the story sourly focuses on Gods from outer space creating humanity on Earth, for which I have so many questions one of them basically what does that have to do with the Alien's aka Xenomorph's, the second is why would you start off using set design's from the original Alien movie and use that as a metaphor that unknown alien Gods where responsible for humanity and it's  convenient that Ridley Scott of course would say that this would be in the direction it would go since he claims to be an ashiest which is wow, SHOCKER. And sure, you can do all these things when developing the story AS LONG AS WE GET TO SEE THE ALIEN'S, but of course we don't see them all we see are these weird buff pale duds that are supposed to be Humanities makers, for which in all honesty they don't look that scary at all, hell not even close. Though to the film's credit it does have some great what the f**k moments and Scott is the king of doing what the f**k moments when it comes to making movies and there is a lot of them especially the more memorable one is when Noomi Rapace is about to give birth to a alien baby and tries to decontaminate it, now let's be clear I'm a full blooded Catholic I believe there is a God and Jesus was our savior and sorry not sorry but I'm also against abortion because and a lot of people don't get it at all once you’re giving birth do a baby that's three to six months in, THAT'S BASICALLY KILLING A LIVE HUMAN BEING. But if you’re having intercourse with someone that's may have been roofied into drinking something alien liquid for which may give birth to a vicious alien creature that may want to kill you, yeah that's when you need to decontaminate it. The other thing in what makes the movie positive is it's cast or the scene stealers like Michael Fassbender who plays the android David, and Fassbender's portrayal of David is so excellent you don't know whether to trust him with your life or is he going to kill you and I still love the fact that in the beginning of the movie where we're first introduce to him he's monitoring the ship all by himself and it's so mesmerizing you can't stop watching him play basketball while riding a bike, now if it were me monitoring the ship after suffering being in prison lockdown from the pandemic I would lose my mind and then destroy the ship. With obvious great acting from Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron and surprising old man look of Guy Pierce but deep-down Michael Fassbender was the scene stealer throughout the whole film. Deep down this is a decent made movie with its WTF jump scares and great set design and great direction, but I would rank this in Ridley Scott's top ten best films, hell in all honesty it's more in the honorable mentions but all in all it's a decent movie to watch whenever I want to pop in something I haven't seen in a while but I wouldn't want to watch the second time although I'm defiantly going to watch it again with audio commentary because I need some questions answered desperately if you catch my meaning.

    

                              

October Recommendation: Hush

 

                              About two maybe three months I wasn't sure if I was going to have a movie worth recommending for the month of October. Until I saw this cleverly drawn horror story of cat and mouse, I now have something worth watching for the month of October. Now I'll say that yes, I do search for great unknown Horror movies for the month of October because well, October is the month of Halloween it's supposed to be scary and that's what most people crave upon October. And granted good horror movies are hard to find, though luckily with the help of my brother I sat down and watched this great movie called Hush, which is set simply in the forests of the unknown where a killer is stalked by a deaf/mute author, who is defiantly worth the watch in my case.

                            A deaf writer (Kate Siegel) who retreated into the woods to live a solitary life must fight for her life in silence when a masked killer appears in her window. 

                            I should quickly add that this film was made on Netflix so you can defiantly watch this great horror film any time you want. The thing that makes Horror films great to watch, in my view point is that they have to be a specific thing on what scares us the most, like in alien species that goes to three stages of hosting inside your body and bursting out of your chest then using you as a breeding ground for more eggs to grow or give birth, or a wealthy family that's a satanic cult willing to sacrifice a new member of the family, or a killer stalking you via using a voice changer moreover knowing your every move. What makes Hush great is that it uses the unexpected type of fear, silence furthermore the kind of silence that you as a person can't hear especially when your being stalked by a killer. The director of the film Mike Flanagan and his wife Kate Siegel who just so happens to be the star of the film, both have written the screenplay for which of them both have done a fantastic job in bringing this great story to life, the other thing I've found out is that Mike Flanagan has created another creepy horror show called the Haunting of Hill House, for which is also on Netflix and which both Mike and Kate Siegel have met and fall in love, which is beautiful if you ask me. Anyway, getting back to topic Flanagan even stats that he wanted to main character to be a deaf mute he wanted to direct a film without dialogue. For which yeah when you’re doing a slasher film like Hush yeah that's what I call making silence very scary, another fun fact via production in order to represent Kate Siegel's characters world, various ambient sounds were used, such as sound of ultrasound machines. Flanagan did not want to use pure silence for these scenes, as he still felt it would make viewers even more aware of their surrounding and take them out of the experience.  Now, both Flanagan and Siegel give a tremendous amount of credit in making this film work, for Flanagan giving the film so much tension that even during my second viewing I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through without looking at my phone. Kate Siegal does a great job playing a woman whose both deaf/mute but also balances the venerable aspects when it comes to horror and the brave aspect when she finally stands up to the killer in the movie. Speaking of killers, John Gallagher Jr. does an outstanding job playing the killer stalking Siegel's character, now for those who don't know who this actor is, well if you haven't seen Aaron Sorkin's tv show The Newsroom Gallagher was Jim Harper for which I've seen midst of season one but, when I researched some of the movie and stumbled upon his name I was a bit surprised especially the fact that Gallagher in the movie doesn't look a thing like what he was in the Newsroom, so back to the movie he does a great job playing a psychopath who will stop at nothing to get in and kill his victim moreover Gallagher does a great job just playing so menacing with no remorse and not wanting to be rooted for which is what I always want to look for when watching a suspenseful horror movie. One of the very few films I found this year that deserves a recommendation in the month of October that is worth seeing from start to finish and is under ninety minutes, so if you’re in for a suspenseful, scary thrill ride in the month of Halloween I would highly recommend watching Hush.

          

House on Haunted Hill

 

                            In the double feature of past movies I remember seeing at times, the remake to House on Haunted Hill appeared on TUBI, though granted I've only seen previews of it on cable network when on demand movies were a thing back in the nineties, but I will at least say that I have a great memory in terms of movie posters I remember seeing growing up and the remake to House on Haunted Hill was one of those posters I remember. I'll give you a quick recap on the original House on Haunted Hill, basically one of those films Vincent Price did in 1959 where he was always known for as the eerie creepy guy that always had the evil laugh as if he was the devil himself, which in all honesty he was. For which lead us to this remake where I can honestly say they used all the storylines from the original movie but upgraded with a tone of freaky Marylin Manson s**t. For which I honesty have no clue if that is a good thing or a bad thing but all I can say is that having watched this film now, I can purposely say that this was one of those remakes you should never ever try to do if you’re a movie director.

                           A millionaire with theatrical tendencies Stephan Price (Geoffrey Rush), invites several people to stay in a vast creepy building that used to be an insane asylum. Accompanied by his bitter wife Evelyn (Famke Janssen), offers a million dollars to anyone who can stay the whole night without leaving out of fear. When Stephan and Evelyn become trapped with their guests, they quickly realize that the house really is haunted -- and the spirits dwelling within are very angry.

                          The original movie of House on Haunted Hill if some of you haven't seen or haven't checked out my review, the film was, as I would describe it as bit of a camp fill horror furthermore like a B-Movie type of scary where you can predict where the scariness will come. Also, its Vincent Price trying to sound terrifying throughout the film which is when you get to a certain age you realize that it's not that scary. This movie it feels like they really wanted to push the horror up to a hundred percent, by adding a lot of freaky Marylin Manson shit though in fairness he had nothing to do with it other than rewriting one of the cover songs but all the scenes including the opening feels like a Marylin Manson or Godsmack video. Even the director himself, William Malone says that he's a huge fan of the original movie but in all fairness I honestly don't quite understand what he was trying to go with in terms of either making this film really scary or keeping the camp as tribute from the original movie and in all honesty if that's what he's really trying to do then he really didn't do anything interesting, because in all honesty if I wanted to watch a remake of this with the same premise and same concept only making it more scary, then I'd rather watch the original movie. Alike the original you can defiantly point out whose playing who in the remake, like Geoffrey Rush is obviously playing the Vincent Price part, and doesn't really do anything new furthermore believe he was just cashing in for a paycheck which is fine because the man worked from the early seventies. Also, Famke Janssen is defiantly playing Rush's wife who strangely do a great job playing a toxic married couple who I would never want to be around so, if there's any complement, I can give for this movie it's both those two playing the worst people ever. Chris Kattan plays the guy who doesn't want to be in the house aka Elisha Cook Jr. part, and Peter Gallagher aka Eyebrow Man plays the man who’s helping Janssen's character murder Rush though fails miserably so, deep down if you watch this all the way through you can point out whose playing who and how it's going to play out. That is if you've seen the original film and if not then you'll be, okay? Either way I can describe you all the wrongs of how not to do when remaking a movie and this movie is a great example of what not to do, moreover if I had a choice to watch either Jason X or the remake to House on Haunted Hill I'd rather just watch Jason X mainly because it's unintentionally funny and this is way too much of a mess that I wouldn't want to re-watch this film ever again. I'd give this movie credit for trying but, in all honesty, I don't believe the filmmakers and writers wherever trying to make this film better. So, if you’re having thought on wanting to give this movie a chance I would step away from this movie and just watch the original movie. The fact that this movie still exists and is on streaming services is somewhat fascinating and I have to say remember seeing previews to this movie and then finally watching it I'm glad I decided not to watching back in 1999. 

   

                               

Jason X

 

                                  Happy Halloween everyone, that's right it's time to pop in some good old fashion scary movies to watch. Though to be fair, being terrified does have its staleness at times furthermore you need to see some movies that you haven't seen that are promoted to be scary but just seem too good to take serious at times. Luckily for me I've discovered two quotes on quote scary films that are disguised as comedies, one of them just so happens to be Jason X, a movie where they decided to take the legendary movie monster Jason Voorhees in space, just like putting James Bond inside a rocket ship and shooting him up into space. Shamefully of all the Friday the 13th movies I've seen this was in all honesty the very first Jason movie I've seen as a teenager, and to be truthfully honest I really didn't care much about the teens or adults in the movie dying, nor after watching the film did, I care now, because I was just watching the rampage Jason was causing. 

                                  The film is set in the year 2455, the Pandemic has consumed all of Earth and future scientist scrooge the earth for more artifacts, luckily, they stumbled upon Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) body along with another survivor who as fate would seem trapped in a freezing chamber. Now Jason is unfrozen and as every hunter's would say "It's Hunting Season".

                                   As convenient as most of making movies would go Jason X, had a lot of rewrites, the director of the movie wanted to be scary and weirder, while the writer of the movie wanted the comedy come through with the action, and producer Sean S. Cunningham the man behind the first Friday the 13th claimed to not have anything to do with the movies creation just writing the paychecks, though he proceeded to have rewrites done way into the rehearsal time, so you know that this movie was going to be bad when the director, writer and producer are having different ideas moreover not wanting to split the difference. Now as a movie by itself, in all honesty it's not all bad, and granted you can ask me why? Well, the thing of it is, is that we all know what a bad movie is when it comes to watching movies go and we all have our differences, but with Jason X it's really like I know what you did last summer and its sequel what makes them of course entertaining is that their unintentionally funny.  From Jason being the only smartest killer in the entire movie to all the teenagers dressing up like slut's (sorry to all the women out there) and let’s not forget the dumb male scientists not listening to the only smartest woman scientist? In the entire movie, oh I almost forgot the army soldiers not accepting the fact that Jason is a zombie furthermore can never die. Yes, the movie isn't at all scary and to be honest I think the producers and filmmakers from Nightmare on Elm Street sequels to the Jason Movie sequels weren't at all caring about the survivors they just wanted to see more of these killers going on a rampage and to be fair where all looking for that but isn't the sole purpose is to not root for the bad guy and root for the survivors to win? Ah hell deep down who cares I guess what I'm trying to say is that Jason X is a movie that it is what it is, and in all honesty, I rank this in one of my top ten best B-Movies to watch whenever you don't want to do anything or think. Now having re-watched Jason X, the question remains on whether I'd watch all of the Friday the 13th movies and to be truthfully honest no mainly because I've seen just this one Jason movie and seen the original Nightmare on Elm Street movie, the one that Wes Craven made and have seen Freddy vs Jason so to be honest I really have no desire to watch all of these movies in chronological order for many reasons there all bad so Jason X is the go to bad movie I'd rather watch whole along with Freddy vs Jason. Now before closing I do need to give a small award to Peter Mensah who plays the army Sargent in the movie whose also full-blown John Rambo-ish because in all honesty he's really the best actor in the entire film moreover has some bad ass moments. I will rank this is up there in the best B-movies of all time for the most obvious reasons it’s a great laugh and it was also made in Canada for which I honestly don't know what good movie has come out of Canada in the thirty-five years of my life, but if you’re bored of watching all scary movies or not finding something to watch on Halloween, then I would highly recommend watching Jason X, though I'd make your decision soon because TUBI does remove its stuff in quick times, but if you don't feel like watching this movie I totally understand your reasons.

   

                                           

Movies I haven't seen in a while: To Kill a Mockingbird

 

                                         This ladies and gentlemen is a movie I defiantly haven't seen in a long, long, time. And that film is To Kill a Mockingbird, it was a usual Saturday night the IMAX at town in which I grew up played To Kill a Mockingbird and if you’re thinking how could the get a film reel of that? Well, here's the coolest thing, they've installed a Blu-Ray player inside the IMAX projector, and as a movie goer that's one of the most awesome things ever especially for a film like this. Anyway, back to topic this was obviously a movie I haven't seen in a long time, so I figured why not give this movie a chance to watch since I have nothing better to do. And to be honest I have vague memory on seeing this movie though I do remember seeing bits and pieces of the movie I haven't really seen it all the way through just like reading the book. And to be honest watching this film now was even greater than I can imagine.

                                         Scout Finch (Mary Badham), 6, and her older Jem (Phillip Alford), live in sleepy Maycomb, Alabama. Spending much of their time with friend Dill (John Megna) and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbor. When Atticus (Gregory Peck), their widowed father and respected lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson (Brook Peters) against fabricated rape charges, the trial and tangent events expose the children to evils of racism and stereotyping. 

                                         Now the last time I've ever seen this movie was when I was a kid and all I remember was the brother and sisters with their crazy shenanigans like the rolling inside a tire and the final scene of the movie where scout is wearing weird box of some kind, also thinking if the brother really died, moreover I do remember reading the book in high school but that's pretty much it. So now having watched the movie I will say that it's more great to watch it at an older age, mainly because say if I'd watch this when I was a kid I wouldn't take it much seriously with the subject matter, also with my kid like mind I would be bored and want to watch any action movie or a John Wayne movie, but being thirty-five years old now, I can be more serious in what the story portrays and appreciate the great performance of Gregory Peck. There's really nothing much to say about Gregory Peck's performance, I mean his acting moreover his voice speaks for itself, and his presence on screen is just so great to see as he stands tall as a bold man that you truly want to have on your side when it comes defending your rights as well as someone you can trust as a human being. Now again if you haven't seen To Kill a Mockingbird I really don't need to give you much details as to how great Gregory Peck was, all because the man won in Oscar for his performance, so right this instant I'm going to push onto the kids both Mary Badham and Phillip Alford, both of them together does such a fantastic job playing the brother and sister relationship so well that you can instant relate to them throughout the story even in times when their annoyed with one another and at times when both of them rely on each other even in the scary times, especially in the best scene when both Scout and Jem try and protect their Dad from in angry mob and it's Scout who recognized one of the members of the mob, Walter Cunningham and tries to strike a conversation with him, but quickly becomes too distraught at what he was trying to do and decides to forfeit the mobs plans, which shows a simplicities with killing someone with kindness, so both the kids does a great job as well as the actor who plays Cunningham Crahan Denton does a great job in that scene alone to, so he as an actor does deserve some credit. James Anderson deserves some credit too playing the antagonist of the movie who really portrays the creepy southern hillbilly who looks at Peck as a threat, I'm also giving a special credit to Robert Duvall though I'm not going to tell you who he plays because I was a bit surprise myself when I first saw him on screen. A surprising fact I've learned was that James Stewart turned down the role of Atticus Finch, concerned that the story was too controversial, in which to be fair I'm not quite sure if Stewart would have been a good fit for the role of Atticus Finch. Some of the sets were made in a backlot in Universal Studio's a lot of Harper Lee's hometown changed via 1920 to early 60's so a lot of the scenes and sets that you see in the movie where all shot in a backlot in Hollywood Studio's. I'm glad to of re-seen this classic and fully appreciate it as one of the best films I've ever seen. Fully rank this as one of the most important films to watch in American history and say to take your time in having your kids watch this film mainly because deep down, they might view this the same way I was when I was a kid, or I can be wrong, and I don't claim to be right all the time.