Change Your Image
lauriefields
Reviews
Season of the Witch (2011)
Had potential, then lost me
First, it's nothing that Nicolas Cage did. He didn't write it. At least, not that I've heard. Cage plays a Crusader that wakes up. After he's had his fill of killing people, he and his battle buddy--played by the underrated and physically intimidating Ron Perlman--get rooked into transporting a witch to a monastery where she is promised a fair trial. (Followed by a first-class hanging.)
What I liked about the film: --Cage and Perlman. They play battle-fatigued/world-weary parts great. I believed the two could push people around like brooms. Men who have seen too much and could still joke like brothers. --The questions asked by characters; like "we had a plague in my village and there was no witch." Who knows? Maybe people in the 12th century asked questions like that. --Plague makeup; disgusting. Didn't check if it was historically accurate. Also, the doctor's masks. --Scenery. Dark, haunting, beautiful.
What I didn't like about the film: --All the main characters looked too pretty. And they had too many teeth for the time period. For soldiers, Cage and Perlman's characters should have had more visible scars. They didn't look like they had been through battle until the end of the film. --Why couldn't the real devil had been the one inside the human soul? Fear, malice, lust, power. The minute they introduced a demon it turned into a cartoon for me.
Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010)
In my humble opinion
It's part musical pissing contest, part Romeo and Juliet,part David/Goliath. The humble Camp Rock (do it for the music)is losing campers to the flashy Camp Star (grooming grounds for future one hit wonders.) The first to jump ship--as if we didn't see this coming--is Tess, the Broadway brat. She becomes the co-star/arm candy of the star of Camp Star. Instead of closing the camp, some campers become counselors; I must've been in the bathroom when the counselors abandoned their humble roots. In the center of the plot is a musical contest (playing for pinks)between the camps. With one camp having more cash than the other, guess which one wins. At least the ending was realistic, the one with the gold makes the rules. My opinion of the music: mixing board mediocre. My daughter (she's 9) likes the music; but if I have to listen to "Tear it Down" one more time, I'll scream. I've dubbed it "Young, Dumb and Full of Cum." In my humble opinion, Disney may never make a movie that warrants a 10.
The Wolfman (2010)
Saw it with the lights on
What I liked about this film: Rick Baker's work did not disappoint. The Wolfman was scary as heck and I had to watch the movie with the lights on. Baker deserved his statue. Emma, the love interest, wasn't written as a modern day woman stuck in the wrong time period. She wasn't a martial arts/weapons expert hell bent on kicking butt. She was portrayed as a woman of the times; and she did research to help her friend. Anthony Hopkins never disappoints. He could read the phone book and be good at it. The part I felt was most frightening wasn't the scenes of blood and violence, but the "therapy" Laurence went through. It was scary because it was real and it happened. As much as I enjoyed the film, I won't allow my daughter (she's 9) to watch it any time soon. It's far too gory and violent. What I didn't like: The volume. The dialogue was so low I had to turn the volume up to nearly 90 to hear the characters.