xStewieGriffinx Reviews

Daybreakers (2009)

Surprisingly good movie

[8/10 · 8 January 2010]

As the title suggests, I had seen previews on TV for the movie and thought it looked OK. Nothing too bad but nothing I'd bust out to go see either. I was very pleasantly surprised by this film. I will not be writing a summary of the movie, as I feel you should see the movie first, then read what people are analyzing out of it. Instead, I'll lightly touch on some of the abstract points of the movie.

The cinematography in the movie is very good. There are a lot of scenes where the director could have gone to cheesy quick-cuts of action so you don't know what is happening. Instead the film actually slows down on some parts, extending the action and giving the audience time to thoroughly see what is happening. The acting in the film is good, not great, but you can't expect "Shawshank Redemption" from a vampire movie. Strictly rating it from within the genre, the acting is very good. The characters are believable with a minimal appearance of overused, cliché' lines. The graphics in the movie are above average. The fire when the vampires are exposed to daylight is the one thing that keeps it from being great. It is hard to demonstrate real burning on a computer model, and this film doesn't completely fail, but it's not so radically realistic that you believe the actors are on fire. Personally I'd have rather seen stunt people actually being set on fire as opposed to the CG, but either way this isn't a point that will ruin your movie going experience. The gore in the movie is quite good, showing much more than I would have expected. There is one scene at the end that is remarkably good and somewhat reminds me of a dark comedy because of the amount of detail in the shot and the irony of what is happening.

8/10 acting 9/10 cinematography 8/10 plot

I'd recommend seeing this movie in theaters so that more films with this quality can be funded.

Feast (2005)

The only thing scary is that people rated this higher

[4/10 · 7 January 2010]

Getting right to the point, this movie was a huge letdown in my eyes. I have been making my way through some horror movies I had not seen yet (May, A Tale of Two Sisters, etc...) when I ran across this title. It was ranked on a lot of top horror movie lists, but after watching I can honestly say I don't understand why. The filmmakers seem like they can't figure out what sub-genre they want to end up with. This movie struggles between being a gore horror (succeeding in some parts but overall trying too hard), a dark comedy (a bad one at that), and a deeper movie than what it is by trying to develop character depth (epic fail).

I gave this movie some stars because it does manage to introduce some elements that could have been good, if the movie wouldn't have had so many negative qualities. The gore succeeds at times, but as I said before overall it feels forced and given the attempts at comedy and character development, doesn't feel like a gore horror. The movie also gives brief biographies of each character, but this becomes redundant after the first 3-4 and by the time they are all done, you're wondering why they did so many. The cinematography is good in some areas when it is not shaking from cut scene to cut scene so fast that it makes you wonder if you are having a seizure or watching a movie.

Sadly, the monsters in this movie look too much like the creatures from the "Alien" series to give credit to the filmmakers. For the life of me, I still see no reason why the monsters decide to wear clothing and bulls heads when the bull skulls don't even cover where their heads are located. Though a small gripe and not a defining factor for my rating, it still bothers me that creatures which hump items at random, eat humans whole, and throw up on people have some sort of issue with not wearing clothing.

If you're looking for a good horror movie and have not seen many, I would recommend looking elsewhere. If you're simply a horror movie fan like myself who has seen many and is looking for something that has slipped through the cracks.....I'd still suggest looking elsewhere. If you're trying to prolong going to get that root canal done but have ran out of other things to procrastinate with though, this is less painful. I give this movie a 4/10 because it simply takes itself too seriously to write it off as a dark comedy, but not seriously enough to be a good horror movie.

Iki-jigoku (2000)

this movie is meh/10

[4/10 · 18 June 2005]

Let me start off by saying I'm definitely an advocate for movies that make you think. I'm a fan of GOOD Japanese movies and I'm also probably one of the biggest horror movie enthusiasts you'll ever meet. I had just come off watching Ichi and Audition within the week before when I decided to watch this movie. It was a tossup between watching this movie or watching Gokudô kyôfu dai-gekijô (Gozu) so I came to IMDb and read some reviews. Gozu was rated higher but Living Hell wasn't far behind and had some really positive feedback. I don't think Living Hell was one of the worst movies I've ever seen by any means, but it definitely wasn't one of the best. I HATE people who come on here and say "this movie is full of plot holes" because they just don't understand a movie, but in all seriousness this movie is just not put together well. When the big "twist ending" is revealed (which most intelligent people can figure out well before the movie's halfway done) it just doesn't pan out right. I wont put any spoilers in this, but Ill say a couple general purpose comments.

1) Don't let my comments detour you from seeing this movie. Its still worth a once over if you're somewhat interested and have time to kill. Just don't go into it thinking you're going to get something super gory/scary/high quality and you'll be OK. Think of it as a B-rate horror movie and you'll be OK.

2) The soundtrack for this movie IS indeed terrible like some other people have said. Be warned too that one melody in particular will probably get stuck in your head for a good hour after the movie's over and it wont be fun.

3) Don't compare this movie to other Japanese horror films you've seen. Take it for what its worth and judge it on its own. Don't listen to people who compare this movie to others and you'll be OK.

Thats pretty much all there is to it. This movie is by no means anything special and I think its slightly over-rated, but if you want a movie that will semi-entertain you than give it a once over.