Nov 30, 2013

Monthly Movie Recap - November 2013

November's Monthly Movie Recap is posting a day earlier as December begins the bloody cheerful Creepmas blog-along. It's still not too late to sign up!

Thor: The Dark World (2013)
I really enjoyed this one and thought it was more entertaining than the first one. It felt a little bit Man of Steel, a little bit Star Wars (ok, some sections really felt like it) and a few other franchises rolled together in a sci-fi action flick with a healthy dose of comedy.

Cool: Loki steals his scenes (duh!); Love the way they handle the gods/magic as aliens/science
Lame: Jane is kinda wasted and feels more like a thing than a character; More Warriors Three!!
Rating: 7.5/10


I think this will be hit or miss for a lot of people. If you're not a video game fan, you'll probably not find much to carry you through it. Sure it's low budget and the acting isn't great but I really dig the script and the video game humor. With a budget and halfway decent actors, this could be great.

Cool: Good script and jokes
Lame: Sounds like all the dialog was redubbed after shooting which creates a disconnect while viewing
Rating: 5/10
The gang is back for another level! I don't know if it's because I'm familiar with the universe but this one seems to be a bit better than the first one. It's pretty much more of the same, so if you like the first one, you should follow it with this.

Cool: Love, love, love the Ninja!
Lame: Still has the dialog disconnect; Sam has been recast so you never see her unhelmeted but it's not so bad because she's not in the movie as much this go round
Rating: 5.5/10


Joysticks (1983)
Valley girls, video games and a totally cheezy soundtrack. Could this be any more 80s? It's the classic snobs vs slobs scenario but in an arcade.

Cool: Video game machines galore! The Vidiots punk gang
Lame: Anything that might be lame only makes the movie better
Rating: 6.5/10


Fright Night 2: New Blood (2013)
I don't quite get what they're doing here. There's a 2 in the title but it's not a sequel to any of the previous Fright Night flicks. It's more like a reboot because the main characters have all been recast. If they had just changed the character names and title, this would be a decent direct to video offering.

Cool: Jaime Murray; maybe the first vampire movie I've seen to use sonar
Lame: Reasons behind the plot get a little iffy; Relates to Fright Night only in names
Rating: 5.5/10

* Man of Steel (2013)
Rewatched when the BluRay came out. On second viewing, I still enjoy it as much as in the theater and I still have the two main problems I had originally: too much lens flare and too much wanton destruction.


Zero Charisma
If you've ever participated in fantasy tabletop RPGs, this is a must see! Even if you never have, you might still like story. It's kinda like a Clerks for RPGers with a little bit of Eastbound and Down twisted into it.

Cool: Gamers will probably find something they can relate to in it...
Lame: ...sometimes a little too close to home.
Rating: 8.5/10

Kinda NSFW trailer!

ThanksKilling (2008)
Three words: demonic killer turkey. If that doesn't hook you into this, nothing will. There's not much more to say about this no budget horror comedy.

Cool: It's bad, but in the best way
Lame: Could use a little more nudity :)
Rating: 5/10, an average of how bad and how fun it is

Month Total
 New: 7; Rewatch: 1

Year to Date
New: 79, Rewatch: 4

2 comments:

  1. Holy Crap Joysticks! I have not seen that movie in years what a blast from the past.

    Was there that much lens flare in Superman? I can't remember now but the wanton destruction i think was there to really show how power these characters really are.

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  2. That was a mistake on my part! Instead of lens flare, I meant to put the camera work. A lot of times it's shaky during quiet moments and steady during fight scenes. And they overuse what I call the "combat zoom" where the camera tracks something and then zooms in on it in motion quickly. I'm sure there's an actual term for that.

    As far as the destruction, I'm really hoping they play that into the sequels and have him figure out that when you're fighting another super being, you should take them out of the densely populated area to avoid killing bystanders :D

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