Thursday, February 27, 2014

On DVD and the stream: The Battery; and RESOLUTION

The Battery
(2012) Jeremy Gardner

This is a damn fine independent (low budget) zombie film. Great lensing, nice sound design, solid plot and believable performances. This is a zombie movie I would have loved to make.

Two baseball players cruising across America, survivin', doin' stuff, gettin' sauced, zombies.
Highly recommend. Hint I will reveal nothing because this flick is actually that good.

(7/7)

Official site

Hay Tales to Terrify listeners! Oh, you didn't expect this blog to actually be good did you? Hah I warned you. . . I don't even use complete sentences. . . .

And now:

Resolution (2012)
Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead

This is a scary Lovecraftian tale of a man who goes out into the dry scrubland mountains of Southern California to forcefully detox his meth-using friend. Weird things begin to happen and then weirder things.

This is the most "truly Lovecraftian" movie I have seen in a long time. Some of the performances are a bit uneven but the sense of dread that builds throughout the movie is remarkable.  Nice social commentary in spots and some cool, creepy, phantasmagorical film elements rooted in the darkest hillside thickets and valleys of the Mythos.






I really wish I made this movie!Prepare to be creeped out!



(6/7)

Trailer

Monday, February 17, 2014

The Lego Movie

(2014) Phil Lord and Chris Miller

This CG animated Lego movie is fun and subversive. The Lego blocks look pretty real and it feels like Stop motion animation. There are human generated sound effects. Funny and fun for the whole family. Double PUNCH!

Oh yeah this is probably the best Batman movie yet made.

(6/7)

Trailer

Vampire Academy

(2014) Mark Waters

Well. . . Vampire Academy trys really hard to make a fun and somewhat original teen vampire movie with some humor. Does it succeed? It is no Mean Girls.

Zoey Deutch is awesome and there are some decent double punch moments. There is also a cat in it.

(4/7)

Trailer

Monuments Men

(2014) George Clooney

George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Bob Balaban, whoa that is a cast.

This "true story" of the United States soldiers charged with protecting and recovering artwork and items stolen by the Nazi's during the war looks great and has a great cast. Sadly this film seems a bit boring. A bit bland. There are some nice scenes but there is an uneven, methodical, plod to the work that brings somberness but little else. I kept waiting for all these great actors to be let out of their cages to shine. It did not happen. Brilliant casting of Nick Clooney as Old George Clooney.

(3/7)

True Detective (On the Cables)

(2014) Nic Pizzolatto

A Southern boy tells a Chambersian/ Ligottiian/ Lovecraftian crime story with style and skill and Matthew McConaughey is at his career best in this HBO series. Woody Harrelson does a fine job also. This show is deep, tightly scripted and shot, tightly plotted and is genuinely scary. In fact this show gave me some Robert Chambers nightmares. Scary ones.  The State of Louisiana also stars. Watch

(6/7)

Trailer

Pontypool (On DVD and Streaming)

(2008) Bruce McDonald

Pontypool is a horror movie that uses a very Lovecraftian approach to tell the story of a bizarre alien outbreak. The infectious agent is something that Abdul Al-Hazred would have understood.

Stephen McHattie plays a former shock-jock who becomes the host of a small town radio show that is on the air when crisis strikes the town. This movie plays with building dread without physically revealing what is actually happening. This is a "closed room" story and it does a good job building suspense and evokes the storytelling of good radio drama. The explanation of causation of the outbreak is thoroughly original. . . Watch it.

Trailer