Thursday, March 31, 2011
Movies reviews due to 24 hour bug
A couple of days a go I had really bad cramping pain in my stomach. I didn't know what it was but it wouldn't let me sleep. The first night I slept maybe 2 hours if I'm generous, broken up my constant moving to get comfortable and one trip to the bathroom to call to 'Hueeey' on the big white telephone. The next day was not much better with pain spreading throughout my joints. I could just not get comfortable which of course denied me any chance of napping to catch up on some much needed beauty sleep. So what was there left to do? Lay on the couch and try to watch some movies on Plex.
Whenever I feel like watching a random movie I always end up doing the same thing. Browsing the selection and thinking "I haven't watched that movie, I should watch that... Nah, not in the mood I'll watch it another time". So this was my another time. First up was Doomsday.
Doomsday (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0483607/) is a UK film based around the 'A virus is going to wipe the whole world turning everyone into zombies' genre of film, very similar to 28 Days Later and probably just 28 months too late. Right from the start it just looks and feels like a British movie. Not that theres anything wrong with British movies, Snatch, Lock Stock, Italian Job, The Krays all good movies. Wait... do we British just make good gangster movies? Moving along, I just think we don't make good thriller/horror movies anymore. To cut a long story short, I didn't like it. A mash up between 28 days later and King Arthur with a small section of Mad max. And the ending was pants as well.
Next up was Frozen (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1323045/). A story of how being cheap doesn't pay off. Three twenty somethings buy their way on to a ski lift on a Sunday. The characters? Two best friends and one of their girlfriends. Not satisfied with paying off the lift operator for a free day of skiing but they also convince him to let the ride one more run, even though there is a severe storm coming in. A quick change of operators to close up and they get strande still on the lift before reaching the top. The girl in this film is so annoying it' ridiculous. I know she's supposed to be an amateur snowboarder and not very snow savvy but the stupid things she does made me glad she was stranded. Taking off her glove to light a cigarette only to have the mitt fall to the snow below. Later in the movie she throws her scarf to someone below only for it to drift on the wind and end up in the trees. As if loosing her glove wasn't enough for her, she holds on to a metal safety bar all night which freezes her skin to the bar, which is stupid, but then she starts to pull it away ripping the skin off! But all of that is not the most annoying thing about her, that comes at the end of the movie which I'll get to. So she's an idiot, her boyfriend is not much smarter as he jumps from the lift instead of lowering himself down and breaks both his legs, shortly thereafter to be eaten by wolves. The best friend who seems to ave the most survival skills out of all of them decides to climb the lift, scale across the wire to the next car back and then reaches the pole structure holding up the lifts. A soon as he's on the ground the wolves are back but mr. survival manages to stab one in the neck with his ski pole. He quickly sits on a snowboard and slides off down the hill to rescue. After the second night stranded in the sky the girl decides that she's going to lower herself down, only for the bolts holding the lift on the cable comes loose and falls to the ground... but she's ok. Phew. She slides down the mountain on her belly only to be confronted with the wolves again. But they're not interested in her as the are full after chowing down on mr survival from yesterday. Amazingly she makes it down to the bottom and finds a road where she is rescued which is the most annoying thing about her! Good premise for a movie but just didn't like the boyfriend girlfriend characters.
Lastly was a movie that I've watched the first 15 minutes of a few times but for various reasons never got any further. The Island (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399201/) has some big stars in it and although it didn't make much money in the US it did quite well in Europe. Set in the furture, a production line for spare body parts. Not just any spare parts for anyone, a clone of one person that costs $5m each. These clones are kept in an underground missile bunker and told that if their lucky they can win a lottery which will take them to an island free of contamination which is the reason they are being kept underground. One curious clone breaks out finds out the truth and uses his real persons identity to set the rest free. Again a good start to the movie with potential but it felt like the director didn't know how to end it. Also, what happens to all these clones now that are set free? They have no idea what the outside world is all about. They have no money, no jobs, no homes. Chances are most of them died or live rough now. They would have been better statying underground. Or some of them might have gotten jobs as impersonators of the famous people they were clones of.
Posted via email from Deejay is in the hizzy house... I believe that's what they say.
