Ed's Review Dot Com

RLJ Entertainment, Sierra / Affinity, Alcina Pictures,

Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Zegers, Bill Paxton, Charlotte Sullivan, John Tench, Atticus Dean Mitchell, Dru Viergever, Romano Orzari

In the future, the world is frozen over. The remaining humans have all gone underground in order to survive. There are a number of colonies in underground fortresses with severe rules. A message sent from a neighboring colony indicates that the figured a way to clear the weather and have a small patch of sunlight and Briggs (Laurence Fishburne), the leader, determines to put together a party to travel to the location of the broadcast to investigate, but instead they may bring a plague to the fortress that could wipe out everyone.

This a really good science fiction suspense film that is really well done. I was not aware of this film, and boy was I pleasantly surprised. There is a lot of different things going on. While Briggs it out, Bill Paxton’s character takes over and changes all the rules. He plays a really good heavy here who has very little understanding or compassion, but has a strong drive to take over. The story is well written, very suspenseful, and loads of fun to watch. There is a lot of scary moments, plenty of different levels working, and the locations are stunning. One of the interesting facts about this film is that a lot of it was filmed in the closed underground NORAD facility in Canada which was a key facility during the cold war. Fishburne and Paxton are really good in this film, and the story is superior. I was blown away by the suspense and thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I highly recommend it if you enjoy apocalyptic science fiction films. It’s a good one.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

La Petite Reine, Studio 37, Canal+,

Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, America Olivo, Sammi Rotibi, Liane Balaban, Morgane Slemp, Genevieve Alexandra, Megan Duffy, Jan Broberg

Frank (Elijah Wood) is a very disturbed young man. He definitely has Mommy issues. Frank owns a sort of mannequin museum of a sorts. He collects antique mannequins and restores them, but he has a delusion that they are real, and he has a strong desire to collect hair for them. When he meets a young artist, they form a connection as he provides the mannequins for her latest art show, and she provides the fodder for his hideous delusions. This creepy horror film is a remake of the original low budget 1980 horror film by the same title.

This is not an easy film to watch. There are several things that make it unique in a lot of ways. For one thing, the film is nearly all shot in first person, so the only views we get of the killer himself are when he sees his reflection in a mirror or window pane. This gives it a really strange feel, and the gory parts are really close up as if were were right there when he scalps his victims. Another thing that is pretty decent here is that they just don’t go in for the kill. He stalks them, filmed in first person, and we hear him breathing and talking and such, but seeing what he sees builds the suspense quickly! The biggest problem in this is that I feel Elijah Wood is badly miscast in this film. He is really not menacing at all, and I just am unable to see Frodo in this light. Granted, similar to Psycho, although much gorier with a lot more killing, Norman Bates was not a big bad menacing creature. He was menacing though, and we could easily accept his ability to kill due to his madness. Elijah convinces us he is insane, and we are shown through flashback why, but he just never pulled off the menacing character, for me, who could do these atrocities. I think that hurt this film. This is a horrifying little film that is pretty well done for what it is, but it was not a great movie. If you need a quick horror fix, it’s not too bad, and it is pretty bloody and gory, but it’s not worth driving around town to find it. Perhaps that’s why it was released on DVD and streaming on the same day.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

The Collective, Bloody Disgusting, 8383 Productions,

Lawrence Michael Levine, Kelsy Abbott, L.C. Holt, Adam Wingard, Hannah Hughes, Jay Saunders, Epy Kusnandar, Samantha Gracie

In the second edition of V/H/S a pair of private investigators are searching for a missing student. After breaking into his house, looking for clues, the run across a collection of VHS tapes that may hold the secret to the student’s disappearance. As the begin watching the tapes, we get to watch with them and witness the creepy things that took place in this sequel to the found footage first film.

This film is far better than the original, although it’s still not that great. At least the 5 episodes on this one has a common theme, and the film is a bit more creepy. It’s better done, and is actually watchable. The acting is better and the writing is better. There is hope for this concept! There are two versions of this film on the DVD, an R rated theatrical version, and an Unrated version. The difference is very minimal. In the most gory scenes, they chose to show some glitches, sputtering, and distortion to cover up the most gory parts, so there is really hardly an difference between the two. Certainly if you want to choose one of these two watch, V/H/S/2 is much more mature, scary, and watchable than V/H/S. Still not the greatest horror film out there, but if you, like me, are running low on new scary flicks to watch, this one is a lot better than the first, so I would recommend choosing this one. There is really no connection between the two films, so you wouldn’t miss anything by skipping the first one and starting out on this one. The concept (finding a stash of old VHS tapes) is the same, but otherwise, this is not a sequel.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Bloody Disgusting, The Collective,

Joe Swanberg, Adam Wingard, Sophia Takal, Kate Lyn Sheil, Calvin Reeder, Lane Hughes

A bunch of guys (names don’t matter) were hired to break into an empty old house and steal a particular VHS tape. When they are there they found a pile of tapes, and begin watching them. What follows is a bunch of unrelated stories told by the “found footage” on the video tapes.

This is a great concept, but unfortunately it wasn’t very well executed. The idea is good, but I’ve had it up to here (pointing to my forehead) with these found footage movies. Beginning with Creepshow and following through Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield, et. al., they just chose an easy way out to put 5 mediocre horror shorts into one film. Without any real connection between the stories, and without any real scary concepts, it fell flat for me. As a fan of horror, I was disappointed and not really interested in any of the shorts, although a couple were a ways above the others. Basically I felt it was not scary, more silly than anything. All of the characters are annoying and unlikeable, and you may want to cheer when some of them get whacked. There was a weird dead guy sitting in a chair. I suspect he watched this filmed and got bored to death.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday October 22, 2013

• As Cool as I Am
• Before Midnight
• The Conjuring [Click Here for Ed’s Review]
• Dead in Tombstone
• Free Samples
• I Give it a Year
• The Internship
• Only God Forgives
• The Way, Way Back