Review: Paranormal Activity

Modern horror is probably some of the worst cinema around right now, if its not a remake then its a Saw movie...nothing ever original comes out anymore.

But 'Paranormal Activity' is one of the biggest breaths of fresh air into the horror genre, I would even dare to say its instant classic. The movie is shot so effectively, it looks real and the actors did such a great job making it seem real. The pacing was also phenomenal, it did start off a bit slow but once it got rolling you were on the edge the whole film. I also loved how gritty it was, there is no soundtrack, there is no flashy editing or shots...all adds to the realism.

Only a two movies prior to this film have legitimately creeped me out and thats what horror is supposed to do! Go see this movie and good luck sleeping if you do.

****.5 out of 5

Review: District 9 (LATE!)

I do not think anyone really knew what District 9 was about when it came out, unless they had read spoilers or got spoiled from loud mouthed friends. Luckily I saw it opening night so I really had NO idea what the movie was about, I just knew it had great reviews and was supposed to be the best sci fi of the decade. With such high acclaim I have to admit I was a bit skeptical, I thought it was going to be good…but not THAT good.

The film starts in a documentary style where interviewees explain that 20 years ago an alien space ship was seen coming to Earth, stopped and hovered over Johannesburg for three Months. After the three months the government decides to do a search and rescue of the ship where they find millions of malnourished aliens. The government then sets up refugee camps for the aliens and with overcrowding and militarization eventually turn the area into a slum known as District 9. The aliens are not aloud to leave D9 or interact with humans outside the area, and the people Johannesburg want the aliens moved away. Patience over the alien situation has run out and control over them has been contracted to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company that shows little regard for the aliens' welfare. MNU real interest is the alien weapons and biology. MNU has set up a new camp 200 kilometers out of Johannesburg “District 10” to move all the aliens and our lead character Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley). Wikus is a dorky yet loveable white guy, and he has been promoted by his boss (also his wifes father) to run an eviction of 1.8 million aliens from District 9 to District 10. Along the way he hits a lot of road blocks some of which are very comical, but when he enters a shack with a “chemistry set” things get very interesting. Wikus picks up a silver cylinder and he has no idea what it is, but he knows its alien because of the markings…while toying with this cylinder it opens and sprays him with a foreign black liquid. After being sprayed he starts feeling really sick, he vomits regularly, and his finger nails even start to fall off….I will go no further with they synopsis! I feel this is one of those movies where the less you know the better it is.

After seeing the movie two times I have secured it atop my favorite movie of the year position (for the time being). I also think that other than Star Trek that District 9 is the only other major film worth seeing this year (still have not seen Basterds). When I saw Star Trek I had never seen any of the shows or previous movies so I did not know the characters, or really care about them. But District 9 grabbed me emotionally there are even certain scenes in the movie, that are very strong tear jerker.Because we has humans treat the aliens so poorly in the movie but sadly thats how it would happen in real life. It is also visually brilliant, made on 30 million dollars it looks better than the James Cameron Avatar trailer. The last leg of the film has been displeasing to some because its a kind of generic chase shoot out scene, but the action in this chase/shoot out is better than anything else I have seen all year. Some of the alien weapons used are straight out of Half-Life which was SOOOO AWESOME for me and I would like to know if they were influenced by the game in anyway for those weapons.

Overall: District 9 is the must see movie of the summer in my opinion, its original, epic, visually stunning, serious, and all around fun. I can now see why its being hailed as “best sci-fi” of the decade because the genre is pretty dead and District 9 has gave it a huge jolt of life. There are no longer a lot of secrets in District 9 and hopefully Hollywood can learn from them!

Watchmen (late review, just rewatched!)

The un filmable has been filmed and I love it. My best friend gave me a copy of the book for Christmas, a few months before the movies release. I could not put it down, after finishing I cannot remember being so excited for a movie. When tickets went on sale I ordered them in advance, was at the theater early, I did about everything but dress up!

Visually the movie blew me away, its like the book jumped off the pages into real life. This is what impressed me the most, Snyder has a real passion for the source material and wants to be as faithful in every aspect, same deal with “300”. You can pause certain scenes in Watchmen, pull out the book and 100% the same in the book and on screen. The other thing that really impressed me visually were the characters, I could not imagine anyone else in the roles chosen. Not only did they look great, they also were well acted. From the emotionless Dr.Manhattan to the brutal Rorschach (who makes The Joker look like Mary Poppins).

The movie stays very true to the book; I call myself a fanboy of the novel, but not to the point where I will dissect the film to find something to loath. Sure it had some things taken out, but it had to, overall it’s very true to the source material. I think that’s a reason it did so bad box office, because everyone who had not read the book thought they were going to see a generic super hero movie. When in reality there is nothing happy about Watchmen, its dark, it's somewhat twisted, and it’s violent much more violent than the book which some fans have complained about but it did not bother me. I really did not like that they took Hollis Masons death out of the theatrical cut, thank goodness they added it to the DC.

Overall: I think that Watchmen was almost made primarily for the fans, because if you have not read the book I can see that it would be really confusing for a lot. But I have read the book so it was easy to follow; I loved everything about it other than the few tweaks here and there...and the occasionally corny song in the soundtrack.

**** out of 5

Review: Final Destination

Final Destination is a unique horror film, because its not a slasher, its not a ghost film, aliens, demons ETC. The only thing that is killing the victims is death itself.

The film starts off with a high school French class taking a fieldtrip to France. Your main characters are the typical high school stereotypes: outcast, goofy guy, jock prick and his trashy gf. But the real main character is Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) who starts seeing creepy signs before the classes trip. While on the plane Alex falls asleep and has a dream that the plane explodes, when he awakens things start occurring exactly like his dream. Alex freaks out and is taken off the plane, and so are a few other students. In the hangers waiting area everyone sits and ridicules Alex, the plane then takes off...and blows up, Alex goes from crazy, to prophet. The rest of the movie follows the remaining characters and them dying because they should have died on the plane, so death has to get them some way. Alex figures this out and tries to trick death again. So the story is unique, pretty ridiculous but fun for what its worth.

Overall: When the characters are being killed it is entertaining, the kills are unique and pretty awesome. Though when no one is dying its pretty boring, and the acting is nothing to keep your interest.

**1/2 out of 5

Review: Taken

Taken is about a former spy (Neeson) whose daughter gets kidnapped by slave traders while traveling in France. Neeson takes matters into his own hands by relying on his skills to locate his daughter. While trying to find his daughter he hits quite a few road blocks including the slave traders themselves to the French police, he gets rid of them with no problem. My aunt compared Taken to "Dirty Harry on speed", at first I doubted that, after seeing it I can not agree more.

The action scenes in the movie were great, they were very unique most of the time and were not boring like most films as of lately (mainly Terminater Salvation and Transformers 2). Liam Neeson himself amazed me, I am now convinced he can do anything. Schindler, Aslan, Qui Gon Jin and now ultimate bad ass. His dialog and the way he delivered it was so cool, never scared and always serious, reminded me of a throw back action hero. The other actors did a good job too, which also surprised me...it was a all around well acted action film.

Taken is exciting, smart, well acted action film. That has always been rare for this genre, which makes Taken a must see.

**** out of 5

Review: Requiem for A Dream

My cousin and I rented this movie because it is her favorite film of all time, and I had not seen it. After seeing that Aronofsky directed it I was quite excited to see it.

The film starts off following a few characters who are all addicted to some sort of drug, and thats pretty much the story, follow the characters as their addictions get worse and worse. Which for this film worked because I am sure this was the realist presentation of drug addiction in any mainstream film. Nearing the end of the film, when all the characters are on the brink of death the film feels like you are being drug through hell...you feel what the characters feel essentially. Nearing the end the movie gets really intense, and will not be for the faint of heart, but this is what makes the movie.

My favorite part of the movie was the visuals, they were really nice. From the lighting, close ups, blurs, it was all done very well and made the film a lot better for me.

Overall it was a decent film, good for what it was,I did feel depressed as fuck after it was over. But I am not supposed to feel good after a movie like this, because drug addiction itself its not a feel good trait.

*** out of 5

Review: Moon

Moon is nothing that I envisioned it to be, it was actually better. From the trailer I thought it was going to be a somewhat creepy sci fi film, it ended up being a very creative and brilliant sci fi film.

The story was very original, thought provoking and never made me lose interest. I have heard it's really comparable to 2001 but I have yet to see that :x

"Sam Bell is on the moon harvesting Helium three (H3) and sending it back to Earth for energy. He has two weeks left on his contract then he returns to Earth, thats when things get weird. Sam starts hallucinating and getting sick, then one of the mining units stall and he goes to inspect it"

I will not go into any further detail because the less you know of the story the better! Just be prepared for a wild ride of twists and turns on astronomical proportions. It was so outstanding that I wish it had been longer, but to tell such an astonishing story in such little time is quite a feat. One thing I found really fabulous is that it was able to mind fuck me, which only occurs once in a blue....moon ;)

This is the first time I have seen Sam Rockwell in action, I was very stoked to see his performance because I have heard great things about him. His performance in this film is amazing, I would even say Oscar worthy. The scenes were he is communicating with himself were some of the coolest in recent memory. GERTY was also awesome, loved the emotion screen, and the fact that it was voiced by Spacey.

The visuals were really extraordinary, I have never been to the moon but I imagine that is what it looks like. I was very pleased that there was no audio when Sam was out of his ship walking around, plus one for realism!

There must be something in the blood because Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie) crafted one of the best sci fi films in recent memory, and one of the best movies of the year.

****1/2 out of 5

I knew it was going to be bad...but not THIS bad!

If you have been living under a rock this weekend then you do not know that Sacha Baron's new film Bruno came out on Friday. It is his follow up to Borat, and the third and final character from "Da Ali G Show". I have already written my review on Bruno, I thought it was very funny but not on par with Borat.

A few weeks before the movie came out, I was wondering how it would do at the box office. Coming to the conclusion that it would do well but not as good as Borat. Why? Because Borat is more likable than Bruno, and the obvious...Borat is straight. America is still a highly homophobic nation and a "gay comedy" is not going to go well with the general population. As it turns out, I was correct, Bruno only brought in 30 million dollars opening weekend. There have been countless people walking out and bitching about how gay it is. But thats what Bruno is supposed to do, expose people for the bigots they are, the box office is not lying when it says we are still pretty damn homophobic. What gets me is that even if you are not homophobic and do not complain about how "gay" the movie is, how can you not think its funny? I guess when we are spoon fed the same bullshit comedies over and over again we become accustomed to them and if you break the mold it sucks? Here is a good idea, grow a pair and venture outside the comfort zone.

Another thing, I have heard of parents taking their 13-15 year old kids to see it then only to complain about how offensive it is...read why its fucking rated R before you take your baby into the movie!

Finally, I have heard people call this "the dumbest movie I have ever seen". On the contrary, Bruno is probably one of the smartest movies you have seen. Sacha Baron does what most people in the industry dread, he breaks the mold. He also pushes boundaries doing things in his films that are unimaginable to most people.. that's what makes him a genius. Like I always say, Comedy is pretty much a dead genre you have: Apatow directed films, as well as Sacha that's it everything else sucks.

But I suppose if you were in on the joke, like avid viewers of the show then you will surely appreciate Bruno, after all its like a giant episode. Then I am sure there are people who will see it because they enjoyed Borat, maybe they like it maybe they dont. But it looks like Bruno is going to bomb and that means it arrives in my bluray/dvd collection sooner than expected.

Review: Insomnia (2002)

Insomnia is one of those unusual remakes because it's actually good. Al Pacino plays veteran detective Will Domer he is sent to Nightmute, Alaska with his partner to investigate a savage murder. Things progressively get worse as we find out the sun never sets, voiding Pacino of sleep in addition to slowly losing his mind. Al Pacino never lets me down, and having Robin Williams as the villain drives this one of the best crime dramas I have seen. **** out of 5

Review: The Town That Was

Centrailia, PA was once a small mining town with a population around 3,000 due to a mine fire in 1962 it is now a literal ghost town. Of the original estimated 800 buildings only 10 remain.

"The town that was" is a brief yet interesting documentary on Centrailia the small mining town destroyed by a mine fire. The film follows John Lokisti as he gives a "tour" of whats left of the town, he also reflects on past memories. He is the youngest of the 10 residences still in Centralia, what I thought was interesting is, how he mows the whole town, and how he puts Christmas decorations up every year. I do not understand his loyalty, but I do admire it.

**1/2 out of 5

Review: Bruno

Every few years a film comes out that is truly revolutionary for its genre. In 2006 I believe Borat did that for comedy, raising the bar for every comedy following.heard Sacha Baron was bringing his third and final character from "Da Ali G Show" Bruno to the big screen. I was very excited.Going into the theater I had the mindset of "could it be better than Borat?" knowing either way I would not be let down.

The film starts off and even manages to make the Universal slogan comical, good start. A brief history of Bruno opens the movie, and it has a few funny moments. From there it gradually gets funnier but more so outrageous. Like in Borat there are scenes that are so disgusting that you ask "why am I laughing!?" but you cannot stop laughing.

The first leg of the movie is the best, some scenes following did seem to drag on and jokes were killed. Certain scenes were copied and pasted directly from "Da Ali G Show" which is fine if you are not familiar with the material. Bruno relied heavily on scripting and shock value instead of dialog.

Bruno may have not been on par with Borat, but he never has been. The movie met all my expectations and I have not laughed harder in a movie since Borat, and considering comedy is nearly a dead genre I highly recommend it.

***1/2 out of 5

Whats the big deal with Megan Fox?

Look I know that Megan Fox an attractive actress, but can she act? Not to my knowledge and that’s what stumps me. Everyone and their mom acts like she is the second coming of Angelina Jolie, but there is one big difference.Angelina can actually act. To me looks only get you so far, perfect example: Jessica Alba, she is hot but she can not act and she has only been in one good movie her whole career.

And by now I am sure you have all heard about Megan Fox complaining about Transformers 2 not being actor driven she told Entertainment Weekly "working with Michael Bay is not about an acting experience". Well duh he is Michael Bay, not Martin Scorsese, does she want Optimus to go up for a Oscar? So you might be asking why I care so much about Megan Fox and her bitching about not being in a film that does not display her acting chops....

The answer! Her new movie Jennifer's Body looks like a cheap knock off of a Sam Rami horror film, which will not display her "acting" skills. Honestly, why complain about something if you are not going to do anything about it? Plus With all the money she has made on the two Transformers film, photo shoots ETC. She can probably afford to take some time off, work on her acting, and maybe a few good scripts will come her way? Because I think anybody can become a good maybe even great actor/actress if they give it enough time, but if you do not try you do not have room to complain about it!

My favorite fight scenes!

Today at work a coworker who also watches a lot of movies asked what my favorite fight scene is, and I really could not just give him ONE. So I have decided to compose a list of my favorite fight scenes, this list will have everything from martial arts, shoot outs, to verbal debates...and seeing how I am doing this out of boredom it will most likely be incomplete and the order of some could be questionable! But if you enjoy action I think my list is very legitimate and everyone should check it! Also notice it says FAVORITES not BEST, so when some of you question me on certain choices remember that.

Clerks 2: Star Wars vs LOTR. Sure its not a physical fist fight/shootout..ETC. But this is one of the best verbal pwns ever, and it makes the whole film for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0sc-gS9AqM

Zombi: Zombie vs Shark. Zombi is a cult classic, and I enjoyed it a bit but found it pretty corny at times...But it gets no better than a Zombie attacking a shark!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSPG9QQg4C0

City Lights: Boxing scene. Charlie Chaplin the comedic genius in a fight scene, and its funny of course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zskO9O3hF78

Ghostbusters: Ghostbusters vs Stay Puft. Its the marshmallow King Kong what is not to love!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlxlHaHZoRQ

Pineapple Express: Fight scene. Who knew there were so many great fights in comedy films, this one is my favorite not only for its humor but for its realism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS7dgsf-heg

Cloverfield vs NYC...rent the movie.

Afro Samurai: Afro vs Jinno. Black samurai vs a bear, need I say more?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_9Hms8wDls

Boondocks: Huey vs Riley. This fight scene is so funny and Huey kicks so much ass that its hard not to love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzdF7d-GlHg

Star Wars Episode 3: Anakin vs Obi Wan. We all know that Darth Vader vs Luke is the best light saber battle, but my personal favorite for entertainment purposes is this one!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSwy412nttI

Danny the Dog aka Unleashed: Jet Li vs thugs/white monk dude. Jet Li has not done many good English films, but this one is amazing and stands up there with some of the best martial arts action films.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biUes_eVLGA

The Killer: Chow Yun Fat vs everybody. What list would be complete without a John Woo film!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeUnhZD3pk4

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Ziyi Zhang vs Michelle Yeoh. When I first saw CTHD I thought it was pretty dumb, I saw it years later to realize I was the dumb one...it is one beautiful and awesome movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I4Moi3-g14

Way of The Dragon: Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris. Way before all the STUPID Chuck Norris jokes there was this movie, the one that put him on the map.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLO1YIWQuXE

HEAT: Street shootout. HEAT is one awesome film, like all around, pretty impressive for a film with such great action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zssZQBDUj-A

The Matrix Reloaded: Neo vs Mr.Smith(s). I think Reloaded gets a bad rap, sure its not as smart as the first one but the action is so much better!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pclYjN_Pbg

Rock IV: Rocky vs Ivan Drago. "I must break you"...nuff said
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1pGoHSz6rw

Kill Bill: Uma Thurman vs The Crazy 88. Great fight from Tarantinos masterpiece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdjuS17DGlA

IP Man: Donnie Yen vs 10 Black Belts. IP Man was Bruce Lee's master, so you know he was the man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6QkSOUYWlo

Saving Private Ryan: D- Day. This is a 3 part clip, but its also the best war battle in any movie well worth the viewing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VGqhcBKw-w

The Protector: Tony Jaa breakin bones. Everyone seems to think Tony Jaa is the next Bruce Lee or what not, I do not agree hell I do not even think he is the next Jackie Chan. But what I do agree is that The Protector is his best film and deserves its rights amongst some of the best martial arts cinema.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_LHPYERoyk

The Legend of Drunken Master: Jackie Chan vs Chinese Mafia. Without a doubt Jackie Chans best movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffQGz3DMoyQ

Oldboy: Dae Sue vs Thugs. Such a sick fight scene side scroll and all one shot...epic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wha0brbb_44

Fist of Legend: Jet Li vs Japanese dojo. Fist of Legend is a remake of the Bruce Lee classic "Chinese Connection", and its one of the best remakes ever made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG4nAxvLUh4

And number one goes to...


Enter The Dragon: Bruce Lee vs O'Hara. Bruce Lee showed the rest of the world that martial arts cinema could be taken seriously with Enter The Dragon, it is his masterpiece and my personal favorite martial arts film. This fight is so awesome because Bruce Lee stays so calm and bad ass..."Boards don't hit back"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJGndrjP0i8&feature=related


Well thats pretty much it, hope you enjoyed :)

Funny People: Red Band Trailer

Funny People is the third film directed by Judd Apatow and it looks like another modern classic. What’s really interesting about this film is that it stars Adam Sandler, which I know sounds scary but, I think he will be great in this. Also, I think him and Rogen working together is going to be gold.

Ever since I saw the trailer I was excited for this film, not only because its a Apatow film, but because its Sandler doing something real. It's hard to say if Funny People will be the best comedy of the year, but from the Red Band Trailer it looks like a great contendor.

Roger Ebert blows up on Transformers 2 fan boys.

Roger Ebert is probably the biggest and the most influential movie critic on the internet. He has been around since Charlie Chaplin it seems! And when Transformers 2 was released, he was one of many the critics to give it a negative review, and his review is actually quite funny. However, when a critic writes a negative review against a film such as Transformers the fan boys come louder than all the explosions in the film, and its almost double when its Ebert...So he wrote a blog fighting back. I am going to talk about a few points that I thought were very interesting in the actual blog, if you would like to read the whole thing click here.

"What disturbs me is when I'm specifically told that I know too much about movies, have "studied" them, go into them "too deep," am always looking for things the average person doesn't care about, am always mentioning things like editing or cinematography, and am forever comparing films to other films."

I disagree with this wholeheartedly, I find Ebert's reviews to be pretty straight forward, and it seems that most of the time he becomes one with the "average person". Sure there are a few exceptions because it seems that everyone and their mom loves Transformers 2, and he did go against the majority of the critics on Star Trek, but 3/4 the time he is dead on.

I have actually seen Transformers 2 and personally it was not that enjoyable for me. Was it the worst movie I ahve ever seen? No nowhere near that. Was it the worst blockbuster I have seen? I cannot think of one worse in recent memory. It lacks the charm of the first one, the humor has been degraded to that of a 12 year old, the plot if you can call it that is pretty dumb and the action really did nothing for me except for a few scenes...But hey maybe I am looking into the movie "too deep" and "over analyzing it".

"So let's focus on those who seriously believe "Transformers" is one of the year's best films. Are these people wrong? Yes. They are wrong. I am fond of the story I tell about Gene Siskel. When a so-called film critic defended a questionable review by saying, "after all, it's opinion," Gene told him: "There is a point when a personal opinion shades off into an error of fact. When you say 'The Valachi Papers' is a better film than 'The Godfather,' you are wrong." Quite true"

This is actually something I have been saying for YEARS, there is a difference between opinion and fact. For someone to say "I like Transformers 2 more than Star Trek" is their opinion and there is no need to question that or belittle them. But when someone says "Transformers 2 is a better film than Star Trek", that's when a line has been crossed and a fiery debate can be started. But you try to tell this to your average fan boy and they really have nothing else to say other than "it's all opinions its all opinions" yeah ok whatever.

"But if I despised the film and it goes on to break box office records, will I care? No. I'll hope however that everyone who paid for a ticket thought they had a good time, because it was their time and their money. The opening grosses are a tribute to a marketing campaign, not to a movie no one had seen. If two studios spend a ton of money on a film, scare away the competition, and open in 4,234 theaters before the Fourth of July, of course they do blockbuster business. The test is: Does the film have legs?"

This lady I work with is claiming that Transformers 2 is the best movie of the year because "money talks". Sure it had a great opening weekend, there is no denying that but like Ebert says "does the film have legs?". The answer is no, yeah there are people raving about it but there are also a lot of people trashing it. Let's put it this way, Transformers 2 is no Dark Knight, it will not get near grossing that much *knock on wood* at least I do not think it will. Because no one is praising Transformers 2 like they did the Dark Knight, no one is calling all their friends and demanding they see it...I know I told all my friends to wait for the dvd release.


All in all, I thought Ebert's blog was a very fun read, nothing out of the ordinary and one may say predictable if you know his work.

My first post!

Hello blogging world my name is Jacob Crim, and this is my first blog ever and the first post to my first blog. I created this blog to primarily talk about movies and that’s what it will be for, maybe a few random posts here and there about video games or daily life.

A little about myself: I live in Charlotte, NC and I grew up in Chapel Hill. I am 20 years of age and I work at the hospital in Charlotte, I scan medical records into their electronic system.

Well that’s all I have for right now!

Until next time,



Jacob Crim.