Category Movies

Jul 17 2015

Movie Franchises with the Highest Number of Entries, Part 1

Criteria for making the list: Each franchise needs to have at least 7 entries to be included. Theater releases, direct-to-video and TV movies all included, but TV shows are not. Some of the larger franchises are a little hard to sift through, but I’ll do my best. I’ll only be including the films which completely revolve around the same character or subject (example: Neither Van Helsing nor The Monster Squad will be included in the Dracula or Frankenstein franchises, despite both characters being present). I also won’t be counting films that are all part of the same world (like the Marvel and DC universes), they need to be from the same film line. The franchises need to be in either english or french (my native languages). If I wanted to include everything in the world, I’d be here forever. I also won’t include any anime, whatever the language. There’s just way too many, and also I’m not really an anime fan, so there wouldn’t be many anyways. Lastly, I need to have seen at least one entry. So if your favourite franchise isn’t here, I apologize.

And on that note, on to the list! Oh, they also aren’t in any particular order. Enjoy! 🙂

A-Nightmare-on-Elm-Street

Franchise: Nightmare On Elm Street, also called the Freddy franchise
Starring: Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Patricia Arquette, Craig Wasson, Tuesday Knight, Lisa Wilcox, Beatrice Boepple, Shon Greenblatt, Lisa Zane, Monica Keena, Jason Ritter, Rooney Mara, Jackie Earle Haley and Kyle Gallner
Director(s): Wes Craven, Jack Sholder, Chuck Russell, Renny Harlin, Stephen Hopkins, Rachel Talalay, Ronny Yu, Samuel Bayer
Number of Films: 9
Number I’ve Seen: 5
Do I Like Them?: I loved the first one, the remake was pretty good, New Nightmare was fun, but the rest, meh.
Titles and Release Dates:
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Batman

Franchise: Batman
Starring: Lewis Wilson, Robert Lowery, Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Chris O’Donnell, Alicia Silverstone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, and Michael Caine
Director(s): Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher, Christopher Nolan, Eric Radomski, Curt Geda, Jay Oliva, and more
Number of Films: 17
Number I’ve Seen: 8
Do I Like Them?: 3 or 4 of them, yeah. The best one is still Batman Returns, followed closely by The Dark Knight.
Titles and Release Dates:
Batman (1943)
Batman (1966)
Batman (1989)
Batman Returns (1992)
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
Batman Forever (1995)
Batman & Robin (1997)
Return of the Joker (2000)
The Batman vs. Dracula (2005)
Batman Begins (2005)
The Dark Knight (2008)
Under the Red Hood (2010)
Year One (2011)
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
The Dark Knight Returns – Part 1 (2012)
The Dark Knight Returns – Part 2 (2013)
Son of Batman (2014)

Bond

Franchise: James Bond, 007
Starring: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig
Director(s): Terence Young, Guy Hamilton, Lewis Gilbert, John Glen, Martin Campbell, Roger Spottiswoode, Michael Apted, Lee Tamahori, Marc Forster, Sam Mendes
Number of Films: 23
Number I’ve Seen: 1
Do I Like Them?: Nope, which is why I haven’t watched more.
Titles and Release Dates:
Dr. No (1962)
From Russia with Love (1963)
Goldfinger (1964)
Thunderball (1965)
You Only Live Twice (1967)
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Live and Let Die (1973)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Moonraker (1979)
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Octopussy (1983)
A View to a Kill (1985)
The Living Daylights (1987)
Licence to Kill (1989)
GoldenEye (1995)
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Die Another Day (2002)
Casino Royale (2006)
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Skyfall (2012)

Children-of-the-corn

Franchise: Children of the Corn
Starring: Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, Terence Knox, Paul Scherrer, Daniel Cerny, Ron Melendez, Naomi Watts, Karen Black, Stacy Galina, Alexis Arquette, Natalie Ramsey, John Franklin, Claudette Mink, Michael Ironside, David Anders, Daniel Newman, Billy Drago, and Kelen Coleman
Director(s): Fritz Kiersch, David Price, James DR Hickox, Greg Spence, Ethan Wiley, Kari Skogland, Guy Magar, Donald P Borchers, Joel Soisson
Number of Films: 9
Number I’ve Seen: 2
Do I Like Them?: Nope. Well I loved Urban Harvest as a kid, but that’s cause I had a crush on the kid. Seeing it when I was older horrified me, and not in a good way, hehe.
Titles and Release Dates:
Children of the Corn (1984)
Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1993)
Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996)
Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998)
Children of the Corn 666: Isaac’s Return (1999)
Children of the Corn: Revelation (2001)
Children of the Corn (2009)
Children of the Corn: Genesis (2011)

Dracula

Franchise: Dracula
Starring: A crap ton of actors including Gary Oldman, Christopher Lee, Bela Lugosi, Frank Langella, Gerard Butler, and Luke Evans
Director(s): Again, a crap ton, including Tod Browning, Terence Fisher, John Badham, Francis Ford Coppola, Patrick Lussier, and Gary Shore
Number of Films: Wiki says 78, but there are some missing, like Dracula Rising.
Number I’ve Seen: I honestly don’t know, a lot.
Do I Like Them?: Most of them, yes.
Titles and Release Dates: The Dracula wiki page has 78 entries, I’m obviously not going to list them all here. I’ll list just a handful, and you can go visit this page if you want to see them all. Even they missed a few, though, there are so many out there.
Dracula (1931)
Dracula (1958)
Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
Count Dracula (1970)
Dracula (1979)
Dracula (1992)
Dracula 2000 (2000)
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)
Dracula Untold (2014)

Frankenstein

Franchise: Frankenstein
Starring: A whole lot of actors including Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr, Robert DeNiro, Patrick Bergin, and Glenn Strange
Director(s): Again a lot, James Whale, Kenneth Branaugh, and David Wickes included
Number of Films: Different lists yield different numbers of films, from as low as 38 to as high as 76
Number I’ve Seen: From this list, 9
Do I Like Them?: A few of them, yes. The book was wonderful.
Titles and Release Dates: There are too many to list, but here are a choice few.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein (1973)
Blackenstein (1973)
The Bride (1985)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Frankenstein (1931)
Frankenweenie(2012)
I, Frankenstein (2014)
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)

Friday the 13th

Franchise: Friday the 13th
Starring: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Jeannine Taylor, Kevin Bacon, Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Aaron Yoo, and many more.
Director(s): Sean S Cunningham, Steve Miner, Joseph Zito, Danny Steinmann, Tom McLoughlin, John Carl Buechler, Rob Hedden, Adam Marcus, James Isaac, Ronny Yu, Marcus Nispel
Number of Films: 12
Number I’ve Seen: 3 (I think)
Do I Like Them?: Nope
Titles and Release Dates: 
Friday the 13th (1980)
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Jason X (2001)
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Friday the 13th (2009)

Halloween

Franchise: Halloween
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Paul Rudd, Danielle Harris, Josh Hartnett, Malcolm McDowell, Scout Taylor-Compton, and many more
Director(s): John Carpenter, Rick Rosenthal, Tommy Lee Wallace, Dwight H Little, Dominique Othenin-Girard, Joe Chappelle, Steve Miner, Rob Zombie
Number of Films: 10
Number I’ve Seen: 4
Do I Like Them?: Not really. 6 and 7 were ok, but 1 and 2 sucked.
Titles and Release Dates:
Halloween (1978)
Halloween II (1981)
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Halloween (2007)
Halloween II (2009)

Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3!! 🙂

M.

Jul 8 2015

Review Club #5 – Jessabelle

jessabelle

 

Up first is the other Mel (hehe), from over at The Creative Fox Den:

Firstly, I have to say that I love Sarah Snook. She has some serious acting chops and I thought her performance in Predestination was incredible. Unfortunately, her performance in Jessabelle was not as inspired.

I have to admit that the movie started out reasonably well; it set the tone for the character that Sarah Snook plays and the overall feeling of the film. The audience even has hope for the father, even though we know that he has a very sordid past.

The fist scare of the movie is done really well, actually. When the “bathtub incident” occurs, I jumped out of my seat. I was genuinely scared and I anticipated that the rest of the movie would have similar moments.

Unfortunately, it did not. The horror is downhill from there. The father, that we somewhat familiarized with, becomes a completely unlikable character. Furthermore, the plot becomes very predictable.

Also, the fact that the romantic interest is married and obviously interested in the main character has little validity. It isn’t a relationship that is explored enough to merit the dedication that supports infidelity. What’s the purpose here? Are we supposed to be rooting for this couple? Because we aren’t.

Overall, there are probably two scary moments in this film. Does two frightening moments a scary movie make? I don’t think so. The ending is equally ridiculous and undeserving of praise for innovation. I wouldn’t recommend this one overall but there is some production value behind it.

Overall score = 4/10

 

Next, we have Rob, over at MovieRob:

Jessabelle (2014)

I am not, never have been, and probably never will be, a fan of horror movies; they just don’t appeal to me personally.

When Mel chose this as the Review Club film, I gotta admit that I was pretty scared because when going into a movie that you have no expectations or care about, how can you appropriately give an unbiased opinion?

So I decided to still give it a go since I felt that I need to sometimes do things that I don’t want to do in order to try and broaden my (movie watching) horizons.

And guess what…?

I LOVED this movie. It was one of the best movies I’ve seen and when it was over, I wanted to pop it back in and watch it again.

REALLY???? You may ask.

Welll………

Nah. It actually it met all of my sucky expectations.

The plot didn’t feel original at all and I was sooooo bored while watching this that I just wanted everyone to die sooner.

Thankfully, the movie wasn’t so long so I was able to endure without (too many) thoughts of slitting my wrists. 😉

This movie used the tried and true idea of someone revisiting their past home and awakening both feelings and spirits long buried deep down below.

The idea of found footage has also been way overused in the past and I didn’t feel that it added enough to make this movie feel unique in any way, shape or form.

The ending wasn’t much of a surprise for me and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t anticipate something like that.

Suffice it to say, watching this movie didn’t make me change my initial thoughts about the genre and although I may dabble in it every once in a while, don’t expect to see many horror flick reviews coming from me in the near future.

That being said, I’m not upset that I gave this one a whirl.

2/10

Tnx Mel!!!

 

Next up is Abbi, from over at abbiosbiston:

Here’s my review for Jessabelle:

On the day that Jessie (Sarah Snook) is supposed to move in with her boyfriend and start a family together they are involved in a terrible car crash. He dies and she loses her baby and the use of her legs. With no money and nowhere to go she is forced to turn to her estranged father (David Andrews) who brings her back to the creepy Louisiana home she grew up in. While looking around her room Jessie finds some videos her mother (Joelle Carter) made before she died. The creepy videos show her mother doing tarot readings for her unborn baby that suggest that very bad things are going to happen. At the same time Jessie is having terrible nightmares about a dead girl attacking her and spewing black shit all over her… but are they really nightmares and who exactly is this dead girl?

[HERE BE SPOILERS]

I am going to start by saying that there was absolutely nothing scary about this movie. I get freaked out easily but I didn’t even jump one single time. That might be because there is nothing original about this movie. We’ve all seen the creepy dead girl before. We’ve all seen the spirit reaching for someone through a curtain before. Even the voodoo stuff is old. And there was so much stuff I just did not get… like this:

– Why did Jessie’s mom have her own room in the house and why did she not find it weird that her parents weren’t sleeping in the same room?
– After her dad flipped out and threw her wheelchair in the swamp he gave her her mother’s wheelchair but it’s never mentioned that her mother was in a wheelchair and in the videos she’s walking around.
– Also I mean pushing a disabled person’s wheelchair in a swamp is pretty crazy behaviour, would Jessie not at this stage call her health worker for help?
– Why does Jessie not have a cellphone until Preston gives her his?
– If the real Jessabelle died as a baby why is she an adult dead girl?
– Supposedly Jessie’s dad adopted her as a child to cover up that he had killed the real Jessabelle… who was black… how on earth did no one notice the baby had changed race? Someone must have seen the original baby… like the doctor that delivered her. It’s a small town.
– Why did they write in a wife for Preston? It was just an annoying distraction.
– What the hell is up with Sarah Snook’s voice? She was so annoying.

I am going to strongly recommend that you don’t watch this movie because it is a load of crap. 0/5

Sorry I didn’t like it but I hope that someone does!!

Abbi

 

And finally, here’s mine!:

Mel’s 5 Second Review: Jessabelle
(2014) Sarah Snook, Mark Webber, Joelle Carter, David Andrews, Amber Stevens, Chris Ellis, Vaughn Wilson, Larisa Oleynik

Jessabelle

Let me start by saying that I didn’t hate it as much as the others did. True, it wasn’t very original, and the ending got a little silly (and a lot predictable), but I still kinda liked it. The acting was surprisingly good, especially for such a small production. It wasn’t very scary, which was disappointing, but it had one or two tense scenes. That’s pretty much it, though. Movies like this are alright while you’re watching them, and I don’t want my time back, but in the end, they’re ultimately forgettable, not inspiring me to write about it. Oh yeah, one last thing before I go. We saw WAY too much of the ghost. I’m of the opinion, as some of you may know by now, that less is more. A ghost that’s onscreen for that long just completely loses its scare-factor. All in all, a decent film, but nothing special. 6.5/10

This film isn’t currently on Netflix, but it is playing on TMN and TMN On Demand.

M.

And that’s it! Join us again in two weeks for more review goodness! 😀

Jul 5 2015

Mel’s 5 Second Review: Horsemen

Horsemen
(2009) Dennis Quaid, Ziyi Zhang, Lou Taylor Pucci, Clifton Collins Jr, Patrick Fugit, Eric Balfour, Peter Stormare, Liam James

Horsemen

So, this was a pretty good film, better than I’d been anticipating, but still not as good as I was hoping. The premise was simple (a detective is on the trail of a serial killer who is using the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as his inspiration), but very good. The acting was decent to good all round, and the end twist is pretty awesome, and very well acted, even if I saw it coming a mile away. Ziyi Zhang was also very good, and uber creepy (and hot). The gore effects were very well done, and not too over the top save one scene involving a fetus, which I’d rather not think of. It was too much. Speaking of too much, we really didn’t need to start the film with a naked Dennis Quaid. This isn’t 1993, Quaid, sorry :-p I could have used a little more info about the cult, though. The film has a very good ending that I won’t spoil, but I could have used a little more clarity involving the actual group. All in all, it was a very decent piece of film, and gets a very decent score for it. 7/10

This movie is currently streaming on Netflix Canada. Enjoy!

M.

Jul 1 2015

Mel’s 5 Second Review: Jurassic World

Jurassic World
(2015) Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Nick Robinson, Ty Simpkins, Vincent D’Onofrio, Irrfan Khan, BD Wong, Omar Sy, Jake Johnson, Lauren Lapkus, Katie McGrath, Judy Greer

jurassic-world

So, I actually went to the cinema! More by misadventure than anything else, but I made it, regardless. The tickets were already bought, and I was a little bummed it was this film instead of Mad Max, but I went along anyways. First of all, let me say that I wasn’t all that interested in seeing this, even though I absolutely love all things dinosaur. Jurassic Park was, and remains, one of my very favourite films, but the sequels sucked. Bad. Especially 3. So when I heard of this, I was a little leery. And then I saw the trailers, with the trained raptors, and I was like “fuck this shit”. But, the tickets were already bought when I arrived, so I went. A little begrudgingly, since it was also in 3D, and 3D makes me nauseous.

The first 20 minutes or so are boring as hell. Everyone seemed to be a fucking asshole save the excited little kid. And they just seemed to be cardboard cutouts of clichés: arrogant army guy, tough guy who’s really a softie, asshole older brother who’s only interested in girls, the hard working lady who’s a cold hearted bitch, etc. But then, something wonderful happened. The characters started popping out of their cutout roles, and the dinos appeared. Boy, did they ever! They didn’t look as good as in the first film, a lot of the action is supplemented by CGI, but at least it was good looking CGI, and not cartoony shit that so many films seem to be doing these days (lord knows why…). The new dinosaur, Indominus Rex, is pretty freaking cool, but not cool enough to out-shine the velociraptors, who steal the show yet again (although, they still don’t look like they’re supposed to, where are the feathers, people!) Speaking of the raptors, I was very wary about the whole trained thing, I was expecting something ridiculous after seeing Owen ride his bike along side them in the trailer, but it’s actually well done. They still treat them as dangerous, they’re far from domesticated, so it was acceptable. As for the Indominus itself, I’d argue that humanity could never be that stupid in real life, but yes. Yes they could. All the other dinos were also well done, especially the Mosasaur, holy crap. The long necked dino (I’m not sure what type it was, didn’t look like a Brachiosaur) Owen and Claire held while it died was very well done, and that’s always the case when they use the animatronic dinos instead of CGI (which is why the first one was so amazing). We only get a little bit of T-Rex, but what we do get is pretty epic (and I don’t use that word lightly).

And then there’s the eye candy. Really, all that was missing is a leather clad and oft shirtless Jeff Goldblum to spew his sass all over the place. Claire, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, is absolutely stunning, and gets more so the more disheveled she gets. The older of the boys, Zach, played by Nick Robinson, is so cute that I felt a little skeezy while staring at him (but! No worries! He’s 20 years old now, so it’s all good. Just age 4 or 5 more years, Nick, then Cougar Mel will take good care of you :-p ). And then there’s Chris Pratt,who played Owen. Okay, okay, I kind of get it now. He’s not usually my type, way too much man for me, but he’s positively charming. Rounding out the cast (though not eye candy), is the wonderful Vincent D’Onofrio, as bad guy Hoskins, who’s even more of a douchebag than the first film’s Denis Nedry. Nedry just wanted money. Hoskins wants to turn the raptors into weapons of war. Way to go, asshole.

One last thing before I stop blabbing (I’ll have to change the title of my review if this keeps up, but “Mel’s 100 Second Review” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, hehe). I’ve read in other reviews that people were upset about “all that fucking product placement” in this movie, and in lots of other films too, for that matter. And you know what? I say “get a life”. Did I notice the boy wearing headphones in the car? Yes. Did I notice they were Beats by Dre? Absolutely not. I only found out through another review. When I go to the movies, I’m there to enjoy a film, not sit and scrutinize all the logos that are hanging around. I’m sure there’s lots of them, and that’s fine. Movie makers make money by doing that, and more money (usually) means a better quality film. So if Dre wants his headphones in a frame, if Mercedes wants their logo on a truck, I say go for it. Just don’t pretend it didn’t happen in the first film, too (like the author of the last review I read).

All in all, this was a perfectly fun film, with an unfortunate beginning. So a bit is knocked off for that, and a bit more for relying too much on CGI sometimes, but it still gets a wonderful 8/10 from me.

This film is not currently streaming on Netflix (obviously :-p ). It’s scheduled to be released on DVD and BluRay in October. But if you have a chance to see it in the cinema, I highly recommend it. I don’t think it’ll have the same wow-factor on the small screen.

M.

Jun 26 2015

Mel’s 5 Second Review: The Mortal Instruments – City of Bones

The Mortal Instruments – City of Bones
(2013) Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Jemima West, Aidan Turner, CCH Pounder, Kevin Zegers, Godfrey Gao, Lena Headey, Robert Maillet, Kevin Durand, Jared Harris, Jonathan Rhys Meyers

The-Mortal-Instruments-City-of-Bones

I’ve wanted to see this film since it came out, yet at the same time, I didn’t. I’ve read the first two books of the series, and they were pretty darn good, especially for YA fare. It’s been recorded on my pvr for months now, but I kept passing it over for other stuff. But my sister begged to watch it (again), so this time I finally gave in. And I’m glad I did, it was much better than I was expecting. They changed it quite a bit, but that’s ok, since the memory of the book is kinda hazy. I remember certain scenes, but as a whole, it’s pretty much faded away. Which is good, otherwise I’d be more upset at the changes. The acting was alright, nothing really special, but all the actors were competent. The effects were pretty good too, if a little over-cgi’d in some parts, although the werewolves could have used a little more work, especially the teeth, which were atrocious. The characters all look like they’ve just stepped out of a music video, but I guess that’s ok, too. All in all, it was a fun little film, and gets a good 7/10 from me.

This film is not currently streaming on Netflix, but I’m sure it will be soon. Enjoy!

M.

Jun 24 2015

Review Club #4 – Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Sea of Monsters

 

First up is my baby sister, Amanda, over at Isolabella101:

I liked the movie. It was quite interesting on how they had mixed Gods with humans, centaurs, a part-cyclops like Tyson, a cyclops and a son of Poseidon, Percy Jackson, who is half human. There’s another character, Clarisse, the daughter of war god Ares, and then Annabeth, the daughter of Athena. Clarisse is sent out on a quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece when the Talia guardian tree is dying due to a poison that was inflicted by Luke, the son of Hermes. His desire is to bring back the titan Kronos in hopes of destroying the Olympians. Clarisse is sent out on a mission to retrieve the Fleece, but Percy and his friends Annabeth and Grover, who is a satyr, decide to go after it as well. I thought it was quite annoying how Annabeth continued to be harsh towards Tyson, who had only one eye. Yes she had a grudge against the cyclops’ who had killed her friend Talia, but she shouldn’t have taken it out on him. Despite the fact that he was a son of Poseidon and a cyclops who appeared to clearly be ordinary (despite the one-eye thing). I could also tell that Clarisse had a “winning” ego and thought of herself to be the “top dog”. But, as the movie went on, I was pleased to see that her heart had slowly begun to change.

I liked this movie because it showed that you may appear to be different then everybody else, but that does not prove that you are what you appear to be. “Nothing is what it seems” is a quote that fits right in the puzzle of this movie. Percy Jackson is a story of teens going on a dangerous adventure with people they did not wish to be with at first, but had a change of heart in the end. I wish that all teens will watch this movie and take it to consideration towards racism. Appearance is just the cover of the book. You must read the content in order to have full rights to judge.

9/10

 

Next up is Rob, from over at MovieRob:

One of the things that I don’t like about many sequels is the fact that the movies aren’t made to stand alone. It’s perfectly acceptable when a movie in a franchise has some connection to the previous movies, but when watching this one, I felt that it relied too much on the events of the first movie. I realize that this is mainly due to the way the books were written, but had I not watched The Lightning Thief right before watching this one, I think I would have felt completely lost.

Lately, Hollywood has gone a bit overboard with their love of YA books being turned into films. Ever since Harry Potter became such a success, they have been churning out adaptation after adaptation in order to try and find the next YA franchise that they can milk for as many movies and money as possible. Few have been overly successful (with The Hunger Games being the most successful so far).

This movie and its franchise is a retelling of the history of the Greek Gods and some scenes work much better than others. I can’t say I was bored with this movie, but I also can’t say that I was overly entertained either.

The characters were ok, but when comparing this to the previous movie in the franchise, this one just doesn’t pull its weight at all and feels quite mediocre.

The effects aren’t done so well and some of it really looks and feels like they used archaic FX methods which detracts from the believability of the story and brings us back to reality instead of keeping us in this magical world on screen.

I’m not sure if they plan to continue the franchise or not, but I still would be interested in seeing where the story goes because there is potential here.

5/10

 

Continuing on, here’s my dear hubby, Francois (who’s French accent you can just hear while reading, hehe), from over at FrankishNet:

Not having seen the books, everything that happens in the Percy Jackson movie is always a surprise to me. And generally speaking, the story told by Sea of Monsters was really good.

What I liked about the movie? First, the fact that it layers the myths and legends of the Greek gods with our own world and reality. And they do touch the concept that these supernatural creatures are veiled from normal mortal eyes, without going at length to explain it. It’s quick, subtle, and works very well. One reference here is the scene in Washington when the barista was making the coffees with 6 arms in the the satyr’s point of view, but only 2 arms seen from a regular customer.

I also liked the struggles of personalities for each characters, and their development. Although, being a double-edge blade, this also made some characters seem fake in their reactions. The Scion of War being overly aggressive and rude was obviously destined to learn some humility by the end of the movie. Percy’s gorgeous follower suddenly turns out to be a foul racist, to later on realize that not all cyclops’ are alike. A lesson that should have been learned given their very nature (scion of gods, and all…), but a teenager movie calls for character development and personality struggles, so there…

I loved the humor (Aye Aye!… Huh… sorry) and loved the amount of it.

What I did not like is what you usually expect from this class of movie. That “class” being Fantasy movie based off novels and destined to younger audience, like Narnia (bullet points incoming!!).

Plot Holes! Small but frequent:
  • After Percy conjured a storm to shake the boat around… the manticore beast is still sleeping… Really?
  • Also… Why did Luke hang up their bag there? WHO DOES THAT? You capture a good guy with a backpack, who happens to tell you he swung by Hermes before coming… And you DO NOT SEARCH THEIR BELONGINGS? No… Luke is not that dumb. That is a huge plot hole… I assume it could only have been in the book too.
  • More of this. Last combat scene. Why does Percy have his sword in his pocket? Luke knows what the sword looks like. They tied him up, and did not take the sword? These bad guys were really asking for it…
  • Percy conjured a storm and a minute after the sky is clear blue. Why? Shouldn’t they be slowly retracting, going back where they came from, as clouds do? That would have been more realistic.
  • And Luke… He got a sense that something was going wrong, since there was a scene of him looking up and going “Why the heck the boat is rocking?” Yet… They don’t go below deck to check it out. No. “The sea is going nuts… It is probably not related to the 2 scions of Poseidon I got below deck. SURELY NOT”. Dumbass…
  • Kronos… Didn’t you learn the first time around to CHEW your FOOD. Idiot titan, you deserve to be cut in pieces.

Last thing I didn’t like… SO MANY HOT LADIES, NOT A SINGLE KISS. I was saddened by the last scene… I guess Percy doesn’t get involved with his sidekicks just yet…

So all in all, very nice movie. If you can overlook plot holes here and there, and survive the satyr satires (hee hee), I was rightly entertained. I would rate it a solid 8/10 in its category (PG13 Fantasy based on novels), and a generous 6/10 overall movie.

 

And closing out, as always, is mine:

Mel’s 5 Second Review: Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters
Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, Brandon T Jackson, Douglas Smith, Leven Rambin, Jake Abel, Anthony Stewart Head, Stanley Tucci, Nathan Fillion

percy-jackson-sea-of-monsters-clip-my-other-boat-is-a-hippocampus-video-639x360

What a fun little film this was. Not as good as the first one, but I wasn’t really surprised by that, they rarely are. While it’s true that movies based on YA books need to pretty much die out now (I stopped paying attention after the first Hunger Games film), I enjoyed these books very much, so I really couldn’t help myself. And I’m glad I finally got around to it. It’s not perfect, there are some groan-inducing moments, some “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?” moments, and at least one moment where what happened shouldn’t have happened (to be as vague as possible, I’ll just say the healing waters moment near the end). I missed Pierce Brosnan in the role of Chiron, but Anthony Stewart Head (Giles!!!) filled his hooves perfectly. The boys were cute, the girls pretty, the action fun, and the villains villainous. All in all, a fun teen fantasy film. I give it a solid 8/10.

M.

 

And that’s it for this outing! Join us again in 2 weeks when we review Jessabelle! 🙂

Jun 15 2015

Mel’s 5 Second Review: Would You Rather

Would You Rather
(2013) Brittany Snow, Jeffrey Combs, Enver Gjokaj, Sasha Grey, Eddie Steeples, Robin Lord Taylor, Charlie Hofheimer, Robb Wells, Jonny Coyne, Lawrence Gilliard Jr, John Heard

would you rather

SPOILERS AHEAD

Definitely not for the faint of heart, this film really delivers on all fronts. The story is interesting, if simple, most of the acting is very good, and the villain is played by Jeffrey Combs, what more could you ask for? Checking Rotten Tomatoes, I was very surprised to see that it only garnered a score of 37% from the audience. I really liked it, and expected other horror fans to be in the same boat as me. Guess you never can tell. It was pretty predictable, but it didn’t take away any of my enjoyment of the film. And while there is obvious torture, it wasn’t done in such a way that it turns out to be just pure exploitation. It was pretty impressive how they managed that. The only thing that I had some trouble with the the completely abysmal ending. I wasn’t expecting a happy ending, a film like this shouldn’t have one anyways (it would simply undo everything that the film had been trying to accomplish in the first place), but having the sick brother commit suicide because he felt himself to be nothing but a burden hit just a little too close to home for me, and it upset me for a long time even after the movie was over. That plus Sasha Grey’s atrocious acting knocked the score down to a still very good 8/10.

This film is currently streaming on Netflix. Enjoy!

M.