Paradise (2013) Julianne Hough, Russell Brand, Octavia Spencer, Nick Offerman and Holly Hunter
I wanted to like this, but in the end it was just too talky and preachy for me. It had a few really good scenes, and one or two really bad scenes, which just turn it into a really average movie. And as someone with a chronic illness who has to take a lot of medication in a day, the way they treated her need for the meds and the way they had her “just decide” that she didn’t need them any more was dumb and offensive. Just because you’ve had a life epiphany does not mean that all of a sudden you won’t need your meds any more. And giving that impression is stupid and dangerous. But anyways… I did love Russell Brand, though, as usual. 6/10, just for him.
Cujo (1983) Dee Wallace, Danny Pintauro, Daniel Hugh Kelly, and Christopher Stone
Cujo, the book, was awesome and scary and tense. A brilliant read. Cujo, the movie, bored me to tears. I almost fell asleep. When the majority of what’s written in the book is happening inside the character’s head, that’s a good indication that it probably won’t be a great movie. It was 93 minutes long, but it felt like 3 hours. If I’m lucky, I won’t ever have to watch this again. 1/10, and that’s just because I love Stephen King.
This film is not streaming on Netflix, but I imagine that you could rent it in a real video store, if you care to be bored.
Oh, here, I found the full film on YouTube… in German. It may be better like that. Enjoy ;-p
Europa Report (2013) Christian Camargo, Anamaria Marinca, Embeth Davitz, Karolina Wydra, Michael Nyqvist and Daniel Wu
Quite good, much much better than I had been expecting, though I wasn’t expecting much. A few names I (barely) recognized helped me agree to watch it. It was well acted, tense and claustrophobic, with simple yet effective effects. Hopefully this is what we’ll find when we do finally make it to Europa. Just, you know, without all the death. I’m soooo excited about Europa, I hope I get to see it happen in my lifetime! But that’s a whole other discussion. Just go see the movie, hehe. It’s a solid 8/10.
The film is currently streaming on Netflix. Enjoy the ride!
The Paperboy (2012) Matthew McConnaughey, Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, David Oyelowo and Scott Glenn
I guess with the cast this film boasts, I was expecting too much from it. It was superbly acted, as I knew it would be (John Cusack is one of my favourite actors), but the film itself is over-long (or rather, it feels over-long even though it isn’t really, clocking in at 1h46) and dull and transparent at times. I have to admit though, I was disturbed by John Cusack’s character, as I guess we’re supposed to be. But I’m so used to seeing him as a good guy, this was very unsettling. 6/10
The film is currently streaming on Netflix, if you’re interested in seeing it. A word of warning: it’s very brutal. The sex/rape scene was especially uncomfortable to watch. But here’s the trailer, in case my warning interested you instead of deter you:
So, I figured I’d try out a regular, daily post. But since I don’t want to spend hours on it every single day, I needed it to be something that I could do quickly, but would still be interesting. So I decided to review movies. Movies from any year, not just the new releases. It could be a film as old as film itself, or it could be a film that was released yesterday. The only rule is that it shouldn’t take you any longer than a minute to read, a minute or less. Hence the title: 5 Second Review. Of course I know a minute is longer than 5 seconds, but really, who needs to be so literal in life? For my first review, I’m going for a film that I’ve done nothing but bash since the first time saw it, more than 10 years ago; Hellraiser, based on the Clive Barker masterpiece, The Hellbound Heart.
Hellraiser (1987) Ashley Laurence, Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Sean Chapman, Doug Bradley, Oliver Smith and Robert Hines
Alright, so I have to admit it, Hellraiser is nowhere near as bad as I remember. That said, it’s still not the masterpiece everyone heralds it as. It’s, simply, a good movie. Although why they turned Kirsty into Larry’s daughter instead of being his ex is beyond me. It added nothing to the story. And why is he called Larry, anyways? His name was Rory. Also, I think they should have had the Cenobytes respect their bargain with Kirsty, as they did in the book, instead of trying to take her too. They may be demons, but they had their own sort of honour. Hopefully the remake will stick even closer to the book. In case you’ve never seen it, I do recommend it for any fans of the horror genre, and since I’m so nice, I found a full copy for you to watch. Aren’t I sweet?
And that’s today’s 5 Second Review. I’ll keep them coming every day from now on. Hope you enjoy, and stay tuned for more!
Here at The Late Night Horror Drive-In my goal is to bring the readers a fresh perspective of all things horror, cult, film in general plus a heavy dose of nostalgia. While horror may be the main focus but there will be plenty of genres and eras included here.
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