Angry Movie Lurker Review 35: Monsters.(3 STARS)

Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life form began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures"...... Our story begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border.

Watched this and don't know what to think other than it appears to be a road/jungle/river movie with a love story blossoming and a lot of really large aliens thrown in, now I was expecting a lot of pitched battles and military interventions but there is a lot of hardware on show constantly, jets, helicopters, tanks etc... but very little action actually seen apart from jets constantly buzzing across the screen, explosions from bombing missions (which is probably the main reason the aliens attack) and the calls of the alien creatures.

This movie is more about the relationship between the 2 main stars, ice cold and a little hostile at the beginning but develops into something more as the movie progresses, it's a low budget movie but doesn't really look it, the aliens when you see them are quite well done, the movie doesn't explain much about them, you are left a lot to form your own conclusions, which to me are the armies of Mexico and the US trying to contain the creatures in the infected zone but not having a lot of luck, this is no District 9 but it was worth a watch.

Two points to be made, this movie was said to have one of the best sex scenes ever, I didn't realise they meant alien sex (best alien sex scene my arse, have they not seen Species) and the end and the beginning of the movies are mixed up, you won't mind having watched this movie but I think it's the type of movie you would only watch once.

Angry Movie Lurker Review 34: London Boulevard (3 STARS?)

.....good day at Salute yesterday, I was bloody knackered but mostly from listening to Ray moan about his feet and back, will put some photos and bullshit up tommorow, hope the rest of your weekend is good.

"London Boulevard" is the story of a man newly released from prison who falls in love with a reclusive young movie star and finds himself in a duel with a vicious gangster.

This movie has not had great reviews and I wasn't hopeful but there's a good cast and apart from the ones stated on the poster, you get David Thewlis, Ben Chaplin, Anna Friel, Eddie Marsan etc......The action is very good when it comes, the performances are very good from most (Ray Winstone is good as always, I like Farrell anyway, Anna Friel plays his loony sister very well, Keira just plays what she is in real life).

The main story is that Farrell is just out of prison (for a violence related crime) and his mate (Chaplin, playing a very good scumbag) wants his help with a bit of debt collecting and this brings him into the world of psycho crime boss Winstone (excellently demented performance) and they try to blackmail Farrell into getting back into crime but Farrell has landed a gig protecting/looking after Knightley (lot of baggage and emotional angst and required love story) with the aid of her hanger on Thewlis (brilliant performance), there are little side stories about his sister (irritating character), a homeless man, a bent copper but a decision he doesn't follow through comes back to haunt him.

This is a grim movie with very little to be taken out of it and would have just got 3 STARS for it's entertainment value until the bleeding director turns the ending of the movie into his version of Layer Cake and should have just called the movie Layer Cake 2, really, really fucking annoyed me and I sat at the end going you bloody twat (maybe he never saw the movie but someone on the set must have). If you want a word of warning and decide to watch this movie and up until a couple of minutes from the end it was worth watching, stop watching at the end from when the a gun is dismantled and the pieces put in a drawer, if not you may be annoyed or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

As per usual the rating guide is at the end of the blog page.  

Angry Movie Lurker Review 32: The Warrior's Way (3 STARS)

In the 19th century, a warrior named Yang (Jang Dong-gun) is ordered to kill the last member of an enemy clan--a baby. He refuses the mission and flees with the child to a dilapidated town in the American West. Despite his attempts, his enemies close in on him and he must fight to protect the child and his newfound comrades: Ron (Geoffrey Rush), the town drunk, and Lynne (Kate Bosworth), both of whom have a tragic past.

Now that's just a summary but bears no real idea to what goes on in this movie, the action which is very stylised and when it comes is amazing, over the top and downright crazy between the characters of the circus dwellers and performers (bearded lady, strongman, clown etc....) staying in the town, the town in question is a shithole and into this steps Yang (amazing swordplay but mentally damaged after years of killing) and the child and for a brief moment brings calm and beauty to the town but between the ninjas and the evil cowboy horde (like the guys in the dusters in Pale Rider but dirtier and lots,lots more) led by a disfigured madman (Danny Huston as a colonel) and a bodycount in the low 3 figures.There are a lot of flashbacks dealing with most of the main characters pasts and an ending which is good enough and leaves itself open for a sequel which will never be made. The amount of gaming ideas this movie presents is good with the obvious ninjas vs cowboys vs clowns???.The movie is worth a watch but is not going to linger in your mind  as a classic. 

Angry Movie Lurker Review 31: Let Me In.(3 STARS)

A bullied young boy befriends a young female vampire who lives in secrecy with her guardian.

Have not seen the original movie that this is based on but have been led to believe that they are very nearly like for like, it's about a young boy (Owen) living in an apartment block with his mother who is going through a nasty divorce with his father when a young girl (Abby) moves into the apartment next door with her father and a strange friendship develops, for the young boy has a terrible time at school from bullying and the young girl who looks 14 is really not and is a vampire and her "father" who is not really her father but more a blood supplier from unsuspecting locals, her father dies in a botched blood supply attempt and the young girls friendship with owen gets more serious with Owen, she convinces him to stand up to his bullies and this leads to Owen fighting back with terrible consequences at the end of the movie, there is a cop investigating all the murders and believes satanists are at work but to me this is a vampire love story and the last one I remember was Bram Stokers Dracula with Keanu Reeves and Anthony Hopkins.

This is a good vampire horror love story movie, their blossoming friendship and his coming to terms with what she is and his reactions are what make the movie, there is gore but nothing excessive, I only knew two of the main characters, Abby played by Chloe Moertz who was in Kick-Ass and Elias Koteas who plays the cop very well (he was in Shutter Island, The Thin Red Line, Shooter...) but it's got a great ending (you know I like revenge) and a happy sort of how will that work ending but maybe I'm just getting soppy in my old age.

Great performances from everybody involved, my review guide to the 3 STARS are at the bottom of the blog page.

Angry Movie Lurker Review 30: True Grit (3 STARS)

Following the murder of her father by hired hand Tom Chaney, 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. marshal she can find, a man with "true grit," Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn. Mattie insists on accompanying Cogburn, whose drinking, sloth, and generally reprobate character do not augment her faith in him. Against his wishes, she joins him in his trek into the Indian Nations in search of Chaney. They are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who wants Chaney for his own purposes. The unlikely trio find danger and surprises on the journey, and each has his or her "grit" tested.

The original 1969 version was on TV a few months ago and because there was nothing else on I watched it yet again for the double digit time and still enjoyed it. I got to see the new one recently with Jeff Bridges and had read that this version was closer to the book (having never read the book I don't know) but it is slighty different to the original but mostly in dialogue (language relevant to the time) as there seems to me to be a lot more of it and in some of the set pieces that are set at different times and with less or more participants, there are different engagements and meetings but other than that you get more or less the same as the original except this movie is grittier and slighty darker (pardon the pun), Jeff Bridges (Cogburn) is excellent and so is everybody else's performance Hailee Steinfeld (Mattie) and Matt Damon (LaBoeuf), the other difference is the ending it shows something the original didn't and I could have done without it, I liked how the original ended at a certain moment and left it at that but that's just my opinion.

If they were both on on a wet saturday afternoon at the same time I would choose the original because I grew up with Wayne and sometimes remakes are unneccesary but it's definitely worth a watch.

Angry Movie Lurker Review 29: Devil (3 STARS)

Didn't have a great vibe before sitting down to watch this movie but ended up pleasantly surprised by been entertained and the movie fulfilling the 3 STAR rule, you've all heard about 5 people trapped in a lift in a building and I thought that was the whole 80mins but no there is other stuff happening outside of the elevator, they are been monitored after security (my profession) call the police after CCTV viewing of the elevator requires them to do so. No real stars in this but that doesn't matter as everything is quite quick paced and hurtles towards a conclusion that the people trapped in the lift were meant to be there, at the very least you can place a wager with family or friends at the beginning to see who is the devil is. Don't want to give too much away but it's worth a watch late at night and may make you think twice about taking the elevator.

As usual the rating guide is at the bottom of the blog.

Angry Movie Lurker Review 28: PAUL.(3 STARS)

Have started to post my movie reviews at the weekend here on this blog rather than my other blog because having more than one blog going was killing me and I was neglecting the other one.

Got to see this yesterday and must admit it wasn't bad maybe not as good as I thought it would be (the first 10 minutes or so are weird/strange and did not bode well but it's a temporay blip), I have always liked anything Mr. Pegg and Mr.Frost have done before (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz etc...).

They play two geeks on a bit of a road trip across America in an RV starting at Comic-Con and hitting all the relevant sites like Area 51, Roswell, etc..... everythings going reasonably fine and safe until they run into Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen and I can forgive him now for The Green Hornet) our escaped alien with the men in black on his tail and a place to get to in a certain amount of time, now Paul is the star of the movie and has nearly all the great lines and answers to a lot of conspiracy theories and along with Ruth a one-eyed Creationist  (played by Kristen Wiig) who they kidnap and her beliefs are tested by Paul (I will not spoil it but very funny) and she starts cussing with some of the best cusses I've heard in ages in any movie (I've been using some of them at work).

They are now been constantly hunted by professional (Jason Bateman) and newbie men in black, Ruth's creationist dad and some rednecks (pop up now and again as a running gag that's not that funny) and there is even an appearance by Sigourney Weaver as they head to a spot that you should recognise from another famous sci-fi movie.

It's well worth a look and you will not be disappointed, loads of movie in jokes and references, the review guide is at the bottom of the blog and I wish the 28mm little grey men I painted this week looked as good as Paul.

Angry Movie Lurker Review 27: REC 2.(3 STARS)

........another gaming twist to zombies I think.

This movie was made in Spain in 2009 and I believe made an appearance in the UK in 2010, now I had not seen REC the original but I had seen Quarantine which was the US remake and seemingly was a remake exactly and virtually to the word so I believed I could watch REC 2 without too much trouble and after watching it I feel I was OK as the movie started straight away outside the same appartment with a team of spanish swat about to enter the same cordoned off building with the same virus/disease outbreak with a doctor in tow.

The doctor who is not a doctor for very long enters the building with the 4 man swat team with head cameras and a large shoulder camera (not very tactical) to record everything, they want the original carrier of the zombie like illness and a sample of her blood and the doctor has the verbal/voice recognition that will only allow the team out of the building when they have acquired this.Now what follows is a lot of screaming, running, crying, shooting, pleading, bleeding etc....of any good zombie flick as the former tenants and original rescue teams in the building start to make things difficult but what interested me was obviously the quality of a good zombie/horror movie but that the zombies for a better word (I would class them as ragers or fast zombies) were demonic based and were being controlled by an entity/demon within the building and the doctor who now identified himself as a priest was after confirmation of this by getting a blood sample to prove it.

So it gives another scope to zombie gaming with the addition of maybe vatican death squads, exorcists and different types of demon and zombies with a weak link that when the demon dies they die aswell.The movie is a zombie/horror crowd pleaser and I recommend a watch even if you don't game zombies.

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