The Innkeepers

The Innkeepers
(2012) [Trailer]
Director: Ty West (IMDB)

I really enjoyed Ty West's last film House of the Devil. It wasn't a perfect film, but I dug it's 70's horror aesthetic and found it really entertaining. I had heard good things about The Innkeepers and was very happy to find it was available by Video On Demand. That means no douchebags texting, talking, or interrupting my movie experience...God I wish all movies were released this way.

The movie takes place in a historic hotel that's getting ready to close it's doors for good. Two hotel employees are left alone to man the front desk on the hotel's final weekend. They are firm believers that the hotel is haunted and they try very hard to document it, even going as far as to start a website about its permanent residents. They start to reach out to the spirits and soon realize they summoned more then they can handle.

If you like your horror movies filled with immediate shock and awe, this is not the film for you. Just like House of the Devil, this is a little bit of a slow burn. Ty really loves to build tension and keep suspense high. Basically if you're looking for the next Saw, look elsewhere. I loved Sara Paxton and Pat Healy in this and I appreciated the way the director spent time on building the characters up instead of focusing on cheap trills and scares. I feel like when the horror elements came, it was appropriate. I would say my only gripe was the ending, it seemed like there should be a little more closure to the story. Definitely check this out if you're into horror, it's available now on most VODs and iTunes.

Super 8

Super 8

(2011) [Trailer]
Director: J.J. Abrams (IMDB)

I first watched Super 8 back in the summer and enjoyed it. It actually made my honorable mentions for 2011. So when it came to blu-ray I went ahead and picked it up. Would my opinion upon second viewing still hold up? We'll see.

Super 8 centers around a group of kids in central Ohio during the summer of 1979. One kid is making a horror movie. One kid likes fireworks and is the zombie in the horror movie. One kid's mom passed away. One kid's dad feels responsible. One kid is the lead in the other kid's movie, he's kind of a nerd I suppose. The other kid is really pointless. Also to note, Coach Taylor is a cop. All of them find themselves in the middle of a train wreck. That train was carrying a top secret from the government. You want me to ruin it for you....okay I will. It's an alien and it's pissed.

This movie is directed by J.J. Abrams (the same guy that brought you LOST and the new Star Trek) and is produced by Spielberg. You can absolutely feel Spielberg's hand at work here. I would say Super 8 is a cross between ET, Close Encounters, and The Goonies. It's successful in a lot of areas, but there's a few let downs for me. I'm definitely not a fan of the creature design or the ship design. The alien looks too CG for me and I think it's lame how the ship comes together. I do love the throwback to those older Spielberg productions and it was cool to see a sci-fi triller with kids as the leads. It definitely looks amazing on blu-ray and worth the purchase in my opinion. So go for it.

Cairo Time

Cairo Time
(2009) [Trailer]
Director: Ruba Nadda (IMDB)

This movie was recommended to me by a good friend of mine who's theatrical recommendations I value more than most. So when the disc arrived from Netflix I was excited to get started with it.

Cairo Time is about a woman (Patricia Clarkson) who travels to Cairo (that's in Egypt for all you geographically challenged people out there) to meet her husband who's a diplomat in Gaza. He ends up getting held up in Gaza and she's left to fend for herself on the mean streets of Egypt. Not really, her husband's ex assistant (Doctor Bashir) lives in Cairo and is called upon to help take care of her. An unexpected romance forms between the two as they grow closer over the course of the week.

This movie is a very successful romance because it's not typical. It has all the right elements for it to be memorable in my book. It's set in a visually stimulating city, that's not your typical Paris or New York. Its score is interesting and the cinematography is captivating when it needs to be. The best thing about it though, is the story and acting. The two have a great chemistry and you feel the tension between them grow as the story moves forward. But rather take the obvious route and have the two fall head over heels for one another, the Director (Ruba Nadda) makes their romance an accident. The whole film you get the feeling that they want to do something, but know it's not right, or that it's not viable. At so many corners Nadda could have totally sunk this for me, but she avoided the pitfalls and made this a real winner. I'd definitely recommend it if you're in the mood for a drama.

2 Days in the Valley

2 Days in the Valley
(1996) [Trailer]
Director: John Herzfeld (IMDB)

I first watched this movie back in highschool. Or like right after high school...I can't really remember cause I'm an old man. I remember really enjoying it back then, I was curious if it still held up so I thought I'd give it another viewing.

The story is as follows...Teri Hatcher invites her ex husband over to spend the night, but gets mad when he tries to sleep with her. She gets a needle of knock out drugs in her butt cheek, and two guys kill her ex. A cop is scared to get a happy ending. His partner is a racist. This pompous British guy almost dies on Sunset Blvd. One of the killers from earlier holds the Brit and his assistant at gun point after the other killer fails at killing him. The killer cooks them pasta while he has them at gun point. Charlize Theron gets very naked. There's a cat fight between Theron and Hatcher. There's a shoot out. People live. People die.

This movie is all over the place. It's a project I think probably was green-lit due to the success of Pulp Fiction because you can tell the director definitely sweats Tarantino. I wont do a side by side comparison, but this film misses all the cool dialog and other things that makes Pulp Fiction (and all the other Tarantino flicks) great. I didn't hate this, but it just seemed to miss the mark for me on a lots of things, I just felt myself growing tired of it after awhile.

The Captains

The Captains
(2011) [Trailer]
Director: William Shatner (IMDB)

Being a little bit of a Trekkie (don't judge me) I was pretty interested when I first heard about this movie last year. Then to my surprise I saw it pop up on Netflix Instant the other week and decided to give it a spin.

The Captains is directed by William Shatner and also stars him, so if you're into the Shatman, get on it. The overall idea of this documentary is that William Shatner heads out to meet up with a number of actors who have played Starship Captains in the different variations of the notorious sci-fi franchise known as Star Wars...just kidding...Star Trek...calm down. He meets with: Sir Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard Star Trek: The Next Generation), Avery Brooks (Captain Benjamin Sisko Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager), Scott Bakula (Captain Jonathan Archer, Star Trek: Enterprise), and Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk, Star Trek 2009), and he interviews all of them.

I will admit, there's a soft spot in my heart for all these different series and captains, so I enjoyed this a lot. I would imagine however, if you aren't a fan, this would bore the shit out of you. I loved how Shatner would get deep and philosophical with everyone, but I did feel at times, that this movie turned into the Shatner show (I guess I kinda expected that though.) A lot of the score seemed out of place and didn't fit the feeling of the scenes. One very interesting thing about this movie...Avery Brooks is bat shit crazy. It's very weird, and at some points, uncomfortable watching Shatner interview Brooks. There were a lot of cool moments overall and I found this entertaining, definitely recommend to any Star Trek fan.

James and the Giant Peach

James and the Giant Peach
(1996) [Full Movie]
Director: Henry Selick (IMDB)

My wife really loves this movie. So we picked up the blu-ray the other night at the old Bestbuy. I had never seen it before but she was positive that I'd love it. Did I? Who knows, read on and find out.

James and the Giant Peach is about a young boy who parents were killed by a rhino, then forcing him to go live with his aunts. His aunts are a pack of bitches. They treat him like shit, but what would a Disney movie be without a good antagonist. Before his parents were 86'd, they hyped James up on NYC...because it's the best place ever! Suck on that, people that don't live here...just kidding. James soon discovers that a peach growing in the front yard is a secret vessel to the city and an adventure of a lifetime. When he finally goes aboard the peach he meets a crew of insects who are more than happy to help him find his way. After some wild adventures across the Atlantic he finds himself atop the Empire State Building.

Director Henry Selick cooked up both this film and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Both are very similar visually, and you can definitely get a sense that Tim Burton helped produce these. The story is okay, but I found myself bored at a lot of spots, especially the live action scenes, I would have just preferred it to be all animated. There are tons of really cool scenes, especially the iced over sea part, where they have to find a compass, I loved all that. It's an alright watch, but nothing ground breaking in my opinion.

Life in a Day

Life in a Day
(2011) [Full Movie]

I'll start by telling you that if you have Netflix Streaming you need to go ahead and schedule in a little me time and plop this baby on. Or head over to Youtube and watch it free. Basically what I'm saying is there's no reason not to watch this... it's also at the bottom of this review... go for it.

Life in a Day is a Youtube release. I don't know if that turns some people off, but in the case of this film, it shouldn't. Awhile a ago, I don't know if you remember, Youtube put out the call for people around the world to film their life on the day July 24th 2010. They only got like 10 submissions so they had to reschedule it for Oct 31 2010...just kidding, they received over 4500 hours worth of material. This movie is the end result of those hours neatly packaged for you.

I am going to say that this is probably one of my favorite documentaries now. I absolutely loved it. The idea alone is fantastic and the fact that they were able to edit 4500 hours down into this final product is incredible. It's pretty impressive on a lot of different levels. It's great to be reminded of how diverse our world is, but on the other hand it's crazy to see how many people do the same thing everywhere. Some of the people, like the Korean bike rider guy, you'd wish they'd spend more time with (shit, I wish they'd make a full documentary on that guy), but at the end of the day you realize that's not the point of the film. This movie was just a real easy watch and I would obviously recommend you see it ASAP.