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Showing posts with the label ghost

CASPER - REVIEW

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With computer-generated effects having reached a noticeable level of sophistication in the mid-90's, more and more films decided to use CGI in a bold way including Jumanji and Casper , both released the same year. The latter also jumping on the old cartoon/comic-book remake bandwagon. While critics were generally lukewarm towards this movie, audiences flocked to it making Casper a significant box-office hit back in 1995. The film opens with the obligatory nod to the classic cartoons as a group of kids enter a creepy mansion, take one look at the typically friendly Casper and freak out completely. We are then introduced to paranormal therapist Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman) and his daughter Kat (Christina Ricci) as Casper encourages them to visit him and they are hired by shady haunted mansion owner Carrigan (Cathy Moriarty) to get rid of its ghosts once and for all. Casper takes a shine to Kat but his Ghostly Trio "uncles" Stretch, Stinkie and Fatso start to cause

OUT OF THE DARK - REVIEW

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Stephen Chow stars in Out Of The Dark , a black comedy from 1995 directed by Jeffrey Lau. He plays a mental patient claiming to be a ghostbuster who decides to train a group of useless security guards to handle some crafty poltergeists. Although he didn't direct this one himself, Out Of The Dark has all the trademarks of a Stephen Chow film from the gross-out humour to the cartoonish slapstick. The film pokes fun at thrillers and horror movies by following a selection of ridiculously clueless characters in a madcap plot that, unapologetically, makes little sense. This is a surprisingly brutal and gory comedy as people stab or shoot each other left and right prompting gallons of blood to gush in every scene. The humour throughout is dark, borderline sadistic at times but also completely juvenile so it's hard to take any of it seriously even when it's at its most violent. The plot, which is slight to say the least, is fully overshadowed by all the over-the-top gags that

ALWAYS - REVIEW

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Directed by Steven Spielberg, Always is a 1989 romantic comedy/drama starring Richard Dreyfuss as an aerial firefighter who is killed while trying to save someone else and who then comes back as a spirit to guide another pilot in his life. Loosely based on WWII drama  A Guy Named Joe , Always tends to be one of Spielberg's most forgotten films mostly due to the fact it's arguably his cheesiest effort so those not too keen on sentimental stories or those expecting an action film won't exactly go wild for this one. Having said that, this is still a gorgeous-looking film with a lot going for it. The criminally underrated Richard Dreyfuss is at his most charming and cocky here as reckless pilot Pete who constantly worries his girlfriend Dorinda (played by Holly Hunter) with his careless flying. Pete almost crashes on her birthday and, while this leads to a heartfelt romantic moment, it also leads to Dorinda giving him an ultimatum to get him to stop risking his life at ev

CRIMSON PEAK - REVIEW

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Taking a page out of his own Silent Hill video game demo P.T., visionary director Guillermo Del Toro helped us celebrate Halloween this year with a horror movie mostly set in a creepy, conveniently lit house packed with monstrous ghosts. Crimson Peak is an old-fashioned ghost story through and through complete with a period setting and a convoluted whodunit plot. Wonderland alumni Mia Wasikowska stars as the daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur who falls in love with a not-so-wealthy entrepreneur with big ideas, she and the latter (a charmingly dodgy Tom Hiddleston) marry and he invites her back to his crumbling, red clay-infested big house in the middle of nowhere where he lives with his clearly evil sister (Jessica Chastain). To nobody's surprise, this whole arrangement doesn't go that well. Terrifying ghosts start showing up, the sister loses it little by little and the fact it's snowing (and claying) indoors doesn't help either. Eventually, this new husband's

THE WOMAN IN BLACK - REVIEW

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As good as it is to see Hammer back in town, so far their movie choices haven't exactly been mind-blowing. The Woman In Black , if the play was anything to go by, seemed like a promising vehicle though. With its moody, dated look, an effective ghost story at its heart and more than just some woman wearing a silly mask (see the play) to scare the bejeesus out of us. Daniel Radcliffe is our protagonist and heads to the rather unpleasant, reportedly haunted, house in the middle of nowhere. There's also a small town nearby with a bunch of dodgy inhabitants all hiding some sort of big secret which might have something to do with several kids randomly committing suicide around the village. Yes it's pretty standard and very predictable but it's also very Hammer so there was a lot of schlock potential there! These guys practically invented this nonsense, surely this should be a walk in the park for them. Well, yes and no. There is a sense throughout The Woman In Black

CHARLIE ST. CLOUD - REVIEW

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Blaming  Twilight  entirely for the recent burst of corny teen nonsense (shriek! abs!) is easy but one mustn't forget all the Hannah Montanas and High School Musicals which helped kick start the new trend of (shriek! abs!) pseudo-romantic teen movies. Yes  Dear John , I'm pointing at you too. You wartime-set, letter sending...bastard. Anyway, so one could say Twilight is partly to blame for the spread of (shriek! abs!) naivety throughout modern cinema but the real culprit really is Disney. And with the company now proud owner of the rights to Marvel films, god help us all... And so we get to Zac Efron (shirek! abs!). I managed to avoid  17 Again  but I have to say the trailer for Charlie St Cloud was unintentionally funny enough to spark my interest. The  High School Musical  alumni's puppet-like stare and Mentos-selling grin might just provide some welcome comedy! Charlie St Cloud, indeed, was pretty funny. But also pretty harmless. As a film I was expecting somethi

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY - REVIEW

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As rubbish as  The Blair Witch Project  was on the whole, at least it opened up new avenues and possibilities for the horror genre. The Blair Witch's ending at least proving, albeit very briefly, that the "handheld" style could indeed bring fresh scares. It took 10 years but finally a film lives up to that premise. Paranormal Activity's clever use of repetition and convincing performances finally captures the inexplicable eerieness of a big empty house in the middle of the night making this the best haunted house movie in a long time. The story may be unlikely but it works and doesn't detract from the film's atmosphere at all. Is it scary? Yes. But not in an obvious, in your face, loud musical sting kind of way. Turn the lights off, pay attention, get into it and you won't sleep a wink.

MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE GHOST PROTOCOL - REVIEW

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M:I III didn't perform quite as well as expected at the box office upon its release but is widely regarded by critics as the best of the bunch. Mr Bird: your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to do better. This playful reference will auto-destruct in 5 seconds... ... *pfffffff* Well, mission pretty much accomplished profit-wise it seems. But how does the film fare in comparison to its predecessors? In their own way, I've enjoyed every Mission Impossible film to date: the stylish and kinda boring one, the hilariously overblown one and... the smarter one. I'm happy to say that Ghost Protocol is no exception: this is one fun movie from start to finish and the closest the films have gotten to resembling the classic TV series since Brian De Palma's first effort. Finally, Hunt has another team to work with. No wires to cut or waxy masks but you can't have it all I guess... The team in question, however, is hit and miss. You've got Simon Pegg

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE GHOST PROTOCOL - POSTER CHALLENGE

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Now I'm no illustrator or poster designer... at all. Hell, I don't even have Photoshop at the moment. That said, I do enjoy a challenge. Which is why from now on I'll be attempting to make a poster for every coming blockbuster. I warn you: they'll likely all suck. Hence why I encourage you guys to help me and make your own! They don't have to be perfect, just fun. This month we're starting with Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol which has already had its share of posters. Most of them ass, like the ones involving Mr Cruise wearing hood. Some of them decent. I like that one, although is Cruise's nipple on fire? I like that one. Some of them good. This Olly Moss-style IMAX poster is pretty minimalist but it's cool. Here's mine: Yeah, I know. It's bloated and childish. OMG it's M:I 2 !!! Your mission, if you choose to accept it is to send all your entries to razorheadfilmsltd@gmail.com My favourites will be posted on t

DRIVE ANGRY - REVIEW

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Drive Angry probably boasts THE best storyline of the year so far: Nicolas Cage breaks out of Hell in a car. I'll repeat that: breaks out of HELL, in a CAR. This is gonna be sweeeeet! The trailers promised extreme Grindhouse-style silliness the likes of which Robert Rodriguez ( Planet Ter ror, Machete ) would be proud of with Nic Cage at his wackiest, exciting (read: ridiculous) action scenes and plenty of facepalm-inducing dialogs. Alas, you'll need to lower your expectations just a little if you are to truly enjoy Drive Angry. There was a great film in there somewhere (great as in so bad it's good, of course) but, unfortunately, something went wrong along the way. For one thing, Cage is at his most soporific here and goes for monotone swagger rather than Bad Lieutenant -type goofiness. Which is not to say he doesn't entertain: seeing the guy fully dressed having sex whilst blasting the bad guys with a giant gun, standing randomly staring at fire or saying the wo

GHOST RIDER - REVIEW

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After watching Ghost Rider for the first time since I saw it at the movies back in 2007, I re-read the review I'd written at the time: in a nutshell "1 star, avoid". What's with the anger? What drove me to banish Ghost Rider to 1 star Hell? I seriously don't know. I mean, I remember hating the first bit where you see a young Johnny Blaze making a deal with the Devil, I remember hating Eva Mendes, I remember hating the direction... Now don't get me wrong, the first bit is pretty bland, Eva Mendes is annoying and the direction feels more suited to a music video than anything else. But then there's the Ghost Rider! Sure the CGI isn't exactly top of the line but the Rider scenes are all pretty gosh darn awesome: riding in town melting parking meters, riding up and down buildings, pulling down helicopters with chains, riding with a fiery Sam Elliott cowboy, melting a jail cell... pretty kick ass. It's just a shame Nic Cage feels misca

DEVIL - REVIEW

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Shyamalan produces this first instalment of his "Night Chronicles" and surprisingly creates an entertaining, if uninspired, horror tale. After a truly engaging Hitchcockian first half the film unfortunately chooses to go down the familiar path of every silly supernatural horror film ever made and pick off its characters one by one only to build up towards a hammy revelation which doesn't really make sense. It's a shame because Devil really didn't need to be a supernatural horror. Had it stuck with its original premise and gone for a more Speed / Phone Booth -style thriller it could have been a genuinely tense and clever film. Alas, Shyamalan's head-explodingly naive religious message and childish take on the horror genre boils down an otherwise decent outing to a very watchable but flawed first attempt. One hopes the silliness is either kept quiet or full blown to its maximum in further instalments.

CHARLIE ST. CLOUD - REVIEW

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Blaming Twilight entirely for the recent burst of corny teen nonsense (shriek! abs!) is easy but one mustn't forget all the Hannah Montanas and High School Musicals which helped kick start the new trend of (shriek! abs!) pseudo-romantic teen movies. Yes Dear John , I'm pointing at you too. You wartime-set, letter sending...bastard. Anyway, so one could say Twilight is partly to blame for the spread of (shriek! abs!) naivety throughout modern cinema but the real culprit really is Disney. And with the company now proud owner of the rights to Marvel films, god help us all... And so we get to Zac Efron (shirek! abs!). I managed to avoid 17 Again but I have to say the trailer for Charlie St Cloud was unintentionally funny enough to spark my interest. The High School Musical alumni's puppet-like stare and Mentos-selling grin might just provide some welcome comedy! Charlie St Cloud, indeed, was pretty funny. But also pretty harmless. As a film I was expecting something n