The blog of author Stacy Kingsley - Stacy Kingsley

Movie Review - AN AMERICAN GHOST STORY

6/30/2014

AN AMERICAN GHOST STORY was originally titled REVENANT. Maybe it should have been titled "don't watch this movie", yeah, I think that would have been better.

Now I know it seems like I don't really like a lot of the movies that I watch, but I do, I'm just really hard on the horror movies because nothing seems very scary. This movie tried to be scary so hard that I almost turned it off because it was sooooo boring.

The description from IMDb made this movie sound so much more interesting, "When Paul, an unemployed writer, decides to rent and live in a house that's rumored to be haunted, he puts his life and his relationships in grave danger as he obsessively attempts to get the story that will finally make his career." That sounds like a movie I would have enjoyed. Unfortunately, the relationship is over by the first 15 minutes of this film, there are no other relationships in danger after the girlfriend blows the joint, and Paul didn't seem as obsessed as this description made him sound since he didn't try forcing himself on any of the previous tenants of the house he was renting. There wasn't much detail as to why the house was haunted, nor was there much detail as to why there were murders in the house.

All of the scares were cheap tricks, loud noises, loud music, and the ghost was basically a man covered with a sheet (seriously, I mean this literally!!!). Please, if you love yourself, and you don't want to waste your time, just don't do this to yourself. Skip this movie. Just, no....

Movie Review - A HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2: GHOSTS OF GEORGIA

6/30/2014

Can we just talk about the title of this movie please. It's called A HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 yet it's set in Georgia. I don't understand why it wasn't just called "a haunting in Georgia" because that would have made more sense. I really don't understand why they kept "Connecticut" in the title when it had nothing to do with the first film (except it followed the same sort of pattern) and it wasn't even set in Connecticut. It seems like a bad choice, especially when one goes to watching it with certain expectations.

If you take this as a movie on it's own and not a sequel, it's not that bad. While the movie was formulaic - family moves into house, family sees ghosts, family is in peril especially the child, family is helped by non-evil entities, somehow everyone is happy in the end. The poster for this movie is misleading as well since it is a picture of a woman in a dress being held in the air, which doesn't happen at all in the movie.

The most interesting this in this movie is the little girl Heidi, played by Emily Alyn Lind. Heidi really sets the scene. With just a movement in her face she is able to express joy and horror and only when the scene includes her did I feel even a little bit frightened. Like a lot of other horror movies these days this o e relies too heavily on heavy-handed musical cues and loud bangs, but honestly it wasn't very frightening at all, not to me. One of my other problems with some movies like this is that there are things set about which aren't at all explained. For instance there is a little motor home/trailer on the property and no one explains why it's there.

While I felt that this movie was like a whole slew of other ghost type movies, it wasn't horrible so I'd say if you have a moment go ahead and watch this, at night, with the lights off, it might be scary then. Just don't expect it to be a new idea similar to the original.

Movie Review - CEMETERY MAN

6/26/2014

CEMETERY MAN stars Rupert Everett as Francesco Dellamorte, a man who takes care of the dead and the undead. This 1994 movie was fun and so incredibly terrible, but like a train wreck, I couldn't stop watching as the cars slammed into each other.

This isn't a brain teaser of a movie, in fact it's better if you leave your brain alone and just watch, without thinking, thinking will just hurt. Technically this movie is about a man who lives and works in a cemetery, a man who makes sure that when they come back the dead just become dead again. Halfway through the movie the Cemetery man, Dellamorte, has a mental breakdown and starts killing the living before they get the chance to become the undead. He does this because death tells him to stop killing his people, the dead belong to him, Dellamorte can have the living. A confusing movie pretending to be about zombies, but really being about the need of man to look for and capture love.

Dallamorte's assistant, Gnagh, knows what love is, he finds it in the body of a young girl named Valentina, actually he finds it in her head, after she dies and returns to the land of the living. While this movie is quite funny at times I wondered what the plot really was, mostly I figured it was just a fun movie that had no point, unless the point was that love sucks and never trust a woman. The best parts of this movie were some of the lines said by the dead and the dying characters. Lines like, "Mind your own business, I'll be eaten by whoever I please."

While I say this is a terrible movie, I also have to admit that because of some of the lines and the outright silliness I enjoyed parts of this movie.

Movie Review - RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION

6/23/2014

I enjoy the RESIDENT EVIL movies. In fact one of my girl crushes is totally Milla Jovovitch because of the movie. The first couple of movies were fun and the zombies were interesting. I understand that these are based on video games, and in most of the movies anyone watching can see how the video games and the movies are related. However, after seeing this one I wasn't sure if I liked this one, and when I watched it again just a few minutes ago I wondered, why did they make this one?

RETRIBUTION was more about the special effects than it was about moving the serial story along. Alice has become a facade of herself. Tramping through different scenarios run by the red queen she finds herself facing one problem and danger after another. Now before I go on I have to say, I love the evolution of zombies. I love that zombies can be fast, or talk, or thoughtful, or fall in love, but I have a serious problem with a zombie driving a tank, or shooting a gun, and the worst offender, a zombie using a chainsaw to cut into a militant dude. I mean seriously! It wasn't just that they were using modern day weaponry, but I swear these zombies were the same zombies from DEAD SNOW, and they were sooooo much cooler in DEAD SNOW!

It wasn't just the zombies that were a problem for me. The weird octopus monster thing with the big teeth and no face was a non-starter. It wasn't scary, just weird and over the top. The gore in the movie all seemed to be overdone and in the wrong places. And yet I probably could have overlooked all of this if there had been less of one thing, drama. This movie tried to be so emotionally dramatic that I wanted to throw things at the television. RESIDENT EVIL isn't meant to be dramatic and tear-jerking, RESIDENT EVIL is meant to be zombirific and action packed and exciting.

I don't know what the studio was thinking when they made this movie, and I'm wondering what the next one (if it's made) will be like. I just hope it doesn't suck, at least not this much!

Movie Review - APARTMENT 1303

6/18/2014

I often watch random horror movies to see what's out there, and there have been many times when I was disappointed and wished I could take back the two hours it takes to watch these movies. APARTMENT 1303 was one of the movies I wished I had never watched.

A young woman, Janet, moves out of her abusive mother's house to be independent and hopefully get out from under her mother's thumb, instead she ends up dead and her sister, played by Mischa Barton, decides to stay at the apartment where her sister has supposedly killed herself to find out what really happened.

The story lags, a lot. The actress playing Janet isn't very good, and the script is terrible. For the first 30 minutes Janet walks around the apartment talking to herself and continually deals with a perverted building super and an incredibly annoying little girl. When Janet finally died I was kinda glad, at least something happened and she was too whiny for me to care about anyway. When her sister (Mischa Barton) goes to the apartment to clear out her sister's stuff she decides to stay, she wants to find out what happened to her sister, and she too wants to get away from their mother.

The movie ends in a pretty predictable way. The back story of the ghosts isn't ever clearly explained, so I found no reason to care why they did any of the things they did. Honestly this movie was incredibly forgettable, in fact in about an hour I probably won't even remember the title or what happened. I don't recommend this movie to anyone, skip it, watch THE HAUNTING instead, a fun ghost movie where you can watch Owen Wilson lose his head.

Movie Review - WORLD WAR Z

6/16/2014

So, I finally watched the movie WORLD WAR Z, and I'm not sure what to say about it.

Let me start out by saying I wasn't a fan of the book. Yeah, I might be one of the only people into zombies who didn't care for the book but I gotta say, frankly it bored me. Too many acronyms were used and the stories were so disjointed I wasn't always sure which character I was reading about. I have been putting off watching this movie because I was worried that it would be too much like the book, then after a bunch of people watched it and said it was nothing like the book I thought I'd give it a chance. Of course, being a zombie aficionado there is always a lot of zombie movies and books in my queue, I knew I'd eventually get to this and today was the day.

Happily, the movie was nothing like the book, unfortunately I didn't think the movie was fabulous, just good. The zombies were very much like the zombies in 28 DAYS LATER, fast and furious, if all zombies are like this the living doesn't stand a chance. If there ever is a zombie apocalypse I really hope the zombies aren't as fast as the ones portrayed in this movie because I'd just as soon give up my flesh to them. Brad Pitt, who plays Gerry, is off to save the world in this zombie flick. His previous job is undefined in the movie, but it was something important as he keeps getting things other people don't get, like protection for his family. Traveling towards and into danger he sees stupidity as a guy accidentally shoots himself in the head, a group of people surrounded by a wall think the wall will protect them get crushed by an overpowering horde, and a plane crash which could have been prevented if people thought before they opened doors. While this movie is fast paced I don't care enough about Gerry or his family to care if he lives or dies, I just want some sweet, sweet zombie action.

If you like zombies this movie isn't bad for the special effects or the makeup, the zombies are actually fabulous. The rate in which they move and the pile of zombies were especially effective and innovative. For a fun time, or if bored, watch this, it's not a movie you will regret spending two hours of your life on, and it will give you something to talk about with other zombie lovers.

Movie Review - THE RETURNED

6/16/2014

What if there was a way to curb the zombie virus? Would you take it or would you rather die? What if it meant you had to give yourself a shot every day? These are all questions asked and answered in the movie THE RETURNED.

There is no cure for the zombie virus, but there is an injection to stop someone from fully turning into a flesh eating monster. Only problems the infected must be given the first injection within 36 hours of being infected, and the infected person must take a lifetime of shots so they don't turn, of course if they don't take their shots then they turn into a zombie. The movie follows Kate, a doctor who works with the infected, making sure they get their initial shot and they don't turn. Her job is a tough one, since not only does she help people not turn she has to tell their families how to care for them. No one wants to be infected and there are rumors of a lack of the serum is coming. People begin to panic.

Kate has a secret of her own, and she needs the serum, otherwise she will lose everything. After an incident at her hospital in which all of her infected patients are killed she runs with her husband, Alex. Fighting to keep things together, Kate and Alex run with another couple. The world suddenly falls into chaos as the serum is stolen and people become desperate for help, murdering those they can and stealing what they need, no matter who it hurts. Kate and Alex end up having to make a hard choice, and in the end everything changes.

I actually enjoyed this movie because the premise was a new one, a zombie injection that could stop the zombie virus from taking a person over, not something that I have read or seen in many books or movies. At times there was a little too much drama and the movie was a little too slow at certain points. One of the main issues for me was the beginning of the movie and the end, I really didn't care what happened to Kate as a child and I wanted to learn a little more about current relationships rather than past. If you enjoy zombie movies this is one you should watch because it is different, and anything that gives a new twist to an old genre is an interesting find.

Movie Review - EDGE OF TOMORROW

6/16/2014

I do enjoy science fiction sometimes, and love when something can be original, especially in a world where there doesn't seem to be a lot of original thought. So I preface this review by saying I enjoyed this movie but it wasn't really that original.

Tom Cruise plays Major William Cage, a man who gets stuck in a loop and has to relive the same day over and over (much like Bill Murray's character in GROUNDHOG DAY). The world is at war, fighting against an invading alien species known only as "mimics". Emily Blunt plays Rita Vratask, the girl every soldier wants to be, a hero among a horde of soon to be slaughtered nobody's. Cage must find a way to connect with Vratask to end the war and save all of humanity, problem is, Cage isn't a soldier, he's just a figurehead sent out to be the face of the war. Cage knows nothing about being in battle, nor does he know how to use any of the tools he is given as a soldier.

The story was interesting, it moved Cruise's character along and around, and at times the movie was pretty funny, especially as Cage had to start the day again and again. However the aliens and the story reminded me of a lot of other movies I had seen. There wasn't much information given about the aliens, which I did find annoying. I wanted to know where they came from and why they were here, and really how they killed people (which was hinted at but not really shown). The aliens reminded me of the aliens robots in the MATRIX movies, waving tentacles moving in to destroy all of humanity. The movie itself reminded me of the MATRIX, TERMINATOR, and INCEPTION movies. Eventually the many times Cage started over became a little too repetitive, and honestly the ending of the movie kind of sucked, in my humble opinion. It's like those books you read where you find out it was all just a dream or the book ends exactly where it began, just makes me mad.

It was a fun movie, don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it, but like Cruise's character I felt like I had lived this before.