Reviews
The Hole Story (2005)
One of the best docs I've seen in ages
As an avid lover of documentary films, I see quite a lot of them. And as with any genre, the more you see, the more difficult it is to see one that truly sticks out after awhile.
This is one such film.
The story concerns the film's director, Alex, going to Minnesota to do an episode of his show "Provincial Puzzlers", which takes on a small town mystery each week. The episode in question is going to focus on a mysterious hole in the otherwise frozen North Long Lake that appeared one winter. He shows up in town and heads to the lake. That's where things get complicated, and it's only about 2 or 3 minutes into the film.
That's all I'd like to say. I can think of relatively few films where the enjoyment stems from a complete lack of knowledge at what you are about to see. In fact, they are all horror movies or thrillers (Memento and Blair Witch are some examples where the less you know the better, IMO). Not the case here. This is a comedic drama in documentary form, and just as entertaining, perhaps more so, than any other comedy and/or drama you'll see for quite some time.
Highly recommended, and not just to documentary fans. In fact, I feel that this is one of those documentaries that could help to elevate the genre above the stereotypical documentary trappings unfairly associated with them (small indie theaters with bad popcorn, pretentious audiences, etc.) to a place where you can find them playing at the local multiplex throughout the year alongside all the other genres.
Jerkbeast (2005)
Great movie
Brady Hall has made one of the absolute best low budget independent films I have seen. Too many indies nowadays assume they need to be about a loner, his quirky family/friends, and a bunch of death cab for cutie music, but this film takes that preconception and shoves it up your tooter. You get monsters, music, public access, corpse desecration... all made with the same care and professionalism you would expect from a "normal" movie (which, of course, just makes it all the more funny). If you like random humor, then you'll love this. Any movie that has a guy listening to a tape of celebrity footsteps automatically gets an A from me. Sadly, I believe this may be the only one. Readily available on Netflix, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't check this out.
Dead in America (2001)
A great short
I have watched this about 1000 times. Its the best zombie documentary short film I have ever seen. The best scene is when the one zombie is eating a guy in a field and he sees the documentary crew, so he runs away. the actor is totally goofy as he runs!!! hahaha what was he eating anyway? it looked like a tongue! The only thing that bothers me is all the Hitler/Nazi subliminal messages. I don't understand why they are in the movie. Was Hitler a zombie?? Also why does the Bryce hick become Jimbob later in the movie? But that aside, its still a good movie, and the people who did it clearly put a lot of work into it. The makeup is just as good as a Romero zombie film, with a lot of gore (though there is one CGI gore effect that looks horrible, I'm not sure why they did that). If you can find this, I recommend checking it out.
Hostage (2005)
The trailers aren't accurate - MUCH BETTER
The TV spots basically make this movie look like Die Hard 4: In A House, but its not at all. first off, its a suspense movie with some action, not the other way around. Secondly, the main thrust of the movie isn't even hinted at in the TV spots that I've seen. All of the acting is very good, the villains especially considering their age, pull off their roles quite well. There's a scene where they face off with Willis and a chopper thats truly nail-biting, and it wouldn't work at all if they were bad actors.
So i recommend this movie even if you think it looks generic from the trailers. its got a lot of twists and surprises, tho not in an annoying M Night shamalamadingdong way. Please go see it in theaters, support our rare R rated films while enjoying a good movie in the process!!
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
I was chuckling nonstop
Like a good episode of Simpsons, it wasn't that the film had a bunch of huge belly laugh moments (though it certainly had those), but an abundance of quick lines and gags that made you chuckle, in rapid succession. and thats why the film worked. All of the cast played their roles to perfection, even if some were just playing roles theyve done before (Christine Taylor's role was the same as Zoolander, Justin Long seemed to be channelling his "Warren" character from the TV show "Ed"). All of the cameos were well done and always elicited a laugh just when they showed up. And you haven't lived until you've seen the well-deserved parody of Espn2. Let me just say, look for the "ocho". The on screen TV ad for it is worth the price of admission alone.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait (1988)
Interesting dialogue, insanely boring presentation
The things the actors say are interesting, too bad Shellady didnt film them in any sort of interesting way. talking head, talking head, talking head... Ed Neal's shot is blurry, Seidow comes off like hes in a nursing home, and Dugans cat steals his scenes from him. Would have been nice to get comments from Henkel or someone else behind the scenes. a lot of stuff got repeated (OK! IT WAS HOT WHEN YOU FILMED THE DINNER SCENE!!!) but otherwise it was interesting. See if someone transcripted it, it'll beat watching it.
Deadly Game (1991)
Not THAT bad...
Man you guys were harsh. First off, this is a USA original movie, so you have to put it on a sliding scale. Compared to say, "Shawshank Redemption", "Godfather", or any of the other "IMDB top 100" films, the best ever USA original movie would rate a D-. But, you have to compare it to its peers, i.e. the other USA originals, plus TNT, TBS, PAX, etc. And in that respect, Deadly Game is pretty good. It's "10 Little Indians" retold for the 60 zillionth time, sure, but with a fairly decent surprise ending (again, for a USA original movie), has Marc Singer doing something besides time traveling, and even has Halloween 6's Dr. Wynn! If it's on, I say give it a fair chance. Or get it as a free rental on 2 for 1 Tuesdays or something. USA can only make so much money airing Con Air and Die Hard over and over and over again, cut them some slack.