ATTENTION PEOPLE !

To everyone who know of this Blog I have started a new one called GemCollector which I have permanently moved to.
If you want to hear about rants n raves on movies and the rest of the world then head over to it now !

https://weirdandwonderfulfilms.blogspot.co.uk/

Shakey cameras and sticks: The Blair Witch Project Review

Hello fellow people of the internet. Its been ages since I posted anything on the blog (due to the summer and also personal reasons) and felt it seemed necessary to do another review. 

So the film to talk about today is what I only saw just a week ago and that is 'The Blair Witch Project'. This is also being reviewed as the new movie comes out soon and felt curious to what made this one so memorable.

Your probably screaming at me saying, "but everyone know's what happens in that film" or "Ahhh its just boring init. Just three students walking about with crap camera work". Well I don't care.

Ok so this film as you've probably all guessed is about three students who go to shoot a documentary in the woods about an urban legend of a supposed Witch living there. So they set out to find this legend and to see if this Witch is real or just a silly story that is told to tell around a campfire to make people piss themselves. 

Pros

The film does not reveal a thing during the start, and the only information we are given is through published books or in interviews with the local community. As the characters have no idea what they are dealing, then with neither does the audience making the film a much more uncomfortable and creepy experience. 

Also having the whole film shot completely on video camcorder and creates a feeling of realism and what unfolds onscreen is something which actually does happen as the actors filmed the experience themselves whilst the directors made an already eerie atmosphere eerier. By spooking them in real time with noises and man made objects causing them to feel frightened. 

Another crucial thing this film did was creating a psychological fear of what was happening around the characters which built up to the end. As you never saw the so called "Witch" which painted a nightmarish picture in your head of what the three students where facing.

Cons

The films running time is over two hours long, and for a film which only involves three people in the woods squabbling without much else going on. It can prove to be rather boring at times, to the point where I almost lost interest skipping some important parts. So a shorter running time would of made this film much better. 

Another thing is the pointless footage of our cast crossing rivers and having the bad camera work, although I understand why its there as its supposed to add to the found footage "realism" but it just becomes irritating at times. 




I feel the Blair Witch Project is an interesting film that really plays on the mind of the viewer without using cheap jump scares or showing you the witch. Although this film is either love it or hate it, I do in fact enjoy it. Now to watch the 2016 sequel ! 

Thank you for reading.

That darn Bandicoot !

So, about a month ago. Sony revealed at E3 this year that there will be a remastered version of the Crash Bandicoot trilogy, and they are starting from the ground up. With completely new textures, models and levels that resemble the originals for the next generation console. 



This sounds like a very exciting thing to come out from Sony, because to be honest, the attempt to incorporate Crash in Skylanders Imaginators is a bit rubbish. Now Skylanders at first was a really cool concept of bringing toys life, but proved to be an incredibly expensive experience that to me had little replay value and was more of a cheap money grab. Crash in the imaginators version looks stumpy , with a goofy attitude that looks and will probably respond very sluggishly, where as 90's Crash was incredibly responsive and had a sleek look to him that was cool whilst having an insane approach to things. Sony need to get this right in order to make it appeal to the generation who grew up with the originals. As getting Crash's look on point is key, with upgrading the texture of his fur and clothing but keeping that triangular look to his body.

Now the demographic for the game doesn't matter as the original titles where released in the mid 90's and was easily picked up by teenagers like myself and especially for the current generation of younger gamer's. What the remastered version also needs is to make sure it holds the same difficult strategy that the originals possessed,  as Crash 1 was bloody difficult but the other two sequels had diluted the difficulty which was fair. I'm more excited to see the remastered version of Crash 2 as that was the game that is much more personal to me and will delv into that in another post. 

But really I'm hoping that Sony manage to pull this remastered trilogy off for the 20th anniversary, but the bigger question is will Naughty Dog be involved with development ? As considering they sold the rights for Crash to other developers it wouldn't be fair to not let the creators be involved with the process. 
Who knows after the remastered trilogy Naughty Dog might get the rights back and create a whole new Crash franchise. Maybe I'm thinking too far ahead but it would be a really cool idea, who knows a Crash Twinsanity remaster. Although it was a good game it still felt kinda broken. 

But anyways I'm happy with the news of one of my favorite game series being remastered and could hold good things for the future for the fans as well as the developers behind the games.

Monochrome Yakuza's: Massacre Gun Film Review

Good Evening all !

The other week I purchased a film that really caught my eye called Massacre Gun, as I love Asian cinema and decided to give this one a go. It came with both DVD and Blu ray formats for a very reasonable price of just £8.99. Arrow Video the masterminds of restoring classic 70's and 80's horror B movies as well as a few timeless classics, have given this Japanese Yakuza flick the same treatment. 

With newly translated subtitles and restored high definition 1080p quality, as well as some very interesting special features with interviews etc. This film was well worth the money I have to say. 

I love Arrow Video's films and most of the films they publish are hit or miss. The titles to truly hunt for are one's such as "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "VideoDrome" and "Society". As well as some underrated B-movies such as "Street Trash" and "The deadly Spawn". Now this is all good and dandy they also release some utter crap such as "Microwave massacre" and "The stuff". 

The artwork on all of Arrow's DVD's are awesome and gives them a fresh new look that is appealing to look at, especially as they feel like an old 70's/80's VHS cover that has some interesting novelty. And there is also the reversible sleeve with the original Art also.

But enough about this, lets get into the film itself. 
The story is about hitman Kuroda who refuses to continue working for his Yakuza boss after he is forced to kill his lover. (Which he does). Kuroda's other two brothers, Eiji who owns a Jazz nightclub and Saburo who is an up and coming boxer. Are both outraged that he murdered a person he truly loved, so Kuroda quits and a mob retaliation occurs resulting in an all out turf war between factions. 

The cinematography and directing is surprisingly good for a low budget film as the gritty black and white gives a gorgeously dark atmosphere to this noire spectacle, it looks especially gorgeous on Blu Ray which adds to the fantasticness. (That's a word I made up). For a film made in 1968 it is very violent from blood splattering in all directions the eye can see as well as some brief nudity. It surprised me as this was a film made in the same year Night of the Living dead was released which also broke new ground in the horror genre containing graphic scenes of Zombies feasting on human flesh.



If you cannot stand subtitles, then this movie isn't for you as there is no way to put on English dubbing. Which is how it should be as most dubbing in International films is really rather crap. But if you're not bothered about reading them then you will perhaps have a blast watching this. The  story is very different which gives something different for the noir genre, but nothing that changes it completely. As well as character names being tricky to remember that can make the viewing experience confusing on identifying who is who. 

Apart from that this film is very good and has lots of replay value.

-Gabe

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MOVIE RANT : The major problem with Transformers: Age of extinction

Alright ? 

Since the news of a new Transformers film being in the works I thought it would be appropriate to talk Transformers.

Now I love me some good blockbuster flicks now and again, a film which is a lot of fun which can easily pull me out of the plug socket of reality.  For instance a preference for me is classics like Star Wars , Indiana Jones and even the Michael Bay Transformers trilogy , that's right I said trilogy because I refuse to accept Age of Extinction as an installment in the Transformers series. 

Now I know how many people hate the Transformers films which is 100% fine as it is your own personal opinion, but to me watching these films again takes me back to my youth and anyone growing up around that time will probably understand the same hype and excitement eight year old me was feeling when Transformers came out in Theatre's in 2007. 
It was a film which amazed me and stuck in my brain for years later for a number of reasons.

The visuals hold up incredibly well for a film using CG effects 9 years ago, the Human and Transformer characters are mostly memorable whilst the story is fairly good. This is the same with 2 and 3 although the trilogy itself has a lot of flaws as the films go on, for instance the dialogue can be sometimes very poorly written as well as unmemorable Autobots and Decepticons that are added into the mix for the next two installments with a hint of stereotyping. Racial and social. Although these flaws are present, to me they are still very decent films which are enjoyable. 

Then that's when Transformers the Age of Extinction came along and ruined the foundations of what was a fairly good film series. Now the plot is OK and some scenes are reasonably Ok but apart from that. Lets rip this thing wide open. 

Ok , so lets begin with some of the characters. For example Nicola Peltz who has some of the worst acting I have ever seen in a blockbuster, if you don't know who she is she played Katara in the joke of film that is The Last Airbender. Her dialogue makes me cringe as she sounds like an early , also Irish actor Jack Reynor has some incredibly cringey lines that should not even be included in any film at all at anytime. 

But even Stanley Tucci wound me up big time and he has been in some fairly decent roles in his acting career mind, the reason being that his character who is an ignorant entrepreneur owns a company called KSI (notice the stupid name?). And his goal is to make his own Transformers , which is all nice and dandy until one called Galvatron (notice the 80's reference) begins to go rogue. That is the basis of the story as humans now know how to make Transformers, however I find it ridiculous that the Autobots are now being hunted by the Humans after they ended the "War of Chicago" in the third film. 

Even John Goodman who is a fantastic actor that provided the voice of memorable characters, such as the big blue lovable monster Sully and even Baloo in the Jungle Book 2. He plays an Autobot called Hound and I feel really sorry for Goodman playing this role as he should be given some much better material to work with. Now I have nothing against the actual character just the dialogue. All he does is shout of random one liners which are incredibly cheesy. 

Also the cg effects are OK, their convincing to a certain level but nowhere near as good as its predecessors. 

Overall the fourth installment is complete tripe and I wont be watching it again any time soon, hopefully the next installment will be a much bigger improvement, as it is rumored Shia Labeouf  may be returning. Now I know this rant is probably not accurate and some people could rip this film apart even more for why its bad.
But anyway this has been my movie rant. 

Ciao.

The boat that rocked big time!

Ok so last Friday I went to go and see Japan's finest metal core group Coldrain at the Thekla.

They are perhaps one of the best international band's going today as well as Crossfaith.
Their performance was excellent and the whole band played brilliantly non stop without losing steam, they are a really talented group that know how to please a crowd of screaming fans.

Lead singer Masato's cold screams blend with melodic choruses that really work well together. And makes anyone bob their head to the breakdowns as well.

I will definitely recommend Cold rain to anyone who is a fan of metal or hardcore such as Crossfaith, Asking Alexandria and Bring me the horizon.

The Jungle Book 2016 Review and Thoughts

So recently I had the pleasure of viewing the highly anticipated film The Jungle Book. 

It is a visually stunning film which I think is similar to Chicken Tikka Masala. A dish that never fails to please the pallet or the senses. Depending if you like curry or not.

But really the film is a very enjoyable film which left me feeling like I'd been injected with a needle of pure Nostalgia for a number of reasons. 


The whole premises of the film such as the atmosphere and scenery is gorgeous and truly makes you feel immersed as the re-imagined story unfolds, the depth of detail is in incredible.
The CGI characters are very well thought out and have tonnes of believability and charm, naturally making small hints of the 1967 classic show through. Bill Murray is fantastic as Baloo and is perfect for the of role of a lazy , charismatic Bear that is funny and fits in well with the performance. 

Neel Sethi is exactly like Mowgli in the original classic, with his brave but almost vulnerable stance which  feels like the character has been reincarnated in the real world. His fluent interaction with a completely CGI cast is great and makes the experience more enjoyable as he knows what to interact with at what time. 
Idris Elba is absolutely fantastic as Sheer Khan and makes the villanous Tiger feel much more powerful and intimidating than the original. And Christopher Walken is. Well. Christopher Walken need I say more. He was born to play King Louie.

However considering the pros of the film it also has its cons. Scarlet Johansen playing Kaa was fairly disappointing. Not that her role was bad at all in any way, but how much screen time the character has which makes Kaa forgettable. This was very disappointing as Kaa was a quirky character in the original classic who was sly but comical, but in the 2016 version I feel its not quite the same.
Another thing which bothered me was how much the film made me jump in places, I mean I'm not usually a jumpy person *Eyes dart in different directions*. But the sheer amount of jumpiness in the film was not even funny, John Favreau stop it man.

But really. The Jungle Book is a warm hearted film for all ages and would definantley recommend it, as it is on par with the original. It mixes modern Computer film making skills with old fashioned story telling and it works very well. I feel that from now on Disney should get Favreau to make other live action retelling's of old story's, because although Digital effects are considered over used whilst taking away the craft of making a film. The Jungle Book shows that you can create gorgeous visuals with Digital effects which has soul and passion.

Well done Mr Favreau and co. You should be proud.