Weekly Movie Roundup: 1-1-12 to 1-7-12

For this, the first week of the new year, we have two winners and two losers. I like it when things are even like that.


11-11-11 (2011)
Oh my goodness... what a piece of crap. I am very nearly speechless about how crappy this movie was. It could have been good, it really could have but a lot of things just don't work here. It has an interesting premise, I guess with the whole 11-11-11 thing, but the actors don't do their jobs well. Then again, I feel bad blaming them because the story is plain retarded and the way it is presented is sloppy and silly. If all the devil worshippers needed was the boy and to have his parents away from him so that he could become the devil or whatever, then why the hell do they bother dropping hints all week to anybody who will listen? Wouldn't it have made more sense to act completely normal and then just bombard the family on the kid's birthday, kill the parents and let the son do his thing? But no, this way, the bad guys give the good guys plenty of opportunity to thwart them, and guess what? They do! What a shock! The father in this movie is also terrible and completely unbelievable and unlikable in everything he says and does. Bad movie. Bad, bad movie.

Hostel Part 3 (2011)

Jiminy Christmas, another piece of crap. I have this whole love/hate relationship with the Hostel movies. I don't love all the boobies and the overall misogynistic tone, but I love the overall concept, and the gore and the insanity. The movies really deliver on those counts. So I was expecting something maybe ten times as insane as either of the first two movies and what I got was the complete opposite. There is hardly any fucking blood or gore to be found anywhere here! What bullshit! All of the torture scenes were way too tame and immensely disappointing. Even at the end, when they had the chance to make up for it with that death by tilling machine, what do they do? They cut away and don't show us a damn thing. LAME. One thing I did like about the movie was John Hensley, the guy with the gimp leg, because for once I got to see him in a sympathetic role and he's not playing a douchebag like the other stuff I've seen him in (i.e. Nip/Tuck and the movie Shutter). Otherwise, avoid this like a venereal disease.

Revolutionary Road (2008)
And now for something completely different!
YOU GUYS. I don't just love this movie, I am freaking IN LOVE with it. I remember seeing Revolutionary Road for the first time after reading the book - a fantastic book - and being utterly amazed and ecstatic that this beautiful story I had read was being put up on the big screen exactly how I pictured it in my head. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio (whom I usually don't love all that much) far exceeded my expectations in how they brought Frank and April Wheeler to life - these very complex and emotional characters. I love this story, whether you think it is more a tale of a conflicted relationship or a social comment on life in the 50s. It works both ways and if you blend them together, it works even well. By far though, my favorite part of the movie is the final scene. Kathy Bates' character is complaining to her husband about how she didn't really like the Wheelers, how they were weird and neurotic. Her husband looks at her... and then slowly just turns his hearing aid down. The whole point of the movie is in that one gesture, and goodness help me, I abso-fucking-lutely LOVE IT.

Kidnapped (2010)

Not gonna say too much about this movie here because I want to do a real review of it in the next few days. Let's just say that although the style choice is nothing new and the plot has been done a dozen times over, I still loved the movie and thought it was quite successful at sucking me in and keeping me watching until the very bloody and surprising end. Excellent camera work and acting (although Isa was a tad annoying most of the time) make this one a very engrossing tale. Good entry to the whole home invasion horror movie thing.