It’s been a while since I did movie review. I generally like to review movies that fall below the radar and ones that I actually liked and hence the lack of reviews over the last few months. But I just found another little gem. Lo.
This is a nice independent dark comedy/horror film but personally I’d say it’s more of an urban fantasy film. One thing for sure this is an artsy film as well. No nifty CGI special effects. No buckets of gore. No cinematic fight scenes. Not even elaborate sets. Some of the sets are something like you would see in a backwater community theater. This doesn’t detract from the movie. It adds to its charm.
Lo is pretty simple story. Boy meets girl. Girl gets kidnapped by demons. Boy summons demon to get the girl back. Boy and demon talk a lot. That’s pretty much the plot without giving away any spoilers. My first thought after watching this movie is that it could have easily been a Buffy episode just without any of the regular cast. Heck, even one of the demons says, “Let me explain this to you. In song . . . ” Yes, there is a musical number in the movie.
It’s been a while since I did a movie review and never thought that it would be a movie from Iceland but this at least deserves notice thanks to the huge amount of geekiness in the film.
Astropia (aka Dorks & Damsels) has pretty simple concept for a romantic comedy/gamer movie. A hot chick has everything and then loses it. The only job she can find is at a Comic/RPG store. Hilarity ensues. Now the movie is a bit slow in places but in between those yawn moments are some geeky gems that almost live up to The Gamers or Dorkness Rising. I never thought that I would hear the line, “Do you have The Book of Vile Darkness by Monte Cook?” Yep, that’s a line from the movie.
Overall, I’d say it’s a good but not great movie. Like I said there are parts that are just slow. And it may annoy some people but on the DVD I got from Netflix only English subtitles were the best you could do. No English dubbed version for those of you it might turn off.
So if you’re looking for an obscure gaming/geeky movie this one might just fill out your experience. And this is one of those cases where you really shouldn’t judge a movie my its trailer. Yeah, the trailer sucks with the movie voice over guy.
Recommendation: Rent it if you have the time and you are really into gaming and geekery.
Yep, I’m reviewing another movie from a few years back. This another in the long line of movies produced by Quentin Tarantino and it’s definitely got his fingerprints all over it. This is a good thing.
Hell Ride is a story of honor, revenge, sex, violence, secrets and buried treasure all centered around two rival motorcycle gangs. The feel, the music, the dialog and the story are all grind house Tarantino style. If you don’t mind boobs, beer, blood and a few F-Bombs and liked other Tarantino projects then watch this one.
There’s a pretty good cast here too: Micheal Madsen, Eric Balfour, Dennis Hopper, David Carrdine and Vinnie Jones. What can I really say about this movie other than it’s Tarantino, dude!
Once again, I’m digging into the past to drum up movie that every geek should see sometime in their live time. This time I’m talking about Fanboys. Now, I know there some controversies around the film during its development and screenings. So I just had to see it for myself.
This movie should be some sort of geek rite of passage. It’s freakin’ Star Wars, man. I think it’s a pretty fun movie. Like most of the movies I like, it’s not high brow or intellectually engaging. And the list cameos by various stars just makes this little movie a bit more endearing. It’s just a fun geeky movie. Sit back with some beer and popcorn and enjoy it.
I might take a little flak for giving this movie a Buy It recommendation. But there’s a good reason for this. While the plot and jokes aren’t complicated, the movie has great potential as a part of geek-fest movie marathon. Gather some friends. Forage for munchies. And start plugging in DVD’s. Shout at the screen. Just go all crazy MST3K and Rocky Horror on it. And I mean that in a good way.
Recommendation: Rent it. Sorry the ending is so silly.
There’s some really good movies that have come out of Russia. If haven’t see Nightwatch yet, do so now. But that’s not what this review is about. This is about Wolfhound, a fairly decent fantasy tale from the East.
Yeah, I said fairly decent. The set up is pretty standard. Bad guys murder an entire village except for one child who gets sent to mines. Said child grows fights for his freedom and becomes our stoic hero. But don’t hold that against it. The action sequences are gritty. The characters are interesting and actually break away from some of the stereotypes that us Americans are used to and I’m sure there were some cultural references that I totally missed. The story is pretty good tale of unjust kings, curses, arranged marriages and revenge. I really like the production design of the movie as well. There weren’t any polished marble halls. Everybody was pretty much in rags walking through the mud. Our Hero, Wolfhound, does have the habit of picking up a ragtag band of sidekicks who he then allows to go off on their own quest but of course they are reunited at the end. And special nods should go out to one of the coolest animal companions, Ragged Wing the Fruit Bat.
I really enjoyed the first three quarters of the movie. But the end. Errr. Kind of silly. I’ll try to avoid spoilers but you have been warned. The bat turns into a helpful sidekick ala Beastmaster. And our hero ends up with biggest freaking light saber in the entire universe. Really, that thing is like 100 feet long. No I am not kidding. And there’s more silliness at the end but I don’t want to spoil it for you. Just kind of ignore the end and enjoy the rest of the movie.
When I take the time to just chill I like to dig to the depths of my Netflix and watch those things that I thought would be interesting at the time. One of those was obviously The Haunted World of El Superbeasto.
This little animated feature is based off a comic by Rob Zombie. And just what is it? Think a cross between Ren & Stimpy, Hellboy, Buffy and Scooby Doo without the hindrance of any sort of network censorship. I want to make this perfectly clear. This is NOT a kiddie cartoon in way, shape or form. In some parts, we’re talkin’ cartoon pr0n. So put the little tikes to bed if you’re thinking about watching this. Got it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. There’s a pretty good cast of voice actors for this too. Loraine Newman (from the golden years of SNL), Clint Howard, Brian Posehn, Danny Trejo, Paul Giamatti, Rosario Dawson and you can’t have any sort of horror spoof with Cassandra Peterson (for those of lacking horror-geek cred, that’s Elvira).
The plot of is pretty simple. Dr. Satan is out to marry a woman with the mark of the beast on her ass. If he does this he gains the sudsy powers of Hell. He kidnaps stipper Velvet von Black (the “lady” with the devilish birthmark). El Superbeasto gets involved only because he wants to bang said stripper. His sister, Suzy X, gets involved because that’s the sort of thing she does. Let the action and animated boobies begin.
With all that a side, I thought it was pretty fun in mind numbing sort of way. This isn’t any sort of high brow humor but there’s plenty of the off beat bathroom type gags for a few laughs. One of the best things I thought about the movie were the songs. Why’d you have to rip-off Carrie? A parody of all those bubble gum pop numbers from the old Scooby Doo but this time about Nazi Zombies. And of course there’s even one about cartoon porn.
Another sneak peak and spoilers ahead but I don’t think those don’t matter much in this case.
Recommendation: Buy it used or from the discount bin
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