And action!

I'm a movie fan... I love movies. So, since I haven't posted anything about movies yet, I thought I might as well post a couple of reviews/impressions of movies I have recently seen and which I like or hate or whatever.

Running Scared... I bought the DVD on an impulse. Just because the story sounded interesting. And I wasn't disappointed at all. The story is folded a bit like a typical "Tarantino" movie, it begins somewhere near the end and you slowly get the pieces together to learn what actually happened and led to this situation. The main script string tells the story of a young mafia member. After a failed drugs transaction, during which 3 cops get killed, our "hero" gets the order to get rid of the gun which killed the detectives. He hides the gun, but his own sons' friend (a young russian boy) takes the revolver and kills his stepfather with it, which leads to this mad hunt for the gun which could put the mafia members (and the hero) behind bars.
This movie shows very ugly things. Without revealing anything about the plot as it's the story's best point (along with the awesome actors), know that the movie evolves in a dark and ultra-realistic environement. This is no good guys versus bad guys movie. All caracters are more or less tainted with bad attitudes (some are even plain assholes and others literaly psychos). So it all evolves in a pool of dirt. The fact that innocent children are plunged into this, makes the entire movie feel very hard, real and intense.
It makes you think about alot of aspects of justice in our society and what a single error can cost you. As I mentionned earlier, the cast is top-notch and delivers an awesome performance. There wasn't a second where I thought that someone was kind of "misplaced" in his role.
So my rating for this movie is easy: gorgeous, a must-see.

Failure to Lauch... I had seen ads on TV for this movie and I had already some expectations. The first problem is: I HATE Sarah Jessica Parker. I don't like her AT ALL. Be it in Sex in the City or in movies I saw her before, I just can't help it, she's really an actress I dislike. Maybe it's the fact that I don't consider her as attractive. I really don't know. On the other hand, I like Matthew McConaughey. So it was a hard, very hard decision for me to watch this movie... but I still did.
The story is pretty simple: Tripp (Matt McConaughey) is a 35 years old guy who still lives at his parents home (the mother is played by the awesome Kathy Bates). The thing is, they want to get rid of him. And that's where Paula (Sarah "The Hellhound" Jessica Parker) makes her entry. Her job is to lure guys out of their parents home by seduction and by giving them what she thinks they lack (self-confidence). But as real life is not a simple equation that can be applied to everyone, she'll have a very hard time with Tripp... and that's all the plot. There are some very (even extremely) funny situations here and there (Tripp's bad karma with animals for example). Still, don't expect anything more than first degree humor.
I won't pretend this movie is bad. It's not. It compares fairly well with movies like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" for example or "There's something about Mary", where you'll giggle a couple of times. But it remains a coupling movie, with the inevitable ending and sometimes pretty predictable gags. One thing I actually liked, was Sarah "The Monster of the Lagoon" Jessica Parker playing some sort of parody to the caracter she plays in Sex in the City.
A nice movie to watch with your family or girlfriend around.

Dead & Breakfast... Yep! I'm a horror-movie lover. A bit of blood and gore from time to time isn't bad at all if you want to have a good laugh. But since Evil Dead 3: The Army of Darkness (gosh! I love Bruce Campbell), there weren't many splatter-movies with a deliberate touch of twisted humor released. I was told that "Shawn of the Dead" is one of these movies, but I wasn't able to get a hand on the DVD (yet). One day, I was having a look in the darker corners of the DVD section of my local dealer and saw Dead & Breakfast. I had a look at the cover and thought that this movie might be worth giving a shot.
And I wasn't all wrong.
Take "The Land of the Dead", mix it with ingredients from "Scream" and other teeny shockers, add some good ol' country elements in it (locations, music, etc.) and a dose of really twisted 13nth degree humor, shake real hard until you hear the bones break and you'll have an idea of what Dead and Breakfast is all about.
The story is deliberatly simple: A bunch of teenagers are on a trip to a wedding (in a mobile-home.. smells a bit like Scooby Doo). But due to some wicked circumstances, they are forced to rest in a small texan village, in a mansion hosted by a gloomy old man (David Carradine). Of course, the old guy has a box which contains an evil spirit which, by accident, slips into one of the youngsters... blablabla... the whole village turns to zombies... blablabla... you get the picture: this movie is NOT about the engaging story. It's entirely about the gratuitous gorefests and the humorous situations which derive of them. To be honnest, I almost laughed my ass off watching it. This movie is so well balanced that the parody is never blunt (no scenes from other movies are literaly spoofed like in "Scary Movie" for example). It's more a parody of the entire genre and a very, very well-done one overall.
If you're an Evil Dead fan, this movie is for you!!! If you're a gore fan and like to have a good laugh, this movie is for you!!!

More movie reviews in the next post...