This weeks movie viewing was a sorted mix. I watched most with the family, except Tucker and Dale, which my wife rolled her eyes at and my boys aren't old enough to watch. Water for Elephants I watched with my wife, Island of Lost Souls and Mars Needs Moms I watched with my sons. The rest were my viewing alone. Enjoy.
Water for Elephants
I read the book and was excited about the movie from the first announcement, that is until I saw they had cast Robert Pattinson as the lead. The dude is as wooden an actor as there is, and so that pretty much killed any desire I had of watching it in the theaters. I was still interested a little because of Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz, and hoping that they did a decent job of taking it from book to film. We rented it via Netflix and I must say I was surprised by Pattinson. He had his "Twilight" moments of being a horrible actor, but for the most part I thought he was pretty good. Waltz and Witherspoon were amazing and the movie lived up to my experience that I had with the book. It wasn't enough to include it on my top ten list, but it is worthy of buying. A rare film that moved me to tears several times and a beautiful film experience as a whole.
The Island of Lost Souls
I saw this come out on Criterion and was immediately intrigued by the pictures I saw and the love it was getting as a horror film. I was pleased that it lived up to the hype and is a true horror film. Not like today's gore fests or jump scare tactics, but a true psychologically scary film. It's sad that today's modern horror films have to go to the lengths they do to either fill the screen with blood, violence, sex and disgusting premises. This is horror at its best and it is what I grew up watching with the original Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. A black and white film from 1932, Charles Laughton is creepy as Dr. Moreau. He carries the film , along with his creatures who are a tad bit spooky in their own right, and the interaction between his rare guest and himself is disturbing. It is a rare treat and I am glad that Criterion included it in their collection. Definitely worth checking out. It is only one of a handful of films that are horror films I hope will one day find itself in my collection.
Mars Needs Moms
This is such a strange film. I can now understand why it failed miserably in the theaters. While it had its moments of making me smile and had some decent visuals, the story was just so bizarre that I didn't care much. My boys sat transfixed the entire time and they enjoyed it, so I'll give it that. Not one I would recommend. Too weird.
I'm not sure when the last time was that I laughed this hard during the movie. Probably Nacho Libre. This film is not for everyone. I think it takes a certain sense of humor to appreciate it, and normally I don't do gory things, but in this film they were overshadowed by the absurdity of the plot, and the perfect comedic timing of Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk. There are so many awesome one liners in the movie. It's not a horror movie as much as it makes fun of horror movies, but not in a cheesy Scary Movie way. It's one of those films that I can just throw in and laugh at. The language is vulgar, and a I mentioned above, it's pretty bloody and gory at times. It's currently streaming on Netflix. I've been told it's a lot like Shaun of the Dead, so if you enjoyed that flick, check this one out!
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