Title: Evil Aliens

Starring: Christopher Adamson, Emily Booth, Sam Butler, Tree Carr, Tim Clark, Glenn Collier, Jennifer Evans, Mark Richard Hayes, Jamie Honeybourne, Scott Joseph, Norman Lovett
Director: Jake West

Plot: A TV film crew for Weird World visit an island where a girl is reportedly pregnant with an alien baby.

Review: This was a horrible movie. The plot was incredibly stupid and almost non existent in the second portion. The acting was laughable as. And with all of these things I have to say that this movie was funny and very enjoyable. Despite all of its short comings, it was a hilarious, low budget, masterful gore-fest.

Ok, maybe masterful is a bit much, but it was still a very funny movie. One problem with this movie was the odd cinematography as it was filmed completely on digital which gave it a different feeling than a Hollywood movie, or even your typical low budget flick. It wasn’t a horrible decision because some of the scenes looked great, but for every scene that the looked good there was one that looked like a home movie. Overall though the film looked really good in my opinion, the costumes for the aliens were pretty good as well as the sets aboard the alien craft. The special effects were very well done on the part of the space ships, and the blood effects were decent.

On the subject of blood, this movie was rife with it. The gore and scenes of a sexual nature made the R rating on this very well deserved. Several of said sex scenes were, while hilarious, very unnecessary. Some may find the gore just as unnecessary but I thought it was great in the vein of Braindead (for those of you who don’t know it’s an early Peter Jackson, extremely gory, movie).

It is hard to say whether you or not you would enjoy this film, but I found it funny and entertaining to a great extent. The characters were funny and while its not a “good” movie I thought that it was well done overall there were some well done elements that made it watchable.

* * * * * * * _ _ _ (7 out of ten)

Popularity: 9% [?]

Title: The Village

Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Plot: The population of a small, isolated countryside village believe that their alliance with the mythical creatures that inhabit the forest around them is coming to an end.

Review: The plot was ok though a bit predictable, and the acting was great, especially by Howard. Where this movie failed was in that it was supposed to be this big horror movie, and while it had elements of this, it really wasn’t the biggest part of the story and it was more of a “love” story between Howard’s and Phoenix’s characters. It was still a pretty good movie but not what I expected going in.

* * * * * * \ _ _ _ (6.5 out of ten)

Popularity: 7% [?]

Title: Batman Begins

Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman
Director: Christopher Nolan

Plot: The story of how Bruce Wayne became what he was destined to be: Batman.

Review: I think that this was a great vision of the story of Batman, and that in general I think that the characters were portrayed well by the actors. Christian Bale had a hard job and while I thought he did a great job as Bruce Wayne however Batman left something to be desire, was it just me or did he get all throaty as Batman?

* * * * * * * * * _ (10 out of ten)

Popularity: 8% [?]

Title: Reservoir Dogs

Starring: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Chris Penn, Michael Madsen, Lawrence Tierney

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Plot: Five Total Strangers Team Up For The Perfect Crime. They Don’t Know Each Other’s Name. But They’ve Got Each Other’s Number

Review: This was a compelling story chock full of Tarantino’s typical dialogue. Also full of interesting characters and a good soundtrack, there isn’t much to say other than Watch this movie. You may have seen Kill Bill, and if you liked that you will definitely like this.

* * * * * * * * * \ (9.5 out of ten)

Popularity: 7% [?]

Title: Constantine

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Tilda Swinton, Gavin Rossdale, Djimon Hounsou, Shia LaBeouf, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Peter Stormare
Director: Francis Lawrence

Plot: Based on the DC/Vertigo comic book Hellblazer and written by Kevin Brodbin, Mark Bomback and Frank Capello, Constantine tells the story of irreverent supernatural detective John Constantine (Keanu Reeves), who has literally been to hell and back.

Review:  I thought that this was a good movie with interesting story and a role that seemed meant for Reeves. I enjoyed the rest of the characters and there was definitely good effects. All of this came together in a movie that I could come back to.

* * * * * * * * _ _ (8 out of ten)

Popularity: 9% [?]

Title: Slither

Starring: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker, Gregg Henry, Tania Saulnier, Brenda James, Don Thompson, Jenna Fischer
Director: James Gunn

Plot: A small town is taken over by an alien plague, turning residents into zombies and all forms of mutant monsters.

Review: This was a funny movie with a decent plot that was just a good time. One of the best horror films I have seen in a long time.

* * * * * * * * \ _ (8.5 out of ten)

Popularity: 8% [?]

Title: The Big Lebowski

Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, David Huddleston
Director: Joel Coen

Plot: “Dude” Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire Lebowski, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it.

Review: This was a very funny movie and to better describe it here it is from the director’s mouth, “[we] wanted to do a Chandler kind of story - how it moves episodically, and deals with the characters trying to unravel a mystery. As well as having a hopelessly complex plot that’s ultimately unimportant.”

This is simply an amusing story with great characters and great music.

* * * * * * * * * * (10 out of ten)

Popularity: 7% [?]

Title: Serenity

Starring: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Ron Glass

Director: Joss Whedon

Plot: The crew of the Serenity is getting desperate. They have lain lower and lower to protect their doctor, Simon Tam, and his telepathic traumatized little sister, River, from the alliance, whom he rescued her from a year earlier. This has made getting jobs harder and now they are desperate. When they take River on a robbery during which Reavers attack, Simon decides that its time to leave the crew of the Serenity for his and River’s safety. She then mutters “Miranda” and goes berserk and nearly shoots Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, until her brother says the safety word to put her to sleep. Reynolds decides to take them back on board for safety, only now an alliance operative is on their tracks and making Reynolds determined to find out what “Miranda” is and what the Alliance is hiding.

Review: If you have read my review of Firefly (the TV show that was prematurely canceled by Fox) then you probably already know what I am going to say about this movie (if you have not read my review of Firefly yet you probably should as Serenity is a continuation not just a Filmographication of Firefly), a glorious continuation of the story of 9 people aboard Serenity. I am not saying that this movie was a perfect transformation of TV show to full length feature film but I still enjoyed this movie to a great degree.

As I have already sung the praises of Firefly, and this takes many things from that such as the wonderful characters, great plot, and use of cinematography, colors, and music to set moods and tones, and based on this I’ll have to discuss primarily the shortcomings that Serenity had in “living up” to the show. One thing I really disliked was the character development, we still get what is necessary for the story, but the development isn’t there for other characters. We learn about Mal, Inara, River and Simon, but the rest are simply there to add to the adventure. Wash, in particular, I thought was the most ignored when compared to the series. Another minor problem was in the general feel of Serenity, like the hovercraft replacing the atv, its not integral to the plot or anything it just made it feel less “homely”. In this same vein was the coloring of the cargo bay, much more metallic than in the original, again minor changes.

Something that was a major change was the manner in which River was freed from “the academy”. While I think it was necessary to condense the story, it changed the way in which the characters like Simon were viewed. Simon and Mal were both less personable because we lost their motivations, the things that made them “real” people. This and other reasons are why it is a good idea to watch the series before watching the movie so that you can get the whole experience.

Something I failed to mention in the Firefly review was the great dialogue and humor that these both had. Both were superb and on this positive note I will say that this was a great movie. Not as good as the show but a good telling in its own right.

* * * * * * * * * \ (9.5 out of ten)

The only MAJOR problem I had with this movie was the rampant killing off of characters, WHYY WHEDON!!!!! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Popularity: 9% [?]

Title: Down in the Valley

Starring: Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood
Director: David Jacobson

Plot: Set in modern-day San Fernando Valley, California, a delusional man named Harlan (Norton) thinks he is a cowboy and falls in love with a rebellious young woman named Tobe (Wood).

Review: This movie is one of the reasons that I respect Norton as an actor, this is a strange movie that takes chances and strays from your typical Hollywood movie. I think that it was an interesting plot with good characters but nothing really spoke to me in it. I would suggest you pick it up if you are looking for something new, but I wouldn’t expect to be blown away.

* * * * * * * _ _ _ (7 out of ten)

Popularity: 6% [?]

Title: The South Park Movie: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut

Starring: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Pam Brady
Director: Trey Parker

Plot: When the four boys see an R-rated movie featuring Canadians Terrance & Phillip, they are pronounced “corrupted”, and their parents pressure the United States to wage war against Canada.

Review: A Great movie for anyone who is a fan of South Park, and maybe even for those who dislike it. As always with South Park a bit heavy on the poop humor but there is high level stuff there. The musical aspect of this is not to be dismissed and truly adds to movie. This is just more love for those who will.

* * * * * * * \ _ _ (7.5 out of ten)

Popularity: 6% [?]