paranormal activity 2

after diana and i saw the first paranormal activity movie, we loved it, but were freaked out for weeks! we slept with the light on for more than one night... so it was with trepidation that we went to see the second one. we were both worried that it would be as creepy as the first one, but also kind of secretly hopeful that it would be.
turns out that it was pretty creepy, but neither of us lost any sleep over it. this one is just like the first in that it is found footage from a family that is dealing with some strange events around their house. the first one was about a woman and her boyfriend, this one is about her relatives as they deal with the same strange presence. the movie did a good job of slowly building the tension, letting us get to know the family before we start to see the weird things happening. the quality was still there and the creepy factor was in full effect, but i think it suffers from the fact that we have seen this before. there were some new twists in this story that were different from the last one, but it just didnt get under my skin the way the last one did. i liked the way they tied in the first one with this though. over all, it was a good scary movie, just not the homerun of the first.

surrogates

i didnt really have any interest in seeing this one, but my wife's step sister actually worked on the set of this movie, so i figured id give it a try. she did warn me that it was pretty bad. turns out she was right.
the story is set in the not too distant future where they have created robot avatars that people can link up to and live through while still staying in the comfort of their own home. by this point most people do everything through their surrogate robots instead of going out and doing anything themselves. as the story unfolds we find that there is someone out there who has been killing the surrogates and the people linked in to them are dying too, which is something that has never happened before. bruce willis plays a cop who ditches his surrogate to try and get to the bottom of it all.
is sounds like a pretty interesting idea, but it really never goes anywhere. the whole thing gets muddled up with anti technology rebels and the guy who created the surrogates in the first place. the whole movie is a terrible mess, and worst of all: its boring. from the stories we heard, it sounds like the problems started on the set between the actors and director and he never seemed to be able to make anything of interest out of it.

romy and michelle's high school reunion

ok, to be honest, this movie is pretty bad. i cant lie about that. but the thing is that they know its bad and have a great time with it anyway! the set up is pretty simple, in fact, i dont even need to explain the plot, its all right there in the title! romy and michelle, two best friends, go to their high school reunion. thats it. the fun comes from the way it all plays out, and the great casting as well. lisa kudrow, as michelle, is pitch perfect, her line delivery is amazing, in fact, the little 'huh' noises she adds to the end of her statements are what saves this movie from being complete rubbish! this is especially true when you hear mira sorvino delivering her lines as romy- terrible! there is just something wrong with her voice or something, she is the definition of a bad actress (how she won an acadamy award is beyond me...). one of the funniest moments of the film is when the two of them start dancing with allen cummings- its worth watching just for that dance!
anyway, i cant justify enjoying this movie, but i did anyway.

shutter island

i've never understood all the praise for martin scorsese. i have seen many of his movies and dont really care that much for most of them. well, i finally found one i rather liked. shutter island is about a detective who comes aboard an island mental ward in order to help with the disappearance of one of the residents. the mood is created well, and dicaprio does a good job of drawing us into the mystery. we watch as he finds that some of the stories dont quite add up and he begins to piece together the clues. its a pretty good little yarn, but the twists and turns along the way were pretty easy for me to see coming. i dont know if that was true for everyone who saw it, but this was one of the rare times where i figured it out really early in the movie. most times i just let the movie take me away, but i kind of figured it out months ago from the first previews they showed for the movie. having not read anything about it, i knew what the twists were before i even started the film (and thats not due to the usual reading of reviews or anything!) so maybe the problem i had with the film wasnt the film at all, but was in the marketing giving away too much. anyway, all considered, its a pretty good flick and worth watching. i've heard that its better the second time through, but i didnt have time to watch it again, it was only a rental!

beowulf and grendel

maybe i watched this version of the beowulf story too closely to watching the animated version of the story, because in comparison, this one really really sucks! the story is the same one we have heard retold so many times: the king angers the beast grendel, he attacks the town. they call in a warrior in beowulf, and he takes down the beast but must then contend with grendel's mother. this one is rather flat and the creature make up is really lousy. its no wonder it went straight to video, where it belongs. i will admit though, the landscapes were breathtaking!

a dog's breakfast

after going to the stargate convention (i know, i'm a nerd and am ok with it) and seeing david hewlett there, i decided to give his directorial debut a try. there were many fans saying how they liked it, so i wanted to see if it was any good or not. well, its not.
the story is about a cooky shut-in, played by hewlett, who's sister comes to visit and she brings along a surprise: her fiancee! she's there to introduce him to her brother and hopefully get him to accept the new man in her life. well, hewlett doesnt take too kindly to him and overhears a conversation that sounds like the fiancee is cheating on his sister. he takes matters into his own hands and ends up killing the fiancee, accidentally of course, but kind of on purpose. he quickly buries the body and tries to hide the whole thing from his sister. the guilt haunts him, and so does the body of the fiancee...
the story is alright, the murder/accident and its cover-up are meant to be comedic and played for laughs. most of the humor seems to stem from silly sound effects that accompany a quick turn or a hit to the head. the problem is that its not really funny at all, which is never good for a movie that bills itself as a comedy. the one nice thing that i liked about the movie is that everyone in it is from a stargate tv series, which brings the score up from one star, which is what it should really be.