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The Movies of 2014


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#811 tdalton

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Posted 16 October 2014 - 05:59 AM

There never should have been a sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.  That film was, on its own, a solid piece of entertainment with a great turn by Depp as Sparrow.  That film said pretty much everything that needed to be said in terms of the story, the characters, etc.  The sequels were unnecessary, and it showed.



#812 Call Billy Bob

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Posted 16 October 2014 - 06:10 AM

The sequels were unnecessary, and it showed.

Unnecessary or not, I enjoyed them but can understand why most don't.



#813 seawolfnyy

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Posted 16 October 2014 - 12:27 PM

There never should have been a sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.  That film was, on its own, a solid piece of entertainment with a great turn by Depp as Sparrow.  That film said pretty much everything that needed to be said in terms of the story, the characters, etc.  The sequels were unnecessary, and it showed.

In my opinion, it's not that the film didn't merit sequels. The problem is that the producers followed the Matrix model of cutting the second movie into 2 parts after the first was only meant to be one film. If Dead Man's Chest had been a contained story, I think the 3rd entry could've gone better. For me, the bar for second sequel has been set by Toy Story 3. I don't know if we'll ever see a movie neatly wrap up a trilogy the way that one did.



#814 SecretAgentFan

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Posted 16 October 2014 - 12:42 PM

I loved the first film.  I was keen on a sequel - but that one I was disappointed about (see "The Matrix").  Being a completist, I couldn´t stand not watching the third part - so I felt obligated to see that, too.  I liked it a bit better but it was still nowhere near as good as the first one (see "The Matrix").  But because of the goodwill that Johnny Depp had caused with the first film I even watched the fourth one.  And I was even more disappointed by that film.

 

Now, they are doing a fifth one... and I fear I will watch that one, too.  

 

I know, it´s my problem.



#815 Call Billy Bob

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Posted 16 October 2014 - 01:20 PM

I'll be in the cinema with you, SAF!



#816 x007AceOfSpades

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Posted 25 October 2014 - 07:26 PM

Dracula Untold - 2014 - 2/5 - Directed by Gary Shore - starring Luke Evans and Charles Dance

Film 20 in the 2014 Halloween Film Fest
"Men do not fear swords. They Fear Monsters."

 

So Dracula Untold is the first film in Universal Pictures' planned cinematic universe that will be rebooting the Universal Monsters. Dracula Untold was marketed as the untold story, yet he loosely borrows from Bram Stoker's novel and more from the infamous Vlad Tepes, or Vlad The Impaler. Dracula is a character that has been believed to been influenced by Vlad, and you can see it in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film, Bram Stoker's Dracula. Here, this is merely a mix and match of both, Dracula and Vlad Tepes, and leaves you wanting more.

 

Luke Evans plays Vlad Tepes, the prince of Transylvania, and while on a scouting mission, they discover a helmet of a Turk that they may believe has entered Transylvania. They enter a cave, but all of Vlad's men are killed while Vlad escapes. When he returns to Transylvania the Turkish Party arrive and demand one thousand boys to be given over to Mehmed II (Dominic Cooper) for his army. Refusing to comply, Vlad goes back to the cave where his men were killed and meets Caligula (Charles Dance), an ancient Vampire and gives him the powers of a Vampire to fight the impending doom that awaits his people, and thus, Dracula is born.

 

I honestly do not know why I saw this, let alone including it in my Halloween Film Fest. It wasn't remotely scary, and instead played out more like an action film. Most of the battle scenes are just the usual hack & slash, along with Vlad using his power to turn and summon bats and just mow people down, which quickly becomes old. This film does have some great sets and beautiful locations, being that it was shot in Northern Ireland, but the action is stale, and Dracula doesn't feel like a monster. He feels more like some anti-hero which is obviously what the film is trying to establish.

 

I don't mind that they, the filmmakers, were trying to combine both the classic mythology of Vlad Tepes being a vampire and that of Bram Stoker's Count Dracula, provided they actually follow both men very closely. This isn't a newer version, or an origin story of Stoker's character, nor is it a film about Vlad The Impaler, instead it's how Universal want's the film, and they want the story done, just so it can fit in their new cinematic universe they are creating. Is it just too much to ask for something good these days? Ever since Twilight, studios just want to make vampires and vampire films cater to young people and show them in a good light. Vampires are evil. Plain and simple. Is it too much to ask for a violent, bloody, retelling of Dracula infused with Vlad The Impaler? Apparently so.

 

Luke Evans though is actually pretty good as Vlad Tepes, and a lot better than the original choice, Sam Worthington. Having said that, while I did enjoy Evans as the master of all vampires, that one scene with Caligula, played by Charles Dance of Game Of Thrones (Tywin Lannister) is probably the best scene in the whole film. Charles Dance absolutely kills it and was utterly creepy. The rest of the acting was just average. No one was really impressive like Evans and Dance. This may be the untold story of Count Dracula, but for Universal Pictures. We all know the story of Vlad The Impaler and Stoker's Count Dracula and all the theories and mythologies and such. Dracula Untold doesn't break new ground at all for the classic character, and is a largely forgettable film.

 

"Let the games begin."

 

Annabelle - 2014 - 0/5 - Directed by John R. Leonetti - starring Ward Horton and Annabelle Wallis

Film 22 in the 2014 Halloween Film Fest
"May God have mercy on your soul!"

 

Annabelle is a prequel to James Wan's 2013 (disappointing) horror film, The Conjuring. It focuses on the evil doll in the beginning of Wan's film, Annabelle. It's an origin story of the evil doll, except, none of it is remotely worth watching. I haven't seen or written a review in a week, and I'm ashamed that this is my coming back to reviewing films. The film opens up with beginning scene from The Conjuring with the young people telling and Ed and Lorraine Warren their experiences with the doll. One year prior to the The Conjuring, John and Mia Form, (Ward Horton and Annabelle Wallis, respectively) are expecting a child. John buys Mia a doll that she's been looking for, and that same night their neighbors are killed by a woman and her boyfriend, who are apart of a satanic cult. They attack John and Mia, and when the police arrive, the woman has killed herself, and her blood falls on the face of the doll. After that, you know what follows. Doll becomes possessed by evil-ness. Doll terrorizes couple.

 

I didn't find The Conjuring to be remotely scary, let alone interesting. I'm not a fan of James Wan either to be honest, and I find The Conjuring to be extremely overrated. I still don't know why Warner Bros/New Line Cinema shoehorned this prequel into production instead of trying to fast track a sequel to The Conjuring ASAP. I don't see what made the doll so scary, and sure as hell don't know why this film got made. Oh wait, money. Anyways, Annabelle is directed by John R. Leonetti, the cinematographer on The Conjuring and several of James Wan's films, and Leonetti tries to convey a style that is similar to that of Wan's film. Yes, this is a prequel, but at least think outside the box and give the film a style of it's own instead of trying to rely on another film instead. Not to mention how dreadfully boring this one was. It's much shorter than The Conjuring, yet manages to be much more boring. It also relies on the same tricks and cliches present in Wan's film, as well as countless other horror films. Lot's of jump scares, lot's of creepy music that rises in those scenes to sound "scary". It's not fun.

 

I think it's safe to say that I didn't enjoy this. You can easily tell by my rating too, that I definitely didn't like this. This was a waste of time. Easily one of the worst films of the year. If you want a watch a horror film about an evil doll, do yourself a favor, go watch Tom Holland's Child's Play and thank me later.

 

"I like your dolls"

 

 

The Town That Dreaded Sundown - 2014 - 4/5 - Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon - starring Addison Timlin and Ed Lauter

Film 23 in the 2014 Halloween Film Fest
"Turn around. Do not look back."

 

I can see the approach Charles B. Pierce was going for with his 1976 horror film, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, but ultimately I just didn't enjoy it. Now I'm not the biggest supporter of remakes, specifically that of horror films, but I have to say that The Town That Dreaded Sundown is actually really, really good. In fact it's not even really a remake. It's like a quasi-sequel/reboot. The film takes place sixty-five years after the Texarkana Moonlight Murders took place, where the small, quiet town was terrorized by a masked man known only as "The Phantom Killer". Since then, a film loosely inspired about the killings has come out called "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" and is shown every year at the drive in theater on October 31st. One night, Jami and Corey (Addison Timlin and Spencer Treat Clark, respectively) are making out in Lover's Lane, when suddenly The Phantom Killer appears. The Phantom Killer viciously stabs Corey to death and chases Jami into the woods, but spares her. Questions are raised as to whether or not this is someone copying the film from 1976, or a copycat, or is it the same killer that they never caught from over 65 years ago.

 

One of the biggest surprises for me was seeing the Orion Pictures logo at the very beginning. I guess MGM is reviving Orion, which is pretty sweet. Been way too long since I've seen that logo. Anyways, I really enjoyed this and found it to be very refreshing to the slasher genre. It's really a film about a film about a real life series of murders in the end. The original film is presented in an almost documentary style, and this one follows almost the same style of murders from the original film, but this Town That Dreaded Sundown is more fast paced, and much more of a slasher than Charles B. Pierce's film.The editing is probably one of the biggest aspects about the film I can appraise. It's edited very well, and the key scenes with the Phantom Killer are done beautifully, compared to most editing in horror films today. The cinematography was also well done two with some very uniquely done shots in the opening attack with twists and skewed angles, it sounds like it doesn't work, but by all means, it does. I also appreciate how The Phantom Killer was made much more menacing this time around. Worth mentioning that I liked how in some scenes they would insert little cuts of the original Pierce film in there.

 

As for the tone of the film, with the original Pierce film, I was calling back to the Zodiac killer as There are some similarities between The Phantom Killer and The Zodiac Killer, and in this film, I definitely feel and see more of the similarities between the two psychopath's. It's definitely a dark slasher film, and well made one too, which is great because we live in an era where old school slasher films are almost non-existent. Why? Because the studios care more about releasing so called "horror films" that focus on unknown evil entities, paranormal BS, and evil dolls. It also manages to be the first modern horror film to have my attention throughout, which is also becoming rare to come across.

 

All in all, The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a superbly made film and I recommend it to everyone; fan or not of the original Charles B. Pierce film.

 

"She said her grandson would do, what her son didn't have the balls to do. Make Texarkana pay for it's sins."

 

LOOKING FORWARD TO: (Most anticipated are highlighted in bold and red)

Inherent Vice

Exodus

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies

American Sniper

Blackhat (May have limited release at the end of the year)

Hercules

The Drop

The Judge

Fury

Horrible Bosses 2

HAVE SEEN:

RoboCop - 1/5

Need For Speed - 4/5

Sabotage - 1.5/5

Nymphomaniac - 4/5

300: Rise Of An Empire - 0/5

Takedown: The DNA Of GSP - 4/5

Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 3/5

Neighbors - 0/5

Godzilla - 2.5/5

X-Men: Days Of Future Past - 5/5

The Raid 2 - 0/5

22 Jump Street - 4/5

Deliver Us From Evil - 4/5

Under The Skin - 5/5

Edge Of Tomorrow - 4.5/5

Non-Stop - 3/5

The Monuments Men - 1/5

Locke - 4/5

Enemy - 4.5/5

The Purge: Anarchy - 3.5/5

The Expendables 3 - 2/5

Lucy - 3.5/5

Joe - 4.5/5

Snowpiercer - 4.5/5

Noah - 2.5/5

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit - 1.5/5

Guardians Of The Galaxy - 3.5/5

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes - 3.5/5

Dom Hemingway - 3.5/5

Transcendence - 2.5/5

The Grand Budapest Hotel - 5/5

Chef - 4.5/5

The Signal - 3.5/5

3 Days To Kill - 1/5

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - 0/5

I, Frankenstein - 0/5

Boyhood - 5/5

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For - 2/5

Houdini - 3/5

Maleficent - 1/5

Brick Mansions - 2/5

Into The Storm - 0/5

Let's Be Cops - 3.5

Gone Girl - 5/5

Wolf Creek - 3.5/5

Stretch - 4.5/5

Open Windows - 3/5

Dracula Untold - 2/5

Annabelle - 0/5

The Town That Dreaded Sundown - 4/5



#817 S K Y F A L L

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 12:43 AM

FURIOUS 7 trailer coming next Sunday. 

 

 

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/69259

 

hr_furious_7_19_large.jpg



#818 x007AceOfSpades

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 02:43 AM

Terminator: Genisys Plot Synopsis POSSIBLE SPOILERS: READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

 

Spoiler


#819 Call Billy Bob

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 06:13 AM

Spoiler



#820 x007AceOfSpades

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 06:17 AM

Spoiler

Spoiler



#821 Call Billy Bob

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 06:18 AM

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Spoiler



#822 x007AceOfSpades

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 06:26 AM

 

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler



#823 Call Billy Bob

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 06:27 AM

 

 

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

I can get behind this.



#824 x007AceOfSpades

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 07:05 AM

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

I can get behind this.

 

I think I can as well. If it's done right, It'll be much better than the third film, but I don't think it will come any where near the first two Cameron films. Those are just masterpieces in the history of Sci-Fi and cinema. Having said that,

Spoiler



#825 The Dove

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 02:25 PM

Terminator: Genisys Plot Synopsis POSSIBLE SPOILERS: READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

 

Spoiler

 

It sounds like we are getting into some serious Doctor Who-ish territory with Terminator: Genisys.. :P  I'm actually more curious than ever to see how much more the whole Terminator timeline gets screwed up with this movie..LOL..



#826 Call Billy Bob

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 02:47 PM

The Dalek-Cybermen-SkyNet war begins!



#827 Agent 76

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 03:01 PM

So the son of John Connor will be called

Spoiler
 

 

how original 



#828 Call Billy Bob

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 03:06 PM

I have a feeling things will get real confusing, with or without same character first names.



#829 x007AceOfSpades

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 04:11 PM

 

Terminator: Genisys Plot Synopsis POSSIBLE SPOILERS: READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

 

Spoiler

 

It sounds like we are getting into some serious Doctor Who-ish territory with Terminator: Genisys.. :P  I'm actually more curious than ever to see how much more the whole Terminator timeline gets screwed up with this movie..LOL..

 

It does sound a bit confusing at first, but I see where they are going and what they are doing. They're pretty much going the Star Trek 2009 route with an alternate timeline, and Arnie is just there to transition it, much like Leonard Nimoy was for the Star Trek film.

 

Funny thing about Doctor Who, the former Doctor, Matt Smith, has a major role in this, lol.



#830 Agent 76

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 04:12 PM

I have a feeling things will get real confusing, with or without same character first names.

I'm already confused  :D



#831 x007AceOfSpades

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 04:26 PM

 

I have a feeling things will get real confusing, with or without same character first names.

I'm already confused  :D

 

Spoiler



#832 S K Y F A L L

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 05:07 PM

The only thing that I like coming out of that synopsis is that they are in the future and we should finally get to see them capture a terminator and use time travel. After that it feels like something we've already seen. I look forward to going back to the 90s and I don't mind seeing another CGI Arnold but I get the feeling the story would have been stronger if it had just been a sequel. I wonder if the liquid terminator from T2 or terminator for T3 will ever be brought back...



#833 x007AceOfSpades

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 06:19 PM

The only thing that I like coming out of that synopsis is that they are in the future and we should finally get to see them capture a terminator and use time travel. After that it feels like something we've already seen. I look forward to going back to the 90s and I don't mind seeing another CGI Arnold but I get the feeling the story would have been stronger if it had just been a sequel. I wonder if the liquid terminator from T2 or terminator for T3 will ever be brought back...

That was originally going to be part of the basis for the cancelled Terminator Salvation sequel. They were going to capture a terminator and use time travel and eventually meet the scientist that would be the basis for the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) from Terminator 2. Unfortunately the studio, The Halcyon Company, filed bankruptcy, then the holding company that secured loans for the studio got a hold of the rights, and now Paramount has the rights.

 

As for the "liquid terminator" in Genisys.

Spoiler



#834 Call Billy Bob

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Posted 27 October 2014 - 06:20 PM

I'm behind anything that possibly gets me more Robert Patrick on my movie screen.



#835 x007AceOfSpades

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Posted 28 October 2014 - 02:49 AM

I'm behind anything that possibly gets me more Robert Patrick on my movie screen.

I'd love to see him return to the Terminator Franchise. Though we won't see in him in Genisys, there's always the next two films in the new trilogy, May 2017 and June 2018.



#836 thecasinoroyale

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Posted 29 October 2014 - 04:26 PM

EW has two brand new covers with looks at 'Terminator Genisys'.

 

 

HAHA! Sorry....Doctor Who looking badass? And a Terminator performs a photobomb.

 

MATT-JASON-EW-1336.jpg

 

 

EMILIA-JAI-EW-1336.jpg
 

 

 


#837 Call Billy Bob

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Posted 29 October 2014 - 04:31 PM

Eleven! What about the no guns rule, Doctor?!? It's a bit jarring seeing him like this, but I'm glad Matt is doing big things now :)

 

And I never liked Game of Thrones... but I'm in love with Emilia Clarke now. She's got that Linda Hamilton look down!



#838 thecasinoroyale

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Posted 29 October 2014 - 04:38 PM

Don't know what look Jai Courtney is after, but points for trying to look badass.

 

In fact both covers just attempt to look TOO badass I think.

 

Pity we don't have any with Arnie...that'd be a buzz setter.

 

 

Notice how they won't give away Matt Smith's character name either? Hmmm.



#839 Call Billy Bob

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Posted 29 October 2014 - 04:45 PM

Perhaps that IS Arnie in the first picture - just as endoskeleton, eh? (lame attempt at joke)



#840 thecasinoroyale

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Posted 29 October 2014 - 04:57 PM

You NEVER know with the way these films seem to want to take us y'know!