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Reviews
The Harder They Fall (2021)
Not Awful???
This movie has a LOT of good stuff going for it...
Camera work, audio, sets ( mostly ), shoot scenes / FX, etc... All done really well...
I even thought the majority of the acting was really quite good... although I thought some of them were probably hindered by some "meh" writing...
I normally don't mind movies taking liberties to enhance the experience and bend a some truths here and there... but this movie just goes EXTREME...
Nat Love was a real person... I "believe" this movie is supposed to take place somewhere around 1870 ( my guess )... After that... this movie just runs wild...
Saloons playing music that is NOT EVEN CLOSE to a genre from 1870 with women painted blue and wearing next to nothing doing interpretive dance? Seriously?
A black outlaw in 1870, just freed from prison quoting Napoleon???
It goes on and on...
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The movie isn't "bad"... I absolutely watched it and enjoyed the shoot out scenes.
I would have preferred to see a bit more character development... ( In fact, there were at least 3 or 4 quasi-major characters, that barely had any explanation for even being in the movie... )
I just felt this movie was clunky and awkward... the final shootout was "o...k..."... They obviously tried to blend genres of movies... and I don't know that it worked... had they NOT tried to make this based on an actual historical gang, and set it in an alternate reality, I may have enjoyed it more...
So... sorry... I'm going 3 stars on this one...
Till Death (2021)
REALLY Hard to get a 1 star from me...
But here you have it...
A movie that makes no sense whatsoever... with no characters you can like... totally fake scenery... and absolute nonsense happening left and right...
I really just wanted everyone to die about 25 mins in... but the movie kept going... and of course I knew the outcome... cause, Hollywood... why else... awful awful...
This is seriously probably the worst movie I've seen in over a year... ( and I tend to watch at least 1, if not 2, movies per day... )
I've seen high school productions that are better than this...
Super Hot (2021)
I'm just going to copy my review from Amazon...
Because they only listed it in the "view all reviews" instead of actually posting it...
I'm going 4 stars on this one... ( Amazon only goes to 5 )
This is clearly a B-rate / indie flick, but that said, this movie has a LOT of really good stuff going for it...
Camera work / Audio / Lighting - easily above par for indie... and actually pretty good
Acting - WAY above par ( yes, some of it was cheesy, but I'm 99% sure it was intentionally cheesy... and funny... )
SFX - a little limited, but again, what they did I thought looked really good.
Plot - not really a whole lot new going on here, but it was done differently enough ( and even had a little mini-twist at the end I did not see coming ) that it easily held my attention for the duration...
Bottom line... I thought this movie was a lot of fun. It has some pretty solid quasi-dead-pan style humor, with a little bit of slapstick too... I didn't recognize any of the actors, but between how much they must have practiced, and how well the dialogue was written, they could have fooled me... I honestly don't even feel I'm being generous with giving this 4 stars ( which I sometimes do for indie flicks... ). Pretty solid recommend from me for anyone who enjoys the mix of comedy/horror... Will likely watch it again at some point in the future...
My ranking style -
1 - this movie should never have been made... I probably couldn't even finish it...
2 - this movie was bad, but I made it through to the end... can't recommend.
3 - this movie was ok... I don't feel bad watching it... will probably not watch again.
4 - this movie was solid and did a lot of things right... will very likely watch again.
5 - I need to call my friends right now...
( feel free to read my other reviews... I review a LOT of movies... )
Black Panther (2018)
Forgettable to say the least
I should have read the "actual" reviews here... instead I fell for the hype that this was "one of the best Marvel movies of all time"... yeah right...
I know the Marvel movies are loaded with CGI special effects, but this one took it WAY over the top... and quite a bit of it was done pretty poorly...
Most of the characters are forgettable... I'm not even sure who the 20 year old "tech girl" was that designs suits cooler than Iron Mans... that his sister? or ex-girlfriend or something? whatever...
Majority of the acting was rigid, unbelievable...
Even the soundtrack in this didn't work for me...
And the story itself just seemed to come completely out of left field... I'm used to some pretty outlandish stuff in comic based movies, but the Loki lead alien attack on NYC was more plausible than 3/4 of the stuff in this movie...
I dunno what's up with overall IMDB score on this... seems WAY off to me...
Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption (2011)
Surprisingly Entertaining / Fun
Is this really a 7 star movie? Nah... probably not... It is certainly cheesy... but in terms of entertainment / fun value, I actually really enjoyed it...
IMDB says the budget for this was $56k??? I find that really hard to believe... I mean, it's got Fred Williamson... he's done a TON of movies and TV shows... If the budget really was $56k? This movie deserves like 10+ stars...
So... what to expect from this sort of Mad Max meets the zombie apocalypse?
A whole bunch of cheesy lines and dialogue, but with some actual reasonable acting...
Surprisingly decent special effects ( except for a couple CGI explosions, which could have used some help )
Some surprisingly good fight choreography & stunt work
Pretty good camera work / lighting / audio
A fast paced moving story with a moderate amount of suspense & plenty of action
A fair amount of zombie gore as well as a pile of zombies and evil raider people ( another reason, why I'm floored at the low budget... they had a TON of extras in this movie... and quite a few with "o...k..." makeup... )
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One side note... The opening text was hilariously bad... looked like a 1980's computer font intro... and the soundtrack sounded like it was ripped off a 1990's action flick or something... hahaha...
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In any case... I don't believe this movie was meant to be a "serious" zombie flick... I actually thought this movie was a lot of fun to watch... sure, there are a lot better zombie flicks out there... but there are a TON of worse ones too... I'm sticking with 7 star...
Syndicate Smasher (2017)
"O...K...." Cheesy Action Flick
I will admit, this was actually "moderately" entertaining for a cheesy action flick... but straight up 10/10 star?? cough cough... have to be kidding right...
The majority of the acting is just barely passable... Expect heavy use of CGI for muzzle flashes / blood splatter / explosions... Surprisingly, a couple of the fight scenes looked fairly well choreographed...
All in all though, this is like a cheap version of the Expendables or something with even more lunacy filled action scenes...
My suggestion... if you've watched every B-rate 80s and 90s action flicks already... hey, go for it... Just don't set your sights too high... Cause this is pretty bad... ( I'm still giving 4 stars, since I suspect this movie was done on a pretty tight budget... and the CGI was actually not "awful"... )
Witch-Hunt (2017)
Surprisingly Good / Interesting Low Budget Thriller
Aight... this movie looks like it was done on a budget of like a couple thousand bucks... with that said, I was pleasantly surprised and actually enjoyed it...
So...
I actually thought the camera work, acting, audio, and script were all actually above par and borderline quite good in some scenes... And while the movie starts off a little slow, the level of suspense picks up pretty quickly... not to mention the fact that the movie hints at all sorts of things, but doesn't give too much away... so again, the suspense / tension is certainly on point by the end of the flick...
I liked the way they hashed out backgrounds for all the characters... and broke the movie up into segments... not unlike a Tarantino film... ( like act 1 this girl / act 2 this girl / etc... )... Beyond that, I actually felt like most of the characters were pretty believable... 5 girls, having a little party, guzzling some wine... The conversations actually seemed very plausible...
The low budget does show in a couple areas... First off, you'll notice that the whole movie is basically shot in somebodies living room... Second, there are practically no special effects... so don't expect any kind of gore fest or flying witches or anything... But I don't think the movie suffered from being mostly dialogue / acting...
They still managed to get in some moderate scares... and a couple "oh, wow, I wasn't expecting that" from me...
So... is it really 7 star? probably not... But I'm giving a bonus point or two for taking a pretty simplistic premise and low budget and being able to ramp up the suspense / tension to better than a lot of other flicks out there...
All in all, this is what I would consider a really well done low budget thriller / borderline horror...
Storozhova zastava (2017)
Family Friendly Fantasy / Adventure Flick
Off the get-go, be advised this movie has subtitles... I don't mind unless they are done poorly, but these seemed just fine to me.
I normally break down movies into pros & cons, but honestly, almost everything about this movie falls into the "pro" category... the acting was really good / story was good / special effects were done really well / even fight choreography was really quite decent / camera work was fine / audio was fine... there really isn't much I can find fault with this movie...
If you enjoy fantasy / adventure movies, this has to be one of the better ones I've seen in quite some time...
That said...
Cons ( and these really are minor ) - 1 - The CGI work on the "evil super monster" could have been better... It was still better than most stuff on SyFy and whatnot, but still looked fake / 2 - There were a couple of plot holes that had no explanation other than the movie saying "because I say so" / 3 - I really wish they had played off the "fairy tale" aspect of more of the knights... ie, a little more character development with more than just 1 knight...
Again... these are all minor complaints... the movie as a whole was 100% enjoyable... Two thumbs up from me... ( Would I watch it again and again? probably not or at least not right away... which is why I'm giving 7 stars instead of like 8 or 9... )
But... good flick.. highly recommend.
( Side note... I assume the Cumans were actually speaking a different language during the movie... thus they were dubbed as well as subtitled? I didn't mind, but some of the dubbing sounded a little out of place... )
Annabelle: Creation (2017)
Make up your own mind...
Aight... so finally got around to watching Annabelle- Creation...
Pros - Acting was pretty well done ( even for the younger ones ) Camera work was fine Sound was good, as well as the "tension" music Set was very believable ( for early/mid-ish 1900's )
Cons - FX in general were poor Use every cliché possible from previous horror movies ( ie, not very original ) Throw so many "jump scare attempts" that they are no long "jump scares"
So... I'm conflicted on how I would rate this...
The two young girls both did awesome jobs in the movie... although I suspect they are older than whatever they acted in the flick... by having them as the main characters... I think it did a great job of adding tension / suspense... ie, "yes, a little girl would run into a closest and hide..." etc... I tend to get more sympathetic about kids having to deal with this stuff over adults, so yeah, the idea worked... I enjoyed the movie...
The downside is, the effects were for the most part were really kinda cheesy and predictable... and the plot falls into the same category...
I'll let you guys make up your own mind... but for a $15M budget... I've seen better with a LOT less...
At Stake: Vampire Solutions (2012)
Flat Out Fun!
( I checked off contains spoilers, but I don't really think I'm giving anything away here... so, don't worry too much )
I just went from watching one of the worst low budget vampire flicks to the best! AS:VS is flat out fun! I'm going with 7 stars, because I can absolutely see myself watching this movie again... and it's my understanding that this was done on a micro-budget...
So... what to expect from this movie? It's a college film students documentary ( fictional obviously )... it's filmed almost exactly as how a college thesis would be filmed, except they went ahead and added vampires and a team of vampire hunters... Because of the "poorish" quality of acting, it REALLY feels like a completely legit documentary.
All of the characters are fun / likable. The pace of the movie is done perfectly... ie, cut scenes from 1-on-1 interviews to getting a report of vampires in the graveyard and checking it out... Believe it or not, some of the special effects were really pretty amazing for a micro-budget film. They did a good job of being able to convey the tension / suspense while out in the field... really solid performance...
The documentary style interviews discussing vampire myths was done flawlessly... Not only did it work well in terms of interest, but it set the stage for what to expect from the vampires you do see in the movie... and the movie held true to its own "idea" of what vampire are... again... totally believable...
I also loved the touch of briefly discussing government intervention, red tape, budget cuts and the economy during the movie... It added 100x to the "realism", and really made it feel again like a legit documentary...
Note: you will get a little bit of the "shakey cam" syndrome as well as some overly "dark" scenes... it's not nearly as bad as I've seen in other movies, but they do exist in this one in a couple scenes... that said, I think they kind of played it off well in the movie...
When it comes to low budget vampire flicks, this is it... two thumbs up, and will probably watch again in the near future...