BIG ASS SPIDER (2013) *** WATCH ***

BIG ASS SPIDER (2013) 

A fun sci-fi horror movie, a throw back to those classic giant animal movies of the 60's.  directed by Mike Mendez.  Written by Gregory Gieras.  Stars: Greg Grunberg, Lin Shaye, Patrick Bauchau, Ray Wise, Clare Kramer, Lombardo Boyar.

The story: A man fights a giant spider.

Was it good?

YES.  Don't get me wrong, this isn't going to win Oscars and won't defeat KING KONG or ALIEN, but for a goofy throw-back sci-fi movie it was the one thing you want most -- FUN.  With a solid screenplay that does what you'd expect and has fun with it, and game performances from some solid actors this movie manages to stay entertaining throughout.  This would be a fun movie to show my niece and nephews if not for some unneeded language.  It's a shame, because as a movie for adults it isn't edgy enough, but as more of a family film it would be great.

Still, for fans of those early 60's sci-fi movies and movies like ARACHNOPHOBIA and EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS, this one is a good one to check out.

*** WATCH ***

Also to watch: TREMORS, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, ANACONDA, PACIFIC RIM.

HOMEFRONT (2013)

A action/thriller where the South is full of hillbillies and meth addicts/dealers.  Nice.  Directed by Gary Fleder.  Screenplay by  Sylvester Stallone, based on a book by Chuck Logan.  Movies stars: Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth, Rachelle Lefevre, Frank Grillo, Clancy Brown, and Izabela Vidovic.

The story: an undercover DEA man moves to his wife's Southern, rural hometown with his daughter after his wife's death.  There he gets on the wrong side of a local meth dealer who sets out to get rid of him and his daughter.

Was it good?

Almost.  And what I mean by almost is there's a lot of good stuff here and it's worth watching, but it also gives hints of how good it really could have been, so while you are watching it the movie manages to be entertaining and disappointing at the same time.

The problem is the way pieces connect and grow.  For instance, I'm not real sure why Statham moves from the city to his wife's hometown.  His wife is dead, she doesn't seem to have any relatives there -- so why move there?  It's almost random.  Then once there, the build to his confrontation with Franco is all odd.  It starts with a confrontation between his daughter and a boy at school that somehow keeps building until it gets to Franco who happens to be a meth dealer.  Of course, his being a meth dealer doesn't really add to the direct conflict (even after Statham finds out he is a meth dealer he isn't trying to get him busted really).  Then Franco pulls in the drug dealers from the beginning of the film, but the father is in jail so it really is just random people that come down to kill Statham and his daughter.  There also is a side note between Statham and a school staffer his daughter likes, but that doesn't really add anything or go anything.  Eventually the conflict between the daughter and boy (and Statham and that family) seems to fall away for these random people from the drug lord. 

The story just lacks the clear focus that a good action movie needs, making it feel muddled and emotionally flat.  That said, there is a lot here that works.  Statham and Franco played their parts very well.  Statham is the stoic tough guy (as always), but seen as a father helps give him more than more of his action movies.  Franco as the meth dealer plays against the tough guy, he is more of a thinker, a plotter and schemer, and it makes the movie much more interesting. 

This is a good movie with some nice acting and pieces, but suffers from a muddled core and lack of compelling direct conflict between the two main characters.  An action movie with some heart (for Statham) and a smart villain (Franco) could have been intriguing.  This was entertaining, but didn't quite get to intriguing.

*** RENTAL ***

Watch also: DIE HARD (a classic), MOMENTO (Christopher Nolan's breakthru), BANK JOB (a very good Statham movie).

THE COUNSELOR (2013)

This is a thriller (supposedly) directed by  Ridley Scott, from an original screenplay by Cormac McCarthy (All the Pretty Horses, ).  It has an all-star cast with Michael Fassbender (lead), Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Brad Pitt.

The story: A lawyer known only as "The Counselor" (Fessbender)gets involved in a drug deal with aruthless Mexican cartel, but when it goes bad the cartel come after him and everyone he loves.

Was it good?

No.  Why?  Because it was SOOOO BOOORING.  The entire first half of the movie is setting up The Counselor getting involved with the drug deal and it going wrong.  For the most part, it's just people sitting around talking in a strange, clipped way that I think is supposed to make them sound deep.  Maybe there's supposed to be a feeling of suspense, but it isn't there.  Also not there is motive.  No one seems to have a need for the money.  It's like all this is just a thing to do.  Also lacking is any real sense to the way The Counselor gets blamed for the deal going wrong.  It's just a strange coincidence.  Now coincidences happen and it can be okay for movies to turn on them, but you usually want them in the first quarter of the movie, not the second half.  From there, there's a feeling of inevitability as the cartel and other close in on The Counselor.  Now in all fairness, McCarthy's novels are incredibly praised in large part for the sort of "deep" sparceness he used in this film.  It just didn't work for me at all here.  It lacked tension, it lacked depth, it lacked emotion.  And the thing with Cameron Diaz uses the car windshield to masturbate herself was just dumb.

*** AVOID ***

See instead: GONE BABY GONE (Ben Affleck's directoral debut), EL MARIACHI (Robert Rodruigez's first feature length film), or RUN LOLA RUN.

ZOMBIE NIGHT (2013) ** AVOID ***

ZOMBIE NIGHT (2013)

Another zombie movie.  This one directed by John Gulager (Feast 1-3, Piranha 2 - 3DD).  Written by Richard Schenkman (story), Keith Allan (screenplay).  Stars: Anthony Michael Hall (Dead Zone), Daryl Hannah (Splash, Blade Runner), Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller's Day Off), and Shirley Jones (Patridge Family).

The story: The dead are rising!  Two family try to hide out in their homes until morning, when the effect will wear off.  However, things go bad and the families have to decide to help each other or turn on each other.

Was it good?

No.  There's nothing wrong with the basic idea, and I'm a big fan of Hall and have wtached Gulager's work since FEAST.  However, the story is just uninteresting.  There's nothing new here.  It basically is NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, but instead of strangers in one house, it is two families in separate houses.  It's a shame, because zombies are such a good way to explore humanity.  They easily could have made it a look at modern suburbs -- are neighbor's really friends?  Are they stranger?  And there was a relationship between the teens that could have played a part, but really it could have been taken out.

Watch instead: Warm Body (for a more interesting take on zombies), and classics like Night of the Living Dead (original), Return of the Living Dead

COTTAGE COUNTRY (2013) *** AVOID ***

COUNTRY COTTAGE (2013)

A horror comedy directed by Peter Wellington.  Written by Jeremy Boxen.  Stars: Malin Akerman (Watchmen), Tyler Labine (Tucker and Dale vs Evil), Dan Petronijevic, Lucy Punch.

What's the story? A couple go up to a family cabin where the man plans on proposing (Akerman and Labine).  However once they are there, his brother shows up with his slutty girlfriend and begin annoying them until, by accident, the brother kills his brother.  Then they have to cover it up by killing his girlfriend.  Except the dead brother had already invited a bunch of friends over, and then the police show up...and the guy and his grilfriend have to try harder and harder to cover up the killing.

Was it good?

No.  It wasn't horrible.  But almost all of this was stuff that has been done before, again and again.  There's nothing really new here.  Labine's other horror/comedy TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL was a wonderful refreshing and wacky mix of horror and comedy.  This is been there-done that.  You could do worse, but unless you are a die hard Labine or Akerman fan, you could do a lot better.

See instead: TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL, EVIL DEAD 2, HOUSE, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD.

OUT OF THE FURNACE (2013) *** AVOID ***

OUT OF THE FURNACE (2013)

A movie about brothers and revenge.  Directed by Scott Cooper (director of Crazy Heart, which won Jeff Bridges an Oscar) from a script he co-wrote.  Stars: Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Forest Whitaker, Willem Dafoe, Zoe Saldana, Sam Shepard.

The story: After getting out of jail, one brother (Bale) tries to look after his younger brother (Affleck) who is in debt and getting involved in an underground fighting ring run by violent drug dealers.  When the younger brother goes missing, the older brother goes to find out what happened...

Was it good?

No.  There's nothing wrong with the concept -- in fact, it sounded pretty cool to me when I first saw the previews for it.  However, this is not an intense thriller.  This is a slow, plodding, disconnected character piece with the trappings of a thriller.  There's never any mystery and there are no interesting twists and turns.  There really aren't any thrills -- what little conflict there is always has a feeling of a result that is inevitable.  Now that alone doesn't mean it is bad.  A slow character piece can still be fascinating, but there just isn't anything fascinating here.  There's no depth, no conflict.  It's a movie that seems to want to say something but ultimately seems to have nothing to say.

Now all this isn't to say the movie is all bad.  The performances by Bale and Harrelson are solid.  They just don't have much to do.  Bale plays the tough but caring big brother.  Harrelson plays the dangerous psycho.  That's it.  No exploration of character.  There's also a bunch of other elements that never really pay off -- Bale going to jail, Bale losing the woman he loves, Bale losing his father.  Maybe all that was supposed to push him to a point of desperation with his brother, but it seems like losing your brother is already enough to make you do anything to find him, so none of that really felt like it added anything.

In the end, while some of the performances were solid, there just wasn't enough here to overcome a sloppy, plodding screenplay and a lack of character depth or theme.

*** AVOID ***

RAZE (2014) ** RENTAL ***

RAZE (2014) *** RENTAL ***

Hot chicks beating each other to death in an underground fight club.  Dicrected by Josh C. Waller.  Written by .  Stars Zoë Bell with Rachel Nichols, Tracie Thoms and a cameo by Rosario Dawson.

The story:  a woman is abducted and awakens in an underground bunker where fifty abducted women have to fight MMA style to the death or their loved ones will be killed.  Only one will survive and she will be given her freedom.

Was it good?

Kind of.  It was entertaining.  There really isn't any story -- just hot women pounding the hell out of each other -- but it seems to understand that and doesn't try to do too much.  It doesn't have the gonzo fun of the typical women's prison movie, with tawdry sex going on as well, and there isn't really any social statement here. There's also no humor.  But as a rental, where you can talk and play cards, this has some good fight sequences for background entertainment.  Still...it would have been nice if they had done a bit more, especially considering they had Zoe Bell and Rachel Nichols.  Not film worth price of admission, but for a couple buck rental, it's more solid than a lot of low budget films.

*** RENTAL ***