The Raven

No this picture is not of the film but of the actual poem The Raven. I was obsessed with Poe as a kid. Says a lot I know. My grandmother bought me a book with most of his poems. One verse I remember well; "To love, love, and not its meaning, hardens the heart in monstrous ways." I don't remember anymore which poem that comes from. We have all heard about Poe and how misery was his companion. The Raven was no different.
The Raven was initially published in 1845. It was about a Raven who visited an upset lover who ended up mad. The film touches on certain aspect of this but goes on a ride all its own. I will not spoil this film only to say that it was in true Poe fashion. Even the ending. I was quite satisfied that James McTeigue stayed with the intent of Poe's endings.
John Cusack was brilliant as Edgar Allen Poe. I believe he studied his work and became the character. Another good quality was the fact that the story while revolving around Poe did not get stuck on following his personality which most of us know was intriguing. It was a fun film with all the twists and turns of a Poe poem/story and kept up the pace so I was not bored. The film also did not draw out scenes. Some writers and directors I think draw out scenes to help tell the story and then just lose the audience in the muck. This film was right on the money. Each scene took as much time as needed to get the gist and moved on. I think you will all like this film. If you are looking for blood and guts, you won't find much of that here, nor should you. Have a great time watching this film.

The Frankenstein Syndrome

Had to put this up about a movie I just watched last night. I normally wouldn't waste my time writing about a movie like this and I'd just push it to the darkest regions of my life long of abuse and neglected brain to never be thought of again, but I was hoping this would help my mental issues a bit. Why does every sentence have to start at a normal volume and then just trail off to a very low whisper at the end? Could the director not get his actors to emote so he just said to them (especially the lead Tiffany Shepis, it was like fingers on a chalkboard), "just start every sentence in your normal voice and then just trail off, that should get the reaction I'm shooting for!" My god it was a chore to watch, every time she would pronounce the letter 'P' in a word as she was trailing off at the end of a sentence I would think about what to shove down my ear canal to make it stop. Oops, I was going to review this movie wasn't I? It pretty much sucked. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. (hey, think I just found a way to improve this film!) Ed Lauter gets top billing but only has around 6 minutes of screen time, and it's pretty sad when you find yourself thinking "needs more Ed Lauter". And for those of you that don't know who Ed Lauter is he's been acting for over four decades, been in around 200 movies and doesn't like nerds in his hotel. And, now I'm not making this up, it states in the credits that it's based off the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Sad, just sad people. And the "Frankenstein" if you will has an accent at the start of the film that completely goes away by the midway point of the movie. I'd say that it's obvious that his accent goes away as it's obvious that stabbing yourself in the penis would sting a little, it's that noticeable. So all in all, do yourself a favor and avoid this one. Just my opinion mind you, and last I checked I'm always right when it comes to movies. Right sis?

HIDDEN

This is a movie by Director Antoine Thomas. It was done in 3D apparently but I have not seen it in 3D nor would I take the 81 minutes of my life to watch it. Now I have seen bad movies. This did not have bad acting or voice overs but it was still, in the words of Charles Barkley, Turrible. Some of you may like it. Dread Central said it was creepy. I found no excitement. The effects were like the Sci Fi Channel.
The premise is a guys mother dies and leaves him a huge monastery place where she was completing experiments to try to rid people with addictions. Something went wrong with her experiments and walla, you have a horror movie. Sean Clement, Simoneetta Solder, Jordan Hayes, and Jason Bickler were the main characters. Of course you have to have the one whiny character that you hope gets killed. I have not seen anything Antoine Thomas has done since or before. Maybe there is a reason.

Human Centipede II

SPOILER


Now that the Human Centipede II has made it's rounds a bit. I am bringing it back for round two. This film made me feel a bit nauseated. I mean this in a good way. I tried not to listen to all the talk about it so that I could come to my own conclusions. I was wondering how Director Tom Six was going to make the transition into the second one. 
I did not get the abruptness of the fact that the first one was a film but that was short lived as I sat in shock and awe during the rest of the film. Being in the medical field and seeing how Martin (Laurence Harvey) stapled the people together I did not think his idea would work but Six had that figured out too. He made them all take laxatives. I liked the fact that Six allowed us to really see the rawness of how Martin made the centipede. It really made me hate that guy yet six made it understood why Martin was the way he was and was able to make it flow.  I have to give Laurence Harvey credit he has guts. This is the kind of film that could break his career because of how wrong his character was. He was quite brilliant. He never had to talk during the whole film and yet I was captivated. 
The film is based on the fact that Martin watched the first Human Centipede and was obsessed by it. He has nothing else, his mother is a fucked up mess and blames him for his father sexually molesting him and sending him to prison. There is nothing to like about him so he fantasizes about creating the human centipede with 12 people and having the star of the film (Ashlynn Yennie) included. He was able to arrange to get her through her agent so he had some smarts. I could go into the psychology of this guy but that would take all day. Anywhoo, it ends with Martin's pet centipede up his ass. I hear number three is in the works. Let's just keep it at two so that you can go down in history as one of the greatest shocking movies I have seen.