Trick 'r Treat

I have still not gotten over the awesomeness of Trick 'r Treat. It's new horror movie with a trailer with shots that look like shots form The Gingerdead Man, is surprisingly executed as a mixture between Pulp Fiction, John Carpenter's Halloween, and Crash. It may sound strange from that description but hear me out. It's like Halloween because it's an amazingly made horror film about Halloween. Pulp Fiction, because it has several interweaving stories, which combine in a similar way to Crash. The best storyline, by far, is the final one which I don't want to give away, but I will say it contains one of the best horror scenes since Scream (one of my top 20 movies of all time) or maybe even better, I'll have to think about it more. If you are not busy watching John Carpenter's Halloween (and I mean John Carpenter's, that is not Rob Zombie's Halloween its the one from 1978, you know the one that's often considered one of the best horror films of all time) on Halloween this will serve as an almost equal substitute. I'd say it's much better than Paranormal Activity because of the fact that it's more entertaining that uncomfortably creepy making it my favorite horror film of the year.
Trick 'r Treat - 4 out of 4
-Zach

I Saw VI (Does the same joke work 2 years in a row?)

Yes, I actually made it out to see Saw VI this weekend and I have to ask one big question to the makers of this movie. Why are you putting political commentary into your films. The main plot line revolves around a evil health insurance company (I'm not joking). I came to see blood and guts not Sicko 2, but I'm not saying there isn't a lot of blood and guts in this movie. Now that I got that out of the way I want to propose...
My Easy Plan To Stop Jigsaw From Killing People (and to Stop the Saw Franchise From Making Another Movie)

1. Make sure there are no abandoned warehouses or zoos in your area (this new one takes place in a zoo type place).
2. Make sure no one has a job that somehow makes someone's life suck. This includes people who rip people off, I assure you there is to be absolutely no ripping people off. In fact ripping people off is so bad I'm going to make
3. Don't rip people off or deny them coverage for your health insurance.
4. Don't kill people or cause some one to die from inaction, Jigsaw doesn't like killers (that hypocrite).
5. Value your life.

That's it, it's that simple... yet impossible to pull off. This film is slightly above average when it comes to the Saw franchise, of course it doesn't come close to the first Saw, a movie I think is amazing. This movie pretty much feels like, lets see how far we can stretch this one character that died three movies ago. What is surprising about this whole ordeal is that this film is actually affective at an emotional level. I actually felt for the main character, and some of the hard choices he had to make really had me questioning what I would have done in that situation (and this is a Saw movie!!!) I really feel this installment series is really what the previous installments, Saw IV and V were trying to go for. Unfortunately I can't give this movie a perfect score because it employs the use of flashbacks in such a juvenile why it pulled me out of the movie, the people who make these movie need to learn to express their story in the dialog and not revert back to the previous films to tell their story for them. While it isn't as good as paranormal activity, Saw VI is still Halloween fun.
Saw VI - 3 out of 4
-Zach

The Wild Things Are Here!

I saw Where the Wild Things Are in IMAX today, anticipating something great. The main reason I was so enthusiastic about this film based on a children's book I loved when I was much younger was because of the director, Spike Jonze. Spike Jonze is the director of one of my favorite films, Being John Malkovich. ATTENTION: if you are going to this movie expecting to see a light-hearted feel good family films, you will be very disappointed. This is a very emotional, angry, and sometimes depressing film. To get to the point, I was hooked from the first scene of this film in which Max has a snowball fight with his sister's friends. He hides in his igloo to protect himself, when one of his sister's friend crushes his igloo. His sister doesn't do any thing about it and her and her friends drive away. Max goes up to her room and he finds this art project shaped like a heart that he made for her that says "To Claire, From Max" He destroys it. Then he looks down and immediately regrets his actions. The scene is heartbreaking in a way that is unexplainable. All I can say is that many of the more emotional parts of this movie work because of Max Records, a 12 year old actor who plays Max. I believe that Max Records gives one of the best performances of the year and should be nominated for an Oscar. He hits every emotion perfectly and doesn't over do the emotion or make it cheesy, it feels real every moment he's on screen. Another brilliant performance in this movie is by Catherine Keener who plays Max's mom. Now, these wild things are much different from the book, they are real characters and most of them are emotionally unstable. This movie is so damn good I really have to say that I believe this will become an instant classic. There is not a single aspect to the film that wasn't rewarding in some way. The only problem I had with the film was that two of the wild things looked exactly alike and I kept mixing them up. Every person should see this movie, it is really one of the best of the year.

Where the Wild Things Are - 4 out of 4

-Zach

A Serious Man and a Short Review of Paranormal Activity

This weekend I saw A Serious Man and Paranormal Activity. Since they are both in limited release and will both probably be released wider in the next few weeks I decided to wait until Monday to blog. I'll Start with A Serious Man.

"This is a seri... I'm a seri... I'm, uh... I've... tried to be a serious" blogger, "ya' know, tried to do right, be a member of the community. Raise the... Danny, Sarah, they both go to school, Hebrew school, a good breakfast, well Danny goes to Hebrew school, Sarah doesn't have time. She mostly... washes her hair, apparently there are several steps involved, but you don't have to tell Marshak that, just tell him I need help. Please, I need h-help." That line besides the word blogger is part of an important scene in the Coen Brothers' new film, A Serious Man. This film is truly extraordinary, it is much better than the Coens' previous film, Burn After Reading (a movie I gave a four-star review last year (I wonder how many stars this movie will get)). The visual style of the film is so mature and brilliant, as well as the absolutely fabulous screenplay. This dark comedy will have you thinking for weeks, I am already planning how I will see it again. This is a film that has many questions and not many answers. The main question the film is asking is why do bad things happen to good people. The good person in this situation is Larry Gopnik played brilliantly by Michael Stuhlbarg, unfortunately many terrible things happen to Larry, starting with his wife requesting a divorce so she can leave him to be with a man named Sy Ableman, played by Fred Melamed, who gives by far the best performance in the film. I really don't want to go too far into the plot in order not to give anything away because the plot is so amazing. Besides the Coens and the Actors the next person who should be praised is Roger Deakins, who is in my opinion the best cinematographer working today. I will leave you on a hopeful note, "We're going to be fine."

A Serious Man - 4 out of 4

Paranormal Activity is an interesting supernatural-horror film that has a lot more brains behind it that the average modern horror film. It is like The Blair Witch Project and The Exorcist combined. It takes place entirely in one house, which creates a sense of isolation. I don't want to go too much into plot because once again, its just so good. The two main actors are amazing, and it caps the whole thing off as an extremely realistic fright fest. With some moments seemingly impossible to pull off without CGI, but no CGI is visible. If you're looking for a great scary movie to see this Halloween Paranormal Activity would be your best bet.

Paranormal Activity - 4 out of 4

Both Paranormal Activity and A Serious Man will most likely be expanding within the next few weeks. Also, I would like to note that if any of you readers have noticed the huge amount of 4 star reviews this year, there are not that many because I'm going easy on the films its just because I only go to movies that get good reviews from other people, and also, it just happens to be a great year in film.

-Zach

What Will Destroy America First, Big Business or Zombies?

This weekend I saw two movies, Capitalism: A Love Story and Zombieland. Lets begin with what I believe is the inferior movie, Zombieland. Now don't all get on my case saying I didn't like this movie. I did like this movie, there are some parts of Zombieland that I loved. But in comparison I'd have to pick Capitalism, but we'll get to that later. Zombieland is a rip-roaring action-packed zombie/road-trip action/gross-out comedy/character driven drama/horror movie. Yeah that's a lot of hyphens and backslashes but you can consider this movie on all those levels, and to its credit it manages to merge them all together into a rather cohesive film. The action is awesome, the comedy is funny, and the performances are on the whole average. I feel that the only thing wrong with it was that it kind of lacked a real aim, they weren't really driving across the country for any reason other than to go to a theme park. They should have replaced Woody Harrelson with Chevy Chase, got rid of the zombies and changed the theme park's name to Wally World, now that I think about it, the theme park featured in the climax of the movie did look a bit like Wally World.

Zombieland - 3 out of 4

Now, lets talk about Capitalism: A Love Story. Michael Moore is a force unlike any other. He creates a riveting portrait of American business's relationship with the government and the American people. This film is the wake-up call that our country needs in this time where our economy is the center of our concerns. He sets up the movie with a tale about a Utopian America in which all people benefited from capitalism. He then goes on to show us how it took a steep downward plunge to today. Moore brings together mounds of newsreel footage, testimony, and his attempts to get into cooperate buildings with a seemingly infinite amount of skill and passion. When Moore makes a film he is always really passionate about the topic in question. Weather you agree or disagree with his opinions or tactics, you would be doing a disservice to yourself if you didn't check this film out. Capitalism: A Love Story is, in my opinion, the most important and relevant film in years and it hopefully will cause people to want to act to make our country a better place.

Capitalism: A Love Story - 4 out of 4

-Zach