What I'm watching

Hi all, this tumblr mainly exists as a way of tracking all the movies I've been watching and some of the initial thoughts, and general feelings, I've had about them.

5/5 - Fantastic movies; movies which need to be seen and enjoyed by everyone.

4/5 - Movies which are very good but don’t have that spark which compels you to make others watch them as well.

3/5 - Average movies; watchable and enjoyable, but nothing which elevates them higher. The baseline all movies are given before watching.

2/5 - Can be watched but really bland and forgettable.

1/5 - Minimal to no reason to watch these films. It may have some redeeming factors e.g. it’s so bad it’s good or there’s one character that’s awesome enough to make it not a total waste of time.

0/5- Total waste of time. Nothing redeemable about these films.

As with every review blog/site, this is all my own personal opinion so feel free to take everything with a grain of salt.

Also I'm Scottish so all reviews will be in UK English. Get used to theatre, colour and words ending in -ised.

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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor

 

#367/#84 The Monster Squad All of the Universal monster from the 1940’s (Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the wolfman, the mummy and the creature from the Black Lagoon) descend on a small America town and a group of monster enthusiasts kids have to try and stop them before they unleash an ancient evil. This is just great goofy, 80’s kids movie fun. It’s the Goonies with monsters. Every kid is a stereotype, all the monsters could kill the kids in about a second if they were really trying and the rational behind them all showing up for a big monster brawl is really thin, but you don’t care. You just sit watching the silliness of the whole thing with a smile on your face. There is this one high school kid, Rudy (Ryan Lambert), who is just the man in this film. He smokes, wears a leather jacket and spies on one of the other kid’s older sister changing. He’s supposed to be the cool older kid and normally it would feel forced but when shit starts to get real with the monsters Ruby is just badass. He takes no shit and has a one liner quip for every situation. It was like watching a teenage Bruce Campbell. It’s very 80’s, and as I say, very goofy but I had a lot of fun watching it and laughed multiple times at the absurdity of the whole thing. Give it a go if you’re looking for something to just unwind with and not think too hard about. 4/5

#367/#84 The Monster Squad

All of the Universal monster from the 1940’s (Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the wolfman, the mummy and the creature from the Black Lagoon) descend on a small America town and a group of monster enthusiasts kids have to try and stop them before they unleash an ancient evil.

This is just great goofy, 80’s kids movie fun. It’s the Goonies with monsters. Every kid is a stereotype, all the monsters could kill the kids in about a second if they were really trying and the rational behind them all showing up for a big monster brawl is really thin, but you don’t care. You just sit watching the silliness of the whole thing with a smile on your face.

There is this one high school kid, Rudy (Ryan Lambert), who is just the man in this film. He smokes, wears a leather jacket and spies on one of the other kid’s older sister changing. He’s supposed to be the cool older kid and normally it would feel forced but when shit starts to get real with the monsters Ruby is just badass. He takes no shit and has a one liner quip for every situation. It was like watching a teenage Bruce Campbell.

It’s very 80’s, and as I say, very goofy but I had a lot of fun watching it and laughed multiple times at the absurdity of the whole thing. Give it a go if you’re looking for something to just unwind with and not think too hard about. 4/5

Top Films for April, 2011 (Excluding re-watched films) Total watched this month: 39 (17 new) The Invisible Man 4.5/5 Tangled 4.5/5 The Karate Kid (2010) 4/5 The Creature from the Black Lagoon 4/5 The Color of Money 3.5/5 Date Night 3/5 Hot Tub Time Machine 3/5 To Catch a Thief 3/5 The Mummy (1932) 3/5 Bride of Frankenstein 3/5

Top Films for April, 2011 (Excluding re-watched films)

Total watched this month: 39 (17 new)

The Invisible Man 4.5/5

Tangled 4.5/5

The Karate Kid (2010) 4/5

The Creature from the Black Lagoon 4/5

The Color of Money 3.5/5

Date Night 3/5

Hot Tub Time Machine 3/5

To Catch a Thief 3/5

The Mummy (1932) 3/5

Bride of Frankenstein 3/5

#115 The Mummy (1932) After uncovering an ancient scroll next to some mummified remains, the archaeologist (Arthur Byron) reads it only to have the mummy reanimate itself and escape. Several years later the archaeologist’s son (David Manners) is led by a mysterious man (Boris Karloff) to another tomb. As the site is excavated it becomes clear the man, the tomb and a young girl (Zita Johann) bearing a striking resemblance to the tombs inhabitant all have some sort of connection to one another. This was another enjoyable flick from the universal monster era. This film isn’t quite what you expect in terms of a mummy movie however. Karloff is only really in the bandages at the very beginning of the film while the rest of the time dressing in normal clothing. Karloff was probably more interesting in this role than that of the monster in Frankenstein but I imagine that’s because he gets to talk more in this one. All the other actors play their parts well and the story is interesting enough to keep you entertained. This film seemed to be somewhat linked to Dracula for some reason. The opening credits use the same classical score and two of the lead actors (Manners and Edward Van Sloan) plays some what similar roles in both films. It’s also quite slow paced, like Dracula was, and has the same problem of dragging along just a bit. A couple of interesting facts about this film are that it’s one of the only universal monster movies not to have a direct sequel. 3 other mummy movies would be made after it but they all centred around a different mummy which portrayed the slow shambling mummy we are more familiar with. Also the 1999 film staring Rachel Wiesz and Brendan Fraser is loosely based on this version, rather than the others. This can be seen in the desire of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) to kill a living person to reincarnate his former lover in much the same way Karloff’s Imhotep does. Better than Dracula but not as good as Frankenstein 3/5

#115 The Mummy (1932)

After uncovering an ancient scroll next to some mummified remains, the archaeologist (Arthur Byron) reads it only to have the mummy reanimate itself and escape. Several years later the archaeologist’s son (David Manners) is led by a mysterious man (Boris Karloff) to another tomb. As the site is excavated it becomes clear the man, the tomb and a young girl (Zita Johann) bearing a striking resemblance to the tombs inhabitant all have some sort of connection to one another.

This was another enjoyable flick from the universal monster era. This film isn’t quite what you expect in terms of a mummy movie however. Karloff is only really in the bandages at the very beginning of the film while the rest of the time dressing in normal clothing.

Karloff was probably more interesting in this role than that of the monster in Frankenstein but I imagine that’s because he gets to talk more in this one. All the other actors play their parts well and the story is interesting enough to keep you entertained.

This film seemed to be somewhat linked to Dracula for some reason. The opening credits use the same classical score and two of the lead actors (Manners and Edward Van Sloan) plays some what similar roles in both films. It’s also quite slow paced, like Dracula was, and has the same problem of dragging along just a bit.

A couple of interesting facts about this film are that it’s one of the only universal monster movies not to have a direct sequel. 3 other mummy movies would be made after it but they all centred around a different mummy which portrayed the slow shambling mummy we are more familiar with.

Also the 1999 film staring Rachel Wiesz and Brendan Fraser is loosely based on this version, rather than the others. This can be seen in the desire of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) to kill a living person to reincarnate his former lover in much the same way Karloff’s Imhotep does.

Better than Dracula but not as good as Frankenstein 3/5