Zombies from HELL

The other day I rented a few films which I think I should mention here. The most recent rentals I have made are:

Each of these movies has it's own charms, mostly to do with the comic content, good storyline, lots of people being shot or in one case the extreme cringe worthy performance all round.

Shaun of the Dead

This movie is, well basically it rocks! After seeing this at the cinema I couldn't wait to see it again. So after it came out on DVD (on Monday past), I decided it was time to rent it... I have just finished watching it again for the second time in 24 hours. Buy it, rent it, watch it through someone's bedroom window if you have to, but definitely see this movie.

It's the classic tale of a looser who's life is all going to hell and he has to get it all back on track. This is hindered mainly by the fact that a whole lot of dead people are coming back to life as zombies. I'm not telling you any more, see this movie.

Hidalgo

A last minute pick up in the video store, I had already chosen to rent Shaun of the Dead and required 2 more choices (the store I was at offers a 3 for 2 rental deal - I wasn't going to pass that up!). This time round I picked up the afore mentioned Shaun of the Dead, this and Runaway Jury. I had seen trailers for Hidalgo on other DVDs which I have rented recently and told myself that I wouldn't watch it as it was likely to be a pile of shite.

I sat down to watch the film, and although it had Viggo Mortensen cast as the lead role (and after his recent role in the Lord of the Rings films, coupled with the "all kinds of success" that Orlando Bloom has been having, I was expecting this movie to rate very low in my books). Good god was I wrong, I sat throughout the film watching, open eyed at every scene.

The movie is about a man who is half-white, half-Indian (or native American), he owns an untamed mustang stallion named Hidalgo. Together Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) and Hidalgo have won many long distance races and have never lost a race which they have entered. A Sheikh, Sheikh Riyadh hears of the title bestowed upon Hopkins and Hidalgo in a travelling show which they work in: "World's greatest endurance rider". The Sheikh then challenges Hopkins to compete in the world's hardest endurance race, a 3,000 mile race across the Ocean of Fire.

Well worth a look, entertaining and gripping.

Runaway Jury

Another last-minute pick up in the video store. I had seen trailers for this movie and it had seemed to be neither good nor bad. The general premise is that one man, Nicholas Easter (John Cusack) working with his girlfriend, Marlee (Rachel Weisz), gets himself onto a jury in order to sway their votes so that they can sell a verdict to either the prosecution of the defence.

I supposed that this perhaps could be either a fairly good movie or another American run-off crapfest which would dumb down the court systems in order for most of the population to "enjoy" it. Instead this film relied more upon the interactions between the trio of the defence, prosecution and Marlee as well as the way in which Nicholas Easter tries to sway the jury.

I found this film to be very entertaining, also the story contains a few twists which can be expected but are not too obvious. All in all I enjoyed this film and it is well worth a watch if you get the chance.

Webs

Don't see Webs.

This film is utterly garbage. But if you like some slapstick crapstick acting then it may be for you. Basically a group of electricians find a disused nuclear reactor which starts a portal to another dimension where a scientist 30 years ago travelled to. Whilst doing so he let a race of spider like creatures enter through another portal and start enslaving the human race through biting/poisoning people making them into spider-zombies. All hope is placed on one of the electricians who comes through the portal. Later in the film one of the electricians begins (with the scientists help) to dabble into creating another one of these trans-dimensional machines.

Things get shot, people die, and other people get eaten and changed into zombies. The only plus about this film is that it has some Bruce Campbell style scenes where people are being fucked over, large. Actually this film is worth watching just so that you have a baseline to rate all other films by.

Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

A classic in the making. Scooby Doo, for some unknown reason managed to work its way into my film viewing schedule a few times soon after it was released. I used to love the Scooby Doo cartoons as a kid, and in fact still do. I watched the first film for the nostalgia, I watched the second for the birds. This film not only has in its cast Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne but it also has Linda Cardellini as Velma. Oh my god, what else do you need to know? If you are male and like women, see Scooby Doo or Scooby Doo 2.

Erm, the movie was Ok.

Timeline

I had seen trailers for this movie a while ago in cinemas, that was the last I had ever heard of it... until this week. I was in the video shop and had spotted Webs which I had, stupidly, already picked up. I had also picked up Scooby Doo 2 and needed a filler DVD to rent. Then I saw this, sitting all alone on the bottom shelf. A quick inspection of the case revealed that it was the fateful movie which I had never seen and had wanted to. RENTED.

So after watching Webs, and then throwing up in disgust, I decided to watch Timeline. The plot is thus, a professor of archaeology, the father of another character, had been sent back in time using a machine and was unable to return. A group of other archaeologists accompanied by a few marines go back in order to find him. They are sent back to the past to the location which they have been excavating at a time when a war was taking place, and on the exact day when the war was won.

I started watching this movie and after a few minutes, boom, there's Billy Connelly. I had no idea that Billy Connelly was in this film, anyway the film went on, I watched, it finished. It was not too bad, not the greatest film in the world but not even in the same league as the best.

I would definitely recommend seeing, Shaun of the Dead, Hidalgo and Runaway Jury.

Isn't life just one big film, and each of us actors?
- Chris