It's a love and I'm pumped.

Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise

Throughout my childhood I caught a glance or two at various Nightmare movies. I knew the Character of Freddy Krueger, but didn't really find an interest in giving these movies a decent go. Cut to about a year ago, the pizza box set of Nightmares was bought, and a love affair had begun.

The box set which resembles a pizza box came with the 6 original movies, plus Wes Craven's New Nightmare. At some point I may review all of at least some of them, but I'll give the basic run down of what I think about each of them.

*Nightmare on Elm Street - Probably the creepiest of them all. Wes Craven did a good job of coming up with an entertaining villain and since he didn't crack all the one liners, Freddy had more of an impact.

*Part 2, Freddy's Revenge - Believe it or not this one is my favourite. It think the story of Freddy attempting to find a kid to do his bidding on earth was a great premise and Mark Patton's acting was pretty impressive considering the material he was dealing with.

*Part 3, Dream Warriors - Loved the premise in this one also. Setting it in a mental institution was a cool idea, but the dream warriors aspect was kinda stupid.

*Part 4, The Dream Master - Pure Freddy going around killing people and causing havoc. It's a fun ride with no real big story to it.

*Part 5, The Dream Child - The worst of the first 6, but I still dig some of the areas of the movie. One of the characters is into comics, and there's a scene where he and Freddy are in a comic together and I love the look of it.

*Freddy's Dead, The Final Nightmare - That's what it should have been. Freddy does die and this was the perfect way to go out. Johnny Depp comes back for a little cameo and it's a sweet story with a lot of fun aspects.

*The New Nightmare - I was so interested in this one because I thought the idea was genius. Have Freddy be in the real actors lives. It had a lot of potential but I didn't care for it at all. Plus the kid in it is kinda creepy.

It's hard to explain why I love these movies so much. I don't find them to be scary, they're now shot in any particular way that impresses me, and they've got a level of cheesiness that cannot be topped. I think it's just the simple pleasure of watching silly entertainment with a few cheap laughs. Well that and the fact that Freddy's involved.

Freddy Krueger is one of a few horror movie icons that you actually root for as the movie goes on. You wanna see him dismember the other characters in creative and hilarious ways. He also has some of the most memorable lines that never fail to get a smile.
*Welcome to Primetime Bitch.
*Help yourself, Fucker.
*Hey, I beat my high score.
*See you in hell - Freddy replies 'Tell em Freddy sent ya'.
*I'm your boyfriend now.
*Wanna suck face?

So with the remake coming out I'm obviously excited and keen to see what they can do with the characters and the premise. I personally felt as though Robert Englund would still be able to put on the red and green jumper, but hopefully Jack Haley can find something new for the character to fit with the current style of horror.

One, two Freddy's coming for you. Three, four better lock your door. Five, six grab your crucifix. Seven, eight gonna stay up late. Nine, ten never sleep again.

I got what I'm looking for

THE STRANGERS

So when looking for a horror movie to watch, I don't always go for something that I think will creep me out. All I want is a little entertainment for about 2 hours to help me forget about all the other shit that I gotta deal with. Every so often however, I catch a glimpse of what true horror means to me.

The story is simple but that also adds to the realism of it. Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) make their way back from a wedding reception to a remote vacation house owned by James' parent. The couple prepare for a romantic evening, which is cut short by an engagement proposal that doesn't go according to plan. The quiet evening is then cut really short with the arrival of a random girl at the front door, looking for a friend of hers. They tell her she's got the wrong house, but this just makes things worse. Throughout the night, This girl and what is assumed to be her parents terrorise the couple, first by being subtle, but then gradually getting more and more intense. The reason for their actions is simply because there was somebody home at the time of their arrival.

What makes this movie so impressive to me is the ability to use such simple shots like the one in the poster to give off such a powerful, creepy vibe. There are other shots throughout the movie similar to this which just send a tingle down your spine. You may not find the movie scary, but you'll most likely find it a little unsettling. The reason for this is that real life people are sometimes the scariest thing that someone can conjure up as a villain.

The first two acts of this movie is where the true action for me is. The subtle movements and character realisation really makes it entertaining for me. However once it gets to the third act, I find that the home invaders are turned more into characters rather then just images in the background. This really takes away some of their mystery. Giving the villains a little dialogue and close up shots just made them more human and thus more vulnerable and defeatable. Grow some balls Speedman, it's two fucking chicks, whoop their ass.

Liv Tyler was a good inclusion into this movie, which looked further into a style of horror that most writers might not be able to handle. It's much easier to gross out audiences with graphic blood and gore, but it is a true test to entertain an audience with creepy characters and simple storytelling.

7.5/10

Trailer = No, Kev Smith = Yes.

COP OUT

If I'd checked out the trailer for this without knowing anything in advance, I wouldn't have even considered going to the movies to see it. However, when Kevin Smith gets involved, I'll give it a look.

Basic components of a decent flick are all there. First of all it was written by two dudes who so far have shown that they know what they're doing when it comes to comedy. The Cullen brothers wrote a funny pilot for Showtime in 07 called 'Manchild', and the 'Cop Out' script should have reflected the potential that they'd already shown . Second, lead actors Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan basically had the parts written for them. And third, Kev Smith was workin' on the project which means we're bringin' the funny...Aren't we?

Nah.

The big thing that I really found lacking in this was the writing. I get the fact that it was suppose to be an 80's buddy cop homage, but the story itself was weak and the jokes which were there just didn't work. Basic plot is that Jimmy (Willis) and Paul (Morgan) are two partners working for the NYPD, celebrating their 9th year together. They are both suspended for a month without pay for a failed drug bust at the beginning of the movie. Fast forward to Jimmy needing money for his daughters wedding, however now he can't afford it now with no paycheck and is forced to sell a prized baseball card worth around 80 grand. Fast forward even more to see Dave (Seann William Scott) steal the card, sell it to his dealer Poh Boy (Guillermo Diaz) and Jimmy needing to do him a favour in order to get it back. And the favour is... find his car and bring it back to him, Awesome. The rest of the movie involves a girl trapped in the boot of the car, a flash drive around her neck with all of Poh Boy's dealings, and ends in a gun fight because everybody wants what the other person has. There's a bit more to it, but not really.

So it's a pretty basic plot which seems to also have a few extra characters and situations in it that just don't need to be there. Two characters that I didn't mention were (btw, yes I'm looking their names up on imdb cos I just didn't give a shit about them in the movie) Hunsaker (really? why wouldn't I remember such a stupid name) played by Kevin Pollack and Barry played by Adam Brody. Remove these two jokers from 99 % of the movie, and you'll loose one funny joke (H. Wow, that's a gun, B. It's in a bag.) and 10 minutes of useless scenes and plot points. Also there's something going on with their boots and I just do not care. The ending of Cop Out was also a little standard, with just an average gunfight in the enemy's home giving off the sense that we've done this before.

I should point out that there were a couple of things that I enjoyed in this flick. First thing would be the character of Poh Boy, and the performance of Guillermo Diaz. I thought he could switch from over the top silly, to aggressive and borderline insane seamlessly and I just enjoyed seeing him on screen. Second, there were some jokes in it that worked, which is always a plus. Seeing Susie Essman make an appearance was also cool, since I'm such a fan of her in Curb your Enthusiasm. Seann William Scott had a pretty funny role as well. Not so much laugh out loud funny, but it was a chilled character.

I'm trying to keep these things short so I'll sum it up. I had no problem with the characters in this movie. I thought all of the actors cast fit the roles, even though seeing J. Mewes in there somewhere would have made my day. I think if Kevin Smith had received the first draft of this and decided to re-write it, there would have been a lot more cock jokes and Gretzky references, but fuck it would have been funnier.

5/10