Sunday, January 4, 2009

Movie Marthon Finale!

4 days off from work equaled 10 movies, I did it whoooo! Actually its kind of sad. Sad like a two legged puppy. Sigh. Here's my quicky reviews for the last two movies.

Torture Garden (1967)
I've written about Amicus before but when I picked this up, almost solely on the title, I had no idea it was one of their films. I also had no idea it starred Burgess Meredith who played The Penguin on the cheesy 60s Batman show and, more importantly, Mickey in the Rocky movies. So I got two movies that starred actors from Rocky and had no clue. Thats kind of spooky. But on to the movie.
Of the Amicus anthology movies I've seen (Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, The House that Dripped Blood) this is the worst one. Meredith plays a funny little man at a carnival who invites people into his tent and shows them horrible visions of their future. Pretty much the same idea as Tales, but Tales had better stories. The best one is the last one, as usual, and stars Jack Palance and Peter Cushing as two rabid Poe memorabilia collectors. Cushing deserves more credit as an actor and it's sad that most people just remember him as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars.
This was an alright film and I can't give Amicus anything less than a C. Good, but not great.

Vampire Wars (AKA Bloodsuckers) (2005)
Every once in awhile a movie comes along and surprises the Hell out of me. Who would expect a made for TV movie called Vampire Wars to be any good? Well, its not good exactly, but it is a heck of a lot of fun and and surprisingly well made on such an obviously low budget. Compare this movie to Skeleton Man and you'll see that the people who made VW actually knew what they were doing. The actors can act, there's actual plot and characterization, and it's not just random scenes of slaughter till you get bored and start thinking about the laundry you have to do. This is a movie that I would actually show to friends and not be ashamed of, which is saying a lot with the movies I've been watching lately.
For making me smile many times, not groan once, and helping forget for a bit that I have to drag myself to work in the morning, I give this one an A.

So there, that was fun wasn't it? I'm thinking of doing this every weekend, just with less movies. Sound good? How is my writing? Getting better? I know, it's terrible, the whole point of this blog is to try and get better at it.
I don't know what I'll post tomorrow, if anything. I'll see what I feel up to.
Peace

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