Back to the Future

The Road

Paranormal Activity 2

The Social Network

Phantasm

I know this movie is absolutely loved by so many people. I just didn't get it. I like the premise of the movie, but really didn't enjoy it. I wanted to yell at the characters in the movie so many times it wasn't fun. I can appreciate what they did with the low budget and effects, but I still didn't enjoy it at all.

[2/5]

Brick

A high-school murder mystery like you've never seen before. Make sure this movie has your full attention when you watch it or you will get very VERY lost. Oh, and that feeling of "WTF is going on!?!" for the first 30-45 mins... work through it, its worth it! An amazing flick, I seriously loved it and I'm looking forward to watching it again ASAP!

[5/5]

Easy A

I don't think I've had a cramp from grinning as much as I did through EASY A. I even laughed quite a bit at the unbelievable "Mom" in the movie. I loved the fact that it paid homage to all the 80s teen drama movies that preceded it. I think John Hughes would be proud of this one! This movie had me hook, line and sinker when Emma's character quotes Bueller's "never had one lesson"! We had a lengthy discussion afterwards and came to the conclusion that this takes over MEAN GIRLS at the top of my teen comedies films.

[5/5]

An American Werewolf in London

How amazing are the makeup effects in this movie? I'm so glad there was no CG when this came out. I'm not typically a big werewolf movie fan, but I did enjoy the heck out of this. And damn was that final scene some kind of violent!

[4/5]

The French Connection

So this is where action movies get all their ideas from. I rarely, and I mean rarely, enjoy a movie older than I am this much. I know, its petty, but for some reason that's how my tastes go. Gene Hackman is such a badass in this. Love the crime/drama/action combination that is the basis for so many good movies that are made now!

[4.5/5]

The Signal

After meeting the incredibly nice AJ Bowen at fantastic fest, I felt it was my duty to watch what I could of his. Finding THE SIGNAL on instant was great. I really enjoyed this "crazies" style flick that was obviously written by someone with a very intelligent sense of humor. If you are a fan of Shaun of the Dead or any other zombie/infected type of movie, watch this immediately!

[4.5/5]

FF: Primal

I'm not sure why this keeps getting promoted as "ozploitation" if not for a marketing gimmick. There wasn't a single thing that striked me as "ozploiting" except maybe for the accents. It was a good "monster in the woods" film though. That was, until they decided to have a Matrix-esque fight scene and some of the worst CG I've seen in quite some time! If you leave 20 minutes before the movie is over, you will really like this one!

[3/5]

FF: A Horrible Way to Die

I'm glad that Brian asked the question that was killing me to ask, "what is up with the cinematography?" or something to that note. I don't get motion sick, but I literally had to look at the floor multiple times to calm my equilibrium. I'm curious if someone will digitally stabilize this film (if that's even possible). I loved everything else about this movie. Such a great buildup and acting by AJ Bowen. Shame that they almost completely ruined it.
[3/5]

FF: Stake Land

I'm gonna go ahead and claim this as my festival favorite. I missed a lot of others' "favorites" but this was definitely my favorite film of the festival. I qualify this as saying its probably the only one I will seek out to watch again. The worst thing about this film is how damn tired I was watching it! I think this is where I got the moniker "loud breather" from the head back, mouth agape, almost passed out setup I had by the end of the movie. One description I came up with and reheard of the film was "Walking Dead with Vampires".

[4.5/5]

FF: Rammbock

This is what I'm talking about! A 60 min, German zombie flick. Fantastic Fest has finally hit what I wanted! This had a very strong 28 Days Later feel with the running zombies. It didn't go into length with setting up the story or finishing it off. It just came what it set out to do, throw zombies at you and make you feel a bit claustrophobic.

[4/5]

FF: Red, White and Blue

The worst/best part of this film is your internal debate that you go through on which side you are on. You definitely feel bad for all parties involved. This was a really good low budget film. The characters were well portrayed. I would definitely recommend this one.

[4/5]

FF: Sound of Noise

If you haven't already, go watch the short Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers. This is a really cool concept for a "musical" and I liked it quite a bit. I was a bit bored by the 4th act and if they had finished after the 3rd it probably would've been my festival favorite. I saw this at noon 30 and was nodding off at the end.

[4/5]

FF: Undocumented

We get it. Intolerable, dumb red necks are gonna fuck up this country by terror. I was really hoping some sort of monster was going to get them as they tried to cross the border. Instead we got an hour of torture. I did like the short before it though, Culebra.

[2.5/5]

FF: Norwegian Ninja

Even with the 15 minute dissertation on who this spy was by the director I just didn't get it. The first 10 minutes I laughed at some of the stuff going on, but after that I was done. I really wanted to get up and leave by the 30 min mark. I never followed the plot and never quite grasped what was supposed to be so funny that had over half the theater rolling with laughter.

This was definitely my least favorite of the festival.
[2/5]

FF: A Somewhat Gentle Man

This was my first "comedy" at FF. It was quite a bit slow and repetitive but had a good heart and made for a decent movie. I initially rated this 4 stars, but I think I was on FF high. Looking back I'm dropping it to 3.

[3/5]

FF: Mother's Day

We tried to get into the midnight showing of this but luckily they added a noon one the follow day. There was a lot of hatred going around the festival on this one and I felt like an outcast for liking it. I wasn't expecting a revolution of movie making, just a good insane family kills normal people kind of movie.

Sure, none of the characters are believable, but the movie was fun. It felt like a horror movie out of the 80s where you want to yell at the actors to do something different, something logical, but they never seem to do so. This seemed like the perfect midnight movie, but everyone who saw it at that screening really disliked it. Oh well.

[3.5/5]

FF: Buried

When they say this movie is in a coffin, they mean this movie is IN A COFFIN! I was worried that after a while I would start to feel claustrophobic but I never did. There are definitely some intense scenes and you really connect with the actor's emotions.

I was probably on a Ryan Reynolds high since he was in the theater with us, but I really enjoyed this one.

[4.5/5]

FF: Let Me In

Saw this one at the Paramount. I am a huge fan of LTROI, so going into this remake I was very wary. I was pleasantly surprised how well it was done. Still had a very dark feeling to it.

This probably would've been a 4.5 had it avoided using the very cheesy CG during the "attack" scenes. It really took from the whole feeling of the movie.

[4/5]

FF: The Man From Nowhere

Starting off my #FantasticFest reviews is The Man from Nowhere. To say I was a bit excited to be watching my first fantastic fest film would be a severe understatement!

The film was a bit long with the exposition, but the action was incredible. It could've ended about 30 minutes before it actually did and had the same effect.

[4/5]