DVD Review: Saw VII - The Final Chapter

Rated R for graphic violence, torture, language

Starring Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Sean Patrick Flannery, Cary Elwes

Leaving off where the the previous film ended, Hoffman is still alive and furious with Jigsaw's widow Jill for setting him in the reverse-beartrap headpiece and leaving him to die (only he managed to escape by mutilating his face instead), he spends most of the film chasing after Jill and trying to get to her for revenge despite her being in police custody.

Meanwhile, another Jigsaw game is being played, this time with a self-help guru named Bobby Dagen who has made his living off pretending to be a Jigsaw survivor and traveling all over speaking about how he overcame his fears and fought for his survival. While his story is inspiring, none of it is true - him and a few friends, who are now his PR publicist and manager, came up with the idea after hearing a Jigsaw survivor share their story on the local news. In his game he has to overcome several traps in order to save his friends and eventually his wife as well as himself - the final test being the so-called trap he claimed to have survived previously (which was made to his claimed specifications).

Will Bobby be able to really survive Jigsaw's game? Will Hoffman get to Jill before he is ultimately stopped?

Despite this being the supposed last chapter of the Saw franchise, the ending was pretty lame, as it wasn't completely resolved and felt open ended in case they ever wanted to revisit the franchise. They did keep to their word though - as it was originally stated there would be 7 Saw films in the series. Just many like myself wish we were given more closure for sticking it out and enduring all 7 of them!

If you've seen all the Saw films up to this point you might want to check it out just to say you saw the whole series and see how they finally ended things. If you never got into the series or gave up watching several movies, feel free to skip this one!

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Rated R for violence, some gore, language

Starring Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller, Shawn Roberts

Taking place shortly after the 3rd film, we see an Alice invasion of the Umbrella Corp headquarters in Tokyo. While Wesker tries to make his getaway, the real Alice is stowed away on his escape helicopter and confronts him, however he injects with an agent that neutralizes the T-virus that has bonded with her DNA, taking away her super human strength, healing and other abilities. They crash land however, and while Alice crawls out of the wreckage, Wesker is believed to be dead.

The next few months Alice flies around in a 2 person plane, searching for Arcadia - the place Claire's convey of survivors from the previous film and Alice had heard about on the emergency broadcast channel, claiming to have shelter free of infection with plenty of food. Claire and her convey were headed that way, towards the location in Alaska, last we had seen of them, however when Alice reaches the coordinates they were given, there's nothing but an abandoned air field along a beach. While trying to piece things together, she is attacked by a crazed Claire who has some strange metallic device hooked to her chest affecting her behavior and memory, as once she comes to, she doesn't know who Alice is, let alone her own name or where her convey has gone.

They set off in Alice's plane, flying along the coast looking for life when they come to L.A. where they see some survivors flagging them down on a rooftop of a prison - the only way in and out is by the roof as the outside area is covered by zombies wanting to get inside. The survivors are let down to learn that Alice isn't from Arcadia, sent to get them, as they say the broadcasts stopped just days prior and they had been sending off flares in hope that someone from Arcadia will see them and send assistance. Confused, Alice points out that Arcadia is in Alaska, that she just came from there and there's nothing - there's no way they could see flares from there. They hand her binoculars and point out a huge cargo tanker just off the nearby coast with Arcadia painted on the side - she realizes it's been moving up and down the western coast picking up survivors which explains why there was nothing in Alaska.

Realizing her plane is unfortunately a 2-seater and that going back and forth would be near impossible given the small space for landing on their roof, Alice says there has to be another way for them all to get out and to the sea. They introduce her to a man held prisoner in the basement of the prison, who claims he was a solider in fighting the outbreak but when the prison got out of control prisoners thought it would be funny to lock him up. The survivors aren't sure if they can trust what he says though as they found him locked up but he claims there's another way out. Alice convinces them to release him, in he which shares there's a strong armored military vehicle locked away on the premises they can just ride out on, crushing anything in their path. Turns out, he was right, but the vehicle's engine has been pulled out and it will take nearly a week for the mechanic there to install it correctly. He also claims to be Claire's brother Chris, however she is still having memory loss and can't confirm she knows him or not.

On top of their problems, a giant executioner figure wielding a mean looking axe/hammer has just showed up at the prison entrance, trying to break open the gate that's keeping all the zombies out. In a hurry to escape before the executioner giant and zombies break in (a few have even learned how to tunnel in!), they seek to find another way out, which includes a dark, scary tunneling route to the sewers with a risk of running into zombies trying to come in.

Will they make it out of the prison before it's too late? Will they make it to Arcadia? And is Arcadia all it's really cracked up to be?

This is the first Resident Evil movie to be filmed in 3D, however we saw it in 2D and you could tell that certain scenes and elements were only there for 3D purposes, such as the extensive use of "bullet time" in the action scenes (made popular by the Wachowski Brothers in the Matrix) and Alice shooting off quarters in different scenes.

The series went from a decent horror/zombie storyline to an action series with Alice and crew vs Umbrella Corp with zombies thrown in making their task more difficult. I don't mind it, but it is starting to get redundant. It would have been nice to know what the point of the executioner was too, as this giant, masked character with nails stuck in his head and torso and carrying a 1 ton axe/hammer weapon just kinda shows up out of nowhere with no rhyme or reason. Also, for Alice not having her super human abilities anymore, she still seems to be abnormally fast and strong - it's like they sort of forgot they took that away from her at the beginning of the movie. The story only progressed slightly in this film (how many headquarters does Umbrella Corp have?!) and it's clear that a 5th film of this saga is in the works. Be sure to stay during the first part of the credits, as there's a brief appearance by Jill Valentine from the 2nd film.

If you like the Resident Evil films, you know what to expect and probably wouldn't mind seeing this one, however if you haven't seen the others, you really should as there's not much of a recap of the previous films unless you're just there for the girl power action.

DVD Review: Midnight Meat Train

Rated R for graphic violence, gore, brief nudity and some language

Starring Bradley Cooper, Vinnie Jones, Leslie Bibb

The movie opens with a well dressed man sitting on a late night subway car along with a few other passengers. Out of nowhere, he slaughters them with a combo meat cleaver/pounder tool.

Next we are introduced to Leon, a photographer trying to get his work noticed by a well-known art dealer in hopes that his work will make it into her show and gallery and start to sell. She tells him that she doesn't feel his images are strong enough for her shows and gallery yet and so he decides to go out and shoot some stuff late at night. He ventures into the subway with his camera and after taking several shots of a gang harassing and about to mug an attractive woman who's alone, he points out to them the security camera capturing everything and they scram. The woman thanks him and quickly enters the last subway car to come through that night; Leon, amazed by her beauty, continues to snap photos before she's gone. His girlfriend spies his work as he develops it in their apartment and comments that it seems to be his best yet. He also learns that the woman he saved last night was a well-known model, however she appears to be suddenly missing. Believing he may be the last person to have seen her, he quickly goes to the police station, but they blow him off!

The next night Leon goes out again for more shots and spies a mysterious, well-dressed man, in a hurry to catch the subway, however he gets a little too close and the man scares him off. Leon notices that the man is wearing a ring that can be seen in one of the photos where the model from the previous night had gotten on the subway train, holding the door open for her... Leon goes again to the police station to point out the similarities, but they don't give him much thought.

Looking into it himself, Leon learns about the Subway Butcher whom he believes is the man he saw the previous night. He decides to spend the next day following him, from a hotel to a butchering plant to the subway again before backing off for the night. Leon gets ballsy one night and decides to follow him onto the subway train, where he sees him butcher, slaughter and then pick apart his victims. He soon catches Leon though, but instead of killing him, he wakes up the next day at the butchering plant with carvings in his skin. His girlfriend tries to figure out what's wrong, and eventually sees the strange marking carved into his chest and insists on taking him to the hospital, but all he wants to do is sleep. Having seen his photographs, she decides to head to the hotel with her friend and do a little digging, as Leon's camera has gone missing and he claims he has shots that prove that the mysterious man is the Subway Butcher.

Both her and Leon end up on the train later, attempting to save her friend and put a stop to the Butcher, but will they make it off the train alive?


Brought to us by legendary horror writer/director Clive Barker, Midnight Meat Train is based on a short story of the same name that Barker included in his Books of Blood collection he wrote in 1984. It's clear that Barker's a bit of a visual artist as he uses some interesting, artsy techniques in this gorefest, however some of the effects come off a bit comical and over the top.

It's an interesting premise - a man is killing people on the subway every night and no one seems to care, including the police and subway conductor. What exactly is going on and why? Through Leon's curiosity we learn the truth which is quite the twist as it definitely isn't what you would expect!

If you enjoy horror movies with strange twists and don't mind the gore, be sure to check out Midnight Meat Train.

DVD Review: Saw VI

Rated R for graphic violence, gore, torture, language

Starring Costas Mandylor, Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Betsy Russell, Peter Outerbridge

Picking up where the 5th installment left off, Lt. Mark Hoffman works quickly to cover his tracks after the death of Agent Strahm who died because he got to close to the truth and learned that Hoffman was another apprentice of Jigsaw's and was carrying out Jigsaw's work despite his death. Hoffman tries to pin the evidence of the latest game (the one in #5) on Strahm using his fingerprints, while still working on the inside.

Meanwhile, we learn that Jigsaw left his ex-wife Jill a box with items in it, which included instructions for Hoffman for the next game in his master plan. Hoffman quickly does what he can to get it all set up and before he gets caught - turns out, using audio equipment, the Jigsaw audio tape that was found at the scene of the events in #5 can be descrambled and it proves that it isn't Jigsaw, but someone else - Hoffman.

In the new game, we see a mother and her son trapped in one boiler room with a tank of acid in the corner connected to a switch box where one setting says "live" while the other says "die" and clock is counting down the time. The mother declares, "We're here because of your father." In similar boiler room (sans acid tank) is reporter Pamela Jenkins, who was nosing around, trying to find out what was in the box Jigsaw left for his wife. Playing the game is health insurance executive William Easton.

See, when Jigsaw first learned he was dying of cancer, he went and did some research for himself and found a doctor in Europe who was looking to take on new patients for his experimental tests that had a high success rate. Jigsaw approached William about having his insurance cover the high cost of this, but William, who runs the company using a formula that determines who should get the health benefits (usually those in good health instead of those that are sick and could actually benefit from treatment), denies him because it is merely experimental, despite the evidence of a high success rate.

Starting the game, William has 4 devices attached to each of his limbs - one on each wrist, another on each foot. He must survive through 4 series of tests to keep himself intact - failure to complete a test will either blow off a limb or kill him if he doesn't make it through the test. Also, failure to complete the game will result in him never seeing his family again. At the end of each test, he receives a key to remove one of the devices. Making the game even harder is that his employees are the pawns!

In one test he has to decide which of 2 employees will be hanged - the middle aged mother with an illness, or the healthy young go-getter who doesn't have a family. According to his company's formula, the woman should die, but which choice will he make? In the next test, he has to help a female employee in a steam room get through a maze below him within a certain time or else the device around her neck will pierce her skull - in order to make it easier for her though, he has to direct some of the steam onto himself, creating a safe passageway for her. There is a twist though, as the key to unlock the device around her neck is just under William's skin on the side of his torso. In the final test, William finds 6 of his top staff members strapped to a spinning carousel  with a rifle pointed towards it. He is told that by slipping his hands into a device attached to the gun, he can choose to save 2 of them by letting it pierce his hands and divert the gun upwards, however it is automatic so when the carousel stops spinning he has only seconds to make his choice. Some of his employees begin to tell sob stories - one girl claims to be pregnant, another with young kids at home... another claims she has sick parents who need her to take of them but then another employee calls out her lie saying he knows for a fact her parents disowned her and that she's always talking about how she hates them. Who's telling the truth and who's lying just to save themself?

This was an interesting installment to the Jigsaw franchise as it had several unexpected but welcomed twists to it.

It also featured some new flashback scenes which explained some of the things from the previous movies (such the letter Amanda receives in 3 that causes her to go off the edge and mess things up a bit). There was also a contest in late 2008, where the wining actress of the VH1 reality competition show Scream Queens would win a breakout role in the film. The winner of the first season, Tanedra Howard, was featured in the opening segment (which was also probably the goriest of the whole movie).

Since Saw 3D (aka Saw VII) is the last of the franchise, it'll be interesting to see how it all ties up!

If you're a fan of the Saw franchise, it wouldn't hurt to see this one (which was one of the better ones), however if you haven't gotten into them or past the first one, there really is no point jumping in at this one.

DVD Review: Jennifer's Body

Rated R for sexuality, partial nudity, violence and gore

Starring Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, Johnny Simmons

Anita (aka Needy) is your average high school girl. She wears glasses and works on the newspaper staff. She also dates a cute band geek named Chip. Jennifer on the other hand, is the typical hot cheerleader who has no concern for anyone but herself and is quite the tease. What do Jennifer and Needy have in common? Not much these days, but they've been friends since the sandbox days and despite being on different ends of the social circle they still remain best friends. That is, until Needy starts to think Jennifer is evil. "And not just high school evil." Needy clarifies.

Their demise all started one night when Jennifer insisted that Needy join her to see a hot Myspace promoted band perform at a local "niteclub." However the venue catches fire and Jennifer, mesmerized by the band, barely manages to escape with Needy. They run into the band's singer, who insists they join him in his band's van for safety. Needy protests, however the singer takes Jennifer by the arm and leads her way. Later that night, Jennifer shows up at Needy's home, covered in blood, growling and vomitting something "evil" all over Needy's kitchen floor before disappearing into the night. The next day at school however, Jennifer seems completely normal. But then, as the town is mourning the lives lost at the niteclub, the school's star athlete is found dead and dismembered in the nearby woods.

A few weeks later, Needy also has another strange encounter with Jennifer, as she's driving home and almost hits Jennifer, covered again in blood and not looking "human". Frightened, she high tails it home, but is startled by Jennifer in her room. The two share a brief sexual encounter before Jennifer tells Needy what she recalls of the night of the fire. Soon after she got in the van with the band, she noticed various books on witches and the occult laying around the floor ("They were like agents of Satan, but with awesome haircuts!") and the members begin asking if she is a virgin. Scared, she tells them yes ("I don't even know how to have sex!") and that they should let her go and find some girls that do know how to have sex. Soon they arrive at their destination and tie her up, preparing to sacrifice her to Satan for fame via a ritual they found online. She remembers them stabbing her repeatedly, but after that, all she knew was she was hungry, explaining that when she's not full, she feels weak. Scared, Needy tells her to leave.

At school, Needy does some research and learns about demonic transference and that if a virginal sacrifice ritual is performed on a non-virgin, then the demon gets stuck in the victim's body and has a hunger for the flesh. The only way to kill the demon is with a knife. Scared for Chip, she tells him it's not safe for them to go to the upcoming Spring formal - "It'll be a like an all-you-can-eat boy buffet!" she tells him.

Will Needy be able to put a stop to her man-eating best friend before it's too late?

To be completely honest, this movie is more Amanda Seyfried's than Megan Fox's as, despite being hot eye-candy, Fox can't carry a movie on her own. This is one of those types of movies that was intended to be a humorous B-movie (I hope) as you really can't take it too seriously. It would most likely be one of those movies that MST3K would be making fun of or our grandkids will be looking up clips of it on Youtube and laughing at how bad it is, as that's how dumb it was.

Now don't get me wrong, Diablo Cody (who also wrote Juno) has a way with words, as the dialogue in this film is pretty clever, witty and funny (after getting impaled by a giant metal rod, leaving a hole in her stomach, Jennifer asks Needy if she has a tampon she can use!) and Jennifer tends to tell it like it is in crash terms. But that doesn't make up for the ridiculiousness of the plot and the fact that Megan Fox can't act her way out of a paper bag. This film is solely Megan Fox eye-candy with witty dialogue and a stupid plot.

Do yourself a favor and unless you have someone to sit and watch a B-movie and make fun of it with, skip it. You're not really missing much.

DVD Review: Coraline

Rated PG for some scary scenes

Starring Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher

Coraline Jones has just moved to the Pink Palace Apartments in Oregon from her home in Michigan. It's always rainy, making it so she can't play outside as much as she'd like (her mother detests mud), she misses her friends from back home, and her parents are both too absorbed with their work to pay her any attention (they are working from home on a garden catalog). Out of boredom, she befriends her neighbors - the man upstairs is an acrobat whom her mother deems is drunk, and the two elderly sisters downstairs who are former actresses who can read tea leaves (they tell Coraline that danger is headed her way). Out of loneliness, she also befriends the landlady's grandson, Wybie who gives her a strange doll he found that eerily looks like Coraline, but she gets frustrated that he talks too much.

One day, while exploring the house, she comes across a strange door that is sealed up. After tearing away the wallpaper and unlocking it, she learns that there is nothing but a brick wall underneath, until later that night when she follows a small mouse to the door and finds that it is a doorway to another "other" world. In this world, despite everyone having buttons for eyes, her "other" mother dotes on her and makes delicious meals, her father pays attention to her and her neighbors put on fascinating performances. And other Wybie doesn't talk at all! Coraline continues to visit this "other" world nightly, but soon, what seemed like a dream come true begins to turn into a nightmare!

Brought to us by the director of Nightmare Before Christmas (no, not Tim Burton - the other guy) and based on the novel by Neil Gaiman we are given a fantasy story that soon becomes a bit of a horror. While it starts off a little slow, by the time Coraline visits the "other" world we're on the edge of our seats to see what happens and how she gets herself out of this strange predicament!

To be honest, I had no interest in seeing this movie until I learned it was based on a novel by Gaiman, and now I'm glad I did! Being an adult, and a fan of Gaiman's other full feature film Stardust, I hope to someday read the novel, as I hear it's even scarier than the film. Despite this being animated (it's the first stop-motion film filmed exclusively with 3D in mind), I would not recommend it for young children, as the film is pretty dark and the idea behind the story will definitely scare them!

Daybreakers

Rated R for violence, language, brief nudity

Starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan, Sam Neill

In the year 2019, most of the world's population has been turned into vampires due to a pandemic disease. Fortunately though, they have been able to carry out their day to day lives due to working the 9pm-5am shifts and using blackout glass for houses and cars. While pharmaceutical company Bromley Marks harvests the humans that are found for their blood, due to the growing number of vampires though, they are beginning to run short on blood supply, creating a lesser sub-specie - the aggressive bat-like sub-siders. Several Bromley Marks scientists are hematologists and have been trying to create a suitable blood substitute, one of whom is Edward Dalton. Dalton, we learn, was unwillingly turned and would much rather try and find a cure, as he much preferred his human life and has a compassion for humans (he won't drink human blood). After a chance encounter with a small group of humans, he learns one of them used to a vampire but was cured. He disappears with them, in order to replicate the cure and bring it to Bromley Marks, however not everyone is as excited for a cure as he is.

Daybreakers has an interesting plot and while it has a message, it's not quite as "in your face" as Avatar's was. The concept is simple - over indulgence can lead to a downfall in society. And while there might be a solution to revert back to how things were before, those that profit now while the rest suffer might not be in favor of giving up their current lifestyle for the better of mankind. It was also an interesting take on the vampire lore - something popular today blended with a situation we can certainly identify with! (Think of our current economic state and housing crisis and how some big businesses are doing okay, while the rest of us are not).

My only complaint was that I thought the last 10 minutes or so of the film were dumb. They spend a good portion of the film developing the cure and coming up with a clever way to get into Bromley Marks unharmed and spread it, and in a matter of minutes we're back to where we were 20-30 minutes ago in the film. The rest of the film, I thought, was pretty good though - Sam Neill (remember him from Jurassic Park?) makes a good villain, and both Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe did some really good acting!

If you like vampire films, this might be one you'd like to check out. But be careful, as it may make you think!

DVD Review: The Strangers

Rated R for graphic violence, scary tense scenes, a scene of torture

Starring Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman

Young couple Kristin and James return to James' parents vacation home in a secluded area (while there are houses nearby, it's clear they're out near the country or woods) after what appears to have been a wedding. Candles are lit, flower petals have been laid out. But something is wrong. Kristin is acting distant and confused, James seems upset. We learn in flashbacks that he had proposed to her earlier in the evening, but she said no. James leaves a message for his brother to come pick him up first thing in the morning, telling Kristin she can stay for as long as she needs. When he leaves to go pick up some cigarettes, strange things begin happening. First, someone keeps pounding at the front door, someone is messing with their phones, James' car gets vandalized, etc. Pretty soon we learn that they are being terrorized by a trio of masked crazies wielding big knives.

Will they make it til morning?

The Strangers is a film with very tense moments, a lot of build up, and very little action or violence until the end. While watching it first, it wasn't as scary as all the hype made it out to be, however the aftermath will make you paranoid, causing you to over analyze noises when you're home alone or trying to sleep late at night.

Unless you really like tense horror thrillers and movies that make you paranoid, skip this one.

DVD Review: Trick R Treat

Rated R for violence, gore, language, scary elements, brief nudity and sexuality

Starring Anna Paquin, Leslie Bibb, Brian Cox, Lauren Lee Smith, Moneca Delain, Dylan Baker, Britt McKillp, Tohmah Penikett

Trick R Treat is a film that takes place on Halloween night in a fictional town that takes their Halloween traditions very seriously. While the film is split into several different stories, they are all linked together, as you'll see characters from one story passing by in another. Also tying the stories together is the constant presence of a small trick or treater wearing a burlap costume with a giant pumpkin head known as Sam. Sam (who I thought of as "the spirit of Halloween") sort of oversees that the Halloween traditions are being kept and teaches a lesson to those that break them.

The first story, we meet a widowed school principal and his young son, however this principal is one you wouldn't want to get stuck with in detention, as he also moonlights as... something else.

Next we meet a group of teens who are collecting pumpkins. One of the girls tells us a story about a school bus driver who drove his bus and the 8 disturbed kids in it, off a nearby cliff, into an abandoned quarry, drowning in the lake. They plan on going to the bottom of the quarry and leaving the pumpkins as a tribute to the deceased, however, after playing a horrible prank a strange girl who tagged along with the group, something goes awry...

Throughout the first half of the film, we are introduced to a group of girls in their early 20s who are wearing  sexy storybook character outfits and looking for dates to take with them to a Halloween party in the woods. One girl, Laurie, however, has trouble finding a date for herself and tells her friends to go ahead to the party and she'll meet them there when she finds someone. Not having much luck, she gives up and starts heading to the woods by herself. A man, dressed as a vampire, who we see bit and kill a woman in a previous scene, has noticed Laurie though and begins to stalk her... will she make it to the party alive?

And finally, we visit the next door neighbor of the principal in the first story. This story actually takes place during the time frame of the first one, as we briefly catch a glimpse of events that occur in this one happening in the first one. The cranky old man neighbor lives alone with his dog and rather than pass out candy, he scares any trick or treater that comes to the door with his dog in a scary mask. Sam however does not approve of this and decides to pay the old man a visit...

Book-ending the movie is a quick tale about a couple. After attending the Halloween parade, the woman decides it would be best to take down all their Halloween decorations tonight, rather than in the morning, as her mother is coming to visit and it won't get done until later. Her partner begs her not to break tradition by taking the decorations down early, but she talks him into letting her. As you can imagine, this is a big no-no!

If you're in for a good, original Halloween-based movie and don't mind a little gore and some frights, be sure to check this one out!

Law Abiding Citizen

Rated R for language, violence, some gore and torture, tense moments

Starring Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Leslie Bibb

Engineer Clyde Shelton witnesses his wife and daughter brutally raped murdered by several men who broke into their home one evening. When he is told that one of the criminals will not be convicted, Shelton pleads with prosecutor Nick Rice to take the case to court and let him testify, as it saw it all. Rice, who is more concerned with keep his 96% conviction rate, tells Shelton that it doesn't matter what is right, what matters is what can be proven in court, and do to a botched forensics investigation, there is not enough solid evidence for the case. Clarence Darby, the criminal who actually raped and murdered Shelton's wife and daughter, gets off on a third-degree murder charge, which will only get him a 5-10 year jailtime, while accomplice Rupert Ames gets the death penalty. Shelton later sees Rice outside the courthouse shaking hands with Darby in what appears to be them finishing a deal.

10 years goes by and it's time for Ames' execution, however someone has tampered with the execution materials and his lethal injection becomes more horrifying than normal. Darby, believed to be response for the botched execution, runs from police with the help of a stranger on a cell phone who tricks him and kidnaps him, torturing and slowing killing him on film in the process.

Rice and police have reason to believe Shelton is behind both murders and take him into custody, however he knows how to play the legal system now and even though he's behind bars, everyone involved in the case regarding his wife and daughter's murders is being killed off. It's only a matter of time before Rice and his family are next.

What would appear to be a thriller about the corruption of our legal system and one man's attempt to avenge the murders of his wife and daughter, ends up feeling more like an installment of the Saw franchise, in the aspect that both films the villain has a reason for why they cause the death of others and carry out the deaths with clever devices of torture. Play by the rules and you'll live, but continue doing what you're doing and you'll surely reap what you sow.

While not as gruesome as the Saw franchise and the fact that this film would fall more under the category of thriller than horror, if you're not expecting all the gore that you get with this one, you will be in for quite a surprise!

Zombieland

Rated R for zombie violence, some gore, language, brief sexuality

Starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin

Taking place in a post-apocalyptic America, zombies roam wild and finding normal humans is hard to come by.

We are introduced to college student Columbus, who has managed to survive by following a set of rules that include always wearing a seat built, double shooting a zombie to make sure it's really dead, and staying fit, among many others. He is heading home to Columbus, OH to see if his parents are still alive. On his travels though, his car breaks down, but fortunately, a man by the name of Tallahassee pulls up and the two band together for the journey. While making a stop at a grocery store, the boys meet sister Wichita and Little Rock, who, after a few misunderstandings, join the boys on a journey west in hopes of finding a safe zombie free area rumored to be out that direction, while making a stay at Pacific Playground in L.A. so Little Rock can have one more chance at being a kid again.

Part horror zombie flick, part comedy Zombieland is a fun movie much along the lines of Shaun of the Dead. If you don't mind zombies and like fun comedy action flicks, you'll be sure to love this one!

DVD Review: Untraceable

Rated R for violence, torture, language, gore

Starring Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, Joseph Cross, Mary Beth Hurt

Jennifer Marsh is widowed mother who cares for her daughter by day and heads up the FBI's cybercrime division by night, usually fighting indentity theft and the like. One night however, she comes across a webite called killwithme.com which is streaming video footage of a kitten being tortured and killed, live on camera. Not thinking too much of it, as it's only an animal, Jennifer's supervisor tells her to just shutdown the site and don't worry too much about it.

Shortly later, however, killwithme.com is active again, and this time the vicitim is a human. The more people that tune into the site, the faster the victim dies. Despite warning from Jennifer, the press holds a conference, urging people to avoid the site, however this causes more people to become curious about it and only increases the site's popularity.

Will Jennifer and the FBI be able to find out and stop the killer before he strikes again? Will they be able to do it before more and more people tune into the site, causing the victims to die even faster? As Jennifer gets closer to figuring out the case, the killer begins to come after her. In this deadly game of cat and mouse, who will come out alive?

This film, starring Diane Lane, was an interesting view into the FBI cybercrimes division. While still considered to be part of the "torture porn" genre of horror films that include flicks like Saw and Hostel, this one was a lot more toned down that its predecessors. The violence and torture, while a bit graphic at times, was necessary in order for this film to work, but fortunately, it wasn't nearly as graphic as what we've seen in recent films like Saw.

A bit too scary and graphic for the kids, this in an interesting race against time thriller for the adults to watch.

DVD Review: Teeth

Rated R for language, some graphic violence, sexuality

Starring Jess Weixler, Hale Appleman, John Hensley

Dawn is a teenager who, with a small group of like-minded friends, is part of a Christian group that promotes abstinence by wearing purity rings and speaking at different schools about what it means. During one of these meetings, she is introduced to fellow abstinence pledge Tobey and developes a crush on him, fantasizing about marrying him one day. After giving in to their mutual feelings for each other, Tobey and Dawn meet at a local swimming hole, where he attempts to rape her, however we, including Tobey and Dawn quickly learn that something is not normal with Dawn - she has vaginal dentata. Horrified at what has just happened, Tobey stumbles off. Scared of what just happened, Dawn goes home to research online, trying to learn what is wrong with her and she visits a gynocologist  to get checked out, however the gyno takes advantage of her and the dentata strikes again.

Dawn eventually learns how to control the dentata and by movie's end, we are left to believe she will put her 'gift' to good use when it comes to dealing with perverted men in the world.

Even though it's an indie film, it was actually done pretty well and was quite an interesting take on the subject matter. While a bit graphic at times, it was a decent story.

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Rated R for language, gore and a brief scene of sexuality

Starring Alexa Vega, Paul Sorvino, Anthony Head, Sarah Brightman, Paris Hilton, Bill Moseley, Nivek Ogre, Terrance Zdunich

I LOVED IT!

If you like musicals and/or rock operas check this one out. The music is really good - a lot of well known rock musicians contributed to it.

It's like year 2050-something, a plague started causing mass organ failure, but a company, GeneCo, arose to mass supply organ transplants, however you miss your payments and they send in the Repoman to repossess the organs. But that's only part of the story. The main plot of the story focus on 17-year old Shilo (Vega) who has been locked away in her room for most her life, as she has a rare blood disease she inherited from her mother's genes - she desperately wants to go outside and see the world, but her father (Anthony Head) won't let her. She thinks her father is a doctor, set on finding a cure for her disease, but she doesn't know his dark secret. Meanwhile, Rotti Largo (Sorvino), founder of GeneCo, learns he has a fatal disease and must soon pick an heir to his fortune and legacy, however he considers his 3 offspring (Hilton, Moseley and Ogre) to be embarassments and disappointments, not worthy of his inheritance.

It's by the guy that did Saw 2, 3 and 4, but it's not much like Saw at all, other than there's a few minor 'gory' scenes, but id say the gore is on par with Sweeney Todd, imo.

I never heard much from Sarah Brightman before, but man can she sing! Yes, Paris Hilton's in it, but she has maybe 15 min of screentime, at most, and is a minor character. Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the tv series) is one of the leads and he can sing really well too, as can Alexa Vega (the girl from the Spy Kids movies, all grown up).

It was a short stage show for years, but they finally we were able to make into the film they always wanted. Lionsgate didn't really do much to promote it though and it was only limited released in 5 cities for 1 weekend back in November and is now on DVD. Universal wanted it when the writers/producers/directors were shopping for a film studio to back it, however Universal said no musical if they backed it. Now Universal's making their own similar film sans singing.

So go rent it!!!!

Saw V

Rated R for language, graphic violence, gore and scenes of torture

Starring Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson

A continuation of the previous 4 films, this one appears to take place simultaneously with the events of #4, picking up right at the very end of the 3rd one with them finding Jigsaw and Amanda's dead bodies. Like the third installment, in this one, we learn more about Jigsaw's other apprentice, Agent Hoffman and his relationship with Jigsaw as well as how he had been involved throughout the entire series, revisiting scenes from the previous films.

Hoffman is struggling to cover his tracks with his involvement in the Jigsaw murders, however, as Agent Strahm is hot on his heels, all while another set of vicitims, all connected somehow, play one of Jigsaw's last deadly games, only in this one, they must work together to solve each puzzle if they want to live.

If you've seen the series up to this point, might as well go see this one to continue the storyline. If you stopped watching early on, don't bother as it's just more of the same, with more of a detective angle on the story. I will admit though, as up the anty as they've been in the last few films with the gore factor, this one shockingly seemed a little tame!

Doomsday

Rated R for violence, language, cannibalism, gore

Starring Rhona Mitra, Bob Haskins

In 2008, a virus, known as the Reaper virus, spread throughout Scotland, in causing Britian to put up a wall to keep all the infected in, as to not plague the rest of the UK. No one knows how it was started or why it chose to infect those it did - the virus just happened. Fast forward 27 years into the future, to the year 2035 and the virus is back, this time plaguing London. Turns out, the survilance that was set on the other side of the wall, has been picking up signs of surviors over the last 3 years. Could one of the skilled doctors left on the otherside of the wall have discovered the cure to the virus? The Dept of Domestic Security has 48 hrs to find the doctor and get the cure before the plague takes over the city.

This movie was sooo bad it was good!

It’s a little bit Escape from New York meets LOTR crossed with Gladiator and a trip to Medeval Times plus a visit from the Black Knight and cannablistic Scottish skinheads in the setting of an apocolypse movie. Think of cheesy bad 80s action movies with Frankie Goes to Hollywood in the background.

Aside from the cannibal scene, I’d have to say Doomsday and Bank Job are the 2 best movies of 2008, that I have seen, so far.

If you want a fun, action packed film and don’t mind a bit of over exaggerated gore, be sure to catch this one - I could easily see it becoming a cult classic much in the same fashion of as Army of Darkness.

I am Legend

Rated PG13 for violence and terror

Starring Will Smith

Imagine there was a cure for cancer and every cancer patient was given it. Then imagine if that cure backfired later, wiping out the majority of the human race and the only ones left were either immune to the disease or turned into zombie-like monsters.

So is the premise of I am Legend.

Robert Neville (Will Smith) was a Lt. Colonel in the military and doctor working to cure the mistakes that the cancer cure created. He appears to be the only survivor and has been living alone in New York City with his dog, Sam. Everyday at high noon he waits for other survivors and attempts to hunt the overpopulated wildlife running through the city. By night, he hordes himself up in his house with a gun, as the infected monsters only come out when the daylight is gone. He spends his free time experimenting on lab rats, and eventually on one of the infected, to try and find a cure for the cancer cure gone wrong.

We really see what it would be like to be completely isolated and how one can attempt to keep sanity.

The end was a bit cheesy and definately not the typical zombie/infected type ending we're used to (everyone is supposed to die, damnit!), but the rest of the movie was pretty good...

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Rated R for violence, overexaggerated gore, implied rape

Starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, and Sacha Baron Cohen

Originally a Broadway musical, Tim Burton's take on this dark tale is quite well done!

Barber Benjamin Barker had it all - a successul job, a beautiful wife and a gorgeous baby girl. That is, until his wife catches the eye of Judge Turpin, who has Barker sent off to an Austrialian prison for false charges, gets the missus intoxicated and takes advantage of her, having his way, which in turn, we learn, causes the poor thing to seek poision to end her pain. The judge adopts their daughter, keeping her locked up in the house to keep her from 'the dangers of the outside world', spying on her regularly.

Fast forward 15 years, Barker has escaped from prison and is heading home to London, Fleet Street to be exact, where he takes up the name of Sweeney Todd and opens shoppe above Mrs. Lovett's dirty ol' meat shoppe. Learning of what has become of his wife and daughter, he seeks revenge and his sights are set on Judge Turpin, with plans of giving him 'the closest shave he has ever had.'

It's a great tragic story of what can happen when someone focuses solely on revenge and how it can destroy them and those around them.

Mrs Lovett's idea for a secret ingredient to boost the sales of her meat pies was a bit odd... one of the more humorous numbers in the movie was when they're having a picnic on a hillside, looking completely without color. Mrs Lovett (who had a silent crush on Todd/Barker back when he was married, as she was his landlord back then as well) is completely overwhelmed with the idea of living happily ever after with Todd - imagining them at the beach, enjoying a day on a porch, getting married at a cute little chapel, strolling along on a boardwalk, etc - although we can tell he's only got one thing on his mind - Judge Turpin's revenge.

It was a bit over the top with the exaggerated bloody murders (think "Kill Bill") and especially in the number where he's slitting throats left and right and Mrs Lovett's making meat pies with their 'secret ingredient' but in this day and age, it's not that uncommon in films of this nature to have it as such (I've seen worse).

*hopefully* Johnny Depps gets an Oscar nom for this one or Pirates this year and maybe he'll finally win one, as he definately deserves it. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - he's one of the greatest character actors of our time! Why the hell has he not won an Oscar yet?!

On that note, Tim Burton was recently signed on to do Disney's 3D verison of Alice in Wonderland - I can't wait! If we thought Lewis Carroll's story was trippy and messed up enough, I can't wait to see Burton's take on it! Especially if it's gonna be in 3D!

AVP-Requiem

Rated R for violence, gore and lots and lots of carnage!

I'm not too familiar with the Predator series and out of the Alien series I've only seen the first one and Ressurection, but for this one, all you need to know is that the Predator, while not exactly 'the good guy,' is solely after the Aliens - whether or not humans get in his way is a different matter.

Our characters are typical - there's the optimistic sherrif, the ex-convict just out of jail and his younger brother who is headed on the same path, the younger brother's crush, the army woman just home from duty as well lesser characters that the film don't really focus much on. Why they spent so much time in the first half of the movie setting everything up is beyond me - I was a bit bored there til the action finally kicked in.

Looking back, it sort of reminded me of Resident Evil: Apocalypse with the whole premise of the city getting quarentined after multiple residents mysteriously go missing and later turned up mutilated and the survivors trying to make it out toward safety.

Lots of blood, lots of gore. Predator was pretty cool though when fighting the Aliens. Pregnant women and babies are not safe when it comes to those two!

Saw IV

Like the tagline "It's a Trap" for this one states, it certainly is a trap... to keep on raking in the money and making more. If I had a dollar, no make that a dime, for everytime in the past 2 months I have heard some variation of the phrase "OMG they made a Saw 4?!" I'd be rich. Brace yourself folks, OMG there will be a Saw 5... and 6... and at least a 7, according to rumors that they wrote at least thru number 7 after they finished 2.

But onto the review! part IV leaves off right where 3 did... sorta...

without giving too much away, this one we see multiple interrogations of Jigsaw's ex-wife and learn a little bit about what drove him to his insanity of becoming the derranged 'killer' that he was as well as his first 'trap' and 'victim'. The last 5-10 minutes were just 1 twist after the other, linking together this trap with all previous ones in the first 3 installments. The whole time we're trying to figure out who the latest accomplice is in the Jigsaw murders, since we know it's not Jigsaw himself or Amanda, based off what happened in part 3. It also shows us the test of the SWAT team cop who's been in all of them up to this point (in minor roles so you probably never noticed him) who wants to save everyone but needs to learn that sometimes, you just need to let people save themselves.

Donnie Whalberg (Marky Mark's lil bro, or 'the bad boy' from NKOTB) is back reprising his previous role of Det. Eric Matthews, and he was actually pretty amusing.

If you've seen the previous 3 and don't mind them, then feel free to continue on in this series, if you haven't seen any or are tired of them dragging out the plot just to make money off ya, don't bother, you really don't miss much. The 'gore factor' is about on par with the previous installment - there's the medical gross factor they implimented in part 3, as well as the usual odd 'methods' of teaching the victims a lesson.