TIFF REVIEW: FILM #41 " Wasted on the Young"

DIRECTED BY -Ben C. Lucas

IN MY OPINION - 8/10

      I  have never seen the text message in movies dilema dealt with so well. I think the director drawers credit, if for nothin else, for this. The bonus is that the director also deserves credit fir making a really great high school drama thriller that kept me cringing and squirming and also guessing.
      The story may not be the most original, in fact it's not that original at all - new girl gets taken advantage of at a party, cool guys accussed of rape, denial, gossip, pain and revenge. It's one of the standard stories for high school genre films. BUT it's all in the execution, and wasted on the young does a superb job of telling old in a new way.
       Performances are all solid. There wasn't a character I didn't believe, primarily the leads. Wow. The intensity in this film is great, and when it builds and builds and brimms over you can't help but be excited.
    Watch this film. It's really damn good.

TIFF REVIEW: FILM #31 "I Saw The Devil"

DIRECTED BY - Kim Jee-woon

IN MY OPINION - 8/10

     Wholly crap this is a great thriller, both visually and contextually it's a treat. Cut 10 minutes out of the 1st half and it would have been better.
      The cut at TIFF was the extended/band in asia cut, which is always great, and when you're in unrated territory by the director of old boy, well I hope you get the picture as to how great this can be.
     The idea that serial killers are everywhere, and sociopaths just happen upon sociopaths all the time was hilarious to me, with bloody results that made me give everyone a second glance on the way home.
     While there isn't a lot of "who dun it" here, there is a lot of thought behind everything happening giving this flick an added edge over other gory hunter/prey movies.  

TIFF REVIEW: FILM #38 "Stake Land"

DIRECTED BY -  Jim Mickle

IN MY OPINION - 6/10

I'm sorry, but did anyone ask for zombieland with vampires? Cause that's what I just watched-right down to a constant voice over by the loser we root for as he follows the brazen "mr" on his killing sprees across the country as he heads to "new Eden"
First kill sequence, I had high hopes as a vampire that looks like a face painted rabid racoon feeds on a baby from the rafters, dropping it's tiny corpse when switching to being on the attack. Not bad. Then It all goes to shit.
A BORING voice over follows the two leads across the country as they constantly head north, killing vampires along the way. Stopping off to visit camps of survivors- trade goods- visit nameless whores and then ride on. LAME! There was NOTHING new in here at all.
It upsets me when a movie has potential, and then relies on cliche instead. The Herod pick up a girl along the way- obvious, oh and she's pregnant. Then they pick up a whitty black guy fighting for hi life against Arian religits, oh and he used to be in te military and has all the tid-bits of inormation the writers think we want to know. I was hoping they would avoid this moment, but it's cliche so why not use it.
I honestly just wanted te characters to die.
All that said, there are a few fun vampire kills, but at times the vampires seemed almost like zombies which kept making me think yet again of zombieland. There is a hilariously bad karate kid training esq montage as the lead learns how to jab a stake! Ugh!
I must say though, dropping vampires from a helicopter as an attack method is pretty damn cool, but reminded me further of how this movie is not as strong as the sum of it's parts.
The best moment is at the end- which I shall diculdge here. The plac they are all running too- new Eden- Yeah, it's Canada! Hilarious. Luckily this high moment was quickly followed up the end credits.

FOLLOW UP COMMENT  -  
Stake Land won the peoples choice midnight Madness award art TIFF 2010, which makes me wonder what it was that I was missing, and what movie everyone else was watching.  The constant review I hear is that the post-apocolyptic depiction is great, the brotherhood element is so well done, the vampire moments are great...   And still I feel like my initial opinion holds true.  The state of the world is brushed over, and just as anything shows a glimpse of being interesting we're on the move again.  I just don't get it - but the film I'm sure shall get distribution so at some point I shall check it out again.

TIFF REVIEW: FILM #35 "Beautiful Boy"

DIRECTED BY - Shawn Ku

IN MY OPINION - 6.5/10

Again sheen knocks it out of the park with an amazing performance.
It was nice to see a story like this, void of violence-helping show how the aftermath of violence is almost as bad as the violent act itself.
As a directorial debut this is a powerful intimate Story of loss and denial. The constant stredicam is a character all it's own as the grieving parents wander through the unsteady ground of masive guilt at the same time, making me feel like I was a distant observer bought into the quiet moments. It worked very well.

TIFF REVIEW: FILM #44 "Cold Fish"

DIRECTED BY -  Sion Sono

IN MY OPINION - 7/10

Uhmmm. Yeah. This movie is a little bloody. And when I say little I mean very, and when I say bloody I mean disturbing.
The last 15 minutes will surely make this "based on a true story" murder crime thriller a cult hit. It just doesn't end, and as it keeps going it keeps getting bloodier, and bloodier, and more violent and tense and wow. By the time it ends I was just glad to be able to breath.
While it's a little long cold fish does a great job of twisting the tension vice as things slowly get worse and worse and worse. And damn is there an uncomfortable ammount of comedy mixed in with all this sociopathic violence. I almost felt bad laughing as the subject gets darker, but you can't help it. Part of the charm of this murder flick is watching the actor that plays the mass murderer and his over the top hillarious demeanor. It's a great contrast to the reseved, cold fish like performance of the protege.
This movie is not for everyone, but it's a crazy true story and a great horror film.

TIFF REVIEW: FILM #45 "Monsters"

DIRECTED BY - Gareth Edwards

IN MY OPINION - 8/10

This is what monster movies should be like.
At it's core monsters is a simple plot really, "so if we don't get out of teh country in the next 48hrs well be stuck here for 6months". It doesn't get more blatant than that- and this is one of the worst lines of dialogue in the whole movie because of its rare on the nose delivery. The rest of monsters is such a treat where it let's you fill in the gaps and enjoy watching a movie where everyone is tired of dealing with these things and just want to get through the "attack season".
While the - get from a to b - story is basic, it's a very fun ride along the way with solid performances, stunning visuals and a good balance of comedy and Hitchcock like terror (what you can't see scares you more) monsters has a great deal of withstraint when delving into the horror/sci-fi genre.
Added coolness is that monsters was made for next to nothing by a bunch of friends who headed to mexico and just made a movie. The special effects were mostly all completed by te director alone at home, which is an accheivment in itself and should be throwing inspiration to any and all aspiring filmmakers. This is the kind of movie you can make without the system, this is the bar and it has just been raised!

TIFF REVIEW: FILM #42 " Fire Of Conscience"

DIRECTED BY -

IN MY OPINION - /10

Skipped to spend time with my birthday girl girlfriend. I shall re-watch infernal affairs to make up for it. :)