Troll 2 (W/Dvd) (Ws Sub Ac3 Dol Dts) [Blu-ray]
I’ve seen this movie dozens of times now – and I think it just keeps getting funnier.
Can we start off with the most ridiculous, basic flaw? The movie is called TROLL 2. It has absolutely nothing to do with the first movie, Troll, and its about Goblins!! Were they just trying to ride the coattails of the first movie? According to IMDB, Troll made a mere .4M, so that seems like a dubious choice. And you have to love, 2/3 through the movie, when the main character finally makes the realization everyone else did after 2 minutes…”Nilbog is Goblin backwards! This is their kingdom!!!” In fact, all of their sudden realizations are great, like the character Arnold – “Wait…they’re eating her! And they’re going to eat me! OH my GOOOOOD!!”
I didn’t think it was possible for a movie to be so hilariously bad, but this one is. The acting is beyond horrific. I have a hard time decided who the worst actor is, but I lean towards the mother. And if the acting wasn’t bad enough, the script writing is worse! Like when Grandpa Seth accidentally appears in the wrong mirror in the house, Joshua scolds him for his mistake, to which he replies “I’m sorry, I haven’t learned the layout of this house.” How does that sequence get added? And what’s with the popcorn scene in the trailer? THAT is how you know something is truly horrible – the actor is laughing as he tries to sputter “too…much….popcorn!” It reminds me of Jimmy Fallon all over again, except with a movie where you can always do another take.
The lack of any sort of special effects only adds to the experience – such as in the scene where Grandpa Seth freezes everyone but Joshua – but you can still see them moving and their drinks sloshing. Or when a trol…er…goblin throws a spear at a guy, it has to cut away to a scene of the spear flying high in the air (they were only 10 yards apart), only to cut back to him getting hit, in an entirely different setting from where he was before. And the Goblin outfits themselves….epic!
Also, I’m fairly certain the director added a subtext of the daughter’s boyfriend struggling with homosexuality. There is an inexplicable bond between him and his buddies, Holly makes reference to it not being hard to turn him homo, there’s the quick cutaway in the trailer of the guys laying together in a bed, among others. I tell ya – this director is genius!
I would give anything to spend 10 minutes talking to the masterminds behind this movie. It boggles my mind that a rational mind could actually create this masterpiece – but it was done. Do yourself a favor. Buy this movie, and watch it several times. You will not regret it.
Gold – Shwammy –
This movie is almost as horribly awesome as The Room, but not quite!! Great for a laugh or two!!!
w00t – The Ringer –
I ordered it to come fast, and it did. It was just what I wanted. Such a bad movie (both of em), but it’s an amazing movie if you have my friends humor 
Tagged: Bluray, Dehumidifier, MDR304, WDvd August 22, 2010
Antichrist: The Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]
A woman and a man lose their son in a tragic accident. Rather than trust in the medicine prescribed by her psychiatrist to ease her grief, he (a psychotherapist) decides to subject her to his own therapeutic regime. She (in an incredibly devastating performance by Charlotte Gainsbourg) will face her fears directly, and see that there is nothing to fear. He doesn’t consider that he may have something to fear from her, or that he, with his clinical detachment from feeling and incessant preoccupation with the stance of observer, may be the one who truly needs therapy. (On that note it is hard not to detect a kinship of the themes of this film with the themes of von Trier and Jorgen Leth’s The Five Obstructions, that set up von Trier himself as therapist to Leth, whose capacity for aesthetic detachment he found troubling).
The imagery in the film is fascinating and frightening – it is certainly von Trier’s most accomplished film in terms of cinematography, and it definitely deserves to get the Criterion treatment (note that at present it has been announced on Criterion’s blog but there is no official release date). The prologue and epilogue are highly formalistic, shot in a series of powerful black and white images that border on the unreal; the rest of the film, broken into five chapters, is shot handheld with washed out but saturated colors, with rippling natural imagery and occasional freaks of nature that as a whole evokes a darker vision of Tarkovsky’s zone (from Stalker). The film is in fact dedicated to Tarkovsky, and suggests a kind of inversion of his values and approach: whereas Tarkovsky finds in nature the potential for transcendence, suggested but not depicted, von Trier depicts in nature the reality of hell, a “Satan’s church” where, as the fox asserts, “chaos reigns”; where Tarkovsky takes long, leisurely tracking shots, von Trier’s are a bit jerky and employ the occasional jump cut, but he also employs the trademark Tarkovskian slow zoom into extreme close up on a partial face or gesture, and also (as I recall) occasionally employs the “temporal folding” that is common in Tarkovsky’s films, where in the course of a single pan or tracking shot of the camera, events are depicted as if simultaneous that could not have been.
The film has been described by several critics as suggesting that women are evil, and the setting in a woods they call “Eden” makes it hard not to see “she” (Gainsbourg) as a kind of twisted Eve figure whose longings and obsessions introduce evil and death into the garden. Still, it seems to me that the central character in the film is “He” and the film uses him as an object lesson to provide a critical depiction of a paranoid male fantasy/nightmare. “He” (played admirably by Willem Dafoe) is a therapist who is confident of his powers, and was obsessed by his job and detached from his wife and son until the accident allowed him to treat her as patient. He had dismissed as trite her writing and research on misogyny and “gynocide” – hatred and violence against women, born of fear — and was emotionally distant from her until now she became for him a fascinating object of study. He becomes threatened and uneasy when she seems to have been cured, and seeks to continue the therapy by whatever means necessary. What she really fears, he insists, is that the male fears about women that inspired the violence she had studied were in fact true, that women are in fact evil – and that she is herself the object of her fears. When his projection onto her becomes real, when the fear he projected onto her comes to life, it becomes clear that this is his own paranoid fantasy, his own fear of aggressive female sexuality come to life allows him to justify and actualize the violent retaliation he had formerly only been able to realize against her in words, by objectifying and dismissing her.
It is as if, von Trier’s film suggests, as if the modern version of the old male fear of the feminine, expressed then by accusing powerful women of witchcraft as a justification for doing them violence, as if this fear has been transformed or sublimated into the male pretense of objectivity. An objectivity that treats women as if their fears and concerns were utterly banal, but only out of a deeper anxiety that if women were to realize that male objectivity is really a new form of witchcraft aimed at silencing women, if women were to realize this they would come into their own and that would be the real danger. The film does not, as I see it, in any way endorse this view of women, or this fear, but depicts it powerfully in the form of a perverse parody. Not for the timid, but not to be dismissed, either, as if it were merely another provocative and shocking joke by that Danish trickster, Lars von Trier. It’s a subtle and complex film, powerfully shot, darkly scintillating and dangerous.
Not Just a Movie, an Experience – Amos Lassen – Little Rock, Arkansas
“Antichrist”
Not Just a Movie, an Experience
Amos Lassen
While a couple is having sexual intercourse in one room, their son falls out of the window in another room and dies. The mother is so grief-stricken that she is hospitalized but her husband who is a therapist brings her home and wants to treat her depression himself. They decide to confront their fears and go to stay in their cabin in the woods where something terrible happened the summer before. The movie is in a sense literary in that it is told in four chapters with a prologue and epilogue and it looks at acts of lustful cruelty as the man and woman unfold the darker side of nature outside and within. I will discuss this a bit later.
This movie is an experience and I think that it is an unpleasant experience yet it must be seen. The overall tone of the movie was full of dread and presence of some sort of evil can be felt. This is a hard movie to review because it crosses all barriers when it comes to movie making and makes you question yourself about the definition of art and how far is what art is “too far”?
The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous and the opening scene is sheer beauty. Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are brilliant actors and they were probably emotionally drained by making the film. Oscars.
There is a great deal of violence in the film physical and sexual as well as emotional. It is very realistic and extremely effective. There were times when I wanted to look away and that does not happen in the kind of movies that I usually watch.
Lars von Trier, the director, makes films that provide himself and his audiences with thorny intellectual challenges. He does just what a Freudian psychotherapist would do in releasing obsessions. He locks the terrifying nature of the horror to the most extreme sexual images. The narrative itself follows a similar process. A psychotherapist, with the best intentions, leads his wife into the darkest recesses of her mind. But instead of releasing psychological trauma, he reinforces it, until he has to defend himself when she becomes the controlling force.
A psychotherapist (Willem Dafoe) and his wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg) are making love as their young toddler climbs onto a desk to look at snowflakes outside and falls to his death. This opening prologue is operatic in its soundtrack and intensity. Exquisite photography captures water droplets in slow motion to the music of Handel. There is a very brief, aesthetically contextualized glimpse of penetration, setting the audience up for the psycho-sexual horrors that follow later. In the trauma of bereavement, husband asks his wife to visualize her worst nightmares in order to help her overcome them. She pictures the woods as symbolizing her fear, and they both retreat to an ‘Eden’ – an isolated cabin surrounded by woods.
The film is divided into six parts, including a Prologue (the lovemaking and death), Grief, Pain, and Despair; The Three Beggars, and an Epilogue. At the end of the prologue, the next three chapters are heralded by three toy soldiers from the dead son’s toy room, each appropriately named.
With Grief, comes sorrow from both leads. The players become totally substantial and color is added to the monochrome, and the characters gain some color as well.
As we go through Pain, his wife seems eventually cured but our nerves are frayed. To make this even more effective there is hypnotic pounding of acorns falling on the roof of the cabin, and the husband’s smugness as he treats his wife as a patient rather than as a human being who needs support. He forever has a self-satisfied, smart answer
Chapter three is entitled Despair (Genocide). He learns things about his wife he didn’t know before but perhaps should have. He is pulled into her nightmare. We see him soaked in the rain, at the mercy – for the first time – of the elements. The fourth chapter gives form to the imaginary content of the preceding three, and includes the most upsetting and outrageous scenes (which many may find objectionable). The epilogue provides a narrative and psychological resolution in the only way possible when things have come to such a head and we also see the story relate now to the whole of humanity.
“Antichrist” is sure to get reactions, even from audiences not geared to his work. For them, the extreme and graphic sexual imagery may be too much.
Lars von Trier’s film is a bit outrageous as it makes us try to feel something. “Antichrist” belongs to its stars. They are spectacular.
Tagged: Antichrist, Bluray, Collection, Criterion August 21, 2010
Haunting of Winchester House [Blu-ray]
The Winchester mansion has fueled centuries of legends, and one family is about to realize just how true they can be…
When the young family moves into the mansion to act as caretakers, their daughter is abducted by sinister spirits. To get her back, they’ll discover–in a terrifying, paranormal game of wits–just why the house holds its reputation as one of the most haunted places in America.
This movie gave me goose bumps by how scary it is and you know what is weird about it I was under a blanket at the time. There is various scary scenes but the scene that scary me the most is the scene that took place at night with the mother in her bed when she saw a freaky baby coming to the side of her bed. Haunting of Winchester House is a horror movie that have sneaking up on you frights, jumping out at you booos and like when somebody come out of no where and scare you feeling. This movie have an insightful ending and twist ending that I did not see coming in which I feel sorry for everybody including Harrison Dent. This is an heart pounding thrill ride and a need to see movie.
Dawns reviews – D. Knox – Colorado Springs, CO
Movie was ok. Good surprise ending. I was disappointed that the real Winchester Mystery House wasn’t used as I thought it would be.
Save your time and money, this movie sucks. – J. Quintana – Cypress, CA USA
I have been to the Winchester house, and it’s in the middle of town, not in the woods. This is not a true story, it’s just crap. I hate the fact that I was taken in and bought this tripe. It’s at Walmart, but don’t buy it.
Aw, C’mon, it Ain’t that Bad – Gotham Night –
Normally I would slam a cheesy movie like this, but I’m giving this three stars for some actually creepy moments and a pretty cool ending. It wasn’t totally bad. You can’t blame the actors, I mean, a script like this did not require Meryl Streep in the title role. It seemed like they were having fun, and I actually had fun watching this, and making fun of this, which was half the fun! Great ending, that’s all I can say on that. Not really sure why they made any reference to Winchester House at all, I think they could have just left that out and they probably would have had a better movie. It seems most people felt ripped off because it had nothing to do with the actual Winchester House, except stealing the story of the legend of the house to make this movie. Really wasn’t necessary though. The photo of the people in the 19th century had much better hair styles than the caretaker family did. And Harrison Dent looked like he just walked out of a Shaft movie. That’s part of the “bad” charm of this little flick. And hey, did you know that squirrels will eat your nuts? Yeah, it’s a joke, a bad joke, what else would you expect from this movie. I am not going to come right out and recommend this movie and get some folks mad at me for making them spend .00 on this after rummaging through the Wal-Mart DVD bargain bin. But I myself feel it was .00 well spent. It was either this or a Michael Jackson DVD. I prefer this.
Tagged: Bluray, Haunting:, Winchester August 21, 2010
Howling Trilogy – The Marsupials III, The Rebirth V, The Freaks VI [Blu-ray]
Howling Trilogy – The Marsupials III, The Rebirth V, The Freaks VI – the fear is breeding fast on Blu-ray! The Marsupials – A strange race of human-like marsupials that have appeared suddenly in Australia are being studied by a sociologist played by Barry Otto who soon falls in love with Jerboa, a beautiful redhead (Imogen Annesley). The aptly named Jerboa has a secret; a cute, curious little pouch that following a night of passion gains the tiniest of new inhabitants. Is this a dangerous combination? While both ominously spooky and outrageously campy, it is sure to entertain! The Rebirth – When a group of strangers converge on an ominous Romanian castle, they begin to suspect one of them may be an ancestor to a legendary werewolf bloodline. As the evening progresses and bodies start turning up, their suspicions may be true! The Freaks – When a drifter named Ian comes to the rural town of Canton Bluff, he finds work fixing up the local church. But when the owner of a traveling carnival finds out Ian’s terrible secret, he blackmails him into becoming part of his sideshow…but it turns out the carnival owner may have a secret of his own!
Tagged: Bluray, Cookware, Enamel, Freaks, Howling, Marsupials, Porcelain, Rachael, Rebirth, Trilogy August 20, 2010