Rental Reviews

Plot Outline: Ash, a chainsaw-wielding, shotgun-toting, slightly insane man from the present is sucked through a portal to the 1300’s. After having battled zombies for two previous movies (see the Evil Dead series), he encounters even more after being captured by the ruler of the surrounding area, a bewildered Lord Arthur. After learning from Arthur’s wise man that the only way he can travel back to his own time period is to find and steal the evil book that started the whole zombie fiasco in the first movie (the Necronomicon), Ash sets out to do so. Shenanigans ensue.

Ian: Tig has been trying to force me to watch this movie for a long time and I’ve been resisting, although I’m not entirely sure why. Suffice it to say that I’ve seen the error of my ways.

This movie is plain hilarious. I totally wasn’t expecting it, either. According to Tig, the first movie in this series (Evil Dead), was a semi-serious horror movie. The second one started making fun of itself a little more, while Army of Darkness mocks the entire B-horror-movie genre as a whole. And I have to agree with Tig… The entire movie is one big joke, with the undead shouting things like, “Arrr, I’ll get your gizzard!” Or legions of miniature Ash-clones using a fork (at “Ramming speed!”) to attack Ash himself. It’s completely over the top. Completely.

Something else… this movie a ton of quoteables that have passed into common vernacular; or at least common vernacular for gamer-nerds such as myself. For example: “I got news for you pal. You ain't leading but two things right now: Jack and Shit. And Jack just left town,” and “This… is my… boomstick!”

Now if you’re like me, you probably have been avoiding this movie for awhile because you thought it actually was a crappy B-movie. However, if you watch it knowing that it isn’t really a crappy B-movie, but a satire piece on B-movies as a whole, then you’ll have a blast watching it. It’s definitely worth renting.

Oh, and if you don’t really feel like sitting through the other two movies in the Evil Dead series before getting to this little nugget of goodness, don’t feel obligated. According to Tig, who I agree with, it isn’t necessary. This movie stands on its own quite well.

Plot Outline: An American man in Paris (David Duchovny), tells his son the story of his coming of age as a boy in New York City. Duchovny starts the story as the narrator, and eventually, becomes a character in his own story.

I'm usually not a fan of the whole "coming of age" movies. For some reason they always feel like people are telling me that because this rebel did his own thing, he's a better person for it. *Don't get me wrong.. I'm not saying I disagree with that statement.. in fact quite the opposite. BUT, (you knew it was coming) I find most movies, in this classification, feel incredibly sappy and dry.

House of D surprised me; I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. It has a good cast, including a brilliant performance from one of my favorite actors, Robin Williams. This movie really just didn't feel like I was getting preached at, or sold on an idea. Shit happens.. you either deal with it, or you don't.. and if you do.. sometimes things work out for the better. It is a movie that will make you appreciate your past and present friends. But it didn't give me a "dwelling in the past" feeling.

All in all, its definitely worth renting. So check it out. Thanks for the recommendation Brooke.

-Tig

So Tig and I decided that we needed to have a rental review in order to “fill out” the site, so to speak. One cannot survive on recent and upcoming movie reviews alone. Fearless just happened to show up in our mailbox from Netflix, so it gets the privilege of christening the last naked section.

Plot Outline: Huo Yuanjia (Jet Li), is the son of a martial arts (or “wushu” as it is called in the movie) master. However, due to the fact that he is cursed with asthma, his father refuses to allow him to learn the art of wushu. Despite his father’s wishes, Huo trains in secret and eventually becomes a wushu master. In accordance with his pledge never to lose a fight, which he made to his close friend as a child, he eventually becomes one of the strongest fighters in his area, but also becomes self-absorbed and conceited. After killing an opponent in an unplanned and personal match, his life is ruined by his opponent’s grieving son (exactly how I won’t say, it’d be a spoiler). The movie details his life from this destructive episode to his eventual epic fight for China's honor against four top warriors from four different countries. (Based on a true story)

Review: I was actually fairly impressed with this movie. The previews I remember seeing always left me thinking it was just going to be another dumb action flick. Granted the story line is a little bit cliché, granted the best parts of the movie are where Jet Li is kicking the ever living shit out of someone... the movie is still pretty good. The cinematography is, as to be expected, excellent. The director, Ronny Yu, does an excellent job capturing China as it existed during Huo’s time period (1869-1910). Or at least I imagine he does. It’s beautiful regardless.

The acting is passable. As a rule, acting is never that great in martial arts movies, and I can accept that fact. But Jet Li’s portrayal of Huo isn’t horrible. There are times, however, when I found myself thinking, “God, the acting in that scene was painful.” For example, Huo is supposed to be a fairly self-absorbed individual, but there are times when I felt like Li acted too self-absorbed. This happened countless times during the movie, and this overacting ended up feeling strained.

Otherwise the movie was enjoyable. There was a lot of violence, but what else would you expect from a martial arts flick? The unrated version (which is what Tig and I watched) had a lot of bones breaking and hearts being thrust through rib cages and such, but it wasn’t too gruesome. Of course, after the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which Tig forced me to watch, nothing really seems that gruesome in comparison.

All in all, it’s worth renting. The story is excellent even though it’s a tad cliché, the action is intense, and despite some of the acting flaws, overall the movie is entertaining and enjoyable.

-Ian

PS. Does anyone find it odd that this was supposed to be Jet Li's "final martial arts epic," and now he has two more epic-type martial arts movies coming out? Look at his IMDB listing. I count two that could fit the "martial arts epic" description that are either filming or in pre-production.