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I have given examples of direct-to-video releases that are great. This is not the case for every movie that does not go to theaters at all, Donnie Darko 2: S. Darko being one of them.It is said in the title that S. Darko is a sequel to Donnie Darko. It is called S. Darko for Samantha Darko. It is Donnie's little sister from the first one. It is about how she is becoming like Donnie was and is traveling with her best friend. This movie is more like a remake of the original than a sequel, except with a girl instead of a guy. Just about every event that happened to Donnie is now happening to Samantha, just in different situations. The screenwriters did not get creative or original with this film.
Even before I saw this movie, I knew they could of gotten a better cast. I did not recognize any of the actors in the entire movie. I think that no good actors wanted to do a cheap direct-to-video sequel, so they got a cast of bad actors to do it. Seeing this cast struggle to act made me cringe throughout.
Since the first Donnie Darko had bad special effects, this one tried to improve on that. The visuals did get better, but it lost the homemade, cheap feel that made it what it was. There are a lot of computer graphics throughout this movie that are cheesy, this is no Transformers movie.
Overall, Donnie Darko 2: S.Darko is a so-so movie. It is boring and feels way longer than it actually is. The entire movie is flimsy and dragged out. It is worth a rental, at most, and that is even stretching it. Be cautious and do not expect much to come from this movie.
Next movie: Hard Candy
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Many people find new movies to watch through the actors that they like. I follow Ellen Page frequently because every movie she does has meaning and is different from everything else that comes out. I looked at her previous works and there I saw Hard Candy.
Hard Candy is about a smart teenager who meets an older man through the Internet. She goes to his house and begins to drink alcohol, but the mystery is, who is the prey and who is the pedator? I think the story pulls the audience in to want more until the final scene. It is always throwing another small twist onto the story to keep it interesting as a lot of the movie is dialogue, but soon becomes a cat and mouse game of survival.Everyone will recognize Ellen Page (Juno), and will most likely recognize Patrick Wilson (Lakeview Terrace) as well. These are the main two actors/ Others are talked about but not shown for more than a few seconds to a minute. Ellen puts on a perfect performance and gives passion to the role she is in. Patrick also gives a great performance, making the audience confused as to whether they should like him or hate him. Each line is delivered with the actor's heart and none fails.
There is a lot of excellent photography used in the visuals. Everything is captured perfectly, even during the most dramatic situations. The lighting and camera angles of the sunset are beautiful to the eye. There are not many visuals in this movie, but the ones that are used in the photography are top notch.
Overall, Hard Candy is a magnificent film. I have seen this movie three or four times and I love it the same every time I view it. Hard Candy gets a very high recommendation. It is for everybody to see.
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This slasher film's original hasn't touched the big screen since 1983. The original's title is The House On Sorority Row, but the remake renamed it simply Sorority Row. It makes little sense to compare the original with the remake since the two are entirely different films. Sorority Row has a simple plot. Furthermore, It rips off of the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise heavily.Sorority Row has a simple plot. It is about a prank going terribly wrong in a sorority house. One of the girls ends up dead. The sisters have to dispose of the body or their lives will be ruined forever. Now that the body is gone and the secret is "safe", or so they think, they live on trying to think past it. There is someone killing off the sisters of the sorority one by one with the same weapon with which the girl was killed. If you think about it, it is similar to old mystery stories. It is a guessing game of who is the killer, who is the sheep and who is the wolf. The ending is predictable and obvious, but does not stop it from being entertaining. There is not one minute of this movie that is not fun.
It is rare for me to compliment actors and actresses who play these roles. They are cliché. They are boring. They have gotten old over the years. We have a college girl who has sex with every guy on campus and is just a plain bitch, who gets into a terrifying situation. In this movie, most of the actors and actresses get their role dead on. Each character seems realistic and each reacts as many college girls would. One specific thing that got my attention is the killer. The person in the hooded graduation gown gives a great performance. Many will think, "But, this character never talks, how can you tell his or her acting skills if they don't even talk?". Well, they are a terrifying presence. Just by the movement of the head or the way the tire iron and knife are held has an extremely eerie feel. The acting is not ground-breaking by any means, but it is better than most slasher movies.
For those who have seen the trailer for Sorority Row the film is always fairly dark. Even the daylight scenes have a dark and dull feel to them. When the night scenes hit the screen, the hooded graduation gown of the killer is what stands out the most. The dark black of the gown stands out for the audience, making the viewers not able to stop staring. The visuals are fantastic. The photography is amazing and captures lightness and darkness perfectly. The blood looks realistic and it is shown in a tasteful way. The visuals are one of the strongest points of this film.
Overall, Sorority Row is an entertaining slasher flick. It moves along very quickly and the deaths flash by rapidly. Most of the death scenes remind me of old-fashioned kills. They are neither too special and not too over the top. The biggest reason for this movie being rated R is for the nudity. There are boobs shown over half of the time. It is a typical American dick-flick. Do not walk into Sorority Row expecting something like the original. It is completely different and should be treated as just a fun slasher movie. Go in expecting just to be entertained.
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This movie is best known for its shaky cam idea, since it is what began that trend. At the time, it was original, new, and made it feel like the situation was actually happening before your eyes. Just because it had an original idea, does not mean it is a good movie.It is about three students who are doing a documentary on the legend of the Blair Witch. They go into the woods to see what they can scoop up and find themselves stuck right in her trap. The idea has potential of being scary and making a lot of the audience shake in their seats. The movie begins ominous and creepy, but ends up just giving cheap scares. The story of the Blair Witch is what made my spine tingle and it should have kept the momentum it began with.
As for the acting, it is dreadful. They try to make it clear to the audience they are scared by cussing every other word, but it just made them sound like children. They are college students and should be smart enough to know to cooperate and stick together. The actors in this movie are the same thing we see in every horror movie where the audience screams "Don't go in there!" or "It's behind you!". I understand it is meant to be documentary style, but this could have been a lot better.
It is a low budget documentary and is not meant to have good visuals. This is one of the things I really enjoyed about this movie, it made it more scary by looking more old fashioned and not overblowing on visuals. There are barely any visuals throughout the movie, but the style that is used is unnecessary.
Overall, The Blair Witch Project is an alright movie. It is the type of movie you will rent every once in a while or buy in the $5 bin at Walmart. The worst factor about this movie is once you have seen it, every feeling of fear or suspense is gone. This is a movie to watch once, only to watch again if you are with someone who has not seen it before. I suggest to rent it if you haven't seen it, but don't go out of your way to get it.
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Since the first one ended with a lot of mystery, the producers had the need to make a second one. The obvious reason for making another one was to cash in. Unfortunately for them, this movie did not last long in theaters because of all the bad reviews and almost no money coming in.It is about a group of people going back into the woods to look for the three students who went missing. They want to find out what happened to them and if they are dead. They go back into town finding a lot of sticks tied together to look almost like a cross. Furthermore, the items they bring back are haunted. Now they have brought the Blair Witch into the town. They are being haunted by her and have to get rid of the curse before they are dead. The story would be perfect if they left it alone as the first one since the cliff hanger is a good one. It is an unnecessary plot that dragss.
The acting is poor. None of the performances are memorable. The acting skills are those you would get out of a straight-to-cable movie. Every situation seems fake because of the actors' inability to act. Each line comes off as cheesy and repetitive. There is nothing special about this cast.
Unlike the original, The Blair Witch Project, there are very few handheld cam scenes. It is filmed like a real movie for the most part. The director wants to keep the cheap feel, it seems, since every prop looks fake. We even get to see the Blair Witch in this movie and her makeup is awful. She did not look menacing or scary in the leastt. If they are going to film this like a real movie, then use makeup like a real movie.
Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows is an awful movie. It is boring and repeats the same lines over and over again, merely rephrasing them. I liked the idea of the Blair Witch being unknown and not knowing what she looks like. We see her in broad day light and this movie destroys the little bit that I enjoyed in my first viewing of The Blair Witch Project. If you are going to see this, make sure you are getting it for free. If you spend any money on this, you will regret it.
