Predator

 If you mix an iconic extraterrestrial hunter, which spawned sequels, spin-offs, video games, comic books and all sorts of merchandise, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the big muscular man with a thick austrian accent that conquered the american movie industry in the 80’s with his terrific action packed movies, you’ll get a real treat that goes by the name of “Predator”.

 Predator is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by John McTiernan, staring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura and Kevin Peter Hall. As with most 80’s action movies the story follows a simple direction. A team of commandos, lead by Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger), while on a rescue mission in a jungle from Central America, find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior. It is well written, simple, with a great sound score, which boasts lots of action and suspense.

 The movie starts like any 80’s action flick, nothing unsual, with helicopters, muscular macho men and guns. It goes like that for about the first 20 minutes of the film. But things start to slowly take a turn of events as the commandos find gruesome clues and skinless dead bodies, indicating that there is more to the suffocating jungle than simple guerrila men. Along with our characters, we too, as the audience, slowly figure out who is the real enemy, and the movie turns into a suspenseful science fiction thriller. The directing from McTiernan is very efficent in giving the film its thriller aspect and the claustrophobic jungle also lends a hand in creating the sheer terror that our characters feel throughout the movie. The thick jungle forest provides the perfect hunting ground for the Predator as he takes down the soldiers one by one until only he and Arnold remain to battle in a very primal way towards the end of the movie. The acting is well done if you take into consideration that this is an action flick and as long as you do not expect serious and profound complex emotions you’ll enjoy their performances. Speaking of performances, Arnies performance is solid as Dutch and I think it is one of his best movies along with the Terminator series. For those of you who havn’t seen any Predator movie yet (if there are any), I’m not gonna give any details about the outer space hunter, but I have to say that his design is remarkable and his unique look is immediately identifiable. The special effects are great, not only for its time but they still hold remarkably well even after almost 24 years.

 I enjoy this movie every time I see it, as I have seen it countless of times by now, never getting bored by it.
Go and check it out/rent it/buy it if you havn’t already. I recommend this movie with all my heart. It will surely entertain you.

Pics with my DVD version:

Wrong Turn 3 - Left for Dead

 I am a huge horror movie consumer. I like horror and any of it's related sub-genres. I enjoy good horror movies and I enjoy some bad ones. Generally when everything else fails in a movie that belongs to this genre, I turn my head to it's gore effects. I just love some well done gore effects. Now onto this movie.

 Wrong Turn 3 - Left for Dead is a slasher/mutant/cannibal horror flick, the 3rd installment in the Wrong Turn series. The plot involves a group of dangerous criminals that are being escorted in a custody bus by three security officers. On their way to the destination the bus is knocked down by the mutant hillbilly named Three Finger, or what's left of the infamous hillbilly family from the previous two movies. So from here the slashing, hacking and cutting begins. Having previously seen the other two movies and enjoying them, I was expecting more or less the same amount of quality from this one as well. I'm not gonna bash the acting, the casting, the script, because this is a straight-to-DVD, B horror movie, and I do not have any kind of expectations when it comes to how the actors play their characters or how well is the script constructed. What I DO expect is good gore, good special effects, either practical or CGI, I am not picky as long as it is done well. WT 3 has decent gore. Even if it was filmed on a low budget, the CGI is done well. The deaths are interesting and, well, gory. The only big problem is that in between the gore scenes there is nothing interesting happening, no decent comedy relief, no suspension build-up, you're just sitting there watching and waiting for the next death to kick in. So for anyone who does not enjoy brainless, free gore, this movie is a no no. In my opinion, it is the weakest in the series.

 If you haven't seen any Wrong Turns yet, I suggest you pick up the first one and if you will enjoy it go grab the second installment and stop there. Only buy the third one if you can get it real cheap.

And now some pics with my DVD version :

The Deer Hunter

 I've recently purchased this movie on DVD format at a bargain price. Being a classic, awarded with 5 Oscars, being a success at the box office and favored by the critics, I immediately picked it up. I saw this movie when I was a little kid, but naturally I could not understand much back then. Now that I've seen it again, I can express an opinion from a subjective point of view. The objective one, I'll leave that to the critics.

 First of all, overall, I enjoyed the movie. It is a good movie, but it is surely not a "casual watch" movie, so to speak. It is a long movie, almost achieving the 3 hour mark, and being made in the '70s, it's pace can be tedious at times. The story begins in a little industrial town in USA, a town in which it's population belongs to a Russian-American community. The first hour or so of the movie focuses on a wedding that also serves as a background for character development. The pacing in the first hour is slow, can become boring, making you to loose interest, and for me the wedding didn't seem interesting at all, but that may be for the fact that I'm from Romania, so I'm quite used to those specific wedding celebrations. Anyway, after the wedding is over and after some scenes in which we see the main characters partaking in a deer hunting activity, the editing cuts right into the middle of the Vietnam war and this is were things take an interesting turn. From here on I really enjoyed every little bit of it. The drama is terrific, the acting is superb, everything is done well. This is not a war movie, wee don't see divisions, hundreds of soldiers, tactical and strategic operations. No. It just uses the war as a tool for creating powerful psychological trauma on the characters, specifically on Michael (Robert de Niro), Nick (Cristopher Walken) and Steven (John Savage), but more on Nick. The ending is powerful and sad, and this is all I'm gonna say. I know that it has been said thousands of times before, but the movie showcases very well on how can a war affect not only those who participated in it, but an entire town and the ones that they love. In the end it is a great movie, not a masterpiece, it has flaws, mainly in the editing department. A lengthy movie with a slow pace right at the beginning can be a turn off. Just bare through the wedding parts and some other parts here and there and it will be a rewarding experience.

 Oh, one of the very first movies in which Meryl Streep appears, so that's cool. Oh, and on IMDB, the trivia says that Meryl Streep improvised many of her lines. So cool.

Go watch it if you haven't seen it yet!

JAWS

 Jaws, the movie that made us afraid to go underwater, the movie that transformed sharks into feroucious creatures, forever changing our perception about them. That famous soundtrack that gave chills back in 1975 still gives chills today to younger audiences.

  Based on the novel of the same name, Jaws is a 1975 American thriller movie directed by Steven Spielberg and which casted Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. The story is quite simple to understand, nothing complicated. A small beach town is being terrorized by a giant great white shark and it's up to three men to get rid of it once and for all.

  Recently I've seen this movie for a second time, and boy it still has the same power to thrill and terrorize me like it did the first time I saw it with my father as a little kid. Jaws is simply jaws. Since then many other similar movies, including three sequels, have been trying to follow on it's footsteps, but they have failed more or less. The movie has a running time of 2 hours, which is quite long, but it also represents an advantage, in a way that it gives us enough time to connect emotionally with the main characters as they hunt and are being hunted by the frightening shark. The pace is good. There isn't a single scene that seems to be "dead" or drags along. The dialogs are simple and effective as they focus on the story and nothing else. Tension and terror is always present, both at sea and on land, despite that the antagonist is a shark. Although being filmed in the 70's, the special effects are top-notch. The famous mechanical great white shark was constructed so well that it seems like a real moving shark whenever it appears on screen. It's big, daunting and downright scary. The film isn't as gory or bloody as other more modern movies of it's kind, but the blood and gore that is present is very effective and helps create the horror and terror that the film has. The acting is good as the actors deliver their lines in a convincing manner, transforming them into believable human beings.

  What more can I say about this movie. I am trying to think about some negative points, but I just can't find any or at least not any major ones. It's no wonder it is considered one of the greatest movies ever made. Go see this movie if you havn't already. Skip all the other similar ones with alligators and weak CGI sharks and only buy/watch this one. (and maybe Deep Blue Sea). As for me, I think I'll need a bigger boat :).

 And some pics with my DVD version :