First Blood (1982)

First Blood (1982)









Download link : hxxp://rapid4me.com/?f=14200832&t=First.Blood.aXXo.rar















There are two major things that Sylvester Stallone has done that I like. First is Rocky (and the series that followed) and the second is his portrayal of John Rambo in First Blood.


If you are only familiar with the Rambo sequels, this film will be a surprise to you. Rambo II through IV were basically designed for those wishing to see Rambo against an army and winning against the odds. First Blood (known nowdays as Rambo I), while it contains that as well (Rambo against a small town police force) is actually about something deeper. The use and abuse of power. In this film there are three main characters guilty of abusing their power. The first, Teasle, (Brian Dennehy) the police chief of the small town of Hope. Teasle, spotting Rambo coming into town, and having a prejudice against "drifters" does his best to push Rambo out and away from his town, in an attempt to keep his town clean. To Rambo's innocent question of wheter there is anywhere he can buy food, Teasle, in his prejudiced manner, suggests "a diner 30 miles up the road.". Teasle's manner is the reason why Rambo begins his defiant stance. Until encountering Teasle's attitude, Rambo is civil, not willing to hurt anyone, and basically is wanting to stop in town for a meal before moving on. But Teasle of course, books him for vagrancy, and does his best to overpower Rambo, because he sees Rambo as a simple drifter, and he of course is the big police chief, Mr Authority, and this is his town and his way. (Even before meeting Rambo, Teasle's attitude to his fellow townsfolk is shown, with his mumbled aside comment to one citizen, "You gonna take a bath this week?". Teasle is a guy who treats others with derision if he sees them as not his type of person. And it is Teasle's actions that sparked the events of the movie. The spark was fanned by power abuser number two though. Galt.


Galt is a friend of Teasle's and is also an abuser of his power given to him by his position in the police force. While Teasle uses mental power plays against Rambo, Galt is strictly physical. Violence against Rambo with a nightstick, a forced shower with a fire hose, repeated threats of breaking his face, fingers etc are Galt's methods. It is Galt's physical abuse that finally causes Rambo to snap and escape the police station, and run to the mountains, just as it is Galt's insistence on shooting an unarmed, cliff clinging Rambo that lead's to Galt's own death. Galt is the obvious face of abusing power in this film, and a thoroughly unlikeable character. Even up to Galt's death (and even beyond that point) Rambo is trying to both explain his innocence and defuse the situation. Galt is too obsessive in making himself "the bigger man" that he's turned a bad situation, created by Teasle into a catastrophe.


The third person in this film who is guilty of abusing their power is Rambo himself. After he is pushed too far through the actions of Teasle and Galt, Rambo starts to rely on the only power he posesses, his military training. Rambo abuses his own power against the police, by falling into the mindset that this is a war, and of course, in Rambo's mind, a war is the place, the only place, where he is in control, and where he has any power over the situation. It is shown that Rambo abuses this power, even defying a suggestion from his Commanding Officer and friend Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) to give himself up. Talking to Trautman, he refers to the whole incident as a "war", in order to not only control his actions (in his own mind) but also antagonise Teasle. Rambo's "attack" on the town (though not on any innocent civilian) is designed to show Teasle, "now this is my situation, I control it", the very attitude that Teasle started with.


First Blood is a film I saw in the mid 80's and have enjoyed many times after. It is a deeply packed film, a great action film for those who like that genre, but also a dramatic thriller and commentary on, not only the abuse of power, but treatment of Vietnam vets by society, the role of person responsibility and social commentary. (as is the novel, which I heartily recommend).

A shame that First Blood was followed by three sequels that in no way matched the craftmanship of this film.


First Blood, four Darios

Last Action Hero (1991)

Last Action Hero (1991)

Last Action Hero is that type of film that I think is absolutely brilliant, although not too many others agree with me.

A basic synopsis: Danny is a young film fan, who is especially impressed with the Jack Slater action films (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger). One of Danny's few friends (or probably his only friend) is an old movie projectionist, Frank (Art Carney). Frank, who seems to be as lonely as Danny, invites Danny to a sneak preview of Jack Slater IV, which Danny, who worships Jack Slater, (even to the point of daydreaming a new action hero Hamlet in his English class starring Jack Slater) eagerly accepts.

Now for the plot point that most people have a problem with. Frank the movie man has in his possession a ticket that was given to him by Harry Houdini. This "magic ticket" is used by Danny to attend the impromptu showing of Jack Slater IV, as Frank insists that to see a movie "you've got to have a ticket". Turns out that the ticket is indeed magic, and it enables Danny to enter the world of Jack Slater IV. Soon after Danny is attepting to convince Jack Slater that he is a fictional character in an action movie, helping Jack track down "the bad guys" and enabling the director to rally a multitude of in jokes, including, after Danny's attempts to convince Slater hes in a movie and taking him to a video store, a view of the version of Terminator 2 that Slater would have seen, the one starring Sylvester Stallone.

Little touches prevail to highlight the fact slater lives in a movie. All the phone numbers are 555 numbers, there is a crane for ACME construction, and no bad guy can shoot straight, and you can wipe yourself clean with a cloth after falling into a tar pit.

"Hey Yo! Hasta La Vista, Adrian..."

After a bit of this and the theft of the ticket and the escaping of the villain into the real world, thanks to Jack throwing him through a wall that the ticket has used as a portal. ("Usually when I do that it leaves a hole..." says a puzzled Slater), Danny and Jack return to the real world still trying to catch Benedict (our villain). The bringing of fictional characters into our world is used to highlight the absurdities prevelent in action films; heroes can be shot (but they are only flesh wounds), cars explode via a scratch, cops show up in droves within seconds of a crime. This is how Benedict thinks and when he realises our world doesn't work like that, he , of course, wants to stay, because as he exclaims "Here! The Bad guys can win!"

Last Action Hero reaches its greatest point when Jack Slater, in the real world, encounters Arnold Schwarzenegger, who of course just assumes Slater is a celebrity lookalike. Using the ticket, a previous villain in the Slater films returns for another showdown.

This is one of Schwarzennegger's better films. It's entertaining, it's a very good example of how Arnold can be funny, and it is a good idea. A film that deconstructs its own genre and it was released five years before Wes Craven used the same idea in Scream.

Don't believe everything you hear about Last Action Hero. It's not as bad as you will be led to believe. Of course there is suspension of disbelief involved in the magic ticket plot point, but apart from that, this film makes more logical sense than any other action film. Slater is virtually indestructable and always wins because he's in an action film. The internal logic of Last Action Hero hold together more because of this aspect, than for example Ripley in the same situation in Aliens. The reason Slater is able to do what he does is because the film sets up the point that that's always the way it is. Aliens, on the other hand, is shown to us as a possible realistic event. Last Action Hero prides itself of being fiction.

It is also my favourite Schwarzenegger film. It's damn good, if you allow yourself to believe in a magic ticket, which is actually less disbelief than you need for a lot of films.

Four Darios

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

Download torrent at :

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4177000/Godzilla-Toho_Ultimate_38_Movie_Collection_(Hx3)

OK. I haven't seen all the Godzilla films yet, apart from some of the more popular (Gojira (Godzilla 1) , The Return Of Godzilla (Godzilla 1985) and the American remake, Godzilla (1998) and a few others. So with my lack of knowledge of the exact details of a lot of the Godzilla mythos, viewing Godzilla : Final Wars was a little confusing. But thats to be expected, I mean I can't expect to dip into the 28th chapter of a series and be able to follow it all can I?

That being said, I was surprised that for the touted final Godzilla film (although Toho are planning to bring him back in a year or three) Godzilla : Final Wars has very little Godzilla or any other monster in it for the first half (and a bit) of the film. What we do get is a short scene packing our monster fix in, (without Godzilla) and then suddenly they vanish.

This is where the plot really starts. The monsters have been taken by space aliens (X-ians, because they come from Planet X), who have done this to "help" mankind.

Of course anyone who has seen "V" knows this is pure "bullplop". Human kind obviously and predictably has a small group who rebel and fight back. This group, as you you would expect is a group of martial arts performing mutants. (True) Pretty soon however the Xians true nature is revealed and they unleash all the monsters they previously removed upon the Earth.

So in all this, where's our hero Godzilla? Well he's frozen in Ice after his last fight with humanity. Being the undefeatable opponent he is, it is decided to release him, lure him to Tokyo so he can help defeat the barrage of monsters that have been unleashed.

So thats the setup to the climax, which is the typical Godzilla battle scene.

The battle scenes involving Godzilla, (and the other monsters such as Mothra, Zilla (the Japanese name for the monster in the American remake of Godzilla), Rodan etc are fairly well done with pretty good special effects, although still retaining the Godzilla feel of a rubber suited man in a scale model of Tokyo. As an Australian though, I did like the fight between Godzilla and Zilla, that was set in Sydney.

Godzilla : Final Wars may have been better for me if I had watched all the others in order and not skipped about to it. However I think even so, I'd prefer my Godzilla films to star Godzilla and not a bunch of mutant ninjas.

Two and a half Darios

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)


Director/Writer(s): Wes Craven

Cast: John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Johnny Depp.

Genre: Horror / Mystery / Thriller


Plot Outline: A group of high school friends are being slaughtered in their sleep by the hideous fiend of their shared dreams. When the police ignore her explanation, one girl must confront the killer in his shadowy realm.


Download link: http://anonym.to/?http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DMVJNPUW

This has got to be one of the best ideas ever for a movie. Supposedly based on some "unrelated articles" in a Los Angeles newspaper, Wes Craven , already riding high on The Hills Have Eyes and Last House On The Left, crafted this movie about a killer who stalks a group of teenagers through their dreams.

Of course, just about everyone would know that already. There wouldn't be too many people who don't already know who Freddy Krueger is. What some of them haven't done is actually watched the film.

Taken as a stand alone film, and not the first chapter in a series of 8 films (counting Wes Craven's New Nightmare and Freddy vs Jason as chapters 7 and 8), A Nightmare On Elm Street is a well crafted piece of art. The articles in the newspaper that sparked off Craven's idea, dealt with young people who had escaped the Pol Pot regieme in Cambodia, escaped to America and who died in their sleep. Apparantly they had been sufferring terrible nightmares, and became terrified to go to sleep. Eventually, when they slept and dreamed, they died. (For those interested in a study of this type of event, Hmong Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome, there is a 100+ page paper on it located here : http://www.reninc.org/BOOKSHELF/Hmong%20Sudden%20Unexpected%20Nocturnal%20Death%20Syndrome,%20Bliatout,%20Bruce.pdf )

Wes Craven took this interesting little event, joined it with something he sees as the worst evil in the world and created a very effective horror film. Originally Freddy Krueger was portrayed as a child molester as well as a child killer. This was toned down in the final edit, perhaps audiences in 1984 didnt want molestation to be a driving plot point in movies, so this aspect of Freddy's character in shown in subtext, while his child killing activities are pushed to the forefront of his character.

So what do we have? Well, we have a group of kids who all seem to be having nightmares. At the same time. About the same man. A man they've not seen before. And he's trying to kill them. Bad enough, until Freddy (Robert Englund) succeeds in killing Tina (Amanda Wyss) in her dream which results in her being dragged around her bedroom (and really around her bedroom, up the walls and across the ceiling) while her boyfriend Rod watches. Of course Rod doesn't have any good luck with this. He's just watched his girlfriend get sliced up by an invisible man while they were in a locked room. Rod soon gets carted off by the police, because he's the only one who could have done it, right? Ask Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) who has been having these same nightmares about a guy with a razor tipped glove. The very same type of cuts that appeared on Tina's hacked up body. Nancy suspects there is something more to this, and must fight to stay awake and alive.

Put like that, the plot is fairly basic, but what gives Elm Street its charm is that, as star Robert Englund says in "Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy" is that it is "a damn good story". It's such an original idea, and original ideas are where good, or entertaining films spring from.

The whole scary notion in Elm Street is that the only safe place is awake, and its impossible to remain in that safe place forever. It is inevitable that the kids in this film must end up in Freddy's stalking ground. It is this feeling of these kids not being in control that gives this film its tension, and makes the heroine's struggle against Freddy all the more heroic. Elm Street is a classic story of good triumphing over evil, and is the most creative, well planned and produced piece of art. The only problem is a tacked on ending allowing for the return of Freddy. Though, while this spoils the whole meaning of the climax, it does allow us 7 sequels, which is a good thing.

It's a classic. Five Darios, no doubt about that.

My Bloody Valentine (2009)

My Bloody Valentine (2009)

Director/Writer(s): Patrick Lussier (director), Todd Farmer (screenplay), Zane Smith (screenplay), John Beaird (1981 screenplay) and Stephen Miller (1981 story).

Cast: Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Betsy Rue, Edi Gathegi, Tom Atkins, Kevin Tighe, Megan Boone, Karen Baum, Joy de la Paz...Genre: Crime Horror Mystery Thriller

Plot Outline: Tom returns to his hometown on the tenth anniversary of the Valentine's night massacre that claimed the lives of 22 people. Instead of a homecoming, however, Tom finds himself suspected of committing the murders, and it seems like his old flame is the only one will believes he's innocent.Certification: USA:R (for graphic brutal horror violence and grisly images throughout, some strong sexuality, graphic nudity and language.)

Size: 700 MB Megaupload: hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=SPZWKIRR

Well here we go. My first review on here for quite a while, and I choose a remake of one of the best 80's slashers around. The remade My Bloody Valentine.

A while back I saw and commented on the original My Bloody Valentine from the early 1980's. I am going to try and not compare the two as it always comes off worse for the remake, in most cases. (There are a couple of comparisons I will note after though).

So not comparing to the masterwork from the 80's, is this a good film? Yes it is, for a slasher film of this decade. While it is structured as a whodunnit, it is structured quite logically, and when the killer is revealed, it is believable and has a rational reason for the killing spree. Rational for a slasher fim at least. My Bloody Valentine was originally shot in 3D, and runs the risk of having some stupid looking shots when viewed in 2D. Friday the 13th Part 3 and Freddy's Dead:The Final Nightmare fall guilty of this. A pole or something shoved directly into camera so we can all marvel at 3D can look pretty stupid without the visual effect. The shots in My Bloody Valentine designed to give a shock 3D effect don't come off as too bad in 2D. (Obvious yes, but not out of place)

So what do you get when you view My Bloody Valentine? A good smattering of Blood, nudity, mystery, Blood, gratuitous violence and blood. This is a particularly bloody film with a few head meets pickaxe scenes. For those wanting no more than a gore fest, this is the film for you.

There is a downside though. For me at least, none of the cast, with the exception of Tom Atkins, appealed to me. It was a bit like, "sit through ten minutes of tedious acting until the next axe attack" . I know a lot of the films I enjoy have worse acting than My Bloody Valentine but they are still likable in some way. The cast of this film didn't do it for me. And that's a shame, because it is well constructed in other ways.

OK the comparison points. Harry Warden, the mad miner, in the original had that cool little origin of being driven mad after being trapped in a cave in in the mine for 6 days. Add a bit of cannibalism and there's a nice little origin for a villain. In the remake, Harry is a cold blooded killer for no real reason. However the rationale for the films killer is much much better in the remake than the original.

My Bloody Valentine is a hard one for me to classify. I am still not sure if I like it or not. I doubt I will watch it again any time soon, but it is well written and graphicly violent enough for a slasher, so I'll give it hmmmm. 3 and a half Darios, only let down from the acting.

Scream (1996)

Scream (1996)

Download link: hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=N9P693I6

Every once in a while, a horror film comes along that is well made and well designed, and uses the genre in a way not seen before. One such movie is Scream. Unfortunately the creation of a good film like this inspires countless clones and inevitable sequels which detract from the quality of the original.

Scream starts with a good idea, a killer is stalking people in a small town called Woodsboro, and dispatching them in horror movie fashion gory ways. Sounds like its been done before. But this killer is used in the film to satirise the whole field of horror movies, from the killer being a very obsessed student of horror films, (He corrects the first victims answer that Jason was the killer in Friday The 13th) through to the other characters acting as though they are characters in a horror film, which of course, they are.

A clever idea, although it does backfire on itself. All the primary characters, especially the rather annoying Randy, played by the equally annoying Jamie Kennedy, take the "rules" and conventions of a horror film as absolute gospel truth.

The good points of the film outweigh the negatives. It is a very well crafted whodunnit, with a logical, but unexpected reveal of who the killer is. It does satirise the genre well, (one of its aims), and caters for the expected quota of blood and shock scenes. It is also quite clever. The mask used by the killer is based upon a painting called "The Scream".

It is hard however to view Scream as a solo film. It is touted now as the the first chapter of the Scream Trilogy, a series that starts out good and rapidly declines in quality. Scream also was the inspiration for other "whodunnit" style slashers such as Urban Legend, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Valentine and other boring as hell films.

If only Scream was a solo film instead of a chapter in a trilogy (soon to be four films).

4 Darios

Halloween II (2009)

Halloween II (2009)

Download Links :

Part 1 : hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=IDMCHWIJ

Part 2: hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=5C2WBVV0

(1.3 GB split into 2 parts. Use VirtualDub to rejoin them)

I like Halloween. I like the series of Halloween movies. I even can tolerate Halloween :Resurrection (barely). I can see good points in Rob Zombie's reimagining of the concept in his Halloween (2007).

I, however, cannot bring myself to like this film. I can appreciate what Zombie is trying to do, in taking the mythos of Michael Myers in a different direction to the original series, but surely he could do it in a way that makes some sort of sense. Did you know that even though Myers' mother shot herself in the head last film she still hangs around Michael? Zombie does. Did you know that the appearance of her with a white horse is supposed to mean something? Zombie does, (or he is trying to be very Twin Peaks like). Did you know that you can get your victim out of an impossible situation by using the old Dallas trick of... it was only a dream? Zombie knows this quite well. In fact he uses that old, annoying and downright lazy trick more than once in this film.

This film is confusing as hell. Is Michael dead? Is he back stalking Laurie? Is Laurie mad, is she the only sane person? Is Michael even there for all the film? How the hell can his dead mother be around? How the hell can Laurie see her? And why is the white horse so important that it keeps cropping up?

The answers are......never revealed!

Damn lazy effort Rob Zombie.

One and a half Darios because of some cool death scenes.

Punisher : War Zone (2008)

Punisher : War Zone (2008)































Well I feel like I should go back and edit my comment in the review for the 2004 Punisher. Punisher War Zone, while it is tailored to the action loving audience, is not as bad as I had originally sensed. My comment was based upon only watching the first thirty-five or forty minutes, and has changed after I have seen the entire film.



I made a mistake in reviewing the Punisher films, and it was one made by many other people. I compared the 2004 Punisher and Punisher War Zone. War Zone is a completely different animal to the other film. Based on the Marvel Knights version of The Punisher, where Frank has been doing his thing for six years before the film even begins, War Zone throws us straight into a story of Frank vs a Crime Family, not slowing down to develop a revenge plot for Frank. While Thomas Jane's Punisher showed development of his reason and growing probability of his revenge on Howard Saint (Punisher 2004), War Zone pushes an even more simple point. It is this: Frank hates criminals, therefore, he kills them.



Not to say that Punisher:War Zone is a masterpiece, because it isn't, by a long shot. There is some terrible acting, especially by Dominic West, who plays the scarred-face villain Jigsaw (no relation to the killer in Saw), horrible cheesy lines by a lot of characters and a focus on action for the sake of it. (The "high on meth all the time" gang's acrobatic displays, and Ray Stevenson (The Punisher) being able to kill people from a variety of positions. Look at me, I can kill heaps of people while hanging upsidedown from a spinning chandelier. Well OK. good for you. Looks great, but I don't see The Punisher (as a character) ever really doing that.
)


Punisher : War Zone is good fun, if you want a graphic action film. Sit back, switch the brain down for an hour and a half and enjoy.


Three Darios













(And before anyone asks, yes I am going to review the original Punisher film from 1989, starring Dolph Lundgren)

The Punisher (2004)

The Punisher (2004)

The Punisher. For those who are not familiar with the character, the backstory is quite simple. Frank Castle, Vietnam veteran, stumbles across a mob execution in a central park, (where all mob hits happen apparantly) with his family. In the crossfire, Castle's wife and kids are brutally killed. Feeling that he has lost everything, Frank (with a nice looking death's head shirt) declares war on all crime, and decides that he will punish criminals for what he has lost. He becomes "The Punisher"

Thats the character from Marvel comics. Pretty simple backstory, but a ton of story potential. The Punisher cropped up on animated series (Spider-Man:The Animated Series) with only minimal tweaking to his personality, and starred (portrayed by Dolph Lundgren), in a movie in 1989, called ...err..., The Punisher. Both these portrayals were fairly similar to the original Marvel comic character.

The Punisher (2004) gives the Punisher a good stretch of time in giving him his origin. Because he's fairly young in this film, mid thirties maybe, the Vietnam aspect is removed and replaced by Castle (Thomas Jane) being a FBI agent. In the course of a sting operation, the son of evil businessman Howard Saint (John Travolta) is killed. Saint doen't appreciate this, and at the urging of his wife, has an attack on Castle, and his family planned. Castle's entire family is killed. Not just wife and children, but his Mother, Father, various Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Nieces, Nephews, and anyone else around at the time is killed. Of course Frank survives and takes up his revenge upon Saint and his family. (And with a nice point, he does so only when the official system has failed. He gives law and justice time to do the work for him. Only when he sees there will be no justice from the system, after five months, does he pursue what he calls, "natural justice")

I know an awful lot of people who do not like this movie. A lot of them are disappointed that Frank doesn't just pick up a gun and go a blazing away. Instead he is smart, playing off members of the Saint family and organisation against themselves so they do all the fighting. In fact, for a movie called The Punisher, there is a lack of intense gunplay scenes. There are only two extended battle scenes, the first is the killing of Castle's family, and the second is the final attack on Saint. Various other scenes crop up but are not dwelt on as much. There is one other fight scene worth mentioning, and that is the fight between Castle and the assassin called "The Russian" played by WWE Wrestler Kevin "Diesel" Nash.

Castle, in a great move by director Jonathon Hensleigh, spends the movie punishing the Saints, not just executing them. It is remarkable that an action movie, and a comic based action movie at that, has that much thought put into its construction.

The Punisher, is a very faithfull adaptation of the character of Castle, and while it did alienate the action-loving audience who don't care to dig deeper into this movie, it has hidden depths, and is well deserving of the four Darios I am awarding it. It has two other positives. The score is great and the original song by Mark Collie "In Time" is brilliant.

Unfortunately, The Punisher was "rebooted" in 2008 with Punisher:War Zone, which was designed precisely to appeal to the action crowd.

Four Darios

Official Trailer (From Youtube) :

Wishlist II

As I have unexpected access and ability to obtain a few more movies, my wishlist is growing. Here's a few additions.


Blacula (1972)
Scream Blacula, Scream (1973)
Hostel
Hostel II
Nightbreed (1990)
The Fly (1986)
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
The Punisher (1989)
The Punisher (2004)
Punisher War Zone (2008)
Billy The Kid vs Dracula (1966)

Darkman II: The Return Of Durant (1995)

Darkman II: The Return Of Durant (1995)

Darkman II : The Return Of Durant is almost exactly like the original Darkman, expect it lacks Liam Neeson as Darkman, and the direction of Sam Raimi. The plot is remarkably similar to Darkman, in that Durant ends up attacking and killing a scientist working on artificial skin, as Westlake was. This time Westlake's collegue ends up dead, prompting a Darkman rage revenge.

Darkman II starring Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy from The Mummy) as Darkman is still a fun old film. Worth a look.

Three Darios

The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension (1984)

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Darkman (1990)

Darkman (1990)

Download link :hxxp://www.sendspace.com/folder/9runww



Darkman is Sam Raimi's first superhero film, way before he became the director of the Spider-Man series.



Darkman is the story of Peyton Westlake, (Liam Neeson) a scientist on the verge of creating artificial skin, useful for burn victims and so forth. Through a nice series of coincidences, a crimelord, Durant ends up searching the lab where he works, looking for an incriminating memo for a businessman, played by Colin Friels.



Westlakes lab is blown up by the Durant organisation, leaving him for dead. (Actually, hes blown into a river, found, treated for burns on 98% of his body with a new procedure that stops him feeling pain, creates adrenaline surges that give him strength but also subjects him to uncontrollable rages)



Westlake decides that he will use his ability to make skin to create masks to (a) disguise his disfigurement and (b) allow him to gain revenge on Durant.



What follows is a pretty simple revenge on the bad guy plot, but Darkman makes it fun, especially with the sequence that has Darkman hanging from a cable from a flying helicopter. these scenes seem to be where Raimi worked out how to film the Spider-Man swinging sequences.





Great B grade action/superhero film, and because its a Raimi film, you get to spot Raimi's two continual stars. Bruce Campbell and a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88.



Three and a half Darios

Candyman (1992)

Candyman (1992)

Download link: hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=HY3SYWO3




Candyman is a perfect example on how to adapt something that is pretty much unfilmable, in this case the short story "The Forbidden" by Clive Barker, and make it into something different but acceptable on its own terms.

Helen Lyle, grad student is preparing a thesis on Urban Legends. Her reserch takes her to the worst place in America, Cabrini Green, where she hears varying stories of a killer known as The Candyman.

Of course there is a way given to bring the Candyman back, and that is to say his name five times while standing in front of a mirror. Helen, not really believing in the existence of The Candyman, does this jokingly, but Whoops! You're in a slasher film, and guess what? The Candyman (slowly) returns. This little plot point wasn't in the story, but in films such as this there has to be a trigger. Originally The Candyman was summoned solely by Helen's disbelief.

Candyman is a bit peeved at Helens lack of belief in him and sets out to prove he is real through a series of murders all pinned upon Helen.

So we have a victim who everyone thinks is a murderess. A killer who is a legend and a climax involving a large bonfire.

Im trying not to give the ending away.

Candyman is a step above a lot of slasher films, in that it deals with the power of myth and legend and ultimately can be seen as a testement to the power of faith. (I wonder if the guys over at Hollywood Jesus have reviewed Candyman?) (It appears not)

Three and a half Darios for the film and a bonus half Dario because it was written by Clive Barker

Titanic (1998)

Not a movie I chose to watch again this time, but one my daughter is getting hooked on. The most expensive movie in history, Titanic.

Pretty much anyone would know what happens to the Titanic, but this movie, unlike other disaster films has much more. Action? Check. It was written and directed by James Cameron, who had done two films about a guy called The Terminator prior to this, (as well as Aliens), so you know it will have good action sequences. But for the others who don't get drawn into action scenes, it has a very touching romantic story dealing with class structure, freedom of choice and the use of personal strength to bring happiness. This romance between Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) takes up the majority of the film and is what really involves the viewer. I actually took my Mum to the cinema to see this film because she'd enjoy that part.

Titanic, surprising most people, is a film that is well written, shot, directed and edited and is destined to rank among the top films for both entertainment value and as an example of how good films are made.

Five Darios

For those interested, check out the trailer to Titanic 2: Jack's Back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD4OnHCRd_4&feature=player_embedded

My Bloody Valentine (1981)

It is not so often I am so surprised and impressed by a movie as I was by this one.

My Bloody Valentine


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This was on my wishlist because I wanted to watch it before seeing the recent remake. This was made in 1981, and was one of the early slasher films of the Friday The 13th type. My Bloody Valentine is much better than Friday, because it has something that Friday never really got until the later 80's. It has a plot and decent actors playing characters that aren't really stupid. Most slasher characters are thick as anything, especially Law enforcement officers. MBV has the token Sherriff, but he actually does his job, doesn't turn a blind eye to the murders happening in his town, (as other slasher film cops do), and actually follows police procedure. He doesn't charge into dark places alone to meet certain death.



So what actually happens? Well, some of the story happened 20 years previously when this mining town suffered a mine explosion, trapping a group of miners underground for days. This explosion was caused becaused the supervisors went off to a Valentine's Day party before all miners were safely out. here was noone there to check methane gas levels and BOOM!, trapped miners. Days later, the sole survivor of the group, Harry Warden, is rescured and discovered chewing on his collegues to survive. Harry is sent to a mental hospital, but returns the next year to use his sharp old pick on the two supervisors who preferred to party than do their job of keeping the miners safe. Harry gives the town a warning that no Valentines Day parties occur or he will return with his trusty pick to remind the town.



For twenty years the town observed Harry's warning...



Guess what happens twenty years later? Yep, some people decide that a Valentine's Day dance is a good idea, and a certain pissed off miner with his trusty pick starts reminding people it's not a good idea.



My Bloody Valentine was heavily cut by the MPAA when first released, and it was the cut version that I saw. Most of the gore is removed from screen, which makes it more gory with the aid of imagination. So much for the MPAA protecting us from horrible things....



My Bloody Valentine, a classic of the eighties.



Four and a half Darios

Wishlist

Here's a few of the movies on my "to be watched" list.

Candyman
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Darkman
Drag Me To Hell
The Exorcist III
Necronomicon-Book Of The Dead
Re-Animator
The Exorcism Of Emily Rose

When I get around to watching them I'll stick on a review.

Warlock (1989)

Warlock (1989)

I have only seen half of this, and was planning on watching the rest tonight, but my kids are sleeping in the loungeroom tonight, so an 80s horror film is not the best idea.

I haven't seen this for years, when I grabbed it as part of a "5 movies for $10" deal at Civic Video all those years ago. (Civic Video in Orange was cool, it had a cardboard cave for its horror section and a cardboard pink house for the Adult section). Anyway, has uploaded this a while back and I snagged it from there.

The plot is pretty simple. A warlock (Julian Sands) is captured in 1691 but escapes with the aid of a time travel portal presumably sent by the Devil. He arrives in 1989 but is pursued by a witch-hunter (Richard E Grant) who in a remarkable stroke of luck is in the same building when the time portal appears. In the present day, The Warlock is charged with obtaining three pieces of a mystical grimoire that can bring about the end of the world. That's the McGuffin for the film.

More to come when I finish watching it. At the moment, it stands at three Darios.

The Untouchables (1987)

The Untouchables

This is, in my mind, the best gangster film ever. It is also one of the relatively few film starring Kevin Costner that I like. Costner portrays Eliot Ness, the legendary Treasury agent who took on the task of "cleaning up" Chicago during the prohibition era. Of course cleaning up means taking on Al Capone, played by a Robert DeNiro-like Robert DeNiro. Ness assembles a core group of unbribeable, or untouchable police. With a group containing Sean Connery, Andy Garcia, Charles Martin Smith and Costner, can Capone even make a stand? Well yes, of course he can. And the ensuing blood makes this a violent film, with some unbelievable blooshed. But it was written by David Mamet so it is to be expected.

The other great thing about this movie is the music by Enrico Morricone. The opening title gives the feel of oppression, as the bad guys are in control, where the finale is a more positive upbeat composition, when evil has been defeated, and the scales have been balanced.

The Untouchables is a film that can be enjoyed again and again. And despite what Sick Boy says in Trainspotting, it is an Oscar-worthy performance from Sean Connery.

Four and a half Darios

The Phantom (1996)

An action adventure film this time, so don't expect a plot worthy of Shakespeare, great acting, realistic special effects, or logic in the plot.

It is however, pretty good fun.




The Phantom (1996)

The Phantom has been continuously published since 1936 and is in fact one of the first superheroes, predating Superman by two years and Batman by three. Not counting the movie serial made in the 1940's, it took sixty years to get The Phantom to the big screen. Was it worth a wait of sixty years? Definitely not. Even by action adventure movie standards The Phantom is a slapped together piece of work. For the nitpicky around here, there are a wealth of oportunities to pick holes in this film. A few of them. Horses and wolves can run faster than a biplane flies, the jungle is full of CGI Blue screens, when you jump from a biplane to a horse you change body shape and facial features completely and ancient jungle skulls and rings can generate laser beams.

But this is The Phantom, and if you are in any way fan of the character, you will know what to expect. The Phantom punching out bad guys, rescuing captive gals, and being mysterious.

I like The Phantom, I have been reading the strip on and off for the past twenty years or so. I also like this movie, but it definitely isn't very well crafted. It does set out to do what it aims for, and that is give us an adventure full of cliched villains, heroic good guys and a moralistic main character. I always feel more positive after watching The Phantom.

Three Darios (for the feel good factor, and the fact it co-stars Patrick MacGoohan)