I didn’t want to watch this. I wasn’t sure how a sequel could be better or scarier than Paranormal Activity, and I certainly wasn’t sure I wanted to see one that was the latter. But then Steve ordered it off Amazon and then it was here and then suddenly I’m in bed and it’s on the telly and I end up being petrified for a full hour and a half and only get three hours’ sleep on a school night.
What’s pretty nifty is how we’re gently introduced to the family and find out the link to the first film, and that this is reinforced all the way through. In a nice way though, not one of those crappy Dan Brown ‘look, remember this thing happened, wait I’ll show you again in case you missed it because you’re a bit slow’ ways. The fact that there are more characters works well too – and adding a pet into the mix (the family’s dog, Abby) makes it even more realistic.*
The super scary bits that also make you feel a bit uncomfortable are where the family’s baby is involved. It’s well done and very creepy.
So basically, I liked it. I’ve heard that people generally didn’t, but as a fan of horror, it ticked all the boxes for me. All of them apart from the one for ‘Realistic Reason for Constantly Filming with a Handheld Camera’, which is ok because there are a handful of other boxes that are more important, including ‘Really Scary’ and ‘Not Like the Saw Franchise’.
*That might not be the case for everyone, but I am completely besotted with our cat Deeley and project my feelings about her onto any and all animals I see. And sometime humans too.
Rating: 
by lucy on November 1, 2010
Just don’t watch it. I can’t give it a rating either, and not because it’s rubbish, because it’s not, but because it’s the most extreme film I’ve ever watched and if I could unwatch it I would.
Now there’s a review and a half, eh? Sorry.
by lucy on September 13, 2010
I am in love with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I’m possible secretly a little bit in love with Michael Cera, which would partly account for my love of this fillum, but mostly it’s just a brilliant, awesome, fun, slick, cool and mega extravaganza. For people who don’t know (which was me, not too long ago), Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is directed by Edgar Wright, who directed Spaced and the most excellent Shaun of The Dead and Hot Fuzz. He is therefore a dude and consequently, this film has become my best-film-in-2010-so-far.
It’s a sort of fusion of comic book and video game geekery, with kickass choreography and equally great choons. I won’t pretend to know about comic books, because I don’t, so if I’ve missed a huge chunk out of my review as a result, meh. I thought the film was ace anyway.
Go see it. Then see it again, and then buy it on Blu Ray.
Rating:
What the..? Seriously, what happened? Adrien Brody, film dude extraordinaire, done a bad film, that’s what happened.
He fully deserves a chinese burn and a kick in the nuts for being involved in Splice. And maybe a Glasgow kiss, but to be fair that nose might do more damage to the kisser than the kissee.
Why is it a bad film? Because Sarah Polley, of Dawn of the Dead fame, plays possibly the most annoying character in any film to date. A character who eats tictacs and mixes splices her DNA with some animals’ DNA and makes a monster that starts off cute, then turns into a fox (i.e. a hot lady, albeit with wings, a tail, amphibian lungs and bizarre feet, not an actual fox although wouldn’t that be topical! She could go into middle-class families’ houses and attack their children – now that’s a monster for you!), gets rude with Big Nose, then turns into a dude and rapes Mrs Tictacs.
Crap? Worse. Particularly painful was that Steve’s phone ran out of battery just as he got to the ticket booth and so rather than Orange Wednesdaying it he had to pay for two full tickets. I’m so, so sorry : (
Rating: 
Steve loves all those old greek mythology films with plasticine monsters in so he bought Clash of the Titans on Blu Ray. I always fall asleep whenever they’re on telly because a) they’re long and b) they’re on at prime naptime. I managed to stay awake for the new Clash of the Titans though and that’s because a) it wasn’t naptime and b) it’s really rather good.
Steve thinks I fancy Sam Worthington but I don’t, not even in a leather skirt and riding a Pegasus. He’s all right, but his Australian accent has a mind of its own and it winds me up a bit – not because there’s anything wrong with an Australian accent, but if you can’t do a different one properly, don’t even bother, eh cobber?
So it’s good, yes. The little clockwork owl from the original film makes a brief cameo appearance, which is quite nice, and all the beasties and monsters are suitably scary. Some of the CGI is appalling but most of it’s very good. And Liam Neeson is very Zeus-like. It’s slightly off-topic but I just wanted to throw a theory I have at you: Liam Neeson has ‘mega facial hair’ written into his contracts otherwise he won’t accept a part, with the exception to this being ‘Taken’ because he got to say ‘I will find you, and I will kill you’ which he pwns* as far as cool movie quotes go.
Back to Clash of the Titans – is it better than the original? I don’t know. I already told you – I was asleep. Would I watch it again? Yes, but if it’s on between 2pm and 6pm on a Saturday or Sunday I can’t guarantee I’ll catch it all.
Rating:
*’Pwns’ is something I read on Xbox Live a lot. Apparently it means ‘owns’ but people can’t spell that properly (I didn’t realise it was that difficult) so they write ‘pwns’ instead.
Steve fell for the ‘lots of those leafy award symbols on the DVD cover’ trick, like I often do, with this one. To be fair, the sequel’s got Danny Dyer in, and everyone knows he’s awesome, so you’d assume that the Jack franchise is better-than-crap. But then, you know what assuming does – makes a d*ckhead out of you and me. That’s a quote from Jack Says, and it’s the best line it’s got.
Labelled as a film noir, as the back of the DVD says, it’s ‘poignantly Mike Reid’s last film’. Not sure why that’s poignant but all I know is that it’s poorly acted, scripted and shot throughout the whole thing, and there’s this awful, awful music that only fits the film because both are bobbins. The ‘Eric Cantona Gag Reel’ in the extras consists of Cantona showing why he should stick to football, except that he’s too old for that.
I hope Jack Said is better. Well, it can’t be any worse.
Rating:
