04/06/2012: Mother's Day [2010]

By now you must have realized I have the largest pile of unwatched movie lying around in my room. Once again, with a nudge from a fellow blogger, Kalyn over at Gore Galore, Mother’s Day was dug out of the box, and put on the screen. Even as I was throwing it on, I had my doubt about the remake, but within minutes I was gripped, and strapped into a ride that wasn’t going to let me go.

22/01/2012: Wizard of Gore [2007]

So the titles a little confusing. I mean is it missing a The? IMDB calls it The Wizard of Gore but the posters clearly state it sans The. Oh well, on with the meaning behind the title. Wizard of Gore (god that reads awkward) is about a newspaper journalist who witnesses a stage magicians performance and well let's just say it We're not in Kansas anymore off-Broadway. The magician, Montag the Magnificent, is pretty far off his rocker and his show is quite the same. Starting with a couple disgusting acts, Montag proceeds to pick random women from the audience, who in some kinda trance strip down and make no sound while Montag butchers and murders them in rather disturbing ways.

However Montag is an illusionist and when the audience begins running in fear he reveals his trick and the women are fine. Soon after however, these women are not fine and show up dead as killed on stage. Edmund the reporter/journalist/magazine whatever, begins to investigate these deaths and soon things spiral out of control as you question what is real and who is sane.

I won't detail the plot further, but if your a fan of strange unexplainable mysteries you should be pleased, just don't expect to many clues to totally explain everything. Wizard of Gore is in fact a remake of a 1970's movie of the same name. However the Magicians performance is about where things stop. Edmund and the mystery are original and the movie is apparently an improvement story wise over the original if  the deaths are a little less elaborate.

The movie however doesn't shy away from the gore and nudity of the horror genre, and creates quite the atmosphere. Edmund lives in a strange early 18th century style of suits and room furnishing, living in a world of an underground culture, along with it's usual dark and neon colours, drugs, prostitutes, tattoos and piercing that come with the territory. This is a good look and helps set the tone for the films, which also feature strange camera angles, troubled dream flashes and of course a magicians showmanship.

While a remake this movie falls more in the shadow of The Illusionist and The Prestige. I personally loved those two movies, and was recommended Wizard of Gore when I asked if anyone new of any similar movies.

While it doesn't truly measure up in that department it does fit as their equivalent in the horror genre. So if your looking for something similar to The Prestige check this out if you like horror. Also if you haven't seen those two, watch them! And if you can recommend me anything similar to any of these three movie tell me in the comments below, I would love to find something like them.

So according to this poster it is The Wizard of Gore, all to confusing when you're not sure of the title.

Links:
Wizard of Gore IMDB
Wizard of Gore Netllix
The Prestige IMDB

13/01/2012: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo [2011]

So I finally got out to see TGWTDT in theater last night, surprisingly it's still playing for the 3rd? week in a row now. Now first off, I went in there having seen the Swedish trilogy, so I already new what the basic plot was.

The biggest difference in the movies is the feel to them. The original, is extremely story driven, with the actual visuals of a good quality, but nothing spectacular. I found the original had the bonus of being in it's intended language, with actors who I didn't know as 007, who I only knew as the characters, and who did a great job.
The remake is clearly a high budget American production, The visual level is a step up, with the camera angles, cuts/edits/shifts, and overall visuals clearly of a higher quality then the original. However it has the problem of a well know cast, I find, if I know the actors well, I can sometimes only see them as that. I spent the whole movie comparing, and trying not to see Bond.

The opening sequence of the movie is quite a CGI marvel, but the symbolism in it can only be recognized by those who new what they were watching. I think that was one of the problems with the remake, although having seen the original trilogy I didn't experience this. I thought however that the story was less explained in the remake, especially the clues, which are the heart of the mystery. The Swedish one does a great job of showing you the clues and letting you piece them together along with Mikael. The remake I found did a little of the work for you or otherwise didn't always show enough, in a couple glimpses of the clue to allow you to piece it together.

I'm not sure if anyone is aware of the movies raw brutality when they go to see it, not having read the book or seen the original. The remake, didn't tone anything down from the original, still keeping the grueling rape scenes and violent imagery. I know that almost everyone around me physically jumped when Mikael almost gets shot (I knew it was coming) which was good. Also the entire audience laughed when Lisbeth appears on screen with her Fuck you you fucking fuck shirt. They also laughed when Lisbeth asked Mikael permission to kill the killer, which I wasn't sure was really what was intended there.

The biggest controversy (might be a bit strong of a word) over the remake was whether Rooney Mara would do as good a job as Noomi Rapace. While Mara does a great job, and some say does a better job, I still prefer Noomi Rapace's version of Lisbeth to Mara's.

Overall, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a very high quality movie that matched the original but both have their merits, the real test will be when the entire trilogy is remade and we can compare again. Currently I like the Swedish version the best, it is better in storytelling and mystery, while the remake has the advantage of a Hollywood budget, and distinguishes itself that way. If you like the originals I recommend you watch this and if you've only seen the remake I highly recommend the original to help with the at least two year wait for the next two remakes.

Since when could they have bare breasts on movie posters?

Link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568346/