The Ever Expanding Recommendation Checklist (very incomplete...goddamn webbrowser)...

As much as I love a good vampire flick, looks like the only thing worth seeing in this movie is Carla Gugino and Lucy Liu making out.

What better way to make fun of over the top action movies than making an over the top action movie? There's precious little plot to speak of here, but that's not the point. It's an action movie fraught with balletic shootouts and a fantastic cast cracking wise. Oscar worthy? Hardly. Entertaining? You bet your ass it is...

Revenge thriller+Kevin Bacon+James Wan (the guy who directed the good "Saw")=Something that might be worth a look-see.

It's nice to see Stephen Chow wade in untested waters. The result of his experiment was a children's flick that was pretty corny, pretty preachy, but had enough chuckles and a cute enough protagonist/MacGuffin to delight even pompous, hard-to-entertain dicks like myself.

But to be frank, the only real impressive aspect about this movie was that a majority of the male children were played by girls. But, y'know, I've seen worse.

It annoyed the ever-loving piss out of me at the beginning, but it started to slowly grow on me. Once you get passed Diablo Cody's unconventional writing style and the music that borders on annoying, wonderful performances from all involved and a heartwarming story start to shine through. It's not Little Miss Sunshine, but it's far from terrible. In fact, it deserves its rabid following and its hype.

The cinematography and score are superb in Tim Burton's visceral adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical thriller. Johnny Depp is solid in the titular role, and the supporting cast made up of both stars and noobs are at the top of their games. The only complaint I have is that some of the musical numbers I enjoyed were either trimmed down to size too much ("Ladies in Their Sensitivities") or cut out entirely ("The Ballad of Sweeney Todd"), but that's coming from a theatre nut who's being too nit-picky. If you're not familiar with the play, though, there's nothing to prevent you from liking what this bloody revenge tale has to offer.

Awesome crime thriller...

Full review coming soon.

Daniel Day-Lewis gives a brilliant performance as oilman Dan Plainview, and the scenes where he spars with Paul Dano are some of the best moments on screen. The REST of the movie, unfortunately, is disappointingly dull. It's a solid movie, but unlike the actors that perform in it, it's nothing special.

A movie with a good cast giving some great performances, directed by a man with a flair for the bizarre, and a serpentine plot make for an interesting viewing experience...

I'll expand on how I felt when I'm awake enough to comprehend what I'm typing...

I'm a fan of monster movies, both good and bad. This looks like an interesting take on the genre. Hope it's worth all the hype.

I got slightly annoyed by how self-aware this movie was, but it was fun to see horror cliches turned on their ear. Wes Craven certainly knows how to entertain, and he does just that with Scream.

If you're expecting a faithful re-telling of the classic short story, look somewhere else. If you're expecting darkly lit, mildly humorous, entertaining Halloween fare that's not too gory for the little ones but still packs some grizzly scares, then you're in for a treat.

The names of people and places are the same, but that's where any connection to Washington Irving's tale stops. Ichabod Crane, masterfully played by Johnny Depp, is a skeptical forensic scientist in this incarnation, rather than a superstitious schoolteacher. The Headless Horseman is an actual vengeful ghost rather than an envious Brom Van Brunt in disguise, and the Van Tassel's ... well, to prevent giving anything away, let's just say they aren't quite what they seem.

Yes, boils and ghouls, this isn't Washington Irving's legend. This is Tim Burton's tale, and although it's not quite as good as some of his other work, it's still a helluva lot of fun. The cast is superb, the cinematography is gorgeous, and the music is excellent. Throw in the occasional "Nightmare Before Christmas" homage and a straightforward plot rife with witty dialogue (or, in one characters case, a monologue), and you got yourself a nice little fairytale for a Hallow's Eve night...

Apparently, the third time's the charm for Darren Lynn Bousman. Not only did he finally craft a sequel that matched the first "Saw", but he actually managed to top it. It's a combination Bousman's traditional use of over-the-top traps and torture devices with character development and an actual plot, two elements that made James Wan's original so engaging in the first place. Best are the scenes that explain the origins of Jigsaw, or rather, the business mogul and loving husband he used to be before a personal tragedy made him snap. I love it when I have low expectations for a movie, and it wins me over. Not many movies have been able to do that, and this is one of them. I only have two complaints:
1: That in order to understand most of what's going on, you have to see the other films first, and that unfortunately includes "Saw II" and "Saw III".
2: They ended this one with yet another cliffhanger, meaning that a fifth "Saw" is in the works (Bousman confirmed this on the DVD commentary, but he's not attached to the fifth installment).
I only hope that it manages to be as good as this one, and that it's the FINAL installment of the series.

Being a huge fan of The Descent, I couldn't resist the opportunity to check out Neil Marshall's debut when it aired on the SciFi Channel. Sufficed to say, it was a helluva lot like the sort of horror movies that are a staple of the channel's Saturday-afternoon lineup, only with one major difference: Quality. Quality acting, and quality craftsmanship of something that could've been turned to shit in the hands of someone like Uwe Boll.

The characters were developed in an introductory scene, similarly done in The Descent. Getting the development out of the way left room for plenty of action when the werewolves attacked and high tension waiting in-between those attacks. By "action", I don't mean any of the bombastic Hollywood sort. I mean the "Man in Camo vs Man in Wolf-Suit" kind of action.

The whole film has that kind of "making a movie in your backyard with your friends" sort of feel that the best of Kevin Smith's comedies usually have. It's just a horror movie this time around, and a damn fun one at that.