Jason Vargo
Jason's Collection
Jason's collection is private.
Jason's Activity
Jason reviewed...
Virus X (2010)
Virus X has promise for approximately ten minutes before it completely… More
Virus X has promise for approximately ten minutes before it completely devolves into direct to DVD mush. The premise is sound enough: a wealthy woman with nothing to do commissions scientists to develop a potent strain of H1N1. It is unleashed in the lab and then all hell breaks loose. The problems in Virus X are many: aside from money-which this woman has plenty of-why does she do what she does (one answer mentioned late in the film is to be seen as a savior); none of the characters really have a personality and therefore are impossible to actually empathize with; a blonde Chris Kattan-like "enforcer" is supposed to be a boogey man but has no proverbial teeth; the film forgets to show important events at the end...oh heck, who cares. Stay away from Virus X.
2 days ago via Rotten Tomatoes
Jason reviewed...
The Strangers (2008)
More intelligent than most of the Saw movies and more frightening than… More
More intelligent than most of the Saw movies and more frightening than any "come through your dreams" Boogey Man, The Strangers does a lot of things right. It gets into the story with a minimum of fuss, says what it wants to say and then gets out. There's no long, drawn out explanation about why the three bad guys are doing what they're doing. There's no super heroics by either of the leads. It's...organic, to use a term. Small cast, small location. The Strangers is scary if only because this kind of thing can happen in the real world to anyone watching the film. Freddy and Jason? Not in that camp. The Strangers? Absolutely. The rationale the intruders give is generic enough, creepy enough. It wants to give a reason, but not explain it away.
7 days ago via Rotten Tomatoes
Jason reviewed...
Devil (2010)
Devil would work much better as a 45 minute episode of The Twilight… More
Devil would work much better as a 45 minute episode of The Twilight Zone as opposed to an 80 minute feature film. Why? The premise is too thin to sustain itself, the characters are not deep enough and the thrills...well, they're there, but in such a low rent type of way. If the film ever completely bought into the devil premise, like Rod Serling would be able to do, there may be something here. But stretches of the film feel like they're unnecessarily elongated with characters going through the motions to achieve a running time. Take a mechanic going to the roof...and then to the basement...and then back to the roof...only to rappel down to a stuck elevator. Or another character purposely stepping in water while playing with a downed electrical wire. There's no rhyme or reason to these things, unless they are being possessed to put themselves in danger/time consuming activities. The only problem is there's no evidence to support that.
10 days ago via Rotten Tomatoes
Jason reviewed...
Aliens (1986)
Rewatching the extended director's cut of Aliens, a few things came to… More
Rewatching the extended director's cut of Aliens, a few things came to mind. First, this movie-and Alien-take pot shots at capitalism and the weapons industry, perhaps a shot at the American government at the time. Second, it runs almost interminably long. Third, it still ranks as a superior sequel, not to mention standalone action yarn. And fourth...this won't come as a shock...the rest of the films featuring these creatures are all subpar when ranked against Ridley Scott's and James Cameron's editions. Aliens doesn't necessarily take the mythology to a new place; what it does do is show force and "might" can't always overcome any situation. Think of the Marines as the United States military, going into an unknown territory and battling an unknown/underappreciated threat. What happens? They get their clocks cleaned, barely escaping. This can be Cameron's commentary on Vietnam or other, smaller military engagements. Or it can just be a fun movie.
11 days ago via Rotten Tomatoes
