Nosferatu

"Is that your wife? What a lovely neck."

I thought since it was Halloween time I would check out a classic horror film. Nosferatu was made back in 1922. It is a silent film based on Brahm Stokers book. This was one of the films made about it. It is a silent film. There are different versions of this with different soundtracks. Some better than others.

Nosferatu is about a young real estate agent named Hutter who gets a tip that a Count wants to buy some real estate in the area and he needs to go to Transylvania to meet him and sell him the property. So much to the dismay of his wife he sets off to meet Orlof. He is warned by the locals of danger, but he continues on. The count will only meet him at night and becomes distracted when he sees a picture of Hutter's wife. The count then decides to by the house across from Hutter's. The next morning he wakes up with two bite marks on his neck which he claims were from Mosquito's.

Hutter slowly learns about Nosferatu (Vampires) from a book he picked up at the local Inn. He goes to find the count one night and finds him sleeping in a coffin. He takes off and tries to make his way home. He gets sick and the journey takes a detour. The count decides to go after Hutter's wife and her beautiful neck. He stows away on a ship with five of his coffins, vampires get power from the earth they were buried in. He wreaks havoc on the ship and eventually makes it to Hutter's town. The question is who will get to the wife first and who will win.

This was one of the first silent films I've seen. It was pretty good. The version I saw had a good soundtrack with it. I also liked the way that the shots during the day were tinted red and the nigh shots were blue. I could see how it could have creeped people out back then. The character is very creepy with those long fingers and his face. His follower in jail was also creepy, in a crazy way. This was a good film to kick off the Halloween Season.

6 out of 10

Meek's Cuttoff

"I don't blame him for not knowing where we are. I blame him for saying he did."


Few words have never said so much. There is not an abundance of talking in this film. The little we do hear ofttimes is mumbled and drowned out so we can't hear them well, but the shots of the desolate land where amazing.

Meek's Cuttoff is based on a true story of a group of people crossing the planes on the Oregon Trail. A small group decides to follow a man Named Meek on a "shortcut" on the way to the coast. This is where our story begins. The opening shot will have leave your wanting a glass of water on it's own. The land is high desert and dry. We see them fording one river and that is about the extent of the water in the film. We see them lowering wagons down steep hills. Many of these things you have heard they had to do, but it was nice to be able to see someone do it. Seeing them makes you appreciate them more.

The group are making their way to the West coast through tough terrain. The area is dry and the threat of Indians is everywhere. They do come across an Indian who they try to use as a guide to find water. There is not much more to this movie that can be written. It is mostly a feast for the eyes. It is all said in what is not said.

6 out of 10

Hanna

"Hanna, what did your mom die of?"

"Three Bullets..."



I have heard a critic refer to this movie as The Bourne Identity for the Dora the Explorer generation. Perfect, but I would add to it a European twist. I enjoyed this film. I liked how this movie was able to seem so main stream and then jump to an odd European, electronic music video. With all of this it still held me. I found myself smiling at the oddity of some of the scene. Characters dancing in an abandoned theme park, a chase through a trailer bin lot and a show down on a roller coaster track.

Hanna is a girl raised by her father just south of the Arctic Circle. Her father, played by Eric Banna, is some sort of ex-secret operative. He spends his time training her to fight, learn languages and spend lots of time reading from an encyclopedia. The fight each other and you get the sense that this is all they do every day. It is not till the end of the movie that we see why. we get little bits of info as we go along. Hanna decides that it is time to come out of hiding and knows that this means she will be hunted by an ex boss of her father who is played by Cate Blanchett. I did not like her southern accent she uses on and off throughout the movie. Blanchetts character plays a very hardened person. Life has been hard and she is not willing to make it easy for others. She just does not care anymore. She's tired of trying to fit in and has just resolved herself to be different. Hanna on the other hand realizes she is different but still wants to fit in. To be a part of the world.

The is a lot of violence in this movie. Many good fight scenes some of which will make you giggle at, including her awkward first date. She is not used to anything a normal life would have to offer. She was raised in the woods. TV, Cars even lights are something new.

Saorise Ronin is definitely a girl to watch. She has been in a few recent movies including The Lovely Bones. She has an ability to play the part without over playing it. She almost seems to play it short of what it needs, but if you look at the little details, the eye movements, facial expressions or a subtle shift she is playing her part in full. I look forward to seeing her other films and see what she plans to take on next.

6.85 out of 10

Troll Hunter (Trolljegeren)

"Bears like to store their food in piles. Kind of like a squirrel."
"No they don't."
"Russian bears do."


So here it is review number 50. Marking the 1 year anniversary of our Guys Movie Night it was time to watch the much anticipated Troll Hunter. Oh, where do I begin? When my buddy John brought the trailer for this gem to my attention we began to plan a trip to see the move. Unfortunately it made it to DVD before we could find a theater showing it. So it was time for a gathering of the guys. Our own man date.

Troll Hunter is a Norwegian film. It is subtitled in English. My wife was a bit worried that we would have less of a turnout because of the subtitles, but I guess she does not understand the pull of guys to B grade movies. We had a great turnout and a lot of fun.

Here is the plot. A group of college kids are out to make a doc about the bears that are causing problems all over Norway. They go to the latest bear sighting where a grizzly bear has just been killed. Many of the locals point to a recluse who only comes out at night as the one who is killing the bears that are causing the problems. So they begin to follow him in order to interview him. He tells them to go away, but in true Michael Moore fashion they follow him without him knowing.

The students get in over their heads when they follow him into the night and are chased by an unknown creature. After one of them is injured and their car is destroyed by this creature. The hunter then agrees to let them in on the secret. He is the only hunter of a special group whose job is to track, manage or hunt these...Trolls.

They learn that there is unrest in the troll community so they follow Hans, the hunter, as he tries to figure out why and as he hunts trolls. They find there is a lot more to it than expected. Tracking, hunting and Govt. cover ups.

This movie was like mixing The Blair Witch Project with Cloverfield. It was a great movie to watch with a group of guys. Yes it was subtitled, but it did not take a lot of effort which left plenty of time to make joke about it. It was funny in a dry sense(over sized syringes and an excess of troll snot.) In the words of John, "this was the best Norwegian film I've ever seen." It has to be cause I've seen soooo many (Insert sarcasm).

9.8 out of 10 (if viewed in a group)
7.9 out of 10 (if viewed on your own)

The Help

"You is kind. You is smart. You is Important."


My wife signed up for Audible so she could listen to books for her book club. She put on the Hunger Games series and for Mother's Day I got The Help for her. My commute is about 2-3 hours each day so I listen to them too. I finished listening to the Help a few months ago. It was a fantastic book. I was very excited to see the movie. I know movies are never as good as the book. You can never fit the detail of a 12 hour book into a 2 hour movie. So, keeping that in mind Heather and I went with our friends, the Ainsworths, on a double date.

The Help is a story about a Lady name Skeeter who lives in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's. Jackson was one of the strongest enforcers of the Jim Crow laws. Skeeter wants to be a writer and she end up talking to a Mrs. Stein about making a book about being a black woman in Jackson in the 60's. She wants to write this book from the view of the help. This was a bi no-no at the time. Anyone who spoke out for anything close to equal rights was shunned or much worse.

The characters are fantastic. Skeeter is played by Emma Stone. I expect we'll see her in a dozen movies in the next two years. The ladies are played by Olivia Davis and Octavia Spencer. The both are fantastic. It has the usual race film points that make you angry, but also has the parts that make you laugh pretty hard.

As usual the books are more informative and detailed, but this film gets the point across. It is a great starting point before you jump into the book.

7.3 out of 10

Midnight in Paris

"You can fool me, but you cannot fool Ernest Hemingway!"



Woody Allen seems to put out a movie every six months. I never see them not because I don't want to, but more because of their ratings and the fact that they are never played in local theater. When I hear about this one, I knew I would have to see it.

Midnight in Paris is about a screenwriter from LA who goes with his Fiance and her parents to Paris to shop and plan for their wedding. Late one night Owen Wilson goes for a walk and gets lost. He sits down on a step and at midnight a car pulls up and whisks him away to Paris in 1920's. He meets famous writers and painters and a beautiful Marion Cotillard. He begins to question his own life and his relationship to his fiance.

Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Marion Cotillard. There is also a great supporting cast in Cathy Bates plays the great Gertrude Stein, Adrian Brody is an amusing Salvador Dali. My favorite had to be Corey Stoll who played Ernest Hemingway. He was so serious all the time and when he would talk it was like he was reading a paragraph from a novel. I had to laugh.

I thought this was a great date movie. It had all the elements that my wife would like and also enough humor for a guy to like. This was just another good movie to add on to the ever growing list of good movies of 2011.

7 out of 10

Soul Surfer

"I don't need easy. I just need possible."




I wanted this movie to be good. I really did. It did have it's good moments. I liked the surfing. I liked the settings. It was even full of great actors like Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt and starred AnnaSophia Robb. A movie about a shark attack survivor and her struggle to get back into surfing. If I could change one thing to make this film a much, much better film it would have to cast Mandy Moore in place of Carrie Underwood, or better yet just leave her character out of the movie altogether.

The movie is a true story about Betheny Hamilton a teenage girl who lives and surfs in Hawaii. One day as she is surfing with friend she is attacked by a shark. She loses her left arm. This may seem like a gruesome scene to show in a family film, but they don't show much. The attack lasts all of two seconds. Her recovery process was pretty good. I'm sure that hearing about it from the real Betheny would be better, This movie became a bit too Born-again for me. I'm glad they had a deep faith and that it helped them through it, but most scenes that had her church group were pretty annoying. The story was good enough on its own.

It is a good story overall. I like the tender moments and the scary moments. Unfortunately I liked the idea of this movie more than the actual movie. It is a good family film though. The morals it teaches are great. The support of a family, friends, and a whole community. It teaches kids that all things are possible with determination, support and a little faith. Betheny went on to be a National champion surfer with only one arm. She is an inspiration to many and continues to serve others.

5 out of 10