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| JACOBS LADDER - 1990 - Director: Adrian Lyne Director
Adrian Lyne has a history of making an impact with his films.
Before directing this one, he had done "Fatal Attraction"
and "Nine 1/2 Weeks", easily two of the most talked about
films of the 80's. He kicked off the 90's with this disturbing
look into the mind of a Vietnam Vet played by Tim Robbins. He's
having some extremely disturbing nightmares and he can't tell what's
real or fantasy anymore. Lyne creates a dark and hideous
landscape in this one and keep you enthralled with the story as the
mystery of the dreams becomes more and more complicated.
As far as Horror goes, it's hard to find a better story or plot, Lyne
rips the emotions right out of you. Smart and scary and intense
from beginning to end. Lyne would later direct two more non-Horror
films that were also very though-provoking and controversial, "Indecent
Proposal" in 93' and "Lolita" in 97. |
JASON VS. FREDDY - 2003 - DIRECTOR - Ronny Yu They said
it couldn't be done... but hat's off everyone behind this one as they
pulled off bringing two of the 80's biggest names, Jason and Freddy
together in one film. Freddy was actually a bit scary again, not to
mention damn funny, and Jason was, well Jason. The way it plays out
you end up cheering for Jason, even if he's and cold-heartd as ever.
I won't give away the plot, which is actually so simple it works, but
besides all that, the graphics, blood and special effects are top-notch.
If you were a fan of these guys in the 80's, you'll still love them
now. The managed not to ruin either's legacy, but in fact build on them.
This about as best they could co with the material, which turns out
to be much better than expected. |
| JACK FROST 2 - 2000 The original
Jack Frost was called by some as the worst horror film of all time...
well, that was before this pile of crap came out. The first film
established a cult status BECAUSE it was so bad. This one is so
bad, it should never be seen by anyone other than the close relatives
of the poor actors in the movie. This is a blatent attempt to
make a quick buck off the fans who thought the first one was campy enough
to rent a sequel. I swear it's filmed with a hand held camera
and has the humor of Screech from "Saved By The Bell".
I guess if it was made for kids, it wouldn't be so bad, but there's
too many adult themes to have been done that way on purpose. The
first one had some relatively funny lines by the killer, this time it
was an overdone rip-off of Beetlejuice, except NOTHING the voice said
was ever funny... unless you think Bob Saget is a good comedian.
When the overly effeminate Oriental photographer came into the mix,
I literally gagged. This movie is bad, and not the good kind of
bad... the really shitty kind of bad. |
| JAWS - 1975 - Director: Steven Spielberg You could
argue no other movie in the history of film has had an effect on the
general public like this one. I venture to say there are STILL
people who won't go in the water because of this movie. The plot
is simple enough, a small New England town is being terrorized by one
helluva big shark. Roy Scheider plays Chief Martin Brody, the
man who has the monumental task of putting an end to the menance.
Richard Dreyfuss is amazing as oceanographer Matt Hooper who provides
some great comic relief. This was really the movie that put Steven
Spielberg on the map as we got a taste of his brilliance. Besides
the great action and suspense, this movie digs into our human emotions
and the sociology of how we react under pressure, fear and panic.
Looking at this movie at another angle, you realize that humans may
be bigger monsters than the shark, especially the scenes where a mob
goes out on the water to find the shark and collect the bounty.
Scheider's character is a tortured soul as he is caught between what
he knows is right and the politics of the small town. The movie
has many layers like this and you can enjoy each of them or just enjoy
this as an old fashioned "Monster Movie". The story
is taken from a novel by Peter Benchley who was said to have argued
continuously with Spielberg about the reality of the movie, but after
the film was show to other "specialists" in this field, and
recieved a standing ovation, Benchley decided Spielberg knew what he
was doing. Besides the social impacts this movie has, it also
spawned numerous movies of it's nature, including some bad sequels and
movies like "Alligator", "Piranha" and numerous
others. The only flaws may be it's length, it could have been
cut down a little. |
JUNIOR - 2002- Director: Mark Ickx This Belgian-made film waffles about to the point it makes very little sense. The "crazy" son scenerio has been done before. It has has some traces of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Friday The 13th" and numerous others. This one is more offensive because they blame the boys situation on being "retarded"... yet he seems well trained in martial arts and jumps around like a ninja. There's some scenes with decent tension and the atmosphere of the film is allright, but the story-telling is just bad. This could have been a helluva lot scarier with some minor adjustments. The main character, played by Cecilia Bergqvist was quite likeable and Bergqvist was the only bright spot in the film. The "father" character was unbelievable, even though this is his first film and he's not given much for lines. Overall, there's potential, but it ends up being more of a mess than anything. |
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