You know, before I watch any movie, I would usually refrain myself from reading any sources of spoilers/reviews beforehand - so that I’d have a neutral expectations prior watching it.

So naturally, the perception that I had for this, was that it was a sick flick. A sadisticly themed slasher cum horror movie. Why? A few reasons.

The first reason, would definitely have to be the title. “He Was A Quiet Man”. Ooo fucking creepy. The movie must be about some sociopath cutting up kids or something like that… maybe a “Mr. Brooks” clone but, with much more gut retching elements in it… And then, the cast of the protagonist. It was led by Christian Slater. Like, who can look sicker than Christian Slater? He has that natural conniving son of a bitch and pedophilic look that makes him all perfect to be one. He’s there for a reason.

My suspicion kinda bolstered in 15 minutes through the flick, and then, it gradually changed into something completely different. Something which was way more pleasant. It was the same feeling that I have when I play a good role playing game - storylines that keep introducing new yet intriguing plots that makes you want to find out more about the next. That was why I got so deep into the flick, which managed to keep me glued on the screen right till the end without a flinch. That was how good it is. Unpredictable yet interesting plot.

The storyline revolves around a coy and delusional guy called Bob, who was often a product of constant harassment and oppression from his office co-workers. Bob, at the verge of committing a mass shootout at the office, was one day cut back by another delusional guy at the office, who did the shooting just moments ahead of him. Bob confronted the shooter and inadvertently became an overnight celebrity cum hero when he killed the gunman and rescued the wounded assistant VP called Vanessa (whom he had admired all the while) from being executed.

After that fateful day, Bob’s life changed. He was promoted at work for the display of courage and heroism, and everyone started to look up to him. Vanessa on the other hand, was paralyzed neck down from the shooting and scorned Bob for rescuing her. Just when Bob thought he had made the biggest mistake of his life, Vanessa asked Bob for a final favor, to finish what the gunman started - end her misery by ending her life. Bob agreed but chickened out at the last minute. In a weird twist of fate at that moment, the fuming Vanessa discovered that she can actually move one of her fingers which offered a glimmer of hope that she might be well again, and for that, credited Bob’s chickening as saving her life for another time.

From there, their relationship blossomed and Bob was at the crest point of his life. He started to socialize and felt confident for the first time. But just when he thought everything was right in his life for the first time, the remnants of his insecurity made him discover things that he aren’t suppose to know, which then triggers the return of his mental problems, in a much more badass magnitude.

Go watch it already. The movie has depth, and it’s good. This flick is worth 8 out of 10 in my scale of awesomeness.

Without looking at the poster, one would have mistaken that this flick is another typical teenage comedy that revolves around the life of a hormone raging college dork that fell in love with his neighbor (or something like that). But this is not. Quite contrary from what the title might suggests, this turns out to be quite a sick and disturbing flick. Not sick and disturbing as what people could do with blood, gores or special effects - in fact, the gores and effects are quite minimal in this flick - but this ’sick and disturbing’ is psychological.

It makes you ‘feel’ it. You’d flinch when you watch it. It would make you go aghast and look at your fellow partner with utter disbelief. You’d think about it even after a few days. You’d even feel awkward to even explain about the details to your friends. And frankly speaking, I have never seen a flick quite like this.

So is it any good? Depends. If you’re the squeamish type, a Mormon, a self proclaimed somebody with high moral standard, somebody with strong religious beliefs and discipline, a consummate feminist, or a close minded bigot - stay out of this. This is something definitely not for you. This is evil stuff to the very core. Not for the weak spirited or weak hearted. If you’re like me, then you’ll think that this is quite something.

For me, I like this flick not because it’s entertaining or anything like that. I like it because it allows you catch a good glimpse on the dark side of human nature. What a fellow human can do to another. And they made it look so real in this flick. It doesn’t need any CGI effects or plenty of gore to convey that message. It doesn’t need to have a complex plot to tell the story. This is just straight, somewhat like a documentary, down in the basement of a house - to show you all that. It’s very wicked.

A film adaptation of a novel, it tells about the story of boy called David who befriended a girl and her disabled sister that came to live with his neighbor when their parents died in a car accident. The neighbor was the girl’s aunt and also happens to be an alcoholic. In what started to be an ill treatment to both the girls, the aunt soon began to consciously abuse them, and slowly, became a full scale torture - especially the elder and abled one, who took the brunt of all the torturing (due to her puberty).

At the torturing part, the girl was bound at the basement of the house and the sociopath aunt would ask her boys (3 of them, with 2 of them barely even of teenage) to strip her naked and encourage them to unleash their angst on her in a cult like manner. David was in the scene all the while, though he disapproved those brutal acts, he couldn’t do anything about them (due to his extreme stupidity or whatever, I don’t know) and he could just watch. At one scene, several kids in the neighborhood were even invited there to watch the torturing with their mouths wide agape as if they were given the chance to watch a witch being burnt at stake, but none of them showed any conscience except David. The girl would be raped, beaten up, cut and even burnt in the course of the movie, and only in the end, David decided that he should REALLY do something about it and ended it all with a twist.

In this flick, you get to see kids yelling profanities, swigging beers, plotting rapes and reveling at the victim’s naked body… like I said, it was sick and disturbing. A gripping and harrowing tale of a torture victim, tonnes of shocking acts and has a bad aftertaste. If you have no problem with all these, I’d highly recommend it. 8 out of 10.

In case you protested how this movie should have ended, just want to let you know that this movie adaptation of that novel, is actually based on a TRUE event that happened in the 70s. In the real event, there wasn’t any ‘David’ for the victim, and she didn’t get rescued. And the tortures in the real event, were very much worse than what was shown in this flick. Imagine that. You can read more about it here.

If I was to be given the task to describe this flick in 2 words, I’d say ‘blimps’ and ‘crap’. If a sentence, well, ‘it’s a crappy story about a blimp’. Oops, maybe several blimps. There are so many blimps in this flick, that it makes me suspect that the director must have some kind of fetish for cellulites.

The storyline was set in the 60’s when racial segregation was the ‘in’ thing back then. It revolves around the life of a fat teenager called Tracy, who is obsessed with dancing and a dance TV show. One day, she skipped class to attend an audition for a replacement for one of the dancers but because of her weight issue, she was mocked and rejected. And because she skipped her class for that audition, she was later sent to detention, and met some ‘colored’ people who can dance like a parkinson man having a stroke. Being a dance fanatic, she then befriends them in awe of their awesomeness and learns how to dance like them. This attracted the attention of one of the dance show heartthrob, who then gave her a place at the dance show.

The story then continues with more dancing. And singing. And then they dance somemore. And sing somemore. And then some black people got involved. Then they march and picket like the BERSIH rally. And then they dance somemore. (this is like, watching a Bollywood flick times five - dancing and singing overload).

That’s basically it.

I’m left unimpressed. That’s probably because I’m not really fond of musicals. I think musicals are fucking boring. This shit in particular, I had to break it up for several sessions to finish it.

And if you’re wondering why am I touching a flick like this in the first place, well, it was because of Travolta and Chris Walken (but more on Travolta). And mannn, Travolta sure reminded me of an alligator in his drag form. Walken, he’s as excellent in his acting as always (in this flick, his dancing reminded me of his debut in Fatboy Slim’s video - that song brings back memories).

Hairspray. Me find very little entertainment value. Me give rating 3 out of 10.

When I finished this flick, there was only 1 thing in my mind - what have I missed? Man… is this flick awesome or what? In every way, people. It rocked my ass like a hurricane. It has been some time since I’ve enjoyed a horror flick so damn fucking much. Apparently, this movie is the sequel to another popular title - “28 Days Later”. But prior watching this, I have no idea what this movie’s all about. I thought it was just another outbreak film, you know, like a souped up Ebola virus or something like that?

Anyway, it turned out to be quite different and very much more than that. It is about an outbreak alright. Not just any outbreak but, a super badass one. Instead of just die (borrring), the infected person would turn into a deranged + rabid demon that goes around and attack any non-infected person he sees. Those that got bitten or had fluid transfusion (such as the act of kissing would) will get infected as well and will transform into ‘one of them’ in the matter of seconds. And that was how it got the whole Britain swept clean (which was told by the first flick - “28 Days Later” - gotta watch that someday)

“28 Weeks Later” is about the aftermath of the first outbreak - which sees the city of London recovering from it’s apocalyptic episode. The main plot revolves around the tale of 2 kids - who have been living out of Britain during the outbreak - returning to a tightly guarded quarantine camp in London to rendezvous with their surviving father. The father, having earlier abandoned his wife to save his own ass, concocts a different tale about what happened and tells the kids that their mother was dead. The kids later discover that it’s not true, after they sneaked out of the quarantine camp to visit their old home and saw that their mother is not only alive, but she did not turn into ‘one of them’ (but instead, became a carrier), which the authorities later discover was due to her heterochromia trait (a condition where a person has an iris different color from the other) when she was brought back to the camp for treatment.

The father would later go to ask for his surviving wife’s forgiveness… during which, he kisses the bitch and turn himself into ‘one of them’. From there, the father wreaks havoc from inside and soon, got the whole camp out of control and triggers the military code red that calls for a total extermination of every civilian - infected or not. From there, the few main characters would attempt to protect the 2 kids (one of them who inherited the heterochromia and immune to the virus) and escape from both the infected bloodthirsty demons and military genocide. Adventure ensues.

What I like about this film, is that it has very little bullshit like boring dialogs and such. It was a hit right to the point and was full of gripping action in every minute of it. It was very gory (chopper blades mutilating those demons - you’ve got to see that), very dark and was so realistic that it exudes a coppery feel of blood from the screen. (the part about that dark quarantine attack and subway full of decomposing corpses were superb). In short, this movie was fucking brilliant. If you think flicks like “Silent Hill”, “Dawn of the Dead” or even that comedic “Planet Terror” are good, this one’s going to make them look like a Saturday morning cartoon show. I’d say, if there is a flick which every horror movie should make an example of - it would be this one.

And because I enjoyed it so damn much? I’d give it a 9 out of 10.

This is the second flick under the Grindhouse collaboration project by Tarantino and Rodriguez (I have reviewed the other flick here).

Like “Planet Terror”, the flick uses special effects like faded saturation and scratches on celluloid, that reminisce us of our dark and messed-up past. And that’s probably the only thing I liked about this flick. Nothing more.

The plot was not so much of an intelligent creation. It was kinda linear in my personal opinion. It revolves around a psychopath cum vagabond stuntman (played by Kurt Russell) who drives around in a reinforced stunt car (’death proof’ car) killing chicks.

***
It starts with a group of young girls, led by a somewhat famous girl DJ who goes by the name Jungle Julia, on their way to celebrate Julia’s birthday at a pub somewhere. Earlier before the trip, in an attempt to score one of her girl buddies from the group a prospective date, Julia announced of a bounty reward game - for whoever that spotted her mysterious friend, calls her ‘Butterfly’, and recites the correct verse of a poem, will get a lap dance from her. And that was how it attracted the stuntman killer (who hails the name ‘Stuntman Mike’).

Stuntman Mike would first stalk them to the bar, picks up another girly patron (which was the same actress who played Cherry Darling in “Planet Terror”) to diffuse suspicion from the group while he discreetly monitors them from across the bar. And when he is confident enough that they’re all addled with alcohol from the party binge, he goes over to claim the lap dance bounty reward and then leave (with the girl, which he later kills in his car). The group soon leaves, but halfway through their journey, they were all sent back home to meet their creator as Stuntman Mike rams his death proof car head on with their’s. (in the scene, you’d get to see different takes on the collision and how limbs got ripped off the victims. It was kinda cool.)

Mike would survive the crash and ends up at the hospital, clear of all charges since he didn’t drink, while the victims were all intoxicated etc. It has been his same modus operandi all the while and that’s how it works for him.

The story then proceeds to the second group of 4 girls, which partially comprises of a couple of gear heads. Like the first group, Mike would stalk them and look for the right opportunity to kill them (I have to admit, things get pretty rock bottom boring at this point on). But this time round, Mike made a big fucking mistake. He messed with the wrong group. The girls that he had hoped to be chicken shit easy to kill preys? Aren’t what they’re supposed to be. They’re way tougher than Mike himself. In the course of staging another accident that causes both of the cars to spin off road, one of the girls whipped out a gun and shot Mike in the arm… and from thence on, had the table turned on him instead. The girls would chase the injured and whimpering Mike down hard, had him clobbered with a big ass stick, chase him again and had his car land immobile upside down. They’ll then drag him out and gave him the most thorough pummeling one could ever had in his awakening. The film the rolls its end credits.

***

After watching the whole thing in the span of like, a few days (yes, I couldn’t finish it in one go), I was compelled to look up the internet on what the fuck was this film all about… Not that it’s too confusing or anything but, being curious on why was it so fucking dull like that… The film’s like, 80% shitty dialog, and 20% action (which includes the actual car chases and all).

It appears that Tarantino was trying to make a badass comeback for Kurt Russell, but from what I felt after watching this flick, it was more like butchering his reputation instead. He looked like a consummate loser in this movie, with a rather odd suicidal way of killing people. Sean Bean would have made a better candidate for playing Stuntman Mike… (he actually had similar role before in “The Hitcher” - which was a way better watch)

I’d give this flick a generous 4 out of 10 in my scale of awesomeness - and that was simply because I liked the lap dance so much (I’ve been to a titty bar at Austin, and I’ve never seen a lap dance as good before… Maybe it was the quality of the strippers…)