Arachnophobia (1990)

Directed by: Frank Marshall
Starring: Jeff Daniels, John Goodman


The Movie:
Everyone is afraid of something...for Dr. Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels), his phobia is downright embarrassing. But when he moves his family to a small town, the one thing that bugs him most is now harming the townspeople at an alarming rate. For this unlikely hero, overcoming a childhood fear of spiders might just save the community, but it may already be too late!


Review:
I'm not scared of spiders, but I watched this with someone who is. Needless to say, she spent a good share of this film with her eyes closed.

When the Jennings family move out of the city to plant new roots in a small town, where Ross is sure to fill a void as the town doctor, little do they realize it's not going to be an easy transition. For starters, the current town doctor decides not to retire as expected (a dick move if I ever saw one), he finds his place in said town won't be an easy grasp as he thought-after all, a small town only needs one doctor?

Things start to unravel when a deadly spider from South America stows away in the coffin of a dead photographer and winds up in the U.S. Ironically, each victim of the spider just happened to visit the new doctor recently, so the old doctor uses that to start a vendetta against Jennings; until Dr Jennings' uncovers the eight-legged beast with assistance from the town exterminator, played by John Goodman.

 For so long I have somehow overlooked this Spielberg production. I always considered it to be some kind of spin off of Hitchcock's "The Birds." Spielberg took a well known phobia, combined it with some clean humor and a family-esque adventure and created a well made film.


RATING: 9/10

The Descent (2005)

Directed by: Neil Marshall
Starring: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid


The Movie:
Soon after an accident that takes the life of her husband and daughter, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) starts visualizing things that aren't really there and her friends suggest going on a spelunking trip. After sudden change in plans, to discover a new cave, they wind up being trapped under ground. They have an limited amount of supplies, and they meet strange, blood thirsty cannibals as they try to find the way out.

Review:
This movie is highly rated on popular movie websites, but I didn't feel the love for this movie like a lot of the other reviewers. Regardless it was very well done. Many dark scenes to show they were below ground while in other movies that take place in a cave can be too brightly lit showing obvious nonfiction. This one also had the claustrophobic feel to it as the girls were crawling through the tight tunnels, which brought the viewer into the film so-to-speak.

Beyond the positive side, this movie had a handful of flaws to it. For one, it was very predictable, even for someone who didn't bother to read the synopsis or know anything about this film. This movie had plenty of jump scenes but having things jump out at you isn't scary. A plus I found in this movie was the heroine fight scenes particularly between Juno (Natalie Mendoza) and the creatures, although they were generally more gore than scary which isn't the point of a horror movie. Speaking of the creatures, those are some of the awful costume designs I've seen come out of Hollywood in years, as a casual movie watcher it almost leaves me unsettled on the future of cinema, as if they weren't even trying.

Overall, it's safe for a simple popcorn flick or if you plan to watch it with someone who's easily scared but if you're looking for anything serious, look elsewhere.

RATING: 7/10

Beetle Juice (1988)

Directed by: Tim Burton
Starring: Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder

The Movie:
After a deadly accident, the Maitlands (Alec Baldwin & Geena Davis) find themselves stuck inside their house. Confused on what happened, they now face a bigger problem...The strange, new family that's moving in! After many failed attempts to convince them to leave, they find themselves hiring the services of a bio-exorcist.

Review:

Only Burton can pull off probably the best horror comedy classic in the last 25 years! And of course he couldn't have done it without the infamous Michael Keaton  playing the lead role. Choosing an additional strong cast to pull off the recently deceased was no easy task I'm sure, but I feel Baldwin and Davis did a fantastic job with their roles.

Beetle Juice is a classic horror movie that explores life after death. The Maitlands (Baldwin & Davis) decide to spend their two-week vacation in their New England home. Upon returning from a trip to town, Barbara (Geena Davis) swerves to avoid hitting a dog in the road and crashes through the side of a covered bridge and plunges into the river beneath it. As they return home in spirit form, and quickly come to the conclusion that they are dead. They are in peace until a family from New York City buys their home and moves in, the father Charles Deetz and the dark daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) are also looking for peace and tranquility but unfortunately his wife is indifferent on the current decor and insists on changing it, with help from family friend Otho (Glenn Shadix). The Maitlands are invisible to the the entire Deetz family except Lydia, who later befriends them. Against the advice of their caseworker Juno (Sylvia Sidney), they hire the free lance bio-exorcist, Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) who was formerly a trouble maker in his life.

I can't stress it enough, Beetle Juice is near perfect movie and a classic to watch this time of the year. It may take a couple viewings but you will love it.

RATING: 10/10

Orphan (2009)

Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman

The Movie:
The last year has been troubling for Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard) after the loss of their baby. Kate quickly turned to alcohol shortly thereafter. Since her daughter Max (Aryana Engineer) nearly died after falling through thin ice, while Kate was inside drinking instead of watching her, Kate decided to seek out therapy and is now doing better. The couple decide to adopt a child to fill the void in their lives. While at the orphanage, they meet and fall in love with the secluded, nine-year old Russian girl, Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman). Eventually, Kate quickly realizes her family has been a mess since Esther came into their lives, feels like Esther is manipulative, and starts seeking out her past history to the surprise of John who refuses to believe anything is wrong.

Review:
Interesting, dark, disturbing, twisted, and intense - just a few words to sum up my thoughts on "Orphan". This thriller is definitely the most interesting I've seen in a couple years, its' not like other thrillers involving a family. The twist in the plot, being when we find out Esther is really a near-40 year old woman with growth hormone disorder making it possible to look like a nine year old girl.

Usually child actors are painful to watch, but 12- year-old Isabelle Fuhrman gives a terrifying, chilling performance that is worthy of praise. Aryana Engineer debuts as the deaf little sister, Max is adorable and steals the life of the movie in almost every scene she's found in. Jimmy Bennett, who plays Daniel, the brother, portrays a middle child who's jealous of not being the center of attention and torments his siblings. The intensity of Esther getting the little sister involved in her murders, and threatening Daniel in the middle of the night will send shivers down your spine, a perfect combination to a great thriller.


Although this may be the greatest thriller of the decade, it's psychological terror is not recommended for children or the weak at heart. The basic idea is nothing new, but if you're looking for a horror movie without any cheap scares this one will keep you on the edge of your seat. The extremely well done performances by the child actors is enough of a reason to at least give this one a rent.

RATING: 7/10

The Mist (2007)

Directed by: Frank Darabont
Starring: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, William Sadler

The Movie:
After a severe thunder storm, David Brayton (Thomas Jane), his son Billy (Nathan Gamble) and neighbor Brent Norman (Andre Braugher) drive into the supermarket in the small town of Maine. Along the way, they notice a strange mist covering most of the lake, and military vehicles going towards it, but not thinking much of it, they continue onto the store. While shopping, the inevitable happens, an older gentleman comes running into the store with a bloody nose, declaring "there's something in the mist!" This creates a panic among the eighty-some shoppers in the store, one specifically being a woman known for spreading her crazy religious beliefs across the town.

Review:
This has to be the first true horror movie I've seen in decades. This one doesn't need cheap frights to be scary, it's a down to earth scary movie. It was shown that the storm must have unleashed something evil that would get you if you went into the fog. A mixture of some horror and science fiction, as the secret "arrowhead project" created at a nearby military installation that they thought would open a proverbial door to the outside world.

The one peeve I had was the religious nut job that thought sacrificing non-believers would save the lives of all the believers. Don't get me wrong, I understand why she was included in the script and find it gave the film more meaning but I was ready to jump through the screen and beat the crap out of her by the midpoint. The audience at my recent movie night showing of this, all applauded when former schoolteacher (Frances Sternhagen) threw the can of peas at her during one of her speeches.

The ending showed the small group of people who just wanted to escape the mist, finally make it out of the supermarket and into David's truck. Taking a quick detour past his house, and seeing his wife not able to escape the group of five proceeded out of the town to however far a tank of gas took them. Unfortunately they hadn't made it far before running out of gas, but at least they tried. This is where the shock comes into play, they were minutes away from being rescued by the military when David decided to pull out the 6-round, although only four bullets remained, revolver and kill all five passengers including his young son. Being out of bullets he was frustrated on what to do, and vouched to get out of the truck and call for the "things" in the mist to take him. The credits start rolling as David is down on his knees crying, begging to be taken while trucks loaded with victims were being driven out of the contaminated area. It's surely the most shocking ending I've ever seen.

RATING: 9.5/10

Film Crazy: 4,000 Movies Challenge

Hi there, and welcome to Film Crazy, I'm Mike and I watch a lot of movies. I'm not a film critic nor am I trying to be one. I'm just an average guy, with an aspiration for film. Due to the limited offerings of film outlets available in my small corner of America, I have become infatuated with collecting film on all formats. That's right, I'm no presentation snob. Although I would prefer to see a movie projected on a jumbo screen in a clean theater, nothing stops me from watching a VHS tape or one of my thousands of DVDs.

Now, it's time to take this infatuation to the next level. Despite not being very good at it, I always liked writing, and since I love watching movies so much I decided to start my own film journal of sorts as a hobby. Believe me, as much as I enjoy watching, reading and writing about film I have no intentions on giving up my full time job. I'm about to embark on a journey that will take me years, maybe even decades to accomplish. As my collection continues to grow, I have had a problem keeping tabs on what I already own. That's where this blog comes into play, I hope to eventually review every single movie in my library, one at a time. The goal, is to have something new posted every day.

Let me reiterate, this is a journey through the world of film, and there's no telling what I may encounter along way. I welcome you all to follow along through this never-ending journey, and feel free to give your own thoughts in the comments field. Oh, and if you share the same crazy behavior as I and others do, check out the message boards, we're a close-knit community of film lovers who not only support one each other's collecting habits but also enjoy discussing film.

And the Worst Movie Award Goes to...

Many of us watched the Academy Awards last weekend, and in light of the big update to this site I decided I wanted to kick it off with something special. As you may know I have seen hundreds if not thousands of movies, so it should come to no surprise that I've seen some really bad movies. I'm not talking about movies that are so bad, that they're good. Those I consider guilty pleasures which I'll save for another time. I'm referring to something that I actually suffered through, something I actually had to ask myself; "Can I have that hour and a half of my life back?" I'm sure we've all been there at one point or another, maybe more than once even.

Sadly this has happened to me on more than one occasion. Even sadder, I can guarantee I still own those movies in question. Anyway, I could easily point out a Tyler Perry flick or a direct-to-video release starring Nicholas Cage but considering we all know going into such a movie that it's going to bad, I won't say they deserve the worst movie award. The movie, I think deserves this award just happens to be one I watched in theaters when it was first released, nearly falling asleep multiple times, and yet still bought it on DVD during a video store closeout sale a few years back.....

Nacho Libre (2006)

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Ana de la Reguera, Héctor Jiménez

Running Time: 92 minutes

Synopsis:

Jack Black is Ignacio, a monastery cook who feeds orphan children by day and by night transforms himself into Nacho Libre, a notorious Luchador in stretchy pants. Spurred on by Esqueleto "The Skeleton," a street peasant turned sidekick, Nacho challenges Mexico's most fearsome wrestlers as he fights to save the children and win the affections of Sister Encarnacion, his inspiration and forbidden love. 

Review:

When a movie starts off funny, it doesn't take long before it becomes tedious. You can actually see some similarities in this and Hess' other comedy, Napoleon Dynamite. Both films are about outsiders, and both main characters have bizarre best friends. Difference is, Nacho is a lovable character while the main character in Napoleon Dynamite was an unpleasant individual. It's obvious by the script that we were supposed to like Nacho, but Jack Black's performance came off more irritating than endearing.

Nacho grew up in a monastery, and is now the cook.  He has a secret love, wrestling, which he can't admit because monks think it's the work of the devil. Even the newly arrived nun, Sister Encarnacion agrees wrestling is bad. This concerns Nacho, but it doesn't stop him from secretly starting a career of it behind a mask, alongside his skinny, also amateur sidekick Esqueleto (Hector Jimenez). Despite never winning, Nacho gains some popularity and eventually earns the chance to fight the king of wrestling, Ramses (Cesar Gonzalez) in an exhibition match.

Quite frankly, this movie will only interest those who are fans of Jack Black. It's only around ninety minutes long, but to me it felt much longer. The film dragged on, I may have laughed once or twice but not nearly enough to be able to rate this higher than a 2/10. Yeah, it was that bad.


So there you have it, one of the WORST movies I have ever seen. Whats the worst movie you've seen?