Review #57: Skinwalkers (2006)

Cast/Notable Credits:
James Issac (Director): Jason X

Jason Behr (Varek): D-War (2007), The Grudge , Happily Ever After (2004), Roswell T.V. series

Elias Koteas (Jonas): TMNT 1 (1990) & 3 (1993), Contact (1992), Cyborg 2 (1993), Crash (1996), Gattaca (1997), Apt Pupil (1998), Thin Red Line (1998), Zodiac (2007)

Rhona Mitra (Rachel): Hollow Man (2000), Highwaymen (2003), Life of David Gale (2003), Spartcus (2004), The Number 23 (2007), Doomsday (2008), Underworld 3 (2009), Boston Legal, The Practice, Nip Tuck, Gideon’s Crossing and Party of 5 T.V. series

Natassia Malthe (Sonja): Halloween Resurrection

Kim Coates (Zo): Silent Hill (2006), Hostage (2005), Assualt on Precinct 13 (2005), Black Hawk Down (2001), Pearl Harbor (2001), Waterworld (1995), The Client (1994), The Last Boy Scout (1994)

Sarah Carter (Katherine): Wishmaster 3 (2001), Final Destination 2 (2003), D.O.A. (2006), Shark T.V. series

Matthew Knight (Tim): The Grudge 2 & 3 (2009)

Shawn Roberts (Adam): X-Men (2000), Land of the Dead, Cheaper by the Dozen (2005), Stir of Echoes 2 (2007), Diary of the Dead

Lyrig Bent (Doak): Saw 2,3, & 4, Four Brothers (2005), Caveman’s Valentine (2001)

Wendy Crewson (Leader): Santa Clause 1,2, &3 (1994,2002,2006), The Covenant (2006), The 6th Day (2000), What Lies Beneath (2000), Bicentennial Man (1999), Air Force One (1997)

Trailer:

Plot:

A 12 year old boy is discovered to be an ancient prophet of the werewolves. He is a half-breed (part human/part werewolf) that controls the destiny of werewolves once he turns 13 years old.

Three days before his 13th birthday, an “evil” werewolf pack discovers his true identity and begins a madhunt to find and kill him. They believe that he will destroy the werewolf race. Since birth, the boy has been guarded by a “good” werewolf pack (and mom…who is also a werewolf) who has secretly known his true destiny.

His protectors discover that a rival pack has intentions to kill him, and they decide to hide and protect him until his birthday. The evil pack shows up in the good pack's town, and the good pack fights them off and takes the kid on the road as they try to out run the “evil” pack. *** SPOILER *** The boys father leads the “evil” pack. *End Spoiler *

Villain:

A pack of “evil” werewolves. Hmm. I thought most were evil. The evil ones do have some hot chicks that make up the band. Werewolf special effects were pretty good, but nothing I got excited about.

Cast:

Pretty much a disposable cast of characters consisting of a bunch of minor actors and actresses who have starred in some decent movies. Rhona Mitra (Pictured below) plays Rachel, the kid's mother. Mitra plays a troubled single mom who will protect her kid at any cost. She probably has the best performance in my opinion.

I give some props to the little kid for a decent acting job. It's pretty hard for young actors to nail certain roles, but I believe he did a good job. Everyone else in the cast...I kept on thinking..."I know them from somewhere!"

SFX/Gore:

A dozen puppies roll over in this one. There was a TON of gun fights to supply the action in the film. And of course...there were a few werewolf on werewolf fights, but that is to be expected.

The werewolf transformation scenes were pretty good, but I wasn’t too impressed with the overall look of the werewolf. I typically don't like the big beasty looking human wolf thing.

TNA:

The film lacks TNA but strives in number of hot chicks in it. No sex acts or boobies, even though there were some moments to sneek them in. The lovely Sarah Carter (pictured below).


T.Gun Factor:

After seeing this movie and realizing that Director James Issac did Jason X, I pretty much concluded that plot is not his strong point when making movies. Plot holes all around, storyline and sequences that made you wanna scratch your head. Typically, Issac does thrive in special effects in his movies and movie was another example. The setting and tone to the movie had a pretty good dark feel to it.

The movie was predictable until the end and offered little enjoyment. What probably hurt it’s case was that I saw the American Werewolf movies right before this one. Those movies were well done, and lining this one up next to them probably doesn’t give it the proper justice. But then again it wasn’t going to do much any way.

One of the biggest things that griped me about this movie was the “on the run” storyline. Once the “evil” pack finds the boy’s hometown and him, the “good” pack uses a A-Team vamped up Frito Lay truck to outrun the bad guys. The “good” guys take the boy on the road in the truck out racing a pack of motorbiking bad guys. Like Lorenzo Lamas a.k.a. Renegade.

The good guys always stop off and allow the bad guys to catch up and act surprised when they arrive. They stop to strap themselves into the back of the Frito Lay truck for the night (when they transform into werewolves), and then continue once morning hits. Seriously, all they have to do is get to the kid’s 13th birthday which is in like…a day most of the film. Why stop? Keep going bitches! No need to “hide” in a cave or hold out in a factory for the night. Keep on truckin’.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
- Film released on August 10, 2007 in limited release

Review #55: American Werewolf in London (1981)

Cast/Notable Credits:
John Landis (Director): Animal House (1978), Blues Brothers (1980) & 2000 (1998), Coming to America (1988), Trading Places (1983)

Jenny Agutter (Nurse Alex): Logan's Run (1976), Child's Play 2

Griffin Dunne (Jack): My Girl (1991), The Quiz Show (1994), 40 Days & 40 Nights (2002)

David Schofield (Chess Player): Alien 3 (1992)

Frank Oz (Mr. Collins & Miss Piggy)

Trailer:


Plot:

Two American college students (Jack and David) spending the summer backpacking in England. They are hiking in the countryside when they stop off at a pub/tavern called "The Slaughtered Lamb".

They ask for room and board but are turned away and warned to stay on the road. Apparently the English don't like American tourist. Considering that we saved their butts back in WWII, you would figure that they would be more appreciative towards us.

David and Jack go about their merry ways and venture off into the night. While strolling the countryside, they hear distant howling noises. Then the noises come closer and closer to them.

To make things worse, the whether turns to crap (rain, wind, thunder, etc.). Before David and Jack know it, they are attacked by some wild beast. Jack is torn open...um...apart...and David is bitten by the beast trying to help.

David wakes up weeks later in the hospital and the attack is blamed on a fictious lunatic. The police don't believe David's story about the beast attack. Cover up anyone?

David rehabs in the hospital for a while and eventually hooks up with one of the female nurses, Alex. You go boy! While rehabing at the hospital David starts to have wild nightmares when he sleeps.

Eventually he gets discharged from the hospital and shacks up with Alex at her apartment in London. Unfortunately David still has his wild nightmares. In them, Jack warns David to kill himself before the full moon happens.

Slowly the evidence buiilds up and David begins to realize that he is becoming a werewolf. Some clues include him waking up in odd places naked and then learning later on of people around the area are dying in wild animal attacks. How will it end for poor young David?

Villain:

Werewolf = legendary iconic villain. Enough said. The special effects on the transformation and look of the beast were very good for the early 80's. I mean cutting edge good.

Cast:

The cast was relatively unknown and even today never went on to have spectacular careers, but that doesn't mean that they did a poor job here. It was a good fit for the film. Nurse Alex was the chick from old 70's Sci-Fi flick "Logan's Run". She showed her frontal objects there too! So my question is...why didn't she do that in Child's Play 2?

SFX/Gore:

A.A.W.I.L. featured state of the art special effects...for back then. They were crazy good effects, especially the werewolf transformation. It inspired Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Well, I made that last part up...but it could have.

On the body count side of things, there were around 13-14 people getting to be the guest of honor for as dinner for the beast.

TNA:

One hot chick (Shark Factor) who performs a sex act and even shows off her assets. That is all courtesy of the lovely Jenny Agutter. There was also a shower scene and a porno movie playing on screen in the background. Right on!

T.Gun's Take:

An American Werewolf in London was an original piece of writing back then and it's still great now. The film's success laid the ground work for many werewolf movies to come.

To be honest, I had never seen this movie until now. I have gone 16-17 years with out even seeking it out. In my opinion, The Howling is the best werewolf movie (in my opinion), but this is a close second. It holds up well over time.

The atmosphere and music in the film was creepy and dark (when need). I loved that! Outside of the late 70's - early 80's wardrobes and hair styles, this movie didn't have any of the fake tongue and cheek cheesiness that earlier horror movies had with them.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on August 21, 1981 and made $30.56 million at the box office ($3.78 million opening weekend)
-1st film to win an Academy Award in the category for Best Make-up (1st yr. category created)
-Studio executives wanted Dan Aykroyd to play David and John Belushi as Jack
-In the end credits there is a congratulatory message for the wedding of Prince Charles & Diana

Review #56: American Werewolf in Paris (1997)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Anthony Waller (Director)

Tom Everett Scott (Andy): That Thing You Do! (1996), Dead Man on Campus (1998)

Julie Delpy (Serafine): 3 Muskateers (1993)

Vince Vieluf (Brad): Rat Race (2001), Barely Legal (2003), Firewall (2006), Epic Movie (2007)

Julie Bowen (Amy): Happy Gilmore (1996), Multiplicity (1996), Boston Legal & Lost T.V. series

Trailer:


Plot:
Three American college students are backpacking through Europe when they end up in France. They're actually "thrill seekers" out to cause problems have fun and represent the Red, White and Blue.

While in France, they bungee jump off the Eiffel Tower and one of them (Andy) saves a mysterious girl (Serafine) trying to kill herself. Andy gets puppy dog eyes for her and falls in love with her after saving her life. Serafine is kind of greatful, but she holds a dark mysterious secret to her family heritage.

Andy is desperate to make things work and find out her secret, so he does what any good American would do...stalk her until she falls for him. And it works! Andy eventually hooks up with Serafine and learns that she is a werewolf.

Serafine also belongs to a secret society "pack" of werewolves who have developed an experimental formula that allows a werewolf to change at any time...not just when the full moon appears.

Villain:

A bunch of bad puppies. Werewolves. A lot of werewolves...actually a secret society of them. So take that! It's like if the Skulls and the Howling had an evil stepchild turned into a movie.

Cast:

The cast was actually pretty good, but not spectacular for the film. I thought that I was going to be annoyed by the guys in the film after the first twenty minutes, but eventually came to tolerate them. They displayed the typical "Why Europe and the world hates America" attitude.

SFX/Gore:

There were around 15 dead bodies (give or take due to party scenes) in this one. I wasn't totally impressed with the werewolf as I was with the first movie. Overall the look wasn't bad, it just wasn't fabulous.

TNA:

A few more hot chicks than the first one...yeah! Serafine does her best to give the male audience what they want...sex and boobies. Julie D. (pictured left) and Julie B. (pictured right...she's the chick from Happy Gilmore)

T.Gun's Take:

An American Werewolf in Paris is a similar idea to the first one...American college students backpacking in Europe, one gets bitten by a werewolf...yada yada yada. They had to throw in the whole "secret society" of puppies thing with a super serum and hot girl friend "is in with league but doesn't want to be" plot to change things up a bit.

Still this movie was pretty good...for a sequel. I thought going into it, that it would suck as a sequel, but it proved me wrong. It was kind of weird having a sequel over 16 years after the first movie. I guess it took a while to find a pack of werewolves to pull it off.

A.A.W.I.P. had a couple good qualities to it. First of all, I liked the bungee jumpin' off the Eiffel Tower bit. That would be fun to do, but I doubt somehow the French police would be thrilled with it. But who cares? The French suck!

Secondly, I really loved the sniffing up the skirt of the hot chick in the cafe foreplay. That was awesome. Animal primal instincts at their best!

While A.A.W.I.P. is not exactly a copy-paste storyline of the original and not as super cool, it still is a good enough flick to sit down to and enjoy watching to kill some time.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
- Film opened December 25, 1997 and made $26.5 million at the box office ($7.6 million opening weekend)
- John Landis was the original choice to direct