1408 Movie Review and Analysis Starring Samuel L Jackson and John Cusack

1408 is a movie adaptation of one of the short stories from Stephen King’s book ‘Everything’s Eventual’. It is one of my favourite stories from the book, along with the brilliantly chilling ‘The Road Virus Heads North’ (The one with the painting, anyone else read that?) so I was really looking forward to see how it played out on the big screen.

Let me first start by saying, John Cusack was great in this movie. Many of his scenes (In fact nearly all of them come to think of it) were acted out on his own, in a hotel room with no-one else around and yet he manages to keep you entertained and almost as freaked out as his character is through out the majority of the story! It takes a great actor to be able to do this without losing the viewers interest and I think Cusack pulled this off incredibly well.

The plotline is simple, John Cusack plays Mike Enslin, a writer who investigates supposedly haunted hotels around the world and then writes about them for books and newspapers. Enslin is a troubled guy, we realise this pretty early on; his daughter died when she was very young and he and his wife are separated and not on great speaking terms.

When Mike hears of a room numbered 1408 at ‘The Dolphin Hotel’ he cannot resist checking it out for himself in hope of finally finding real paranormal phenomena. The manager’s apparent reluctance to have him do so only adds to his intrigue and when the two meet up Mike is warned of the room’s deadly past. Samuel L Jackson plays Gerald Olin the hotel manger who does everything in his power to warn him of the deaths that have previously happened there but the investigator in Mike refuses to back down, he’s convinced that the manager’s stories are simply the same old scares he is used to being fobbed off with by previous hotel owners he has encountered, desperate for the extra trade that a good ghostly review can do for their business.

Mike eventually checks into the room and is almost immediately thrown into the terror and turmoil that lurks behind its doors. What I loved about this movie, and I’m sure some of you will agree is that it did a fantastic job of building the tension and then running with it. Some of the early scenes in the hotel room had my heart racing and I love that fact that although it had a few of those classic ‘jump from your seat’ scares the majority of them were psychological, creepy and down right freaky stuff!

The early tension and brilliant scares were somewhat spoiled for me however when things began to get a little loopy. Bleeding walls, the scene in which John Cusack gets a teensy bit cold and resorts to making a camp fire in the middle of the hotel room for warmth, stuff like that! They were fun to watch, don’t get me wrong, and the effects were great but I did feel that the sense of creepiness had disappeared leaving me feeling a little let down. It does recover well from this though with some pretty cool twists and turns that keep you guessing until the end. I thought it was a shame that we didn’t see more of Sam Jackson’s character as he was great to watch, but I guess with the plotline being the way it is that would have been hard.

The whole film had a very strong essence of ‘The Shining’ about it and whilst it didn’t quite manage to live up to such a classic it was refreshing to see a horror movie that really tries to get into the heads of the viewers and provides psychological scares as well as the obvious jumpy moments. After watching the movie it really got me thinking as to how scary hotel rooms actually are. You never know who has slept there before you, if they were sick, dying, mentally ill - OK I’m stretching here but you catch my drift,lol.

1408 is a refreshingly different kind of horror movie to the ones we have recently seen come out of Hollywood, I’d recommend it to fans of John Cusack and Stephen King or anyone who likes supernatural, psychological horror movies.

I hear they are also set to make a movie adaptation of another Stephen King book; Cell. That should be interesting and I can’t wait to see what they do with it.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on 1408 and Stephen King movies here!

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Eastern Promises (2007) Movie Review Analysis and Commentary

It’s taken director David Cronenberg a long time to gain respect for some odd reason. The marketing people on his new film ‘Eastern Promises’ are able to call him an “acclaimed director” right there at the top of the movie poster, and this sudden acclaim is long past due in my opinion. This is the guy that, from film to film, is able to unnerve and provoke both cerebrally and viscerally. Usually he deals with the same tones and subtexts, and ‘Eastern Promises’ is similar to his past works in that respect. That ‘Promises’ is no less uncompromising than his past works should make most Cronenberg fans happy. Read more

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This Week’s Best and Worst Britney Spear’s Gossip

Sick as we all are of hearing about Britney, you cant help but read the stuff that’s getting printed all over the media. I used to have sympathy for her when this whole saga began but now truly believe she is acting selfishly and needs to regain control of her life for the sake of her kids. She seems to revel in the media attention she is gaining and after her absolutely awful comeback attempt at the MTV awards recently I’m beginning to doubt if she can ever truly have a successful career again.  I hope she does, as she was great when she was at the prime of her career but I can’t see it happening any time soon unless she checks herself in somewhere pretty quick.

Here’s what Brit’s been up to recently in her week from hell for those who haven’t been paying attention!

Britney’s ex bodyguard Tony Barretto went on the Today show and discussed her drug use that he had witnessed first hand. He also told several national newspapers that he feared that Britney was ‘Out of control and needs help’. Matters got even worse when Britney was charged with hit and run and the press later went on to report that she doesn’t actually even have a valid driving licence for California, how true that is I have no idea!

Upon returning to LA from Atlanta she popped into a sandwich shop and used the bathroom, this resulted in some rather unflattering shots of her entering the room, I think the press seriously have competitions running on who can get the worst snap of her cos there are so many god damn awful ones lately most of which feature a close up on her badly fitted hair extensions, my god you would think with all her money she could afford to get some decent ones?

I have also recently seen pics of her and the two children out and about and I find it really disturbing how in every single picture I’ve seen they are either crying, shouting or looking sad. I know kids will be kids and they aren’t little bundles of joy all the time but you would think that there would be one shot out there with one of them looking happy to be with their mom.

We can but wait to see what her next move is I guess! More info next week…

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Surf’s Up DVD Review Starring Shia LaBeouf and Jon Heder

I have a 4 year old daughter, and as a result I end up being forced to watch the latest animated movies and kid’s films. Well, at least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

The latest movie I went to watch with my little girl was Surf’s Up which features the vocal talents of Shia LaBeouf Jon Heder Jeff Bridges and Zooey Deschanel to name but a few. I wasn’t expecting much from the film if I’m completely honest. It hasn’t done too well in the critics reviews and is constantly being compared to Happy Feet for obvious reasons. However, after sitting down and watching it in it’s entirety I must say I thought it was bloody brilliant! (Ahem, for a kids film anyway) there are some really funny scenes and the star studded cast ensemble make this movie well worth watching. It also has two of my favourite actors in it; Shia LaBeouf (Cody Maverick) and Jon Heder (Chicken Joe) so maybe I’m a little biased *shrugs*

The story is very simple; we are lead to believe that Penguins are actually responsible for inventing surfing and invited to take a behind the scenes look into their ‘world surfing championship’. During this time we meet Cody Maverick a wannabe surfer who aims to one day be as good as his hero Big Z (voiced by Jeff Bridges). Along the way Cody meets various penguin friends and a fantastic recurring character called ‘Chicken Joe’ who steals some of the movies funniest scenes and in some strange way actually resembles Jon Heder, it’s quite spooky, don’t you think?

I think the vocals were casted perfectly in Surf’s Up, as I watched the film I found myself getting so engrossed that I actually began to forget that I was watching a kid’s movie about surfing penguins and really got into the action and storyline, so much so that at one point when my child asked me to take her to the bathroom I was genuinely upset. If that’s not a sign that I need to get out more I don’t know what is!

For anyone with kids Surf’s Up is a brilliant movie that in my opinion wipes the floor with happy feet and it’s other competitors. If you have recently watched it yourself I’d be interested to know what you thought of the film and how you thought it ranked against similar movies of its genre.

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The Haunting (1963) Movie Review Analysis and Commentary

I still remember one of the scariest moments in my life pretty vividly. I was 12 or 13 years old, and my family was visiting some people who owned a lake house. Being the only boy in a family of women, I was more interested in investigating the lake behind the house than going shopping at the local mall on one particular day, and so I was left to my own devices. I found myself digging in a trunk that contained all sorts of submersible toys and finally hit the jackpot when I found a plexiglass underwater face mask; the kind that covers not only one’s eyes, but one’s nose as well in an airtight configuration. I jumped off the dock and swam far out into the lake, affixed the mask to my head, dove under, and opened my eyes. I saw the most terrifying thing in the world: nothing. It was too murky under there to even see my own hand in front of my face. My imagination began to light up and fire on all cylinders. Anything could’ve been floating, swimming, or moving right in front of my eyes and I wouldn’t be able to see it. It could’ve been a half-rotted corpse, or a giant, dark eyeball belonging to a huge sea-creature thought to be extinct for millions of years, or simply a huge mouth fit with thousands of rows of razor-sharp teeth coming at me at at a speed previously unknown to man. It could’ve been all those things and more. I swam back to the dock as fast as I could and have since never been too crazy about lakes.

There’s a lesson to be learned here, I think, and it pertains directly to horror movies. Too many horror movies fail to scare because they try to show the audience something scary instead of simply letting the audience fill in the blanks. Well, that hardly works, and that’s one of the reasons I don’t get scared by movies much anymore. And that’s just a darn shame, because I love to get scared. Especially by movies.

The fear of the unknown is a lost art in the cinema. Hitchcock always seemed to know that what was right around the corner, but out of sight to the viewing audience, was much scarier than a full-on shot of a thug with a gun or a psycho with a knife. But in this day in age where movies like ‘Saw’ and ‘Hostel’ attempt to scare audiences with a shot of a drill going into someone’s forehead, I just feel they got it all wrong. While a bloody and gory moment may be gross and impressive, it is by no means scary. It’s simply not working up the audience’s imaginations – and those imaginations can conjure up images and ideas eight million times scarier than any filmmaker can put up on the screen, I promise you that.

But a few filmmakers have succeeded where many others have failed. In between winning Best Picture and Best Director Oscars for ‘West Side Story’ (1961) and ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965), director Robert Wise (1914-2005) made the scariest haunted house movie of all time in ‘The Haunting’ (1963) - a strange thing, indeed, to be wedged between two beloved blockbuster musicals. Wise wasn’t new to challenging the norms and conventions of genre films. He was the editor of ‘Citizen Kane’, then followed up Jacques Tourneur’s excellent horror flick ‘The Cat People’ (1942) with his own directorial debut ‘Curse of the Cat People’ (1944), and eventually directed one of the best damned science fiction movies of all time, to boot, in 1951’s ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ (“Klaatu barada nikto” anyone?).

But his 1963 ‘The Haunting’ is arguably his best work. One can easily see how amazing the movie is when compared to the God-awful 1999 version starring Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones (what were they thinking?) and directed by cinematic ass-clown Jan de Bont (I guess after ‘Speed’ and ‘Twister’ some studio genius felt this former-d.p. was qualified to direct a haunted house movie. That studio genius was dead wrong). The 1999 atrocity was everything a good horror movie should not be, especially a good horror movie based on such excellent source material – Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel ‘The Haunting of Hill House’. The new movie threw away the whole thesis of the novel and original 1963 film – that the supernatural phenomena could very well all be in one of the protagonist’s mind (something that makes Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ much better than its own source material). The 1999 ‘Haunting’ substituted this interesting device with a huge budget featuring computer generated ghosties that, while they may look kind of cool, just plain aren’t scary.

The 1963 version is scary. Robert Wise, while knowing how to create amazing song and dance numbers, edit Orson Welles movies, and make great sci-fi, also seems to know what scares people. People are scared of the unknown, plain and simple. And 1963’s ‘The Haunting’ exploits that to maximum effect.

The story has become total cliche by now. It revolves around a scientist and his assistants investigating a house that everyone claims to be haunted. That’s pretty much the story laid bare, and isn’t really any different than an episode of Sci-Fi’s excellent series ‘Ghost Hunters’. Anyone can take that story (as many have) and screw it up and magically transform it into a piece of crap (Jan de Bont, I’m talking to you).

However, Wise uses atmosphere, mood, shadows, sound design, editing, and amazing black and white photography to create something akin to a great symphony for horror movie fanatics. One scene in particular will have you on the edge of your seat and the entire ‘special effect’ utilized for the scares is probably some stagehand banging on a wall. It’s old school, to be sure, but it’s scarier than the computer-enhanced new school that people of today willingly embrace. Wise doesn’t show the audience a damn thing and rightfully so, as he knows that not seeing whatever it is that is making those sounds is 90 percent of the scare. The other 10 percent is the sound. It’s what is hiding behind the door that is so damn scary. Most modern horror movies make the huge mistake of revealing the monster (or ghost or killer or what-have-you) way too early or at all and, thus, taking the scare out of it. It’s as if most modern filmmakers assume the audience has no imagination.

I first saw the movie when I was younger on Showtime late at night in a terrible pan and scan version. It had a tremendous effect on me, and would ruin all the so-called scary haunted house movies that I would see down the road. Since then, AMC ended up airing it in its original cinemascope aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it looks glorious. All the shots finally looked properly composed and, now that I could see what the director and cinematographer originally intended for me to see, the movie was scarier than ever.

A couple of years ago Warner Bros. finally released the DVD of the film in its original aspect ratio and with an interesting commentary to boot. If you want to get scared silly, then find the DVD, turn off all the lights, and watch the movie without interruption. It’s the best of its kind, and it shouldn’t be missed. It’s almost scarier than jumping into the middle of a murky lake with goggles on. Almost.

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Shoot ‘Em Up (2007) Movie Review Analysis and Commentary

Mid-way through ‘Shoot ’Em Up’ I suddenly realized I hadn’t the faintest idea of what the hell was going on. I didn’t even care. Now, that isn’t really the worst thing in the world, because while I wasn’t thinking about characters or plot, I was thinking: Clive Owen looks really cool, and when is the next crazy chase/gun battle/fight scene going to be, and - God help me - is Monica Bellucci going to get naked? Read more

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Halloween 2007 by Rob Zombie Review Analysis and Commentary

I was a little reluctant to watch this movie. Halloween is one of my all time favourite horror films, and Michael Myers is without doubt one of the scariest horror movie villains ever created. After watching the film I have to confess, I didn’t completely hate it but my biggest complaint is that Rob Zombie has somehow managed to turn Michael Myers from a terrifying knife wielding monster into an incredibly UN Scary version of his former self. Michael Myers feels more human than ever before and I’m not sure that’s a good thing! Read more

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Britney Spears Lame Comeback Appearance at the MTV Awards

Britney Spears performance at this years MTV music video awards will undoubtedly be the talk of the town today, but maybe not quite for the reasons she had initially been hoping.

The VMA’s were supposed to be Brit’s big comeback, the performance that catapulted her back into the limelight for her singing rather than her personal life. We were promised she would wow us, that she had great new material and that Britney was totally ready for this show. Hmmm…

In reality what we were actually treated to was a bedraggled looking Britney Spears in some kind of awful black sparkly lingerie set with black high heeled boots. I THINK it was supposed to look ‘Sexy’ but I’m not quite sure. Her hair looked greasy and unwashed and she showed zero emotion or stage presence and appeared to be putting no effort into her dance moves which just ended up looking like a sluggish uncoordinated mess. Seriously, check out the video below and tell me if those moves were the efforts of a star who was desperate to impress the public and fans who have been supporting her or of someone who looked like they would just rather be sat at home watching the show on TV?

Perez Hilton has posted an open letter to Britney Spears on his website which you can read HERE However be warned it does contain rather a lot of bad language and Perez definitely doesn’t hold back on what he thinks!
I know that Britney was offended by Sarah Silverman’s harsh comments about her children, calling them “the most adorable mistakes you’ll ever see.” And yes, I can definitely see why she would have been annoyed about this, I also think the comment was completely out of line, there was no need at all for Britney’s kids to be turned into a cheap gag to get a laugh but Britney should have taken this on as extra motivation and thought “You know what, I’m going to go out there and show people I CAN still wow a crowd” instead she took the easy way out and decided to just amble onto the stage and give a half assed performance that just wasn’t up to scratch.

I feel sorry for Britney, she obviously still has issues that she needs to work through and maybe she should just wait until things settle down in her personal life before attempting a comeback. The songs are good but if she doesn’t give the performances her all then I really don’t see the point of her continuing. Let’s hope she does better next time!

Did you catch the performance? What did you think? Let us know by hitting reply.

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The Plot Thickens as Madeleine McCann Mystery Continues

An unbiased look at the events surrounding the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

In the UK the only thing on the front page of our newspapers recently has been the story revolving around the tragic disappearance of 4 year old Madeleine McCann 127 Days ago. The beautiful little girl with the unmistakable teardrop shaped flaw in her retina (See pic below) is still missing and needs to be found.

The tot disappeared from an apartment in Portugal whilst the family were holidaying there and since then Kate and Gerry McCann have gone through what can only be described as every parent’s worst nightmare. The nation has been swept up in a wave of support for the family, each one of us desperate for Maddie to be found safe and well. Posters have been plastered in shops, towns, business and websites in hope that someone somewhere will give the police some kind of clue to work from.

Whilst undoubtedly everyone feels the pain that this family is going through there has also been a wave of controversy sweeping the case, first beginning when it was revealed that the children had been left unsupervised in their room.

Here is a quote from a recent article in ‘The Sun Newspaper’ that explains it much better than I can. I will also leave full links back to The Sun at the bottom of this article for people to view the full article details for themselves.

“Kate and Gerry left her (Maddie) and their twins Sean and Amelie, two, asleep in the apartment at the Mark Warner Ocean Club complex in the resort of Praia da Luz, on the Algarve.The couple went and sat 50 yards away to dine with friends at a restaurant within the site. They chose not to use the free babysitter service available because they did not want to leave their youngsters alone with a stranger. Instead, each adult in the party of nine would check the children every ten to 15 minutes. Critically, the patio doors were left open so they could get in and out of the apartment with ease.” Source - Online Reporter for http://www.thesun.co.uk

Now as a parent, I cannot help but think it was an irresponsible thing to do, I know the room was extremely close to where the adults were dining but I still could never have risked it. I don’t know about any of you?

Regardless of what we may think, I suppose it is not really our place to judge, this couple have been to hell and back recently and they certainly don’t need people condemning them for something I’m sure they have now realised wasn’t the best of decisions.

Something that does bug me about the whole case though is how did the rest of the children not hear anything? Surely if someone had come into the room and ‘taken’ Maddie she would have made a noise, or whoever it was would have made a noise? This has lead people to think that maybe she knew her abductor. If in fact this is actually even what happened. We are of course still none the wiser.

In a twist of events recently Maddie’s parents have been questioned, I know a lot of people had their doubts about the sincerity of the McCanns from the beginning, most people I have spoken to have commented on Kate’s “Lack of emotion” during the case and how she seemed to be handling things better than any of them would have imagined themselves coping. Again, how would we ever know unless (God forbid) it happened to us? We all react to stress and devastation in different ways, maybe until Maddie is found she feels she has to be strong for the sake of her other children? Who knows?… None of us.

There are a few elements of the McCanns story which don’t make sense though, I’m going to link you to an article (again from TheSun.co.uk) which shows the list of questions asked to Kate McCann whilst she was held for questioning:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2005320001-2007411055,00.html

After reading the article above what did you think to the questions? I must admit, some of those do make me stop and think for a second, whilst I would never outright point the finger at anyone I can definately see why there are some issues that need to be cleared up.

I think that regardless of what any of us THINK happened we should try to remember the things that we do know for sure. Madeleine McCann is a 4 year old child who is missing and needs to be found.

Obviously police have to explore all angles of the case and if that includes questioning the parents then so be it, let’s just remember this doesn’t automatically make them guilty.

If I’m completely honest, I do find myself wondering if we will ever know what truly happened to Maddie but like everyone else I am hoping beyond hope that somehow she will be found alive.

If you want to read more about Maddie’s disappearance here are a few direct links. The official find Madeleine site is the first link on the list. Remember, if anyone has any details that can help, the numbers to call are there as well as pictures to print off and display. The more awareness the case receives the more chance there is that Maddie will be recognised.

http://www.bringmadeleinehome.com/
http://madeleine.ceopupload.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://www.thesun.co.uk

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Hell’s Kitchen UK – The Drama Begins After Just Day 1 !

Celebrity Contestants:
Adele Silva - Emmerdale Actress.
Abigail Clancy - Lingerie and Catwalk Model. Dating Footballer Peter Crouch.
Rosie Boycott - Former Newspaper Editor
Anneka Rice - TV Presenter famous for ‘Challenge Anneka’
Kelly LeBrock - Model and Actress
Lee Ryan - Ex Boyband Singer ‘Blue’
Barry McGuigan - Former world boxing champ
Jim Davidson - Stand up Comedian and Presenter
Paul Young - 80’s Pop Star
Brian Dowling - Won Big Brother 2001 UK

One of my favourite shows is back on TV in the UK and its first episode aired last night on ITV. Although at first I was a bit disappointed to hear that Gordon Ramsay wasn’t fronting the show anymore I soon changed my mind when I heard that the new chef was none other than Marco Pierre White. AKA: The man who made Gordon Ramsay cry like a baby. Read more

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