WTF: Scary or Die

Welcome to the second installment of What the Friday, showcasing some of the craziest films the horror genre has to offer. This Friday’s offering is 2012’s, Scary or Die. In retrospect, given the choice, I’ll take die.

 

Scary or Die(2012)

Genre: Horror
Country: US
Director: Bob Badway, Michael Emanuel, Igor Meglic
Stars: Domiziano Arcangeli, Corbin Bleu, Shannon Bobo

Well, this was just terrible. And not in that, “This will be fun to sit around and rip apart with friends” kind of terrible, but a huge monkey fling of a poop terrible. Yet another anthology film in the vein of V/H/S and The ABCs of Death, Scary or Die showcases five short stories that they forgot to make scary, and appear to have the production value of $12.50 and a gift card to Applebee’s. The shorts are linked together by a woman viewing each of them on a website called Scary or Die.

24 Hour Party People

24 Hour Party People (2002)

Genre: Comedy
Country: UK
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Stars: Steve Coogan, Lennie James, John Thomson

Growing up in the 80’s I developed an eclectic taste in music. But more often than not my teen angst and youthfully rebellious ear tended to bend more toward bands like Depeche Mode, Concrete Blonde, The Cure, Sex Pistols, and New Order. So I was delighted to not only discover a movie that chronicled the boom of the Manchester Music scene, but that the film itself would be just as enjoyable as the musical maestros it portrays.

WTF: Trailer Park of Terror

I love a good horror film. I also find joy in really bad horror films. Therefore I present to you a new segment called WTF (What The Friday), where each Friday I will showcase a particularly horror-ble film. Most of these offerings will be of the so-bad-it’s-good variety, but some will be just plain terrible, in which case I will have suffered the 90 minutes for you and your cinematic sanity can stay intact (look at me taking one for the team).

May I present to you 2008’s Trailer Park of Terror. A high production value wasn’t enough to save this film full of gaping plot holes and goofy, clichéd characters. However, the rampage of ridiculousness and several crazy kills was just enough to make this a gleeful guilty pleasure.

Let the Right One In: This Should Apply to Your Choice in Movies as Well

Let the Right One In (2008)

Genre: Horror
Country: Sweden
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Stars: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar

Based on a novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist (who also adapted the screenplay), Let the Right One In is not your typical vampire tale. First of all, nobody in this film “sparkles”, so that’s already a step in the right direction. At its very core, this film is a love story between two individuals desperate to be accepted for who they are.

‘THE LAST OF US’ Should be a Movie

My editor, Rick Cook Jr. posted an article this morning that immediately caught fire and caused a bit of controversy within the gaming community. Since the post’s subject matter is also related to film, I’ve chosen to reblog the article.

In response to the announcement that Naughty Dog’s hugely successful video game, The Last of Us will be adapted to the silver screen, Rick’s article, titled ‘THE LAST OF US’ Should be a Movie, presents his opinion of how the plot from one of the most successful and beloved games of all time could possibly benefit from an expansion of the game’s narrative.

As part of a community that encourages and applauds personal opinion, I felt The Critical Cinephile would be a great way to share Rick’s thoughts with a different audience. Be sure to visit Rick’s site, Panning For Clouds and let him know what you think.

Panning For Clouds

This essay is posted in Opinion.

Disclaimers!

1. There will be Spoilers for The Last of Us video game, you have been warned.
2. The entirety of the opinion about The Last of Us being served well as a movie is dependent on it being an adaptation of the content of the game. Since no word has yet (as of 3-12-2014) been confirmed about just what the movie would be based upon, the opinion could be rendered null and just an interesting thought experiment if they choose to tell a new, unique story in the universe of the game instead of an adaptation of the game’s content.
Edit 2014-03-13: Neil Druckmann confirmed through IGN that it will be an adaptation of the story in the game, but still no specific details.
3. Some of the concepts discussed in this essay are written about at greater length in my Opinion on…

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The Legend Of Drunken Master: Jackie Chan Will Crawl Across Hot Coals Just To Entertain You

The Legend of Drunken Master (1994)

Genre: Action | Comedy
Country: Hong Kong
Director: Chia-Liang Liu/Jackie Chan
Stars: Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Lung Ti

Before corporate Hollywood shanghaied Jackie Chan’s career and ruined it [The Tuxedo, really?], he was known as the undisputed master at combining action and comedy. This hard-hitting, combination knock-out style of entertainment is never more effective than in The Legend of Drunken Master (originally released in Hong Kong under the title Drunken Master II).

Can Oscar Spot a Classic?

With this year’s Academy Awards now firmly planted in the annals of cinematic history, I felt it was appropriate to take a look at Oscar’s past. With 2014 being one of the closest races in the award’s questionable and sometimes subjective history, everyone seemed to have their own opinion on who should go home with the coveted, tiny golden man.

In the days leading up to this year’s Oscars, I read numerous opinions of fellow film fanatic’s predictions of sure-fire winners. Of course not all of them were in agreement (which is why we call them opinions) and several cinephiles mentioned films they felt got the Oscar snub. And this started me thinking. Not necessarily about whether or not Oscar always gets it right, that’s a debate for another time. But is a film that gets the Best Picture nod destined to become a beloved classic?