Red Dragon

This movie was awesome. This 2002 thriller is interesting because it is a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, but it is also a remake of the movie Manhunter. It is an amazing film, but not for the light of heart. Like The Silence of the Lambs, some people consider this movie thriller/horror. The Silence of the Lambs has more horror elements to it than Red Dragon in my opinion, but I felt Red Dragon was much more suspenseful. For the rest of the review, I will refer to Red Dragon as Dragon, and I will refer to The Silence of the Lambs as Silence.

            This film stars Edward Norton as the main protagonist, Will Graham, an ex F.B.I. agent. After catching Dr. Hannibal Lecter who is again played by Anthony Hopkins, Will retires from the F.B.I. and works as a boat repairmen. A few years later he is contacted by another man in the F.B.I. named Jack Crawford played by Harvey Keitel. Jack tells Will that there is a new killer nicknamed the Tooth Fairy and that they need Will back for this one assignment. The rest of the film concentrates on Will and Jack trying to find the Tooth Fairy, and on the actual killer and his blind girlfriend.

            Now onto things I really liked about this film. First off, the acting was phenomenal. With three huge stars in major role`s, excellence was expected, and it was given. Ralph Fiennes played the Tooth Fairy, and he was spectacular as well. Fiennes is a big actor, but not nearly as well known as the other three leads. Norton`s character was reluctant to go back to the dangerous life style of working for the F.B.I.. I stated earlier that I think this film was extremely suspenseful. There were moments where I was in a state of panic from the suspense. There is a scene where Lecter tells the Tooth Fairy where Will`s family lives, and then we see their house and we don`t know if the Tooth Fairy is there or not. Everything was great about this movie; I especially liked how the ending led right into the beginning of Silence of the Lambs, literally. All in all, this movie was great, one of the bests I`ve seen in a while.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

This is a song review, so it is going to be shorter than other reviews and I won`t do nearly as many of these as film reviews.

This is my first time trying to review a song, so stick with me here. My current favorite band is probably Irish band U2. The song I am going to be talking about today is from their third album, War. Today`s song is Sunday Bloody Sunday.

The song starts out with a loud almost militaristic drum beat. The guitar then comes in with quite a nice little riff, just breaking apart three chords. The lyrics then come in, starting out with the line “I can`t believe the news today, I can`t close my eyes and make it go away.” Soon the song starts the main progression. It has the same marching style drum beat with a loud, almost angry guitar chord progression going from B minor to D, then to G. This progression is done with power chords as opposed to open chords which gives it a thicker, more distorted sound.
The lyrics are very good, in my opinion, with lines like “The trench is dug within our hearts, and mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart.” There is a small guitar solo, which is well done and not over the top like some music from the 1980`s.

The song is named after and about the event Bloody Sunday, which happened in 1972 in Derry, Ireland. British soldiers shot down Irish civilians protesting. During these protests, the protestors were attacking the soldiers with gasoline bombs and any blunt object they could find. It was an awful thing for the soldiers to do, and it was a huge event that is known about all over the world. The words of the song are good at depicting a war zone, with tragedy all around, but the song is loud and angry. It is an amazing rock song and one of my favorite songs right now.

Now, these song reviews are going to be much shorter than my film and novel reviews, but I will try to make them helpful and interesting.

Night of the Demons (2009)

This film was released in 2009 and is a remake of a 1988 film. I have not seen the original film, but it was well received and it had two sequels, and this remake. Now, this is a horror remake and these films usually get pretty bad reviews, and this film is no exception. I`ve read reviews saying that this is not nearly as good as the original. But because I haven`t seen the original, I can`t compare so I`m going to review this as its own entity.

This film tells the story of Maddi, Lily, and Suzanne are getting prepared to go to a Halloween party held by Angela at a mansion. The mansion is famous because years ago many people were brutally killed there, the only survivor being the maid who had locked herself in a room and writing spells all over the walls. Maddi`s ex boyfriend Colin shows up at the party selling heroin because his boss is demanding more money. Eventually the police arrive and shut the party down, but Angela, Maddie, Lily, Suzanne, Colin, Dex (Lily`s ex boyfriend), and Jason stay behind. They find a room in the basement with skeletons and Angela is bitten by one. Angela becomes sick and soon becomes a demon, she seduces other people soon enough they become demons one by one.

Apparently the reason why the demons possess everyone in the house is because they were kicked out of hell, and to get into our world they need to posses seven people on Halloween night. The fact that they were kicked out of hell might tell you what they are like, they are pretty evil demons.

Again, I haven`t seen the original so I can`t compare these two films, but I liked this movie. I barely knew anything about this going into it but on a whim I decided to watch it and it was a pretty fun horror film. It was quite gory, quite violent, and also quite sexual. One of the ways the demons can posses someone is through sex. I don`t know if that was part of the original but it was kind of interesting in this. This film sort of had a loud, punk, abrasive feeling to it, it worked quite well and made the film fun to watch. It was a pretty good film, with some small flaws, but not much to complain about. Check It out if you`re into this kind of film.

Let the Right One In

This is a very famous Swedish film, released in 2008 and based off of a 2004 novel with the same name: Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in).

Let the Right One In is a romantic horror film, a very interesting mix of genres. Before I really start the review let me just say one thing: Twilight has nothing on this story.
Directed by Tomas Alfredson in 2008, this immeditialy was celebrated by critics and average veiwers. It was remade into an American version in 2010, though the name changed to simply Let Me In. It was directed by Matt Reeves and starred Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Grace Moretz, who is probably my favorite up and coming actresses. She has starred in films such as Kick Ass, and Hugo. She is very young, she was born in 1997 making her 15 years old.

For this section of my review, I`m only to give away the very basic plot.
A 12 year old boy named Oskar is living in a suburb of Stockholme, and he is being badly bullied at school. A girl who claims to be his age, named Eli, moves in next door to him with an older man. We soon find out that she is a vampire and the older man is getting blood for her, but Oskar is not aware of this. Eli and Oskar meet and see each other often, but only at night. They start becoming friendly and eventually they fall in love, but it is a very strange love.

This film has a very interesting premise, its a romantic horror film involving a love story between a bullied boy and vampire. Now this films` two main characters were children, and cery rarely do you see children who can act well. These kids can act. They were 11-12 during filming this film and they were very good, the girl especially. She was played by Lina Leandersson and Oskar was played by Kare Hedebrant, who has done one film since this.
Oskar`s character was quite awkward at times, he was badly bullied and eventually he fought back after Eli gave him some advice to hit back harder. The vampires in Twilight sparkle, Eli jumps on them and rips into their throats and drinks their blood, Eli is a true vampire. We also see what happens when a vampire comes into a place of dwelling without being asked, and its quite gruesome. Once you get past the horror, and there is some and its done quite well, the romantic side of this story is very good. Its unconventional to say the least, and at times quite racy becasue it is dealing with children and at times it portrays some very racy scenes, but the fact that they are children is what makes it racy. You see Eli go from being quite secluded when it comes to Oskar to her actually liking him very much and open about it. You also see Oskar open up a bit with Eli, at the start he was very quiet and secluded but he becomes more friendly and loving towards her. In a very fun and violent climax Eli saves Oskar from some bullies and they catch a train together.
I would recommend watching this without the English dub over it because it is not quite accurate and it is distracting, watch the Swedish version with English subtitles.

This film was actually quite beautiful. To the average veiwer it might seem a bit slow, but if you stick with it, it won`t dissapoint. A very good film. Maybe I should learn Swedish.

Låt den rätte komma in

Bram Stokers Dracula

This film was released in 1992, and it is one of many, many Dracula films. It was directed by acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola, who also made The Godfather trilogy, and Apocalypse Now. This version of the famous tale has Gary Oldman starring as Dracula. It also has Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Sadie Frost, and even has Tom Waits in a small role. Those actors mixed with Francis Ford Coppola directing, you know it’s going to be good.

This film follows the original story quite closely. Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to sell an estate in London to Count Dracula, a very old, strange, and secretive man. Jonathan has a girlfriend back in London, Mina, who is living with her best friend Lucy. Jonathan soon realizes that he is being held prisoner by Dracula, and three demonic women who suck his blood to keep him week. Dracula leaves Jonathan with the three women as he goes to London and becomes young again on the voyage. He bites Lucy and she becomes sick and slowly becomes a vampire. Eventually Jonathan escapes from the castle and comes back to London. They chase Dracula back to Transylvania and eventually kill him.

I tried to keep that simple, because there is a lot more to it, and I didn`t want to give it away. I absolutely loved this film, and I`m loving it more as time goes on. Gary Oldman plays Dracula so well; he really portrays the romantic, seductive side of the character really well. Coppola did that very well as well, he made the entire film very sexual and seductive again. He got rid of the cheesy Dracula and brought back the seductive, terrifying vampire we used to know. Gary Oldman also made the most amazing evil laugh ever recorded. Seriously, here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCEf5XAgh1M
It`s pretty damn good. This was also the first film I`ve seen with Winona Ryder, at least the first film since I`ve starting taking them seriously. She was really good, she was surprisingly good. She played a modest, young Victorian woman who eventually gives into her lustful desires for Dracula. Keanu Reeves was quite good as well, although I would have liked to have seen more of him, especially when he was held prisoner by the demonic women in the castle. Anthony Hopkins did a great job as Professor Van Helsing, he was eccentric, and at times he was quite funny. The entire cast was excellent. I only had one problem with the cast. The person I was looking forward to the most was Tom Waits, and while he was quite good, his character was pointless. There was no need for his character. He plays the man who went to Dracula before Jonathan and he is now in an Insane Asylum, calling for his master and eventually he is killed by Dracula. Coppola did an excellent job rejuvenating this classic tale.
This film was very sexual, but I think it should be. Vampire`s in nature are very sexual creatures, and this film made you see this side of them. There was quite a lot of nudity, but not to the point that it felt contrived, but because of the nature of the film, it could get away with quite a lot of nudity.

A very good film, while it was a horror film, it wasn`t extremely scary but it gave you some chills, like when you would see Dracula`s shadow do something different than Dracula was doing. Not for everyone, it is a horror and there are a lot of people who don`t like horror. There is nudity, and it is quite long, it’s just over two hours. But if you can sit through it, it is very good. Another thing I really liked was the introduction; it explained what happened to cause Dracula to do the things he does. Very good film, another one under the belt of Francis Ford Coppola.

To Kill a Mockingbird

As I watched this film, I was full of different emotions. Sometimes, a smile just spread across my face and I couldn`t stop it. Other times, my shoulders slumped with the more depressing notes of the film. To Kill a Mockingbird is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made; it is an adaption of one of the greatest books ever made. Surprisingly, it did not win Best Picture in 1962, it lost out to Lawrence of Arabia. Gregory Peck, who plays lawyer Atticus Finch, won Best Actor for this role. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning three. From what I`ve just said, you know this is a great film.

This story starts out with the Finch family. Atticus: the father, Scout: the daughter, and Jem: the son. It is told from Scout`s perspective, she is very young and about to start school for the first time. She is very smart, she has been reading with her father for a long time.
They live in small, simple town in the south. Atticus is a very smart, well spoken lawyer. He is approached by the town judge and is asked to defend a black man Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white woman. Atticus takes the case but is criticized by the town people. During this entire time, we are told about “Boo” Radley. A man who none of the children have seen, because he is in his house all day, held there by his father. But apparently at night he walks the streets, watching people in their beds. The trial comes up and after Atticus not only proves Tom innocent, but also gives sufficient proof that she was beaten by her father, a very racist alcoholic. Atticus and Tom lose the case, and I will talk about this later. Tom tries to escape from jail, but is shot down. Near the end, Jem and Scout are walking home at night and are attacked by a man later identified as Bob Ewell, the father of the woman Tom was accused of raping. “Boo” shows up and saves them and kills Bob.

This film obviously deals with racism. Racism is a topic I feel very strongly about. I`ve looked at racism and I have found no reason for it. This film was excellent, but at times very tragic. One of the most tragic scenes in when Tom is found guilty after being proven innocent by Atticus. It just shows the idiocy and arrogant thinking of the town’s people. At other times it was very touching. One scene shows the town`s people storming the jail to try to kill Tom, but Atticus is guarding him. Scout shows up and says “Hello” one man. She has no clue what is going on, her childishness and naivety is what saves Tom and possibly Atticus.

If you haven`t seen this film, you need to. This is a film everyone needs to see at least once in their life. Gregory Peck was absolutely brilliant, he played a father figure perfectly, and he captured the image of a well spoken lawyer perfectly. Another performance that was very well done was the character of “Boo” Radley, who`s actual name is Arthur Radley. He was played by Robert Duvall. This was near the start of his career and he soon became one of the greatest actors living. His character has no lines whatsoever but he leaves such a huge impact, that it sends shivers down your spine. There were some scene`s that were terrifyingly suspenseful.
An amazing film, please, watch this film. Amazing.

Straw Dogs

Straw Dogs is a film I`ve been looking for, for a very long time. After a few months of looking I finally found it, and watched it right away. I was really excited about this film, and it stood up to me.

This film was released in 1971, and it was directed by Sam Peckinpah. It stars Dustin Hoffman in one of his earlier role`s. It also stars Susan George, playing Dustin Hoffman`s wife.
The film is about David and Amy Summer. They move into a nice house in England in a small village, far into the country side. We notice right away that David is slightly shy and almost cowardly, whereas Amy is wild and provocative. Their new house is not quite ready in parts, so there are villagers helping to build the roof on part of the house. The people building the house keep looking at Amy very sexually. It is also brought up that she never wears a bra, and that might be a reason they keep staring at her, according to David. Eventually, David finds their cat hanging in the closet, dead. He then goes hunting with the builders, but they trick him into staying there, while two of them sneak back to the house and rape Amy. David never finds out about the rape. On the way back from a church social, David and Amy hit Niles with their car. Niles has a reputation with the village as someone who keeps getting in trouble with girls, and he is clearly not mentally well. David takes him into the house, despite Amy`s pleads not to. The rest of the men come to their house with guns, demanding to have Niles. David refuses and the villagers start breaking the windows. The whole climax is David keeping them out, while leaving his cowardice behind and becoming brave and strong.

This film was released in 1971, along with A Clockwork Orange, Dirty Harry, and The French Connection. These films caused a huge controversy in 1971, because of their increasingly violent content. Yes, this was a violent film, and I have no problem with violence in films, and if you do, I think you should relax and not take things so seriously. This film was also very controversial because of a rape scene that is considered very brutal. I did not get why this was such a big deal, because it is not brutal. It is rape, so it is very bad, but thinking of what it was hyped up to be, it was nothing. In a way, this entire film is sexual by nature, or at least sex plays a huge part in how people behave in this film. I guess I didn`t find it all that shocking because of the generation difference, again, it was released 1971.

All in all, a very good film. Definitely not for everyone, but if you can sit through the violence, it’s very good. Dustin Hoffman`s performance is excellent. This film was remade in 2011, but it did not get very good reviews, except from Roger Ebert who said that it was better than the original, but I don`t agree.