It’s Showtime: FilmCrave Innovatively Adds Movie Trailers

FilmCrave.com, a Kansas City based movie social network, showed yet again that they hear their members by providing them with thousands of new movie titles and movie trailers. Unlike other social networks where member suggestions fall on deaf ears, the crew of FilmCrave wanted to make sure their members were happy.

"We had a few requests for movies that weren’t in our database, so we decided to take it a step further and have more than doubled our database." Said Alex Olson, one of the founders of FilmCrave.com.

Along with the doubling of their movie database, FilmCrave.com innovatively added movie trailers. The way in which the trailers are presented should enable users to participate on the site and watch trailers at the same time, proving usability is a priority. There are no pop ups and nothing to download, allowing for seamless integration with FilmCrave. "Usability has been a huge focus of FilmCrave from the beginning," replied Nick Barry, co-founder and lead programmer, when asked about the new features. "We consistently see other sites sprout up and fail. Most of the time it is because they don’t listen to their members."

The usability Nick refers to doesn’t just stop at movie trailers. It is shown throughout the website design, allowing new members to utilize full features of the site right away. Members can write and read movie reviews, share movie lists, chat with friends and participate on the website in countless other ways. In addition, FilmCrave spouts intuitive technology: incorporating their instant movie search, drag and drop movie lists, and advanced features that don’t require the page to refresh.

Much of the site’s direction has been chosen based on feedback provided by members. Member feedback has been gathered by communicating directly to members, conducting surveys that ask them for suggestions, and measuring satisfaction. Josh Collins, the third co-founder that currently makes up the FilmCrave trifecta, touts that, "by finding out exactly what our member’s want, we can avoid the pitfalls many of our competitors have fallen to."

FilmCrave realizes that in order to compete in the social networking arena, they have to go beyond just movie data. They have to innovate the way it is shown and how users interact with it. Other competitors struggle keeping members happy. FilmCrave’s founders attribute this to poor design and features that are hard to use.

Boys and Girls Guide to getting Down (3/4 stars)

A riot. The idea was clearly taken right from the "Hitchhiker's Guide." If you want a movie with a real plot this is not your film. However, if you want a movie with funny narration, interesting graphics and an almost documentary feel this is for you. The movie was broken up into several "guides" starting with how to get into clubs and eventually covering topics like "Sketchy drugs vs. Fun drugs" and "Greasing the Bartender's wheels".

I learned quite a bit about how to store cocaine, how to detect a coke whore, what to do to avoid the awkward morning after a hookup and how to get into a club. I think the movie is better if you can relate some of the things they go over, so if you are a homebody and have never been around that crowd you may find it hard to enjoy. But I could be wrong.

I give this movie 3 out of 4 coke lines off a nipple.

More movie reviews like this one at Filmcrave.com

Michael Clayton (3/4 stars) - Very dull but still a good film

Michael Clayton is a good is so many ways but it is just too dull to keep my attention. The acting is great, the directing is good and the story is interesting. But for all of these things there just wasn't enough going on to keep things moving. What was only a two hour movie felt more like 3. I think you really have to be in the mood to watch a movie like this and unfortunately I am not in that mindset too often. I think this is a solid movie rental but I wouldn't bother with it in the theatre because of this.

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Halloween 2007 (2.5/4 stars) - Too much of a good thing kills the movie

Very high expectations led me to be disappointed in this movie. Rob Zombie’s directing is proving to be mediocre with the same old formula of raw camera work, over-the-top dialog and gore that tries too hard to be shocking. Some of his movies this works, but with this one it hurt the mystique of the original movie.

Part of the reason the original Halloween was so good was because it took place in an ordinary town, with ordinary people and a seeming ordinary boy (Michael Myers) killed his family. But in Rob Zombie’s Halloween, Michael Myers family comprises of a stripper mother, a violent, drunk, cripple step dad, a teenage whore of a sister and Michael who tortures small animals. The town is also made up of degenerate white trash kids, which make it hard to relate to any of the characters. The dialog was part of the reason I found myself disconnected from movie, it was so exaggerated it came off as phony.

There were some good scenes relating to Michael Meyers and his history that I enjoyed, but half the movie was this back story and then the movie seemed to try to play catch up. Most of the killings were done pretty well and followed a typical hacker/slasher formula. I wish that there was a little bit more suspense with the killings. Occasionally, it would have been nice to show all the action and leave a little to your imagination. But that is defiantly something Rob Zombie is not known for.

Overall, it wasn’t good but it wasn’t bad. It also depends what type of horror you like. I like the eerie, suspenseful type of horror rather than the gore fests. If you love gore than this movie may appeal to you more.

see more Halloween movie reviews on FilmCrave.com

3:10 to Yuma (3.5/4 stars)

Not being a huge fan of westerns didn't keep me from thoroughly enjoying this movie. I thought the acting was great, the story was good (I never saw the 50's version so it was new for me), and the action sequences were awesome. The characters reminded me a lot of Tomestone's characters. They were bad-ass and you weren't sure which ones you liked best.

The plot consists of Dan (Christian Bale) an ordinary rancher who was down on his luck rising up to the challenge of bringing the most notorious criminal to justice. The plot was simple enough and I am a sucker for movies where the criminal's character goes into a deeper part of the human character. Kind of like Hannibal Lecter falling in love with Clarice Starling (or at least falling into fascination) these two unlikely characters shared a respect that carried them through the story.

Check this one out, you won't be sorry.

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Ball of Fury (1/4) This movie sucked some big balls

LAME! It was about 5 minutes in when I realized I haven't laughed yet. The movie kept that pace throughout, occasionally throwing us a funny bone but in the end I can count the time I laughed hard -- twice! That is not very good. To make matters worse, I didn't expect much with this movie. I heard it was bad so I thought that maybe it was like Zoolander or Beerfest (so bad they are great).

Speaking of Beerfest, this movie is exactly like that except for the aspect of it not being funny. It tried to hard to do the unexpected but in the end was completely predictable. Dan Fogler probably has no future in acting after this role, which is great for the rest of us who never have to see his fat ass again.

This is also the first time I saw the audience gladly leave during the credits when they were doing additional scenes. Most of the theatre left and didn't look back once to see if it was funny. Save your money, go and see Superbad again or rent Grandma's Boy.

Check out my new movie reviews at filmcrave.com

Stardust (3/4 stars)

Stardust was a joy to watch, it was funny, well acted, and the special effects were fantastic. The only reason I didn't rate this movie higher was because it was pretty cheesy at times. Even though it was cheesy it didn't take away from much during the film that was good. Most of the cheese revolved around romance between the "star" Yvaine (Claire Danes) and Tristen (Charlie Cox). It was a predictable fairy-tale and as you watched it you knew how it was going to end so you couldn't get too wrapped up in their setbacks along the way.

Still, it was a fun adventure and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. The ghosts of the princes were amusing throughout and De Niro's flamboyant character "Captain Shakespeare" was hilarious at times. Who doesn't like a cross-dressing pirate?

Michelle Pfeiffer also showed that she still has it, she was both hot and evil at the same time. Not bad for a 50-year-old. Check this one out. It is bound to become one of the great date movies.

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Superbad (3.5/4 stars)

This is one of the funniest, awkward teen movies ever. The dialog was really dry and witty, though there was some physical comedy to mix it up. Most of the humor was toilet humor, which is exactly the way I like it. How many balls and vagina jokes can you hear before you get sick of them? I am not sure it is possible.

I am glad this movie was rated "R" because they could keep it in the gutter the whole time instead of trying to play for the younger crowd. But most of all I am glad that there is another male that is obsessed with drawing penises ever chance they can. What a relief!

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Sunshine (2/4 stars) Too much Blah, not enough Yeah!

Sunshine is the Sci-fi, action, adventure, horror, drama that I never wanted. Simply put this movie tried to wear too many hats, and the end result wasn't all that sunny.

The movie is broken into 3 distinct parts:

The first part was mainly character development and back story. The dialog was a bit forced and some scenes just seemed a little unnecessary since you would have figured it out by watching it. The major problem I have with this first part is the length, it was over half the movie. There was nice part to the start though, the computer that was running the ship, appropriately named "Icubus", had the hottest voice. At first I thought one of the main characters was having futuristic phone sex, but no... it was just the ship.

The next part was the horror. Yes, you read that correctly, horror. It was very reminiscent of Event Horizon. For the most part this was pretty effective and intense, so the movie was getting better!

Then the last part hit with about 20 minutes left. This part was a too chaotic. You have the horror still lingering, the tension at the end is building, but now all of a sudden it is mostly an action/sci-fi film where a bomb must be detonated by hand. Sound a little familiar? That is because it is. I am sick of movies where one person must sacrifice themselves to save the world.

I give this movie 2 out of 4 stars. One for each time I wanted the star to die and get the movie over with.

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Good, the Bad and the Ugly (3.5/4 stars)

Good story, Bad ass gunslingers and an Ugly war

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. I am usually not a big Western fan, but this movie had a lot of great things going for it. The story wasn't just a about 3 professional gunmen, it was about friendship, loyalty and war. The civil war aspect of the movie kept things very interesting and you never knew what was going to happen. Even though we had three gunslingers that all seemed a little super-human, they kept getting into situations that they couldn't control.

Another part I loved about this movie was the film score. It really helped control the mood and tempo of the movie. Many movies do this, but not too many of them do it this effectively.

As for acting and characters I couldn't help but think that Tuca's character who was played by Eli Wallach was way ahead of its time. There are tons of movies nowadays that utilize a comical sidekick that keeps the audience entertained when there is no action to be had. But 40 years ago I don't know of too many movies that used this formula. Tuca was comical, believable, a little bad-ass, annoying and often dim-witted but you couldn't help but like him. Angel-Eyes and Blondie, Lee Van Cleef & Clint Eastwood, were just bad-ass all around.

The only reason I gave this movie 3.5 stars instead of 4 was because of the slow speed of the movie. Certain scenes were just dragged out, sometimes this was effective, but other times it lulled me to sleep. If the movie was trimmed down a tad it would be even better.


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The Simpsons Movie (3.5/4 stars)

Let it be known that I was not at all disappointed with the Simpson movie. It was funny throughout but best of all Matt Groening didn't sell out like George Lucas did with Star Wars. Instead, Matt Groening made it for the audience that loved it in the first place, most of whom are adults now. Sure, the younger crowd will enjoy it, but clearly it was made with the idea of making the references more adult and saying things they cannot on Fox.

Not selling out, that really sums up this movie. They could have tried to get it down to a PG rating to make more money but instead stayed true. Even there music was memorable, probably because the great Danny Elfman composed it. I could not think of a better way to end a series than with a movie that ties everything together and leaves nothing left unsaid... including Maggie who at the end of the credits says her first (and last) word!

check out this review and other reviews of mine at Filmcrave.com

Filmcrave.com is finally open for business

After almost a year and over 1000 hours Filmcrave.com is finally up and running. We are currently beta testing the website but users are welcome to come and sign up, rate movies and write reviews.

My profile name on the site is "Josh C" so make sure you look me up if you join!

Stupid Fox News Again!

I think this is great, a Pew Research of news watchers have determined that Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Cobert Report" are among the most informed group about news and politics.

The best part is, avid watchers of Fox News are the dumbest pertaining to this knowledge. Check out the study here:

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/16/daily-show-fox-knowledge/

I just think it is great that Fox news continues to skew their news and only show what they deem as important so that when the real issues about the war and economy come up they don't have a clue. Here's an idea: "Look at news for both sides of the story and learn to think for yourself!"

Transformers (3/4 stars)

Let me explain why I gave this only 3 stars. The movie was a lot of fun to watch, the special effects were amazing, it was funny but even with all that I felt annoyed at times during the movie. Some scenes were just too drawn out and halted the movie and even though most of them were funny I wanted it to get back to the story. With that said, I think those scenes ruin this movie's re-watchability.

It is so long and some scenes are just not important enough to warrant rewatching, so get your dvd players ready to fast forward past those parts even though the rest of it was great. Shia LaBeouf was also somewhat annoying but Megan Fox was so hot it didn't matter.

Check out Filmcrave.com it is a great new movie site, they will be ready for new members on August 1st!

Satan's Little Helper (2/4 stars)

This movie had the most annoying character ever but I still couldn’t turn away which is the making of a great drinking movie. There were some really funny scenes, mainly the ones where they mowed down a pregnant woman, a baby and a blind man with a shopping cart. Pair that with bad acting and an utterly predictable plot and you will find yourself at the pinnacle of a decent ‘B’ movie.

One thing is for sure, you will not find too many like it, so take a look but be prepared to be annoyed by the little chubby kid with glasses who is also know as Satan’s Little Helper.

FilmCrave.com coming August 1st!

Spiderman 3 (2/4 stars)

Too cliché and laughably bad plot. This movie must have been written by a ten-year-old! Within the first 15 minutes (keep in mind this movie was long) you knew everything that was going to unfold. Not only did this predictability hurt the movie but because it dragged on and on so slowly it made it almost unwatchable at times.

To make matters worse there was every cliché movie scene imaginable: from the comical spider man getting fed cookies from the girl next door to the overly insightful advice his aunt gives him. There were too many forced comical scenes which took the movie down a huge notch and made it hard to take any of it seriously. This was especially true when they took 30 seconds during a key battle to cut to Peter’s boss bargaining with a little girl for a camera. It was even worse that their was a whole sequence involving song and dance.

Still, the movie had great action and special effects, which helped, overcome some of its shortcomings. I wasn’t enough to make it good, but it was watchable. The acting was so-so, not nearly the best I have seen from Tobey Maguire.

The question I asked myself at the end of this movie was, “Is this really Spiderman 3?” It just seems like they could have made a good movie but chose to sell out to appeal more to kids and everyone else that wants a laugh.

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Punishing Iraq

Throughout the was in Iraq one must have to wonder whether what we are doing is helping or punishing the Iraqi people. Recently a BBC article approached the topic of the mandatory curfews that were in place and how it makes thing even more difficult for the residents of certain city's to live their day to day lives.

In one city, Samarra, the 300k residents have had a curfew for only two weeks because of a bomb that killed 12 police officers. In this two week time frame hospitals are already reporting 3 infant deaths and 2 elderly deaths because they do not have the fuel to keep the incubators and other medical devices going. This is completely absurd! Terrorists kill 12 people so we step in and cause 5 more deaths because we are afraid they may kill more people. Things like this are happening everyday and who is it that is being punished, the Iraqi people not the terrorists.

You can't lock down a country for years and expect things to get better. The human spirit can and will be broken and the same people that you set out to help will snap and join the other side. Stop the war before more of them despise us.

Search engines are frauds

Search engines are supposed to give their users the best matching results, right? Wrong! Most search engines nowadays give results only to the highest bidder. This makes starting a new website and getting traffic very difficult. This was never more apparent to me than right now.

I manage a site that was in the top 10 of yahoo for 5 of its keywords which we thought was great. We recently decided to stop advertising with Yahoo marketing and just let the search results take care of it. The week after this happened we were no longer in the top 10, top 100 or even top 1000 for those search words. We have now vanished from Yahoo’s radar as if we never existed. All this for not paying money to advertise with them.

Other search engines, such as Ask.com and Fetch.com use the advertised links from other search engines as part of their actual results. So you may end up clicking on an advertised link instead of real results without even knowing it. Google does a pretty good job keeping things fairly even except for the fact they put too much emphasis on website’s ages. So you may never get into the top 10 with a new site even if your content matches the search the best because of websites that have been around for 5 or even 10 years. This proposes a problem for users and web designers alike.

It is clear that a new system of search engines is needed.

King Kong - 2006 (3/4 stars)

I really liked this film but am hesitant to watch it again but the first hour was so slow. Adrien Brody kept this movie going once they hit the island and although I liked Jack Black his character still reminded me to much of his comedies and that wasn’t what this movie was about. Still the special effects were great and it was nice to see most of the old scenes done in the new movie. This was especially true with the battling of the dinosaur, even though Peter Jackson had Kong fight numerous ones to make it more action packed.

Another benefit of the special effects was that Kong was able to have more of a personality mostly due to having pronounced facial expressions. This really helped drive the “beauty and the beast” drama home and made me feel for him more.

It has been almost two-years since I have seen this movie and so many scenes have stuck with me which is what makes a movie great. Still, I also remembered being bored off my ass for almost and hour at the start of the movie. Watch it for yourself and decide.

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Rules of Attraction (4/4 stars)

This is a classic tale of college students and how their lives intertwine with one another. James Van Der Beek is great in his role of playing an "Emotional Vampire" or simply put an asshole. He isn't inherently an ass, he just can't seem to figure things out for himself so he gives up and feeds on other's feelings to figure out how he should act. He thinks he has fallen in love, but it is not with the right girl and becomes more of a infatuation.
The other characters: the rich prick, the slut, the openly gay, the closet gay, the drug dealers and the posers all have a great part in showing the college experience. They each have something in common: none of them know what is really going on but they all think they know everything.

Aside from a great plot and good acting, the movie has a very memorable soundtrack. The soundtrack is very important to this film because it ties in so closely with the directing. So closely that when the movie is going back in time the music is playing backwards with it. Roger Avary who hasn't directed much shows his tallents with a very unique style of camera work. He breaks the typical mold and uses odd camera angles, split screens and a host of other interesting but effective techniques to bring the audience closer to the characters.

Simply a great film, and I hope that Roger Avary has more movies to direct soon.

Check out other Rules of Attraction Reviews.

Swingers is both funny and wise (3.5/4 stars)

Swingers is the great transformation of two friends, Trent who has always been the “Cool” guy and Mike who is the looser. Mike, John Favreau, is feeling desperate and pitiful after breaking up with his girlfriend of six year. Six months has passed and he is still obsessing over her and Trent, Vince Vaughn, is trying to get him to have fun being single by taking him to Vegas and picking up cute “honeys”.

As the movie goes on their transformation becomes apparent: Trent may be cool on the surface but he is really the looser and Mike is the cool one. This transformation or realization is subtle that it is easy to miss if you haven’t been in either of their situations before. Unfortunately, most people have been in Mike’s situation before and it is easy to relate to him even if he is the extreme. I related to his lack of confidence and sense of vulnerability after a break up and having friends try to pick up the pieces and have fun. The aspect of Mike’s friends giving him advice all along while the whole time he just needed to do it for himself so he could be who he really is, is what makes this movie so true to life.

The dialog and chemistry between Mike and Trent is unique and funny. Their friends characters, all of which are aspiring actors as well, keep things interesting. They all believe in friendship but are all so into themselves that their advice is not something they follow themselves. In the end you find out their advice is bad and is why they are really the same as Mike the whole time; they just hide it better. At the end Mike is the one is realizes this is starting to become happy while Trent has realized this the whole time which is why he was always telling Mike “You are so money and you don’t even know it.”


Filmcrave.com is almost ready! Another month or two should do the trick.

Cannibal Holocaust doesn’t make the grade 1.5/4 stars

This is one of the most controversial films to date. It is banned in 31 countries due to the graphic nature or the film and animal cruelty. This is why I felt the need to see it for myself.

Cannibal Holocaust is a politically charged gore fest. It is shocking and disturbing because of the excess of scenes that could have been cut without hurting the plot. Some of these scenes such as the killing and dismantling of a turtle could have been cut or shot with a fake turtle and been just as effective. It is scenes like this, which are designed to shock the audience and make them wonder “Is Director Ruggero Deodato making a movie about himself?” This is the irony of the film. It makes political statements about who are really the savages of today’s world, the primitive people or the modern day man. When in reality the makers of this film turn out to be the savages.

The idea of the movie is probably the best part, the story goes back and forth between the NYU Professor and the film that he found of the four filmmakers who were killed. It is this back and forth that is both interesting and kept me wondering what was next. The movie slowly reached it climax, which in itself wasn’t any more shocking than other parts of the film but wrapped up the film nicely. The soundtrack was terrible and sometimes abrasive with annoying synthesizers.

Don’t watch this film unless you have an open mind and a strong stomach. PETA lovers will probably love the beheading of a monkey though!

Filmcrave.com is coming soon (May 2007)

300 The Movie, 3/4 stars

An action inspired battle movie meets comic book madness. This is what 300 is all about! Bloody battle after bloody battle the special effects and directing are both beautiful and awe inspiring at times. Occasionally the blood spatters and giant foes go over the top but for the most part it is very well done and welcome.

My only real complaints with the movie is that it was a bit predictable, the narrator hurt the momentum and there was no emotions in this film. With this said, the acting was decent and Gerard Butler, King Leonidas, was very commanding and played the role of a fearless king very well. The narration helped explain the background of the film but would come at times where the battles just finished and the tension should be building. The tension probably would have been increased more if the audience was meant to care for any of the characters. Since the characters were mostly emotionless and nameless there was no hoping that they would live or die. The result is that the audience never feels tension and instead is left with just the pure amusement of the battle and the creative directing.

Like I said before, 300 is a mix of a action inspired battle movie with the creativity of a comic book. If you like how that sounds check it out, if not stay away.

More movie reviews at Filmcrave.com coming in Mid 2007.

Fox News does it again

There is always bias in news to what extreme is what bothers me. We all know that Fox is the equivalent of conservative talk radio and CNN is the the liberal version. With that said doesn’t that mean that they at least display the same stories with their own biased twist? Wrong! Fox news today is proudly displaying their distaste for Sarah Silverman and her recent comedy central skit where she has a one night stand with a black god.

The story appeared in my google top 3 news stories by Fox news. After doing a quick search for other news stories I find that after 3 hours only 3 news organizations have picked up the story. This frustrates me not because no one else is picking it up, it frustrating because Fox is clearly trying to make news out of things that are not news. A quick view at their homepage reveals stories like “Gay ‘Orientation’ for freshman angers parents”, “Chicken-eating cow makes farmer famous” and “Man burns genitals in ‘Jackass’ Stunt”. CNN was not the only one to put non-priority on their homepage but had “Granny puts cannabis in eggs, cocoa, soups” and “6th graders caught having sex in shop class”.

The CNN homepage was at least focused enough to only have a couple non-news stories on their homepage, while Fox had many more than what was listed, mostly relating to entertainment such as American Idol.

Fox news looks closer to a personal blog mixed with Reuters “Strange Enough” section than news. I am getting sick of the bias in news, on both sides, but especially sickened by Fox’s disregard of stories and sometimes facts.

High Tension 3 stars for a odd French Horror

This movie was as advertised, full of tense heart pumping thrills. It was utterly aggravating to watch and I wanted to reach out and shake Marie for being so dumb but in the end it pulled together to surprise me. Good suspenseful flick.

More movie reviews at Filmcrave.com coming in Mid 2007.

The Night Listener 2/4 stars

A frustrating movie that was mostly predictable but Toni Collette's character was 100% creepy and made the movie decent. The ending was abrupt, never reaching a climax and utterly disappointing. The director really missed it on this one.

More movie reviews at Filmcrave.com coming in Mid 2007.

Children of Men 3/4 stars

This movie was simply done well. Clive Owens character's misery and self pity was very believable until the end. The dialog could have been a bit better in this film, there were certain times where I found myself thinking that the only reason they were talking was to fill the audience in on what had happened in the past. I feel that this was not terrible and answered some of my questions but they could have done it a bit more sly.

One of the best parts of this film was the apocalyptic plot and war style action. This style of action was where the director excelled at and really brought the movie from just alright to really good. Michael Caine's character, Jasper, was a pot smoking, hippy scholar. He helped alleviate some of the dramatic scenes with some humor that didn't seem forced at all.

In the end I really enjoyed the idea behind the plot, it reminded me of an ultra-realistic version of Aeon Flux. Good enough to check out in the theater and defiantly worth a look in the movie store.

Film Crave is coming mid 2007 Filmcrave.com Movie Reviews and Top Movie Lists

On PETA, gay sheep and ignorance

I want to like the people of PETA, but they make it so damned hard. Don't get me wrong I care about animals as much as the next guy, but I enjoy my steak as well. But where I really loose PETA is when their members threaten to kill people over what they deem is bad and ignorant. In a recent NY Times article about scientists trying to discover why 8% of male sheep (rams) are gay they received over 20k letters from PETA containing quotes like these:

“you are a worthless animal killer and you should be shot,” “I hope you burn in hell” and “please, die.”

How ignorant do you have to spend all this time and energy to spare the lives of a few fuzzy mammals when there are so many other problems that deserve their attention. I know they want to stand up for the things that can't do it themselves that is why I have a list of issues that I feel are infinitely more important and deserve their help. It is only human to help other humans (though they may not realize this).

1. AIDS in Africa: Of the 2.4 mil that dies in 2002 over half of them were in Africa
2.Stopping the Iraq war: Less people have died in Iraq than in Vietnam, but about the same % of troops deployed and it is not winnable (war is never winnable)
3. Choose one: rebuilding after Katrina, genocide in Rwanda, gun violence in the US, world hunger, pollution/global warming (no animals we destroy their environment)

Any of these issues affects more people and sometimes even animals than some test sheep. Let the scientists do their jobs and help all of us with cures and research. They are the ones that are trying to help the whole by hurting the few which is the only logical way of doing it. Gains are not made by making everyone happy. Just know that for every 10 dollars you donate to PETA to save a rabbit or organize a protest you look like a heartless inhuman asshole because you could have given that 10 dollars to save a human life. But saving a small child in a 3rd world country is someone else's job, right?

Apocalypto 2.5/4 stars

First off, this movie is beautiful to watch and for the most part, Mel Gibson does a great job with the film. For me, the movie misses on a few huge aspects and we are left with a movie that should have been great but ends up being humorous at times. It is a story about the Aztec civilization and there quest to appease the gods with human sacrifice. They seek out the natives in the forest to enslave and kill them. This is the first part of the movie where Mel starts messing up. The Aztec’s behead their slaves, but this beheading is not only humorous, watching the heads bounce down the stairs, but it ruins the drama and brings the tension back to square one. So while the tension of the prophesy coming true is beginning, the audience is laughing at the head with the body following it down the stairs. The next problem I have with this film is due to the predictability and improbability of the second half of the film. Most of the battles and deaths you could see coming from a mile away and though the big chase through the forest was interesting and intense at times it was over the top. For instance, the main character, Jaguar Paw, receives an arrow wound to the stomach and somehow manages to run for over 12 hours without stopping. I realize he is the prophecy but this is a little extreme and the events that follow the chase are a bit too much like Rambo. I am being a bit more harsh about this movie than others of its type because it had the making to be a classic, to be like Last of the Mohicans, but it will end up being just another decent movie that tried to wow the audience with blood and comic one liners. Check this movie out, but wait for video. check out http://www.filmcrave.com (coming mid 2007)

An American Haunting 1/4 stars

Since most of the movie was utterly disappointing, I will start with the only positive aspect, Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek. Both of these actors played their part well and if it weren't for such a terrible story and generic scare tactics, they may have been able to save the movie. Alas, like many of the PG-13 horror films of today not even good acting can make up for a shady plot, bad directing and terrible editing. The film is based on the poltergeist story involving a family in rural Tennessee in the early 1800's. The story is filled with the garbled and incoherent dreams of seemingly possessed Betsy Bell, played by Rachel Hurd-Wood. In a movie built around a ghost story it was disappointing to see cheap scare tactics instead of making the movie all around eerie. I am not sure what director Courtney Solomon was thinking when he chose to film the movie with a style similar to a low budget "hack 'em slash 'em" film from the 80's, but clearly there are better ways of scaring an audience. While the filming style could have used some work, the editing and special effects were a disaster. It mostly resembled a bad soap opera. It jumps around between dreams and reality faster than Ricky Williams' in a Marijuana haze. A movie like this doesn't need a whole lot of special effects but the few that it had were terrible and even ruined the scenes. The poltergeist was nothing more than Betsy with a slight hue around her.

The only scary thing about this film was how many 13-year-old girls turned up to the theater to watch this on opening night. As a fan of horror films I understand if you want to judge this for yourself, but listen to my words wisely; don't bother. Check out http://www.filmcrave.com(coming mid 2007)