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.