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Reviews
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Among the top 5 best Zombie Movies ever made!!!
I watched this movie back to back with Original Dawn of the dead. I never watched either of them before & watched them based on IMDb reviews. After watching both of them together, Original sort of disappointed me whereas Remake was complete kick a**.
Sure, new one has its faults & goofs but in totality it is much better cinematic experience. Fast zombies are genuinely scary & movie is chilling. Many fans of old have issues with the fact that new movies totally crapped on old one's concept by making living dead run because dead will be made of stiff muscles so fast running is out of question. George Romero showed his disdain as well. I think George Romero is just jealous because his concept has been improved & made genuinely scary & not only that we actually get to have a brief idea that it might be some kind of virus (as per opening sequence) which might have mutated humans into some kind of undead nightmare & that virus passes through bites. This is unlike George Romero's vision where no explanation was given just a BS line that when there is no place in hell dead will walk the earth. WTF! Not giving explanation works in some movies like in Ringu but not in this genre. At least, we deserve a partial explanation which was given in this movie.
IMO, acting was also vastly superior & so was pretty much everything from cinematography to music to overall story to chilling thrill, horror & suspense. I also do not agree with George Romero's take that movie didn't have any soul or in depth characterization. It had much more story & characterization than George Romero's movies. Since, I am not an American, I never understood so called social commentary in his movies. What exactly is his social commentary that American people are so dumb that they can't counter a threat of slow moving zombie because they are too greedy & have petty self interests. Note to Mr. Romero, next time when you make movies, consider this .. military in any country is more than a match for any slow moving zombie/zombies & most likely threat will be neutralized before it spreads so far & add to the fact that an average American carries weapon this threat would be neutralized even faster. However, when we factor fast moving zombies with more sentient behaviour, it is altogether a different ball game. There is a chance that humanity may lose war as infection may spread overnight. And this why I like this movie. The concept is scary & ending is too as after all this trial & error, more than likely the cast would have been devoured in the end as they came to an island full of zombies.
I know there will be a lot of people who will probably disagree with me but watch it with open mind with the points I just made & I am sure you will love this movie especially if you like your horror movie to be really scary.
Totally recommended.
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Way too overrated !!!!
First off, right of the bat I would like to mention that I am not an American so I didn't follow the "supposed social commentary" of this Original Dawn of the Dead. Secondly, I watched this movie along with Dawn of the Dead remake back to back.
I am sorry to say that I do not agree with so many voters & lovers of this movie who prefer old one to new one. This old Dawn of the Dead is not even in the same ball-park in terms of acting, story, pacing, cinematography, make-up, gore, suspense, action or chilling horror when compared to the 2004 remake. Slow moving Zombies, stupid characters, bad make up & special effects. It just made me think "Are Americans so God-damn stupid that they can't even lie low & kill of these slow moving Zombies one by one?" I don't think so. An average American is much smarter than this, I am sure about it. In fact, it looks implausible that slow moving zombies like that took over & spread everywhere. If the characters are so dumb, they deserve to be devoured. By contrast its predecessor Night of the Living Dead was so much better & realistic. I guess many fans of this movie like it because they saw it first long time ago when they were children & hence a sentimental attachment. Since, I saw both original & remake back to back I had no sentiments attached & made up my mind purely on what scared me more.
Although, portrayal that if Dead actually rises they will move stiff & slow is correct (ala Rigor-mortis) but George Romero never actually gave us the reason behind why the dead rose in the first place. Sorry, I don't buy into this BS that when there is no more room in hell the dead will walk the earth. Yes, not giving the reason or explaining everything makes you keep thinking later on but come on this no Ringu. Also, the fact that slow moving mindless zombies were able to take over America just like that where you have so strong military personnel & hell even a common American carries weapon, is way too exaggerated. In contrast, new Dawn of the Dead gives a brief montage in the beginning explaining the reason to be virus plague. Now virus can effect in many ways including morphing living beings into something which resembles undead. In short, I am cool with fast moving zombies & quite honestly they are freaking scary. New one has its own faults but it is vastly superior to this one. Another nagging question to all Romero fans, they keep talking about social commentary. In this case so called consumerism. What consumerism? Is going to mall to shop & buy stuff you need & want is consumerism. What does Romero himself does? Grow his own food, weave his own clothes?? It is not social commentary, it is BS in my opinion.
My recommendation do watch it once at least but definitely watch 2004 version. I am giving it a 4 out of 10 merely because, It was made in late 70's & hence a lot of things said above like bad make-up or action sequence is mainly due to budget constraints & available technology at that time. Although in my humble opinion, after seeing so high rating new casual horror movive fans will raise expectations & will be sorely disappointed.
Haunted - 3D (2011)
Much Better than expected !!!!
Actually to be honest, this probably is the best Bollywood horror to date as I mostly find Bollywood Horror to be lacking substance or good acting or any originality. Not that this is completely original but bits & pieces added together gives it a fresh appeal. However, it has its own pros & cons:
Pros: 1. Good Characterisation & acting by lead actor. I found it fresh that the character Rehan was not exactly scared of ghosts but was open to confrontation to the point that he even challenged the ghost.
2. Time travel theme. Well what can I say .. I just love time travel fantasy.
3. Pretty good overall narrative & direction.
4. Good Background score.
5. Actually better than quite a bit of Hollywood Horror movies
Cons: 1.Charsi Baba or Fakir. His acting was really bad. Why all fakirs/person who seems to know what is going on in Bollywood horror has to act so weird is beyond me. Also, the movie is indirectly sending message that smoking is good for health as his magical puffs were actually healing the person or sending his back in time. Talk about weird. Seems to me somebody in script department was puffing the magical dragon of his own.
2. I am not exactly a fan of Exorcist type movies where there has be intervention of God to save the soul/skin. But I understand that not everybody is as daring as Japanese film makers who can make movies reeking of pure evil with an anti-climax ala Ringu or Ju-On 3.Christians might find this movie offensive while Muslims will be proud. This is because in the movies Church Priest recommended them to go to Sufi (Muslim Priest) who can get rid of these things. A church priest will rather recommend an exorcist from their own religion. Lets assume for a minute that he may have recommended someone from Muslim religion as there is none nearby, the fact that evil spirit's presence can be felt in church hallowed grounds & in front of Cross & even when cross was stabbed into Demon possessed Margaret they could just stop it temporarily. However, when demon possessed Margaret's one foot was inside Muslim Holy shrine "Dargah" it was immediately purged/exorcised/destroyed. Seems to me that the movie blatantly shows that one religion is far stronger than other where one religions saint has more power than other religion's God !!!
4. Songs ... While the songs are good but in all honesty the songs took away all the element of horror from the movie.
These are just the few points that stood out glaringly for me. I would still say that movie was overall quite good & worth a watch especially if you are not Christian as they will be offended.
Pandorum (2009)
A Masterpiece Sci-fi, Psychological thriller
I am surprised at the low ratings given to this movie at Rotten Tomatoes by these so-called critics. They like a badly made movie like Blair Witch Project & give it so high ranking (which by the way even my friends 11 year old child wasn't scared of).
Pandorum on the other hand is treat for the eyes with so much suspense, claustrophobic, tense & dark environment. With wasting the time or character introductions, it straight away dives into the story & the visuals are stunning. IMO it is much better than 95% of all sci-fi movies ever made.
If you are really into sci-fi & love the mystery, ignore the critics & senseless haters & watch the movie. This is not the art film so liberties need to be taken. If we start to think this way .. oh this can't happen or this is BS then we should also stop watching Star Trek.
[Rec]² (2009)
Pretty decent sequel ..... but could have been much better
Rec 2 is much better than Rec in terms of Cinematography. However, in totality Rec 2 is pretty much a mixed bag of hit and miss. I do not agree with some of the reviewers that Rec 2 was complete waste of time or worst movie ever. In fact, this movie is pretty good.
Strengths:
1. Picks up where it left off in Rec.
2. Tense, Dark, Nail-biting and creepy atmosphere akin to First Shooter horror games of which I am a massive fan of.
3. Some outstanding moments like use of night vision to find a room, well and finally Mederios was hair raising and brilliant. Also the scene when Larra goes into air duct to retrieve blood was truly frightening
4. And cunning plan by Demon possessed Angela to get rid of Mederios so that they can never use her blood to create anti-dote.
Neutral:
1. Unexpected supernatural, demonic twist although hint was thrown in the first movie about possession but I just thought it is perhaps that a usual gang of religious idiots got it wrong and performed experiments on a girl who has some rare mutated gene thinking that it was a demonic possession. I would have of course preferred this as I prefer science over religion but hey a lot of people loved The Exorcist even putting it as a number 1 horror movie of all time ... to me it was just OK. I don't mind supernatural but I hate it when people align it to a certain religion. To me it is blatant spreading of religion and basically undermining other religions and probably the reason for negative comments from people believing in other religions.
Weakesses:
1. Now since it is Exorcist style Demonic possession with a good measure of Rabies/28 Days Laters/ Demoni style satanic creatures thrown in and Chief seems to have an idea what he is facing would it not have been a better idea to bring more back up, more and better weapons, More Crosses, Bibles and Water Guns with holy water. (mind you I still hate this idea that a demon can be conquered so easily with just saying some prayers but hell just to go with it ... if it is possible then why not)
2. SWAT team was acting like a bunch of pansies and were clearly having issues. If a civilian was acting like that it is acceptable but not SWAT members. Even the first Casuality/Possession of Matros was unbelievable (as one doesn't fight infected victims with hands but with guns which they had) but lets say for the sake of saying that it happened as Matros underestimated the danger. After this happened and Matros was subdued, SWAT should look more vigilant and shoot to kill at the first sight.
3. If everything was supposed to be secret, then why did the chief allow for recording the whole operation in the first place.
4. If some teenagers can come up with the idea of using sewer to get into the building then how come fire-fighters in the first movie never thought of that (even if building own residents didn't). They are usually aware of these things.
5. Speaking of which ... assuming in first movie Fire-fighters and Building residents didn't think about escaping through sewer .. But ... this information .. that a building has a sewer hole is in their heads .. Is the demon so stupid that he can't read this information in their heads and get the hell out of this building and spread out?? They were certainly everywhere else like in Airducts.
Even with above mentioned many plot-holes, I am giving it a generous seven as overall experience was good and given a choice, I will like to watch it again and I am waiting for the upcoming sequels.
WALL·E (2008)
Best Animated movie ever made!
All I can say is that this movie is a work of art and it tells the story of power of love. This movie has everything and is a perfect family entertainer.
The way Disney-Pixar showcased Wall-E and Eve's personality, one can't help falling in love with the characters. They are just too cute (even the minor ones like Walle-E's pet Cockroach).
I personally believe that this movie is the best cartoon ever made by Disney-Pixar or anybody else for that matter. It definitely deserves to win Oscar. If it doesn't it will be sheer travesty (and a possible corruption, sabotage. Watch this with whole family and enjoy the marvel whose name is Wall-E!