Film Review - Paranormal Activity

Sitting in a dark room with total strangers just waiting to be scared is a total rush. This movie was made for a measly $11k and has already surpassed that by 7x's in it's two weeks in theaters. It had premiered at Slamdance's 2007 film festival and has been waiting for the right moment to be released. Oren Peli directed, wrote, edited and produced the movie, but with such a small budget we don't see him in the movie. The fact that there wasn't any credits to the movie at all was surprising. I waited through to the blue ratings notice at the very end and there was nothing.

The reaction was amazing at the payoff. There wasn't anyone that left the theaters from where I was sitting. The people I talked to outside afterwards said that their first two times seeing it people walked out in the last 5 minutes. There was a great deal of nervous laughter in the audience when things would happen. I felt that this was what Blair Witch should have been back in 1999. There wasn't as much shaky camera movement as Micah Sloat put the camera on a tripod for most shots. His fiancee Katie Featherston was the "subject" of the movie.

Go check this movie out, but "don't see it alone"

Film Review - Whip it

So, there wasn't a wait in line forWhip It like I thought there would have been only a week after it came out. I got to the theater about 15 minutes early and I was the only one sitting to see what I think was the most heart-warming story I've seen this year, so far. Not ever having played roller-derby, I could still relate to the message in this movie about defying the "normal" way of life. Just like Ellen Page's character, I am paving my own path with the career I've chosen to study. This movie isn't like your typical boy-meets-girl romantic girlie movie. This was about standing up for what you believe in, or what you want to do with your own life instead of letting people choose for you. I nearly cried when character Marcia Gay Harden's character read the note from her daughter.

This was a perfect directorial debut for Drew Barrymore, who also played a character in it who happened to be on the ground more than skating in the movie. She has a knack for being a more physical comedian than people give her credit for. It was also good to see the likes of Daniel Stern, and Juliette Lewis who played Dad and one of the rival skaters respectively. There were so many awesome real life derby girls that were in it as well.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, what are you waiting for? Go see it... And remember, you CAN do anything if you put your mind to it!

Film Review - Jennifer's Body

After getting to the theater already playing the trailers before the movie, I had to deal with the only other group of people talking over the intro of Jennifer's Body. This is the latest by writer Diablo Cody who has such a way with her dialogue that I can understand it, even though I can't necessarily relate to it. There are subjects like girl problems and high school social issues that Megan Fox's character and Amanda Seyfried dealt with that I could relate to on some level being a guy, I felt sympathy for both.

Ultimately in the end I enjoyed the movie for it's story and some of the scenes, but mostly the dialogue. It seems like such a fresh take on how the "youth of today" speaks that it's very believable. Wonderfully directed by Karyn Kusama who has only three movie under her belt, but we should take note for future projects.