Raven's Movies > Movie reviews by Raven

30 Days of Night

Posted : 3 months, 3 weeks ago on 10 August 2008 02:04 (A review of 30 Days of Night)

Well I was all prepared for something horribly crappy but instead I was pleasantly surprised. It’s not exactly a stellar story line with a stellar cast but I thoroughly enjoyed this even with the fakeness of it, the ridiculous amount of blood and the fact that the vampires seemed to have fresh blood on them at all times.
I loved the look of the vampires with their gnarly teeth and their fingernails, lovely details in my opinion. Plus the acting wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be either, another thing I wasn’t expecting.
Sure it wasn’t scary, it didn’t make me jump, cringe or shock me in anyway but for some reason I still found it entertaining, especially the ending. I think the ending was the maker or breaker for me and I wonder if a sequel is a possibility.


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D-War

Posted : 3 months, 3 weeks ago on 10 August 2008 01:54 (A review of D-War)

I think this is a classic example of why Eastern films shouldn’t be westernized even if it’s made in Asia somewhere by Asians. As an Eastern film, I would have been able to stomach it if it stayed with Eastern traditions and didn’t instead try to meld Western & Eastern culture because the whole way through it all I could think of was the idiot that came up with this idea obviously thought they were going to get a bigger market by killing a story that could have had some possibility however remote, if it had good actors, didn’t miss out on much needed detail, cleaned up it’s dialogue and didn’t gloss over what wasn’t there with big drawn out action sequences of course.
I think with something like this, there needs to be more of a back story for it to have any hope at all, even if it’s a slim chance of hope. The fact that they are considering a sequel makes me think the people who make those decisions are on drugs. Yes, that’s how stupid it was and yet I give it a 5 because 1. I watched the whole thing (amazingly) even though I was close to falling asleep and 2. I liked the dragon.
If you’re still tempted to watch it I’d suggest waiting till it was on free to air tv rather then paying for it.

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Hmmm

Posted : 4 months ago on 3 August 2008 04:13 (A review of The X-Files: I Want to Believe)

I'm in two minds over this movie. First off, I'm an X Files fan so I may be bias. From an X Files fan stand point, I don't feel it would live up to expectations. Not only was it far from what I was expecting but it wasn't X File-ish enough for me. What I had read about it is that it could have been a stand alone movie and going by that it is a possibility except for certain parts of the story that eluded to other information. The thing is, if you could watch the series and be filled in enough to have those small bits of information make sense then it would have been ok (and not a stand alone at all, which it really wasn't anyway when it comes down to it), but I don't remember anything from the tv series having anything to do with the information mentioned, at all.
Now if you're not an X Files fan but, like a lot of people know what X Files is about (or have a vague idea), which is aliens, consipracy and science fiction, you're not going to get what you're expecting at all. You might still enjoy it though and I recommend going into see it but not thinking of the X Files at all.
My feel for it was that of a crime/mystery movie that could have done well as a non X Files related movie.

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The Seeker

Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago on 9 July 2008 11:56 (A review of The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising)

As much as I enjoyed the cinematography and special effects on this movie I felt like there was something wrong. The story was good enough and the acting was fine but it was lacking. If it had of gone for a little bit longer but also had far more detail to it then I think I would have been happy but as it is the story felt like it could have been told in 20 minutes. My impression of it was that the cinematography and special effects was just being used to mask the fact that there really wasn’t much effort put into and that it was being stretched out. Basically it turned into visual candy for the senses rather then being anything remotely in depth.
Funnily enough I still found it really engrossing for what it was lacking and it was enough to make me want to read the book it was based on to see not only what they missed out on but also because I liked the story line.
Going by a child’s reaction though I don’t think this is really a winner for the young ones, granted it’s only one child’s reaction but seeing as he started to fidget half way through the movie and then left not long after I don’t think it’s possible to hide the fact of what was wrong with this movie from children by using big effects.
A shame really because it had a lot of potential

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Oh The Pain...

Posted : 5 months, 3 weeks ago on 8 June 2008 09:00 (A review of The Darjeeling Limited)

Talk about painful. This was excruciatingly boring. It may have only been an hour and a half but it felt like it dragged on and on and on for hours upon hours. I feel like I have truly wasted my morning when I could have been doing some thing else, say another form of procrastination, that wasn’t so painful I wanted to scream.
Then there is the fact that apparently this movie is meant to be humorous. Where’s the humour in it? I didn’t come across one small part that was even remotely amusing. If movies were created not for entertainment but for sleep inducement then this would be a masterpiece but alas it was a pathetic attempt at entertainment and a huge waste of my time.

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Skinwalkers review

Posted : 6 months ago on 6 June 2008 02:56 (A review of Skinwalkers)

Atrocious and yet amusing. Which is why I watched the whole thing, so I could snicker at it. I figure I should get my moneys worth.
As a concept it was workable but once made into a movie, well it just didn't work. I think that's because it was not only poorly executed but perhaps shouldn't have been made into a movie in the first place. A book, now that could have worked. Could have, but then again who knows.
The acting was pretty bad and then granny with her gun was even worse but at least it was mildly entertaining in a humorous way. Throw in the looks these people gave each other, the nurse who was flirting with a child, the fact that the werewolves kept their clothes on and intact (pfft) and they didn't really look like wolves in the first place in my opinion and that's even more reason for it to be a movie to laugh at not spend your money on.

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Won't Leave A Lasting Impression

Posted : 6 months, 1 week ago on 25 May 2008 02:37 (A review of The Last Legion)

I think this movie had a lot of potential but it fell far short of it. It really didn't do anything for me which is a shame because I was looking forward to it. A lot of the actors weren't up to scratch and I think that was more due to the fact that they weren't suited to their roles rather then being bad actors. Aishwarya Rai, for example, although I love her in every other role I've seen her in she didn't perform too well in this one. John Hannah was quite a soft actor, it was almost like he was melting into the background especially when Colin Firth was in a scene with him. I found the best out of the lot to be Colin Firth who was stronger in his role then any of the others and the kid who played Romulus (Thomas Sangster) made an impression on me also.
There were also some attempts at humour which didn't amount to anything mildly amusing, the dialogue was questionable and I'm so glad that there wasn't more of a love story then there was because then it would be one of those movies you can't help but roll your eyes at. Something it was very close to being in the first place.
I did however find the ending interesting, not good just interesting because now I wonder if they'll continue on from that with a movie about Arthur.

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Dark and Sinister

Posted : 6 months, 2 weeks ago on 18 May 2008 08:20 (A review of Next Door)

Sometimes it helps to not know what a movie is about, to not know anything about a movie and that’s what happened when I started watching this one (It was on telly). It ended up being one of those movies that really messes with your head. I was riveted so much that I lost track of the time.
You can tell something isn’t quite right especially when it comes to the neighbours. The two actresses play such convincing roles which only adds to the sinister atmosphere of the apartment.
I thought the apartment was great with all the little signs of there being something out of the ordinary going on, add to that that the rooms seem to be never ending and you could get lost in there only adds to the gloom.
Although you get an inkling throughout of how disturbing this movie could be it’s not until you get to the end that you realise just how disturbed it is.

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28 Weeks Later

Posted : 7 months, 2 weeks ago on 16 April 2008 11:31 (A review of 28 Weeks Later)

Now that was just stupid. Compared to the first one, which I loved, there just seems to be no real point to it. To me it just seemed like this movie was just an excuse to have people kill each other and blood, lots of blood. Basically it was as if they were using the story from the first movie as a pretext to create bloody chaos, in my opinion. And yet I liked it for reasons that elude me.
For most part the stupidity was with the characters. First off what the children did was stupid, then what the father did was stupid and the military well guess what? They were stupid in the first place! I couldn't help thinking through the whole thing how stupid these people were.
There was honestly no rhyme or reason to it and I don't see it ending with this one.

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Village of the Damned

Posted : 7 months, 3 weeks ago on 13 April 2008 11:38 (A review of Village of the Damned)

What could be more terrifying then a group of children devoid of emotion, who all look the same and act the same? Nothing really. It’s quite disturbing and that’s what makes this movie worth watching. It’s not that it has a riveting story line or even great character development although I think Christopher Reeve did a good job, enough so to make me stop thinking about Superman and usually I can’t stand Kirstie Alley but she didn’t grate on my nerves in this movie. I might even consider that acting on her part.
What impressed me about the movie was the children and only the children. It must be a hard task indeed getting a bunch of young ones to play such sinister little characters and I think they did a remarkable job. They had me convinced! It’s safe to say that if I ever came across a town like that with children who were such little freaks (disturbing little freaks at that) I’d start getting as far away as possible and never look back.



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