A Nightmare on Elm Street - Review

Though this reboot of the series and a near remake of the original film has some things going for it, A NIGHTMARE ELM STREET is just tepid and misdirected in its execution. Freddy, played by Jackie Earl Haley instead of a returning Robert Englund, is a believable menace, but the words and thoughts coming out of the character are simply a menace of bad script writing.

The film starts off with a teenager commiting suicide in front of a friend after having two disturbing dreams. Instead of hinting that Freddy is killing him and not show too much, director Samuel Bayer and the writers just show him like it didn't matter. Five minutes in, and Freddy Krueger has been introduced with no suspense. Sure, Krueger is an icon of the modern horror genre, but this is a reintroduction, thus a new great entrance for a new generation.

Once this prelude is done, the remaining teenagers then try to figure out what's going on and what has been happening to all of them. It all leads to a major discovery about their past that they somehow forgot to know about. Seriously, there is no logical reason for them to forgot about their past. The film may try to fool myself thinking it was due to it being traumatic but again the writers and director don't elaborate on it.

This discovery also has a major revamping of the Freddy Krueger character that left this major fan of him to be appalled. I like both versions of Freddy: the pure sadist and the vicious harlequin. This remade version, on the other hand, tries to bring the terror back to him by relying on a cheap exploitative characterization. To make this change even worse, his one-liners and actions after this revelation made myself feel dirty and disgusted in the wrong way for ever liking Freddy. It's not Haley's fault; He gets the job necessary to be done regardless of the stupidity coming out his mouth. He even gives Freddy a creepy habit of twitching his blades before sinking into the flesh of the boring teenagers.

Since my enjoyment factor dwindled as the film continued, it causes all the plot holes to expand more and more. Like in the original, one of the teens gets arrested for the supposed murder of his girlfriend. Instead of reading his Miranda rights, he gets told by the arresting officer to shut up. None of the parents are concerned when two of their children have been killed mysteriously close to each other. And, the biggest I noticed, involves the former place that connects the meatbags to Freddy. According to the parents, Freddy Krueger's death at their hands goes unreported and he is never mentioned again. And yet, somehow, the place is shut down and deserted by everyone despite not having bad press.

There was some hope for this film and some good ideas. The subtle notion that prescription and mood drugs have destroyed the well-being of our youth is surprisingly effective to include. I also liked Rooney Mara as the new Nancy is her own form and style. However, the cheap transformation of Freddy, the constantly repeating shock scares, and the dumb script dismantled this project. This film is forgettable while also being offensive to the tastes of a horror and Freddy fan.

FINAL REVIEW: 1 / 5

Super Mario Bros Crossover

Simply put, one of the best "indie" and fan games of the year.

If I ever need to relieve some stress, I can simply go Contra on the Mushroom Kingdom. With the Spread Gun!

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/534416

Kick-Ass - Review

Before heading to the theaters for the first time this year, I shopped around at Best Buy. A woman came up to me and asked for my opinion of movies, something I wished happened more often. She said she was a fan of romantic comedies but wanted to change her status quo by getting some action films. Other than recommending and getting her to buy THE HURT LOCKER, she singled out two other films. She expressed interest in WATCHMEN, which I quickly shot down since its faithful recreation of the comic was more for the fans of the book than the average viewer. I recommended WANTED instead, since its loose adaptation of the source material and heightened action sequences would be better.

KICK-ASS, based on the series by Mark Millar who also wrote WANTED, is pretty much a faithful adaptation yet made some well-made decisions to excise the more darker cynical story elements in the original material. This made it more easy to fool the average viewer especially with its "comic books are fun" advertising campaign. However, there is a lot of cynicism left to make an entertaining black comedy/satire of why superheroes can't exist.

The film is about how one scrawny teenager decides to stop reading graphic novels and starts his own career in the non-existent superhero business. The only things he have is a green scuba suit and two short staffs. That is it. Sure, the point of his story is that he has the desire and the heart of a hero, but as the film continues you'll notice that powerful weapons, fighting skills, and a good dose of reality is what's needed to be a vigilante against crime and the mafia.

Enter Hit-Girl and Big Daddy, the genuine stars of the film and the real "super heroes". This father-daughter pair, played well by Nicholas Cage and Chloe Grace Moretz (age 11), are to leave your mouth wide open, both to be constantly laughing and cheering and to be shocked at their actions and beliefs. I included Moretz's age both as an lame in-joke to an infamous comic book and also since it's some type of requirement for the review of the film. I liked Moretz and her performance as the murdering moppet, but I wasn't Waltz-ed away like every praising and condemning critic of this film.

Matthew Vaughn does a good job with the film by trying to balance out the bright colored theatrics and the harsh social reality, but it could been done a little better. I thought that the violence wasn't violent enough to create a bigger sting, as there were more gallons of blood then gore. Though, that's somewhat an understatement considering heads, legs, and mouths blow up or are severed. Vaughn could have made a Verhoeven, but the all-out action finale, while thrilling, lost some hold on myself. Also, that extensive shootout with constant strobe effects and flashing was very annoying and should have been handled with better care. I feel so bad for the cinematographer when they shot that.

KICK-ASS is a fun and interesting comic book film and will probably get a good future cult following. It is refreshing to see a statement that largely denounces the Spiderman myth and say that the Punishers and the Cassandra Cains are our only hope. In a way, this film really shows the history of American comic books; as the generally happy heroes with a social conscious were left to the side for the gun-wielding, pouch-heavy assassins during the 80s and 90s. I could go on but this review would just be myself geeking out on comic books. Still, this was more on target discussing the film than Roger Ebert's.

FINAL REVIEW: 4 / 5

Thoughts on the Blackest Night Event

With the release of the last issue on March 31, DC's Blackest Night has finally ended. The event that sucked me back into the comic book world. (Though to be more precise it was the corresponding Green Lantern DTV release)

Now that the war has ended and the results have been displayed in panels, my overall reaction to it has been more positive than good. What could have an all-out awesome fest simply ended up being enjoyable for the most part.

Some grips and thoughts on the entire event:

• With Green Lantern #43 and the first issue of event series, I was anticipating a more harsh and darker event. Instead, it became a giant Lantern war. There is nothing absolutely wrong with this change, but it is somewhat of a bait-and-switch.
• Thank god I didn't buy all of the tie-ins. Except for the Suicide Squad story, they either weren't all that great/important or useless.
• Unlike some cynical critics, I enjoyed Mera getting a big push.
• Green Lantern Corps was my see-saw series. I would be annoyed with the direction, say I'm going to quit next issue, and that very next one would hook me back in again. Now that it's over, I might finally give it a rest.
• I'm still unhappy about the outcome of Owen Mercer.
• How come certain Black Lanterns (Superman, Ice, Animal Man, etc.) that were around near Hal Jordan when he became a White Lantern were given life again but nobody else except for the selected few at the end? Practically everyone was right there. Shouldn't there have been a bigger resurrection?
• And now, for the "Event 12". The "Event 12" are the characters granted life again as picked by Geoff Johns at the end of issue #8. I dubbed them Event since the majority of them were killed during or in relation to previous events in DC. Some were expected (The Hawks and Aquaman), some interested me (Jade, Osiris), and some were odd (Max Lord ? Deadman ?? Capt. Boomerang I ???) At the very least, Johns picked a diverse bunch than just play the popular game.
• "I think DEAD is DEAD from here on out..." Thank you Johns, for possibly enacting a new rule in comic books I have waited for....
• But then, the final cliffhanger might reverse it. Though, I do like to see who becomes the one who is stable enough to be the White Lantern.

So, on to Brightest Day?

I don't know. Maybe a couple of issues and then play it safe with the trades.

Reaction to the Oscars

• Dear Lord, Baldwin and Martin were dreadful. Their pot-shots were so banal and easy to joke. Did they practice in the Catskills or something? Even their absurdism didn't work for me; seriously, how is a Hitler memorabilia joke funny outside of MST3K?
• Doing the Robot to Up's score. No sense.
• Note to self: Don't make a quality short documentary. Your attention-grasping producer will take away all your dignity.
• Edward Scissorhands and Marathon Man are horror films. Now I know.
• The Actor and Actress special intros are an interesting experiment, but the slow pace of this ceremony make them annoying.
• Tom Hanks really hates build-up.
• Neil Patrick Harris would have been the best example of a bait-and-switch and a better host.
• I only wanted one person to win an award. And it was given out. Congrads, Bigelow.

Roger Ebert: The Essential Man

Roger Ebert has been a favorite film critic of mine since I first saw At the Movies with him and the late Gene Siskel. I may not have agreed with him on some movies, but you could tell he truly loved the filmmaking process.

This article written by Chris Jones of Esquire has been floating throughout the net right now and is a great read on his recent life:

http://www.esquire.com/features/roger-ebert-0310

Comments on the Oscar Nominations

http://www.imdb.com/features/rto/2010/oscars

• I'm glad DISTRICT 9 got a Best Picture nomination. One of the good points of switching to ten nominations.
• Jeremy Renner gets his just reward. Take that you stupid Golden Globes!
• Really hoping Bigelow wins it this time.
• A lot of pissed off people at the snub of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. Still haven't seen it yet nor do I have a great urge to despite liking the book. A.O. Scott is crying some where in New York.
• Apparently, the really dark and hard to see shots in the Harry Potter film deserved getting a nom in Cinematography.
• I do kinda wish Zoe Saldana would have gotten some respect instead of some art film no one saw with Helen Mirren.
• Suck on it TRANSFORMERS! Your visual effects of robot scrotums deserve nothing.
• The exclusion of PONYO was odd. The Academy likes Miyazaki and his work. I do now want to see this THE SECRET OF KELLS and I'm glad it took away a spot from any of the mediocre animated films released in America.

Overall, I expected the selection and okay with it for the large part. And now, let the battle of the ex-spouses continue.