Tag: Low Budget

Movie Review: The Whole Damn Paranormal Activity Franchise

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IMDB, Paranormal ActivityIMDB, Paranormal Activity 2IMDB, Paranormal Activity 3IMDB, Paranormal Activity 4
Paranormal Activity on IMDB (Horror, 86 Minutes, 2007)
Paranormal Activity 2 on IMDB (Horror, 91 Minutes, 2010)
Paranormal Activity 3 on IMDB (Horror, 83 Minutes, 2011)
Paranormal Activity 4 on IMDB (Horror, 88 Minutes, 2012)

I, like everybody else, heard amazing things about this series.  The first movie was made on the thinnest of shoestring budgets (less than $15,000) but has since grossed over 100 million.  I had never gotten around to watching it.  With a fifth movie announced, four in the can and a whole day to kill I figured, “why not a marathon?”

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Movie Review: Noobz

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IMDB, Noobz“Noobz” on IMDB

Comedy, 97 Minutes, 2012

This is sorta, kinda, almost a remake of “The Wizard” [IMDB].  Like that weird little classic a group of friends, in this case a “Gears of War 3” clan, go cross-country to compete in a giant video-game championship.  The major difference is that the main characters here are thirty-something slackers.  The main similarity is that they, also, really don’t seem to know much about gaming.

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Movie Review: Infestation

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“Infestation” on IMDB

Horror, 91 Minutes, 2009

I really adore classically staged monster movies.  The kind where everyday people have to deal with giant things – worms, bugs, crocodiles, lemurs, etc.  Whatever they are, they’re big and they’re nasty.  Classics like “Tremors” [IMDB] or “Eight-legged Freaks” [IMDB] are just plain fun.  The scares tend to be more of the shock than gore variety (although there’s a little of that as well) and generally things are more family friendly.

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Movie Review: The Lie

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“The Lie” on IMDB

Drama,  80 Minutes, 2011

It’s taken me a long time to write this review.  Some movies I have to mull over for a while.  It’s difficult for me, sometimes, to actually know whether I even liked a movie or not right after seeing it.  I have to swish it around in my head and see if anything sticks after a few days.

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Movie Review: Bad Ass

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“Bad Ass” on IMDB

Action,  90 Minutes, 2012

I got this because Danny Trejo [IMDB] was on the cover, period.  It wasn’t until about 20 minutes in that things started clicking that this was somehow, sorta-kinda based on the YouTube-famous AC Transit Bus Fight (also known as the “Epic Beard Man” fight).  This is just… weird.

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Movie Review: Hide Aways

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“Hide Aways” on IMDB

Fantasy,  98 Minutes, 2011

James Furlong has a serious problem.  The men in his line are afflicted with strange magical powers that tend to hinder more than help.  His grandfather would go blind for 37 minutes if he thought about sex.  His father disables machines near him when scared.  James has it worse, however: whenever he’s hurt everything (and everyone) near him dies.

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Movie Review: Insidious

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“Insidious” on IMDB

Horror, 103 Minutes, 2010

With almost no tweaking this could easily be a remake of “Poltergeist” [IMDB].  Although the haunted house angle (which was completely superfluous to begin with) is abandoned early the plot has all the same touch-points.  Josh and Renai’s son, Dalton, enters into an unexplained coma that appears more like normal sleep than anything medical.  Surrounding this are terrifying visions and things that go bump-in-the-night.

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Movie Review: It’s Alive

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“It’s Alive” on IMDB

Horror, 80 Minutes, 2008

The original “It’s Alive” [1974, IMDB] is a camp-horror classic.  It was over-the-top, silly and just serious enough to keep it from completely disappearing into obscurity.  The idea is simple: a woman gives birth to a mutant baby that kills people.  This 2008 remake take the same premise and tries to make a straight, emotional horror movie.  It pretty much fails completely.

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Movie Review: Tucker and Dale vs Evil

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“Tucker and Dale vs Evil” on IMDB

Horror/Comedy, 89 Minutes, 2010

[The second movie in our unexpected Tyler Labine [IMDB] film festival.   It became a “film festival” when we said “hey – that’s the guy from the last movie!”  Our rules for these things are clearly somewhat loose, but we find they work for us.]

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Movie Review: Jennifer’s Body

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“Jennifer’s Body” on IMDB

Horror, 102 Minutes, 2009:

[This is the seventh review for this edition of  my semi-regular “my-wife-is-visiting-relatives-so-I’m-watching-loads-of-crappy-movies” film festival.]

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