Pajiba’s review of The Strangers made me seriously consider seeing this film, unlike the melodramatic trailer.

The trailer positioned the movie as a slow and boring torture fest, but Dustin’s review makes it sound like a good stylish horror flick. There are no stupid flat characters reminiscent of the victims in Hostel or Turistas. It instead focuses on a life-like couple, Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, who are pursued by three masked assailants. Instead of using camcorder montages to heighten the reality, the director, Bryan Bertino, chose to use a careful mise-en-scene to create realistic horror sequences. Now that sounds quite refreshing to me.

Some critics have compared this movie to Funny Games, since both films focus on people being attacked in vacation homes. Seeing how I didn’t care for Haneke’s film, once again my desire to watch this movie went down again. Lucky for me, Dustin condemns this shoddy comparision:

“Unfortunately, The Strangers will suffer needless comparison to Michael Haneke’s Funny Games because of the common theme of vacation home invasion, but the two films couldn’t be more different in execution. Bertino doesn’t dwell in self-aware dialogue, wink-wink nudges towards the audience, or hypocritical preaching in manner of Haneke…”

My only issue now is that of a financial nature. With all the blockbuster flicks out this summer, I’m not sure if I can give the theater another helping from my wallet. Hopefully, I could see it at the budget theater.

Moviefone has a top 25 list of the best animated movies. Toy Story ranked number one while The Simpsons Movie rounded out the list at number 25. I agree with most of their choices. My only problem is their blatant omission of Sleeping Beauty, which I think is a masterpiece.

What’s your favorite from their list?

My favorite from the list was Spirited Away.

Leave your answer in the comments.

25. The Simpsons Movie
24. Dumbo
23. The Triplets of Belleville
22. Lady & the Tramp
21. Nightmare Before Christmas
20. Jungle Book
19. Princess Mononoke
18. Pinocchio
17. Toy Story 2
16. Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit
15. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
14. The Iron Giant
13. Beauty & the Beast
12. Ratatouille
11. Finding Nemo
10. Fantasia
9. Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
8. Spirited Away
7. Cinderella
6. Little Mermaid
5. Bambi
4. The Incredibles
3. Shrek
2. The Lion King
1. Toy Story

Source: Slashfilm via Moviefone

A Short Circuit special edition dvd was released today.

It stars the loveable Jonny 5, Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, and Fisher Stevens.

Ah, how I love Fisher Stevens character in that movie (remember him playing an quasi-Indian guy?). Why did they kill you off on “Lost” so quickly? Clearly, they must have forgotten that you do accents.

I guarantee that if you watch this clip, you’ll understand why the world desperately needs a special edition tribute to Jonny #5.

(source: Pop Candy)

Seriously? There are going to be three more ‘Terminator’ films with Christian Bale?

I’m already skeptical about Terminator 4, so I think it’s quite presumptious of them to start another trilogy. T3 wasn’t all that highly regard nor has the tv show really taken off.

Hasn’t Hollywood learned anything from the Star Wars prequels? Oversaturation is imminent and will eventually damage your profits.

Despite the lukewarm reviews, Prince Caspian was first place at the box office with 56 million. I’ve decided to wait it out and see it at the discount theater.

Iron Man still cleaning up at second place with 31 million, while Speed Racer came in fourth place with only 7.6 million, proving it’s not destined to win the summer box office race.

(source: “Lazy Monday”)