Another movie I discovered at the rental store was Loaded with Catherine McCormack, Thandie Newton, and Oliver Milburn. It’s the first feature from Anna Campion.

The movie follows a group of English twentysomethings over a weekend trip to the country. The main purpose of their excursion is to film an amateur horror flick. The audience gets to see the grainy video footage of the student film as the characters shoot each scene. They were probably using a Hi8 or vhs camcorder to give it that amateurish feel.

The main character, Neil, is troubled by repressed childhood memories. The film is interlaced with scenes from his therapy session and memories. Campion focuses on this group to explore how one’s perception can change literally overnight. Things always get interesting when you add a dash of drugs and murder.

Francis Lawrence did a decent job with his first movie Constantine. I actually happen to like that movie despite Keanu’s cheesy dialogue. Thus, I gave I Am Legend a chance to sway me regardless of the lukewarm reviews.

I knew the movie was going to be pretty bleak, but Will Smith talking to mannequins for comfort was really sad. He seriously loses everything and works alone to find a cure day in and day out. I think the ending was a bit heavy handed with the messiah metaphor though.

Nevertheless, it was beautifully shot. I really believed that Robert Neville was the last man on earth. The production design of the overgrown city was so detailed with lions and deer bounding through the frame. The dark seekers coulda looked more realistic with less cgi and more make up in my opinion. Instead they seemed to be completely computer generated. Still, they were scary enough. I’d give this version a grade B.

Bonus: Discussion on /Film about IAL alternate ending, which I haven’t seen yet. Sadly, the alt ending was pulled from YouTube, but is included on the two disc dvd.

Over the weekend, I watched the intriguing First Snow starring Guy Pearce, Piper Perabo, and William Fichter.

It was directed by Mark Fergus, half of the screenwriting team for Children of Men. I really loved that movie, which was totally shafted at last year’s Oscars btw, so First Snow has been sitting in my netflix queue for some time now. I basically had to force myself to watch it yesterday. I won’t lie, it was pretty slow at first.

The movie focuses on Jimmy Stark (Pearce), a floor salesman with big ambitions and a con man feel. While stranded at an auto shop in the desert, he gets a psychic reading out of pure boredom. During the session, the psychic has a sorta seizure and asks for Jimmy to leave. Well, this withheld prediction begins to bug the crap out of Jimmy, especially when some of the early predictions the guy made came true (like getting a promotion and a fluke basketball game win). After tracking the psychic down again, he learns that the psychic predicted that Jimmy wouldn’t live past the first snow. You follow Jimmy along as he tries to make sense of this revelation as it drives him to near madness.

The pacing could be a bit better, but overall I’m glad to have seen it. Definitely a good effort made by a first-time director. I think the cinematography and the acting really held my interest the most. The eerie lighting design and deliberately framed scene composition added to the suspense. I feel it would be quite difficult to reproduce these artistic choices with even the best professional camcorders on the market today.

See the trailer here.

Over the summer back in the day, I used to systematically watch every movie at the rental store. There wasn’t much going on where I grew up in terms of non-sporting activities. So I would go to the local blockbuster and just scour the rows for something I hadn’t seen that perked my interest. And merely by chance did I see CrossWorlds.

It stars Rutger Hauer (who was the best blind ninja I’d ever seen in Blind Side), Josh Charles, and Andrea Roth (FX’s “Rescue Me”). For awhile there, I’d see any movie with Josh Charles ever since he played the love interest in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter. So when I saw the box, I was immediately sold.

After re-watching this flick yesterday, I can’t truthfully say it’s a good movie, but it’s fun to watch on lazy sunday. The plot is ridiculously simple: Find the crystal, find the scepter, and safeguard them from being abused by evil. All set in the real world with people from other dimension running around doing so-called magic.

Check this montage I found online to get the gist. First off, you gotta just accept the obligatory cheesy effects, which were probably a dead giveaway by the poster. Nevertheless, I really think Stuart Wilson proves to be menacing enough as the villain.

One question though, what was going on with Andrea Roth’s outfit? There were too many mismatched colors going on, even for 1996. Burgundy velvet skirt, white button down shirt, red top, and then brown boots with white hiking socks peeking out! Plus, I think she’s was wearing a red bodysuit. Remember those? God, that was an awful trend. I am hoping that American Apparel’ new line of bodysuits doesn’t catch on.

And the random star of today in CrossWorlds: Jack Black as the joke telling roommate.

I feel like the remake trend may be going too far after seeing the trailer below for Prom Night.

What was wrong with the old one? All you needed back then was a pun-ful poster and you were set.

Now you gotta set it in a fancy hotel and bring in “teens” who are way too old to pass as high schoolers. The 2008 version looks like a cross between Scream, Carrie, and a CW soap. And why oh why is one of my fave actors from “The Wire” Idris Elba associating himself with this tacky remake?

And what’s this now? Michael Bay, the mastermind behind the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remakes, is producing a Friday the 13th remake starring Jared Padalecki.

Casting him isn’t that surprising since he’s already starred in the horror remake of House of Wax. So he knows how to play stupid and aloof really well.

But sheesh, can we call a truce on the 80s horror remakes.