Sunday, October 20, 2013

Anacondas: Top 10 Reasons Why it Sucked

Six years ago I posted the "Top 10 reasons this movie sucked" on the IMDB message board for Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid. I checked back and found the topic had generated some interesting reactions. I thought I would immortalize my original top 10 reasons here on this blog. Actually, a better title is 'Top 10 Reasons I was Disappointed' with the film, but we'll keep the original for historical sake.

1. They wasted a clever sequel name to Anaconda which deserved a better sequel. The original Anaconda still is my favorite movie of all time. So as its number one fan, of course I have expectations for the sequel. But it wasn’t a sequel; it was just another movie about giant snakes. So it bugs me that this was marketed and even sold as a set with Anaconda. I've heard this happens sometimes (Open Water 2, Troll 2), where a movie is marketed as a sequel just to drum up some money. The fans lose unfortunately. If they just would have called this "BOA CONSTRICTOR" or something I would be satisfied and would have enjoyed the movie!

2. For being titled “AnacondaS” it never featured more than one snake attacking the humans at once!
Therefore, it didn’t out do Anaconda which also featured more than 1 snake but only 1 at a time. See, in Alien there was 1 alien. In Aliens there were multiple aliens all over the place attacking and so forth. We should have seen many anacondas involved at once (and not just harmlessly in the background).

3. Everyone knows anacondas are only found in the AMAZON.
Borneo is on the other side of the planet. Sadly, I think the movie only got green lighted because of the much-anticipated waterfall scene. There might not be any huge waterfalls in the Amazon, so some genius decided that the movie should be accurate and moved it to Borneo….but anacondas don’t live in-nevermind.

4. Anacondas have no teeth, at least not razor-sharp fangs. Just itty bitty ones to hold onto their prey. The fact that the snakes were larger than normal was explained in the movie. And there’s a difference between intentional “fiction” and bull-sh*t. The fact that the snakes grew so big eating some flower is not true-but it was made up for the movie. The huge fangs on the Anaconda- I don’t think that was for any reason other than to make them look scarier. I don’t think anyone above the age of 10 was scared.

5. The acting.
Johnny Messner was unbearable with his monotonous, terrible acting. I hope he never gets another gig again due to it. Kadee Strickland- Were they looking for an annoying accent in casting? There has to be a billion blonde babes who want into show business and have human accents. And Eugene Byrd is the worst stereotypical black man I have ever seen. These 3 were excruciating. *Spoiler* and unfortunately they are all in the entire movie, officially beating this dead horse dry.

6. What are the chances of getting 8 scientists, professors, students, pharmaceutical reps, and scruffy boat captains that all look like Abercrombie and Fitch models?
Everyone was either too young or too hot to be scientists, high rolling pharmaceutical reps, etc. The professor was as young looking as his students. Of course it’s possible, but why? This is typical Hollywood for ya, but they should have looked at classics- hey, maybe ALIEN. (They already copied the sequel name idea). In ALIEN there were 8 dorky-looking adults that the audience bought as real astronauts. Success! I didn’t buy half the cast. I thought Messner’s friend in the movie, Livingston, would have been better as the lead boat captain guy. At least he could act it and had the perfect image.

7. Not enough of them died!
4 out of 8? It’s not like this was Jurassic Park 3: Family Edition, where they seriously couldn’t kill anyone else. Honestly, I was hoping they’d all die in some sort of movie first (this was before The Descent). And the Salli Richardson character was complete EVIL. She had a complete villain edit, of course, second villain to the British guy. She should have been killed. It’s in the monster movie rules that the evil people get it. Oh, but wait…she’s a woman. I really hope her being a woman didn’t stop them from feeding her to the anacondas, I will just pretend to appreciate her surviving as an unpredictable twist.

8. Ending?
I thought this movie was driven by that flower. There should have been some sort of follow-up, or a twist. They were ALL there for that flower, not just the British guy.

9. Not enough Snake!
This isn’t the first monster movie to disappoint with lack of monster scenes. I guess it’s hard to write a script that builds character development AND has to get the creature in as fast as possible. It can work in some monster movies, but in this one the casting and acting were terrible, I think there should have been more snake.

10. The trailer = the entire movie.
I swear the trailer was just a 30 second recap of the entire movie. Everything critical except the getaway on the raft was in the trailers…I mean even half the death scenes were pretty much shown.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Chernobyl Diaries - Live Shit Cast

Today I am watching Chernobyl Diaries. This looks like a Survivor Movie to me. This time i'm trying something new - I'm blogging my thoughts as I watch the movie.

I don't know any of the characters names (yet) so I will describe them as such:
-The main guy
-The main guy's girlfriend (brunette)
-The main guy's younger brother
-The brother's girlfriend (blonde)

The group is vacationing in Europe. They plan to go to Moscow but the main guy suggests Chernobyl instead. Some sort of "extreme vacationing"?

They go and meet some bulky Russian guy who will be their tour guide. The group is now 5 people, until in walks another couple (beard and blonde #2), both with "DEAD" already written on their foreheads. So the total group is 7 people. That's a good number of people for a Survivor movie!

My early predictions: I think they will all die except the main guy's girlfriend (the brunette). This is a pretty recent film, so I think the trend lately has been to kill everyone but the main girl. Even though the main guy seems to be first billed, he reminds me of the main guy in The Ruins. A bit too excited and curious. And you know the tale about the cat. OBVIOUSLY the first 3 to die will be bulky Russian guy and the last-minute couple (beard and blonde #2). Then the other blonde (brother's girlfriend) and main guy will die *shockingly*. Younger brother might live only because he's likeable? But he's a male so the audience shouldn't care if he dies. Let's see if the writers decide to bore us or delight us...Sorry, but I already have pessimistic expectations looking at this cast.
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OMG BEAR!!!
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Wait, I forget is this supposed to be a zombie movie? I vaguely remember the trailers a year or two ago. Well, they're out of gas and stuck in Chernobyl. Let the games begin!
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The main guy is definitely going to die. He's being an asshole, *sigh*. I roll my eyes thinking of the writers thinking they are piecing together some brilliant piece of shit where they can make a character into an asshole to justify killing them. How original. The brain dead audience (it's an American film, right?) should be appeased.
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Yep. the first to die is the bulky Russian guy (Yuri is his name). The younger brother (AKA the only male with a chance of surviving) is now bitten by something so he might be a goner. Will turn into something later. Dogs?
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At this point I would safely say no men are surviving this movie. But it's OK, the writers will make sure at least one of the pretty girls makes it back home safely, so American audiences can sleep at night. Seriously at this point the women have said practically nothing and had no interesting development. If that's the way it goes I will be uber pissed. The only salvaging point will be to kill them all (hmmm I've found myself saying that many times before).
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The brunette girl is being ultra sensible, smart and boring. She's the final survivor ya'll. Called it. Wake me up when someone makes an interesting survivor movie.
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The main guy and main girl decide to go out looking for Yuri. Then the bearded guy (remember, he has DEAD written on his forehead) decides to go with them. BAHahahahahahaha doesn't he know he's just asking to die? Maybe this is a comedy.
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Oh no the brunette girl who is the closest thing to our typical main girl/heroine is in trouble! *fucking gag*
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Younger brother's leg is injured (from the bite earlier) so he and his blonde girlfriend decide to stay back in the van while blonde #2 (DEAD forehead) decides to join the others.
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Ahh god damn DEBRIS!!!
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Yes, yes, yes. Dogs chasing. Uh oh, beard and blonde #2 are trailing. She's in the water! Beard jumps in to save her but now he hurt his leg. Everyone survives the scene. Man, they are really dragging out the inevitable death of beard and blonde #2. I don't disapprove. Could it be...? Nah.
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Oooooooooohhh. They make it back to the van to discover that the younger brother and his blondie are missing. And there's blood. Plus two points for possibly killing them off before DEAD foreheads. So far that's a solid 2/5 rating so far. Let's see if they keep it up.
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Nope. The blonde girlfriend is alive and not even injured. Point deduction.
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The movie did just kill off the only male character who had a shot at surviving. Normally I am ecstatic since the writers went out of order, but of course, shockingly killing a male character is always "OK." Shock value scores. Dumb American audiences can still sleep. Win/Win. Fuck this movie.
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Zippity do, blonde girlfriend who was found OK goes next. Reward the point back? Nope, she became predictable fodder when they first fake killed her. That's how you lose points. Pretend kill someone unpredictably. No. Afterwards, the beard and blonde #2 (dead foreheads) finally die. So alas, we are down to our main guy and main brunette girl as the final 2. There were a couple bumps, but I called this (as did 99% of the audience, it's not like I'm some wizard). Now let me just get through this inevitable pukefest ending as they justify killing the main male character and the girl rides off into the sunset alive. I'm getting the "Fuck this movie" text into my clipboard.
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Enforcement arrives in hazmat suits. Oh they are infected.
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Yep, main guys' dead and the main girl is kept alive for some reason. I wonder what that reason is? Oh yea, fuck this movie. They ended this movie just like The Ruins - the script calls for everyone to die but they just can't do it. They must leave some hope for the stupid American audiences who need the main girl OK at the end so they can go on with their lives.
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This brunette girl is hardly even a main female character!!! Compared to a Ripley, a Julie or a Laurie Strode she was nothing. Yet she gets to be the final survivor because horror writers don't know how to do anything different? If these movies were real there would be a surplus of somewhat-attractive, brunette girls in their 20's, because apparently they always get to survive. When there is a survivor.
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Fuck this movie. And everyone involved. All guilty by association. Fuck this movie.

Monday, May 27, 2013

Battle of the Sexes

I was thinking the other day that it seemed to me that what nearly all Survivor movies have in common is a female survivor. It used to be that the predictable outcome was that the main guy and main girl would survive and live happily ever after. But then horror films started shaking it up and killing off the main male as a surprise twist, or a heroic sacrifice. Of course, most of the action adventure types have more males to begin with, about a 6-2 ratio advantage. This post lists some movies with no surviving members of either sex. Of course, i'm really only considering the main cast. The mail man you see for 30 seconds at the beginning may not die, but we're not counting those very minor characters.
No Female Survivors
  • The Thing*
  • Evil Dead
  • Alien 3
  • Deep Blue Sea
  • The Mist
  • Wolf Creek
  • Cube
  • Devil
| No Male Survivors
  • The Thing (2011)
  • Evil Dead (2013)
  • Alien
  • Alien vs Predator
  • Ghost Ship
  • The Ruins
  • The Descent*
  • Open Water
  • The Reef
  • Prometheus
  • House of 9
  • My Little Eye
  • Cold Prey
| No Survivors.
  • The Descent 2
  • Apollo 18
  • Cabin in the Woods?
  • 2001 Maniacs
  • Sunshine
*None to begin with

The list is not complete. Just whipped up off the top of my head. To be honest, I am surprised there are so many movies with only male survivors. I don't dislike that at all, but the final girl is a really old formula for horror films. If I were to add the slasher films, the list in the middle would be much, much larger. I mostly watch the adventure, sci-fi survival movies. SyFy channel movies are too difficult to catalog, and I think most of them would not make the lists above anyway. Why? Because even with a low budget they can't even think of unique outcomes to their movies. They all end the same way. What's interesting to note is that in the remakes of The Thing and Evil Dead they switched to a sole female survivor ending. Considering that that's pretty much the norm for slasher films - I wonder why they thought that would be interesting?