Terror Train (1980, USA) | Rating: 3/5
I'm still doing Letterboxd challenges and this one is from
Macabrella. Am I keeping up with them consistently? Heh, of course not! But I did start off pretty strong. This was one of the movies I chose for the very first prompt and I learned about this movie through
Eli Roth's History of Horror. This movie features the fabulous Jamie Lee Curtis in more of a supporting role, but still quite talented. Because of the show, I already knew the twist which sadly contributes to hopefully an old horror trope that I can't say more about that or it will spoil the ending. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed it and never would've figured out who the mysterious killer on the train was.
Demon House (2019, USA) | Rating: 2/5
This was the first entry for
aZuuL's Letterboxd Challenge and I simply looked up some ideas through Google. I also think I watched someone's review for this movie and they mentioned one of those paranormal shows or something. Anyway, this was pretty much a haunted house type story...or just a paranormal show in a movie runtime. I'm not really into those types of shows, but I have a couple of friends that keep up with that sort of thing. Skimming through the comments of Letterboxd, it didn't seem like a lot of people liked this one...and I'm one of them. It was a little goofy, just like those paranormal shows that try to play up the creepiness of their home. If you're hardcore believer in ghosts and stuff, I'm sure this would be a scary little movie, but for me...I just couldn't hop on board with being concerned for our main character locking himself in the house to resolve the evil of the home. It isn't the worst haunted house type movie I've seen as it was kinda entertaining, but I wouldn't be rewatching it by choice anytime soon.
Mulan (2020, USA) | Rating: 2.5/5
Another
Letterboxd Challenge I'm doing involves selecting 5 different acteresses and actors and picking 5 movies that I haven't seen with them in it, preferably if they are in a main position. This was a selection for Jet Li. I also wanted to see this just because I've seen almost every Disney live action remake and I've heard so many things about it; mostly bad. Aside from the controversy surrounding the main actress, I thought it was an interesting direction to take another beloved animated story, even though it's not accurate to the real story. Beforehand, I did watch a movie about the origin story of Mulan and rewatched the animated version with Maja, because its been a long time and I needed a bit of comparison. Much like the other Disney live action remakes, this was unnecessary and lengthy, but kinda...harmless, I guess. The action scenes were enjoyable for the most part, but things really do drag and nothing really stands out or makes an impression compared to the original.
Captain Midnight explained it best that the beauty of animated Mulan's character was seeing her grow as a character, while live action Mulan is already overpowered and is hiding her abilities like a undercover superhero. I guess it's a good thing for Disney that they practically own everything so they can recover their losses on box office bombs that most people didn't want.
The People Under the Stairs (1991, USA) | Rating: 3.5/5
This was for a similar Letterboxd Challenge, but with directors! This entry was for the late and great Wes Craven! I also watched this for the Wild Card theme of January on Discord with my Muddy Cult Patrons. I paired this with another Wes Craven movie by the name of
Deadly Blessings, which I don't have a lot to say about other than I did like it. Seeing Brandon Quintin Adams in this movie brought a flood of nostalgia to mind as I've seen him in countless 90s TV shows and movies. He was a fantastic child actor in such movies as
The Mighty Ducks,
The Sandlot, and some Michael Jackson collaborations. This movie is sadly still relevant. It is a light horror movie with a commentary on the wealthy keeping minorities and poor down with weird tactics and realistic methods of manipulation and trickery. It wasn't too heavy handed, the horror elements were executed well, and I enjoyed every character, including the awful rich people being weird rich people. It's a trope I haven't gotten tired of yet.
Ring of Curse (2011, Japan) | Rating: 3/5
This movie and the one below were another entry to the Wild Card stream and Letterboxd director challenge. These entries were for Mari Asato. Originally, I wanted to watch
Cellular Girlfriends, but had a very difficult time trying to find it with English subtitles. I did find the sequel though! The movie stars jpop group Buono! which I've heard of, but never listened to their music. They present a nice little introduction about themselves and the movie, which I thought was very different. The premise of the movie wasn't anything groundbreaking, but felt familiar as it centers itself around a mysterious and odd schoolgirl who has a gift for writing. Because of her weirdness, she gets bullied quite often by her classmates. Fortunately for her, she can use her writing ability to take them down one by one. Sound familiar, right? The beauty with familiar concepts is the way the director approaches it and Mari Asato executes this supernatural bullying tale in a very entertaining light that fits in with the Japanese market, but is familiar enough for western audiences to enjoy.
Hyouka: Forbidden Secrets (2017, Japan) | Rating: 3/5
This was a simple little movie following a couple of high school detectives that tend to solve some simple mysteries around their school. Eventually, they do have a big-ish case that spans through the rest of the movie's runtime. At first, my viewers and I were worried that we'd just see these minor inconveniences being solved, but we did get a pretty decent problem to keep us entertained for the evening. While this wasn't the most engaging mystery I've seen from Japan, I thought it was passable. Despite me giving it the same rating as
Ring of Curse, I enjoyed the former more than the latter. Nonetheless, I'm still looking forward to checking out the other works I chose for
Mari Asato.
Lady Snowblood (1973, Japan) | Rating: 3.5/5
This was another movie that was part of Wild Card Month and I believed it was mentioned in the Netflix documentary
Iron Fists and Kung-fu Kicks. As long as I've enjoyed Japanese cinema, I've neglected to look back on the classics, which I'm trying to be a little better at with some of my Letterboxd challenges. That documentary gave me some ideas of things I should check out, especially since a lot of earlier martial arts movies featured female protagonist. I must say I totally agree with what they said about this movie. The visuals were beautiful and vibrant when it needed to be, the story was engaging, and the action was quite thrilling. I haven't heard much about the sequel, but I'm opened to checking it out when I can.
Sugar Hill (1974, USA) | Rating: 3/5
This was my second entry for Macabrella's Letterboxd Challenge that involves voodoo. Reading the premise to this movie sounded interesting and it had a Blaxploitation type of element to it. This movie is definitely a product of its time as far as content and quality, but I still found it quite entertaining. The main character's motivation was justified and the execution of revenge was humorous and satisfying. I won't be surprised if this isn't on the top of the list for Blaxploitation movies to check out, but I found it rather enjoyable and amusing. I also found it very interesting to learn that it was shot in Houston.
Bakuman. (2015, Japan) | Rating: 3/5
This was another Wild Card entry that I paired with the original Japanese release of
Death Note, which is written and illustrated by the same artists. I really enjoyed the manga series and I was looking forward to checking out the anime and live action adaptations at some point. Fortunately, January presented a great opportunity to check off one of those items from the list. The movie adaptation was...passable. It probably would've translated better as a series because the story heavily relies on getting attached to the characters, their struggles with creating a popular series, and their relationship with each other and their colleagues/competition. The little time we get to spend with these characters wasn't the worst of the worst. I did enjoy the chemistry between our main characters and the director did the best he could with the time given to squish as much of the manga series for a movie.
MONSTERZ: Monsutazu (2014, Japan) | Rating: 3.5/5
Anytime I see Tatsuya Fujiwara's name, I get excited. He's one of the few Japanese actors I want to deep dive into his filmography. Since this was also part of Hideo Nakata's catalog, I didn't mind adding it to my challenge along with my Wild Card stream. The movie was enjoyable, but all I kept thinking of was
Inuyashiki. The stories are very similar, but not entirely the same. Nonetheless, I did enjoy the chaos that was brought with super powers. Think X-Men's Magneto, but with Charles Xavier's powers. Another entertaining watch from Hideo Nakata. Perhaps he could've directed the live action of
Inuyashiki.
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