Shutter Island (2010) - Martin Scorsese

Leonardo DiCaprio is like Scorsese's pet, he seems to be featured in his last couple movies and he does an amazing job acting in those films. In Shutter Island, I have read about some people criticizing his acting and the acting in general in this movie. I think those are all false, I was on the fence the entire movie until the end when I realized just how well he acted in this. Also I heard that the editing was not up to Scorsese standards. Well here I would have to agree... Goodfella's and Casino are the two shining stars with the use of Scorsese's editing chops. A close friend of mine told me that Scorsese always shows you as much as he can in one shot rather than a multitude of different shots, this is true but not in this movie. I am going to agree here and say that the editing is sub-par.\

The film focuses on Teddy Daniels, a US Marshall who is investigating an escaped inmate at Shutter Island, a island dedicated to helping the criminally insane in Boston harbor. Some really creepy, crazy stuff happens and really keeps you attached to your seat. There are some really good jump out of your seat scenes, but overall this is just a really good creepy thriller. Also we get a really awesome acting job thrown at us by Jackie Earle Haley, it was actually a really freaky performance.

Of course the movie throws some twists at us, but the thing that really drags this down is that it doesn't feel like Martin Scorsese was behind the camera at all. Also I hear that the movie is a far stretch from the book, but I have no intention of reading the book so I guess it doesn't matter for me. The cinematography is phenomenal and really grabs you, it really sets up a lot of the scenes. The transfer from film to DVD or Blu-Ray really wont do this any justice.

There are some weird things thrown in to really make us wonder what the hell is actually going on and some times during this movie it really throws you off. All in all at the end of the movie it will leave you smiling and satisfied. Some parts of this movie really scared the crap out of me and I have to commend that.

Who is 67?

This is the fourth time that director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have worked on a film together. They previously collaborated in Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed.
Filmed in four months during 2008.
David Fincher was considered as a director.

Comments

The Human Monster (1939) - Walter Summers

Bela Lugosi turns in a fantastic performance. It is right on par with the exact same films that had made him famous like Dracula . My personal favorite being The Black Cat . Like the latter, this film suffered from poor circulation and lack of advertisement. Either that or the public wasn't interested in seeing Lugosi in anything else other than his famous bloodsucker. This film has a broad and well acted plot that was rich with detail. Lugosi has two sides in this picture. His well loved and compassionate side. The other is a strict, brutal lone shark that acts as a sinister villain to blind and handicapped people. He really brutalizes his victims. It's a macabre message to pay your bills. The film is slow moving and plagued by the usual setbacks from its time. Most of the nation wasn't really that concerned with horror at the time. But studios knew that they would always have an audience. This film is a prime example of that. It's sad because it's

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Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t

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Inseminoid (1981) - Norman J. Warren

What can be said for mindless schlock pictures like this one. They were pumped out in droves during the eighties. Inseminoid !? give me a break! It sounds like some pre-pubescent teenage boys came up with the title. On the plus side the movie isn't horrible to look at and it has a decent amount of gore. If you can separate yourself from the political incorrectness, then you might have a perfectly decent Sci-Fi Monster Feature. A research team exploring caves on Jupiter accidentally awakens an ancient alien that rapes and impregnates one of the team members. She suffers from terrible shock and trauma, leading to a complete mental breakdown as her pregnancy accelerates faster and faster. Feeling threatened she decides to kill anyone she deems a threat. Can the rest of the research team survive or will they all become victims of INSEMINOID! Apparently this movie had a million dollar budget. That's really shocking considering the outcome of the picture. The acting

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