The Month of Spooks 2015 Finale

Hey there guys, how’s it going? I just wanted to come here and share this as a sort of send-off to “The Month of Spooks”. I had a great time watching some horror movies and reviewing them as part of October being the month of Halloween. And don’t worry, I plan on doing “The Month of Spooks” next year as well. And who knows, maybe I’ll involve you guys a bit more in it? But as we end this year’s edition of it, I thought it could be fun to recap what happened and also show this shitty picture I made that you see at the start of the post. If someone could make a better version of that and send it to me on twitter @TheMarckoguy, that would be pretty great. Now, let’s recap everything!

Reaper (2007 – 2009)

First off, we had an unofficial start with my review of TV-show “Reaper”. While not ever referred as part of “The Month of Spooks”, I do still feel that it deserves a spot in this lineup since it is technically a horror-comedy. Sure, it leans more towards fantasy than horror, but you get my point. It still fits into “The Month of Spooks” because of horror-esque themes. Plus, I think it deserves a spot in anything thanks to Ray Wise as the most charming Devil of all time.

Oculus (2014)

This next part of the lineup is the first movie review I did for “The Month of Spooks”. That’s right, the first review for it was “Oculus”, a movie about an allegedly evil mirror. And I really did like it since it had really good acting, great music, a great plot and genuinely scary mindfuckery. Also, Karen Gillan did a fantastic job faking an American accent. If I didn’t already know that she’s Scottish, I would’ve thought she was an American. So that’s always fun.

Carrie (1976)

What happens when a sweet and innocent girl is bullied and antagonized to no end? Well in most cases she would commit suicide, but in “Carrie” she basically fucks everyone up with her psychic powers and it is quite interesting to watch. Sure, some aspects of the story felt a little sloppy in execution, but overall it was a good movie that I do recommend that you watch. And if you wanna know my thoughts on the remake, I haven’t seen it yet… but maybe I could od it for next year’s “Month of Spooks”.

Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

Want to have your mind messed up? Watch “Jacob’s Ladder” starring Tim Robbins, directed by Adrian Lyne. Sure, there isn’t any other iterations of the story as far as I know, but I still wanted to point out the names of both of those guys because they both did a fantastic job with their respective parts in this movie. The movie is terrifically directed and Tim Robbins is fantastic as the main character, Jacob. And I thought the movie was scary. What can I say, psychological horror works well on me.

The Mist (2007)

“The Mist” is the second movie we had for this month that is based on a Stephen King story. If you didn’t know, the first one was “Carrie”. And was this a good movie? I’d say so. Not great, but I do think that it is a good survival movie featuring a scary mist filled with evil, murderous monsters. Sure, Thomas Jane is not that strong an actor, but I wouldn’t say that he completely ruined the movie. But this movie was overall not the best type of horror movie. The strongest element of it was probably the terrific directing by Frank Darabont who also directed “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile” which both also are based on Stephen King stories. But I would say that it is a good watch if you just need some decent entertainment.

Psycho (1960)

Yes, when including this classic in “The Month of Spooks” I had not yet seen it. But now I finally got the chance to see it and I fucking loved it. the story was suspenseful and Anthony Perkins gave one of the best performances ever as the obviously psychologically messed up motel keeper, Norman Bates. You know what’s interesting about Perkins in the movie? He was only 28 when playing Bates. That is pretty young for any actor giving an incredible performance. Great job, man!

Blade: Trinity (2004)

Yes, I am aware that this isn’t a straight-up horror movie, but rather an action movie with horror elements to it, but it is still technically horror so it counts. Don’t like that? Blow me, or don’t, it’s up to you. Still, I inculded “Blade: Trinity” into “The Month of Spooks” and could therefore kill two birds with one stone. First off, it would be another entry into “The Month of Spooks”. Secondly, it would wrap up my series of reviews on the “Blade” series. And for the two of you who wonder: No, I will not watch and review the “Blade” TV-show because it seems like it’s a huge piece of shit. Which this movie is not, this movie is simply mediocre.

Alien (1979)

This was the grand finale of “The Month of Spooks”, the big ending, the movie that would wrap it all up. And could it live up to that? Yeah, I’d say so. As I explained in my review of the movie, “Alien” was one of the first horror movies that I saw and actually enjoyed. And I think a lot of that comes from this not being your typical monster movie, but actually a smart and suspenseful atmosphere-building descent into death and a scary fucking space alien’s habits. The movie is scary, the movie is dark, the movie is violent and it is an absolute masterpiece. “Alien” was just the perfect movie to wrap up “The Month of Spooks”.

So did you enjoy my whole “Month of Spooks” thing? Any review you enjoyed reading more than the others? Please let me know. I will most likely do it again next year, and hopefully I’ll plan it out a bit better that time. And I was serious about the whole “If someone could make a better version of the opening picture, please make it and send it my way” thing. If you can use similar assets and make a similar picture of better quality/with more skill, that would be fucking great.

Well, I’m done. Happy Halloween, my friends!

Movie Review: Alien (1979)

As October is coming to a close, so does “The Month of Spooks”. That’s right, this will be the final review for “The Month of Spooks” and that is why I started it in such a cliché way. And I thought therefore that the final review would be for one of the first horror movies I ever saw and hell, it’s even one of the first that I ever enjoyed. But do I still like it after a few years of not seeing it. So we are ending the series of horror reviews in a pretty big way.

Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big hand to… “Alien”.

So in the movie “Alien” we follow the crew of a giant cargo ship called the Nostromo as they receive a distress call from a seemingly unexplored planet. But after their search for survivors come up with jack shit… sort of. When they return to the ship and plan to leave they learn that some strange biological life form has come aboard and wants to murder them all. So it’s a fight for survival as they try to get home and make sure to not be killed by this Alien. The concept is pretty simple, it’s kind of like “Jaws” but with a scary fucking space alien in a close quarters environment instead of a shark in the ocean. And how is it executed? Saying that it was done well would such an understatement. The story not only is presented in a well told way, but is is also suspenseful and scary. The reason this all works so well is that they keep it very confined and doesn’t stretch it out too far into something that it isn’t. I also like how it explores a very realistic science fiction universe. And the entire way the suspense is real and the scary bits are least said terrifying. Great job, plot of “Alien”!

Since this basically is a monster movie, you expect that the majority of the characters will die at some point. The interesting part is though that you don’t want them to bite the dust in this movie. Yeah, these characters aren’t just tasty snacks for the alien in the movie, but they all feel like actual people who you care about, even if they at times are dicks. And the acting is really good in the movie, and it’s great to see that there are so many well known actors here. Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt… we got a great selection of people here. And they all perfectly nail it in the movie!

The score for the movie is about as tense as the story. Yes, I think it’s pretty damn great. It got a lot of subtle tracks which sort of just lie in the background as ambient noise, but then we also got a lot of the tense and action-y tracks which made my heart race. And who do we have to thank for all of this? The combined forces of Jerry Goldsmith and Lionel Newman, that’s who!

This movie is almost 40 years old and the visual effects still hold up brilliantly. And the overall directing is pretty damn fantastic as well, all perfectly orchestrated by Ridley Scott who despite some failures, is one of the greatest directors ever. And of course we have to give some awkward and creeped out love to H.R. Giger who designed the alien in the movie, it is scary and will live on forever as one of the coolest monsters ever. And the sets all look fantastic and oh my god, everything in the technical department is just amazing in this movie! I’m sorry, I can’t help but praise the praise-worthy stuff in this movie, it’s just great in that sense.

This movie has gotten some pretty great reception over the years. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 97% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 83/100. Roger Ebert gave it 4/4 stars and has it on his “Great Movies” list. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,5/10 and is ranked #52 on the “Top 250” list. The movie also won 1 Oscar in the category of Best Visual Effects. It was also nominated for 1 additional Oscar in the category of Best set decoration. 

Guys, “Alien” is one of the first horror movies I remember seeing and actually enjoying. And that memory is now justified with a tense, scary, well acted, perfectly directed movie that also has great sets, visual effects and music. Time for my final score. *Hiss*. My final score for “Alien” is a 9,88/10. It most certainly, without a single doubt gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

“Alien” has now been reviewed.

In Space, no one can hear you scream…

Movie Review: Blade: Trinity (2004)

You know what is funny about today’s review? It is one that takes part of two different “series” of things at once here on my blog. First off, it of course takes part in “The Month of Spooks”. Secondly, it finishes off my series of “Blade” reviews. So basically I am taking out two birds with one stone… How MARVELous.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Blade: Trinity”.

So after being suspected of murder, Blade (Wesley Snipes) is now wanted by the FBI. And at the same time he has joined forces with a group called “The Nightstalkers” to take care of the other problem that Blade currently has in his life. What is that problem? Dracula (Dominic Purcell) has awoken and has to be defeated. Now this actually sounds like it could make for a pretty cool movie. However it basically turns into self-parody and it isn’t very good. Look, I’ve seen far worse executions of plots in movies before, but this is still far worse than the previous movies in the series. It is plain mediocre, even on the edge of becoming bad.

Wesley Snipes is as great as ever as the titular main character. Kris Kristofferson is great as usual. Then we have the new additions that we should talk about. First off I will take Ryan Ryenolds as Hannibal King… he’s fine. He could have been much worse, what makes him less than he could’ve been is the mediocre writing and most of the jokes they give to this quipping son of a bitch. But I guess his performance overall is fine. Next is Jessica Biel as Whistler’s daughter, Abigail. And she is… meh. I’ve never seen her as a great actress and this movie doesn’t really help her case. I have seen worse, but she isn’t that great in the movie. And the final one I wanna talk about is Dominic Purcell as Dracula, or “Drake” as they call him in the movie. I wanna say first off that I found it weird that they cast Purcell as the Lord of the Vampires in this movie. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a pretty good actor (“Prison Break”, anyone?). But here I jsut think he was miscast. I guess he does a fine job with the material he has been given, but I really don’t feel him as the right casting choice in this movie. The acting overall in the movie I would say is fine.

The music for the movie was provided by composer Ramin Djawadi and Wu-Tang Clan member RZA. Now this actually sounds like a cool matchup: The guy who gave us the music to “Prison Break” and “Pacific Rim” together with the guy who did the music for the “Kill Bill” movies. And I have to say that it is really good. As in the first two movies the music is a mix of hip-hop, electronica and aggressive rave music. But they also added in a few orchestral tracks to the mix and it’s actually really good. It fits the movie’s stylish ways and cool action while just being overall great.

This is the second time we switch directors in this franchise and for this one they got David S. Goyer who wrote the first two movies. And while the movie looks great with a lot of cool directing, this is a case of vision gone meh. What I mean is that this movie has the “Style over substance” problem where they focus more on stylish action scenes and badassery rather than a coherent and good plot. But like I said, the action in the movie is really good and entertaining and the visual effects are great as well. So there are a few redeeming features in this movie.

This movie has not been very well received. In fact, people (and critics) did not seem to like this at all. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 25% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 38/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 1,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 5,9/10.

“Blade: Trinity” is not a very good movie. The plot is borderline bad, the acting is fine, the music is really good, the directing is good, the action is awesome and the visual effects are great. Time for my final score. Fucking Vampire Pomeranian. My final score for “Blade: Trinity” is a 6,90/10. While not good, it’s still worth renting.

My review of “Blade: Trinity” is now completed.

I am now finally done with these movies.

Movie Review: Psycho (1960)

Hello and welcome to the next review in “The Month of Spooks”. And for this one we go back in time a little bit. To a time where blood and gore wasn’t as commonplace or even accepted. To a time where most horror movies were kind of not good. So is this supposed “classic” good? Let’s have a look.

Ladies and gentlemen, I may or may not be a… “Psycho”.

A young secretary named Marion Crane (Janet Leigh, R.I.P) steals 40 000 dollars from her boss’ client and goes on the run. One night she pulls into a remote motel run by young man named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins, R.I.P). And from that some weird stuff happens. And you most likely know what kind of weird stuff based on you probably having seen this movie or by simply looking at the title of the movie. And I’m not gonna lie, despite the predictable idea of the story I was still caught off guard. The story is very suspenseful and has a pretty damn great end twist which I will not spoil if you somehow have not seen this movie. Let’s just say that it’s weird, comes out of nowhere and is pretty great. I would say that the plot overall for this movie is pretty great.

The characters in the movie are pretty well rounded for 1960. Come on, let’s face it… while a lot of movies had good or even great acting back then, the characters were often pretty flat. But here we get some interesting and pretty rounded characters. And of course the acting is pretty damn great. And let’s only really focus on who the movie is mainly about, Norman Bates. Anthony Perkins is amazing in the role as this character with a lot of mannerisms and quirks that might be difficult to do without making it forced or terrible. But Perkins nails it and does a fantastic job in this movie. Everybody is good, but Perkins is amazing.

The score for “Psycho” was provided by Bernard Herrmann who also did the score for “Taxi Driver”. And just like in that movie, the score for this movie is pretty damn great and perfectly captures the feeling of the movie. The fright, the terror and the suspense. All of those things are captured in the heavily string-based score. And it is all terrific!

Spot the Hitchcock! That’s right, this movie was directed by Alfred Hitchcock which means two things. First off, try to spot him in his mandatory cameo. And secondly, this movie looks fantastic with some amazing angles which only he could achieve… I think. To be honest I have not really seen anything other from him than “The Birds” and I think I was 12 when I saw that. But still, I think this movie looks fantastic and is more well directed than a lot of modern movies.

This has been praised as one of the greatest movies ever if you didn’t already know that. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a score of 96% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it doesn’t even exist (yet they have the shitty remake on there). Roger Ebert gave the movie 4/4 stars and has it on his “Great Movies” list. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,6/10 and is ranked #35 on the “Top 250” list. The movie was also nominated for 4 Oscars in the categories of Best Supproting Actress (Leigh), Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Set Decoration. 

“Psycho” is a movie that in my opinion has really earned it’s legendary reputation as a great movie. It has a great and suspenseful plot, brilliant acting, fantastic music and fantastic directing. Time for my final score. *COUGH*. My final score for “Psycho” is a 9,84/10. It definitely gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Psycho” is now completed.

We all go a little mad sometimes…

Great Music #5

What’s up guys? How are you doing this lovely day? I personally am doing great. Time for me to jsut share a song I really like that I am currently listening to. And this time it is the cool song “Ride Like The Wind” by the rock band Saxon. I don’t know, I just think it’s pretty cool and is just an overall great rock song in my opinion.
Enjoy.

Movie Review: The Mist (2007)

What’s up, people? Time to continue “The Month of Spooks” with another frightening movie review. And it is the second time we are taking a look at a movie based on a story by author Stephen King. Now let’s not stand around and make fools of ourselves, let us move on to the review!

Ladies and gentlemen, do not enter… “The Mist”.

This movie follows artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) as he and a bunch of other people get stuck in a supermarket because of a mysterious mist that brings out a lot of blood-thirsty creatures. So now they have to try to defend themselves inside of the supermarket. They have no idea what’s causing the mist and they have no idea where the creatures come from, all they know is that they have to survive. And was this survival story well executed? Yeah, I’d say so. Once again it is one of those situations of the idea not being original, but maybe the execution is done well enough. And I thought it was good. Not great, but good. I don’t know what to say really. I guess I can say that I thought it was pretty tense and suspenseful at times and I have to say that the ending is pretty tragic and maybe the best aspect of the plot. So yeah, good plot.

The characters in the movie are pretty much cookie cutter Stephen King characters. You have the main character dad who does art of some kind, you have the child, you have the elderly black guy, the religious nut and feel free to check off this list on your own. But how is the acting? It’s… good, I guess. Thomas Jane plays the main character of the movie and he does a fine job as the guy… except when he has to do somethign emeotional, then he kind of sucks. But I didn’t expect too much from him since I’ve never considered him that great of an actor. Andre Braugher plays the elderly black guy in the movie and he does a good job. The child actor who plays Jane’s son does a fine job, I have seen both worse and better child performances before, so I don’t feel that this kid adds or detracts anything from the movie. What was kind of fun though with the actors in this movie was how I saw a good amount of people who would later be in “The Walking Dead” which director Frank Darabont had a hand in. Jeffrey DeMunn, Laurie Holden, Melissa McBride and Sam Witwer all appear in this movie at some point and that was fun seeing since i like “The Walking Dead”. Anyway, that derailed a little bit. Uhm… acting was fine and the characters were meh.

The score for the movie was provided by Mark Isham and I have to say that so far it is the best part of the movie. It isn’t something I can see myself listening to again, but it’s definitely a good score that really fit the movie. And to be honest, there wasn’t really anything sticking out except for one track called “The Host of Seraphim” which appeared near the end of the movie. Every other tracks in the score was fine, but that track is, no joke, fucking amazing. Held up by an eerie & slowly building backing note and the gorgeous vocals of Lisa Gerrard, it is one of the reasons why the score for the movie holds the movie up so well. That track is just amazing and the score overall is pretty good.

Okay, so far the plot has been fine, the acting fine and the score good, but is there something great about the movie? Yes there is… the camerawork is pretty damn great. It perfectly fits the eerie and a little creepy mood this movie conveys and actually manages to capture some pretty great shots. And I have to say that some of the writing in the movie was pretty great, and I am mainly talking about certain pieces of dialogue. And something I noticed early on in the movie which is kind of cool is that we see Thomas Jane working on a painting/poster which appears to be Roland from Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” books. As a fan of those books I just kind of thought that was a cool little easter egg.

This movie has gotten pretty good reception. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 73% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 58/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 2/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,2/10.

“The Mist” is a real mixed bag of a movie. It has a decent story, decent acting, good music and fantastic camera work/directing. Time for my final score. Woaw, look at all that mist. What’s that in the mist? Wait, is that… Jeff? Oh my god, Jeff. Where have you been, asshole? Screw it! Do you have something for me? *Jeff gives envelope and disappears into the mist*. My final score for “The Mist” is a 7,99/10. I think it’s worth a rental.

My review of “The Mist” is now completed.

Hearing Toby Jones tell someone to shut the fuck up is just magical.

Movie Review: Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the continuation of “The Month of Spooks”. Time to review another horror movie… something that is the basic plan of this little “month” of mine. Thinking about it, maybe I should start it a little earlier and plan it out a little better for next year. Anyhow, time for a horror movie… yeah.

Ladies and gents, be ready to climb… “Jacob’s Ladder”.

Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) has an okay life working as a postman and living with his girlfriend Jezzie (Elizabeth Peña). However he is not a perfect everyday man. First off, he is in grief over his young son (Macaulay Culkin) who died and he is also beginning to have terrible flashbacks about his time in Vietnam. Also, he bgins seeing terrible and terrifying creatures and other things. So Jacob has to try to figure out what the hell is going on, why this is happening and also find a way to get out of it. And not only was the plot very well told, but it was also pretty scary. To be honest, the movie isn’t a straight-up horror movie, but it is also a drama/psychological thriller. And I do think that those aspects helps improve upon the movie. I also love the deep symbolism in the movie, it’s all really cool. Also, if a movie can mentally mess me up, that is pretty great. I guess I would say that this movie left the same type of psychological impact on me as “Enemy” did, and you guys probably know I loved that movie.

The characters are all flawed in some manner of speaking and they are all very interesting. Sure, not many of them get a lot of screen time, but that is still compensated for by great writing and excellent acting. Tim Robbins is fantastic as our broken and haunted protagonist. This is definitely one of the best performances I have seen him give. Sure, I haven’t seen too many Tim Robbins performances, but it’s still fuckin’ great. And Elizabeth Peña was great as his girlfriend. Everybody was great. No weak performances.

The score for “Jacob’s Ladder” was provided by composer Maurice Jarre. And you guys should know by now that I love Maurice Jarre. Every score I have heard from that man is somewhere between great and amazing in my opinion. And the score for this movie was not different at all, it is another welcome addition into Jarre’s discography. It is thought-provoking, it is beautiful and it is quite eerie. It really did fit the a horror movie/psychological thriller so it’s great that this movie is such a movie. Again, it’s by Maurice Jarre and I love basically everything by him.

The shots in this movie look pretty damn great. It was directed by Adrian Lyne who also made “Flashdance”. And he did a fantastic job with it. Also, he achieved some pretty fucking creepy and even scary things in the movie. One example is how he managed to create that scary “Shaking head” effect. Seriously, the way he achieved that without resorting to computers is simply amazing because that effect is some of the scariest shit I have ever seen in a movie.

This movie has been pretty well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 69% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 62/100. Roger Ebert gave it 3,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,5/10.

“Jacob’s Ladder” is a horror movie with a very deep and symbolic plot, fantastic acting, terrific music, great directing and it is actually really scary. Time for my final score. *Cough cough*. My final score for “Jacob’s Ladder” is a 9,85/10. It most definitely gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

“Jacob’s Ladder” is now reviewed.

I need more Tim Robbins in my life.

My Favorite Scenes: Zombieland – Opening Credits

Guys, guys, guys! Hi. I hope you guys are good and I welcome you back to “My Favorite Scenes”, the thing where I share my favorite scenes from movies and tv. And this time we are sharing something that can technically tie in to “The Month of Spooks” even though that wasn’t the original intention. In fact, it kind of did that on accident. A happy accident mind you, but an accident none the less. Still, for this edition of “My Favorite Scenes” we are talking about the very openign credits or opening titles if you’re one of those people of, to the movie “Zombieland”. For those of you who don’t know, “Zombieland” is a 2009 horror-comedy starring Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson as two survivors in a zombie apocalypse. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend that you do it because it works both as a suspenseful zombie movie and a hilarious comedy. Anyway, opening credits. These are some of the coolest openign credits I have ever seen. First off, the shots of total chaos are gorgeously shot with some very well handled slow motion. Secondly, they are really funny showing the chaos that the zombies create. And third, the sequence is set to “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by Metallica, a song (and band) that I absolutely love. So yeah, these openign credits are kind of perfect in my opinion.
Enjoy!

Movie Review: Carrie (1976)

Hello guys, welcome to “The Month of Spooks”! The time here in October where I review some horror movies. I know that it might be a little bit late to start with that shit in the late half of October, but I am an idiot so that is why we get it now. But hey, better late than ever. Anyway, the movie of today was suggested by Peggy over at the blog peggyatthemovies.com which I highly recommend if you want high quality movie (and TV) stuff. Now that we have gotten that little plug out of the way, let’s move on to the review.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would really like you to meet… “Carrie”.

Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a very shy and quiet girl who does not have the best of lives. First off, her mom (Piper Laurie) is a real fire & brimstone type of religious nut who really tries to dominate and have full control over Carrie’s life. Second, the other girls at her school bully her to no end and they are some of the worst people I have ever seen on screen. Seriously, those girls and Tommy from “The Butterfly Effect” are my picks for the biggest pieces of shit in cinematic history. Anyway, when Carrie has all of these problems she discovers that she has telekinesis. And from that we get a very interesting and pretty well presented, if a little sloppy plot. I’m not gonna say that it’s terrifying, but it’s definitely creepy and has an uneasy atmosphere. However there are moments of the story that I would call sloppy and it takes away a little from it. So I would say the plot is pretty good if a bit sloppy.

The characters like I said are some of the biggest pieces of shit ever. Except for Carrie, she is a very sweet girl who I just wanna hug and then tell her “It’s gonna be okay”. And Sissy Spacek gives a great performance as this shy, scared and damaged girl. I would say that everybody gave great performances, even young John Travolta (Yep, he’s in this movie).

The score for the movie was composed by Pino Donaggio and I think it was pretty freaking great. It is beautiful, creepy and is very well-composed. It is heavily based in stringed instruments and piano which is really fun to hear, especially since it turned out to be as great as it is.

This movie was directed by Brian De Palma and he did a pretty fantastic job with the directing. The shots look great and there are a lot of gorgeous long takes and tracking shots that were just pure eye candy. I do think that no one could have done it better than De Palma, this is really his movie. And without any major spoilers for the people who might not have seen this, I have to say that the finale is one of the most bittersweet but still relieving finales ever. Is there some kind of comeuppance given to the assholes? Yeah and it is both amazing and kind of “Well that’s kind of terrible”. But it was still glorious and the very ending actually scared me in a way. You who have seen it know what the hell I am talking about.

This is a very well-received movie. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 92% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it doesn’t even exist. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it got a score of 7,4/10. “Carrie” was also nominated for 2 Oscars in the categories of Best Actress (Spacek) and Best Supporting Actress (Piper Laurie). 

“Carrie” is a very creepy horror movie with a very uneasy atmosphere with a good but still a little sloppy plot, great acting, great music, fantastic directing and an awesome final act. Time for my final score. BOO! My final score for “Carrie” is an 8,74/10. I do think it’s still worth buying.

My review of “Carrie” is now completed.

“The Month of Spooks” is on.

Series Review: Bosch – Season 1 (2015)

With VOD (Video on Demand) becoming as big as it is right now, it’s not that surprising that those types of platforms would start putting out their own content. The supreme ruler at this time when it comes to VOD original content is Netflix with it’s god knows how many subscribers and the amount of shit they have put out. But then we see Amazon starting to put out a lot of stuff in their name. I mean, later this month we will get their new show “The Man in The High Castle” based on the novel by Philip K. Dick. Anyway, let’s have a look at one of Amazon’s shows.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to… “Bosch”.

“Bosch” is based on a series of books by Michael Connelly and is about LAPD detective Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver). We follow Harry as he tries to solve the murder of a 13 year old boy while at the same time standing trial for murdering a serial killer. And while this sounds like any ol’ crime novel/show, I gotta say that I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the plot of “Bosch”. Not only is it surprisingly enjoyable, but it even manages to have some good twists in the show combined with some genuinely good suspenseful moments. There were even one or two moments that made me go “Oh shit” which I don’t do too often. So good on you “Bosch”, your plot is good.

What I like about the character of the show is that they are consistently entertaining, thanks to a really sharp script and some damn fine performances. Titus Welliver fucking nails it as Harry. Now to be fair, I have not read any of the books so I can’t really compare the characters in the show and say if that’s how I expected them to look/be like. But I can at least say that the actors are really good. The only other character I want to mention is the sort of main villain of 99% of the season, Raynard Waits (Jason Gedrick). I have to say that he was a really good villain, being a perfect challenge for our hero and his colleagues. Not only that, but he is also one of the creepiest bastards I have ever witnessed on television. Great job, Gedrick, you fucking nailed it! Everybody nailed it, even the writers!

The score for the show was composed by Jesse Voccia and I do think he did a great job with it. Have I heard better thriller soundtracks? Yes, of course I have, but I do still think this one was really good. It was suspenseful, it was well-composed and it overall fit the show splendidly. I also like the mix of licensed tracks they had in the show. We mostly get jazz because that is what the character of Harry Bosch seems to enjoy listening to. But there is also some rock, blues and other genres. And the song “Can’t Let Go” by Caught a Ghost is pretty great too.

This show in my opinion got some pretty great cinematography. It gives it a pretty gritty and almsot real feeling that makes it really fun to watch. And each episode is splendidly directed. And thew occasional action scenes in the show I think are pretty good too. And of course I have to talk about the opening credits… they are fucking amazing, I absolutely love them. Check them out… HERE!

“Bosch” has been pretty well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes the season has a 72% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 71/100. And on imdb.com the show has a score of 8,3/10.

“Bosch” is a crime show with a surprisingly good plot, great characters & acting, a great soundtrack, terrific directing and great cinematography. Time for my final score. *Cough cough*. My final score for season 1 of “Bosch” is a 9,85/10. It definitely gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

Review of season 1 of “Bosch” is completed.

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