tim_yellow

Some of you may remember the remake of this one from the late 80's. I'm not too fond of the remake, OR of Shawnee Smith, but i also thought the original would be better. After all, being a huge William Castle fan, i haven't come across a movie yet that didn't leave my jaw dropped. It's too bad what with the premise behind "I Saw What You Did" that it didn't come out as good as it could have been. The movie itself isn't the best example of what Castle was, the music....is awful. As like my big problem with Scream 2(besides it's Scooby-Doo like ending),the music in "I Saw What You Did" seems to be too out of sorts. It's very up tempo and jazzy but doesn't help to create any thrill or excitement. It's disappointing because this one has SO MUCH potential to scare prank-crazy kids out of their wits. The music REALLY destroys any kind of scare and ends up making it feel like cheap exploitation. The perk to this film is the end clincher, as Castle seems to be great at, it isn't exactly jaw-dropping...but i guarantee you won't say "I SAW THAT COMING".....

I just recently saw "the Fluffer" this weekend. I'd read many positive reviews of the film but came to gather a different feeling from watching it. Most movies with the words "coming of age story" on the back are usually hints that the lead character will go through many situations and we'll see them develope into their "new self" by the end. However, by the end of this movie i didn't feel like i knew anything more about the main character Sean. The movie starts off well, as we see Sean become more and more obsessed with gay-for-pay porn star Johnny Rebel, but somewhere in the near middle it begins to spiral into too many directions. I had a hard time figuring out who was the main character after a while, Johnny or Sean?

Writer Wash West(moreland), better known for adult titles, begins to lose track also. It's not a bad debut for an adult writer and those of us who have been through the same situation as Sean will see a good portrayal of how it feels to love someone who doesn't love you back. The main problem is that Sean is as ambiguous of a character as Rebel, and it soon seems that his whole problem is in him and not his situation with Johnny. If this film was about that, it would be great...but it's not. The character depth and film direction is lacking, just as how commonly it lacks in adult films,which is a kind of an ironic trait to the film.

Bottom line: performances are very good, the movie is entertaining but the writing lacks some direction. If it were an actual adult film, it would be the most dramatic one i've ever seen.

i have to admit, amongst all the overabundance of reality shows and reality rip-offs i.e. Blair Witch Project; Series 7; The ST. Francisville Experiment..i more than expected, i automatically assumed, that $LA$HER$ would be completely a waste of time after reading it's review in Fango. I mean, with lame character names like PREACHER MAN and CHAINSAW CHARLIE, i was sure this was going to be as horrible, if not worse than, THE DEAD HATE THE LIVING. However, i came across a screener and sat down to watch it less than 3 hours ago and was surprisingly impressed. As a whole, the movie isn't the best thing i've ever seen but it had some unexpected charisma (one being the commercial break situations).With the exception of Chainsaw Charlie, who could possibly be a descendant of Jar Jar Binks, the villians or slashers, if you will, were at times over the top but not too annoying. The story played out quite frantically and the actual contestants weren't bad actors at all. Don't get me wrong, i don't see OSCAR knocking on any of their doors for this one, but they were pretty good for a B-movie cast. What i found to be the best part of $LA$HER$ was the fact that it focused on the characters more than the actual hunting. Most B-movies attempt to do this to keep their films from being gorey fluff, but fail because the dialogue is as bad as the frights. This one captured something special though, perhaps it was because there weren't many stereotypical characters. All the blue prints were there to elaborate on, but instead we see these characters for who they are through their stories told in between being hunted. They could have had the "token" personalities but they didn't. The writing could use some touch ups, but for a B-movie it's better than most. Who knows, you may watch this movie and totally hate it. Maybe, ultimately, i'll be the only one that considers $LA$HER$ a few notches above the usual camp. That's fine by me.