PyroPlasmX

First I have to say that I'm a fan of some lower budget movies. To me very few filmmakers make it big without first going through making a low budget/independent movie. Paranoia is just one of those low budget/independent movies.

The film stars Brad Jones, who does movie reviews online as The Cinema Snob, along with several other people who appear in his online videos including his wife Jillian. Brad plays Mark, a writer who has just had his wife leave him and begins to have a very surreal night.

The problem with a thriller is you really have to build up tension and make the audience anxious about what's going to happen next. I feel that this movie does a good job of accomplishing that. As Mark goes through his night he meets up with a few people and doesn't quite know what to make of the whole situation. Add to that the fact that the news is reporting that there is a killer on the loose in his town.

The movie starts off a bit slow and builds up towards the inevitable climax. Now I won't give away the end of the movie but I had to say I didn't completely see it coming and it's rare that a movie's ending can genuinely surprise me.

I've said what's good about this movie so what's the bad? Well obviously since this is a low budget movie what effects are there aren't that good and while Brad's acting is quite good you can see that most everyone else hasn't acted that much before. I have to say that I think the most wooden performance goes to Brian Irving who plays the character of Carl. Sarah Lewis who plays Mark's wife does a good job even though most of her scenes are pretty short and her husband Brian Lewis plays a pretty convincing cop. Brad's wife Jillian plays a waitress and has some good emotional scenes and makes it believable. But again when you are making a low budget movie and filling it with your friends not everyone is going to be a seasoned actor but it doesn't hurt the movie and I have to say I've seen movies with acting so bad you can't even watch it.

Now as of this review there are two versions of this movie. There is the original version that was released on DVD and there is the Writer's Cut. Brad Jones wrote the movie but wasn't the director and didn't have final cut so in the original cut there's a lot of foreshadowing to the ending as well as the repeated use of the word paranoia. The Writer's Cut changes the movie to black and white, adds some songs to the soundtrack and removes the use of the word as well as some of the foreshadowing. I have to say if you are going to watch just one version of the movie go to The Cinema Snob website and watch the writer's cut.

I have heard that Brad's next movie will be a comedy based on his Cinema Snob character however I hope that when he's done with that he'll try another non-comedic movie because this was a good solid effort.

I just saw this movie at a free preview screening and thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. The movie had plenty of really good laughs and some good warmhearted moments. Pixar has show that they would rather put out a couple really good movies over a few years then 10 half-decent movies a year.

One of the things you'll notice first about this movie is there are no humans whatsoever. You have to suspend your belief for a bit as you enter a world where everything from cars to blimps and helicopters are alive. But the filmmakers do such a good job enveloping you in that world that you don't even notice.

Another great thing about the movie is the little touches. Like the fact that the little bugs flying around are actually tiny little Volkswagen Beetles. The detail on the cars themselves isn't up to the standards of something like The Incredibles but the scenery is just gorgeous. You see these beautiful landscapes that just seem so real and seem to go on for miles. But thankfully the cars blend in well with everything else and don't look out of place.

All of the voice acting in the movie was superb. Owen Wilson does a great job in his first voice acting job. I think this really says something because he has a huge amount of dialog in the movie. When it comes to the voices there wasn't one that stole the show like Ellen in Finding Nemo but Larry the Cable Guy did a fantastic job as Mater. He has some of the funniest lines in the movie and they also managed to work in all of his catchphrases. I would also like to add that the casting of Cheech Marin as a low rider and George Carlin as a hippie Volkswagen Microbus are perfect.

I would recommend this movie to anyone that has children and anyone who has enjoyed any of the previous Pixar movies. Also if you are a bit of a car nut like me you'll enjoy it just to see the personalities of each of the cars. I give this movie a 9 out of 10 and it ranks up there with the best Pixar has done to date.

I do enjoy the classic WrestleMania's. But this one was not that good from start to finish. First you have to look at the fact that they only sold about 16,000 tickets and had to move the event to a smaller arena. Then they called it the largest Pay-Per-View audience in history despite the fact the buy rates were pretty bad.

As far as the matches go there were none that really stand out in my mind as classics. In fact Demolition vs Tenryu & Kitao is one of the worst WrestleMania matches of all time. The Savage vs. Warrior match is called a classic and it did have some good momentum changes but the Warrior required someone to give him a good match but Savage wasn't the guy to do that. The Mr. Perfect match was decent but it's hard to pull a good match when you are facing a man as big as Big Boss Man.

Finally there is the main event of Sgt. Slaughter vs. Hulk Hogan. I think by this time people were getting a little bored with Hogan in WrestleMania. The story for this match wasn't very good and the actual match itself was kinda boring. Had I seen this back in 1991 I would have loved but it now I realize that there are many better WrestleMania's than this one.