Train to Busan

Train to Busan is one of those films that I do not know how I got by without seeing it, as it is one of the more talked about zombie survival movies. Released in 2016 it is a South Korean film that is presented with English subtitles for those that cannot check off speaks Korean on their job application. A father and daughter board a train to visit their wife/mother who lives in Busan, while they are getting on the train another person has boarded at the last minute unknowing to the porters and that person is infected. Eventually all hells breaks loose on the train as the zombies start increasing in numbers rapidly. Together the father and daughter team also connect with a husband and his pregnant wife as they fight their way to a safe car and try to come to terms with what is occuring around them. Of course along their journey to Busan there are obstacles to overcome such as a false sense of security stop along the way, which just picks off more of the survivors and brings on a bigger hoard of zombies. What I enjoyed most about this film is outside of a few times when the train goes through tunnels, it all takes place during the day where many of these zombie films its at night time, this allows us to see the action, have a larger sense of realism and it allows for the unique strategy that tunnel hopping provides. I am going to be front out honest and say I have no clue who any of the actors are, I am sure those better versed in South Korean films may recognize some, I think a couple were in Parasite don't hold me to that. Overall I did enjoy it quite a bit, maybe not to the extent some have raved about, for me there are a couple times that it felt a little dragged, I mean how many different ways can you fight through a zombie filled train car. The effects and creature designs worked well, for me they stand out enough from other zombie films, my favorite though [Spoiler Alert] was the deer that gets hit at the beginning of the film ad how it pulls its self back up and walks off, I want that story I want a family hiking in the woods that come across this zombie infested deer. But now that comes to a plot problem I found, the guy hits the deer, kills it and it comes back to life. Does this imply like the beginning of the movie that there was a chemical leak of some kind is it in the water or airborne, if so why does it spread through human bites, did the first human eat the deer or drink the water the deer did. Always had that problem with zombies, you can get covered in the blood and let them grunt and drool over you while you keep from being bit, but none of that outside from actually being bit will infect you. From a survivability stand point, the actors on the train are getting about as much information as the audience, except the audience we know there is something out there and we know a stranger is on the train. These are regular people thrust into the situation and having to adapt as they go and learn about their enemy, making mistakes along the way and some being life ending bad decisions. Its also shown how in a situation it will go from everyone helping each other to starting to form survival groups and the every person for themselves mentality. There is a sequel that is coming out soon and I don't know I watched the trailer, not that excited to me it seems they are putting themselves at risk to go out into the infested world where this one it was they found themselves unknowingly trapped and its looks like to goes into more of the zombie tropes that this first one avoided, I'll still see it if I have the opportunity in theaters being the completionist that I am if not I'll catch on VOD.

Shark Season

We are in the middle of 2020's shark week, you know what that means, time for the shark attack movies to come out. This year you have the lovely selection of Shark Season or Deep Blue Sea 3 (which I have pre-ordered the DVD version to go with my physical collection of the other two and will discuss that one when I received it). Let's look at Shark Season produced by the wonderful people over at The Asylum and no their visual effects department have not progressed any since the last Sharknado. A photographer (Jack Pearson) is planning on doing a photo shoot on location at a remote newly formed island with his model (Paige McGarvin) and Juliana Destefano , who will be doing the makeup for the shoot. The three set out on kayak to their island on the outskirts of Florida Bay, except there is a massive great white shark, I mean its The Asylum you could not expect them to be more generic with the type of shark. Thanks to a totally phoned in, almost literally, performance by Michael Madsen, seriously he's in a room on the phone pretty much every time he is on screen. Side track on the subject of the phone, that is how I knew what movie this was going to be because early on their is a phone call between Madsen and McGarvin, where she obviously thinks she is face timing him and he obviously thinks he's just voice calling her. You see there are two kinds of these when nature attacks movie their is the large studio production such as The Shallows versus this which is made by a small company like The Asylum which I feel like they purposely try to be the worst version possible of the type of movie they want to make. Because let's see I am sorry I will not be kind on this one, the main actors are horrible, the camera cut from on location stunt kayaks to the performers up close obviously on a stage is laughable as is the cuts from b-roll shark footage to the badly bland looking CG shark. I struggled to maintain my focus to get through this movie, the script is horrible and with inexperienced actresses trying to pull off the distress and emotional weight of their situation is just comes off dull and I found myself drifting to my cell phone until the shark makes its appearance. I honestly can not think of any reason you should spend good money on renting this, it is available currently through at least VUDU and Amazon Prime with option to rent or purchase, there are plenty of other shark thrillers out there that if you want to spend money on will give you at least some edge of your seat intensity and life or death stakes for the characters where these girls I felt myself wanting the shark to finally get its meal.

The Pool

     A man in a pool with a damsel in distress, a dog on a leash and a crocodile. The Pool is a movie from Thailand that came out in 2018, yes, that means it is in Thai and you have to read subtitles if you want to watch this. No spoilers if you look below at the poster or google the trailer, everything I mentioned is there, I won't spoil how the two of them get into the pool, well, three if you count the crocodile. Regardless the two find themselves trapped at the bottom of a ridiculously deep diving pool that has a huge design flaw of no built in ladders, the "6" on the poster if you can't read the foreign language that part translates to 6 meters or almost 20 feet, however the pool does feature a nicely sized drainage system. Unable to scale the massive tile walls things get worse when a crocodile slips into the pool and conveniently likes to lay in the worst possible locations when things need to get done. Adding to the tension of trying to save his girlfriend from their predicament is that his dog is chained above the pool. 
     I wandered upon this movie by being in my new state of wanting to watch more survival movies wandering over to see what Shudder had available and this popped up, figured sure why not lets try it. It has your survival aspects of making poor decisions, instant reacting instead of thinking decisions through and what the poster does not show you is how CG the crocodile actually is. The premise is different, being trapped in a man made location versus on a mountain or in a cave, there are a couple times I had to look away at injuries that are incurred when trying escape the confines of this tiled cell. Outside of the crocodile needing a little more finesse it has a realistic feel and as the days go on the characters and the environment so deterioration well. My main problem with the movie outside of the crocodile look is there is a story element put into play with the couple that feels placed for dramatic tension and to heighten their emotions of being trapped together and up the stakes for survival, however I just did not care about that at all the way I think the filmmakers intended it to. If your into survival horror, enjoy watching people trapped in unforgiving locations or just enjoy anything that they toss a crocodile into then you might have a nice evening at home streaming this. I wouldn't have suggested back in 2018 to see this in theaters most likely, it does work on a streaming platform like Shudder perfectly. 

Yes, God, Yes

You may recognize the lead actress, Natalia Dyer from her role as Nancy Wheeler in Netflix’s Stranger Things. Here she is a teenager in the early 2000’s which is pretty clear thanks to the wonderful trip down memory lane of the AOL system and chat rooms. Dyer’s character of Alice attends a catholic school and decides to go on a catholic retreat with the school in the midst of her discovering sexuality. That is it pretty much in a nutshell seeing her awkwardly and unnerving at times experiencing things for the first time while witnessing it is not just herself that has these feelings that everyone is saying will send you to hell. Dyer fits the role perfectly with her almost mousy youthful appearance and portrays nervousness through he facial expressions. There were times that I did feel uncomfortable as this is a not intimate, but, close look at a girl discovering self sexual stimulation. This is a movie that will definitely not be for everyone, those with daughters at that age of discovery or even actual girls going through the process of sexual awareness will probably get some underlying take away from this, it could also go the opposite way depending on your family or religious belief structure and create a bigger divide on beliefs. 

Black Water: Abyss

There is one genre that I have a guilty pleasure for that I will always watch whatever comes out regardless and that is survival horror, specifically when its nature related. In 2007 a movie came out called Black Water about a group that gets terrorized by a crocodile in the mangrove swamps of Australia. Now we get the next movie in the line up, much like the follow up movies to Open Water and 43 Meters Down this one has nothing to do with the original movie except for the environment and/or creature trying to kill them. In this case its a crocodile again, this time a group of five are going to explore an unknown cave, yup, did not tell anyone they were going. When torrential rains they thought were not going to affect them hit the area while they are in the cave system it begins to flood the cave and force of the water pushes rocks across their only exit point. Finding themselves trapped underground in an unknown cave with the water steadily rising, oh and there is a killer crocodile in the water that has nothing better to do than wait until they get in its territory. Much like the other examples I referenced this one is no where near as good as the first one, I actually liked Black Water quite a bit because it was outdoors with most of it happening in daylight which this one goes the usual route going for dark and confined areas with the ability to try to unsettle you by having a flashlight shine across the creature hunting them. Black Water also took place in the mangrove trees along a river in Australia, lot of these movies take place in Australia lately, anyways it works well with my mangrove logo. This was at from being the best and no where near the worst that I have seen, I recently watched Outback that is pretty up there in terms of the worst, a lot of my ranking for this would be the amount of times characters make stupid choices. I don’t think this is worth the price of rental or purchase, though if it wanders onto a streaming platform you subscribe to an also find guilty pleasure as I do in watching people in situations far worse than your in then I’d say go ahead click on it a night you have a little bit of time to waste and don’t want to watch something taxing on the brain. Now to get ready for Deep Blue Sea 3 and yes it is a real thing.

AAR - Eyes Wide Shut

After Action Report

Date: 08/03/2020

Title: Eyes Wide Shut

Location: Enzian Theater

It has been around twenty years since I last saw Eyes Wide Shut which was back in 1999 when it came out. I remember going to the theater back then to see this and it was for the same reason I think many guys went because Nicole Kidman gets naked and there’s a secret sex cult in the film. That is what I recall remembering about the film and now revisiting it at Enzian during their Stanley Kubrick week is yup it has a lot of nudity in it though this time around decades have passed and with time now able to see beyond it just being about naked women. How Tom Cruise reacts to Nicole Kidman’s story of the navy man at the hotel and how she talks about the way women are seen by many men. Kubrick brings a stylizing and gravitas to the film that heightens the film to keep it from being in the “skinamax” lineup of straight to cable soft porn titles. Also at 159 minutes it is a rather long movie if your just looking for some exposed women, what was I thinking when I was younger? It is very long though it never feels weighted down or sluggish as slowly more and more is unraveled, though one of the audience members when we were leaving told his friend that it was so long he felt that it was Christmas time by now. I would say though it still is not one of my favorite Kubrick films, I am sure if I had the time to sit through it a half dozen more times to pick up on little nuisances and themes  it may elevate it. I think it’s a movie that many going into long term relationships or have been in should experience together to understand how the other may be feeling or how one slip can come back around later to do more damage.