Nick7080 Reviews

The Guest (I) (2014)

Awesome, badass movie!

[21 November 2014]

This movie kicks ass, and that's the best way to describe it in few words. Definitely one of the best movies i seen in last few years.

Great soundtrack, i specially liked song Anthonio by Annie which made already good scene from the movie into great scene. Score is also great, very John Carpenter-like and it sure does sounds like some scores from his 1980's movies. Acting by everyone is good and there is no bad actor in the movie. Dan Stevens as David is just amazing and very creepy in his role as mysterious guest. Direction is good and it has certain style, just like cinematography. While it's not action packed movie, it has some really good action bits which are well filmed and without any shaky-cam BS. There are also some nice tense moments, not just in action scenes but throughout the movie, which specially works in slasher-horror-like finale. As for violence in the movie, there are no scenes with whole bunch of gore but this is still violent and R rated thriller with actual blood squibs and other gory effects, and not some CG blood.

I can definitely see lot of nods to 1980's movies, just look at Halloween masks in final scene, they are the same ones used in Halloween 3, then there is also a gun used by characters in final scene, it's the same gun that Donald Pleasence has in Halloween 4. And just like some other people have said, entire story is kinda like combination of First Blood (soldier returns from war and he has changed mentally), Terminator (unstoppable cyborg-like killer) and Halloween (psycho killer on the loose and his doctor, in this case Major Carver, chases after him and tries to stop him). I sure would love to see this turned into new Halloween series, with David being like Michael Myers and Major Carver as Dr. Loomis. But on its own, movie is still great and i wouldn't mind if they don't do any sequels. Maybe some people have problems with ending but i think it was quite a surprise and another nice homage to old slasher movies. If you seen the movie and you are a fan of slashers, then you know what i mean.

And one of the best things about the movie, it's 90-some minutes long, it doesn't have bunch of unnecessary subplots and all the other BS, and it has some nice dark humour, my favorite "funny" bit is in certain scene where song "Because I Love You" plays.

In the end, i love this movie 100%, it's my favorite of 2014, i would love to see more of these type of movies in the future. Despite its limited release and success, critics and audience gave the movie lot of praise and i sure as hell agree with them.

Cobra (1986)

Stallone's most badass character and movie

[21 November 2014]

You think Rambo is a badass? Marion "Cobra" Cobretti is THE most badass police and Stallone character that ever appeared on movie screen.

From more serious movies of Sylvester Stallone's filmography, Nighthawks and First Blood are my absolute favorites, but when it comes to fun and hardcore action, Rambo: First Blood Part 2 and Cobra are two Stallone movies that i love and always will.

Unfortunately, just like my favorite Stallone movie Nighthawks, Cobra was also HEAVILY cut by Stallone, Warner Bros studio and MPAA. Original cut was over 2 hours long and while i might wouldn't mind all the plot and character scenes that were cut, i can't help but to notice the way how action and other violent scenes are castrated thanks to the MPAA and their impossible demands. But still, while it's one thing that i don't like i still think that it's very fun movie that would probably be even better if it gets re-released in its original, hardcore version.

Nighthawks (1981)

My favorite Stallone movie

[21 November 2014]

My absolute favorite Stallone movie followed very close by First Blood and Cobra, and my favorite Rutger Hauer movie along with The Hitcher.

Stallone plays Deke DaSilva, New York cop who gets an assignment to be part of special police force whose job is to catch Wulfgar, brutal terrorist played by Hauer.

Wulfgar is in New York where he wants to cause some havoc and impress his old partners and bosses in world of terrorism. DaSilva and his partner must stop him before he does that.

VERY underrated and sadly overlooked at the time of it's release, today Nighthawks is cult movie that has lot of fans.

It's also worth mentioning that this movie was originally lot longer and bloodier, before Universal studios heavily cut the movie and removed great deal of plot and most of the violence, then the MPAA did the rest of the job by demanding even more cuts to be made which made what was at one point very brutal and violent thriller into average movie which thankfully still got recognition over the years and many fans which would definitely love to see special edition of it.

Vanishing Point (1971)

Excellent movie!

[14 October 2013]

I have been in love with this movie ever since i was kid. When i first saw trailer on TV with beautiful white Challenger speeding over the road, i knew that this is the movie that i will like.

From the opening scene with small desert town early in the morning, through car chases and great,bizarre characters that main hero meets on his journey, i simply couldn't get enough of the movie. Barry Newman plays Kowalski with great attitude as silent, otherworldly-like guy who drives for one reason; because he can.

He doesn't really need a reason to get to San Francisco inside 15 hours, he just wants another challenge. Maybe he is adrenaline junkie, or somebody who wants to pay back to the system that took his life apart? It doesn't really matter, cause entire time that he spends on lonely desert roads, being chased by cops he becomes hero for people like him. People who have been attacked by the law just because they wanted what he wants. They wanted to be free. Unfortunately, at the time when movie was made, things weren't so great for USA, and everyone were in fight with one another, and the part where Kowalski gets in road fight with Jaguar driver is perfect example of this.

Ending of the movie is very sad, but in a way,it is the perfect ending for Kowalski who has suffered so much throughout his life that death is not "only way to escape", he could surrender and spend some time behind bars, but his own decision to go someplace else.

What that place is,nobody knows, but he wanted to go there. Why? Maybe he was tired of the world in which he was living for so long that he wanted to move in some other world where he wouldn't need to be worry when will somebody stab him in the back, since already it happened to him too many times. Maybe, he truly was last free soul in the world which he was the part of, and he couldn't stand it anymore. Girl in black that he picked up night before his last day was, in a way, death coming to welcome him into the afterlife, sort of speak. That's why he accepted her company, because he knew that next day, he will finally reach his destination, finish line for which he drove his entire life.

This is my own view of this fine movie. No matter how old VANISHING POINT is, it is still greatest car chase movie ever, not because of the some incredible chase scenes, but because of the way that story stays true to the way that world still turns, and there is always some lonely soul out there that fights hard to get to its own finish line. Definitely recommended for every car loving guys and girls, and for everyone who love old cult classics.

Starman (1984)

Great movie!

[14 October 2013]

Touching, funny and sad masterpiece of science-fiction genre.

John Carpenter is great and of my favorite directors, but only until some time ago i never knew about this movie.

STARMAN is one of the better movies that i have seen in very long time. Personally, i think that it is better than E.T, and along with role in THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT, Starman is my favorite Jeff Bridges performance.

Karen Allen is also great as Starman's companion on long trip to his destination, and their relationship is shown in best way possible. I was already tired of people cheering over some lousy modern movies with so- called love stories.

STARMAN was quite surprise for me. I'm not exactly type of guy who gets sad over some movie scene, but entire time while i was watching this movie,i could't keep my eyes from getting teary. Scenes where Starman saves Jenny after truck explosion, then him telling her that he gave her a baby and of course that god damn ending that almost made me cry are some of the best scenes that i have seen.

And score by Jack Nitzsche is one thing that everyone who watched this movie will surely remember.

One of Carpenter's best and one of 1980's best.

Rapid Fire (1992)

Review for very solid action movie

[13 October 2013]

I watched this film after several people recommended it to me, and i must say, i enjoyed it quite a lot.

Action scenes are very good, specially fight scenes. Brandon Lee is not only good fighter, but good actor as well. His roles in Rapid Fire and The Crow are his best and my personal favorites when it comes to his movies, even if there is only few of them.

I wasn't fan of his acting in movies such as Showdown In Little Tokyo, but i would't call him a bad actor and still he had good sense of humor in that movie. I'm sure that he would be even better if he didn't die, which is quite sad cause he really did have potential. After watching workprints of The Crow, i could see that there were few takes of his scenes that were originally quite bad acting wise, but watching the movie again it's obvious that he was just getting started at this point of his career and that he would be better as long as he had good directors to give him some advices.

As for his role in Rapid Fire,instead of being one of those unstoppable heroes that his father often portrayed in his movies, Brandon's character Jake Lo is normal human who is put into dangerous situations and has to use all of his skills to survive. By the end of the movie he really is pretty beat up and tired after all that he's been through, which is not something that you normally see happening with heroes of some average action movies.

Powers Boothe and Kate Hodge were also good, but at the same time not usual cliché cop characters.

Soundtrack is solid as a rock, Hardline songs really fit the film and they are used in right scenes. Score works in action scenes, specially in fight scene between Brandon and Al Leong.

Script and story might be cliché, but it's nothing worth of ranting.

In the end,very good action movie, and with Halloween 4 and Marked For Death one of my fave movies from director Dwight H. Little, and i think that it should have some better DVD/Blu-Ray release cause it has it's fans, and there is enough interesting behind the scenes stuff and deleted footage that should be included.

Shocker (1989)

Review of an awesome film

[13 October 2013]

Probably one of the craziest movies Wes Craven ever made, and one of the craziest movies ever.

Now, i like many critically acclaimed movies that got bunch of awards and stuff, but i also love wild movies such as Shocker. This is one of those movies that i can always watch and never get bored by it. It's hard to list everything that i like about it; Heavy metal soundtrack, serial killer with a limp, bunch of hallucinations and nightmares throughout, final fight between hero and villain in TV world... It's just one hell of a movie.

There is some gore, but instead of being torture porn like Saw or Hostel movies, it has its limits with violence and juicer scenes and it doesn't hurt the movie but actually helps a lot, cause you can watch it without feeling sick by on screen carnage and still have fun with it even if you are 100% gore hound.

Story? Watch the movie and try to tell its story; In first part we have slasher that goes around neighborhood killing entire families, our main hero is actually son of the villain but he doesn't knows it at first (no sht), he has dreams about murders that his daddy commits, daddy kills son's new family and girlfriend, gets caught,burned to crisp and resurrects as electrical ghost not even minute after, then in second part of the movie we have main villain entering other people's bodies and goes after hero, hero starts seeing ghosts of his dead girlfriend and other people that villain killed, villain gets bored with his new ability and returns to his old hobby of killing families but this time by going through TV sets, hero goes after him and fights him through the bunch of different channels of the TV world while "Demon Bell" is playing in background and in the end traps him in TV and walks away into the night.

Yep, that pretty much says it all.

Acting and directing; Well,pretty much O.K. But then again, if somebody's gonna take this movie seriously then they will be very critical about these two things.

Horror and scary scenes; Quite a lot, and they work.

Soundtrack...Best part of the movie. Songs are awesome, my favorites are "Shocker" that opens the movie, "Love Temptation" that plays after funeral of Jonathan's family, "Demon Bell" that plays in the craziest and funniest scene in the movie-the TV world fight, and two ending songs, "Sword And Stone" and "Timeless Love". "Awakening" i also like but mostly just first part of it, i personally think that it would fit well with the scene where Jonathan is searching for necklace of his dead girlfriend through the lake. I don't know when or is it actually played in the movie though.

Score; Also excellent. Both scary and sad in places when it's supposed to be. My favorite part of it is in scene where Jonathan dreams his dead girlfriend coming out of the lake and later when they kiss. Say what you want about Wes Craven, but he always could get few things right in (most of) his movies, and getting a score that would get desired reaction from audience is one thing that his movies always had. Just check out scores for Nightmare On Elm Street, Deadly Friend, Shocker and Scream.

Problems with movie; Not much, except maybe the fact that MPAA have cut out some gorier parts, but it's not that noticeable when watching the movie so it doesn't bother me that much. Still, uncut version would be nice.

Does this movie deserves better release and special edition? Hell yeah it does!

My final opinion; Fun as hell movie, one my favorites of the era and from director, with one kick ass soundtrack that makes it even better.

The Hidden (1987)

Review for criminally underrated movie

[13 October 2013]

When i first heard of The Hidden,i thought that it's gonna be some average sci-fi action movie. So with that thought i went and found it, watched it and...wow. This is one of the best action/sci-fi movies that i saw.

Opening of the movie with random guy shooting people in bank and then getting into intense police chase while running over everything and everyone on his way blew me off my feet. I didn't expect that kind of violence and action scenes will be the first thing to start the movie. For the rest of 90 minutes it had it all; action, violence, suspense, humor, bits of drama, plot being changed from alien wanting to have fun to alien wanting to be president...

After i finished watching it, i knew that this has become one my favorites. But what bugged me is how almost nobody from my friends and colleagues knew about this movie.

Looking up about it on internet, i was surprised to see how originally it was almost unnoticed during its theatrical run. But what was nice to see is all the fans that it got over the years. Reading many good online reviews about this movie has only helped to make me love it even more. Although i personally don't think that every single movie that i or anybody else loves to death deserved better, The Hidden really did deserved a lot more.

It's awesome, 100% fun movie that never gets boring. Come on, you have alien who likes heavy metal rock and ferrari's, you have another alien trying to stop him, and in between two of them a hardcore cop who can't figure out what the hell is going on in his city.

About the actors; everyone do their job right. There isn't single one that does it half good or quite bad. I really enjoyed buddy cop chemistry that Gallagher and Beck had, and much of it is because of the actors Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Nouri. As for other known faces, it's was nice to have Ed O'Ross (Red Heat) and Clu Galager (Return Of The Living Dead) in supportive, but important roles.

Script is well written and it has good,and quite often very funny dialogue.

Plot is very interesting and with the way it's happening through the movie, you could say that it's realistic and another thing that helps with that is some of the reactions of characters on certain parts.

Action scenes are top notch. Nothing blockbuster-spectacular, but still entertaining and quite surprising in places. Plenty of car chases and shootouts for action fans, that's for sure.

Special effects; As far as blood and gore goes, just fine. But one thing that should be mentioned is great and creepy effect early in the movie where alien goes from one body into another. Not only that it looks cool, but it looks real,specially for the time when movie was made, and it's not created by CGI at all. Movies today should really have more of these practical special effects.

Score - Solid. Creepy, tense, and when needed, even sad in places.

Soundtrack - Awesomeness to the bone. From opening car chase/carnage till ending credits, pure 80's. My fave songs are "Weapons Of Love" and "Hidden" by The Truth, "Still In Hollywood", "Haunted Head" and "Over Your Shoulder" by Concrete Blonde, "On Your Feet" and "Go Down Fighting" by Shock Paris. You can't love this movie without mentioning "On Your Feet" that plays during opening pursuit. I love that song ever since i first saw The Hidden. Few times when i was playing GTA i would play this song in the background while running from cops or running over everything in my way just like alien in the movie.

What more to say but great, fun and very underrated movie that thankfully has its fans, and it's good to see that it is still mentioned amongst some movie lovers here and there even today.

Something that i wanted to mention; I watched The Hidden as a double feature two times. First time i watched it with Wes Craven's Shocker, and second time with Dolph Lundgren movie I Come In Peace (1992). Let's just say, that i had a blast both of the times ;)

The Exorcist III (1990)

THE EXORCIST 3 - Fan Review

[13 October 2013]

This is my review of one of my favorite horror movie sequels, William Peter Blatty's EXORCIST 3:LEGION.

Probably one of the most underrated horror movies of 1980's, EXORCIST 3 is one movie that can still give you a decent scare even on second or fifth viewing. First, let me say that only thing that i liked about EXORCIST:THE HERETIC was soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. Track "Regan's Theme" is my favorite, by the way. EXORCIST 3 has some great scare scenes, like old lady walking on the celling scene, but one scene that scared the hell out of me was where nurse is walking across empty hospital hallways, when suddenly one patient appears out of nowhere and slides towards her.

Acting is also on spot, not over the top and it works well with plot. Directing is surprisingly great. I can't think of any scene that was bad, and that is rare thing in some of the movies that i like to watch over and over again. Special effects, well,i understand that this part was unnecessary in original cut, but i think that effects are pretty damn good and convincing. Screenplay and entire plot are good, and definitely much better than most of the movies with similar plot.

I can't figure it out what kind of moron would say that George C.Scott was bad actor in this. He was awesome! No matter if he was in some funny, sad or scary scene, he delivered great performance in every shot.

Most people would say that this was just horror movie. But i think that it was also very sad movie. Entire friendship between Damien and Kindermann was nicely shown and Kindermann having to kill best friend in the end in order to save him was very sad. I know that i would gone through hell for my best friend, so i know how Kindermann must have felt when he set Damien free.

So, what more to say, but that i enjoyed the movie and i hope that one day William Peter Blatty's original cut will be released for public to see. I sure would pay to see it.

Rituals (1977)

Underrated as hell!

[13 October 2013]

Seriously, why nobody talks about this movie more?

It has great actors who do their job right, direction is also good, atmosphere of fear is wonderful, cinematography is quite good, special effects are CREEPY, death scenes are actually realistic and therefore sometimes hard to watch, and ending is one of the better ones that i seen from some movie in this genre.

Scene where decapitated head is found by two characters as soon as they wake up really shocked the hell out of me when i first saw it and ending "fight" between last survivor and killer kept me on edge first few times when i saw the movie. I think that these scenes still pack a punch even after repeated viewings.

Speaking of gore in Rituals, i'm glad that Code Red has released uncut version, cause after seeing so much lousy versions with different titles, seeing all uncut gore is amazing.

Anyway, i just wanted to say a few words about this film. I'll put it right with Deliverance and Southern Comfort quality as another "lost in backwoods" type of movie. I could put it with some B films, but i think that it deserves more then that.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

Fan review

[13 October 2013]

One THE funniest horror movies i ever seen and one the best sequels i ever seen.

I watched it dozens of times and it never gets dull. This was actually first Chainsaw Massacre movie i saw. It was rented from videostore from other town. I still remember old VHS box with pic of Letherface on front sawing through some doors, and pic of Grandma in Chainsaw Heaven on the back. Once i first started to watch it, that opening narration and red letters from credits already freaked me out. Then, real terror started. For the next hour and a half i had great time watching this movie without pause and by the end of it i thought that it was best horror movie i saw at that time. One thing that i didn't know is that i watched cut version. One scene that i remember was heavily cut was opening murder of two yuppies. After Rick the Prick says "Missed us..." and looks at his buddy and screams, scene was cut and i didn't saw that great top-of-the-head-falling-off effect by Tom Savini. Still i absolutely loved the movie and that was years and YEARS ago. Although i discovered many other horror movies over the years, Chainsaw 2 was one of those that i always remembered.

It has great characters, funny dialogue, AWESOME gore, scary moments that work, effective score combined with good soundtrack,and one thing that i specially like is the sets where most of the action is going on, plus if you just look at design of radio station and underground hideout, they are really good sets for low budget horror movie.

Soundtrack - Since i have original soundtrack, might as well list songs that i like the most; "White Night" from Torch Song,"Mind Warp" from Lords Of The New Church and "No One Lives Forever" from Oingo Boingo. Another two songs that i want to mention are "Over Your Shoulder" and "Haunted Head" from Concrete Blonde. These two songs are also in another movie that i like, The Hidden from 1987. Another fun but unfortunately very underrated sci-fi action movie which also has cool soundtrack.

One thing that i liked about this movie, other then its crazy plot, is Chop Top. I love that guy. He is horror movie legend and one of my fave horror movie characters whose one liners i kept repeating in normal life. Specially lines like "LICK MY PLATE YOU DOG DK!", or "DOG WILL HUNT!" Even my younger cousins and friends loved that character.

Other characters are, like i said, real fun and really add to the movie. Stretch is kind of heroine that i think is perfect example about how horror actress in similar roles should be like in movies. Lefty Enright is something of a hard-to-understand character that Dennis Hoper (RI.P,we miss you Dennis) plays in his usual great way, plus there isn't any other character in these movies that had chainsaw fight with Letherface and won. L.G is real sweetheart of a character and one thing that i thought was too much in the movie is the way that he dies, it's kinda too graphic death scene for such likable guy. It's really sad that actor that plays him, Lou Perryman,was killed in real life.

Chainsaw family is once again played well by actors. I already mentioned my favorite member Chop Top, but Letherface is just as good and this time has more character development that's actually interesting when you think about it. If we put aside his sexual habits, of course. Cook with his ranting and constantly changing behavior is still present, Grandpa has small screen time but also has probably the best special effect makeup in the movie, Hitchhiker and Grandma characters are somewhat underdeveloped and silent throughout the movie, but their presence is still nice to have ;)

This movie really deserved the kind of special edition that it get. I really enjoyed all the interviews, deleted scenes and specially funny commentary from cast that sometimes i like to turn on and listen while watching the movie. Well, on the other hand, that's kinda the purpose of commentary tracks, isn't it?

I don't have any problem with this movie, cause it's great movie that is in my opinion, just as good and just as great cult classic as first movie.

Deadly Friend (1986)

One of my fave Wes Craven films and one of my fave 1980's horrors.

[13 October 2013]

Yes, it has very over the top plot and some scenes are both crazy and funny, but it's still one of my fave movies ever. For very long time now i am huge fan of it, and i don't care about all the crap i might get, i'm not gonna change my opinion.

I know, this movie has lot of problems with mixed direction and forced horror scenes, but i don't think that it's as bad as some of the Craven's other work like Hills Have Eyes 2. And it's important to know that most of the problems that Deadly Friend has is not because of the director, but because of the Warner Bros studio. But getting back to the movie;

Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin did a good job with script, even though it's somewhat obvious that some of it was changed and added because of studio requests. Rubin also wrote scripts for two great movies from 1990; Jacob's Ladder which i am a huge fan of, and Ghost.

As for movie, i think that actors did a good job with their roles, script works for about 90% of the movie (hey,i have to be honest, right?), horror atmosphere is quite good, jump scares are sometimes predictable but they work, gore scenes were not really needed (more on that later), but even though some are laughable, i think that they are actually well done with solid makeup effects and infamous "basketball kill" is definitely one of the funniest kills ever and one of the best head explosions i ever saw in movie, along with the ones in Scanners, Maniac and Prowler. Nightmare scenes from movie are often called stupid, but i think that they were quite creepy to be honest, specially one where Sam dreams about killing her dad. Hey, if Wes Craven is directing a nightmare scene, then you know it's a good one.

Some people would probably disagree with me, but i think that ending, at least first part of it, is quite sad. But that second part with ultra stupid and idiotic "she's a robot!" ending is one thing that i absolutely hate.

After doing some research i found out that movie was originally very different then what was released. It was originally meant to be more of a love story then horror, but producers from Warner Bros had different ideas and Craven was told to make the movie bloodier. I think that it's damn shame. If all gore was taken out, movie would still be solid horror and with, like they originally wanted, interesting and dark love story.

You can actually see that there was more to this film with the romance subplot, and few of those scenes between Paul and Sam after she's been brought back to life are very well done both by director and actors. And i'm not talking about scenes when he tries to hide her or when he runs into the murder scene, i'm talking about scenes like when Sam is looking at photos of her and Paul and when she shows him one of those photos. Movie would probably benefit more from those scenes, and original cut probably did have more of that.

Instead, what we got is movie that jumps from "kids" horror to usual over the top 80's horror. More serious subjects that it touches, like child abuse are almost overshadowed with gore scenes that really don't feel like they fit anywhere.

I can see why Craven and Rubin disowned the movie, which is too bad cause i would really like to see how different original version was before they had to changed it. I'm a sucker for movies that have been tempered with in post production from one reason or another, so maybe that's one of the reasons why i appreciate this movie for what it could have been or for what it originally was.

I know that i'm probably one of the few fans that this movie has, but either way, i still love it and i would recommend it to everyone who are interested in entertaining, fun horror movie.