Such a classic.

Last night I eventually got to see Dreamscape (1984) starring Dennis Quaid & Kate Capshaw.

In the movie Quaid playing the character of Alex Gardner is coerced into joining a government funded project which involves psychics getting trained to enter the realm of dreams of others. At first his work seems to be heroic saving others from psychological problems but soon a new official decides to use this project for more sinister reasons.

I feel that because i originally missed out on this, watching it now makes it flawed in someway. Maybe cause its a little outdated and its starting to show its age. The movie still holds up in many ways including the smart humor and visual effects. But Maurice Jarre's score to this movie is a little silly and could have really used a Jerry Goldsmith treatment.

It also could have used a little more adventure as the feel of the poster goes. But as it stands, it feels more sided on the horror genre.

Still, its not a bad movie and is worth a watch if you've never seen it before. I give it 3 stars.


Attached Image

Looks more like an Indiana Jones meets Inception.

Meanwhile I've seen First Blood part II and Rambo III.

Friday night I got to watch Arrival.

Amy Adams plays Louise Banks, a professor in the art of linguistics who is called upon the government when otherworldly spaceships arrive on Earth, set in 12 different locations around the globe. She leads a team of experts to try and unravel who or what their visitors are and the possible intention of their arrival. But when little progression is made, Banks takes a risky chance to get to the truth faster.

Like all science fiction movies of this genre, the movie in my opinion started like every other one out there. It even used the same formula we have seen in countless movies before such as War of the Worlds, Independence Day, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Interstellar. But what i like most about this movie, is that its done on purpose because it takes what we know and twists it around. There is some careful attention needed when you watch this movie as you start to unravel the story which starts to make sense the moment you come to your realization.

Supporting stars Renner & Whitaker are also great and make a nice addition to the cast. And a strange yet fitting score.

I give Arrival 4 stars.

Arrival started promising but becomes a little too philosophical for my taste.

Last seen: John Rambo.

Superbad. Great laughs.
Zombieland. Great laughs.
The World's End. Less great laughs.
Hot Fuzz. Great laughs.
Shaun of the Dead. Great laughs.

Just found out that Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End actually make a trilogy because each movie represents a flavor of Cornetto. Shaun of the Dead is red because of the strawberry flavor and represents all the blood in the movie. Hot Fuzz is blue, the original Cornetto and the blue wrapper represents the blue of police uniforms and The World's End is green with the mint flavor and the green represents aliens. Actually it's quite interesting how the Cornetto trilogy came to be because somebody pointed out of the eating of Cornetto's in both movies as a joke during the promotion of Hot Fuzz. So somebody wondered if there would be a trilogy. And during the premier of Shaun of the Dead free Cornetto's were being handed out. In the end The World's End was made to add to the fitting flavor of Cornetto's.

Friday night i got to see Doctor Strange.


Cumberbatch plays Doctor Stephen Strange, a brilliant but extremely obnoxious neural surgeon who's life almost comes to an end during a fateful car accident. But his tenacity to return to a normal life sends him half way across the globe in search of a cure. Instead he finds an age old "Ancient One" who brings a new meaning in his life.

As most Marvel movies go, this has most of what all have to offer. It's rather funny as to how many actors were lined up to play the role because if you know of the character, Cumberbatch is probably the best choice.

Doctor Strange is best described as Inception in the real world but it's pace, humor and inventiveness keep it interesting and fun to watch. I give it 4 stars!

(I'm sure you know by now, but wait for the post-credits scene!)


Then we finnnnnnaaaalllllllyyy got around to watching Passengers.


By now. most of you have seen it but this is my take on it.

Set in the distant future and on-board a spaceship carrying 5000 people on a course to the planet Homestead II, 2 members are awakened from suspended animation approximately 90 years too early after their ship malfunctions.

Trying to solve the malfunction while trying to find a way back to sleep again becomes the main issue whilst the two develop a bond.

Passengers' premise isn't exactly something we've never seen before but its done well and the characters are interesting. The humor and basic layout of the film is done in a way you can relate to and there is little here to make you try to grasp as believable.

I give it 4 stars!

The Ghost and the Darkness. Great adventure film.
Blue Streak. Great action/comedy.

Last night i decided to watch Virus again.


Released back in 1999 and starring Jamie Lee Curtis & William Baldwin, the story takes place out at sea when a small tugboat commanded by Robert Everton (Donald Sutherland) is caught in the middle of a severe storm damaging their boat. But after they find a mysterious and abandoned ship, they all get their hopes up thinking they can sell the ship for a fortune. That is of course, till they discover they are not alone. Soon enough the crew are fighting to survive an alien presence with sensible crew member Kitt Foster (Jamie Lee Curtis).

Certainly no Oscar winning movie, this plays out like your usual run of the mill horror movie on the sea. It also bombed at the box office yet became a hit in some countries such as Germany. For a B-movie with lottsa popcorn and not much thinking it scores a 3 from me. Cheesy but fun.

Virus was a great movie, along with Deep Rising.

Deep Rising gave me nightmares for a while though. Katie won't be going on cruise ships anytime soon. Just sayin'...

Virus is indeed a fun movie for a no-brainer. Just how Sutherland nibbles that biscuit in that scene cracks me up everytime. Furthermore this is actually just Alien meets Deep Rising.

Back on topic.

Yesterday I saw a French movie called Jeune et Jolie or Young and Beautiful translated. It was an interesting yet somewhat controversial movie about a 17 year old girl, Isabelle (the very beautiful Marine Vacth), who prostitutes herself to earn money. You might say it could've been the movie version of the episode Runners, only the girl in the movie is doing it voluntarily. It gives an interesting insight in what goes on inside of the girl. For starters, she's very attractive and she acts very experienced though she doesn't realise what she's actually doing. We follow her during a whole year of her life from her 17th birthday during the Summer till Spring. As she find a vacation love to share an intimate moment with, she quickly gets rid of him afterwards and back home she starts to prostitute herself and sees several much older men in hotel rooms. One of the men seems to understand what she's going through and they meet a few times. But after a customer dies of a heart attack, she quits her little business. Than the police arrive one day and her mother finds out about everything. Months pass by when Isabelle reactivates the phone number she used for her dates and sees that a woman wants to see her in the same hotel she met her last client.

This is one of those movies that really attracted me by it's cover, (however I actually recorded the movie from television). But to be honest, I like these kind of movies. These alternative maybe somewhat erotic dramatic movies. Because they're the total opposite of the Hollywood blockbuster movies. They're exploring the deeper and emotional/psychological side of peoples. Of course there are Hollywood movies that treat the same material but sometimes non-Hollywood movies dare to go where others don't. This movie for instance has very strong sexual content and it won't apologise for showing it either or maybe it's because it's French. They're much more open on this stuff than Hollywood, I guess. And as I read in one of the reviews is that Isabelle is in fact experimenting and that she has this hard look in her eyes that she won't apologise on what she's doing even though she doesn't know what that is. But in that hard look as it was pointed out by one of her clients there is something melancholy about it. And that is something in my opinion, that you can't fake. Or you probably can to act of course but what I mean is: If you can see someone's sadness, it's real. That's why I say: It's better to be a little sad than fake content. And she definitely had some sort of sadness about her.

The other movie I saw last night was Girl, Interrupted by James Mangold, Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. It was a little lengthy and sort of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest with women. It started great but it was a bit too long but I can tell you one thing, the way Angelina Jolie acted so demented/crazy was downright scary. This one could've been better though but had a great cast: Brittany Murphy, Clea Duvall and Whoopi Goldberg all in supporting roles. And also Kurtwood Smith and Jeffrey Tambor.

Watched the first Columbo tv movie last night - Murder by the Book. Really easy on the eye.
It's worth a peak if you're a Spielberg fan!

I loved the first Columbo movie. It was his first feature that he directed!

MacGyverGod, would you believe i have yet to see Girl, Interrupted.

Yes, I believe that.

It was alright, but a little too long. But Angelina sure brings it home.

Last night, I have seen The November Man. A movie with a James Bond feel. The movie was based on a book written during the last years of the Cold War and it has everything of those days. Russian villains, CIA (sorry no MI-6 here) and a girl named Natalia and of course former Bond-actor Pierce Brosnan. It was as if this movie was supposed to Brosnan's glorious comeback to the action/spy genre. And he delivers pretty well. This is an old school action/spy film, more violent than maybe even any Bond film, or at least the ones he starred in. It was like in the Cold War but set in the 21st century. It's fun and thrilling and nobody can be trusted. In the past 2-3 years it seems like Brosnan is indeed working on some sort of comeback in the genres.

Yes, he's already a master at drawing you in at this early stage. Columbo, is good entertainment but follows the same and predictable course: Murder, Columbo assigned, moves in on suspect, suspect gets snippy with Columbo, Columbo slowly tightens the grip like a constructor snake, and then the arrest.

But, imo, this one (like many of the original series MacGyver Episodes) can almost stand on it's own with the mute button on - the filming is thought out - that well - and is all very, very pleasing to the eye.

This in contrast to the new MacGyver series where hitting the mute button would totally destroy any chance of a connection with the plot's modus operandi.

I guess we can evolved in terms of entertainment. Different generation want different results.

Twister was pretty lame. Written by Michael Crichton and directed by Jan De Bont. Starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. Hunt surely was attractive but the movie was just lame. For starters, people die in tornadoes. Only 2, actually 3 people in the whole movie? One of them is Richard Lineback who also starred in Phoenix Under Siege. But besides that, at least half of the storm chasers crew could've or should've died, the old aunt and the woman Paxton left Hunt for. She simply leaves, I was like don't let her leave, let her die. She was more in the way and acting scared. Funny thing is since the storm chase started Paxton's character had no interest in his love anymore, but was more interested in the storm and as the movie progressed in his ex.

My Mom loved Twister. But her taste in movies was sometimes questionable. lol She liked old horror b-movies. The stupider, the better. Her collection of classic horror movies was much like MacGyver's collection of classic western movies. XD

One her favorites was Fiend Without a Face, which were invisible brain sucking... err... brains... with antennae.

She had some good ones though. Forbidden Planet is still one of my favorites. I remember the original The Blob was quoted regularly by my parents as well when I was a kid. Watch out, the theme song is infectious... XD

Twister was just lame. I'm open to everything. From the biggest classics to the biggest trash. That includes horror b-movies too. You can't imagine it silly enough, like I remember The Reanimator. Horror movies so b-style and so silly you just have to laugh. However sometimes you gotta wonder how they come up with some stuff.

Lame? That's putting it right there.

I actually enjoyed Twister. Did rather well at the box office too. Mark Mancina's score was also great IMO.

I enjoyed Cary Elwes' character in it too and of course when they raided poor Meg's house?

No, it wasnt bad. Come one!

Alright, it's your head, man.

No, seriously, it was lame. De Bont was a great director of photography for some of the best movies in the late 80's, early 90's and he directed the great near-classic Speed. But to be honest, I think Speed 2 is better than Twister, though it's probably even more lame. Mancina is a great composer yeah. I miss him nowadays but his scores for Speed, Speed 2, Bad Boys and Fair Game are great.

Cary Elwes is actually quite an actor too. Though I know him best as Robin Hood from Men in Tights or Hot Shots. Twister but even more so the Saw movies proves he's so much more than just funny.

The Peacemaker with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. A fun and thrilling good old fashion action movie like they only made in the 90's and one of the rare few, I hadn't seen yet. When the Russians causes a train accident followed by a nuclear blast and steal several nuclear warheads in the process it's up to George and Nicole to save the day or should I say the world. Apparently there is one grief-stricken terrorist who wants revenge for the death of his wife and little girl by blowing up the United Nations with a nuke. And he simply doesn't go to New York, they travel all around the world to find him. And there are some amazing action pieces throughout the movie that nods to James Bond or Tom Clancy's work (according the reviews). The ending however reminded me of a Mac-adventure and I really recommend you to watch the movie because it's great.

Well, i have seen a few movies of recent.

The first was Assassin's Creed.


Based on the video game of the same name, AC tells the story of Callum Lynch who discovers that his bloodline is part of an ancient society of assassins who are sworn at upholding the threat of the Templars who still exist in present day and are attempting to find an ancient relic which could ultimately help them achieve world domination.

Through the use of modern technology the assassins are able to unlock memories of their society's ancestors by reliving their experience in 15th Century Spain.

The overall attempt of this movie in my opinion is admirable but the entire execution of it is questionable.

Although i have never truly played any of the games (Can you believe it), I often felt confused as to the logic of necessity portrayed in the story. It is an attractive movie but there are many things that just should have missed the cut. Had this just been played within the dated period without the need to Matrix the story, it might have been a hit. Unfortunately, we are left with a movie that is easily forgotten. I give it 2 & a half.

Then i got to see Moana



Disneys new CGI animation starring Dwayne Johnson & newbie Auli Cravalho tells the story about Moana, the daughter of a Polynesian Tribal Chief who gets chosen by the ocean (Yes, its alive) n a quest to find a return a mystical stone to a goddess. Despite her reluctance to fulfill this task, chance eventually sets her in the right course and on a direction to seek out Maui, an infamous god to help her on her quest.

I actually got this movie for my son and thoroughly enjoyed it. It certainly one of the better releases of Disney and is a fun watch. It can be a little dark at times though which made me question the age restriction. I give it 4 stars.

This is what I've seen during the sites downtime.

The Raven.
Cosmopolis.
The Client.
Days of Thunder.
See No Evil.

12 Rounds with John Cena. Not very original but enjoyable from Renny Harlin, the director of Die Hard 2. This movie winks to Die Hard With A Vengeance and Speed and they tried to make every scene an action scene.

John Wick 2. Very great action film. Good old fashioned, no-nonesense, R-rated action film. And I'm in love with Ruby Rose, now.

Robin Hood with Russell Crowe.

Infection. Great Japanese horrormovie about an isolated hospital where a patient dies during surgery in mysterious circumstances. They decide to cover everything up. When another patient is delivered suffering from an unknown infection, it's beginning to spread to everyone who knows about the cover up.

xXx: Return of Xander Cage. Now I'm even more in love with Ruby Rose.

Deep Impact and

The Fisher King. 'Forgive me.' The movie was pretty alright. I think from this movie already on Robin Williams showed he could be more than just funny. Maybe it would make his trilogy of evil a little odd but I think he just wanted to show he could be the bad guy as well and there is a difference between tragic characters and evil characters. Nevertheless Williams was a great actor in his time.

Wow! That's a lot of movies!

The site has been down for like ten days and I've seen twelve movies in that time. That's one each night. OK, there could be like two sometimes but, it seems pretty even. No big deal. I've done better that that.

Yesterday, I saw the original Poltergeist. Looks like early Spielberg just can't appeal me: Close Encounters, E.T. and this one are amongst them. Though directed by Tobe Hooper there seems to be a divided opinion on who actually directed the movie. Hooper got credit for it but it seems like Spielberg had the upperhand in a lot of things. Still a few great effects for those days but... I don't know. I don't think I'm really up for Spielberg's idea of the perfect life. The happy family, the house, the nice neighborhood... just as he did in E.T. and Close Encounters. The idea of having a child taken by ghosts inside the house was very good. Poltergeist is what Paranormal Activity and The Conjuring is for the newer generations. However Poltergeist does not take itself so serious, there was still a great sense of humor in it. And some things would just never happen now, like parents smoking weed. I was like: seriously? They're smoking weed while theire kids are sleeping in the next room? Okay!

A lot of people believe that there is a curse on the Poltergeist movie since actual skeletons were used in the movie. The girl, Dominique Dunne who played Dana was murdered by her boyfriend a few months after the movie's release, Julian Beck from the second movie dies during the filming from stomach cancer and Heather O' Rourke died shortly after Poltergeist III at the tender age of 12 from Crohn's decease. Three peoples who play pretty important characters die shortly after the release of each movie. Also Lou Perryman who had a minor role in the first movie was brutally murdered in Texas in 2009 with an axe by a guy who didn't know him.

On a more positive note, I noticed two familiar faces in the movie. Richard Lawson (Jesse Colton) plays a pretty big role as Ryan, the assistant of Dr. Lesh who is supposed to find contact with the other side in the house and also James Karen (Papillon) from Fraternity of Thieves who plays the employer of Mr. Freeling. I just noticed on the cast list that Dirk Blocker (Chuck) from Blood Brothers plays a part in the movie but I did not recognise him.

Besides all that, I really had the feeling the movie theme song sounded a bit like Jacob and Christy's theme song from The Outsiders.

Don't think you're a Spielberg fan. I grew up on Spielberg. He was a part of my daily vitamins.

Poltergeist (The Original) is one of my all time favorite movies. And yes, No question about it. Spielberg directed it. In secrecy.

There ain't no way Tobe could have directed the movie. And there are still politics about it. But it certainly added to his reputation all the same. What he did after this movie is what ruined his reputation. (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 / Lifeforce)

Despite the serious approach towards taking drugs, they were trying to show that their parents were still young at heart by still getting up to mischief. Also take into account the time they were in high school around the 1960's i would presume, smoking pot was a thing. Still is. As for the perfect family, that is far from what Spielberg intends. This is mainly due to his experience growing up in a very disjointed family. This comes across in some of his movies. You can see it reflecting in Indiana Jones, Close Encounters, ET and many others.

The infamous curse of Poltergeist is mainly due to its bad luck in filming the 3 movies as you mentioned. Over time it became synonymous to the franchise ultimately adding to its reputation. It's not right, but it id make it more popular. Although that was certainly nobodies intention.

Ironically, i still enjoyed Tobes movies after this. Texas Chainsaw 2 is still a fun movie to watch and Lifeforce is still...interesting.

Well actually I am a Spielberg fan. I like Jaws, Indiana Jones (all movies), Jurassic Park (I-III), Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan and pretty much everything, not all, he did in the past 15 years. I have seen every movie he made starting with War of the Worlds until Bridge of Spies at the movies with exception of Munich and the Big Friendly Giant. But his earlier stuff maybe I should've seen some when I was younger like E.T. or Poltergeist. Maybe I would've even liked Close Encounters back than. All three of them classics, I just couldn't appeal me, I guess. Don't know why.

I do think indeed Spielberg directed this, even though he wasn't allowed because of E.T. But it's too much his own style. I don't know much of Tobe Hooper with exception of Texas Chainsaw and the Toolbox Murders.

Yesterday I saw A Cure For Wellness. An obscure movie directed by Gore Verbinski that winks to Shutter Island. A young man is send to a wellness center in the Swiss Alps to bring back a CEO of company that's on the verge of going out of business if it doesn't merge with another company. However once he gets there, the CEO doesn't want to leave, just as pretty much everyone else there. Due to an accident the young man ends up there himself with a broken leg. While he's out there he's trying to figure everything out on how the wellness center works.

It is Shutter Island-style but less on the heavy twists. The story is pretty straight forward and easy to follow but it's a hard story. Maybe a little overlong but it's a good psychological thriller with a touch of horror in it.

I've seen Poltergeist II now. Yikes, terrible. Though I don't have the third movie but I'm sure holding my heart for the reboot/remake.

As far as im concerned, only the first one was good IMO. The sequels, like Jaws, were terrible.