FantasyFilmFest 2009

[Tom]

Moon

A great slow-paced scifi movie. Sam Rockwell did a great job playing a dual role and no other actors around (except for Kevin Spacey's voice of the HAL like robot).

Rating: [mr]4[/mr]

[Achim]

Trivia: The director of Moon is David Bowie's son.

[Tom]

A Film With Me In It

In a guy's apartment three deadly accidents happen in a span of a few minutes. Fearing that the police would think that he murdered them (which it awfully looks like), he is trying to cover it up after a bad advice from his best friend. Nice black comedy with a lot of laugh-out moments.

Rating: [mr]4[/mr]

[Tom]

Lesbian Vampire Killers

A hundred times more fun than Doghouse. This movie doesn't take itself remotely serious, which was the right direction to go. Where Doghouse thinks of itself as a second "Shaun of the Dead" and failing miserably, this one knows that it is far from it and just wants to have fun. It is far from being a good movie, but it has been the most fun of the ones I have watched so far at the current FantasyFilmFest.

Rating: [mr]4[/mr]

[Tom]

District 9

When this movie was put in the schedule of this FilmFest, nobody could have foreseen that it will become so big at the (US) boxoffice before it even appeared on this event. The movie is a refreshing sci-fi movie with a nice and well executed idea.

Rating: [mr]4[/mr]

[Achim]

While District 9 is really a no-brainer at this point I added A Film With ME In It and Lesbian Vampire Killers to my "movies to watch out for" list.

[Tom]

Newsmakers

Moscow's police's PR lady has the stupid idea, to make the operation to take out some criminals a reality-TV show, to boost the public's perception of the police. Of course it doesn't go like she had it planned. The movie was good, but it dragged a little. There are a lot of nice gunfights, but it bothered me, that the police didn't seem to get any hits even if the bad guys are standing directly in front of them. The other way around there is no problem, of course.

Rating: [mr]3[/mr]

[Tom]

The Tournament

30 assassins battle for the price money in a tournament, where there have to kill each other until one is left standing. They have 24 hours or all will die. The premise very much reminds of Battle Royale. The differences to Battle Royale (besides that there are no children involved) are that it takes place in London and that the assassins each have a tracking device where they can track other assassins near them. One of the assassins manages to extract his homing device and put it into an innocent priest who now becomes part of the game.
I saw the trailer to this at the screening of some other FantasyFilmFest movies, and I thought "Oh no, I have ticket for this and it looks boring". But I was surprised that I very much enjoyed it. Definately better then the trailer suggested.

Rating: [mr]4[/mr]

[Tom]

This was it for me for this year's FantasyFilmFest. Like last year, I have watched 11 movies.

"District 13: Ultimatum" is already ordered.
Other movies I will consider buying later on:
Moon
Lesbian Vampire Killers
District 9
A Film With Me In It
K-20

But I will wait for the prices to drop very low for them. These aren't any movies which I will have the urge to watch again anytime soon, even though I enjoyed them.

[Achim]

Two more for my "movies to watch out for" list... (there really isn't enough movies with priests "kicking arse for the lord" ).

Thanks for all your reviews, Tom!

[lovemunkey187]

District 13 Ultimatum

This movie was a very nice surprise. I almost didn't go watch it when I learned that this is a sequel to a movie I have not seen. But it stands very well alone. This is a great non-stop action movie with very nice martial arts (and supposedly without any wirework). It even was very funny in parts. Very well spent two hours. I have pre-ordered both movies now on Blu-ray.

Rating: [mr]5[/mr]

The guy with dark hair and tats and the shaven headed guy(who was in Die Hard 4) were the two pioneers/poster boys of the whole free running thing.

The Tournament

30 assassins battle for the price money in a tournament, where there have to kill each other until one is left standing. They have 24 hours or all will die. The premise very much reminds of Battle Royale. The differences to Battle Royale (besides that there are no children involved) are that it takes place in London and that the assassins each have a tracking device where they can track other assassins near them. One of the assassins manages to extract his homing device and put it into an innocent priest who now becomes part of the game.
I saw the trailer to this at the screening of some other FantasyFilmFest movies, and I thought "Oh no, I have ticket for this and it looks boring". But I was surprised that I very much enjoyed it. Definately better then the trailer suggested.

Rating: [mr]4[/mr]

The premise also reminds me a little bit of Series 7: The Contenders.