DVD Collectors Online

Campfire Tales, a review by addicted2dvd

Campfire Tales
Horror takes a detour deep into the woods in this terrifying cross between 'Scream' and 'Tales From The Crypt', starring Christine Taylor ('Dodgeball') and Ron Livingston ('Office Space').

Returning home from a concert and driving recklessly, four teenagers crash their car on a deserted road. To ward off the cold, they build a fire and wait for help. But the hair-raising stories they tell around the fire put a deeper chill into the night. Each tale is more lurid, more horrifying, more shocking than anything they've heard before. Yet for these unlucky teens in the woods, the biggest shock is still to come...

My Thoughts:
I blind bought this one for this past year's Halloween Marathon. I enjoyed it so much then that I found myself ready to watch it again now. I enjoyed it just as much this time as I did the first time. I am to the point of saying this is my favorite Anthology Horror at the moment. Not only was all 3 stories suspenseful with great atmosphere... the wrap around story (where anthologies usually loose me) was a really good story in it's own right. The only thing that I could consider a downfall in this movie would have to be the fact that the first 2 stories are tellings of very well known urban legends... so you fairly quickly know what to expect. But that is ok... because these stories are so well done that you still enjoy every moment of it... even if you do know where it is going. This is one I will highly recommend... especially if you like anthology horror.



(From Weekend Movie Marathon 1/2 - 1/4 on January 2nd, 2009)

Let Me In, a review by Achim

Original Title: Let Me In
Year: 2010
Director: Matt Reeves
Rating: R
Length: 115 Min.
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 2.35:1


Stars:
Kodi Smit-McPhee
Chloe Grace Moretz
Richard jenkins
Elias Koteas

Plot:
This is a remake of the Swdish film LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.

Twelve year old Oskar Owen is an outsider, struggling to fit in at school and left alone to fend for himself at home whilst his mother works nights. One evening he meets the mysterious Eli Abby. As a sweet romance blossoms between them, Oskar Owen learns to overcome his tormentors and discovers Eli's Abby's dark secret and the connections to the gruesome events occuring across town. Together they must help Eli Abby be gone and live, or stay and die.

Brutal, bloody and tender, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN LET ME IN weaves friendship, rejection and loyalty into a disturbing and darkly atmospheric, yet poetic and unexpectedly tender tableau of adolescence.

The Good
This is a very faithful remake of the original film. They did not turn it into an action horror of some sort and he dark, almost depressing atmosphere is in tact. All important moments of the original are repeated (minus that one shot of Eli/Abby in the bathroom, which wasn't unexpected). Only deviation I noticed was (but I just might remember this wrong) the role of the policeman (Koteas), which is slightly more prominent here; neither improvement nor making it worse though. The acting from all involved is very good. Smit-McPhee and Moretz show good ability to convey the emotions and except a few awkward moments are excellent. Jenkins and Koteas are up to their usual quality.

There is a scene with a car accident that looks great! I may rememeber this wrong, but I felt the swimming pool scene near the end was slightly better executed (mainly technical) here than in the original.

The Bad
This is a very faithful remake of the original film. So, why do it? Well, yes, I know the answer of course. But I was surprised to find myself, knowing the original, hoping they'd do something a little more different just to give the whole excercise a bit of a point.

The biggest disappointment came from my favorite scene of the original, when Eli enters Oskar's appartment without being invited first. It is really poorly executed here, with a crescendo of music leading up to a reveal  The orginal played this so much better...

I felt the music was rather irritating, not mixing well in many scenes, making me become aware of it (not a good thing for a score).

The Ugly
*******MILD SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE ORIGINAL*******

I have no idea why they could have possibly thought it would be a good idea to use CGI when Abby is in rage-mode (which looks obviously fake) or show or face being almost a monster grimasse while feeding. (Did the original do this too?)




It's a "4" because it's based doing a good job of recreating the original. However, if given the choice one should always pick the original over this one. Personally, I am glad I watched this but am not intending to buy this on DVD/Blu-ray (shame, really).

(From Achim's entirely random reviews on October 15th, 2010)

Smallville Marathon #2, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Lois Lane comes to Smallville to find out who killed her cousin but then she finds a guy in a field who doesn't know who he his. Jonathan Kent lies in a hospital bed and is brain-dead. Lana is still in Paris and has a new boyfriend. Lionel is still in jail, waiting for his trial. And Lex - who has survived the attempt to poison him - travels around the world to find objects that are connected to the symbols in the Kawatche cave.

My Opinion: Sorry, but that went a bit too fast. Within half an hour Kal-El was Clark again. I am sure that if the writers really wanted to, this could have been an arc that lasted at least 4 episodes, even more. Just because it was a cliffhanger doesn't mean it has to be resolved in the very first episode of the new season.
But I like the arrival of Lois, she is refreshingly blunt. And I liked the appearance of Margot Kidder (Lois Lane in the Superman movies), especially her remark regarding Dr. Swann and a "former life". She's now the third person from the movies to appear in the series (Annette O'Toole [Lana Lang in Superman III, now Martha Kent] was obviously the first).

Synopsis: After they've found out that Chloe's grave is empty, Clark and Lois investigate her disappearance, but there are several obstacles: For one, Lois's father is a three-star General who doesn't want his daughter digging into that mystery. Secondly, he is in league with Lex. And thirdly, there's a T-1000 meteor freak who works for Lionel and wants to kill Chloe for real this time. And Lana has returned to Smallville.

My Opinion: That was a really obvious Terminator 2 rip-off, especially with the end. But I still liked it, the scenes in the Kent house were really funny. Lois's great advantage is, that she has no history whatsoever with Clark. For her, he's simply "Smallville".

Synopsis: Clark is now in his senior year at high school and he's trying out for the football team against the wishes of his father (again). The new assistant coach is none other than Lana's new boyfriend. It's a relationship they must keep hidden because he could get fired for it. But there's something else that has changed: A student nicknamed "Scabby Abby" is now a real beauty but when she kisses people they get delusional and land in the hospital. While Lois is stuck at Smallville High (she needs a few additional points to get accepted to the university) she helps Chloe and Clark to investigate.

My Opinion: The bitter irony of that episode is in my opinion, that Erica Durance (Lois) has had a "boob job" because someone convinced her that she would have better chances to get a job afterwards.
That aside it was a decent FotW episode.

Synopsis: The cheerleaders of Smallville High are using meteor rocks to create a love potion. When the football team drinks of it they all become aboulic slaves with the exception of Clark who gets ill from it. Chloe drinks from it, too, and soonafter a new cheerleading star is born.

My Opinion: This was a very funny episode, especially the parts where Chloe hits on Clark and where Clark had to pretend that we was under the love spell. I had a great time.

(From Smallville Marathon #2 on June 1st, 2008)