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Very Bad Things, a review by Rich

Title: Very Bad Things

Runtime:97
Certificate:18
Year:1998
Genres:Suspense/Thriller, Comedy

Plot:Laura Garrety (Cameron Diaz) wants the wedding of her dreams and Kyle Fisher (Jon Favreau) wants to marry the woman he loves. But before that, his buddies (Christian Slater, Daniel Stern, Jeremy Piven and Leland Orser) decide to throw him an unforgettable bachelor party in Las Vegas.
Kyle's last night of freedom involves booze, gambling, drugs and even a visit from a young stripper. When the stripper accidentally gets killed, the boys get led by Boyd into disposing of the '105 pound problem' in the desert instead of calling the police.
Thus begins a darkly comic homicidal trail, dropped like lethal breadcrumb by writer-director Peter Berg in this audacious, sure handed motion picture debut.

My Review:
Strange film, sort of a whacky black comedy with violence and emotions.
The set of guys who hit Vegas to have a drink and drug filled stag weekend include an impressive array of actors, and with Diaz playing the beautiful but ruthless bride to be you think this film can't go too wrong.
The humour though misses the mark for me, it is quite warped and probably not to my personal taste. Some great performances from Slater and Diaz in particular raise the film above the mundane, and the script is fairly sharp and in your face.
The ending was surprising and funny, and the whole film is a good description of when things go wrong, they keep going wrong!


(From December Marathons - DISCUSSION AND REVIEW THREAD on December 7th, 2009)

Shadow of the Wraith, a review by Eric

Shadow of the Wraith


Overview:Two brothers are plunged into the realm of psychic horror, one tormented by a stalker, and the other involved with a girl whose home is the site of eerie occurances.

Asaji is in love with Ryoji. Ryoji senses his presence wherever he goes, but he figures it's just a crush and that it won't go much further, but he couldn't be more wrong as Asaji begins stalking Mariko, Ryoji's girlfriend. When a female friend of Ryoji is killed in an accident while talking with him on phone, her last word is, "Asaji ...". But, she couldn't be involved, she was with Ryoji at the moment of her death ...

As soon as Naoko moves into room 505 of her new appartement, she hears sories about strange accidents and eerie phenomena surrounding appartements with the number "5". She runs into Kazuhiko, Ryoji's brother, whom she saw taking photos of her condo. He won't say what he was doing, but he warns her to be careful.Accidents continue to happen in condos with the number "5" and something in Naoko's closet is taking a gruesome form.

My Thoughts: I guess Horror really isn't my cup of tea.  I actually dozed off a few times during that movie.  Actually it's not 1 movie.  It's split in two parts but except for a few characters that appear in both they not related whatsoever.

My Score:




(From Eric's 2009 "Best Effort" October Horror Marathon. on October 12th, 2009)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: The computer that controls the Earth gate doesn't implement all safety precautions a normal DHD has. This allows the SGC to open a Wormhole through a remote sun and this injects heavy elements into the sun's core. It starts with the sun going red but when the process can't be stopped the remote planet won't be able to support life any longer. SG-1 tries to undo their mistake.

My Opinion: A good episode about religious obsession and fatalism. I also liked how SG-1 tried everything to undo their mistake even against the resistance of the locals.

Synopsis: Cassandra has become a teenager but suddenly her body goes haywire. She produces large fields of electricity and she can move metal objects. But she gets worse and the only remedy can be found on her home planet - Niirti experimented on the entire population.

My Opinion: I also liked this episode because it showed how much Sam as well as her stepmother Dr. Frasier care for Cassie.

Synopsis: Daniel is still watching the Unas on the home planet of the Goa'ulds, especially Chaka, the Unas that kidnapped him once. But then Chaka is kidnapped by people from another planet and put to work as a slave. Daniel tries to rescue him.

My Opinion: I like this episode very much because Daniel does anything in his might to help a non-human. This shows perfectly how Daniel perceives the world. But it also showed how problematic it is to interfere in another world's way of living that are different to our own.

Synopsis: During the 37 days the russian Stargate program was active there has been an inoffical unit, too. They have gone lost on a planet and SG-1 and a russian team go after them in a joint venture.

My Opinion:

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on March 31st, 2008)