Weekly Wrap-Up (11/13)

Anybody who has read this blog can figure out that I have a pretty eclectic taste in movies. To be fair this is partially due to the fact that many I watch many popular movies I normally wouldn't seek out just to say that I've seen them and keep up with references to them. This week I watched five films and they are all pretty different so I'll just post my thoughts in the order I saw each movie!

The Invisible Man (1933)
After watching The Mummy (1932) this summer I wanted to see more Universal horror movies and finally got around to seeing another. The Invisible Man features groundbreaking special effects that hold up shockingly well for a film that is almost 80 years old. Claude Rains plays Griffin, our invisible man. I was impressed with his performance since we get to know this character quite well even though we never really see him. I had seen Rains before in Casablanca as Captain Renault. Griffin's lover Flora is played by Gloria Stuart, who is best known to modern audiences as old Rose in Titanic (1997). Having already seen that movie it was quite fascinating to see her at such a young age! The Invisible Man was directed by James Whale who also directed Frankenstein (1931) and its sequel Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
While the film's pace is a bit slow by today's standards, there is still more going on than in The Mummy (the only other movie of its time and genre I have seen to compare it to). In 2008 The Invisible Man was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
8/10

Footloose (1984)
While I was expecting this movie to be cheesy fluff, the tone is actually quite serious. However, the plot of a new guy in town who doesn't fit in and then gets in trouble because of it is pretty derivative. The movie tries to put a new spin on things with the strict local regulations on music and dance but it doesn't really work and still feels like I have seen it a million times before. Footloose is competently made and John Lithgow puts in a solid performance as the town minister, but at the end of the day the movie isn't anything special.
I knew that Lithgow and Kevin Bacon were in this movie but I was surprised to see Chris Penn and Sarah Jessica Parker in early roles. Ariel, the love interest of Kevin Bacon's character, was played by Lori Singer who is also a dancer in real life. I enjoyed the 80s soundtrack but think that this movie could have been better if it was a straight up musical instead of just featuring several montage scenes. Maybe the remake which came out earlier this year went in that direction? I don't know and frankly have no desire to see it.
5/10

I Eat Your Skin aka Voodoo Blood Bath aka Zombies (1964)
Despite the outrageous title there is no actually flesh eating in this movie. What a rip-off! This movie did not get released until six years after it was produced and was re-titled so it could be shown as a double feature with the unrelated film I Drink Your Blood. I had extremely low expectations coming into this movie and was actually pleasantly surprised. Now don't get me wrong, this is certainly an awful film, but its watchable and entertaining enough for a shlocky low budget flick. While watching this with some friends I remarked that it feels like a movie the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 would have featured. It turns out that I was pretty close since MST3K did riff the movie The Horror of Party Beach which was also directed by Del Tenney! This movie would have made great material for Joel/Mike and the bots to make fun. However, even if the MST3K crew were aware of this movie I bet they passed on it due to the unfortunate stereotypical portrayal of the island natives. If you like bad, campy old movies check this one out. Just be aware that it is a product of its time and doesn't feature zombies chomping on people.
2/10

Black Dynamite (2009)
While there are some great spoof movies out there (any Mel Brooks movie, Airplane) recently most of them have been historically bad (Date Movie, Epic Movie). The trailer for Black Dynamite is hilarious so I had to give it a shot. I am proud to say that Black Dynamite is up there as one of the best spoof movies of all time! This film parodies 1970s Blaxploitation films, and does it so well that it is arguably still part of the genre. While I haven't seen many Blaxploitation movies, that is not a requirement as long as one has a general familiarity of the genre and low budget flicks. Many of the jokes are intentional goofs. Some of these are humorously obvious while others are subtle but just as funny. The film stars Michael Jai White as the title character and he was also one of the screenwriters. Clearly White and those involved with making this movie love Blaxploitation (and B-movies in general) as Black Dynamite is as much a spoof as it is a loving homage. Although this movie is a silly comedy, it was painstakingly made to look, feel, and sound like it came straight of the 1970s and would probably fool people not in on the joke. If you have a sense of humor please do yourself a favor and watch this movie now! There is an animated Black Dynamite TV series featuring most of the film's cast in the works set to air in the summer of 2012 on Adult Swim. DYNOMITE! DYNOMITE!
9/10

Police Academy (1984)
Comedy is the most subjective genre of any medium, and film is certainly not an exception. I found this movie to be quite funny and wonder if its reputation has been tarnished a bit by the fact that there are seven movies in the series, with most of them said to be terrible. The plot is a mix of Stripes and Revenge of the Nerds but the reason the movie works is because the characters are fun to watch and we want them to succeed. Police Academy was Steve Guttenberg's breakthrough role and while I haven't seen him in too many movies, its ashame his career took a nosedive in the 90s. Shia LaBeouf reminds me of Guttenberg, but he is far more annoying and much less likeable than the Gutt! Former NFL player (a lot of football players became actors in the 1970s and 80s for some reason) Bubba Smith shines as Moses Hightower, while veteran actor George Gaynes plays the Commandant. The talented Michael Winslow essentially plays himself since his character Larvelle Jones can use only his mouth to create amazing sound effects with hilarious results. As much as I liked this movie I think I'll pass on the sequels.
7/10

The Harry Potter movies, Part II

In preparation for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, I have been re-watching all the Harry Potter films in chronological order. Today I'll post my thoughts on the final four Harry Potter films.

Before I get to the movies, I want to discuss something I forgot to talk about in Part I of my Harry Potter movie retrospective. The only main character re-cast in the Harry Potter series was Dumbledore, due to the fact that Richard Harris died after the second Potter movie was released. Harris was a great actor who brought a refined sense of wisdom to the character. While re-watching the first two I realized that Harris was more frail than I remembered, and had he lived I think he would have had trouble pulling off some of the more physical demanding scenes in the 5th and 6th movies.

Michael Gambon was a good replacement as Professor Albus Dumbledore, as he re-vitalized the role by being a little younger, and giving Dumbledore a stronger presence. Michael Gambon's entrance to the Harry Potter series re-united him with Maggie Smith (Prof. McGonagall) who he worked with in Gosford Park (2001). I feel that the Dumbledore of the books is a cross between Harris' and Gambon's versions of Dumbledore.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
The fifth Harry Potter movie features the fourth and final director of the series, David Yates. The Order of the Phoenix is the second shortest Potter film behind Deathly Hallows Part 2. However, The Order of the Phoenix is based on the longest novel of the series. While this may seem like a bad sign, it works since I felt that the 5th book was too long, and also my least favorite book in the series. Therefore this movie trims the fat and gets us right to the story and characters. For example, it took way too long in the book for Harry to arrive at Hogwarts. Yates' vision stays true to the previous films in the series, while keeping the darker tone of the last three books. The scenes with Snape are a nice preview for the final films.
7/10

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
The sixth Harry Potter movie has great cinematography thanks to Bruno Delbonnel, a three time Oscar nominee for cinematography. I loved the way he shot the hallways of Hogwarts and his use of desaturated colors is fantastic. This movie has a lot of humor and is by far the funniest of the series. But at the same time it is manages to also be one of darkest. In this way it does a great job of capturing the feel of the book. I loved the mystery of Professor Slughorn's memory as well as the identity of the Half-Blood Prince. This movie is another reminder that Alan Rickman owns the role of Snape and Robbie Coltrane owns the role of Hagrid. I can't imagine any actor doing as good as though two in either role. My main issue with this movie is that a lot of Voldemort/Tom Riddle's back-story from the book was cut. This was most likely done for time reasons, because its a show-stopper, and since most of this movie's audience has already read the books. However, it would help those who haven't read the books get more out of the story and give a better characterization to Voldemort.
7/10

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)
I wasn't too thrilled about the choice to split the last book into two movies, as it felt like a cash grab, but it does work. After seeing both parts I'm actually glad they did it this way and wish they split Goblet of Fire into two movies, or at least had a Lord of the Rings type extended cut. That said, this one still had some padding and was a little longer than it needed to be. The scene near the beginning with multiple Harry Potters scene was done very well. I was also impressed with the Polyjuice Potion scene since it felt like the other actors were really Harry, Ron, and Hermione in disguise because they did such a good job copying their mannerisms. There is a similar scene in Part 2 that is done just as well, but this one is longer and involves three characters instead of one. The animation for the tale of the three brothers was great. I'd like to see a whole movie, or at least a short film done in that style! Hermione's narration doesn't make it feel like too much of a show-stopper even though she is telling a story. Also it is necessary information as the deathly hallows are in the title after all.The ending is abrupt, but that was expected since it was split into two films.
7/10

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)
The final Potter movie was also my first midnight premiere! Well sort of, I couldn't get tickets to the 12:00 AM showing so I went at 12:45, close enough in my book. The audience was great (many dressed up as characters) as they clapped and cheered at the appropriate times but were never loud or talked over anything. Part 2 picks up right where Part 1 left off, and its quite a thrill ride down to the very end. The pacing issues from Part 1 have gone this time. Even the scene showing Snape's memories did not feel like a showstopper. I think the reason for this was because it was filmed like memories and went back and forth, not in chronological order but by his emotions. This part kinda reminded me of The Tree of Life actually! The Battle of Hogwarts was awesome and this was a great way to conclude the series. If you liked the other ones you won't be disappointed. Oh and I loved John Hurt's cameo as Ollivander, the wand maker. He is in three Potter movies and I think he has the most screen time in this one! There were still a few parts that could have been included to flesh out the story more, especially since this is the shortest Potter film. For example, there could have been a better explanation about Lupin's son, for those who haven't read the books. The only thing that really bothered my was the epilogue. I hated it in the book because it read like fan fiction, and its even sillier seeing it on screen. At the very least they should have just put it in as an after the credits scene. Draco's old make-up makes him look like Sean Penn while Ron and Hermoine haven't aged at all in 19 years. Neither has Ginny, they just let her hair down! Next time I watch this I am just going to skip the epilogue, its much better to go out on the real final scene. I am guessing that this will be the biggest movie at the box office this summer.
7/10

Final thoughts on the series:
I wish the series had more famous British actors (Patrick Stewart, Judi Dench, etc.) but all the acting is good, especially Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane. I'm glad that the role of the big three (Harry, Hermione, and Ron) went to unknowns. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint all did a great job respectively. I hope they don't get typecast and wish them all the best of luck in their post-Potter careers. While overall the acting was very good, the actress who played Ginny Weasely was by far the weakest. To be fair, Ginny was not a strong character in the books and her relationship with Harry near the end of the series feels like an afterthought. Despite some flaws I don't really think this film series could have been done much better. I can't think of another film series that went so many (8!) films with the same actors and told one cohesive story that is as good as the Potter movie series. It's not the best film series ever, but you gotta give it a lot of credit for having staying power and consistent quality over the course of ten years.

Since I didn't get around to watch any movies recently besides the Harry Potter films, there won't be a wrap-up this week. Instead I'll post my film article on Sunday and then we'll go back to the regular schedule.

Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Directed by Sam Raimi
Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Dileep Rao, Lorna Raver
IMDB: Drag Me to Hell

Why I wanted to watch it: I like Sam Raimi's work from Army of Darkness to Darkman to the Spider-Man movies. Drag Me to Hell is Raimi's most recent film so of course I wanted to see it, especially since it got good reviews. Plus it helps that I like supernatural horror movies that have some comedy.

Plot Synopsis: A young woman named Christine Brown is a loan officer at a bank and evicts an old lady from her home. The old woman, Mrs. Ganush, places a curse on Christine and she has three days to get rid of it, or else be sent to hell.

Thoughts: The movie starts out with a scene that is a flashback and therefore features many characters that are not in the rest of the movie. I've seen a couple other movies do this (Jumanji) and I don't like that because it puts the events before the characters. However, it worked in Drag Me to Hell  because in the opening scene the medium fails and loses a boy to the evil spirit, the Lamia. This scene not only introduces us to medium and the Lamia, but also raises the stakes from the get go. Will the medium be able to exorcise her figurative and literal(!) demons and save our protagonist, Christine? Christine Brown is played by Alison Lohman, and she looks a lot like Jennifer Jason Leigh in this movie. I felt that the character was well set up with Christine having to compete for the assistant manager's position as well as being criticized by her boyfriend's mother. She is under pressure in her personal and work life to get promoted to assistant manager, so we can sympathize with Christine when she doesn't do all she possibly can to help Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver), especially when under different circumstances she would have helped the old lady get a loan isn't of having her evicted like the bank wants. This is critical because if Christine just blew off Mrs. Ganush or didn't care at all that she would lose the house, the whole movie would fall apart as we wouldn't care what would happen to Christine. In Christine we have a likeable but realistic protagonist, which is always a good thing.

Dileep Rao has appeared in only three movies so far: Drag Me to Hell, Avatar and Inception. In this movie he puts in a good performance as the wise fortune teller. He seems poised to become a prolific character actor. Justin Long is usually known for doing comedic roles (I loved his role in Galaxy Quest) so I was a little worried at first, but he's fine here as Christine's concerned boyfriend, Clay. The characters were surprisingly well developed for the horror genre, which often features one dimensional people simply trying to survive and nothing else. I'm still not sure why the old gypsy targeted Christine instead of the head of the bank, but I guess that it is the point of the story. We feel bad that Mrs. Ganush lost her house, but she was a spiteful woman who wanted revenge, whether or not it was completely justified. That is why is she the villain, a vindictive she-bitch! The directing was good and kept the film suspenseful as we know bad things will happen, but don't know how or exactly what will be sent to terrify Christine. A great example of this was the dinner scene in which Christine meets Clay's parents.  Raimi does a great job of "show don't tell." For example, one scene shows Christine reading a book on animal sacrifice given to her by the fortune teller. After a close-up on the book we then cut to a shot of a kitten pawning at her leg! When it comes to the structure of the plot there is a nice "ticking time bomb" of having three days to get rid of the curse, even though I have no idea why or where that number came from. There were some nice twists to keep the viewer guessing and the story never got stale as a result. The movie contains plenty of dark humor such as in the aforementioned dinner scene when Christine stabs a piece of pie that has an eyeball in it and has to play it off in front of her boyfriend's family. My favorite funny part was the possessed goat during the seance. Drag Me to Hell isn't Saw or Hostel but instead is a good old fashioned horror movie with chills and thrills. The movie is PG-13, but I never felt like the film was holding itself back as there was still a lot of blood and some gore. There was more CGI than I would like, but it is not too distracting. I won't give spoilers, but I'll just say the ending was right out of Tales from the Crypt.

I know this is nitpicking, but I'm disappointed Bruce Campbell didn't have a cameo as he often does in Raimi films. The reason for this appears to be that he was busy filming his role as Sam Axe on the popular television series Burn Notice. Its too bad because he could have easily fit in the film as the psychic at the seance or as Clay's father. But don't worry, Sam Raimi's brother Ted has an off-screen cameo during which he can be heard as a doctor. I didn't like Spiderman 3, but thankfully Sam Raimi is back in top form as he returns to the horror genre. Raimi's next movie is a Oz: The Great and Powerful, about how the wizard came to be the ruler of Oz. He was attached to a World of Warcraft movie, but luckily that project appears to have been canceled.
Director Sam Raimi is pictured below:

Trivia: It was great to see the Evil Dead car, a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, make an appearance! The car is in almost every Sam Raimi movie.
Ellen Paige (Juno, Inception) was originally cast in the lead role of Christine but had to drop out because of issues relating to the 2008-2009 Screen Actor's Guild strike.
This isn't exactly trivia but Mrs. Ganush looks like the "she-bitch" from Army of Darkness. Who knows if it was intentional or not, but I'll include the best picture I could find of her from AoD and let you be the judge.

Score: 7/10
Closing Thoughts: I certainly enjoyed this movie as it is a solid horror flick that doesn't take itself too seriously. I am 99.9% sure there won't be an Evil Dead 4, and unless Sam Raimi directs an original horror movie starring Bruce Campbell, this is probably as close as we will ever get. Looking back, 2009 was a really good year for movies. Other than Transformers 2 of course...

The next film I will be watching launched a franchise thanks to its iconic character. The review should be up Thursday or Friday.

Summer Movie Round-Up Part 2 of 3

This will be the second of three posts covering the movies I have seen so far this summer. Each post will include 8 brief reviews. On Monday I'll finish up with Part Three.

Sherlock Holmes (2009) is first of four recent movies in this round-up. It has been awhile since I have read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but it feels that, like the recent James Bond and Star Trek "reboots," this is Sherlock Holmes for people who don't like Sherlock Holmes. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing as I am all for a different spin on an old, or in this case, public domain, character. As long as you don't go in expecting Doyle's version of Holmes, you should have a lot of fun. The stylish cuts and flashbacks with sepia toned newspapers do a good job of giving the film its own flavor. Robert Downey Jr. is entertaining as usual and he does a great job of playing off straight man Watson (Jude Law) and love interest Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams). I didn't really care for the villain, Lord Blackwood, who from my understanding was made up for the film. However, I did like how everything turned out, including how Moriarty was set-up for the sequel. The main characters were fleshed out well, although overall I felt the story could have been better. A pretty good start for this series, but hopefully the sequel will be an improvement. The follow-up, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is set for a December 2011 release date with Stephen Fry as Mycroft Holmes!
Sherlock Holmes deduces a 6/10!

Long before the video game Angry Birds there was Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963)! I haven't seen too many Hitchcock films yet but I really like what I have seen so far. The directing and cinematography was top notch and the acting was fantastic. Tippi Hedren puts in a fascinating performance as Melanie Daniels, a young heiress. Rod Taylor was great as Mitch, Melanie's love interest. I recognized Taylor from The Time Machine (1960) and an episode of the Twilight Zone. Maybe its just me but I always thought he looks like Robin Williams! Veronica Cartwright was excellent as Mitch's younger sister. This scream queen was also in Alien (1979) as the other female character! The special effects are outstanding, especially for its time. The Birds isn't exactly likeable, but that is the point since it is a horror/thriller film about birds attacking people and how it affects the human characters. I'll have to watch more Hitchcock movies, but so far Rear Window is still my favorite.
The Birds flies into a 8/10!

Somehow I hadn't gotten around to watching Independence Day (1996) until now. ID4, as it is also known, was the top grossing movie of 1996 and made over $300 million. Independence Day is an entertaining summer movie that helped revive interest in science fiction films at a time when they had gotten a bit stale. Independence Day also helped bring back disaster movies since many films such as Volcano (1997) and Armageddon (1998) came in its wake. This is the movie that transformed the "Fresh Prince" into movie star Will Smith, although it was the Men in Black series which would make him a superstar. As for the actual movie itself? The special effects still hold up pretty well and it is a crowd pleaser. However, there are a lot of characters to follow and therefore a lot of back and forth between different plot lines. Some of these are interesting (the President of the USA, played by Bill Pullman) and some not so interesting (a pilot who claimed he was once abducted by aliens, played by Randy Quaid). I loved Brent Spiner's (Data from Star Trek) cameo as an Area 51 scientist. Jeff Goldblum was great in the role of the computer geek, although the scene in which he hacks into the alien computer with a Macintosh laptop is even more ridiculous in 2011 than it was in 1996. And don't even get me started about how Will Smith's dog made a jump right out of Space Jam. Independence Day is a fun but flawed action movie that is also a bit of a throw back to 50s alien invasion movies like The War of the Worlds (1953). However, when it comes to 90s sci-fi epics directed by Roland Emmerich, I prefer the movie he made before this, Stargate (1994).
Independence Day attacks a 6/10!
      

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) is based on the comic book series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. When I first heard about Scott Pilgrim I loved the concept of the main character having to defeat seven exes in order to go out with the girl of his dreams. That said, I went into this movie without having read the comic book so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Although I can't say whether or not Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a good adaptation, I did think it was a good movie with interesting characters. Of the seven exes my favorite was Chris Evans as the movie star! I enjoyed the stylish visuals, sound effects, and video game references. I also liked how the world is generally realistic, but goes straight in to fantasy at times. While in some cases this could be disastrous, it worked with the quirky feel of the movie and it was nice to see something different.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World scores a 7/10!

Prior to the Roger Corman blogathon I watched a couple of Corman directed movies, including The Haunted Palace (1963). Vincent Price, a Corman favorite, hams it up as warlock Joseph Curwen as well as his descendant, Charles Dexter Ward. Ward moves into the same town over 100 years later because he has inherited his great-grandfather's mansion. When it comes to Corman films I still prefer X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, but this one is a lot of fun. Even though Price dominates the movie (which isn't a bad thing!) Debra Paget and Lon Chaney Jr. both put in solid performances. It was also interesting to see Corman do a Lovecraft story instead of adapting Edgar Allan Poe which he was more known for. However, the movie does get its title from a Poe poem. The screenplay was written by Charles Beaumont who wrote over 20 episodes of the original Twilight Zone series.
The Haunted Palace scares up a 6/10!

Into the Night (1985) was directed by John Landis (Animal House) and stars Jeff Goldblum. I first heard about this movie as a fan of Jeff Goldblum (two Goldblum movies in this post!). The basic plot is that Ed Okin (Goldblum) is an insomniac who gets involved with a beautiful young jewel thief (Michelle Pfeiffer). There are over 20 cameos by directors and screenwriters! Everyone from Jim Henson to David Cronenberg to Lawrence Kasdan can be seen in this movie. While it was fun looking out for these faces, it was also distracting from the main story. The best cameo was David Bowie as a British hitman since not only is Bowie a surprisingly good actor, but also because this subplot fit in perfectly with the story and didn't feel like an inside joke as many of the other cameos did. Landis himself appears as one of the Iranian henchmen after the jewels. While the film is enjoyable and competently made, it certainly could have been better. John Landis made Into the Night two years after he directed the first segment of the Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). During filming of that movie, actor Vic Morrow (father of actress Jennifer Jason Leigh) and two child actors were killed in a helicopter accident. Landis went to trial and eventually settled out of court with the families of the victims. I'm not going to demonize or exonerate Landis, but clearly he had other things on mind while making this movie.
Into the Night gets into a 5/10!

Like the other recent movies in today's post, Repo Men (2010) was one that I thought about seeing in theaters before I heard it got mixed reviews. I don't always see films in theaters, but when I do I drink Jose Cuervo... I mean, I make sure its going to be pretty good beforehand! The idea of having artificial organs being sold by companies and then repossessed if the buyers could not make payments sounded like a fascinating concept. Even though Repo Men was based on a 2009 novel by Eric Garcia called The Repossession Mambo, I have heard that the plot is similar to that of Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008). While I liked Repo Men, it could have been a lot better. One of the main problems was the pacing. We know from that trailer that Jude Law's character is a repo man who will in turn get an artificial organ that will need to be repossessed. Unfortunately it took way longer than necessary to get to that point and I felt like I was just waiting for the movie to progress. The ending is interesting to say the least. Without giving too much away, I bet that a lot of people felt cheated as they walked out of the theaters. I kinda saw it coming but didn't think the movie would go in that direction since the idea had nothing to do with the themes of this film and simply felt out of place.
Also I just realized there are two Jude Law movies in this post. I didn't plan the double shots of Goldblum and Law so consider yourselves lucky!
Repo Men repossess a 5/10!
       

If a movie is not filmed in 3-D, don't see it in 3-D! I watched Clash of the Titans (2010) in glorious 2-D and had a lot of fun. However, I heard that the 3-D version, which was done as an afterthought to cash in on the recent 3-D trend, was horrendous. Sam Worthington of Avatar fame stars as Perseus in this remake of the 1981 Clash of the Titans, which is in turn based on Greek mythology. Although I haven't seen the 1981 version, which has special effects by Ray Harryhausen, I did enjoy this as a fun popcorn movie. The acting was fine given the material. Mads Mikkelsen and Gemma Arterton put in nice performances as Draco and Io respectively. Liam Neeson hammed it up as Zeus with his famous line "Release the Kraken!" Speaking of which, why was the sea monster even called the Kraken? The Kraken is from Norse mythology... are we setting this up for a crossover with Thor?! Despite its flaws I found this to be an enjoyable movie. Hopefully the sequel, due out in spring of 2012, will be even better.
Clash of the Titans releases a 6/10!

On Monday I will post Part Three, in which I review a film from 1932, a Bill Murray movie, and the first film made one of my favorite directors!