Empire of the Ants #178 (C-)

A-hahaha!!  The ants seemed like they were projected into the shot via overhead projector or something similar.  I don't know what they did, but it was funny.  Almost like the ants were a macro shot from a tank and the screen was split, half ant tank/half people in the woods.  Hell, the ants often were climbing up nothing (seemingly the air) when really it was the tank walls.

In all actuality, it was done pretty well considering the release date was in the late 1970's.  Then when the ants would get close, it seemed like a shot straight out of Troll 2.  Super close up and you could only see their fuzzy heads.  Also, some of the action shots consisted of the cameramen just shaking the camera back and forth to add to the "excitement".  Man, this was funny.

And, we have yet another movie which had some form of insect attack where they dub-in cicada and loud screeching as the killer's sound (although this one was old, so this could have been the original movie to do this...haha).  Point being, that is not the noise of a giant killer ant, it's a cicada and other ear piercing shrills.  I guess I can't talk however, because I've never seen a giant ant, so maybe they do sound like that?

The movie actually reminded me a lot of Shock Waves, although instead of being trapped on an island full of surrounding water and getting attacked by nazi water zombies, they were getting attacked by humongous leaf cutter ants.

Best part for me was watching my first Joan Collins movie (that I can recall) and watching her get eaten by the queen ant.  YES!

Warrior #177 (B+)

Pretty sure the plot is known here by the entire world, but for those who are reading this in 17 years I'll do a quick recap.  A teacher who can barely pay his bills needs some extra dough or his family will go bankrupt.  He used to do some MMA (c) fighting in his younger days, and decides to get back involved.  There is a giant tournament coming with a huge purse and he decides to enter the contest.  With great fortune for the teacher, the main fighter from his gym gets hurt and cannot compete....thus a spot opens up and he can join the tourney.  Also, he has a brother.  Okay, you are caught up on the plot now....

Once the tournament starts, I feel like they film the entire rest of the movie as one long day.  Is that true?  Maybe it was just me who was confused, and/or they didn't film this well?  How many days are involved?  They can't fight twice within the same day can they?  I'm guessing the tournament occurs over many days, but they don't make this very apparent.  As in, there aren't any cut scenes with either brother and their family, trainers, or whatever.  I would think that they would have a fight and then show the husband with his wife and kid during the week, or prepping with the training for the next scheduled fight.  Instead, they do one fight, then it's seemingly immediately followed up by another.  Oh well.

I really liked this movie.  I am happy I watched it.  Once again, Tom Hardy transforms himself into a crazy awesome role.  He's ripped again like in Bronson.  I don't quite understand how a fairly plain looking guy can look completely different in nearly every movie he's starred in??  He's obviously a favorite of mine...man, I just got excited to see Dark Knight Rises...  Last statement, Tom Hardy IS today's Gary Oldman.  (Ohhhhh, they are BOTH in the Dark Knight Rises!!)

Crawlspace #176 (B-)

This is not to be confused with the Klaus Kinski version (click here for my review on the Klaus Kinski version), but is also a pretty swell movie.  They are completely separate movie plots just with the same name.  I believe the Crawlspace I'm reviewing here was initially a made for TV film, but you can get it on DVD.  I would say it isn't a main streamer and is probably more for someone who is willing to sit and watch an older, slower paced movie without too many gimmicks.  The plot is a nice, traditional family (husband and wife only) who could not have children, find a strange squatter in their basement crawlspace.  Because they always wanted kids, they decide to befriend this random oddball.  They feed him and give him clothes, and invite him for Christmas dinner.  For the most part, "Richard" (aka the crawl space hippy troll) declines their invites and chooses to stay where he's most comfortable, wedged between the basement ceiling and a drafty floor/straw.  The family finally convinces Richard to go to the store to get them groceries, but the store folk make fun of Richard and he ends up leaving empty handed and even without his $20.  Later that night, Richard heads back and trashes the store.  The town folk then want Richard's head on a platter, and the nice older couple does their best to defend Richard...despite knowing that he's wrong.  One thing leads to another and bad stuff happens, you'll have to watch to find out.  I did enjoy this flick though, a pretty fun and strange older movie.  I like seeing twisted movies from the 70's.

If this happened in this day, it would be certainly different results.  The family was just like, "oh, there's a young man living in the basement, in a hole full of cobwebs and straw....let's give him a suit and some cookies!  And pretend like he's our long lost son."  Heck....what the hell!?

When I rent a movie, versus watch it on streaming - my picture/screenshot ability is greatly limited.  Thus I apologize for the two awful pictures below.  Yes, that is my lamp in the reflection and yes, the 2nd shot is blurry:

Long Weekend (1978 version) #175 (B-)

This flick is not to be confused with the awesome (I'm sarcastically guessing that it is awesome) movie from 2005 staring Chris Klein...this version of "Long Weekend" was from 1978 and is placed in Australia.  There is no connection here other than the names.  Now that we are clear on this....on to the review.

So far I'm 11 minutes in and I had to press pause to state something about what's occurred so far.  A couple (at least I think they are an item) met up in the morning to head out on some sort of vacation.  Prior to knocking on the woman's door, the man pulled out a rifle and put the scope on her face as she walked around her kitchen on the 2nd floor.  Odd.  Then on their drive out to holiday, they spent the time screaming at each other...followed by the dude almost crashing into a van, a few minutes/hours later trying to go around a car and almost hitting another car head on, then the guy threw a match or cigarette out the window and caught the side of the road on fire, and finally he nailed a wallaby square on killing it dead.  All while not paying attention.  This movie is crazy so far.  Not sure if that is in a good way however.

I'm finished watching now.  It was pretty entertaining.  Basically this couple is going on a retreat to the outback/beach, as the have been having troubles with their relationship (and as it turns out the wife had an abortion due to getting knocked up by another guy, which is divulged mid way).  Along the way to the beach and also while at the beach, they commit unnecessary acts against nature.  For instance they shoot animals, the man chops down a tree just because, they smash an eagle egg and they shoot a sea cow.  The remaining plot is nature turns on them until everyone dies.  The last 30 minutes are pretty gripping.  I rewound the last scene 3 times including some screen by screen slow motion.  It was an "ooooooh!" scene for sure.

Here is a small conversation between the couple:

Peter: "You preoccupied Marcia?"
Marcia: "Let's go home"
Peter: "We just got here"
Marcia: "I'll make it worth your wild gorgeous"
Peter: "Home is where I leave my dirty socks"
Marcia: "Should have married your mother"
Peter: "You've got better tits"
Marcia: "I'm serious Pete"
Peter: "About marrying my mother?"
Marcia: "About going home.."
Peter: "Why?"
Marcia: "To beat the traffic"

After watching this I was listening to another podcast by the Mondo Movie guys, and they mentioned Long Weekend.  Then they mentioned that Jim Caviezal was involved in a remake of this movie.  I looked it up and found out that it is true and the remake is called Nature's Grave (also listed as Long Weekend depending on where you look).  I noted that the Jim's character was named Peter and the dog was still Cricket, but they renamed the wife to Carla (versus Marcia).  I wonder why changes like that occur?

#174 The Last House on the Left (1972) (B-)

Can I ask a brain question of you on this fine day?  When there is both an original and a remake of a movie - does the viewer generally end up liking the first one they see the best?  As in, if I see the remake first, I like it better than the original.  And vice versa, if I see the original first I like it better than the remake.  For me it seems that this might be the case.  I was going to write more about this thought at the end of the post, as well as give examples - but I've decided to write an entire post on this topic instead.  So, go here ________ for that write up.  I will basically list a bunch of examples and state whether I liked the original or remake better - and then also mention which I saw first.  Then we can begin to see if the phenomenon is real.

Now on to the movie.  As you can probably tell from the first paragraph, I've seen the remake of The Last House on the Left already, somewhere within my past movie viewing experience.  I ended up liking it 4 stars worth in Netflix (c), the same as this movie.  And I probably would give both an overall rating of somewhere between a C+ or B- (it's close).  And yes, for the record I would rather give them 3.5 stars to be more fitting.  Regarding which I liked better, I think I liked the remake a tiny amount better.  I feel like it was more modern with better finishing moves.  I recall a nice scene involving a sink.

The original was good however and the acting was clutch - but I guess it just lacked based on what it was able to show, which could have hurt the movie.  Since it was from the early 70's, they really couldn't show too much of the action.  Still they did a pretty good job considering the rules back then.  In the last sequence within the house, when the parents caught on and started to booby trap the house (a la Home Alone), it got a bit cheesy.  That final fight with the main bad guy and the Dad was pretty ridiculous.  I bet in the 70's they could still fight like a normal person, versus having it portrayed almost as if they were snapping their fingers as they spun in a circle, getting ready to battle 50's style.  The bad guy would punch the Dad in the gut and they would stand there and talk about it for a 20 seconds, all while his fist is still in his stomach.  And then the Dad would offer the same back....just slow and not the best scene for me.  Comical almost?  I should not be so harsh, because then the Dad gets a chainsaw and chases the rest of the baddies around and it is pretty good overall.  And that one guy just forces the other one to blow his brains out, just because he has so much power over him in his posse - that's pretty crazy, because he did what he said all the time, including ending it all.

But, in the end I am thankful for having watched this movie. Wes did a good job in his first directing attempt.  I think he will have a successful career.  LOL.  (Craven for those that think I meant Anderson)  I also loved that essentially the entire film took place outside and during the day.  That is always the best for me, versus hiding a good portion of the flick in the shadows.  Turn on a light and still make it scary...challenge on directors out there.

I also need to ask, why do they make a mockery of the two police officers throughout the movie?  They even go as far as playing circus music as they are fumbling around.  Just not sure why they added this aspect, but oh well.  The music was actually well done throughout.  Maybe in the end I liked the original better :)