[SHORTS REVIEW] Rejected (2000)

 

OR

Title: Rejected

Country: USA

Genre: Comedy / Horror

Company: Bitter Films

Directed by: Don Hertzfeldt 

Year: 2000

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: N/A

Buy on:  N/A

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE!

This short is about a fictionalized version of creator Don Hertzfeldt creating various bumpers for various companies, like the Family Learning Channel.  But unfortunately, most of his shorts were rejected by the companies.  The short showcases numerous surreal situations with the characters who all get swept up the short's terrifying conclusion.

So, I have heard a bit about Don Hertzfeldt's works and I was curious about checking out one of his works.  So, I finally stumbled upon "Rejected" and man, was this short quite a trip!  What I loved so much about this short was the simplistic art style.  It's rare that I see an animated short film that uses mostly doodle like figures for their characters and the doodle like art style really made this film stand out from other animated shorts that I've seen over the years.  I also loved the fact that the characters are up against a white background and there is barely anything in the background, as that actually helped the characters stand out more in the film.  Another thing that I liked about this short film was the surreal nature of the plot.  Even though the plot of this story is mostly about the audience seeing an animator's rejected animated pitches for these different companies, I loved how random the plots tended to get for each character.  Like for example, there is one well-known short in this film where a character was dancing around, until his anus suddenly starts bleeding and he ends up drowning in his own blood.  Or the short where a man picks up a spoon and approaches a huge walking banana.

I don't have that many issues with this short, but a bit of a warning to anyone who wants to watch this film.  This film has a lot of violence, as there are many scenes where the characters are covered in blood or the characters perform violent acts against each other.  If you feel uncomfortable with watching anything that has blood in it, then this short might be a bit of a problem to watch through.

Overall, "Rejected" is one of the most unique films that I have ever seen, and I just absolutely loved the simplistic look of the film, as well as the surreal nature of the story.  I highly recommend this short film to anyone who is a fan of Don Hertzfelt's works or who loves surreal animated films in general!

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[HORROR MOVIE CORNER] Snakes on a Plane (2006)

 

Hello horror movie fans! Welcome to the all-new "Horror Movie Corner," where I talk about the horror movies that I have seen over the years!  So, this week's horror movie that I will be reviewing is the snake action and thriller film, "Snakes on a Plane!"

OR

Title: Snakes on a Plane

Starring:  Samuel L. Jackson, Nathan Phillips, Kenan Thompson, Julianna Margulies 

Genre:  Comedy / Horror / Thriller / Action

Company:   New Line Cinema

Directed by: David R. Ellis

Year: 2006

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated R - For Language, a Scene of Sexuality and Drug Use and Intense Sequences of Terror and Violence

Buy on:   Blu-Ray.com  //  Amazon  //  Best Buy

This movie has some strong and gory violence that involves snakes, as well as some nudity scenes.

The movie starts off with a young man named Sean who witnesses a mob boss named Eddie Kim killing someone and because of this, Sean ends up being in the witness protection program and has to go to Los Angeles to testify against the mob boss.  So, an FBI agent named Neville Flynn ends up going with Sean to Los Angeles to protect him from the mob boss.  But unfortunately, the mob boss finds out about Sean and Neville and he ended up sending a boat load of snakes on the plane where Neville and Sean are at.  Now, Neville has to protect all of the passengers on the plane from the snakes.

Now, I had actually watched this movie a few times when I was younger and it was definitely a movie that really stuck with me.  What I liked about this movie was the premise, as it's a movie about snakes coming on the plane and attacking the passengers and I was always interested in watching movies where most of the characters get killed by the forces of nature (or in this case, by snakes). Also, the fact that this movie is about snakes attacking a plane was very unique to me, as I rarely seen movies that dealt with snakes attacking a plane and the movie made really good use of this concept.  Another thing that I liked about this movie were the snake scenes.  I honestly enjoyed seeing the scenes where the snakes were attacking the passengers (and it's not because I'm being sadistic here).  It's because the snake scenes brought a lot of tension and horror to this film and I actually feared for most of the passengers in this film (especially the children who were on the plane).  Another thing that I liked about this film were the performances.  All of the actors did a fantastic job at showcasing the terror of having to deal with snakes attacking the plane and I especially loved Samuel L. Jackson's performance in this film as the tough-as-nails FBI agent Neville Flynn.

My main issues with this film are the pacing and the main antagonist, Eddie Kim.  There are times where the pacing of the film slows down and that's mostly during the scenes that don't involve the snakes and it was a bit of a chore to get through the non-snake scenes.  Also, the main antagonist, Eddie Kim, the mob boss, doesn't really have any characterization, other than being the one responsible for releasing the snakes on the plane.  Even though the snakes were interesting threats in the film, I wish that the movie had developed Eddie Kim as a character a bit better.

Overall, "Snakes on a Plane" is a pretty fun and action-packed movie that has a very interesting premise about snakes attacking a plane and anyone who is a huge fan of thriller movies about animals attacking, then you will definitely enjoy this movie!

[SHORTS REVIEW] Runaway (2009)

 

OR

Title: Runaway

Country: Canada

Genre: Romance / Comedy

Company: The National Film Board of Canada

Directed by: Cordell Barker

Year: 2009

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: N/A

Buy on:  N/A

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE!

The short starts off with the captain driving the train, while a bunch of rich and poor passengers are on the train, having parties.  But then suddenly, a cow ends up walking on the tracks and the train ends up bumping into the cow.  This causes the train to derail and go out of control on the tracks.  With the captain being preoccupied with a rich young lady, the fireman is forced to deal with the out-of-control train to prevent it from crashing.

So, over the years, I have been looking at Cordell Barker's works and one of the works that I took interest in was "Runaway."  "Runaway" was quite an interesting short film as it's not only about a train going out of control due to hitting a cow, but it also seems to have a theme about the rich vs the poor.  In the film, the rich passengers seemed to be treated much better than the poor passengers and when the train started going out of control, the rich passengers tried to save themselves, while leaving the poor passengers to their fates.  Of course, that plot of the story is nowhere near as important as the plot line of the train going out of control and the Fireman trying to stop the train from crashing.  I always found the plot line of the train going out of control to be very entertaining because it was hilarious seeing the train hit the cow and suddenly go out of control.  Also, the many ways that the Fireman tried to prevent the train from crashing was pretty hilarious to watch.  I also really enjoyed the animation of this film.  While nowhere as fluid as "The Cat Came Back," the animation does a great job at conveying the insanity of the situation in this short film.

The only problem that I had with this short was that I felt that most of the characters were very flat, with the Captain being the only character who had some personality.  I do love the fact that the Captain is constantly laughing throughout the short as it made him look like a madman and he brings some insanity to this short.  But the other characters don't really bring much to the story, other than the Fireman and the Rich Lady having a romance with each other.

Overall, "Runaway" is a very interesting animated short. Even though most of the characters, with the exception of the Captain, were pretty flat, the insanity of the train going out of control and the Fireman trying to prevent the train from crashing was really entertaining to watch and I would definitely recommend this short film!

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[MOVIE REVIEW] How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

OR

Title: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Starring:  Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, Jeffrey Tambor, Molly Shannon, Christine Baranski

Genre: Fantasy / Family / Romance / Adventure / Comedy

Company:   Universal Pictures

Directed by: Ron Howard

Year: 2000

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated PG for Some Crude Humor

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Best Buy  //  Blu-Ray.com

In the town of Whoville, all the Whos were getting ready it celebrate Christmas, but there was one Who that was curious about the true meaning of Christmas and that was Cindy Lou Who herself.  Not only was Cindy Lou wondering about the true meaning of Christmas, but she was curious about one person who doesn't live in Whoville and that's the Grinch himself.  The Whos almost never talk about the Grinch or want to be reminded of him, but Cindy Lou wanted to be friends with the Grinch and tried to invite him to the Whoville celebration.  But, when the Grinch is humiliated at the celebration, he decided that he will steal all the Whos' presents on Christmas Eve.

Wow! I was actually pretty surprised that I enjoyed this movie!  I never would have thought that Jim Carrey would do a great job at portraying the Grinch!  Jim Carrey made the Grinch's character much more humorous and hammy, which made the film much funnier in tone and the Grinchs' jokes easily land at the right times.  Taylor Momsen was fantastic as Cindy Lou Who as Cindy is shown as being a friendly and determined girl who only wanted to be friends with the Grinch and I liked the fact that she truly cares for the Grinch and only wanted to make him happy.  James Horner's music was probably the highlight of this film as it surprisingly goes well with the emotional scenes in the movie, such as during the scene where we learn about the Grinch's tragic backstory.  The special effects were surprisingly well done for the year 2000 and the film did a fantastic job at showcasing the bizarre yet beautiful world of  Whoville and greatly captured the creative style from the original Dr. Seuss book.

My biggest issue with this movie is that the Whos seem to be portrayed in a negative way as they are much more cruel towards the Grinch in this version than in the original book and the 1960s cartoon special.  Also, there were times where Jim Carrey's performance as the Grinch got so hammy that I couldn't take his more emotional scenes seriously, like he constantly gets upset whenever the Whos teased him.  I also didn't like the fact that Martha, the Grinch's love interest, didn't have much of a role in the film other than just standing around and looking at the scenery and being a love interest.
I always have a problem with certain love interests not having much to do in the film other than just being defined as a love interest to the protagonist and not having a personality of their own.  It would have been great if Martha had more scenes with the Grinch so that their relationship would be much more believable to me.

Overall, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is one of the most hilarious interpretations of the Grinch ever made on film and it is definitely worth the watch!