Paranormal Activity is a film written and directed by Oren Peli. This film was first ever showed to an audience in 2007 at a film festival. Since then, Paranormal Activity has been popping up here and there at various film festivals and getting word of mouth by people who have seen it. Here it is now, 2009, and Paranormal Activity has been officially released to a very limited amount of theaters. This Indie film has had a long journey, but now it's finally released. For most people, there probably isn't a theater around them in America that shows this film - but no worries, it is now official that October 16th is the big day for this film and it will be released nationwide. If you're unlucky enough to have it not released at a theater near you, hopefully you can wait for another week.

So anyways, about that film... It's being described as one of the scariest movies ever by a lot of people, but I would not say it's the scariest film I've ever seen, but it was definitely creepy and got me nervous many times. I've seen a lot of messed up things in life, so it's not easy to scare me anymore; but to make me nervous and cringe at the edge of my seat, then the film has done the job right.
I certainly understand why this film is so scary for many people. It's just so realistic, and it's hard to believe that I just paid to watch people act the whole time. It didn't feel like acting at all, it felt just like what the film intended it to be: with a couple under the suspicion of strange activities going on around their house at night and one day felt like filming around their house to see if they could pick up any disturbances. The film was so realistic, that when the movie finished, a guy across the theater asked: "So wait, was this real, or not?" -- That might have been a stupid question to ask, but I think that question alone just shows that this film is about as realistic as it gets and doesn't fall under the typical cliches that we're used to seeing. We don't need constant blood and guts and shock value with CGI monsters to creep us out. Those gimmicks just get boring after a while. It's a good thing that Paranormal Activity didn't go for any of that. Paranormal Activity really focused on the quiet moments of horror. I think it's the quiet moments that effect people the most. Humans are not meant to relate real life with things popping up constantly in your face - we much better relate with the quiet things and the sense of wonder of what could possibly be the meanings of certain things. I think that's where this film is most effective and is able to really disturb a lot of people.

Overall, Paranormal Activity, is what I would think, is definitely a film that does something good for the horror genre. It's good to know that the horror genre isn't completely dead. I think most mainstream film studios should seriously take a look at what Paranormal Activity did and try to learn a thing or two about what is really some of the most basic, yet effective horror techniques. 8.5/10

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is the latest computer animated film (That is based off of the children's book of the same name) released by Sony Pictures Animation.
Computer Animation has become a very profitable medium over the years. We see so many of these films nowadays, that one can't just make a computer animated film anymore and expect people to like it. As this medium of animation continues to grow, so are the people - and audiences will no longer accept cheap gimmicks seen rehashed over a hundred times. As for Sony Pictures Animation, they learned it the hard way when they decided to hop aboard the CGI-Train with Pixar and Dreamworks. Their first film, Open Season, was a failure. It lacked a valued story, original characters, and ultimately the heart of what makes a computer animated film good. Since then, they've made other efforts, such as Surf's Up. moving on from there, Sony really had to change their game plan a bit if they really wanted to capture the hearts of audiences and be truly respected like other computer animation companies... So here we have today: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Did Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs deliver, or did it hit low standards like Open Season? -- I think it surely delivered the goods. This is one of those rare films that will really come out of left-field for a lot of people. It's such an unexpectedly awesome movie for me.
It really was just surprising for me when I saw just how good it was... And previously I thought it looked stupid based off of the trailer.

Well, this movie certainly is stupid -- but in a good way. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is a very silly name for a movie (And book), so you gotta expect that it is a very silly movie with a silly premise... It really is, silly at its core. In a way, it felt like a really fun Saturday morning cartoon (One of the good ones, like Looney Tunes or Mickey Mouse). But don't let that intimidate some of you who don't like such nonsense... This film also had a lot of heart and a story that was entertaining all the way through.
The film is very funny - quite possibly the funniest film I've seen all year... I just kept laughing all the way through.

In the end, I think Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs will be one of those unexpected gems for a lot of people. Don't come into the theater expecting a very serious film; because if you do, then you will see the film wrong. If you come into the theater just wanting a fun and lighthearted film with lots of smart humor, feast your appetite on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is quite possibly one of the best non-Pixar computer animated films I've ever seen (And that says a lot for those who know how pro-Pixar I am). 9/10

District 9 marks the first ever full-length feature film delivered by Neill Blomkamp - and he sure did deliver. District 9 is a science-fiction film that is based off of Blomkamp's short film, "Alive in Joburg". There is so much to District 9 that was never shown in the previews that it would be hard to describe it without spoiling it. So with that said, District 9 is just a film you have to see for yourself and see why people are loving it.

This film was awesome. It definitely exceeded my expectations 100%, and that says a lot for me because I was always skeptical about whether or not it would be good. Well I finally saw it and it definetly was good.
It felt like a video game -- a really, really good blockbuster video game that everyone would play. You don't get many good sci-fi films these days, luckily this one was good.

The violence was really over-the-top. I wasn't really expecting District 9 to be as gruesome as it was. The ads and the previews never gave away just how violent this movie would be, but I'm saying straight up that you will see some giblets flying through the air here and there. It definitely makes sense why this film is Rated-R. The action was overall intense and fun to watch. It wasn't so action-packed to the point where you don't know what the hell is going on. The film knew what it was going for, and it portrayed it quite well.

The story was surprisingly good. The story took and unexpected turn from what I was expecting based off of what was seen in the previews. I don't want to spoil it, but there's definitely a story to hold up the entire film - and I just love it when an action movie can also have a good story. Those kinds of films seem rare these days.

Overall, District 9 was most definitely the best action movie I've seen all year, and quite possibly the best sci-fi film I've seen in a long time (Sorry, I still have yet to see Moon, so I can't say how this would hold up with Moon). If you love your action and science-fiction movies - or love movies in general, District 9 begs for some attention. 9.5/10