This is far and away the worst third installment of any series ever. This movie was overdone and convoluted. The fact that the Venom story was tacked is almost sad, they didn't need three villains, four if you count the impossible building...
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This is far and away the worst third installment of any series ever. This movie was overdone and convoluted. The fact that the Venom story was tacked is almost sad, they didn't need three villains, four if you count the impossible building smashing 'runaway' crane.

They could have taken any one of the story elements and made a decent movie, but instead, they tried to pack as much as possible into the the 'final installment.'

The reasons for this are pretty simple. Sam Raimi wanted Sandman, he couldn't do without him. At the same time, he was under pressure to add Venom, because that's where the people wanted it to go, you can't do a series of Spider-Man movies without Venom. And finally, in the previous chapters, we had seen all the foreshadowing for the 'new goblin,' and it would be wrong not to include that bit of story. Of course, it also helps that it gave them a lot more toys to work with. No one 'really' wants an Aunt May toy, or a 'Uncle Ben's Corpse' toy. The other problem with the movie was that they needed to explain everything within the confines of the story. Did we really need to see Sandman get his powers? I couldn't help but laugh at the oddly specific sign on the fence he scaled: "Danger: Particle Testing Facility". And why is it that whenever anyone gains a super power, it involves a machine with bright lights and spinning?

The symbiont suit (that becomes Venom) falls from the sky and Peter finds it and wears it. He takes a sample to his Physics professor (the one armed man that would become The Lizard or whatever). The man, who's not even a biologist, looks at it through a microscope for a few seconds and nails it's description on the head. "I'm just a physics professor, but I think this is a symbiont." As Peter falls victim to the suits powers, he becomes a bad boy. This basically means he strut walks around town to bad 70's porno music looking like the lead singer of Fall Out Boy. At one point the Professor calls him up, and his tell him that the suit must amplify aggression (his reference is a microscope screen where a molecule seems to be playing Pong with other molecules), Peter ignores him while playing badboy with the Russian Girl that lives next door. The worst thing he can do? He asks if she has nuts and tells her to make him cookies with nuts. Venom. Wow. What a joke. I was worried about Topher Grace when they announced it, and I was right. The comic had Venom as a big ass crazed lunatic. The movie had him as a moronic photographer. His motivation for being angry with Spidey? He stole the girlfriend he never had... or perhaps it was because he got shown up as a hack at work and lost his job. I couldn't really tell. Marko (Sandman) it is discovered, is actually the one that killed Peter's uncle Ben, and Peter and Aunt May are brought in to the station for this revelation. The information is given to them by the Cheif of Police himself. They make it seem like this thing is still being heavily investigated. Here's the problem. They say that Marko actually bragged about this crime to a cell mate. But all throughout we are supposed to see him as this tragic villian. He's stealing money to save his daughter's life... she seems to be sick, though we don't know why. In the end, he says it was an accident (he and Peter have a nice cry over it). Why would someone so morose over this crime 'brag about it', let alone tell anyone?

Next, there's a whole bit where Osborne feels the need to go after Spidey yet again, first component of his evil plan? He's going to force Mary-Jane to break up with him. We don't really understand her motivation in doing it, but he sits by and watches it happen in the park while sitting under the tree. I expected him to say "excellent" like some sort of Hanna-Barbera villian, perhaps stroking his massive handle bar mustache. Then Osborne invites Peter out to coffee to tell him that 'he's' the other guy, because what MJ said totally played into his scheme. The final battle finds Spidey facing Venom and Sandman. We don't understand why Marko and Brock actualy teamed up in the first place. But, Osborne comes to back up Spidey (after Spidey blew him up with one of his own bombs. The reason Osborne comes to help Peter is that the butler, a forensic scientist apparently, says that he cleaned his father's wounds and they could only have come from his glider, so Spidey didn't kill him. Of course, that bit of information should probably have been revealed two movies ago). When Spidey defeats Venom using a bomb (one that had merely burned Osborne's face earlier, but this time went off with near Nuclear force), Marko is on hand to have a quick cry with peter before 'flowing off' into the sunset. It's never clear why Marko worked with Venom when he's really just a good guy trapped in a bad guy's body. The entire thing could have been about an hour and a half shorter without all the pointless exposition. Every few minutes Peter or MJ are crying about something. I get that they want to make Peter the everyman hero, a guy with real emotions, but he weeps throughout the entire film as though he'd just skinned his knee.

This is a tragic example of what happens when movie makers go too far. I would gladly have gone to a fourth movie, and possibly fifth as well, had they done all three of the movies this was correctly. I don't recommend anyone waste their time with this. Of course, it's too late, about 80% of the population already has.

This film was a very pleasant surprise. I didn't go into it with a lot of high hopes, which I think helps. It's written / directed by, and stars pretty much nobody. But, don't let that stop you from enjoying this one. Penny is a young woman who,...
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This film was a very pleasant surprise. I didn't go into it with a lot of high hopes, which I think helps. It's written / directed by, and stars pretty much nobody. But, don't let that stop you from enjoying this one. Penny is a young woman who, after a traumatic car accident as a girl that resulted in the death of her parents in front of her, has developed a phobia of cars. After long term treatment with a renowned therapist, she takes the final step, a long road trip, to help her over come her fear. During the trip, they literally run into a hitchhiker, and then Penny's nightmares become reality. I think that, all things considered, this one is done skillfully. There's not a lot of acting from anyone but Penny (Rachel Miner, who might recognize as she's been in an episode of almost everything on television in the last few years), but she pulls it off. There's a good deal of sheer terror that she accomplishes with a skill not often seen in this level of film. The cinematography is great, the cuts aren't forced or unnecessary as you sometimes see in these things. There's an excellent mix of unknown fear and visual shock as well. Overall, I have to give a good rating, if you're a horror fan, don't let this one slip by. It's failings are easily overlooked to make this one worth your time.

Having read this book, as well as several of Dekker's other works and enjoyed them, though this not has much has the Circle Trilogy, and, not being a Christian, I still have to say it was pretty good. The story itself doesn't exactly forge a new...
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Having read this book, as well as several of Dekker's other works and enjoyed them, though this not has much has the Circle Trilogy, and, not being a Christian, I still have to say it was pretty good. The story itself doesn't exactly forge a new trail, thought it tries hard to be something clever. It doesn't exactly accomplish this goal, not entirely. The clues throughout are not exactly well hidden, and I'll admit that there's a great deal of difference in terms of subtlety between the book and the film, the latter having a good bit less. The acting in the film is less than stellar, but, I've certainly seen much worse. Much of the dialog seems forced, from all involved.

The cinematography was pretty good, but the special effects were pretty weak. There were a few moments that you see and you think, wow, there's where the budget went. But otherwise, it's pretty subpar. All in all, it's a fairly decent adaptation, but it's definitely nothing spectacular.

Amazing! Spectacular! Astounding!

Wow!

I went into this thing with high expectations, and it did not disappoint. The greatest component of the whole thing was the attention to the details of the 70's style Grindhouse...
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Amazing! Spectacular! Astounding!

Wow!

I went into this thing with high expectations, and it did not disappoint. The greatest component of the whole thing was the attention to the details of the 70's style Grindhouse films. If you saw Kill Bill, you'll recall some of the things that Tarantino did there that harked back to the old days. This time around, there was more of that. The pops and scratches that seemed to last throughout, the skipping and repeating sound... it made to create a very realistic experience.

First, the 'fake' trailers. There were a few from various directors. They were all great. The first was Machette, which happened before the first movie, was hilarious. It had gore, nudity, and a hilarious concept, which is based on Rodriguez's use of Danny Trejo for characters that always have knife based names. The idea is that it's a Mexican federali who poses as a day laborer and gets hired for a hit job. He's double crossed and goes after the people that hired him. It's hilarious, and it's been announced that they will produce it as a direct to DVD film, since they had enough footage just from making the trailer that it only made sense.


The rest of the trailers were in the middle. The one I had been most looking forward to was Werewolf Women in the S.S. by Rob Zombie. The title pretty clearly defined the concept. But, it's a sight to behold. The best part was that after all the dark and gritty shots of naked nazi babes killing people and turning into werewolves, thy then cut to Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu... hilarity at it's finest.

Don't followed this, and it was just funny... I can't even describe it. Edgar Wright, of Shaun of the Dead, directed the trailer, and it basically just says "If you're blah blah blah that house... Don't" and after awhile, the direction is dropped and the word Don't is repeated over and over, until it's flashed as the title of the film.

Eli Roth presents and Eli Roth production of Eli Roth's Thanksgiving. This trailer was apparently actually going to be a movie, until Grindhouse came around and Eli Roth said to his friend, who plays the psychotic pilgrim on a murderous rampage in Massachusetts, "Dude, guess what, we don't have to make the movie, we can just shoot the best parts." It's about Jordan Ladd, a psycho kid who goes to a mental institution after killing his family over his father's murder of his beloved turkey. He comes back to exact his revenge... It's wrong, on so many levels.

Now, on to the films themselves. Planet Terror is Rodriguez's entry, and while I expected to like Tarantino's entry more, I think I preferred this one. It was just so awful, which is what you'd expect. I throughout almost the entire thing, as the horrible quick cuts and terrible dialog let loose on a story that seems to wander around so much over the multitude of characters.

Deathproof, on the other hand seems more like two 30 minute movies that are just tacked together. Following one group that gets killed by Stunt Man Mike, who uses his death proof stunt car to exact some sort of strange murderous plot against girls he's taken a fancy too. In the second half of the film, we lose Mike for a while and follow another group for while and learn of their lives, when Mike comes back, he learns that he's messed with the wrong ladies. The stunts are just plain fun to watch.

The whole of the this results in a great block of movie joy. I can't imagine not seeing this in the theater. It's just good clean wholesome fun! Theres guns, blood, guts, gore, nudity, campy and silly dialog, poorly written story.

These guys have really hit on a concept that has long been needed. Recalling the classic movies of days gone past. Days when people went to the theater to see a movie, not because of the 3 billion dollar budget, but because it was filled with blood and guts, thrills and chills.

I can't wait for the sequel.