2010 Reviews #87-#93: "Hereafter", "Monsters", "Cropsey" and More!

#87: I Am Comic. Rated R. 1 hour 27 minutes. NOW ON DVD. This is a documentary that focuses on the behind the scenes of stand up comedy. I am a huge fan of stand up and this film features a lot of my favorite comics. I thought the movie was a pretty cool look into this world of misfits who just want to make the world laugh. I like that it was a movie about comics that was nothing but funny. Sometimes in movies like this they want to show the dark side of people like this, because they say usually comics are the most depressed people on the planet and use humor as a crutch. Maybe so, but this movie doesn't really pay any attention to that. I think some of the comics even poke fun at that concept. This film is just a series of funny and a lot of the times, very interesting interviews with various comics. Some big names, some names people don't even know about yet. That's how stand up is, some comics get immediate huge followings some need to develop over the course of many years to get solid recognition. It's not an easy job nor does it pay well. They don't live a life of luxury by any means. I Am Comic is a pretty fascinating look into this under appreciated realm of comedy. It was funny, as it should have been. I liked it. No Critics Grade. Rotten Tomatoes Fan Grade: 68%. My Grade: B-

#88: Winters Bone. Rated R. 1 hour 40 minutes. NOW ON DVD. Winters Bone is the indy sensation of 2010. In many ways it could be the "Hurt Locker" of this year. I don't think it has any chance of winning best picture, but it could sneak in a nomination. This is all according to the huge support it has from critics and indy film films all over the country. I finally saw it on DVD and I must say, it is quite an amazing little movie. For me though, I don't think it has the indy punch and oomph such as The Hurt Locker did for me last year. This is a very slow paced film and it is incredibly somber. That's all very fine and well, I enjoy movies like that. While I still loved the film overall, I wasn't totally blown away by it either. I thought it had a solid story but for me didn't grab my attention all the way. This again is just MY opinion on how I viewed the film. Obviously it's different with everyone. The part of the movie that DID blow me away was two BRILLIANT performances. First and foremost by newcomer Jennifer Lawrence. She makes this movie the sensation that it has become. Her performance is quiet and subdued and there isn't a lot of flash and bang to it, but it is one of true emotional depth that she pulled off immaculately. Fine work from her that if anyone in the academy has a brain...she will be nominated for an Oscar. The other one has gone slightly unnoticed but I thought it was incredible. That is the performance from John Hawkes, whom we all know from popping up in small roles all over the place. He was in HBO's Deadwood, you saw him in the film Identity...you know him. He has a bigger role here and he carries himself very well in a performance I thought was quite different for someone like him. He probably will go unnoticed by the Academy, but still...he was fantastic. So for me, I enjoyed the movie, I thought it was good. I just didn't think it was AS incredibly as everyone said it was. Mainly because I didn't really feel connected to the movie all the way through. My fault I guess. But again...to each is own. This is just my viewpoint. Still a really good movie though. Critics Grade: 94%. My Grade: B+.

#89: Cropsey. Rated R. 1 hour 24 minutes. NOW ON DVD. This is a documentary and a horror movie all in one. It's the true story about a group of kids who meant missing on Staten Island over the course of 20-30 years starting in the 50's/60's. One of the girls body was eventually found in an old campsite of a drifter named Andre Rand. He was tied to the murder of this girl, but to this day no one truly knows if he is the guilty party. They tried to pin another missing girl/murder on him and he was charged with that one as well. They believe he was responsible for all the missing children referenced in the film, but most of their bodies were never found so there is no real case. Apparently the term "Cropsey" was a term used for a maniac or serial killer in all the urban legends told on Staten Island. Kids grew up thinking all these missing kids may have just been a good story or an urban legend but as they grew up they learned it was more real than they could ever imagine. Movies about serial killers unnerve the living hell out of me. Because they are real in our society. They aren't some made up monster by Hollywood. They lurk our streets and cities. Some kill at random. Some kill to get off. There are numerous reasons why these evil people do what they do. They can be unpredictable and that to me is frightening. And this is a documentary about a real life series of kidnappings and murders so to me...this was a scary film. Just knowing that his Andre Rand may not even be the guilty one, that the real killer may still be out there...gives me the heebie jeebies! Even so, Andre Rand is a creepy creepy dude and is very bizarre. But like someone in the movie said...just because you seem strange or creepy...doesn't mean your a killer. This movie is sad, as it is about young children. If you hurt a child I believe you have no reason to be on this earth. So there were a lot of elements to this movie and it was a well told documentary. It can both frighten you and make you want to cry. It was brilliantly put together and is one of the best documentaries I've seen in a while. Critics Grade: 89%. My Grade: A-.

#90: Hereafter. Rated PG-13. 2 hours 9 minutes. IN THEATERS. Oscar winner Clint Eastwood is at it again. He has directed yet another Oscar bait movie, but this time he goes out of his comfort zone and gives us a movie of supernatural proportions. From the previews, this movie never truly grabbed my attention, but I felt I just had to see it. Eastwood has pretty much always been very reliable with his films. It honestly pains me to say that for me, Hereafter was a massive, HUGE disappointment. It had to be one of the most dreadfully boring movies I've seen in a super long time. I mean I debated more than once about walking out the theater (I did only pay $5.25). I simply just did not get this film. I love the subject matter. The afterlife and near death experience fascinate me. But all the near death and afterlife stuff in this film is all so damn generic and nothing remarkable. Even with the main character being a psychic...I felt like the actual subject material of the afterlife was only a vague topic throughout this painfully long film. In the very beginning we get the tragic events. The French woman drowns and "dies" only to be revived. She got a glimpse of the "white light". Then a young British boy looses his twin brother to an accident and now he's forced to go to foster care. Then we have the story of the psychic. We get glimpses of each story as the film progresses but nothing really powerful comes from this story. It was all way to subtle and I did not see this "beauty" of the film that people are talking about. It dragged on, it didn't connect at all until the very end. The woman's story was just so coma inducing boring to me and I didn't care at all about the kid. Matt Damon's story was more of just him wanting to be left alone and also a lot of it was him trying to find love through a woman he meets in a cooking class. I just simply didn't get it. I didn't like it in the least. It was well directed, meaning that it technically looked great. The story for me however, lacked severely in the heart and soul category. I cared about no one. The performances were all very standard and blah. Total swing and miss by Eastwood. A shame. Critics Grade: 49%. My Grade: D+.

#91: Monsters. Rated R. 1 hour 34 minutes. IN THEATERS IN SELECT CITIES. ALSO PLAYING ON DEMAND WITH COX. I just don't know about this movie. I saw the preview a while back and thought it looked cool and thought it had a pretty cool story. It has been compared a lot to movies like "Cloverfield" (although there is no hand held camera) and even last years Best Picture nominee "District 9". I can definitely see some vague similarities, but let's give it some credit here, it is it's own film. This was done by a first time director who essentially edited the film on his laptop, where apparently he also created all the visual effects for the film. With that being said, I thought the movie looked incredible. For what this director had, he did quite a phenomenal job piecing it all together. The few scenes we actually get to see full on monsters (who kind of resembled the creatures from "The Mist" if you ask me) were unbelievably real looking. They were huge and kind of creepy. For me though, that's kind of where my excitement over this movie ends. The two main characters were never once in any real danger. There was no thrill to this story. We barely ever saw the monsters and when they were on screen, they were just walking by or destroying vehicles or something like that. I mean yes there were a few moments when people were killed but it was never scary or basically you never felt the main people were in harms way. This was more of a "love" tale than anything. It wasn't even that interesting to me. Other people who watch it might definitely get it or like it, I just really wasn't into this story. It had a beautiful final few moments though, I will give it that. But overall this movie let me down. It wasn't really bad it just didn't do anything for me. It was a bit bland. Critics Grade: 61%. My Grade: C.

#92. When In Rome. Rated PG-13. 1 hour 31 minutes. NOW ON DVD. This will be a short review. I hated this movie. This movie did not make me laugh. It was full of stupid gags we have seen in comedy films a BILLION times before. It was predictable. It was painful to watch. Why did I watch it? Because I enjoy watching movies. ANY movies sadly. I was bored before watching the movie. This movie just made me more bored. What else can I say...Ummm...I thought it was AWFUL!!!!! One of the worst movies I've seen this year. Just the opinion of silly old me though. Critics Grade: 16%. My Grade: F.

#93: The Experiment. Rated R. 1 hour 36 minutes. STRAIGHT TO DVD FILM. Seems crazy to me that a movie starring TWO Oscar wining actors, Adrian Brody and Forrest Whitaker is a straight to DVD film. But I guess the film itself sort of speaks for itself in that regard. Anyway, I thought this was an entertaining film. It was based off a famous college experiment in Stamford in the 70's. College students were split up and one group were to be prison guards and the other were the prisoners. It was supposed to last 2 weeks but actually only lasted 6 days due to do the "prison guards" becoming sadistic and the prisoners became quickly depressed. This film follows almost exactly that. Except these aren't college kids and it takes place during present day. These guys are being paid $14,000 each to complete the experiment and are told if one person fails before the 2 weeks, no one gets paid. They have no communication to the scientists. Only thing they have is a red light that will flash if someone breaks a rule, and the experiment is over. This light becomes sort of the "God" like character. Quickly chaos ensues and Brody and Whitaker are pitted against each other. For the most part it was a good movie, and in the end I got what the experiment was really about. But also in the end, it kind of falls flat. It starts to get really climatic...then just abruptly ends. So much hate and bad happens and from it seems like...everyone gets off scott free. A person dies in that prison and you have no idea if the guilty part get's in any form of trouble. All the guys involved seem to brush off the whole experience in the end. I guess I didn't get that part. I got what the experiment was all about and I get that the characters realized it in the end. But some crazy shit still happened and everyone seemed to let bygones be bygones in the end. Eh, I don't know. Maybe I didn't get it after all who knows. It was a pretty decent movie with two very good lead performances. It just fell flat in the end for me personally. Overall, pretty entertaining movie. No critics grade. IMDB Member Grade: 6.4 out of 10. My Grade: B-.