XX (2007)

Two young women go on a vacation to a secluded hot springs hotel that has mutilated dead bodies hanging on posts along the road leading to the resort.  Things only get dumber from there.  MIDSOMMAR it's not.

I went into XX or X Cross or X-Cross or whatever this movie is really called expecting a legitimate horror movie.  I don't know where I got that stupid idea into my handsome brain, but I was wrong.  The long story short is the ancestors of the current villagers were all woodcutters and to keep their women from running away while they were in the forest chopping down trees, they decided to cut their wives legs off.  And now, the descendants really like chopping off women’s legs.  Wow.  Anyway, there's more to the story, but it's all pointless.  Just like watching this movie.

Zero scares, dead pace, goofy acting, tons of phones ringing and text messages flying, boring flashbacks, a woman with a gigantic pair of scissors, a few things that might have been jokes but I'm not sure.  Skip it with a vengeance and never look back.

SHE'S ON DUTY (2005)

A cop (who looks like she's 30) goes undercover at a high school to get close to a gangster dude's 17-year-old daughter. That's an excellent idea for a movie and there are a few light-hearted laughs early on, but then during the second part of the movie the comedy goes right out the window and the movie turns serious. I didn't like it. The main problem for me is the woman who plays the undercover student looks way too old! Somebody please remake this movie with an intelligent, funny script and a hot chick as the student.

Skip it.

HANGING GARDEN (2005)

This movie is pretty slow, but I think it has something to do with a woman who had a bad childhood so she ends up creating a perfect family where they don't hold any secrets...except of course they do. The dad is skipping work and cheating on his wife nonstop and jacking off in the bathroom to porn magazines, the daughter is skipping school and exploring her sexuality and the son has pretty much shut himself away in his room where he's creating his own private fantasy world on his computer. I love the idea for the movie and the style is very interesting, but it just beat around the bush way too much and tried too hard to be mysterious without ever giving the viewer a payoff. I can't recommend it. If it had went ahead and pushed the envelope a little like Miike's VISITOR Q or Sono's NORIKO'S DINNER TABLE then things would be different, but as it is HANGING GARDEN never goes anywhere interesting or engaging. Please don't think it's a bad movie, just average and not worth wasting two hours on.

That's the wildest wallpaper ever!

THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY (1954)

"So long, you ancient pelican."

In the first scene we learn that John Wayne is the World's Greatest Pilot...until he accidentally kills his wife and kid in a plane wreck.  D'oh! Then we're painfully introduced to all of the passengers.  It's awesome. You got the old slut, the dorky couple, the super-in-love newlyweds, the drunk scientist and a bunch more.  They're all great.  After an eternity, the plane takes off from Hawaii to California.  Many minutes of wonderfully painful overly sentimental back stories are then told about all of the passengers until you just want vomit with glee.  I loved every cheesy second of it.  Suddenly, one of the engines explodes and punctures a gas tank! Do they have enough fuel to make it to land or are they gonna have to ditch it in the drink?!

Maybe this was considered serious stuff back in 1954, but it hasn't aged well at all. Let me give you an example: right before the engine conks out, Sidney Blackmer stands up in front of everybody and confronts another man about banging his wife, he then pulls out a gun and threatens to kill the other dude! One of the passengers (John Qualen) jumps Blackmer and disarms him. A little while later he apologizes to Qualen, so he gives his gun back!

If you like campy films as much as I do then you should watch THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY.  It's a blast!  I love this silly movie.  It is so much fun to watch.  Six Academy Award nominations and one win (Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture - Dimitri Tiomkin), a 147-minute runtime that flies by, seriously impressive cast and crew that you could research for hours, one of Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez's first film roles, amazingly painful dialogue that I love, John Wayne as a Producer, Wally Brown looking a lot like Wallace Ford (at least to me). 

Also, I'm no film historian, but I'm pretty sure that this film, the AIRPORT films and ZERO HOUR! were the main inspirations for AIRPLANE!

I guess they spelled "missile" differently back in 1954.