Film Reviews by CJ

A fairly plain tale of girls trying to get along at an all girl summer camp.

Unfortunately, very little actual horse dancing. Which was a bit disappointing given the apparent emphasis in the trailer and dvd cover.

I may have enjoyed this film more if the quality of the dvd was much better. This 4:3 version is quite poor with a dull picture, dull sound, and occasional horizontal lines. The film itself is an awful mish mash of poor comedy, dire musical songs, and plays like a series of low budget pop videos linked by a forgettable story with forgettable actors. Is it a spoof, is it just an awful attempt at a cult musical? Who knows. What I do know is it has Pia Zadora starring, and really that alone almost makes it bearable. She's not the greatest singer, or dancer, or actress, but she's got a lot of energy and she's incredibly cute and adorable. I love Pia and if the film had only consisted of Pia dancing with an occasional change into different 1980s costumes for a full 90 minutes, with no other characters at all, it would be a dream come true. I say again, she's cute, she's adorable. Pia I love you!

This 1980s entry into the walking zombie genre is a bit hit and miss. Plus points are, the style and the gore. Minus points are that this movie comes across as a comedy (it isn't a comedy) rather than a tense horror. It plays like a mish mash of the 1970s Dawn of the Dead (complete with the music) and Zombie Flesh Eaters, padded out with footage from a wildlife documentary. This is a shame because if it had been edited well the good elements would be very good. This movie won't frighten you, the gore is gory but on closer inspection very poorly executed. However, if you want to have a laugh with your mates at the many unintentionally comic moments it's worth a look.

The majority of this movie is similar to the segment in Peter Jackson's Kong remake where the characters fall down into an part of the island inhabited by giant insects and have to fight for their lives. In this movie we have Kong taking the role as protector of his island and of the 'nice and friendly animals' e.g. giant ox, and giant stick insects, and humans against the 'bad and aggressive animals' e.g. giant spider things, evil dinosaur birds, and giant lizards (or carnivores vs herbivores). The story is completely irrelevant and would have worked just as well without Kong, but consists of adventurers and 1970s American soldiers providing 'protection' on a secretive mission. However their actions anger Kong, leaving everyone to fight their way back through jungle terrains to the safety of their mission base. So the story does have similarities to the 1980s movie Predator but has none of the tension or mystery, just close up battles between humans and huge animals. Although these sequences are thrilling they could have been put into a film not involving Kong but just explorers investigating a monster inhabited planet, and that may have presented a monster movie with a fresher perspective.

I'll keep this review as simple as I can, just like the movie.

Good points are: it does have some tense and scary moments, cinematography very good, actors good. What lets it down is the simplicity and similarity of the story. That and the total ineptitude of the space station crew to adequately prepare for, deal with or contain, a hostile alien life form. So, this is whole film condensed:

1. space scientists obtain inert microscopic extraterrestrial life form

2. scientists prod life form which grows at rapid rate in 'secure' laboratory box

3. scientist names the cute alien lifeform... Aren't you a cute little alien. Ow, you're hurting me cute alien life form, get off my hand...

5. cute alien is actually a bloodthirsty hyper intelligent lifeform that is intent on killing every other living thing on sight and it's escaped into the ship

6. crew blissfully ignore all containment protocols

7. crew make inept attempts to catch alien before it gets back to earth and must destroy it all costs

8. alien gets larger, more intelligent and aggressive the more crew it eats

9. alien outwits everyone...

end of film

The animated Resident Evil films are more akin to the games than the live action counterparts. I prefer the animated films over the live action. I did however absolutely love the live action animated intro sequence to the very first playstation resident evil game and would love the modern films to be like that. Resident Evil Vendetta is fun, and scary in parts, has good characters and looks great. What disappointed me was the fact that the story is too similar to all other animated instalments and games. In fact if this were a game I would have felt more involved, but by the end of the film where the bad guy has mutated into a giant monster it was becoming a bit tedious. The TV series Walking Dead are really now the benchmark zombie movies have to live up to. This I feel is aimed at teenage viewers.

This DVD only includes the music video and so is very short. However, you will probably be playing the video several times. It's atmospheric and dark and matches the music in ways few music videos do. It may not be a video to everyone's tastes but it is unique and leaves you thinking a 30 minute short film would be great to explore more of what Johnny is and why he is where he is.

This film's 'adult' scenes are included on the dvd but the image is zoomed in just far enough that you cannot make out what they are doing. This is a censored version!

I first saw this film on vhs pre-cert and it had a certain weird charm to it. This dvd has included more of some of the scenes that were on vhs so that is a plus, However, the dvd still omits all the actual hardcore footage from the original fillm. So, although it is quite good as a softcore movie you will be disappointed if you were expecting an xxx version. That ain't ever going to happen in a bbfc cert 18....

As the title points out this film's humour is very dark and sets out to shock, but at the time it was released Bad Taste was a welcome departure from the standard 80's American and Italian horror fare. The budget was next to nothing and in many ways it's the career kickstart for Peter Jackson that Evil Dead was for Sam Raimi.

The film itself focuses on a quiet rural area of New Zealand where the entire population of a small coastal township has become food for Aliens. A small swat team is sent in to put things right. The comedy comes from their unique and everyday approach to getting the job done...

If you are after over the top gore, but don't mind it looking very cheaply done, then take a look. Surprisingly, scenes involving a certain character's brain still makes me feel queasy enough to watch those sequences while slightly covering my eyes with my hand...!