Kataude Mashin Garu (The Machine Girl) (2008)

Ami (Minase Yashiro) is a typical college girl. She's bright, friendly, popular and athletic, with nothing to set her apart from other girls her age other than the fact that she is an orphan, left to care for her younger brother when her father committed suicide after being falsely accused of murder. But while there is tragedy in their past, the siblings' future looks good, except for one thing. Ami's brother has racked up a considerable debt to another boy at school, and that boy just happens to be the heir to a clan of vicious ninja-yakuza. Ami's brother can't pay, violence breaks out and in the course of trying to avenge her brother, Ami is captured by the clan. They torture her and hack her arm right off. Ami escapes, barely alive, and is taken in by the owners of a machine shop who build her a customized, bullet-spewing arm. From that point, hiarity ensues as the quest for revenge is on in earnest.

Trivia: The yakuza family preys to Hanza Hattori, in Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Hattori Hanzo is a highly regarded maker of swords.

I have no idea what brought me to this movie but it was very funny. Let me tell you up front. This movie is not subtle and doesn't pretend to be. It was over the top grusome with blood spraying everywhere like a fire hose. But it is so over the top that you laugh. Of course Minase Yashiro is very pretty and she spends 90% of the movie in that little school girl outfit so that is all good. And with that I think I will leave you with two words...Drill Bra.

Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)

The T-Virus created by the Umbrella Corporation has raged out of control. First it was contained in The Hive, an underground research facility under Raccoon City. It got out. Then the walls surrounding Raccoon City contained it. It got out. Now several years later it has effectively caused the extinction of the human race. Only small pockets of humans still survive but they have to stay on the move. If they stay in one place too long the flesh eating zombies find them. Alice (Milla Jovovich), a survivor of both the Hive and Raccoon City outbreaks is alone in the Nevada Desert. Umbrella needs her because her blood is the key to the cure. From their secured bases across they globe they search for her using their satelites. She knows this. Hilarity ensues as Alice hooks up with a band of survivors lead by Claire Redfield (Ali Larter). The band also has a familiar face for Alice. Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) is still alive and with the survivors as they try to stay alive. Meanwhile Umbrella finally gets a break and identifies Alice from Satelite photos near their Las Vegas facility (luckily, this is where their main research into the cure is being held). The head scientist at the facility decides to try and capture Alice...bad idea. At the facility, Alice meets a few of her "friends."

Trivia: Alice's new costume was designed by Milla Jovovich's clothing line, Jovovich-Hawk. This is the first live-action movie trilogy based on a video game. Prints were shipped to some theaters under the fake title "Raccoon City" -- which is the name of the city featured in many of the video games. For the crow attack scene, only two crows were used for the entire sequence. The rest of the crows were entered with special effects.

So Alice progresses from a frightened Umbrella Security employee with drug induced amnesia to a programmed fighting machine capable of telekenesis to a Road Warrior that can survive alone in the wilds if need be, all the while killing flesh eating zombies. Of course, I don't think the word zombie was used in this film either so that would mean the word was never used in any of the movies. Like the last movie, this one suffers a little from the "we have to make it bigger" syndrome, although, RE:A has a lot more zombies in it. So in this one the world is infected. They did decide to create a crow attack (you see the crows feasted on all the dead undead so that couldn't have been good.). So, if you are a movie franchise about flesh eating zombies where do you go from here? They are making a full length CGI animated version of the next movie. I guess Milla Jovovich finally said, "oh you have got to be kidding me." On the whole it is a decent trilogy and it probably helped that I saw all three in a few weeks time so that some of the recalls to the previous movies made better sense to me.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)

When we last left our heroine Alice (Milla Jovovich) she was in the Raccoon City hospital under the treatment of the Umbrella Corporation recovering from injuries sustained from fighting off hundreds of flesh eating zombies. When she wakes up, she finds herself alone, the hospital abandoned and we see a newspaper that says "The Dead Walk". It seems the Umbrella Corporation decided to reopen The Hive, a research facility and home to some really hungry zombies...bad idea. Hilarity ensues as the T-Virus escapes into Raccoon City and starts to infect the whole population. Meanwhile Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), a members of the S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Rescue Service), tries to get her team out of the city but doesn't make it before Umbrella closes the gates and traps everyone left in. Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and his commando team also get stuck inside. Their only hope to get out is to find the daughter of an Umbrella scientist. To increase the chances of getting his daughter back the scientist send both Jill and Carlos's team in where their paths are bound to cross. Umbrella decides that it is time to test its secret weapon, Project Nemesis and unleashes it on the unsuspecting S.T.A.R.S. Project Nemesis seems invincible but there might be one thing that can stop it...Project Alice.

Trivia: Was originally entitled Resident Evil: Nemesis after the third game in the "Resident Evil" (aka "Biohazard") videogame series, of the same name, which had a similar plot. The title was later changed to Resident Evil: Apocalypse after the release (and subsequent box-office failure) of Star Trek: Nemesis. During the church scene, when Alice fires at the motorcycle to kill one of the Lickers, the slow motion bullets have the Umbrella logo on the rear of the shells. Aside from archive footage from the first film featuring shots of Eric Mabius, the only person to return after the previous film is Milla Jovovich. Sienna Guillory based her movements of Jill by watching the way Jill moved in the game "Biohazard 3: Last Escape". The first sequence showing Alice waking up in the hospital through to her cocking a shotgun outside, consists entirely of footage shot for the first film. The dogs were not computer-generated. Make-up was applied to them. Although the word "zombie" is never used in the film, it is featured in the ending credits. German comedian Tom Gerhardt who portrayed the infected father in the gate closing sequence, is credited as "zombie dad". All other zombies are credited as "undead". The newspaper with the headline "The Dead Walk!" is an homage to George A. Romero's Day of the Dead, in which exactly the same newspaper headline was displayed. It was Milla Jovovich's idea about having the heat wave in Raccoon City as the reason why her character and Jill Valentine are wearing very few clothes. Unfortunately, the shoot was in November in Toronto. The film contains many visual and thematic references to the games.

The problem with sequels in general is that they think it has to be bigger and better and more explosive and, well, you get the idea. Resident Evil worked because it was self contained. Get out of The Hive and you will survive. So how do they make it bigger and put the characters into a more deperate situation? Release the virus on a city. What's next? The wole world? This is a the same situation with Alien and Aliens. The first one was contained on the ship, The second one was on a colony but then they did a good thing and restricted it back down in Alien3 to a prison planet (the only thing on the planet is the prison. After seeing Alice start to rediscover her combat training abilities in the first movie she is full blown combat queen here with supernatural physical abilities (that we later discover is from Project Alice). Basically she can kick anybody's butt. One thing that puzzled me though. The T-Virus is transmitted at points by airbourne and mostly but physical touch by scratch or bite. It infects the living who eventually become undead or rise from the dead when they are killed. At one point the group goes through a cemetary and we see the cliche of the dead digging themselves out of the ground. First off, how did the already buried get infected and second, why did they all decide to dig out and break through right at that moment. Well, I guess that is why it is a cliche. So if you are paying attention I guess you already know what movie I am going to review tomorrow.

Resident Evil (2002)

Deep in the bedrock below Raccoon City, in a secret research facility run by the Umbrella Corporation known as The Hive, the main computer, known as the Red Queen malfunctions, shuts and locks down the facility and murders all the scientists and employees. Meanwhile Alice (Milla Jovovich) wakes up on the floor of a shower in a mansion. Alice does not remember where she is or who she is. Alice is part of the security for The Hive, but doesn't remember this. Hilarity ensues when a comando team from the Umbrella Corporation is sent into the Hive with Alice to shut down the Red Queen and reopen the facility...Bad idea. Scientist at The Hive were working on a virus with a small side effect, anyone infected would become a flesh eating zombie.

Trivia: This film was originally titled "Resident Evil: Ground Zero," but the title was changed to just "Resident Evil" after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the USA. The password into the Red Queen's Chamber is "12177". Connections to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: - Main character's name is Alice. - Computer is named 'Red Queen'. - 'The Red Queen' needs to kill someone who is infected, so she tries to get someone else to chop off their head. (Off with her head!) - Alice in Wonderland paperweight. - A white rabbit was use to test the T-virus. - To enter the hive they go through a mirrored door (through the looking glass). - The Red Queen also succeeds in cutting off "her" head - the medic in the laser hallway. - Kaplan worries about time, as the White Rabbit does. (Mentioned in commentary) - Matt is sitting on the ledge when Rain and JD hear the first zombie. This is mentioned in the commentary as a reference to the Caterpillar. Even though they're everywhere, the word "zombie" is never spoken in this film. Milla Jovovich's character, Alice, never has her name spoken, written or identified until the end credits. After returning to the laser hallway they find the bodies have vanished. This is a direct reference to the games, in which the bodies will vanish if you leave and reenter an area. Kaplan's lines draw attention to this. Milla Jovovich did all of her own stunts except the pipe jump in the sewer scene. She used a stunt double in that scene, because her agent thought she would get strangled by the hanging wires. During the shooting of the sewer scenes, Milla Jovovich right-hooked Paul W.S. Anderson in the face, giving him a big black eye. By the end she hurt about three cast and crew members. To prepare for their roles, the actors playing commandos, Milla Jovovich and Eric Mabius had a week of commando training (climbing, martial arts, weapons handling, etc.) with ex-Navy SEAL Jaymes Butler. All the minor cuts and bruises on Milla Jovovich's character are real. No make-up was applied.

I admit that I am not much of a gamer and I am not much of a scary movie fan so you are probably asking why in the heck am I watching a zombie movie based on a zombie video game. Well, I will tell you. Milla Jovovich. Plan and simple. I like her, I have since The Fifth Element. I know she has a reputation for not being in "good" movie and most of her roles are of girls who can kick ass. But I like her. So here we are, a bunch of commandos in full black combat gear and Milla Jovovich in a red dress cut to her thigh wearing combat boots. As for movies based on video games this one is actually really good. This a definitely not Doom, thank goodness. Besides the whole zombie aspect you can really see a comando team having to go in and subdue a rogue computer (well, at least I can, I'm optimistic like that). As long as you can get past the dead rising and wanting to eat you, the story stands up rather well. The only problem I see is that they might decide that they need to do a sequel.

Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

The "true" story of what really became of Elvis Presley. We find Elvis (Bruce Campbell) as an elderly resident in an East Texas rest home. He switched identities with an Elvis impersonator years before his "death", then missed his chance to switch back. Elvis teams up with Jack (Ossie Davis), a fellow nursing home resident who thinks that he is actually President John F. Kennedy, and the two valiant old codgers sally forth to battle an evil Egyptian entity who has chosen their long-term care facility as his happy hunting grounds as hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Despite the fact that Elvis Presley is the main character, not one piece of Elvis's music is heard. Director Don Coscarelli explained that it would have cost about half the budget to license one of Elvis's songs for the movie. The shoestring budget for this movie was a little over a half million dollars, or roughly 1% of an average big-budget Hollywood movie. When Elvis turns on the TV and sees the Elvis Presley movie marathon, none of the clips are from any of Elvis's movies. Because the licensing costs would have been too much for the budget, they used stock footage and never showed the faces of the Elvis-like actors. Only 32 prints of the film were originally made as part of a limited platform release. The Soul of Southern Film Festival, in Memphis, Tennessee, paid for a thirty-third print, so that they wouldn't have to wait any longer to show the film. Several other festivals and theaters paid advances in order to secure prints.

This is what I like about movies, you can come up with a plot, Elvis Presley didn't actually die, but is living in a rest home with his black friend who thinks he is JFK and they end up battling an Egyptian mummy who is stealing the souls of the rest home to feed his spirit since they don't fight back and everyone expects them to die anyway. And then they get it made! Actually it is a very funny movie. Bruce Campbell is fantastic.

The Day Of The Triffids (1962)

When a shower of meteorites produces a glow that blinds anyone that looks at it hilarity ensues. As it was such a beautiful sight, most people were watching, and as a consequence, 99% of the world's population go blind. This chaos results in the escape of some Triffids: plants from outer space that had recently arrived on a meteor that are capable of moving themselves around and attacking people.

Trivia: The triffids inspired the E.T. plants of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. When the film was finished it was too short, so the entire sequence where the triffids attack the lighthouse was added. The Day Of The Triffids was one of the movies mentioned in the song "Science Fiction Double Feature". This was the song played over the opening titles of the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The lyrics that mention it are "And I really got hot when I saw Janet Scott/Fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills".

I had never heard of this movie before hearing Science Fiction Double Feature and then I had no idea what it was. Normally triffids are small plants, no higher then a foot or two, but when they are subjected to the light display of the meteor shower they suddenly grow monsterous and mobile. The thing is that it is the lights, not anything else that triggers it because the first Triffids shown are inside the Royal Botanical Gardens greenhouse. This is a typical 60s horror film in that now it seems unintentionally funny. I think they really did intend for it to be a true horror film but I mean get real. These plants travel at the speed of a slow crawl, plus, they make a clicking noise when they are hunting. So basically, if you are walking along and suddenly you hear "click click click click" walk away really fast. Also if I was a scientist and I was trying to discover how to kill an alien, the first thing I would do would be to look around for obvious answers that you would least expect because they always seem to work (see War Of The Worlds). For those of you who haven't seen the movie and wonder what the heck I am talking about, well the triffids disolve in salt water, I mean like in less then a minute they are are big pile of green goo on the floor when you spray salt water on them. Oh and what is the deal with the convicts? There is a scene where a bunch of convicts get lose and what do they do? They go to the one house with seeing people and have a party. We are talking music and dancing and drinking and stuff and supposedly plundering and pillaging, but some of the girls who are being "held against their will" are dancing right along with the guys, I know, you are thinking they are being forced to, but some are dancing by themselves and looking like they are having fun.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1992)

Buffy (Kristy Swanson) has the lifestyle any young woman could want. Cheerleading, dating the captain of the basketball team, and copious amounts of time spent shopping with friends. She had no idea of her true calling until a mysterious man named Merrick (Donald Sutherland) approached her and told her that she is the Slayer; one woman called to defend the world from vampires. Reluctant to concede to the fact, Buffy soon learns that Merrick speaks the truth and so begins to take her new life seriously while trying to maintain the sense of normality her life had once been. With her best friends slowly abandoning her, Buffy finds solace in the town outcast, Pike (Luke Perry) , who knows very well the terrors that have arisen. Together, they combat the forces of the old and powerful vampire, Lothos (Rutger Hauer), who has his eyes set on Buffy as hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Buffy's last name is never mentioned in the movie. Not until the release of the series was she referred to as Buffy Summers. In the original version of the script, Merrick committed suicide to escape being turned into a vampire by Lothos, who wanted to know the Slayer's identity so he could dispatch with her. The original script by Joss Whedon was heavily re-written to make the film "lighter". In the original script, Buffy burns down the school gym that the dance is being held in, in an effort to destroy the vampires. In the television series "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" this fact is referred to several times, as the series is seen as a spin-off of the original, unproduced screenplay rather than this film. Alyssa Milano was originally set to play Buffy. This was Hilary Swank's first film.

How in the heck did they convince somebody to make a TV series based on this movie? This movie was extremely corny. Yeah, I know, you're probably thinking "Will, what did you expect? It's a movie about a cheerleader who slays vampires." Well, I would have liked a little more explanation on the background of the slayers was. Buffy goes from "you have got to be kidding me" to "okay, vampires are real and I am a slayer" in about 2 seconds. Also, why does nobody else wonder what is happening to all the people that are disappearing? You can tell when Buffy becomes serious because she stops doing the whole valley girl thing and starts acting like a real girl. Not much of a final fight either. Oh well, Paul Reubens (of Pee Wee Herman fame) was pretty funny as the vampire's sidekick. The television series was much better.

Blade: Trinity (2004)

Blade (Wesley Snipes) finds himself alone surrounded by enemies, fighting an up hill battle with the vampire nation and now humans. He joins forces with a group of vampire hunters including Abigail Whistler (Jessica Beil) and Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) who call themselves the Nightstalkers. The vampire nation awakens the king of vampires Dracula (Dominic Purcell) from his slumber with intentions of using his primitive blood to become day-walkers. On the other side is Blade and his team manifesting a virus that could wipe out the vampire race once and for all. In the end the two sides will collide and only one will come out victorious, a battle between the ultimate vampire whom never knew defeat, facing off against the greatest vampire slayer while all around hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Based on Marvel Comics characters. Ryan Reynolds gained 25 pounds of muscle for his role as Hannibal King. Jessica Biel inadvertently destroyed a camera when she shot it with a bow and arrow during a scene (she was directed to "aim for the camera"). When Hannibal King is telling Blade about the return of Dracula, he shows Blade a copy of Tomb of Dracula #55. Marvel's "Tomb of Dracula" comic (#10 to be precise) was the title in which Blade made his first appearance in the early-1970s. The character of Hannibal King was created by comic book writer Marv Wolfman, who also created Blade himself. Hannibal King made his first appearance in "Tomb of Dracula" #25. The film crew was forced to be selective in their shots for various green-screen segments because neighboring stages were being used for the filming of I, Robot and The Chronicles of Riddick and those sets would sometimes appear within the frames (and edited out later). One of the television commercials for the film was recalled after one day of airing because it accidentally credited Jessica Biel as Jessica Alba. The car Blade drives in all three movies is a 1968 Dodge Charger modified with UV lights behind the front grille as well as numerous switches inside the car. After the movie the car was purchased by a man in Vancouver who kept the car virtually the same except for adding a 440 under the hood.

The tattooed vampire hunter is back, and this time he brought help. I caught this one on television with it's inherent "edited for content" so I didn't get the full on experience but what I got was just fine and at points unintentionally hilarious (due to the editing of certain words, as in a certain male body part being called a "who-who"). They killed of Whistler so we get Whitsler's daughter instead (personally, I would much rather see the 22 year-old smokin' hott, vampire kicking, bow and arrow wielding, body of Jessica Biel [see movie poster above], over the wrinkled decrepit hobbling 68 year-old body of Kris Kristofferson any day and twice on Sunday, but that is just me). We also get the wisecracking Hannibal King. He provides much needed comic relief so Blade can just concentrate on being a bad-ass daywalker. So after Blade, where there is a megalomaniacal vampire tries to take over the world by summoning the blood god, and Blade II where mutant vampires called Reapers try to take over the world, who would be a good villain for Blade to fight? Dracula of course. Okay, the name is hokey and makes you think of Bela Lugosi, but they do an okay job in changing around the mythos of Dracula to make him the original ancient one (at least several thousand years old) in which all other vampires came from and he doesn't walk around in a cape or stuff. So all in all a good vampire movie.

Dark Water (2005)

Dahlia Williams (Jennifer Connelly) is starting a new life; newly separated with a new job and a new apartment, she's determined to put her relationship with her estranged husband behind her and devote herself to raising her daughter, Ceci (Ariel Gade). But when the strained separation disintegrates into a bitter custody battle, her situation takes a turn for the worse. Her new apartment--dilapidated, cramped, and worn--seems to take on a life of its own. Mysterious noises, persistent leaks of dark water, and strange happenings cause her imagination to run wild, sending her on a puzzling and mystifying pursuit to find out who is behind the endless mind games. Is it her husband, the slightly creepy super (Pete Postlethwaite), two teenage delinquents on a rampage, or something else? Hilarity ensues as Dahlia frantically searches for the links between the riddles, the dark water seems to close around her. But one thing trumps all others in Dahlia's world: no matter what it is that's out there, she'll stop at nothing to protect her daughter.

Trivia: A color dye usually used in concentrated gels for soft drinks was added to the water to turn it to a dark color. The heartbeat heard during Dahlia's migraines are from an ultrasound scan of Daniel Rezende's wife who got pregnant at the beginning of the shooting.

Ummmm...Jennifer Connelly. She is the lead so she had a very prominate presence in this movie and she did great for what she had, but this was one of those scary movies that just isn't that scary. The little girl was good, well actually both little girls were good (the second one, Natasha (Perla Haney-Jardine), was a ghost). It was pretty cool that they used Perla as both Natasha and a young Dahlia, that gave it a disconcerting feeling. But that was as scary as it got. The Natasha subplot was very sad as was the ending of the movie. It just wasn't scary. Did I mention that it wasn't scary. They did a good job of making the whole movie moist, in that almost every scene has a watery element to it, from rain to drips in the elevator to Dahlia's washing machine breaking so that she has to transfer her soaking wet clothes to a second washer. Oh yeah, one more thing. Ummmm...Jennifer Connelly.

Doom (2005)

Something has gone wrong at a remote scientific research station on Mars. All research has ceased but hilarity ensues. Communication has failed. And the messages that do get through are less than comforting. It's a level 5 quarantine and the only souls allowed in or out are the Rapid Response Tactical Squad - hardened Marines armed to the teeth with enough firepower to neutralize the enemy...or so they think.

Trivia: The names of scientists Dr. Todd Carmack and Dr. Willits are references to Todd Hollenshead, John Carmack and Tim Willits, co-owners of id Software, and developers of the Doom game and its sequels, including Doom3 upon which this movie is based. The character of Sarge (played by The Rock) is homage to Master Sergeant Thomas Kelly, one of the main characters from the video game Doom3. The Rock was offered the lead role of John Grimm, but chose the role of Sarge because he thought it was more interesting. The locker the BFG is stored is designated IDKFA. This is the in-game cheat code that will give the player full weapons and ammo. The film's setting is an archaeological dig at "Olduvai" on Mars. Earth's Olduvai Gorge contains some of the earliest human and hominid (pre-human) remains and artifacts. This was the setting for the opening scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Okay, so I was in the mood for a good old fashioned just blow sh** up movie so along comes Doom. You would think that a movie based on a video game is probably going to be rather thin on plot and you would be absolutely right in this case. But you wouldn't have picked this one up if you were looking for a Quentin Tarantino or Kevin Smith style movie, you would pick this movie to watch them blow sh** up. I have played Doom, but I haven't played Doom3 which is more plot driven then the first two, so I know the general gist of the movie and can mostly identify the monsters. The special effects far out shine the plot which is pretty easy to follow an makes you feel like you are waiting for the smart girl scientist to catch up with you. Did I mention they blow sh** up? There is a sequence near the end where the movie goes into a first person shooter point of view, this was actually the funniest part of the movie. The Doom games are all first person shooter games meaning that you see what the main character sees, you are him, all you see is the barrel of your gun and the monsters running toward you. Oh, and they blow sh** up.

The Craft (1996)

Sarah Bailey (Robin Tunney), a sixteen year old troubled teenager with a painful past and a history of suicidal tendencies and hallucinations, moves to L.A. with her father and stepmother to start a new life - and is enrolled into a Catholic school. It is at school that she comes into contact with three unlikely friends, Nancy (Fairuza Balk), Bonnie (Neve Campbell) and Rochelle (Rachel True), all of whom are socially outcast with various problems in their lives that they wish they could fix. Nancy, Bonnie and Rochelle dabble in occult practices, and when they notice Sarah has the powers of a natural witch, they talk her into joining their coven (I thought covens had thirteen members). When Sarah joins, they soon realize that with a fourth witch in the coven they can begin to cast spells they couldn't before, and begin to amend all the things wrong in their lives - but like everything else in life - things come with a price...hilarity.

Trivia: Features over 3,000 snakes including pythons, boas, water snakes, garter snakes, rat snakes, and a 10 foot Amazon constrictor - even rare albino snakes. Robin Tunney wore a wig in this because she had shaved her head for Empire Records. Though all of the actresses playing teenagers were far past teenage years, at the time of filming Rachel True was almost 30 years old. The shots of Nancy being covered in bugs were created by wrapping a life-cast of Fairuza Balk's head and torso in green screen material. The bugs were filmed crawling all over the casting and then digitally composited on top of a live action plate of Balk. On the special edition DVD of this film, Andrew Fleming states in the commentary that the production was geared toward earning a PG-13 rating from the MPAA. They followed all of the guidelines to earn that rating, but in the final outcome the film was rated R because the film dealt with teenage girls using witchcraft.

This was an okay movie and all but there was something missing. It is hard to explain, it needed more something. I'm not quite sure what. The four witches were nice to look at (mmm Neve Campbell) sure but their back stories were not really dealt with in any great detail. They all had problems. Sarah has suicide issues. Nancy's step-father is abusive. Bonnie was burned or something as a child leaving a large burn scar on her back shoulder and upper left arm. Rochelle was teased about her race by a blond girl. But it was like the writers added those facts as an afterthought. (Oh yeah, we need to give these girls motivation to want to be witches and right the wrongs done to them in the recent past) Even the fact that Sarah's mother was a good witch (who died in child birth) was kind of glossed over and her contribution to the story would have flew right past me if I hadn't read the Wikipedia entry.

From Hell (2001)

It is 1888 in London, and the unfortunate poor lead horrifying lives in the city's deadliest slum, Whitechapel. Harassed by gangs and forced to walk the streets for a living, Mary Kelly (Heather Graham) and her small group of companions trudge on through this daily misery, their only consolation being that things can't get any worse. Yet things somehow do when their friend Ann is kidnapped and they are drawn into a conspiracy with links higher up than they could possibly imagine. Hilarity ensues as the kidnapping is soon followed by the gruesome murder of another woman, Polly, and it becomes apparent that they are being hunted down, one by one. Sinister even by Whitechapel standards, the murder grabs the attention of Inspector Fred Abberline (Johnny Depp), a brilliant yet troubled man whose police work is often aided by his psychic abilities. Abberline becomes deeply involved with the case, which takes on personal meaning to him when he and Mary begin to fall in love. But as he gets closer to the truth Whitechapel becomes more and more dangerous for Abberline, Mary, and the other girls. Whoever is responsible for the grisly acts is not going to give up his secret without a fight....will they be able to survive the avenging force that has been sent after them from hell?

Trivia: The crew built four blocks of Whitechapel on location in Prague, including half a church. The title refers to a letter sent to George Lusk, the president of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee from an unknown man who claimed to be the murderer. Instead of a sender's name and address "from hell" was written on top of the letter, and apparently a piece of victims kidney was enclosed. Great care was taken to accurately reproduce the actual sites of the "ripper" murders. Illustrations and actual photographs from 1888 were used. Similar care was used to reproduce the wounds inflicted upon the ripper's victims. Although both Sergeant Godley and Inspector Frederick Abberline were involved in the Ripper murders (Abberline being the lead Inspector), they never worked together, and probably never even met until the arrest of George Chapman, a Ripper suspect. Though there were many rumors (and speculations) as to whether the victims knew each other, there is no real evidence that they did. After the Ripper has killed his final victim, the police officer describes the scene so that it can be written down as evidence. Those lines are taken directly from the report of the actual crime scene. The final murder is the only one that is the only one depicted in the film that didn't exactly follow the wound patterns found on the actual victim in 1888. The scene was toned down because that murder, Jack the Ripper's last, was so gruesome that the producers feared an NC-17 rating had they actually shown a likeness of the victim, whose was found with both breasts severed, every facial feature slashed and torn, and the belly cut open. There is a well-known photograph of this victim, still in her death pose, that is included in almost every book about the Ripper murders.

Wow, I made it through the whole synopsis without mentioning Jack The Ripper. Would there be such a fascination about Jack The Ripper if he had been caught? No. He would just be a foot-note in the history of London. It is the unknown that really gets us going. And, since the murders happened so long ago, we will never know what really happened or why, which leads to speculation and that opens the door for movies to jump in. This is one of them. It is a very good movie and puts out a theory that in itself seems plausible. It was an interesting theory that the five Ripper murders were specifically targeted and not random. It did a very good job of creating a feel of 19th century Whitechapel, one of the "bad parts of town." Heather Graham did a decent job of playing the poor waif (Warning*Major Spoiler* although the fact that the last victim wasn't Mary Kelly but was mis-identified as her so she could leave London and live her life in seclusion but alive was a little too hollywoodish of an ending for me.) I liked Depp's drug enhanced clairvoyant inspector, but I always seem to like his roles. I thought I had seen more of Depp's movies but I went back and discovered that I have only seen 15 of his 36 movies, I need to get to work.

Grindhouse (2007)

First off you need to know what a grindhouse is. A grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly showed exploitation films, or is a term to describe the genre of films that played in such theatres (which are also known as "exploitation films"). Grindhouses were known for non-stop programs of B movies, usually consisting of a double feature where two films were shown back to back. Many of these inner city theatres formerly featured burlesque shows which featured "bump and grind" dancing, leading to the term "grindhouse." Beginning in the late 1960s and especially during the 1970s, the subject matter of exploitation films shown in these theaters often included explicit sex, violence, bizarre or perverse plot points, and other taboo content. In this case Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino are trying to recreate the feel of a grindhouse by releasing a B movie style double feature. So, since they made two movies, I will treat them as two movies. So first up:

Planet Terror

Two unhappily married doctors, William (Josh Brolin) and Dakota Block (Marley Shelton), find that their small Texas town is overrun by people covered in suspicious sores. They come across a wounded woman by the name of Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan), a go-go dancer who lost her leg in a creature attack, and her boyfriend El Wray (Freddy Rodriquez). As the 'zombies' become more and more aggressive, Wray and Cherry lead a group of survivors to a nearby military base and encounter a rogue military unit, led by the deranged Lt. Muldoon (Bruce Willis). The infected military unit quarantines them, convinced that within them lies the answer for a concrete cure. Eventually an escape plan is hatched with Cherry—now outfitted with an M4 assault rifle and attached grenade launcher in place of her leg—leading the charge.

Death Proof

Death Proof features a psychotic killer named Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), whose modus operandi is to kill young women with his souped-up cars (a 1971 Chevy Nova SS and a 1970 Dodge Charger). He achieves this by "death proofing" the cars; reinforcing the driving compartment in a manner similar to stunt drivers in action films. After stalking and brutally killing local Austin D.J. Jungle Julia (Sydney Poitier), her friends Arlene and Shanna (Vanessa Ferlito and Jordan Ladd), and hitchhiker Pam (Rose McGowan), Stuntman Mike flees to Tennessee and finds a new group of girls. Among his new targets are actress Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), makeup artist Abernathy (Rosario Dawson), and stuntwomen Kim (Tracie Thoms) and stuntwoman Zoe Bell (who plays herself in the film) who are test driving a 1970 Dodge Challenger.

The Trailers

There are four fake trailers included in Grindhouse, two before Planet Terror and two before Death Proof. These are full on movie trailers of exploitation movies that would fit the period. Machete, contributed by Robert Rodriguez, is a Mexican exploitation movie styled like Charles Bronson or like Jean Claude Van Damme movies. Thanksgiving, contributed by Eli Roth, is a slasher film centered around the November holiday in Massachusetts. Werewolf Women Of The SS, contributed by Rob Zombie, is about Nazis and, um, well, the title is pretty self explanatory. And Don't, contributed by Shaun Of The Dead director Edgar Wright. It is described as a 1970's britsploitation meets mondo trailer. A mondo film is a documentary film, sometimes resembling a pseudo-documentary, usually depicting sensational topics and scenes.

Trivia: Several actors from Planet Terror make appearances in Death Proof, including Rose McGowan, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Parks, Electra and Elise Avellan, and Marley Shelton. The "Skull & Lightning Bolts" logo used on the car in the film's Death Proof poster is inspired by the "Skull & Chopsticks" logo used in the international kung fu comedy tv and dvd series known as Kung Faux. Both directors 'aged' the films, adding scratches, dirt, and dust, to simulate the feel of the real Grindhouse films. Robert Rodriguez specifically wrote the part of Dakota for Marley Shelton after working with her on Sin City (2005). The "missing reels" in the Grindhouse films were an original William Castle-style idea cooked up by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Tarantino owns a print of the Oliver Reed film The Sell-Out (1976) which when he bought it was missing a reel (containing a major plot point). After watching the film in this way, Tarantino found the scenes that he didn't see created an interesting mystery which made him try to figure out what went down in those scenes. Contrary to rumors, in the Grindhouse era, frames would often be missing from films but not entire 20-30 minute reels. This was not a staple of Grindhouse cinema.

Hmm...interesting films, and both are set in Texas. Planet Terror was definitely more gory, but then again, it was a zombie film. You should expect a little gore. The movie had a very good sense of humor to it, which is good because otherwise, well, I mean, come on, it's a zombie film. Death Proof ends with an awesome car chase between a black Dodge Nova and a white Dodge Charger using real cars (because that was the way Tarantino wanted it). It was also pretty fun to see some of the cross over characters. Some of the characters from Planet Terror show up as the same character in Death Proof (like Dr. Dakota Block and a sheriff) but some of the characters also showed up in the Thanksgiving trailer. So all in all a pretty good time was had in this truly unique double feature.

The Others (2001)

A woman named Grace (Nicole Kidman) is living with her two children Anne and Nicholas (Alakina Mann and James Bentley) on an almost empty island in their huge mansion. Anne and Nicholas have a deadly allergy to light, so the family lives in almost total darkness in the mansion. Grace's husband is a soldier in WWII and Grace has given her husband up for dead. Everything seems peaceful for her, but when three mysterious servants are given jobs at the house, hilarity ensues and strange, terrifying secrets are unlocked that even Grace cannot handle when Anne starts to talk with The Others.

Trivia: The disease the children have is an actual disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum. It is very rare with roughly a thousand people in the world that have it. The ghostly image appearing over Grace's shoulder resolves itself into a somber face in a painting on the wall. This image is actually a detail (specifically, a close-up of the Puritan man's face) of the 1855 Pre-Raphaelite painting "The Wounded Cavalier" by William Shakespeare Burton. The movie opens with Nicole Kidman, in voiceover, reading a story. She begins with the words, "...are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin." These were the opening words from the BBC radio programme "Listen With Mother", broadcast in the UK between 1950 and 1982. (She actually says, "Now, children, are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin," a common mis-quotation of the Listen With Mother opening.)

With these three words "Starring Nicole Kidman" we just lost Kim, she has an aversion to the former Mrs. Cruise. This is one of two films that I owe Impman for guessing my Alphabet Project movies. I have actually seen this one before but it was in the theater so it has been awhile. This was one of the many movies that came after the Sixth Sense that had a "M. Night Shyamalan style twist" ending (which I am not going to reveal). So I went in knowing the twist and I watched to see if they gave it away and they did a very good job of not revealing anything to early and they kept the suspense going pretty well.

The Alphabet Project: J is for...

Jabberwocky (1977)

After the death of his father the young Dennis Cooper (Michael Palin) goes to town where he has to pass several adventures. The town and the whole kingdom is threatened by a terrible monster called Jabberwocky. Will Dennis make his fortune? Is anyone brave enough to defeat the monster? A medieval tale with Pythonesque humor. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Many of the props and costumes were recycled from the set of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The narrator of the film's trailer warns that it is so terrifying "No one will be admitted to the theatre until the last ten minutes of (the) film". Real horse carcasses are used in the scene where Dennis and the Champion are ambushed by the Black Knight. The horse that the champion rides is visibly disturbed by these surroundings. A tavern in the town is named The Queen's Haemorrhoids.

Well, well, well, my clues maybe a little too easy for you, seeing as three of you came up with Jabberwocky. Oh, yeah, the movie. This was Terry Gilliam's first solo shot at directing and you can see his style starting to come through. Michael Palin is pretty good too. You can tell that there is a major Monty Python influence on the humor of this movie, but you can also tell that it is not fully python. It definitely has it's moments (King Bruno, the Questionable, the knights playing hide and go seek to find a champion) but a fully python film would have included more of those moments, so basically The Holy Grail is a vastly superior film, but Jabberwocky is still funny.

Up Next: The "K" movie. Hopefully, this week's clue will be harder to figure out. This week's clue: It Deals With Charlie's New Factory.

So, Impman, Anonymous Ken, and Kim, get me your movie choices. Here were last week's incorrect guesses:

Jeepers Creepers - A brother and sister driving home for spring break encounter a flesh-eating creature in the isolated countryside that is on it's last day of it's ritualistic eating spree.

Jailhouse Rock - After serving time for manslaughter, young Vince Everett becomes a teenage rock star.

Jiminy Glick in Lalaland - Culture critic Jiminy Glick gets tied up in a murder case at the Toronto Film Festival.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back - The comic 'Bluntman and Chronic' is based on real-life stoners Jay and Silent Bob, so when they get no profit from a big-screen adaptation they set out to wreck the movie.

Underworld: Evolution (2006)

As the war between the Death Dealers and the Lycans rages on, Selene (Beckinsale), the vampire warrior, and Michael (Speedman), the werewolf hybrid, work together in an effort to unlock the secrets of their respective bloodlines. Beginning where Underworld finished, Selene and Michael are on the run from the vampires. Being the cause of Viktor's death, Selene can only hope to plea to the last remaining elder, Marcus. However, Marcus has already awakened and has become a more powerful creature than before. Now his only remaining goal is to awaken his Lycan brother, William from his eternal imprisonment. With time running out, Selene and Michael must piece together the final clues to unlock the secrets of their bloodlines and stop Marcus before it's too late. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Instead of her name, Kate Beckinsale's chair had "My Sweetie" on it surrounded by tiny hearts (Thats what happens when you are married to the director). Kate Beckinsale wanted to use movies like Aliens (1986) and The Terminator (1984) as the basis for her role as an action heroine, but when they first talked about the movie, director husband Len Wiseman suggested that she check out Russell Crowe in L.A. Confidential (1997) instead. While filming a scene where Selene and Michael look at each other longingly, director Len Wiseman surprised the cast and crew by playing Bryan Adams' song "Everything I Do, I Do It For You", at which everyone started laughing. The little girl that plays young Selene is Lily Mo Sheen, the daughter of Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen.

I haven't reviewed many sequels on this blog (most good movies don't have sequels, go figure). As sequels go though, this was a pretty good one. It probably helped that it was basically a continuation of the first movie and that I saw the first movie only a few weeks ago. But anyway, it was pretty good.

The Brothers Grimm (2005)

In 1811, folklore collectors and con artists, Jake and Will Grimm (Heath Ledger and Matt Damon), travel from village to village pretending to protect townsfolk from enchanted creatures and performing exorcisms. However, they are arrested by Cavaldi (Peter Stormare) and General Delatombe (Jonathan Pryce), but they have a chance to redeem themselves in the village of Marbaden, where ten young girls have vanished. Will and Jake are guided by the local Angelika (Lena Headey) through an enchanted forest where they face the evil Mirror Queen (Monica Bellucci) that depends on the sacrifice of twelve girls in the eclipse to stay beautiful and young. Enchanted hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins were cast originally, but both had to bow out due to scheduling conflicts. Johnny Depp was originally set to star as Will Grimm. The "hand forest" sequence in this film is an idea Terry Gilliam has had for almost 25 years. It was originally written for Time Bandits (1981) and almost used in Brazil (1985). Matt Damon and Heath Ledger were originally cast in opposite roles. They petitioned and switched their roles. Because of problems with the Writers Guild of America, Terry Gilliam and Tony Grisoni were not able to credit themselves as writers of the screenplay, despite the many changes they had made to Ehren Kruger's original script. They invented a credit for themselves as "Dress Pattern Makers" and thus were quoted as saying that the film was not necessarily made from a "screenplay" but from a "dress pattern". The Mirror Queen using the blood of young girls to restore her youth is based on the legend surrounding Countess Elizabeth Bathory, one of the first serial killers from the turn of the 17th century.

Matt Damon and Heath ledger are the stars of this picture but it is the supporting characters that really make it fun to watch. Lena Headey is a local outcast that survives by hunting, both brothers are after her. Monica Bellucci is the mirror queen, "Mirror mirror on the wall..." you know the rest. Jonathan Pryce is the French general, who feels he is better then all the rest and is stuck in hell or, in this case, Germany. But the best supporting character is Peter Stormare. He is fabulous as the torturer Cavaldi. The rest f the support comes from the setting of the movie. This alternate world is pure Terry Gilliam. Oh, and you can never go wrong when there is a character named "Will."

Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

The department store salesman Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a real loser, having a routine life that is bothering his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield): every night they go to the pub Winchester with Shaun's best friend, the moron Edward (Nick Frost), and Liz's friends Dianne (Lucy David) and David (Dylam Moran). Shaun and Ed share a house with Pete (Peter Serafinowicz), who hates Ed. And, oh yeah, London is overrun with multitudes of zombies. When a satellite returning to Earth has some problems over London, the dead return to life and eat human flesh of those alive. Shaun plots a plan to rescue his mother and Liz and bring them to the Winchester, but his sanctuary is surrounded of zombies and things do not happen as planned. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Because of the timing and the indisputable similarity of the names, the distributors were forced to hold the film back until two weeks after Dawn of the Dead (2004) was released in the UK. When Shaun walks to the shops before heading to work when everything is normal, Shaun passes a road sweeper. On the road-sweeper operator's radio one can hear a news bulletin detailing how a space probe called Omega 6 entered Earth's atmosphere several days early over the southwest of England and broke apart over a well-built area. This a direct link to Night of the Living Dead (1968), in which a space probe breaks up over a small town in the USA, and the resulting radiation causes the dead in the local graveyard to come to life. Night of the Living Dead (1968) director George A. Romero was given a private viewing of the film near his home in Florida. During the scene in which Ed (Nick Frost) yells into the phone, "We're coming to get you, Barbara," Romero was oblivious to the fact it was a direct lift from his film Night of the Living Dead (1968) and only found out later after a phone conversation with director Edgar Wright. All of the newsreaders and television presenters are real people portraying themselves. George A. Romero, creator of the films that this movie pays homage to and lampoons, was so impressed with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's work that he asked them to appear in Land of the Dead (2005), the fourth part of his Dead series, in cameos as zombies. The duo also appears prominently in their zombie make-up on the cover of the region-one unrated director's cut DVD. A lot of the music used in the film comes from previous zombie movies.

Well, after watching Night of the Living Dead, Mick suggested that I watch Shaun of the Dead. Shaun of the Dead is not a parody of zombie movies, it is more of a tribute. The creators call it a romantic zombie comedy, or rom zom com. They did a good job at making it funny without making it ludicrous (as much as a zombie movie can, I guess) . I guess that reason it is so good is because the comedy doesn't come from the zombies, they are treated seriously. Another thing is that the comedy is not based on the absurdity of the situation but it is based on the relationships between the characters. It truly is a romantic comedy that just happens to have zombies in it.

The Alphabet Project: F is for...

The Fearless Vampire Killers Or Pardon Me But Your Teeth Are In My Neck (1967)

The old bat researcher, professor Abronsius (Jack MacGowran) and his assistant, Alfred (Roman Polanski), go to a remote Transylvanian village looking for vampires. Alfred falls in love with the inn-keeper's young daughter Sarah (Sharon Tate). However, she has been spotted by the mysterious Count Krolock who lives in a dark and creepy castle outside the village and taken to his castle. The professor and Alfred follow..hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Producer Martin Ransohoff discovered Sharon Tate on the set of "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962), and insisted that director Roman Polanski use her instead of Jill St. John as Polanski had planned. Amongst the ancestral portraits in the castle is a depiction of an ugly old woman inspired by a sketch of Leonardo da Vinci and since the 18th century frequently connected with Margarete Maultasch, countess of Tyrol (1318-1369). The portrait on the wall in Alfred's bedroom in Count von Krolok's castle is of Richard III, king of England from 1483 to 1485.

Wow, this was a pretty weird movie. It had a B movie feel to it. The professor was funny in a absent minded professor sort of way. Polanski was pretty funny as the inept assistant and Sharon Tate was very beautiful with red hair. Well, you might have already figured out my clue about the link to the grisly crime in this movie. Roman Polanski eventually married Sharon Tate and two years later on the night of August 8th, 1969, Sharon and four other poeple were brutally murdered in her Hollywood home, Sharon was eight months pregnant at the time. The next night, two other poeple were killed. The murders became known as the Tate-LaBianca murders but when one of the killers confessed in prison, the crime became known as the Manson Family Murders after Charles Manson, the leader of the "family." Gee, that was a downer.

Okay, well, next up is "G", here are the guesses for "F":

Friday the 13th - Many years after two summer camp councilers are killed at Camp Crystal Lake, the owner decides to reopen, which sparks a series of grisly murders. (great, The Manson Family Murders aren't enough?)

Ferris Bueller's Day Off - A high school wise guy is determined to have a day off from school, despite of what the principal thinks of that.

Freddy Got Fingered - An unemployed cartoonist moves back in with his parents and younger brother Freddy. When his parents demand he leave, he begins to spread rumors that his father is sexually abusing Freddy. (I am NOT a Tom Green fan, sorry)

The Fifth Element - In the colorful future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon to keep Evil and Mr Zorg at bay.

A Fist Full Of Dollars - (Per Un Pugno Di Dollari) A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.

Flubber - An absent-minded professor discovers "flubber," a rubber-like super-bouncy substance.

Fright Night - When a teenager learns that his next door neighbour is a vampire, no one will believe him.

Fantastic Voyage - A diplomat is nearly assassinated. In order to save him, a submarine is shrunken to microscopic size and injected into his blood stream with a small crew. Problems arise almost as soon as they enter the bloodstream.

Field Of Dreams - An Iowa corn farmer, hearing voices, interprets them as a command to build a baseball diamond in his fields; he does, and the Chicago Black Sox come.

Fallen - Homicide detective John Hobbes witnesses the execution of serial killer Edgar Reese. Soon after the execution the killings start again, and they are very similar to Reese's style

Face/Off - A revolutionary medical technique allows an undercover agent to take the physical appearance of a major criminal and infiltrate his organization.

Fargo - Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of pregnant Marge Gunderson.

Finding Neverland - Starring Kate Winslet and some guy, The story of J.M. Barrie's friendship with a family who inspired him to create Peter Pan.

The 40 Year Old Virgin - Goaded by his buddies, a nerdy guy who's never "done the deed" only finds the pressure mounting when he meets a single mother.

Frequency - An accidental cross-time radio link connects father and son across 30 years. The son tries to save his father's life, but then must fix the consequences.

Flatliners - Medical students bring themselves near death; their experiment begins to go awry.

Flightplan - A claustrophobic, Hitchcockian thriller. A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet the child vanishes and nobody admits she was ever on that plane.

From Here To Eternity - In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.

Fatal Attraction - A married man's one night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas - An oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychadelic escapades. Another one of those movies with that guy from Finding Neverland

A Few Good Men - Neo military lawyer Kaffee defends Marines accused of murder; they contend they were acting under orders.

Underworld (2003)

Vampires and Lycans (Werewolves) have been sworn enemies for hundreds of years. Now fought in a Gothic-like setting, the conflict takes an unexpected and deadly new turn. Selene (Kate Beckinsale), a beautiful vampire warrior, uncovers a Lycan plot that could prove fatal for her entire race. She shadows a human, Michael, the Lycan's supposed target. Although she finds herself becoming attracted to him, he becomes infected with the lupine disease during a violent struggle with the Lycan overlord, Lucian, long thought to be dead. Now both sides must decide how to end the conflict and save their species as new and terrifying secrets unearth themselves and threaten their entire existance. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Len Wiseman opted to shoot many of the action and effects sequences live, without computer imagery. In one scene, for instance, a werewolf seems to run more than 50 mph behind a speeding car. This was shot using an elaborate rig towed behind a vehicle, with actor Michael Sheen doing the closeups of the running and the jump onto the car, while the long shot of Lucian running was done by stuntman Todd Schneider. The attack dogs outside of the vampire mansion were actually very docile and playful canines, which were the only dogs available at the time. For the scene where they chase Scott Speedman, director Len Wiseman had to film short clips of the dogs running and later put in sounds of vicious barking. If you look closely though you can see their tails happily wagging back and forth. Selene, the heroine's name, is the Moon in Greek mythology. There were no special effects used to alter Kevin Grevioux's (Raze's) voice. It actually gets that deep naturally. (and man was it deep, deeper the James Earl Jones')

This was actually a very good film. The back story of the war between the Vampires and the Lycans is very well developed. The gothic feel of the movie is perfect for a Vampire movie or a Werewolf movie, we get both here. It was cool how both sides used new technology as weapons against each other. The whole movie had a Matrix feel too it. I also thought is was cool that the movie starts out with the Vampires as the heros and the Lycans as the villians but by the end, it is switched and the Lycans are the more noble of the two species. The war started when the lead Werewolf fell in love with and married the daughter of the lead Vampire, and the lead Vampire kills his own daughter rather then pulloute the bloodlines, and then tries to exterminate the whole werewolf species.