VH Corner

What if Elvis switched places with an Elvis impersonator and didn’t get a chance to switch back before the other one died? He would end up in an East Texas retirement home, alongside a black man who believes he is JFK, and they both have to fight a mummy soulsucker. It’s a Bruce Campbell movie of course!

The premiere of the movie at Cinema 21 was supposed to have a live appearance of Bruce Campbell, but he canceled his appearance. We did get a special message from him shown in front of the movie. He said that he was depending on people to tell their friends about the movie since no big movie studio ore their marketing department would touch it. It was up to us to help distribute it since they can only get it into 10 theaters so far. He also took a phone call during the message and said, “Sam Raimi? Would I be interested in Evil Dead 4? Hell yeah!” That made the audience quite excited.

It was a fun audience to watch the movie with because they would cheer when they would see Bruce Campbell’s name on the screen and cheered when he first appeared on the screen. When Elvis was preparing to do a karate move on a scary flying bug, people cheered again. There was much hooting and hollering going on.

As for the movie, it was extremely silly and funny. Bruce Campbell was his usual cool self. The guy playing JFK was funny. I think Bruce had some funny lines that we couldn’t hear because people were laughing too loud at the last funny line he said.

I would recommend this movie to any Bruce Campbell fan. As for those that have not seen his movies or don’t enjoy his work, then they probably wouldn’t like this either. There must be something wrong with them then. On the Bruce Campbell scale, I love Evil Dead 2, then Army of Darkness, and then Evil Dead. I would put this in between Army of Darkness and the first Evil Dead.

Rating: B

It is New York in the 1860′s with DiCaprio seeking revenge against the man that killed his father.

Overall I thought it was okay but I also thought it was too long. I don’t have an aversion towards long movies, but they do have to hold my interest. It came on 2 DVD’s from Netflix. I fell asleep sometime during the second one. I think it was during the time that all the gangs were starting up again for the big showdown and the draft was coming into play in New York.

I thought the movie should have either concentrated on how life was like back then or on DiCaprio and Day-Lewis, but when it started concentrating on the rich folks, poor people, Civil War and other stuff it just seemed to lose focus. Actually I think it all could have worked well together if it actually had focus. For example, if the main characters actually cared about any of that but all Bill the Butcher cared about was ruling over everything and all Amsterdam cared about was revenging his father’s death. They were never focused on anything else so I didn’t see why we would be invested in it either.

It could have been much better than it was but bleah.

Rating: C+

A British gangster movie starring Malcolm McDowell, David Thewlis and Paul Bettany.

Malcolm McDowell looks back on his life of when he started being a gangster and how he became the number one gangster. David Thewlis plays the godfather type one running the show when the main character starts out. Everyone else is played by the same person in present times and in the 60′s except for McDowell. Maybe he just looks too damn old or something or the guy that plays him when he is younger (Paul Bettany) just doesn’t look old very convincingly.

This was an extremely violent movie. I don’t know if it was trying to be shocking but it was mostly boring violence. You didn’t get caught up in the moment so while I was watching it thought, okay you’re beating the crap out of him, what’s next?

You never really root for the main guy, even in the way that you sometimes root for the bad guy. It also builds up to something that never really happens. It just kinda ends and the main guy is pretty pathetic in the process.

Rating: D+

Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Director: Robert Rodriguez

The third movie in the El Mariachi trilogy, but it’s really just a sequel to Desperado since that was just a remake of El Mariachi. Confused yet?

Plot line was entertaining, characters were interesting, and the good guy wins (of course.) I enjoyed the movie very much… but I can’t say that it was the best ever. At least Enrique didn’t suck which is what I was expecting… A little bit much on the bloody side – but what can you expect from a plot line set on in the middle of a revolution with planned murders of figureheads.

It was interesting to see Desperado before this movie. Antonio’s character gets shot in the hand which is why he stops playing guitar AND why he wears a leather strappy thing over his hand in this movie. I watched Desperado the day before going to see this movie so I was able to make a lot of comparisons. I was happy to see they didn’t sway completely away from the first one.

Good show overall!

Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, Boogie Nights) directed Adam Sandler in a serious role that is getting Oscar buzz. No really, it is.

Kensie said he liked this movie a whole bunch and I really like movies by Paul Thomas Anderson. I think this movie could have been a lot better if there was an ounce of chemistry between Adam Sandler and Emily Watson. He never has any chemistry between any of the women in his movies, but his movies are silly and goofy so I just ignore that. This was the main point of this movie so it just weird.

I did like his character though. He was sooooo very passive and then sooooo very agressive and I can see anyone acting that way if they were bullied by seven sisters the way he was. That would be insane! The whole phone sex thing was just bizarre.

What a weird little movie.

Grade: B-