RETRO REVIEW: EIGHT MILLIMETER

Let me start out this review with the statement that this is not a film for everyone.

8 MM follows Private Eye Tom Welles (Nicholas Cage) as he is hired by a wealthy widow to investigate a dubious film reel that she finds in her deceased husbands safe. The film reel appears to be that of a snuff film. With porn store clerk Max California (Joaquin Phoenix) as his guide Tom delves into the seedy world of pornography as he searches for answers.

The acting done here is all of a superb quality. Nicholas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Galdofini, Peter Stormare, and Chris Baur all put on jarring performances as the leads, the latter three of the list portraying three of the most disgusting, despicable characters ever seen in a film. Chris Baur's performance here is sure to affect just about anyone. Joaquin Phoenix is great fun as the niave and innocent bad talking clerk who fancies himself a bad ass that teams up with Tom to help him solve the mystery (Like all good sidekicks he eventually finds himself in waaay over his head), he almost steals every scene he's in and is thus one of the most memorable characters in this film. Nic Cage also acts his heart out here as a faily well-cut man that begins to change as he delves deeper into this darker world. The climax of the film is sure to throw most viewers onto the edge of their seats in tension and anticipation, you can't beat a climax like this one...it's damned near perfect.

While it may borrow some of its themes and its tone from Blue Velvet, it one ups its predecessor by upping the intensity and subtracting its happy ending. This is the ending Blue velvet felt like it was building up to, and its the one I honestly prefer. In the end, the good guy doesn't really win over the forces of evil he faces, instead he becomes like them...that in itself makes for one hell of an interesting twist (even though I have seen it done before).

Even though I may not be a big fan of Joel Scumacher I must say this is the best film that he's made. I'm really digging the dark tone of the film and how the latter half really pulls a 180 on the audience. It makes for a neat trick that most films are unable to perform correctly, happily this is one of those films that gets it right.

The film is incredibly dark and does make for some pretty tough viewing. It inevitably will leave some (I'd dare say most) with a bad aftertaste, but despite this I still think it to be a superb film that is pretty well crafted and succeeds in building thick suspense and tension.

With some engrossing (and disturbing) themes, several cool characters, and a wondefully dark tone 8 MM is sure to be a film that most will find pretty hard to forget.

4/5 stars

BEETLE REVIEWS HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART ONE

I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at a midnight showing on Thursday. After much contemplation on this film I now bring my review to you today.

2010 seems to be the year where franchises go to die. So far we've had Toy Story 3, Saw 3D and now the beginning of the end for the enormously popular Harry Potter Franchise: Harry Potter and The Deatly Hallows Part One.

This review may get a bit confusing for those who have never read a HP book or seen a HP film, so bear with me as I try to make this as newbie friendly as possible. Of course, I can't go over every little detail of the previous films and, unfortunately, that's whats required in order to understand this wonderfully dark piece of art. So, before you run out to view this one I highly reccommend that, if you've never seen a HP film before, you run out and get caught up. Trust me, it'll make the sentimental moments and some of the exposition easier to follow.

HPATDHP1 (Wow, what an abbreviation huh...maybe I should jus go with HPDH1) begins where Half-Blood prince left off: With Dumbledore dead and several Horcruxes (Soul containers) scattered about that need to be found and destroyed. After several attacks from Death Eaters (A nasty bunch of Voldemort followers that are after Harry) Harry, Ron, and Hermoine decide to go on a hunt for the remaining horcruxes and destroy them in an effort to weaken Voldemort (The horcruxes contain pieces of voldemorts soul, thus with each one they destroy the weaker Voldemort will get).

The acting seen here is quite possibly the best seen in a HP film to date. The characters go through some interesting changes. Their relationships are inevitably strained as their loved ones are killed off and tough decisions are made. The most satisfying character arc is that of Ron in this film. He has several surprising moments that redifine his relationship with Harry, his best friend throughout the franchise. Harry and Hermoine's relationship is also redefined in this film in some surprising ways. Rupert Grint (Ron), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), and Emma Watson (Hermoine) have evidently matured with each new film that was released, so the acting done by the three here is quite convincing and comes across as genuinely human (The scene at the beginning in which Hermoine has to erase her parents memories of her in order to protect them is especially painful and heart-wrenching to watch). It is made clear that these characters are going through trying times and are finding out new things about themselves. Rounding out the cast are the amazing David Thewlis as Remus Lupin; one of Harry's old teachers and one of his protectors; Helena Bonham Carter as the despicable and dirty Bellatrix Lestrange; Tom Felton as Harry's former classmate and reluctant bad guy Draco Malfoy; and Bill Nighy as head of Ministry of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour.


Deathly Hallows is by far the most sentimental and reminiscinent Harry Potter film to date. Several items (Like the golden snitch from the first film) and characters (Dolores Umbridge and Dobby the House Elf) from previous films reappear to help flesh out the story and take it in a new direction. I, for one, was ecstatic to see Dobby back again. He was one of the best parts of The Chamber of Secrets and his prescence here helps to raise the film up to a higher degree. While he isn't necessarily a lead player, he is a crucial element to the story and shares a good amount of screentime with Grint, Watson, and Radcliffe. His ultimate character arc is quite sad, but still uplifting nontheless.

HPDH1 is a darkly magical film that dares to focus on the human element instead of on magic (a decision that other Potter films did not make). I thought that this was a welcome change that made the stroy here all the more engrossing and watchable. HPDH1 still boasts some impressive effects work including a Dementor scene and a showdown between Ron and what lies in one of the horcruxes. Yet another surprising addition to this film is an exquisite animated portion that helps to explain the legend of the Deathly Hallows. The portion is done using CGI but looks hand-drawn. It is one of the most surprising pieces in this film and one of the best as well. Deathly Hallows does drag its feet at times, but due to the focus on the characters this is never more than mildly annoying.

With all this said, there are a few dissapointments found in HPDH1. The main souce of disapointment for me is that the majestic Hogwarts Castle is never viewed once during the 146 minute running time of this film. Another annoyance is, with all the information they throw at you in this film it's kind of hard not to get a bit confused every now and then (yet another reason why rewatching the previous films before viewing this one is a MUST).

Overall, while HPDH1 may not be the best Potter film to date, it still remains one of the best in the franchise due to its stunning special effects, strong character development, surprising character twists, and some cool sentimental elements thrown in for good measure. HPDH1 is a film that I highly reccommend to any Harry Potter fan.

4/5 Stars

SAW 3D

At long last, we have arrived at the FINAL chapter of the Saw Franchise.

The story this time around centers around a self-help guru that claims to be another Jigsaw survivor. Of course, he's lying (NO, THATS NOT A SPOILER!!!!! THERE IS NO SURPRISE WHEN THEY CONFIRM THIS AT THE END OF THE FILM) and soon finds himself in another of Jigsaws convoluted mazes which feels sadly familiar. No seriously, This film feels just like Saw 3 and Saw 6. What, did the film makers decide to go the safe route and rely on a tried and true formula instead of deciding to take the riskier route? Seriously disapointing, I mean this IS supposed (key word: Supposed) to be the final outing, so why not pull out all the stops and give the audience a fireworks show of an ending?

I've sat through every single Saw entry so far, and I must say that this one feels like the last entry. Why??? Well, for one the filmmakers seem tired....BORED even!!! The first 3 traps are really neat (The opening one being the best in the whole franchise I'd dare say) but the traps that come after are just plain lazy. There's one trap where the hero has to guide a friend along some planks high above the ground, one misstep and the friend gets hung. What's the gimmick??? THE FRIEND IS WEARING A BLINDFOLD! Really, filmmakers??? thats the best you could come up with here??? A BLINDFOLD??? shoot me. And the last trap is sure to piss off any Saw fan SPOILER ALERT because there is no way Jigsaw would create a trap where it is LITTERALY impossible to win. Pissed me off. Seriously though...it just seems like jigsaw had an idea who his next victim would be but never specified the traps to put him through.

Do I really have to talk about character development here???? I do??? Ok, FINE!!!!! The main hero cop in the film, Gibson (Chad Donella) is apparently brain dead. Almost everyt line and piece of delivery he has is eye-gougingly bad. There's a scene in the film where he has Jill Tuck; the widow of Jigsaw; holed up in a safehouse for protection. She tries to tell him that Hoffman (Jigsaws successor) knows where she is but he scoffs her off and says something along the lines of "THIS IS A SAFEHOUSE". Not even a minute after he says this he gets a message from Hoffman saying he knows where she is. STUPID !!!!! In fact, this film makes cops look bad. There's another scene where a bunch of cops break into the maze to save the "hero" of the film, but what do they do??? they take their time, they dick around and eventually set off a trap which kills them off. IDIOTS!!! Ok, enough ranting...let's move onto the "hero's" performance. In this film the hero/main victim is Bobby (The self-help guru, played by Sean Patrick Flannery). Amazingly he puts on a pretty good performance, succeeding in gaining the audience's sympathies. He does try a little too hard at times, which is an effort I appreciate but this film does not deserve. Jigsaws performance here is pretty cool but adds garnered disbelief on my part. he only really appears in one scene (sad misuse of Tobin Bells acting chops) and the scene he's in would appear to imply Bobby has been doing this scam since before Saw 3. The scene confused me and seemed like a cop out. The filmmakers seemed like they needed to throw one scene of Jigsaw in there and opted for a cheap, easy one that only convolutes the plot even more.

Now onto the 3D. You'd expect a movie filmed in 3D and made for 3D would be pretty cool in 3D. WRONG!!! Sure, blood splatters into the audience every now and then, yeah, pieces of traps penetrate the screen...but for the most part the filmmakers don't seem to know how to use the 3D technology to their advantage. All the 3D does here is make the film more grusome and brutal than previous ones. I was sadly disapointed...skip 3D and opt to see it in 2D instead.

In the end Saw 3D is more confusing, unnecessary, and god-awful boring (a sin!!!) than any of the previous installments. It does succeed in wrapping up the story quite nicely (Dr. Gordon reappears, his scenes were some of the only good ones in the film even though, ONCE AGAIN, his arc doesn't make sense in this one. How does a guy go from wanting to kill Jigsaw in the first Saw film to doing this in the last one???) and some of the traps are pretty cool to watch. unfortunately, Saw 3D is still more or less an overwhelming failure that is due to lazy filmmaking and total disregard for what was set up in previous films. They could have done better, but as it is....it's still bearable....barely.

2/5 stars