Catchup (Haunted Highway, Blood Diamond)
Well. I've slowed down a bit since I've been on the road lately, but I'm catching up with some things.
HAUNTED HIGHWAY [aka DEATH RIDE] (dir. Junichi Suzuki, 2006):
My friends and I started having "bad movie nights" back in the spring, and having been apart all summer, we finally met up again and watched "Haunted Highway," which is indeed a bad movie. In fact it's bad by bad movie standards. The premise: A man accidentally kills his wife, and on the drive to the lake where he's burying her he's haunted by ghosts, creepy highway drifters, black cops and his mistress. I wasn't scared for a minute. And, to be honest, I wasn't entertained either. Normally this sort of movie has that campy-ness that makes it worth watching, but in this case there was nothing. These people were trying to make a movie, trying so hard that it turned out terribly. The pacing is awful, there's no energy, the performances are terrible, the images look like they came out of a bad made for tv movie. There were a handful of laughs, but not enough to make it all tolerable. It makes sense that this was direct to DVD. I'm surprised it even made it that far.
Final Grade: D-
Grade on the Bad Movie Scale: D+
BLOOD DIAMOND (dir. Edward Zwick, 2006):
Everything about this was solid. It wasn't a very bad movie, but it wasn't very great either. Anyone could've directed it. DiCaprio delivers, as usual. I was hesitant at first about his accent, but as far as actors with accents go, I'd rather watch Leo than Meryl Streep. I'm glad that Jennifer Connelly is still getting some work, even though her performances can sometimes be annoying. But she's elegant, and I like that. The experience might have been stronger if the movie had a real focus for its criticism. It seemed like it was trying to blame everyone for the conflict diamond situation, which I suppose is completely valid, but for the sake of the story and the effectiveness of the movie at large, I think they should've picked a single target.
So I guess it could've been more important than it was. But Leo was good.
Final Grade: B-
HAUNTED HIGHWAY [aka DEATH RIDE] (dir. Junichi Suzuki, 2006):
My friends and I started having "bad movie nights" back in the spring, and having been apart all summer, we finally met up again and watched "Haunted Highway," which is indeed a bad movie. In fact it's bad by bad movie standards. The premise: A man accidentally kills his wife, and on the drive to the lake where he's burying her he's haunted by ghosts, creepy highway drifters, black cops and his mistress. I wasn't scared for a minute. And, to be honest, I wasn't entertained either. Normally this sort of movie has that campy-ness that makes it worth watching, but in this case there was nothing. These people were trying to make a movie, trying so hard that it turned out terribly. The pacing is awful, there's no energy, the performances are terrible, the images look like they came out of a bad made for tv movie. There were a handful of laughs, but not enough to make it all tolerable. It makes sense that this was direct to DVD. I'm surprised it even made it that far.
Final Grade: D-
Grade on the Bad Movie Scale: D+
BLOOD DIAMOND (dir. Edward Zwick, 2006):
Everything about this was solid. It wasn't a very bad movie, but it wasn't very great either. Anyone could've directed it. DiCaprio delivers, as usual. I was hesitant at first about his accent, but as far as actors with accents go, I'd rather watch Leo than Meryl Streep. I'm glad that Jennifer Connelly is still getting some work, even though her performances can sometimes be annoying. But she's elegant, and I like that. The experience might have been stronger if the movie had a real focus for its criticism. It seemed like it was trying to blame everyone for the conflict diamond situation, which I suppose is completely valid, but for the sake of the story and the effectiveness of the movie at large, I think they should've picked a single target.
So I guess it could've been more important than it was. But Leo was good.
Final Grade: B-
Labels: B-, bad movies, D-, reviews
posted by js munoz at
12:24 AM
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