Seil
01-31-2010, 04:21 AM
I mean, we used to be tight. You were like "I'm re-making one of the greatest horror movies ever for your generation." and I was like, "Neat." And I saw it and it was pretty good. It had some genuinely scary moments. It was remade for today's youth, allowing the audience to relate. Like the part where you're in the house, and Annie opens the door and screams? Or Laurie running down the street crying? Awesome. It was great - I was concerned about you revealing too much about Michael Myers' back story, but at the same time you managed to scrape together a few good scares.
Then you released Halloween 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3n1f1VYdPg), which will be referred to as "H2," so as not to confuse it with something good, like John Carpenter's original sequel to the original Halloween movie. Did you know Carpenter didn't even want to direct the second one? And he didn't - Halloween 2 was directed by a guy named Rick Rosenthal. Meanwhile, Rob, you're dead set on continuing your own story in H2.
I still think that Halloween 1 - both Carpenter and Zombies versions - are great. I'm a fan of the classics, and I prefer Carpenters, but Rob Zombie, as I said above, gives out some genuine scares. I've done a review of the first movie previously, so I won't go into it again. (http://www.nuklearforums.com/showthread.php?t=34287) Michael, troubled home, starts killing people, goes to therapy, escapes, goes after his sister, ...shows her family photographs... sister escapes, Michael runs, blah, blah, blah.
The story now is that Michael is still alive, though everyone still believes that he's dead. McDowells Loomis - or should I say Rob Zombies Loomis, as he's the writer - is a bigger asshole than Donald Pleasance could ever hope to be. While Donald Pleasance came in and said "Shit's going down." and everyone kinda went along with him and he genuinely cared about the people that Michael was harming, McDowells Loomis... doesn't. McDowell is a profiteering asshole, writing a new book based around the events of the first movie.
Laurie, however, is a wreck - as her parent's were brutally slaughtered in the first flick, she's living with Annie, the daughter of the sheriff who survived the first movie. Laurie is living with what happened, going to therapy, and taking medication to prevent visions/dreams/hallucinations. There's a lot of those in this movie - and I mean a whole lot. Anyways, the two girls are constantly at odds with one another, sniping at each other throughout most of the movie, while Loomis is shown to be a thorough asshole.
Anyways, Michael is guided by his mother - his vision/dream/hallucination - and has found the time to grow a beard. Michael is often without his mask in H2, though he's in shadow most of the time - so I go back to what I said in my first review about revealing too much of the character makes him less scary as a "Shape." Anyway, Michael kills people. Lots of people. Just like in the second Carpenter movie, he doesn't just go after Laurie and those around her, he kills everybody within range. And they do get within range - they either walk right up to him or he appears - quite literally - comes out of nowhere, more than your suspension of disbelief will allow, and mutilates someone.
And Rob Zombie is nothing if not willing to mutilate someone. The entire movie is a vehicle, traveling from one murder scene to the next. The characters are still there, and you can follow the plot well enough - as you may have guessed, Rob Zombie takes it in a different direction than Rosenthal, but at least it's there, and relatively bearable. The only thing is that he's taken all of the characters from the first film and made them unlikable, threw in some symbols and - in the beginning of the film no less - explains them and their significance, and had some editors schlep it all together.
I liked H1 as a horror movie. It had relatable characters, a plot, every moment was as it was meant to be - the scary moments were scary, the quiet moments were quiet. I popped H2 in my PS3 and heard the Halloween theme (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rA1qc7ZMiA) come in and thought I was in for more of the same. I was mistaken - the relatability is gone, the plot, while there, suffers from the editing and addition of useless scenes, and non of the scenes - save for the opening scenes - are on par with H1. You see Michael and figure out what's going to happen long before it happens.
The conclusion? Donald Pleasance's Loomis was far better than McDowells, though that might be Rob Zombies fault. They explain too much. There's a lot of stuff that should have ended up on the cutting room floor. This does not get a recommendation. See it if you want, but you're just better watching Zombie's first... "stab" at it, then YouTubing the first five minutes of H2 and believing that's the whole movie. Yeah - Brutal Legend it.
Then you released Halloween 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3n1f1VYdPg), which will be referred to as "H2," so as not to confuse it with something good, like John Carpenter's original sequel to the original Halloween movie. Did you know Carpenter didn't even want to direct the second one? And he didn't - Halloween 2 was directed by a guy named Rick Rosenthal. Meanwhile, Rob, you're dead set on continuing your own story in H2.
I still think that Halloween 1 - both Carpenter and Zombies versions - are great. I'm a fan of the classics, and I prefer Carpenters, but Rob Zombie, as I said above, gives out some genuine scares. I've done a review of the first movie previously, so I won't go into it again. (http://www.nuklearforums.com/showthread.php?t=34287) Michael, troubled home, starts killing people, goes to therapy, escapes, goes after his sister, ...shows her family photographs... sister escapes, Michael runs, blah, blah, blah.
The story now is that Michael is still alive, though everyone still believes that he's dead. McDowells Loomis - or should I say Rob Zombies Loomis, as he's the writer - is a bigger asshole than Donald Pleasance could ever hope to be. While Donald Pleasance came in and said "Shit's going down." and everyone kinda went along with him and he genuinely cared about the people that Michael was harming, McDowells Loomis... doesn't. McDowell is a profiteering asshole, writing a new book based around the events of the first movie.
Laurie, however, is a wreck - as her parent's were brutally slaughtered in the first flick, she's living with Annie, the daughter of the sheriff who survived the first movie. Laurie is living with what happened, going to therapy, and taking medication to prevent visions/dreams/hallucinations. There's a lot of those in this movie - and I mean a whole lot. Anyways, the two girls are constantly at odds with one another, sniping at each other throughout most of the movie, while Loomis is shown to be a thorough asshole.
Anyways, Michael is guided by his mother - his vision/dream/hallucination - and has found the time to grow a beard. Michael is often without his mask in H2, though he's in shadow most of the time - so I go back to what I said in my first review about revealing too much of the character makes him less scary as a "Shape." Anyway, Michael kills people. Lots of people. Just like in the second Carpenter movie, he doesn't just go after Laurie and those around her, he kills everybody within range. And they do get within range - they either walk right up to him or he appears - quite literally - comes out of nowhere, more than your suspension of disbelief will allow, and mutilates someone.
And Rob Zombie is nothing if not willing to mutilate someone. The entire movie is a vehicle, traveling from one murder scene to the next. The characters are still there, and you can follow the plot well enough - as you may have guessed, Rob Zombie takes it in a different direction than Rosenthal, but at least it's there, and relatively bearable. The only thing is that he's taken all of the characters from the first film and made them unlikable, threw in some symbols and - in the beginning of the film no less - explains them and their significance, and had some editors schlep it all together.
I liked H1 as a horror movie. It had relatable characters, a plot, every moment was as it was meant to be - the scary moments were scary, the quiet moments were quiet. I popped H2 in my PS3 and heard the Halloween theme (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rA1qc7ZMiA) come in and thought I was in for more of the same. I was mistaken - the relatability is gone, the plot, while there, suffers from the editing and addition of useless scenes, and non of the scenes - save for the opening scenes - are on par with H1. You see Michael and figure out what's going to happen long before it happens.
The conclusion? Donald Pleasance's Loomis was far better than McDowells, though that might be Rob Zombies fault. They explain too much. There's a lot of stuff that should have ended up on the cutting room floor. This does not get a recommendation. See it if you want, but you're just better watching Zombie's first... "stab" at it, then YouTubing the first five minutes of H2 and believing that's the whole movie. Yeah - Brutal Legend it.