3 Flix You Should Watch This Week

1. KIDS
Trailer

This is a movie directed by Larry Clark who is notorious for shocking films centered on youths and this one doesn't disappoint. This is a good summer movie because it is set during one of the hottest days in New York. The movie follows a day in the life of Telly, a teenager who is on the hunt to bang as many virgins as he can, and Casper, his sidekick who is always looking to get high and drunk. Its all fun until we realize that Telly unknowingly has HIV and is passing it to every girl he's sleeping with. One of the girls he's infected spends the day trying to find Telly to stop him before he infects any more girls. Kids is a realistic, in your face, disturbing movie. I remember the first time seeing it and it blew me away. It kind of stayed with me for a few days after I watched it and I dig movies like that. Larry Clark has another movie that gave me the same effect called "Bully". But we'll save that for another day. Anyways, the movie seems more like a documentary than an actual scripted film. But it is scripted. The soundtrack is equally awesome. It's full of early 90s New York hip hop and definitely set the tone for the movie ("Listen Up" by E-Rule was/is a slept on track). So watch this movie you'll say it's "Buttascotch, yo!".


2. Big Trouble in Little China
Trailer

First off know this....I am a HUGE John Carpenter fan. He understands the horror genre maybe better than any director ever. But, this is his foray into Fantasy. Big Trouble is a big mash up of kung-fu, sorcery, slick one-liners, and Kurt Russell. I would describe the plot but it really doesn't have one that makes sense. Its about Kurt Russell as trucker Jack Burton getting thrown in the middle of a chinese gang war and stopping an immortal sorcerer named Lo-Pan from marrying a chinese girl he kidnapped to rule the world because she has green eyes. I'm not joking. Regardless, this movie is pure awesomeness. It's so mindless its beautiful and completely tongue-in-cheek. The movie is so full of quotes its not funny. When I worked at Blockbuster, another guy and I would constantly be playing this movie on the tv at the counter. This was 3 years ago and he and i still quote it to this day. Bottom line....leave your brain at school/work and enjoy this movie the way it was meant to. Also, someone call John Carpenter and tell him to sue the makers of Mortal Kombat. Raiden was obviously his idea first.


3. Jaws
Trailer

If you don't know about this movie....kill yourself now. One of the best movie ever made and still makes me not go in the ocean above my thighs. One of the most effective movies ever made considering you barely see the shark at all. A great summer movie that still, after almost 35 years, makes you not want to go into the water. Jaws is timeless.

The Long Weekend review (1 stars out of 5)

trailer


Ok....so I decided to take 90 minutes of my life and give this movie a go eventhough the title was switched at the last minute from "Nature's Grave". Last minute title changes are never good. It's a remake that stars Jim Caviezel who played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, so it gave the movie some legitimacy....or so I thought. The movie is about a couple, who are obviously having marital problems, who decide to go on a camping getaway in Australia...out in the middle of nowhere...that doesn't exist according to the locals (don't ask). When they reach their desolate camp site, they start "disrespecting" nature by littering and killing the local wildlife. Then nature turns on them and they start getting attacked by the wildlife. Thats the jist...or so you think. The movie in itself is more about the turmoil of the couple and their conflict. It starts off pretty good and then gradually loses itself in it's preachiness. It's almost as if the writers got to a certain point in the movie and had no idea what to do and just started throwing things out there. There are many things that happen throughout the movie that just don't make sense or get explained. Peter (Caviezel) shoots a shadowy thing in the water that's "stalking" him and it ends up being a seal/manatee looking thing. That's not the weird part. After he kills it, it washes up on shore. Then as each day goes by, the carcass keeps moving up towards their campsite. You never see it move, but it does. Now....they dont explain anything about this. They dont say whether the mantee thing is alive or dead. Or the significance of it moving a couple feet closer to their campsite every night. Then there is another scene where the couple encounter another camping family. Without giving away spoilers, the other family's part in the film is never explained. That side plot couldve added to the suspense of the movie, but it doesnt get explained either. In fact, it seems completely out of place. Almost as if you were watching a completely different movie for 10 minutes. That's only 2 examples of unexplained scenes in the movie and there's a slew of others that I won't even go into. The sad thing about all this is the movie had a lot of potential. It has a good amount of suspense and dread, but doesnt do anything with it. When the movie is over, you feel cheated because it seems like it should've been better. I dont mind movies not explaining everything and making the viewer figure out some things on their own....but this is ridiculous. Its a shame too because the acting was on-point. But the only thing this movie has to offer was a pretty cool scene where a semi-truck meets a body. In a way....thats how I felt when the credits started rolling.