The Grudge
Overview: The most talked about horror movie of 2004. An American
care worker visits a house to take care of a sick
woman. In that house are ghosts and they are angry. The house was the
site of a brutal double murder suicide. If you
enter the house, your fate will be the same as the previous owners.
My Rating: I liked it. A lot of jumps and tense moments. This
is not a slasher type film that will have you flinching
because of blood. Instead they use suspense and eerie sounds to make
you uncomfortable in your seat. I'm looking
forward to seeing the Japanese original Ju On.
Note: I saw this in the theater. I don't quite remember all the players names so bear with me on that.
More Detail: Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a college student studying
abroad in Japan. She is with her boyfriend who
took a job there.
The movie opens with the apparent suicide of a teacher played by Bill
Paxton. His character is standing on the balcony
and as his wife asks him if everything is ok, he looks at her and
then leans over to his death.
At the house, a young girl named Yoko is helping an American family
that just moved in. It is a married couple and his
mother. His mother is catatonic. When Yoko arrives, only the mother
is home. The daughter , played by Cela Duvall,
left a note that she went for a walk. Yoko puts the mother down for a
nap and starts to clean around the house. She
hears a noise coming from the attic and of course investigates. With
her trustee bic lighter she comes across the female
spirit and is pulled into the Attic.
The next day, Sarah Michelle's (SMG) character is asked to go to the
house. No one has seen Yoko. While in the house
she also hears noises. In a closet she comes across a young boy and a
cat. The boy does not talk much. She also finds
a journal. She hears the women in bed making some noises. The women
is staring at the ceiling. When she looks up she
sees a spirit appear. She then sees a flashback of when the women and
her wife and son first moved into the house.
She sees the married women resting in the house and being awoken by a
noise. Someone is in the house. She comes across
the cat and boy. When her husband comes home, he sees the house is a
mess and finds his wife in bed, breathing funny
and just staring and the ceiling. He sees the boy in the corner. The
boy, quick as a cat, moves around the room and
eventually surprises the man.
Back to real time, Sarah comes to and the old woman is dead. The
police are at the house as well as her boss. They
assume she is in shock, having seen the woman die of natural causes.
As the police search the house they find the husband and wife dead in
the attic, they also find a lower jaw. Yoko shows
up at work late one night and her boss sees her, from behind. He
notices the blood and then sees her face, no lower jaw.
He is now dead.
The sister of the husband, who was at the house when they were
looking to buy it, is now being followed by a ghost at
work, the female spirit. She gets spooked and rushes home. At home
her brother calls her. He tells her he is outside the
building, what number is she again. She says something like 1601 and
buzzes him up, seconds later he is knocking on
the door. She sees him in the spy hole, but when she opens the door
he is not there. She hears same noise she heard
in the office and shuts the door and "hides" in bed. She is
not alone, as the female spirit comes up the covers.
SMG does some investigative work and finds out about the murder
suicide at the house. A husband killed his wife and
young son. She also reads about the teacher that committed suicide.
she goes to talk to his wife and looks at some
pictures. In every picture the murdered wife shows up. She was
stalking him, she loved him.
The police chief decides to burn the house down. Everyone that goes
into that house has died. Before he can
empty the gasoline he is killed.
SMG goes back to the house when she gets a message from her boyfriend
looking for her. He is going to the house thinking
she is there. She rushes to the house, not wanting him to go in. Once
inside she has another vision.
The teacher went to the house and saw the little boy. Walking around
the house he found the woman's journal. He was
going to leave when he heard a noise. He looked in a room and either
saw the dead bodies or saw the murder. Either
way, the next day he jumped.
She then sees her dead boyfriend. She empties the gas and manages to light the fire.
At the hospital she was saved, and so was the house. She is in a room
with her boyfriends dead body. She hear's these
noises, right behind her is a nurse, the murdered wife, movie over.
Bad der Santa
Overview: Wille and Marcus are thieves. Each year at Christmas, Wille
plays Santa and Marcus his Elf. At the end of the
Christmas season they rob the store they worked at. What happens when
a young boy believes that Wille is Santa and
follows him around?
My Rating: Put the kids to bed for this one. If you want to enjoy a
fun drinking game, watch this movie and have a drink
every time you see Santa drinking or using the "F" word.
You'll be hung over. That being said, it had some funny
moments. Other times you just watch and say, F&*K he is a Bad Santa.
More Detail: Billy Bob Thorton is Willie, the drunk 24x7 Santa. Tony
Cox plays his midget elf and partner in crime
Marcus.
Wille and Marcus have been together for years. This year they are
looking to hit a shopping mall in Arizona. Marcus is
the brains of the operations. Willie is good at breaking into safes
which is why Marcus keeps him around.
John Ritter is the mall manager Bob Chipeska. Right off the bat he
has a bad feeling about his new Santa and asks store
detective Gin (Bernie Mac) to keep an eye on them. Willie shows up
for the first day drunk as a skunk. He has one kid
sit on his lap and sneeze chocolate ice cream all over him. Also on
that first day he meets a young kid who doesn't
say much at first but then has a lot of questions.
At the end of the night, Santa goes to the local bar and meets Sue
(Lauren Graham). Sue is the bartender and she gets it
on with santa in the car. Turns out her dad was Jewish and Santa
always seemed forbidden as a child, so she has a thing
for screwing Santa's. As Willie is leaving the mall he gets attacked
by this guy he saw in the bar. The kid comes to his rescue.
Willie gives him a ride home and finds out he lives in this bib house
with his Grandma only.
Gin is looking into Willie and Marcus after Bob decides he would like
to get rid of them. Willie swears too much and he also
caught him having sex with a women in the dressing room. Gin is
checking out Willie's motel. Willie decides he should
check out and moves in with the kid.
Marcus and Willie continue to plan their robbery of the store. Wille
and Susan continue to see each other and the
kid continues to grow on Willie. When Willie finds out some bullies
outside the mall were beating up on the kid he takes
matters into his own hands and pounds on the kids.
Gin discovers Marcus and Willie's past and wants a piece of the action. Unknown to Willie, Marcus kills Gin.
Willie gets a gift form the kid, a Wooden pickle. The gift makes
Willie decide to change his ways, after this heist. He also
finds out that for the last two years, the kid has not gotten
anything for Christmas.
After breaking into the safe he leaves to get the kid a stuffed
elephant he wanted. Marcus is now going to kill him. Just
then the police show up and a shoot starts. Willie gets to his car
and is determined to get the kid his toy. He gets to the
house and is gunned down in front of terrified kids, the police shot santa.
In the End, Wille does live. The eight shots he took missed all his
vital organs, except his liver which was bad anyway. A
Suicide letter he wrote and gave to the kid to give to the police
earlier, help clear him and put most of the blame on
Marcus and his wife.
Jersey Girl
Overview: Ollie Trinke had it all. He has a successful Public
Relations director, just got married and was expecting a baby.
his world is turned upside down after his wife dies giving birth. Now
he is trying to raise his new daughter and is back
living with his dad.
My Rating: This was not a bad movie. The press trashed it since it
was the second Ben Affleck / Jennifer Lopez Movie.
The movie is very funny and touching at the same time. Something new
from Kevin Smith.
More Detail: Ben Affleck is Ollie Trinke. A Jersey boy working in New
York. He marries Gertrude (J. Lo) and
shortly after marriage they are expecting a baby. Ollie is a work a
holic and misses a lot of appointments with Gertrude
who tells him once the baby is born he needs to change and spend time
with the family.
Little Gerti is born. Gertrude has an annueresym and dies after
birth. Ollie turns to his Dad (George Carlin) for help.
Ollie dives head first back into work to try and forget Gertrude.
This leaves his Dad to take care of Gerti. After
an argument, Ollie is shocked to wake up with his dad gone. His Dad
went to work. This was a big day to promote
an auction at Hard Rock Cafe for Wil Smith, this was right before
Independence day came out. Ollie has to take Gerti
to the press conference.
He explodes at the press conference. He slams the press and slams Will Smith. His career is over.
He is now working in Jersey as a street sweeper and Gerti is 7. He
has turned out to be a great dad but misses the old
job he had. He keeps going to Interviews and gets turned down because
of the Will Smith episode. He even has an Interview
with Jason Lee and Matt Damon, two Kevin Smith regulars.
Gerti is working on a school play and wants to see Cats. Cats is no
longer playing so she picks another play to go to.
I forget the name of it but in once scene a barber slits his
customers throat to Dad's horror.
Ollie meets Maya (Liv Tyler) at the video store. He grabs an adult
film, a Bi film by mistake. maya is writing a thesis on
porn and starts asking him some personal questions. She asks him, in
front of Gerti, if he rents those tapes with his
daughter and wife in tow, and gerti replies her mom is dead. this
makes Maya feel bad and she shows up at Ollie's to
apologize.
They start seeing each other as friends. They almost have sex, but
Gerti walks in on them. meanwhile Gerti is planning her
big family play when Ollie has a meeting with his old assistant
Arthur (Jason Biggs). Arthur calls him later that night
and got him an interview with his boss. It is the same day as the
play. This leads to a huge argument between Ollie and
Gerti. He wants to go back to the city, she wants to stay. During the
exchange Gerti says she hates her Dad and he
retorts with he hates her and her mother for ruining his life. Ouch.
He and Gerti patch things up. He goes to the meeting and meets of all
people in the waiting room, Will Smith. As they
are taking the discuss their kids and Ollie realizes he should be
home with his daughter at her play. He arrives just in time to
take his spot and "slit" his Dad's throat. Much to the
audiences shock, but they cheer.
Ollie and Maya, who where "Just Friends" become more then
friends and in the end, Ollie and Gerti stay in Jersey with
his dad.