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Review #3 – Movie – Advantage

needareview — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:00:06 +0000

Browsing youtube, as you do, I came across this short movie. Only lasting 11 minutes, Advantage is set on the plot of a young couples stumble home after a night on the town. With their sexual ‘frustrations’ taking over, the couple take refuge in a nearby tennis court. After some flirting and fondling, the couple are interrupted by what is portrayed be a demonic presence. Now, first of all the movie takes HUGE inspiration from Village Of The Damned – the demonic children horror flick from the 60′s. You need to ask yourself why a demonic possessed tennis court would work in a horror movie… it doesn’t. Even though the acting is credible, especially from Shelly Lauman, the plot is far to obscure and too fast paced to get a firm grasp of what is going on. But it’s not all bad, on a tiny budget director Sean Byrne has created some very good CGI effects – congrats to him for that. But please, just please, as a dedicated ‘B’ movie junkie – TENNIS COURTS DO NOT WORK AS HORROR SETTINGS !

Overall: Advantage tries to hit a ace, but misses all the balls.

Rating: 3/10

Olipop x

P.S – If you HAVE to watch it…

Enjoy…

Frankmusik – A little extra for you !

needareview — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:53:47 +0000

If you liked my little rant/review of Such Great Heights then take a look at these 2 songs by Frankmusik =]

Enjoy

Review #2 – Music – Frankmusik [Such great heights]

needareview — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:43:19 +0000

This is less of a review and more of a happy rant =]

As a song, Such Great Heights has been covered by several artists already. From the infamous Postal Service and indie(ish) band The Shins. Don’t get me wrong both covers are absolutely fantastic, and complement the lyrics well with their preferred style of vocals.But after initially listening to the Frankmusik mix of the song, I immediately fell in love with this up-tempo electronica classic.

If you’ve never heard of Frankmusik (which wouldn’t surprise me) then you should be very ashamed. Brought up in Central London, his music overs a combination of elctronica, powerpop and club bundled up into a little gem of an artist. In many of his songs, he relies heavily on synthesisers, this song is no different. By no means is this a bad thing, and the mix between synthesizing and his vocals come across well. If you have already heard a version of the song, then I strongly, no order you to turn your ears to this version. The song suits his vocal range perfectly, and with his almost 80′s sounding pop voice, I doubt you’ll be disappointed. For fans of the genre, not only look into the song, but also take a look at his many other songs. Personally recommended by me are Better off as two and Done Done.

Oli x

needareview

Review #1 – Movie – Santa’s Slay (2005)

needareview — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:33:00 +0000

Even if Santa’s Slay was a rubbish movie – which it isn’t, it’d still be worth a look for its opening sequence. The sequence consists of an evil Santa Claus (played by Bill Goldberg) systematically murdering a celebrity filled family. (consisting of, among others, James Caan, Fran Drescher, and Chris Kattan). Even though what followed can’t quite live up to that brilliant introduction, writer/director David Steiman does an exceptional job in making sure the film never really takes itself to seriously. But to be honest, with a former WWE star playing Santa, you wouldn’t expect it to.

As we learn, Santa Claus – is (duh duh duh) Satan’s son – and is on the losing side of a bet after losing a curling match to one of God’s angels, which turns out to have made Santa spread joy all over the world. The film, which takes place immediately following the end of the bet a 1000 years later, follows Santa Claus as he arrives in the small town of Hell (so appropriately named) to wreak havoc on Christmas. Of particular interest to Mr Kringle is young Nicholas Yuleson (Douglas Smith) and his eccentric grandfather (played by Robert Culp), for reasons that are revealed in the film’s finale (the grandfather turns out to be the angel).

It is clear that Steiman has taken several key concepts from other black-comedy movies (think Gremlins). But this turns out to be one of the movies minor flaws, even though the concept is good, the horror aspect isn’t conveyed as well as it could be. Therefore, the movie turns out to be more comedic than horrifying. But still a killer Santa movie surely can’t be missed, for ANY reason.

Around the one-hour mark, the film begins to run out of steam and is shown as a lukewarm pursuit of Santa hunting down Nicholas and his would-be girlfriend (played by Lost‘s Emilie De Ravin). But this is still a worthy movie to the Christmas sub-genre (clearly beating it’s predecessors such as Deadly Night). Even though some of the performances are weak, in particular Smith’s, and the script needs tinkering in places, especially the ending. Great performances from Goldberg make the movie a must see for all you cheesy horror fans. Yule (sorry, so sorry) be stupid to miss it!

Line of the movie: Santa: “Ho, Ho, Hoesss”

Verdict: 8/10