A Small Dark Place

Very good, lots of tension. As a mother it's just awful to read about two parents who intentionally try to stage an accident involving having their young child trapped in a shaft in the ground for days. It's a very creepy book and I read it in under a week because I couldn't put it down, which never happens anymore.

---

The Grudge

At first I was a little disappointed because it didn't seem like it was very scary. That happened to me with "The Blair Witch Project" too - it got so much hype that it fizzled for me. By the middle of "The Grudge" though, I was highly creeped out and parts of it were downright terrifying.

The only trouble with watching a movie like that was that I'm so used to Sarah Michelle Gellar playing Buffy that I kept wanting to shout, "You're BUFFY! You can KICK HER ASS!"

I really want to watch the movie again with the acting and directing commentary.

Spoiler ahead...

(yes, there's more!)

---

Open Water

Hoo boy. I have trouble critiquing a movie that is based on fact because that means someone lived out what I watched. In all honesty though, they could have condensed that movie to about 15 minutes instead of the original 80. It was incredibly boring. Any of the scenes where they were out in the water fighting off sharks were interesting and scary (especially since I'm particularly afraid of them) and exciting, but there was so much boring crap in between. I don't know how we didn't fall asleep.

Also, being a low-budget indie film can sometimes be a wonderful thing but in this case it reminded me too much of Heather in "The Blair Witch Project" who never shut the hell up. I think the main characters probably got a very general script and then ad-libbed most of it. I refer to it as "The Blair Shark Project".

Yawn.

(If you still want to see it, don't read any further.)
(yes, there's more!)

---

AVP: Alien Vs. Predator

It was almost embarrassing, how ridiculously excited I was to see this movie. What can I tell you? I love the "Alien" series and though I never saw "Predator" I used to love playing the AVP game. I have very fond memories of staying late at the studio with George and our friend Dave to play AVP in the dark over the network, scaring the shit out of ourselves.

The movie didn't disappoint me at all. It ROCKED.

Amusing note: When they showed the age warning at the beginning, they said it was rated PG-13 for violence, coarse language, slime, and gore. Slime? It's the first time that I know of that I've ever seen a movie where the rating was partially based on, uh, slime. You can almost imagine someone saying, "Ah, this movie has lots of violence, let's watch it! Oh wait. Slime. Nah, never mind." Luckily I don't mind movie slime since there definitely was a ton of it.

---

The Forgotten (2004)

I loved this movie. I was really intrigued by the previews and was really happy that no one blew the ending for me by telling me what happens.

That being said, do not read on if you haven't seen it yet. (yes, there's more!)

---

Foxfire

This movie is the reason that I am so very tired today. It came on at midnight, right after "CSI" and I actually turned the television off, got into bed, then immediately got up again and sat up watching it until 2:15. I love Angelina Jolie; she's my favorite actress and I had always meant to see this movie. It was pretty good and worth the extra yawms this morning.

---

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Just too cute. I love these movies.

---

Bowling for Columbine

Heavy movie. I lost a lot of respect for Charlton Heston.

---

I, Robot

Oh.my.god. I half expected it to be a really cheesy movie about the dark nature of the future and only watched it because I just really like Will Smith. I was shocked at how much I loved this movie. It was amazing, exciting, touching, suspenseful, and it rocked my socks.

---

Collateral

You know, you almost have to put a gun to my head (no pun intended!) to get me to watch Tom Cruise movies these days, but once this got started I was absolutely riveted. It was exciting and tense and the last twenty minutes of the movie had me literally perched on the edge of my couch, wondering what was going to happen. Jamie Foxx rocked big time and I have never seen Tom Cruise play such a totally unredeemable bad guy. Even Lestat had good points, but Vincent had absolutely none. Awesome movie!

---