Fantastic Fest 2007

heres my quick reviews of most of the movies i saw at fantastic fest this year, i posted it on my myspace blog earlier, but figured it be a good post to start this thing out with

whew, so fantastic fest is over. had a lot of fun, met some cool people, and saw some great movies ( and some bad ones). i figured id post a run down of some the movies i saw and what happened during the fest and what i thought, mainly for myself to read later, but who knows, someone else might like it, if you want to skip all this, im gonna put a best of list at the bottom, here we goooo

day 1 - opening night
holy shit this place is mad, wheres the line? what do you mean theres a list??? anyway, i got into diary of the dead

Diary of the dead - now thats how a film festival should start. a zombie movie. by Romero. the movie was way better than land of the dead. the best part was meeting George Romero ( if you just said who, just leave the blog). the q and a was awesome, someone got him to say the " when hell is full the dead will walk the earth" tagline, and e also rambled about how theres no god and wait a sec... did he just make a racist comment? haha, he's old. anyway, one of the best movies of the festival

Finishing the game - a comedy about finding a fake bruce lee to finish the movie he was making when he died. the sad thing is its true, hollyw$$d tried to finish his last movie with a stand in ( bruce lee had only filmed 12minutes of the movie)- but if you can get past that- this movies pretty funny- breeze loo was classic

ferryman- horror movie from new zealand. the actors in this movie are phenomenal. even the ones i hated at first turned out to do an amzing job, i wont give away the plot on here, cause its worth seeing, rent it if youre into horror movies ( bonus fun fact, it has the dwarf from lord of the rings in it)

day 2 - the day of good movies
nothing to report, saw some good movies, had an awesome day

the rug cop- a japanese cop movie about a guy who uses his toupee as a weapon. thats right. it has some awesome moments ( like him training)- it was a last minute pick for me, im glad i saw it

backwoods- gary oldmans new half English half Spanish. lets face it, you could stop reading this after i wrote down gary oldman, and you'd know its good. this movie rocked. its about two English couples visiting a house gary oldmans character bought and was restoring, and while out exploring, they find a deformed girl trapped in the basement(i think it was a basement, mightve been a abrn or somethign) and them trying to get the girl help, all while the locals who keep her their are after them. must see

mirageman- imagine a martial arts spiderman? this was kinda it. the guy has no super powers, hes just really good at beating ass, so he decides to become a hero this movie rocked, plain and simple. great story, great action, great laughs ( his costume attempts) the guy who played mirageman was the rocks stuntdouble, yeah i know, why does the rock need a stunt double, i can never count on anyone

spiral- movie of the festival. adam ( director of hatchet) greens new movie. nothing like hatchet, has the main guy form hatchet in the lead, you know him, the robot guy from grandmas boy. the movie was cool, wont go into story details, just go see it if you can when its released next year ( and make sure you have a complete stranger sitting next to you quoting funny grandmas boy quotes, it makes it that much better)

wrong turn 2- i know its sounding like i love everything, but seriously, thursday and friday rocked at the festival. wrong turn 2 was great. there. i said it. its an 80s horror splatter blood slasher movie, youll either get it, or you wont. i hope you do

day 3 - the creepiest day ever
ok, so to start with day 3 you gotta understand some thigns about fantastic fest, theres normal badges, and then theres vip badges. it seems like everyone has a vip badge, and i dont. haha. without a vip badge, you have to wait in line forever to get into any of the secret screenings. so my plan was to blow off the early screenings, get there around 4 for the secret screening at 6. i ended up getting there around 515. no way i was getting into the 1st secret screening, so i went and saw

the beautiful beast.

followed by

the girl next door.

ok, these movies scared me, and not in a oh no look at its the killer, they scared me in a what the fuck am i watching way, these were two of the most messed up movies ever. beautiful beast was weird. it deserves its own blog. and girl next door was about this girl who gets tortured- based on a true story. it was awful, the casting was awesome. the instant the girl who would later get tortured walked onto the screen, the entire room was in love with her. it made what happened that much harder to watch

i didnt even stay for anything after these two, my head needed a break

day 4- the, hmm, im really hating the secret screening day

so i miss the first two sets of movies waiting in line for the 2nd secret screening, sit in line for hours, but make it in!! the place is packed for the screening, and we cant wait for it, whats it gonna be? the mist? 30 days of night? beowolf?? who knows, ok heres the guy to do the intro....wait, what movie did he say? what the hell is that.. its a cartoon? what? its about iran? what the fuck

persololis- yeah, i waited for 3 hours to see an irainian cartoon. shoot me. lowest point of the festival. someone said later this movie is going to be nominated for a foreign academy award. seriously, i dont care, this should not have been a secret screening... anyway...

summer scars- cool little movie about a crazy hobo fucking with kids in the woods. i dont see what the deal is, he just wanted some friends, he shoots a kid in the face ( with a bb gun, funny!) and almost rapes a little girl, it proves my theory: little kids shouldnt hang out with older homeless men

hell's ground - the first modern era Pakistan horror movie. haha, this movie was bad, but the more i think about it, the more its a less wow this is bad than its a god dangit this is so bad, then laugh a little. it has zombies randomly, a crazy killer in a burka and the most 80's horror movie ending since the 80s.

day 5 - good day of movies, part 2
saw some more good ones this day, and one stinker

dog bite dog- picture the jet li movie unleashed, but if someone turned the badass level up to about 1000, and instead of it being about a man regaining his humanity after being treated like an animal, its just about a bunch of people fighting and killing each other. this movie had some awesome fight movies, and when the cop dies at the start, even i was like NOOOOOOOOO

aachi and ssipak- ok, this is the movie the drafthouse has been advertising with fantastic fest before every movie the last 2 months, the crazy Korean animated movie about pooping. i went in wanting to hate it. i loved it. this movies on crack and i wanna be too ( not really, but if you saw the movie youd get it) it was super fun, lots of action, never stopped

end of the line - my favorite movie of fantastic fest- it was a zombie movie, but they took out the zombies, and put in fanatical christians who think its Armageddon, so its game on to kill everyone(to "save" them) wow. man this movie came out of nowhere and ruled so hard. its not campy, i doesnt look low budget, its so good- whenever this comes out, if its dvd or in theaters, go see it

never belong to me- before i talk about this i wanna talk about somethign else, before most of the movies, they would play a short film , anywhere between 2 and 30 minutes, some of them were great some were bad, and then one was garys touch, the one that played before this movie, worst thing ever, im suprised it wasnt screenign right before beautful beast. never belong to me sucked. it had such hope, a movie where a dude gets his penis replaced with a gun, and when he whacks it, he shoots bullets, how could it go wrong? watch this movie to find out

day 6- i need a break

day 7- lets do this movies
flight of the living dead- production level looked alot higher on this movie than i thought it would be, fun movie, not alot too it, zombies on a plane. this movie was sold on its title alone, and you know what, theres nothign wrong with that

the orphanage- this movie rocked, this was another secret screening. it comes from spain, spain is submiting this one for best foreign picture. this is a ghost story if you want it to be. if not its just a crazy woman, it works on both levels, it was really good, and a nice surprise

death note 1 -this movie is huge in japan, and i can see why, it was pretty rad. this kid finds a notebook that whoevers name gets written in it, the person dies, he goes power crazy killing criminals, and then fbi agents trying to tail him, its nutso. it doesnt go in the direction you think it will.

death note 2 - yeah, theyre were playing the sequel right after the first one. i wasnt gonna stay for this, it was midnight and i was really tired. but after the last ten minutes of death note 1, there was no way i wasnt gonna see this. both of these movies were over 2 hours long. about halfway throught his one, my legs got really restless, and i couldnt get comfortable

day 8- last day

so my car is messed up, and stuck at the alamo parking lot, and it kinda messed up the viewings for me today.ill explain in the individual movie descriptions

wierdsville - didnt think i was gonna see it, but figured why not, wow, this was hilarious, i didnt know wes bentley was in this till i saw his name and then re looked at the pic in the guidebook, holy crap, nice handlebar mustache dude. this movie was funny, but in the middle of it i got a call from the tow truck people, i gotta bail

killtro-missed the first bit while helping tow truck guy tow my car, but it was fine, i cought up, fun movie

waited in line for the closing night film, the line was huge, didnt htink i was gonna get in, and hey, i didnt get in, i took a cab home, fantastic fest is over for me

whew, heres the list of best movies
1. end of the line
2. spiral
3. the orphanage
4. wrong turn 2
5. diary of the dead
6. backwoods
7. mirageman