Shelter Movie Review 143

Shelter is a horror/thriller movie starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Julianne Moore. It is directed by Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein.

 Julianne Moore stars as Dr. Cara Harding, a psychiatrist. Her father, who is also a psychiatrist, is working with a difficult patient, David( Meyers). Dave seems to have a multiple personality and her dad wants her to interview him. Cara is very skeptical about multiple personalities and she thinks that he is putting on an act for her. David has one personality called Adam and Cara thinks that David is making him up. She delves into his background and she finds out that David is not who he says he is. David was a man who was murdered by witches or something like that and he has come back through Adam. It turns out that Adam was obsessed with David's murder and took on his personality. Cara wants it to stop and she brings in David's mother to talk to Adam. Adam knows things that he could not possibly know if he was not David. They are freaked out.

Cara is beginning to believe that David is in him and she brings him back to where David was killed. He tells her that the Devil is coming. He changes back into Adam again and gets nasty.Now, there is another character in him called Wes. We find out that he is assuming personalities of dead people and he is dangerous. It all goes weird from here. It is a jumble of witch doctors and some old priest and I really couldn't start to explain it. Watch the movie if you want to find out what happens, but let me warn you about this one, it is dull. I thought that it was very poor and I like horror, but this wasn't very good. I am a fan of Rhys Meyers, but he could not save this movie....It is boring and dull and there are no scares. Maybe I missed something, but if you want a good movie, avoid this one! I am giving it a 3/10. Poor and boring....

Amanda's Guest Post!!

I, Amanda, have contributed a guest post all about horror mockbusters on The Sci-Fi Gene blog, which is a great blog for all your Sci-Fi  needs and much more....Please pay a visit and read my guest post and browse the blog too!!!You won't be sorry!!!Here is the link to my post. Enjoy!!!!

The New Daughter Movie Review 142

The New Daughter is a thriller starring Kevin Costner and Ivana Baquero and Samantha Mathis. It is directed by Luis Berdejo. It is based on a short story by novelist John Connolly.

John James(Costner) is a writer and father to two children, Louisa(Baquero) and son Sam. He has moved with them to a huge house in the country. Louisa is a typical bitchy teenager and she is not happy. She is out exploring one day when she comes upon a huge burial mound thing and she becomes fixated with it. That night, there is some weird creature on her roof, but she doesn't see it. It becomes obvious that there is something weird going on with the place and Louisa begins to be drawn to the mound. She and Sam try to fit in in their new surroundings. John is horrified to find his son playing with a loaded shotgun which he found in the house. John gets rid of it, but he is uneasy. He meets teacher Cassandra(Mathis) and she likes him. 

Meanwhile, Louisa begins to sleepwalk and she is going out to the mound. It is having a huge influence on her and she is really becoming withdrawn and weird. John investigates about the previous owner of the house and he finds out that the previous owner left her daughter locked in a room in the house and disappeared. The girl's dad came and took her out of the house but she died in a mysterious house fire later.John is worried that there is something evil after his daughter and he warns her not to go near the mound. He leaves the kids with a babysitter and he goes to find out about the previous owner's daughter. He meets the girl's grandad and he tells John that his granddaughter changed when she was living in that house, just like Louisa. The mound has something to do with it. John decides to destroy the mound. 

John tells some scientists about the mound and they want to see it. When they arrive, they see him preparing to destroy it and they plead with him not to because it is important to them. They tell him that his daughter is being possessed or something like that and she is being used by the creatures who live in the mound to help them survive. The creatures are attacking and while the cops take John down to the station when the body of the babysitter turns up, Cassandra and the kids are alone in the house while the creatures stalk them. Cassandra meets a sticky end. The creatures take Louisa and John has to go after her.... 

I won't spoil the ending but this movie was okay. It wasn't anything amazing but it is worth a watch. It is good to see Kevin Costner in something again and he was pretty good in this. The movie gets a 5/10

Batman:Under The Red Hood Movie Review 141

Batman:Under the Red Hood is an animated movie and it is the eight in the DC Universe Animated Original movies line. Bruce Greenwood is the voice of Batman here when usually Kevin Conroy does it. Greenwood does a good job, but to me Kevin Conroy will always be the voice of Batman.The Joker is voiced by John Di Maggio and again, Mark Hamill will always be the voice of The Joker to me. These two quibbles aside, this movie is a very entertaining one with a good story and good action.

The story begins with R'as al Ghul voiced by Jason Isaacs of Brotherhood fame and he is lamenting getting into business with The Joker. We cut to the The Joker beating up Robin in Sarajevo with a crowbar and cackling as he does it which is classic Joker stuff! This Robin is the second Robin who is called Jason Todd. He took over from the original Robin, Dick Grayson, who is now Nightwing. Batman is seen hurrying his way to save Robin but he fails to get there in time. BOOM!!The building explodes and Batman is seen with the dead body of Robin.. Now the credits roll and things get going!!

It is now 5 years later and the Gotham City mob bosses meet up for a chat as they always seem to do! Someone called The Black Mask has taken over the city and they don't know what to do about him. Then out of the shadows, the mysterious Red Hood appears. He offers protection from Black Mask and Batman as long as they pay him 40 percent.To make them comply he shows them a bag full of their top guys' heads. Naturally, they agree!

This sets up a confrontation with Batman later on as Red Hood is part vigilante and part crime lord. Is he a good guy deep down or is he just another bad guy? Who is he? Where did he come from? Jenson Ackles voices the Red Hood with Neil Patrick Harris voicing Nightwing. Wade Williams voices Black Mask and you will recognise his voice as he played Bellick in Prison Break. There are some other great voice work by Gary Cole, Kelly Hu, Phil LaMarr and Dwight Schultz of A Team fame.

The story here is very good and the movie only takes one hour and fifteen minutes. There are some great action scenes with fights and explosions, all leading up to a showdown at the end!! The Joker is involved also and this movie is very good. If you like the animated series of Batman and the animated movies, then you will love this so check it out now!It gets marked down only for the voices of Batman and The Joker as they will always be Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill!!

Batman: Under The Red Hood-8/10

Hells Kitchen Finale!

So, we come to that time again. Is it me or did this season of Hell's Kitchen feel a bit rushed? Anyway, there were four chefs left - Ben, Holli, Autumn and Jay. 

So, the chefs were told to dress smart and come down to the dining room. Chef Ramsay has made some dishes from the menu at the Savoy Grill in London where the winning chef will be working. They are treated to dinner and then they have to make it themselves. Each of them are told to make it exactly the same and guess what ingredients are in it.Holli wins the challenge. She goes off on a yacht while the others have to clean the dorms. Ben hurts his back and he doesn't know if he is going to be able to continue. He moans on about his back and the others get annoyed with him. He makes his way through service and when it is time to pick two people, him and Autumn are booted out, leaving Holli and Jay in the final. They are delighted and they get the old team back with them to help them in their final service.

It is time for the finale! The final two are challenged to cook dishes and have them judged by some chefs from England. Jay wins the challenge. Then, they are taken back into Hell's Kitchen for the final service. Some old faces are there, and teams are picked. Jay gets Ben, Jason and Fran. Holli gets Autumn, Siobhan and Nilka. The service begins and some of the old problems come back. Siobhan is her usual dopey self and Fran is still as slow as ever. Ben is still obnoxious. Jason is plodding along and he is as moody as he ever was. Nilka isn't great in the red kitchen and Holli is getting pissed at her. Ben takes over in the blue kitchen and Jay just looks weak.That was a huge mistake on Jay's part. He should have stood up and took control. Service ends and the time comes for the winner to be announced and it is ...Holli!

I was surprised to see that she won, but I think that Jay f****d himself by letting Ben take over the kitchen. I think that that was the reason he lost to Holli. She was a good chef, but I wouldn't have picked her to win over Jay. So, that is it for another season. It went very fast this year so hopefully next year, there will be some better chefs to love or hate!!That is it from Hell's Kitchen!

Amanda's Horror Years-2006

I'm back with another horror year. This time, I am being a bit more modern and I am covering 2006. This was not the best year for horror, but I want to go through the highlights and the (many) low lights of this year!

Let me start with some movies which I watched and enjoyed. Hostel was released in 2006 and this movie inspired a lot of similar 'torture porn' movies. I liked this movie because it was different and there were some horrible but good moments to enjoy! Another good movie released this year was The Descent which was an entertaining  horror about a group of  explorers who get stuck in a cave with some creatures who are coming for their blood! Pulse is another horror movie from this year and it starred Kristen Bell and Ian Somerhalder(from Lost). It was okay, nothing special, I'm afraid.See No Evil starred Kane from WWE fame and it was another okay movie. Another few mediocre horror movies are Stay Alive with Frankie Muniz from Malcolm in The Middle, The Return with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Turistas with Melissa George.

There were plenty of straight to DVD offerings too which I have seen. Some of these include Dark Ride, The Covenant, Nightmare Man, The Quick And The Undead(A horror western!!!!), Room 6, The 8th Plague, Simon Says and The Woods. Silent Hill was released as a movie version of the video game and there were some creepy moments in it. Sequels were Saw 3 which was good, Final Destination 3, The Grudge 2 and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning(awful!). There were not many creature features that I could find only The Abominable and The Breed. Slither was a horror and comedy mix and it entertained.

Now, we come to the worst movies of this year. I have to say that there were plenty to choose from. There were some pretty bad remakes such as the laughable The Wicker Man with Nicholas Cage. He must have needed the money pretty badly to star in that piece of crap. Another failed remake was Black Christmas. It was bad.The Hills Have Eyes remake came out this year and it was terrible. I didn't like it at all. The Omen was given a remake, even though it is a classic movie and the remake stank. The only remake I thought was okay was When A Stranger Calls. That was the best of a bad bunch in my opinion. So, that is all I have for you this week. As always, let me know your suggestions and if I have forgotten any! Till next time...