Mark’s review:

I liked Thir13en Ghosts a lot, very unusual movie.  I have seen this movie before, but recently saw it again for probably the third time.  Great plot and even better acting with Mathew Lillard (from Hackers and the Scooby Doo movies) and Tony Shalhoub (from TV’s Monk).  The daughter, played by Shanon Elizabeth (from American Pie fame) was great and so were the other actors.  I like a good horror movie with a good plot line, but even more important the characters have to be believable and these were.

Great “date night” movie.  Not so scary that your girlfriend won’t enjoy it, but scary enough that those of us who like that kind of thing can get into it.  Overall the movie was entertaining and fun with some really great acting for a horror flick.  4 out of 5 stars.

Wow!  Was I surprised to see this visually stunning film.

IMDB reports (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490181/plotsummary)

At the end of the Ice Age, The Machine came from the outer space with the purpose to change men into mutants. However, a hero defeated the device and a great seal was laid over The Machine. In 2707, the depleted world is ruled by four Corporations: Mishima, Bauhaus, Capitol and Imperial that are in constant war. During a battle between Capitol and Bauhaus, the great seal is broken and The Machine works again transforming soldiers and civilians in hordes of mutants. A small part of the population escapes to Mars, leaving millions of people behind. The man of faith and leader of an ancient brotherhood Brother Samuel is a believer of God and the Chronicles, a bible about the mutants. With the city under siege of the mutants, he visits the Corporations’ leader Constantine asking for an aircraft and twenty men for a suicide mission to destroy The Machine, planting a bomb and a detonator following the knowledge of the Chronicles. He recruits the tough Major ‘Mitch’ Hunter; the Bauhaus Lieutenant Maximillian von Steiner; the keeper of the Chronicles Severian that is under a vow of silence; the gorgeous and lethal Corporal Valerie Duval; Corporal Juba Kim Wu; Captain John McGuire; and Corporal Jesus ‘El Jesus’ de Barrera. Together they become the last hope of Earth against the evil mutants.

I give it an 8.5 out of 10 stars – very good visual movie!

It was an OK flick with a great blood scene where the two heroes rub blood all over each other.  Not a great flick.  Silly special effects, but an interesting one.  High school teacher finds out he is the only person in the world that can stop and unleashed alien life form.

Over dramatic?  Yes.  Mediocre acting?  Yes.  Ok premise?  Yeah it was OK.  Check it out on Netflix on demand.

7 out of 10 stars – mainly due to the one really cool scene!

Your thoughts Toby?

Very bizarre movie.  I do think it’s a must see though.

At first I really didn’t like this movie.  I thought it was awfully weird.  I thought the movie was a little all over the place, but in the end I did like it though.  And it has a wicked twist towards the end to look forward to.  I would give the movie 7.5 out of 10 stars.

What do you think, Mark?

The movie is about a crazy man/ghost hunter named Cyrus Kriticos (F. Murray Abraham) and his assistant Dennis Rafkin (Matthew Lillard) trying to catch a spirit called the Juggernaut in a junkyard.  But in the process of trying to catch the ghost most of the team gets killed including Cyrus.

Arthur (Tony Shalhoub), a mathematician is informed by Cyrus’s lawyer of his death and has told him that he inherited a mansion.  But guess what?  That is where Cyrus has all of the ghosts.

Dennis Rafkin pretends to be an electrician and meets Arthur, his family and the lawyer at the mansion.  Dennis warns Arthur that they need to leave the house because of the spirits and Arthur’s kids get lost in the house.  So Arthur and Dennis search for the kids, but at the same time try to get the heck of the house.

This house was an amazing masterpiece.  It really is cool.  I enjoyed the movie.  Pretty gruesome in some parts.  I would give the movie 8 out of 10 stars.

What did you think, Mark?

Basically the movie is about a scientist Dr Holander (Ben Cross) who takes his niece to Mexico to reverse the effects of the alien DNA that was used to create her from the start.

Again I was very disappointed with the movie.  The scene where the two aliens fight was a little corny to me.  I give the movie 5 out of 10 stars.

What do you think, Mark?

He and 40 of his classmates are going to Paris on a school trip. Just before the plane takes off, Alex has a dream of it crashing and everyone going up in flames. He freaks out and causes a great commotion onboard. He and 5 classmates and 1 teacher are taken off the plane. As he explains to them what he saw, the plane takes off. All of a sudden… boom! The plane explodes in midair.

Alex figures out that they all cheated death and now death has a plan for the 7 of them to die. Since they cheated death, now death is after them. After reading reports of the path of the fireball onboard, he determines the order the 7 survivors were supposed to die . One by one they start dying in the order that Alex predicted….

From IMDB.com: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195714/synopsis

Mark:

What a great movie – very suspenseful and one of my favorites.  This movie rates a 6.7 out of 10 stars on IMDB.com and I’d give it a 4 out of 5.

The acting is awesome and the characters are great.  What do you think Toby?  A definite must see?

Stuntman Mike is a former Hollywood stunt race car driver who targets and kills women with his “death-proof” stunt car. In Act I, Mike surfaces in Austin, Texas to target a group of women whom he knows; Jungle Julia an outgoing, dope-smoking, radio DJ/fashion model meeting her old school friends for a night on the town whom are sentimental model Arlene, and local bad-girl Shanna, as well as bar-nut hippie Pam who tries to make Mike notice her, unaware of his sociopath and misogynist tendencies. In Act II, Stuntman Mike surfaces in Tennessee where he randomly picks another another group of women to stalk all of whom work in the motion picture business; Abernathy is a make-up girl and stand-in wanting a change of pace in her life. Lee is a naive B-movie actress. Kim is a tough-minded stunt woman always wanting action. And Zoe is a fellow stunt woman from New Zealand visiting her friends. However, the second set of girls proves more though to get, and because of a combination of bad luck and Stuntman Mike’s carelessness, the girls decide to turn the tables on their tormentor for revenge of their own…

Great movie, lots of action and some great stunt scenes.  By far one of the most intense movies I have seen in awhile.  I hope that Tarantino and Rodriguez bring some more Grindhouse Features to the big screen!  Just awesome.  Together the films work really well – a throwback to double features at the drive in.  5 out of 5 stars!  If you like action and car chases this film is for you!

Check it out on IMDB for more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1028528/plotsummary

Here is what IMDB.co has to say about Planet Terror:

“After an experimental bio-nerve gas is accidentally released at a remote U.S. military base in Texas, those exposed to the gas turn into flesh-eating, mutating zombies out to kill. An assortment of various people who include stripper Cherry, her shady mechanic ex-boyfriend Wray, a strong-willed doctor, the local sheriff, and an assortment of various people must join forces to survive the night as the so-called “sickos” threaten to take over the whole town and the world. Written by Anonymous

In Texas, the gang leaded by the black market dealer Abby faces a group of renegade militaries leaded by Captain Muldoon in an abandoned military base. During their shootout, Abby shoots a recipient of biological weapon, releasing an experimental highly-contagious gas that turns humans to flesh-eating zombies. Meanwhile, in the local hospital, Dr. Block sees an epidemic with many patients with the same nasty symptoms. When the outbreak affects most of the local population, a group of people with immunity leaded by the mechanic Wray, Sheriff Hague, the stripper Cherry and the Dr. Dakota, fight to survive and become the last hope to save the world. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In a rural town in Texas, go-go dancer Cherry Darling (with a leg/machine gun), decides to quit her low-paying job and find another use for her numerous ‘useless’ talents. Cherry’s ex-boyfriend, El Wray, at the Bone Shack, a restaurant owned by J.T. Hague, a group of military officials, led by the demented Lt. Muldoon, are making a business transaction with a scientist named Abby for a deadly biochemical agent known as DC2 codename “Project Terror”, but when Muldoon learns Abby has an extra supply on hand, he attempts to take Abby hostage and Abby intentionally releases the gas into the air. As gun-legged Cherry Darling and one man wrecking crew El Wray try to save the world from a horde of flesh-eating zombies. Written by Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}”