Sony has indefinitely decommissioned the PlayStation 4 servers for puzzle platformer LittleBigPlanet 3, the company announced in an update to one of its support pages. The permanent shutdown comes just months after the servers were temporarily taken offline due to ongoing issues. Fans now fear potentially hundreds of…
Just like Echoes of the Fallen, Final Fantasy 16’s The Rising Tide DLC adds quite a few new pieces of gear for Clive to use. Among these is the Tonberry Knife, which uniquely deals low HP damage in exchange for inflicting high Will damage. Whether you want this blade for its stats or its glamour, there’s one required…
Just like Echoes of the Fallen, Final Fantasy 16’s The Rising Tide DLC adds quite a few new pieces of gear for Clive to use. Among these is the Tonberry Knife, which uniquely deals low HP damage in exchange for inflicting high Will damage. Whether you want this blade for its stats or its glamour, there’s one required…
Tom Curtin had just secured the video game of his dreams: a factory sealed first run copy of Konami’s original 1986 Castlevania for NES with a rare hang tab on the back of the box. There are only six currently known to exist and Curtin, together with his childhood friend, paid just over $90,000 for this one. Now he…
Tom Curtin had just secured the video game of his dreams: a factory sealed first run copy of Konami’s original 1986 Castlevania for NES with a rare hang tab on the back of the box. There are only six currently known to exist and Curtin, together with his childhood friend, paid just over $90,000 for this one. Now he…
Mad Max: Fury Road was a symphony of well-choreographed, thrilling action, but Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will hopefully give it a run for its money. I have faith that director George Miller will deliver the action goods, but if you need a tease, Miller’s producing partner Doug Mitchell told Total Film that Furiosa has a 15-minute action sequence, which took almost three months to shoot.
Mitchel teased that Furiosa “has one 15-minute sequence which took us 78 days to shoot,” with nearly 200 stunt people working on it each and every day. The sequence was known as Stairway to Nowhere during production and is said to mark a turning point for Furiosa.
Furiosa star Anya Taylor-Joy added, “George and I would have these big conversations about why this particular set-piece was so long. It’s because you see an accumulation of skills over the course of a battle, and that’s very important for understanding how resourceful Furiosa is, but also her grit. It’s the longest sequence any of us have ever shot. On the day we finished, everybody got a ‘Stairway To Nowhere’ wine!“
A six-minute sneak peek of Furiosa was recently screened at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, which our own Chris Bumbray attended, and it sounded pretty epic.
In addition to Taylor-Joy as Furiosa, Chris Hemsworth also stars as biker warlord Dementus, and it was a role that he’s called the best experience of his career. “I came into that film exhausted. I thought, ‘How am I going to get through this?’” Hemsworth said. “Week one of rehearsals with [Miller], all of a sudden it was this reigniting of my creative energy.” The actor said the production of Furiosa was “by far the best experience of my career, and something I feel the most proud of. It made me think, the work isn’t what’s exhausting it’s what kind of work it is, and how invested I am in it and if it is challenging in the right way.”
The official synopsis for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: “As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland they come across the Citadel presided over by the Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.“
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will hit theaters on May 24th.
The post Furiosa has a 15-minute action sequence which took 78 days to shoot appeared first on JoBlo.
Fallout is currently one of the biggest things in the world thanks to Amazon’s hit TV show. However, before all that, there was a time when Fallout as a franchise seemed dead. Then Bethesda stepped in, bought the IP in 2007, and announced plans to make Fallout 3, reviving the post-apocalyptic RPG series. And that’s…
Fallout is currently one of the biggest things in the world thanks to Amazon’s hit TV show. However, before all that, there was a time when Fallout as a franchise seemed dead. Then Bethesda stepped in, bought the IP in 2007, and announced plans to make Fallout 3, reviving the post-apocalyptic RPG series. And that’s…
The Hills Have Eyes 2. No, not that one. That’s The Hills Have Eyes PART 2 and has one of the greatest things ever filmed where a dog, an actual dog, has a flashback and its just, muah, chef’s kiss. While I actually think that original 1985 sequel is way too much fun for its own good – it was written and directed by Craven, brings back Michael Berryman, has Harry Manfredini give us the score, and oh yeah, has a dog flashback. A DOG, FLASHBACK – I’m not here to talk about that one that is probably so bad it’s good. I’m here to discuss the true black sheep of this inbred mountain family and give you all a look at the movie that is not a remake of the sequel but rather a sequel to the remake. The Hills Have Eyes 2 (watch it HERE) is a slept-on piece of mid 2000s horror that should be viewed with the others instead of living in its outcasted cave where it currently resides.
A couple months ago, Lance took a look at the Alexandre Aja directed remake of The Hills Have Eyes from 2006. That is a nasty piece of work that is uncompromising, mean, and at times a very uncomfortable watch. It is by far and away the best remake of Craven’s films and is the feather in the cap of the director who has a ton of great watches under his belt. It got me thinking about this long lost to time sequel that I remember watching on video and thinking meh, but it did pretty decently in theaters making almost 38 million on its 15-million-dollar budget. It brought back Cravens, both Wes and son Jonathan, to write it and it kiiiiiiiiiiiiiind of relates to that original sequel that is now almost 40 years old.
In that original sequel, Ruby, who is a survivor of the first film and turncoat mutant ends up back in the desert to face off against more hills that have more eyes. That’s a dumb joke but if IMDB is to be believed, and who are we to question it, the original title of today’s movie was supposed to be The Hills Have Eyes 2: The Hills Still Have Eyes. That is almost as stupendously dumb as the dog flashback. What was part 3 supposed to be? 3 eyes, 3 hillz with a z? I’d accept it. Annnnnnnyway, the movie originally involved a survivor of Aja’s movie, the character Brenda being so messed up from her ordeal that she joins the National Guard to sort out her problems. The actress, Emilie de Ravin, was actually in for it but was on mega hit confusion fest LOST on TV and couldn’t fit it into her schedule. Craven kept the bones of the story and just had a National Guard team go into the titular hills on a mission.
The director is Martin Weisz who was chosen after original director M.J. Bassett was unavailable. If you haven’t seen Bassett’s 2002 movie Deathwatch, go give it a look. Weisz is primarily a music video director with only two other films to his name, including one that is a grim watch in, well, Grimm Love starring Keri Russell. The other writer besides Wes, Jonathan, the other Craven meat, is along the same lines as the director with only some music videos that he helmed even if he did write a few episodes of the Freddy TV show and the way too stupid to be bad Mind Ripper.
The acting is mostly full of solid THAT GUY actors so we will focus on the 3 main characters. Missy is played by Daniella Alonso and in addition to headlining Wrong Turn 2 the same year as this, she has also been in The Collector for us horror fans. Apart from the genre we love, she also has done a ton of TV including 64 episodes of Dynasty. Jessica Stroup plays Amber who is a stand in character for what would have been the returning actor and character. On the horror side, she would show up in both the remake of Prom Night on the big screen and True Blood on the small screen. Finally, we have Michael McMillian as unlikely hero Napoleon. McMillan has this as his only horror movie but was a major character on True Blood and has done a lot of other TV too.
So. Why do I like this movie. Well, it does feel like it was written by a teenager as all of the National Guard soldiers have sweet nicknames like Stump, Crank, Barbie, and Sarge and there is plenty of colorful language and bloody violence. Colorful language and bloody violence are two of our main food groups in the pyramid here at JoBlo so that lends itself wonderfully to us. The movie opens with a fun piece of trickery as Sector 16 is the former nuclear testing area that we saw in the first movie. We see a few scientists and a military commander get absolutely jobbed but it does a few things right. There is plenty of gore, but we don’t really see what is attacking the poor dudes. In fact, whether for budgetary reasons or a conscious choice to maintain the mutant mystery, we don’t see the radiated cannibal family for much of the runtime. Some things here and there, sure but a lot of quick cuts and near misses. When you do get to see them, it is much more impactful than it could have been.
Speaking of the mutant baddies, there is a logical progression and more than just a copy paste job that they could have gone for. While there is the giant leader who has more hit points than most final bosses in video games and the harmless one trying to help the heroes, there are also a few other cool ones. The one who dresses up in military garb, the chameleon one who can blend into the walls and ground due to his own specific mutation, and one just called Stabber who, well, you get it. The gore and gross factor go all in too. From the rather disgusting birth scene in the beginning and its thematically relevant sexual assault of Missy near the end of the movie to bayonets going into eyes and a scientist crawling out of a port-a-potty to attempt to warn them only to die from what I assume is disgust, or like sepsis I don’t know. Can you imagine though? He’s all cut up and definitely got that stuff in his wounds.
The movie’s plot is rather predictable and boiler plate unfortunately. After we see the scientists and lead military guy bite it in the beginning, we are introduced to our rag tag group who fails their training mission that is presented to us as a real-life operation. Of course, their commanding officer riles them up and tells them how ill prepared they are and of course that same leader is gunned down by friendly fire by one of the troopers who then feels guilty about it until his death. They get picked off mostly one at a time and lose most of their ammo and supplies in the process while also having no way out. One of the soldiers who is seen as the weakest and least prepared, becomes the hero that they didn’t know they had amongst their ranks. This description could be a ton of different movies and has been done to death but are you really watching The Hills Have Eyes 2 for its stellar storytelling ability?
As they get dwindled down and picked off, oddly enough with two of them being shot to death and two of them dying from falling, probably due to the budget, they enter a cave system that the original soldier told them about before he takes himself off the board for good. The caves are dark, again helping with the look of some of the stuff on screen, but also look pretty good and were designed by the same team that did the caves for one of my all time favorites The Descent. They slide down some tube tunnels and use up all of their ammo while thankfully taking out a couple of the threats. Missy is kidnapped and its pretty clear that her, Amber, and Napoleon are going to be the final 3. That’s exactly what happens after some gnarly fights and an ill-timed explosion.
The final confrontation is a fun one with all three of the remaining soldiers seeking revenge for either themselves in Missy’s case or for their fallen comrades in the case of Napoleon and Amber. Papa Hades is no pushover though and is able to toss them around like a parent playing with their toddlers. He can also take quite the amount of damage due to his being a mutant and all. They are able to stab him with a pole that feels reminiscent of the American flag kill from the first movie but even that doesn’t put him down for good. The bayonet sure does the trick, however. As most horror movies, and nearly all sequels, end though, our heroes make it out of the caves only to be spotted on repurposed military equipment used by mutants in another area of the desert.
There would be no part 3 however and that’s a shame. While this movie probably isn’t going to show up on anyone’s favorite films of all time list, it could have continued the series on the direct to video market. Series like Hellraiser and Wrong Turn absolutely thrived in that arena and these films could have churned out low budget but consistently fun entries every couple years. The Hills Have Eyes 2 doesn’t belong where its critical score shelves it nor where the fans discuss it. It has a lot of fun with the premise and makes good on what you would expect to see. A good black sheep is one that defies its odds and labels to be something that makes you say “well actually…” when someone asks for a recommendation, particularly within an established series of films. Seek this one out any way you can and bask in the glory that is a schlocky sequel to one of our finest remakes.
A couple of the previous episodes of The Black Sheep can be seen at the bottom of this article. To see more, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
The post The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007) Revisited – Horror Movie Review appeared first on JoBlo.
