Viewer Reviews
Recent Reviews By FREDGARVEN
 | Friday The 13th (Film)another bad 'remake' - fredgarvenNispel had used the same formula that made his rehash of the classic Texas Chainsaw massacre a watchable affair to try and breath some life into the Friday the 13th franchise. But this time he has given the die hard fans of the series nothing to get their teeth into and the curious will be just plain bored with this very basic stalk and slash film. The more ... |
 | I'm Not There (Film)Where's Bob? - fredgarvenFirstly I'm a big Dylan fan and this is not what I expected. Biopics are normally an A to Z of someone's life, some better than others but generally all alike. Todd Haynes has tried something different with this tribute to the life and music of Bob Dylan and it works, well kind of! I knew nothing about this before watching, I thought it would be an A to Z more ... |
 | The Mist (Film)Worth the wait - fredgarvenFinally The Mist gets a release over here. Released in November in US cinemas and already gracing many a region 1 DVD collection I was surprised this didn't go straight to DVD here such was the delay. So is it worth the wait? Hell yes! Finally a Stephen King adaptation worthy of the original printed work. A violent storm causes havok in a small town and more ... |
 | Planet Terror (Film)Stupid and Brilliant - fredgarvenThe other half of Grindhouse is so much better than Death Proof. This is just a thrill a minute gorefest from the director of Sin City. The story is a scary green gas turns people into flesh eating zombies. That's about it! There are some sub plots with stripper Cherry being reunited with her ex El Wray, she loses a leg along the way though, small price to more ... |
 | Diary of the Dead (CD)Loved it - fredgarvenAs a fan of the original 'Dead' trilogy I was very dissapointed with the long overdue fourth instalment 'Land of the dead' so I wasn't holding any hope for this. This time around Romero has gone back to basics and made this for around 2 million dollars using hand held cameras, unknown actors and adding a bit of the red stuff later on. The film follows a more ... |
 | Alphastates - Made From Sand (CD)brilliant brilliant brilliant - fredgarvenIn the very overcrowded Dublin music scene it's great to hear something different from time to time. Alphastates are different and if they had been Canadian(it's cool to be Canadian apparantly) they would be selling out large venues. But enough of my bitterness about average overrated Canadian bands, on with the music. There's a fine mix of sounds on Made more ... |
 | Damien Dempsey - Shots (CD)It's all brilliant - fredgarvenDamien Dempsey's career has had it's ups and downs. His first album 'They don't teach this shit in school' never got the credit it deserved, maybe the world wasn't ready for the man from Donaghmede then...it certainly is ready now. With his 'rebirth' album 'Seize the day' Damo showed that he meant business and was not the novelty act that some people more ... |
 | The Wicker Man (Film)An absolute mess - fredgarvenIf there is ever an argument whether remakes of classic movies is a good or bad thing this is evidence that it's a very bad thing. Why remake a movie that is a classic when there are so many crap films out there that could do with a re doing. The original 1973 movie is a horror classic. It builds a genuine sense of dread and paranoia and some great more ... |
 | The Water Horse (Film)the kids will love it - fredgarvenThis is the story of a young boy, Angus who finds an large egg on the beach,brings it home and a strange creature hatches from it. The creature turns out to be a water horse, a mythical animal which basically becomes the loch ness monster.Set in World War 2 Angus' secret becomes harder to conceal when a troop of british soldiers settle into their home to more ... |
 | Gemma Hayes - Night On My Side (CD)one of the greatest irish albums ever - fredgarvenThis, simply is one of the greatest rock albums to come out of this country ever. What makes this stand up from the usual 'singer songwriters' that are on every corner of Ireland. What we have here is a mix of gorgeous folky songs and blistering rock tracks. It's obvious from the start that Ms.Hayes is a Nirvana and My Bloody Valentine fan. There's feedback more ... |
 | Battle Royale (Video)Asian cinema at it's best - fredgarvenBattle Royale is a Japanese film about a group of school kids put on an island with one goal, to kill each other until there is only one left standing. This all sounds like a great idea to reduce class sizes and increase grade averages they probably could have just invested in some pre fabs. Seriously though, the reason for such extreme measures are an more ... |
 | Mulholland Drive (Video)alice in scaryland - fredgarvenDavid Lynch movies are not for everyone and this is no exception. Far from one of his more conventional movies(Straight story and Elephant man are probably his only 'normal' films) this is definitely one of his most surreal and beautiful works. The film centres around Betty Elms(Naomi Watts), a bright eyed young actress who arrives in Hollywood hoping to more ... |
 | War of the Worlds (Video)looks great - fredgarvenOk I'm going to get my moaning out of the way first but it's a good job Spielberg got the big fx and action spot on in this film because the main character is a muppet. Tom Cruise is Joe Everyman(Ray Ferrier as he's cast) a divorced father of two who is so sickening you are praying the aliens had a better aim. He finishes his shift and the foreman begs him more ... |
 | 1408 (Video)some scares but not that scary - fredgarvenThere hasn't been a decent Stephen King adaptation in a while and for every Shining there is a Mangler. The main selling point for this one was the cast, well I suppose it is only John Cusack as Samuel L Jackson is only in it for a few minutes. Mike Enslin(Cusack) is an author on the search for haunted hotel rooms for his latest release. He's very sceptical more ... |
 | The Host (Gwoemul) (Video)monsters a go-go - fredgarvenThe production team that gave us the awful Godzilla should be locked in a room and shown this movie a hundred times until they get the message. Monster movies should be about the monster. That's what worked in the old Japanese Godzilla movies and that's what worked here. This is the story of toxic waste being dumped in a river, mutating creatures and those more ... |
 | Gangs of New York (Video)slightly overrated - fredgarvenMartin Scorcese has directed some of the greatest movies of all time, Taxi Driver, Raging bull and Goodfellas to name a few. The common denominator was Robert DeNiro and it seems Leonardo DiCaprio has taken the captain's armband from DeNiro as Scorcese's main man. DiCaprio is not a bad actor, he's pretty good but he's got some pretty big shoes to fill. more ... |
 | The Bank Job (Film)average at best - fredgarvenThe bank job is based on a true story of a bank robbery in London in 1971. What made this robbery stand out from the others is the fact that one of the safety deposit boxes stolen contained photos of a member of the royal family caught in a very compromising position which led to the robbery being covered up to prevent any details being leaked.The film more ... |
 | Hostel (Video)ouch - fredgarvenEli Roth's second movie(after the decent enough Cabin Fever) never really holds back on a lot of what most horror films are afraid to show. It's nasty and graphic and if it had been released in the 1980's it would have graced the videa nasty list without a doubt. Nowadays with more sensible censorship laws generally allowing people to make up their own more ... |
 | Dead Man's Shoes (Video)powerful revenge movie - fredgarvenShane Meadows comes up trumps again with this gritty revenge film set in a small town in midlands of England about a soldier who returns to settle a score with a group of local drug dealers. Richard(co writer Paddy Considine) and his mentally challenged brother Anthony(Toby Kebbell return to the town they used to live and Richard starts picking off a gang more ... |
 | Shaun of the Dead (Video)a must for horror/comedy fans - fredgarvenMost horror/comedies these days are spoofs like scary movie. They are just a load of scenes taking the mick out of various different films and resulting in a very hit/miss situation. Shaun of the dead is a comedy film set in a horror scenario, if that makes sense. Brought to us by the people who brought us the wonderful series Spaced, Simon Pegg(Shaun) and more ... |
 | Halloween (Film)another pointless remake - fredgarvenRob Zombie should know better. He's a big fan of the original as are most horror fans and John Carpenter's 1978 masterpiece should never have been remade. Zombie has tried to explain how Michael Myers became a crazed serial killer. This is the biggest problem of the whole film. The original Michael Myers was scary as he was a normal(albeit quiet and a more ... |
 | Freddy vs Jason (Video)they're back - fredgarvenLets just start with the fact that if you don't like the Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm St movies you are going to hate this. Don't even try to convince yourself!Most fans of series shivered in horror at the thought of bringing these two icons together in battle. Said it would never work but strangely it does! The movie never takes itself seriously, more ... |
 | This Is England (Film)Quality filmmaking - fredgarvenWritten and directed by Shane Meadows, this is one of the best British films to come out in ages. It's about a young lad, Shaun who is sick of getting picked on and taunted about his father dying in the Falklands war who joins up with a local gang of skinheads. The gang, led by the likable Woody, is basically harmless, just up to usual things bored more ... |
 | The Devil's Rejects (Video)dvd nasty - fredgarvenRob Zombie's sequel to his debut House of a 1000 corpses reunites the family of pyscho's in a real treat for fans of nasty,brutal horror films.The movie begins with the police shooting the hell out of the Firefly house and leading to the capture of mother Firefly while Baby and Otis escape and meet up with uncle Captain Spalding.This is the kind of family more ... |
 | The Omen 666 (Video)No effort shown,must do better... - fredgarvenIts a sad state of affairs when almost every horror movie coming out of Hollywood is a remake.It's even sadder when some of these remakes are made with no effort to differ from the original. Sadder still is the fact that this film made profits of around $100 million at the box office. A clever promotional campaign releasing it on the 06/06/06 worked.Like more ... |
 | Hot Fuzz (Video)A gem - fredgarvenFrom the team that brought us Shaun of the dead and the TV series Spaced,Hot Fuzz is a homage to the buddy buddy cop film and a lot more. Set in the sleepy rural village of Sandford the film centres around top London cop Nicholas Angel(Simon Pegg) who gets relocated here from the city as he's making the rest of the force look bad. He's not too happy about more ... |
 | Once (Video)lovely movie - fredgarvenI'm a big Frames fan so I'm trying to be as unbiased as possible but I really was surprised with this movie and how well it was made. First I thought it was going to be very 'lovey dovey' and slushy but it's a million miles away from that. Directed of ex frames bassist John Carney(Batchelors walk) and starring Frames main man Glen Hansard(commitments) and more ... |
 | Definitely, Maybe (Film)shock horror-decent rom com alert - fredgarvenI'm not a fan of romantic comedies,being a man it kind of comes with the territory but there are times when you have to sit through some to gain brownie points. I was dreading this as I figured I would be black and blue with punches in return for my usual sarcastic remarks but I left the cinema bruise free. In fact I actually found myself enjoying this as more ... |
 | Cloverfield (Film)Modern monster masterpiece - fredgarvenCloverfield is a movie that has split audiences into the love it or hate it groups. Written by Drew Goddard(lost,Buffy),produced by JJ Abrams(Lost) and directed by Matt Reeves(first directorial job in over 10 years) and with a cast of newbies to give it that realistic feel. The film makers should be commended for making a movie that is almost the opposite more ... |
 | Death Proof (Video)pretty pretty pretty good - fredgarvenI really liked this movie but I did expect a lot more. Not because it was a Tarantino movie, because it was homage to the Grindhouse movies of the 70's when exploitation was the be all and end all. There's not that much exploitation here at all except some blood and gore in the crash scene but for me I would have been happier with a lot more of the red more ... |
 | Control (Film)Brilliant - fredgarvenAnton Corbijn's first movie about the life of Joy Division's lead man Ian Curtis is dark, depressing and gorgeous to look at. Every frame of film is like a photograph that could grace the cover of any magazine. All shot in black and white(to portray the 'grey' times in the north of england in the late 70's) the scenes are shot as if it were a photo session more ... |
 | Die Hard 4.0 (Video)switch off brain and enjoy - fredgarvenDie hard films are very similar and should never be analyzed or taken seriously at all. Part 4 is no different and is probably the most outrageous of the series. They really get away with some crazy stunts which I found myself laughing out loud at but thorougly enjoying. The plot is crap and not even that important...some hacker is targeted by some more more ... |
 | Hostel: Part II (Video)meh - fredgarvenVery dissapointed with this. Thought the first one was much better. The whole thing just lacked any effort from Roth. Exchanging the men for chicks and that's about it. Some of the gore was good but not as shocking as the first one as it had that deja vu feeling. There was a nice cameo from Italian director Ruggero Deodata(Cannibal Holocaust) but apart from more ... |
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