Emilio Rivera – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: I wonder if the citizens of hell can be given asylum in our vampire territory.

Vampire Bat: I don’t think that they are really from hell, as in the inferno where the devil lives with his demons.

Vampire Owl: So, they are not from the place where people are fried for the evil stuff which they do on Earth.

Vampire Bat: They are exactly not from there – these people are human.

Vampire Owl: Humans from hell, and that wouldn’t make the devil happy.

Vampire Bat: These are earthlings who unleash hell on Earth.

Vampire Owl: Well, that does allow some justification for the vampire me.

Vampire Bat: You might know them from two movies full of violence, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects.

Vampire Owl: I don’t remember those two movies at all.

Vampire Bat: Well, you will remember them again after watching this movie, as they are all too similar.

[Gets a vanilla cake and three cups of iced tea].

What is the movie about? :: A long time has passed since two young couples traveling and searching for weird urban legends of murder ended up as prisoners of a sadistic of serial killers, having their worst nightmare coming alive, with no hope for escape. The tale of unlimited terror, torture, and murder had continued on the road later, with the violent serial killers continuing the spree of brutality on their way, while being chased by the police who would do anything to bring the chaotic Firefly family down. Otis B Driftwood (Bill Moseley), Vera-Ellen Baby Firefly (Sheri Moon Zombie), and Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) were trying to escape when they came across a police barricade, speeding toward it keeping on firing, as well as taking back the gunshots. The shootout was brutal, and the three a severely wounded, and taken to the hospital where they spend a number of days without consciousness, and later as part of further treatment.

So, what happens with the events here? :: The three gets better after the big shootout with the police, and are taken to the prison. They are to be tried for their crimes which includes murder, robbery, home invasion and many more, but the three doesn’t care at all. The trial is widely covered in the news channels, which brings them some fans. Some people even come up with the slogan “Free the Three”, depicting their crimes as a different and divergent way of fighting against the system. When the trial is over, two of them are sentenced to life in prison, while Captain Spaulding is executed through a lethal injection, much to the dismay of Otis and Baby, becoming depressed about a death for the first time in their life. Otis’ half-brother, Winslow Foxworth Coltrane (Richard Brake) who is better known as Foxy, tries to help Otis to escape from the prison while he is outside, and is working with the rest of the prisoners.

What follows this actions further in this tale of chaos and brutality? :: While trying to escape, Otis kills Rondo (Danny Trejo), who was also being imprisoned threre. Meanwhile, Baby who seeks parole is not granted the same, with her mental state getting worse, as she goes more psychotic in nature. Foxy, after rescuing Otis from the prison, begin planning to free Baby from prison too. For the same, the two enters the house of the prison’s warden, Virgil Dallas Harper (Jeff Daniel Phillips) and has him, his wife Judy Harper (Tracey Leigh) and her friend Abigail Duck (Christine Weatherup) going through a series of humiliation and torture, almost killing them, as Virgil finally agrees to bring Baby out of the prison in one way or the other. But the question remains if the clearly psychotic Baby will spare their lives as she would join with the two serial killers from the family, as she wants vengeance for Captain Spaulding. There is some chaos and brutality to be unleashed for sure.

The defence of 3 from Hell :: The movie continues what Rob Zombie has been doing in House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects, with all the violence with blood and gore found in almost every point. This one is more of slasher horror action thriller in that order regarding how things work around here. It will definitely appeal to the fans of the franchise, and there is one fine action sequence in the end. In between, there are moments which remind us of the psychotic mind of the main characters, and we see them going through a journey built on blood. This one with the other movies of the franchise could actually be called the movie of chaos, considering how they are dealing with the matter in hand. It is how Rob Zombie brings the variety, even though with a violent sadistic world being created, as these are the protagonists like no other, taking us into that escapist fantasy with has only death written on it.

The claws of flaw :: The movie is not for the people who don’t like this much blood and gore. It is not just limited to the same, but also to that sadistic cruelty which can’t be digested by all people. If you haven’t been following the Firefly franchise from the director, this will turn out to be not that interesting to go through. It is also surprising that they decided to go with the same cast, and even though is a good one, and the performances are pretty good as the psychotic family members, it had started to become repetitive with just Sheri Moon Zombie seemingly having more of madness in her to be unleashed. There is a lot of predictability running through this movie, and there is no extension of the activities of evil unlike what was expected, considering the fact that the franchise is now a trilogy. It also seems to repeat the same thing if there is a sequel to come sooner or later.

How it finishes :: 3 from Hell is not so different from House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects as you might have figured out, and the first movie had already evolved into a cult classic on which the next two movies have set their roots, which have been growing as well as evolving. But one would feel that it has been too long after the first and the second movie were released, and there are not many fans left for the franchise due to that long gap in between. This movie coming fourteen years after the second movie doesn’t have many of those hardcore followers left, as they might have changed their interests with such a long time period in between. Becoming fourteen year older can surely mean the change of interests. Yet, you can watch a very violent 3 from Hell after watching the other two similarly violent movies from the Firefly franchise, and see how you are going to stand the blood and gore. After all, what you see here is the basic nature of humanity which will descend into similar madness and love all the chaos in the absence of civilization.

Release date: 16th September 2019
Running time: 115 minutes
Directed by: Rob Zombie
Starring: Sheri Moon Zombie, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Richard Brake, Dee Wallace, Danny Trejo, Christine Weatherup, Flor de Maria Chahua, Daniel Roebuck, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Pancho Moler, Clint Howard, Emilio Rivera, Austin Stoker, David Ury, Richard Edson, Jackie S Garcia, Kevin Jackson, Wade Williams, Sean Whalen

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Vampire Owl: It has been a long time since I last played this game. I am having heavy Hitman nostalgia.

Vampire Bat: It is not just about this game, but a lot more. Our gaming life has been dead for very long.

Vampire Owl: I will just consider this as a video game then. May be it is actually so, and it could be the reason why there are so many negative reviews on this movie.

Vampire Bat: It is not really surprising. Some people will give very high ratings to violent movies when it is directed a particular person, for absolutely no reason. The content is not important for them there. But we will see Hitman: Agent 47 as it is really supposed to be watched. We owe that much to our gaming past.

[Gets the tickets].

✠ This was recently posted by me at Kiagia.com: http://kiagia.com/index.php/current-film-releases-movie/1078-hitman-movie-review.html

Hitman is a name which is heard a lot among the gaming circles, and the love for this assassin goes back to the year 2000 when Hitman: Codename 47, the first game of the Hitman video game franchise, from IO Interactive released. Among the PC games, this had a special status, and one can proudly accept that this is something which changed the future of stealth-based action games. The sequels including Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money were all much talked about titles in the gaming world, and with more in the shops and a new title coming up for the gamers, another movie based on the video game was inevitable.

Dr. Peter Litvenko (Ciarán Hinds) is the man behind a secret laboratory experiment which involved the creation of perfect assassins who never felt any remorse, fear or love, and had highly exaggerated speed, stamina, strength and intelligence which made them the perfect killing machines. But realizing the fact that he was doing something wrong, he abandons the idea and idea and disappears, leaving very powerful people on his trail. His daughter Katia (Hannah Ware) is also on the run, hiding somewhere in Berlin according to the last information. Many organizations have tried to recreate the idea and couldn’t succeed; one of them called Syndicate International decides to find the girl and get to the father at any cost.

As ICA (International Contracts Agency) decides to stop the Syndicate from getting its hands on the program, Agent 47 is contacted by his contact Diana (Angela Baby) and is provided with two names to terminate. Katia who has some strange visions and special sensory skills is searching for her father while she is approached by a man called John Smith (Zachary Quinto) who offers her protection against people who are trying to kill her. Meanwhile, Agent 47 finds and approaches her, but gets into a gunfight with John while Katia runs away. But there will be more to it than what meets the eye as the people of the Syndicate won’t rest until they get what they want.

The success of this movie will depend on what each viewer expects from a flick like this – if it is a cent percent adaptation of the game which is expected, they are going to be disappointed. There is not much of a stealth mode for this protagonist as in the game. But when we look at this from another side, isn’t a lot of action also possible in the Hitman games? The second game of the franchise actually had a lot of situations where one could just go through the enemies and the character shoots people without trying that much of stealth. Our protagonist has those special skills for big action too, and he has used them very well here – it is just that things are done rather straight for a change.

This seems to have a series of incidents which follow the great assassinations of Agent 47, as one the villains do say that he is a big fan of the protagonist’s work. So, the man has already had his shares of silent assassinations, and so if we are looking for a stealth mode, we should rather ask for a prequel rather than keep saying that Agent 47 works in shadows and doesn’t come out as an action hero. Here, Hitman is immersed in full action, and what the viewers need to do is to enjoy the wonderful sequences rather than keep complaining about it. About the story, it is surely working well, and has a number of similarities to the first game of the franchise.

Even though there is not much from the rest, Rupert Friend and Hannah Ware do leave a nice impact in this movie. Hitman: Agent 47 uses the action sequences to some great advantage, and sets up well for both the prequel and the sequel, even though one still has to doubt the possibility for the same. There is a lot of style in the way in which the action sequences are taken, and the blood and gore also maintains that quality. What one has to wonder about here is if people only care about gore when some directors use it? Stylish violence is not something that is particularly booked for a few people. Hitman: Agent 47 uses it here, and you have to admit that it is worthy.

Hitman: Agent 47 might be in no way that much interesting for everyone. But what it provides the gamers is an opportunity to see one of the most loved game characters on the big screen, despite the liberties which the movie has taken while doing full justice to the action side. This is not the movie which you need to think about a lot and compare with other titles and the games themselves, but enjoy it as the action-adventure that it has brought to the viewers. You might not remember the story for a long time, but the way of recreating the video game is worth it; there is something about a different take on the same subject, right?

Release date: 4th September 2015 (India); 21st August 2015 (USA)
Running time: 96 minutes
Directed by: Aleksander Bach
Starring: Rupert Friend, Hannah Ware, Zachary Quinto, Ciarán Hinds, Thomas Kretschmann, Angela Baby, Dan Bakkedahl, Emilio Rivera, Rolf Kanies, Jerry Hoffmann