leorican

As the story unfolds customers of the hastings supermarket are getting last minutes items as the market is about to close. Suddenly in comes a band of "robbers" who hold the remaining customers and employees hostage. Everyone is under the impression its a robbery, however we soon learn that there is more afoot here than meets the eye. The group is lead by the great and sexy Carlos Bernard from TV's "24" and featuring just as sexy Rockmund Dunbar from TV's "soul Food" and "Prison Break".Also along for this thrill ride are the beautiful and "Jolie-esque" hottie Courtney Ford as one of the so called "Alien Raiders" a title by the way I really dislike which I'll go into later and the hot and Juicey Matthew St. Patrick of "Six Feet Under " fame who plays a cop trying to figure out whats happening. It seems our band of thieves are there to find "The King" and I ain't talking Queen Elizabeths's husband. Our band of raiders have followed an alien infection to the Supermaarket where some or all there are infected with an alien organism. What follows is a nicely paced and scary ride as the group tries to weed out the infected. The film is a cross between "The Mist" and "The Thing" and it delivers what it came to do. Although you can see who the main "alien" probably is about 20 miles away...the real fun is in finding out who the other infected hosts are in the bunch. I also applaud the use of adult and mature actors in the film and glad they didn't make it a teen fest. The feisty and mature actress Bonita Friedericy is a real hoot in this and her character comes in just at the right time. The ending is fun but again you can see whats coming a mile away but since you already had fun getting there you don't mind as much, at least I didn't. Now about the title. I wish they could have come up with something more inventive because had I not known about the film while it was called "supermarket" I probably would have skipped this on the display isle under its release title. So don't let the title dictate the rental. Its a great little scary movie thats way more exciting and entertaining than the current crap-filled remake of "Friday The 13th".

OK so this remake / re-imagining / ripp off or what ever you want to call it is basically a mish mash of the first several films. It starts off by giving you one of the worst openings ever with a quick crunched up visit to the original goings on from the original FT13. Soo bad I rolled my eyes so far back they almost stayed there. As a matter a fact I rolled my eyes through this whole ordeal. And let me just say Nana Vistor has no business trying to fill in the shoes of the great Besty Palmer as "Mrs. Vorhees". Now jump some 20 odd years later and we see a group of hikers go into the woods near the old Camp Crystal Lake. Of course they run into old Jason who then...well take a wild guess. Now its six months later and this Ambercrombie & Fitch model type dude runs into this other group of annoying teens while looking for his missing sister who was with the previous group. Incidentally her fate is one of the most dumb and "how did she....." moments in the film...and there are many...like, why after after all this time does Jason suddenly pop out now and it appears that some of the locals ( an old bitty mostly ) knows that old Jason haunts the woods. Why hasn't anyone searched for this crazy killer before? How come the police never came across him in the old deserted camp that according to this movie has been deserted for 20 some years and was most likely visited by the search party after the first group of dumb teens went missing. Hello, no one bought the land to build...the owners never sold it?? Didn't anyone notice all the odd things in the camp. The list goes on. Anywho the rest of the film is so bad and predictable it hurts. You have to sit through the poorly executed slayings that show no imagination or thrill. There is no mystery or real story here. No "whats in the dark" buildup like the original did so well. The famous "ki-ki di-di ma-ma" is only barely heard in the beginning, middle and then the end. The rest of the time you hear what appears to be left over music from the Texas Chainsaw Masscre remake...And where the heck was crazy Ralph??? Before seeing this I had hopes that they would do it justice. Instead they insulted the first two films ( which were the only real good entries although in part 2 the whole Jason was really alive thing was never really delt with in a plausible way and it took away from Mrs. Vorhees's revenge motive).The opening was a dead give away that this would be a total crap fest. I almost went and asked for my money back but somebody else had bough me my ticket. When I heard Danielle Panabaker had been cast in this and I thought OK now there is some hope but not even her pretty girl next door looks and personna could not dig you out of this poop. This film could fertilize the state of California. Im being hard because im tired of all the bad horror films that have been put out as of late. "My Bloody Valentine 3D" has been the only exception up to date. That film was fun, thrilling, and well made. So what if it didn't have a real plot...it still kept you entertained. This mess is another story. But I fear we will see a future installment just like the upcoming H2. The Halloween remake was just as bad and we are in for another one. Don't waste your time or money on FT13th remake. Watching paint dry is more exciting that this garbage.

When television reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman (Steve Harris) are assigned to spend the night shift with a Los Angeles Fire Station crew ( Jay Hernandez, Jonathan Schaech), a routine 911 call takes them to a small apartment building, where police ( Columbus Short) are responding to blood-curdling screams coming from one of the apartment units. When it's discovered that an older woman living in the building has been infected by something unknown, the CDC quarantines the building, with Angela, her cameraman, the fire fighters and police on the scene, and remaining residents(inlcuding Rade Serbedzija, and Greg Germann) locked inside. What happens next is a harrowing account of what occurs inside the closed off building via the footage taken by the TV Camerman. This is an American remake of the Spanish film "Rec" and basically follows the same storyline with a few changes including the reason behind the crazed residents. The fright -o-meter is on high and what develops is in esssence a visit to a haunted house full of creepy noises, dark hallways, and a bunch of "what is up ahead in the dark" occurrences and a whole lot of crazed rabid people leaping at you. Its done with expert direction and the actors are all good especially Jennifer Carpenter who does a bang up job of being scared out of her skin throughout. She's very believable in her performance and I am now an instant fan of hers! The last half of the film had me on the edge of my seat. I recommend seeing it. Accept it for what it is and enjoy the frantic crazy and at times humorous ride.