The Last House on the Left (2009)

I just can't leave well enough alone, can I? I like Wes Craven and I've always thought of him along the same lines as George Romero and Dario Argento in that his films, at least his earlier stuff, were about something far deeper than out and out horror. As much as I loathe his Last House, I respect it in that Craven was clearly trying to say something about fear and vulnerability and revenge, and the torture scenes, though graphic, played into his overall thesis. They're just so hard to watch, and I get so mad at Wes for making me sit through them.

So, when I saw the trailer for the remake, I was scared, and I felt the same tension as in the original, and it all just looking different, and perhaps a smarter version. I don't know, something about it made me very excited. The trailer was cut in such a way that it gave me mad goosebumps. I was so excited to see what had been done, and apparently it all had Wes's approval, so that added to my interest.

Well, I've watched some shit this year already, but this may just take the cake. It's absolutely pointless. It does nothing to improve upon the first movie, and the changes made within are to no ultimate end. And, bizarrely, the thing that offended me the most was the tame torture scenes. Gruesome, yes, but not at all as psychologically penetrating as the first film, which, while ghastly, gave the parents much more reason to go as mad as they do. What happens to the girls in this film is terrible, but I felt the film wussed out on taking the viewer to that place -- the place that takes the viewer from horror and sadness and fear to a place of rage. It's done so well in the first movie, and in, say, I Spit on Your Grave, but here it was just lame.

I think it had to do with the attackers, too. Just brutes, with no real motive. It's simply not terrifying to watch someone beaten by an unrelenting brute -- give that brute character, a personality, introspection, and then the torture becomes something else. I just don't think strangers hammering on strangers works when your purpose is to look beyond terror for terror's sake.

Yeah, so it was awful.

Frost/Nixon (2008)

I love a good political thriller, and when you thrown in journalism, I become slightly high. This was exactly as I'd expected -- tense, smart, funny, and a great insight into a part of the Watergate scandal knew little about.

It was just so well constructed. The act breaks were mortifyingly tense, with Frost getting so close to his goal and Nixon smartly pulling back. What a fierce player this reveals Nixon to be. Listening the tapes over the years, and reading what I've read on the man, I was always struck by his vulnerability, that he could let his jaded mind lead him down these silly paths that were his destruction. But bantering with Frost, he is no pussy cat. He's whip-smart, and Frost clues into that and eventually uses it to get what he wants.

It's a fascinating study of two men so equally talented in their roles, just going head to head in this battle of wits.

I loved it.