PhillZilly Reviews

Chemical Peel (2014)

Had Potential, But Turned Out Mediocre At Best!

[5/10 · 15 November 2014]

Went in to this film not expecting much as I checked out some positive reviews and decided to give it a watch. For the most part I enjoyed the plot it was simple yet almost Cabin Feverish.

The things that went downhill for this film were two main things for me and those are... #1 the acting from Arielle Brachfeld (Angela) was pretty cringe worthy itself. The scenes with her and Rae are almost impossible to watch without turning your head in disbelief. Her alone made me nearly turn off the film but I kept watching hoping for a gruesome death.

#2 was how ridiculously long of a build up this film had... I literally sat through 45-50 minutes of nothing but story telling of Rae & Angela's characters pretty much. IMO when you have a 90 minute or less window for the film do not spend 50 minutes messing around and if you do you better have good reason for it.

However, with those two negatives out of the way the film was pretty decent in the rest of the departments. Effects were good for the low budget. The acting from the rest of the crew wasn't bad either... It's good for low budget horror film goers.

Death Sentence (2007)

What a amazing revenge film...

[10/10 · 31 August 2007]

"Death Sentence" is perhaps my revenge/drama film of the year director James Wan delivers a masterpiece without question and Kevin Bacon performs a perfect 10 in his role as "Nick Hume" in which it seemed like he was born to play.

From the acting, the directing, the script, the action everything is well done and top notch here and it truly feels like a gritty old school action film everything is great about "Death Sentence" if you like action/revenge films then this is for you without question. I would love to see Kevin Bacon in more action films like this.

And the main thing that really drove me into this film was the music, the music by Charlie Clouser truly captivates you and comes threw the camera and gets your attention and makes you feel "Nick Hume's" pain and you want him to succeed in what he is doing and that is revenge big revenge.

10/10

Ghost Rider (2007)

Moderately Good...

[6/10 · 17 February 2007]

Coming from a Ghost Rider fan (since the age of like 8-9) I was hoping this film would do it justice and that it would be great... But I was wrong while the majority of it was decent at best there were some really cool scenes as well.

• When he changed into the Rider for the first time. - Pretty much every scene when he's on the motorcycle as the Rider. - Blackheart's scenes

But that's really about it, There were ton's of unnecessary comedic scenes, it was way to cheesy to be a G-Rider film, and the fact that Blackheart didn't show his true form really got me angry but I did love the actor that portrayed Blacheart himself.

When I think of Ghost Rider I think of dark, mysterious, and horrific and that's what It should have been (there were some horrific parts but nothing compared to what It should have been) and it should have been a lot more serious/adult like in my opinion as well.

My gut feeling tell's me that Mark Steven Johnson got screwed over again! (same thing happened with Daredevil) All I can do is hope that G-Rider get's a Director's Cut DVD release in the same form as DD which made that film my top superhero film ever after seeing the DC version, here's to hoping the same thing happens with G-Rider.

Overall 6.5/10

Saw III (2006)

Amazing...

[9/10 · 24 January 2007]

OK, first of all I rated Saw a 10/10 and Saw II a 7/10 and now I'm rating Saw III a perfect 10/10 as well and here is why...

First thing, The death's in this movie could not have been done better they are absolutely amazing! my personal favorite (as well as Jigsaw's in the film) was the Twist machine it had me feeling that guy's pain it was that bad and the way it was done was even more disturbing. I even rated all the death's in the movie from my favorite to least favorite.

1- Twist Machine Death 2- Rib Cage Machine Death 3- The Hook's Death (Hellraiser style!) 4- Girl Freezing To Death 5- Doctor's death (not the shot in the stomach but the Shotgun shell machine) 6- Jigsaw's/John's death 7- Adam's Death 8- The Judge's Death 9- Eric Matthew's Death 10- Amanda's Death

Another thing that helped the film was the fact that they went into complete detail on how they performed there game in the first film... As well as showing Jigsaw create the doll he uses in all his video's Etc. But the end just left me thinking how the hell are they gonna do a Saw IV?!? whoever is directing/writing it better have a good reason to because I'm worried this franchise might get ruined it only takes one person to ruin the series and it could happen I really hope Darren Lynn Bousman returns.

Black Christmas (2006)

Twisted, Interesting & Bloody!

[8/10 · 11 January 2007]

Let me start by saying when I went to see this film yesterday I actually really did think that it would suck, Prob. because of all the bashers out there who are like "worst movie ever" and my favorite "boring as all hell, and not even remotely a good slasher flick!" well I'm here to tell you that they are all WRONG! First of all, you don't go into this film thinking it will be the best horror film ever with great acting! and you can't do nothing but compare it to the original because then you will most surely hate it! you just don't do it why?!? because it's a remake with a lot of different elements and it's a slasher film! you go into it expecting blood, gore & guts and that's what I got and I was impressed.

And with a bonus it actually gave us a decent storyline that made the film more interesting as it went on, the twisted tale of Billy, Agnes & there mother was great as it added more interest into the film that just the blood & gore would have done... I'll admit I was confused as to why there were 2 killers but then as it went on I understood what was going on and again I was impressed with the way they pulled everything off! A twisted tale of what was thought to be Brother & Sister turned out to be the twisted tale of Father & Daughter! The kill's were nice as well easily at least 15 if not more kill's which is always a bonus in any slasher film. There was one kill in particular that I really enjoyed the most, when Billy killed his mother by beating her numerous times with the dough roller and using a cookie cutter to make human flesh cookies that part I ate right up as I thought it was something new and innovative! In closing, my only problems with his film is that I think they should have left Billy alive! because Agnes your not really sure about whether or not she dies or lives a sequel with Billy & Agnes would have great! my last problem was that some of the thing's shown in the trailer were not actually shown in the film itself two thing's that I noticed in the trailer were not in the film (the part were Billy is on the roof of the ceiling and he turn's around freakishly waiting for the girl wasn't in, and the part were a girl is getting dragged to these spinning blades wasn't in as well) so I was kinda disappointed in that but hey! there's always the DVD! hopefully it will get a unrated cut which I would surely purchase.

Overall if your a horror/slasher fan then I would def. recommend going to see Black Christmas! my overall rating is a 8/10.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

Absolute Perfection...

[9/10 · 7 October 2006]

The more and more I think about it, the more and more I think this film was done to absolute perfection. Everything you would expect and more was what this film had to offer R. Lee Ermy is brilliant as usual with the rest of the cast returning as well. Andrew Bryniarski is fantastic as Leatherface as he was in the 2003 version.

Every fan of a TCM film should and will love this film, The story was handled amazingly from the "beginning" of Leatherface to why the family itself went to it's killing way's. I'll tell you when the time came for Leatherface to first grab the chainsaw it put a big smile on my face. While this film is certainly more gory than the 2003/1973 versions that isn't the only reason I enjoy the film so much... TCM: The Beginning is one of the best TCM's ever made and I'll be curious if they have anything else up there sleeve for future film's.

In closing I will say everything makes sense to the 2003 version, you will see why Monty has no legs, you will see how Sheriff Hoyt lost his teeth and you will even see a detailed "mask making" by Leatherface this film certainly deserves a perfect 10/10 and the ending makes it all much more enjoyable.

The Hard Corps (2006 Video)

That's four in a row for Van Damme...

[7/10 · 14 September 2006]

In Hell, Wake Of Death, Second In Command were all great Van Damme film's and now we have The Hard Corps with perhaps my favorite director to helm Van Damme film's Sheldon Lettich.

The story is great (better than I thought it would be), The acting is good (In my personal opinion Viv Leacock as Terrell Singletery was fine but they could have found a better person to portray that part), Van Damme was great as Philip Sauvage as usual, Vivica was good, who really impressed me was Razaaq Adoti as Wayne Barclay though he and Van Damme had great chemistry and he was just really believable and hopefully he will get more acting gigs.

My favorite part of the whole movie, while I won't give anything away to much (I put spoilers in the topic just in case) the fight scene between Sauvage & Barclay is great! and off course the end is good to... So bottom line my only complaints about his film are as follows.

• Not quite enough action (Van Damme fight scenes) - Could have found a better Terrell Singletery - With the lack of action the run time could have been just a little bit shorter maybe 10 minutes shorter.

Overall I give it a 7/10 great Van Damme flick and good job by Lettich but not quite as good as In Hell or Wake Of Death but again overall that's four great Van Damme film's in a row! Keep it up Van Damme and I am highly anticipating Till Death!

Superman Returns (2006)

The Man Of Steel Is Indeed Back...

[7/10 · 1 July 2006]

First off I would like to say that I heavily enjoyed the original Superman with Christopher Reeves and the sequel Superman II... Superman Returns pick's up after he has been gone for 5 years, pretty much totally forgetting about Superman 3 & 4 (which who can blame them as both of those film's were complete and utter crap.) Brandon Routh does a fantastic job as bringing back the Superman character to the big screen and he is a even more perfect Clark Kent.

I will admit I had my doubt's about this film, Routh off course was one of them... Also if Singer was going to be able to pull it off was another one (my main one) but to my pleasant surprise Bryan Singer & Routh delivered the good's and more with this film. Here is my judging of how each character was portrayed...

Superman/Clark Kent- Brandon Routh 10/10 Lois Lane- Kate Bosworth 8/10 Lex Luther- Kevin Spacey 10/10 (off course) Richard White- James Marsden 9/10 Kittie- Parker Posey 9/10 (I knew she was going to do that towards the end) Jason White- Tristan Lake Leabu 10/10 Perry White "Chief"- Frank Langella 9/10

A perfectly casted movie with a fantastic director Bryan Singer (X-Men & X-Men 2) my only worry about Singer is that if they do decide to do sequel's I hope he stays on board and doesn't leave the series like he did with X-Men.

The main shocker about this film was when Jason was revealed to be Superman's son, I did not see that coming! I hope they continue to do Superman film's but to stay away from doing Superman's son film's. I don't know about you guys but I'm dying for Doomsday to be in one of the next film's as a villain (if they do it off course.)

Overall I give this film a perfect 10/10 and I'm looking forward to whatever Singer has up his sleeve next for the man of steel!

Running Scared (2006)

Fantastic film & Walker's best ever...

[10/10 · 29 June 2006]

Running Scared is one of the greatest action/drama/crime film's I have seen in a LONG time! everything is done to perfection from director Wayne Kramer to actor Paul Walker. This film hold's nothing back, Walker put on his best performance of his career (if he did movies like this more often, I could see him as a HUGE star.) Walker truly shines by surprising us with his ability to portray the type of character he played in this film... Especially the end scene, the hockey rink scene & the opening scene's.

My only beef with this film (or more so the fans) was that everyone and I do mean EVERYONE kept talking about how this should be NC-17 and not R because of how much violence/blood there was. This is not the case, off course it was a well deserved R rating BUT! in no way possible was it enough to receive the NC-17 and yes Kill Bill IS! more violent than this film by far in my opinion. For the most part, the opening of the film was the most bloody/violent.

What really amazed me about this film was how well it was portrayed and done... The story was absolutely fantastic! one bad occurrence after another and kept going and going keeping you on the edge of your seat the entire time! The only part that really disturbed me was the kiddy porn family that Oleg ended up with, During that whole part of the film I was actually worried for Oleg and wanted that family to die so hard, and well it came true! All in all the best scene's were...

No.1- Hockey Rink Scene No.2- Opening Shootout No.3- Child Porn Family (that will get you) No.4- Oleg & his father fighting No.5- End Scene

I highly recommend this film to anyone who like's action movies and doesn't mind a lot of violence/language and disturbing situations.

10/10

See No Evil (2006)

A pleasant surprise...

[7/10 · 19 May 2006]

If your any type of horror fan, then you MUST go see this film. Gregory Dark delivers the good's here in every way possible... It has been a long time since I have seen a horror film that kept getting better and better as it went along. Kane (Glenn Jacobs) puts on a impressive performance as well. See No Evil is NOT your ordinary everyday slasher film, Everything from Jacob Goodnight's mother to the way he kill's his victims and the way he portrays himself is done very well...

Off course there are some flaws but what movie doesn't have them? A lot of people are not wanting to see this movie because either it has a wrestler as a main star or it is a WWE Film's production. I'm here to tell you, This is a GREAT horror film and Kane has a bright future in horror movies if he decides to leave wrestling anytime soon. To close, I just want to say the ending of this film was fantastic and actually made me cringe! what are you waiting for? go see it!

Second in Command (2006 Video)

Van Damme continues to impress me...

[8/10 · 19 May 2006]

Everyone know's Jean Claude Van Damme has had his up's and down's in his career... Well, this is certainly one of his better film's with the recent Wake Of Death & In Hell being fantastic movies. Second In Command lived up to what I thought it was gonna be and better, Sam Keenan (Van Damme) gets put as Second In Command to the U.S. Ambassador and deal's with a gang of rebels/terrorists in a Eastern European Country while protecting there president. The action is non-stop from the beginning and Van Damme's acting is above average here. I HIGHLY recommend this film to any Van Damme fan it look's as if he is still trying to make a comeback and I believe with Til' Death & The Hard Corps on the rising he may actually accomplish it.