All posts by Luke Miksa

Review: Pathfinder – The Legend of the Ghost Warrior (2007)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 31/05/10.

So it’s come to this. I have tried my best to avoid negative reviews on this site for two reasons:

  • I like movies too much to bag them, finding redemption in some of the most heinous atrocities captured on celluloid (Teen Wolf FTW!).
  • Two – Everyone says I’m a really nice guy (someone said that once).

But then I watched Pathfinder: the Legend of the Ghost Warrior.

Set in a pre-Columbus North America (Vinland), Pathfinder (also a remake of the 1987 Norwegian flick of the same name) stars New Zealand thesp Karl Urban as Ghost; abandoned as a child by his colony of Nordic Viking brethren and adopted by a Native American tribe, Ghost is raised as one of them but is clearly an outsider struggling to assimilate due to his appearance. Years pass until another marauding Viking expedition (led by personal favourite Clancy Brown) shows up with evil intentions:  as Vikings do.

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by Luke Miksa on July 17, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Luke Miksa on July 17, 2012

https://sorryimlate.com/2012/07/17/review-pathfinder-the-legend-of-the-ghost-warrior-2007/

Review: Paranormal Activity (2007)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 01/12/09.

It would be an understatement to say that Paranormal Activity makes its long awaited arrival on Australian shores with some hype attached. Fuelled by an impressively strong viral marketing and word-of-mouth campaign to gain interest – not to mention the personal approval by one Señor Spielbergo – Paranormal Activityis the proverbial little film that could, slowly gathering screens and demand, and ultimately beating out the dismal – yet popular Saw IV – at the US box office. Triumph all around!

Paranormal Activity revolves around young couple Katie and Micah, the former of which is plagued by an uninvited demonic menace Hell bent (yep) on causing mayhem, misery and other bad words starting with the letter ‘M’. Embellishing the plot any further would do this film a disservice as this is a tale best viewed cold, the chills within are best kept shielded and then unleashed on your maiden viewing.

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by Luke Miksa on July 17, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Luke Miksa on July 17, 2012

https://sorryimlate.com/2012/07/17/review-paranormal-activity-2007/

Review: Zombieland (2009)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 02/11/09.

From the moment I first saw the trailer to Zombieland, I knew that this horror/comedy hybrid road picture would be right up my alley. But as we all know, trailers can be deceiving – they can make a bad movie look interesting and vice versa. I’m pleased to say that not only is Zombieland an awesome flick, but it’s one of my favourites this year. Booya!

The film starts with Columbus (Eisenberg), seemingly a rare surviving human in post-apocalyptic Earth – now dubbed ‘Zombieland’. Although being on the Woody Allen side of neurotic, Columbus explains that these neuroses are what have kept him alive all this time, written as a list of rules for survival (Rule #1 – Cardio: ‘When the zombie outbreak first hit, the first to go were the fatties’). On his journeys he meets up with Tallahassee (Harrelson), a gun toting redneck whose one mission is to find a Twinkie in Zombieland before they all expire. They then stumble across charlatan sisters Wichita and Little Rock (Stone, Breslin), whom after they con the two men out of their truck and guns join together in their journey west to theme park Pacific Playland.

A standard evening at Coles.

Running at a brisk 81 minutes, Zombieland is non-stop entertainment juggernaut and although it is more on the comedy side than horror, there is plenty is violence and gore at hand but it is more slapstick than gross-out. Director Fleischer does a wonderful job in pacing the film so that we get equal amounts of character development in between the hilarity. After watching this I could say that his style is a cross between Zack Snyder and Greg Mottola (through obvious and not-so-obvious comparisons).

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by Luke Miksa on July 17, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Luke Miksa on July 17, 2012

https://sorryimlate.com/2012/07/17/retro-review-zombieland-2009/

Retro Review: Legend (1985)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 30/08/09.

Legend

Legend is director Ridley Scott’s attempt at 80’s style fantasy, starring Ferris Bueller’s Mia Sara as Princess Lili and as her love interest a pre-Top Gun Tom Cruise as forest dweller Jack. In a convoluted series of events, Jack takes Lili to see some sacred unicorns – which he shouldn’t for some reason – and then she proceeds to touch one – which she shouldn’t for some reason. This turn of events leads minions of the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry, in top form) to chop off the stallion’s horn – an item of coveted power – and kidnap Princess Lili, both to be brought before Darkness in a master plan to bring eternal night to the world. Now the ‘heroic‘ Jack, aided by his misfit band of elves and dwarves, must rescue the princess and save the world from its inevitable pitch-black doom.

The massive problem with this movie, and there are copious issues, is the fact that it takes so much pleasure in being so damn dark that there’s minimal fun to be had – a crucial element of fantasy. Take similar genre films from the time – Labyrinth had the music, Willow and Princess Bride had charm and characterisation, and the one thing that they all shared was a sense of wonder. Legend is too dark and scary for children yet the plot and pacing is too juvenile for adults.

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by Luke Miksa on July 17, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Luke Miksa on July 17, 2012

https://sorryimlate.com/2012/07/17/retro-review-legend-1985/

Review: Drag Me To Hell (2009)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 17/08/09.

Drag Me To Hell

Sam Raimi returns from the multi-picture Spider-Man juggernaut to return to self-penned (with brother Ivan) horror/slapstick amalgamation Drag Me to Hell, in a style not seen from the director since 1993’s Army of Darkness – the third in the Evil Dead trilogy.

Drag Me to Hell sees Christine Brown (Lohman), a loans officer of the proverbial mild-mannered variety, longing for a promotion to assistant manager at her branch – a position which co-worker Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee, whose middle name should be awesome) is also gunning for. To impress her boss and to prove that she can make the tough calls, she denies old gypsy woman Mrs. Ganush (Raver) a third extension of her mortgage and thus sealing her fate as the curse of the Lamia is placed on Christine by the scorned Ganush – a curse which will plague and torment Christine for three days until finally dragging her straight to Hell (It’s not just a clever title). With her cynical boyfriend by her side (Long), Christine must seek the aid of psychics Rham Jas and Shaun San Dena – the latter which has encountered the Lamia before – to help abolish the evil spirit before it is too late.

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by Luke Miksa on July 9, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Luke Miksa on July 9, 2012

https://sorryimlate.com/2012/07/09/review-drag-me-to-hell-2009/

Review: Adventureland (2009)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 14/07/09.

Adventureland

Adventureland opens in the summer of 1987, where recent college grad James Brennan (an excellent Jesse Eisenberg), unable to fund his planned European trip and a future tenure at the prestigious Columbia University on the horizon, must now endure a summer slogging it out in the titular theme park – home to an assortment of rejects, outcasts and stoners. There he meets the mysterious Em (an also excellent Kristen Stewart), of whom James falls for despite her involvement with the married park maintenance man Mike (Ryan Reynolds, sans the sass talk), a serial lothario with the annual influx of younger girls at the park.

Despite being Greg Mottola’s follow up to the side-splitting Superbad – and in spite of the misleading trailer – Adventureland is not the Apatow-esque comedy that you may have been expecting, but a surprisingly charming and tender dramatic character study. This one will definitely be a crowd divider, as we have seen many a coming-of-age story before, but not one with as much heart and devotion to the confusion and inner frustrations that we all get at this age. Although being genuinely funny – all without the need to resort to cheap jokes and potty humour – Adventureland does in fact have some very dark and understated thematic elements mixed in with all the comical moments that you would expect from working at a low-rent theme park.

Don’t get me wrong, though – the movie is funny. James and Em first meet when Em saves James from getting knifed by an irate park-goer during a dispute over a Giant Ass Panda, and shenanigans ensue when angry jock-douche customers uncover one of the Adventureland’s many dubiously rigged games. Then there’s Frigo, with an affinity for punching dicks, and a fair share of boner jokes to please the masses.

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by Luke Miksa on July 9, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Luke Miksa on July 9, 2012

https://sorryimlate.com/2012/07/09/review-adventureland-2009/

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