Wednesday, April 24, 2013

VLOG: 4-22-13 - Evil Dead Remake



Liz and Linkara discuss the Evil Dead remake! ...And the Purge. ‎

42 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will have to see that movie. I did have a comment, forgive me for saying it, off topic a bit but I think you should somehow acknowledge why Liz the character has disappeared from your show. Even just a line like so many shows do like "I wish she hadn't left to be a cop but I wish her well" or words to that effect, whatever you think is best. Just my opinion, I have my own idea of what I would do but it's your show of course. Glad you guys are still friends in real life.

LucasChad said...

I did a review for this film as a film critic for a local small newspaper. If you guys are interested, here are my thoughts on the film.

http://www.advertiserdemocrat.com/news/arts-entertainment/%5Bpublication_year%5D/%5Bpublication_month%5D/%5Bpublication_date%5D/%5Bdisplay_headli-103

Also, I would like to see The Purge. The movie looked like an interesting crossing between Panic Room and The Strangers. Betcha I'll review it too.

A Simple Point of View said...

You guts did bring up some good points about this film, points that I wish I had brought up in my own review, but every one has different opinions.

Though there is something that you guys didn't bring up. You really should have stayed after the credits. During it, they play the dialouge from the first movie with the professor explaining about the book of the dead. After that, we get our favorite demon slayer. Ash. After that I did some research. This movie is more of a continuation of the original series than a reboot. There are plans for not only a sequel for this movie, but a new Army of Darkness movie, and then a movie that will crossover the two series. So yeah, not really a remake.

ackbarfan5556 said...

First Brad now Lewis, geez. Everyone is talking about The Purge. GOD THIS IS SO DUMB!

Thank goodness the Evil Dead remake passed. Now we can look forward to Army of Darkness 2.

E. Wilson said...

What's really sad about "The Purge" is that exploring all of the HUGE logical flaws in the premise (Or, Hell, ANY of the logical flaws in the premise) would be much more interesting, at least from a thought-exercise perspective, than the actual plot of the movie.

Joshua Ford said...

I actually wrote a review on my own blog if you don't mind me shamelessly plugging myself :). I love these V-Logs and its always nice to see Liz. :)

http://joforeviews.blogspot.com/2013/04/jofo-movies-evil-dead.html

Joshua Ford said...

The biggest issue that I didn't address in my review for fear of spoilers, but just really bugged me is the climax. The book specifically says that the Abomination will rise after it "DEVOURS" the "SOULS" of five people...implying that it has to do more than just kill them. It doesn't at any point possess Blandy McMaincharacter, and despite the fact that he did die, both him and the possessed Long-Haired D-bag were both BURNED thus purging the demon as according to the book?...But nope, the Abomination still rises at the end anyway, thus completely breaking the movie's own established rules.

Barachiel said...

Ngh, I hate to say this, but I don't think I'd ever want to see a movie with someone like Liz. Something about her whole attitude to everything just bugged the crap out of. "Just because it's not bad, means it's not good."

Um, there's this thing called "average." You know, the baseline? Average can still be enjoyable. See it once, be glad you saw it, never really want to see it again.

I don't get this attitude of late I've seen coming from a lot of people, where if something isn't "innovative" then it clearly isn't worth your time. Recently, a video-blogger I watch did this great article on how Innovation for its own sake was a trap, and was the cause of so much stagnation in the video game industry. This kind of proved his point for me.

Sometimes, I just want to go see "An Action Movie" or "A Comedy" and enjoy it for seeing *this* cast and *this* writer do their take on this trope (or collection of tropes). As long as I know that's what I'm paying for, I'm perfectly happy with that.

I really don't mean to come off as overly critical, but that kind of attitude in general of "it didn't do anything special so its crap" has become more and more of an irritant for me lately. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Anonymous said...

Anyone else think he should review 'the haunted world of el superbeasto'?

That'd make for a weird episode.

Anonymous said...

Then I guess we'll never know what happened to Judas Liz.

Unless she got swallowed by the Plot Hole or something.

Her and Chuckles the F**king Jester.

Literate Dead said...

To be honest, I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit, and I'm finding it surprising how much folks are picking it apart (seriously, asking about the arm-cutting scene in a movie with demonic possession?). It was flawed, yes, but I saw it twice (two friends use me as an anchor for horror films, and their schedules didn't match up) and actually enjoyed it MORE the second time, knowing how the pacing worked and what beats to look for.

Yes, the demon eye thing bothers me (the girl-in-the-basement looks good in still frames, but not in action). The fact that they swear like the demon in The Exorcist bugged the hell out of me (sorry, but that doesn't intimidate me. The giggling demon from the original was MUCH creepier!). Heck, I was pissed that the 'Abomination' was just a demonic long-haired Ring-style version of Mia instead of something otherworldly (I get it, it's a metaphor for her addiction, but I want a cool and gruesome looking thing for the big finale!).

Somehow, though, I still enjoyed it. I loved Eric (seriously, Ash would cringe at how much the guy endures, but damn, he does try to make it all right after setting things in motion!), I loved the creative gruesomeness, and the balls-to-the-wall finale was a great bit of audience vindication. I even loved the old-style musical score, which didn't fully gel with the movie, but still felt right! Okay, and I admit that any film whose trailer shows scenes from only the first half of the film gets bonus points in my book.

Also: Noo, Liz! If you depart from videos, Linkara's going to have to come up with ANOTHER character to play to fill in the gap! :p (Just kidding; I'm glad you've found a real passion for this... Heck, I'd say if you ever -do- have the time, it would be fun to see a series on real life crime stats and attitudes vs. the movies... But that's just wishful thinking. Good luck in your endeavors!)

Oh, and because everyone's talking about 'The Purge'... I think the story's a great idea. Illogical, but the idea of 'everything's legal for one night a year' has tons of potential... if it weren't a frakking home invasion story! Seriously, it would be so much better if the invasion was just a starter, something that chased them out of their homes, leading the family to have to try and survive the night on streets that have gone mad. I could see TONS of ways this story could work (how about a cop on Purge night, dealing with his conscience? Or even a militia group who felt a need to act as a vigilante force in lieu of real help?), but they chose the one way it really fails... Urgh, I want to rewrite it so badly...

Enough ranting >.>; Sorry, I sat through the whole thing, and it gave me a lot to talk about. Why is it that I'm less shy about commenting on Vlogs than actual episodes? >.O;

Egon said...

Ok I will be the one to talk about the nail gun. I haven't seen the movie so I don't know if they got it right, but there are a lot of nail guns that burn butane gas to create the air pressure to operate. And, yes they are designed so that you have to press them into something but in most cases this safety feature is easily disabled.

buzzrock1 said...

I haven't seen this movie yet, but here's the deal. In my opinion, Evil Dead is one of the most overblown movie series of all time. That's not to say that the originals are bad, but in my opinion they are nowhere near as good as other people say they are.

So when I saw the trailers for the remake, I got blown away. The trailers for this movie look really good, the kind of trailer I want to watch over and over again, it looks that good. But then when Brad Jones did his Vlogs and talked about the trailer, it was like they were watching some other trailer that wasn't good. They just seemed to write the movie off in advance, and none of their complaints about the trailer made any damn sense to me, to the point where it's actually had an inverse effect on my opinion of this movie to where I've already decided in my head, having never seen it, that it's gonna be a masterpiece of horror.

So anyway, once I turned this video on and heard the first few things you and Liz said about it, I pretty much immediately turned it off and wrote this comment. Completely biased and childish I know, but I'm starting to think that that's just what Evil Dead does to people. Maybe once I actually see this movie, I'll watch your video.

Joseph said...

This has nothing to do with the movie.
I just want congratulate Liz. I am close to getting my degree in computer science, and college requires A LOT of studying, so I can easily relate. Good luck, and I hope everything goes as you plan.

Rak Nay said...

I agree that not all remakes are bad.
We cant forget that the Loved Wizard of Oz with Judie Garland was a remake.
He he he.
And not totally fidel with the original, because is not a dream in the book.

Kaze Koichi said...

And now I want to watch Evil Dead. The original one.

On completely unrelated note, I recently watched the video ConBravo 2012 – D20 Live game with Big Mike as DM. Until that I never watched any D&D campaigns with Linkara and only heard something vague about how his paladin botched in Spoony's campaign. And at ConBravo Linkara was doing great. I'm not talking about "This is what kind of thief I am" (which was awesome answer to Spoony's running gag, by the way). No, I was impressed how Linkara's character was the most sane man in the party. Like that time when he guessed right that the girl they were hired to protect would drug them. And I know that the Spoony One later said he knew it too, but decided to go with it because "do you want to play D&D or not?" And he is right, because I myself played with those guys that annoy other players with various minor nitpicking. Instead of, you know, playing the game.

Sorry, where was I? Oh, yeah, I liked how Linkara's character did smart things like convincing a suspect to go with them by saying you gonna give him a reward and sweet-talk their employer that it was a suspect who knocked out his daughter (while convincing the party that to complain to him about his daughter drugging you is pointless). Linkara, is it true that you don't play D&D or other TRPGs much? From my point of view, you are damn good in them, and I would be happy to see more. Are you playing any campaign right now or planning in the future? I'm sorry for asking out-of-topic question.

Rider kick said...

The purge from what it sounds like takes the entire premise of the Japanese movie Zebraman II.

Josh said...

I found while it was giving us a great take on the source material, it may not have been scary, but I liked it. With me, I had 2 home invasion movie trailers, one was The Purge, which I agree looked stupid, and had a stupid premise, but the first home invasion movie looked good.

It took a concept that's been done, but gave it a few more details, like that of a big family, like 8 or 9 people, they go up to their big house, almost like cottage country, and have a family dinner.

They had a group of guys in masks, and could move in and out of the house, without people noticing, and took out power, took out phone lines and internet. Cellphones, I think they started taking at some point. Then they set up traps and use various weapons to start killing off this family.

I like one the shot where there's a cross bow set up against a window and the one guy asks the dumb question, "What the f*** is that?" and bang the crossbow goes off and kills someone.

I wonder if Linkara stayed for the nice clip at the end of the movie credits. As our old friend shows up.

Nero Angelo said...

there wasn't really another ashley, was there TwT

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"there wasn't really another ashley, was there TwT"

Nah, we just called him the Ash stand-in. He wasn't named Ash, thankfully. ^_^

Cable Laying said...

I always like to come back again and study your opinions after each show that I observe. Excellent stuff!

Brad said...

Just wanted to say, "Good luck,Liz."

I'll miss your pen and paper reviews, but I'm glad you're fighting a good fight that kinda matters more that entertainment. No offence Lewis.

Anonymous said...

"I don't get this attitude of late I've seen coming from a lot of people, where if something isn't "innovative" then it clearly isn't worth your time. Recently, a video-blogger I watch did this great article on how Innovation for its own sake was a trap, and was the cause of so much stagnation in the video game industry. This kind of proved his point for me."

who was the video-blogger?

TenshiPrime said...

Hello there Mr Lewis, as I've heard in your videos you have to read each of these comments before they can be seen so chances are you are going to read this. My name... just call me Smithy, I'm 14 years old, a tomboy who loves reading but has no idea what comic book I should start with, as you are the comic book nerd of the TGWTG site you probably have lots of ideas for comics books, so I am asking you to help be get started in the comic book world with a good start so I don't end up hating the whole comic book genre. I'll be quite frank when I say that I don't care how dark a book is, I might be young but I do like some gore and darkness in my books but I also like comics books that make me laugh with interesting characters. Another thing to help you make the list smaller is that I rather enjoy to read stories with super natural elements to them, either magic, aliens or mythology! My last thing is having interesting characters, if a comic sucks but a character is still likable and fun to read about, I will gladly read the bad stuff to! I hope you read this and if you can't reply on this site my email address is ThePandaHatChick@gmail.com , have a good day Lewis and I won't blame you if you can't help me out.

Mask said...

SPOILERS
It isn't a remake, it's a sequel. The guy in the beginning is a new character, one of the cars in the beginning that we never see running is still there from Ash's adventures, and Bruce Campbell as Ash is in the stinger.
END SPOILERS

We've seen in the comics that if you leave the Necronomicon somewhere, some demon or something out in nature will lead to it being more active by some chain of events or another. Recall that the sakeycam demon in the first movie was around before the tape was play'd.

Shanethefilmmaker said...

I gotta say Liz looks good in Red. I don't know why, the whole wearing Red just seems natural for her. All she needs is a smoke and a drink and she has the entire noir style femme fatale look.

Shanethefilmmaker said...

Free advice if you do manage to go see the musical and get front Row seats: Wear a white shirt, and don't flinch. That is all. Speaking from experience here. I still got mine.

Shanethefilmmaker said...

I kinda disagree with Liz on how to dispose of the Book because I don't know if anyone remembers or notices it. But spoilers if you don't, the original Evil Dead. The first movie's necronimicon was implied to be sentient on it's own right, when it was burning it started doing weird shit such as sticking a tongue out, basically moving about on it's own. Even if they did all that odds are it's just gonna come back just to mess with them.

Shanethefilmmaker said...

Cape Fear is also a good example of of a good Horror Remake. They did it plot for plot, but the difference being that the scenes were more graphic and they changed the relationship between Max and Bowden.

Anonymous said...

To answer your question about the Purge, unfortunately according to the synopsis on the Wikipedia page even hospitals are shut down so the victims will actually die and the killer's plan will succeed. So basically, this country is screwed

Shanethefilmmaker said...

Huh so Liz is going to the Police Academy. First I want to say congrats. Second Please forgive me for the following joke: Iron Liz, The only cop in Minnesota that dual wields swords. Now playing in a theater near you.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

Okay, Shanethefilmmaker? I'd appreciate it if you just wrote everything in one post and THEN posted. The way you're doing it right now means I have to approve EVERY post you're making and when I get multiple posts from the same person it gives me the impression that they're accidentally posting the same thing multiple times.

Shanethefilmmaker said...

Sorry bout that.

Mr.O said...

When watching this Evil Dead movie my mind never thought remake. Instead I thought of it as Evil Dead 4. I really enjoyed the movie and I hear there is another Army of Darkness coming...

TimeTravelerJessica said...

I saw In Time (the movie y'all were trying to think of) opening week because it was such a great premise and had a cast full of actors I like. I should have waited on the DVD. Your parents are absolutely right - it was a very underutilized premise that they turned into a pretty generic action movie with a pretty wide anti-capitalist streak when it could have posed serious questions about mortality, worship of youth, and a more intelligent discussion of economic systems.

Anonymous said...

Well Liz since you are a very logical person [no imagination for you my dear. which is terrible.] if you want fresh and new original films may I introduce you to... INDIE FILMS! Yes, independent films, they're a lot of original fresh films to there, just came back form the set with my friend on her first film called ripe. they had everything funded and raised everything themselves. it's an interesting premise, and a lot of good talent. Yeah I'm probably coming off like an jackass right now, but I'm calling you and a lot of people with this weird mindset for depression you all have out. you clearly think all films are stupid, so why not check out the indie lien, there are some up and coming, wonderful films,so that even meet your realistic logical sense of style.

the purge, yeah, that looks stupid honestly. rich kid films. always have to be so bad, and as for this as a remake, Lupa said it best, its a sequel.

Anonymous said...

They were not so creatively bankrupt that this was the best they could come up with,

THEY STOLE IT.

Really this is straight out of a book in Dishonored called 'The Fugue Feast'

Pasted for context:
[Excerpt from a book on the celebrations and holidays]

At the end of every year, after the last day of the Month of Songs, we begin the Fugue Feast.

The new year has not started and thus the time that follows is ‘outside’ the calendar. A period of celebration and feasting begins, during which the people abandon the very practices that keep them whole and healthy over the year.

Many leave their homes, euphoric with spirits or potent herbs. Some paint their faces or wear masks to conceal themselves as they pursue their passions without reservation.

When the right cosmological signs are observed and it is time for the calendar to begin anew, the sitting High Overseer calls for the hymn of atonement and the Fugue Feast ends.

Families return to their homes, wives to their husbands. Enemies put down their weapons and fires are extinguished. No complaint is given for those who have wronged others, deviated from ancient codes, or discarded oaths; for this time during the astrological alignment does not exist, and is not recorded.

The following day starts the new year, marked on the first day of the Month of Earth, as it has always been.

Scott Tibbs said...

Nice vlog.

You said you had not seen "cabin in the woods." You should. It's a really interesting take on the horror genre and horror cliches.

I could nitpick it to death, but that would spoil it and it's really something you should see for yourself.

Anonymous said...

Your review of evil dead: It's alright. I've never really been a fan of the series, but I'm always curious to hear your thoughts on anything.

You and Liz talking about the purge: Freaking Amazing! It's about damn time someone gave that insufferable premise the trashing it deserves!

As for Liz pursuing a new career, it is somewhat disappointing to see her go, but it's hard to get too mad when said career entails stopping criminals and saving lives. Never mind the trolls. That's frigging awesome! I support that decision 100%!

Though for the record, if she ever does decide to go back into the reviewing route, I would totally watch the hell out of a show where she reviews terrible crime dramas and thrillers.

-WD said...

During the after earth trailer I kept thinking to myself "Oh god, they fucked up Ender's Game even more than I thought possible... 'everything on earth evolved to EAT HUMANS' . . . Do you even science?" Then I saw the title, and I thought "Oh, it's just a random Will Smith monster movie, well, it could be bad, or it could be enjoyably bad."

To the anonymous commenter asking for the continuity departure of Liz, I think that Chuck Cunninghamming her is a much more mysterious, thus more effective exit.

Amber said...

This is cool!

NelsonStJames said...

I think as far as creativity goes, way too much weight is being given to innovation.

Many of the films we remember as classics are not original, but remakes and adaptations. Boris Karloff Frankenstein, remake, Wiz of Oz (as someone mentioned)-- remake. Maltese Falcon; remake of a remake. Being a remake doesn't necessarily equate with being bad. Along the same vein using nostalgia as you catalyst also is not bad. If it weren't for nostalgia there would have been no Star Wars, or Indiana Jones to speak of.

Basically you have to take each film and see what the creative team brought new to the table; other than changing the gender or the race of the lead character which in not original, nor innovative. It has been said that there are no new ideas only different perspectives that an artist brings to it. I find that's a pretty accurate way to look at it, and I find too many films today aren't being made because the filmmakers have anything new to say, they just want to make a buck and name recognition is simply a marketing tool.

Also remaking a film because we have better Sfx than they did back in the day is a lousy excuse to remake a film.