Month: October 2015

Movie Review: Housebound

/ Dani Hoots Author / Leave a comment

Housebound (2014)

Origin: New Zealand

Language: English

I haven’t seen too many horror movies but after reading the summary, I thought it sounded pretty good. The story follows a girl who got caught robbing an ATM and is under house arrest for eight months. She hates her old home, where her mom and stepfather reside, and makes is vat first annoyed by them. Her mother then claims the house is haunted. At first she doesn’t believe it but then starts to see and hear weird things. Is there another house guest, and is it of this world, or another?

This a really well done movie, especially with how small of a budget. It was very different and a lot of scenes where you think you know what’s going to happen, it doesn’t, but something even more weird/random happens. It is quite humorous at some points, as it is supposed to be a comedy and horror.

The characters were pretty interesting, and pretty developed. You learn more of why the girl is the way she is, although I wanted to learn more about the father. The ending is pretty funny as well and I definitely enjoyed it.

I also wanted to know more about what the house once was and why exactly they bought the house. There were a few unanswered questions that could have been answered to straighten everything out.

All in all, I give it a 4.5/5. It was pretty funny, but could have more info of the past and how the house was ‘haunted’.

Movie Review: Syfy Channel’s Black Forest (2012)

/ Dani Hoots Author / Leave a comment

Black Forest (2012) by Syfy Channel

Language: English

So as you probably guessed, with it being a Syfy Channel Original Movie, it was pretty bad. Well, it was. It starts out with a man (who was supposed to be German but sounded Scottish…) trying to get random tourist to go on his pagan ritual tour where one could see what it was like for the old pagan worshiping fairies and the like on the equinox. I don’t think he ever asked for money, and gave each person a feather that was their ticket. Uummm hello? Creepy guy wanting to do pagan rituals? Who says he’s a tour guide but doesn’t ask for money? Yes take your baby with you, that makes perfect sense! Anyway, they don’t listen to me screaming at the tv and go along with it anyway. Apparently the megaliths have never been mapped before, as they are OUT IN THE OPEN in Germany (with my background in Anthropology, I can say “yeah right!”). They then get transported to the fairy realm where fairy tales exist and everything wants to kill them.

Half the characters were developed, half of them just down right sucked. Nerdy archaeoastronomer who was made fun of by everyone, especially the banker who was there with his wife, new born child, and the young babysitter he was having an affair with (why the heck would you bring a babysitter you were having an affair with on vacation to Germany???). Those three characters were horrible! But the wife, who seemed to be one-dimensioned, actually turned out okay, and the doctor character, the other Archaeoastronomer, and the woman that has been living in fairy land for years turned out to be okay, with some depth. I don’t want to give away what happens, so I won’t go into too much detail. I will just say that they annoying characters get what’s coming to them.

The tie in with the Grimm Fairy tales was very sloppy to say the least. They had so much potential, but barely scratched the surface and kind of mixed them or twisted the story. It just felt weird and was hard to understand at times. I really wanted to like it because it was supposed to be in Germany and was about fairy tales, but it wasn’t well researched, as if they just read the summary of some tales and decided to do what they wanted with them.

I give the movie 2.5/5, as it wasn’t horrible, but it had a lot of potential that it could have been a pretty good movie if they tried. Half the acting was good, they other half was pretty bad. But once those characters went away, it got a lot better. Try the movie out, if you want. It was fun to laugh at, as now my favorite quote is now “If there’s a goat, there’s a farm”. Seriously, that was a quote. But if you are looking for a movie that will knock your socks off, you should probably skip this movie.

Anime Review: Ouran High School Host Club

/ Dani Hoots Author / 2 Comments

(Note: I haven’t read the manga yet)

So at first I didn’t think that I would care for this anime, was just wanting to binge watch something I knew my husband wouldn’t care for (which wasn’t the case as he was as entertained as I was by this show). I loved it!

OHSHC follows Haruhi as she is a scholarship honor student at Ouran High School who accidentally breaks a very expensive vase of the Host Club’s. Since she can’t pay the money back, she has to become a host for the club. Little did they realize that Haruhi was actually a girl not a boy, but they decide to dress her up as a boy and let all the girls fawn over her anyway.

The anime goes into all the trouble the host club gets into, along with all the girls they help make smile. It is really cute, fun, and at times, hilarious! They characters all well rounded and have their own arcs. My favorite character was Haruhi’s dad.

The only downside to this anime is that it ended abruptly. I figure it must have gotten cancelled or they decided not to do a second season so the writers had to draw it to a close right away. It was sad and I couldn’t believe I watched 26 episodes in just a couple days. I wanted to cry…

If you haven’t seen this anime, I recommend it. It is fun, cute, and light hearted. 5/5!

Movie Review: Ring of Curse / Gomennasai (2001)

/ Dani Hoots Author / Leave a comment

Ring of Curse / Gomennasai

Japanese with English subtitles

This Japanese movie follows a girl named Yuka who, along with other girls in class, starts to bully a strange girl in their class named Kurohane. Yuki didn’t feel bad since she was jealous of Kurohane’s writing skills and wanted to beat her in a contest for the drama. To find out, Kurohane didn’t write a screen play, but actually a novel that left the girl who stole and read it dead. More deaths happen after people read her notebook and Yuka figures out that Kurohane is behind it. Kurohane explains why she started killing people and why she is learning how to curse write. The rest of the movie deals with the curse and how Yuka must stop it

The story also goes into Kurohane’s past even more and tells what she wrote in her diary. I found it to be kind of strange that she told part of the story, then we hear the rest through the diary.

Plot-wise, I found this story be quite fascinating. A girl can write curses and whoever reads them will die. Based on an mobile story years before, I think that it was great that the pop group Buono! wanted to create it in a film because it spoke to them so much. It is one of those horror movies that makes you kind of nervous and glad you can’t read Japanese because you don’t want to be cursed too (though I wonder if Buono! made it into a movie as well so they didn’t get cursed). It was more about plot than it was about special effects.

This movie was rather creepy in the concept, but the sound and video lens were lacking. Although I really don’t care about special effects that much, the lighting, sound, and film angles did bother me as they didn’t make it feel like a horror movie. If they invested in it a little more, I think this could have been a lot scarier. The creepiest part was when Kurohane tells her story, as the lighting changed and was the only time they used it to their advantage (not sure if it was on purpose though). And they really needed to get rid of the high-pitch sound, it was really annoying.

The acting was okay. Some actresses could have been a little better at acting, but for the most part they were pretty good.

I give the movie a 3.5/5. The plot was good and creepy in concept, but the filming and sound could have been better to make it a lot more scary.

P.S., if you are a person who gets chain letters and is paranoid the chain letter will curse them if they don’t forward the letter, probably shouldn’t watch this movie…

Dani

Movie Review: Iron Sky (Director Cut)

/ Dani Hoots Author / Leave a comment

I have to be honest, this is one of my favorite movies. It is a great parody directed by Timo Vuorensola. There are so many little jokes that they will leave you laughing (like when the main character James Washington pointed at one of the Nazis and said ‘who are you supposed to be, Prince Harry?’). The movie was originally made released in Finland, then actually released through Walt Disney in the States (of which I did not know until now).

They did a great job researching Nazi culture, predicting what the future would be like if they went to the moon, and what Earth would be like in the future if they had to face this problem. I did, however, want to learn more about what they ate and such, how they were able to travel to the moon without anyone noticing, but it’s not relevant to the story as it is a parody.

The plot itself was pretty believable, as the President of the United States has sent people to the moon to help her ratings in the next election and once they are there, they find the Nazi moon camp as they are mining Helium-3. James Washington gets captured and has to take them to the Earth for another phone computer to power their large space ship, that is after they turn him into an Aryan. Meanwhile Renate is an Earth specialist who sneaks aboard to see the Earth she thinks she knows so much about.

On Earth they find that things have changed a lot.

They kidnap the President’s assistant, Vivian, so that they can talk to her and declare war (or, as Renate thinks, bring peace and kindness as she has been brainwashed on the moon). Vivian takes them to the President, making them appear as campaign troop leaders and use Renate’s brainwashed message about peace. They use the same ideas for their campaign. Meanwhile the Nazis on the moon are preparing for war.

When they get the computer back to the moon, the Nazis declare attack on the Earth and every country is trying to figure out whose ships they are. They each act like they don’t have their own militarized spaceships but actually all space craft revolving the Earth has been militarized. An all-out war breaks out between the Earth and moon.

This movie is very well done and actually is in German when on the moon and English when they are in America (I loved that!). It’s refreshing to have a movie that tries to keep the language true to who is talking.

BTW, the fact that they had Vivian reenact the Hitler youtube video parody that has been subtitled so many times was amazing. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go here)

One of the problems I did have in this movie was that they had sound in space. Pet peeve, really… That’s why Firefly was amazing! But other than that, I enjoy this movie very much! 5/5!

Also, there is a sequel being made, check it out here!

Until next time!

Dani Hoots

Anime Review: Vampire Knight (Season 1 and 2(Guilty)

/ Dani Hoots Author / 2 Comments

Vampire Knight follows a young girl by the name of Yuki Cross who is guardian between the Day Class and Night Class at Cross Academy. What the Day Class doesn’t know is that the Night Class is full of vampires who want to bring peace between the humans and vampires. However, Yuki can’t remember anything before ten years ago and the first memory she has is being attacked by a vampire, and saved by the vampire Kaname. She struggles to find out her past, meanwhile the present peaceful times are being disrupted by vampires, humans, and hunters alike. Little does Yuki know that things that happened in the past may want to stay forgotten.

I love this show, as I have binge watched it many times… The artwork, although sometimes not as smooth as it could be, is very beautiful. The voice actors did a wonderful job bringing the characters to life, and I especially like the voice for Kaname (Yes I am team Kaname, get over it).

The story itself is very similar to the manga (which I will be reviewing later) and I’m very thankful for that (unlike Black Butler…) and I really wished they kept this series going. There is still a lot that isn’t answered, and from reading the manga (almost done) the history of the vampires is a lot deeper than they provided in the show.

The story itself, I wish we got to see more interaction with the Headmaster, as he reminds me of Vash the Stampede, with being rather crazy then all of a sudden serious. I also wish Yuki was a little less naive at times, although it made sense given her actual past (I won’t give spoilers).

All in all, if you haven’t seen this series and love vampires and romance, this is for you! 5/5!

Dani Hoots

Release Announcement #22: Professional Secret

/ Dani Hoots Author / Leave a comment

HootsProfessionalSecret2

The third short story of My Broken Heart Series, Professional Secret, is now available on Kindle and Nook!

It was good news to Heinrich when he found out he was getting promoted to assistant manager at his office, but when he found out he would be going on a business trip with his boss Christoph, he knew he had to try his best to not let his true feelings towards his boss show. But after a couple of drinks on the business trip, can he keep those feelings to himself? And what if the impossible happened and Christoph had those same feelings as well?

All the My Broken Heart short stories are independent and don’t need to be read in order.

Pick up your copy today!

Kindle: click here!

Nook: click here!