Not working out and staying almost imobile for 15 years will do that to you

The backstory is interesting to see how he became the monster he is, but I dont know it's just a back story. Like when we meet Laurie int he first one theres about an hour and 10 minutes left in the film, when we meet her here theres abotu 40 minutes left.. thats maybe just my own beef with it because the backstory to Zombie was more important, and it is his own film which I give him kudos for.

Part of the problem is that Rob tried to do too much. Everything he wanted to tell would have required a 2 1/2 to 3 hour running time. Basically, this movie needs an epic length to get all this information in.

Rob should have probably just stuck with a prequel because he seemed much more interested in telling that story -- no matter how ridiculous and idiotic many think it is.

These backstories are really getting out of hand: From Leatherfaces' skin disease, to Leatherfaces' lost job, to Billy having sex with his mother, to Myers' trashdom lifestyle... It's really just too out of hand.

I don't mind backstories, but can we have them done well? That would be nice.

I can't wait to see what type of idiotic story they concoct for Jason in the "Friday the 13th" remake. May the lord have mercy on us all...

I did like the battle between him and Laurie at the end, and the chase was really good but just wanted more suspense.

The final cut is better than the workprint. Lots of little re-edits and added things. The added death of is ridiculous and over-the-top, though. It belongs in Halloween 6.

B-

Which score do you think works better?

Workprint vs. theatrical?

It's actually pretty similar. The Halloween Theme used in the films sounds a lot to me like a re-tracked version of the original -- i.e., it's not the "Halloween 2007" theme we've heard online. The Shape Stalks is new but sounds very similar. The only differences I really remember are a generic rock song replacing the Monster Mash, "Mr. Sandman" being used when Haddonfield is re-introduced, and Don't Fear the Reaper playing for Lynda's murder as well as Judith's.

Question...

Yes.

But Danny Trejo is only 5' 6".

I wasnt talking about Trejo's hight, im talking about how he always looks like he's an older tough man in his 40s and 50s, yet when he was next to michael he was so overshadowed that he looked like a little boy.

Robert Rodriguez makes him look huge, most other films he's usually small. I always laughed when I see him in Six days Seven Nights as one of the Pirates, Ford was much bigger than him, and then you look at Desperado or FDTD and he looks huge. Not saying he wasn't pretty ripped though back then.

I'll have my review up in about an hour or so.

Theatrical cut:

This does improve on some of the teleportation issues, and other problems... Moving up Linda's scene was a good idea. It also tones down on nurse bitch, and some other problems that gave Myers too much motive. The breakout works better than the rape imo.

Bobs death in the van should have been kept in, because, at least, it's fairly different from the original. The reshot one is way too similar to the original film. Myers' approaching Laurie's father should have been kept in.

The extended shots of Laurie's mother that were added work.

This re-editing creates a big problem (this is my biggest problem): The street chase scene is cut down (one of the scenes that actually worked), and extended shots of Myers' looking at Laurie when he breaks into Tommy's house and then ascends the staircase are missing. It was a very nice scene in full, and now it's cut down... That kind of annoyed me. One thing you don't do is take the best 10 minutes of the film, and then, cut things out of it. The chase was short to begin with. No reason whatsoever it should have been cut down considering the span of time from "Annie's sex scene" to "Tommy's bathroom" worked better than the finale.

Several of the stalking daytime/nighttime shots and scenes are gone. Scenes of Myers wandering around throughout the day are gone... Myers in the cemetary is gone... They're some shots that Zombie actually shot well visually, and they felt a hell of a lot like "Halloween," and now they're missing...

One important scene that's missing involves a scene with Laurie coming home from school and helping her mother with Halloween decorations outside. It was a nice scene, and showed Myers hiding behind trees. It also explains how Myers knows where Laurie lives. In the new cut, things just shoot from day to night with no explanation whatsoever.

The editors did add some new scenes to help flesh out present day. These tend to work. However, they should have added in the new scenes on top of the scenes that were already done well. Not remove some of the only scenes that were shot well... What the hell kind of editing is this? That's really my biggest complaint.

Basically, they fix some problems, but leave us with a whole set of new ones...

Bottom Line: After thinking about things for a few days, and rating this as purely its own film, it probably deserves a "C" as a derivative slasher. It's not really as horrible as many are making out to be -- including myself (for example, I didn't feel Loomis's acting is anywhere near as bad as people have said). It just takes time to get used to it. However, as the redefining of the "Halloween" series that many of us have anticipating for a year and a half, it's a pretty big disappointment -- even a huge failure.

Grade: C

http://www.worldofkj.com/articleIndex.php?tid=30768

It pained me to write that. I was in actual physical pain writing that.

This...does not seem to be well-received so far. At all.

Only a few months too late for the AFI reboot. Oh well...there's always 2017.

That's not true... The people on Rob Zombie's myspace think it's one of the best horror films ever made.

Words from "masterpiece" to quotes such as "kickz da originaalls boring azz" being used. There's a fanbase out there for every film.

It was well over a year ago that I heard about Rob Zombie remaking one of my favorite horror films of all time, Halloween. Usually, I would be upset that anyone would have the audacity to remake such a classic film, but I'm a huge fan of Zombie's work as a director and I had full faith in him. I followed the whole production closely, though casting, filming and post production and my expectations were outrageously high. Well, I'm happy to tell you my expectations were more than met. Every worry I had about the film wasn't there. Originally I was worried the three girls (Laurie, Annie and Lynda) wouldn't get enough screen time. There was more than enough, though Lynda is the one that gets the least amount of time. I thought the Smith's Grove sequence would be tedious and boring and probably the worst part of the film, and again I was wrong. It was interesting to watch and had many funny lines. I can't compare this to the original, I just can't. It would feel wrong to me. Even the remake portion is quite a bit different than the original film. I will say this though, there are some things I liked in this film more than the original (though the original is better). I like the relationship between Laurie and Tommy here. It was more like brother and sister, and it was really cute and fun to watch. I also enjoyed that she had a on-screen relationship with her mother and father. It was also nice to see that in this, Laurie isn't completely different than Annie and Lynda. There. Comparisons aside, on with the review. The scenes with young Michael were great and effective. The murder of his sister Judith was extremely intense, and definitely one of the highlights of the film. Sheri Moon-Zombie was great here, and I don't understand why some people are calling her performance bad, it's not. She portrayed an extremely sad character, and was great at it. Malcolm McDowell was also surprisingly excellent here. After the negative reviews about his performance, I was expecting to hate him. I actually enjoyed his take on Loomis more than Donald Pleasence. The acting from the three girls ranges from good to great. Kristina Klebe was good as Lynda, though not spectacular due to her limited screen time. It would have been nice to see a bit more of her character. I don't think she had more than ten minutes on screen. Danielle Harris was good as Annie, but like Lynda didn't have a ton of time on screen (though more than Kristina). The real winner of the girls is Scout Taylor-Compton. She was fantastic. I was worried about her performance because from the TV spots it seemed kind of lame and forced, but it flowed much nicer in the film and was believable. She was an excellent screamer as well. If there is a sequel, I hope she returns. Rob Zombie's direction is great here, being even better than his work in Rejects. He really knows how to work the camera, it was fantastic. Zombie made a wonderful horror film, and I don't know why if you went in with an open mind, why you wouldn't love it. Know what to expect, and you should walk out with a big 'ol smile on your face. This is a great movie, and one of my favorites of the year and the best horror movie of the year, and no doubt will it probably stay that way.

9/10 (A)

Mass spoilers!

I liked the Devils Rejects, it was pretty fucked up but entertaining nonetheless. The scene in the beginning where Momma's boyfriend (or something like that) is yelling funny shit at Mikey's mom feels like it came out of Rejects. And that's the only positive thing I can think of. I actually paid to see this piece of shit. I really shouldn't have, but boredom reared it's ugly head. You win some, you lose some.

Who thought it was a good idea to humanize Michael Myers? Awwwww he had low self esteem and kids at school picked on him. His sister didn't take him trick or treating! That completely justifies killing her (and the boyfriends of Momma and sissy ... and the bully). Well gosh darnit now I love this kid. Thank god Machete is looking out for him. "I was good to you Mikey" he says before a tv falls on his head. Guess I'm not supposed to like Mikey anymore. You're only supposed to kill people who are mean to you! So now that we've gotten used to the idea of killing nice people, let's kill a random black trucker just so we can steal his jacket. Meet the kiddies, they all go to the same school and babysit and like having sex! That's enough character development for Zombie, let's start killing them! I'm ranting, I don't care. The scares were all obvious, when you keep the camera on Daddy for even 2 seconds after Laurie (really should've renamed her) then we know he's gonna die. I'll just skip to the new ending. Malcom gets eye gouged to death or something and Mike dies by head shot (unless there's a sequel of course). Quite a twist indeed. It's hard to really care since you just want the movie to be over by this point. Laurie ("did he really say I'm soooooooo hot?") and Malcom ("I don't know, but it isn't good") both did pretty terrible in their roles. I usually like Malcom but I dunno what was going on with him here.

I'll stop ranting. It's been awhile since I've truly ranted. This one deserved it though. Pretty easy F. Atleast Ghost Rider was funny.

The bad reaction doesn't surprise me

Uwe Boll is a bad director but he's funny in a way... Shawn Levy is a hack, but the movies are watchable... Rob Zombie movies are a complete and utter disgrace. I don't hate Shawn and Uwe half as much as Zombie.

I plan on watching the theatrical cut, but I think I was too generous on the workprint. It's more like a C+/C. What bothers me the most is not the story, but Zombie's execution. I hate, hate, hate his "all characters must have long hair and say 'fuck,' 'cunt,' and 'pussy' every three seconds" style of films. It was more fitting for The Devil's Rejects, but not Halloween. Zombie is seriously fucked up in the head.

I haven't seen the workprint yet but the theatrical cut only said cunt once (well, it was spelled) and according to kids-in-mind only had 60 something fucks in it.

Some of the swearing is toned down in the theatrical, however, it's still there. Don't say I didn't tell you so because it's still there in full force. Annie's attack scene is missing a few minor shots (the camera literally shoots on the front door longer; this could be the MPAA though).

What bugs me, as I said before, is that some of the only well done shots Zombie established are missing from the film. Basically, Myers stalking is cut to a minimum in the workprint to begin with; here, it's toned down even further.

And that really sucks because those nicely done stalking shots are part of what the character should be. All in all, the reshoots helped the "Sanitarium" section, and hurt the "present day" section. But, that's just my opinion. The tail-ending added with Laurie screaming is just annoying.

This is a terrible, terrible, terrible movie.

I've been an adamant defender of Zombie's work in film ever since the brilliant Devil's Rejects, and I even held out decent sized hopes for this one despite all the negative buzz surrounding the project from day one.

I was dead wrong.

While I still think Zombie has it in him to make great cinema, Halloween is an absolute train wreck from start to finish. What we essentially have here are two separate movies, each of them with the potential to be good on their own, hacked apart and condensed into nothingness so they fit into one tidy piece of shit.

On top of this, Zombie attempts to create a type of mood and tone for the film (think Devil's Rejects in suburbia) that simply does not fit. Rob's dialogue, while hilarious and witty in Devil's Rejects, seems forced and baroque here. His mise en scene simply does not mesh with the suburbia vistas and sterile hospitals littering the movie, and when John Carpenter's masterful score is set to an endlessly gyrating and cut to shit shot of Michael stalking, it simply does not work.

What it really comes down to is Rob Zombie tries to have his cake and eat it too with his Halloween remake/reimagining. He wants to flourish in his auteuristic vision while still adhering to Carpenter's original template. Unfortunately for the audience, his cake is a big pile of rancid shit.