Last film you watched and your rating

Between - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424840/

Nadine, a beautiful lawyer from Chicago, travels alone to Tijuana, Mexico in search of her missing sister. Her investigation presents unsettling encounters leading her on a mind-bender as she attempts to unravel the compelling truth.

This has the cheap, recorded on VHS look, and story of one of those adult erotic thrillers that would star the likes of Shannon Tweed. Unfortunately this doesn't even have the promise of sub-standard sex scenes with over the hill perma-tanned porn stars. It is hard to believe this film was really made only five years ago because the camera equipment must have been from the late '80s. The film liberally cribs from more famous thrillers. David Lynch seems to be the biggest influence, especially Mulholland Drive, but to copy Lynch is dangerous because so few film-makers can do what he does without it appearing hokey and stupid. Sadly these film-makers are incredibly inept so every quirky character or bizarre happening is more laughable than intriguing especially when the twist is obvious from the opening 30 seconds. Performances are universally terrible, especially the lead woman and her unbelievably bland love interest and basically the whole thing is without any redeemable qualities.

(AVOID)

Piranha - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464154/

After a sudden underwater tremor sets free scores of the prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for the area's new razor-toothed residents.

Alexandre Aja showed promise with Haute Tension and his remake of The Hills Have Eyes but he has pretty much squandered that with Mirrors and now this limp remake of Piranha. I like trashy cinema so the fact this revels in its B-movieness is not the problem, the issue is that it never pushes it far enough instead it sits in an uneasy middle ground that just doesn't really work. In many ways this is just an Asylum movie with a bigger budget and better cast. The effects are rubbish but not bad enough to look like they were a deliberate design choice, it relies too much on CG gore which is all the more disappointing when the practical effects in the film are so good (although I will admit there were some pretty good death sequences, especially during the films major set piece), none of the characters are interesting and the pacing is iffy. It was probably more fun at the cinema with 3D but without it all you get is pointless stuff being thrown, or vomited, at the camera every few minutes. They also seem to be shooting one of the shittest and tamest porno films ever made.

**

We Are What We Are - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1620604/

When the patriarch of the family passes away, the teenage children must take responsibility for the family chores: the preparation of the rituals, the hunting and putting the all-important meat on the table. These newfound responsibilities are even more daunting, however, when you live in the city and happen to be a family of cannibals.

No point going over old ground when I agree with what Gorf King said here. It is nicely shot with decent performances but it does feel very slight and underdeveloped which is a shame as the idea was interesting and had potential. One of the most curious things about the film is that they never try and answer why the family has the lifestyle they do beyond the vague talk of a ritual and I'm in two minds if this is a good or bad thing. On the one hand trying to explain it convincingly would probably be quite tricky but it is a question that kept popping into my head throughout so some sort of answer would have been welcome.

** 1/2