But before we get to that one, lets start with Sssssss.
A 1973 fare from producer Richard D. Zanuck. Sssssss stars a pre-Battlestar Galactica & A-Team Dirk Benedict as a college student who takes a position as the new assistant for Herpetologist Dr. Stoner. Dr. Stoner, however, has more in mind for Dirk to do than paperwork. This movie wasn't terrible, however a bit dated. Most, if not all, of the snakes in the film were real snakes, which I appreciated. Everyone did a fine job with the material, and genuinely enjoyed the bleakness of the ending. I don't want to give anything away but I don't think there's anyway universal would release a PG movie with an ending like this nowadays. Worth a rent if you're curious, but no means to rush out and see it.
SCORING
Plot: 7/10
Effects: 8/10
Acting: 7/10
Music: 5/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Overall: 35/50
Now let's get on to the good stuff...
If you're anything like me, you've been waiting to see this movie since rumblings first started hitting the Internet. Trollhunter follows in the tradition of Dead Snow and Let The Right One In, of just fantastic Norwegian horror movies making the rounds here in the states. Trollhunter is a Blair Witch/Cloverfied style of footage found after the fact and released hoping anyone can shed any light on the events. We start with a trio of college kids doing a school video project on bear hunting and poaching going on, as they start digging and seeing things aren't quite lining up, the get on the track of a mysterious man in a hat, known only as Hans. After following him into the woods, hoping to catch him in the act doing some poaching, they come across something they never expected, although we expected it, as it's in the title, TROLLS!
I won't say anymore to the plot, but the effects were solid throughout, Hans was a really interesting character to follow, hearing his stories and seeing why he let these kids follow him around, and the 'science' behind the trolls was all played very straight, which I appreciated. There were several badass WTF moments, and the backdrop of Norway was just beautiful, I got the DVD, as wal-mart didn't have it on blu-ray, but I'd imagine that the landscape looks even more stunning in 1080p. I got the sense watching this movie that if I was an 8 year old Norwegian boy watching this movie, it would completely blow my mind and be the greatest thing ever. I can't recommend this movie enough. Wal-Mart and Amazon both have the DVD version for $10 right now, and I think it was definitely worth the price.
*SPOILERS BELOW*
OK, so I know I said I wouldn't say anymore about the plot, but there's something I just remembered that I want to touch on. The camerawork is pretty shaky and rough for most of the movie, as you'd expect from one of these 'found footage' movies, but Trollhunter does something I hadn't seen before in one of these movies, the cameraman gets eaten. But that happened in all of these kind of movies! Well yes, but he doesn't get eaten at the end. He gets eaten near the end, and the other two students decide to continue on without him, so they hire a professional camerawoman who has experience filming in animals (she just got back from filming lions for the BBC if i remember correctly). By taking this route, they are able to give the final battle a grander look and have have it make sense within the context of the story.
*END SPOILERS*
SCORING
Plot: 10/10
Effects: 10/10
Acting: 10/10
Music: 0/10 (don't remember there being any)
Enjoyment: 10/10
*BONUS POINTS*
+5 Norwegian
+5 TROLL!
FINAL SCORE
50/50 -WATCH THIS MOVIE!
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