HOS - HZ

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The Host [2006]
Host [2020] Hostiles [2017] The Hot Rock [1972]
Hotel Artemis [2018] The Hourglass Sanatorium [1973] House [1977]
House of 1000 Corpses [2003] House of Bodies [2014] House of Fears [2007]
House of the Living Dead [1974] House of Wax [2005] House of Whipcord [1974]
House on Willow Street [2016] The Houses October Built [2014] Hover [2018]
How It Ends [2018] How to Train Your Dragon [2010] The Human Centipede (First Sequence) [2009]
The Hunger Games [2012] Hunt for the Wilderpeople [2016] Hunted [2020]
Hunter Hunter [2020] Hunter Killer [2018] The Hunter's Prayer [2017]
The Hurricane Heist [2018] Hush [2016] Husk [2011]

The Hurricane Heist [2018]


            
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A heist to ripoff $600 million from a treasury depot tasked with destroying old money during a monstrous hurricane is complicated by a feisty ATF agent and a Meteorologist. I can understand why this isn't highly rated as it's just one over-the-top action piece after another featuring a story with logic holes as big as the vault. But, if you can turn off your brain, my goodness, it's fun. The characters were great, the action pieces were very well constructed making them almost believable and the pacing is non-stop. Great escapist entertainment.

The Hunger Games [2012]


         

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is one of 24 tributes from 12 districts that must compete to the death in the 74th Annual Hunger Games. The world building, including the culture, the political structure and the overall look was stunning and frightening ...the makeup, set and wardrobe depts. must have had an absolute blast making this film. The games were realistically portrayed with the right balance of action, emotion and tragedy. My only real complaint is the shaky camera work for the close up action. I had no idea what I was looking at, at times.

Hotel Artemis [2018]


            
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In 2028, the Artemis Hotel is a health care facility for the criminal elite and on this particular night, it's hosting a very colorful bunch of characters, all with differing agendas, while the city around it is having a full scale riot. Jodi Foster is excellent as the hapless nurse juggling her attention between various patients as well as dealing with the ghosts of her past. Everyone else is incredibly fun to watch. My only real gripe is the editing and flow of the film is quite frantic, jumping around willy nilly from one scene to the next like it was in a hurry. Really fun film, though.

House [1977]

aka Hausu

            

I don't know what I took but I think the drugs are finally wearing off. ...and what a strange trip that was. 7 teenagers, a mysterious woman and an incredibly laid back cat spend time in a house that makes they're lives complicated. Everything about this film is whako. Even the girls names are descriptive so you know what they're good at - Melody, Kung Fu, Gorgeous, Prof - kinda a like the 7 Dwarves, I guess. The soundtrack ranges from pop to happy jazz to two steps this side of calliope music. The spec fx are totally insane and psychedelic. Overall, crazy fun!

Hunt for the Wilderpeople [2016]


            
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A foster parent and his rebellious teenage charge become the focus of a nationwide manhunt for kidnapping when they really haven't done anything wrong at all. Played to precision by Sam Neill & Julian Dennison, watching the relationship develop between the curmudgeonly hunter and the young lad is a joy with some genuinely funny moments. The film also holds plenty of adventure with multiple dangers and quirky characters (Psycho Sam was a riot) and the New Zealand landscape was, as usual, breathtaking. Very enjoyable watch.

House of Whipcord [1974]


         
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A terminally naive model hooks up with the enigmatic Mark E. DeSade (get it?) who takes her to a prison of sorts that severely punishes those with a questionable moral character. Most definitely the stereotypical 70's British thriller, the first half went pretty much as expected without a lot going on beyond showing us the severity of the situation. Second half got more interesting and exciting with a sad and painful twist and a bit of chaos at the end. Wasn't anything to get excited about but it was well written and a generally enjoyable watch.

Hunted [2020]


            
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A woman is hunted through the woods by killers. A story told by a creepy woman to a kid, about some girl being saved by animals in the woods, sets up the need for animals to help our hunted lady as she's to dumb to help herself. Up until the last 15 mins, all she does is run and throw a rock. Then she goes full wacko. No one behaves normally making this film more ridiculous by the second. Even a young man, whom you'd expect to know survival skills, is dumb as a rock. Why is her face blue? Because she stumbled into a paint ball battle. Yeah, it's that ludicrous.

Hunter Hunter [2020]


            
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A self-exiled line trapper, his wife and daughter, live an isolated life in the woods. Hunting a wolf, he soon realizes he's hunting something else ...and doing it really, really slow. Maybe I'm too acclimated as a city boy but the actions of the family doesn't make sense. You don't keep dangers from each other so as not to worry them. You don't survive that way and, unfortunately, the entire film rests on this stupid act. It then ponderously drags on to a predictable ending hoping the last 15 minute gorefest will make up for it's slow pace and unlikely decisions. Nope!

The Houses October Built [2014]


            
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Five friends travel around in an RV looking for the most extreme Halloween haunted house. Needless to say, they found it. Most of the film is spent in the RV, with people that I didn't dislike but didn't really like either, or inside haunted houses where it was really hard to see much. Their motivation to continue on their quest struck me as rather mysterious when bad things stated to happen. In the end, it was dark with a lot of screaming by terrified people and a silly, anti-climactic ending. Exactly what I expected it to be ...and less. Marginally entertaining.

Hush [2016]


         
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A novelist, who's deaf and dumb and lives in an isolated forest home, is inexplicably stalked by a psycho. Once again, Mike Flanagan (along with his wife, co-writer and main actress, Kate Siegel) manages to turn a simple story into an intense and brutal game of cat and mouse that never gets stale over it's 81 min screen time. At first, overwhelmed by her situation, she inevitably accepts her fate to kill or be killed without it ever feeling forced, rushed, or cliche. Excellent, nail-biting entertainment.

Host [2020]


            
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Taking their cue from movies like Unfriended, this one concerns a group of people conducting a seance on Zoom ...and something really bad shows up. This extremely short (less than an hour) and simple story is just an excuse to hit us with one jump scare after another but with relentless effectiveness that is full of edge-of-your-seat tension, groan-inducing anxiety, and sheer terror that leaves the viewer breathless. Made on a low budget, there were a few things that didn't quite sit right with me but on the whole, terrific film well worth another watch.

The Host [2006]

aka Gwoemul

         
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A family eludes the authorities in an attempt to rescue a daughter / granddaughter / niece from the clutches of a huge, mutant lizard thing. The monster is totally awesome and all the scenes starring said mutant were great. The rest of the film felt sort of lame and sometimes silly and I didn't particularly like the way it ended, either. Overall, though, it was certainly worthwhile and a fun ride.

Husk [2011]


            
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A car accident leaves a group of young adults stranded next to a corn field and then, one by one, they get turned into zombie scarecrows. OK, whatever. Once the stupidity of the characters takes hold, the movie is about as ridiculous as the premise would appear to indicate.

House of 1000 Corpses [2003]


            
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Two couples road tripping stop at Captain Spaulding's Chicken & Gasoline for the Murder Ride followed by a visit to Dr. Satan's tree. Then things get weird. This film is virtually a collage of disturbing yet artistic visuals, in a morbid way, intermixed with some grotesquely colorful characters committing murder and mayhem and having an incredibly good time doing it. It's macabre, bizarre, gory, and ludicrous, this Rob Zombie masterpiece will be either loved or hated. Total insanity.

House of Fears [2007]


         
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A tour guide for a "fear" museum sneaks into the museum the night before its grand opening with a bunch of friends. Guess what happens? If you go into this knowing it's low budget with some not-so-bright teenagers and one contrived scene after another and all it's doing is trying to entertain you, it's really rather fun. Has that drive-in B-movie quality that I remember so well from my youth. Not particularly good but not as bad as you'd think.

Hostiles [2017]


            
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In 1892, a Captain (and veteran Indian killer) is ordered to escort a Indian Chief to Montana from New Mexico. As basically a member of the party, the viewer is privy to the very personal lives of everyone involved and, as a character study, there are very few films that manage this level of depth, performance and authenticity. The photography is stunning. However, this is not an action movie. If the characters and performances were not as compelling to watch as they were, this movie would have been like watching paint dry for over 2 hours.

Hunter Killer [2018]


            
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The submarine USS Arkansas, with a brand new Captain, finds itself in Russian waters in the middle of a Russian military coup and the new regime wants to start WWIII. Exciting military story involving submarines, destroyers, guided missiles, a black ops team, an attempted rescue, sniping, a mine field, etc. The story is well constructed, the characters were great ...except maybe Gary Oldman; featured prominently in the credits, all he really does is holler that we need to go to war. Beyond that, I found this gripping, exciting and very cool.

The Hot Rock [1972]


            

Donald Westlake wrote a series of very funny novels featuring Dortmunder, master thief who seemed to have everything go wrong on every heist. This film is faithfully based on the first novel and features a plan to steal a precious diamond that, due to bad luck and a comedy of errors, requires not one heist but several. Quite humorous and well thought out with great characters, this was probably one of the best caper movies of the '70's. Very fun.

House on Willow Street [2016]

aka From a House on Willow Street

            
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A plan to kidnap a girl and demand a cache of diamonds for her release takes a nasty turn when they find out they've interrupted an exorcism and the girl is the last person they want around. Not a particularly bad movie - plenty of jump scares, gnarly effects and a good, sinister atmosphere - but it really could have used better dialogue and something more original than the usual horror movie cliches that it relied far too much on. The climax wasn't anything to write home about, either. Generally entertaining.

The Hunter's Prayer [2017]


            
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An Iraq veteran / assassin / junkie is hired to kill a girl but decides to protect her instead. The confrontation scenes were very well designed and played out and thoroughly held my interest. The drama in between those scenes was quite lengthy at times as it seems that no one can just open their mouth and let the words out ...I kept wanting to reach down their throat and get them. Sam Worthington didn't seem like he was made for the role, as well. I thought it was a good enough movie ...I've just seen better among plenty of other similar films.

Hover [2018]


            

In the near future, a woman, who works for a service performing assisted suicides, begins to suspect there's a conspiracy between her work and farming drones. Having to sit through 2 drawn out scenes of assisted suicide wasn't bad enough, I had to wait 45 mins before she was even aware something isn't right and another 15 to find out what. The rest of the movie drags out a climax that's about as unexciting as it gets. Might have been a decent film if the pacing was improved and they put a bit more tension and excitement in it.

The Human Centipede (First Sequence) [2009]


         

A mad doctor attaches 3 victims, anus to mouth, to create a human centipede. This film is simply vile and revolting. I knew that going in but I thought there would be something about it that I might find entertaining - maybe a bit of camp, some humor perhaps, albeit possibly unintended, maybe a colorful character or two - but no, this film has nothing entertaining about it ...and I would suspect any individual who did find it entertaining. Pretty sick stuff! I think I'll skip Full and Final Sequence.

The Hourglass Sanatorium [1973]

aka Sanatorium pod Klepsydra

         

This makes no sense ...nor is it supposed to. Taking place in a "sanatorium" in Eastern Europe (which is nothing more than ruins), time has no meaning here. As such, settings, characters, even events are presented in an illogical progression practically every time someone steps through a door ...or crawls under a bed. The sets are fantastic, the characters were surreal and fun and, even though it started to get bogged down in the last 45 mins, there was never a desire to look away or turn it off. A truly fascinating fantasy that was well worth the journey.

How It Ends [2018]


         

When an inexplicable and catastrophic event occurs on the west coast of the U.S., two men head for Seattle to try and find their daughter / fiance. Without giving anything away, let's just say that the title becomes rather ironic once we get to the end. So, dismissing that, this is basically just a road movie with all the trials and tribulations you'd expect on a journey during the apocalypse. Pretty standard stuff but the acting was excellent and genuine, everyone behaved as you'd expect and it kept me fully engaged for nearly 2 hours. Not original but generally entertaining.

How to Train Your Dragon [2010]


         

Rather than kill a dragon, like the rest of his Viking tribe, a boy finds that dragons aren't as bad as he's been taught when he saves one. A Dreamworks classic that we just never got around to seeing, my wife and I were thoroughly amused and entertained. The characters and dragons are full of personality ...I loved the one kid who could rattle off dragon statistics like he's playing in some sort of D&D role playing game. Animation was awesome, as usual, and, although I don't recall any LOL moments, the dialog was quite humorous and touching. Kid friendly.

House of the Living Dead [1974]


            
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The title for this Gothic 'horror' movie tends to indicate that it's a zombie sequel to Night of..., but it has nothing to do with zombies. Taking place on a S. African plantation, a lot of terrible things seem to be happening and there's a mad brother upstairs extracting souls from various animals. Throw in a fiance and there you have it. Not a whole lot happens until the climatic twist - which I saw coming from a mile away - but it was an exciting climax. The bad ratings are understandable as it's solidly a product of its time but I grew up in matinees on this stuff so, I enjoyed it.

House of Bodies [2014]


            

Ponderously slow and uneventful story jumping between a cop interviewing a convicted serial killer in hopes of hunting down a copycat and a chat house that caters to online pseudo-sexual role playing that is being invaded by said copycat. There's nothing about this film that works ...no suspense, no tension, no sense of peril. It just looks like actors following a script in a movie with no style or technique. Truly a total waste of time.

House of Wax [2005]


         

On a trip to a big sporting event, 6 friends get stuck near a small town named Ambrose where practically everyone is nothing more than wax figures. I love this movie and I don't think it gets nearly the ratings it deserves. Except for a few elements from the Vincent Price version, this is not a remake but rather a whole new spin on the idea. Although the story and acting isn't much more than what you'd expect in a film like this, the gags are priceless and the practical effects are awesome. Brilliantly well made film.

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