What's that, Skip? Lots of shit movies on Foxtel?

One of the joys of housesitting at my parents' house is partaking in the unlimited trash that is Foxtel. In between the South Park marathons (seasoned with a dash of Jerry Springer and a hint of the Girls of the Playboy Mansion) I have had the opportunity to watch quite a few movies. The following is a list of some of the films I have seen (or seen most of) in the last few days.

• Empire Records

Classic film that I had failed to see many times before despite being told it was a must by many friends. I am so glad I've seen it now. I love Liv Tyler.

• Boy Eats Girl

Hear me out on this one. I like zombie movies and thought this would be a bit of a laugh. It's an Irish film. However I was disappointed - it's not funny. I turned it off about two-thirds of the way through.

• The Omen (remake)

I probably should have seen the original first, but I hadn't. Nonetheless, this was a good little film about a messed up little child. Mia Farrow is excellent as the creepy old lady who looks after him.

• Green Street Hooligans

A full-on drama starring Elijah Wood of Lord of the Rings fame, whose character is kicked out of Harvard and moves to London, only to get caught up in soccer hooliganism at its worst. Good movie with a slightly different subject matter, however the fight scenes are pretty brutal.

• The Grimm Brothers

I knew it was bad. I'd been told by friends and reviewers alike not to see it. But I love hearing about the darker aspects of fairytales, and I do like Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. I watched about two-thirds of it. It was bad. Don't see it.

• The Butterfly Effect 2

I knew this one was bad too, but I loved the first one so much I thought there might be elements of coolness in this one. There wasn't.

And a couple I saw at the movies over the weekend:

• I Am Legend

Unlike Dan, I had forewarning that this was actually a zombie movie. I love zombie movies, despite the fact that every zombie movie that comes out these days seems intent on copying the 28 Days Later style of hand-held cameras and gritty realism. This movie was good - the zombies were fantastic and quite scary. However I have decided I don't like Survivor-style movies, simply because of the long, drawn out scenes with no dialogue. I'd probably give this movie three stars if I were a reviewer.

• Alien versus Predator: Requiem

This was a last-minute, off-the-cuff decision when I Am Legend was full the first time we tried to go. Being a little boy at heart, I love Alien and Predator movies. We didn't expect much, and we received very little in return - it was atrocious. The best parts were the alien and predator fight scenes - lots of detail and quite vicious - and the worst parts were, well, everything else. It would appear the director (whose name I had never heard of before) and the actors (same same) decided the digital characters were the stars of the film. The plot, acting and, well, everything else was atrocious. We walked out thankful that we hadn't paid for the tickets. It was fun though :) Two stars.