Sleeping Beauty (2014)

So much average

Overrated

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Apart from the terrible acting from an okay cast and some dodgy directing, this isn't too bad a story. As a film though, it's only average.Though the cast has B-Movie king Casper Van Dien (who directed this flick), Catherine Oxenberg, and Michael York listed, their worth in this film is minimal. The real bad thing is their lack of spirit is tangible. Poor York is the narrator and appears to have literally phoned his part in. There's no emotion or feeling in his voice; something which is a basic requirement in a narrator. Even though, Van Dein and Oxenberg, as Sleeping Beauties regal parents, are asleep for the majority of the movie they actually appear to be sleepwalking in their "awake" scenes.Even Olivia D'Abo who has a meatier role as the evil witch, Queen Tambria, ofttimes appears to be a somnambulist. The best actors in this little play are the Kings whipping boy, Barrow (Finn Jones) and the Prince Jayson (Edward Lewis French) along with his heavy Gruner (Gil Kolirin), and his soldiers.What this film really appears to be is an exercise in how many Van Dien's you can get on the screen in one film... that would be all of them. Most families would have a picnic... the Van Diens make a movie.The one thing that did surprise me was the location. For one, it actually worked. It even reminded me a little of the Hammer House Of Horror sets of far-off European principalities - it even came with a graveyard and earth clawing walking dead. Even the inside locations were decent. It was a delight to see proper stone walls. I would love to live in that mansion come castle.That said, there were a lot of gaping holes in the story that Dien should have ironed out when filming. For example, there's one scene where Prince Jayson sends Barrow up the castle walls to secure a rope through the only open window. Instead of getting him to check the place out while he's up there, he orders him to come straight down and they will camp in the courtyard, for the night. Then later the next day, they're being chased by dead warriors and climb the rope to escape only to find it leads to a balcony, with no entrance into the castle... hhhmmm, if only somebody had looked around before then they wouldn't be in this predicament. I cannot believe they were so stupid back then. This is bad writing and directing.There are some nice beasties in the film, though you can see when the budget started to run low. The lake monster is pretty good, as is the one which scales the outside of the building the first night they're there. However, near the climax of the film, the same monster is looking pretty funny and quite unrealistic as it prowls the dungeons.On the whole, this film could have been a hell of a lot better had the "Quality" cast put the effort into their portrayals of their characters... the story had been tightened and all the holes filled... and ropey special effects thrown onto the cutting room floor. You shouldn't rely on CGI if the budget won't carry it, find another way round to entertain the audience.If there's very little on the telly and it's miserable outside then you could give this a try. It'll waste an hour and a half.

This is a adult movie, not a kids movie. Warning do not let your kids watch this unless you want them to see walking dead zombies.The movie is what it is, which is a modern adult themed interpretation of a Disney classic. I got this for my wife because she wanted the Disney version, but we had a hard time finding that one anywhere, so I grabbed this for her in the mean time. I could tell from the cover that it was going to be a B-movie, but figured it would be an OK movie.Well, the wife watched it one day when I was at work, and when I came home she was smiling and grinning, saying I really had to see this movie.It has zombies and just the right amount of gore, which make it worth watching, Compared with other movies, I think this movie would have made Maleficent, look like a B-movie if it had its special effects budget.I give it an 8 out of 10, and say with the right mindset going in, you wont be disappointed Its like a Chronicles of Narnia mixed with a little of the Night of the Living Dead

So So Bad. Waste of money and time. Acting is so bad it makes you cringe. So many plots and plans that just do not make sense. It's comical but in a very bad way. How can EVERY Actor in this movie get it so very wrong? Who wrote the Lines, 6 year old? Most probably the worst movie I have ever seen and believe me after going back to watch the old Batman & Robin Drama with the 'BOOMS' & 'CLASH' that is saying something! Ridiculous from start to finish. Maybe for 4/5 year olds but certainly not for anyone older, let alone teenagers or adults. The movie industry must have a lot of money to waste to bring out this trash. So much potential just wasted.

So, Casper Van Dien (of Starship Troopers fame) decided to feature his daughters in a fantasy story. And he expects us to buy this crap? Where do I start? Poor acting. It seemed like everyone, even Casper Van Dien himself wasn't serious about this movie. From start to finish, all I see are actors and actresses with expressions made of wood, vocal tones as stiff as a rock and movement/positioning as bad as a fish in a fish trap. It's like watching a high school theater production, except those are acceptable because they didn't ask for payment, much, this is supposed to make money. The only actor who actually made an effort (and way better than they rest) was the horrible Prince Jason. I actually cheered for him in all his horridness because the others all sucked.Bad directing. Not only is one actor/actress make such woeful effort, everyone was equally bad, some more than other, including Casper Van Dien himself. To think that this was Johnny Rico? The positioning of characters and the timing as well as actions of characters also showed that the director didn't have much of an imagination. For example, instead of having the evil queen fire her magic bolts at the guards to push them away, she could've just incinerate them. She's an evil queen, isn't she? Make her evil. This movie made the villain look pathetically powerless and not evil enough.Weak and corny script. There's not a single line of script that was at all inspiring. Most of them were very much annoyingly corny.Last, what with the way the actors/actresses fall when the curse started? The way they fell was not at all natural. It was as if they were told to fall down and they tried to find the best position to lie down without feeling tired/sore or feeling pain. You were sleepy, you were supposed to fall, weakened, so fall properly. Not even Casper Van Dien and his wife was at all convincing.Let's look at the scene at the river/lake (I couldn't tell for sure, they said 'lake', but the lake looked too small to be a lake, more like pond). You stabbed the water monster with a sword, wounding him, but there's not even a trace of blood on your sword? What, do all water monsters have water for blood? The lack of blood is a continuing issue. They killed many things, yet there was no sign of blood on their swords. What? Let's look at the part where the corpses burst out of the ground. Anyone with half a brain can see that the corpses were buried less than 1 foot below ground. Heck, they were probably just put in a shallow depression and then had dirt piled on them, like a new grave, instead of a grave that was supposed to have been there for years.The narrator did his job well, but then again, his voice was sparse. A good narrator does not tell a good story, at least in a movie.The only thing I can praise about this movie is the beautiful setting. I can see that much work has been put into making it, but the acting skills of the actors/actresses, the weak and corny script and weak directing make it all worthless.What are you doing with this piece of crap, Casper Van Dien?