The new Rob Zombie film feels pretty much like all the old Rob Zombie films, which can be both a compliment and a curse.

Listen, i really want to like Rob Zombie as a film maker.  I really do, and I really try.  

Much of House of 1,000 Corpses is great, but then there are parts that are just terrible and senseless.

The Devil's Rejects is easily his best and in many ways, is simply a great movie, but then again, it has its share of flaws and "misses'.

From there, well...it's tough to really say he's made a decent movie since.

31 isn't going to win him any new fans, but ti shouldn't lose him any, either....because, well...it's basically the same characters, many of the same actors, playing the same parts...in a way.

Dialogue is once again hit and miss, with just way too many overly drawn out back and forths, overacting, bad acting, and of course, meaningless banter that goes absolutely nowhere.

There is opportunity here for what could be a great flick, if you like mindless violence and long, drawn out intense situations.  But most of the opportunities are missed, IMO.

The "plot" or whatever you want to call it here, is...uh...stupid?  Fucked up?  Senseless?  I mean, if there was some backstory on what and why this is gong on, sure, i can buy in to fucked up shit for the sake of mindless violence, kills, and super creepy characters, but there's none, and because of that, this makes no sense at all.  There's no rhyme or reason for any of the Antags to be doing what they're doing, and if you think about it, I don't see how they could even pull this off, based on where it takes place.

Richard Brake is menacing as the main bad guy, but even his performance is wasted, based on the fact that his role of final big ultimate baddie comes in a against a diminished and injured group of survivors, and his weapon(s) of choice are simple switchblades...not to mention that he's a little skinny fuck, who most guys of any size and strength, could fuck up pretty easily.

I didn't hate this, but I sure wanted to like it alot more.

Grade - C/C-

I quite liked Lords of Salem, had a sort of trippy 70s vibe to it, will no doubt catch 31 on Flix or Amazon at some point, won't be rushing now   

I liked the opening scene and the last 20 minutes or so. Basically all the scenes with Richard Brake. In spite of Zombie's dialogue, Doom-Head totally won me over.

The rest was more or less shit though. Easily Zombie's worst-looking film. The action is all shaky-cam and people screaming incoherently to the point where it feels like the whole film was edited in a blender. Other times, the filmmaking is actually pretty good, which makes the bad parts even worse, as Zombie can clearly do better and has no excuse making scenes so unintelligible.

Also, some of the most pathetic villains I've seen in a while. So much shit-talking and no follow-through other than locking people in rooms and saying they'll come back later. Most of them actually end up crying and begging for their life. Textbook bark being worse than one's bite.

Overall, though, classic Rob Zombie. Some golden moments. Some absolute dogshit. What else is new?

Quoted from Dreamscale The new Rob Zombie film feels pretty much like all the old Rob Zombie films,

Which is.... horrible.

I like some of Rob Zombie's music, because when I was like 12 I listened to it. So, I have somewhat of a soft spot for him.

However all of his movies are awful. I go into them wanting to like them, I give them a chance, but they all suck.

He's not that bad of a director, but he's a pretty bad writer, which kills everything he does.

Does he bankroll his own movies?

Quoted from TonyDionisio Does he bankroll his own movies?

No. But he gets money due to his name. His first movie, House of a 1000 corpses was a studio film, made with Universal, I believe.

I read in an interview he was complaining that he had a low budget for this one, around 1.5 mil.

I've seen it since my first post...

Rubbish, made no sense, over acted, badly written... and what on earth is Malcolm McDowell doing!

Quoted from AnthonyCawood ...and what on earth is Malcolm McDowell doing!

He was in the Halloween movies. So, probably a favor.

I know, so you'd think he'd know better!

Quoted from AnthonyCawood I know, so you'd think he'd know better!

I once saw an interview with Tony Todd, most people would know him from the Candyman and Final Destination movies. In it he said:

-"A lot of people ask me, how come I'm in so many bad movies? I don't think people understand that I'm a working actor. I need to work. We don't get paid as much as people think and I've got kids to put through college and bills to pay. Every check counts."

So, I would also assume, a lot of actors don't mind a few extra grand for a few days work.

While guys like Bruce Willis get paid like 5 mil for a week to do a movie. A lot of actors you've seen in stuff but not stars get paid like 8K to do an episode on a TV show these days. There are a lot of shows and a lot of actors. Plus the value of actors in terms how much they are worth, how big of a selling point they are for a show's, movie's success has gone down a lot in the past decade.

Have you seen some of the rubbish Willis has been in lately, I hope he's spending it wisely!

Quoted from AnthonyCawood Have you seen some of the rubbish Willis has been in lately, I hope he's spending it wisely!

I'm sure he's not too worried about the criticism, I think he has a deal with a company called EFO Films that pay him 5 to 8 mil per movie. He spends anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks on set for these films. They use the same director, crew. He's the key selling point for this company to sell the movies outside of the USA. At the end of the day, it's the movie business, I'm pretty sure nor Bruce, nor the producers care about the quality of the work just that it brings in the money. It's a business. The bottom line matters.

Quoted from Demento No. But he gets money due to his name. His first movie, House of a 1000 corpses was a studio film, made with Universal, I believe. I read in an interview he was complaining that he had a low budget for this one, around 1.5 mil.

Yep- and then Zombie's cut made Universal to sell the film to another studio(Lionsgate) Which is how Devils wound up at Lionsgate. After the bad Halloween fils,Zombie's films usually go VOD.