zanghi_james

It's like the Inception trailer says: 'What is the most dangerous parasite? An Idea. An single idea can rewrite all the rules and change the world.' And this is a great idea: A horror sequel that doesn't stink.

There are some good horror sequel films, Halloween Two and Friday the 13th Part Two definitely come to mind. But is there such a thing as a great horror sequel film? Maybe Scream Two can live up to that title.

Set some time after the events of the first movie, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is still pretty traumatized from the Woodsboro Murders, not helped by a dramatized true crime book by Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) and a poorly done movie adaptation called 'Stab'. Now in college, Sidney is trying to move on with her life as an acting student with a new boyfriend and some good friends. But at the premiere of Stab, two bodies drop courtesy of a Ghostface killer copycat. Then come the calls again. And more bodies. But with Billy Loomis and Stu Macher dead, who could be doing the killings? And what is their motive?

Wes Craven does it and does it good with this film. I really enjoyed it and it's got some good thrills and chills. The returning cast is fantastic and I love how they mature and grew from their experiences from the previous film. Most of the comedy revolves around the wacky relationship of Gale and Dewey, though there is some great physical comedy with how the new killer gets his ass kicked again while attempting to kill Sarah Michell Geller. The screenplay is great, too, as it keeps you guessing as to who the murderer(s) are right up to the climax again, and it's a great twist and tribute to another horror movie.

All I can say, really, is this is a fantastic horror sequel. Love it!

Stay Scared!

(Review is based on the Scream Factory blu-ray release of both the theatrical and director's unrated cut.)

If you know me, I am a bit of a Zack Snyder fan. I enjoyed his DCEU films and his Netflix productions I found to be quite enjoyable, also. I've followed his career with interest since hearing his name in this film's production credits.

By the way, I have not seen the original Romero masterpiece of Zombie gore and horror that this directorial debut is technically a remake of. I am aware that this film helped revitalize serious zombie productions and influence things like The Walking Dead Universe, 28 Days Later, World War Z, the Resident Evil series, and even Romero himself with his Land of the Dead film, and I appreciate that big time.

This film is very different than all of the Zack Snyder productions I have watched, though. There's very little slow-motion action scenes and little-to-none heavy CGI sequences. It also just feels different than a typical Snyder flick in 2024. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I had a lot of trouble getting into this film.

True, the opening sequence is great and the title sequence set to 'When the Man comes Around' is a great choice. After the survivors hole up in the Mall, it gets a little dull, until they decide to escape to Steve's boat after the Zombie Baby scene. The story gets a quite a bit more intense then, especially when they put their escape plan into action. The last 20 minutes or so are horrifyingly intense and, of course, the mid-and-post-credit sequence is chillingly grim, but it also kills really any chance of rewatchability.

The characters are okay. Most are likable, but Ty Burrell's performance as the thoroughly detestable smart-aleck known as Steve is about as bad as Joaquin Phoenix's atrocious performance as Napoleon Bonaparte. To me, it was a deal breaker for me with this film and I was quite satisfied when he gets killed off.

The score by Tyler Bates has some good parts, but it's Zack Snyder's choices of songs that make this film great. It's not just the use of Johnny Cash for the title sequence, it was the whole use of Richard Cheese's spoof of Disturbed's 'Down with the Sickness' that is brilliant for a montage, then using the actual song for the credits was great, too. Hearing those raw lyrics against the end credits just lends a new feeling of nightmarishness to the film.

One thing I found interesting, also, was the depiction of the Zombies. Instead of having them being shuffling slow ghouls, they are almost demonic in their snarling and feral in their attacking people. The practical effects and makeup they used for the zombies is gruesome and brilliant and lends a great level of horror to the film.

All in all, this was a solid directorial debut for Zack Snyder, who has had a lot of great (albeit controversial and polarizing) films afterwards. Nevertheless, despite this film being such, I think this is my least favorite Zack Snyder film, so far.

Stay Scared!

(Review is for the version from Scream Factory's deluxe boxed set edition of Friday the 13th movies.)

Okay, I know a lot of people like to compare Friday the 13th to Halloween, but we need to realize that Halloween is a masterpiece and its sequels are actually pretty good in various aspects. On the other hand, Friday the 13th is basically a rip off of Halloween and not a very good one, and the sequels so far are not really good. These are basically the straight-to-video versions of Halloween.

Now for the actual movie. First off, the kills in this movie are gruesome, yeah, yeah, and Jason gets his iconic hockey mask, too. Big fat hairy deal. Now for the stuff I didn't like about this movie:

• The utter stupidity of the characters is back. These characters are absolute morons and not very likable morons, too. I'm almost glad that Jason slaughters them like pigs. At least in Part Two there was some character development outside of the character of Jason, not to mention some good acting.

• Depiction of Jason as a deformed and potentially mentally handicapped individual with little-to-no rudimentary understanding of life and death. As a man with Autism, I think depicting killers with severe mental problems is a bit of an insult.

• Harry Manfredini's score sounds like a rip-off of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' background music.

This was a really stupid movie. Much like Blumhouse's 'The Hunt', it will gather dust on my shelf for the majority of my life. I will probably show it off on movie nights, but not routinely watch it. I mean, I have my sanity to think of, people.

Stay Scared!

Interesting, I found this a bit more enjoyable than the first one.

I knew most of the twists, mainly that Jason would become the main killer of the franchise in this installment (Thanks to Wes Craven and Scream: The Original), but there were some nice pleasant surprises throughout.

The score from Harry Manfredini is a bit more interesting than the main theme from the first movie. It has a more creepier set of themes, but it still it has the traditional Friday the 13th theme in it.

The cast are all actors I have never seen before, but I seemed to care more about the characters than the ones that were in the first installment. It was nice to see Alice, but I was pretty bummed she got killed off in the first scene. I really liked the couple of counselors who consisted of a nice girl and a cool guy in a wheelchair, and I thought they both died poorly. Also, if you factor in the fact that the final scene reveals that Ginny was the only other survivor of Part Two's massacre, then a cute dog got killed off, too.

The kills are pretty inventive and, at times, rather hilarious and crazy. The part where the guy in the wheelchair got killed and was rolled down a flight of stairs in a rainstorm was pretty cruel. Also, the ending jump-scare scene was a bit more cheesier than the first part (and Carrie).

So, in short, I kind of enjoyed this one.

Stay Scared!

Well, when we last left the FBI team investigating with Will Graham, we had just learned of the disappearance and presumed death at the hands of the Chesapeake Ripper the trainee known as Miriam Lass and found a severed arm of hers.

The story continues talking about the Chesapeake Ripper, who we now know (as the audience, not the characters) is Doctor Hannibal Lecter. A body missing a kidney is found and Will seems convinced that it was neither the Ripper who killed the poor man nor a copycat killer from earlier in the show. But more bodies begin to drop and these ones seem more likely to be victims who have run afoul of the Ripper. Meanwhile, whilst planning an elaborate and delicious dinner party, Hannibal meets with several people in his life to discuss their relationships with him.

As usual, Mass and Hugh do a fantastic job and the script is nicely written. Fishburne and Dhavernas take a backseat in this story, but they have good scenes. I fast forward over the scenes with the guy who plays pitiful Franklyn but I can tell his buddy Tobias is a bit more interesting.

The music in this episode really shines, too, with a stunning solo opera piece done on camera by a magnificent singer, but also fine choices of recorded music, too. The harpsichord piece that plays to the opera piece in this episode is haunting, too.

Stay Scared!

Okay, let me start right off and say that if you know me, then you know I am a born-again Zack Snyder diehard fan and I enjoyed the majority of the films in the DC Extended Cinematic Universe. I was definitely looking forward to Ben Affleck's Batman solo trilogy of films, the first of which would have had Batman squaring off against Deathstroke, played by Joe Manganiello, and probably also would have explained some of the details that were left unexplained in BvS and The Snyder Cut, mainly about what happened to Robin and why Wayne Manor is a dilapidated burned out shell of a house.

When I heard that Affleck was walking away from making the movie and that Matt Reeves was directing, I was a little apprehensive, even though Reeves has shown he is an exceptional movie director having done two of the Planet of the Apes prequel movies with Andy Serkis. Then I heard that Reeves had his own plans for The Batman movie and he threw out Affleck's amazing script (which I hope someday could get made into a Graphic Novel by DC Black in the future) to write his own script, and I was a little more apprehensive. Then I heard that Reeves was making his own separate universe aside from the DCEU/DCU, and I gave little thought to the movie. After hearing some good things about it, I checked it out on HBO Max and, to be honest, it took a little time for me to warm up to it, about one or two viewings, at least.

But, you know what, this movie is definitely a great Batman movie.

The movie itself draws heavily on the detective aspect of Batman, and shows him as a street-level vigilante who has been active for about two years. His character is full of rage and he makes an occasional mistake or two, but he learns from his mistakes throughout the film and grows from it. Robert Pattinson does a fine job as both Bruce and Batman, and I find the reclusive persona of Bruce is an interesting persona to portray for this character. It makes sense, too, since Bruce has just started out as Batman and is more focused on that part of his life than balancing his dual identities. However, when the action and violence comes, Pattinson plays that part of Batman to the hilt. Much like Bale and Affleck, he depicts Batman as an unstoppable force that no criminal should mess with.

Zoe Kravitz is also amazing as Selina Kyle, and draws heavily off her normal origin story from the majority of the comics. She is sensual and beautiful, but also is able to deliver some kick-@$$ scenes of butt-kicking. Zoe and Robert have great chemistry together, and I hope she returns for Part Two, if it gets made.

Jeffrey Wright's depiction of James Gordon is basically how he was depicted in The Dark Knight trilogy, but he still manages to do it well. He plays a good-hearted tough-guy cop, though we don't see anything of his family life, and I hope we get to see what that is like in the sequels.

Andy Serkis also does a great job as Alfred Pennyworth. There are some scenes that show how great of a father figure his character is to Bruce, especially one mid-way through the film that had me tearing up as a result of the interaction between him and Bruce. I also like how they reveal that Alfred was originally a member of the Circus (Not Ringling Brothers. John Le Carre fans know what I'm talking about), giving him a similar backstory to his character from the shows Gotham and Pennyworth.

Paul Dano is savage also as Edward Nashton/The Riddler, for the most part. He shows unbridled rage and anger for the people he is hurting, and the way he is depicted invokes imagery of not just the Zodiac Killer from our world, but also John Kramer from the Saw franchise (albeit not as twisted). Ironically, David Fincher was one of the choices to direct Batman Begins, and instead he did a movie about the Zodiac murders investigation.

The other villains shown in this movie are pretty well-cast also. Colin Farrell is literally unrecognizable as Oswald Cobblepott III and John Tuturro plays the role of Carmine Falcone to the hilt. I just wish that they had more time in the movie, especially Tuturro given how his character ends up. However, Farrell is getting a spin-off miniseries and will no doubt return for Part Two, also.

Aside from the fantastic casting, let's take a moment to talk about Michael Giacchino's score. Until recently, I've really only heard his works for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and mostly dismissed them as one-hit-wonders or forgettable pieces, most notably his work for the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies. However, his work on this film is utterly mind-blowing. Much like in the Dark Knight Trilogy, he uses two themes for the titular character, one for Batman, one for Bruce, and both are awesome. The rest of the score, including the inclusion of Franz Schubert's 'Ave Maria' as the Riddler's theme, is great too.

This is definitely one of the best Batman films ever made. Am I bummed it wasn't the Batfleck movie? Yes. But did I enjoy this movie and am eagerly awaiting the sequels? Yes to that, too.

Stay Scared!

The episode introduces one of Batman's oddest villains: The Clock King, who is motivated into criminal activity after one bad coffee break causes him to descend into madness and seek revenge seven years later against the man who ruined him.

Okay, first off, this is a fairly comedic filler episode, but it has a couple of dramatic moments to add some tension.

The villain, the appropriately named Temple Fugate a.k.a. The Clock King, (instead of the traditional normal name of the Clock King as William Tockman), is excellently voiced and plays his role as a comedic Silver Age-style villain to the hilt as a punctual and clock-themed villain.

Really, the episode could have been longer, maybe a two-parter like Cat and Claw or Feat of Clay, because it ends very abruptly. However, it is able to establish the entire character of Temple Fugate fully as an interesting villain. They definitely draw inspiration from the concept established in Alan Moore's 'The Killing Joke', that supposedly one truly awful day can mess you up big time and drive you insane.

It's a classic silver age story with a little modern age ideas to butch it up. I really enjoyed it.

(Review is for the Scream Factory release of the Original Cut that is 117 Minutes long)

The original Exorcist film definitely set the bar for horror movies, though I found it not as good as John Carpenter's Halloween or Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. So, after watching it I wasn't too sure how the sequels would be.

However, The Heretic seems to be an interesting yet extremely uneven sequel to the original film. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.

The movie is set about four years after the Georgetown incident with Regan McNeil. Following a possessed woman killing herself by immolation, the church re-opens the investigation into the deaths of Damien Karras and Lankester Merrin, the two priests who saved Regan's soul. Father Lamont, who was assigned to exorcise the possessed woman, is now assigned to handle the case. His investigation takes him strange places and he meets strange people.

Okay, first off, then-young Linda Blair gives a great performance as troubled Regan MacNeil. I hope she is able to top it in the upcoming Blumhouse legacy sequel by David Gordon Green, by the way. Richard Burton does a great job throughout the film as a troubled priest grappling with his faith. Louise Fletcher is pretty good as a mother figure to Regan, while James Earl Jones is woefully underused throughout the film.

The imagery throughout the film is pretty creepy, but standard stuff. The two music pieces that Ennio Morricone are both beautiful and creepy. Also, the climax is almost exactly like the climax to The Conjuring Two in parts, so I wasn't too surprised in scenes.

Not a half bad film, though. If you must watch it, I recommend getting the blu-ray edition from Scream Factory, not just for the good picture, but also for the extended cut.

Stay Scared!

(This review will be for the extended cut of The Punisher)

In these frustrating days of happy and funny superhero films where all the problems are tied up with a neat little bow, where there is over-indulgence in heavy CGI explosions and expositions, and where there is ridiculous over-use of comedic situations that water down dramatic stories, it's really great to know that there are some quite darker comic book action movies that still exist. Jonathan Hensleigh's 'The Punisher' with Thomas Jane is high on that list.

The movie moves quite solidly for the most part. There's the opening act where Frank Castle's undercover op of an illegal gun purchase causes a mobster's son to be killed, causing the paranoid mobster Howard Saint to lash out in revenge by slaughtering the entire family of Frank's and leaving him to slowly die. Then comes the parts where Castle tears apart all of Howard Saint's organization, pushing the mobster to the limits financially and to the edge of his sanity, and finally there is the chilling climax (made even more bleaker when you watch the extended cut that includes the subplot with Jimmy Weeks) which still makes my jaw drop. The Extended cut doesn't bring extra violence, though, but it does expand the story very nicely.

Aside from the excellent acting from pretty much the entire cast, one aspect that really sells this film is the music. The score is an instant classic, invoking imagery of classic spaghetti westerns by Sergio Leone with Clint Eastwood starring.

Don't get me wrong, though, this movie is DARK. While Frank Castle's actions are heroic to a point, you know he has basically become the villain as well by the end of the film. Thomas Jane does an exceptional job as Frank, playing him with professional military tactical skills that invoke imagery of various films from the eighties with Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Willis, and Bronson. You almost feel sorry for his victims, but then you are reminded of who they are and you get a satisfying feeling when Castle puts them down.

Sadly, this is the only official performance of Thomas Jane as the Punisher. We'll probably never see him reprise the role, even after the excellent 'Dirty Laundry' short, even with the immense meta-multiversal route that Marvel is insisting on going down with its cinematic universe. Fortunately, I hear that Jon Bernthal does a magnificent job filling that black and white t-Shirt of Jane's, but I have yet to watch it on streaming.

Excelsior!

Well, given that the Arrowverse is officially over with the final season of 'The Flash' airing a few weeks ago, I figured (after some deliberation) that it wouldn't hurt watching the entire Arrowverse and related DCTV Properties show by show. Since I have already also watched Seasons One and Two of Arrow and didn't want to rewatch them on DVD again, I decided ultimately to start by watching Season Three of the popular action/superhero show.

The action is pretty excellent. I've always enjoyed how Green Arrow/Oliver doesn't fight like other archers I've seen in media, like Legolas or Clint Barton, he uses his fists and martial arts and even the bow itself as a melee weapon, which I think greatly expands his character.

Acting-wise, the Oliver/Felicity romance takes a typical cliche bump in the road to happiness in this episode, but they make it seem not so cheesy. I'm also glad that Diggle and Lyla have a kid, now, and that I find it interesting that Diggle decides to take Oliver's advice at the end of the episode. The new Count Vertigo, played by Peter Stormare, is woefully underused and is essentially a rehash of Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow. Roy is also sadly underused in this episode, only really providing plot advancement when they need to handle a serious threat to Starling City. The new owner of Queen Consolidated seems interesting and the actor choice to play him is a great choice. For the flashbacks, I thought the Yamashiros were interesting people, but Amanda Waller is pure ice. She seems a little more openly nasty and sadistic than Viola Davis' cold performance in the soon-to-be dead DCEU.

Oh, and that ending with Sara and Laurel? Yikes.

(This movie review is for the extremely rare extended cut of Dune by 'Alan Smithee' and 'Judas Booth', which I have been lucky to have found on the Steelbook DVD)

Frank Herbert's seminal science-fiction novel of revenge and ecology has often been compared to the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, only instead of a sweeping fantasy epic, it's a sci-fi epic. It's also considered to be one of the hardest books to adapt into movie format (not that people haven't tried before and after this adaptation), probably because of its dense narrative and the multitude of characters and organizations in it, not to mention that the book has also multiple sequels that greatly expand the expansive universe already established in the initial novel.

The David Lynch adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel is, as I state in the headline, perhaps one of the most divisive book adaptations ever made. Many diehard fans of Herbert's novel dislike the movie, and many of Lynch's fans consider it to be either a success or a failure. So what do I think of it?

Well, after watching the SyFy channel's miniseries adaptation, reading the actual book, and watching Denis Villeneuve's adaptation, I would say Lynch's adaptation is both a success and a failure at various points.

The casting is pretty well-done for the film, though Kyle MacLachen is kind of wooden as Paul Atreides compared to Kyle Newman's and Timothee Chalamet's performances in the other Dune productions. It's the rest of the cast that shines. Jurgen Prochnow, Max von Sydow, Kenneth McMillian, Jose Ferrer, Freddie Jones, Francesca Annis, Sian Phillips, Alicia Witt, Sean Young, Brad Dourif, and Patrick Stewart and everyone else plays their roles to the hilt, though in the final fifty minutes of the extended cut the cast kind of starts acting over-dramatically. Some of the actors are also woefully underused, like Sting as Feyd Rautha Harkonnen and Virginia Madsen as the Princess Irulan Corrino, while certain characters from the book, most notably the Fenrings, are either composited or omitted entirely.

The script to the movie is the problem. Basically, the extended cut is a three hour film that devotes about ninety percent of the story to the first third of the Novel, then speeds through the other two thirds in less than fifty minutes. The narrative is unbalanced in other words.

However, for a mostly three-hour film, it's still pretty good, despite the rushed and over-dramatic final act. While the special effects are not the best in comparison to other 80s sci-fi and the sandworms look like a mobile version of the Sarlacc monster from 'Return of the Jedi', the sets are quite impressive and the costume design is excellent. Also, the score by rock band Toto is actually just as iconic as the Star Wars theme by John Williams and is much easier to remember than Hans Zimmer's techno-thudding-and-beating for Villeneuve's Dune.

All in all, If you can find it, I recommend finding the extended cut of Lynch's Dune on DVD. It's a worthwhile addition to any sci-fi nerd's collection, despite the divided opinions of it.

I'm a supporter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that has become one of the biggest franchises out there. The first three phases were great, but there were some flaws. Most notably the performance of Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk/Bruce Banner in Endgame turning the Hulk into a calmer personality seemingly permanently and diminishing his power and rage.

Let's be honest, you think of The Hulk, you think a rage-filled goliath-monster, and if you have read comics like World War Hulk and related material, you expect Hulk to do some massive collateral damages to populated areas.

And in this movie, he did that damage.

Ang Lee's Hulk movie was terribly received when it came out with people claiming it was just too dark, too grim, and too artistic in comparison to the then-usual superhero fare. When it first came out and I watched it on DVD, it was hard to watch. I didn't have the appreciation nor the understanding of Superheroes that I do now, sadly. This is definitely a film that aged well, at least in terms of story and a few other elements.

The acting in this film is pretty impressive. Eric Bana does a incredible (yes, pun intended) job as Bruce and portrays him as an introverted guy with serious trauma issues. Jennifer Connelly wonderfully portrays Betty Ross with compassion and warmth. Sam Elliott is perfectly cast as General Ross, a role he really deserves to reprise in the official Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nick Nolte's unhinged and deranged performance as the bad guy is jaw-dropping. It's about on the same level as unhinged as Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor or Heath Ledger as The Joker. Why can't Marvel do villains that psychotic anymore?

Also, Danny Elfman's music is magnificently underrated. It's as good as his Spider-Man and Batman scores. Really good stuff. However, the cinematography of this film takes a little getting used to. The Computer Animation didn't age well in comparison to recent films, also.

Still, this is a much better Hulk movie than the majority of his performances in the MCU (well, minus the first Avengers performance). I only hope that one day we'll see a Hulk like this one on the big screen in the MCU.

Excelsior!

(This review will be for both the Theatrical and the Producer's Cuts of Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers Expect the occasional spoiler here and there.)

Following the disappointing experience of 'The Revenge of Michael Myers', and knowing that this is the sixth film in the series as well as how poorly rated it was, my expectations were not incredibly high for this film. I had done my research and read the majority of the plot, so I knew most of the twists involved in the film, so I didn't expect the film to be too good.

I first watched the Theatrical Cut, which is very much a typical Halloween gore-fest at first with a sci-fi twist at the climax. Then, about two days later, I watched the semi-ultra-rare Producer's Cut, which is pretty much the same movie until the third act. It expands a bit more on the characters, potentially giving us more information about who Danny's father is if you use a little imagination to fill in the blanks, but the real fun begins when the third act begins at Smith's Grove Penitentiary, which basically turns the film into Rosemary's Baby and The Omen meets Stephen King. Throw in that chilling ending, and it's a much more satisfying production.

The acting is pretty impressive for most of the characters, especially in the Producer's Cut, though the kid who played little Danny was basically less emotional than Danny in The Shining. Donald Pleasance is, as usual, a solid performance with a few surprises as Dr. Sam Loomis. Paul Rudd plays a slightly creepy and obsessed adult version of one of Michael's early surviving victims from the iconic first film by John Carpenter, but when you watch the full movie, you will see that his creepiness is a bit of a coping mechanism and he's just as heroic as Ant-Man. The actor who plays Kara Strode is a good final girl, much more interesting than Tina in Halloween 5 (I know Tina died in Halloween 5, but she's basically the Final Girl of that film) and more like Rachel Carruthers and Laurie Strode mixed together. The man who plays The Shape this time around does a good imposing and scary performance, though not as good as the Blumhouse Halloween Michael Myers or the original movie's Michael Myers. The scene-stealer of this movie for the bad guys is the guy who plays the mysterious man in black from Halloween 5. I won't reveal who it is, but it's a nice twist. The sad thing though is that Jamie Lloyd's character arc is resolved with this production, and not in a good way. I felt bad for her, since I really loved Danielle Harris' character in the first two films and the girl who played her in this movie did a not-too-shabby job either.

The music and cinematography does a good job, still, though certainly not as good as the original.

Really, aside from Jamie Lloyd's story ending, the only thing about this movie I didn't like is that both cuts of the movie end pretty openly and since Halloween 7 is a soft reboot that negates Halloween Four, Five, and Six, I don't know how it will be resolved, especially after watching the Producer's Cut. It would have been cool if the next Halloween production (now that Blumhouse's trilogy is done) would do a continuation from this one. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

At any rate, this was a solid and enjoyable Halloween production. I'm going to keep watching the rest of the series, too.

Stay Scared!

I enjoyed the Halloween productions that came before this, with one exception.

The original by John Carpenter is a true masterpiece.

The first sequel written by Carpenter and Hill is a good follow-up to the original.

The Return of Michael Myers I thought was quite enjoyable and lived up to the first two Halloween productions.

So, naturally, I had some relatively good hopes for The Revenge of Michael Myers. And unfortunately, those hopes were dashed within minutes.

As I state on the title of this review, this is an incredibly uneven sequel that truly makes its mind up on narrative.

The costume design for Michael is really unrealistic looking this time around, even more so that the Return of Michael Myers. He is almost un-intimidating in his appearance in comparison to earlier (or later) productions. Also, the infamous Captain Kirk mask of his in this film just looks...kind of blah. Like the costume team wasn't even trying.

The camerawork is pretty bad too. You can clearly see that the production team didn't have a big budget in comparison to the first three Michael Myers productions. It just screams 'late eighties' and 'made-for-TV-movie' to the point where it almost resembles shots from Mick Garris's adaptation of The Stand, only much less impressive.

The acting from most of the characters are good. The guy who plays Michael this time around tries, despite the bad costume design and the blah-looking mask. Donald Pleasence, as usual, steals his scenes as does Danielle Harris with hers. Rachel Carruthers is tragically killed off and her party-girl BFF, Tina, attempts to take up the torch of Jamie's protector and fails miserably well before her final scene.

The climax at the Myers house between Jamie and Michael is really the only creepy part of the movie, but even that gets kind of ridiculous, especially after Michael is trapped in a chain-link net trap that just happens to be there.

Alan Howarth's score is also pretty pathetic in comparison to the original film's hair-raising score. The music is pretty bland and does little to enhance scenes, and actually kind of wrecks some scenes.

The ending was interesting, though. The Man in Black with the Steel-Tipped Shoes was a creepy antagonist and I wonder how the story goes with Curse of Michael Myers, which I will have to sit through twice as I have both cuts of it.

Stay Scared!

Since the beginning of 2022, I've been watching more and more horror films. Probably one of the best classics I saw over this year was John Carpenter's Halloween, which I have recently learned came out well before Friday the 13th. John Carpenter's Halloween is much better.

The first shot alone is a heavy rip-off of Halloween's iconic opening. And from there, it just gets weird instead of really scary. Finally, when the killer is revealed as, yeah, I'm just going to pull a Gene Siskel and say who the killer is (besides, anyone who has watched the original Scream by Wes Craven knows that twist anyway!), the psychotic Pamela Voorhees, there are some other Halloween rips like the reveals of all the dead bodies, much like the infamous reveal in Halloween with the tombstone on the bed.

Unlike Halloween, there is much left to the imagination outside of the killings. There's almost zero character development, plus the scenes with Mrs. Voorhees attacking Alice and Mrs. Voorhees being possessed by Jason's vengeful spirit is pretty contradictory in comparison to his silent monster portrayal in the rest of the franchise. I really felt nothing for the characters as they met their ends.

That ending twist is a nice touch, though...too bad that Brian de Palma thought it up first for Carrie!

This is a really god-awful production that should only be watched once, but that's more than enough.

Basically, the movie is two idiots named Drax and Mantis travel to Earth for Christmas and kidnap Kevin Bacon to impress another idiot character.

Much like Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, this could have been a great set-up for X-Men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Kevin Bacon returning triumphantly as a variant of Sebastian Shaw from Matthew Vaughn's iconic masterpiece: X-Men: First Class. Instead, we got a beyond-stupid movie that is far more Disney than Marvel.

This really sucked. I'm really done with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This is probably the point of the Show where it becomes less of a contained episodic production and more of a inter-linked episodic production.

The plot is seemingly simple with Eddie Izzard's character of Dr. Gideon , a psychopathic killer who is incarcerated at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, killing a night nurse in a gruesome manner similar to that of the notorious serial killer known as the Chesapeake Ripper, causing the press to start wondering if Gideon IS the Ripper. However, the plot rapidly grows complex as it is steadily revealed that Gideon is lying and the Real Ripper is still out there, and he's tormenting Jack Crawford with his failure to catch him.

This is an important episode, not just because of the plot, but also it introduces two key characters in the series: Dr. Frederick Chilton and Miriam Lass, an FBI trainee who gets to close to the Ripper case. Chilton, who many of the movie fans will remember as being one of the biggest slime-bags out there, is just as slimy in this production, if not more so. Miriam Lass is a clear composite of Clarice Starling, but with a different fate at the moment.

Great atmospheric episode that doesn't rely too heavily on the gore-art as the previous ones.

#stayscared!

(As there are three different cuts for this film, I shall be reviewing the only one I prefer: The Redux Cut)

Set during the height of the Vietnam War, a young and troubled U. S. Army Captain who specializes in essentially off-the-books special operations for the CIA is given a 'real choice mission': to assassinate a respected Green Beret Colonel who has gone rogue with a small army of fanatically loyal soldiers into the depths of the Cambodian jungle. He is joined by a group of young soldiers on a small patrol boat on a trip up a river that can only be described accurately as a totally nightmarish descent into the deepest circles of Hell.

This movie is very much completely different from The Godfather Trilogy of films by renowned Director Francis Ford Coppola. Everything about it is different from the Godfather films, and that is great because it shows you how skilled Coppola really is. A lot of times with directors like Nolan, Snyder, del Toro, Shyamylan, even Spielberg, most certainly Kubrick, you can recognize cinematic styles throughout their films that set them apart from other directors. However, Apocalypse Now is quite different from the Godfather trilogy. Different composer, different camerawork, entirely different roster of actors (save for Duvall and Brando), this film is very different and I love that about it.

Acting-wise, this film has a lot of great actors giving great performances, both veteran and then-newbie actors. Martin Sheen, who I have grown up watching as the lovable and cool President Josiah Bartlett from Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing, is at times frightening and grim as Willard. Brando, despite only being in about thirty to forty-five minutes of the film, magnificently dominates each scene as a man who has reached his breaking point yet has desperately tried to carry on as best as he can. His performance as Kurtz is just as good as Vito Corleone.

The crew of the boat are all notable as well. Laurence Fishburne, who I have enjoyed watching immensely in The Matrix Trilogy and Bryan Fuller's Hannibal series, is nearly unrecognizable as young Mister Clean. The guy who plays Chef really nails the performance of a high-strung man who is not suited for the horrors of traumatic combat, while the guy who plays Lance is both a tragic fool and a lovable kid who is trying to cope with the horrors he is seeing as best as he can, but not the best way.

Also, Dennis Hopper has a nice cameo as a Manson-like photojournalist but Scott Glenn is utterly wasted with his handful of scenes as Richard Colby. Harrison Ford's cameo was more interesting than Glenn's, and I wish that someday Coppola releases the full workprint cut of Apocalypse Now which reportedly greatly expands the character of Richard Colby.

Also, Robert Duvall's character brings up imagery of Coppola and screenwriter John Milius' screenwriting collaboration in the form of the biopic of George Patton. Duvall's Kilgore would probably get along with a fascist like Patton along with Tom Berenger's Barnes from Oliver Stone's Platoon.

The cinematography, like the Godfather Films, is gorgeous. Shooting the movie in the Philippines was an interesting choice for Coppola, though I heard it was not recommended by most. Also, Carmine Coppola's score for the Redux version was satisfying and mostly memorable, but what really makes the soundtrack incredibly unique is the use of Jim Morrison and The Doors' dark poem in song form known as 'The End'. Such a fine song to use for a Vietnam War film with so many layers.

I tried to watch the original theatrical cut, which I have heard in the past people say is better than Redux, but I just don't see it and couldn't finish it. Too much is edited out from the theatrical cut and the Final Cut that is important in the Redux Cut. However, that is only my opinion, please do not let it entirely influence your viewing positions on which cut to watch primarily.

So, all in all, this is a welcome change from the Godfather trilogy. I highly recommend this film, but a word of advice: See it through to the end or don't see it at all.

(BTW, this is a review for both versions of the film i.e. Part Three and 'The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone'.)

When guys like me think about Francis Ford Coppola, you think the Godfather trilogy based on the book by Mario Puzo (who co-wrote all three screenplays for Coppola, appropriately). Most people love to praise the first two films for the original being the best film ever made and for Part Two for being the best sequel ever made as well as love to hate the finale, Part Three, for being such a poor sequel.

But is it really?

In my somewhat humble opinion, it is not.

When I first watched it on DVD back when I was a young teenager, true, I found it not as good as the first film and it was hard to follow the plot. Now it is 2022, and I am able to appreciate this film fully in both its forms.

PLOT SUMMARY: The film starts about ten years from the events of Part Two. Michael Corleone has become a respectable businessman back in New York, primarily helping run his family's foundation. At a lavish party to celebrate him receiving a major award from the Roman Catholic church, Michael reunites with the loyal yet illegitimate son of his older brother Santino: Vincent Mancini. As he personally educates young Vincent to be the potential new Don Corleone, Michael and his corporation attempt to make a big deal with the Roman Catholic Church's real estate company known as Immobiliare. Naturally, there are several forces opposed to Michael's attempt to take control of the Vatican company, but he steadily begins to uncover a conspiracy against him and is torn over taking direct action to protect himself and his family.

CAST REVIEW: Despite Robert Duvall, John Cazale, and James Caan not appearing, even in flashback form, this film's cast is quite impressive and gives other characters who were relegated to tertiary roles in the first two films finally time to shine like Al Neri, Calo, Connie Corleone, and Michael's now-adult kids.

Al Pacino does a great job, as usual, as an older and supposedly wiser Michael Corleone, who is trying to make amends with his family and friends, including Diane Keaton's Kay Adams. Speaking of whom, Diane Keaton gives a great performance also and the scenes with her and Michael in Sicily almost make you believe the two can reconcile.

I loved how Talia Shire had evolved from a spoiled rich kid to a much more competent, and quite frankly, ruthless character, in this film.

Vincent Mancini, the son of Lucy Mancini (the bridesmaid Sonny Corleone had an affair with in Part One), is played smoothly by a sexy Andy Garcia, whose character has inherited his father's temper but is able to control it better than Santino did. Garcia evokes imagery of Robert de Niro in Part Two's flashback storyline, basically acting as a Robin Hood-like mafioso who works hard to protect the various people of the neighborhood.

Eli Wallach's Don Oswaldo Altobello (who, interestingly, is Connie's godfather, but this is his first and only appearance in the whole trilogy), at first is portrayed as a slightly bumbling and shuffling character, but he soon reveals that he is quite a villain.

Sofia Coppola I actually loved as Mary Corleone and cannot find out any problems with her personally so I think she deserves more love for her performance. Her character is a little weird, since she is quite happy to have a physical relationship with her first cousin.

Franc D'Ambrosio as Anthony Corleone was a good performance. I enjoyed his operatic debut at the climax. If Francis had been able to make part IV of the Godfather, though, I bet there would have been some storylines with him and Vincent fighting for control of the family and maybe Anthony might have walked away as the new Don.

Joe Mantegna, who I really have only seen in the early episodes of Criminal Minds (which were good performances), shows how well he can play a slimey modern-day mafioso. If you know your Italian mob history, at least in terms of Cinematic Depictions, he's modeled after guys like Joe Gallo. His performance as Joey Zasa is pretty enjoyable.

George Hamilton, while he is able to command some scenes, is essentially a throwaway version of Tom Hagen as a background character. Kind of a bummer, since Robert Duvall's Tom Hagen has grown on me and I liked how one of the many screenplays would have had Hagen either working as an informant in the Corleone family or would have had him and Michael repairing their fractured relationship. I wouldn't have minded seeing that with Pacino and Duvall.

Other great minor performances include the Donal Donnelly as the sniveling Archbishop Gilday; Enzo Robutti as the sinister Licio Lucchesi; Al Martino returning as Johnny Fontane; Raf Vallone as the ill-fated Cardinal Lamberto (Loved him with the scene between him and Michael in Sicily); and Mario Donatone is brilliant as the master assassin known as Mosca.

STORY REVIEW: The focus is primarily on Michael Corleone's whole attempt to go legitimate. But the real hook is the whole the Vatican storyline, which heavily references the real-life event known as the 'Thirty-Day Pope Conspiracy' about John Paul the First's seemingly mysterious death. Also, much like Parts One and Two, there is a climatic sequence where simultaneous murders happen. However, I'd say it's much more well done than Part Two. With the whole opera sequence edited in with the deaths, it's pretty amazing, and almost holds a candle to the Baptism scene in Part One.

SCORE REVIEW: Some really great pieces all over and the whole Opera sequence is great. I don't know if it's a real opera or if it was made up for the movie, but it's great.

THE FINAL OPINION: It's a great film. You don't really need to watch both Part Three and The Death of Michael Corleone re-edit to enjoy the whole story, but if you have to choose, I'd take The Death of Michael Corleone re-edit, if only for the better picture.

Nine Stars out of Ten.

(This is a review for the Scream Factory Edition of Halloween 4 on Blu-Ray and 4K UHD Disc)

I was not impressed with Halloween III: Season of the Witch. So much so that I really couldn't finish that film.

Now that that is all out of the way, let's get into Halloween 4 and the Return of Michael Myers. I found it to be a quite satisfying sequel to the initial two Halloween films.

Not to say that there are some continuity problems with the main storyline with those first two films. The most notable is the fact that the film doesn't explain how Dr. Loomis and Michael Myers were able to survive their total immolation in Halloween 2.

That being said, this film is great late 80s horror-filled fun. The majority of the characters are far more likable than the ones from Halloween III, both new and returning. Rachel Carruthers is a cool final girl whose character evokes imagery of Buffy Summers. Her relationship with the other Final Girl, Jamie, also evokes imagery of (appropriately) Laurie Strode and the two kids from Halloween she protects from her psychotic stalker. Knowing her fate in the next few movies, you can't help but feel sad for poor little Jamie. She really got dealt a raw hand, I would say, by fate.

Donald Pleasence, as usual, though, is fantastic in his performance as troubled Doctor Sam Loomis. He has some great scenes, like the scene in the Diner where he pleads with Michael to leave Haddonfield alone, and of course the quirky scene with the super-eccentric Reverend Sayer and him singing 'We'll gather by the river' and having a grand ol' time bro-ing out. I'd say both those scenes really show Loomis' human side of kindness and compassion instead of his determined side to destroy Michael Myers.

The actor who plays Michael Myers a great job, too, even if his mask isn't as scary as the ones used in the originals and the Blumhouse Trilogy by David Gordon Green. His kills are more than a little graphic, most notably when he rips old Earl's throat clean open with his bare hand as well as the scene where he fully awakens in the ambulance. I'm sure that there is an explanation offered eventually in Halloween Five or Six as to that strange vein/burn on his hand.

Finally, nice shout out to the guys who played Sheriff Meeker and the vigilante group of redneck knuckleheads who organize to take down Myers once and for all. Just goes to show that country don't mean dumb, as Gary Sinise famously says in The Stand.

As usual, the music helps accent the terror in the scenes and there's some good camerawork. The action scenes and kills are well done, also. Finally, the climax and the ending is fantastic sequel-bait. Can't wait to watch The Revenge of Michael Myers!

Stay Scared!

The first animated appearance of Jonathan Crane, a.k.a. The Scarecrow, the notorious fear-themed villain from the comics. His plan for revenge against those who have 'wronged' him and his deranged research is actually pretty basic, but the actor who voices him makes him rather nefarious and spooky. I really think he was a great choice for Crane, right up there with Cillian Murphy in the Dark Knight trilogy of Nolan's.

The real draw for the episode is the sub-plot with Bruce getting drugged by Crane during the opening heist, causing him to hallucinate and hear his father's voice saying that Bruce has disgraced the Wayne family name by being a billionaire playboy. This leads to a good scene with Alfred being an excellent father figure to Bruce, as usual, plus the utterance of one of Batman's most classic lines when he confronts the hallucinations at the climax.

All in all, a very satisfying episode that sheds light on the Animated Universe version of Bruce Wayne and Batman.

Okay, this episode is not as good as the earlier introductory episodes for, say, Catwoman or Mister Freeze or Clayface. Let's just clear that right up at the moment.

However, it does have some good points here and there.

Bruce Wayne has a bit more screentime then Batman in this episode, with Bruce also showing some of his detective skills without having to wear the cape and cowl.

The main plot of the story is a classic revenge, albeit with a deranged twist. The villain, Poison Ivy, is very much a looney-tune in comparison to her usual depictions in both comics and other media. Her ranting about the 'blood of flowers on the hands of Harvey Dent' is quite hilarious, actually. I'm all for protecting Earth's environment, but Ivy's a little out there.

Probably the least best episode I've watched yet of The Animated Series. But still enjoyable.

Okay, I want to establish that I know the whole backstory about this movie. That John Carpenter was originally intending this whole franchise to be an anthology series with a totally different horror movie to be released each Halloween and none of them would involve Michael Myers/The Shape. I know this film has a nice solid following. I know this film is considered now a cult classic.

I've tried to watch the whole film on blu-ray and I just couldn't get into it.

It's probably because of that cliffhanger ending with the Doctor pleading into the phone to have the commercial turned off. Since I read all the trivia and full plot summary here on the database, I know that he is reportedly unsuccessful and the world runs red with the blood of children. Kind of depressing storyline.

Also, I just found the characters not engaging enough and just plain one-dimensional. Maybe that was the point, but as a guy who likes character development and evolving storylines, the characters just couldn't grow on me.

On the plus side, this film does have a nice creepy message about mass media and consumerism. It's sort of like Watchmen (The Graphic Novel) where Adrien is looking through commercials in Karnak to examine future trends for his company. Also, Carpenter and Howarth's score is not too bad. It oddly makes me think of Vangelis' pieces for Blade Runner.

All in all, I guess I find the various Shape storylines of the other movies much more engaging and interesting. Sorry, John Carpenter, I couldn't enjoy this film. Loved the music, though.

Stay Scared!

The six Middle-Earth films by Peter Jackson are some of my all-time favorite movies, so when I heard that Amazon Studios were producing a TV show about Middle-Earth and Peter Jackson nor the rest of the creative team from the six-film saga weren't working on this project, I was a little nervous.

Then I heard that the show would not be directly connected into the movies, and I was a bit more nervous.

Then came the trailer campaign, and my nervousness started to dissipate.

I was a bit shocked at how much this production cost Amazon, and I was really worried, though.

Also, with Amazon's earlier foray (The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan) into the realms of dark fantasy was an absolute failure in my opinion, but that's just my opinion, so I was worried that this would turn out the same way.

Wow, was I wrong. This pilot episode alone is great. Morfydd Clark does well as young Galadriel as does Robert Aramoyo as Elrond. The other characters, like the Harfoots, are very intriguing and should be interesting to learn about. The special effects and CGI are cinematic worthy. Bear McCreary's score is worthy of Howard Shore. The dialogue is great. The costume design is impressive. I'm hooked. I love it.

I'm sticking with this show. Can't wait to watch the next episode!

What can one say about 'Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope' that anyone hasn't said already? It's one of the most iconic sagas of all time as well as an immense achievement in so many other factors. It changed our perception of science-fiction and fantasy in film forever.

It really changed a lot of things, but it also was influenced by many things also. George Lucas has repeated said that Darth Vader's persona was heavily influenced by Marvel Comics' Doctor Doom character and the story itself is influenced by Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. Certainly, also, one cannot deny the influence that Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, and Edgar Rice Burroughs had have on Star Wars' conception as well, to say nothing of the immense influence of Alejandro Jodorowsky's troubled production of attempting to adapt Frank Herbert's iconic novel of ecology and revenge: Dune. I still wonder if Jodo had been able to film his Dune production, would George Lucas had even attempted to make Star Wars and if he did, would it have just faded into obscurity under the awesomeness of Jodorowsky's Dune?

Whatever the case, 'Star Wars' is still the best. The only problem I have with it is that is heavily diluted now because of Disney and LucasFilm making so many unnecessary spin-offs and sequels with no clear plan or over-arcing story.

May the Force be with You!