Viewed October 20, 2006
In 1872, a ship called the Mary Celeste was found adrift off the coast of Portugal. The ship was completely abandoned and no trace of the crew was ever found. It was one of the great mysteries of the day and continues to spark the imagination and interest of authors […]
Viewed October 19, 2006
Scared to Death has the distinction of being one of only two films that Bela Lugosi made in color and the only one to have a color print survive to the present day. The story of the film is told from the perspective of a corpse (who was, no doubt, “scared […]
Viewed October 18, 2006
Mulan is a film that was created in the middle of Disney’s “second dark age”, the period following the release of The Lion King, the film considered by most to be the pinnacle of the “second golden age”. And it must be said that it suffers from some of the lackluster […]
Viewed October 17, 2006
Okay, so I get some of what Uwe Boll does. I get the whole make-it-cheap-and-fast thing. I get the whole cast-whoever-is-available thing. What I don’t get is the change-everything-about-the-storyline thing. After all, someone somewhere down the line had to have actually played the games that his films are […]
Viewed October 16, 2006
The Ghost of Frankenstein is the first of the Universal monster movies that I’ve seen that really disappointed me. A few good scenes and another quality performance as Ygor by Bela Lugosi make it worthwhile, but it’s just not on the level of the other films.
The story picks up several years […]
Viewed October 15, 2006
La Carrera Panamericana follows the 1991 running of the automobile race of the same name. The race was first held in the 1950s to commemorate the recent completion of the Mexican strecth of the Panamerican Highway. It was discontinued in 1954 because of too many deaths and other injuries. […]
Viewed October 14, 2006
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is really much more a Wolf Man movie than it is a Frankenstein film. In fact, it seems to ignore the continuity that was established in the “Frankenstein” series, acting as if the monster had not been seen since the end of the original 1931 film.
Lon […]
Viewed October 13, 2006
Freddy vs. Jason is exactly what you think it is: no more, no less. It’s a virtual non-stop parade of death and mayhem, with only a light sprinkling of thought and character.
Now, this is a film that was developed by focus group, if ever there was one. There’s clearly no […]
Viewed October 12, 2006
Sea Scouts finally fulfills the promise that the “nephews” series had in it all along. Huey, Dewey and Louie have shed most of their “little brat” attitudes and are much more like they were portrayed in the comics. Here, they are truly trying to be helpful to Donald, but their […]
Viewed October 11, 2006
Vampire Effect is, in many ways, a typical Hong Kong actioner with little originality or truly interesting aspects to make it stand out from a sea of lookalike films.
The story tells of a vampire hunter named Reeve (Ekin Cheng) who has not had much luck with assistants (they keep getting killed). […]
Viewed October 10, 2006
Scary Movie 4 is even more all over the board than the previous entries in the series both in the quality and the sources of its jokes.
The first odd thing about Scary Movie 4 is the filmmakers’ apparent insistance to maintain continuity with the previous film. The first twenty minutes of […]
Viewed October 9, 2006
Lara Croft: Lethal and Loaded tells the story of the creation and rise to prominance of the lead character from the Tomb Raider series of video games. It has a bit of a cheeky tone, but hides a bit of depth behind its veil of fluffiness.
Overall, though, it’s a bit too […]
Viewed October 8, 2006
Anyone who thinks Bela Lugosi was a one-hit wonder just needs to see Son of Frankenstein. Not only does it sport a ripping good story and beautiful sets, it features one of Lugosi’s greatest characters (and one that people seem to seldom remember he created): Ygor. But he’s no […]
Viewed October 7, 2006
In Old Caliente is a formulaic western starring a pre-Dale Evens Roy Rogers and his usual sidekick from this era, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes. The most interesting aspect of the film is the portrayal of racial tensions between the Hispanic populace and incoming white settlers.
It’s basically a typical story of treachery and […]
Viewed October 6, 2006
The Little Matchgirl is a straightforward adaptation of the sad story by Han Christian Anderson that tells of a poor girl, unable to sell her matches, who uses them to transport her to a better place.
This short is included on the new “Special Edition” DVD of Disney’s The Little Mermaid and it […]
Viewed October 5, 2006
Clockwise is an attempt to take John Cleese’s immensely engaging screen persona and translate it to the big screen in a starring role post-Monty Python. Unforunately, the main character is neither as irritating as his classic Basil Fawlty, nor is he as appealing as the later Archie Leach from A Fish […]
Viewed October 4, 2006
Dracula’s Daughter is the surprisingly good follow-up to the classic 1931 film Dracula.
The story picks up almost immediately after the destruction of Count Dracula at the end of the first film. (Although John and Mina Harker have disappeared). Professor Von Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) is found with the […]
Viewed October 3, 2006
Faust: Love of the Damned has got to be the worst comic book based film I have ever seen. Of course, the original Faust comic book was one of the worst comics I ever read, so I really shouldn’t be surprised.
The story, such as it is, involves an artist named John […]
Viewed October 2, 2006
Man, was that a disappointment. I didn’t really expect Casper to be a great film, and I had certainly heard some of the complaints, but I never expected it to miss the mark so completely.
I suppose that if the film were called anything else, it wouldn’t have bothered me so much. […]
Viewed October 1, 2006
Ever since I started this project I planned to watch a lot of horror movies during October. So, naturally, when the month rolled around, I promptly forgot and watched Sherlock Holmes in New York. Not that I mind, because I quite liked it. It’s just I had meant to […]
Well, no one posted mentioning my favorite TV Show is The Emperor’s New School (even after I mentioned it again in a review), so I guess I’ll keep my extra autographed copy of Plan 9 From Outer Space. (And I’m watching a lot of Hannah Montana these days, anyway.)
The Cars count is still at […]
Viewed September 30, 2006
I can’t even begin to go into the long, strange history of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation.* The short version is that in 1982, three kids of about twelve or thirteen years of age began remaking Raiders of the Lost Ark, shot-for-shot. Finally completing the film in 1989, […]
Viewed September 29, 2006
Okay, so maybe my Disney obsession is getting out of control. I mean, I know there’s more of the faux Bob & Doug McKenzie in Brother Bear 2, but did I need to see it so soon? Well, probably not. But it wasn’t bad and the addition of two […]
Viewed September 28, 2006
Bambi II is a film I honestly never thought they would make. I mean, it’s one thing to trot out The Lion King 2 or The Little Mermaid II or even Cinderella II: Dreams Come True. But a sequel to Bambi? Well, I prepared myself for the worst and […]
Viewed September 27, 2006
The only reason I saw Miss Grant Takes Richmond is because Turner Classic Movies decided to air it during a William Holden marathon. The fact that TCM had never aired it before should give you some indication of how obscure this movie is. Starring Holden before Sunset Blvd. (1950) and […]
Viewed September 26, 2006
I’m beginning to understand why I came to like Donald so much. If these cartoons are any indication, he was much put upon. In The Hockey Champ, Huey Dewey and Louie (they’re becoming omnipresent, aren’t they?) once again torment Donald and get the best of him because of his temper. […]