The Creature

I think that Werewolves are a bit underrated in the Horror genre. Most of the time, we are treated to Zombies, Vampires, Aliens, and large amounts of Monsters cause by various odd means, but Werewolves often got the short end of the stick. So, I decided to take a look at some werewolf movies recently and aside from an odd Jack Nicholson romance film, I found a film that is probably one of my favorite films of Werewolf lore, An American Werewolf in London.

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Personally, I think it’s about time I looked at some of the older MLP Generations. I do love G4 and what has spawned from it, but I always walk away from the previous generations often ignoring them as much as possible.
I could talk about the generation of MLP I knew growing up, but…

Yeah, I’m going to keep avoiding that.

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Throughout the course of Film Viewing history, we’ve always tried to find ways to help enhance our viewing experience such as IMAX, Scratch and Sniff Cards, Motion Seats, and the extremely annoying use of 3-D being used today. William Castle practically had a Career with enhancing his films by adding things in to his films. All of these and many more can be pretty much described as a way to either make the experience of watching a film better, or just paying extra for it. (The latter being the most obvious choice.) Which brings me back to one such experiment of enhancing films, Sensurround.

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It’s only a month before October, and with it comes…

I’m re-uploading the schedule as a FINAL Reminder of the schedule.

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When one thinks of the future, it used to be very positive and was seen to bevery happy and peaceful, but currently the only thing people think of the future is always of Decay and Destruction. Probably because of events that have happen throughout the world and many works of fiction that always tell of the End of World which most have always told of post-apocalyptic events that have destroyed a large amounted of the world whether it be Global Warming, Nuclear War, Zombies, or Machines gaining sentience and destroying the human race. This pretty much was help by a film series which I’m here to discuss: The Mad Max movies.
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When one thinks of the future, it used to be very positive and was seen to bevery happy and peaceful, but currently the only thing people think of the future is always of Decay and Destruction. Probably because of events that have happen throughout the world and many works of fiction that always tell of the End of World which most have always told of post-apocalyptic events that have destroyed a large amounted of the world whether it be Global Warming, Nuclear War, Zombies, or Machines gaining sentience and destroying the human race. This pretty much was help by a film series which I’m here to discuss: The Mad Max movies.

The series is one of the most popular and heavily influenced action series telling of a former highway policeman killing bad guys for vengeance and to survive the apocalypse. Its influence can be seen in almost any post-apocalypse film and helped launch Mel Gibson’s career. I’ve decided to take a look at the most popular film of the series: The Road Warrior.

The film follows Mad Max (Mel Gibson) after the events of an apocalypse and how he tries to survive with his busted Double Barrel Shotgun and his Dog while trying to find to one thing everyone wants: Gas. He soon gets lucky when he finds a small outpost with an oil rig inside, but they are soon confronted by a large gang of Thieves and Cannibals called lead by The Humungus (Apparently that’s how it’s spelled for the film) where their leader tells them that to surrender the gas to them or else they’ll all die. So, Max decides to help them out against the Humungus and his gang in exchange for some of their Gas.

Oddly, the plotline for the film is very similar to a Western.

Upon first glance it might be hard to see, but after a second viewing it became very obvious. It even follows some of the standard traits: A mysterious stranger entering a small town, the small town is threatened by a gang of thieves and smugglers, and the stranger helps defeat the thieves. It was a bit strange knowing that they plot had the same elements as a film like Django, but somehow it worked well in the film.

With any action film, fighting is an obvious requirement and for this series, we are treated to violent Car Chases.

The Car chases are definitely some of the best parts of the film. All of the cars in the film are designed to kill anyone they encounter with attachments like Metals Plates for protection, Long Spikes to impale victims, Flamethrowers, Bombs, Live People used as shields, and many other things that definitely made the chases all the more interesting. (I wouldn’t be surprised if George Miller got some ideas from Death Race 2000 for the movie.) They definitely stand out against earlier chase movies and will definitely entertain you throughout the film. Plus I’m probably not alone who will say that Max’s Pursuit Special is an awesome car.

The one thing that’s one of the most important aspects of the film is obviously Mel Gibson as Max.

It’s not very surprising on how Max has changed since the events of the first film when his family was killed. Before that, he was a normal person who fought against criminals as a Highway Patrolman in Australia. With the family dying, he became a bit like the Punisher and started killing the criminals mercilessly as a possible way of Vengeance.

In this, He is portrayed as a bit of a Burnt out Shell of a Man who is similar to The Man with No Name from the Dollars Trilogy, giving very little dialogue and does more actions to mainly help himself throughout the film. Eventually, he does grow some sympathy and decides to help the settlers against the Humungus, gaining part of his humanity again.

It definitely was a good start for regaining his emotions and Mel Gibson gave a great performance as the Road Warrior.

Another one of the more odd but iconic things in the film is the look of the film’s characters.

The characters in the film all wear heavy amounts of Leather, Make Up, and use of Bondage Gear make them look like Punk Rockers. The look definitely matches the character’s personalities since the Humungus’ gang only does three things: Kill, Rape, and Loot anything and anyone they come upon. Max himself also had a lot of Leather on him which did help give him the look of a badass. Although, I think it was weird that The Humungus reminded me of Jason Voorhees. (Most likely because of the Hockey Mask.)

Final Thoughts: This movie is awesome. Mel Gibson was great as Max, the action scenes were fun to watch, the style of the film was cool, the cinematography was great, and it was an overall great film to watch. It definitely is one of the cult classics that I think everyone should see, as well as the other two Mad Max movies. I’m not much of an Action Movie Fan, but I always get enjoyment out of watching the Mad Max series. (I hope the new one will be good, although it probably won’t hold up to the Trilogy’s reputation.)

In the ‘70s and ‘80s, the ideas of Breakdancing were being introduced to the world and were taking the world by storm on the streets with the increasing popularity of hip-hop music. With its increasing popularity, the movie Breakin’ was released in theaters worldwide in 1984.

The film told of a girl who gets into the world of Breakdancing and how they eventually grab the attention of some high society snobbish dance competition judges. It basically served as a way to show off a bunch of dance moves that are pretty forgettable even when you just saw them. It also set up a film genre that has been copied many other times down the road.

Less than a year later, the sequel was released and wasn’t met with much success except from some minor praise from a few critics like Armond White (Not Surprising) and oddly Roger Ebert. So, since I looked at the first film, I figured I might as well take a look at the film’s sequel: Electric Boogaloo.

We again follow Kelly, Ozone, and Turbo as they dance against a rival gang who is threatening their territory. Eventually, they realize that there local hangout is about to be demolished. So they decide to do a Fundraiser/Dance Competition to help raise money to save the building.

The plot of the film was pretty much the creation of the standard story-arch for some generic dance movies and bland sports movies, especially the whole idea of saving a beloved building. It’s been done many MANY times and it makes the film completely predictable. With that being the center plot point, you can guess the entire film just at the beginning.

Just like the first film, the sequel is filled with dance scenes.

They dance while competing against a rival gang, they dance to raise money for their recreational center, and they dance just because they’re bored. Pretty much, the characters just exist to dance. Much like the first film, the main purpose of the film is just to show off the dance moves. All I can really say is that they didn’t impress me very much. They looked like they belonged to the first film and they just used the ones that didn’t make it into the film.

The film, much like the first one, has a large use of Hip Hop throughout the film. The songs sounded a lot like the songs you would hear in the first film and were used only in the dance scenes. They were very generic and sounded all the same and I don’t think anybody would recognize any of them.

As I mentioned before, the characters in this film pretty much exist just to dance. We don’t get any development for Ozone, Kelly, and Turbo except for the fact that it’s hinted that Ozone and Kelly might develop a relationship together. In the end, it doesn’t add much to the characters. The construction company are generic villain characters who see it as a good thing that the building should be destroyed. Overall, they are all just as bland as a dry piece of Toast.

The film was known to start a bit of a trend. The subtitle of the film, Electric Boogaloo, apparently started up trends of films having a ridiculous subtitle which also suggests that the film was entirely pointless or unsuccessful and it’s been often used and parodied many times. Oddly, this was the one thing that I thought was interesting about the film.

Final Thoughts: It’s Dull. It’s pretty much the first film with a partially different situation. There’s not much else to say about it really. It was basically was just a film that exists for no real reason. I don’t think Breakin’ even did well enough to warrant a sequel…Let alone a third film…which I’m probably going to look at some time soon.

In the ‘70s and ‘80s, the ideas of Breakdancing were being introduced to the world and were taking the world by storm on the streets with the increasing popularity of hip-hop music. With its increasing popularity, the movie Breakin’ was released in theaters worldwide in 1984.

The film told of a girl who gets into the world of Breakdancing and how they eventually grab the attention of some high society snobbish dance competition judges. It basically served as a way to show off a bunch of dance moves that are pretty forgettable even when you just saw them. It also set up a film genre that has been copied many other times down the road.

Less than a year later, the sequel was released and wasn’t met with much success except from some minor praise from a few critics like Armond White (Not Surprising) and oddly Roger Ebert. So, since I looked at the first film, I figured I might as well take a look at the film’s sequel: Electric Boogaloo.

We again follow Kelly, Ozone, and Turbo as they dance against a rival gang who is threatening their territory. Eventually, they realize that there local hangout is about to be demolished. So they decide to do a Fundraiser/Dance Competition to help raise money to save the building.

The plot of the film was pretty much the creation of the standard story-arch for some generic dance movies and bland sports movies, especially the whole idea of saving a beloved building. It’s been done many MANY times and it makes the film completely predictable. With that being the center plot point, you can guess the entire film just at the beginning.

Just like the first film, the sequel is filled with dance scenes.

They dance while competing against a rival gang, they dance to raise money for their recreational center, and they dance just because they’re bored. Pretty much, the characters just exist to dance. Much like the first film, the main purpose of the film is just to show off the dance moves. All I can really say is that they didn’t impress me very much. They looked like they belonged to the first film and they just used the ones that didn’t make it into the film.

The film, much like the first one, has a large use of Hip Hop throughout the film. The songs sounded a lot like the songs you would hear in the first film and were used only in the dance scenes. They were very generic and sounded all the same and I don’t think anybody would recognize any of them.

As I mentioned before, the characters in this film pretty much exist just to dance. We don’t get any development for Ozone, Kelly, and Turbo except for the fact that it’s hinted that Ozone and Kelly might develop a relationship together. In the end, it doesn’t add much to the characters. The construction company are generic villain characters who see it as a good thing that the building should be destroyed. Overall, they are all just as bland as a dry piece of Toast.

The film was known to start a bit of a trend. The subtitle of the film, Electric Boogaloo, apparently started up trends of films having a ridiculous subtitle which also suggests that the film was entirely pointless or unsuccessful and it’s been often used and parodied many times. Oddly, this was the one thing that I thought was interesting about the film.

Final Thoughts: It’s Dull. It’s pretty much the first film with a partially different situation. There’s not much else to say about it really. It was basically was just a film that exists for no real reason. I don’t think Breakin’ even did well enough to warrant a sequel…Let alone a third film…which I’m probably going to look at some time soon.

Back in the ’80s, Comic book publishers often put their characters that would be often psychologically torment them and would be involving some kind of tragedy. Aside from DC having Batman, Marvel would use this often with one of their newest comics of an antagonists turned anti-hero: The Punisher.

The Punisher is a US veteran turned vigilante who turned to fighting crime after his wife and two children were killed by the mob and often used his various and large amount of weapons and originally existed to take out Spiderman. He floated a bit in the same boat as Batman at times, except when Batman had a thing against killing people, The Punisher had absolutely no problem doing so and often times enjoyed it.

From time to time, he would appear in Animated Shows and he eventually got a film adaptation which was the second Marvel character who got an adaptation, unfortunately the first was Howard the Duck.

The things you’ll hear about this film are mostly negative which isn’t very surprising for the majority of films created before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was created. Add in the factor of it being an 80’s action film where muscle-bound actors like Schwarzenegger and Stallone ruled the screen and you get an odd comic adaptation. This will be interesting.

Frank Castle (Dolph Lungren) is a former police officer who turned to vigilantism and has donned the name “The Punisher” after his family was killed in a mob hit. With a killing streak of 125 years, he has become an extremely wanted man while waging a one man war against organized crime. With the arrival of a Yakuza gang who kidnap a mafia group’s children, the Punisher is convinced to save them.

…

Well, it’s pretty obvious what the main problem of this and the other early Marvel films are: They had no idea what to do with their Heroes.

Howard the Duck got the Fish out of Water plot, Captain America looked like a weak asshole, and they gave the Punisher the job of going after children aside from going after the Yakuza gang instead. It’s very out of character and it doesn’t make him as intimidating as he should be.

Another thing that the film tends to do is almost abandon or change their backstory. The only thing that this film that this film had in common with the original comics is the fact that Frank Castle is the Punisher and his family is dead. Aside from that, they pretty much make up everything on the spot along with all of the characters in the film. Overall, it ends up being a completely poor use of a comic book character.

Besides, would you trust this man to take care of your kids?

Picking an action star like Dolph Lungren to play The Punisher isn’t very surprising.

With a Comic series like the Punisher, it’s almost expected for it to happen, but there were some problems with this performance. Sometimes I could barely make out what he said and he acted like he was possible drunk at times. He sounded a lot like if you mixed Schwarzenegger’s voice with Stallone’s voice. Although, he didn’t really give a bad performance as I might be hinting at, it could have been much better. Besides, I think Reb Brown could have been an awesome choice since he’s had some superhero experience as Captain America in the ‘70s.

The action scenes in the movie were incredibly dull. They were very predictable and could determine the outcome of all of the scenes. It basically ended up being Dolph just holding his finger on the trigger and never missing a single shot while the bad guys missed all the time. Plus the film barely showed any of these action scenes. There was a few in the beginning, one in the second act, and a final fight against the yakuza. It ended up as an Action film without the action.

Final Thoughts: This was Bad. I couldn’t enjoy any aspect of this film. The Action was dull, Dolph was dull, and it’s one of the Marvel films you wish didn’t happen. Somehow, I barely got more enjoyment out of the other two Punisher films than this one.

So, we recently get another horror musical that mainly follows in the slasher film style and it has Meat Loaf in it…Sounds Interesting enough for me to take a look at it.

A girl named Camilla aspires to become an actress, following in the footsteps of her mother. Until one day, her mother gets murdered after a production of the Haunting if the Opera. Ten Years Later, Camilla and her brother are now cooks at Center Stage, a summer camp for theater students while being raised by her mother’s former lover Roger McCall (Meat Loaf) who runs the camp.

The camp musical director decides to do a Kabuki version of the Haunting of the Opera. While stirring up bad memories, Camilla auditions for it and gets the lead role. Meanwhile, a man wearing a Kabuki mask stalks the campground and starts killing off the campers one by one.

I guess Sgt. Kabukiman isn’t a fan of Musicals.

If you know about plenty of musicals, you’ll notice that the film has some minor references to them. The most obvious is that the play is a gigantic reference to Phantom of the Opera as well Camilla being a lot like Christine Daae from the Phantom, Although she doesn’t have the singing abilities as Ms. Daae…or the likability…or the talent.

The Songs in it are similar to in style to Les Miserables where they mostly talk while singing. They don’t do it as often as Les Miserables though. Actually, they barely sing at all in this film. Plus they tried to make some of them Rock songs, mainly with the villain, but they ended up falling flat. You’d think that Meat Loaf would get a solo song since he’s the only person in this who could sing well, but he only gets parts of only two songs in the whole film. He barely gets any screen time and I ended up thinking that I could watch his song in Rocky Horror Picture Show and it would be longer than every minute he’s in this movie.

One of the biggest issues of the film is the slasher aspect. The Film has the proper set up for a standard slasher film along with a bunch of its typical tropes, except the sex, but it takes at least Forty minutes for the Slasher aspect to start going in the film and it’s not even worth waiting for it.

Plus with it being a slasher, we obviously get a villain for it. I’m not going to give away too much, but all I’ll say is that the killer’s songs are terrible and he just lingers around until the third act of the film.

If there’s one thing that the movie has right is the characters act like they come right out of a slasher film. The majority of them have no personalities to them and the ones that do aren’t very likeable characters and you can’t wait for them to get killed off.

Overall, this was really bad. The film could have had so much potential and could have been great, but unfortunately any idea of that was not found in this at all. Meat Loaf was pretty much wasted, the songs were lackluster, the characters weren’t interesting, the slasher parts were very dull, and it was overall a film not really worth watching. If you want a Horror Musical to see, skip this and watch Repo! The Genetic Opera, The Devil’s Carnival, or The Rocky Horror Picture Show instead.