I don't remember how I heard about these movies. I just know I found a bundle for them at Walmart and bought them off of some half remembered memory of the name.
Feast: What we have here is a goofy movie with an interesting premise. A bar of random people, each given a silly nickname and bio as they are introduced, is attacked by a group of monsters. Said monsters seem to be motivated by two things: eating and procreating. Base emotions but a workable motivation. What follows the initial attack is a series of the usual arguments, gross out effects, and the eventual survival of a small handful of protagonists. Overall, a decently fun movie. I did appreciate the fact that they play with assumptions with actors and roles in the movie. To say more on that would spoil the fun.
Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds: Taking place the day after the first movie, we have the beasts taking on a nearby small town. The survivors of the last movie are back (minus the two bigger actors, who I assume were to expensive to rehire). Along for the ride are a set of new characters to watch and hate. Really, not a lot of likable characters in this one at all. We get more of the stupid nickname/bio stuff, more monster vomit melting people, and more monster cum shots. This time around, there is more of a lowbrow humor than the last, as well as less of the horror element. Part of that is due to actually seeing the creatures better this time around. The movie has a sort of anticlimactic ending, where it all leads up to something that doesn't happen. Still fun, but less than the last entry.
Feast 3: The Happy Finish: Once again, set immediately after the last movie. once again full of bios, vomit melt, and monster semen. Survivors of the last movie, with the requisite surprising return, try to escape town. This time there is the indication that the monsters can be controlled. Kind of an interesting plot element. This movie is also the worst of the bunch. Nearly no horror, almost all camp. I mean, we have an action star who loses his arms and is told to walk it off. Let me reiterate...he loses his arms, survives this, and is told to stop complaining about little things like that. Blech. One thing I had a love/hate relationship with was the ending. It was funny, and random. It also felt like the writers had no idea what to do with the thing, so they tossed some random element in and called it good.
A movie series that started out strong, and lost steam as the movies went along. It could almost have been a Troma series, if the production values and humor had been worse. I like how the movie started with a decent motivation for the monsters (revenge plus primal nature). I like how the first movie feels like a good monster siege with some interesting twists. I do not like how the following movies proceeded to lose that edge in favor of fart and sex jokes. I do not like how the initial revenge motivation just sort of drops off in favor of stereotyped characters and stupid jokes. I sort of like the ending of the last one, in that it makes me laugh when I think of it. But, I also dislike it for making me laugh when I want to be thoughtful or intrigued after a horror movie. overall, i can't say these are worth picking up. Maybe netflix or something if you are bored.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Lost and Found
Vampires. i have loved vampires in all their forms since at least 3rd grade. Probably further back, but that is when I remember becoming obsessed with them. Enough so, I managed to get myself into trouble by writing about vampires at inappropriate times. So, of course, when I heard about the Lost Boys, I knew I had to see it.
The Lost Boys: This is one of my all time favorite movies. So much so, I doubt I can be objective in reviewing it. It has the two Coreys in it, who were my favorite actors (always have loved Feldman more, though). It has vampires. It has music that really works for me in a sick 80's kind of way. It is so ridiculous in places that I should completely hate it, but I can't help but love it more for the faults. I have nothing rally to say other than this is a great movie and a classic example of what a vampire should be.
The Lost Boys: The Tribe: 20 years is too long to wait for a sequel. It is also, apparently, to long for anyone to be able to keep said sequel interesting. Instead of a follow up to the original, we get some sort of strange surfer vampire thing taking place in the same small town at the original. Feldman is back, doing the same character (though the voice is now just stupid). We get Keifer Sutherland's half-brother playing a role, so there is more of a connection to the original. Really, all this movie has going for it is that Autumn Reeser is pretty hot. Otherwise, not that great.
The Lost Boys: The Thirst: Thankfully, the last sequel (so far). this takes place, I am assuming, before the last one. Hard to tell. It seems to imply an earlier time, but also could easily be a later one. I dunno. We get raving vampires this time, with some blood-as-ecstasy drug stuff. In this movie, however, we are treated to some fun vampire-hunting equipment, a bit of back story as to why the Frog Brothers no longer hunt, and a loose attempt to open the franchise up for further expansion in non-vamp ways. I did like the sort of twist on the real villain, and the attempt to add new supernatural creatures was a decent idea (even if poorly executed). I liked this better than the last sequel, but think the idea is now dead.
Not a lot to say in summary. Great original, weaker sequels. If they had made the original sequel plan of The Lost Girls, it may have been better. If they had not waited 2 decades to do another movie, they may have been better. If they had not gone direct to video, they may have been better. As it is, the sequels tarnish the awesome of the original and that makes me sad.
The Lost Boys: This is one of my all time favorite movies. So much so, I doubt I can be objective in reviewing it. It has the two Coreys in it, who were my favorite actors (always have loved Feldman more, though). It has vampires. It has music that really works for me in a sick 80's kind of way. It is so ridiculous in places that I should completely hate it, but I can't help but love it more for the faults. I have nothing rally to say other than this is a great movie and a classic example of what a vampire should be.
The Lost Boys: The Tribe: 20 years is too long to wait for a sequel. It is also, apparently, to long for anyone to be able to keep said sequel interesting. Instead of a follow up to the original, we get some sort of strange surfer vampire thing taking place in the same small town at the original. Feldman is back, doing the same character (though the voice is now just stupid). We get Keifer Sutherland's half-brother playing a role, so there is more of a connection to the original. Really, all this movie has going for it is that Autumn Reeser is pretty hot. Otherwise, not that great.
The Lost Boys: The Thirst: Thankfully, the last sequel (so far). this takes place, I am assuming, before the last one. Hard to tell. It seems to imply an earlier time, but also could easily be a later one. I dunno. We get raving vampires this time, with some blood-as-ecstasy drug stuff. In this movie, however, we are treated to some fun vampire-hunting equipment, a bit of back story as to why the Frog Brothers no longer hunt, and a loose attempt to open the franchise up for further expansion in non-vamp ways. I did like the sort of twist on the real villain, and the attempt to add new supernatural creatures was a decent idea (even if poorly executed). I liked this better than the last sequel, but think the idea is now dead.
Not a lot to say in summary. Great original, weaker sequels. If they had made the original sequel plan of The Lost Girls, it may have been better. If they had not waited 2 decades to do another movie, they may have been better. If they had not gone direct to video, they may have been better. As it is, the sequels tarnish the awesome of the original and that makes me sad.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Head of the Class
My introduction to a Troma movie series. I have seen Troma movies before, but never an entire franchise. Kind of sorry I did it now.
Class of Nuke 'Em High: The first movie in the series shows a school that is close to a nuclear reactor, and those prone to outbreaks of bad shit happening. Due to a leak in the reactor, the school is irradiated. Due to a cover-up, nobody figures it out. Even when the chess club become crazy punk bikers or a nerd melts in class. The hero and his girl end up getting sick as well, which causes a mutant child and a case of extreme 'roid rage. The movie has a bit of humor to it, but is mostly plaid straight for the violence and nasty gore/goo. Forgettable enough, I don't remember the ending.
Class of Nuke 'Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown: Now we get stupid. While the first was mostly a straight up horror kind of thing, this is pure camp. We have bad puns, bad plot, and bad acting. The old high school is now a college. Nuclear and genetic experiments are still going on. We get some sort of attempt at a plot with the introduction of subhumanoids, which are pretty much people with mouths where their navels should be who also have a habit of melting down into fuzzballs with mouths. Yeah, dumb.
Class of Nuke 'Em High 3: The Good, the Bad and the Subhumanoid: The sequel to the last, which follows up with more of the same. If anything, this is even more stupid. Now the hero from the first plays both his original character and that character's 10 year old son (who has grown up to a 20-something man in those 10 years). The "kid" falls in love with his wet nurse, who is a dumb blonde that leaks water from her mouth as a joke on the wet nurse thing. The movie is peppered with ridiculous sound effects, more bad jokes, and even less of a plot. I actually hate myself for watching this one at all.
Overall, the original isn't bad. Not a great movie, but worth watching if you have nothing better to do. Beyond that, I cannot recommend highly enough that you avoid the sequels unless you like low-brow trashy movies. Which, if you are watching Troma, you probably do.
Class of Nuke 'Em High: The first movie in the series shows a school that is close to a nuclear reactor, and those prone to outbreaks of bad shit happening. Due to a leak in the reactor, the school is irradiated. Due to a cover-up, nobody figures it out. Even when the chess club become crazy punk bikers or a nerd melts in class. The hero and his girl end up getting sick as well, which causes a mutant child and a case of extreme 'roid rage. The movie has a bit of humor to it, but is mostly plaid straight for the violence and nasty gore/goo. Forgettable enough, I don't remember the ending.
Class of Nuke 'Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown: Now we get stupid. While the first was mostly a straight up horror kind of thing, this is pure camp. We have bad puns, bad plot, and bad acting. The old high school is now a college. Nuclear and genetic experiments are still going on. We get some sort of attempt at a plot with the introduction of subhumanoids, which are pretty much people with mouths where their navels should be who also have a habit of melting down into fuzzballs with mouths. Yeah, dumb.
Class of Nuke 'Em High 3: The Good, the Bad and the Subhumanoid: The sequel to the last, which follows up with more of the same. If anything, this is even more stupid. Now the hero from the first plays both his original character and that character's 10 year old son (who has grown up to a 20-something man in those 10 years). The "kid" falls in love with his wet nurse, who is a dumb blonde that leaks water from her mouth as a joke on the wet nurse thing. The movie is peppered with ridiculous sound effects, more bad jokes, and even less of a plot. I actually hate myself for watching this one at all.
Overall, the original isn't bad. Not a great movie, but worth watching if you have nothing better to do. Beyond that, I cannot recommend highly enough that you avoid the sequels unless you like low-brow trashy movies. Which, if you are watching Troma, you probably do.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Monday, May 10, 2010
A Tale of Two Lists (Part Two)
So, in the first part of this post, I mentioned my goal of watching the 100 best movies. Both lists.
Well, once I finish that, I am going to work my way through the worst movies. This will be harder to do for a couple reasons. First of all, the worst movies will not be easy to watch for the simple fact that they are so bad. I may end up going crazy trying to watch these, or may get so bored or disgusted I turn the movies off. Hopefully I can power through that.
The other reason it will not be easy is that it is not easy to find lists of the worst movies ever made. The American Film Institute certainly doesn't have reason to compile such a list. I did look at IMDB, but their list changes constantly, and is full of foreign movies I cannot access. So, I turned to Wikipedia. By combining the list of Golden Raspberry Winners and the list of the worst films ever, I managed to compile a list of 60 movies that are generally considered the worst. Of these, I have seen two already, with a handful of the nominees (which are not part of my list at this time).
Along with this, sort of as a fun little diversion between the two herculean tasks, I am adding in a list of the 23 Strangest Movies that I stumbled upon a while back. Seems like it would be a fun thing to do. I have already seen a few of these as well, though will need to rewatch some of them since it has been a while.
Big picture, by the end of this experience, I will have seen the 123 best, 23 strangest, and 60 worst movies of all time. A total of 206 movies, comprising the opposite ends of the spectrum. At that point, I think I can officially call myself a movie buff.
Well, once I finish that, I am going to work my way through the worst movies. This will be harder to do for a couple reasons. First of all, the worst movies will not be easy to watch for the simple fact that they are so bad. I may end up going crazy trying to watch these, or may get so bored or disgusted I turn the movies off. Hopefully I can power through that.
The other reason it will not be easy is that it is not easy to find lists of the worst movies ever made. The American Film Institute certainly doesn't have reason to compile such a list. I did look at IMDB, but their list changes constantly, and is full of foreign movies I cannot access. So, I turned to Wikipedia. By combining the list of Golden Raspberry Winners and the list of the worst films ever, I managed to compile a list of 60 movies that are generally considered the worst. Of these, I have seen two already, with a handful of the nominees (which are not part of my list at this time).
Along with this, sort of as a fun little diversion between the two herculean tasks, I am adding in a list of the 23 Strangest Movies that I stumbled upon a while back. Seems like it would be a fun thing to do. I have already seen a few of these as well, though will need to rewatch some of them since it has been a while.
Big picture, by the end of this experience, I will have seen the 123 best, 23 strangest, and 60 worst movies of all time. A total of 206 movies, comprising the opposite ends of the spectrum. At that point, I think I can officially call myself a movie buff.
A Tale of Two Lists (Part One)
So, a couple years back, I started myself on a quest. A simple thing, really. I vowed to watch the 100 best movies of all time. This seemed like a noble thing, as I am a movie lover. It seemed easy enough, and I knew of a list to go off of. The problem is, there were two versions of the list. The American Film Institute compiled one list in 1998, but then did an anniversary update to the list in 2007. Looking at both of these lists, it was painfully clear that there were some amazing movie on both. So, I did what any self respecting movie lover would do. I combined the lists and set forth.
Here I am, two years later and not much further on my journey. I have 51 movies left to watch. Not to impressive, until you realize that between the two lists, there are 123 movies total on there. That means I actually only have about 41% of the movies left to watch. Not to shabby, overall.
Anyhow, I have recently tried to renew my drive toward this goal by watching movies more often. For the month of May, I am trying to watch a movie every day. Not all will be from the list, in fact many will not. But, if I happen to have access to a list movie, I will be watching it. Just for fun, I am linking to the two lists.
How many have you seen?
Here I am, two years later and not much further on my journey. I have 51 movies left to watch. Not to impressive, until you realize that between the two lists, there are 123 movies total on there. That means I actually only have about 41% of the movies left to watch. Not to shabby, overall.
Anyhow, I have recently tried to renew my drive toward this goal by watching movies more often. For the month of May, I am trying to watch a movie every day. Not all will be from the list, in fact many will not. But, if I happen to have access to a list movie, I will be watching it. Just for fun, I am linking to the two lists.
How many have you seen?
Saturday, May 8, 2010
New Nightmare
So, I saw the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street. I have added to the original reviews to include the new addition. Also have a review of the Boogeyman franchise in the works.
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