I put Shrek on the TV yesterday while folding clothes because if I don't put on something the kid might enjoy there's trouble, but likewise I can't watch anything inappropriate for the kid, so that narrows my options a bit. I can completely see (still) why Shrek was so successful, and there are periodic gems in the writing, but overall it mostly stands out for how better-than-average-but-not-quite-superb the writing is. And the CG not aged well. Or rather, it's such an inconsistent mix of what holds up well and what doesn't. It's understandable that the human characters and animations don't, but it's surprising how well the dragon and Fiona's ogre form hold up. Fiona's human face? Weird. Ogre face? Great! The fairy tale characters fare pretty well. As for the aforementioned writing, I really dislike most of Donkey's dialogue. I do still mostly like Fiona and Diaz's delivery and lines. I'm left far less impressed with Myers. My nostalgia brain remembers his line delivery being just fine, but watching it now, he's kind of flat. His voicework is rather subdued compared to everyone else, except maybe Murphy who mostly just sounds like a bad pastiche of himself.
It's not a bad film, but I don't know I really think it's a good one, either. I can see and understand why it was so popular at the time, but the entire affair comes off as very dated, in a way Disney's output, even their bad output, typically does not. I feel bad for those truly great scenes in the film, like the torture of the Gingerbread Man. Shrek wasn't DreamWorks SKG's first animated outing, but it was the first resounding success. If only it had stood on a slightly firmer base. I bet DreamWorks is laughing all the way to the bank over my opinions, too.
What was the last movie you've seen?
Re: What was the last movie you've seen?
I saw Shrek in theaters. I hate that I never got around to buying the Shrek movies for my niblings. Have you checked out the musical? There's a pro-shot of it.
As for me...
To be honest, I kind of see the second film in the series as a weak sequel but I do gotta give it props.
But part three, which also got a game adaptation for the DOS and Commodore 64 from a pre-C&C Westwood Studios, is definitely the stronger of the first two sequels. Definitely has a greater emphasis on special effects from Kevin Yagher, leading to creative and ironic kills that would be the hallmark of the series moving forward.
As for me...
To be honest, I kind of see the second film in the series as a weak sequel but I do gotta give it props.
But part three, which also got a game adaptation for the DOS and Commodore 64 from a pre-C&C Westwood Studios, is definitely the stronger of the first two sequels. Definitely has a greater emphasis on special effects from Kevin Yagher, leading to creative and ironic kills that would be the hallmark of the series moving forward.
Re: What was the last movie you've seen?
Watched this a few nights ago after work, originally planning to follow up right after with part 5 but didn't.
In many ways, Dream Master is both an improvement and downgrade from Part 3. On one hand, many of the kills (with Screaming Mad George working on a handful of effects) are much more creative and ironic for each character (except for the first kill). But we also see Krueger becoming much more humorous, possibly as a counterbalance to his increased depravity.
Fun fact: for me, this would be the last of the original films I'd see until the remake. I still remember renting it from the horror section of a local rental place called Ocean Atlantic Rentals, back when they still had VHS rentals. They had a slightly wider variety of '80s and '90s movies than Village Video's Avon location (but their Buxton location had more obscure titles) and I used to rent the VHS of Rocky Horror from there so often it was a wonder I didn't just buy the DVD. Well, before spending more on renting the VHS than I spent on the DVD.
But they discontinued VHS rentals sometime after Village Video did and then the latter closed in the early 2010s. Ocean Atlantic is still around but they just stick with their primary business of renting out beach stuff.
A lot of great effects and kills in this. And don't get me started on the comic book dream sequence.
But there's more steps back than steps forward in regards to the series. While the film is much darker, Freddy's somehow both much funnier and darker than before.
Freddy's reign in the '80s sadly went out with less than a bang but thankfully more than a whimper.
I remember the last time I saw this on VHS was after seeing Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday for the first time. I managed to talk my folks into driving me to Buxton to rent from the wider horror selection the Village Video there had than the Avon location (only a ten minutes' drive, but that's each way and they'd have to take the films back by 7pm the next day). I saw this between the aforementioned divisive Jason film and Sleepaway Camp, the latter was either my first or second time seeing it.
Now I'm sad because I'll never rent old-ass obscure '80s flicks on VHS from a video store ever again. Granted, the quality can never hold a candle to the 4K Blu-ray experiences I've been enjoying since plunking down the scratch for a 4K television and a Playstation 5, but no amount of technology can truly replicate that overall vibe.
But speaking of VHS...
I didn't know this was already on Shudder last night when I was just looking for maybe a couple of Creepshow episodes to rewatch before bed, but I just jumped at the chance.
While the first three V/H/S films put out by Shudder raised the bar quite high for the franchise, this new entry in the seemingly annual franchise at best does better than the sci-fi infused V/H/S/Beyond from last year.
The first story, "Coochie Coochie Coo", is definitely the weakest of the three. I just didn't vibe with it. Thankfully, the rest of the stories best it by varying degrees.
Can't wait for the next entry in this series.
Re: What was the last movie you've seen?
Threw this on after work last night, opting for the 3D version since it also came with a pair of 3D glasses.
Even with a greater emphasis on comedy, the film managed to be dark as fuck, showing a Springwood trapped in a dark state of psychosis. Long after the supposedly last child in Springwood has been killed by Freddy, it's discovered that there's still one more. But it turns out Freddy has plans for this amnesiac, who ends up in a youth shelter a town or two away from Springwood. Looking more like a derelict factory by way of a rotted-out prison on the outside, this shelter is where we're introduced to this film's protagonists and eventual Freddy fodder.
Like I said, this film sanded off a lot of Freddy's edges to make him much more clownish, albeit still leaving one susceptible to the odd nasty splinter. The end result is like an Archie comic from Hell, comedic yet twisted while set in a decidedly all-American suburb mere hours away from a desolate grungy industrial area where Freddy's new arena is set. The latter is fitting since this IS a '90s horror film and it shows in aesthetic and even in the soundtrack.
But like a huge bulk of pre-Scream '90s horror, Freddy's Dead is a pale imitation of the glory days of the '80s horror boom serving mostly the worst of the best traits of the era.
Thankfully, the late, great Wes Craven would return three years later, around the tenth anniversary of the first film's release, for the infinitely superior '90s Freddy flick that is Wes Craven's New Nightmare.
Re: What was the last movie you've seen?
Back in 1999, I first saw this horror gem on my local WB affiliate. It was Halloween and as a 13yo, I was no longer old enough for trick or treating, so I went with the barrage of horror films playing on cable (mostly bits of Child's Play and Pet Semetary 2).
How fitting that my love affair with the Nightmare on Elm Street would start with the late, great Wes Craven's triumphant return to the franchise, one that no less offers up not only a meta-narrative that Craven would revisit two years after New Nightmare with the first Scream film but also gives up quite possibly the most terrifying version of the Springwood Slasher himself. After being horribly flanderized into a glib, one-liner-spouting clown in the later films, Freddy has found a way to escape from the world of the Nightmare on Elm Street films into our own!
And yes, I know that Freddy is technically...
Re: What was the last movie you've seen?
After the abject failure of Jason Takes (a boat ride to Vancouver that's made to look like) Manhattan, Paramount sold the franchise, except for the name "Friday the 13th" to New Line. That last part is why it's not called Friday the 13th Part IX: Jason Goes to Hell.
With a new studio in charge and a first-time director and writer at the helm, we get probably the MOST lore-reinventing Jason Vorhees film to date. After drowning as a kid, catching a machete with the left side of his misshapen dome piece, getting resurrected by lightning, freed by a teen psychic and getting reawakened by an underwater power cable, the first scene ends with the supposed death of Jason.
So who ends up killing folks in this first flick in the New Line era? Turns out Jason is much more of a supernatural entity that folks think and now it's a race against time to send Jason back to Hell before he's reborn and wipes out the last chance humanity has to put the machete-wielding mama's boy in the ground for good!
It's definitely a mixed bag that's neither the best nor the worst entry in the Jason canon.
But thank God it's pretty... gory.
Re: What was the last movie you've seen?
AKA "we have Gremlins at home".
To be honest, I just put this on (well, after I decided against Slaughterhouse) while doing laundry while playing my Switch 2.
Re: What was the last movie you've seen?
Another laundry day at the Avon Motel in October, another horror movie streamed on my tablet while playing my Switch 2.
The first time I saw this was on The Sci-Fi Channel back on Halloween in 1999, which was the year I turned 13. No longer old enough to trick-or-treat, I resigned to just watch horror movies on cable (it'd be another 3-4 years before my folks would let me rent R-rated movies). That and helping out with the yard to get ready for the trick-or-treaters.
Pet Semetary 2 was one of those films I'd watch bits and pieces of on that day, so it holds a VERY special place in my heart. All at a nebulous period between its failure with critics and its eventual reappraisal as a cult classic.
Set years after the events of the first film and with no real involvement from Stephen King outside of authoring the first film's source material, Pet Semetary 2 starts with the death of famous actress Renee Hallow while her son watches. Following the tragic on-set electrocution, our protagonist Jeff and his now-widowed veterinarian father Chase move into their summer home in Renee's hometown of Ludlow, Maine. We're soon introduced to his new friend Drew, followed by his wretched stepfather, Sheriff Gus Gilbert.
But soon, after Drew buries his dog in the cursed burial ground from the first film, a series of horrific events start up. Soon, Jeff and Chase discover the hard way that the dead should stay dead.
Re: What was the last movie you've seen?
I might have liked this more if I paid more attention to it, or maybe if I found it on VHS when I got into horror movies a little over 20 years ago.
Apparently there was a disagreement of what kind of film this was going to be and it kind of shows.
Re: What was the last movie you've seen?
Off all day, but with the weather being total shit keeping me trapped inside (save for a quick trip to the post office to grab a package), I figured I'd treat myself to a double feature.
The first in a series that gets more insane with each sequel.
The first act relates to us the tragic Christmas Eve where Billy witnesses his parents violently murdered by a psycho in a Santa suit after his mentally ill grandfather snaps out of an assumed fugue state to tell Billy about how Santa punishes naughty kids. That's followed by Billy's abuse by the Mother Superior of a local orphanage who views strict discipline as a good thing, though her discipline techniques could be argued as over the top.
The second act skips ahead to a now 18 year old Billy getting a job in a local toystore, where he finds himself developing an attraction to a coworker that leads to a confusing dream that starts with her and Billy in bed (presumably making love) before cutting to the night of his parents' murder.
By the third act, the film goes from thrilling drama to full-on slasher, comprising roughly 80 to 90% of the "killer Santa" scenes that got under the skin of a bunch of cunty Karens... I mean "well-meaning yet grossly misinformed members of polite society".
The very film that made me really like musicals, Rocky Horror has been a part of my life for nearly twenty years. It also led me to watching It Came From Outer Space and '50s sci-fi in general.
I originally wanted to show this to my nieces this Halloween but like all teenagers, they've already had plans.
The first in a series that gets more insane with each sequel.
The first act relates to us the tragic Christmas Eve where Billy witnesses his parents violently murdered by a psycho in a Santa suit after his mentally ill grandfather snaps out of an assumed fugue state to tell Billy about how Santa punishes naughty kids. That's followed by Billy's abuse by the Mother Superior of a local orphanage who views strict discipline as a good thing, though her discipline techniques could be argued as over the top.
The second act skips ahead to a now 18 year old Billy getting a job in a local toystore, where he finds himself developing an attraction to a coworker that leads to a confusing dream that starts with her and Billy in bed (presumably making love) before cutting to the night of his parents' murder.
By the third act, the film goes from thrilling drama to full-on slasher, comprising roughly 80 to 90% of the "killer Santa" scenes that got under the skin of a bunch of cunty Karens... I mean "well-meaning yet grossly misinformed members of polite society".
The very film that made me really like musicals, Rocky Horror has been a part of my life for nearly twenty years. It also led me to watching It Came From Outer Space and '50s sci-fi in general.
I originally wanted to show this to my nieces this Halloween but like all teenagers, they've already had plans.