Reaction & Review | Cool World

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we're celebrating a milestone for this series. One in which I've never had the chance to do so until now. See, a lot of you don't know this, but I've been doing this text-based style version of Reaction & Review since February 25, 2020. We're almost at that date nearly 6 years later, and the reason why I never did these sort of anniversary celebrations is because I had always done my "Tales of the Longbox" marathon for two months. Well this year, I decided to narrow it down to a single month and thus it gives me more of a chance to review different movies that aren't strictly related to a certain marathon.

And that's where we are at now. This is my 6th year doing this series and I wanted to cover a movie that would be a nice celebration for this milestone. And guys, I have found the perfect movie to cover for this milestone. It is a film that came out in 1992. That movie is Ralph Bakshi's "Cool World".

I'm gonna tell you, guys, out of all of Bakshi's movies that I haven't seen yet, this is the one that I have been looking forward to the most. Now I've only covered one other film of his for this series, and that would be "Coonskin". And if you haven't read my review for that movie, then I'll tell you right now that I absolutely loved it. So much so that I really wanted to see the rest of Bakshi's filmography that I haven't seen yet, not counting the ones that I've seen outside of this series. I'm talking about films like "Wizards", "Hey, Good Lookin", and his attempt at "The Lord of the Rings". Everything else is still fair game, and this movie is the one that I wanted to see next of his.

Now I could go into detail about the history behind this movie and how the film that we got here was not the film that Bakshi had intended to write. To make a long story short, Bakshi wanted to write an animated horror movie. However, a little thing called studio interference happened, and a producer over at Paramount decided to rewrite the whole thing and, through some complications, Bakshi was forced to go through with the script that they had written, and thus here we are. Now I've heard rumors that one of the film's star, Kim Basinger, had a hand in writing the script to make her character the main focus of the film. However, I don't know how much of that is true or not. So I can't say anything much about it.

But now, I get to see what exactly the story here is. Because even though I do know a little bit about the production trouble this movie went through, I don't know the actual story for this movie's plot. All I know is that it's a hybrid of live action actors in a hand drawn animated world, much in the style of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". I also know one of the other stars of this film is a young Brad Pitt. Beyond that, I know almost nothing about the movie's plot, as I've tried to avoid clips and trailers in relation to this movie.

So, I'm hoping that it's gonna be really interesting. I really want it to be good, despite all the interference that happened with the movie's story at the time, but who knows? The only way I'm gonna find out if this thing is any good at all is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Cool World".

14 minutes later

All right, guys, I'm really liking how the world of Cool World actually looks. It's dark, damp, kinda dreary in some places. But overall, I'm really liking how it looks so far. The story's kinda moving a little slow right now, but hey, at least it's giving me plenty to look at. So, at least that's a positive.

17 minutes later

Well, guys, I learned something new today. If you want to get away from the cops in Cool World, simply piss at them and they'll eventually run into a train. That, I guess, is a good lesson to learn.

9 minutes later

OK, I have a question here and this has been on my mind for sometime now. So, Frank was pulled into Cool World in 1945 near the beginning of the movie. And he's been in Cool World for 47 years since that time. And he hasn't aged a day all those years. So does that mean that if you are stuck in Cool World that you don't age physically whatsoever? I mean, it makes sense for doodles, but Frank obviously is not a doodle, so I'm curious as to how they're gonna explain that at some point, if at all.

6 minutes later

OK, I really like that cool attention to detail where Frank just takes a cigarette from this guy and is smoking it. And the cool thing about it is that the cigarette is obviously a cartoon as well. That is really neat and it's those attention to details that I really like about this movie.

14 minutes later

OK...so that pen of Jack's can apparently erase you in it's own way. Kinda odd, but it is still rather creative, so at least there's that.

13 minutes later

So, guys, you remember earlier when I asked about Frank not physically aging in Cool World despite being there for a really long time? Well, he's back in the real world now, in 1992 I should mention, and he still looks the same as he did back in 1945. So I guess you don't immediately age out when you travel to the real world from Cool World. So, I guess that sorta answers my question...kind of.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Cool World". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. So...what to say about "Cool World"? Well, I am gonna say that, even though I myself would've loved to have seen what Bakshi really wanted to do with this movie in his own vision before he got screwed over, I really did enjoy this movie. Now, did I enjoy it as much as, say, "Coonskin"? No, not quite. I loved "Coonskin" so much that it would be really difficult to top the awesomeness that was that movie. However, I still really enjoyed this film enough to where I can overlook some of the problems that this movie has.

So, let's start things off, as usual, with the writing. Now, most people who know about this movie are obviously going to compare it to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?". A movie where you take live action actors and you put them in an animated world or vice versa. The only difference between the two is that "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" is more family friendly oriented, while with "Cool World", it's the complete opposite, where it's aimed more towards adults. Although to be fair, that's how most of Bakshi's films operated anyways. Strangely though, despite this film showing a lot of sexual nudity and blood at times, the film is still rated PG-13. I imagine that if Bakshi had his way with this movie, it would've gotten an R rating. Mind you, the PG-13 rating doesn't necessarily ruin the film at all, it's just something that I happened to notice, and if I were in charge in rating this movie, it would've gotten an R rating from me, personally.

But moving past that, the story here is, again, obviously gonna be compared to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?". Because, in a way, both stories have similar ideas to each other. However, another big difference is, apart from it's target audience, is that the stories and it's characters go their own route. So for this story, we have our main character, Frank Harris, who after he gets severely injured in a motorcycle accident, where it also took his mother's life, he ends up being transported to the animated Cool World thanks to Professor Whiskers, who's had somewhat of an obsession with traveling to the real world himself. And apparently, he just lets Frank stay in Cool World because it jumps from 1945 to 1992 and Frank looks the exact same, only now he's a private detective. I could ask more about the oddity of his appearance not changing all this time, however, we're talking about a world where everything is a cartoon, so I'm just going to take a wild guess here and say that Cool World doesn't affect your age at all, whether you're a doodle or a noid, the latter in which is what Frank and Jack are.

Speaking of which, we have our other main character, Jack Deebs, who is a cartoonist that was released from prison after it was mentioned a little bit later on where he murdered his wife, who was sleeping with another guy. And during his time in prison, he was drawing a character known as Holli Would to keep his mind focused. And that's when the drawing of her comes to life and brings him to Cool World. Now the story admittedly is a little bit confusing at first because I honestly wasn't sure what this movie was trying to do for a story like this. And then finally stuff happens when our private investigator, Frank Harris, is trying to stop Holli and Jack from, well, having sex. And you're probably why that's so important? Well, as I mentioned earlier, all of the cartoon characters in Cool World are known as Doodles, while real people like Frank and Jack are known as Noids. And once Jack and Holli finally do it, Holli ends up becoming live action and they eventually find a way back to the real world, where other messed up things go wrong involving the space time continuum where both worlds seems to be merging together and other stuff like that.

Now I understand that what I tried to describe to you guys doesn't really make much sense. And in some ways, that is sorta true. Again, I was sorta confused by what was going on with the plot for a little bit. But I am gonna say that most of it does kinda make sense. Granted, there are some things here and there that I was wondering about while the watching the movie. For instance, the pen in which Jack carries is somehow able to erase, let's say, certain characters into the pen, thus they die...sorta. Again, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, and that part was the biggest thing that stood out to me because it's a magical pen that, again, can erase characters from existence. Well, not entirely erase, they're just "inside" the pen itself. They really don't do much with this sort of thing beyond that. Now it's possible that if I end up watching this film a second time, there may be something else important there that I missed out on the first time. But as is, it didn't really do very much in terms of plot, and it just seemed like an idea that was shoved in there, possibly by the revised script that was written in there. Though that's just my own theory, really.

Our characters here are very well developed and are likable. Frank Harris plays it up like one of those detectives you would see from the old noir films from way back when. Jack Deebs is the character artist, who also has a romantic interest in his own creation of Holli Would. And speaking of which, Holli, I feel, is gonna be seen as a mixed bag to some people. Because, at times, she can be kind of annoying. Although that's mainly towards the end when she shows more of her craziness. But at the same time, she's also the most interesting character of the entire movie. Not just because she's the obvious eye candy of the film, but she also has a spark of unpredictability. You don't know what she's going to do next until she actually does it, especially when she gets to the real world with Jack. And her relationship with Jack, even though it could be seen by some people as somewhat questionable, I really don't think that's gonna be big deal in the long run. I mean, I don't see many people having a problem with Roger Rabbit and Jessica Rabbit going out with each other, so I don't see very much controversy in regards to Jack and Holli being a thing. But what do I know?

One other thing that I wanted to say in regards to the movie itself is that the pacing here is very tight. Even though the movie is close to being an hour and 41 minutes long, it goes by pretty quickly. And you're not gonna notice it as you're watching the movie. It's one of the better paced films I have seen in quite a while where it doesn't feel too long and there's enough content here to where you're gonna be focused on the movie itself. So while the story may not exactly be great, the pacing more than makes up for it, so it's just something that you have to take for what it's worth here.

Overall, guys, the writing here, while certainly not one of Bakshi's strongest stories, is still pretty good for what he was working with. Now again, I would've loved to have seen what he wanted to create in his own vision for "Cool World". Perhaps maybe if he has an extra copy of his own script somewhere online, I would love to read someday. But still, what we got here is certainly really interesting in it's own unique way. And as for the acting, it's mostly pretty good. Granted, there are times when our main cast like Brad Pitt and Kim Basinger are hamming up their lines, but it's still pretty good for what they were working with. And as for the voice acting for all of the animated characters, all of that is pretty good, too. Granted, I don't think it's the best kind of acting I've heard from a Ralph Bakshi flick, but it's still pretty good in it's own unique way.

Now let's talk about the animation. And the one thing you guys need to know when watching a film by Ralph Bakshi is that he intends to use a lot of rotoscoping in his films. And for those of you who don't know what that is, the concept of it is that you take an actor's filmed movements or some kind of physical model of sorts and you trace over it for your animated films. This kind of technique was used a lot in animated films from the 70's to about the early 90's. And as I said, Bakshi was known for doing this quite often for his movies. An example of this would be his version of "The Lord of the Rings". This, to me, was probably the most noticeable of his films because I noticed it a lot, especially whenever there was a fight scene going on. But then again, I've also heard there was a *lot* of troubled production going on during the filming of that movie. I'm not sure if it was as bad as this film's production was, but still. Rotoscoping is something that Bakshi relied on a lot during his movies. This film is no exception.

And I am gonna say, for the most part, the rotoscoping here is pretty good. At least, from what I noticed while watching this movie. Holli, in particular, is animated pretty well and she's very expressive with her movements. A lot of the background characters who aren't Holli or Frank's girlfriend are drawn and animated like cartoon characters you would see from the 40's and 50's, where most of them are just bouncing around and moving all the time. Now visually speaking, it looks really impressive. In fact, the Cool World itself looks great. As I said, it's dark, damp, and kinda creepy all in one. I will say, though, what can be kinda distracting is the fact that random characters will appear whenever our main cast is talking and they're just doing random shit on screen. Now I get that Cool World is also meant to have insane characters, but for them to be doing this during scenes that are suppose to be important, can be a little distracting. Now I don't know if they were just added in because Bakshi wanted to show how insane Cool World can really be or he just added it in himself because he was forced to work on the revised script that he was given. I don't know, but either way, those little moments can be distracting at times.

But anyway, the art style is really good, and lot of the character designs have that unique Bakshi feel to them. Some of them look very reminiscent to past films of his, which is really nice to see. The color palettes are also utilized very well, too, as lot of the characters look very colorful in their designs as well. So, overall, the animation here is really good for this movie.

Camerawork here is also really good, but I do have to comment on a slip up that I noticed. So it happens during the third act of the movie and there's a scene where Holli is running away from Jack and Frank. Now do you remember when I mentioned the character of Professor Whiskers? Well, he's actually in this scene, too, except for one moment. See, Holli uses that magic pen I mentioned earlier where it kinda erases a certain character into the pen, and most of Whisker's body is sucked up in the pen. And as Whisker was screaming about something, we see Holli running towards the camera as she's attempting to get away. But in the background shot behind her, you don't see Whiskers. And I should mention, again, that the scene is suppose to have Frank, Jack, some girl I don't remember, and Professor Whiskers. And everyone in the background shot is suppose to be helping Professor Whiskers build back his body...except you don't actually see him, even though he's technically talking in the shot. Which makes me want to ask where the hell did he go? Did he just vanish, or was that just a slip up in animation that was suppose to happen, but didn't? I don't know, but that scene did make me kinda raise an eyebrow. I understand it probably wasn't worth the effort to animate a small part of a different angle, but it could've at least helped a little bit.

But setting that aside, the camerawork here for everything else is pretty good. Lighting here is lit perfectly fine. The sound-mixing here is good. The music here is pretty good, too. Granted, it's not quite as memorable as it could be, but at least it serves it's purpose, so it ends up being tolerable.

Ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Cool World"? I'm gonna go on a limb here and say yes. Now granted, I know this film was panned as one of Bakshi's worst movies, though I hesitate to say that, because I still really enjoyed it, and I do think that if you go into with the right mindset, I think you'll be able to enjoy it too. If you're an animation buff and you want to see what exactly this movie has up it's sleeve in regards to what Bakshi could do with this movie, then by all means, go check it out. It certainly is a really unique film. Now again, I would not put this one above other movies of his such as "Coonskin", but I still can't deny that I enjoyed it enough to where I'm happy that I actually get to own a copy of it for myself. And I think it actually it might get better on repeat viewings, too, hopefully. Now since I just mentioned "Coonskin", I'm gonna go and watch that next. I really want to see another film from Ralph Bakshi, and I do have one more of his films in reservation for this series. But until I get around to covering it, I'm gonna go and watch "Coonskin" next, once I get done finishing up this review.

And with that, guys, we come to a close on the 6th anniversary of Reaction & Review. I'm not totally sure if I'll do another kind of anniversary like this one, but who knows? Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Skull Heads

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 2009. That movie is "Skull Heads".

The only thing I can tell you guys that I know about this movie is that it was produced and directed by Charles Band. And it's also another film under Full Moon Features. And thinking about it now, I don't think I've actually covered a Full Moon film in a long time. I think the last time I did review a movie from Full Moon was back when I did my "Full Moon vs. Troma" marathon from several years ago. I've reviewed a few Troma movies since then, but nothing from Full Moon. So, I think they're well overdue on getting more spotlight for this series.

So, I'm hoping that this movie will be a good return from Full Moon for this series, seeing as how I've kinda neglected them by accident. Like I said, I don't know very much about this movie other than what I've already said about it. So, I'm going into this one completely blind. And I'm hoping that it's worth it. But the only way I'm gonna find out for sure is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Skull Heads".

4 minutes later

So, guys, as the opening credits are going on, allow me to sum up what happened at the beginning. Some guy was torturing a girl for simply having a cell phone on her. Now I'm going to assume that was suppose to be father and daughter, and he was using a rack to torture her. I'm curious to know the context behind it, other than the father's explanation of "cell phones are the devil's work", or something like that. Still, I am intrigued to see where this goes.

9 minutes later

You know, guys, I would probably buy the fact that Peter is sadly crying at the fact that the family is eating his favorite lamb for dinner. However, I can't really do that because he looks to be smiling while he's crying. Just seems kinda weird to me, you know?

9 minutes later

You know, guys, it's funny. The daughter is listening to music on her ipod. And she tries to get her mother to listen to it after discovering that she was hiding it under her pillow. She listens to two seconds of it and says it's just nothing but racket. And the funny thing is...she's right. That music she's listening to is shit. I mean, if the daughter likes that kind of music, that's fine. It's just that I would have to start questioning her awful taste in music now.

9 minutes later

Guys, I'm just gonna say this now, the way that these skulls are moving their heads is actually a little bit creepy. I wonder if every time one of the family members talks to their grandfather that they're also aware of these skull creatures are actually watching over them. I'm really kinda curious here.

12 minutes later

OK, so they are aware that the Skull Heads do exist, and that they are the protectors of this castle that the family's living in. So it's not exactly just a secluded thing where every time someone talks to the grandfather, they just instantly show up. At least they've explained that much about them, and I'm kinda happy that they took the time to clarify that.

2 minutes later

OK, and apparently, one of these Skull Heads can smoke a cigarette...interesting. Never would've known that these things could actually do that. You really learn something new every day, don't ya?

8 minutes later

So not only did Naomi's Dad stop Peter from masturbating to the cook from behind her, he also apparently is a creeper, too, for the cook. I think it's kinda obvious at this point, but Carver is a slimy, demented sick fuck. And part of me hopes he dies first.

17 minutes later

Guys, if I had to pick a favorite Skull Head, it would probably have to be the green one. Apparently, the cigarette he was smoking also serves as blinding someone's eyes out and can also shoot lasers out of his eyes. I actually kinda want a replica of this particular Skull Head in my room somewhere. He's just that awesome.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Skull Heads". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. Well, I am gonna say out front that I really enjoyed this movie. And it's interesting that I say this because, prior to most of the other Full Moon films that I've covered for this series, a lot of them have been garbage, save for stuff like "Arcade" and the tenth "Puppet Master" movie. So going into this one, part of me was fearing that this one was just gonna be another shit movie to add onto the pile of garbage movies by Full Moon. Well, thankfully, I don't have to do that here. This movie was just good enough to where I can actually add it to my DVD collection.

So now that you already know my brief thoughts on it, let's actually go more into detail here and first talk about the writing. Now one thing that you have to know when going into a movie made by Charles Band is that he intends to go for more original stories. Case in point would be the "Puppet Master" series. That it in itself is an original property that didn't come from a novel or anything. In fact, that's where most of Full Moon's filmography comes from. A lot of their movies tend to go for more original ideas. Most of those ideas stem into horror films, while occasionally doing some family friendly stuff. Although the latter was mostly done in the 90's. But still, Charles Band is the head man of Full Moon Features, so you're bound to get more original horror films from that studio. This movie is no exception. It is a project by Charles Band and just about everything about this movie has that kind of weird twisted campy charm to it that just sucks you right in.

Now that being said, the story itself centers around our main character, Naomi Arkoff, who lives with her secluded family inside this castle that they've been living in for their entire lives. She herself wants to go to the outside world so that she can go to college and live a normal life away from her family. Her family consists of her mother and father. Peter, who is, I guess, the hired help for the Arkoff's. It's never quite explained what he does for the family, specifically, other than the fact that he's retarded. And no, I'm not exaggerating that either. He essentially is the "special needs" kind of person. Then you also have the cook, who really doesn't add much here other than being, well, a cook. And also being sex fodder to Carver, unfortunately. I'll get more into the characters in a little bit.

But going back to talking about the story here. So one day, a group of producers comes to the home to have a look at possibly filming a movie here. This gives Naomi an opportunity to introduce herself to one of them named Jensen, who she apparently has an attraction to, and hopefully uses them to get herself out of there. Now, I will say that there are couple of twists in this movie. One of them, which I'm not gonna spoil here, is essentially here just to be cheap shock value. It comes right out of nowhere and there's no hint of it prior to them revealing it. That said, I will say something about our producers. They are not really producers, they are just con artists looking to steal art pieces from the Arkoff's home to make a profit. That's pretty much it in terms of their motivation.

Now let's talk about our characters. The characters in this movie sorta range on being a mixed bag. Our main character, Naomi, is someone who, as I've already said, is looking to escape from her home from her family, who likes to remain in seclusion. And you would think, with a motivation like Naomi's to get away from her parents, that you could find a reason to care about her and hope that she escapes. The thing is, I'm not sure how much of it is really valid. You see, I mentioned earlier about how her Dad brought her down to a torture chamber just because she had a cell phone. Well, later on, during the bit where she gets tied up there again, and while our con artists break into the home, Jensen finds her down there and releases her, and she admits that her punishment is, in her words, "not that bad". Which makes me question if she actually likes it. Now I do know the whole story from, obviously, watching the film. But prior to all that, you really have to wonder if at some point that she actually meant her own words? Maybe it's gotten to a point where, unfortunately, someone who gets punished so much that they end up getting use to it or even end up liking it, as I've already mentioned. I don't know, and I personally don't want to delve too deep into this, but I will say that her validity in words is a little foggy there.

Naomi's parents are some of the most unlikable douchebags in the entire movie. Her Mom basically has a "don't care" kind of attitude for her daughter's own views on what she wants to do. And her Dad, Carver, is someone who, as I've already described him as, a sick twisted demented fuck. And the weird thing is, even though these characters are clearly unlikable, I believe that was purely intentional. And it makes these two characters stand out as the most interesting of this entire movie. Not the daughter who you're suppose to be following and caring about, not her love interest producer/con artist Jensen, or even the other two con artists. It's Naomi's parents. Which probably wasn't the intention when writing the story for this movie, but still, it makes Naomi's parents the most interesting of the entire cast.

I will also admit that the Skull Heads, who, you know, are suppose to be main attraction of the movie, they don't really do all that much. They show up in quite a few scenes, but they don't really do a whole lot, up until the last 3rd of the movie when shit starts to go down. In fact, thinking about it, I don't believe any of these Skull Heads actually have names. The only interesting one that I came across was the green Skull Head that smokes. Other than that, every other Skull Head is just kinda there, really. So, it is kind of a disappointment that they don't really do much, outside of one other thing that I won't spoil because, well, I'm not that much of a douchebag to spoil movies. Unless there was a *really* bad one that I came across. And while I've certainly come across quite a few bad ones to make that happen, I'm not gonna do that for this movie. Mainly because, it's really not that bad of a movie.

So yeah, writing here here is decent for what it is. It's not exactly great, but it still has enough here to where you can kinda overlook some of the flaws that this film has. The acting here is mostly pretty good, outside of a couple of occasions. And those occasions are where anyone has to act emotional. More specifically, anyone who has to feel sad or cry. One of them I've already mentioned is Peter's actor, who whenever he had to cry or feel sad, it looked like he was smiling. Which kinda ruins that bit on what he was trying to do. But thankfully for him, it's only that one time that he had to do it. Our main actress, however, the one who plays Naomi Arkoff is *terrible* at sounding emotional. Almost every time that she shouts or has to express some sort of anger or sadness, it comes across as incredibly hokey and forced. It doesn't sound natural, especially in one scene where she's talking with her mother. And during one bit, she repeatedly shouts "no" to her, and it sounded awful. It didn't sound natural whatsoever, and I understand that sounding like that can be very tough when doing those sort of emotional scenes, but it just doesn't work for her every time that she has to do those scenes. It just doesn't sound right at all.

Now I will say, even though she can't really act when it comes to being emotional, the rest of her acting in this movie is actually pretty good. As is just about everyone else. The best actor would have to go to Steve Kramer as Naomi's Dad. The man knows how to act both slimy and awful at the same time. And when I say 'awful', I obviously don't mean that he was phoning it in or anything, I mean that whenever he treats his daughter like shit. He is great at this role and clearly had a lot of fun with it. The acting here from everyone, like I said, is overall pretty good. So at least there is that. It's not all great, but I've also heard far worse, too.

Special effects are mostly decent. The main feature when it comes to the Skull Heads is the puppetteering. And it actually is pretty good. Which is interesting to me because this movie came out in 2009. About a year later, "Puppet Master: Axis of Evil" came out, and the puppetteering on most of those puppets were cheap and mostly shit. Part of the reason is because you could actually see the strings that are suppose to be invisible, yet you could clearly see them. In this movie, you don't see that here. The puppetteering in this movie looks really good. And the designs on most of these Skull Heads look really cool, too. The obvious stand out being the green Skull Head that is smoking a cigarette. Now granted, you could obviously tell that a lot heads on these skulls look hand painted, and it can look kinda off-putting at first. I will admit to having that sort of feeling myself when I saw a couple of the skulls that looked obviously hand painted. But honestly, this is a minor nitpick because the designs look really cool, despite the obvious paint job that's done to them. So yeah, the designs of the Skull Heads look really cool, as is the puppetteering being really good, too.

Makeup effects and bloods effects are, surprisingly, very low here. Most of that doesn't show up until the last, I'd say, 10 minutes of the movie. And even then, they're really nothing to write home about. It's not horrible, it's just something that's not gonna jump out at you or anything. It's just kinda there, really. Our sets, though, when it comes to being in the castle looks great. Everything looks and feels like you're inside a reclusive castle. It really does look cool.

Camerawork here is pretty good. Lighting here is lit fine. The sound-mixing here is good. The score here is also pretty good, too. The score was done by Richard Band, who has done a lot of composing work for other Full Moon films, such as the "Puppet Master" movies. It's pretty good, and it does set the mood for the film. So the music here works perfectly fine.

Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Skull Heads"? Yes, I most certainly can. While it's obviously not on the level of awesomeness that are the first 5 "Puppet Master" movies, it's still a really entertaining film, especially coming from Charles Band. Granted, I kinda wanted to see the Skull Heads do more in this movie, but still, what I did get from them is pretty cool stuff. And again, I would love to have a replica puppet of the green Skull Head. It really did look awesome and also, in case you don't know, green is my favorite color. So I kinda like it even more now. But anyway, getting back on topic, if you're a fan of B movie horror films, I could definitely say it's worth checking out, if at least once. As for myself, well, like I said, I really enjoyed this movie enough to add to my ever growing DVD collection. And speaking of, I feel like watching something else right now. And well, since I keep mentioning the "Puppet Master" movies, I think I'm gonna go and marathon a couple of those movies right now. Not sure if I wanted to start from the beginning or do "Axis of Evil" then "Axis Rising". Either way, I'm in the mood to watch something "Puppet Master" related, so that's what I'm gonna go do next.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Hi-8 (Horror Independent 8)

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror anthology film from 2013. That movie is "Hi-8 (Horror Independent 8)".

Now, from what little information I looked up about this movie, it's suppose to be an anthology film where 8 different directors, who were known for making low budget B movies while being shot on video, come together to make 8 short films in that exact style. Essentially, this movie's trying to harken back to how a lot of low budget horror movies looked like back during the 80's. And I'm gonna tell you, guys, that sounds like a really awesome premise. Now admittedly, I don't know exactly what films the directors of these short movies have made, so I'm gonna go into this one basically 100% blind, since I don't have any knowledge of these guys work beforehand.

I'm hoping for this movie to be really good. Because I really like the concept of this anthology, where it tries to be a love letter to those 80's low budget horror movies. I don't know if this movie is gonna live up to that premise, however, but that's what I'm here to find out. And the only way I'm gonna find out if this thing is any good at all is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Hi-8 (Horror Independent 8)".

10 minutes later

So wait a second here. This serial killer's wife has found a bunch of ID cards filled with women, all whom that he has raped and killed, mind you, along with photos of his, uh, "work", let's say. And she's also been following and watching him do his dirty deeds for who know's how long at this point. If you've been following where he's been going to, wouldn't it make to sense to bring a camera of sorts to film this sort of thing going on? I'd imagine, being that she's the wife of this fucking psycho killer that she would actually think about bringing a camera and making sure she's got the whole thing on tape. But hey, maybe that's just me, personally. If I was married to someone who was killing and raping people as a hobby, I would probably bring something to film my evidence. But again, that's just me.

5 minutes later

Wait, is that a fake penis she has on her crotch? I think it is...jeez, this first story's *really* taken a fucking turn. One in which I was kinda sorta expecting, to be honest. But still, definitely kinda fucked up.

9 minutes later

The fuck...? O...K...what the fuck is that thing?! I have no idea what I'm looking at, guys, this creature, this uh...thing, just...oh, and, apparently, that's the end of that story. No, guys, seriously, that was the whole segment. I still want to know what the fuck that thing was, but on the other hand, I still don't believe that I would be able to properly describe it to you guys. I'll just leave it at that for now.

6 minutes later

All right, guys, this is sort of new. I've never seen someone be so entranced by a video tape called "Bloodgasm", to where he's more focused on that, despite the fact that his girlfriend is wanting to fuck him. The strange is, he's actually doing that while *still* watching the video. I guess, you could say, that Tim certainly has his priorities straight...kinda.

7 minutes later

OK, you know what? That twist at the end there was actually kinda funny. A little fucked up, but really funny towards the end. So, that's definitely a positive.

12 minutes later

Thank fuck that segment is finally done with. It wasn't funny, nor was it interesting either. It was just really kinda shit.

10 minutes later

Wow, guys, I didn't think it was actually possible, but that segment was somehow even stupider and worse than the previous one. At least the previous one had something resembling a story. This one didn't. I'm hoping the other 3 stories are better than the two I've just seen. Cause this thing's sorta going downhill at the moment.

11 minutes later

OK, that story was definitely an improvement over the other two. It wasn't great, but it's certainly far better than the prior two segments. So at least there's that.

6 minutes later

OK, I have a question here. So the lady of this husband, who's also pregnant with their child, kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and is now showing him to her that she's tied up in the garage. How long has she been keeping this girl in the garage without her screaming for help? I guess, maybe, she might've kept her quiet with chloroform or something, but still. The fact that she's kept his ex-girlfriend in the garage in this state is just all sorts of messed up. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Hi-8 (Horror Independent 8)". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. Well, what to say about this one? I, guys, am pleasantly surprised by this film. Part of me thought it was going to suck. I say this, partially because, I have went into a lot of movies, both for this series and on my own time, where a film has a really interesting premise, but most of the time, they wind up being complete shit for various reasons. And part of me thought that this movie was going to fall into the same trap as a lot of those other movies did. But in actuality, I ended up really kinda enjoying this movie. Now mind you, the movie's not great, but it actually exceeded my previous expectations because, as I said, I thought it was going to completely suck. Well, I'm thankful that I was actually wrong in this case. This movie is rather decent.

So now, let's actually talk about the movie itself here. Let's first go over the writing. Now being that this is an anthology film we're talking about here, I have to start off by talking about the weakest segment of this anthology, Now I'm thankful I actually got the segment names for this anthology on my camera phone because they don't reveal any of the names until the ending credits for each short film. And the weakest segment, by far, has to go to "Genre Bending". I'm gonna summarize the entire plot for this story to you guys right here. Some guy stalks a girl, the guy ends up getting caught by her and leaves. He gets killed by some black dude who, I think, is suppose to be his actual girlfriend, not totally sure. And he tries to rape her, which in turn gets her to rape him, and...that's it. The segment is done with and it made no fucking sense at all. And this was suppose to be the comedy segment of the bunch, mind you. And I'm gonna tell you right now, guys, there is no comedy to be found here. Unless if you, somehow, find someone repeating the word "rape" or "raping" many times, there is nothing funny to be found here. This segment borders on plotless and you could've replaced it with *any* other short story and you would've not missed a thing. This segment really fucking sucked.

The other segment that also falls short is called "Gang Them Style".  Now conceptually speaking, this segment is suppose to be parodying dumb 80's cheese ball action flicks. If I had to be more specific, I would say this thing is parodying "Escape From New York" because the main character is obviously a knock off of Snake Plissken. Which, admittedly, "Escape From New York" isn't necessarily a dumb 80's action film, though I'm kinda including it because of how it's being presented here. Now the reason why I say this one is suppose to be parodying those dumb 80's cheese ball action flicks is because of stuff like the dialogue sounding corny as hell, plus the music is definitely rather synth heavy. Which is something that quite a bit of 80's films had back then. But still, the point is, this movie is suppose to be like those kind of movies, and it falters for two different reasons.

One, for an anthology movie that's suppose to be like those 80's SOV films, this feels less like that and more, well, like an 80's action flick like "Escape From New York". And that has more to do with the camerawork than anything else, however, I'll get into all that later when I talk about the technical stuff. Now this could've been forgivable if the segment itself was actually interesting. And unfortunately, it's not. Why? Because the segment involves zombies, and I'm really fucking tired of zombies because there's only so much you can do with them that's interesting before you start to run out of ideas. And this segment really just goes down the route of it being somewhat of a generic zombie film. Now since this segment is also a parody, you would think that they would try something funny with it. And while they certainly try that, nothing about it is really all that funny. The comedy was weak and the whole thing just kinda dragged itself out, despite this segment being about 12 minutes long or so. So yeah, unfortunately, this segment is the second weakest of this anthology.

The seventh segment, which is called "Thicker Than Water", probably would've worked better as a full-length feature film rather than a short film. I say this, because the plot involves this guy's wife kidnapping his ex-girlfriend. And the reason why she kidnaps and tortures her is because she doesn't want anyone getting involved with their relationship. That, plus the fact that his current wife is pregnant. So that's another layer that's added on to something that could've been expanded into a feature length film. Now I'm not gonna say that this segment sucked or anything, it's actually halfway decent. But my problem with it is that because it's so short, there's not enough here to where you could do more with it. Like, have the wife secretly look up her husband's call history to see if there's someone in his life who he might've talked to or hung out with at one point and kidnap them. That way so she can make sure who she is and then kidnap them shortly afterwards, which would lead into our torture segments. I think all of that, if done properly, would work better as a remake for a full-length feature film rather than narrow it down to around 10 minutes or so.

So, beyond the problems that some of the segments have with it's writing, along with a couple of minor issues, most of everything else works out pretty well for the rest of the segments. And the best part about each segment is that it each has it's own tone. There's a couple of serious ones, there's comedy segments, and there are also a couple that are very exploitive. And even though I kinda railed on a couple of the comedy segments here, the one that I'm going to give praise to the most is the third segment, which is called "The Tape". That was the one where our main character is watching the same video tape called "Bloodgasm" on repeat. That one, to me, was the best segment, mainly because it was actually really funny, especially towards the end. I won't spoil it, but I will say that it is genuinely funny. So, we got one good comedy segment. The others I sorta like are "The Request", which is about a radio DJ who ends up killing his girlfriend on their anniversary, only for her to come back to get her revenge. I won't spoil how exactly, but it  was also pretty decent. The first two segments, while ridiculously short, do get straight to the point and are also decent for the short time they had to work with.

Now the main framing device involves 3 of our main characters trying to film a low budget SOV horror movie of their own. Granted, this is probably one of the weaker framing devices because none of the scenes involving these characters transitions into the next story that fits into what they're talking about. But still, at least they try to keep their own scenes consistent, even if the transition into the segments are kinda weak. Overall, guys, the writing here is mostly pretty decent. It does have a couple of bad segments, but just about every other story is actually pretty decent for what it is.

The acting here, however, is definitely terrible. Now to be fair, since the segments in these short films were made for next to nothing, I'm going to assume that a lot of the casting for these short films consisted of the filmmakers friends and family members. Granted, I don't know how truly accurate that is, but I'm going to assume that this is their first time being in this kind of movie, so I can't really harp on the acting as I normally would when it comes to people who have never acted a day in their lives. And also, I gotta imagine that, despite possibly not ever being in a movie before, they had a blast in playing the roles for each of their own segments. So, this is one of those cases where I'm not going to harp on the terrible acting. I could, but I'm not going to here. So, acting is going to get a pass from me.

Special effects are definitely a mixed bag here. On one hand, since these movies were, again, made for next to nothing, you really can only do so much with the kind budget your working with. Also, since this anthology is suppose to be a love letter to those horror movies from the 80's, there is also almost no CG involved here. The only exception I can think of is during the fourth segment, "Gang Them Style", where our Plissken knockoff is suppose to be firing his gun at the zombies. Beyond that, though, every other effect is done practically. The blood effects in particular are definitely the ones that will show up the most. And it's here where most of the blood effects will range on being a mixed bag, because in some cases like the first, seventh, and last segments will feature someone gushing with a *lot* of blood, and those scenes look pretty good, if a bit samey. Then there's also the one case in "Thicker Than Water", where a character dies and the blood that drips out of their mouth looks ridiculously fake. So it's something that you just have to take for what it's worth here. I will say, though, at least the effects are pretty good for the most part. Makeup effects are also decent, too. So there is that.

Camerawork in most of these segments is done really well. Most of these segments give off the vibe that you're a watching something that was filmed on video rather than using professional camera equipment that you would see in most modern big budget movies. The one segment, however, "Gang Them Style", feels like something out of an 80's action film than anything else. It didn't really give off the illusion that you were watching something that was shot on video. It may look like it was filmed on a low budget, but not something that looked like it was shot on video. Though I can't really be too sure of that. I would probably have to watch the behind the scenes on this DVD to see how it was filmed. But speaking of which, the camerawork in most of these segments does gives off the low quality vibe that you would experience with an SOV film. Which is great to see.

Lighting here is pretty good for all of the segments. Sound-mixing is actually really good too, with the one slight exception in the last segment, where our main characters are talking in an abandoned town and the sound of the wind is picking up in the background, which kinda drowns out their dialogue a bit. However, I will say that, unlike another SOV movie I covered a long time ago, which was "Garden Tool Massacre", which also had some of the worst sound-mixing I've heard in a long time, the sound-mixing here is competent throughout most of the short films in this anthology. So I can definitely say that as a positive. Music here is OK. None of it is really gonna stick out at you in terms of being memorable. Though I can't say it's awful either. It's just...OK, really. Nothing much else to say about it.

So, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Hi-8 (Horror Independent 8)"? Yes, I actually can. If you're somebody who's into low budget horror movies such as this, especially ones where it feels like something that was shot on video for next to nothing, go check it out. You are most definitely gonna find a lot of enjoyment out of this. If you're somebody who's not into this sort of thing, however, then there's obviously no way I can recommend it to you at all. As for myself, once again, I'm pleasantly surprised by how this movie turned out. I thought, in the back of my mind, that it was going to suck. And it doesn't. Granted, there are about two, maybe 3, segments here that aren't exactly great, but there's still enough here to where I can say that the positives outweigh the negatives. So yeah, I'm definitely going to be holding onto my copy of this movie. It really is surprisingly decent. Now...I'm gonna go watch another horror movie. Specifically one where it was shot on video. And the one movie I can think of that meets those standards is "Redneck Zombies". I'm gonna go and watch that one next because I do really like that movie and I sorta want to continue this trend of watching a low budget SOV movie. So that's what I'm gonna go do next once I get done with this review.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Save The Green Planet!

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a South Korean sci-fi black comedy from 2003. That movie is "Save The Green Planet!"

Now, I actually discovered this movie a few years ago, back when I was still renting DVDs from my local library. And one of the first films I discovered was this movie. Now when I originally saw it, I didn't end up renting it because I wanted to find other movies that peaked my interest. And this one didn't at the time, so I just thought nothing of it.

Then about a few weeks ago, I found this movie again at one of my local video stores and the title of the film sparked my memory of seeing it back at my local library. And this time, I did end up buying the movie. Though I'm not totally sure if it's gonna be worth the price tag of it. The movie was about $15, so...I'm kinda taking a chance here and hopefully the movie will be good enough to be worth that price tag.

Now from what little I've looked up regarding this movie, it's about a guy and his girlfriend, who discovers that aliens are about to invade Earth, and he ends up kidnapping someone, who believes to be one of the aliens, and that he and his girlfriend are gonna torture him in various ways to get the information out of him.

I'll admit, that's a rather...interesting concept for a movie. I'm not totally sure how well it's going to implement this idea, but I'm still all the more curious about it. And since this thing is marketed as a comedy, I'm hoping for it to be really funny. But the only way I'm gonna find out how funny this movie can possibly be is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Save The Green Planet!".

7 minutes later

OK, I have a dumb question here. So this CEO that's supposedly an alien is not only drunk right now, but he has no security escorting him whatsoever, as our main character is in the process of kidnapping him. Wouldn't a CEO normally have security with him in case something happens to him? I'm only asking because he either is an idiot for not having security to begin with, or he just set sent them home or something because he's drunk. I don't know, but either way, it's kinda odd to me that he didn't have any security guards with him right now because of what's happening to him. Just my opinion, though.

2 minutes later

You guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but this song that's playing right now is a rock rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" from "The Wizard of OZ". And I gotta say...it's sorta decent. Mind you, it isn't great by any stretch, but it's still sorta decent. So at least that's something.

12 minutes later

Well, guys, I am gonna say one thing about our main character. The man can kick a ton of ass, as he just demonstrated. Granted, I'm not totally sure why he was fighting this random stranger to begin with, but still, at least he can hold his own in a fight.

16 minutes later

So that torture chair the CEO is sitting on also acts as a toilet in case he either needs to piss or shit. That is actually kinda disgusting. But if anything else, at least Lee is making sure that if he's indeed an alien, then at least he's making sure he's practicing proper hygiene.

17 minutes later

OK, I have a dumb question here again. So, the detective is talking with Lee while the CEO is trapped underneath them. And I should mention that the CEO can see him through the little hatch that he's trapped under. Why doesn't he just yell for help like he's been doing since he kinda broke free from his chair? Unless that syringe Lee gave him prevented him from talking, then I don't see a reason why he doesn't just yell out for help like he did earlier. It's kinda bugging me slightly.

10 minutes later

OK, I need to bring up something because it's been kinda bothering me for a while now. Now earlier, I mentioned that this movie is suppose to be a black comedy. And I can certainly see that it's trying to be funny. But none of it has really made me laugh so far. I'm not saying that as a knock against the movie, it's just that none of the jokes here have truly made me laugh yet. I'm hoping maybe within the next hour or so that I'll find something here that'll get me to genuinely laugh, but for now, I'll just have to continue to wait and see if that happens.

5 minutes later

O...K...well, that certainly took a turn. Never expected that kind of death involving bees and honey. And I think his dog is eating the remains, too. Oh my god...that *definitely* took a far turn there!

11 minutes later

So, guys, I'm learning a lot more about Lee's backstory and, holy shit, this movie has gone completely in a different direction with it's tone. And...I'm not totally sure how to feel about it. I'll get more into it later when I get to reviewing this movie, but I'm gonna let you guys know right now that this movie is no longer aiming to be a comedy. I'll say that much for now.

15 minutes later

So, guys, I also learned the true nature of these aliens and their purpose. And I'm gonna tell you right now, it's really kinda stupid. But I'll get into all that later once I start to review this thing.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Save The Green Planet!". And it ends on a rather dismal and really kinda shit ending. Yeah, I don't want to see anymore of this. I'm gonna shut this movie off now...OK. So...what the fuck do I start with here? Well, I suppose I can start off by mentioning that I paid $15 to get this movie and I can safely say that it was nowhere near worth that much money. In fact, I'm starting to kinda despise it now because of my own stupidity.

But I'll try to put that aside for now and just go straight into the movie here. And since I just mentioned it, I'm gonna start off by talking about something I mentioned a little while ago. About the aliens true purpose and everything. Without going into too much detail here, the whole thing felt like an anti-war message that was tacked on here. How our genetic structure in our bodies caused us to go to war, kill each other, and how the whole the thing is the humans fault, because, apparently, no other species outside of the Earth does that sort of thing. Which makes me wonder how many kinds of species these aliens have made in which they monitored those lifeforms to make sure that their species doesn't fight each other? It really doesn't make a whole lot of sense, however, I'm not really going to harp on that point too much because I feel like I would be here for hours if I tried ponder on it for too long.

So, moving past that, let's talk more about the writing. And I have to start with the biggest problem that this movie has: It's tone. See, as I've mentioned a couple of times already, this movie is suppose to be a black comedy. And I will say that this movie does try to be that. But there a couple of things here that stops it from being a full on comedy. The first thing is that a lot of the jokes in this movie don't exactly land here. Now I know that humor is subjective and not everything is going to be funny. But the thing about comedies, at least for me anyway, is that they should at least make you laugh once. And I've seen a lot of movies, both good and bad, that usually are able to garner at least one laugh out of me. This movie, while, again, does try to be a black comedy, nothing much about it made me laugh. It was more weird and kinda awkward humor. Now again, I don't mind that kind of humor in my movies as long as it's funny. But here, I didn't really find much of the humor to be very funny.

Now that's more of a minor problem. The bigger problem with the tone is that it changes at the drop of a hat from around the 80 minute mark of the movie. Right from when they show Lee's backstory, just about everything that follows afterwards is a near pitch black sci-fi horror thriller. And from there, it just drops the comedy bit and goes straight in it's own direction with it's story and tone. And I still have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it does make for some interesting dynamics and plot points that I haven't really seen done in movies and TV in quite a while. But on the other hand, it just felt like the movie forgot it's own self awareness of it being a somewhat goofy comedy just so it can become a pitch black serious sci-fi film. And it's those elements there that I just can't see myself ever watching this movie again. Especially with that ending. But again, I'll try not to go into it for the sake of spoiling the whole movie.

So what about our characters? Well, the only one I can really mention is Lee, our main character of the film. The best way I can summarize Lee in this movie is short and to the point. Lee is out of his fucking mind. And the thing about that is he's aware of it. He's grown up on sci-fi and alien movies to where he becomes obsessed with it. To a point where he figures out the main CEO of this pharmaceutical company is an alien in disguise. And Lee tries in various ways to torture the information out of him. However, that's only part of the plot. You have the whole detective subplot in which they're trying to figure out the CEO's disappearance on how he was kidnapped and who kidnapped him.

And that leads into one other big problem with this movie, which is it's runtime. This film clocks in at nearly 2 hours long, and a lot of it just feels like filler. You remember that scene I mentioned earlier where I said Lee knew how to kick a ton of ass? Well, a slight spoiler here, that was all just a fantasy in his mind. It doesn't really add much of anything to the movie other than padding. I would also add the whole detective subplot as well, because there's quite a few scenes in this movie where some detectives focus on a red herring because someone took out a few thousand dollars from the bank, but it really doesn't add much to anything else other than, well...padding, really. Like, you could cut about a half hour's worth of film here and you wouldn't miss a thing. This movie probably would've flowed better if the movie was about 90 minutes long. Mind you, it wouldn't exactly change the ending at all, but at least the movie could've still flowed better.

But anyway, I should probably summarize by saying that the writing in this movie is...well, kinda sort of a mixed bag. I don't really hate it, apart from the ending, but the way that it shifted it's tone throughout the last 40 minutes of the movie just felt like it came out of nowhere and it kinda lost itself from being a somewhat campy comedy to a very serious, pitch black kind of film. And I still have very mixed feelings about the whole thing. Now, with that said, let's talk about the acting. Now I should first mention that this movie does not contain any sort of English dub, as it only has it's original Korean dub with English subtitles. And I will say that the acting here is at least pretty good. It's nothing amazing, but I can at least say the actors seemed like they were having fun with this movie. So at least there is that. I kinda think, at times, Lee's actor might've overacted a little bit in a couple of scenes, especially when he has to shout his lines, but at least it's still competent. So, I can grant him that much. But yeah, the acting here overall is perfectly fine for what it is.

Special effects in this movie are actually really good. For a low budget of $3 million dollars, these are some really good special effects. CG is a little bit on the mixed bag side, however, there isn't really much of that here, thankfully. A lot of the effects in this movie are practical. So you have a lot of blood and gore effects here that look really good. I'm surprised this movie wasn't advertised as a horror movie, but whatever. Costuming and makeup effects are also pretty good, too. They aren't exactly amazing, but nothing I would describe as horrible either.

Camerawork here is mostly really good, though during the beginning before the opening credits, there is some bit of shaky cam going on. Thankfully, it doesn't last very long, as most of the camerawork afterwards is pretty straightforward. Lighting here is lit perfectly fine. The sound-mixing here is good. I do want to touch upon one thing about music, because I mentioned that there was a rock rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" from "The Wizard of OZ" that plays during the opening credits. Well, there's actually two other versions that they play here. One of them is a really sinister creepy version, and it's pretty good, actually. The other plays where some woman is singing the lyrics and it's also really good, too. So, if anything else, at least this movie showed me a couple of really cool renditions of that song. But yeah, other than that, the score here is also fine for what it is. Not amazing, but completely serviceable.

Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Save The Green Planet!"? If you're able to overlook the pacing issues this movie has, along with the tonal shift that it has with it's tone, then...sure. I can probably recommend it. However, personally speaking, I'm not really sure if I can recommend this film to anyone else. Now I want to stress that the movie isn't exactly *bad*, it's just that there's a lot here that stops this movie from becoming great. Which is disappointing to say because I wanted to like this movie. I really did. I thought it was going to be some wacky, goofy cornball sci-fi movie that I was really going to like. But sadly, with the way that it shifted it's tone, there's no way I'm ever gonna be able to watch this thing again. And also the fact that I spent $15 just to get this thing is not exactly doing this movie any favors for me. Yeah, if you ever get physical copy of this movie, get it for less than or around $10. If you can find it at that price, then I suppose you can pick it up. For me, though, I kinda made a mistake here and I'm probably not gonna get much back in trade value with this thing. So now, I'm gonna go and watch a better sci fi movie. And you know what? There's one I see that's both goofy and serious at the same time. I'm gonna go and rewatch the first "Starship Troopers" movie. I'm kinda in the mood to watch it again now after seeing it on my DVD shelf. So that's what I'm gonna go do next.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace. 

Reaction & Review | Duel

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a made-for-television movie from 1971. That movie is "Duel".

Now I only know one thing about this movie. It was directed by legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Not only that, but it's also his very first feature length film that he ever directed. I've covered a couple of films in this series where he was an executive producer, but I've never covered anything directed by him. Well, except for that one segment in "Twilight Zone: The Movie", which that segment he directed was complete shit. So the man's not prone to making garbage. But I'm curious to see what he did on his first outing, because I've never seen this movie before so it definitely counts for this series.

Now as for the plot, I don't really know much about it. All I know is that it involves a traveling salesman trying to outrun a monster truck. And I don't mean the ones with giant wheels that you normally see at events and such, I mean like an actual big semi-truck. Why he's being a chased by semi truck is anyone's guess, really.

But still, I'm really hoping for this movie to be good. I'm not sure if this first outing from Spielberg will actually be any good, but that's what I'm here to find out. And the only way I'm gonna find out is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Duel".

17 minutes later

You know, guys, I'm a little bit surprised that our main character's reaction to him getting cut off by this monster truck is more...subdued than I thought. I thought he would've just flipped out and cursed at the person driving the big truck by now. But then again, this was made in 1971, so I'm not sure how common swearing was back in the early 70's. Still, if it was me in the driver's seat, and they did that to me more than once, I probably would start getting frustrated and then maybe let out a curse or two. Just my opinion, really.

8 minutes later

OK, I have a question here and this is starting to bug me a little bit. So our main character is driving ahead of the monster truck. The mileage right now is nearing 100 miles from our main character's car. The giant truck behind him, from what I'm seeing, is possibly driving at the same speed limit. Is it really possible for a big truck like that to drive 100 miles to the gallon? I'm really curious about this because I don't even know any giant truck, especially one from 1971, that can go 100 miles to the gallon. Granted, this is coming from somebody who's not a car person, so if there's anyone reading this and you really want to answer if a giant truck can drive a 100 miles to the gallon, please do. Because this is starting to become a little bit ridiculous now.

5 minutes later

All right, I have another question here and this a serious one, too. So, our main character, whose name I honestly don't know if he even *has* a name at this point, is at a diner after that little incident with the giant truck. He comes back out of the bathroom and goes to sit down. And then he notices the giant truck is back out there...and he's not the calling police! If he knows that there's a giant ass truck out there that's been out to murder him, not to mention even stalking him at this point, then why the fuck hasn't he called the police yet?! Granted, I understand it would probably take a few dozen police cars to help stop this monster truck, but still, the fact that our main character hasn't called the police yet is bugging the shit out of me.

7 minutes later

OK, so he *does* acknowledge that he could call the police, but then he realizes that he couldn't provide proof nor would anyone at the diner actually corroborate his statements. OK, that's a somewhat flimsy reason, but at least it's something. Granted, I still would think that the monster truck stalking you simply because you passed by it a couple of times would maybe arouse the police's suspicions, but still, at least he has a reason for not calling the police.

8 minutes later

Is he seriously going to try and push this school bus with his tiny car? There's no way in hell this is gonna work! Again, I'm not a car person, but even I can tell you that there's no way a tiny red car is gonna push a giant school bus back out onto the road. That's just common-fucking-sense!

14 minutes later

Well, guys, I can confirm two things for you. One, we *finally* have a name for our main character. His name is David Mann. And two, the giant truck just ran over the telephone booth that David was using to try and call the police, along with a bunch of snakes trapped in glass boxes. At least the movie's starting to get a little interesting now. Hoping, maybe, it'll last that way throughout the last half hour of the film.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Duel". And the film ends with David sitting on the ledge while throwing rocks at the wreckage where he's sitting. Well, I'm gonna go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. So, what did I think about Steven Spielberg's first feature length film that he directed? Well, I'm gonna say that...I kinda enjoyed it. However, I should let you guys know that, even though I did enjoy the movie, I am in no way gonna be watching this thing a second time. Partially because, I already know what's gonna happen, and the reason for it happening is really kinda stupid to begin with.

Let's segue-way into this by talking about the writing. I will start by saying that, for the time that this was made, this might've been one of the more original plots that hasn't really been done before. Maybe it might've been done once or twice beforehand in some indie films, but it wasn't exactly a well known kind of plot. If I were to compare this with something more modern, the only film I can think of at the moment is "Christine". The biggest difference between this movie and "Christine" is that the latter is more of a character driven story, while this one doesn't really focus on any kind of character development whatsoever. Now, I'm gonna be a little bit fair here and say that, for Spielberg's first movie, I can kinda let that slide here. Because this movie is more of an experiment for Spielberg and what he could do as a director later on in his career. So, I will give him that much when it comes to this movie.

Now, what about the plot itself? Really, guys, this movie's story is paper-thin at best. Our main character, David Mann, is being chased by a big murderous truck. Why? Well, the short answer is "fuck you, that is why". If you want the more detailed version, um...well, during the beginning of the movie, David passes by the truck a couple of times in order to get ahead and then the truck gets ahead of him whenever this happens, and thus we have our story of David trying to outrun the killer truck. Yeah, I'm not kidding you guys when I say that the story here is incredibly paper-thin. It plays itself out as a thriller kind of story, and I will say that, for the first 45 minutes or so, I was actually kind of invested into what's happening. Even though the story is paper-thin, it actually did intrigue me for a good portion of the movie.

But I did notice a big problem with this movie's writing. As I mentioned earlier, this kind of story, for it's time, was probably one of the more original stories that not a lot of people had seen done before. And while I still stand by that, I do think it runs into a problem here where you can only do so much with a paper-thin story such as this where it's just our main character trying to out run a giant truck. And for the last half hour of the movie, I did notice that it does kinda drag on for a little bit when I realized it's just more of the same thing you've already seen with David trying to outrun and outsmart the giant truck. If this were a shorter film, I would probably say that this works perfectly for a short runtime. However, for it to drag out to an hour and a half, it does start to, pardon the pun here, lose a bit of steam. And that's where I kinda have to draw the line here and state again that I'm not gonna be watching it again a second time because I already know what's gonna happen. And it's not gonna be as interesting as it was the first watching it. Especially knowing that the last half hour is just more of the same like a majority of the film anyways.

The only character I can mention is David Mann. Which, I'm not totally sure if he actually mentioned his name back when he first called his wife, but I could be mistaken there. But yeah, character wise, you don't really know a whole about David, other than that he has a wife and two kids, and he's out to make an appointment. At least until the giant truck plot kicks in, but that's an issue I've already talked about. For the most part, he's trying to figure a way out of his situation with the giant truck. You see him pondering on who the truck driver might be based on his boots. And I'm gonna kinda spoil this, you never learn who drives the giant truck that's after David. So unless there's a sequel to this that I'm not aware of, don't expect any closure about who the truck driver is. But anyway, the whole situation with David's character is sorta one dimensional, but I am gonna say that at least he's being kinda smart about it. I mean, at least he does try to call the police later in the film after I complained that he didn't do it back at the diner. So at least he's a somewhat intelligent character that you can sorta care about, despite not having much of a character to speak of.

Overall, guys, the writing here isn't really the best in the world and, for me anyway, is certainly not gonna rank up there with Spielberg's best directed films. Though personally, I'd have to look back at all the films I've seen where he's directed and find out which of his I like best. But anyway, writing here is paper-thin, but it does kinda work, though it does kinda drag out in the last half hour or so. The acting here is actually really good. Dennis Weaver makes his character stand out in a really interesting way, mostly when he tries to act calm under intense pressure, but sometimes he can't keep it under control and starts panicking when the monster truck is getting closer to him. Granted, most of that is from the last half hour of the film, but it is one of the few things that saves it from being boring. So yeah, his acting in this thing is great, and it kinda makes him one of the reasons to watch this movie, if at least just once.

I'm also gonna say that the cinematography here is great. All of it was shot on location in, I believe, rural California. Either that, or they might've been between the border with Arizona, since a lot of that is just the hot desert. Regardless of either scenario, it looks great. The stuntwork involving the vehicles is also really good, too. I'm actually really impressed with how well done the stuntwork is for this movie. I'm not sure what the budget is, though I imagine, given that it was originally made for TV, it was probably shot on a low budget. But still, the stuntwork here is really good.

The camerawork here is really good, though I'm slightly annoyed by how many times, especially during the last half hour, they kept cutting back and forth to the mileage, oil, and the temperature of David's car. I get that they were trying to play it up as being really intense, but it is a reminder that they didn't need to constantly show up on repeat. That said, everything else here is great. Lighting here is excellent, though that's mainly because most of this movie was shot outdoors. Sound-mixing here is top notch. And the score here, though it's not much to go on, does really try to be suspenseful especially when David's on the run from the big truck. So yeah, all of the technical stuff is great, minus a couple of hiccups.

So, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend to "Duel"? If you're a fan of Steven Spielberg's work and you haven't seen it yet, I would say go check it out. If you're a fan of thrillers, then I would say it's worth a watch. And who knows, maybe you'll enjoy it a whole lot more than I did. Mind you, that isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it. Like I said, I did kind of enjoy it. But I just don't think it's worth rewatching multiple times over. Especially since it kinda starts to drag by the last half hour or so. But that's just me. Like I said, if you enjoy it enough to watch it multiple times over, then that's awesome. Rock on. But I just don't see myself rewatching it again anytime soon. Still though, at least this movie did motivate me into watching another movie involving a killer car. I'm gonna go and watch "Christine" again once I get done typing this review up.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | The Puppetman

 

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 2023. That movie is "The Puppetman".

Now, I don't really know a whole lot about this movie. From what I looked up on the back of the DVD case, the plot involves a young girl of a killer, who claims to be innocent of murders that he did not commit. And she somehow finds out the truth about it when her friends start mysteriously dying off. Which, I will say does sound rather interesting. Granted, I don't know if this movie is gonna live up to that concept, but it certainly does have potential.

The only other thing I should let you guys know is that this movie was distributed by a company known as Shudder. Now Shudder actually does put out more original movies. More specifically, horror movies. And I can recall seeing at least two of them beforehand. One of them is "PG: Psycho Goreman", which is a film I covered several years ago, and I kinda liked it. Granted, it wasn't exactly worth holding onto, but I did still like it's premise. The other film that I've seen from them is "Christmas Bloody Christmas", which is a film I covered during one of my Christmas specials that I did a couple of years ago. And while that movie was certainly flawed, I still wound up enjoying it, too. In fact, I actually have added it to my list of Christmas movies that I watch every year around Christmas time.

So, Shudder does know how to put out decent movies, from what I've seen anyway of them. I'm hoping this one is going to continue the trend of it being rather decent. Or perhaps it'll actually be really good. I don't know if it will be or not, but that's what I'm here to find out. So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Puppetman".

3 minutes later

Wait wait, hold up here for a second. So, these radio announcers are saying that after the husband killed his wife, the police found their daughter locked up in a closet. That wasn't a closet she was locked in, it looked more like a fucking boiler room! Granted, I don't know how common it is for a closet to have brick walls, but that did not look anything like a closet. There's bit of a difference there. Just thought I'd mention that.

15 minutes later

So, guys, I'm gonna ask this. Is *anything* interesting gonna happen in this fucking movie? We're nearly 20 minutes into the movie and nothing has fucking happened. I'm hoping, maybe, something interesting will happen sooner, rather than later. But as of right now, I'm kinda already doubting it.

8 minutes later

So, guys, we finally have our first kill in the movie. And allow me to sum up how it happened. So our main characters are on a rooftop building, drinking. Charlie somehow ends up getting possessed by the Puppetman. She then suddenly walks backwards, trips on a ledge and falls to her death. That's it. That's the whole sequence of the killing and it's not really an interesting kill either. God, I *really* hope this movie will actually make their kills more interesting. Otherwise, we might have a bit of a problem here.

18 minutes later

Guys, do you want to know why I don't visit psychics very often, if ever? It's because they drone on and on and never get to the fucking point. This psychic is proving just that by making this scene fucking boring as shit. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.

17 minutes later

So, guys, good news is that we finally got another kill. Two of them in fact, as both of Michal's friends were killed in, admittedly, somewhat creative death scenes. It's just a pity that it took the movie well over half an hour to get to this point, especially knowing that there's only about 37 minutes left of it to go, but hey, at least these kills are definitely somewhat of an improvement over Charlie's death scene. So, I guess, take the good with the bad here.

18 minutes later

You know, guys, I understand that this scene was suppose to be all tense and dramatic, and I'm suppose to feel sorry now that Michal's boyfriend is now dead. But honestly, I don't. Because the way he was killed made that whole scene unintentionally hilarious. So, good job, movie, you know how to take the tension out of a scene that was suppose to be taken seriously and end up being kinda hilarious in hindsight. That's just class right there.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Puppetman". Let me shut this stupid thing off here...OK. God, that movie was stupid as fuck. Guys, I'm almost tempted to spoil this movie for you. Mostly about who this Puppetman is and what it's purpose is really for. However, unlike my review of "Millennium", where I spoiled the ending to that thing, I won't give out any real spoilers here. What I am gonna say, again, without spoiling who this Puppetman really is, is that the whole idea it is stupid as shit and how it all plays out isn't really any better. I'll just leave it at that and leave up to your imagination. I may leave out a hint here and there, but for the most part, most of this review will be left spoiler free.

So with that said, let's get into the review proper here and start off, as usual, with the writing. Now earlier, I had mentioned that this movie was distributed by Shudder. And I had mentioned that they put out more original horror movies. Well, this one isn't nearly half as original as it could be, as it does involve stuff like satanic rituals and plot points that I have seen in other movies. Things such as "Devil's Due", "The Bye Bye Man", and "Slenderman". I should mention that all of those movies were absolutely terrible and this movie is no exception. Granted, it's not quite as bad as those movies were, but that doesn't mean very much. It just means that it doesn't do it nearly as bad as those movies did.

One thing that this film does have in common with those movies is that the pacing is downright horrible. This movie moves along at a snail's pace as almost nothing of interest happens throughout over the first half of the movie. Our kills here, to begin with, are horribly spaced out. The first kill happens around the 25 minute mark. And the next kill? Happens just over the hour mark of the film. And by that point, there's a little over half an hour left of movie to go. And the stuff that happens between the first kill and the next is nothing but mindless padding. Such as when Michal and her friends visit this psychic to help find answers of what's going on with Michal. And this psychic just goes on and on about how we're all here to help Michal and such through this difficult time, what with her losing her best friend, Charlie, and what's going on in her own mind, before finally getting on with her ritual. That scene takes up a good portion of the middle of the movie and it's just so damn long that you're hoping something of interest happens during that long scene. Maybe the psychic herself might end up getting killed because of the Puppetman. But no, that doesn't happen. In fact, a slight spoiler here, she's one of the few characters in this movie who doesn't die at all.

Speaking of characters, that greatly transitions into the next big problem with this movie. All of the characters in this movie are just shallow and lifeless. Most of which consists of Michal and her friends. Her friends in particular have nothing interesting about them. When you first meet them, they come off as unlikable douchebags. I was gonna exclude Charlie from this because she was really trying to help out Michal by recording footage of when she's sleepwalking at night. But then that gets trampled when she lets it slip that she told one of the friends of the group about it. I think it was her boyfriend, Danny, who Charlie might've told him about, but I don't recall exactly. Which gets Michal to get all angry when she snaps at Charlie and, well, then comes Charlie's lame death scene. I won't spoil how that all makes sense. If you're seriously dumb enough to watch this movie, then it might make more sense there. Though that's not really a guarantee.

Michal herself is the only one who has a backstory which, again, ties into why she's connected with the Puppetman. But even with that, her personality is boring as shit, because she has something resembling daddy issues, because it ties into the beginning of the movie. Where her Dad ended up killing her Mom because of really stupid reasons. And what with her mind on the Puppetman, she really doesn't have anything else going on beyond that. And you would think that we would end up caring about her because she's going through these issues and you want to see her overcome them. But I can't, not when you have a character who has an uninteresting backstory and her depth is just about as vapid as the entire cast is. Seriously, nobody here has anything resembling likability or depth that'll make you want to care about these characters. They are all shallow and lifeless as they come.

And that pretty much sums up the writing as a whole. There is almost nothing here that I can say is even a remote positive when it comes to the writing. Now you would think that, with all of the shallow characters in this movie, we would have acting that is just as bad as the writing is. And yeah, you would be totally right. The acting here is horrible from just about everyone in this entire cast. Nobody's putting in any real effort because most of their character's personality come in one trait. You are either boring as shit, which would include Michal and all of her friends. You would include the police chief, who sounds about as wooden as possible. Or you have the psychic who really doesn't have much of anything to work with for her character, so she just phones it in. So yeah, acting here as a whole is fucking terrible.

Special effects, I will say, are the only thing that saves this movie from becoming shit. You do have your standard blood effects, which aren't amazing, but they're still pretty good for low budget standards. The best special effect in the movie has to go to one of the character's face burning off. It looks really good, and it's also the best kill of the entire film. Second place has to go to the other kill involving the weight lifts. I won't spoil on how these kills work, but like I said, they're the only two kills in the entire movie that makes the special effects stand out. Everything else involving CG is kinda shit. Especially in one scene where Michal jumps off a bridge to kill herself, only to be flung back onto the bridge at ludicrous speed. It's easily the worst effect in terms of CG, and that includes everything else involving it as well.

Camerawork here is pretty good. Lighting here is lit fine. The sound-mixing here is also competent. The score here is honestly nothing special. It sounds like a lot of typical generic scores you would hear in horror movies and it's definitely not something you're going to remember this movie by. But overall, the technical work here is fine.

But ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "The Puppetman"? No. There is almost no way I can recommend this movie to anyone, especially if you're a horror movie fanatic. This movie will honestly do nothing for you to make you want to go check this movie out. The only slight possibility that I could recommend this thing to you guys is if you want to watch it with friends on a bad movie night and riff on it. Because like I mentioned earlier, this movie does something that is unintentionally hilarious that it could spark some decent riffing material off of. But if you're not here to riff on it, then there's really no reason for you to check this movie out. It is boring, slow paced, and while it's certainly not the worst horror movie I've ever seen, it's definitely not gonna get another viewing from me. Now...I keep looking at that title for this movie and it makes me just want to go and rewatch the first "Puppet Master" movie from Full Moon again. So that's what I'm gonna go do next after I get done with this review.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.