Reaction & Review | The Day Time Ended

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a science fiction movie from 1980. That movie is "The Day Time Ended".

Now as I stated back in my review of "Skull Heads" a little while ago, I wanted to give more spotlight to movies from Full Moon Features, because I hadn't covered any of their films in a couple of years ever since my "Full Moon vs. Troma" marathon. So for this year, I decided that I'm going to be spotlighting more Full Moon movies to make up for that. So just to let you guys know now, you're gonna be seeing quite a bit more Full Moon movies being featured this year for Reaction & Review.

Now as for tonight's movie, I really don't know very much about it, outside of it being published by Full Moon Features. I can take a guess here, though, and say that the movie's gonna have some sort of time travel gimmick implemented. Which could be interesting, though, personally speaking, I'm not the biggest fan of time travel movies, so I'm not sure how much this movie is going to appeal to me.

But hey, who knows? This movie could still be really interesting, and perhaps it could actually be really good. I don't know if it will be or not, but that's what I'm here to find out. And the only I am gonna find out if this movie is truly good or not 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 "The Day Time Ended".

3 minutes later

Guys, I'd love to hear what this narrator is talking about, however, I can't hear very much of his dialogue because of how quiet it sounds. You guys can't hear it for obvious reasons but this sound is so quiet that, even with my volume at full max, I still can *barely* hear what he's actually saying. I'm hoping that this isn't a sign of things to come already, but we are off to a little bit of a rocky start here.

9 minutes later

OK, so this little girl, upon chasing after her pony that suddenly ran off from her, ends up discovering some big glowing green thing. And she doesn't immediately ask what this thing is or even call out to her parents or anything? I really think something that big would...OK, so now the thing just spawned the pony right next to her after saying that she wanted her pony back. And she *still* isn't curious about what that thing was other than saying "thank you" to it! I gotta say, she's kinda sorta stupid at the moment. Just saying.

5 minutes later

OK, so Jenny did try to show her mother and grandfather the thing that she found at the back of the barn, only for it to conveniently disappear. Well, it didn't *really* disappear, per se, it just shrunk itself into a small glowing green rock. I'm curious if she'll actually show them this at some point, or she's just gonna keep it to herself, but I will retract my statement a bit about her being a little stupid...for now, anyway.

11 minutes later

So this is the second time that this little alien has appeared and it's now on the bed of Jenny's grandparents. And either this alien has the power of flight or that composite shot there looked kinda terrible. Either explanation I'll take, but still, the effect doesn't look very good.

14 minutes later

So this, I guess, alien ship, can stop bullets in mid-air and can also disintegrate them, as well. That's sorta cool, I guess. I'm still not really sure if that thing is suppose to be an alien ship or not, but at least the design of it is pretty neat. So that counts for something.

8 minutes later

And now we suddenly have a giant kaiju monster. Two of them, actually! And one of them kinda looks like Godzilla's distant cousin, only he looks a little bit more bulkier and goofier, too. Wasn't really expecting that, honestly.

18 minutes later

Guys, I'm just gonna say this right now, this movie is making less and less sense as it goes on by, and I'm honestly kinda happy that the film's almost over. Which is good, because there's only about 12 minutes of film to go. However, I have to end up talking about it once it's done. And that's gonna be kind of challenge, really.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Day Time Ended". Let me shut the movie off now...good lord. I don't even know where to starts, guys. This movie is just really fucking disappointing. I'm almost tempted to say that it sucks, but...actually, fuck that, it really sucks! Almost nothing about this movie is redeemable, save for a couple of things that I'll talk about later on.

For right now, however, let's just get right into this film here and see what I can actually start with. I may as well just talk about the writing, seeing as how I do that for a majority of my reviews anyway. The writing here makes no sense whatsoever. In fact, this movie borders on being plotless because almost nothing of interest happens here. Yeah, shit happens in this movie, but there's no context to it, and you're just left with mountains of questions that never get answered. This movie basically just wants you to not think and accept it for what it is. And if this were a mindless action film, I could probably let that slide. Because a lot of action movies don't have much plot anyways, with some exceptions of course, but still. However, when you have a movie that involves time travel and weird stuff is happening, you would expect the movie to try and be a little smart with it's writing and maybe explain a couple of things that you might have some questions about it. But that doesn't happen here, and it's rather infuriating when you don't get anything explained, especially for a movie that involves time travel and other weird shit happening. You would at least expect something out of this movie, but you don't get jack shit out of it.

To further prove this, I'm gonna go over a couple of things that the movies refuses to explain. First off is that big green glowing temple structure that Jenny found around the back of the barn at the beginning of the movie. Like I mentioned earlier, it didn't exactly disappear after Jenny couldn't convince her Mom and grandfather to look at what she found, it just shrunk, and that's when Jenny decides to pick up the thing and put it in her pocket. And it's here where I have to let you guys know that this temple-like thing Jenny finds is *never* explained at all. And what's worse about this is Jenny never tells her family about this even after she first tried to show it to them. You'd think by the point where they're at the car and things start to go weird for them, and that Jenny actually convinces whoever she was talking to actually stop because they were scaring her Mom, things just stop, that they would actually ask Jenny any questions, right? Well, no, because apparently, they don't think that's odd whatsoever.

Another thing that this movie refuses to explain is the ending. So, through a "time warp continuum" that the grandfather somehow deduces, both Jenny and Beth, AKA the mother, end up falling into it. And near the end, Jenny ends up beamed towards them and tells them that she and Jenny are fine. To which, Beth's mother asks her is that really true and how can they be sure that these aliens don't mean any harm? Well, Beth gives out the most half-assed answer I have ever heard in a movie in a long time. Basically, she has a "feeling" that she can't quite explain it, but there was a warmth that felt good and that she has a gut feeling that everything's going to be all right. Which then prompts Jenny to appear out of nowhere, followed by her Dad, Richard, who's been trying to contact the family throughout the entire movie and decides to travel to his Dad's home, in which case things led up to him being on a horse. And right towards the end of the movie, the whole family comes across a kinda futuristic city in a pod. And somehow, the whole family sees this as a good thing and the grandfather sums up that perhaps this is what was meant to be and doesn't question it whatsoever. Thus, our movie ends with our family heading toward this out of nowhere city.

Yes, guys, this seriously how the movie ends, and the whole thing just feels like a fucking cop out. It makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, how the fuck do you find a futuristic city set out in the middle of nowhere to be good thing? I'm gonna tell you, guys, if I actually saw that, I would be fucking terrified of it because I don't know what the fuck is over there! But this family is stupid as shit and decides to head on over there to end the film. It's basically similar to the ending of "Millennium", although not as convoluted as that movie's ending was. And also, those little aliens that I briefly mentioned early on? They never get explained at all about who they are and why exactly they befriend Jenny. Again, this entire movie wanted you to not think about anything and just watch it for what it is. And I'm not doing that, because what this movie's excuse really is for not explaining shit about anything boils down to five words. And those five words are 'fuck you, that is why'. You could've put that as a tagline for the movie and it would've worked perfectly to sum up all the nonsensical bullshit that happens in this film.

Now, what about the characters? Are there any characters that are worth caring about? Well...no, not really. There is not a single character here that you're gonna give a fuck about. I was gonna give Jenny a pass on this, because she's just a child, however, I also have to remember that she was the who kept quiet on the whole thing regarding the glowing green temple that she discovered and never again attempted to explain about what she saw or found. So she's back to being stupid after I rescinded my previous statement about her being stupid. Everyone else here I could just write off as bland and shallow. The only character who I could kinda like is Richard, though that's mainly because of his actor, who I'll talk about in a second here. But yeah, all the characters here are shallow, boring, and aren't really interesting in the slightest.

And that summarizes the entire movie in a nutshell. The movie is uninteresting, and because it refuses to answer any sort of questions that I had about the story, it makes the whole thing infuriating to watch and it just kinda makes me despise it even more. The writing here is that bad, guys. The acting here is also kinda on the same level, although I'm gonna give a pass to one actor in particular. And that would be Christopher Mitchum. For those of you who don't know, Christopher Mitchum is the son of legendary actor Robert Mitchum. And he's also been in a few John Wayne westerns, such as "Chisum" and "Rio Lobo". The latter being one of my favorite John Wayne movies of all time, so seeing him in this movie is actually a little bit of a treat. Plus, he's the only actor here who seemed like he cared. Everyone else, I can't say the same for. Most of everyone here sounds horribly stilted or wooden. The worst actor, unsurprisingly, is the child actress playing Jenny. Although I can't fault her too much, since she didn't have very many lines to begin with. But still, she was pretty terrible. And that goes for the rest of the cast that isn't named Christopher Mitchum.

Special effects are decent for the most part, with the one exception involving the composition of one of the aliens. Although I'll get to that in a bit. But first, I will say that when it comes to the visual effects, they look pretty decent. I mean, this isn't amazing or anything, but for low budget standards, it looks halfway decent. The best special effects come from the stop motion, specifically, when it comes to the aliens and our kaiju knock-offs. This is some really good stop motion animation for it's time, and I would say that, if this were in a better movie, I would totally watch it. However, being that they're kinda stuck in this movie, I can only regulate one positive to just the stop motion animation. It's really good, and it's the only thing that makes this movie stand out.

But now let's talk about the effects involving the aliens. Now as I just said, the stop motion on the aliens look really good. However, it's where they're moving that kinda hurts it a bit. Now with the first alien, it's not really noticeable. In fact, the effect where he crashes into a plant and knocks it down looks really good. However, it's the second alien that you kinda notice the problem. Mainly, when it's feet are moving, or sliding in this case, it's suppose to be on the bed as it's walking. However, at one point when it stops, it's feet are not touching the ground, which is suppose to be the blanket that it's suppose to be standing on. Now it's very well possible that my other theory of it floating could just be a natural power of his. However, with the way that it's not standing on the blanket on the ground makes the compositing of the shot look kinda terrible. Granted, it's not exactly the worst thing to notice, but it's still enough for me to make mention of. So yeah, the special effects here are OK, but still kinda heavily flawed.

Speaking of which, that brings me into the one of the biggest problems this movie suffers from the most: The picture quality. I've kept quiet on this one until now, but it definitely deserves to be mentioned. See, from the very moment of the opening shot, you can totally tell that the movie felt like it came from a VHS. Because the entire film is filled to the brim with so much graininess that it makes me wonder if someone over at Full Moon just took a dazzler and imported all of the footage from VHS to DVD without even attempting to clean it up. It looks really terrible, and there are even a couple of shots here where the video quality will take a nose dive and look even worse than usual! I really don't know if that was just because it generally looked like that when it was on VHS or if that was just a poor transfer job on Full Moon's part when they put the movie out on DVD. Now I have no idea if they cleaned up the footage on Blu-ray or not. If they have, and if you seriously want to suffer through this thing, then you might want to get it on that format, because the picture quality on this DVD looks grainy as shit. And mind you, I watched "The Outing" not too long ago. And despite the VHS quality there, it looked a hell of a lot better when compared to the grainy shit that's on this DVD. Which is really fucking sad, really.

But anyway, setting aside the awful picture quality, the camerawork here is fine for what it is. Lighting here is decent. Sound-mixing here is also decent. The score here is OK, as it was done by Richard Band. However, I wouldn't say it's one of his best scores either. It's just OK for what it is.

So, guys, when everything is said and done, can I recommend "The Day Time Ended"? No. In no way can I recommend this movie to anyone. It refuses to explain shit about it's plot holes and logic issues. To a point where you're gonna be infuriated to continue watching this movie. Now I am aware that this movie was riffed by the folks over at Mystery Science Theater 3000. Perhaps maybe you'll find some joy there with them riffing on the movie. I personally have no interest in rewatching this thing again, even with the MS3TK commentary. I just don't see the point. Maybe if I had seen it through their lens instead of my own, I probably would've done that. But as is, I'm not gonna rewatch this movie ever again. And it kinda sucks to say that because it featured an actor that I really liked, which was, of course, Christopher Mitchum. But that's OK, because I still have "Rio Lobo" on DVD, so I'm gonna go and watch that again right now, just so I can be reminded of a better movie with a great actor in it.

So anyway, guys, with that, 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 Day of the Dolphin

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a science fiction film from 1973. That movie is "The Day of the Dolphin".

Now, I learned about this movie thanks to me watching one of Emer Prevost's old game livestreams called "Fibbage", which came from one of the Jackbox Party Pack games. Now the premise of "Fibbage" was that you had to come up with a lie for an answer to a question, and if any of the other players picked your lie answer, you would get the most points for that question. Now if you really want to know more about "Fibbage", I would suggest you look up any playthrough of the game on YouTube.

But getting on back topic, as I said a moment ago, I learned about this movie from watching one of Emer's streams of this particular game. And one of the questions that they showed was about this movie. Specifically, it had to do with the film's tagline. The tagline of the film is "He unwittingly trained a dolphin to kill the President of the United States". And that got me curious on finding out more about this movie. So when it finally came to me finding a copy of this movie at one of my local video stores, I bought it and now I can finally cover it for this series.

Now aside from the tagline, the only other thing I know about this movie is that it stars George C. Scott. Which is great, because he's a great actor, and I'm hoping that he'll do something good here in this movie. In fact, I want this movie to be great, but I'm not sure if it will be or not yet. 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 "The Day of the Dolphin".

6 minutes later

So, guys, I just learned how dolphins give birth. Apparently, they just swim around in the water until their baby just hatches out of their body. It actually is rather interesting to know that. I would've never have guessed.

12 minutes later

Well, guys, I am willing to say that, while the film is a little slow moving right now, the music here is really good. You guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but I really like the score for this movie so far. It sounds very relaxed and soothing. Which is something that I don't say very often about scores in movies, but this one, so far, is definitely on that scale.

10 minutes later

You know, guys, as cool as it is that the dolphin can actually count to the number 10, his voice is also kind of annoying. Yes, I understand it's a dolphin, so it's not just gonna naturally speak our language fluently. I just wish his voice wasn't kind of irritating to listen to. Just saying.

19 minutes later

Well, guys, Alpha's not too happy right now, considering that he has been cut off from his mate from that metal door and is trying to sorta slam into it with his tail, and has been doing this all day and night, too. I'm not totally sure why exactly Jake did that, but I'm willing to see where this is going.

2 minutes later

OK, so he did it to get Alpha to talk, which he actually did. Thus, Jake finally releases the door to let Alpha and Beta reunite together. Well, as kinda messed up as that method was, at least it actually worked. So, gotta give Jake some props there.

10 minutes later

Well, I actually didn't think those dolphins would come back in their side of the water after hearing one of the guys there saying that there's a shark in the tank. I thought they would've just swam out to sea and never be heard from again. But I guess I was wrong there.

19 minutes later

O...K...I was not expecting a dead body to appear like that in the tank. That certainly was a rather unexpected thing to see in this movie. That definitely caught me off guard a bit.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Day of the Dolphin" Let me go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. So, where exactly do I begin here...? Well, I guess I can say this first. The movie was actually pretty good. Now mind you, it isn't great by any means, but I do feel like the movie has some kind of weight to it, to where I can't really say that the movie is disappointing. Yeah, the premise is goofy and sorta stupid, but I feel like the filmmakers put in a remarkable effort to make this film work in their favor.

Why don't we go ahead and start this review off proper by first discussing the writing. Now, first off, I should probably address that tagline that I mentioned at the start of this thing. "He unwittingly trained a dolphin to kill the President of the United States". First of all, that tagline, to me, is an instant grabber. How exactly do you train a dolphin to kill the President of the United States? Well, I can tell you guys this. The method of it how it's done is actually pretty simple. And without spoiling exactly how it works, I will say that it's not like if someone trained Jaws the shark to where they savagely kill the President of the U.S. by dumping him in the water and just letting the shark eat him. It's nothing like that at all. It's actually a rather unique method, and part of that has to do with our main character, Jake, training the dolphin on how to speak our language. Like I said, I won't spoil the entire method of how exactly it all works, but it actually is a really unique and simple method and it does make some level of sense.

Now with that said, I want to talk about the biggest problem with this movie's writing. And it's not the premise itself, such as George C. Scott trying to talk to dolphins, or the tagline of the movie itself. To me, those aren't really big problems. No, the biggest problem with this movie's writing is the motivation for killing the President of the U.S.. Basically, guys, the whole thing boils down to a political conspiracy that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. And the worst thing about this is that all of it is done through exposition. You're just being told about it rather than being shown anything. Which, OK, for a movie about dolphins being trained to talk our language, probably would be something that would come out of left field anyways, but I still think they could've done something better with it. Instead, the whole motivation just felt like it was tacked on just so we can have our tagline exist in the first place. And also, I don't even remember the President of the U.S. being mentioned about this whole political conspiracy. Now I could be wrong on that. Maybe if I end up watching this movie a second time, they might mention him in the conversation. But still, whether the President was mentioned or not still doesn't really make very much sense in that conversation.

One other problem that this movie kinda suffers from is it's runtime. This movie clocks in at about 104 minutes long. And you can tell that this movie feels a bit too long, especially when you exclusively focus on the dolphins for a few scenes. Those scenes, in particular, felt like padding. Perhaps if this movie trimmed down on those scenes a little bit, the film could've probably flowed better. And somehow, I just felt like a made by pun there with the word 'flowing', and I'm kinda sorry for making that just now. Oh well.

Anyway, those two issues aside, the writing here is actually really decent. Even for a goofy premise like this, it still has quite a bit of heart to it. Our characters here are likable and fleshed out. The latter going to Jake, because he has quite a bit of character depth in this movie. And the relationship he has with Alpha, the dolphin, is really good. And you do care about both of them as the movie goes on. Now I suppose that if you find this concept of Jake training his dolphin to talk in the human language is too ridiculous to your liking, then there's a good chance that you'll end up hating this movie. And I can't really say that it's not possible. Because in my experience in watching movies that have really odd or creative premises doesn't always make for a good movie. And for some people, they'll probably think that way about this movie, too. But like I said, despite all that, I really think the premise did end up working to a degree. The only thing that doesn't exactly work is the motivation for killing the President of the United States. Again, I felt like that was just tacked on just so we can have this premise to begin with.

So anyway, writing here is still pretty good, as long as you're able to tolerate this odd concept. For me, I was interested in it long ago and now that I finally got to see in it's whole context, it actually did kinda work. Speaking of which, the acting here is also really good. The best actor, by far, would have to go to George C. Scott. He easily makes this movie work and is the biggest standout of the whole film. Now admittedly, he does have a tendency to ham up his lines a couple of times when he has to raise his voice, but still, he did an amazing job here for what he had to work with. Same goes to everyone else here. Everybody pulled in their weight in this movie and they did a really good job here. So, kudos to the entire cast here. You guys did a fantastic job in this movie.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is great. Although considering most of, if not the entirety of this movie, was shot outdoors, it was probably to be expected for the lighting to be really good. And it would've been some sort of crime if the lighting was shit. Sound-mixing here is really good. The music here is great. Like I said earlier, the score here sounds very relaxing and smooth. And after looking up the person behind the music, I can tell you guys that the film's score was done by a man named Georges Delerue, who had a shit ton of music for a bunch of movies and TV shows for nearly 50 decades. Which is outstandingly bonkers! Now admittedly, it's for stuff that I had never heard of. But still, with how much he had done over the years, it's pretty cool to hear something from him for the first time coming from me, and I can say that I'm very impressed with it. So yeah, the music here is really good.

Overall, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "The Day of the Dolphin"? Well, like I said earlier, if you're able to tolerate this rather goofy premise of George C. Scott training a dolphin to talk our language or even the tagline of what the premise eventually leads to, then you might actually end up enjoying this movie. However, if you're not able to do that, then that's totally fine. Because I know some people care for something that's, well, safe and standard, I guess. And I don't mind that myself every now and then, but I do like it when movies like this try to go for something that's kinda out there. And they did manage to make it work for the most part. Again, the motivation for the plot is tacked on, but just about everything else works pretty well. So for the most part, I can recommend this movie to you guys, as long as you're able to, you know, tolerate the concept of this movie well enough. And for me, I was able to tolerate it enough to hold onto for my DVD collection. I'm curious to see how well this movie holds up on repeat viewings for me. But until then, I'm gonna go watch something else. And considering that this movie had a rather goofy premise, I'm gonna go and watch "Chopping Mall", because that's one other ridiculous premise for a movie that I really do like. So, I'm gonna go do that next as soon as 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 | The Outing

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 1987. That movie is "The Outing".

Now, I should first let you guys know that this film is part of that 4 movie combo pack I mentioned back when I reviewed "The Godsend", and it's also the last one, too. And I'm hoping this one might be decent, though I can't say for certain yet.

Now, I've read the synopsis to this movie, and I'm gonna tell you, guys, that this film has the potential to be so stupid that it'll end up being really funny. Essentially, guys, the movie's about a girl who ends up becoming possessed by a genie from an ancient lamp, as she and her friends are all spending the night over at a museum. And what comes after, I'm going to assume, will be all hell breaking loose between our main cast of characters and this demonic genie.

Now I say it might be so stupid that it's funny is because the whole idea of this premise sounds dumb as shit. But at the same time, I can't help but feel that I'm underplaying it a bit here. Because this movie might actually end up being really cool and amazing. However, I'm not really sure if that's actually going to happen or not. I haven't seen any trailers or clips from this thing, so I can't know for sure if this movie will swing either way. Or if it'll end up totally sucking.

Really, guys, I don't really know what to expect from this movie, outside of knowing it's premise. I'm just gonna go into it here and see what this movie can do with it's interesting premise. So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Outing".

13 minutes later

So, guys, even though we don't see this genie yet, it's been released from it's lamp and is already killing off our three thieves. Well, the third one's about to be killed anyway. She's too busy screaming while running upstairs topless and in her underwear. I'm kinda hoping, maybe, that we get to see this genie in it's physical body sooner rather than-oh, now she's being killed off and it's by hanging...I guess. Either that, or she's being choked to death by the genie while being invisible. Not sure why there are sparks going off all over near her feet. I will say, though, at least the kill is effective. So, whatever works for our genie, I guess.

10 minutes later

Jesus Christ! Guys, I've hardly ever used toasters before, but I've never seen one pop up toast to where it was on fire. And I can't exactly blame this on the genie's 'magic' or anything, because that came out naturally on it's own like that. I don't even know any toasters that can do that, let alone ones that came out in 1987. That's honestly new to me, guys.

10 minutes later

Hold up, I just realized something, guys! So our main character's name is Alex, and she's asking her teacher if a magic lamp ever existed. And the teacher's response is her talking about an evil spirit known as a Djinn. My god, this is basically "Wishmaster"! Except, this came out before "Wishmaster" did, so I can't really call it a ripoff...huh. You learn something new everyday, don't ya, guys?

6 minutes later

OK, so the sparks I mentioned earlier about why exactly they were even there is basically an indication that the genie is near someone. Granted, it still doesn't exactly make a whole lot of sense, but at least it's something resembling an explanation. So, kudos to the movie for answering that thought I had.

15 minutes later

You know, guys, who's starting to get on my nerves right now? Besides Mike and his idiot friend, it's this singing cop. He's been singing since the museum's closed and I would be deeply shocked if he survives. I have a strong feeling he won't, but I would be shocked if he did. I'll just have to wait and see though.

4 minutes later

Well, guys, I called it. The singing cop is now dead and killed with a spear, too. Hopefully, Mike and his dumbass friend is next. Cause those two are even more irritating than the singing cop, and I hope their death is as painful as possible. Looking forward to that.

7 minutes later

OK, that's sorta new. I haven't seen that much blood on a body before from a bunch of snake bites. Granted, I've never been bitten by a snake, thank god, but I don't think that much blood would come from small snake bites. But maybe that's just me.

4 minutes later

Well, guys, I got great news. Mike and his douchebag friend are now dead and it's almost exactly as I hoped it would turn out for them. Granted, I could've wished for a little more pain on them, but you know what? I'll happily take what I can get out of it. It was totally worth it.

7 minutes later

Well, guys, it took a bit of time, but I finally get to see the genie in it's physical form...and he actually looks pretty cool! Granted, I can't exactly hear what he's saying, since his voice is so fucking filtered it hurts, but the design looks really cool, so at least there's that.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Outing". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So, where do I begin here? Well, I guess I can answer something that I brought up way early on. Is this movie as dumb as I thought it was going to be. Oh, most certainly. This movie is dumb as shit. Is it also so dumb, it's funny? Oh yes, at times, it really is. Is this movie good? Eh...not exactly, no. But I can't deny the fact that I really enjoyed this film. This thing surprised me on how interesting it really was. I really was not expecting that kind of thing from this film.

So anyway, let's go ahead and dive right into this thing and talk more about it, shall we? Let's start with writing. Now earlier, I brought up the comparison between this movie and "Wishmaster", because our main character has the same first name and is also connected to the djinn, in a way. And you'd think, considering this movie came out a decade before "Wishmaster", how much of the similarities are there between the two films? Well, while there are a couple of similarities, most of everything else is it's own thing. The only real differences that I noticed is that the Djinn in "Wishmaster" came from an ancient jewel, while with the genie in this movie came from a magic lamp. Also, the genie in this movie can only be destroyed by destroying it's lamp, while with the Djinn in "Wishmaster", they kinda jump around it from it's sequels. Thankfully, there's only one good sequel, however, I'm not gonna muddy things up here by talking about the awful "Wishmaster" sequels after 2.

So yeah, while both movies have similar ideas, they're not enough to where I can say "Wishmaster" ripped off this movie or vice versa. Not that I can do that for the latter because, again, this movie came out long before "Wishmaster" did. Which still kinda floors me a bit. But anyway, setting the similarities aside, what about the rest of the writing? Well, the setup is honestly nothing special. Apparently, Alex ends up seeing the lamp at her father's museum and she accidentally opens it up after coming into contact with one of the items that is related to the genie, AKA the bracelet, which was also seen in the prologue of the film. She puts it on and realizes that she can't take it off. It's forced upon her. And somehow, she was able to keep this hidden throughout the entire movie without her Dad, or anyone else, realizing this. I would've thought that, when her father's assistant was showing him an old photo featuring the old lady from the prologue when she was younger, that he would've also pointed that out. But instead, he only wanted the father to focus on the lamp that was in the background. I'd have to check again to see if the bracelet was present on her or not. I'm not entirely sure on that.

But anyway, going back to the setup of this film. It's later on, during the school field trip, where Alex, who later gets possessed by the genie after she releases it, goes along with her friends suggestion that they should stay at the museum overnight simply because. Yeah, there's no real explanation beyond that. And it's here where I should also say that we've seen this kind of setup before in other horror movies, where a group friends or colleagues get together in some place and stay overnight there. I'm thinking of movies like "Chopping Mall" and "Shakma" for example. Those are two movies I can think of where they had that same kind of setup. And while this movie is nowhere near the level of how good "Chopping Mall" did it, it's certainly a lot better than "Shakma". Simply because they were in a museum the whole night, while with "Shakma", it was regulated to a laboratory. That, and the premise in that film was kinda poorly handled. Here though, they were able to do a lot more creative things, thanks to them being in a museum. Though I'll talk a little more about that when I get to special effects.

Our characters really don't have any sort of depth that is interesting or likable. The latter in which it includes characters like Mike and his douchebag friend. I really thought that, after what happened in school, that they would be expelled and would get sent to jail. Well, the former does happen, however, for some reason they're *still* set free and go after Alex and his friends for what happened early on in the movie. Long story short, Mike and his douchebag friend end up in a mini car chase against Alex and her boyfriend Ted. And we learn from Ted that Mike was Alex's former boyfriend. What the fuck Alex saw in Mike I'm not even going to question. But regardless, Mike and his friend end up getting stopped by the police and are taken away. Well, I guess that wasn't enough, because they are somehow released, probably on bail by their parents, and are back in school as they get into a fight with Ted, and it soon ends up with Mike pulling a knife out during the fight. Alex's teacher steps in and reprimands them, which causes the principal of the school and the police, who I guess someone called them while the fight went on, and they're finally taken away again. And they probably should've stayed there, too. But I guess we can't always have nice things all the time.

So yeah, Mike and his douchebag friend are the most unlikable characters in this entire movie. Our other characters aren't really all that interesting. Alex, our main character, is kinda bland overall. Her father is in the same boat. And at first, I thought they were going to do something with their relationship, because they talk about how her Dad is always focused on work and she never feels like she's a free person. And at one point, she even mentions, or jokes for that matter, that her father would just disappear or even die. Then a moment later, they do a 180 on this and immediately makeup. And what she says about her father doesn't get mentioned again until much later on in the movie. However, I'm not gonna get too deep into that one for the sake of spoiling the whole movie. It's also been noted that Alex's Dad is also going out with her teacher. Now that's not really much of an issue, except when she and her Dad are out at dinner together, he begins to say that he's going to marry her and that he'll tell Alex the next day. Which I find a little odd, because Alex already knows that he's in love with her teacher to begin with. So I don't think she would've reacted differently to this whether he told her or not. But that's just me, personally speaking.

So, overall, the writing here isn't really anything really special. But even so, it's rather decent on it's own standards. Yes, it's still dumb as shit and it can also be funny as hell at times, but I'm still really surprised that the movie was able to keep me invested in what was going on. And it's never boring either. Admittedly, it does have a little bit of a slow boil to it, but I can assure you that there is quite a bit of payoff towards it's final climax, and I'd say it was totally worth it. Now, in regards to the acting, it's kinda decent for what it is, though it does range on being laughably bad. Some of the actors tried to ham up their performances, which I'm totally cool with as long as they don't go overboard with it. And it does kinda work. I'd say the weakest performance here would have to be the actress playing Alex. I don't really know what it is exactly, but there's just something about her performance that seemed slightly off to me. Now I will say that her performance here isn't completely god awful or anything, however, there are times where she will sound either flat or will try to overact a bit. The latter isn't really that noticeable, apart from where she tries to yell during the final climax of the film, but the rest of her acting isn't really all that good, especially when she tries to sound possessed. It just didn't exactly sound right to me is all. That said, her acting here is still passable for what she tried to work with, but it still isn't really that good either. So it's just something that you kinda have to tolerate for what it is.

Special effects here are a very mixed bag. Now obviously, this movie was made on a rather low budget, so you really have to work with what you're limited to. And the one effect that's going to stand out at you the most is the genie, when he's in his physical form. Now when it comes to the puppetteering on the genie himself, it actually looks pretty good. The design looks pretty good, too, for something that looks like a demonic djinn, anyway. However, when it's not in it's physical form, it will travel invisibly and will also possess people on occasion. And when it happens, you'll notice how their eyes turn full green. Now those kind of effects are cheap and really kinda shit, as are most of the visual effects in this movie. But aside from that, the blood effects are pretty good for low budget standards, as are the gore effects. Granted, there's not a whole of them, but for what few that do exist here, is still pretty good. So, special effects are still a mixed bag. That said, even though the visual effects are terrible, as are the green glowing eyes, I still kinda liked it, as it does bring out a certain charm to the movie overall. At least, that's how I feel about them anyways.

Camerawork here is pretty good, but I do have to comment on the picture quality for just a moment here. You see, this version of the movie that's on this 4 movie combo pack that I have, feels it came from a VHS port of the movie. And you can totally tell that because of the graininess that appears on screen. I feel like someone over at either Scream Factory, who put out this 4 pack, or MGM, who originally distributed the movie, took a dazzler and just transferred this movie from a VHS and just ported over onto DVD without cleaning any of the footage up. Now mind you, the movie's not completely unwatchable or anything, but I do have to warn some people in advance that the picture quality of this movie from this 4 pack isn't going to be high quality standards or anything like that. Now I do know that this particular movie was released on Blu-ray, where it also has it's original title known as "The Lamp", and the copies of it on Blu-ray are rather limited. So if you can somehow find a copy of it somewhere, go ahead and pick it up, because I imagine that the picture was cleaned up a bit more, seeing as how it's also on Blu-ray and everything. But still, like I already said, the movie is still watchable on the 4 pack. Just, again, don't expect high quality stuff there.

Lighting here is pretty good. The score here is nothing special, although there's one track on the very opening credits that sounded very annoying, because it kept looping the same sounding tune over and over again. It really sounds like something that would come from a casio keyboard, honestly. And I would not be surprised if that actually was the case. I could be totally wrong there, but still. The sound-mix here, though, could've definitely used some improvement. The biggest one being the genie's voice. And I didn't comment on this when I was talking about acting because the genie speaks with a filtered demonic voice. And I would've been totally fine with that...if I could actually understand what the hell he was trying to say. Again, guys, this genie's voice sounds so filtered that I couldn't understand a lot of what he was trying get out. I could, maybe, make out a few sentences here and there. But aside from that, you're not gonna understand a lot of the genie's words here. And I'm not totally sure if I should be blaming the actor voicing the genie or the sound editor who didn't try to find a balance on making the genie sounding a bit more listenable. So yeah, they definitely could've fixed that a bit. Some of the sound-mixing in other scenes isn't great either, but the genie's voice is the biggest offender when it comes to the sound-mix.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "The Outing"? Yes, I totally can recommend this one, for sure. As long as you're able to overlook the somewhat low quality that is on this version of the movie. If not, then you might just want find a copy of one of the limited Blu-ray releases, if you can. But if you still want to take the chance with the former, then by all means, go ahead and do that. Now I'm not sure if it does have a standard DVD on it's own. Which, if not, then I would totally try to find the 4 pack that it's on. In fact, I would say that this 4 movie combo pack is totally worth it. At least for 3 of the 4 movies. The only one I would try to avoid on it is "The Godsend", since that's the only one I didn't like. But that's just me, personally. If you want to take a chance on that movie, then that's totally on you. Still though, this 4 pack is worth the purchase, and I'm totally happy that I was able to snag this combo pack at my local mini mall last month. Now...seeing as how I just got finished watching a movie about a demonic djinn, I'm gonna go and watch the first "Wishmaster" movie again right now. And if I'm up for it, maybe I'll just marathon both this and the second film right afterwards. So yeah, I know what I'm gonna be doing 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.

Reaction & Review | The Calamari Wrestler

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a Japanese film from 2004. That movie is "The Calamari Wrestler".

And I believe that titles summarizes everything I know about the plot to this movie. Which is about a wrestler who's also, apparently, a calamari. And yes, I know that it's suppose to be a guy in a calamari suit, but unlike modern wrestling, I.E. WWE and AEW, who constantly go out of their way to destroy kayfabe, and have to keep beating you over the head about it, I like to try to broaden my imagination a little bit when it comes to professional wrestling and it's kayfabe.

So anyway, now that I've gotten that mini rant out of the way, I'm gonna tell you, guys, I'm really looking forward to watching this movie. In fact, I've been wanting to watch it for a few years, however, thanks to scheduling conflicts, I didn't get a chance to do so, which is why it kept getting pushed back. But now that I finally have room for it in the schedule, I now get to see what this movie can do with this sort of premise. And the only way I'm gonna know 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 "The Calamari Wrestler".

5 minutes later

All right, guys, allow me to summarize everything that's happened within the first 5 minutes or so of the movie. Two wrestlers battled it out for the title. One of them wins with a submission hold, and then soon after his victory, our squid wrestler appears in the ring and challenges him for the title. And long story short, the squid wins with a Northern Light suplex pin, thus winning the title from our newly crowned champion. And the only thing I have to point out here is that *nobody* is questioning the fact that a squid just won your world championship title! But hey, as I said earlier in my remarks about kayfabe, I'm going to give this movie the benefit of the doubt and see where they go from here.

13 minutes later

Wait, so let me if I understand this. So the head guy of Super Japan Pro Wrestling is comparing our calamari wrestler to stuff like nuclear war, terrorism, mysterious viruses, the economy, politics, and all this other shit, to anxieties of the people of Japan in hopes that a Japanese wrestler beating the calamari wrestler will raise their spirits. Dude, what kind of drugs are you on to compare heavy shit like that to a squid wrestler beating another wrestler? I mean, I can kind of understand what he's actually trying to convey here, such as when an American defeats a foreign heel for national pride or something, but it's still a really stupid comparison. Just thought I'd mention that.

18 minutes later

You know, guys, what's really making this film stand out so far? The fact that they're just kinda playing it straight up, what with them acknowledging the squid wrestler as if it's some normal entity, is what's making the whole thing even funnier. I'm really liking how they're handling the writing in this film. It's really good, so far.

4 minutes later

OK, guys, I was just about to comment on a really stupid pun...but I'm gonna ignore that because, holy shit, it's Yoshihiro Takayama! Dude, that is an awesome cameo appearance we're getting from him. If you don't know who Takayama is, go look up some of his matches sometime. They're really good.

12 minutes later

O...K...I was totally not expecting that appearance from Taguchi. I'm curious as to how that happened to him, but still, I was really not expecting that kind of change. And no, I'm not gonna tell you what that change is, guys, you're just gonna have to watch the movie for yourself.

9 minutes later

OK, now we have a...bug kind of creature beating up our calamari wrestler with boxing gloves...and it's known as the Squilla Boxer. What the fuck am I watching?!

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Calamari Wrestler". Let me shut the movie off now...OK. Wow, um...I'm trying to figure out where to start with this film? So, you guys remembered earlier when I said that I kept putting this film off? Well, I probably should've seen it earlier, but I guess now is a better time than any. This film is great! I really enjoyed this movie a lot, guys.

So, why don't we start thing off, as usual, with where I normally start with these reviews. Let's start with the writing. Now the main thing you have to take into account here is the fact the premise here is overly ridiculous, and the filmmakers knew this going in. There's no way in hell that you're gonna take a movie with this sort of premise and turn it into a serious movie. Now yes, there are some moments in here where they add in some serious bits, but it's never heavy handed and it doesn't weigh the down the film's tone at all. This film is a comedy first and never shies away from it. The filmmakers took a ridiculous premise and ran with it, and thus the result is what you get with this movie.

Now since I'm on the subject, let's talk about the humor in this movie. The humor here is great. It's very sharp and, although there may be one or two jokes here that are kinda shit, and those are mainly puns, everything else here is funny as hell. It's very sharp and witty and you're guaranteed to get a laugh out of it. That's how good the humor is. Also, and I'm probably the one who kinda noticed it, they even referenced some of the "Rocky" films to an extent. You have the first, with the calamari wrestler winning the big title in semblance with Rocky winning his first big championship. Then you have the big rematch between the calamari wrestler and Taguchi, which is also similar to the rematch between Rocky and Creed in the second film. And they even referenced the third film, where you have Taguchi training the calamari wrestler for the next upcoming big fight, which is also similar to Apollo Creed training Rocky. Now if you've never seen any of the "Rocky" films, you probably wouldn't notice these references. As I said, I'm probably the only one who notices some similarities between those films and this one. But still, it's very brief, and also really good stuff, too.

Our characters here are also very interesting and very likable. In fact, damn near the entire cast is very likable and have tons of personality. Which is something that I haven't seen from a lot of movies nowadays, though that's just a personal thing. This movie has a ton of charm and personality that really makes it stand out in a positive way. And on the subject of our calamari wrestler, I should mention one thing about him. Without spoiling anything, they give out a twist about our calamari wrestler, and they do it pretty early on, too. And it's something that you're either gonna get use to or you're just going to flat out despise it. I say this, mainly because, again, our plot is about a squid wrestler, and it does have a backstory that if I tried to go into detail about, I would already be giving away the big spoiler. However, I'm not sure if it's really as big as I'm making it out to be since, again, they reveal it pretty early on. And they also give you hints very early on, too. So it's not like you're gonna be lost or confused about the origin of this calamari wrestler. It's just something that you have to take for what it's worth. It really just depends on how much you can suspend your disbelief about a movie involving a squid wrestler.

Guys, I'll just summarize here: The writing in this movie is great. Not just in terms of humor, but it also has a unique charm to it that will suck you in, especially if you're a fan of professional wrestling. That's part of the reason why I wanted to check this movie out in the first place because I am a wrestling fan. Granted, I don't really follow much of modern wrestling nowadays, but I still enjoy it from a time when it was actually interesting. And this movie is definitely on the high interest scale. It is such a good movie. Now, the acting is also pretty good, too. Mind you, there's no English dub here, as you only get it's original Japanese audio with English subtitles. But what you got here is all of the actors just livening it up and having a blast with their roles. No one here is phoning it in and I would imagine that if you tried to phone it in for a movie like this, then you have no business being in this film. Every actor gives out a 100% in their roles and they do a really good job with it.

I haven't had a chance to talk about this very often, but I want to mention the fight choreography. Because, since this movie involves wrestling, you would naturally have to consider how to incorporate it with our titled character. And I'm gonna tell you guys, right now, the fight choreography is really fucking good. All of the matches in this movie, what few there are, are very entertaining and you do get a taste of how our calamari wrestler...well, wrestles. He does have some standard wrestling moves like suplexes and rest holds, but he's also a capable fighter, too, as you get to see him striking his opponents with his tentacles. It's really good stuff, and I gotta give a ton of props to whoever it was in that costume doing the choreography the entire time. I gotta imagine that it must've been hot as hell in that suit, but I'm sure he had to have a lot of fun being in it, too. And that definitely counts for something.

And since I'm on the subject, let's talk about the costuming here. Costuming in this movie is fantastic. The details on our titled character looks great, as is that Squilla Boxer I mentioned a while back. This is some very creative stuff here when it comes to costuming. All of the suit work involving these costumes are great and if it's possible, I would love to see how they came up with this stuff behind the scenes. And I do believe the DVD does have that option, so I'm gonna have to check that out at some point whenever I get the chance. But yeah, guys, costuming in this movie is fantastic.

Camerawork here is really good. Lighting here is perfect. The sound-mixing is great. And the score here is also really good, too. In fact, there was one track that played during the ending credits that I listened to for a bit before shutting off the movie to do the review, and it sounded really good, too. So I'm probably gonna have to listen to more of that at some point on my next viewing of this movie.

And I guess that more than gives away on what I'm about to say next. When all is said and done, guys, can I recommend "The Calamari Wrestler"? Oh, you bet your ass I'm gonna recommend it. This movie is great. It's great as a comedy, it's funny as hell, and it's also a big love letter to professional wrestling. If you are a wrestling fan and you're interested in checking out some wrestling movies that you haven't seen before, then I would *highly* recommend this movie. It is amazing, and I'm proud to finally own a copy of this movie on DVD for my ever growing collection. So now, I'm gonna go and browse some older wrestling DVDs that I have and watch one of those. I'm not sure which one yet, but I have plenty of options, so I'm gonna go do that next after I get done with this review here.

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 Godsend

 

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be checking out a British horror movie from 1980. That movie is "The Godsend".

Now before I get more into this movie, I do need to let you guys in on something that I kinda sorta neglected. See, at the start of this month, I reviewed a movie called "What's The Matter With Helen?". And I didn't mention it back then, but I was reviewing that movie off a combo pack known as the "4 All Night Horror Marathon" that I had bought at my local mini mall sometime ago, which contained four movies. And of the four movies, I've already reviewed two of them. Those being "What's The Matter With Helen?" and "The Vagrant". This movie is the third film off this 4 pack and I can say, so far, that I've already batted a thousand here. Because I liked both movies and I'm hoping this third one will continue that winning streak. And just in case you might be wondering, yes, the 4th movie will eventually be reviewed as well.

Now, as with the case of this movie, I don't really know very much about it. According to what I read on the film's description on the back of the DVD case, it's about a family that adopts a baby after the birth mother disappears. Which then later leads into the family's own children being killed off, supposedly, by her. I don't know how, exactly. I'm hoping the movie will provide some kind of explanation for that.

Really, guys, beyond what I just told you, I'm going into this one as blind as I can here. I'm hoping for it to be good because, again, I'm doing really good with this combo pack and I would love for it if this movie were to continue that positive trend. But the only way I'm gonna know for sure if this movie 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 "The Godsend".

11 minutes later

Wait, so Alan discovers that the phone is dead upon trying to make a phone call to the doctor. And the reason why is because the creepy blonde woman is possibly going into labor. And he didn't even bother to check the disconnected wire that was not attached to the phone anymore? I should mention, by the way, that this creepy-looking woman is also responsible for disconnecting the telephone wire in the first place. Why she would do this, I don't know. But it's kinda stupid for both Alan and his wife to not check the phone wire to see if it was actually connected or not. Just something I wanted to bring up is all.

6 minutes later

OK, hold up here a second. So their youngest child is dead, and their adopted child, who's now named Bonnie, was with the baby at the time of his death. And they don't immediately suspect that Bonnie might've had a hand in the baby's death? I mean, sure, it's possible that the kid's death might've been an accident. But we don't have *any* information about how he died. Which is already fucking suspicious as it is, but I still think it's kinda stupid that they don't immediately suspect Bonnie who, again, was with the baby at the time of his death. But hey, maybe that's just me trying to put logic into a family situation that I have no hand in.

13 minutes later

So wait, Alan's actually blaming his son for, not only pushing Bonnie, but also because she broke his toy. The boy is saying that Bonnie broke it, and upon immediately getting a no answer from Bonnie after asking if she broke his toy, he immediately assumes that the son is lying and sends him to his room until he tells the truth. Guys, I may not be a fan of children, but I would at least hear both sides of the story before I decide to take disciplinary action. But then again, I'm not a parent to begin with, so what the hell would I know?

20 minutes later

Sorry, guys, for not very much. This movie, unfortunately, really hasn't given me a whole lot to work with within the last while now. Mind you, the film hasn't exactly been bad so far, it's just that it's starting to drag a little bit. I'm hoping the next 40 minutes or so will actually pick up pretty soon, otherwise, this movie's starting to become a little bit dull.

13 minutes later

All right, this has been starting to bug me for a while now, but I feel the need to address this. Bonnie's been talking in the most monotone voice I've been hearing her speak. Either this is a wake up call for her adoptive parents to notice her behavior in the way she speaks, or she's just a terrible child actress. Either way, I'm willing to believe one or the other at this point.

The Review

So...the movie just ends on a rather anti-climatic note. O...K, well then, I'm just gonna shut the movie off now...OK. So, guys, that was "The Godsend". Um...I'm gonna be honest here, this movie kinda sucked. Again, it's not outright horrible or anything, but I really thought this movie was gonna do more with it's premise. But unfortunately, that's not really the case here.

Why don't we just go right into this one and start with the writing. Now, as the movie was going on, I found out that this movie was based off a novel of the same name that came out a few years prior to this film. The novel was written by a man named Bernard Taylor. Now I obviously have not read the novel, so any comparisons to this film would be ultimately pointless. That being said, I don't really do that much anyways, since I always prefer to have the movie stand or fall on it's own without being compared to the source material. Though I will say that if I ever come across this novel, chances are that I'm not gonna be reading it anytime soon, because if this movie's plot was anything like the novel this thing is based off of, then both the movie and it's novel are kinda shit. I know I probably shouldn't be saying that, what with me not having read the novel yet. However, this movie didn't really sell me much on it's premise, so I'm not really gonna be bothering with the novel anytime soon.

So, setting that aside, this movie's premise, as I've already spoiled at the beginning of this, is our family, the Marlowe's, takes in a child after the creepy-looking woman gives birth at their home and she conveniently disappears the next day, leaving the baby behind for our family to look after. Now, if you're hoping to look for any kind of answers as to who this woman is and where exactly she came from, don't bother. Because after she disappears from the Marlowe's home, she doesn't reappear again in this movie up until the very end where Alan tries to stop her from going off with another family. And a bit of a spoiler here, he fails to stop her after she disappears again, thus the movie ends on a really anti-climatic note. Now, I know it's very well possible that there's more to this creepy-looking woman in the novel and where she came from, however, since I don't compare books to it's movie adaptations, I can't really clarify that. So any theories that I may have of her are completely thrown out the window here since the film didn't take the time to properly explain anything about her.

Now as for our little child killer here, Bonnie, she really is not that scary-looking nor is she frightening in any way. And yet, she's able to off every single kid of the Marlowe's. And that's where we come into the first problem of this movie. Almost all of her kills are implied, save for the last one. You never actually see her attempt to kill off these kids on camera. As I've said, almost all of them are implied. Now you can probably guess a couple of them on your own. Such as when one of the boys is in the water, so it's possible that Bonnie drowned him. Another one you can probably guess is the baby's death, where she might've used that thing, a small blanket, she was holding to strangle the baby to death with. And on the last one, well, you actually see her pushing the daughter out of the window as she falls to her death. And I know I'm kinda already spoiling this, however, the movie is well over 40 years old at this point and I don't think a lot of people are clamoring for me to not spoil this for them. If you are somehow spoiled by it, then I'm sorry, but the movie's synopsis clearly advertises that all of the kids are being killed off, so I don't know what you want me to say about it without spoiling it.

But yeah, Bonnie is not scary in the slightest. And most of her implied kills aren't really that interesting either. Which then brings me into one of the big problems that this movie has is that the pacing here is just slow. Now normally, I don't mind slow paced movies as long as they have somewhere to go. However, this movie doesn't really go anywhere right after all of the sons are killed off and the Marlowe's move to the city in London. It just drags on for quite a long time and nothing of interest happens. And mind you, this movie is supposedly 93 minutes long. However, that runtime is a bit of a lie, since the movie ends a little after the hour and 20 minute mark and I sincerely doubt that there's 10 minutes worth of credits afterwards. There might be, however, I normally shut the movie off after I see ending credits, so I'm not gonna go back and check on it.

Our characters here, aside from the not scary-looking child, are also not as interesting either. Both of the parents are kinda stupid for different reasons. The mother is more on the stupid side, since she keeps denying the fact that Bonnie had a hand in killing the rest of the kids while Alan is trying to convince her that she's not a normal child and tries to get his wife to get rid of the child. However, being the kinda rock stupid person that she is, she takes the child in, even shortly after their last birth daughter gets killed because of maternal instincts, or some such retarded bullshit like that. And as for Alan, well, I'm surprised he's kept his suspicions about Bonnie being the one who killed the kids to himself for so long that I'm surprised he didn't take this information to the authorities sooner. Now yes, I understand why he didn't do that because he didn't want to traumatize his wife, however, there comes a time when you start to put the pieces together, like he does in this movie, and that he should've found a way to get rid of Bonnie sooner rather than later. In fact, he should've done this the moment that his birth daughter gets killed, but doesn't, and since Bonnie is now with the mother after she and Alan supposedly divorce, it makes him just about as stupid as his wife.

Guys, there's no other way for me to put this, but the writing in this movie is just stupid on a whole host of levels. Granted, it's not as stupid as it could've really been, but it's still a rather badly written film. That, plus the premise itself is kind of weak anyways, especially when you have a child killer who's nowhere near as interesting as she could've been. Speaking of which, that greatly transitions into the acting. The child actress who's supposed to be playing our child killer is fucking awful. She has no kind of emotion in her voice, which I know is probably suppose to be intentional, because I guess her mother in this movie is suppose to be emotionless for some reason, but to me, that's just more of a 'fuck you, that is why' reason. I'm sorry, but this child cannot act. Even with the few amount of lines she has in this movie, she sounds awful in every delivery she gives out. And I would also hand that out to most of the Marlowe kids, however, I'm willing to give them a pass because they have even lesser lines than Bonnie's actress, and also, they're not really the focus of the movie since they're supposed to be killed off anyways. But as for Bonnie's actress, I cannot do that. She sounded awful and didn't get any better as the movie went on.

Now I will say that when it comes to the acting from the adults in this movie, it's great. Every actor there actually gives out a rather strong showing and were able to make due with the script that they were given. Which is great, because normally, when you have actors struggling with a shitty script, you can't really expect miracles from them. This movie, however, even though I didn't like the story, I am willing to praise the adult actors for putting in a really good showing for their characters. So, kudos to them, they definitely earned their paycheck.

Camerawork here is decent, though there are a couple of odd moments where the camera will look odd and blurry. One moment I can think of is when Alan is taking Bonnie out to the beach, and the camera will remain blurry on the corners of the screen and I have no idea why they did such a thing. Also, there was an odd transition toward the end of the film where Alan is walking with some old guy in the park as the screen will slowly fade to normal and the dialogue doesn't kick in until after it happens. I have no idea why that transition happened, unless they wanted to make it like some time had passed or something. I don't know. Those moments really didn't make too much sense to me. Aside from that, though, the camerawork here is pretty good. Sound-mixing here is also competent, and the lighting here is also really good.

Music...oh dear lord, the music. OK, I will say that the score here is fine for what it is. However, there is one piece of music that plays almost every time the camera focuses on Bonnie. It's suppose to sound ominous and creepy, and that would've been fine...except they play almost the exact same fucking music over and over every time she's on camera! And if the goal was suppose to make Bonnie look scary and is about to murder someone, then I'm sorry, but it does not work. Because they play the same fucking music every time she's on camera and I grew sick of it very quickly. In fact, if anything else, it makes your child killer less threatening, aside from her kills almost all being implied. So yeah, the score here is fine, except for that one piece of ominous music that you'll grow sick and tired of listening to.

So, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "The Godsend"? Personally, no. The premise itself is really weak, and though it could've been really interesting, it just fumbled with it and doesn't really do much of anything with it. I'm also not particularly fond of children, and this movie didn't really make me change my mind of them. So yeah, there's really nothing much here I can say that is even worth watching for. In fact, I mentioned earlier that I was batting a thousand with this combo pack that I bought, and I was hoping that this movie would also continue the positive trend I had with these movies on that combo pack. However, I ended up eating my own words here because this movie ended up being a dud, so my perfect streak with this combo pack is over. However, there is still one more movie on here, which I'll get to later on. For now, though, I'm gonna go watch something better. Um...perhaps I'll just watch something like "Audition" again. That one, actually, I haven't seen in a while, so I'll go and do that next, just so I can be rid the thought of ever watching this movie again.

So anyway, guys, with that, 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 | Alien Apocalypse

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a Sci-Fi channel original movie from 2005. That movie is "Alien Apocalypse".

Yes, guys, you heard me right, this movie was originally aired on the Sci Fi channel. Which I know will probably be seen as a red flag to some people, because the words 'Sci Fi channel original movie' usually means that it's more than likely gonna suck. However, I do have a little bit of hope for this one. Partially because this one wasn't made by the Asylum. Which, if you're not familiar with that studio, they basically produce mockbuster titles of big blockbuster movies and most of them air on the SyFy Channel, because that's the only network that will allow their kind of crap to be aired on there. But I digress.

Now the only other things that I know about this movie is that, one, it stars Bruce Campbell. And according to a blurb I caught on the back of the DVD case, it's supposed to be "Army of Darkness" meets "Starship Troopers". Now sadly, I still haven't seen "Army of Darkness" yet, however, I am a *big* fan of the first "Starship Troopers" movie. And this movie claims to be the best of those kind of worlds. Which I'm gonna say, it's a rather bold claim to make, although I think the only reason why they went with that blurb is because, again, it stars Bruce Campbell. However, that's just me speculating about minor bullshit.

Now I am hoping for this movie to be really interesting. You'll note that I said the word 'interesting', because I'm not really expecting this film to be any good. However, this movie could actually somewhat surprise me here in a way and actually end up surprisingly decent. However, considering this movie was originally aired on the Sci-Fi Channel, I still think 'decent' is probably going to be stretching it a bit. But still, I am really curious all the same about how this film will turn out. So the only thing I need to do right now is for me to shut up so I can push play and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Alien Apocalypse".

7 minutes later

Thank Christ that lieutenant is fucking dead. She was already starting to get on my nerves and I'm thankful she was killed off rather early. So hey, the quicker the better, I say.

6 minutes later

Guys, we're barely 15 minutes into the movie and we already have another one of our characters killed off. This time, it was from one of the aliens. And I gotta say...they actually don't look too bad. I mean, granted, the CG on them isn't great, but their design actually looks pretty cool, so I guess that counts for something.

7 minutes later

Wait, so let me see if I understand this. So for 20 years after the bombings and nearly everyone was killed save for those the aliens forced to work over to pick wood for them, the President of the United States and a few of his senators have survived the bombings and have been recruiting slavers to rebel against the aliens in their time of need. And it's all according to this one kid and I'm going to assume is suppose to be his mother. How do they know that the President is still alive after all this time? I'm really curious about this because if they've been waiting this long for the President to act against the aliens, then that means that he should've already recruited more than enough people to stage a rebellion against the aliens. Either that, or he's possibly dead, or been dead for around the 20 years that they said he's been supposedly alive. Guys, this movie's already run into a massive logic hole and I'm not even sure if the movie's going to address even one of those claims that I've already brought up.

10 minutes later

So, one of these aliens just died via a stabbing by Hood, who killed the alien with a small wooden object of sorts. So apparently, these aliens are really easy to kill. That's...good to know, I guess. It's kinda stupid, but at least they're not hard to kill.

19 minutes later

You know, guys, when I went into a movie called "Alien Apocalypse", I was expecting some kind of goofy, Sci-Fi action flick. Instead, I'm getting a dull, boring fantasy-esque sci-fi movie where Ivan and company are searching for the President. This isn't really what I signed up for, guys. And I'm beginning to lose interest in what's happening right now.

5 minutes later

Wait, where the fuck did those people come from?! I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but no, apparently, Ivan and friends recruited more fucking people than I realized. And again, I have to ask, where the hell did these fucking people come from?! Either there are deleted scenes in this movie that I'm not made aware of, or this movie was originally it's own version of a fantasy movie that was about 2 and a half hours long and they had to cut it down to around 90 minutes. Either way, this movie is still nonsensical and boring as shit and I still got about another 34 minutes to go before it finally ends. And I can't for it to end either.

15 minutes later

Guys, I'm gonna give this movie one thing. Bruce Campbell is the only one here who's actually trying to make this movie stand out. I mean, granted, the movie is still shallow and boring as shit, but at least I can see that he's trying to put in the effort. Which is more than what I can say for most of the entire cast of this movie, but I'll save that for later when I talk about the acting in this thing.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Alien Apocalypse". Let me shut this movie off here...OK. Dear sweet merciful god, where the hell do even I start here? Well...I suppose I can say that this is quite easily one of the most disappointing films I've seen in a long time. Now sure, I've seen other films before that I've had hopes for and most of them at least end up being kinda disappointing. But this movie, however, ranks high, high up there in the disappointment factor because I cannot believe a movie like this turned out the way it did.

Now, I gotta try and talk about this film in more detail. Let's start with the writing. Now, I have a theory about something. And mind you, this is all just a theory. I don't have any actual proof of this so you just have to take this for what it's worth. But I believe that, when this movie's script was being written, it wasn't meant to be a Sci-Fi film. I believe the director of this thing, Josh Becker, who also wrote it too, wanted to write a standard fantasy movie. However, someone over at the Sci-Fi channel approached him and suggested to shoehorn aliens into the story, thus this is how this movie got to air on the Sci-Fi channel. Again, I don't have any concrete proof of this theory, however, I would not be shocked if that's how it turned out. And as a result, this is the movie that came to be and, well, it shows.

Now to further prove my point on why aliens were shoehorned into this movie, they're barely fucking in it! Which is weird, because this movie's title has the word 'alien' to it, but they're hardly in it at all. Do you want to know what this movie likes to focus on more, though? Well, it will either focus on the slaves working at the sawmill, or you have Ivan and a band of former slaves travelling to the mountains to find the President, who's rumored to have a freedom fighting force that will launch a counterattack against the aliens. And on the latter, it's where the movie starts to slow down to a screeching halt because now, this is more of a standard RPG game where Ivan tries to recruit as many surviving former slaves while trying to look for the President and save slaves from the aliens. And it's not interesting in the slightest because none of these characters have any sort of interesting personalities to make them stand out amongst each other.

And on that subject, almost every character in this movie is shallow and lifeless as they come. The only exception to all this is Ivan Hood, our main character. Ivan is a somewhat cocky bastard who still has some kind of humanity left in him as he tries to converse with the locals who pretty much have no concept of some of the stuff he says, like he's a doctor, but they don't know what that is. Or how he tries to greet them with a handshake as a sign of friendship. That kind of stuff, really. So while they may not understand it, he does try to explain it to them the best he can. And it's those aspects alone that makes Ivan the most likable character in the entire movie. Everyone else...no. His astronaut girlfriend is devoid of personality, as is most of the slaves that Ivan tries to befriend with. There is nobody else here that I can say is even worth caring about.

So yeah, guys, in short, the writing here is just bad. If this thing were a cheesy, cornball Sci-Fi action flick, I probably would've given this film a lot less slack with it's writing. However, considering that this movie felt more like a generic fantasy movie with no interesting characters, I can't give the bad writing a pass here. It's just not possible with the kind of movie that was made for the Sci-Fi Channel. Now, what about the acting? Well, most of it isn't really good either. The only exception to all this is Bruce Campbell. He really is the only actor in this movie who's trying his hardest to make this film work in his favor. And while I certainly can give him a ton of credit for trying, everyone else, though, I'm gonna say, just completely sucks. There is no other actor here that's even remotely trying. They all phoned it in and it shows. No one else here tried, though honestly, I'm gonna blame a lot of that on the script here because, as I've said plenty of times beforehand, you can only do so much with a script that's given to you. And aside from Bruce Campbell, no other actor here stood out in a positive way. So yeah, that's acting here in a nutshell for ya.

Special effects are teetering on being a mixed bag. Now again, I should let you guys know that since this is a movie made for the Sci-Fi Channel, you really should not expect any miracles when it comes to the special effects. Because, 9 times out of 10, the special effects are mostly garbage when it comes to Sci-Fi Channel original movies. And this movie is definitely not much of an exception here. I will say that I do like the designs of the aliens in themselves. And in some cases, they actually do have some shots where the aliens look practical. In other words, we have some costumed aliens. And if there were more of this in the movie, I think it would've improved the special effects greatly. However, seeing as how they are mostly rendered in CG, it brings the kinda cool-looking alien designs down a bit. The CG here is really cheap-looking, and while it's certainly not the worst offender in terms of awful low budget special effects, that doesn't really make it look good either. Like I said, the costuming on the aliens look pretty good, until they are rendered in CG and...yeah, they could've looked a whole lot better. So unfortunately, as is, the CG here is what brings this movie down greatly. Blood effects, for what few there are, are actually decent, I can give them a little leeway there. Costuming for everyone else looks OK, I guess. It's not really great, but it's also far from the worst thing I've seen in terms of costuming. So...I guess that counts for something.

Camerawork here is pretty good. Lighting here is lit pretty well. The sound-mixing is actually competent. And our score here is ultimately nothing special. It's just plainly average to sum it up. So yeah, the technical work here is fine for what it is.

But ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Alien Apocalypse"? Unfortunately, no, I cannot. Like I said earlier, if this thing were a cheesy, goofy cornball Sci-Fi action flick, I would probably say it's worth watching at least once. However, though, I can't really do that here because the movie is completely different from how it actually turned out. I could maybe recommend it if you're a fan of either B movies or Bruce Campbell in general, but I still wouldn't really say that it's completely worth it just for him alone. Though if you really want to take a shot at it, I suppose you could find a copy of this thing for dirt cheap on any home media or on any streaming service, assuming that it's running on the latter. But otherwise, guys, I would just not bother with this film at all. It's just bad, and it's not really much of a Sci-Fi film to begin with. It's just a boring, generic fantasy movie that's disguised as a Sci-Fi movie. But with that said, there is one positive I can say about this film. As I was watching the previews before the movie started, one of the films they showed on here was something that kinda surprised me, but then again, now that I'm thinking about it, this movie was put out by Anchor Bay Entertainment. And one of the films they showed during the previews was "Dead & Breakfast". And upon seeing that preview, I kinda wanted to just go and watch that film again. And now that this film is finally over, I'm gonna go and do that right now. And this film, while it sucked, at least reminded me that I can be watching a much better movie right now.

So, that's what I'm gonna go do next, guys, as 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 Vagrant

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror comedy from 1992. That movie is "The Vagrant".

Now I'll be honest with you, guys, I don't really know much about the movie itself, but I'm actually really looking forward to watching this one. Part of the reason is because of it's casting. I mean, you have people such as Bill Paxton and Michael Ironside as the main stars. So it does have the potential to be really funny. However, I also know that just because you have two really good stars in your film doesn't automatically make it a good movie.

Plotwise, I don't really know much about it. All I could gather is that our main character, who is played by Bill Paxton, is being driven insane by, who I'm going to assume, Michael Ironside's character. What exactly he does here to Mr. Paxton, I don't know yet. However, I'm curious all the same, so I may as well just shut up and see what this movie has to offer here. Like I said, I'm hoping for it to be really good, though I don't know if it will be or not. The only way I'm gonna know 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 "The Vagrant".

7 minutes later

So this woman, who's been showing Krakowski the house that he could be living in, suddenly just jumped on him after admitting that he's attractive that she wanted to have sex with him until he finally caved in and said yes, he'll buy the house. I'm gonna tell you guys, if a woman ever did that to me, I would probably never want to step foot in that house ever again. But that's probably just me.

14 minutes later

Wait, so Graham's response to the Vagrant just kinda hanging around near where he's at is for him to install an alarm system all over his home. And how he's able to pay for all this is by taking a second mortgage out of his home. Why the fuck would you do that?! And I should mention that it's only been about a couple of days since he's moved in to his new home, so for him to take a second mortgage out of his home just for one homeless guy is just stupid on a whole host of levels.

16 minutes later

So, guys, we're getting another one of Graham's paranoid dreams where, this time, his friend, Edie, is getting humped by the Vagrant. And as strange as that is, what's even more stranger is that Graham's expressions here make him look like Jim Carrey for some reason. I don't know why I thought that, it just kinda came to me, you know?

8 minutes later

OK...so, the old woman's fingers that were reported to be cut from her body after she was murdered from earlier is now inside the box of chocolates that were a present to Edie. Oh, and the Vagrant that was hiding in Graham's basement now just left after taunting Graham. I mean, it's certainly possible that he is the killer, but I'm still not totally sure just yet because it's all still kinda vague. But I'm still curious to see where this is all going.

9 minutes later

And now the moving lady who sorta had a thing for Graham way early on has her head and feet stuffed inside Graham's refrigerator. That is...certainly fucked up. Not sure exactly how that got all in there, but still, definitely kind of a fucked up way to die.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Vagrant". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Wow, so, where to start with this...? Well, earlier, I did say that I wanted this movie to be really good. And you know what? It really *is* good. I cannot begin to tell you guys how much I enjoyed this movie.

Why don't we just start off proper here by talking about the writing. Now admittedly, this story is kind of paper thin. And it mainly has to do with Graham being paranoid that some homeless man, AKA the Vagrant, is hanging around his house. Well, he's actually across the street from where Graham's home is at and he's just doing his own business. But anyway, Graham's paranoia comes to a point where he suspects the guy is dangerous because he's just constantly around him all the time, whether that's having odd dreams about the Vagrant, or he's just possibly somewhere in the house for real. So he tries to have a security system installed in his home by taking a second mortgage out of it, which I said was stupid earlier and that holds true, because he's in financial debt now and he has to pay it off somehow. However, the latter is not really much of an issue later on.

So, you'd probably think that you wouldn't get much of a story out of this concept, what with it being kinda shallow and all. But honestly, that's not the case. Because what makes it so interesting is that the movie keeps you guessing on where it's going to go next. I myself had many theories on what direction this movie was going to go and where it might possibly end up at. And just when you think you might have the story figured out, it still keeps you guessing on where it'll end up going. That's how fascinating the writing is in this film, guys. And also, since it's a horror comedy, I should let you guys know that the humor here is really solid, too. There were a couple of moments in this movie that really got me laughing, which I honestly wasn't expecting, partially because the last movie I watched was considered a dark comedy was "Save The Green Planet!". A movie that tried to be funny and yet didn't really succeed in that area. This movie, however, knows that it's a horror comedy. And yes, it's also dark, too. But unlike "Save The Green Planet!", where it just drifted off into becoming pitch black in it's tone, this movie is aware that it's still a comedy and, like I said, it knows when to have fun with itself.

I suppose I should probably talk about the one minor gripe that some people might have about the movie. And most of that involves our main character, Graham. See, as I mentioned earlier, he acts super paranoid throughout a good chunk of the film and it really boils down to how much of his paranoia can you tolerate? I imagine some people might see it as kind of an issue because it makes the character seem rather unlikable. And while I will admit that it could be seen as something of an issue, I really don't think that's gonna be a big deal in the long run, because Graham is very likable, despite all the paranoia he goes through in this movie. And you really do care for him as he tries to find a way out of his horrible situation. And personally speaking, I think it makes the character stand out in a very positive way because Graham just has a ton of personality to his character.

Other characters like the two police officers, one of them being Michael Ironside, going after Graham are also likable, too. Everyone else here is also likable in their own way, even though they don't really appear in the movie for too long. And I'm even going include our Vagrant, because even though he is really creepy and weird, it was obviously done intentionally and it makes him stand out in a very positive way. So, overall, guys, the writing in this movie is very sharp and really funny, too. And just to add on to all that, the acting in this movie is great. Everybody here turns in a fantastic showing, with the two standouts being Bill Paxton as our main character, and Michael Ironside. The latter, mainly because the man can take just about anything that's given to him and he can make it work. Well, apart from his shallow and disappointing performance in "Stan Lee's The Mighty 7", but I'm not gonna let that one blemish get in the way for how awesome the man can be. And as for Bill Paxton, well, the man knows how to be paranoid and awkward at the same time. He is great here, and it's probably one of his best performances I've seen from him in years. So that definitely counts for something.

Special effects are also really good, too. Admittedly, I don't really know how much of a budget this movie was working with, but I'm going to take a guess here and say that it was on the lower side of things. And if that's the case, then they definitely worked wonders with it's potentially low budget. Blood effects here are really good, as is the costuming. The makeup effects on our homeless vagrant is also really good, too. There is quite a bit of graphic detail on his face, such as one of his eyes being completely blank. Now I don't mean that he lost an eye or anything, I mean they are white blank. Now whether's that's actually his real eye or just part of the makeup effects, it's still looks really good overall.

Camerawork here is good. Lighting here is lit very well. The sound-mixing is great. Our score here is, admittedly, not all that great. The score here was composed by a guy named Christopher Young. And he has done a *ton* of music work for a lot of movies, both well-known and indie films. And I do mean a lot, too. Most of them I haven't seen before, but I can say that he's still working today, which is really cool to know. But going back on subject, this definitely isn't one of his best scores. It's just a little bit on the weak side here. At least, for me it is.

So overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "The Vagrant"? Oh hell yes, guys, I most certainly can recommend this film to you guys. If you're a fan of horror comedies, and you're looking for another one to add to the collection, I would totally add this one to it, because this is definitely a really good horror comedy and I'm definitely gonna be revisiting it again sometime soon. I really enjoyed this movie, guys, and I'm totally happy that I was able to watch it for this series. Now, I'm kinda in the mood to watch another horror comedy of sorts. I've got a couple of options here, but I think I'm gonna go and watch "Frankenhooker" again. I just saw it on my DVD collection as soon as I looked at it, so I'm gonna go do that next after I get done with this review.

Anyway, guys, with that, 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.