Reaction & Review | Rock 'n' Roll High School

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a musical comedy from 1979. That movie is "Rock 'n' Roll High School".

Now I've been wanting to watch this movie for quite a while, ever since I discovered this film at one of my local video stores some time ago. And the reason why is, partially, because of Roger Corman, who was an executive producer of the film. And I've wanted to watch some of Corman's movies. It's just that I haven't really came across a whole lot of them, save for maybe one, which I'll get to later at some point.

Now the reason why I wanted to watch this film is because I read the synopsis on the back of the DVD case, and it just sounds so corny and stupid that it actually might be really cool. Essentially, some principal takes over the school and tries to turn it into a totalitarian dictatorship. Which causes some kids of this high school to basically rebel against her and they actually get the Ramones to help with this little rebellion against her with rock music.

Believe me, guys, this movie sounds incredibly stupid and paper thin, but considering this movie is a rock musical, that in itself is more than enough to sell me on this movie. So, I'm hoping for it to be good. I'm hoping that the songs here are also gonna be really good. I don't know if they will be or not, but that's what I'm here to find out. And the only way I'm gonna find out is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Rock 'n' Roll High School".

8 minutes later

OK, I have a bit of a dumb question here. So Riff has served the most detentions out of everyone at her high school. While I'm not gonna ask how many detentions exactly she's served, how has she not been expelled yet? I'm only asking because her comment her serving the most detentions can be seen as somewhat questionable. Just wanted to ask is all.

8 minutes later

OK, that might have been one of the longest, yet greatest throws I've seen involving a paper airplane. That was really cool.

8 minutes later

O...K, you know, I never actually thought I would see a mouse explode upon hearing loud rock music. I thought Principal Togar was just being a colossal retard, but I didn't think her experiment there would actually work. I guess you learn something new every day, don't ya?

10 minutes later

You know, guys, out of all the things I was expecting from this movie, Clint Howard making out with a blowup doll was certainly not one of them. I get that it's suppose to be some sort of training exercise for Tom to get laid, but it's definitely not working, just based on everything he's tried so far.

5 minutes later

By the way, guys, I probably should mention this now, seeing as how we're nearly halfway into the film already, the music here has been really good so far. I'm really digging the songs in this movie and, so far, there really hasn't been a bad song as of yet. Hoping it stays that way throughout the rest of the film.

16 minutes later

Wow, they actually followed up on that mice joke I mentioned earlier. I didn't think they were gonna do that here, but it actually was really funny. I'm really digging the humor in this film, guys, it's been really good so far.

9 minutes later

OK, this is a little bit weird. Out of all the songs I've heard in this movie, this is the first one that includes subtitles. I'm not totally sure *why* there are subtitles for this particular song to be here. I mean, it's not like the film has any bad sound-mixing or anything. Perhaps maybe it's just a stylistic choice here, but I still have to ask why for *this* song in particular? Mind you, it doesn't ruin the song or anything, it's just something I'm kinda curious about is all.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Rock 'n' Roll High School". And man, what a way to end the movie! Let me go ahead and shut the film off now...OK. Where to start here...? Well, I can let you guys know right off the bat that this movie is really enjoyable. On both a musical front and for it's really campy story.

Now seeing as how as the word 'musical' is in the title, I have to start off differently here by talking about the music first. And in case you also couldn't tell by the title, the music here is nothing but rock music. And I said earlier that I hadn't found a bad song at the time that I was still watching the movie, and that statement still holds true. Every song in this movie is really good. Whether it's from the Ramones or any of our high schoolers, all of the songs here are very solid. And I gotta say, for someone who's not as familiar with 70's rock music, this is definitely some really good stuff. I'm more of a fan of 80's rock music, personally speaking, but I still really enjoyed what was here. In fact, I may have to look up some more songs from the Ramones because what they played here has gotten me interested in listening to more of their music.

While we're on the subject, I want to talk about subtitles for just a moment here. Now earlier, I mentioned that the movie decided to use subtitles for one of their songs. And I thought that was an odd choice, seeing as how all of their songs were really easy to listen to, lyrics wise, so I found it strange that they would include subtitles for one of their songs. Well, the moment that I brought that up, they suddenly stopped using subtitles for the rest of that particular song. Now again, I don't know if that was just a stylistic choice for that song or not, but it's still really boggles my mind on why exactly they needed to use subtitles, all for that to be dropped a minute later? I mean, if they really wanted to use subtitles for that song, then I wouldn't have had that much of an issue with it than I already do.

But then something interesting happened in their next song. See, during one part of their lyrics, the letters "D U M B" show up on screen, which is exactly what the lyrics for the Ramones song was as they spelled it out to the crowd. And then the same lyrics happened again as they repeated it, which comes in the same four letters that I already brought up. Well, while they do show up...they don't do it in the exact order I just spelled it as. See, when the Ramones were spelling out the word 'DUMB' again, the subtitles actually misspell it as 'D M U B'. Which, I thought that was a really bizarre thing that I saw. Because the Ramones clearly spell out the word 'DUMB' twice, yet, on the second time that the subtitles time it with how they spell the word, it's suddenly misspelled. Now I have no idea if that was an actual fuck up, or if that was somehow an inside joke in regards to the song in question. I don't know, but, to me, that just seemed a little convenient for me to consider that as an intentional joke. Now again, it doesn't ruin the song at all, it's just a really odd thing to add subtitles to a movie that didn't necessarily need it, unless if you were watching a foreign movie of sorts.

But otherwise, guys, despite those minor hiccups, like I said, the music here is great. And I would totally say it's worth buying the soundtrack for if you're interested. Now as for the actual writing, well, the writing here is mostly pretty good. In terms of it's humor, this movie is definitely really funny at times. Our dialogue is, admittedly, more on the cheesy side, but it still has a lot of charm to it that makes it rather lovable. And also, since this movie was made in 1979, I kinda sort of expected this. I mean, it isn't like with modern movies nowadays where they use a lot more, for the lack of better term, "realistic" dialogue. But then again, like I said, this was made in 1979, so it's possible that this sort of dialogue was used quite a bit back then. At least according to this movie anyway. I could be totally mistaken there, but still. The dialogue here is cheesy and stupid as hell. But like I said, this kind of dialogue makes the whole movie add so much charm to an already cheesy movie.

If there any real negatives I could comment on in terms of writing, it would have to be the subplot involving Tom trying to get laid. This is honestly the weakest part of the writing, partially because, it's not really that interesting, nor is it really all that funny either. And I don't mean it's not funny by "problematic" standards that retards like to use as an excuse when criticizing an older movie, I mean that the writing is just plainly not as funny as it could've been. Plus also, it really doesn't go anywhere either. Since he ends up with a different girl that they kinda hint at way early on in the movie rather than the one who he's actually trying to aim for, Riff. I feel like if they had focused more on the other aspect of the movie, with Riff trying to score tickets to see the Ramones, I feel like the film could've flowed slightly better.

Now I could also mention Riff's plan to buy tickets to the Ramones in person, where she takes 3 days off from school just so she could be the first person to wait in line and buy tickets for the concert. Basically, guys, Riff's way of saying that she couldn't make it to school is that she had one of her friends come in with a notice saying that her Mom died, which was the first day in which it happened. Then on the second day, her friend comes in with Riff's second notice, to which it said that her Dad died. And then the third excuse is that her goldfish died. Which is pretty laughable, because, somehow, one of Togar's hall monitor lackeys already has the goldfish in hand. Which would normally raise a bunch of questions, mainly, how exactly did they know that Riff had a goldfish to begin with? And also, Togar could've easily just confirmed her suspicions about Riff being absent from school with these sudden notices by calling Riff's home and seeing whether or not one of her parents is indeed dead or not.

However, I also have to remind you guys that this is movie still a comedy in the end, and the movie doesn't really take itself too seriously anyways. So I wasn't expecting anything complex here about a movie involving the Ramones and it being a musical comedy to begin with. So I can easily say that the writing here is really good for the standards set for this kind of movie. The characters here are all likable in their own ways. Whether it's Principal Tagor being a somewhat cartoonish villain, to any of the high schoolers themselves, or even the Ramones, all of them are likable in their own ways, and it makes the movie that much more interesting.

Now, as for the acting, most of it is actually pretty good. I didn't really notice anybody in particular phoning it in. I can't really judge the Ramones, since I'm pretty sure that this is their first time being in a movie to begin with. But I will say that Clint Howard actually turns in a halfway decent showing. The last time I covered anything that involved him was way back when I reviewed "Santa With Muscles". And to make a long story short, he sucked ass in that movie. But I will say that, again, he actually turns in a halfway decent showing here. It's not amazing by any stretch, but it's certainly a hell of a lot better than what he was doing in "Santa With Muscles". So yeah, I can give him a little bit credit here for actually trying. As for everyone else, they also turned in a rather good showing, so I can at least say that the acting here is certainly pretty good.

Special effects here are also pretty good. Granted, there's not a whole lot here, but for the few things I noticed, such as the paper airplane gag, or any of the pyrotechnics in this movie, they work really well here. So does the costuming. The costuming in this movie is great. Mind you, not a lot of it is totally special here, but it does give off the impression that these people are in high school. There's even a couple of rat costumes that I noticed that genuinely gave me a good laugh. It sorta ties in to what I hinted at when I was watching the movie, but it's a lot funnier in context, trust me. So yeah, special effects here are pretty good overall.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is also lit really well. The sound-mixing is also very competent. And the music, well, I've already talked about that way early on, and I already gave you guys my thoughts on that subject. So overall, the technical work here is really good.

And on that note, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Rock 'n' High School"? Oh yes, guys, most certainly. Especially if you're a fan of old school rock music. Granted, I'm not sure how aware you are of the Ramones, but, like I said, if you're a fan old school rock music, and you want a watch a movie that involves a group from that time period, then this movie will most certainly make you a fan of them. If you're a fan of musicals, then this one is definitely worth checking out. And also, if you're a fan of comedy musicals, then fuck yeah, you're gonna adore this thing. This movie is really fucking good, guys, and I plan on watching it again at some point myself. So yeah, I can totally recommend "Rock 'n' High School" to you guys, it's that good. And speaking of musicals, I'm gonna go and watch another one right now. And I think I'm gonna go and watch a rock opera in the form of "Repo: The Genetic Opera". So I know what I'm gonna be doing once I get done typing this review up.

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 | Little Monsters

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a film from 1989. That movie is "Little Monsters".

Now, unlike previous films that I've covered for this series which involved movies from my childhood that I hadn't seen before, this is one of the movies that I have no recollection of at all. Now that's partially because this movie was a little before my time. But also, even when I was growing up, I had never heard about this movie before, nor have I ever watched it on any TV station that would air it. That said, I decided to finally get around to watching it since one of my local video stores was selling it for dirt cheap.

The only things I can tell you guys, going into this movie, is that it stars a young Fred Savage, and it also co-stars Howie Mandell, who you see in that creepy-looking blue makeup of his on the cover. Seriously, guys, that makeup on him is the stuff of nightmares. At least from the cover that I picked for this Reaction & Review anyway. I'm hoping maybe that I'll eventually get use to it once he appears in the film and all.

Really, guys, I have nothing else to add here. I'm just gonna hope for this movie to be decent. I'm not sure if it will be or not, but I'll never truly know that answer unless I shut up and push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Little Monsters".

4 minutes later

Did he seriously just put onion on a peanut butter sandwich before eating it? Who the fuck does that!? I figured he would just do the classic PB&J, but no, apparently, he puts onion on his sandwich. That is just fucking disgusting, dude.

7 minutes later

I swear to god, guys, the acting from Eric's child actor is fucking terrible. Mind you, the acting hasn't really been good so far, but his acting is probably the worst right now. And I'm probably gonna have to put up with his shitty acting for...fuck, an hour and a half?! This might be actually suck, guys.

16 minutes later

So, guys, not only is the makeup on Howie Mandell still creepy-looking. But he's also kind of annoying, too. That's not really a good first impression to make, I'll just say that right now.

10 minutes later

So, Maurice's home world is basically just a bunch of wooden stairs and pillars, along with some dark lighting. Gonna be honest, guys, it looks kinda dreary and somewhat shit, really. I would probably want out of there as soon as possible. But perhaps that's just me.

2 minutes later

OK, I had to assume there was a little bit more to this world, as, apparently, I'm now seeing kids playing arcade games and it's filled with, I'm going to assume is suppose to be Christmas lights of sorts. But wait a minute, I thought Maurice stated earlier that bright lights harm him. So why are there so many lights hanging around this area if he's suppose to be negatively affected by them? Guys, this movie's already running into a bit of a logic issue, and I have a feeling that the movie's not going to answer that whatsoever.

4 minutes later

You know, guys, a thought just occurred to me. So Brian and Maurice are just in other people's houses pulling off stupid pranks while the people are asleep. So what happens if, by some chance, that the sun comes up and Brian's unable to get home via under the bed? That means he's going to be in a whole world of trouble because of all the stupid crap he's been doing. And the worst part about it for him is that if he tries to pull the argument of 'well, it was Maurice's fault' I guarantee you that Brian's gonna end up being in a mental institution because of that. I understand the movie probably would not go *that* far, but I would be shocked if any part of that scenario I brought up doesn't happen.

2 minutes later

Oh, and I just saw Maurice pissing inside one of the kids empty bottle of apple juice to disguise it as apple juice. Thankfully, we don't actually see him do this, as his back was turned a moment ago. But still, that is probably even more disgusting than Brian putting onion in his peanut butter sandwich. Granted, it's creative...but still, what the fuck, man?

10 minutes later

Well, guys, I believe I just found my favorite character in this entire movie so far. I believe his name is Snake, and he's already more likable than any other character I've found in this entire movie, and that includes Maurice, too.

19 minutes later

You know what, guys? This movie started off kinda shit, and it hasn't exactly gotten any better, especially now that we're in the third act of the movie. Granted, there are a couple of things here and there that I sorta like, but I'll talk about all that later once I get to reviewing this movie. Just wanted to let you guys know that ahead of time.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Little Monsters". Thank god, it's over. I'm gonna shut the movie off now...OK. By the way, I should make one quick correction on my part. The villain's name isn't Snake, it's Snik. Granted, it's kind of a stupid name, but that's the least of this movie's problems. Still, I got his name wrong and I just wanted to correct it is all. But yeah, "Little Monsters"...it certainly was something. It's not really a good something, but at least it was something sorta unique. And also really kinda boring, too.

Let's just get right into this film here and talk a little more about it. Let's start with writing. Writing in this movie is just kinda shit and very stupid. Now yes, I know there are some people who grew up watching this movie as part of their childhood and still love it to this day. And that's totally cool. I know some people are very protective when it comes to movies that people grew up with in their childhood. I, myself, am no different from this. I love of plenty of movies that I grew up with and, even though I'm an adult now, I can see some of them are flawed in their own ways, be it minor or major. However, being that this series focuses on movies I haven't seen before, I go into them with fresh eyes and I see if they're good or not, and also, whether or not they're entertaining. And I will say that, while this movie does have a couple of rather interesting moments, those moments are few and far between., and the content of the writing isn't really all that better.

To start with, the story here borders on being plotless. There really is not much of a story here, other than our main character, Brian, befriending a blue monster by the name of Maurice. And from there, they end up doing stupid stuff like pulling pranks in various kids homes and...that's really kinda it. By the way, I should quickly mention something I brought up earlier. That whole theory I brought up in regards to Brian being discovered by somebody in another person's house when the monsters aren't around never actually happens. It didn't even happen during a point where Maurice and his friends go to scare a little baby, and Brian thinks that this is too cruel and just runs out of the house through the front door. I'm surprised nobody saw him and called the police for intruding inside their private property. I knew that him going into a mental institution was never going to happen. However, I remember a scene in "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie" where they actually had a mental institution for ugly people. It was dark, yes, but also really funny. And this movie, while it does have swearing and all that, it really doesn't make the film that much better.

One thing that really kinda bothered me is something that they brought up once and never brings it up again. So, when Brian's little brother, Eric, goes up to the attic and asks Brian if he can borrow a flashlight, he discovers that Brian is not actually in his bed. And the next day at school, he tells one of his friends about this and thought it was also strange. Yet for some reason, Eric *never* tells any of this to his parents. Which, you would think that would raise some kind of alarms, because then it would start to get the parents to come together after they were arguing and find out what's going on with Brian and where he's been disappearing to. Like I said, it's brought up one time in the entire movie and never gets brought up again afterwards. I would think that, maybe, this would be a moment where, like I said, his parents would come together after they were arguing with each other. I bring this up because they admit to their sons later on that they're separating and need some time off. However, that whole thing gets dropped later on because the parents don't really play any role here other than arguing with one another.

Almost all of our characters in this movie are shallow, vapid, or really annoying. The latter award goes to Maurice because he's all "wacky" and "goofy", and he almost never shuts the fuck up. I swear to you, guys, he talks so much in his movie that I ended up kinda hating him by the time the movie was finished. And I still don't feel any different towards him even as I'm typing this review up. He's seriously one of the most annoying characters I've come across in a movie in a *long* time. Almost every other character is, like I said, very shallow and vapid. Brian is more of delinquent kid than anything else. The girl he has a crush on named Kiersten is sort of a nerd who's into studying how plants grow. Every other kid I could write off as, well, forgetful, in terms of personality. The only character who I actually liked was Snik, our villain of the movie. Well, one of them, anyway. There was somebody who was incredibly forgetful, other than having some really cool makeup effects. Other than that, our characters are not really memorable, unless you can actually tolerate how annoying Maurice is.

So yeah, guys, the writing in this movie is really not that good at all. Like I said, it feels very plotless and doesn't really have much going for it's story. OK, granted, I wasn't really expecting some kind of deep plot or anything, but I was kinda sort of expecting a little bit more out of it. Unfortunately, like I said, there's not much going on here. The acting is also a very mixed bag. Some actors do okay, like our two main cast members, Fred Savage and Howie Mandell. Even though I still think Howie's character was annoying as fuck, at least Howie was able to kinda make it sorta work. However, then we have our supporting cast, such as our young child actors, specifically, the ones who plays Kiersten and Eric. These two were fucking horrible. Kiersten's actress doesn't know how to emote properly, and Eric's actor was even worse because it almost sounded like he was trying to overact at times, and it sounded like shit. He was the worst actor in the entire movie, and I hope he took acting lessons since then, otherwise, he should not be anywhere near a camera again until he's improved. I don't know if he has since the time that this movie was released, or if he just never got called again to do anything else. Either way, I'm not missing a whole lot if this performance from him is anything to go off by. So yeah, acting in this movie is teetering on being a mixed bag at best.

Special effects are, actually, one of the few positives I can definitely give this movie. More specifically, it's for the costuming and makeup effects. These are some of the more creative effects I have seen in quite a while. At least, for something that came out during the late 80's anyway. Every piece of costuming here is unique, it's creative, and it really does give you an idea of what this world underneath children's beds looks like. I really liked it, aside from the actual world itself looking really dark and dreary. I almost wanted to say that it kinda reminded me of the dream world from "Nightmare On Elm Street", but at least there, that can be it's own creative thing, depending on what you do with it. This dream world, though, could've looked better. At least, to me, it could've. The makeup effects are also really good, too. I'll even include Howie Mandell's creepy-looking blue makeup, because at least it looks rather unique. Not great, mind you, but at least it's something different for Mr. Mandell.

Camerawork here is really good. Lighting here is pretty good, even with the darkly lit areas in the world where Maurice lives. It didn't really get in the way of the movie very much, so at least there's that. Sound-mix here is fine. The music here, for both score and soundtrack, are great. The score was done by David Newman, and he's always done some pretty good scores for a lot of movies from the late 80's leading into the 90's. The selection of songs for the soundtrack is also really good, too. You have songs from people like Billie Hughes, Frankie Paul, and the Paladins, just to name a few. So yes, I can definitely give the music here a rather big positive.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Little Monsters"? If you grew up with it as a piece from your childhood, or if you know somebody that's associated with children in some way, and you really want to show this to them, then sure. I can probably recommend it in that aspect. However, as I mentioned before, I didn't grow up with this movie. And being that this was my first time watching it, I was curious to see if it had held up or not. And for me...it didn't. Like I said earlier, the story here feels very plotless, the characters are not very interesting at all, save for one, personally speaking. And even though the special effects and soundtrack were really good, that's not really enough to make me want to keep watching it on multiple viewings. It's aged rather poorly, and I don't find it really charming either, as the movie itself is also really boring at times. So I can say, again, with confidence that I won't be rewatching this movie anytime soon. Now, with that being said, I'm gonna go and watch a better movie, and it's something that I briefly referenced earlier. I'm gonna go and watch "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie" again. While that movie isn't necessarily good either, at least it holds up better than this movie actually did. So yeah, I'm gonna go and 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.

Reaction & Review | Tekkonkinkreet

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering an animated film from 2006. That movie is "Tekkonkinkreet".

Now, I heard about this movie thanks to watching the previews for it every time that I would watch "Paprika". And it looked really interesting, too. So when I finally found a copy of it at one of my local video stores, I immediately jumped on it and bought a copy of it for myself.

Now admittedly, I don't really know anything about the plot, but I am aware that this thing is based off a manga from the early to mid 90's. So if this movie is any good, I may attempt to check out the manga at some point. Though I'm curious to see what the movie can do on it's standards. So I may as well just 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 "Tekkonkinkreet".

8 minutes later

Okay, so our two main characters, Black and White, are chasing after Dusk and Dawn. And while all this is happening, our characters are just either standing on top of moving cars or, in the case of Dusk and Dawn, they're just hanging on the front of a bus. And, aside from one person, nobody else is telling them to get off their cars! Is that, like, a normal thing that just happens in Treasure Town? I mean, OK, I know Black and White are delinquents and they do whatever they want, but I figured at least they would have some common sense to not do this while on moving vehicles. But perhaps that's just me.

20 minutes later

Sorry, guys, if I'm not saying very much at the moment, but I'm really getting sucked into the story here. It's really fascinating so far and I'm hoping it continues to stay this way.

20 minutes later

Well...for the first time in this whole movie, Black has finally taken actual damage from this giant purple dude. And also White, too. But still, I'm curious to see how exactly they're gonna fight back against this dude. Especially knowing that there's 3 of them out in the whole town, too.

9 minutes later

Well, guys, I can comment on one thing, so far. The animation in this movie, specifically the ones where it looks as if it was colored and drawn with crayons, looks really fucking beautiful. I'm really impressed with how good it looks. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.

20 minutes later

Once more, guys, I'm really sorry that I'm not saying very much about the movie itself. Like I said, I've been sucked into the story itself and it is so damn compelling that I'm really interested in seeing where it's going to go next.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Tekkonkinkreet". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So...where to even begin here? Well, you guys maybe already caught on that I didn't have a whole lot to say about the movie itself. Now sometimes when I do that, it could mean either the movie's really good or it's just boring me to tears to where I just want it end as soon as possible. And in this case, it's most definitely the former. Because this movie is really good. I cannot begin to tell you guys how much I enjoyed this movie.

So, let's dive right into this thing and see what I can tell you guys without giving away spoilers here. Let's start with writing. Now, as I mentioned way early on, this movie is based on a manga I have never read. So obviously, I can't make any comparisons between that and the film. However, as is a staple of mine, I always like to go into any sort of adaptation on it's own standards. And if this movie is anything like the manga, I'm definitely going to try and track down the manga at some point. Because, one, this movie motivated me in wanted to check it out in the first place. And two, I'm also really curious as to how much this movie was able to work with in under two hours, because I'm mostly positive that there was a lot more in the manga that wasn't in the film.

But anyway, setting aside that, on it's own standards, the writing here is really strong. And from the moment that the movie starts, you're going to be sucked into it's atmosphere, mostly centered around Treasure Town, which is the town where our two main characters, Black and White, are mostly scavenging around trying to survive, since they're orphans. They don't have any real parents, who I'm going to assume are dead. The movie doesn't flat out state that, but it is implied by an old man that Black and White befriend. But still, this is where the movie mostly shines as it mostly focuses on the relationship between the two characters. Both of them are deep and fleshed and you're going to care about them as the movie goes on.

And what's interesting about both of them is that they represent the yin and yang between each other. With Black, he's somewhat more of a cynical character. He doesn't really show much emotion and it's prevalent later on when he slowly starts to go down the deep end by embracing the darkness within him. And with White, it's obviously more on the lighter side as it shows more of his childhood innocence. And there are some moments where Black will tell White to think of happy thoughts. And that's probably because he doesn't want White to become exactly like him. It's a really interesting dynamic and it makes for very compelling writing.

If I had to pinpoint any sorta negatives about the writing, I would say there are two, and they're both really minor. One of them has to do with the ending. Not so much before the ending credits show up, but before that, where we see Black trying to be consumed by his own inner darkness. The whole scene involving that could be interpreted as just being kind of art-housey, where it's all weird and artsy. It's sorta like the ending to season 2 of "Tokyo Ghoul", where the whole thing felt like pure art house bullshit and it soured my interest in that series. This movie, however, handles that much better, although it could potentially be seen by someone as just being too artsy for it's own good. The other minor nitpick involves a subplot about a yakuza who's working for the villain of the movie who's trying to build an amusement park in the center of Treasure Town. And really, the only thing I kinda didn't like about it is it's ending. It just ends somewhat abruptly as he's trying to get out of town with his pregnant wife, and you don't get to see the aftermath of what happens. Now perhaps it might be explained more in the manga, but still, I would've like to have seen some sort of closure to that subplot rather than just ending with no actual followup.

But aside from that, guys, the writing here is still really strong. Like I mentioned earlier, it's gonna suck you in the moment the movie starts up. It's very compelling and you're gonna be hooked into it for the entirety of it's near 2 hour run. The writing is just really that good. Now as for the acting, I opted to watch the official English dub for this movie, and I will say that it's really good, too. A lot of the actors that they got here are veteran voice actors such as Scott Menville, who voices Black, Yuri Lowenthal, Keith Silverstein, and Steve Blum, who I've criticized in the past for just phoning in the same showing he's done throughout most of his voice acting career, but he actually does turn in a halfway decent showing. Then again, he only voices minor characters in this film, so that, to me, is a huge plus.

The only voice that you're probably going to have mixed feelings on is White's voice. See, White's voice actor sounds a little bit flat. Now what I mean by that is that White's voice sounds a little bit on the monotone side. Now I understand that it is rather difficult to replicate a child's voice, especially when you're voicing a character who's suppose to resemble a child, so when I first heard that voice, I wasn't really sure if I was going to either get use it as the film went on or I would wind up kinda hating it. Well thankfully, I don't have to worry about hating, because White's voice actor definitely improves later as the film goes on. The voice has more of a range thanks to the facial expressions of the animation involving White. So White's voice actor definitely had a lot of room to improve and took advantage of it. So yeah, I can definitely say that the English dub here is really good and I'm happy that I stuck with it. Now, of course, if you're not into English dubs, there is an option to where you can switch to it's original Japanese audio. Or if you're feeling different, you could also watch it with it's Spanish audio instead. So hey, at least there's more than two options on how to watch the movie. Still though, I would say the English dub here is really solid.

Animation here in this movie is amazing. The first thing that's gonna catch your attention is Treasure Town itself, with all of it's detail and aesthetics with the color palettes. If this is were a real location, I would love to visit it, aside from the occasional yakuza baggage, but still. The entirety of Treasure Town looks great. They even implement CG here that blends in with the traditional hand drawn animation. It looks fantastic, and it's one of the better animated films that I've seen which utilizes both mediums of 2D and 3D animation very well. The dream sequences that happen a lot of from White's point of view looks great, too. I'm referring to the ones that look like it might've been drawn from a crayon. It most likely had to have been colored pencils, instead. Which, either way, they still look really good, even though at times they can be a little bit on the artsy side. Still though, they look great here. Character designs here are also really good, too, as they all have their own unique design. Which is great to see. So overall, the animation here is fantastic.

Sound-mixing here is mixed fine. The music here, mostly in terms of it's score, is also really good, too. It was done by a group called Plaid, which only consists of two people, and the music that they do here is really fucking good. All of it sounds unique and, much like the animation in this movie, it brings it's own unique vibe to this film that helps make it stand out. It is great music here, and it's one of the best things about this movie, right next to it's awesome animation.

I believe that pretty much sums up what my answer's gonna be, guys. So when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Tekkonkinkreet"? Oh absolutely, guys, this movie is fucking amazing. I would definitely recommend it, especially if you're a fan of anime, or even if you're an animation buff in general, this movie is a treat to watch. Nearly everything about the movie is great, despite a couple of minor nitpicks I had with the film's writing. Even so, I enjoyed this movie immensely, and I'm totally gonna be adding it to my ever growing DVD collection. And speaking of great anime movies, I mentioned at the start of this thing that I discovered this movie thanks to the previews I would always see for it every time I watched "Paprika". And you know what? I'm really kinda in the mood to watch that one again right now. So yeah, I'm gonna go watch "Paprika" 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 | Schizo

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a British psychological horror movie from 1976. That movie is "Schizo".

Now, I'm actually kinda looking forward to watching this movie. Simply because of it's premise where our female lead is being stalked by somebody who killed her mother when she was a kid, and is also being stalked by him as an adult. This might prove to be really interesting and I'm curious to see if the movie will actually do anything good with this premise.

I can also tell you guys two things about this movie that I picked up on from the back of the film's DVD case. The first thing is that this movie promises a twist ending. Which, I'm not sure if that's gonna be a good thing or not, especially since this DVD comes out and advertises it very casually. However, that could just be me nitpicking there. Now the second thing is something that I found a little humorous. According to the synopsis on the DVD case, near the end of it, it says that this movie was so frightening that squeamish theater patrons were promised free smelling salts if they fainted. Which sounds really stupid, but at the same time, I wonder how much of a common practice that was back in the mid 70's. Where if a horror movie was so scary that pussified theater patrons were promised to get free smelling salts if they ever fainted. Maybe that was just a British custom back then for movie theaters in the U.K or something.

Now beyond those two things, I'm really looking forward to watching this movie. I hope that it's really good and I'm hoping that this movie will deliver on it's really interesting premise. I don't know if it will or not, but that's what I'm here to find out. And the only way I'm gonna find out 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 "Schizo".

18 minutes later

So, guys, we're still early into this movie and I can tell you that nothing of interest has happened. I mean literally nothing has happened yet. I'm kinda hoping the movie will pick up sooner rather than later, eventually, but right now, this movie hasn't really given me much to work with at the moment.

18 minutes later

OK, how the hell did that meat cleaver get inside Samantha's cart? There was no indication at any point to where she grabbed it and put it in her cart. It doesn't make any sense. And also, this movie is really starting to drag a little bit. I'm still hoping that it'll pick up soon, because, otherwise, I'm slowly starting to fall asleep from boredom.

20 minutes later

So, guys, I got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we finally have our first kill of the movie from our stalker. At least I think so, the movie never showed his face. But I'm going to assume that it is the same person that has been stalking Samantha. Bad news is that it took almost an hour to get to this point in a movie that has less than an hour left. This film's pacing is just becoming horrible and I'm starting to lose patience by how slow this movie is going.

19 minutes later

OK, that actually is a little bit creepy with this girl's eyes bugging out all wide-eyed like that while also being possessed. It's just a pity that it took the movie this fucking long to finally start getting interesting at this juncture. So really, it's just a case of too little, too late, guys.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Schizo". And apparently, the movie doesn't have any ending credits. It just goes straight to the scene selection on the menu screen. So, I'm gonna go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So, about that "twist ending" I mentioned earlier. This movie promised a twist ending and, without spoiling what it is, I'm gonna let you guys know now that it isn't even a twist. And if you want proof, the hint is in the movie's title. And if you still haven't figured it out by the time the movie reveals it's twist, then you probably should get yourself educated on what the definition of the title really means.

So now, let's get into this review here. Let's start with writing. Now if I had a time machine, and if I had a choice on what year I wanted to travel back to, I would go back to 1976 around the same time that this movie was released. I would then ask the theater patrons, the ones who got so "frightened" by this movie and ask them what the hell did they see in this movie that I didn't that was suppose to be scary? Because, I'm gonna tell you guys right now that, outside of a couple of creepy moments, this movie is in no way scary. It is never frightening in the slightest. In fact, it is probably one of the most boring horror movies I have ever seen in a long time. And that's saying a lot because I reviewed another British horror movie not too long ago called "The Godsend", and as bad as that movie was, at least it kinda kept my interest for a bit. This thing, however, was so fucking boring that I almost fell asleep at one point. Which is a terrible thing for a horror movie, because those things aren't meant to be boring! But this thing, somehow, found a way to be boring throughout almost the entirety of it's hour and 50 minute runtime.

In fact, let's start with that, shall we? This movie's pacing goes at a fucking snail's pace. It is so damn slow that it's filled to the brim with so much padding! You could've honestly cut about 20 minutes of filler from this movie that you wouldn't miss a thing. I know I've stated in the past that I don't mind slower paced movies as long as you have somewhere to go with it, but this movie has almost nowhere to go with it's pacing. The kills, in particular, are vastly spaced out. Because, first of all, there's only 4 kills in the entire movie out of it's near two hour runtime. I'll get a little more in depth about the victims later on, but as for how the kills are laid out, the first one doesn't happen until almost an hour into the movie. And then the next one doesn't happen until about 25 minutes later followed by two more after that. It's that poorly paced out, as is the entirety of the movie. Like I said, you could've cut out about 20, probably 25 minutes worth of filler, and you'd have a much better paced movie.

Now, before I get to the victims themselves, I want to touch upon something that I found when I was reading the synopsis on the back of the DVD case for this movie. It says that Samantha's friends are murdered one by one and is convinced that the stalker isn't a stranger. I'm gonna tell you guys right now that out of the 4 people that are killed in this movie, only 2 of them are actually Samantha's friends. Those two people are Leonard, the psychiatrist, and the housekeeper lady. I don't know her name, but I think she's suppose to be her housekeeper or maid. I'm not totally sure which one exactly. Doesn't matter, though, because she's the second to last victim. The other two victims are Joy, who is the housekeeper's daughter and also a psychic, and the stalker. Again, I won't say who it is but that person is also dead. The latter aren't really friends because she barely knew Joy, and the stalker, well, obviously, she has a history with. But yeah, 4 people are dead, in a horror movie that's nearly 2 hours long. And the fact that the first kill doesn't happen until nearly an hour in is just bullshit.

As for the characters themselves, none of them are really all that interesting, and that includes our main character, Samantha Grey. You would think that, with our main character being stalked by this guy, you would find a reason to care for her and hope that she gets out of this scary situation. But no, that doesn't happen, because Samantha's personality has all the personality of burnt toast and her backstory is also equally rather stupid, too. I'm almost tempted to spoil it, seeing as how it's a 50 year old movie and all, but part of me is going to be somewhat nice to it, so I won't do that here. So yeah, all the other characters here aren't very interesting. The only one who I kinda sorta liked was Leonard, because he actually had something resembling an interesting personality. Yeah, he's a little creepy with how he handles women, but that's more personality than almost any other character that this movie had. And the moment that he was killed, my interest slowly started to die off. Though then again, with how boring this movie really is, that wasn't really too hard for this movie to accomplish in the first place.

So, overall, guys, the writing in this movie is just bad. It's worse with the horrendous pacing that you're almost guaranteed to fall asleep with how boring the movie is. Although I'm sorta getting ahead of myself here. Let me back this up a bit so I can talk about acting next. The acting here was actually okay. It wasn't great by any means, but at least most of the actors here tried to work with what they were given. The best actor would have to be Leonard's actor, since it seemed like he was actually having fun with his performance and all. The worst actress would actually have to be the one playing Joy. She sounded terrible, though I think that's mainly for when she has to speak as one of the heads of this "Psychic Brotherhood" for when they're trying to perform a seance. It kinda sorta makes sense in context. Though that's not saying very much. So, besides her, everyone else did okay with script that was given to them. So that's sort of a plus from me.

Special effects, I will say, are actually pretty decent. I'm gonna take a guess here and say that this movie was filmed on a low budget. And for what it is here isn't really too bad. Although I would say that the blood effects can vary because some of it, when viewed up close anyway, actually looks like jelly. And for what little gore is here is not too bad either. The one effect that I actually did think was impressive was when Joy's eyes are bugging out after being possessed. That actually looks really cool and it was one of the only interesting things that happened in this movie for me. So yeah, I can say that, for the most part, the special effects here are decent.

Camerawork here is pretty good. Lighting here is also pretty good, too. Sound-mixing here is mixed fine. The score here is also decent, too. There's not a whole lot of music to go on, but what little is here does work fine. So, I can say that the technical stuff here is another positive.

Now with all that said, when it comes down it, guys, can I recommend "Schizo"? No. I honestly can't find a reason to recommend this movie to anyone. Really, what's holding me back from actually recommend this movie is the god-awful pacing. It is so bad and so slow that you're gonna be fucking bored with it and you'll potentially fall asleep from trying to watch the whole thing. Like I mentioned earlier, I was almost tempted to fall asleep because the movie is just so fucking boring. Now is it one of the worst horror movies I've ever seen? Fuck no! This movie is nowhere near in contention for that title. So far, the worst movie I've ever seen belongs to "The Item". But then again, I don't think any horror movie is ever gonna be contention to take that movie's title. But still, this movie is still really bad and it's not even scary in the slightest. So no, I can't recommend this movie to anyone. And so far, I've not had a great track record when it comes to British horror movies. That said, I'm gonna go and watch one that actually is pretty good, and is also funny too. I'm gonna go and watch "Stitches" again because I need to watch something better at this point.

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 | Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a Spanish western comedy from 1984. That movie is "Yellow and the Fortress of Gold".

I'm gonna tell you, guys, the only reason why I bought this movie at one of my local video stores was because of it's title. Something about it just sorta leaped out at me so I decided to purchase a copy of it for myself and thus here we are.

Now, upon doing a little bit of research going into this movie, I can tell you guys a couple of things. First of all, even though the movie is technically a Spanish film, the movie is still done in English. So there's a good chance that this movie will probably be dubbed over. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but then again, considering this thing came out in the 80's, I'm gonna suspect that it probably won't be. But hey, it could still either be decent or perhaps even funny by how laughably bad the dub is. I don't know yet, but I'll find out shortly.

Also, you probably noticed the title and how it's worded with it's font and everything, this movie is trying to cash in on the success of "Indiana Jones". In fact, this movie came out the same year along with Indy's second film "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". Also, I'm looking at the cover of the movie right now and our main female character is also holding a whip, which...yeah, the subtlety is ever so cleverly hidden. Also also, I find it really hilarious how this movie already attempted to do a female version of Indy nearly 4 decades earlier until Disney tried it in 2023 when they attempted to replace Harrison Ford with a shoehorned in female character and tried to make her a mary sue. And no, I'm not using the term "girlboss" because it's so overused and I really don't like using that term anyways. I'm kinda old school when it comes to using terms that I grew up with, dammit.

Anyway, I'm getting way off topic here. My point is during that whole rant there, this movie already tried to do a female version of Indiana Jones and I'm curious to see how they pulled it off here. I don't know if it's going to be any good, but I'm gonna find out right now. So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold".

2 minutes later

Wait, so on the very first wording of this opening text for our prologue, it says "In the last episode". Was there more to this than I didn't realize? Because when I did my small research on this movie, I don't recall a prequel movie/or series ever being made. I guess, maybe, this was meant as some sort of inside joke, but its still kinda odd to see those words at the beginning of your text based prologue. Perhaps maybe that's just me, though.

2 minutes later

And someone just fell off their horse and also the cliff. And damn, him hitting the cliff before being killed was actually pretty painful there. And the riders don't seem to care that one of theirs is dead. I will admit, that actually is a little bit funny. So, at least this movie's comedy is off to a decent start.

6 minutes later

OK...I've never seen someone have their face covered in some kind gold plating and then you can just chip it off like it's nothing. That certainly is a fucked up way to die, I'll say that much.

15 minutes later

All right, guys, this is starting bother me slightly. I don't know why this is happening, but for some reason, there's some kind of weird motion blur going on with the camera when it's moving. And it's been doing that, mainly for darkly lit scenes. I'll try to get more into it a little bit later on, but I'm gonna let you guys know right now that the camerawork is a little bit on the uneven side.

19 minutes later

OK, I have a question here. Admittedly, it's a stupid one, but I'll ask it anyway. So Pecos has left the poker table and says that he'll be right back after he meets his, uh, girlfriend, I guess, to get the gold nugget back that he lent to her. If he's not coming back to the poker table, why don't you just disqualify him and leave his winnings to forfeit? I admit, I've never played real poker, for actual money anyway, but I do know that if you decide to leave the table, you normally take whatever winnings left you have with you. Either that, or, like I said, just disqualify Pecos for being away from the table for too long. At least, that's what I would do anyways.

12 minutes later

OK, as much as this movie has been more on the dull side for the last while now, I will say that Flores shooting that girl out of nowhere was actually really kinda funny. So, I gotta give them a little credit there.

14 minutes later

OK, that's sorta new. I've never seen anyone put rattlesnakes inside a tumbleweed and just rolling them down the hill towards our heroes, who are currently in hiding. That certainly is a creative method, that's for sure.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So, where exactly do I start here? Well, I guess I can let you guys know that the movie is just OK. It certainly isn't great, but I wouldn't say it's completely awful either. It sorta ranges in the middle here. So yes, the is kind of enjoyable. However, I personally don't see myself watching this movie a second time. Mostly because, the movie is sorta dull. I'll get to why later, but just to let you guys know that while I did kinda enjoy the movie, it's not enough for me to keep rewatching it on multiple viewings.

So anyway, let's go ahead and start this review off proper here. I'm gonna start with writing, specifically, I want to start with the humor first. Since this movie is labelled as a comedy, I feel like it's important to gauge on how well the humor is handled here. Now I will say that, unlike previous movies where they were suppose to be some sort of comedy but didn't really have a whole lot of laughs, this movie was able to get a couple of laughs out of me. Which is totally cool, because that's what comedies are suppose to do. And while most of the humor here doesn't exactly land, there were a couple of moments here where it was actually really funny. And the reason why I thought those couple of laughs got to me was because the timing of these particular moments came out of nowhere. Which is what makes the humor all the more funny. And if the movie did more of that, I would've loved the humor here. That being said, what they did get out for jokes and everything was still sorta funny. So, at least there's that.

However, it's here where I have to start picking apart the story. OK, I understand that this movie was not only trying to cash in on the success of Indiana Jones, it also was suppose to be a homage to serial films from way back in the day. In fact, at the very beginning of the movie, it shows a bunch of the kids in the theater kinda horsing around until the movie starts playing and they introduce our cast of characters with captioned texts, while the kids cheer the heroes and boo the villains. And that certainly is a rather nice touch. But I have a feeling that if you showed this to kids nowadays, and unless they were into westerns like I was back then, I'm not sure they would be that interested in it. Not just because they're into the next flavor of the month movie that's currently out, but the movie itself is, as I've stated a couple of times already, really kinda dull overall. And even for someone like myself who grew up watching westerns and kinda enjoyed watching the movie, even I found the movie to be rather dull at times. Which is saying a lot, personally speaking.

Now one of the reason why this movie is more on the dull side has to do with it's runtime. This movie clocks in at about 101 minutes long, and that is just way too long, even for a comedy. This movie has quite a bit of padding to it, and I feel like that they could've trimmed the movie down to about 15 to 20 minutes and it would've flowed better. To give you guys an example, our opening prologue has Flores and his men trying to enter the mountain where the gold is hiding. And that scene by itself takes up about 10 minutes or so. And if it didn't have that out of nowhere kill, I probably would've said that you could've cut the whole scene and you really wouldn't have missed much of anything. I feel like they could've just trimmed it down by about 5 minutes or so and, like I said, the scene could've flowed better.

As for our characters, well, I would love to tell you that Pecos Kid and Yellow Hair are the most interesting characters of the entire movie, however, I would only be half lying to you guys. Because of our two leading characters, Pecos is the more interesting of the duo. He actually has something resembling a likable personality that makes you interested in him. Yellow Hair, on the other hand, doesn't have that same luxury. Even when you eventually learn her origin story from some blind old guy, it still doesn't give you enough reason to care about her. She's really bland both in personality and in depth. And it just really made want to see more of Pecos rather than Yellow Hair because she's that bland. And our villains are no different. Our enemy general borders on being cartoonishly evil, while Flores doesn't speak because he's mute throughout most of the entire movie. In fact, not only is he more interesting as a villain, but he also has more screen time than our enemy general, who disappears throughout most of the entire movie until the end.

So, to summarize for you guys, the writing here kinda ranges being kinda average. It's not entirely a bad story. I mean, it's about our characters trying to find gold. There's not much to fuck up with that sort of plot. But at the same time, it's not really all that engaging either. Especially if you were trying to show this movie to younger kids, unless, again, they were raised on westerns like I was. But that's just more speculation on my part regarding the latter. Now, let's talk about the acting next. Now earlier, I theorized that since this movie was made in Spain, part of me felt like this movie was more than likely going to be dubbed, as how a lot of spaghetti westerns were like back when they were filmed in Europe during that time. But surprisingly, outside of maybe two or three actors who are dubbed over, most of everyone else here actually speaks English. And as for the acting itself, well, it actually is OK. None of it is great, mind you, but it's not exactly bad either, like how I was predicting earlier. The only actress who I think sorta fumbles is the one who's playing our titled character Yellow Hair. Her acting ranges on being rather wooden. And that, in part, has to do with the script that she was given. Since her character is really kinda dull, there was only so much that she had to work with, given the script and all. So I can't necessarily fault her performance entirely here.

Costuming here is pretty good. I will also say that the stuntwork here is actually really good. The best one, in particular, I would give to the stagecoach chase. I couldn't even begin to imagine how many takes they had to do in order to get that successfully. And I would be shocked if it was done in only one take. Either way, though, it's still a really good sequence, probably one of the best scenes in the entire movie. Special effects here are also decent. Given that this movie was filmed on a rather low budget, the filmmakers did as much as they could to make due with what they could for special effects. And I would say, for the most part, the special effects are rather decent for it's time.

But now, let's get to one of the big problems with this movie, and, for me, anyway, is gonna be a deciding factor on whether or not I can recommend this movie as a whole. One of the things that bothered me about this movie is the camerawork. Now, it's not like it's filmed poorly or that you can't see anything, but one thing that really bugged the shit out of me about it is the fact there's a lot of motion blur in this movie. It's especially noticeable whenever there's something being filmed over a dark spot. Because whenever an actor is moving themselves, you'll notice a blur that follows the actor's exact movements and it's gonna stick at you really quickly. And I thought to myself that maybe this was only an issue during the first third of the movie, but no, it's prevalent throughout the entire movie! The only time that you don't notice these issues is whenever the movie is shot during the daytime in a clear background, like the sky, for example. You don't notice these issues because it's not filmed during nighttime or whenever a character is standing behind a dark background of sorts.

There's one scene in particular that really stood out at me as it being an issue. And it's the scene where Yellow Hair is trying to break Pecos out of jail. Now there's an Indian who is kinda sort of an ally to Yellow Hair who also tries to help out. And it's here where the motion blur really starts to become an issue. So, the Indian is trying to sneak past a guard. And there's a large wooden door that he's trying to get to, which is also covered in shadow. The moment that our Indian steps inside the shadow, that's where the motion blur really comes into play because you see it move along with the actor, as he's busily sneaking around. And at one point, I swear to god, it looked like the actors were moving in slow motion! It looks so fucking jarring that I had to wonder what exactly would be the cause of this sort of thing to happen.

Now, I do have a few theories regarding that. The first one would be that it's just how it was made during filming. Which, I could see that as a possibility, although I do have to question that if there was so much motion blur in this movie, was that also intentional because other serial movies of the time had that sort of motion blurs as well? I don't know, because I haven't seen very many serial films, so that leaves me wondering there. Another theory could be simply because this was a technical issue on my end. The third issue could be that this might've been a slip up regarding it's new digital transfer. Because, according to the back of the DVD case, this movie had a new digital transfer from when it was being filmed with a 35mm camera. And somewhere along the transfer, these motion blurs started to occur and the people over at Rhino Home Video didn't want to mess up the transfer, so they didn't have any choice but to keep the motion blurs in. I don't know. Perhaps maybe I'm just thinking way too deep into this, but it's really damn noticeable to not make mention of. Because the motion blurs really bugged the shit out of me throughout most of the entire movie. And there's no way in hell that, if you ever decide to watch this movie for yourself on DVD, I guarantee that you'll notice it as well and they'll stick with you throughout it's 101 minute runtime.

So anyway, camerawork here, minus the motion blur, is halfway decent. Lighting here is good, as long as you're not filming anything with a dark background, because the motion blur will definitely rear it's ugly head in. Sound-mixing here is actually competent. And the score here is also decent. So, I'd say the technical stuff works OK for the most part.

Ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, can I recommend "Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold"? Um...kinda, sorta. I can't entirely say no here, because the movie is still OK despite all of it's faults. I would say that if you're into westerns, or if you're somebody who has children that are also into westerns, then I would probably say go ahead and give this one a look. Just don't expect anything special here. Also, the movie is sorta dull, even for someone like myself who enjoys westerns. And even though I've already said this earlier, I'm not gonna be rewatching this movie again because of it's dullness. It just slightly outweighs it more than the enjoyment here. Which is unfortunate to say, because I was really curious about it, and wanted to see if it was actually any good. And well...it doesn't really meet those standards, at least for me, anyway. Now...I'm gonna go and watch another western. In fact, I kinda want to watch a western comedy, and I kinda want to see "The Villain" again. I haven't seen that one in quite a long time, so I'm gonna go and do that next after I get done typing this review up.

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 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.