Reaction & Review | Gamera 3: Revenge Of Iris

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a kaiju film from 1999. That movie is "Gamera 3: Revenge Of Iris".

Now, on the off chance that you're reading this review for the first time, I've been covering this trilogy of Gamera movies that were released in the mid-to-late 90's this entire month. The first two movies were really fascinating, and I really enjoyed both of them. And I have high hopes that this third movie in this Gamera trilogy is going to be just as awesome as the two previous movies were. Because the first movie was really good, and the sequel was even better. So I'm hoping that this third movie is going to knock it out of the park, because that's how good these Gamera movies have been so far.

Now, before I get into this movie, I have a little bit of an update I wanted to share with you guys. I stated at the start of this month that my experiences with kaiju movies were very limited, because I had only seen about a couple of movies involving Godzilla, and that's about it. Well, earlier this month, I was channel surfing on my TV one day, and a little known network as the Movies! TV Network was showcasing some kaiju movies. And I watched about several of them, because, as I just stated, I had barely seen any kaiju films. And the films that I watched were "Invasion Of Astro-Monster", which I caught about half of it because I was watching something else at that time. Another one was "Destroy All Monsters", which was pretty good. Then they showed "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla", which was really good. And then the last one I ended up watching was "Terror Of Mechagodzilla", which was the sequel to "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla", and I really enjoyed that also. So, I can officially say that I have expanded more on my catalog of kaiju movies under my viewing experience. Granted, I understand that there's plenty more of these particular movies that I haven't seen yet, but I have at least seen a little more since I first started covering these Gamera movies.

Speaking of which, as with the previous two Gamera films in this trilogy, I don't know what the hell to expect from this one. All I'm hoping is for it to be just as awesome as the two previous movies were. 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 "Gamera 3: Revenge Of Iris".

4 minutes later

There's a graveyard of Gamera's at the bottom of the sea? Huh...you know, guys, I never would've imagined that there was more than one Gamera. Well, then again, they did sorta mention that legend from the first movie, so maybe it's something I should've taken notice on. But still, the fact there's a bunch of dead Gamera's laying at the bottom of the sea is just incredibly morbid.

2 minutes later

So, her Dad was inside this apartment taking pictures of Gamera, as it was heading towards the complex, thus destroying it, and killing him in it as well. My only question is why the fuck would you take pictures of an incoming monster heading towards your way? It just makes no fucking sense whatsoever! Oh...and apparently, it was all a dream. Or it may have been a flashback. Anyway, point being, if he was at a distance on the ground somewhere while he was taking the pictures, then maybe I could've understood that. But no, he had to be in one of the worst possible locations, and it ended up costing him his life. I should feel sorry for him, but in all honesty, I don't.

19 minutes later

You know, guys, a moment ago, I was gonna say that this movie was moving at a slower pace than usual, but now we finally got Gamera on screen. Along with, what I'm going to assume is suppose to be Gyaos again. And if it is Gyaos, then I'm wondering how in the hell it survived from the first movie all the way to the third one? Either way, this movie is beginning to pick itself up, and I'm hoping it continues this way.

3 minutes later

Guys, you know how I mentioned earlier about how these trilogy of movies were suppose to be darker in tone? Well, I just saw Gamera's fire breath wipe out a good portion Japan's citizens while attacking Gyaos. Holy shit, that was brutal. Really cool-looking, but god damn did it turn itself up a notch!

11 minutes later

So this baby Iris was able to pierce through a can of, either, soda or tea, with it's claw, while also being able to drink the liquid from the top of the can with it's claw. Well...I can, at least, say it's creative. Kinda frightening in hindsight. But still, it was rather creative.

12 minutes later

OK, I have to ask this now. So, we've been getting a bunch of news reports in regards to Gyaos attacks all over the world. Are we actually going to get to see ANY of these bird attacks that keeps getting reported on? Because, so far, we have not gotten any footage or images of any of these attacks that are going on as they proclaim. Now, I totally understand that the news is almost never going to be honest with it's viewers, but I would, at least, expect Japan's journalism to be slightly more honest, at least when compared to America's journalism, since they have been a fucking joke for decades now. But hey, maybe that's just me.

10 minutes later

So...I guess Iris can suck the souls out of people by making them look like dead zombies...interesting. Again, it is kinda creative. Kind of odd, but then again, it does explain what happened to that other person from earlier on in the movie. Not really what I was expecting out of a movie involving Gamera, but still, I'm willing to roll with it.

12 minutes later

Well, it took almost an hour, but we finally get to see Gamera in action again. And now that it's here, I'm wondering how in the world it's going to stop Iris? I'm not sure if it's going to be as bloody as the battle with Legion, but who knows? I'm curious to see how this battle is going to turn out.

8 minutes later

All right, guys, this is it. We're now up to the final showdown between Gamera and Iris. And I am so looking forward to seeing this huge showdown between the two. I think this is going to be awesome.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Gamera 3: Revenge Of Iris". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Wow...um, what to even say...? Well, I guess I can officially say that I have finished this trilogy of the Gamera movies. And you know what? This entire trilogy delivered on what it set out to do, and I am damn happy about that.

So, I guess now it's finally time to cover this movie by getting into the writing. Now, in the previous two movies, I stated that these movies were intended to be a darker reboot of the Gamera series. Now, I don't know how the previous Gamera movies were like in terms of it's tone back then, so I can't really say if they were as dark as these movies were, or if they leaned on being more light-hearted with it's tone. But regardless, these movies wanted to be in a darker tone. Now with the first movie, I didn't feel like it was a very dark movie. Now, it does have it's dark moments, but it still leaned on it's light-hearted moments to where it was able to balance it's tone perfectly well. The second movie, however, definitely felt like a darker movie. In fact, it felt much more like a horror movie. Which, some people who have never seen a monster movie would consider them horror movies, what with monsters being involved and all. However, that is most certainly not the case. But with the second movie, it definitely had more of it's darker moments, while at the same time was able to retain some of it's light-heartedness as well. Now, in regards to the third movie, I can say right off the bat that this movie is, quite possibly, one of the bleakest films I have seen in a long time, especially when it comes to kaiju films. We have tons of destruction, death, and a lot of blood spilled. The latter portion belonging to the final battle of the movie, however, I will not spoil very much about that final fight, other than it being awesome.

Now, I want to touch upon Gamera itself for a moment. And this is gonna tie into a potential problem that I can see some viewers having when it comes to this movie. You see, even though this movie is about our titled character, it barely shows up in this movie. You see it within the first 20-25 minutes of the movie, where it's fighting against a Gyaos monster, which makes it's return in this movie. In fact, I mentioned this earlier, the Gyaos are seen attacking different portions of the world. Now, we don't to get to see any of these attacks, other than a newspaper article which explains the attacks happening around the world. It's not really explored too much, outside of a brief mention towards the end of the movie. But aside from that, they're not really the focus of the film. I kinda wished we got more out of that, since I don't know if they explored that in any of the future Gamera movies after this one. But anyway, getting back to Gamera for a moment, the only other time that you see it in the film is when it saves a couple of fighter pilots from being destroyed by Iris. Because within almost the first hour after the first 20-25 minutes goes by, we don't really get to see much of Gamera in this movie. Most of this focus is gonna be on the human characters. And I'm gonna tell you, guys, our characters here are very well fleshed out, and this movie definitely takes the time to give our characters the development that they need. Now to some people who don't care about any of that stuff in their monster movies, then this movie is probably not gonna be for you, because those people will only really care about seeing the monsters fight each other. And while that's something that I like to see too, I kinda care more about substance as well. Which is one of the big reasons why I'm not a huge fan of most plotless action movies, because a lot of them don't really provide a lot of content when it comes to their stories, or lack thereof, anyway. So, this movie definitely has that advantage when it comes to it's writing is that it has a really strong story and very well-written characters as well.

The one I want to comment on the most is Gamera. Now I mentioned earlier about how this movie is probably one of the bleakest kaiju films I have ever seen. Most of that is centered around Gamera. You see, for those who are more knowledgeable about these kaiju movies than I am can tell you that Gamera is known to be a friend to call children, and is suppose to protect the people of Japan. But in this movie...I don't see much of that here, because during the fight against Gyaos, Gamera just lays waste to almost an entire city, as it's trying to destroy Gyaos. You see it using it's fire breath, which causes tons of damage around it, and also killing tons of people as well. And I have to wonder, from between the time of the first two movies and going into this one, maybe something inside changed Gamera to a point where it stopped caring about the people that it was suppose to be protecting. And I think part of the reason for it was because it's not connected to Asagi anymore. For those of you who have been reading these reviews, she was in the previous two Gamera movies, and she's the one who's had a psychic connection with Gamera through her magatama. But since she admitted that she doesn't have that connection with it anymore, Gamera gets to do what it wants without consequence. Now to be fair, Gamera does have a conscience, but it's mostly not seen until towards the end of the movie. Which again, I'm not gonna spoil very much on, because I really don't want to spoil anything for you guys. This movie is genuinely amazing. And if you're able to look past the fact that this movie is not really focusing much on the monster battles themselves, then what you have is a really stellar movie.

So, it goes without saying that the writing in this movie is damn near fantastic. It does, admittedly, have a slow boil, but it definitely pays off towards the end in a big way. Now, with that being said, let's get into the acting. And much like the previous two movies, I went into this movie watching the English dub. And I will say that the dub here is really good. In fact, I think that this movie has the best dub out of the two movies that I watched. However, I will also say, again, that if you're someone who doesn't like to listen to English dubs, then, much like the previous two movies, it does have an option to where you can watch this movie with it's original Japanese audio and English subtitles. So really, it depends on your preference, whether it's on anime or any kind of foreign movie with an English dub. Mind you, when compared to other movies I've seen with English dubs, it's not the best dub I've heard. But when it comes to this trilogy of movies, I can say that the dub here is probably the best dub from this trilogy. So, I can totally say that the dub is worth it, and just about all of the actors had enough material to work with for their characters. So yeah, this dub is pretty damn great.

The special effects are also some of the best I've seen from this trilogy. Now mind you, this movie came out in 1999. But I will say that, by 1999 standards, it has some damn good special effects. The CG here is pretty awesome. The fire effects look fucking great. The suit-work here for the monsters look really good. In fact, I didn't think about this until recently, but Gamera looks a little bit...different, when compared to it's appearances in the previous two movies. I'm not totally sure what it is, but I noticed that it has more spikes on it's body. For example, there are spikes on it's arms and around it's head. Now, I don't know if that was because of some wear and tear from it's previous battles with Gyaos and Legion where it was able to grow itself those spikes, or if something had happened to the Gamera suit from the previous two movies where they had to make a new one, thus would be the reason why Gamera looks a little bit different in this movie. I don't know, and it could just be me theorizing about bullshit, but it was something that was kinda on my mind. But regardless of all that, the special effects in this movie are fucking great, and I think that they still look pretty good for today's standards as well.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is lit really well. Our sound-mix here is perfectly fine. The score here is also really good, too. It's pretty much on par with what was in the previous two movies, so I think that's a huge positive that they were able to remain consistent with the music for these movies.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Gamera 3: Revenge Of Iris"? If you had seen the previous two films in this trilogy, and you enjoyed those movies, then you are going to love this thing. It is a fantastic movie. Again, as long as you're able to look past the fact that this movie is focusing more on it's story rather than the monster battles themselves, you're going to have a blast with this movie. In fact, even though I kinda already showed my hand here, I can recommend this entire trilogy of the Gamera movies. I was able to find a box set of these 3 movies on DVD for about $22. And I'm gonna tell you, it's $22 well spent. Now I hear it's possible that you can get all 3 of these for a cheaper price, and if you can, grab it. I can't gush enough about how awesome all 3 of these movies were. And it seriously made me want to watch more kaiju films for this series. Now I can't guarantee when, or even if, that will happen. But I can definitely say that, thanks to this month, I am officially a fan of kaiju movies. And I seriously cannot wait to watch more of them. Hopefully, more of them will be covered for this series, but we'll just have to wait and see. Now...I mentioned in a previous Reaction & Review that I had bought the entirety of "Godzilla: The Series" on DVD. And since I just got done finishing these movies, I kinda want to continue with the kaiju theme, so I'm gonna go marathon some episodes of that series because it's a pretty good series, and I never got to watch it in it's entirety. So, I'm gonna go and do that next, and these movies are definitely going to have a nice spot in my DVD collection.

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 | Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an animated movie from 2011. That movie is "Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz".

Now, I know some of you are probably looking at that title and you're thinking to yourself that this movie is actually a thing? And the answer is yes. Apparently, Warner Bros. made an animated version of, what I'm going to assume is suppose to be the 1939 version of this movie. Now I know that "The Wizard of Oz" has gone through plenty of adaptations that are different from the 1939 movie, but from what I read on the back of the DVD case for this movie, it looks like they are doing a retelling of the 1939 movie. The only thing that's different is that they've added Tom and Jerry to the mix. Now this isn't really new territory for Tom and Jerry, because they've been involved in quite a few crossovers in their time. Things such as "The Wizard of Oz", "Johnny Quest", Sherlock Holmes, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", and they even did a sequel to this movie. Which, I don't even know if I want to cover the sequel at all, because I have to see if this movie is worth watching as a standalone film.

Now I should mention that I love "Tom and Jerry". I remember many years ago, as a kid, that I use to watch quite a bit of "Tom and Jerry" at my aunts place when I use to watch it on Boomerang, where they would show classic cartoons on that network. I even use to own a VHS copy of "Tom and Jerry: The Movie" from 1992. And while, admittedly, the movie hasn't exactly aged all that well, I still ended up kinda liking it. Now as for the other half of this crossover, "The Wizard of Oz" is a great classic movie. I, like most people, use to watch that movie quite a bit as a kid. And while it's not exactly one of my favorite classic movies ever made, I still really enjoy watching it from time to time.

With that being said, there is kind of a reason as to why I wanted to cover this movie. Not just because it's combining two things that I really enjoy from my childhood, but it's also something that I'm both curious and concerned about when it comes to this movie. The curious bit is, obviously, how well these two franchises can co-exist as a crossover. What's leaving me concerned, however, is the runtime of this movie, and what exactly they are covering in terms of content. You see, the original 1939 movie was close to being 2 hours long. It ran for about an hour and 52 minutes, and they covered a lot of things in that movie. And being that it was an adaptation from a novel, they probably had to leave out quite a bit of things from that novel in order for the 1939 movie to work. This movie, on the other hand, and I'm even not kidding when I say this...is only working with just an hour. That runtime is probably lower than most of, if not all of DC's direct-to-video animated films that Warner Bros. also puts out. I don't even know if this movie is gonna be able to work with only just an hour, considering that they also have to work in Tom and Jerry's humor, which is either gonna bring the flow of the movie down, or it could possibly enhance it in someway.

So, with all that in mind, I'm not totally sure how this movie is going to work out, considering that they have to focus both on the humor of "Tom and Jerry" while also trying to retell the 1939 movie within such a short runtime. Now, who knows? This movie could genuinely surprise me and wind up being rather decent. But 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 "Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz".

1 minute later

Guys, I am loving the opening music to this movie. It really does feel like the opening to the original 1939 film, what with them including the text from the 1939 movie as well, and it sounds beautiful. I'm hoping that's a good sign of things to come.

6 minutes later

You know, guys, I don't often comment much about art-style in movies, but there's something about Dorothy's eyes that look a little bit off-putting to me. I think it's because of the fact that she just has really blue eyes. I would normally imagine seeing her with either brown or red eyes, but the fact they're really blue is sorta throwing me off slightly. Now granted, it's not a huge complaint, and it's something that I'll hopefully get use to as the film rolls on, but it is something that I kinda wanted to mention.

10 minutes later

You guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but this rendition of the Scarecrow song...kinda sucks. It's mostly not helped with the fact that it's sung by this annoying this mouse. Oh, and now he's transitioned into the "Wizard of Oz" song...OK. Kinda hoping to hear less singing from this mouse, because it's beginning to get a little bit grating.

15 minutes later

I will this say this much, guys. The backgrounds and the locales look great, and they almost match up to what was in the 1939 movie. The movie itself has been kinda lacking so far, but I'll get more into that when the movie is done.

4 minutes later

OK, I have a question, and this is something I'm not sure was answered in the 1939 movie. Granted, it's been quite a number of years since I last seen it, but I still want to ask this anyway. So, when the Wicked Witch told Dorothy that when the sands of the hourglass run out, she would die. So, my question is what would happen if Dorothy actually destroyed the hourglass before the sands filled up on the other side? As far as I could remember, there was no rule stating that "Oh BTW, if you destroy the hourglass, then the effects of the hourglass won't cause you to die." So, what exactly is stopping her from just destroying the hourglass while she's locked up in the room by herself? Unless the hourglass was made up of magic in which Dorothy couldn't destroy it, then there should be nothing holding her back by just grabbing some sort of a weapon and smashing the hourglass to pieces, thus she wouldn't have to worry about dying. Problem solved! Granted, I totally understand that this is very trivial and kinda pointless to bring up, considering that the movie's well over 80 years old at this point, but it is something that is sorta bugging me a little bit.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Dear lord, where do I even begin...? Well, I could start by saying that, going into this movie, I was a little bit concerned about how this movie was going turn out. Aside from what I stated earlier about how it was going to combine both the story of the 1939 movie while also trying to work in the humor of "Tom and Jerry", I've also heard a lot of people completely trashing this movie, mostly because of it's concept, saying that it's unnecessary to combine both of these franchises into one movie. And while I will say that the movie isn't great, and it's certainly not something I would watch a second time, it's not completely awful either. It's just sort of average at best. 

So, with that being said, let's finally talk about the movie in detail. And as usual with a lot of these reviews, I'm gonna start with the writing. I've talked about this a couple of times in my past reviews when discussing adaptations of certain movies, whether it's a comic book movie, video game movie, etc. And the one thing I usually bring up when it comes to adaptations is that you're bound to take certain liberties with what you're adapting. Because if you're just doing a straight-laced story of something and you're not really changing anything whatsoever, then your movie is gonna end up being a bit bland. And as I mentioned earlier, "The Wizard of Oz" has gone through quite a number of film adaptations over the years. Most of which I've never seen before, aside from this particular one. And they definitely change it up quite a bit, which I'll get into in a moment. Now when it comes to this movie, the one thing I was really concerned about was what this movie was going to do with just an hour of it's runtime? Because again, the original movie was almost twice the length that this movie had, so this movie was bound to cut some corners in order for the movie to get made. And I will say that what they were able to do here within such a short runtime...kinda works. Kind of, but it's obviously not a perfect adaptation.

The biggest thing that this movie changes from the 1939 movie is the focus of Tom and Jerry. Now, at the very beginning of the movie, we do mostly follow how the 1939 movie played out. The one thing that is not present during this opening part is when Dorothy meets Professor Marvel. It instead skips over to the tornado scene after Tom and Jerry save Toto from the Wicked Witch. And then when that tornado scene hits, it mostly focuses on Tom and Jerry for about the first third of the film. And this is where the movie tries to work around it's short runtime. You see, rather than focusing on Dorothy's adventures, they shift the focus onto Tom and Jerry right around when they first meet one of our other main characters named Tuffy, who resides in Munchkinland. By the way, we never see any Munchkins, which is a little bit strange considering that it's called Munchkinland and there's no Munchkins to be seen whatsoever, but whatever. It's not a huge deal overall. So, Tuffy gives out exposition to Tom and Jerry about the events that had already happened while Dorothy was in Munchkinland up until she followed the yellow brick road. In which Tuffy joins them to go after her, because he also has a dream of wanting to grow bigger in height. And from there, that's when this movie starts to focus more on the slapstick humor of Tom and Jerry. And this is where the movie kinda shines here. First of all, some of the slapstick humor that they do here is legitimately really funny at times. This movie was able to give them just enough breathing space in which they were able to work in some of their humor. And I kinda like this change, because if this movie had done it the other way around in which if Tom and Jerry were always by Dorothy's side, and we got to see her meet the Scarecrow, the Tin-Man, and the Cowardly Lion scene by scene, while also incorporating some of their humor, then this movie would've slowed INCREDIBLY down, which, I think, would've also pushed passed this film's original runtime. Thankfully though, that's not the case, because their humor doesn't entirely get in the way with the story here.

That being said, though, this movie also feels rather rushed. Which, in part, has to do with the film's really short runtime. Because what this movie was able to work with in terms of Tom and Jerry's humor also sacrifices a good portion of how the 1939 film plays out. As I mentioned earlier, we skip most of Dorothy's adventures in which she meets her companions, which also means that we don't get to see any of the character depth between Dorothy, the Tin-Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion. Now some people will think that because this movie is a retelling of the 1939 film, with Tom and Jerry added to the cast, it isn't really necessary to tell the same story again, because everyone knows about these classic characters and their motivations of wanting to meet the Wizard. But, I also have to remind some people that not everyone has seen the 1939 film, and if they were to go into this movie for the first time without having seen the original film first, then you're not gonna have any idea as to why these characters are following Dorothy to begin with. Now yes, they do mention at one point that the Scarecrow wants a brain, the Tin-Man wants a heart, and the Cowardly Lion wants courage, but they don't really explain WHY they want that. And if you don't know why they want any of that stuff, then there's a good chance that they'll find these characters to be a bit bland and rather one-dimensional. So at that point, I would just say go watch the 1939 film first before you even think about watching this movie. Or go read the novel, since that came out first, and probably explains more than what the 1939 movie was able to tell.

Which then leads into another issue with this movie. It's something that I mentioned earlier in regards to people's opinions about how this movie is just an unnecessary crossover between two franchises that barely mesh well with each other. And while I will agree to an extent that this movie does feel a little bit unnecessary, I do think that doing a "Tom and Jerry" version of "The Wizard of Oz" is not really a bad idea either. In fact, I think this movie would work a lot better if, instead of just retelling a condensed version of the 1939 movie, it was an animal-hybrid version of "The Wizard of Oz". You could still have Tom and Jerry as the main characters. I don't know who you'd get to play Dorothy, but if they still wanted to work in her, I guess they could also make it work. And instead of meeting the same characters from the 1939 movie, you could meet different versions of those characters. And the reason why I bring this up is because, at one point, Tom, Jerry, and Tuffy meet a couple of crows around the cornfield where Dorothy first met the Scarecrow. And I thought, at the time anyway, that the crows were going to join them in hoping to meet the Wizard for whatever they desired. But they don't, and we don't see them again after that scene. However, if this movie wanted to be a "Tom and Jerry" version of "The Wizard of Oz", then I could see this movie including them in it as sort of a replacement for the Scarecrow. And you could do the same thing with the Tin-Man and the Cowardly Lion. This movie could do that, while also working in a lot of the humor that Tom and Jerry are best known for. I think that would work a lot better rather than just doing a retelling of the 1939 movie. Now again, what is here for humor does work in regards to "Tom and Jerry", but it could've worked better if they weren't tied into the cast from the 1939 movie is what I'm trying to get at here.

So with all that in mind, the writing here is OK for what this movie had to work with, but it could've been so much better on a different level if it wasn't just a retelling of the 1939 movie with Tom and Jerry added to the mix. Now even though I think the writing here is just OK, I will say the acting here is really good. When it comes to "The Wizard of Oz" characters, they got really good replacements for voicing these characters. The best would have to be Grey DeLisle voicing Dorothy. She nails this character, almost, to a tee. She has the mannerisms, the personality, and the voice is perfect for her. Now granted, she's obviously not going to be on the same level that Judy Garland was when she played Dorothy, but for what Grey DeLisle had to work with in this movie, it's fucking great. And that goes for almost everyone else involving the rest of the cast. Tom and Jerry are almost excluded here, with the one lone exception of anytime that Tom has to scream in pain. That's, like, the closest thing when it comes to acting from these two main characters. But aside from that, the acting here is really good from, just about, the entire cast.

The animation looks mostly good here. There are a couple of exceptions, though, that look kinda weak. The biggest of this would have to be the inclusion of CG. Now, unlike a majority of the direct-to-video animated films from DC, there's not much usage of it here. The most notable usage of it is during the tornado scene, in which, normally we get to see the famous moment of Dorothy viewing the stuff flying around the inside of the tornado while she's still in her house. Although in this movie, it's not her that's seeing it, it's Tom and Jerry. But anyway, the CG comes in when we get to see the house carried by the tornado, and the CG on the house looks...kinda like shit. The model of the house looks rather cheap. And considering that this movie came out in 2011, this CG would've looked bad by 2001 standards. That's how cheap and bad it really looked. But again, the CG in this movie is very limited, because most of the rest of the movie is in 2D. And the rest of the animation looks pretty good for this kind of movie. The backgrounds and locales look really close to how the 1939 looked back in the day, and I'm kinda happy that this movie was able to capture the look and feel of the 1939 movie. The character models also look really good, too. The one that I'm still kinda iffy on is Dorothy's blue eyes. I don't know if it was because they wanted to reflect that with her dress, which is also blue, or if it was just an artistic choice that the animators wanted to go with to make herself stand out a little bit. For me, personally, it's not something that ruins the film or anything, but it is something that you'll have to get use to if you ever decide to watch this movie. But for the most part, the animation and the art-style looks really good here.

Sound-mix here is mixed fine. The music here is great, for the most part. And being that this movie is a retelling of the 1939 movie, it would be natural for this movie have a new spin on these classic songs. The best one would have to be "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". This rendition of it is fan-fucking-tastic. It is such an amazing version of this song. And whoever sang this version of it, whether it was Grey DeLisle or someone else, sounded great, and it made that song sound just as good as the original song did. The weakest song, however, would have to be the one sung by Tuffy, who kinda makes his own rendition of the Scarecrow song. And it doesn't sound anywhere NEAR as good as the original song did. And, I think, that's mostly because of it's singer. Now, I have no idea idea who sang this version of the song, whether it's Tuffy's voice actress or someone else entirely, but that singing voice did not really help the song whatsoever. Now when Tuffy is singing the "Wizard of Oz" song, it's actually pretty good. But the song before that...not so much. And it was probably the weakest song in the entire movie. But everything else when it comes to the score sounds great. Some of it resembles what it sounded like in the 1939 movie, while also sounding like something you would hear from a "Tom and Jerry" short from back in the day. So yeah, the music here sounds great, save for one song.

Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz"? Honestly...it's kind of a tough call. I would say that if you are a fan of "Tom and Jerry", then you might something here that you'll like. If you're a fan of the "Wizard of Oz", however, you're probably not gonna want to watch this, because it's, more or less, a condensed version of the classic movie that focuses more on the other two titled characters. And at that point, I would just say stick with the 1939 movie. For people who have never seen the 1939 movie, I would say you should go watch that before you consider watching this movie. Now if you have children in some capacity, whether it's children of your own, or it's a niece or nephew, and they're fans of both franchises, then I would absolutely say yes. Because, I believe, children will adore this movie. And if you want to show them something that will entertain them for about an hour, then this movie will certainly provide that kind of entertainment for them. However, for older fans of these franchises, it's kind of a mixed bag. Myself, personally, I don't think it's something I would watch a second time. But I am somewhat curious about that sequel, considering that they did make a sequel to this movie a few years later. I don't think I'll get to it anytime soon, but it might be something worth considering for a future Reaction & Review. Until then, though, I'm just gonna go find something else to watch. Now unfortunately, I don't really own a physical copy of "The Wizard of Oz", so I can't go and watch that. However, it did sorta spark a memory of mine from years ago, where I use to own a VHS copy of a cartoon series of "The Wizard of Oz" that was produced by DiC Entertainment way back in the 90's. I'm gonna go and see if that series is up on YouTube and go marathon some episodes of that, because it's been a long, LONG time since I last watched anything involving that, and I want to see where exactly they went with that series, since I only ever watched the first episode on that tape. So, I'm gonna go and do that next after I'm done putting this review together.

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 | Gamera 2: Attack Of Legion

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be checking out a kaiju film from 1996. That movie is "Gamera 2: Attack Of Legion".

Now, for those of you that are new here and you're reading this review for the first time, a couple of weeks ago, I reviewed the first Gamera movie from this trilogy. And I really enjoyed the hell out of it. It was my very first exposure to anything related to Gamera. In fact, it was also the first kaiju flick that I had seen that wasn't a Godzilla movie. The only other movie that I could, maybe, count was "Pacific Rim", since that movie was about giant mechs fighting giant monsters. Although, I'm not totally sure if I should be counting that one as a kaiju film or not, personally.

But anyway, regardless of all that, the first Gamera movie from this reboot was great. Now as for what I know about it's sequel, it's honestly not much. I know that it involves Gamera, obviously, and I'm going to assume that it's fighting some creature known as Legion. In fact, looking at the back of the DVD case, one of the still images from this movie shows Gamera fighting either a bug or fish creature. I don't know what it is, but I'm hoping that the movie will provide some more context once I start watching it.

Really, guys, I don't know what to expect from this movie. I'm just hoping for it to be as good, if not better, than the first Gamera movie that came out a year before this one did. I'm certainly hoping that it will be, but there is a slight chance that it could disappoint me. So really, 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 "Gamera 2: Attack Of Legion".

15 minutes later

Guys, I am loving the tension and suspense that this scene is building up to. It honestly feels like I'm watching a horror movie right now. I didn't think that I'd say that about a kaiju film, but this movie-oh, and we just got our first look at, what I'm going to assume is suppose to be Legion here. It can also evaporate windows with it's mouth. That's pretty cool. And apparently, it just killed the train engineer in cold blood! Well...I think it's safe to say that this movie is already going in a darker direction, and I am loving it so far.

20 minutes later

So apparently, it wasn't enough for Gamera to just destroy that pod with it's fire breath. But it also had to knock it down from that building, and then use it's fire breath AGAIN, just so it makes sure that it's destroyed. I think it's safe to say that Gamera doesn't fuck around, and it's actually making it one of the smarter kaiju monsters I think I've ever seen. Oh, and those fucking bugs finally come crawling out of the subway tunnel, too. I'm curious to see how Gamera is going to fare against them.

14 minutes later

Wait, so this General thinks that there is almost no credibility to this story about Asagi, the girl from the first movie, being able to communicate with Gamera? Then why doesn't anybody go and find her, and bring her over for questioning to see whether or not it has any merit? We, the viewer, know it's true. But you'd think with this woman, Honami, would've already thought up this idea to go and talk to her, seeing as how she's been doing research about what happened in the first movie. Guys, I'm really not trying to rail on this movie whatsoever, because it's been really fucking good so far, but I am curious as to why no one has thought about that yet.

12 minutes later

Ho-ly shit! That might just possibly be one of the biggest explosions I have ever seen in any movie in a long time. That felt like a fucking nuke, guys. Wow...

9 minutes later

All right, I've been holding this question off for a while now, but I need to ask this. So Asagi, like I mentioned earlier, is the one that's able to communicate with Gamera and all. And she says that Gamera will not let Legion have their way. So, if she still is able to communicate with Gamera, don't you think that she should still be feeling the same kind of physical pain that Gamera has been receiving from his fight against Legion? I'm gonna talk more about this when I eventually review it, but I just wanted to let you guys know now that it has been sorta bugging me slightly.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Gamera 2: Attack Of Legion". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. So...what exactly to begin with? I guess I should start by asking this question. Is this movie good? Oh, hell yes! This movie was fucking amazing. In fact, I'll go even so far as to say that this movie might actually be better than "Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe". Now, when I eventually rewatch these movies again, I may have to reconsider that thought. But I'll worry about that another time.

Right now, I'm gonna start this review off by talking about the writing. And I want to start with the movie's tone. So, back when I reviewed "Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe", I stated that this trilogy of movies was aiming for a more darker route when it comes to it's tone. And after I watched the first movie, I didn't really think that it was that dark in terms of it's tone. OK yes, there were some dark elements to it, but it wasn't anything ultra serious. Because it was still playing up the nature of it's goofiness as a kaiju movie. So, the tone of the first movie was more balanced because it didn't try to sway too much in either one direction. But in the case of "Gamera 2: Attack Of Legion", it definitely goes in a much more darker path. Our story here pushes itself on being taken more seriously, what with the bugs and the invasion of Legion. Now while it still does have some of it's light-hearted moments, it still knows what it wanted to be with it's more serious story. And in essence, it totally works here. I stated earlier that I felt like I was watching a horror movie, what with the scene involving the train earlier. Well, as the movie went on, it felt like more of a sci-fi horror movie. Something on the lines of, say, "Starship Troopers 2", except in this case, this movie was written a hell of a lot better, while as "Starship Troopers 2" ended up being complete shit in the process. However, that could also be me in just comparing apples to oranges, so perhaps, maybe, it's not the best comparison to make when it comes to a kaiju movie such as this.

So anyway, setting aside the movie's tone, our story here is great, and almost everything here does make some sort of sense, save for one thing that I'll get into in a second. But for the most part, our story here is basically about Gamera trying to overcome this threat known as the Legion, who invade Earth via a comet, and they just start wrecking shit, mostly stuff involving electronic communications. Now there is a reason as to why they do go after those certain objects, however, I am not going to risk spoiling too much about that here, because I really don't want to spoil very much about this movie for you guys. The movie was also able to work in some of it's humor. And while not all of it is funny, mind you, it is still there in helping this movie showing off a bit of it's light-hearted goofiness that this film tries to hold onto. Our characters here are, admittedly, not as fleshed out as what was shown in the first movie. However, I will say that the story here more than makes up for the lack of character development. So, I'm willing to give this movie a pass here with regards to that, because the writing here is good enough to where it doesn't exactly need strongly written characters in order for this story to work.

That being said, I do want to talk about one thing that kinda, sorta bugged me a bit. Mind you, this is a very minor point, but it is something that I still wanted to make mention of. So, in the first movie, I talked about how Asagi was able to communicate with Gamera as a psychic through her magatama. And not only was she able to communicate with it, she was also vulnerable to feeling the same kind pain that Gamera goes through, such as whenever she received cuts in the same style that Gamera went through in the first film against Gyaos. Now while she's still able to communicate with it in this movie, she doesn't exactly feel any kind of real physical pain, aside from one part towards the end of the movie. The closest to this is when during Gamera is fighting Legion near a rescue copter that was transporting a bunch of civilians to safety. And during this fight, Gamera was getting the shit kicked out of it, especially when Legion was able to stab it's body where Gamera was just gushing blood! But when any shots are focused on Asagi during these bits, there appears to be no kind of stab wound on her body whatsoever. The closest we get to see her in any kind of pain from this scene is when she starts to feel fatigue after the fight between Gamera and Legion has concluded. And you'd think, since Asagi is able to communicate with Gamera, that we'd see something resembling a stab wound on her body. But for some reason, that's not the case. And it's those small details that can be kind of an issue, especially if you think about it for too long.

But apart from that, the rest of the writing here is really strong. And that's saying a lot, because the first movie was also really fucking good. And yet, this movie was still able to retain most of it's quality that was carried over from one movie to the next. And it makes me curious to see how the third movie is going to play itself out? I don't know how they're gonna do it, but I'm genuinely excited to watch the third movie. However, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Point is, the writing in this movie is great, and I'm really impressed by how well it turned out. Now that being said, let's get into the acting. Once more, I opted to watch the English dub. And much like the first movie, the dub here is pretty good, though it isn't great. I wouldn't necessarily say it's better than the first movie, but it's not on completely god-awful levels either. Unless, of course, if you're not able to stomach English dubs, then this movie does have the option to where you can watch it's original Japanese dub with English subtitles. So, at least this movie on DVD is able to cater to both sides of the coin here. So really, the best way I can summarize the dub here is that it's not great, but it's still decent enough to where it doesn't border on being unwatchable.

Our special effects here are really good. Once more, the suit-work here for the monsters is really good, and the blood effects are definitely taken up a notch here. Not just for the train engineer I mentioned earlier on, but also for Gamera as well. Gamera gushes a LOT of blood in this movie. Which is something I thought I'd never see in a kaiju flick, but this movie definitely has a ton of that here. The miniatures and sets look really good. This movie also has a lot of CG. And unlike the first movie, the CG in this thing looks great. Especially when you consider that the first movie's CG was somewhat questionable, mostly when it came to the missiles. Granted, some of the CG in this movie isn't up to par with today's standards, but then again, you'd also have to be completely foolish to compare the CG from 1996 to the CG we have today. So overall, the special effects in this movie are great, especially by 1996 standards.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is mostly fine. The sound-mix is also mixed really well. The score in this thing is also just as good as the first movie was. I can't say much about the actual soundtrack, since there weren't really any actual lyrical songs in this movie apart from the ending credits that I just shut off, but I can say that the score definitely makes this movie sound wholesome. So overall, the music in this movie is, for the most part, really good.

Ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able "Gamera 2: Attack Of Legion"? If you enjoyed the first movie, then you're definitely going to love this second movie. As I stated earlier, I would argue that this movie is just as good, if not better than "Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe". And I can only imagine how good that third movie is going to be. I seriously cannot wait to watch it. However, I do have to wait a couple of weeks, since I am covering something else next week, as I often do when covering franchises for this series. But still, I would wholeheartedly recommend "Gamera 2: Attack Of Legion". It does what most sequels should do, by taking whatever problems that were in the first movie, and fixing them here. Now admittedly, not all of the problems here are fixed perfectly, such as the lack of character depth. However, it's mostly just a minor complaint, since the writing, as I just stated, more than makes up for that lack of character depth. And I seriously hope that the third movie in this trilogy will live up to the standards that the first two movies have already set. It is a big hurdle mind you, but it's not impossible to overcome. In the meantime, I'm gonna go and watch something else. And seeing as how this movie had bugs in it, it kinda made me want to go and watch the first "Starship Troopers" movie again. And who knows, if I'm up for it, I may even pop in the third movie as well and see if it still holds up. So, I'm gonna go and do that next after I'm done putting this review together.

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 | Hell Fest

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 2018. That movie is "Hell Fest".

Now, I really don't know a whole lot about this movie. I came across this movie about a year ago one day while I was out searching for movies and games that I wanted to buy. And what I read on the back of the DVD case sounded kinda fascinating. Allow me to read what is written on the back for you guys.

"A group of friends are bound for a horror-themed Halloween event at a local amusement park - a sprawling labyrinth of rides, games, and mazes that travels the country and happens to be in town. But for one visitor, the ghoulish carnival of nightmares is not the attraction - it is a hunting ground. On the night the friends attend, a masked serial killer turns the amusement park into his own playground, terrorizing attendees while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show. As the body count and frenzied excitement of the crowd continue to rise, who will survive the night?"

I'm gonna tell you, guys, that sounds really cool. Now, I have no idea if they're gonna be able to turn this premise into a good movie, but I'll find out when I eventually start watching it. That being said, there is one thing that I'm a little bit leery about. And it was a blurb that I caught on the front cover for this movie. The blurb says that this movie is from an executive producer of "The Walking Dead". And I want to let everyone know right now that I'm not a huge fan of "The Walking Dead". Aside from the fact that it ran on too long, similar to shows such as "Smallville" and "Supernatural", it was also responsible for the zombie fad to start being a thing, and it made me lose interest with a lot of things involving zombies, because they were fucking everywhere at the time. The only real experience I ever had with "The Walking Dead" was when I use to watch playthroughs of Telltale's "The Walking Dead" series on YouTube (preferably with no commentary). And while I will say that the story for it was kinda intriguing to follow, that final season completely shit the bed, because it fucking sucked! At least, to me, it did.

Now, I'm not really gonna hold that against this movie. Because it could still be really interesting. I have no idea if it's gonna be any good or not, but I'm hoping that it is good. And the only way I'm gonna find out if it 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 "Hell Fest".

11 minutes later

All right, guys, I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that this movie is not wasting any time in getting our main characters to Hell Fest. The bad news is that all of our main characters, at least so far anyway, all border on being unlikable sacks of shit. I'm kinda hoping, maybe, this movie will give us some sort of a reason to make us care about these characters at some point. And if not, then I want our masked killer to just gut most of these characters off in the most gruesome ways possible.

12 minutes later

OK, I kinda have a stupid question here that I'm probably not gonna get an answer to, but I want to ask it anyway. So, Natalie just saw our masked killer knifed some random girl right in front of her. And just to clarify, he killed that girl for real. So, did he just leave her body in there the way it is? And if so, what happens if someone else discovers the body? Because she was killed in the chest area with blood showing from her wounds. Don't you think that if someone discovers the body in that condition, then they may see it as it being more than just a dead prop for the event? I totally understand that I may be reading too much into this, but it's those kinds of details that sort of bug me a bit.

12 minutes later

Well, guys, it took over a half an hour into the movie, but we finally got one of our main characters killed off. At least the kill was a little bit creative. It wasn't great, or memorable for that matter, but at least it was a little bit creative.

15 minutes later

You know what, guys, I will say one thing about this movie. The sets in this movie look awesome. They seriously do. And it kinda makes me wonder why they didn't just make Hell Fest into an actual annual event rather than turning it into some lame ass horror movie? It seriously makes me wonder that, because so far, this movie has been boring as fuck, our characters are still unlikable, and I'm kinda hoping that they all just die off sooner rather than later.

17 minutes later

You know what's even sadder, guys? I just realized this, but even our masked killer has no personality or depth to his character! That is fucking astonishing, when you consider that all of our other characters are about as shallow and lifeless as well. Good God, the writing in this movie is fucking horrible! And I seriously can't wait until this stupid thing ends!

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Hell Fest". Thank fucking god, it's over. I'm gonna shut this garbage off...OK. Dear god, that was fucking terrible. I'm sorry, guys, but I had to take a minute away from my laptop to just digest what the hell I just watched for about 90 minutes. It damn near left me speechless, and obviously not in a positive way.

So anyway, I may as well just get into this thing by talking about the writing. I want to make this known to any and all filmmakers out there. If you are going to write a horror movie, there is one thing that I would like for you to keep mind while you're doing this. The least I am asking for is to give ANY reason as to why we should care about your characters. You are not required to give out depth that is deep, complex, or anything like that. That is not what I am asking for. The only thing I ask for is, again, to just give the viewer a reason as to why we should care about your characters. And the reason why I keep beating this horse throughout a lot of these reviews is because it's one of the main things that you should be focusing on when writing a horror movie. Now if it was an action movie, then I can kinda understand that. Because most people care about the action rather than the story or characters. It's not entirely for me, personally, but I know a lot of people that are into those kinds of films. A couple of other exceptions would be if, say, you were either writing a parody of horror movies, or if it was a horror comedy in some aspects. A great example would be "Killer Klowns from Outer Space". While the main characters in that movie were a little bit bland, everything else in that movie was great, from the clowns, the special effects, the creative kills, all of that was great, and it ended up being an awesome movie. But for straight-up horror movies like this, however, it is important to make your characters feel like they matter to the story. And since our characters don't have any kind of personality or depth to speak of in this film, it left me with no reason to give a fuck about anyone. Including our masked killer, who I'll get to in a bit. But anyway, I wanted to get that out of the way first, because I'm getting sick and tired of filmmakers who clearly don't give a fuck about writing decent characters. And I don't care how many times I beat this fucking horse, because it's gonna continue to keep getting beaten until filmmakers realize that you NEED some kind of characters that matter in some way, even if they don't have tons of depth to them.

Now, since I wanted to get that out of the way first, let's actually try and talk about the characters in this movie, shall we? First off, I want to mention that summary I brought up that was written on the back of the DVD case. The summary about how there's a masked serial killer that's roaming around a horror-themed amusement park killing people. Which, by itself, is a very simple concept, and one that, I think, had a ton of potential to be amazing. And if this were written by people who knew what the fuck they were doing, then this would've been a great movie. Unfortunately though, the execution for it is a fucking disaster. Since I just railed about most filmmakers not giving a shit enough on how to write decent characters, let me go through what characters we are working with for this movie. I'm gonna start with our main characters. Now if my rant wasn't a dead giveaway earlier, our characters here are all unlikable, shallow, and fucking lifeless. There is nobody here I can think of that's even worth caring for. In fact, they're so shallow that I can only remember a few names here that consists of characters. We have Natalie, who is personality free. Gavin, who's basically Natalie's boyfriend, and is also personality free. Brooke, who's Natalie's friend. Possibly best friend, but I couldn't tell if you that was the case or not. The only other one I can remember is Taylor, who's kind of a snarky, smartass bitch. And the sad thing about her is that she is the closest thing to having any sort of personality out of the entire group that consist's of our main characters. Do you know how depressing that is when the only character in this movie that has any kind of personality is the one who's basically kind of a bitch? That is just fucking depressing on a whole host of levels! Mind you, she's not any different when compared to any of the other main characters in this movie. But it's still fucking depressing to know that she's the only one who had a small shine of personality in this movie. Everyone of our other main characters are just there as throwaway characters that are only there to be killed off by our masked killer.

Speaking of which, let's finally talk about our killer for this movie, shall we? First of all, as you may or may not have noticed, our masked killer has no kind of name or surname to it's character. It's just some random masked killer who's mask sorta looks like Frankenstein. But other than that, our killer goes nameless throughout the entire movie. Secondly, our killer is a silent killer. Which, OK, that's fine. I don't mind having silent killers, as long as they're interesting. After all, Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees are two of the best examples I can think of when it comes interesting silent killers. But here is the difference between those two killers and our masked killer for this movie. What made Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees stand out was the fact that they both had backstory and depth to their characters that gives them motivation for the reasons behind their killings. But as for our masked killer? He has almost NOTHING to go on when it comes to his character. I thought, at the time, that maybe this guy was getting revenge for what happened to his girlfriend in the prologue at the beginning of the movie. But nope, I was WAY the fuck off! You see, this movie tries to shoehorn in something towards the very end that makes no fucking sense whatsoever. And I'm gonna have to spoil this, because it's been on my mind since I finished watching the movie, and I have to talk about it here. So if you have any interest in watching this movie for some bizarre reason, then you may want to skip to the next paragraph, because I'm spoiling this scene right here. At the very end of the movie, the killer comes home to his house, and puts his mask away in a shelf along with a bunch of other masks. He then greets his daughter, who just woke up, and greets her Dad with a hug. Her Dad then gives her a stuffed doll that was one of the prizes at one of the carnival games. And...that's it. Credits roll, and I am left with just one simple question. Why...? Why go through ALL of this killing if the only reason was because you wanted to bring home a stuffed doll for your daughter? You couldn't fucking win it legitimately on your own, so that's why you turned to killing?! I don't know, and at this point, I don't care. It was a terrible fucking explanation, and the only reason I can think of as to why this killer went through with all of the killings in this movie was simply because fuck you, that is why. And I'm gonna stick by that answer, because it makes a hell of a lot more sense than what went on in this movie.

So yeah, guys, the writing in this movie is fucking horrible on just about every single level. I can't think of a single positive when it comes to this movie's writing because it is just THAT bad. Now shockingly, as horrible as this fucking writing was, the acting was actually pretty decent. Almost everyone here turned in a pretty good showing, save for anytime that Brooke's actress has to attempt to cry. It sounds horribly fake, and she easily gives out the worst performance in that regard. Beyond that, though, her acting is still decent for what it is. In fact, I'm shocked that this cast was able to take such a lifeless script and was kinda able to polish this turd just enough to where they can make it kinda work. The best actor in this movie has to go to Tony Todd. Tony Todd's in the movie for, like, 3 minutes, and it's probably the best 3 minutes you'll get from him out of this movie. Which makes me question why we didn't get him as our main killer for this movie, rather than some no-named masked killer who has almost nothing for actual character depth or personality? I don't know. But regardless, Tony Todd easily turns in the best showing in this movie, so I gotta give him a ton of props for being as awesome as he could be for the short time that he was in this thing. Overall, though, the acting here is decent, but Tony Todd easily steals the show in this movie.

I will also say, again, that the sets in this movie look amazing. The Hell Fest amusement park looks really cool. In fact, you could actually just turn this into a real horror-themed amusement park, because I truly think that anyone who is a fan of horror would definitely get a kick of attending a horror-themed amusement park such as this. The best example of this is when our main characters enter 3 different mazes. The look of these mazes look really cool, and kinda haunting as well. We have costuming here that is really good, save for maybe our main killer who, as I mentioned earlier, only wears a Frankenstein-like mask. Just about everyone at this amusement park is dressed up as some sort of monster, alien, or clown that really makes them stand out that goes around scaring people while they're just walking around having fun. Now I'm pretty sure that there are horror-themed conventions that sorta cover this, but I think that a horror-themed amusement park would be just as fun as well. Which, again, makes me question why the hell they actually turned this into a shitty horror movie rather than making it a cool-looking horror-themed amusement park? I will never know, but it's just such a missed opportunity to not take advantage of. Special effects are also pretty good, too. The gore effects, what little there are in this movie, are decent. The practical blood here is also really good. So yeah, the special effects are pretty good, and the sets in this movie are definitely the biggest positive I can garner out of this movie.

Camerawork here is pretty good. The lighting here is also lit really well, despite the fact that most of this movie was filmed during the nighttime. But they definitely take advantage of this, which makes this movie stand out with it's colorful lighting in these areas. Our sound-mix here is mixed perfectly fine. The music, however, I couldn't tell you a single piece of music that was in anyway memorable. It kinda leans towards being shit, because there is a little bit of techno music in this movie, though that's only in the beginning stages of when our main characters first enter the amusement park. But honestly, guys, beyond that, the music here just sounds like a typical, generic horror movie score that is in no way memorable.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Hell Fest"? No. Hell no! This movie is, very clearly, wasted potential. You had a very simple concept that was ultimately ruined by terrible fucking writing. Most of that comes from our characters, whether it's our lifeless main characters, or our masked killer with nothing interesting about him. This writing is some of the worst I have ever seen from a horror movie in a long time. Now I don't think it's gonna be bad enough to make it into this year's Bottom 5 list, but it's still a really awful movie. If you see this thing anywhere, whether it's on Netflix, or Hulu, or even on DVD and Blu-ray, do not waste your time on it. It is a horrible fucking movie that will waste 90 minutes of your time, and you won't be able to get any of that back if you decide to watch this movie for whatever baffling reason. I know for a fact that I'm never gonna be watching this thing again, and the sooner that I'm able to trade it in, the better off I will be without it. Now...since I mentioned "Killer Klowns from Outer Space", I'm gonna go and watch that next. Because I need to feel happy after watching this trash. So yeah, that's what I'm gonna do next after I'm done putting this review together.

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 | Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a kaiju film from 1995. That movie is "Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe".

Now, I should state right off the bat that my history with kaiju films have been extremely limited. I've only seen about, maybe, 2 or 3 of them in my life. And most of those feature Godzilla. I've seen the original Japanese version of the very first Godzilla movie from 1954, AKA "Gojira". And I've seen the Godzilla movie from 1998. Which I know most people don't count, because it's not technically the 'real' Godzilla. However, I will say that the movie wasn't that bad. But then again, I saw that movie well over 2 decades, so maybe my opinion of it would change if I saw it again today. And on a side note, I've seen a little bit of the animated series that was based off the 1998 movie. Which, so far, I think has been pretty good.

So anyway, as I just stated a moment ago, my history with these kaiju movies have been rather limited. I haven't seen any of the new films that came out in the U.S., so I can't really gauge an opinion on those. And part of the reason why I have been rather absent with these sorts of movies is because I didn't exactly know where to start with them. But then I found something that, I think, would be kind of a good starting point. You see, I found a little DVD box set at my local mini-mall which features 3 movies centered around Gamera. And I figured that these particular movies would be perfect to start with. So, you pretty much already have an idea as to what I'll be mostly covering this month.

Now, I don't really know much about Gamera, outside of it being a friend to all children. But as for what I know about these particular movies is that they serve as sort of a darker reboot for the Gamera series. Now I don't really know if that's a good thing or not, considering that I've never seen any of the previous Gamera movies. But regardless, it does leave me rather curious to see how this is all gonna play out. So really, the only way I'm gonna find out if these movies are any good at all is to just quit stalling, and hope that, at least, the first movie will start off in the right direction. And the only way I'm gonna find that 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 "Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe".

10 minutes later

OK, so we just had a scene where these guys were mapping out exactly where this giant creature, who I'm going to assume it's Gamera, went after it's last sighting. So, what exactly do they plan on doing after they find it? Are they gonna either capture or kill it? And how exactly do they plan on doing either one of those things? I'm kinda curious now, because they haven't physically seen what this thing actually looks like. They better have figured something out, otherwise, it's probably gonna end up being a disaster for them.

7 minutes later

So...there's actually 3 of these monster birds that are flying around that island. Well, they're not really 'birds', per se, they look more like dragons, so to speak. I gotta say, while that's actually a little bit terrifying, it leaves me wondering where exactly these bird monsters came from? Kinda hoping the movie will provide some sort of explanation for this.

13 minutes later

OK, so their plan of closing the stadium's dome to trap these dragon-like creatures sounds like a decent idea. Don't know if it'll actually work or not, but whatever, it sounds like a decent plan, if executed correctly. But, what about Gamera? It's been reported that it was also on it's way to the stadium. To do what, I don't know. But don't you think they would've quickly come up with a backup plan, in case that thing arrives at the stadium? I totally understand that they just got this news about that creature, and that they probably didn't have any time to come up with some sort of strategy for it. But still, they could've, at least, come up with something.

14 minutes later

So...apparently, there was a hidden nest on the island that these flying creatures were inhabiting. And apparently, a couple of these other flying creatures tried to eat each other when they weren't being fed. Well...at least it answers my question on where they exactly came from. Still though, the fact they their corpses are still there is kinda gross, honestly.

15 minutes later

Whoa, wait a second here! So, the military has been wailing on Gamera with all of the fire power at their disposal. Yet, when Gyaos comes into the picture, they decide to cease fire because...reasons, I guess. I'm going to assume that they're trying to let Gyaos finish off Gamera while it's on it's back. But it still makes no fucking sense, especially considering that Gyaos has been doing the terrorizing for the entire time that it's been in the movie! I guess, even in 1995, the Japanese military weren't really the brightest bunch.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...all right. So...I guess, I can say that if this movie is anything to go by, then I think I'm in for a pretty good month here. Because this movie was really fucking good, and it mostly lived up to my expectations.

But I guess I should probably get into this thing by talking about the writing. Now, as I stated a couple of times earlier, I have not seen a whole lot of kaiju films. While I may know about certain kaiju names and a couple of other things about them, I have not seen any of their movies, with the two exceptions being those Godzilla movies I mentioned at the start of this thing. So basically, if you're expecting me to compare what was seen in the previous Gamera movies before this one, then don't bother. Because I'm not the biggest expert on these particular movies, so I may be missing out on certain details. However, I also have to consider that this trilogy that I'm gonna be watching this month is, pretty much, a reboot of the Gamera series. So, at least with these particular movies, I don't have to worry about continuity issues from the previous movies. In fact, I think that this movie's biggest positive would be that you don't have to worry about watching any of the older Gamera movies in order for you to understand what's going on here. Because this movie is basically an origin story about Gamera, and it's a really solid origin story, too. And as for it being darker in tone, well, honestly, it's not THAT dark. I mean, there are some dark moments here and there, but it's not really that dark. Now, who knows? It may be darker in later installments of this trilogy, but I think that this movie doesn't delve into being too dark, because it still shows some of it's goofy light-heartedness, as well. So, at least, with this first installment, it does a good enough job in balancing it's tone.

Now, setting aside the movie's tone, there is another story to this movie. Basically, it's about the birth of Gyaos, as it's being shown to fly around and basically destroying anything by eating, whether it's humans or other things. And it's also tied into a prophecy regarding Gamera, in which I'm not really gonna go too much into detail here because it would tie into spoilers. While I'm on the subject of Gyaos, I kinda want to touch upon a slight issue that sorta bugged me a bit about the creature. You see, earlier on, before it was even called Gyaos, and the fact that there were multiple versions of it, people often referred to these creatures as 'birds'. And I'm sorry, but these things don't look like birds at all. As I said earlier, they look more like dragons, what with them looking scaly and all. Hell, earlier on in the movie, the ornithologist admits that they weren't really birds at all when she first encountered them. But as the movie continued on, almost everyone in this movie kept referring to these flying creatures as birds. Let me ask you question, guys. If you ever saw these flying creatures in your area, would you ever refer to them as 'birds'? Chances are that you probably wouldn't. Now, maybe if they had referred to these creatures looking like pterodactyls, then I probably wouldn't have had that much of an issue with it. But the fact that they still referred to it as birds still kinda bugged me a bit. Now admittedly, as I just said, it was a slight issue that I had, but I eventually got over it. And when the movie finally decided about halfway in to officially call it Gyaos, they finally stopped referring to them as birds. So, it wasn't too much of an issue for me.

As for our characters, most of them are developed really well, and you do have a reason to care about most of them. Now admittedly, I don't remember most of their names, outside of one. Which would be the character known as Asagi. She is the most important of the bunch, because she forms a psychic connection with Gamera through a stone that kinda looks more like magatama. Which was something that was discovered on the shell of Gamera. Well, to be accurate, it wasn't just that one stone, there were plenty of them that were found on Gamera's shell. And one of them was given to Asagi as a souvenir. And as I said, Asagi begins to form a connection with the creature. Most notably, during when Gamera is being attacked by the Japanese military, followed by a surprise attack from Gyaos. Because whatever damage Gamera takes will also be inflicted upon Asagi. For example, if Gamera's arm receives a cut, then Asagi will bleed from the same arm that Gamera is bleeding from. If Gamera receives a cut from it's cheek, then Asagi will get that exact same cut on her cheek. So, that's how it kinda works. Admittedly, I don't remember her ever being a psychic from before she first receives that stone, but it's not really an issue that I consider worth looking into. I will also say that they try to shoehorn in a bit of an environmental message into it's movie, but I'm willing to give it a slight pass, because it's brief, and it's never really brought up again afterwards.

So overall, the writing here is really strong. Just about everything here makes sense, and there's not really a whole lot I can make mention of when it comes to negatives, outside of a couple of nitpicks here and there. With that being said, let's get into the acting. Now, prior to going into this movie, I opted to watch the English dub. And I will say that, while the dub here sounds a little bit weak, it actually starts to grow on you as the movie goes on. Now I can't guarantee that for every viewer, considering that there are those who don't want to risk watching a god-awful English dub. Which is why this version of the movie on DVD does have an option for you to watch the original Japanese dub with English-speaking subtitles. So if you're not interested in watch this movie's dub, then the subtitled version is there in case you want to watch it that way. But for anyone else, the dub here is mostly serviceable. It's not the best dub I've heard, but it's nowhere near the worst dub I've heard, either. So, it's just something that you have to take for what it's worth.

Special effects in this movie are mostly fantastic. I'm talking about everything from the sets of Japan, in which it's used for the giant monster battles. The suit-work on Gamera and Gyaos looks really good, too. The CG is, admittedly, the one thing that would have to be the weakest point of the movie's special effects. And that's mostly for stuff like missiles, because you get some close-up shots of them being fired, and they look a little bit suspect, even for the standards of 1995. They just look a little bit off to me. Now beyond all that, the special effects for everything else looks great. From blood effects to everything else I just mentioned, it looks really fucking good. And I hope that they continue to look good, or even better, in the later installments of this trilogy.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is lit very well. Our sound-mix here is mixed perfectly fine. The music here is great. Just about everything is done here with an orchestral score, and it definitely is a really good score, too. So yeah, this movie's score is definitely another positive.

Ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, can I recommend "Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe"? Oh, hell yes, guys. This movie was fucking great. If you want to get into any kaiju films for yourself that don't have Godzilla's name on it, then I think this movie will definitely be a good starting point for you. And the best thing about it is that, as I stated earlier, you don't have to worry about watching any of the previous Gamera films, since this movie is starting off as a reboot for itself. Now I don't know if the rest of the movies in this trilogy are gonna be any better, but I am hoping that they are. Because this first movie was really great, and I'm hoping that the other two movies will be just as awesome as this movie was. So yeah, guys, I can totally recommend "Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe". Now, since I don't have any other kaiju films on DVD, it kinda makes it difficult to find something else to watch that's something related to kaiju movies. I guess I can probably pop in one of my Japanese films like "Tokyo Gore Police", "Audition", or even "The Machine Girl". I don't know which one at this point in time, but I'm gonna pick one of those movies next after I'm done putting this review together.

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.