Reaction & Review | Coonskin

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentleman, I'm gonna be covering an animated movie from 1974. That movie is "Coonskin".

Oh yes, guys, I'm finally gonna be tackling one of Ralph Bakshi's movies after 160+ episodes of doing this series. I probably should've gotten to one of these movies sooner, but due to various reasons such as not finding a copy of any of his movies that I haven't seen yet, and the ones that I have seen were a little bit disappointing, let's just put it that way.

Now for those of you who don't anything about Ralph Bakshi's work, he was mostly known for making animated movies that weren't strictly limited to children. The only exception to this was when he had a hand in making the "Spider-Man" animated series from the 1960's. But he wanted to move away from that, because he felt that he could prove that animation could appeal to adults as well, and not just to children, as some adults back in the day would view it. And thus, he went on to create quite a number of movies that were catered more towards adults, which gave Bakshi a ton of success throughout the 70's and 80's. Now while most people would say that "Cool World" was his last movie, that's not entirely accurate, he did make one more short movie known as "Last Days Of Coney Island", which was funded through kickstarter. In fact, you can probably find this movie on YouTube for free if you're interested in checking it out.

Now as for myself, I've only seen about 3 of Bakshi's movies. I've seen his attempt at "The Lord of the Rings", which, admittedly, wasn't that good, but I still kinda enjoyed it. I've seen most of "Hey Good Lookin'", which was OK at best. And then I saw "Wizards". I loved the first half of "Wizards". Second half of the movie...was rather disappointing. But I will say that, from the few movies I've seen from him, I'm still interested in checking out more of his work, because Bakshi definitely has a lot of potential in my eyes.

Which then leads into tonight's movie. Most people who've seen Bakshi's movies would say that this is his best one. So my hopes of this thing being good are pretty high. Now the only other thing that I know about this movie is that it involves some controversy. You see, before "Coonskin" was released in theaters, the Congress of Racial Equity came out and claimed that this movie was racist, seeing as how one of this movie's themes involves racism. Which then later led to this movie being repackaged under a couple of different titles. One of them was just called "Street Fight", while the other one I can't remember. Regardless, the movie did see re-appraisal and was released in it's natural form with all of the content still intact.

So with all that history aside, I'm really looking forward to watching this movie. I'm certainly hoping that it's gonna be as good as everyone says it is. However, as I just stated earlier, the previous movies I've seen from Bakshi have been somewhat disappointing. So there is a possibility that this film could also be disappointing as well .However, I'm still gonna hold out for the best here, because I really want to like this movie. So 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 "Coonskin".

2 minutes later

You know, guys, I'm really digging this opening song here. Unfortunately, I don't really know who's singing it. But I will say that it is catchy as shit. It REALLY is. I'm hoping that this is a good sign of things to come.

14 minutes later

OK, I probably shouldn't be asking this sort of question, but I am sorta curious about something here. So, this woman is basically telling her story about how a cockroach named Malcolm left her and her baby. And while it is sorta fascinating to listen to, I'm left wondering how exactly you get hitched with a cockroach? I mean, our other three animal characters look rather humanoid...but the cockroach is still it's normal small size, and the woman is just a regular human. I probably should be more shocked about this, but then again, I've seen fictionalized rabbits and hedgehogs being paired up with human girls twice their size, so who am I to judge?

10 minutes later

So, I just saw Black Jesus shoot still images of John Wayne, Elvis Presley, and...somebody else that I didn't quite recognize. I think that's suppose to be Richard Nixon, but I'm not totally sure if that's him or not. I probably should be offended by this, considering that I am a massive fan of John Wayne. But honestly, it was kinda funny. I'm genuinely impressed by that.

7 minutes later

Well, guys, I think I've found one of the most creative kills in this movie, where Brother Bear just stomped on a piece of wooden flooring, sending one guy up towards the ceiling fan, thus decapitating his head entirely. I wasn't expecting it, but it was definitely creative.

12 minutes later

Guys, I don't know what the hell kind of drugs Managan was forced to take, but I will say that the visual imagery looks pretty cool. Kinda messed up, but then again, that's what most drugs would probably do to you.

12 minutes later

Well, guys, I just learned something new today. I learned that mimes can play actual music. Funny, I always thought mimes were suppose to be silent at all times, but I will say that the music that they're playing here is pretty good. In fact, the music, so far, has been amazing in this movie, and I'm honestly loving it.

19 minutes later

I didn't think this was possible, guys. But somehow, this scene is actually even more stranger than when Managan died earlier. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but it is definitely weird. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but at least the movie is doing it's job properly.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Coonskin". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Wow, um...where to begin with? Well, I stated earlier that my previous experiences with Bakshi's movies have been somewhat disappointing. Not truly bad, just not as good as I was hoping they would be. So when I went into this movie, I was both interested and cautious at the same time. Since this movie was being heralded was one of Bakshi's best films, I had to slightly lower my expectations, because there was a possibility that this movie wasn't gonna be as good as everyone made it out to be. Well, after finally watching this movie, I can officially say that this movie definitely lives up to all that praise. It really is a fantastic movie.

So, let's just jump right into this thing by talking about the movie itself. I'm gonna start with the writing. Writing in this movie is incredibly sharp. In fact, not only is it sharp, but it's also incredibly funny. There were moments in this movie where I genuinely laughed at how well the humor was written for this movie. Whether it's the stuff involving Sonny's death, or how it's satirizing the nature of how black people were being portrayed as back in the day, or anything involving the Miss America segments, almost everything about this movie's humor was fantastic. I normally don't view Bakshi as a humorous writer, but I will say that he definitely nailed the humor here, because he knows how to write satire perfectly. Now yes, this movie is, obvious, pretty damn offensive, but I do believe that was intentional in order for this kind of story to work. It's not really trying to take itself too seriously, and I do think that it mostly work's to this movie's advantage. Now obviously, if you're easily offended by this kind of stuff, then there's no way in hell I could say that you'll like what is here in terms of it's content. But for someone like myself, who doesn't really get offended too easily anyways, I was able to overlook a lot of the stuff that they were taking shots at, because I was easily hooked as to what was going on in this movie, and wanted to see where it was going to go next.

As for our story, well, it actually starts off with live-action footage of several guys who plan on busting out a couple of prisoners. Which then cuts to them, as they make it outside, but they have to wait for a certain period of time until their friends can bust them out of there. And this is where our framing device comes in, in which the older guy tells the other prisoner, Randy, a story about several animal characters, all of which resemble Randy and a couple of our other main characters from a little earlier ago. And from there, most of the story is told through animation, although there are some bits in the movie where it does have some live-action segments. I should probably mention that this movie is rather unique in which it tries to cross both live-action and hand drawn animation together. While it's not exactly on the same level as something like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", it still looks pretty good here, especially for something that came out in 1974. So for the most part, it mostly does a good job on trying to mix both mediums in it's own way. Now when I say that it tries to mix in both mediums, I'm mostly talking about the still photography that they use for backgrounds shots in which the animated characters take part in. Very rarely, do you ever see animated characters interacting with the live-action actors that are taking part in the movie. I can really only think of two different times in which that happens. The first time is during the beginning of the movie, where our main characters enter a night club that's suppose to be a church. I'll talk about that scene in a moment, because I found something quite hilarious about all that. The other bit is during the latter portion of the movie, in which two live-action actors are interacting with several of the animated characters in front of a blue screen. But that's as far as it goes in terms of being a lite version of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".

I mentioned earlier about how well this movie's satire was written. There's one bit of it that I find incredibly ironic, considering the time period in which this movie was made. It happens shortly after the movie goes into animation, as we follow our three main characters, Brother Rabbit, Preacher Fox, and Brother Bear. They move into Harlem, and one of the first things that they do is go to a night club as it's being run by this morbidly obese guy known as Black Jesus. He basically preaches about how, as a black guy, is being "oppressed" by the whites, and how this is a "black revolution" while showcasing himself being "oppressed" by a couple of short characters wearing white bags over their heads, with the images of the 3 celebrities I mentioned earlier. And then he finally asks the people there, who, I should mention, are also all black, to donate to the cause of this revolution to "kill the whites". However, in reality, it just turns out to be a huge money-grabbing scam when our three main characters quickly expose this scheme. And what I find funny about all this, at least to me, is that this entire scene was, unintentionally, satirizing BLM. In which both groups tried to preach about the same topics. However, all they really wanted, in the end, was your money, and that's about it. Now granted, I know that's probably a stretch considering, again, this thing came out in 1974. But honestly, I couldn't help but notice it. And I can't wait for the hate mail that I may potentially get just for making that comparison.

But anyway, setting aside all that, the rest of the writing in this movie is really strong. Our characters here are fleshed out are pretty well, and the story here is mostly easy to follow. It doesn't get off topic very much, unless you really want to count the drug-inducing scenes that I sorta mentioned earlier on. But honestly, I was able to follow this story pretty well. Which is more than what I could say about last week's movie that I watched. But anyway, guys, the writing here is fantastic, and I honestly don't have very many complaints about it. Now as for the acting, it's mostly really good. There were a couple of actors that sorta phoned it in, such as the two live-action actors in that one scene where they're interacting with several animated characters. Those two actors kinda sucked. However, just about everyone else here had a lot more to work with, and it makes their performances stand out. What I find kinda hilarious is who voiced the Godfather in this movie. The one who voices him is Al Lewis. And what's funny to me about it is the fact that this is the second movie in a row, that I watched, in which he had a hand in starring in. The previous movie, in case some of you are wondering that I covered, was "Fright House". I honestly didn't intend for that to happen, considering that I only found this out after looking up the cast list for this movie. But anyway, regardless of all that, the acting here is mostly good, save for a couple of live-action actors that sorta phoned it in.

Now let's get to the animation. And the first thing that I have to mention are the character designs. A good portion of the character designs in this movie are drawn almost pitch black, which is an obvious poke at the racist stereotypes that this movie was trying to aim for. And again, if you're easily offended by this kind of thing, then you're probably going HATE the look of this movie, I just wanted to warn you there. Now aside from that, the animation looks pretty good for 1974 standards. The art-style here is unique, from the different animal designs, to Miss America, to the Itailian Mafia. All of it has a unique look to them, again, as long as you have a high tolerance for how some of the characters look in this movie. There is one thing that I did have an issue with, and it goes back to this movie trying to cross both mediums of live-action and animation. It's during the scene I mentioned earlier where our three main characters first interact with Black Jesus and his revolution. So when Black Jesus is on stage and is heading towards his podium, the way that both he, and the podium, are both drawn looks REALLY small. Because when you view the photographic background that's behind them, the stage itself looks really big. And when you compare it with the drawings of both Black Jesus and the podium that he's using, the size difference between the two is almost astronomical in size. It probably could've been fixed with either using a different photographic image of a stage in which it's not too big, or do another draft of animation in which the black character and the podium look to be regular-sized with the background stage that they're using. Honestly though, that's, like, the only real issue I had when this movie tried to cross both mediums. Everything else, like I said, looks really good for the most part, and the character interactions with those settings look really good for the most part.

Camerawork here for the live-action segments is fine. The lighting here is also fine. The sound-mix is also perfectly competent. The music is fantastic. In fact, I mentioned at the beginning that there was this really catchy song that was playing during the opening credits. And upon looking it up, I found out it was Scatman Crothers, who also did the voices of a few different characters in this movie. I apologize in advance to anyone who is a fan of his music, I just didn't know who he was until I did the scant amount of research on this movie. But anyway, the songs here are great. Most of it is jazz music, and I really enjoy listening to jazz music. So this movie's music, both in score and in soundtrack, were really awesome.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Coonskin"? Absolutely, yes. As long as if, again, you're not easily offended by what this movie is trying to aim for, in terms of it's satire. I know I've kept beating this horse, but honestly, it's not something I can just easily recommend to anybody. Especially to children for obvious reasons. I know a lot of people get easily offended by this kind of shit. So if you really can't stomach this kind of movie, then you can easily avoid this movie at all costs. However, if you're able to look past all that, then what you have is a really sharp, well written movie that knows what it's trying to satire. The story is really good, the humor is sharp, and this is, at least so far, in my opinion, Ralph Bakshi's best film. I really wanted to find a movie from him that I would like and enjoy, and, my god, did I ever get a great movie out of him. This movie was fantastic, and I loved almost everything about it. I don't know how his other movies are gonna fare out, if I ever get to them at some point, but I can at least add one of his movies to my DVD collection, and it will definitely have a nice spot on there, too. Now...you know how I mentioned last week that Al Lewis made me want to go marathon some episodes of "The Munsters"? Well, I still have more episodes left that I didn't get to finish. So, I'm gonna go and marathon some more episodes of that right now, because it sorta motivated me to finish up the rest of the first season of that show. So yeah, that's what I'm gonna go 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 | Fright House

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an anthology movie from 1989. That movie is "Fright House".

Now I don't really know very much about this movie, outside of a couple of things. One of them is the casting, which I'll talk about in a second. The other thing is actually something of an oddity when it comes to this particular anthology movie. You see, most anthology movies would usually have about 4 stories at the minimum, sometimes even more. However, this anthology film only has about 2 stories to work with. And I'm not totally sure why this movie only wanted to work with just 2 stories. On the other hand, this movie is just under 2 hours long. So maybe they actually have something here that might be worth it for only 2 stories.

Now the other thing I wanted to mention was the casting, which was partially the reason why I wanted to cover this movie. In fact, you might already notice the names on the poster for this movie, but I'll still go ahead and talk about them here. One of the stars of this movie is Al Lewis, who was mostly for playing Grandpa Munster from "The Munsters" TV show from the 60's. And the other cast member Duane Jones, who was the star of George A. Romero's "Night Of The Living Dead". Which is a really good zombie film, and something I would be able to recommend if you are really into zombie flicks.

So, just based off those two names alone, this movie might actually be decent. I don't know if it's gonna end up being any good, but I am hoping for it to be, at the very least, interesting. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is worth watching 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 "Fright House".

18 minutes later

You know, guys, I totally understand that this is only the first story in this little anthology, but I'm gonna with you when I say this...I'm fucking lost here. Literally, almost nothing about this first story here makes ANY sense, and that's partially because of the pacing. It's moving too god damn fast that I'm having a hard time trying to figure out anything as to what's been going on so far! I'm hoping some of this weird shit will start to make sense soon, but I'm not sure if it will.

20 minutes later

Guys, I'm still trying to figure out what the fuck is even going on in this first story. I get SOME things, like Les is trying to investigate his brother's death, and all these connections that had to do with the other victims suicides. There's also a cult that's kidnapped Les's partner, and she's being used for a ritual sacrifice for...something. Probably an exorcism, not totally sure. I get THAT much. But I still don't know what the hell this is all leading to! It better have some decent payoff, because I'm beginning to lose interest with each passing moment that this story refuses to make some lick of sense. And I have a strange feeling that it's probably not going to, either.

12 minutes later

So, by possessing someone's body, you basically touch their head, and their entire face starts burning off. That's...sorta cool, I guess. Still doesn't really make much sense, but, then again, this entire story hasn't really made much sense, so why the hell should they start making sense now?

8 minutes later

Thank Christ, that first story is fucking done! I'm certainly hoping that the second story is gonna be better than what I just watched for almost an entire hour. God, I'm hoping for it to be better...

9 minutes later

OK, so...I guess this couple was killed by the toilet that wouldn't flush earlier because of...something that, I guess, must've clogged it. Probably would've been cooler if we actually got to see this sort of kill, but unfortunately, we don't. Kinda disappointed in that, really.

19 minutes later

I didn't think this was possible, guys. But somehow, this second story is even MORE confusing than what was shown in the first story. At least the first story had some things that I could piece together, but this second story is just not giving me ANYTHING to work with. Not only that, but this story is also boring as shit, too. Hopefully, I'll be able to process some of this shit by the time this thing is over, but I strongly doubt it at this point.

The Review

Well, guys...that was "Fright House". Let me go ahead and shut this crap off...oh...my...god. I'm trying to figure out what the hell I should even start with...? Um...well, I guess I could say that, going into this movie, I thought it was going to be a somewhat decent anthology film, because I like anthology movies. And while not everyone one of them I've seen has been good, such as "Terror Eyes", I was still able to find some kind of positive quality to it. This movie, on the other hand...um...

Well, let's just get into the movie itself and try to dissect what I just watched for almost 2 hours. Now, since this is suppose to be an anthology movie, I would usually start off by discussing the weakest story of any anthology flick. And in this case, it would have to be the second story known as "Abadon". However, I'm going to start this off in a way that I normally don't ever start any of my reviews with. And for this particular movie, I have to start with the editing. Because both movies have big problems in their editing. Mostly for the second story, which I'll get into in a second. But in the case of the first story, which is basically the main title of the film itself, it's more so of a pacing issue. Because with the first story, it felt like everything was moving at such a fast pace that you won't have any time to try and figure out what the hell is even going on in that first story. Now yes, I was able to grasp SOME things, such as the bits that I discussed earlier. But for the most part, I was totally lost on a lot of things that happened here. And had this first story gotten ANY kind of breathing room, I would've been able to make more sense of this confusing story. The worst bit editing in this movie is both during the ending, which ends in a VERY anti-climatic fashion, and during some part of the beginning, where Les gets a call from his brother, Bryan, about wanting to meet him somewhere. And during this whole bit, Les is the one doing the talking. Which probably wouldn't have bothered me so much...except for one bit of it where it's showing Bryan trying to pretend to listen to Les talking on the other end of the phone. Why is this an issue? Because a bit before that scene, they showed this EXACT SAME frame, shot for shot, with Bryan being silent on the phone while trying to get into contact with his psychiatrist Victoria. And that is fucking laziness, because they couldn't be bothered to film new material with Bryan on the phone! And mind you, that is the LEAST of this movie's editing problems, but that one certainly jumped out at me when I first saw it.

But then comes the second story, "Abadon", where the awful editing REALLY comes into play. Now I did know one other thing about this movie, but I didn't want to mention it until after I watched this second story. Firstly, this entire movie was originally just suppose to be the entire first story that was less than an hour long. But somehow this thing got stitched together as an anthology film. I don't know if it was because what they originally had wasn't enough to be considered a feature-length film, but regardless, we got another story attached to this movie. Speaking of which, the "Abadon" story was originally a different film by itself, which is simply called "Vampires". And somehow, they were able to edit that story into this movie. Not only was that movie edited into this movie, there was also another film called "Negatives" that was also stitched into this movie. And for the latter film, it was never fully completed, because some of the crew members for that movie never got a paycheck. So they left production, and thus that movie got stitched in along with "Vampires". Now the only reason as to why I can think of as to how both movies were able to be combined as one was because both "Vampires" and "Negatives" starred Duane Jones. And they probably had to think of a way to combine both movies, since "Negatives" was never fully finished. And you can totally see how well that turned out, because there are scenes in this second story that don't make any sense. The biggest examples are when Duane Jones and some other girl are talking, and throughout those few scenes, we get multiple shots of some tarot cards, which has NOTHING to do with what they're talking about, because the tarot cards themselves mean nothing to the overall movie! There's also another scene where they're talking, and it shows a caption which is suppose to take place 75 years earlier, and it just shows some woman sitting near a window as she's sketching a portrait of what, I assume, is suppose to be Duane Jones's character. My guess is that because they had leftover footage from "Negatives", they they tried to shoehorn those scenes into this movie in hopes that it would make some sense. But, surprise surprise, it didn't make any sense whatsoever.

Now, let's aside the god-awful editing for this movie, and try to get into the actual writing itself for these stories. And I'm gonna start with the main title story "Fright House". Now as I stated earlier, I was able to kinda understand some things that were taking place. And it kinda starts off with Les's brother, Bryan, getting killed shortly after he discovers a location in which the gates of hell might be located at. Now they don't show how Bryan gets killed, but we do get an explanation that he was killed because one of his wrists was sliced open. I personally didn't think it would be that easy to kill someone by just slitting their wrists, but what do I know? So anyway, it comes down to Les, who is also a detective, and his partner, to try and figure out what happened to his brother, and a bunch of other students whom were also reportedly being killed off. He tries to get information from his boss, Captain Levi, which is Al Lewis's character in this movie, but he's being intervened by him, simply because of the fact that he's been so frantic on trying to find out the circumstances behind all the deaths that have been going on near this frat house that has been abandoned. Essentially, guys, this story is basically a cult story featuring nude women, satanic rituals, and a bunch of lazy shit we've seen before. Now before all that, you probably wouldn't have guessed it, because the story made no fucking sense before all that, and how we get to all of that is a different story all together, which most of it makes no fucking sense either.

Speaking of which, let's talk about the second story "Abadon". Sweet merciful fuck, this story...I'm still trying to figure out even half of the shit that went on in this story. The closest thing I could gather is that there's this woman named Abadon, who is secretly trying to feed on the positive energy that the students who attend the school of the same name as Abadon's, so that she can live longer. I guess you could say that she's a vampire, but it's not made entirely clear here. And to do so, she has this machine that her father built that's made to suck out the positive energy of the students that's able to help her live longer so that she can become immortal...I guess. And Duane Jone's character needs the help of one of these students, who somehow was able to discover this secret, which later leads into her being the chosen one for Abadon to possess because of...reasons. Now I know that I've been beating a dead horse with these words, but I'm literally NOT kidding when I say that nothing about this story makes any sense. In fact, about almost halfway through this thing, I was beginning to lose brain cells attempting to figure this shit out. Which was probably a mistake, because I was beginning to fall the fuck asleep, because I was just so bored with everything that went on during that story. So with that said, I want to propose a challenge to any viewer that's interested in watching this movie. If you can somehow figure out even half of the bullshit that goes on during this movie, doesn't have to be all of it, just 50% of it, then congratulations, you have a better brain than I do, because mine went dead when I attempted to figure out Abadon's story. The only other movie I can think of that was even close to making me lose brain cells was when I watched "The Item". And that is pathetic on every single fucking level, because that movie was borderline unwatchable, and this second story I would say almost rivals the shit that went on in that movie.

My god, guys, I cannot stress enough on how awful this movie truly was. The writing for both of these stories are so nonsensical that it hurts to even watch. But again, I am curious to see if there's anyone there that can even attempt to make sense of, at least, half of the bullshit that went during this movie. I'm genuinely curious there. But anyway, let's finally move onto the acting. The acting here, at least for the first story, was OK. It wasn't really good, but at least the cast sorta tried there. The best actor, by far, would have to be Al Lewis as Captain Levi. He's the only one in this movie that seems to genuinely care about what's going on in this movie. But then again, you could probably give Al Lewis almost any kind of terrible script, and he would still be able to polish a turd just enough in order to make it look like gold. The second story, however, had the exact opposite. Because the acting in the "Abadon" story is mostly wooden and terrible. And unfortunately, that also includes Duane Jones. Because his acting in this movie is some of the worst I have ever heard from him. Now mind you, that isn't really saying very much, considering that the only other film that I ever saw him in was "Night Of The Living Dead". And he was really good in that thing. However, when you compare his performance from that movie into this one, it sounds like he just phoned it in and did not care at all. Now, in fairness, I can't really say that this is all his fault, because, one, you can only do so much when you're given a script that's just horribly written for you. And secondly, since the other two movies he starred in were edited into this story, I can't really judge his performance in this thing too harshly. That being said, though, I CAN say that everyone else in the "Abadon" story mostly sucked. Like I said earlier, most of them phoned it in, and most of them didn't even try. Which makes sense, given what I just mentioned about what an actor can do with such a god-awful script. So overall, the acting here is kind of a mixed bag. The only shining spot in the acting department is Al Lewis, but it's not really enough to save this movie whatsoever.

Costuming here is OK, for the most part. Special effects in this movie, at least when it comes to it's blood effects, are kinda shit. Most of the blood looks like it might've came from maple syrup. And even for a low budget movie, it's not really that spectacular-looking. Makeup effects are...OK, I guess. Again, none of it looks great, but I can't really say that it's the worst kind of makeup effects I've ever seen. So really, the special effects in this thing kinda suck.

Beyond the horrendous editing, the camerawork here is OK, but the picture quality looks terrible here. Now that might be because I was watching this movie off YouTube, and the only version that was available to me was, probably, ripped from a VHS or even a Betamax tape. I have no idea what this thing would look like on DVD or Blu-ray, but I can't imagine that they would look any worse than the version that I watched off YouTube. Lighting here is almost pitch black when it comes to any scenes involving darkness. You won't be able to see a lot of what goes on in this movie, especially when it comes to scenes where it's filmed in the dark. Those scenes just looked awful. Sound-mix here also kinda sucks. And as for the music...oh dear god, the music. Now this is only prevalent for the first story, but I'm gonna tell you this, guys. There's one track in this movie that seems to be played on a loop. And it's mostly during the latter half of the story where it's filmed inside of the frat house. It's suppose to sound haunting and spooky, but I, personally, just wanted that shitty music to end. Because, similar to what I mentioned back in my review for "Mardi Gras Massacre", there is almost no hint of silence that goes on during that bit, because the retards who put in that music thought it was a good idea to just have it play out on an endless loop throughout almost the ENTIRE portion, up until towards the end with it's anti-climatic ending to which it finally stops. And you will wish for it to stop as well, because you will get sick and tired of listening to that music as well. I want more filmmakers to know that if you are going to add a score into your horror movie, you don't have to use music for EVERY scene. Just only in small doses. That way, for when you do need it, it makes your horror movie much more tolerable. Anyway, the score here would've been OK, but that fucking music in that first story turned into garbage thanks to it's over-usage.

So...when all is said and done, guys, am I able to recommend "Fright House"? The only way I can recommend it is if you are dumb enough to accept the challenge that you can figure out more than half of the shit that tries to pass itself off as a movie. And if you can, then, like I said, you have a much more tolerable brain than I do, and I commend you for that. But for everyone else, no. Hell-fucking-no. This movie is, without question, the WORST anthology movie that I have ever seen. And I don't think anything else, in terms of anthology movies anyway, are gonna get worse than this thing did. Both of these stories sucked. Which is a horrible thing for an anthology film, because you could usually find at least one decent story, even in a bad anthology movie like "Terror Eyes". The only thing that's sort of a positive is Al Lewis, but that's mostly because he was from a classic sitcom that I enjoyed watching growing up. But even then, that is not even close to saving this movie, because thanks to it's awful writing, atrocious editing, special effects that are 'meh' at best, and most of the technical aspects being shit, I don't see myself ever watching this piece of shit ever again. Which is a real shame, because the casting was partially the reason why I wanted to watch this movie, and the fact that it was an anthology movie also raised my interest in watching it. But unfortunately, it turned out to be far, FAR worse than I could've ever imagined. So much so that it ended up being the worst anthology film I have ever seen. So...go figure. So anyway...seeing as how Al Lewis was in this movie, and the credits also advertised him as Grandpa Munster, I do have the entire first season of "The Munsters" on DVD. So, I'm just gonna go marathon some episodes of that right now, because I need to make my brain feel better after watching this crap that I sat through for almost 2 hours.

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 | I'm Not Ashamed

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a Christian drama from 2016. That movie is "I'm Not Ashamed".

Now, before I get into this movie, I do need to stress my own personal beliefs, when it comes to religion. And I'll be up and honest when I say that I am not a very religious person. I did use to go to church back when I was a kid, but I slowly grew out of it, because I was mostly bored throughout it anytime that I would have to attend services. And I never really went back to it since. Now I am not going to shame anyone's religious beliefs, because everyone has their own beliefs on what they believe in. It's just not for me, personally.

Now with all said, why exactly am I covering a movie that has something to do with Christianity? Well, there is a particular reason, which I'll get to in a moment. But when it comes to these kinds of movies, I wanted to avoid certain obvious picks. A most popular choice would be the "God's Not Dead" series. I absolutely refuse to watch those movies, because I remember seeing a trailer for the first one, and it was just straight-up 100% propaganda. And I sincerely doubt that the sequels are gonna be any better. Hell, the very fact that this series has, at least, 3 sequels, plus a fifth movie that's in production, makes me question on who's demanding these sorts of movies?

But anyway, setting aside a film series that I'm never going to watch, let's get into the reason why I wanted to cover this movie. And really, it has to do with the film's really strange premise. You see, this movie's based on a true story centered around the Columbine High School mass shooting that happened in Columbine, Colorado in 1999, where at least 10 students were murdered, and many others were heavily injured. Now I am not going to go into massive detail about everything that happened back then, you can go look it up yourself if you really want to know the details.

Now one of those students that was killed during this horrific tragedy was someone named Rachel Scott, who is the main character for tonight's movie, and was also one of the very first students that ended up getting killed. And the strange thing about this, at least for me anyway, is the fact that, instead of making some sort of documentary about the Columbine events, they center it around this one character. And, just by looking at the cover for this movie, it makes me think that this movie might be heading in a direction where it's going to push it's Christian message centered around a real life tragedy.

Now, who knows? Maybe this movie might actually surprise me and be halfway decent. I have my doubts about that, considering that nobody has said a positive thing about this film. But again, I am somewhat curious if this movie will still be interesting or not. So the only way I'm gonna find out how good or bad this movie could possibly be, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "I'm Not Ashamed".

5 minutes later

So, let me see if I understand this. Because Rachel's father left their family, which was played out VERY vaguely, mind you, the mother tells Rachel and the rest of her children that they're going to pray every morning for what they need because their Dad's not around anymore to financially support them. So...are they required to pray EVERY morning for what they need? I get this is a christian movie and all, but sometimes, prayers don't always work. You kinda have to put in the work yourself if you want to financially survive. And again, I shouldn't be complaining about something like this in a christian movie, but the very fact that this film's barely started, and it's already unloading with it's christian message, is almost making me dread the rest of the movie. And it's almost 2 hours long, too. This might actually hurt, guys...

11 minutes later

Well, guys, I believe I can confirm this much, so far. This movie is boring as shit, the acting is terrible, and this music is even worse. You guys, thankfully, can't hear this for obvious reasons, but this music that tries to pass itself off as "christian rock music" is fucking terrible. I'm hoping, maybe, that this movie will actually do something interesting soon. But as of right now, I'm having strong doubts about that.

20 minutes later

Wow...so this movie just blatantly came out and said that the reason why the Columbine shooting happened was because our two male characters, who I'm going to assume are suppose to be the actual shooters, were playing an FPS game. And one of them joked about the fact that what they were playing would be what would happen if they were at Columbine. So in other words, those gosh-darned violent video games are the reason why the mass shooting happened in the first place. It's nice to see that this movie isn't insulting whatsoever. You can TOTALLY tell that just by the fairness and subjectiveness that this movie is giving out. Totally subtle, I assure you! God damn...that scene was just fucking painful as shit.

11 minutes later

OK, I kinda have a stupid question here that I know I'm not gonna get an answer to, but I want to ask this anyway. So one of these guys, who, again, I'm going to guess is suppose to be one of the shooters, is bitching about the fact that he hates the school, and he hates the people there...and what I want to know is where the fuck is this guy's parents? Are they not even, slightly, aware of what their kid is going through or doing? I mean, he's been drawing something, like, knives in his journal, AND the fact that his journal cover is covered with Nazi symbols makes me wonder if this kid's parents know of anything as to what's been going on with their child. Does he even HAVE any parents? I'm really curious now, and I have a funny feeling that this movie's not going to explore ANY of that whatsoever. At least it would make for a slightly more interesting story than what he have currently going on in this movie. Not 'good', mind you, but at least somewhat more interesting.

18 minutes later

Wait, so Rachel's crying in her car, after she found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her with her best friend...even though, earlier on, her stepdad took the car keys away from her after he found a bottle of beer in the car. So basically, she shouldn't have access to her car, even though she was just in her car crying. You know, guys, I would like it if this movie were to be more consistent with it's continuity. Because then, it would show me that the filmmakers actually cared. But they didn't, and it makes a really bad movie just a little bit worse.

13 minutes later

OK, I kinda have another stupid question that I know I'm not gonna get an answer to, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. So, Rachel is publicly talking about who she is and why she's a christian. And she's doing all of this in her classroom...at a public school. Now this may just differ from school to school, but I could've sworn that anything related to God or Christianity wasn't supposed to be talked about during school. I know that the school that I went to did just that, and anything related to Christianity, such as a cross or something was supposed to be covered up. Granted, I understand that I'm trying to put logic into a movie that seems to be allergic to it, but it's just something that came to me, you know?

18 minutes later

Wow...this movie couldn't even get it's own history right. You guys know how I mentioned earlier that Rachel Scott was the first person that was killed during the Columbine shooting? Well, apparently, this movie forgot about that simple fact, because the person she was just talking to ended up getting killed first...and she's still alive! Barely, anyway. Jesus Christ, this movie is clinically fucking retarded that it almost hurts to watch! Thankfully, there's only about 16 minutes left in the movie. Don't know if they'll be any better or not, but I'm hoping that they'll make this movie faster to get through, because this movie's pacing is just horrible.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "I'm Not Ashamed". And thank God, this movie is fucking done. I'm gonna go ahead and shut this shit off...OK. Well, as I stated earlier, I'm not a very religious person, but if there IS some sort of deity out there, then I can give thanks to them that I never have to watch this horrifically offensive movie ever again. But now...I get to finally talk about this movie...oh fun!

Well, actually, before I start talking about this movie, let me start off by saying this. I don't claim to know Rachel Scott. I don't know what she was like in real life right before her death. I never knew who she was, because I was about 7 or 8 years old at the time that the mass shooting actually happened. Hell, I've never even heard about this incident until I started doing research on this movie. So overall, I didn't know a thing about her, and I'm never gonna really know what she was like in real life. But...I will say that, if I were her parents, and if I were viewing this movie from their set of lens, then I would be HORRIBLY offended by how my daughter was portrayed in this movie. And then, after all that, I would sue the filmmakers of this movie for character assassination. Because I sincerely doubt that my daughter would be this openly preachy about her being a christian. Now again, I want to make this perfectly known that I don't know what she was really like outside of this movie. It's very well possible that this may have been what she was really like, and it's very well possible that the filmmakers got her parents permission in order to make this film about her. HOWEVER, I am not here to judge Rachel Scott, as a person. I am here to judge how her character was written in this movie, and, apart from what I already mentioned, I am not going to make any comparisons with her real life counterpart. But, and again, this is just more of a personal thing, if it were my daughter, and THIS is how she was portrayed in this movie, I would've fucking sued the filmmakers asses to high heaven, unintentional pun aside.

So, let's set aside my personal grievances, and let's get into the movie itself, shall we? Let's start with the writing. I was originally just gonna write this thing off as a boring, preachy, unnecessary message about Jesus Christ, God, and all that shit. And if it were just that, I may have given this movie lesser slack than what I'm about to give it. However, the movie is also really offensive. Aside from one stupid moment where the movie tries to 'quietly' say that video games were one of the things that motivated these assholes into wanting to commit this mass shooting, it's not until towards the very end of the movie where it gets REALLY offensive. So, right after Rachel Scott is killed, the movie shows archived footage of the real life events of the Columbine shooting. Then after that, it shows Rachel's car, which is somehow STILL there, even after the shooting had occurred. We then get to see the other students placing flowers, messages, and everything else around her car as they're giving out their thoughts on what a great person she was and how much she touched their lives. Which then all leads to her funeral scene. And by that point, this is where the movie truly got offensive. How, you may wonder? Well, it's simple, really. It's all about HER. And why is that offensive? Because if she got an entire funeral dedicated to her...then what about the other victims of the shooting? Don't they get ANY kind of special treatment? The answer to that is, obviously, no, because the movie is centered around Rachel Scott, and no one else. Oh sure, the movie tries to shoehorn in their names around a plot-point where Rachel mentions the number 13, but she doesn't really know what that really meant to her, and it's so forced and contrived that it was all just a set up, just so we can have the exact number of victims being labeled inside her journal. Basically, it's this movie's way of saying "Hey, to all of those victims of the shooting? Well unfortunately, we don't have the budget, or the time, to dedicate it to your lives. Instead, you all get a consolation prize by adding in your names in a journal to one of the other victims, who we'll dedicate an ENTIRE movie to, because she believed in God and Jesus, and none of you else did. So...sorry."

But in all seriousness, this movie is fucking insulting on a whole host of levels. Not just to anyone who is a christian, but to all of the other victims of this horrific tragedy, because this one person was more important than ANYONE else, and they only get a mention by name towards the very end. And that is bullshit. Now, beyond all that, what about our actual story? Well, like I said earlier, most of it is the same tired Christianity shit that I probably would've said that it's overplayed and preachy, if not towards the very end where it got really offensive. But then there's plot points that don't really get explored enough. For instance, at the very of the beginning of the movie, a much younger Rachel Scott sees her Dad leaving with his bags before getting into his car, which happens very late at night. And then she asks her older sister if their parents are getting a divorce? Like, how the fuck does she even know that? At no point, during this scene, did we ever see her parents getting into a fight via verbal or physical abuse. She just...asks it out of the blue. I mean, there's no context to it. For all we know, he might've just been leaving to go out of town or something. Perhaps maybe if this movie had actually given her Dad some dialogue, such as him and the mother getting into some sort of disagreement or fight, then maybe it might've made things more clearer. Now yes, they do mention on the very next scene that the father did leave the family, but at no point was there ever signs of a divorce that was happening between the two parents. Now yes, I understand that this is sort of trivial, but it still didn't really make a whole lot of sense, because there was barely any dialogue. And the dialogue that young Rachel Scott did give out didn't really make much sense because of the lack of context that wasn't provided in that scene.

Another thing that didn't really make sense to me were the mass shooters themselves, Eric and Dylan. Now you could easily write this all off as they're just fucking nuts, and that would be the end of it. However, there are a couple of things about them that really bugged the shit out of me. Now I know that there might be someone who's going to compare them with their real life counterparts, however, much like with the real life version of Rachel Scott, I am going to focus on their characters in this movie, and leave their real life counterparts out of this. Now one of the big things that bothered me about them is the lack of parenting. Because throughout this entire movie, we never get ANY mention of these guys parents. And the reason why I bring them up is because if they WERE present in this movie, then maybe they would've had some sort of idea as to what's been going on with their children before the mass shooting ever happened. Now I don't know if the actual shooters actually had any parents, but the very fact that they're not even mentioned at ALL bothered the shit out of me. What also bothered the shit out of me was when during the bit where there was a class presentation going on, and it was after where Rachel Scott was talking about herself and why she is a christian. Because after that, the teacher then shows a video from Eric and Dylan, and the tape shows something about them involving guns. And right after the teacher stops the tape, one of the two, don't know if it was Dylan or Eric, says that this would make the world a better place. Now if you ask me, that should give you a warning sign right there to, maybe, try and make contact with their parents about their behavior, OR put out some sort of investigation out on these kids, and maybe get them to see some sort of psychiatrist to get them to talk about their mental health. Now again, I know that I'm trying to put logic into a movie that is totally immune to it, but at least it would make your movie look a little bit less stupid.

What's also stupid is the dialogue. Now setting aside the obvious christian message about Rachel being disconnected with her faith in Jesus Christ, trying to find the re-connection with him, and acting depressed whenever something bad happens in her life, such as when she catches her boyfriend cheating on her with her best friend, she also mentions on two or three occasions that she doesn't know where her life is going to end up. She doesn't know if she is ever going to college or get married, and she even mentions that she feels like something big is going to happen that's gonna start with a chain reaction. Well, if this movie weren't centered around a real life tragedy, then MAYBE you shouldn't have been this fucking obvious with your dialogue, considering that the viewers who already know about this tragedy knows what's going to happen to her at the end. And even then, for people who didn't know about this tragedy could also see what's going to happen from a mile away, because this movie's telegraphing is a fucking joke! And since I keep mentioning Rachel Scott, why don't we touch upon the characters, shall we? Our characters are boring, shallow, flat, and mostly lifeless. That's pretty much it. Nobody has any real defining character trait, and that includes Rachel Scott. Everything that's centered around her in this movie is boring as shit, because it's either about her wanting to get into a relationship with Alex when she tries to audition for a play, or trying to connect her faith with Jesus, and it's boring as fuck to watch. What hurts it the most is the runtime of this film. This movie clocks in at around an hour and 52 minutes long. And I'm gonna tell you guys, watching this movie almost felt like it was 3 hours long. And it is so fucking boring that I was just waiting for something interesting to happen when our mass shooters finally decide to pull the trigger on this mass shooting. Do you know how bad that is that the more interesting elements in this movie center around the mass shooters themselves, rather than the main character, whom we're suppose to be following for almost 2 fucking hours?! That is fucking horrible on every single god damn level! Now if this movie were about an hour and 20 minutes long, then this movie would feel less painful than it already was. But the fact that it almost runs for 2 hours is what brings the pacing of this movie down to to a screeching halt.

My god...guys, I have not felt this fucking pissed about a movie in a LONG time. And as a non-christian, this movie OFFENDED me in ways that I didn't think were even possible. Mind you, it takes a LOT to offend someone like me, but this movie certainly did just that. Holy shit. Now...I'm gonna try to move past the writing, because it's obviously that fucking horrible. What about the acting? Well, I hinted at it earlier that the acting was terrible, and yeah...it's fucking terrible. Nobody in this movie put in any actual effort. And mind you, I wasn't really expecting much from this movie, when it came to it's acting, but I was at least expecting the acting to be kinda decent from it's cast. And not a single one of them tried. Everybody in this movie phones it in. And it makes sense, especially when you're given a script that is so horribly written that I wouldn't expect any of these cast members to make it work at all. And, surprise surprise, none of them fucking tried. The acting is dull, wooden, and it feels almost soulless. Which is rather ironic, considering that this movie is centered around Christianity, and there isn't even a shred of soul in this movie to be found here. So yes, the acting in this movie is terrible from across the entire board.

I want to touch upon camerawork next. Because, this is something that REALLY bugged the shit out of me when it comes to this movie's camerawork. Most people may not notice this, but for someone like myself, I couldn't help but notice it. You see, it was right around the 50 minute mark of the movie where I started to notice the camera was just moving on it's own. Now what exactly do I mean by this? Well...for some odd reasoning, whenever the camera is trying to focus in on two different characters, it seems to be always slightly moving or jittering around to where it feels like someone was filming this movie with either their camcorder or their phone, and I don't know WHY that is. And the worst part about that is that it's like this throughout almost the ENTIRE movie. Now if it was filmed on a professional film camera, then why does it have a problem trying to focus on our characters when it's so busy moving around almost all the time? It really makes no sense to me, and it probably would've been easily fixed if they actually had a fucking stand for their camera! That way, we wouldn't have had any of these awkward camera movements. Guys, I'm gonna tell you something. A few months ago, I reviewed a Troma movie called "Redneck Zombies". And that movie was entirely shot on video and was only made for about $10,000. That thing had more professional camerawork, and was actually able to focus on our characters properly, despite it's low budget. This piece of shit, however, was made for $1.5 million dollars, and it's camerawork looked liked it was filmed by Michael J. Fox. Process that for just a moment! How fucked up is it when your movie has a million and a half dollar budget, and you have camerawork that looks to be fudging around most of the time during filming? I don't know what the hell this movie's budget went into, but I can probably safely say that this movie's camerawork wasn't one of them.

Now setting aside the awful camerawork, lighting here is fine for the most part, and the sound-mix is also perfectly fine. The music, however, sucks. Mostly because, like I said earlier, the christian rock music that they use here sounds like shit, and the rest of the music that they use here isn't that good either. The score here is also incredibly forgetful, too. So yeah, the music in this movie is fucking horrible.

So...when all is said and done, guys, am I able to recommend "I'm Not Ashamed"? Fuck no! This movie is shit from top to bottom in terms of everything here, outside of a couple of technical aspects. Our story here is offensive to christians, non-christians like myself, and to all of the victims of the Columbine mass shooting, including Rachel Scott, because I still believe that she was severely bastardized when someone was writing her character counterpart in this movie. The acting is terrible, the music is terrible, and the camerawork is some of the most amateurish shit I've seen from a movie in a long-fucking-time! And do you want to know what the worst part is? Well, for me, anyway. I said at the start of this movie that I wanted to avoid the "God's Not Dead" series, because I knew that they were easy propaganda from the moment I saw the trailer for the first movie. Well, as I was struggling to try and get through this horrific movie, I found out that the company that made this movie are ALSO the ones that put out the "God's Not Dead" series". So...even though I said I wanted to avoid them, I kinda sorta ended up reviewing one of their movies anyways. And no, I am NOT going to promote the studio's name, because I don't want people getting curious about what else this studio has churned out. My guess is that it's more of the same like this movie. And if that IS the case, then I've seen everything that I needed to see from this studio. Because from here on out, I am officially banning all of the movies that this studio has already put out, and all future ones that they've both put out, and will continue to put out. They will NEVER be covered for Reaction & Review. And as far as I'm concerned, I think that's a total blessing, considering that this movie has none of that whatsoever. Now...I need to go cleanse myself after watching this fucking abomination. And since I just mentioned "Redneck Zombies", I'm gonna go pop in my DVD copy of that movie again, because I need to feel happy after dealing with soulless shit like this for almost 2 hours.

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 | Red Hawk: Weapon Of Death

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an animated movie from 1995. That movie is "Red Hawk: Weapon Of Death".

And unfortunately, I don't really have a whole lot of information that I can give out to you guys about this movie. The one thing I can say is that this was movie was made in South Korea. But beyond that, I don't really have any kind of trivia notes, or any kind of background information that would be worth noting, because I wasn't able to find much of anything in regards to this movie. I will say, though, that the title of this movie sounds very cheesy, yet kinda awesome at the same. So, at least, I can say that much. Now, I know that interesting titles don't always make for good movies, but this title interested me just enough to warrant covering for this series.

As for what I know about the plot, from what little I read about it, is about some sort of evil martial arts gang that has taken over some distant land, and our main character has to fight them off and defeat them in order to take the land back. Beyond that, I don't really know much else about the story. I remember reading a comment somewhere, which I believe might've been from Amazon (not totally sure), saying that this movie is like a fuse of "Dragon Ball" and "Fist Of The North Star". Mostly because, both of those series are about martial arts and fighting. Now, I don't really know if that's gonna be a good thing or not, considering that I'm not that big a fan of the "Dragon Ball" series, nor have I seen anything involving "Fist Of The North Star". So, this movie could go either way for me.

But regardless, I am still curious to see if this movie is gonna be worth checking out. I don't know if it's gonna be any good or not, but the only way I'm gonna find out if it is worth watching 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 "Red Hawk: Weapon Of Death".

12 minutes later

You know, guys, how I mentioned that this movie was something like "Dragon Ball"? Well, this green-haired lady just did a kamehameha in a similar fashion much like Goku and Vegeta. Mind you, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. In fact, I will say it was pretty cool. I am kinda curious to get to know more about her as the film rolls on, but so far, I've kinda taken to liking to her already.

9 minutes later

So, let me if I understand this. 4 years ago, Red Hawk saved Yunglung from getting her ass kicked when she went to prove her martial arts skills against these elite martial arts fighters known as the Five Dragons. And the only thing Red Hawk did was just stand there while an actual red hawk flew over them, which was, apparently, enough to scare them away into full retreat mode. I guess, perhaps, maybe I'm just being picky here, but I'm sorta hoping that we get to see this guy in action pretty soon. Otherwise, I'm gonna be a bit disappointed.

5 minutes later

So...not only can Yunglung do a kamehameha wave, but apparently, so can Red Hawk. And it was strong enough to send this guy flying back, to a point where he actually SKIPPED water, like some people would use to skip water with a stone. I'm beginning to wonder if that's just, like, a common thing in this universe to where if you become a martial arts fighter, you can also learn to do a kamehameha yourself? I'm really curious about that, and I hope we get some kind of explanation as to how they can get these sorts of powers. I strongly doubt it, but it is leaving me curious.

9 minutes later

OK, I know this is a very stupid point that I'm gonna be bringing up here, but this dude who's commanding these ninjas, I guess, just referred to his weapon as a sword...despite the fact that the weapon itself is clearly a spear. I'm sorry, but anybody with a pair of functioning eyes and has any basic knowledge of weaponry could tell you that's a fucking spear! I'm sorry, guys, but that kinda bugged me a little bit.

5 minutes later

So not only can Red Hawk also magically levitate, but he can also jack his muscles up to where it rips his shirt off and goes into a "Fighting Transformation Mode" to get stronger. Guys, I know I should be dropping this subject, but it's starting to become difficult in which it's hard NOT to compare this thing with "Dragon Ball". Mind you now, the movie isn't bad (at least so far anyway), but the more that I continue watching this movie, the more it's becoming difficult to not make those comparisons. I will try to review this movie as it's own thing whenever I eventually get to that point, but I can't really promise that.

20 minutes later

So now the villains can also do a "Fighting Transformation Mode" as well...you know what, at this point, I'm just gonna stop trying to compare this thing with "Dragon Ball", because all I would be doing at this point is just beating a dead horse. I'll just save that for later when I eventually review this movie.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Red Hawk: Weapon Of Death". Let me go ahead and shut the film off...all right. So, um...I guess I should start by saying that, prior to going into this movie, I didn't really know what to expect from it. And while I'll still say that the movie isn't really that bad, it's also not great, either.

So, let's just get into all this by talking about the movie itself. And I have to start this off with the obvious topic, which would be the writing. Well, not only is it obvious, because I usually start a lot of my reviews off with the writing, but it's also obvious because of what this film was trying to be. It's obvious that the filmmakers of this movie were heavily influenced by the "Dragon Ball" series. Most of it has to do with it's fight scenes. In which the characters have these "Fighting Transfomation Modes" in which they grow bigger and stronger, they can levitate, and they also have other ridiculous powers, such as Red Hawk, who can do the kamehameha wave. And a bit of a spoiler, Red Hawk also has something resembling a Super Saiyan form towards the very end of the movie. So yes, this movie's subtly is very well hidden, as you can clearly tell. Now, I am not against the idea of this thing trying to be a knock-off of a different franchise. Hell, I remembered last year when I covered "Munchies", in which that movie was clearly a knock-off of "Gremlins", and I kinda liked that movie. So if this movie's intention was to be something like a knock-off of "Dragon Ball", well, it certainly did accomplish that. In which, you have all of the ridiculous fight scenes and powers that the "Dragon Ball" series was definitely known for. So, on that end, this movie was able to accomplish that much.

That being said, though, the comparisons with the "Dragon Ball" series don't end there. It also is sprinkled in with our characters, specifically our protagonists. Our main character, Jan Chung, is obviously suppose to be Goku. In which, he has most of Goku's powers that's suppose to make him super strong. We then have Honglyung, who reminds me of a lot Chi-Chi. Which, for those who don't know, is Goku's wife. And she plays up as the love interest for Jan Chung. Then there's Mounja, who's basically this movie's version of Yamcha, in which he's suppose to be Jan Chung's friend and is fucking worthless to the overall story. And then there's Yunglung, who reminds me of Bulma. Except in this movie, Yunglung can actually kinda hold her own in a fight, while Bulma was mostly a supporting character from behind the fighting that goes in the "Dragon Ball" series. Now aside from Honglyung and Mounja, the other two characters do have something resembling a backstory, and they do get some time to flesh out their characters. So I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that their characters are lifted directly from the "Dragon Ball" franchise, even if there are some similarities between the characters. Now for anyone who has no knowledge of "Dragon Ball" and have never seen anything related to that franchise, then those people are not gonna have too much of a problem getting into this movie. But for people who have, though, it's gonna be very hard not to notice these kinds of comparisons when watching this movie. The best I can say to that is you would have to shut your brain off and not do what I just did when I watched it.

Our story here is probably one of the only things that's original that doesn't have much of any similarities to "Dragon Ball". The only real problem with it is that it feels rather episodic. It starts off with Honglyung's father being murdered, so Jan Chung accompanies her, along with their companions, as they go on a journey together to find out what the cause of his death was. And from there, the main plot is sorta put on the back burner for smaller conflicts that happen in the movie. It's not until after Honglyung gets kidnapped in which we finally focus back on the main plot of the film. Now, it's not a huge issue overall, but it is something that could be rather noticeable to some people. One thing I want to comment on, and this is me going back to the "Dragon Ball" comparison one more time, is about Red Hawk himself. As I mentioned earlier, the "Dragon Ball" series was mostly known for it's fight scenes, while the storytelling aspect of it was more on the weaker side. But one of the things that was mostly consistent about that series was Goku's journey on wanting to get stronger. You got to see him develop and grow as he gained his abilities throughout the series, from the abilities of the Kaio-ken, to his Super Saiyan form, through all the way to which he gets his blue hair from "Dragon Ball Super". I've not seen anything beyond Super, so I don't know if he gets another out of the blue form after that or not. But anyway, my point is that you got to see him develop his powers and how he's able to use them. But in the case of this movie, we don't get to see how Red Hawk was able to obtain any of his powers. The only thing that we're given is when he's given his mask, he's told to live freely and that he'll become the Red Hawk that won't become shackled by anyone with a corrupted heart. But as to how he gets his powers is beyond me. My guess is that he probably got his powers once he put on the mask, but that would be me just stretching that theory entirely.

Now, this is where I think this movie could benefit from a remake. In which they could give this movie a one season series, and would be able to flesh out more about how Red Hawk was able to get his powers. Now granted, I don't think that's ever going to happen, but it was something that was kinda on my mind if this movie were to ever be remade in some fashion. But beyond all that, the movie is still decent for what it is, regardless if this movie was trying to be subtle on the fact that it was totally not trying to be a knock-off of the "Dragon Ball" series. Now with that said, let's delve right into the acting. And I have to go off by the English dub that I watched off YouTube, because that was the only version that was available to me. The dub here is actually halfway decent. What I'm more surprised by is our main lead, who is voiced by Steve Blum. I have often stated that I'm not a huge fan of Steve Blum, mostly because his acting is very limited due to his vocal work, and he mostly just phones in the same lifeless showings he's been giving out for many years now. Well, in this movie, he ACTUALLY turns in a pretty good showing. And I'm thankful that he did turn in a good performance here, because when I found out that he was voicing the main character for this movie, I was feeling a ton of dread going in because I know the guy can barely act. Well, he actually proved me wrong here in which he CAN act when he's given a decent script. So, I gotta give props to you, Blum. You actually did a pretty good job here. The acting from the rest of the cast is also halfway decent, too. So overall, I can say that the dub here is halfway decent, with Steve Blum, surprisingly, giving out a pretty decent performance here, too.

Animation in this movie is not too bad for something that was made in the mid-90's. Now admittedly, I haven't really seen a whole lot of anime from South Korea, aside from "Tai Chi Chasers", which was a Korean anime. But I can say that the movie still looks pretty good here for it's time. The art-style and the color pallets look pretty good, as well as the backgrounds looking beautifully painted, too. The animation itself is decent, and there's very little usage of recycled animation, aside from a couple of running movements during battle scenes. But since they're mostly minor scenes, I'm not going to harp on those scenes too much, because I'm sure that the studio that made this movie were still limited with what they had to work with. And I will say that, when compared to a couple of other anime projects from the 90's, at least this movie looks a little bit better than those. Granted, it may not be saying very much, because, again, I haven't seen very much Korean anime, but regardless, I still liked the look of this anime that came out in 1995. So yes, the animation looks fine here for what it is.

Sound-mix here is also mixed fine. The score here is actually pretty good, and it's sorta upbeat, too. I may actually have to see if I can find the OST for this movie somewhere on YouTube, if there is one. Because I do remember liking the music for this movie.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Red Hawk: Weapon Of Death"? Kind of, yes. If you're able to look past the fact that this movie could be seen as a knock-off of the "Dragon Ball" series, then you might actually really like this movie. However, if you are a die-hard fan of the "Dragon Ball" franchise, and you don't want to see anything that tries to be somewhat of a blatant knock-off, then you might want to skip out on this, because, like I said many times in this review already, the comparisons would be too hard not to notice for any fan of that franchise. Like I said earlier, if you decide to shut your brain off, and enjoy it as some cheesy martial arts movie, then you may actually end up really enjoying it. I, personally, don't really know if I would end up watching this movie a second time, but it might still be good to watch, at least, once. And who knows? Maybe you might find some decent riffing material out of this movie, if you ever want to riff on it with some friends. As for myself, like I said, I don't know if this is something I would watch again, or even add to my DVD collection, but I still had a little bit of fun with it, despite my complaints that I had with it. And again, I'm not a huge fan of the "Dragon Ball" series, but this movie's subtlety made it too easy for me to make those comparisons. So anyway, guys, if you're curious, you can find a copy of this move on YouTube for free. Hell, I may even provide a link in the description for you guys to watch, in case you have about 90 minutes to spare. But as for myself, I'm gonna go and watch a different martial arts movie. I think I'll go and rewatch my copy of "City Hunter", AKA the live-action movie starring Jackie Chan. It's been a little while since I last watched it, so I'm gonna go and give that another watch 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.