On Bullying and the “Epidemic”

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If you think the issue of bullying in America has been widely overblown, then you’ve never been bullied properly. I don’t mean mocked for having weird hair or glasses, I mean viciously bullied. Violently bullied. I spent three years of my life being bullied and humiliated relentlessly to the point where I swore to bring a knife in to my school. More on that later. Not everyone is lucky enough to have parents who’ll talk them down for a few hours. But then often times, kids do have wonderful parents that can’t hope to understand what they’re enduring, and the violence occurs in the same frequency.

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Nightbreed (1990): The Director’s Cut [Blu-ray/DVD]

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Thanks to the advent of home entertainment and a wonderful company like Scream Factory, director Clive Barker is finally able to realize his original vision for the cult horror film “Nightbreed.” While the film itself has gained momentum and respect over the years as a dark and morbid tale of monsters from the underworld facing human cruelty, Barker’s experience making the movie was a bitter one he often recollected with anger and sadness. With his Director’s Cut, he’s not only able to salvage old footage that he was forced to edit out of his narrative, but he re-structures “Nightbreed” in to practically an entirely new movie. One that’s better than the original cut.

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The Spectacular Now (2013)

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Director James Ponsoldt’s drama is very much a film that takes its pages from John Hughes’ teen oriented films about change and growing up. “The Spectacular Now” is much in the arena of “Breakfast Club,” and “Say Anything” where what we once thought we understood is actually false, and we eventually reach a fork in the road where we must decide to move on, or stay perpetually stunted by our environment. Director Ponsoldt introduces us to the destructive part of our lives that keep us from accepting growth and adulthood, and he just happens to be our protagonist Sutter.

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Jungleground (1995)

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I really enjoy Roddy Piper as an action star. The man had screen presence, charisma, an could turn any clunky role in to a bonafide winner. The 1995 cheapie “Jungle Ground” is a two pronged vehicle for Piper, acting as his own custom tailored “Escape from New York” and “Die Hard.” It’s Piper as an average cop stuck behind enemy lines in a lawless gang warzone who has to fight his way out and save his wife. He even gets to shoot down a criminal declaring “Hi Ho, Silver.” Too bad “Yippee Ki Yay, Motherfucker” was taken.

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Shadowzone (1990)

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I tried very hard to stay awake and somewhat alert through “Shadowzone” but mid-way I had a difficult time even keeping my attention on the convoluted plot. With the tagline “Beyond Alien! Beyond The Thing!” Cardone’s science fiction horror hybrid is so beyond boring. Director J.S. Cardone definitely steals from the former films wholesale, but none of it ever amounts to a remotely entertaining horror science fiction film. I’d sooner watch 2011’s “The Thing” before I watched “Shadowzone” one more time.

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The Girl I Want (1990)

The Girl I Want (1990)

Judging from “The Girl I Want,” all of life’s problems can be solved by watching Linnea Quigley and Karen Russell dancing and bouncing up and down on a bed for ten minutes set to rock music. I know that’s not the point of “The Girl I Want,” but I was entranced by Quigley and Russell flexing, bouncing, jiggling, and dancing for the screen for no apparent reason. Not that there ever has to be.

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Sinister (2012)

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Ethan Hawke plays Ellison Oswalt, a successful crime author whose last book was a hit and garnered him a lot of hatred from folks surrounding the murders. Desperate for another hit book, Ellison moves his family in to the house where a vicious murder was committed in hopes of finding out why the family was murdered, and where their daughter Stephanie disappeared to. The explanation that he moves them in to the house where the murders ensued should be a clue that Ellison isn’t very smart. Hawke is a very good performer capable of conveying desperation and torment, but he’s given the task of turning Ellison in to an empathetic protagonist. Which is tough considering the more we know about Ellison the less likable he is, and when the screws finally turn on him, we’re not too saddened by it.

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