Dead Before Dawn 3D (2012)

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

Watching “Dead Before Dawn” try to be funny is like going in to a third rate haunted house in the sticks on Halloween. It’s nice you’re trying really hard, but you really aren’t doing what you intend to. “Dead Before Dawn” tries to be many things, and one of them is a comedy. While it did elicit genuine laughs from me sporadically it manages to miss more than it hits. In fact by the end, the joke went on almost way too long. I was pretty relieved it ended or else I was afraid I’d begin to hate it.

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The Little Mermaid (1989)

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

Though it’s often thought of as the film that helped revive the animated film boom from Disney in the nineties, predating a string of hit films from the studio, “The Little Mermaid” is much like “Bambi.” It has amazing animation, and a wonderful soundtrack, but in the narrative frame, it’s unspectacular. While the former film garnered a nearly non-existent storyline with a simple resolution stretched in to ninety minutes, “The Little Mermaid” has almost nothing in the way of reasoning or logic for its heroine’s motives toward happiness.

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National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

Before the millions of utterly atrocious rip-offs, there was the first, there was the only, there was the grand daddy of college campus comedies, there was “Animal House” Set in 1962, John Landis’ comedy masterpiece tells the tale of two new college recruits attempting to pledge to an elite fraternity. They’re basically cast aside from the elitist frat house, so they must now pledge to the worst frat on college, the Delta House to which they’re instantly accepted amidst the dysfunctional and odd array of members. But when they cause a ruckus and fail to live up the school’s academic standards, the dictatorial Dean Wormer decides to close down the house once and for all.

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Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

Even with Marvel now owning Disney, and “The Avengers” making money hand over fist in 2012, “Agents of Shield” is still a risky spin-off. So the writers have to basically depend on lip service to “The Avengers” without depending on it wholesale. Even with the fan loyalty Joss Whedon sports with all of his series, “Agents of SHIELD” is a risky venture. They’re still third tier characters in the movies, and the last time we saw them in on TV, they were being led by David Hasselhoff and battling an evil bouncing ball. So, the series does everything it can to ensure audiences this is a Marvel universe series, without seeming similar to other shows about big agencies.

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Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels: The Complete Series (DVD)

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

Pretty much all of the later series from Hanna Barbera included a group of snot nosed teens solving crime along with some odd sidekick. After “Scooby Doo” the company repeated the successful formula thirty times with varied results. Often times it was incredibly awful like “Jabberjaw” and sometimes it was fun like “Space Ghost.” One of the last Hanna Barbera shows to feature that awkward laugh track addition, “Captain Caveman” mixes the studios odd fixation on the stone age, with crime solving teens, and the whole “Scooby Doo” formula to create a pretty decent animated adventure show.

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Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch!: The Complete Animated Series (DVD)

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Felix Vasquez

“Help! It’s the Hair Bear Bunch!” is best left for nostalgia fans and animation collectors. While it’s by no means the worst of the Hanna Barbera animated shows, it’s yet another of their derivative titles. If you think you’ve seen “Help! It’s the Hair Bear Bunch!” before then you have. It was called “Yogi Bear.”

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