Director F. Sudol is someone who is a one man creative force. After directing, animating, and voicing three popular animated horror films, F. Sudol abandoned his former style in favor of computer animation. Even though Sudol completely quit the former animated style for telling his stories, “Gnome in the Haunted Castle” still very much feels like an F. Sudol production. The music feels much like the type we’ve come to expect from his past films, there is the presence of zombies, and Mr. Sudol voices the characters himself. This time though, “Gnome in the Haunted Castle” acts as a gateway horror film for the young audiences who appreciate ambition and effort.
Tag Archives: Adventure
Transylmania (2009)
“Transylmania” is a pretty much just a waste of time. It rips from better horror comedies and tries in vain to construct something new and fails at every single turn imaginable. Go see “Transylvania Twist,” or “Young Frankenstein,” or “Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein,” or “Hold That Ghost” if you want to view what a true horror comedy is capable of. Hell, go see “Dracula Dead and Loving It” if you want to see a film that never quite manages to make use of its horror farce status but is still ten times better than “Transylmania.” It feels as if they wrote out a story (assuming there is a story) that involved a bunch of moronic college kids going to a foreign country. And then someone along the way figured they’d make some cash off the vampire craze and injected a lot of faux horror themes in to the script.
Soulkeeper (2001)
It’s almost disturbing how much of a dead ringer Rodney Rowland is for David Keith at times during “Soulkeeper.” For a short time I used to think Rowland was Keith. That odd footnote aside, “Soulkeeper” is one of the more entertaining and underrated fantasy horror films I’ve ever seen, and it’s a shame it doesn’t garner a lot of attention or credit. It barely gets any focus by anyone, and that’s a shame. Frankly “Soulkeeper” is a strong and often entertaining fantasy horror film that creates a likable duo of inept heroes both of whom find themselves in a situation beyond their control for the fate of the world. Sadly, “Soulkeeper” hasn’t kept its age well and that’s due to the plot being pretty damn incoherent at times.
Dungeons & Dragons (2000)
I remember when I first read that “Dungeons & Dragons” was about to come to theaters in cinematic form. At the time of the film’s release I was obsessed with fantasy, and dragons and wouldn’t you know it? Zoe McLellan was co-starring. To fans of obscure science fiction, she co-starred as a gorgeous nerd in the TV series “Invisible Man.” If you want to know what that is, look it up. It’s a long story. I digress. McLellan would go on to play a gorgeous nerdy librarian in “Dungeons & Dragons” who really didn’t do much in the film. But she looked fetching the entire time. What makes “Dungeons & Dragons” such an astonishing film, is that it was released by New Line Cinema in the year 2000. As stated by other movie critics, “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” would be released a year later around December of the same time.
Judge Dredd (1995)
Before the comic book movie revival of the twenty first century, the nineties didn’t have that many notable comic book movies to brag about. There was the awful “Tank Girl,” and the even worse “Barb Wire.” There was “Spawn,” and “Generation X,” and “Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD,” “STEEL,” and “Batman and Robin.” And like those aforementioned titles, Hollywood adapted these titles completely missing why readers actually flocked to them in the first place. Never content with laying waste to more underground comic books, Hollywood eventually got its hands on Judge Dredd and turned it in to a Hollywood schlock fest that was so desperate for an audience it cast Rob Schneider in a major role.
Firefly: Ten Years Later
Back in 2005 I remember going to the movie theaters to see “Land of the Dead” with my mom an equally rabid horror fanatic, and sitting down to watch the previews. I remember fondly sitting in front of the screen watching the trailer for the upcoming movie “Serenity” and marveled at how interesting it looked. It wasn’t love at first sight, it wasn’t immense curiosity, but just a mild interest that made me think about it and push it in to the back of my mind for a good while.
Months later prior to the unleashing of “Serenity” in to theaters, the Science Fiction channel in America aired a marathon of the entire “Firefly” and when I sat down to watch it from beginning to end it dawned upon me why “Firefly” was cancelled and taken off television so quickly many people didn’t even know it was on. “Firefly,” during the marathon, often began every episode with a brief prologue from Nathan Fillion explaining the basic premise of the series. And then it kind of saddened me that the producers or network simply didn’t have confidence in the show. And worse, they didn’t have confidence that the audience could play catch up.
Airplane! (1980)
Is there a comedy more perfect than “Airplane!”? I ask you. It’s in the list of the five perfect comedies ever made, and is definitely one of my top ten comedy films of all time, as well as one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s a film that appeals to folks who appreciate subtle comedy, raunchy comedy, silly comedy, and comedy that doesn’t require any thought at all. There are sight gags, puns, word plays, double entendres, and gratuitous nudity. There’s action, romance, suspense, stunts, and two jive talking passengers no one understands. There’s Kareem Abdul Jabar being Kareem Abdul Jabar, Peter Graves being a lunatic, Leslie Nielsen delivering the most genius deadpan comedic performance of his career, Lloyd Bridges who has an unusual history with recreational substances, and Ethel Merman for some reason.