Return of the Living Dead II (1988)

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Hey after “Return” ended, there was really nowhere left to go. The characters were dead, zombies were taking over the world, and the government nuked an entire city. And it’s heavily implied that the rain over head would carry the nasty zombification over in to another city and a whole new batch of zombies would come up to look for brain matter. Dan O’Bannon and co. really left “Return” with nowhere else to go as it sealed up the ending nice and tight. So what else for a studio to do when they want to sap more cash from a zombie film? Remake the first film! Sort of. That makes sense, I’m assuming. In some warped manner.

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Detention Of The Dead (2013)

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Director Alex Craig Mann’s horror zombie comedy would probably like to be considered an amalgam of “Shaun of the Dead” with “The Breakfast Club.” And while those attempts at claiming both territories are admirable, his film never quite lives up to aspiring for both heights at all. Mann’s film starts out respectably, taking beats from “Shaun” with moments of school activity interrupted by zombies lurking in the background and stumbling in to class. And then suddenly everything goes to hell. The problem is while it seems to enjoy “Shaun” very much, it’s never as humorous or clever. When it has the chance to compensate for that flaw by focusing on rich and complex characters, it doesn’t do that as well as it should, either.

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The Goonies (1985)

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If you want a pure unadulterated ride in to the middle of the eighties, “The Goonies” is an inadvertent trip in to the complete mindset of the decade. Cyndi Lauper, adventure, escapism, work out obsession, coming of age, nostalgia for the sixties, a humongous Steven Spielberg influenced narrative, Corey Feldman, Richard Donner, Jonathan Ke Quan, if it was in the eighties, it’s likely here. That doesn’t act as a caveat, thankfully, as “The Goonies” is a very decade relevant film that still manages to work as an excellent child oriented fantasy adventure in the vein of “The Hardy Boys.”

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Phantom of the Megaplex (2000)

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I think one of the reasons why the DCOM “Phantom of the Megaplex” has now gone on to basic obscurity is that it’s one of the weirder movies the Disney Channel ever produced. It’s not just an ode to the love of movies, but it’s a call back to “The Phantom of the Opera.” Not only does the film draw heavily from the original story, sans the violence and murder, but it actually influences its audience to check out the Lon Chaney masterpiece. “Phantom of the Megaplex” is a busy and often messy horror fantasy, but one that works, mainly because the writers of the film clearly love movies as much as we do.

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Little Monsters (1989)

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The 1989 horror comedy from Richard Greenberg is definitely one of the best buddy comedies from the late eighties. While nostalgia is very kind to it, many years later it’s just a very good movie that hasn’t aged all that well. In either case, “Little Monsters” is a childhood classic I recall watching about three times a day for a month, and still loving. I was a seven year old horror fan and couldn’t get enough of this world presented to us on-screen. It also helped that the movie starred Fred Savage who, at the time, was the big name as a child star.

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Hotel Transylvania (2012)

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Even with the great Genndy Tartakovsky behind the screen, I held out almost no hope for “Hotel Transylvania,” because even in an animated film for kids, Adam Sandler is never above casting his slew of pseudo talented friends as the supporting cast. Like most Sandler productions, “Hotel Transylvania” can occasionally be loud and silly, but when it reaches down for a heart, it manages to be a sweet bit of family fare.

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Mad Monster Party (1967)

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Rankin Bass’s “Mad Monster Party” (or “Mad Monster Party?”) is a monster bash of animated proportions that brings the great Boris Karloff aboard to lend credibility to an already fun animated film. Comprised of some excellent voice work and some classic stop motion animation from the Rankin Bass studio, “Mad Monster Party” sets down on the geeky and lovable Felix Flankin, a pharmacist with an allergy problem who is called to his old uncle Baron Boris von Frankenstein’s island for a party where he plans to announce to his monster community that he’s giving up the life of monster making and plans to hand over the business to his nephew.

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