House Party 2 (1991)

house-party2Kid has had a tough road ahead of him. In the original “House Party” we learn his mom died, and when we meet him in the sequel his father has died too. This is obviously to coincide with the death of comedian Robin Harris who played Kid’s father in the original, and it’s sad he couldn’t present us with a funny performance for this sequel. He was hilarious in the original, and a great foil for Kid. This time around Kid is living with Play, now an orphan, and is on his way to college. This is a great addition to Kid’s back story and adds some real emotional anchor to the film, because Kid is now pressured to live up to his dad’s legacy and achieve an education that his dad was so desperate for him to accomplish.

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House Party (1990)

Kid n Play originally began their careers as rap rivals, and you can sense a lot of that rivalry in their performances as Kid and Play in “House Party.” Much of that interplay of two rappers pitted against each other is carried over, even though the film establishes them as best friends. Very often “House Party” involves Kid and Play making a move on the same girl, and competing for attention not only for their friends, but from pretty much everyone they come across. Because of that “House Party” is a bonafide party film that is quite the entertaining guilty pleasure, if you’re willing to re-visit the early nineties. Born from the remnants of the eighties, “House Party” is a film that’s awfully dated but still very fun and equally funny to sit through.

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The Gingerdead Man (2005)

the_gingerdead_manThe best thing to do with “The Gingerdead Man” is not take it seriously. At all. It’s a dumb, goofy, and cheesy horror comedy that invokes the likes of “Jack Frost” and “Child’s Play” to tell a story that’s giddy with cheesiness from the get go. One of the fun aspects of the movie that I intend to follow is the location of the ingredients that spawn the Gingerdead Man. Once bakery owner Sarah receives a mysterious box of gingerbread ingredients, the mysterious mix spawns the evil gingerdead man from the dough. Where did it come from? Who sent it? Who has it out for Sarah? I want to know and I hope the sequels tackle this mystery in the next two films of the apparent trilogy.

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The Legend of Korra Episode One, Season One: Welcome to Republic City

As the Nickelodeon network’s most sophisticated and probably most brilliant animated series of all time, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” set a standard for modern animated series and raised the bar. Pseudo-anime it surely was, but it didn’t pretend to be anything more than an American animated series with Eastern influences. As a surefire landmark in children’s entertainment for the US network, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” is a remarkable fantasy series that is sprawling and absolutely mesmerizing. So it was only a matter of time until Nickelodeon in America would attempt to duplicate the success and branch off with a brand new spin off of the original series. Fans were almost expecting it. Nickelodeon has to be respected for having the guts to try and catch lightning in a bottle twice.

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I Spyders (2012)

425234Preparing to go in to festivals soon enough, I was able to get a hold of “I Spyders” through online means and I’m glad that I did. “I Spyders” is quite possibly one of the most skin crawling and yet unabashedly demented short films you’ll see in a while. This is one of the few short films that manages to have a spider wrangler on set, and when they can acquire an actual wrangler, you know the director is at least trying hard to get his point across. That’s called effort, filmmakers. That’s the word for this review. “I Spyders” isn’t so much a horror movie in the traditional sense, but its premise is very much horrific. Especially for anyone who is an avid arachnophobe.

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Killer Eye: Halloween Haunt (2011)

If you’re a hardcore Full Moon Entertainment fan and really follow their films by the tee, then you’ll love “The Haunt.” Basically it’s a self-aware meta-sequel to their cult classic “The Killer Eye.” This time though the movie is simply just a movie in this reality and in this world we set down on, Full Moon is just a company that treads out horror movies. We visit with a group of hormonally unbalanced lesbian best friends who spend their time dancing, and flirting with one another all the while preparing for a big Halloween exhibit one of the girls’ mother is throwing. Of course they spend the night drinking and unpacking the props for the Halloween house which are obviously nothing but Full Moon props.

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Thirsty (2009)

thirstyDeep down I know I shouldn’t have enjoyed “Thirsty” so much and that’s mainly because the premise is so simplistic and absurd that it’s tough to take seriously at all. But that’s the intent behind “Thirsty.” It’s a free for all of absurd comedy and dark fantasy that keeps viewers entertained all the way through. And as a short film it knows when to stop the joke and thankfully the screenwriters know when to quit while they’re ahead. Joe Lynch plays the hopelessly over the top protagonist Joe, a young man on the road during a heat wave who manages to get on the bad side of a gas station attendant when he mouths off to him.

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