1971’s “Willard” is a movie that definitely happened. It was shockingly influential and even spawned a loose sequel involving one of the film’s rat villains Ben, called “Ben.” It was also a movie, mostly known for the title song by Michael Jackson. I don’t blame the studios for wanting to remake “Willard,” as it’s definitely a great idea that had a less than entertaining end result. Sadly, much of Glen Morgan’s treatment feels like Tim Burton lite with a heavy reliance on the career revivals of R. Lee Ermey and Crispin Glover of the early aughts.
Tag Archives: Fantasy
Millennium After the Millennium (2018)
I was one of the many people that tuned in to see “Millennium” when it premiered on FOX television back in 1996. When I was thirteen any horror show would catch my eye, but I eventually tuned out after a few episodes. Years late “Millennium” is a widely celebrated cult classic television series that never caught on as much as its sibling predecessor “X-Files.” While the former embraced science fiction and horror, “Millennium” delved mostly in to the occult and horror, and never quite sought out to inspire hope within its viewers.
2019 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Animation
With the 91st Oscars airing on February 24th, I’ll be going over the trio of short film topics and their nominees leading up to the premiere. With short films often getting overlooked (Live Action Shorts was cut from this year’s broadcast and then re-inserted after big protests) I was interested in checking out the Oscar caliber shorts making the list. It should be noted that most of the animated shorts are directed by women this year, which is refreshing. Here is the list and the short I hope wins.
Kim Possible (2019)
As a preamble I admit that I’ve never liked the “Kim Possible” animated series. I know as a Disney fan I’m supposed to love it, but I always found the series to be incredibly flat, bland, and boring. I didn’t really care for anything about it beyond Will Friedle who, at the time, was my favorite voice actor. That said, when “Kim Possible” was rebooted in to a TV movie series, I was surprised by how new and re-energized the reboot looked. Though “Kim Possible” is back, she’s returned for a whole new generation of fans that have embraced heroines fighting crime.
Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
I was thoroughly surprised with 2017’s “Happy Death Day.” The more I’ve thought about it and re-watched it, I’ve come to like it more and more as a horror reworking of “Groundhog’s Day.” It’s a fun and creepy character piece about a despicable young woman who realizes that maybe the way to keep herself from dying and end the cycle of re-living the same day over and over, is to think about other people in her life. “Happy Death Day 2U” is that same concept, but a wholly different movie. It’s a sequel that brings us a new angle of the narrative, expands on the concept of the original film, while also continuing to explore the character of Tree Gelbman.
The Mole People (1956) [Blu-Ray]
I’ve never seen a movie so apparently short on a script that it purposely pads the run time to compensate. I’ve seen movies waste time on screen, but director Virgil W. Vogel’s science fiction adventure obviously had a script comprised of maybe forty pages of actual narrative and writing. The rest of the seventy seven minutes is obvious empty filler, and padding that tries to run out the clock for the sake of the feature length credibility. Set in the general vicinity of Asia, we meet (two of the most grating heroes ever put to film) archaeologists Dr. Roger Bentley and Dr. Jud Bellamin, both of whom are dedicated to finding a mythical race of Sumerian Albinos living deep in the Earth.
Starman (1984): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]
You have to give it to John Carpenter. Even when he stumbles, he’s still one of the finest directors around who manages to set himself apart from his contemporaries stylistically. While “Star Man” is an obvious attempt to cash in on the good Spielberg “ET” dough, “Star Man” manages to be a pretty okay movie, either way. Carpenter sets aside his usual nihilism in favor of a more measured alien love story where it retains much of its appeal thanks to the wonderful turns by Karen Allen and Jeff Bridges. This is especially a movie where Allen shines, as she delivers a performance filled with layers and emotion to the very end.