I remember checking out the trailer for this online and thought it was a funny idea. So, when it finally appeared on television, I had to check it out for a laugh. After a long-winded and pretentious opener in which a Mexican narrator informs the audience about the legend of a piñata which held the evil essence of villagers to restore prominence back to the village, we get into modern times where a bunch of college students prepare for a scavenger hunt. If you’re going to watch this, watch this for the horror clichés that embroil within this. There’s your usual cast of characters that serve no other purpose than to die in the hands of the evil piñata.
Tag Archives: Monsters
Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)
After a raid by armed soldiers during a party with the world’s top agents and their kids, Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara), the youngest of the Cortez spy family is accused of stealing the high powered super weapon The Transmooker Device. Now Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni Cortez must travel to the island of lost dreams and face off against monsters, soldiers, and rival agents Girti (Emily Osment) and Gary Giggles and find the real transmooker device before the evil Donnagon (Mike Judge) gets a hold of it and prove Juni’s innocence. But their parents and meddlesome grandparents are on the hunt for the kids before they’re killed. I tend to easily grow tired of family movies if they’re either too hokey or corny; most of the time, they’re both.
Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)
Victor Salva proves he can direct and gives this film a much darker and grim tone as the first film. He manages to put the audience in the seats and minds of these characters and make them feel as if they’re being hunted by the creeper. Placing this group of people in a cramped broken down bus and throwing them at this intelligent and violent creature is brilliant and after a while you start to get nervous and anxious. Salva lets us in some of the origin of the creature but never spills the beans.
Hulk (2003)
Based on one of the most popular and beloved characters in Marvel Comics, we meet Bruce Banner, a timid and shy scientist who performs experiments on animals using Gamma radiation. An accident in his lab causes the gamma radiation to explode and exposes Bruce to a lethal dose. To the surprise of his girlfriend Betty Ross, he is fine but soon discovers that his suppressed rage, when released, unleashes an incredible large green beast known to him as “The Hulk”. An evil military scientist named Talbot wants the hulk to extract his DNA and create a race of super soldiers. All the while general Ross wants him dead at all costs. Now, Banner must confront his horrible past and come to grips with his curse all the while clashing with his psychotic father David who wants to use the hulk for his own benefit.
Eight Legged Freaks (2002)
Admittedly, I was scared a little when I saw Dean Devlin’s name in the credits, but his influence seems surprisingly restrained and minimized only to special effects. “Eight Legged Freaks” is a loving and raucous homage to the fifties giant features and a rather great one at that. Rather than try to depict a stern narrative about a spider invasion, director Ellory Elkayem embraces the silliness and instead provides a pulpy monster movie with vicious violence, and some damn good dark comedy.
Spy Kids (2001)
Two kids discover their supposedly uncool parents are famous secret spies. When the parents get caught by an evil genius, they must band together and rescue their parents. This is such a nice movie. Not for its action or acting, but for its simplicity. It makes so many attempts at being nonviolent even though there is a lot of martial-arts scenes, and no guns. James Bond would be proud of these kids. The two offspring of enemy secret spies turned lovers obtain the elements of being a spy, though they don’t know it yet. Alexa Vega’s character is the oldest sister and contains the physical abilities and ferocity of a spy, and Daryl Sabara’s character obtains the mental and technological abilities it takes to be a spy.
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Monsters under the bed, monsters under the closet. Are there anymore universal themes in our childhood that we can relate to? Arguably Pixar’s most imaginative film, Pixar is known for creating simplistic stories revolving around childhood themes and “Monsters Inc.” is a success for tapping in to that classic fear of children fearing the monster in hiding in the shadows ready to scare them at a moment’s notice. But what about the monster? What is its purpose? Why does it need to scare us?