Sunday, August 11, 2013

Halloween Home Haunts



I love decorating the house for holidays.  I really do, so does my 4 year old.  We both love Halloween.  Every year we buy a few new decorations and add to our outside display.  I always thought I had a very nice set up, until I watched Halloween Home Haunts.

Halloween Home Haunts in the brainchild of Jonathan Morken from Apprehensive Films.  It follows several different people who go to great lengths to turn there homes into Halloween attractions.  Some of them have gotten so large they have turned into professional haunted houses.

Everyone interviewed has a passion for there decorations and set ups.  Everyone had a theme, from graveyards, to the old west, to witches, and pumpkins.  One young lady had a giant evil pumpkin made from chicken wire.  Yes, some of these amazing designs are actually homemade.  I was beyond happy to learn there is a web page to make your own tombstones.  My son and I have already downloaded patterns.

Not everything is homemade however.  Some people have spent upwards of thirty thousand dollars.  And it shows.  Motorized Jason's from Friday the 13th, fog, light, and strobe machines, plus every animatronic ghoul you could think of.

After a short visit with each decorator, where you learn about there favorite decorates, themes, set up, and love for Halloween you are given an eerie tour of the home when its all finished, set to a pulsing old horror school organ beat.

My son happened to walk in the room when it was one, and has watched it several times there after.  He keeps informing me of what I will be buying this year. 

This video will be available on September 17  I highly recommend picking it up.  It will not only be a nice change from always seeing Christmas decorating shows, but if your a fan of decorating your house, it is sure to give you tons of ideas.  And if your a fan of Halloween you will enjoy seeing these peoples passion, and of course awesome displays.

Overall 4 out of 5 Stars!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters



Hansel & Gretel are bounty hunters who track and kill witches all over the world. As the fabled Blood Moon approaches, the siblings encounter a new form of evil that might hold a secret to their past.
 
 
Ok I'll say it right off the bat, this is a fun film.  There is no other way to describe it.  It made no money, but it should have, its fantastic.  Its the story of Hansel and Gretal.  Thew two kids who go to the candy house and get trapped by a witch.  Well they kill the witch and grow up to be demon hunters.  See witch magic does not work on them so they go from town to town hunting witches, trolls, demons, you name it.

 A small village hires them to help them find all the children that have all gone missing.  Turns out there is a coven of witches who need these kids for a spell that will make them immune to fire.  Hansel and Gretal come in to stop them. Keep in mind, this is not a film for kids.  It's very violent, and extremely bloody.  When witches, and people for that matter are shot, they basically explode in a shower of blood.

  This has lots of fun humor as well, I enjoy that Hansel acquired diabetes from being force feed candy when the witch had him when he was a kid, so he has to take a shot every 8 hours to live.  The effect a great, the Blu Ray looks fantastic and its a really great take on a classic Fairy Tale.  Check it out.

 
Overall 3out of 5 Stars!

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Undisputed III





Boyka is back. This time he is fighting in the first ever inter-prison tournament with one knee

Man, how have I never reviewed this one?  The amazing Scott Adkins returns as Boyka.  As you may recall In Undisputed II He got his knee destroyed.  Because of that he is not fighting in prison.  Hard to do that with a smashed knee.  So what does he do?  He kicks mattresses, and lifts buckets of dirty water with his bad leg.  That leads him to being recovered.  He enters the prisons ring and beats the crap out of there champion.  By doing this he earns himself a spot in a large underground fighting tournament.  Winner gets there freedom.

Well that’s the film, not in a nutshell, but as a whole.  Adkins is possibly the perfect specimen when it comes to action stars.  Built, agile, and can really fight.  The moves he can pull off are amazing, and defiantly not being done by anyone here in the US.  The fight scenes are amazing, and that’s the sell point of these films.  This actually rivals Bloodsport when it comes to tournament fight scenes, and in the final fight blows it away.

If you dig action look no further.  This film will not disappoint.

 

Overall 3 out of 5 stars.

Grunt: The Wrestling Movie!


Ok, first I have to start off by saying, I love this film.  It’s a mocumentray about A pro wrestler named Mad Dog Joe DeCurso.  See 10 years ago during a 20 man over the top rope battle royal Mad Dog got his opponent in a Hangman, which in wrestling speak is having the guys head twisted between the top and middle rope.  Mad Dog takes a run at him to deliver the big boot and kicks the guys head off.  As murder is illegal he is disqualified.  Unfortunately his opponents legs never touched the floor so he won.  Too bad he’s dead.  After this Mad Dog goes into depression and disappears.  Many think he jumped off a bridge and committed suicide.  But wait now a masked wrestler has entered the scene, named, The Mask.  His moves are very similar, almost identical to Mad Dog.

 Enter Leslie Uggams, a director making a documentary about Mad Dog.  He hooks up with Dr Tweed, president of the Mask is Mad Dog Fan Club.  They drive around interviewing various wrestlers, and managers.  All of which are played by real pro wrestlers.  Adrian Street even does the music for the film.  What follows is a hilarious end up of documentaries and wrestling, that culminates during a 20 man battle royal to finally crown a new champion.  Hilarious dialogue, and tons of wrestling matches intertwined make for a hell of a film.  You don’t need to be a pro wrestling fan to like this but it will help.  I saw it back when it came out in 1985.  It is still funny to me to this day.

 Overall 4 out of 5 Stars!

The Last Stand!




The leader of a drug cartel busts out of a courthouse and speeds to the Mexican border, where the only thing in his path is a sheriff and his inexperienced staff

Arnold is back, and he’s bringing Luis Guzman and Johnny Knoxville with him.  Arnold plays a former LA cop who has settled into a nice quiet town as the acting sheriff.  The town is small, so small 90% of it leaves to go to another town for a football game.  Arnold stays behind to keep the peace.  A joke as there is nothing going on.  Well except for the fact a notorious drug lord has just broken out of prison and is heading to Mexico.  He breaks out under Forrest Whitakers watch, which is not hard to do considering that lazy eye he has.  Anyway, wouldn’t you know it, the last town he and his murdering posse have to cross through is Arnolds.  Arnold finds out he’s coming and deputizes a few local folk, one of whom is local gun museum owner Johnny Knoxville and they set out to stop the guy.

 This is truly a throwback film of the 80’s.  Low plot, cheesy action, one liners, the works.  It’s  a lot of fun.  Nice amount of blood too.  In one scene when Arnold and his team are arming up Luis Guzman picks up Arnolds old Conan Sword.  I enjoyed the nice short run time, as movies like this don’t need to be very long.  Unfortunately the films does have one major flaw.  The end fight scene, not because of Arnold, but more so the bad guy.  It’s very anti-climactic.  But not enough to crash the film like Die Hard 3 did.

 Overall I highly recommend this.  It’s fun.  You don’t need to be a fan of Arnold to enjoy this, just a fan of action.
 
Overall 3 out of 5 Stars!

Parker




A thief with a unique code of professional ethics is double-crossed by his crew and left for dead. Assuming a new disguise and forming an unlikely alliance with a woman on the inside, he looks to hijack the score of the crew's latest heist.

he man, the myth, the legend, Jason Statham stars as Parker.  A thief with a heart of gold.  Really, it’s based on a book.  I know that because I saw that somewhere.  I didn’t read it.  Don’t want to.  Anyway the Statham is friends with old drunk Nick Notice.  Who does a convincing job of acting sober in this film.  He hooks Parker up with a crew led by the always great Michael Chiklis.  They rob a fair ground, and then decide to take Parkers share.  But as Parker is played by Statham, he aint having that.  After a very nice fight scene that takes place in a moving car Parker is left for dead.  Luckily and old farm couple finds him and nurses him back to health.

 That leads us to Palm Beach, where Parker is all healed up and out for revenge.  He meets a realtor played by the insanely gorgeous J-Lo and with her help they go after the gang that doubles crossed him.  Statham takes out all the guys and gets his money.  That’s not a spoiler, it’s a fact.  Statham is the man.  He shoots lots of people in the face, and beats quite a few up as well.  The 2 hour run time is a bit much.  It moves very slow in parts. 

 The Furor, Mel Gibson that is played this same character in Payback, which as much as it pains me to say, is a better film.  It actually makes a nice double feature.  I still recommend watching this, as it has Statham and Chiklis.

 Overall 2 out of 5 Stars!