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Harry's DVD Picks & Peeks - 1st wk of 2010: Food from the Sky, John Wayne in Vietnam & Bakshi's Mighty Mouse
Hey folks, Harry here and Yes, I did take a break at the start of this year. I decided to relax and enjoy the period between New Year’s and my wife’s birthday. That said, I’m back on path – and will be knocking out the 3 weeks I owe you good people. Sorry I disappeared for a bit. Sometimes it is necessary. This is the first column of the year and there’s some good stuff on here, but the week was light. Once again the titles and the pics link to Amazon where you can learn more on the title in question and you can purchase it, if you wish, which would give a bit back to this column. For which I thank you for. Here ya go:
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS
The Sony Imagework CG Animated films have traditionally been the wicked stepchildren of Pixar’s wicked step-children, DREAMWORKS and FOX – in the realm of animated fare. But CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS changed that for me. The animation is lush, the style is unique and the story has a cartoonish whimsy that really stands a part from the other houses. That said. I really truly do not find the film appetizing, all that food hitting the ground, causing damage, call me old fashioned, but served on a plate is the way to go. This was a very strong year for Animation!
THE FINAL DESTINATION
If you’re a fan of this series – then this is everything you could expect from THE FINAL DESTINATION in 3D. That said, the characters are written with the express purpose of being killed badly for your edification. That said, it is all pretty forgettable and helps make horror look like a basement genre to be ever so slightly ashamed of.
10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU
A wonderfully silly romantic comedy set in the High School years – back at the beginnings of both Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles’ careers. Specifically, Heath is pretty damn awesome here, as is the crazy young Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This is one of those films that I’d forgotten about, but when it arrived, my wife Yoko began giddily giggling and demanding that it instantly go into the Blu Ray player. After rewatching it, I agree – this is a fun giddy little movie that is pure happiness.
MIGHTY MOUSE: THE NEW ADVENTURES – The Complete Series
Now, if you don’t know why you should all be getting this… I’ll try to help. First off, this was put together by Ralph Bakshi and unleashed upon children, who too often don’t get what they deserve, but this was a kiddie dream. Bakshi put together a team of animation talent that is quite impressive. He landed John Kricfalusi, long before he created Ren & Stimpy. He captured Andrew Stanton of Pixar fame, Bruce Timm of the animated DC Hero properties and The Simpsons’ Jim Reardon. The result was this amazing series. Do not let this escape your attention!
THE GREEN BERETS (Blu-Ray)
I find it kind of amazing that before APOCALYPSE NOW, PLATOON, DEER HUNTER, CASUALTIES OF WAR… that THE GREEN BERETS would hit BluRay. Only BORN OF THE FOURTH OF JULY is in High Def… But this is the pro-American involvement in Vietnam film. It is actually more brutal than you’d expect. Lots of main characters get wiped out, it’s manipulative rah rah propaganda, but it is fun. John Wayne, Aldo Ray, George Takei, Bruce Cabot… well they rule. And though the sun is rising from the wrong direction… you know what, if anyone could make that happen, it’d be John Wayne.
TRUCKER
Fantastic Film. If I had a vote in the Academy, I’d nominate Michelle Monaghan for Best Actress & then vote her to win the award. She plays an amazing character – a truck driving lady, who doesn’t like being tied down to anything. She had a kid with a guy back in her young, carefree days. He’d agreed to raise the kid and not involve her. But he’s dying of cancer and is now asking for her help – with a kid that hates her. She is brilliant in the role. Also, Nathan Fillion plays a great “Best Friend that wants more” character – that isn’t hammy in the least. Michelle is seriously great here!
Coming up next: THE HURT LOCKER, MOON, 20th Season of SIMPSONS, IN THE LOOP, FAME, HALLOWEEN 2, 8 ½ BluRay, THE BROTHERS BLOOM, CLIFFHANGER BluRay, LAST ACTION HERO BluRay, BIG FAN, THE BURNING PLAIN, HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW, Urban Action Collection, Billy Jack BluRay, and much more!
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Wow. Light week is an understatement.
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Starring Julia Stiles and...Joseph Gordon-Levitt? ? ! ? ? !
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Harry posted a DVD column? Sweet!
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I like the cast and spirit that was displayed in the trailers, but the animation looked so bland. Maybe I'll give it a chance.
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What is this, 2009???
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Keep crankin' 'em out Harry! You should be well rested. Unless you're being hounded by leprechauns. Then I'll understand. The wee people can be a bit unrelenting.
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That's just a fantastic cover art.
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The Japanese movie being put out by Criterion? It is fantastic and I can't wait to see that movie. Buying it blind. I'm surprised there hasn't been anything on this site about it.
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I'm a grown man of 30 something years and I've seen that film about six times.Whatever happened to Larissa Oleynik? Last seen her in an ep of Maloclm in the Middle.
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...that's all?
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web 2.0 dude!
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Jan 19, 2010 7:07:10 PM CST
...if Harry has a kid it'll be eighteen years before the next...
by flickapoo
...DVD column...I guess I shouldn't complain.
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Harry has truly outdone himself. In a mere three sentences he managed to use his near-trademark "that said" twice. I thought ONCE every review was pushing it....
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Harry has truly outdone himself. In a mere three sentences he managed to use his near-trademark "that said" twice. I thought ONCE every review was pushing it....
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That is all.
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I took my son to see it expecting the worst but it really surprised me. Its worth checking out. Also, on a completely different topic, I just finished watching a noir film called Kiss Me Deadly. Wow! What a great movie.
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but I'm in the camp that liked the first three "Final Destination" films, but jesus christ the new one is awful. the first film is a pretty unique concept that is played fairly grimly to good effect. the sequel was played more loosely but delivered better kills, and the third one is pretty damn weak but i'm in love with Mary Elizabeth Winstead so i liked it. but the new one, yikes... there isn't a single character worth being interested in, and the kills aren't even creative. the first few films took creative routes to deliver bizarre deaths that seemed outlandish but still SLIGHTLY plausible. in part 4 they just threw darts at random ways to die and then concocted the most illogical, random courses of action to get them there. god that movie sucked.
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Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick Harry! "that said" not only twice in the same review, but leads off back-to-back sentences. Your reviews are making excellent fodder for my English students.
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is already streaming on Netflix... I'll have to check that out.
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I too walked in expecting alright animation and a few jokes but this truely blew me away. It was fuckin hilarious, and I love the rwaly rubbery cartoonish animation, it's so fluid. Definately worth a watch, I went back and took friends and we had a great time. I must admit the crazy outlandish absurd humor is kinda my thing though.
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of 2009. Yeah I said it. terrible misunderstood and underappreciated. The most original film in the series since the original. I know some people will say paranormal. I know harry loves PA, and I applaud it for the budget and the sell routine it used to demand it (LOL) but man that movie was shit. H2 on the otherhand. Too original for most who just wanted the same old shit. Hopefully time will be better to it.
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mainly the violence, Brad Dourif, and Danielle Harris. But holy fuck, the Nights in White Satin song is completely out of place.
I think next Halloween I'll end up picking up both of Zombie's Halloween films when they're hopefully cheap. But I'm not paying full price! -
I love The Green Berets. That is the only Vietnam War movie my dad liked, 'cause it was The Duke.
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I've always been an obsessive complusive "Halloween" fan so I had to buy Zombie's sequel on DVD even though the theatrical screening sucked all the joy out of my film loving soul. This film contains a Book of World Records number of f-bombs amid the worst dialoge I've ever heard. The accident scene guys says, "fuck" 20 some times! The Unrated Director's Cut does include some extended scenes that do help the story (such as it is) and the ending is completely different, but the DVD doesn't bother including the theatrical ending even as bonus when it would have been easy to include the theatrical version in a simple branching menu. Nope. You've got to buy the Theatrical Version if you want that. I'll say it in plain Rob Zombie speak: Fuck you you fucking fuck! I listened to Zombie's commentary to get his take on the material. He's a miserable film maker who apparently hates the whole process of making films. He complains during the entire commentary about the rain, the cold, the snow, the budget, the shooting schedule, the fans, the rain, etc. He has such an acidic personality that he made me miserable, and he made a miserable and depressing film for no other good reason than to share his own miserable worldview. Not to mention, this film begins with a 20 minute dream sequence. That's right, the first 20 minutes of the movie are a dream, so the film proper doesn't start for almost a half an hour. Jeez. Dream sequences work best in short scenes. And why does Michael Myers suddenly have to look like Rob Zombie on steroids? Ah, I'm done with this rant. Zombies' fans can have him.
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Best comedy of last year. The movie was more of a comedy then animated movie. WHY they didn't play up the fact that it was more of an SNL Digital short in form of a cartoon is beyond me. But it was awesome. Probably my third favorite animated movie of the year behind Princess and the Frog and Battle For Terra.
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Was really cool looking.
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But the entertainment guy at the failing newspaper in my town does???? I mean no shit harry doesn't, its just funny.
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It has the good ol' "Long Wait" Netflix yoke around its neck in me queue.
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District 9 - About 96 F-words H2 - About 112 F-words and its derivatives (including two stickers with the F-word printed on them). Bastards - About 26 F-words Final Destination - About 9 F-words All four of those R rated films made up the top four the weekend of August 28-30, 2009. Soooooo who says R rated films are dead?
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damn, that is a badass cover. The Green Berets is really a weird movie. Take out all the propaganda and what not, and it's actually an entertaining adventure/war film. But, its intent is supposed to be so much more than that.
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...I am right there with you.Halloween 2 was definitely the best horror movie of 2009. Back in '07 when Zombie's first Halloween came out everyone complained that he just remade Carpenter's film after Micahel escaped and didn't do anything original (a claim that does not hold water). Now when he does something original with the series everyone complains that it's not like the other movies. I loved both of his Myers films and I could not care less what anyone else thinks.
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Jan 19, 2010 8:55:48 PM CST
I want to see Zombie do an original again, that's super...
by soylentmean
violent. If there's one thing I've learned from all of his live action movies it's that he gets how to do realistic, brutal violence.
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Pulp Fiction - About 250 F-words Devils Rejects - 175 F-words and derivatives Harlem Nights - 133 times about First Zombie Halloween - 62 F-words and its derivatives Jay and Kevin Smith - About 228 F-words Jackass 2 - 117 F-words
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Harry's not being attacked by Leprechauns, but you're on the right path. Actually, he's been tormented for the past five weeks by the Underpants Gnomes. "Step one: collect underpants! Step two: ... . Step three: PROFIT!"
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. . . I remember my sister and I flipping for that Mighty Mouse show. We couldn't believe something that crazy was on TV. Of course we'd talk about it w/ the mouth breathers on the school bus and they'd just stare back like were were insane or something.
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...If he was genuinely serious about it, he'd simply do it every week, on time - without excuses, without fail. But that's not really the case, is it? Sometimes he shows up and sometimes he doesn't. And at this point, it's no longer a surprise when he doesn't. The irksome part is that Harry doesn't offer his readers the respect of, at least, keeping them reasonably informed about when he's going - or not going - to deliver. He just leaves them hanging. His usual way of signing off on a dvd review post - this week being an exception - is "Check back next week, folks, when I review..." Well, we do check back, Harry, because we like the column. We were here last week and the week before that. And you stood us up.
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Missed it in the theaters. But I love the series. Creepy fun.
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Was this no one else's favorite book as a kid? Because I don't think I've seen a single reference to the book in all the reviews/comments I've read about the movie. I can't imagine anyone who is familiar with the book could enjoy the movie, seeing as how they totally tossed out the really great art, which, next to the actual story, was the best thing about the book.
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Fearless men who jump and die...I also have to add that the Green Berets box art is refreshing in this age of photoshopped headshots..
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Fearless men who jump and die...I also have to add that the Green Berets box art is refreshing in this age of photoshopped headshots.
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It's not up to the best Pixar standards, but it was a LOT wittier than I anticipated, the characters were endearing, there was a blessed lack of toilet humor (the "chocolate snowballs" gag aside), and the animation was delightfully stylized (and looked awesome in 3D). A real pleasant surprise.And Harry has one cushy "job"...just writing a three-sentence blurb and calling it a "review", then getting to keep the screener copies. I used to review DVDs, and I had to actually write something longer than what would fit on a fortune cookie to get my freebie DVDs.
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Vietnam's coast faces EAST. That's where the sun rises. The movie ends with the Duke on the beach looking WEST upon a setting sun over the ocean. This of course can't happen in Vietnam. Anyone with an eighth grade education or access to Google Earth would know this.
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was amazing in person at the drafthouse...weird and full of rage!
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about 40 minutes into it. have to say the 3D effect is pretty good for red/blue; just wish i had a comfortable pair of glasses. and that it didn't give me a headache
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It's Propaganda if you don't like the message. The sun sets in the west. And it's still the first week of January.
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The extreme southern tip of Vietnam juts out into the Gulf of Thailand just a little, maybe 200 km, so if he were down there he COULD see the sun setting over water. Check out a map and you'll see.
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and like right after christmas they mark them fuckers down 50% must be nice to just decide to blow shit off and not worry about being profesional or anything
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However, they weren't at the extreme southern tip of Vietnam in the movie. They were further north where the only beaches face east.
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Something i definitely like over Platoon. Platoon is just Oliver Stone whining and bitching nonstop about everything and it gets tiresome.
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Funnier than 'UP' and did the animal with a voice box gag first. And it's a monkey.
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Fuck. Who asked for that. Seriously.
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...dorian gray advert. the pop up is annoying enough but the two window pop-ups when you press close!!!!!! agggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
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...i love the first final destination. my screen name has been testament to that for 10 years, but i'm not enthusiastic about seeing this one. the characters were good in the first couple, in that early 00's dawsons creek way, but now all slashers use faceless abercrombie models for their casts and it bores me.
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Complete and utter idiotic cuntness from start to finish. If that's Rob Zombie's idea of a script, somebody needs to smash his fingers with a hammer.
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Great, "reviews" of 6 titles. You do not only disrespect us but also patronize us with this kind of shit. Well, then again: FUCK YOU, Harry.
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where you get to make your own cut of the movie. I like lots of stuff in the Redux, but lots of it is garbage too. I basically want a cut that's halfway between the two cuts.
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I hate to be a little bitch about it... But I used to look forward to the DVD columns. Harry used to mix it up with popular releases and weird obscure shit I would have otherwise missed. Now more often that not, it's simply Bluray releases or rereleases, and now this....
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Wasn't this the series that got in trouble when Mighty sniffed a bunch of crunched flowers and his powers incereased and all the political pundits said why is a cartoon mouse snorting cocaine in front of little children? Isn't this the one?
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I think Harry phones in these reviews now, whenever he sees that the studios slack off on sending him free discs - that's why he won't turn over the column to someone else. THAT SAID, I still check the site like an ass every Tuesday... usually to find a new column once a month if I'm lucky.
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Is a piece of shit propagandist movie. Republicans would eat it up!
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...one of my favorite movies...knew at that time JGL would be big...but then again i also thought Larissa Oilyneck (heh heh) would be big too (but that was cuz i had a huge crush on her)...i didnt imagine Heath becomin how big he is now especially since he followed 10 things with a Knights Tale
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Jan 20, 2010 8:17:03 AM CST
Stiles is sooo fucking hot!!! But you only like this because -
by professor_monster
Heath is now a corpse and I doubt anything from his career will be anything but praised on this site. The taming of the shrew has been reintroduced to audiences in a multitude of ways - but this was not a successful attempt.
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Been waiting for this for a looong time, this show was nearly impossible to find in syndication. I remember this airing originally on CBS(I believe) and 6-7 years later on Fox Kids Network for a couple showings. I just about given up on finding this show. Finally I can watch this beautifully bizarre cartoon. I remember really being impressed by this back in the day.
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I really enjoyed Cloudy . While overall entertaining and lighthearted .
The scene with the snowball / iceceam fight is laugh out loud funny and I cant say that for most of the "comedies " released these days .
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But not my dvd reviews!!
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Got Smokin Aces 2 last night, and its a sac of shit so far. Only made it 20 minutes in. The unratedness of it is total bullshit, its probably closer to PG-13 then R. And I don't know how the fuck they do it, but its SOOOO fucking DTV looking, and its odd because they have some big set pieces so they had to have some money for this. The acting aside from Tom Bereger is shit, and Vinnie Jones is Vinnie Jones. And the Tremor family has turned into the Firefly family just MORE annoying. I don't think the rest of the movie will be able to save it, especially if its pulling its punches this much this early on.
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All this Cloudy love is funny. Fuck you AO Scott, douche.
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Where the hell did this come from ?
Never heard of it .
I assume that nobody from the original is involved with it .
Maybe I'm naive but do the writers / directors not have any say over what happens to their films in regards to sequels ?
Could WB release the Matrix 4 if they wanted to , or is it all down to original contractual agreements , what is agreed and what is not ?
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Produced it and came up with the story, and was going to make it but got busy. Plus Tommy Flanagan is back and the Tremor brother that didn't get famous is back.
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Either way though . I wont be rushing out to see it .
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great movie, both funny and heartbreaking
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Jan 20, 2010 9:30:09 AM CST
Meatballs "Did the animal with a voice box gag first"?
by nasty in the pasty
Um, Up was released last May, Cloudy was released last September. Unless this is some BTTF time travel thing, Up did it first.
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a flower, considering the original MM got his powers by taking pills. (though, lets be honest, John K and Bakshi -- the flower absolutely was an oblique drug joke, but nothing worthy of cancelling the show).
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Hairiest, your further behind then pay-cable. Catch up.
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I di not realize that the first week of January has at least 20 days in it. Harry, you need to have someone else do this column as you frequently miss it, yeah I know it's not about y6our readers, it's about the free movies you get to "write a weekly review column".
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sorry.
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Dennis the Menace meets Danny Deckchair meets Congo meets the Pipsquack episode of Tom & Jerry.
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Jan 20, 2010 10:26:19 AM CST
I noticed that Rocket Robin Hood was released in November.
by royston lodge
Was anybody notified?
http://tinyurl.com/y8rtw8l -
Who are defending Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN II? Seriously? A movie so addle-brained and moronic that it actually begins with a definition of "white horse?" Sorry, but it's a horribly shot, abysmally acted hackjob by a director who's proven he had absolutely nothing to say and that he'd rather just go back to the trailer-trash redneck well a few more hundred times. Taylor-Compton is HORRIBLE, the cinematrography is purposely muddy, the kills are yawn-inducing, and Myers literally spends the entire movie wandering around in fields killing rednecks. There's nothing suspenseful, interesting or provocative in it - indeed, it's the film that has finally killed the HALLOWEEN franchise once and for all. Anyone who calls it the best horror film of the year obviously missed quite a few genuinely good films. H2 was one of the single worst films of the last FIVE years. Time won't be kind to it - time will try to BURY the fucker.
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That was the "Halloween" film that finally broke my back, and I've endured the one with Busta Rhymes.
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Whenever someone trumpets the film, they fail to list any reasons why it's "so good". Zombie's writing is awful - everyone's dialogue is an interchangable barrage of "fucks" and "shits" and there's zero suspense. Nothing to misunderstand. It's an awful, awful movie.
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You're 100% right.
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Royston Lodge, I used to watch "Rocket Robin Hood" about the age I learned to walk! It was that and the 1967 "Spider-man" cartoon that were my Baby Einstein videos! I just discovered that they were released in Canada (like the "Drac Pak" and "Tintin" cartoons) and can be ordered from Amazon Canada. Beware, however, that many reviewers are saying the quality of the prints are poor. They've apparently been transfered from unremastered 16mm prints and some episodes are missing entirely. This may be all that exists, however. I just ordered them anyway. I'll deal with the poor quality just to see that cartoon again and sing the theme song.
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"... its probably closer to PG-13 then R"Unrated means just that - unrated. If the version of the movie you are watching wasn't submitted to the MPAA and didn't get a rating from them, it's "unrated". The movie, despite having a rating when released in theaters, must be resubmitted to the MPAA if the movie on the DVD has been altered. Any "Director's Cut", unless the studio felt a need to get the film re-rated, will be listed as "Unrated Director's Cut". I think it's most often done (not getting the film re-rated) as a marketing tool; a way to trick consumers into thinking the "unrated" version of the film is going to be a lot more hardcore. "Unrated" has nothing to do with a movie having more of anything (violence, gore, nudity, sex, drugs, etc); it's simply a version of the film with added or extended scenes, or different takes, than what was used in the version screened by the MPAA. Now you know, you'll probably be a lot less eager to see that "unrated" version of "Coyote Ugly".
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just in case you guys forgot. I am a fat lazy fuck that treats this page as though i don't give a fuck about it cause i make enough money already... Oh yea, I don't give a fuck anymore. Hence why all the news on my page comes from either Variety or the Hollywood Reporter. No more inside news, only reviews in which I'm paid to say a shitty movie is good so you all go. Oh what a great life. I'm going to go eat some more and bath my disgusting fat ass in money. And if I ever get around to it, I'll update some things again really late, cause I can. so fuck all of you readers.
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in China. that's what a co-worker just told me. he had high b/p. The Chinese are going to ban the movie.i've had high blood pressure too but only had a slight headache from the 3-D. Guess i was lucky, but i'm watching you Cameron!
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Green Berets is classic.
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Well it was 08 but it wasn't released in NA until 09. I liked Halloween II but I fully realize it's a bad movie. I thought the cinematography was gorgeous, that was the main redeeming factor for me. Also Brad Dourif is always a joy to watch. But yeah, MARTYRS takes the cake for horror in a pretty weak year. I don't know what you people saw in DRAG ME TO HELL.
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we just came out of the Christmas season its a slow time of year for dvd's /music..Harry has a life outside of Aicn ya know cut the big man some slack he cant be on al the time..things are gonna pick up around february/march i assure you.
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...lol
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never seem to stem from plot or dialogue. They exist in a visual narrative separate from what's going on. By which I mean his Halloween (The First) is a weird meditation on the fragility of the human body and Halloween II is an equally strange meditation on the fragility of the human mind (See: The infamous car crash scene). I saw Halloween II as a supernatural manifestation of Laurie's survivor guilt. Michael Myer's is dead, he doesn't exist. It's all Laurie trying to scorch the earth of the pain her family has wrought. She's a rotting root, seeking to loosen her hold to this soil. I am not saying it's all in her mind. I am saying that she is the destroyer.
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because I couldn't take Zombie's "vision" anymore. I thought it was clever that he flipped what was the main criticism of the first (first half back story, second half a virtual remake), and contained the "Halloween 2 hospital rampage" to a dream sequence, although it did last too long (at about the 10 minute mark I was yelling "just wake up already"). It was his heavy handed use of the white horse imagery I could do without. Would a psychiatrist really hang a huge rorschach blot test as a decoration? One that is clearly two horses back-to-back? The repeated vision of Mrs. Zombie as an angelic vision was overdone. And the characters...Laurie became a whiny bitch whose response to her nightmares is to tell everyone to fuck off, Dr. Loomis becomes a media whore who tells everyone to fuck off, and Michael kills whatever repellent redneck his path crosses.. it was when he was smashing in the face of a stripper against a mirrored wall that I gave up on Zombie's revision.
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Jan 20, 2010 1:36:51 PM CST
Fuck "Halloween 2" and the white horse it rode in on!
by the reluctant austinite
Nuff said.
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Nicely done.
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Is that he really doesn’t have one that goes beyond staging scenes for maximum brutality. The psychology of his characters is poorly conceived and never goes beyond the superficial. Are we expected to believe that young Michael had a loving relationship with his mother and felt adoration for his baby sister? Sorry, but that’s not how the serial killer mindset works – it’s half-assed pop psychology with nary a real thought behind it. Same goes for Laurie in the sequel – she’s survived a murder spree yet has a placard of Charles Manson above her bed? Not buying it. And Loomis doesn’t even serve the story. The problem here is that Zombie doesn’t seem to care about theme or motivation – rather, he’s content to ape visuals from superior films (resulting in a lack of genuine atmosphere) and hang them on his empty scripts. In the case of H2, even the visuals were ugly and uninspired – it’s no surprise that much of the film was made up on the spot. There’s no “there” there. Part of it stems from the fact that he’s, frankly, not that thoughtful. When asked about his love for the horror genre in an interview, his response was “I just like things that are dark and fucked up.” I suppose that’s to be expected from a forty-something goth who’s notorious for flying into a frenzy at any poor review his films have gotten. Intellectually, he’s a blank slate, and emotionally, his ideas are base and uninvolving. I find it hilarious that his next project is an episode of CSI: MIAMI – he clearly thinks he’s the Tarantino of the horror crowd and is trying to follow a similar trajectory (Tarantino wrote and directed a CSI six years ago). The difference is that Tarantino is able to distill his influences and borrowings into distinctive storytelling that works on both and intellectual and visceral (and wonderfully visual) level.
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Jan 20, 2010 1:58:18 PM CST
Big Jim: The "unrated" version of Eurotrip was SUCH a cock-tease
by royston lodge
How dare they imply on the cover of the DVD that we'd see Michelle Trachtenberg topless, and then not deliver? HOW DARE THEY?!?!
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This one has been posted many times before, but I'm dragging it out again to prove that the Man has no vision beyond dollar signs. From a 2002 interview on remakes: “I feel it’s the worst thing any filmmaker can do. I actually got a call from my agent and they asked me if I wanted to be involved in a remake of CHAINSAW. I said no fucking way! Those movies are perfect — you’re only going to make yourself look like an asshole by remaking them. Go remake something that’s a piece of shit and make it good. Like with my movie I have elements of CHAINSAW in it because I love that movie so much, but I wouldn’t dare want to “remake” it. It’s like a band trying to be another band.”
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--my favorite bit of wisdom from Zombie's "H2" commentary is when he's talking about Malcolm McDowell's return in the sequel: "Most people thought he was dead at the end of the last one, but what can you do?" What can you do? That's as much thought as he put into ploting a deceased character's return. He just doesn't care. And thanks, lagomorph. I rest my case.
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The bright hyper-colored series? Zombie will direct only if there is a series of killings in trailer parks. Grungy, blue-gray trailer parks.
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It is a piece of shit propagandist movie, but at least it's something different from the sea of piece of shit propagandist movies Democrats love. A little variety doesn't hurt know what i'm saying.
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Jan 20, 2010 3:32:05 PM CST
Wow, don't overexert yourself on these reviews big guy...
by little beavis
I mean, seriously... maybe you should take another vacation?
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= more penis screen time.
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Yo, Harry, for real, GOOD LOOKIN' on that Mighty Mouse series.
Bakshi, John K, Stanton, Reardon, and somebody from the Batman animated series??
That's an All-Star game! Cripes! I had no idea about this....ordering it as soon as I've got money..
Thanks again for the heads-up! -
on my lap any day of the week.
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Supposedly, Bruce choreographed the hand-to-hand combat scene in "Green Beret." Not bad.
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I have always enjoyed this movie...fucking rocks. Total guilty pleasure. Wondering how good it looks on Blu-Ray. Let us know Harry.
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Because Oliver Stone, as opposed to John Wayne, actually served in Vietnam?
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Didn't want to risk it. It has a few vintage MM cartoons on it as well. I like everyone involved and the series is legendary, but is it actually good? Bakshi has some shit on his resume. Cool World anyone? Used to like Rob Zombie but his Halloween movies are shite. Ugly, loud and vulgar with little to like. Devil's Rejects gave me hope but Zombie pissed that away when he decided to "re-imagine" a perfect film (Carpenter's Halloween). I think he should be forced to direct a PG-13 movie next. If he could remove the word fuck from his films, would there be any dialogue at all?
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the complete series, for $40! Now that's fuckin' cool.
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GO TELL THE SPARTANS... Burt Lancaster in one of the first times a major Hollywood actor made an overtly anti-war movie. It also rings much truer than the melodramatic Deer Hunter and Coming Home. Perhaps because it lacked the big name talent attached to those films, its been forgotten.
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Julia Stiles still has a career??? She's the Leelee Sobieski of the 00's.
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When it came out in '99, I didn't think I'd like it, so I didn't see it at the theater. But one day a few years ago, while flipping through the channels looking for something to watch, I caught it on TBS or something and it's pretty good.
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...do blow by sticking their nose into a cape and sniffing. I mean, he didn't even have a mirror, a straw, a rolled up green piece of paper with a big dollar sign on it... nothing!
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It is what it is and it is of it's time. Cute li'l teen rom-com from the end of the 90's when all we wanted to do was listen to Blink 182 and party with all the money we were making from doing nothing. You know, back in the day when this country actually had an economy. You kids that came up in the "Big Zero" will never understand.
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Naw man, Bakshi's MM is classic. Get it just for the Batbat eps or the one where MM got sucked into a TV and spent the entire time going from one hilarious parody of 80's Saturday morning cartoons to the other. Examples: The Jetstones and Ring-a-Ding, the mystery-solving great dane and his team of "ethnically diverse" ghost detectives. All gut-busting stuff.
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Halloween 2. Number One American Horror Movie of 2009. Too much cussing. Hardly any compared to the original remake. Why don't you count the fucks in the Big Labowski sometime. Characters weren't likeable. Since when do they have to be hamfisted "like" me types to be worthy of screen time. Everyone was damaged. Redneck. ok yeah sure. The one scene in the wheat field was rednecks. Loomis selling out upset you? why because he wasn't anything like the original maybe. Keep talking shit. Laurie got enough image feedback from the Devil Walks Among Us book to create the visions of her mother and younger version of her brother. I'm sure she saw tons of media coverage on the event as well. The mason poster in her room not being something a victim of her circumstances would have. If you say so and who's to say it wasn't Annies or fuck something Lynda might have had that Laurie kept or saved. So again more projecting, more reaching and mainly bitching about changes. also the deaths- they were oh fun serial killing bullshit. Well the bodyguard was kind of entertaining but not intentionally. Most of the deaths were very depressing in fact the whole movie is depressing and that is the point. It's not supposed to be fun to see people being hurt. Sorry rob didnt make it all pg family safe boo's and scares for you. Sorry he ingored some of his choices in his remake to continue the stories of those characters. Now fuck off!
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Halloween 2. Number One American Horror Movie of 2009. "Too much cussing" Hardly any compared to the original remake. Why don't you count the fucks in the Big Labowski sometime. "Characters weren't likeable" Since when do they have to be hamfisted "like" me types to be worthy of screen time.
Everyone was damaged. "Field Drifting Redneck murderspree"
OK, yeah sure. The one scene in the wheat field was rednecks. Loomis selling out upset you? Why because he wasn't anything like the original maybe. Keep talking shit. Laurie got enough image feedback from the Devil Walks Among Us book to create the visions of her mother and younger version of her brother. I'm sure she saw tons of media coverage on the event as well shortly after it happened. Surely the town had a few news crews show up.
The manson poster in her room not being something a victim of her circumstances would have. If you say so, and who's to say it wasn't Annies or fuck, something Lynda might have had that Laurie kept or saved. So again more projecting, more reaching and mainly bitching about changes. Also the deaths. They were not fun serial killing horror movie bullshit. Well the bodyguard was kind of entertaining but not intentionally. Most of the deaths were very depressing and plain becuase this isnt a Friday 13th film!!! Where the kills and there inventivness are the reason to watch the movie. In fact the whole movie is depressing and that is the point. It's not supposed to be fun to see people being hurt. Sorry Rob didnt make it all pg family safe boo's and scares for you, sorry he didnt make it a a f13 clone either. Sorry he ingored some of his choices in his remake to continue the stories of those characters. Oh yeah, and since this is an edit to fix my drunkish type. Fuck off twice!!!! -
Rob Zombie himself? Haha.
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Represent'n 2010!
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Jan 21, 2010 1:11:33 AM CST
Mighty Mouse was great in the 80s, not sure how it holds up.
by flim springfield
I used to tape it every week and watched it over and over. It was obvious they had a great time making it, which made it fun to watch.
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The one with Traci Lords
you were gonna let us know how it was iirc -
Avatar was actually worth it. Not so much with TFD. Lazy movie, even worse than 3.
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maybe its just me but I had a better time watching cloudy with a chance of meatballs in 3d in the cinema than I did watching Up in 3d at the cinema. I just though Up was overly sentimental and felt heavy and manipulative at times... whereas meatballs has some suprisingly witty writing in there... eh thats my 2 cents worth.
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before february?
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Jan 21, 2010 9:08:24 AM CST
i think i have it figured out on why the columns run late...
by six demon bag
harry gets a percentage from the sales so if he delays them a week or two, the products price wont be as low as it is in the first sales week...if he delays he gets a few more sheckles!
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I'm not knocking the movie (because truth be told I haven't seen it), but does it really need to be seen in hi def? methinks romantic comedies are fine on dvd, release more movies that take advantage of the format like say I don't know a little movie called Raiders of The Lost Ark? you might have heard of it
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Isn't Leelee Sobieski the Leelee Sobieski of the 00's?The_Crimson_King, I think it's because it's a 10th anniversary release, capitalizing on that as well as Heath Ledger's death last year. New release, might as well put it out on the new format too.
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I have been a longtime reader of this site. The main reason I came to this site was to read Harry's reviews of movies and DVDs. I found I had similar tastes in movies as he did, so I could count on his reviews to inform me of which movies to seek out and which to avoid. Over the years, Harry has been contributing less and less on this site. Sure, there are other people doing reviews, but they all have differing tastes. I might as well go to RottenTomatoes and pick a review at random. There is no consistency with my tastes, so the reviews are less valuable to me. Harry gained his notoriety through this website and people like me who frequent it. I hope he doesn't forget us lowly readers who supported him.
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Jan 21, 2010 11:41:46 AM CST
Big Jim is that an Under The Dome reference perhaps?
by the_crimson_king
Heath is now eating mashed potatoes and roast beef with the lord!
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Everything should be watched in Hi-Def. There is absolutely no reason anymore to watch anything in standard definition. It's not a matter of what type of movie or show you're watching, it's just a matter of quality. It's like saying VHS tapes should still be as plentiful as DVD's because it's not "necessary" for some movies to be watched on DVD. Now that we have the exquisite picture quality readily available to us and it's getting to be just as cheap as standard def, why the fuck wouldn't you want everything on Blu-Ray? The obvious exception is porn. (SHUDDER) Yuck, porn is fucking rancid in high def, lol. Tit surgery scars, cellulite
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Bakshi 'Mighty Mouse!'
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Nor read TB's too good.
H1- 62 F-words H2 - About 112 F-words and its derivatives (including two stickers with the F-word printed on them). -
Not having read it, I can honestly say "No" (waiting on the paperback). However, I now have a craving for roast beef and mashed potatoes.
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asked me if that's why I chose that name. It's not. It's a play on my own name - using the name of the Mattel action figure of the 70s. And no, no one in the real world calls me that (although I do have pictures of me as a kid wearing a Big Jim T-shirt)
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I saw it 3 times in the theater. It, like Kung FU Panda before it, surprised the crap out of me. I like Cloudy more than KFP but they are both in my blu ray rotation. I LOVE the whole ice cream fight scene and Mr.T steals every scene his voice is in. LOVED IT.
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Isn't that the name of the black superstud featured in Kentucky Fried Movie?
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Shit man, that makes it a must fuckin' buy!
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I think we've disagreed in the past, but man, I'm with you there.
It can be as simple as this: Do you think kitchen sink dramas, comedies and talking heads stories are worth seeing at the movies? Then they're worth seeing on Bd as HD is reasonably analogous to film's 2k (2048 as opposed to 1920 pixels - everything pretty much goes through a digital grade these days @ 2k). In non-nerd terms, if it was worth seeing at the flicks it's worth seeing in HD as that's the closest thing. Same goes for the sound.
Getting further away from technicalities, even in a talking head drama (where acting/emoting is more subtle), you DO benefit by seeing the smallest fleeting expressions and hearing the slightest intonation. And at the end of the day, you just can't DEFEND something being LESS faithful to the original intent on any level. The technical parts DO support the creative. You can say it doesn't matter to you and acknowledge your opinion is therefore invalid (how can you be entitled to pass judgement on something you have no honest interest in?), but you can't DEFEND or make a case. That's ludicrous! -
in quite a funny role. No mention of this??
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i saw it during the extended theatrical release, midnight on halloween night, lit to the dickens... and i found it enjoyable under those pretenses. which just goes to show how much certain circumstances can effect your enjoyment of a movie. i'm a huge fan of the series, i love every last terrible installment... i'll even watch season of the witch or resurrection when they're on TV. so i'm biased to begin with. but when I bought "Halloween 2" on DVD to complete my collection and watched it a second time(not stoned, mind you), i was so utterly bored. I was in the camp that was excited to see Zombie really take the film into his own, but he proves that he can't do it by making the opening "dream sequence" be the only entertaining bit of the movie. which is a shame, because it is an AWESOME opening. after that, it goes dramatically down hill. Myers rarely wears his mask, Tyler Bates's score is so horribly uncomplimentary, Loomis is made into a douchebag comic relief fuckwad(Brackett essentially becomes what Loomis was in the originals), and it just drags from one stagnant set piece to the next. such a shame. unfortunately, it likely won't get any better, because Patrick Lussier is one of the worst horror directors working today. if anyone had any sense, they'd give this series to Bryan Bertino.
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"That said That said That said That said That said That said" I've still said "that said" less than Harry said in that entire review.
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yeah, I guess you're right
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