Big Review- Scary Godmother

referring back to holiday specials lets take a look at one of my all time, if not my very favorite specials, scary godmother: halloween spooktacular. the special is a cell shaded animated one hour long program that runs every halloween season during its withering days. now i feel a bit bad for this year because i missed the entire beginning and caught the ending (as well as narrowly avoiding getting the chowder theme stuck in my head as it blared right after the special) hopefully this special will air again either tomorrow or saturday (halloween). i missed my ritual. so lets talk about the special in detail. scary godmother is an hour long with commercial breaks meaning it actually clocks in at about 45-50 minutes which in my books its a little short but hey its longer than monsters vs aliens MPFOS. the special looks and feels like no other program because of the animation style. who you can give visionary credit to Jill Thompson responsible for amazing sandman related books like "death at deaths door" and "dead boy detectives". she also wrote a childrens book based off of neil gaimans sandman series entitled the "little endless storybook" reading this for the first time was coincidentally the first time i had a nerdgasm. she is very visionary and that special style could have been left to regular animation, but i think they went one more step out of the way just to appeal to the creativity within the source material. oh, by the way apparently there was a line of "scary godmother" childrens graphic novels before this movie, making this a comic book movie review (OH WHAT FUN!). so the special starts off promising by introducing you to some obnoxious kids and the most adorable animated little girl in the world, hannah. Hannah is like a bratz doll on crack (crackz) her eyes are like 80 % of her head and her voice is so cute it beats edward's from "rock-a-doodle".



the kids are out trick-or-treating when the lead kid jimmy decides to be a dickhole and makes hannah go into this haunted house, once hannah is in this house she discovers the fantastic world known as the "fright side". inside the fright side are all sorts of crazy quirky characters for hannah to meet. i'll give you the rundown:

scary godmother: the titular character is a fun loving at times motherly acting person. she enjoys all the simpler things in life like, carving pumpkins, dancing, and... well thats pretty much her range. sometimes she freaks me out. like in the scene where she gets mad at harry for eating all the desserts, she almost was like a really angry mother. and really angry mothers are scary. if momma aint happy, no ones happy.
Mr scully pettibone: the gay stereotype of this movie, mr scully is the chef, he sings showtunes, he acts really flamery and then the special just kind of ends. he is a skeleton and a rather boring one at that since nothing he really does pushes plot points. but in this special i dont think anyone pushes anything of a plot point. and also why are most skeletons gay in pop culture? its weird... definetly something to look into.


bug-a-boo: bug-a-boo belongs where the wild things are no questions. he looks like a Maurice Sendak creature. he has a bunch of eyes, a mouth that goes from ear to ear, and horns. bug is an under the bed monster. sort of like monsters inc only all he does is scare kids and theres no real benefit from it. i think he gets off on it.
harry: screw harry because whenever he is on screen i want to shut the special off and never watch it again, he is an over dramatic werewolf who is an attention grabbing jerk. also for some reason he is always hungry, and i dont know if thats because he is a werewolf or just because its stupid.
the vampires: i have nothing to say about the vampires because i hate them. orson especially who almost becomes hannah's love interest or something. its dumb, an hour long special does not need a love interest between to little kids... this isnt my girl. still i have to admit the design on them is okay, i like their twisted bodies which almost remind me of nosferatu.



so thats the "broomates" as godmother calls them. each has their own perk and each is pretty watered down, but that doesent mean its still not a great special. actually, a witch, a skeleton, a werewolf, a monster and some vampires... why not add a ghost cat? oh... they have one. thats like hitting two birds with one stone. this special is so ridiculously Cliche' they should have called it; "scaryotypical cliche' halloween Schlocktacular" that would have at least readied me for the large amounts of halloween myth that was to be stereotyped. and its not parody, i mean not all of it. throwing aside the cliche elements and the somewhat annoying characters the special has a lot of meat and superb humor. there is one scene for instance where the bullies are deciding on a new leader, when they vote they all vote for themselves (with exception to the boy and girl who vote for each other and dont vote for themselves as well) so then they play rock paper scissors but all keep choosing rock. the humor in this special is appealing in the sense that its awkward and tongue in cheek. it seems to have its own visual take on halloween and i like that. it doesent try to be the next best thing but rather becomes its own special kind magic. its one i watch yearly, from 2003 to now. i hope it becomes a tradition with cartoon network to air every year (hasn't stopped'em yet) forever but you never know.

there was a sequel special entitled "scary godmother 2: revenge of jimmy" but it sucked so i wont talk about it. maybe next year if i catch it i will do a full review but i just dont remember it well enough to care. anyways, have a great halloween, i will be back tomorrow to review one more movie, and then again on halloween to do a full "halloween retrospective" based on 2009's season'o'scares until next time (tomorrow) this is leatherman signing off!

Monsters Vs Aliens: Halloween Special

remember holiday specials? like the "he-man and she ra christmas special" or "the great pumpkin. thank god we live in a world with Holiday specials done right. point in place monsters vs aliens: mutant pumpkins from outer space.



i only just heard about this special today, so you can imagine how ecstatic i was to watch it. basically because the original film had such a tongue in cheek spin on the sci-fi genre and all of its cliche', i thought, a halloween special would mean that they would use that same genius to find the humorous cliche in horror movies. and they did. the special takes place after the movie (and i guess after "bobs big break") as the whole cast returns to play their respective character. and thats really nice because "penguins of madagascar" has no original actors. so plot? well i guess alien pumpkins land in modesto and susan, dr cockroach, link, insectosauraus, and bob have to go stop it. all the monsters have one reason or another for being excited to return to suburbia for halloween. susan wants to see her parents, bob wants candy, link wants to scare little kids, and dr cockroach... well.. i think he just wants to chillax.



so everyone kind of runs wild until all hell brakes loose and this evil pumpkin named wicked jack starts wreaking havoc on the little neighborhood. it isnt until later that we figure out feeding it candy makes it grow and that becomes the prime objective is to make it bigger and bigger and bigger... for... some reason. okay so i dont understand the weakness but hey at least they tried.




so yeah the monsters get the neighborhood kids to throw candy at the monster so it will grow, the monster crushes one of susan's parent's decorations, susan gets pissy, knocks wicked jack's head off and then insecto is like BOOOOOOOOOOOOM and eats it or some shit and candy rains on the neigborhood. the special ends with some tried and true humor that the original movie sported.




this special is, well special! i havent seen a holiday specific special that wasnt part of a seasoned show. its got great humor and has a really good satire on the horror genre. jokes include a reference to children of the corn (cleverly subbed "children of the candy corn"), and a really good reference to the "halloween" film series that i wont even ruin for you. overall if this special gets shown again this halloween season, set the reminder make some popcorn and tune in. its one not to miss. while halloween season is welcoming its final days, its nice to see something encompassing the entire holiday in just 30 minutes.

Rating: GIVE IT A WATCH!

11 days of halloween- basket case

ahh welcome to the eleven days of halloween. i love halloween season, its just, great. its the only time of the year i want to watch people get disembowled, decapitated, or any other gruesome deaths starting with a D. but in the mix of horror movies i have found one that seems to be, unique. lets talk about brotherhood, lets talk about caring for your little brother and protecting him no matter what. lets talk about basket case.

basket case is exactly the kind of movie i want to watch as soon as october 6th rolls around the calender. why october 6th? idk...... anyways, basket case is about this guy who is a deranged sociopath bent on killing 3 doctors who seperated him and his siamese twin brother, his father wanted the siamese brother (a deformed lump of flesh) to die within this operation but, no go! the brother lived and now they are out for revenge. i am so surprised at the fact that this is not a "full moon pictures movie" or a "Troma team release" someone else is making derranged shit like this too! this is exactly the type of movie those two companies would release. the gore scenes are nothing but the brother rubbing blood all over the victims face and growling. but its so cheesy that you cant look away. i cant wait to see the sequels and who knows maybe they might pop in one of my other reviews this month. but for the 11th day of halloween i choose basket case.

DVD: 5 out of 5 if you get the something weird release (something weird is known for releasing "scare films" and gratuitous pornography) i unfortunately cant talk much about any other releases.

God save me now if you love me... Oh i see how it is.!.

Today i was watching movies that didn't suck dinosaur balls.

It all started with

• X-Men Origins
• The Simpson's Tree House of Horror V, VI, VII, XII
• The Brothers Grimm
• Blade II
• Blade Trinity
• and Big Daddy (didn't watch)

X-Men was ok i didn't complain it wasn't shitty but it the CLAWS FUCK THEY WERE HELLA FAKE YOU COULD TELL that is all.

The Simpsons enough said.

The Brothers Grimm i love this movie so much it shows the darker side of fairy tales and you need to add this to your collection today like now. youll love it too

The Blade Series

Ok Wesley Snipes KILLS other vampires and hes a MOTHERFUCKING hybrid half human half vamp how fucking cool is that but now they change theyre weaknesss on us its silver(werewolf), garlic, and UV light(last 2 are still the same at last) but its just kick ass in general and some of the weapons and twists in the plots ive seen these at least 10 times already and im still shock at what happens

LASTLY

FUCK YOU ADAM SANDLER!!!

Kids in The Hall

You may probably know that i absolutely cannot stand sketch comedy shows. i especially hate sketch comedy shows gone bad. thus is the case with undesirable crap like Mad TV and even some later SNL stuff. the problem is it is all pretty much watered down and unoriginal. the parodies of popular movies, or tv shows get really stale quick. thankfully theres one comedy troupe that fails to succumb to bad jokes and corny punchlines, the kids in the hall!

ok ok, so yeah, some of these jokes are actually really bad. its probably a good idea to call this show hit and miss. because there are some super bland jokes in this series. for instance the guy with the cabbage for a head. totally lame. the two geralds... actually i really liked that one. some of these sketches will have you staring at the screen blankly. its like your supposed to laugh... you just dont know when and before you figure out when the sketch is over.

the cast is magnificent and i consider this to be the canadian monty python (monty python is my favorite comedy troupe) dave foley(sky high), kevin mcdonald (lilo and stitch), bruce mcculoch (the director of stealing harvard) and two other guys whose names are to tiny for me to remember. but, i still love them. its just those five guys to, i mean occasionally there will be an extra filling in as a characters wife (but usually one of the kids plays a girl) or some children in a school scene or
what not. but most of the time its just 5 guys doing absolutely surreal comedy.



so what are my favorite sketches? well i really like the "explore scott" sketch, its sort of like something you would see if you popped in a gay version of girls gone wild. its so surreal and unsettling that it makes you laugh nervously and i love it. another one of my favorites is "can we keep him" where bruce finds a stray business man and keeps him as a pet until he must release him back into the number crunching world, again very surreal. if i had to choose a third favorite to talk about briefly i would have to go with the one most people remember. the head crushing guy. if you have put your fingers close to your eyes and made it look like you were crushing someone in the distances head, then you already know its funny, but imagine a guy, kinda foreign, doing this just because he has nothing better to do, and there you go. you have an iconic comedy piece like *snaps fingers* that!

so what does it boil down to? about 5 LOLs in each episode, 12 nervous laughs, and about 6 minutes where you stare at the screen blankly because nothing funny is happening. the DVD set is great to and it has my favorite feature for someone like me who doesent have a DVD remote. automatic scrolling episode list! after i finish one episode it will automatically scroll to the next on the list instead of staying in the same spot. gotta love it.

if you can find this set for a price like i did definetly pick it up. its funny and very surreal, if your into that sort of thing.

"explore scott"

The Doll Master (인형사 Inhyeongsa)

"Five young people are invited to a remote doll museum to be models for dolls. Here they meet a strange doll maker in a wheelchair and several other people. The five young visitors later find that they all came from the same village, and all know a common story: A doll has its own spirit. Then one by one, each is mysteriously killed. The last few survivors find out the truth: dolls do have spirits, and they have come to settle some old scores." -wikipedia

The Doll Master, a creative Korean horror movie for people in love with dolls like myself will really make you look at your doll in another light. The basis of the story was based on that all dolls have souls. I myself collect the dolls in the movie which are shown in the picture. I am probably the biggest chicken in the world when it comes to horror movies but when I heard of this movie with Ball Jointed Dolls I just HAD to give it a try. 

The movie started out nicely, it gave nice foreshadowing in the beginning that would tie up the loose ends in the end of the story (if you paid attention) and slowly went into the story. I thought that it wasn't terribly scary just very bloody and more over depressing.

Though it is stated that these dolls are decades old, its rather that these dolls are modern Asian Ball Jointed Dolls. I own three of them, they are expensive high quality resin artistic dolls. Everything from hair, eyes, body parts and make up is customizable. For more info on them Den of Angels is a great place to go if you're interested. 

Continuing back to the movie, the story went on into how one of the girls who was at the museum found her old doll Mina as a spirit and the doll believed she was abandoned and wanted to be with her owner. It really went into how humans neglect a lot of things that lose value over time. 

The character eccentricities were fun to, you had a little bit of everything from the outcast to the dumb blond. Though ultimately like any other horror movie quite a few people were killed by the end.

My biggest downer was I couldn't find anywhere other than youtube that had a subbed version of this movie since it is in Korean, the subbed version on youtube is 7 seconds off and it really took away from the movie, I'm trying to find my own copy of it so I can upload my own version for people.

For people who are terrified of dolls...this may not be the best movie for you, but for those who collect these dolls, it really shows you another side of them. So I give this movie a 4/5 and would watch it again any day.

Here is the trailer of it, non subbed but shows some ideas in it.

 

Until next time

~Himeko

Saw IV- my totally F*cked up adventure

today i was looking around in video one for something cheap and entertaining and i came across something that intrigued me. something that screamed:

"JAMES! BUY ME!"

now normally i dont buy yelling DVD's (its just creepy when they do that) but this saw IV collectors edition was a no pass. why? because it was totally F*CKED up.

let me first summarize totally F*CKED up for you. TFU (for short) is a new series in which i find really jacked up dvds and review them. i have a hunch that i will start finding a lot of these at video one, which is like... a graveyard for DVDs. so... anyone see that awesome movie SAW? yeah... the one with the gripping story, melodramatic characters, and nailbiting traps and gore? saw IV is nothing like that, its the creme de la shit in this film series. no wonder this copy i bought looks like its been run over by a bulldozer. lets start off by looking at the amazing slip case.



as you can see it has a lovely picture of a disembodied head, and blood splatters that are actually part of the cover itself. what you dont see is the thick layer of dirt surrounding the outer edges. i actually dont have much to say about this part because its the least F*cked up of the bunch. so the slipcase gets a pass. i wish i could say the same for the inlet.



have you ever gotten a book wet? and then let the pages dry only to have them become crispy and stale? yeah someone left this thing in the rain, i have no doubt in my mind that this very copy of saw IV was left out in the rain, that explains the crispy inlet, that explains the mud, that explains the smudged film cell.



the film cell! oh how i have always wanted a film cell! and look at my very first one! aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! ewwww! it looks like someone threw up on it. actually i kind of want to frame it. you know what? i am going to frame it! i mean its my first film cell, and, part of my film collection, and it did something in its existence so..... why not?



which brings me to the final piece.. the disc! the most important part of any DVD purchase, and the most scratched up disc i have ever owned. actually its not bad so far it has played through fine... but that was on my good DVD player, i havent tested it on my POS player. however this item like the others was caked in dirt mud and a toothpaste style... crust. nasty...

so really thats it... its just... dry. and not normal dry like at one point it was really wet, and know it is dry. the disc is scratched up, the fim cell looks like the wicked with during the whole melting phase, and the case is really awful. like i cant even put the disc in it without making new scratches. if anyone wants this disc i might consider selling it on ebay. because it is (for now) the most F*cked up DVD in my collection. and it needs a good home :) until next time.. keep F*cking up DVDs, so i can buy'em. ;]