So many stories have more to tell. Vast number of characters
we wonder what happened after the ending credits. Joe Dirt’s (2001) continuing
story needed to be told (Kid Rock you suck for not coming back for the second
movie!) God Damnit Not you Jason, No one cares! Now Cole on the other hand what
happens after your freaky hot and super cool babysitter tried to have her way
with you? Did that propel you to become the cool kid at school? Did you join
forces with other badass teenagers throw on some spandex to fight evil? Did you
finally write the song that would united the world? (oh, wait wrong movie….)
It's kinda of a joke IMDB only has this rated 5.9, with the
tomato meter at 46%. Y’all not mad at Netflix for destroying your business
model are ya? The studio system has for a long time messed up movies, forced
actors into shitty roles, interfered with the filming, and butchered the
editing (all Sam Peckinpah movies) and if god forbid a classic was made, they
made sure the original people that made it a classic was no where near the
remake. Every horror franchise ever except Saw (2004) which is why it is one of
the highest grossing horror franchises and one of the newest.
It is awesome to see this awesome cast back again. Ken
Marino has been crankin out several movies a year for over twenty years. Bad
Milo (2013) is a must to check out. Robbie Amell only has a few scenes, and
each one kills. Both Samara Weaving and Emily Alyn Lind both come back looking
cute as ever with massive twists for their characters. Several newbies most
notably Jenna Ortega playing the anti-social bad girl way better than Megan Fox
ever could. Her character Phoebe is going to be a lot of fun to watch in the
third movie.
The Director McG keeps it close to the Two and a Half Men
(2003-20015) formula. Really cute girls, bad jokes, absolute craziness it just
seems so simple someone has to do make it. And I glad he did. I’m going to
watch this movie again.
And remember freshman year is hard on everybody! Can’t wait
for Junior Year!
Aliens are here and they want to PARTY! Cross between ‘Men
In Black’ (1997) and ‘Train Spotting’ (1996) with a dash of ‘Forrest Gump’
(1994) thrown in. This is a crazy movie that’s going its own way. And Barry is
possessed to party.
Barry is a small-time hustler, big time drug user with
little use for his family. The Aliens have no clue what hustling is, they love
partying, and weirdly have plenty of “use” for his family. Really like probing
humans, but one can only do that for so many hours of the day. Maybe the
probing machine needs to be recalibrated, recertified for high precision
probing. You know after all those probing accidents in the 50’s and people
remembering in the 80’s. If the probing machine gets too hot, bad things
happen.
Barry is played by Gary Green, in his first staring role.
And I believe! An alien walking around in a meat suite. Seeing everything for
the first time. New to the world. Each corner brings fresh strange happenings.
Without social norms or restrictions. Just Peter Cotton Tail following his nose,
in the red-light district with a dealer on every corner, good times.
Filmed in South Africa for 1,000 Rand (fifty-seven US
Dollars) shows once again a good director doesn’t need Hollywood and Hollywood
makes crap! Ryan Kruger has numerous acting credits, best known for Blood Shot
(2020). Apparently also South African hottest music video director.
Fried Barry is not for the weak, not for the smart either.
Seeing an alien reproduce is something you can’t stop thinking about. Even when
you want to, trying to eat a meatball Hot Pocket, trying to sleep, in the
middle of the night……
Full Moon helmed by Charles Band has been entertaining
horror fans for almost forty years. The secret formula is surprisingly simple,
blood, beautiful women, ridiculous stories with a few dashes of boobs, perversion
and camp. The Bandiverse has multiple franchises, other studios have spent
millions trying to create profitable franchises. FMEU has Puppet Master,
Dollman, Trancers, Subspecies, Evil Bong, Killjoy, Demonic Toys, and Gingerdead.
Not to mention the other divisions like Moonbeam and Torchlight.
The eleventh Puppet Master movie proves kill’in Nazis never
gets old. The Nazis are losing WW2 and are desperate to afflict loses on the Americans.
Their master plans are quickly coming to fruition. Annihilation by Death-Ray or
reanimated monsters. Which one will be completed first and can anyone stop it,
much less survive the madness?
Full Moon not only perfected the straight to video home
market. But they were able to maximize the VHS and later DVD format. With previews
of their upcoming films in development and special features, like Full Moon
Video Zone, making of and ways to purchase merchandise way before the internet
made getting your favorite movie swag so common .
The casting of a Full Moon movie normally gets a handful of
familiar faces along with up and coming new talent. Blade Iron Cross has actors
that have been around but no one except their agent and mother would recognize them.
The stand out is Tania Fox. Following a long history of woman too beautiful to
be in a low budget Charles Band movie. Something about beautiful people make a
movie easier to watch. Ms. Fox is a big reason this film is so entertaining.
For Boomers watching one of these movies, takes us back to
late night sleepovers, watching a tape our parents wouldn’t approve of, on a
massive sugar high and on a 4:3 ratio backbreaker TV. For Millennials, Z’s and
whatever the next too-easy-to-offend generation is, you’re going to be
triggered, offended, traumatized, with the safe space being the stop button.
But you’re gonna love it!
"Booze, Broads and Blackjack" is entertaining and easy to watch. Movies like these are the reason cinema was created for the masses, and proof God loves us. No better way to waste a work night (or an epidemic) than plopping down and watching art happen. Director Rickey Bird has dropped several easter eggs throughout the movie as well as several cameos by himself and writer Carl Nicita. "Booze, Broads, and Blackjack" is just an all-around enjoyable movie. The Hectic Film crew made the impossible happen once again, even though they got their film trailer stolen like ten times during production (even saw a video of it being dragged off even though it was chained to a car).
Making a movie based on a book can provide huge challenges. Authors don't have to worry about the cost associated with multiple scenes and wardrobe changes, not to mention exotic foreign locales. When laying ink down on paper, or keystrokes on the magical glowing box that brings me endless joy, it's easy to dream up islands floating in the sky inhabited by blue creatures, huge castles with dragons flying overhead, a spaceship infested with alien life, or even blowing up much loved cultural landmarks throughout the world. Authors don't have to plan to fly a cast and crew to Las Vegas, nor do they have to worry about feeding and lodging arrangements. Set building and CGI is just a stroke of a pen to them.
Director Rickey Bird and Writer Carl Nicita
At the same time, book to film adaptations create an opportunity to enhance the original story. Stephen King movies have greatly benefited from legendary directors improving on the source material. King's movies wouldn't have done so well without great talent behind the camera; "Carrie" (1976) had Brian De Palma, "The Shining'"(1980) had Stanley Kubrick, "Creepshow" (1982) had George Romero, "Christine" (1983) had John Carpenter, "Misery" (1990) Rob Reiner, both "The Green Mile" (1999) and "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994) were done by Frank Darabont.
"Booze, Broads and Blackjack" also took the opportunity to improve on the book. In particular, the character of Savannah in the book was too consequential and random. While reading the book, I really wanted her to turn into the psycho stalker from "Play Misty for Me" (1971) starring and directed by Clint Eastwood. Also fixed was the too cool for school, mister perfect, Jack King. Flawless characters are boring to watch. One reason "Breaking Bad" (2008-2013) was so good was because every character was frustratingly flawed. Jack transformed into the lovable spoiled screwup, who does everything he shouldn't. The movie fixed a couple plot points that didn't quite work. The book also had a bunch of awesome music interwoven into the story, songs that even a major Hollywood movie would have had issues getting the rights to, which this film did a great job working around. The music provided by Ghost Coast Productions, while not as legendary as the classics named in the book, did a great job filling the void.
Another reason "Booze, Broads and Blackjack" is so enjoyable to watch are all the beautiful women in the movie; Felissa Rose "Sleep Away Camp" (1983) and "Killer Rose" (2020), Erica Rey "Machine Gun Baby" (2018), and Sarah French "Rootwood" (2018). All too often, movies lacking million dollar budgets have problems attracting beautiful talent. Beautiful people are so much easier to watch. Plus a bunch of cool transition scenes helped the viewing experience.
Also helping the viewing experience are Vincent Pastore and James Duval. Mr. Pastore has had a long and legendary acting career that jumped back and forth between big-budget Hollywood and indie productions. He did a cameo in an awesome movie reviewed here a couple years back called "Pitching Tents" (2017), check it out if you missed it. Because let's face it, we have seen all of his epic roles. Mr. Duval's Generation X social commentary cult classics led an entire generation into the decline of western civilization as we now know it. Seriously, if you haven't watched "The Doom Generation" (1995), otherwise known as Rose McGowan's first real role, or "SLC Punk" (1999), having lived in Salt Lake the repressed Mormon teens come out when the sun goes down (shhhh don't tell the church), still have fond memories of seeing punk bands in cramped basements.
A master class in film making. A ride
through all emotions, peak and valleys, funny at times and deeply
thoughtful at others. Each frame is visually interesting and showing
the continuing not so subtle class struggle theme. A quote I heard
recently "to each complex problem there are easy and wrong
answers", which seems to fit so much of this movie.
Joon-ho Bong has quietly become one of
the best international directors behind only Guillermo del Toro
'Pan's Labyrinth' (2006) and 'Devil's Backbone' (2001). If you don't
know either one of these directors, fire up Google, Netflix, Red Box,
cable movie channel, or make a trip to Wal-Mart. Joon-ho has written
and directed some fantastic movies, including 'The Host' (2006) and
'Snowpiercer' (2013) often with themes of working-class or poor
struggling.
Following a broke unemployed family who
has to hustle to survive. A bit of good fortune gets them in with a
rich family. Neither family is portrayed as good or evil nor smart or
dumb. Too often in depictions of class struggle, the poor are dumb and
the rich are evil. Here we see the Kim family quickly motivated to
help each other out with numerous ingenious schemes, with each
family member contributing in his own way. The Park family busy
dealing with their own issues, having a large household tends to lead
to many things coming up. Simple things can have very different meanings depending on where one lives.
While very sympathetic to the Kim
family, it slowly unravels an uncomfortable truth. True they are a
tight family who quickly helps each other. But, the person who
introduces them to the Park family is quickly betrayed. They are
ruthless in dispatching people in their way without a care. At one
point a neighbor needs help getting his loaded bicycle up the stairs,
they all rush past, not sparing ten seconds to help someone they
know. Each member is desperate to get a job so they can eat, at first.
That quickly gives way to taking advantage any way they can with
quickly looking down at the Park family for being naive. Within a
short time putting their new-found prosperity a risk. The father
Ki-taek who tries to be on his best behavior still is kind of rude,
disrespectful, lazy, has a body odor problem and is quick to point
the finger at someone else. To be fair the viewer sees how bad their
lives suck, the struggle is real!
The movie takes a rollercoaster series
of sharp dark turns. I love it when I can't tell where a movie is
going. It ends in a deeply depressing thud. A promise is made, that
is hopeful and quickly uplifting, but much like in 'Death of
Salesman' an empty promise without merit. That leaves nothing but
sorrow and sadness, that can't be fulfilled. All the dark turns and
mayhem but nothing compares to the stark realization for the
survivers.
A female-driven Ozploitation movie with
strong social commentary on how quick we are to judge others. Even
facing imminent death these girls can't stop their SJW crusade or
work together to live. The movie unfolds several twists on the
'hunting humans for sport' genre. On top of our heroine Kayla having
inopportune seizures. With each girl having a different idea on what
they need to do to survive.
The director, Tony D'Aquino, does a
good job of drawing the audience in. From (shocker) the girls doing
dumb things to get themselves killed to Kayla's (Airlie Dodds)
epileptic fits as a beast with a machete is chasing her. There are a
few well-timed moments of comic relief. He also tips the hat to
several horror movie classics.
Unfortunately, this movie doesn't do
enough to stand out, with so many horror movies being released just
being good doesn't make the cut. Lost in a pool of blood with other
movies, 'Satanic Panic' (2019), 'Tone-Deaf' (2019), 'Riot Girls'
(2019), Witches in the Woods' (2019), 'Burn' (2019), 'Escape from
Cannibal Farm' (2019), 'Quarries' (2019), 'Camp Wedding' (2019), and
'Banana Splits Movie' (2019) give viewers no shortage of options.
There just isn't enough time to watch them all.
The only real thing that bugs me in any
movie like this, is showing tech that would require a full surgical
team to implant. The costs would be astronomical. Plus the likelihood
of failure and death. A missed opportunity, if a bunch of guys are
running a human hunting channel online for other dudes to watch they
would make the girls wear something more interesting than just the
"street" clothes they were wearing when they got snatched.
Any viewer of a reality show knows you have to meet the contestants.
Tony missed some easy film time that could have brought a little more
fun to this movie.
If you can make past the slow start
this movie is worth watching. As with a large number of Sylvester
Stallone movies (see Rambo Last Blood for a prime example), the
people who made this movie wish they spent a little more time
developing the script and characters.
A movie that starts out with 80's
nostalgia with a feel of Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982). Got tricked
into watching this movie because it's rating on IMDB was 7.8/10. It
has since fallen down to 4.3 which is about where it should be. With
forgettable cliche characters and spec plot, the opening and middle acts
drag. The ninety seven minute run time could easily be trimmed down
to an hour. Which is short for a feature film but would pump up the
IMDB rating (gotta pump up those numbers rookie) plus make it more
watchable.
The story borrows heavily from '80s
horror, kid dies at camp with a deranged counselor (Friday the 13th), on
cursed ground and evil spirits using technology (Poltergeist 1982)
everyone who has sex gets it first and people camping and fighting
for survival (every teen horror movie made ever). Nothing wrong with
paying homage to awesome cult favs (Tarantino has made a career doing
this). But add something to the story, make it worth watching. If
you're just ripping off other movies you should have plenty of time to
beef up the dialog and characters (or at least steal more from other
movies).
There are so many movies being made
now, films need to find a way to stand out. There was another bad
horror movie (I don't remember the name) released last year which had
that had the exact same opening and middle acts with the same cookie
cut out characters (But had better deaths), group of friends gather in
a cabin, people start dying. I've seen the same movie hundreds of
times!
The market is saturated with movies,
the effect of the digital age where anyone with a cell phone can make
a movie. If you're going to make a movie be interesting. Another movie
that just came out was 'The Banana Splits Movie' (2019). Which had
the hook of using an iconic 60's children's tv show. Unfortunately, no
one remembers, defeating the purpose of getting the rights of 'The
Banana Splits Adventure Hour' (1968-1970). But oh man watching the
intro and credits on YouTube brought back memories I didn't know I
had. Super cool they got the rights to this Hanna Barbara series and
Krofft puppets, too bad the movie was lame.
The final act pulled this movie out of
the dump bin. Nicely wrapping up what little story there was and
making sense out of some really lame deaths. The whole movie made
good use/mocking of modern technology. To bad the director, Greg
Emetaz, didn't make better use of Kelley Gates (played Mia) or Adam
Santos-Coy (Trask). Particularly Kelley it would have been fun to see
her bridezilla and crash diet more during the movie. Easily could have
filled twenty entertaining minutes with Kelley being bat guano crazy!
