Bring out your Dead......And let them Walk

A Walking Dead Update:    Season 1 started out and while I was excited that there was a Zombie show on TV I wasn't sold yet.  The plot moved a little too slowly for me.  The Zombie scares were few and far between, but I stuck around for some reason letting the show develop.    By Season 2 the show was hitting its stride and I sold hook line and sinker.  By season end it had reached the quality of  X-Files at its peak...(before Mulder left and the show stayed past its welcome and became a mess).   When X-Files was clicking on all cylinders it was better than any horror or thriller movies in the theater.  Why go and see a horror movie it the theater when X-files delivered every week.   The Walking Dead at the end of Season 2 hit that same stride... There are no horror movies and especially no Zombie movies that have come out lately that can match the intensity and excellence that The Walking Dead has achieved by the first couple of episodes of Season 3.  

 Season 2 ended with  a bang ....Season 3 started with a full scale prison invasion and Zombie take down...followed by a thrilling Zombie clear out and showdown with surviving prisoners.  The show is a tour de force at this point...each episode is thrilling and shocking and a great look into the breakdown of humanity during the Zombie Apocalypse.  Despite the  buckets of gore and Severed heads rolling around it is much like Battlestar Gallactica or other good Sci-fi where it really digs into the human emotions and points of view --both good and bad.  The decisions  the characters must make to survive and how those decisions shape and change them.   As a TV series the characters have had the time to develop great depth and you realy care for them at this point.  The show keeps you on edge because main characters can die at any moment and with over 2 seasons behind them you have much more emotional attachment to the characters than you ever could in a single movie.

For my movie and TV Related Facebook page go here

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brads-Super-Fantastic-Terrific-Page-of-Movies/178708865473822

Snow White and the Huntsman 2012 4 out of 10

Snow White and the Huntsman 2012  4 out of 10

I was really looking forward to finally seeing this movie.  In the year of the  battling Snow White films and show......this looked like it would be the most exciting of the bunch.   The Julia Roberts movie doesn't even look watchable....Once Upon a Time had a really strong Season 1 -but seems to be hitting a 2nd Season slump.   This was the big epic Snow White adventure from the producers of Alice in Wonderland.....and I can firmly say for me a real big disappointment.   

 First of all  Kristen Stewart as Snow White is one of the worst miscasting in recent movie history.   Not since Keanu  Reeves bad  British surfer dude accent in Bram Stoker's Dracula has someone been so miscast.    I know she is popular from the Twilight movies  (which after this I will probably never see) ---but she in no way is a good choice for Snow White.  She has no screen presence at all and looks like she should be passed out in the background of some druggy movie instead of playing the lead character in Snow White. She added absolutely nothing to the movie with her lackluster performance.  Charlize Theron on the other hand was excellent and in a better movie would have carried the film,  unfortunately this film suffered from a dull pointless plot and uninteresting action sequences mixed in between random acid trip scenes in the dark forest. The only good segment was the scene with the Troll.

This was definitely not the Snow White you remember from your childhood.  I don't remember the   Shattering black crystal army or  Dwarves with Mohawks or the magic Gong?  The movie was like a poorly executed Krull rather than a big budget Snow White.

Magic Gong on the wall who is the fairest of them all the queen asks  of   the liquid gold Terminator?  I nearly cried at the death of Gus the Dwarf.......Gus ...you remember him for Snow White don't you?  There was Grumpy and Dopey and Gus.....right???  The only Gus I know is the Mule that used to kick field goals in some old Disney movie.

Chris Hemsworth who has a chance to the next big thing in action movies coming off of Thor, The Avengers and Cabin in the Woods is also wasted in the this poorly crafted fantasy film.  I guess the director was too busy banging Kristen Stewart to make a good movie with a plot that flowed or made sense.   (Spoiler---it is his true love's kiss that wakes Snow White---a plot point that is quickly forgotten and never returned to).

This movie just really disappointed and only made me long to watch the best of Fantasy movies ---The Lord of the Rings trilogy again.   It made me want to see how a Fantasy film should be done again ---well I wait for the Hobbit to come out.   Fairest of them all?   Stick with the Classic Disney animated feature instead of this Fantasy adventure wannabe.

Hunger Games 2012 6 out of 10

The Hunger Games  2012   6 out of 10

I found The Hunger Games to be a little underwhelming. I put off seeing it in the theaters because I felt it was a theme that I've seen before in a more exciting format.   I did a  little blog about the movies that came before it that obviously influenced the writter of the book series.   After seeing it I found it too be interesting obviously in it subject , but a little to slow for my tastes.  I can see where it made an interesting book--but I didn't feel like it translated into an exciting movie on screen.   I liked Running Man better....I liked Battle Royale better.....The Hunger Games felt more like a pilot for a TV Series to me slowly developing its characters and taking forever to get to the actual Games and then once it did the Games themselves didn't entertain me as much as I had hoped them to.    There was a lot of hiding in trees and dropping bee hives on people as they ran around Lord of the Flies style in the forest.

Espionage Agent 1939 4 out of 10

Espionage Agent  1939    4 out of 10

Espionage has never been  this dull a preachy before. This slow moving spy movie that deals with the U.S. and Nazi spies pre- entry into World War II plays more like a piece of propaganda then a movie.  The movie takes over a half hour to even get into what could be considered the actual plot and then mainly talks its way through the rest of the film.  Nothing exciting or thrilling to see here.

Animated Movies: # 4 Rango 2011 8 out of 10

Rango is not your typical Animated movie. I couldn't really place how I felt about it half way through the movie. The characters are all quite ugly. Normally animated movies try to make their characters visually appealing (It sells more toys). I don't see many kids falling in love with an ugly lizard with bent neck like the Sloth out of the Ice Age movies.....I can't really say if I think all kids will love this movie as it is a departure from what you normally expect in a kids movie. I personally liked it. Despite the off putting looking characters the film itself was quite solid.

Johhny Depp as Rango was great as were much of the voice acting. This movie is basically an ode to Spaghetti Westerns. A little bit Clint Eastwood a little bit Bug's Life (The circus bugs as Warriors) A little bit Three Amigos where as Rango claims to be something he isn't -but steps up to the plate when push comes to shove. Being a spaghetti western ode it has some great music by Hans Zimmer.

So in summary it was an odd and interesting animated treat. I can't say whether your kids will like it--but if you love Spaghetti Westerns and can get used to the look of the characters it is a really fun ride. Some of the action sequences were stunning (after all it was directed by Gore Verbinski of the first 3 Pirates films). And the look and style of the film really grew on me by the end of the flick

Heads will Roll: Severed Heads on TV

I know Halloween is just around the corner, but the severed heads are already rolling all over the place.

Don't get me wrong....I'm not anti severed heads.....I expect severed heads when I go to the movies to see the new Conan The Barbarian movie......Game of Thrones could just as easily be called Severed Heads the series---but that is on Cable.....The Walking Dead  just started season 3 and heads are rolling---being skewered and stabbed all over the screen.   Then I turn into Hawaii 5-0 one of my favorite shows on broadcast TV  (despite its unbelievable story lines and predictability)  and what do I see....A guy riding a horse playing polo and getting his head chopped clean off.  On CBS....The Murder She Wrote channel.    I personally wasn't shocked by it visually --even when they   found a way to show it twice during the episode (since I've seen so many horror movies and I'm pretty much not easily shocked by anything anymore on screen)  but I was shocked that to see something ---that I usually think of as Cable TV viewer warning  rolling around on the polo grounds in the middle of Hawaii 5-0.   There were Headless Horseman jokes and jokes about the other half of his body being over there all so casual.     Again I'm not anti severed head  (I've written Pineappleman stories where the heads roll freely)....but just a little shocked that broadcast TV is now okay with severed heads???  When did severed heads become okay for the broadcast networks?    Sex and drug jokes became okay with Charlie Sheen and 2 and 1/2 Men  and the vile things that are considered jokes with the behavior of  John Cryer's character which is basically a human Golem.   When did I blink and things once reserved for Rome on HBO are now okay on CBS?    

So beware of the severed heads---they are apparently here to stay.

American Horror House 2012 5 out of 10

American Horror House....2012   5 out of 10

Starring Alessandra Torresani  (Zoe from Caprica)  I knew I recognized her from something .... and Morgan Fairchild

(still looking good). 

The movies title is a cheap attempt at tricking someone into thinking it has something to do with the tv show American Horror Story......It should be called  Just Another Sorority House of Death.

The movie was a typical sorority house with a dark secret.   I could  have sworn that this is a remake of another haunted sorority movie that I saw a couple of years ago.   It had some slight differences , but was mainly the same film.  The sorority girls are pledging of course---a halloween party happens and a bunch of people die.  Some cheesy effects including ghost lighting and a mystical border that surrounds the house and a bunch of bad death scenes are the norm in this so so horror flick. 

Below is a list of Sorority horror movies that AMC has collected....The movie that this seems a rip-off of wasn't on this list

http://movies.amctv.com/movie-guide/sorority-house-horror-movies.php