Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

Director: Joe Berlinger

Starring: Kim Director, Jeffrey Donovan, Erica Leerhsen, Tristine Skyler, Stephen Barker Turner

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Evil Doesnt Die.

Plot: To cash in on all of the "real world" hype of the events in the first film, a man from Burkitsville, Maryland opens a "Blair Witch Hunt" tour, which shows patrons various locations from the original film. A bunch of college students decide to take the tour, and wind up in Rustin Parr's house. There, they decide to camp for the evening, but in the morning, they realize they didn't sleep and they don't remember anything that happened the previous night. From there, they go back to town, and discover that something...or someone has come with them.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? No need.

I was hunkered down and ready for the shitfest everyone said this was.  Maybe it's a good thing to purposefully lower your expectations.  I don't know but I did like this picture a lot more than I expected.  One thing that surprised me was how much I liked the young actors/characters.  That's probably the fault of the actors doing a much better job than you'd expect.  They came across as regular, real people that behaved and reacted as real people do.  Now, there was some acting going on but in a lot of scenes (like when they camped and got wasted) they came across as natural characters.  The opening half hour or so was very strong (and funny - the townspeople of Birkettsville were great) and it starts to lag by the time you get to the finale which seemed a little forced, but I liked it.  THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) was great.  I really enjoyed it.  This follow-up is a different film, doing its own thing so don't expect a repeat.  I didn't and my experience was better for it.

Escapes (1986)

Director: David Steensland

Starring: Vincent Price, Todd Fulton, Jerry Grisham, Michael Patton-Hall, John Mitchum, Roelle Mitchell

More info: IMDb


Plot: An anthology of five tales of terror, each originally produced for video. The titles are "Something's Fishy," "Coffee Break," "Who's There," "Jonah's Dream," and "Think Twice."

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nope.

I tried something interesting the other night.  I've got thousands of movies and sometimes it's a chore to decide on what to watch so I set some parameters at www.random.org to generate a random integer and whatever the number, I was going to watch it.  This one turned up and it didn't turn out too badly after all.  ESCAPES looks like it was shot on a VHS camera which makes it look cheap (not that some of the actors didn't contribute - OH!).  Vincent Price shows up to give us the guidance we need to get through this horror anthology.  He's always fun but he's mostly resigned to sitting at a large table throwing some dialogue our way.  The first story about a fisherman getting the tables turned was kind of neat and thankfully very short (it's a one-joke sketch).  The second was a lot more fun thanks to Jim Mitchum.  He goes from acting like shit to gettin' shit done in seconds.  He was a hoot and is the big reason to watch this 69 minute movie to begin with. The other stories are OK but pale next to the Mitchum bit.  Price comes back to give us the big twist, making the wraparound story a story on its own.  It's an interesting low budget 80s curiosity that fans of horror anthologies would probably like on some level.

MoH 203: The V Word (2006)

Director: Ernest R. Dickerson

Starring: Arjay Smith, Branden Nadon, Jodelle Ferland, Michael Ironside, Lynda Boyd, Keith D. Humphrey, Terry D. Stevens

More info: IMDb

Plot: Two curious teenage boys break into an old mortuary looking for thrills, only to find themselves stalked by a former teacher who is a very real vampire looking to increase the ranks of the undead.

 

My rating: 4.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

After the excellent FAMILY episode, I was hoping for another surprise.  What a let down.  This one's by the numbers.  There wasn't anything all that interesting and I didn't really care about the two leads.  I was hoping they'd die.  Middle of the road.

Bachelor Party (1984)

Director: Neal Israel

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tawny Kitaen, Adrian Zmed, George Grizzard, Barbara Stuart, Robert Prescott, William Tepper, Wendie Jo Sperber, Barry Diamond, Gary Grossman, Michael Dudikoff

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Shocking, Shameless, Sinful, Wicked. And the party hasn't even started.

Plot: Rick Gassko is about to marry Debbie Thompson. Her parents hate him. Her old boyfriend hates him. They all have money and he gets a cut of the crap games on the catholic school bus he drives. His friends decide to give him the bachelor party of all bachelor parties with an expensive hotel, booze, movies and hookers. As the players catch wind of the elements of the party, each adds a little monkey wrench so that one set of hookers ends up giving demos at the bride's shower, the brides friends end up dressed as hookers in a room with a number of non English speaking Japanese business men, and so on as things get out of hand.

 

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.  My nostalgia trip is over.

 This is about how I remembered it.  Sometimes funny and perfect for 14 year olds which is probably how old I was when I saw it last.  Honestly, the only things I remember from then are the same things I'll remember in another 25 years - the guy who tries to slit his wrists, unsuccessfully, with an electric razor and this...

I suppose if you're going to remember it for something it might as well be for that.  There are some funny bits and it's not a waste of film but it's not much more than an average raunchy comedy from the 80s except this one just happens to star a future Oscar winner and lover of volleyballs.

Cry of the Banshee (1970)

Director: Gordon Hessler

Starring: Vincent Price, Elisabeth Bergner, Essy Persson, Hugh Griffith, Sally Geeson, Robert Hulton, Patrick Mower, Stephen Rea

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Edgar Allan Poe probes new depths of terror!

Plot: In Elizabethan England, a wicked lord massacres nearly all the members of a coven of witches, earning the enmity of their leader, Oona. Oona calls up a magical servant, a "banshee", to destroy the lord's family.

 

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Maybe.

There's a lot to like about this picture...Vincent Price's character is an asshole (an often over-acting one at that), a lot more nudity than you would expect, the opening twenty minutes or so is a peach, and the ending IS BALLS OUT AWESOME!!!  But then you've got the bad which is the same thing that plagues a good number of AIP films of this era and that's pacing.  There are a number of slow spots that bring the film to a halt.  It's partly due to the restraint of having to hold fast to a 90 minute run time.  The other is the lack of pizazz from the director although there is enough camera movement to try to offset that.  I love Vincent Price, even when he's over doing it as he did in some of his later pictures.  This was his last period horror film.  One neat thing you might notice is how the opening credit animation looks like it was done by Terry Gilliam and that's because it was.  We all got a laugh from seeing his name in the credits after saying aloud that it looked like Gilliam's work.  Les Baxter's score is quite good although there were a couple of scenes without music that could have used his expertise. Overall this picture is a mixed bag but it's not as dreary as some of the other pictures of this type from this studio at that time.  That's not a winning endorsement, I know, but it's worth checking out...just don't run to see it - mosey.

Larceny, Inc. (1942)

Director: Lloyd Bacon

Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford, Jack Carson, Anthony Quinn, Edward Brophy, Harry Davenport, John Qualen, Jackie Gleason

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Hold on to your hearts girls!!! Here comes the racket king!

Plot: On release from Sing Sing, 'Pressure' Maxwell wants to go into legal business; his pal 'Jug' Martin would rather join fellow inmate Leo's bank robbery scheme. A compromise is reached when Pressure buys a luggage shop next to the bank in question. Pressure, Jug, and their friend Weepy's biggest problem is keeping paying customers out of the store! Should they give up crime? That path has unexpected roadblocks...

 

My rating: 9/10

Will I watch it again? YES!!!

Gee whiz I love this movie!  James Cagney is my favorite actor but Edward G. Robinson is a close second.  I've yet to see a movie of either of theirs that I didn't enjoy.  Robinson cracks me up.  Like Cagney, he could keep you on the edge of your seat as a badass gangster, tug at your emotions playing a sympathetic character (like SCARLET STREET (1945) or make you wet yourself with laughter.  This movie is hilarious!!!

PRESSURE: This is a job that requires finesse.
JUG: Who's Finesse?

That exchange might sound corny but when it's flying past you at 90 miles an hour without any chance of a breather it's friggin' funny as hell.

Here's one of my favorite scenes...

The more frustrated Pressure gets the funnier it is.  One thing I dig about flicks like this from this era is the professionalism.  Everyone in front of the camera and behind does their best and it shows.  Hell, the casting alone should be enough evidence of that.  Each actor seems perfectly fit to their roles and there's not a remotely bad performance in the bunch.  And the couple of brief scenes with Jackie Gleason had me in stitches.  He barely says a word but his facial expressions are incredibly funny.  If all you've ever seen of Robinson is LITTLE CAESAR (1931) you owe it to yourself to see his other side as a skilled comedic actor.  He plays it mostly straight but it's the little things he throws in that makes it special.

MoH: 202: Family (2006)

Director: John Landis

Starring: George Wendt, Meredith Monroe, Matt Keeslar, Haley Guiel, Kerry Sandomirsky, John B. Scott

More info: IMDb

Plot: Harold is a seemingly peaceful neighbor in a quiet Midwestern neighborhood, but underneath, he's a murderous psychopath who sets his eyes on a couple that have moved in across the street.

 

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

I've always liked George Wendt but he usually played the lovable fat guy.  This is the first time I've ever seen him do something different and dramatic. This episode is a really black comedy but it straddles that very thin line between tragedy and comedy.  He's fucking good.  The scenes where he talks to his "family" are really well-handled.  His relationship with his new found friends takes a REALLY kickass turn at the end that was the perfect cap to this excellent episode.  It's ones like this that make this series, despite its missteps, well worth watching.