100 Years of Universal Studios

I love movies from the early black & white monster movies of the 1930s and 1940s, to the sci-fi classics of the 1950s and 1960s, the gritty—and sometimes exploitive—films of the 1970s, the awesome slashers and other horror flicks of the 1980s, the action thrills of the 1990s, and all the way to what we have now in the new century.

Yes, movies have been my life and a way to escape into different fantasies within a theater screen or sitting in my family room in front of my television. I love and cherish all of them, even the lame bombs I’ve found myself suckered into watching, as long as there’s a diamond in the rough every so often.

Not long ago, I had realized that there’s one movie studio in particular that has churned out the best films of our lifetime, a studio that has produced hit after hit, year after year, and is just as magical—if not more so—than Disney itself. The studio I’m referring to is Universal Studios in Hollywood.


When I became aware of the quantity and quality of their canon, was a few years ago while visiting the theme park (as I’m apt to do two to three times a year). A wall adorned with murals of some of their hit movies made me stop and think about how many films throughout the years were awesome and highly successful, both financially and critically. I was with a buddy at the time and I stopped him as well to point out the wall and asked him, “Do you realize the greatness of Universal Studios?” He shrugged and tried to continue on to the escalators to get to the tram ride, but I stopped him again. I said, pointing to the murals, “Don’t you think that Universal has made the most memorable and best movies of all time?” With another shrug from him, I said, “Never mind,” and we continued to the ride.

Although that mural was just a taste of Universal Studio’s catalog of hit films, I’d like to go over and point out Universal’s most memorable and noteworthy films that most people will recognize.

Lon Chaney was known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces” during the early 1900s and part of the reason is because of the films he acted in for Universal Studios. Although I can name quite a few, the two most noteworthy films he was featured in are 1923’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame and 1925’s The Phantom of the Opera. Although I haven’t seen Hunchback, I plan to see it soon. But The Phantom of the Opera is superb, a true artistic view of how films were made during the silent era. Yes, this is a silent film and may take some people out of it by that fact, for it may throw you for a loop. But the tone and gloom of the scenes is pure art and very exciting at times. I highly recommend searching through Universal’s index of silent films because there are quite a few gems there.

One of the first “talkies” of the film era was a very popular title that is still creepy and entertaining: 1931’s Dracula. Starring Bela Lugosi as the vampire that is still recognized today as the definitive characterization of the title character. The same year, another Universal Monster was brought forth in the film, Frankenstein. Often mistaken as the name of the monster, actually the title refers to the mad scientist who created the creature (played by the great Boris Karloff).

The following year, in 1932, Karloff played another prominent monster in The Mummy.

Continuing on with movies to terrify and feature innovative special effects, 1933’s The Invisible Man entertains to this day. Although you don’t see him until the end of the film, Claude Rains plays the titular character.

1934 had some good eerily fun flicks, but 1935 came at us with the sequel to Frankenstein with Bride of Frankenstein. Karloff returns in this film that rivals the original and is very compelling.

The 1940s brought us some more enjoyable flicks, not letting up in the entertainment, especially in the special effects event of 1941 with The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney, Jr. I hadn’t mentioned it before, but starting with 1931’s Dracula, makeup creations were made by the great Jack Pierce. Continuing his masterpieces thus far, he really had his hands full with not only creating the wolf-like features onto Lon Chaney, Jr.’s face, but to apply it little by little in order for the time lapse to work for the effect of the main character to appear as if he were slowly changing into the title monster.

Along the years, Universal continued with these famous monsters by making sequels featuring the title characters, even parodying them in Abbott & Costello films, and that may have been what ended the era of Universal’s famous monsters. But the 1950s brought in a breath of fresh air with a new era of entertainment: Science Fiction.

Even though Abbott & Costello were still big in the box office with a few more monster parodies and Alfred Hitchcock featured quite a few awesome films, the 1950s was the decade for science fiction. A new famous monster would emerge from this decade, but the most memorable films from the 50s were sci-fi alien invasion movies that were cheesy but fun to watch.

Although not that well known, It Came From Outer Space is significant because it’s the first film from Universal to be featured in 3D—a popular gimmick of the 1950s. The alien monster is kind of ridiculous, but it’s a fun film to watch. Being a regular visitor of Universal Studios, especially the back lot tram ride, I enjoy seeing the familiar Courthouse Square (which I’ll mention quite a bit during this article) throughout the course of the film.

1954 brought us another famous monster, the Gill-Man, with Creature From the Black Lagoon. Again, this film was filmed in 3D and historians who have seen the film theatrically have said the underwater scenes are excellent.

In 1955, Universal released one of my favorite sci-fi films of the 50s: Tarantula. To this day, I love the special effects and think they’re excellent and believable. Seeing that giant spider climbing over the Arizona mountainside is still chilling to see after all these years. Look for a young (and uncredited) Clint Eastwood as the jet squadron commander near the end of the film.

Definitely my favorite film from the 1950s, The Incredible Shrinking Man is superb and I can re-watch this film over and over. I never tire of it, enjoying the special effects with the title character fending off the attacks of his own cat, the scaled world of being shrunken down to inches, and the battle with the tarantula in the basement. A wonderful film that I fully embrace and recommend for all to see.

Although from here on out, beginning in the 1960s, many films were now being filmed in Technicolor, steering away from black & white. But technology has to move forward, right? Well, Universal Studios’ oeuvre of films didn’t falter.

My very favorite from the 1960s—in fact, it was released in 1960—was a film that technically wasn’t a Universal Studios film. It was a Paramount Film made by a director who was quite synonymous with Universal and even used the back lot to film this movie. The main exterior set is still quite a staple of the back lot tour and I always get a kick out of being able to walk near it during the annual “Halloween Horror Nights” event. The film I’m speaking of is Psycho. In actuality, the set I get to walk near is a rebuilt set for the sequels of the 1980s and is in a completely different area of the back lot, but a fanboy can dream, can’t he? Yes, Psycho is one of my all time favorite films from Hitchcock. I love how he chose to film the movie in black & white because it truly captures the mood of the story and gives it the feel of the 1950s. It justly shows how brilliant of a mind Hitchcock had. Psycho is honestly his true masterpiece.

Hitchcock’s follow-up to Psycho is my second favorite from his inventory of films and gave me a fear of the featured animals for many years. 1963’s The Birds was his second masterpiece (can an artist have two masterpieces?) and is a brilliant story within a story. The closing scene is still haunting and luminous as you see how well the special effects worked in this feature.

The 1960s had quite a collection of great films to poor through, but the 1970s had quite a few recognizable features to watch as well.

A film I haven’t seen in years, but it’s in my Netflix queue to revisit, is 1970’s Airport starring Charlton Heston. It’s been so long that I really can’t do this justice, just trust me and rent this.

1973’s American Graffiti is George Lucas’s look at the days of cruising in hot rods during 1962. It stars Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Cindy Williams, Wolfman Jack and Harrison Ford. It’s a cool movie to check out to see how life was for teenagers during that time.

Earthquake is another disaster film of the 1970s. Again, I shamefully admit, I have not seen this film, but I’ve heard it’s very entertaining and, again, is in my Netflix queue to be watched.

Considered to be the first summer blockbuster, and from a director you’ll see a lot of in Universal’s list of movies, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is an awesome film that still works to this day. I’m still afraid of swimming in the ocean and, at times, get a little freaked out when I swim in my pool at night. It just works in so many levels, with the characters, the story, the visuals, and the nostalgia of having a good time at the beach during the 70s...still a great film.

A very funny film, 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit brought the Pontiac Trans Am into the limelight, I'm sure making sales of that car go through the roof. The separate chemistry between Burt Reynolds with Sally Field, Jerry Reed, and Jackie Gleason is wonderful and so terrific. The first time I heard Jackie Gleason’s foul mouth in this film had me rolling. It’s a great time.

For every comedic movie about college life, 1978’s National Lampoon’s Animal House deserves credit. John Belushi’s character in this film steals the show. My favorite part is when he breaks the fourth wall as he climbs the ladder to look through the window of the sorority house, showing us he’s enjoying the view.

Also in 1978, an awesome film about a group of friends going to fight in the Vietnam War, The Deer Hunter is amazing. The Russian Roulette scene in the film is amazing. Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken shine in this movie.

I was a big fan of Steve Martin growing up, so to finally see 1979’s The Jerk when it showed up on cable TV (without my parents knowing, of course), was a big treat for me.

The 1980s was a great decade for films and although I wasn’t a big fan of country music, Loretta Lynne was still a household name and being able to catch movies on cable TV, I watched 1980’s Coal Miner’s Daughter quite a few times. Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynne is so believable, at times, it’s eerie. 1980 also brought The Blues Brothers, The Nude Bomb, The Gong Show Movie, Somewhere in Time, and Flash Gordon.

In 1981, the best werewolf transformation was seen and brought attention to one of the best special effects makeup artists of our time—Rick Baker—and the movie that did it was An American Werewolf in London.

In 1982, the biggest movie was Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extraterrestrial. Although he touched up the movie recently, adding some CGI here and there, the movie is still a sweet story of an alien left behind on Earth by his peers and how he befriends a young boy, forming a connection and almost becoming one of the family. If you don’t shed a tear at the end of this flick, especially with John Williams’ powerful score, then you don’t have a heart. One thing about this “nice, adorable alien film,” it took away from another alien film (albeit, evil alien film) from Universal entitled, The Thing, directed by John Carpenter, which is awesome and became a cult hit when it was released on home media. Also in 1982, the very funny and often imitated, Fast Times at Ridgmont High was released, leaving us the very memorable performance by Sean Penn as Spicoli.

I was going to try and keep sequels off this piece, but 1983’s Psycho II deserves some recognition as a terrific follow-up to one of the greatest films from the master, Alfred Hitchcock. We also were introduced to Brian DePalma’s Cuban gangster flick, and Al Pacino’s most animated performance ever, Scarface.

Director, John Hughes, had a successful decade in the 80s with 1984’s Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Weird Science in 1985.

Now, my favorite film franchise ever, filmed at and produced by Universal Studios—Back to the Future. The trilogy—released in 1985, 1989 and 1990 respectfully—is a perfect story arc, each directed by Robert Zemeckis, and featuring such a great comedy team with Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. The story of time travel has always been an interesting concept and most people fantasize about going back in time to fix things gone wrong or to see what happened during a time before they were born. The movies are a beautiful combination of sci-fi, comedy and family fun—with mostly a western when part 3 comes around. A lot of people wished there would’ve been a fourth part to the story, but that time has passed and the trilogy is complete the way it is. Nostalgic of a time during the Reagan era, I love watching each part one right after the other, making me feel like a teenager again.  A big part of this movie was filmed in Universal Studios' Courthouse Square in the back lot.

Universal Studios brought us into the 90s with Tremors in 1990, a pretty entertaining monster movie about creatures that live underground and wreak havoc in a small desert community. In the same year, the year before he returned into his Terminator role, Arnold Schwarzeneggar starred in Kindergarten Cop.

In 1991, Ron Howard—another name you’ll see on this list quite often—paid tribute to fire fighters across the country by filming a very realistic film showing us what these heroes go through, in the movie, Backdraft. The film starred Kurt Russell and William Baldwin and is a very exciting film to watch with outstanding practical special effects. In the same year, Nick Nolte and Robert De Niro starred in the remake of Cape Fear.

1992 brought us American Me, Far and Away, and the interesting Death Becomes Her. The special effects were ground-breaking in this flick, especially the broken-necked Meryl Streep and the hollowed-out Goldie Hawn.

CGI made a big leap forward with 1993’s classic, Jurassic Park, directed by Steven Spielberg. The first time seeing this movie, I went in knowing it was a dinosaur flick, so I was just expecting animatronics, puppetry or claymation…I had no idea I was going to be floored with what I saw. Even though this movie is nearly 20 years old, the special effects look better than some of today’s CGI attempts. The film was followed by two decent sequels and it’s rumored that a third is in the works. And I don’t know how he did it, but in the same year, Steven Spielberg directed another solid film called Schindler’s List. Liam Neeson is superb in the lead role, with moving performances throughout. It won an Oscar for Best Picture.

In 1995, Ron Howard directed Apollo 13, a movie about the ill-fated trip to the moon and how the astronauts were able to make it back home against some incredible odds. In the same year, Waterworld was released and sort of bashed by critics, but I’ve got to admit that I like this film. A month later, the wonderful family film, Babe, was released. It’s a cute story about the life of a little pig that learned to herd cattle. Following in the impressiveness of Goodfellas, Casino, starring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci is nice look of how Vegas was run during the 1970s.

1996 brought us another impressive special effects flick with Twister. The movie stars Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as a recently separated couple who happen to be tornado chasers. The chance to get a device to measure tornado activity gets them back together for a very exhilarating film. In the same year, Eddie Murphy delighted us in the remake of The Nutty Professor, Michael J. Fox returns with director Robert Zemeckis’ The Frighteners, and Sylvester Stallone saves a bunch of people from a collapsed tunnel in Daylight.

In the 1990s, Jim Carrey had been flying high with hits like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb & Dumber, so in 1997, he starred in Liar Liar as a lawyer trying to make his way up in the law firm, going as far as lying to his own kid and ex-wife. When he misses his son’s birthday, crushed, the child makes a wish before blowing out the candles, wishing that for one day, his dad couldn’t tell a lie. What follows next is a very funny movie with Jim Carrey’s character in a lot of hilarious situations.

Now, unfortunately, a terrible, yet memorable, film was released in 1998 by Universal Studios. I don’t mind the film and can enjoy it for what it was, but critics really panned this film. The film I’m speaking of is the remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Psycho. The film starred Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates and Anne Heche as Marion Crane. I see everyone’s points about how it was useless to shoot a remake shot-for-shot with no change in the story or subplots. But I do feel it’s a good way to introduce a classic to the new generation of film-goers or, like Gus Van Sant claims, the film was made so that no one will ever remake Psycho.

Another remake—albeit a successful one—in 1999, was The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser and Arnold Vosloo. The movie is a fun adventure and really fleshes out the 1932 classic. The same year, the very funny and hilarious, American Pie, was released, telling the story of a group of guys who make a pact that they’d all get laid before graduating from high school.

In the 2000s, Universal Studios continued their magic with films like these:

2000: Gladiator, O Brother, Where Art Thou, Erin Brockovich, Meet the Parents, The Family Man, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

2001: A Beautiful Mind and The Fast and the Furious.

2002: Big Fat Liar, The Bourne Identity, The Scorpion King, 8 Mile, and Red Dragon.

2003: Bruce Almighty, The Cat in the Hat, Hulk, and Seabiscuit.

2004: Along Came Polly, Dawn of the Dead (remake), Friday Night Lights, Ray, Shaun of the Dead, and Van Helsing.

2005: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Cinderella Man, Jarhead, Kicking & Screaming, and King Kong.

2006: Slither, Miami Vice, and United 93.

2007: Dead Silence, Evan Almighty, Knocked Up, and American Gangster.

2008: Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Baby Mama, The Strangers, The Incredible Hulk, Wanted, Mamma Mia!: The Movie, Changeling, and Frost/Nixon.

2009: Drag Me to Hell, Land of the Lost, Public Enemies, Inglorious Basterds, The Fourth Kind, and It’s Complicated.

2010: The Wolfman, Kick-Ass, MacGruber, Get Him To the Greek, Despicable Me, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Devil.

2011: Paul, Hop, Bridesmaids, Cowboys & Aliens, Dream House, and The Thing.

Finally, we’re here, in 2012, celebrating Universal Studios’ 100TH anniversary and looking forward to another 100 years of entertainment. Quite a few movies are lined up for 2012, 2013 and 2014, like Dr. Suess’ The Lorax, American Reunion, The Bourne Legacy, R.I.P.D., Despicable Me 2, Jurassic Park 4, and so on.

I hope you enjoy my look at some of the movies of Universal Studios. I’ve only scratched the surface of their library, so I highly recommend you look online for their complete library to see what more they may have. A good reference I discovered was www.wikipedia.org and look up “List of Universal Pictures Films.”

My final “bit” on Universal Studios?

It’s positively and absolutely the best in Hollywood! You can’t go wrong with a Universal Studios film.

Happy 100TH Anniversary Universal Studios!

Law Abiding Citizen

By the looks of the trailer and TV spots, when it was running theatrically, I didn’t think Law Abiding Citizen was going to be that good of a flick, so I never bothered to check it out at that time.  Maybe it was the lack of promotion or that the trailers didn’t highlight the heart of this film, but I just wasn’t interested in it at all.

But not too long after this movie was released onto DVD and Blu-Ray, I decided to place it on my Netflix queue, leaving it resting for quite some time before I finally watched it.  It finally reached the top of the list, probably because I had forgotten to reorganize it to put other movies in front of it, and showed up in my mailbox.  Even after that, all I did was place it in front of my television, letting it sit there, while I watched other films I had in my collection or just flipping through the boob tube.  However, the day came when nothing was on TV and I didn’t feel like watching any of my DVD and Blu-Ray collection, so I grabbed the rental and popped it into my PS3.

So, what did I think about it?

I loved it.

With the star power of the two actors who lead this movie, Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler, and a pretty gripping drama featuring just the right amount of action and acts of vengeance, you get this movie.

The movie starts with Clyde Shelton (Butler) at home with his wife and daughter, tinkering with some electronics and having some light banter with his little girl.  His wife calls to their daughter as someone knocks at the door.  Clyde goes to the door and as soon as he opens it, two guys come in knocking him to the floor and binding him arms behind his back.  The bigger of the two pins Clyde down as he slowly stabs him in the abdomen.  He does the same to the wife and is about to start raping her all in front of Clyde.  Suddenly, the daughter walks in and is horrified to see what’s going on.  The two men are taken a back by her appearance, but the bigger of the two gets up and takes the girl out of the room, killing her off-screen.

Turns out, Clyde survives the ordeal with the two men apprehended and going to trial for the murders.  This is where we meet Nick Rice, a prosecuting attorney working with Clyde to make sure the men pay for their crimes.  But Nick informs Clyde that Clarence Darby (the man who did the killing) is prepared to testify against Rupert Ames (the accomplice) in order to get a lesser sentence, making sure Ames gets the death penalty.

Clyde is not happy with this deal and wants Nick to go all out, to try and prosecute both men accordingly.  But, as Nick informs Clyde, if they go for the prosecution that strongly, they may lose the case and both men walk.  Clyde doesn’t care and is sure that they can win the case with his testimony and thinks that the jury will be in their favor.  Nick, however, points out the sad truth about our judicial system and how defense attorneys use any and all tricks of the trade to eat prosecution witnesses alive.  Before Clyde can argue further, Nick informs him that he’s already made the deal, much to Clyde’s disappointment.

The trial goes forth as Nick had indicated, with Clarence Darby getting off the murder rap by testifying against Rupert Ames.  Outside the courtroom, Nick Rice is stopped by reporters and answers some questions as Darby walks up with his attorney, extending his hand for a handshake.  Nick, reluctantly, shakes Darby’s hand, either because of the reporters witnessing the scene or as a simple reflex, and looks off across the street as he does.  Standing across the street, watching the scene that had just unfolded, is Clyde Shelton, looking mortified and wounded.

Cut to ten years later, Nick Rice has clearly moved up in the world.  He has much better digs, very busy in his career, has a daughter who is a young accomplished cellist…he seems pretty content with his life.

The time has come for Rupert Ames to be executed and Nick goes to the viewing to witness it.  What should have been a peaceful death by lethal injection turns out to be a terrible display of a man being killed in a very torturous and excruciating way.  We find out shortly that this is the first in many vengeful acts committed by Clyde Shelton against the broken judicial system that failed him and his family.

As I watched this flick, clearly the best revenge was acted out against Clarence Darby.  You may have to turn your head away from the screen if you’re a little squeamish because he clearly gets his just desserts in that scene (and make sure to watch the unrated version for that part).  There’s clearly some mystery in this story as you begin to wonder who’s helping Shelton out when he’s incapable of acting out the punishment to the people he believes are responsible.

From the beginning of the film until the end, you’re set into a roller coaster ride of emotions.  Because you may find that you’ll be asking yourself who’s side should you be on.

Anyway, this flick is entertaining the whole way through, keeping you on the edge of your seat, wondering what’s going to happen next.  Some of you may think you’d do the same thing if you were in his shoes, some of you may think he went too far.  It’s definitely a movie to think about long after it’s over.

My final “bit” on Law Abiding Citizen?

I love this movie from start to finish and it definitely has the potential to be re-watched over and over…for me anyway.  All I’ll say, to end this, is that my favorite scene in this film is when Clyde Shelton is in court, acting as his own attorney.  I’m sure many of us would love to say what he said to the judge in that scene.  Priceless!

Give it a look-see…you won’t be disappointed.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil

Not to judge a book by its cover, but there are so many movies out there—especially the ones that go straight to DVD—which display titles that just tell you that you’re going to be watching a stupid movie. Most of the time I skip them because I’m not one to punish myself with something that’s such a waste of time, wishing I hadn’t squandered two hours of my life with it. I usually go with my instincts on some of these titles, but there are a few, such as Tucker and Dale vs Evil, where I trust the given star rating on IMDb or Netflix and decide to give it a try.

Before watching it, I had heard about the movie through various movie podcasts and even Leonard Maltin gave it a good review—a rarity for a horror movie—so I started thinking this might be a pretty entertaining film. Seeing it as a feature recommendation on Netflix about a week ago, I clicked on it and waited for its arrival.

The movie starts as your typical and clichéd horror movie fanfare of a group of kids setting off to the woods for a weekend of camping and partying, all piled into an SUV as they head to their destination.  Most of the kids are just forgettable characters, but the ones of note are Chad (the guy who thinks he’s just too cool and can get any girl he wants) and Allison (obvious as the survivor girl from the start).

As they continue their drive, they come up on some old pickup and go around it. Soon, that same pickup is gaining on them and it starts to pass the kids. As they look over at the passing truck, they notice the guys inside of the cab are a couple of hillbillies just glaring at them, looking like bad news. The kids shine it on (after appearing a little frightened), making a few disparaging comments about the men, but continue their conversation on their trip, when suddenly one of the girls exclaimed that they forgot to bring the beer. Oh, that’s comedy! (sarcasm)

Down the road, the kids stop at a beat-up-looking service station/convenience store, not really paying attention to the same pickup parked right outside. We—the audience—notice it, but not the characters in the film, which I thought must’ve been a minor flaw in the film or the filmmakers just showing us how dumb the kids are...either way, it's forgiven. As some of the kids enter the store, we see one of the hillbillies at the counter talking to the cashier, complete with overalls and an over-the-top country bumpkin accent. As Allison looks through the aisles, she comes face-to-face with the other hillbilly from the pickup, startling her to leave the store.

As the kids get their beer and are packing it in their coolers, we get our real first introduction to Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine)—the previously mentioned hillbillies. It turns out that Tucker and Dale are a couple of nice guys heading out to their newly purchased summer home that they’re going to renovate. Dale—the burly and bearded of the two—actually is attracted to Allison. There’s a pretty funny exchange between Dale and the kids that solidify in their minds that the hillbillies are people they should stay away from.

Tucker and Dale get to their summer home and are excited to start renovating it, noticing that there’s not much to do, but clean and fix a few flaws here and there. It turns out that the kids are staying not too far from Tucker and Dale’s newly acquired summer home and shortly after nightfall, the fun begins.  As the kids are starting their weekend with a few beers by the fire, Chad tells them a story about a “Memorial Day Massacre” that happened some years back, about a group of hillbillies attacking some kids that were there for the weekend.  Of course, it unnerves the others, being in the dark woods in the middle of nowhere, so with that in their heads, it helps with what we have in store for a very entertaining movie.

Basically, this film is written well with some camp added to it, but it takes the typical horror movie formula and sort of turns it around. It’s lighthearted and funny—especially the exchanges between Tucker and Dale—but has a smattering of kills with gore effects throughout.

Essentially, the story is how Tucker and Dale are misunderstood to be a couple of evil-doers by the kids. One-by-one, the kids are accidentally killing themselves with the remaining peers thinking it’s Tucker and Dale who are doing the killing. It’s very funny at times with a lot of shocks and how damned unlucky those kids are.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil is on par with—and maybe a little more enjoyable than—Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead, probably because it really doesn’t deal with the supernatural or zombies but sort of parodies the slasher genre. I think one thing they did on purpose was to make you expect the film to feature nudity and not present it at all. I mean, come on! The one slutty girl, dressed in cut-off denim shorts and a low cut blouse, exposing her cleavage, and she never gets naked?! Some younger horror fans may be miffed about that.

Anyway, without further a do, here’s my final “bit” on Tucker and Dale vs Evil: Go rent this movie now. It is hilarious and entertaining and, in fact…you know what? Don’t bother renting it, just buy it. I’m going to look for it on Blu-Ray to add to my collection. It is a classic in the making!

Alligator

Always feeling nostalgic, the other day I decided to go through Netflix to see if I could find some horror gems from the 1980s. Sometimes I get lucky and find something worth watching that contains some good acting with a nice evocative look of the decade in question. Like a few years back, when I decided to check out Chopping Mall for the first time, noticing a few familiar faces as well as seeing the famous Galleria Mall featured in famous movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Terminator 2. It was a campy and cheesy film, but it was fun to watch. If you decide to watch this treasure, a little warning…even though the title contains the word, “chopping,” it has no serial killer slicing or dicing the victims in this one.
Other times, I find a bomb that’s not even worth going 20 minutes into; I won’t even bother listing off the titles of those flicks.
With Alligator, however, I found quite an entertaining movie that never bored me throughout.

The story is simple enough, opening with a little girl watching a local stunt show, featuring some redneck messing with an alligator, never really doing anything but circling the critter. But as he circles one last time, he gets his foot stuck between a small log and some rock and falls in the water, having the alligator pounce on him. The gator bites him pretty good on the leg, but some fellow rednecks save him and pull him out of warm’s way. After the show, the little girl’s mom allows her to buy a baby alligator to take home and care for in a dry aquarium. The father gets angry when he finds out and flushes it down the toilet.

Years later, a shady pet store owner (played by the creepy Sydney Lassick) is selling dogs, including strays that he finds, to some genetic lab which is doing research on making cattle, and other types of animals used for food consumption, grow bigger. The “used” and deceased dogs are then disposed of, by the same shady pet store owner, in the city’s sewer system. After his latest disposal of some dogs, he becomes the victim of the alligator that was flushed years ago—now as big as a car.

Local police detective, David (played by Robert Forster), has been in charge of the latest discoveries of body parts found in the sewer system, thinking it’s the work of some serial killer. Later on, he takes a rookie cop to search around the sewers for any other evidence related to the body parts. The men see the gator emerge from the darkness and come after them, making them run for their lives. They find a passage way up to a manhole, but Detective David has trouble opening it, leaving the rookie’s legs exposed in the sewer tunnel, subsequently being attacked and torn apart by the giant alligator. Chief Clark (played by the great Michael V. Gazzo from The Godfather Part II), doesn’t believe him, thinking he must’ve been seeing things and advises him to take some time off. In fact, the whole department talks about him and makes light about it (leaving rubber alligators in his locker). He meets a reptile expert (Robin Riker), who happens to be the same girl that had the gator as a pet, ad they end up working together (with a romantic involvement—go figure), to find the creature and try to destroy it.

I had my reservations about seeing this flick, especially after seeing movies these days like Lake Placid, where CGI is used heavily yet accordingly, but I decided to give it a try after seeing a shot of the film in Terror in the Aisles (which was an extra on the recent Halloween II Blu-Ray release).

Being that Alligator was made in 1980, I knew we’d be seeing a lot of fake looking gator shots, moving mechanically and not realistically—either that or we wouldn’t see much of it at all. But although you do see some fake mechanical shots, it’s easily forgiven as a few scenes are shown of an alligator roaming through a miniature set looking very practical.

The whole story was taken seriously enough, with no campiness to it or anything that would make the whole premise seem ridiculous. It’s a straight forward tale of an alligator that was flushed down the toilet and lived in a sewer for years, living on the tested dogs that were full of genetic treatment, making it grow to the size of an automobile.

It’s implied, early on, that Detective David has a past that he relives day after day after losing a partner to which he feels responsible. Losing the rookie cop to the gator makes those feelings of guilt even stronger and he feels he needs to redeem himself by taking on the gator on his own.

The film is very entertaining and you’ll have a good time watching this and feeling some longing for the 1980s…I know I did.

My final “bit” on Alligator? The movie seemed like it was riding on the coattails of Jaws, but Jaws came out in 1975, so I thought they were a little late on that. But then I realized that Jaws 2 was released in 1979, so the filmmakers of this flick probably saw the potential with another “creature in the water” type of horror film and thought about another eating machine that lives in the water. The music composer of the film even went as far as to make a close copy of the impending doom music cue when the gator attacks its victims. Yes, this is a good film that’ll take you back to pre-CGI movies of yore, which used practical effects to scare you…and it still works.

Final Destination 5 – 3D

I’ve got to admit, I’ve never been a big fan of the Final Destination franchise throughout its run of films in the last eleven years. I saw the first one in theaters back in 2000, but the rest I’ve only seen on my television, renting them from Blockbuster or Netflix. Even the last one, touted as the last one in 3D, I saw two dimensionally on my TV. But I did regret not watching that one in the theater because the deaths seemed like it must’ve been awesome in 3D.

So, when Final Destination 5 was released, once again in 3D, I decided I’d take a chance to sit through some poor character development and superfluous plot just so I can get some overwhelming death scenes jumping out at me.

But this outing surprised me.

Sure, we get the same outline for a Final Destination movie: big giant-scaled premonition of a death scene, a small group of characters saved from said scene, one-by-one said characters are killed in elaborately styled demises, main character figures out how to cheat death, and the movie ends with a stinger. But Final Destination 5 seemed a tad more interesting and smarter than that.

First off, the movie begins with a remarkable credits sequence with 3D extravagance, getting the audience ready for what’s to come. It kind of slows down a bit to introduce us to some of the characters, as the film opens with a paper manufacturing company getting ready for an employee retreat. Every character is two-dimensional (pardon the pun), but they’re easy to remember as each one has a specific trait that differentiates them from the rest.

The main character, Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto), is a temp for this paper company, but his main job is an apprentice chef at some local restaurant. His girlfriend, Molly (Emma Bell), also a temp at the company, announces to him that morning of the retreat that things aren’t working out with them, that they should call it quits. There’s Nathan (Arlen Escarpeta), the young black manager of the production side of the company who is having trouble with one of the employees under him—probably angry that a young kid is his boss. Peter (Miles Fisher), the Tom Cruise look-a-like, is another employee on the office side of production. Candice (Ellen Wroe)—Peter’s girlfriend—is another temp with aspirations to become a gymnast. Olivia (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) is the looker of the bunch, although her one flaw is that she wears prescription glasses. Dennis (David Koechner), the boss of the office, is the typical employer who can’t remember his employees’ names. Finally, there’s Isaac (P.J. Byrne), the womanizer who doesn’t look like a womanizer, but a nerd who you’d think wouldn’t be sure of himself and is put here for the comedy relief.

Okay, with all that said, here’s the synopsis…

Final Destination 5 opens with the employees of Presage Paper getting ready for their employee retreat. Traveling by bus, they come to a suspension bridge that’s under construction with crews cutting into the asphalt and jack hammering away. The wind picks up and along with all the cutting and hammering on the floor of the bridge, things start to go horribly wrong. Everyone tries to get out and off the bridge but, one by one, the main characters are seen falling to their demise or getting impaled or exploded or sheared…you get the point. Of course, Sam wakes up back in his bus seat and things look all too familiar. He exclaims that the bridge is going to collapse and is able to get some of his co-workers off the bridge and to safety.

Throughout the rest of the film, we see some incredible death scenes, a little over-the-top and kind of silly (most of these people explode into a bloody mess when they fall), but cringing nonetheless. But a new concept is brought to the table as the few remaining characters find out that if they kill someone when it’s their time to die, the person they kill takes their place and they’re skipped.

Without giving too much away, there’s actually a twist to this story. You may be able to figure it out if you watch the movie carefully, but you really need to pay attention and remember the story of the first film. Although I noticed the strange items and had the first movie in mind, I didn’t see the ending coming.

Overall, the film was fun and the 3D was pretty vivid, making me duck and wince at times as I reacted to what was going on in the film. It was good to see Tony Todd reprising his character of William Bludworth, but he didn’t do much and only had a few minutes of screen time. I can’t say enough of how intricately detailed the deaths come to be, making you think the characters were going to die one way, but bit it in a whole different way. I feel that the filmmakers really made up for how silly the franchise was getting, bringing it back to the level of the first film, making it believable and squirm-inducing.

My final “bit” on Final Destination 5? Definitely see this if you’re a fan of the genre, but don’t wait until it’s released on Blu-Ray and DVD. Although I’m not a big fan of 3D, this movie will lose a lot if seen in 2D. The film’s writing was pretty good, but genius when it comes to the ending—it makes part 2, 3 and 4 obsolete...sort of.

See it in 3D now…before it leaves the theaters! You’ll thank me for it.

Fright Night

Many films from the 1980s hold a special place in my heart—most of them horror movies—and I usually take great offense when they’re said to be remade or rebooted. And although I’m never happy when I hear these announcements, I still go to the local cinema to check them out. Sometimes they succeed (Friday the 13th)—sometimes they don’t (A Nightmare on Elm Street). But I still give them a chance.

Such is the case with Fright Night, starring Anton Yelchin as Charlie Brewster and Colin Farrell as the vampire next door, Jerry Dandrige. When I first heard that they were going into production with this film, I actually told myself that I would not go see this movie, that it was an insult to the awesome and campy 1985 original. But who am I kidding? I knew I’d go see it…I just knew I wouldn’t be happy about it.

I’ve been wrong before and I’ll admit I was wrong this time as well, because I really enjoyed this flick.

The film opens in some small suburb, seemingly isolated as we see the overhead shot of the whole neighborhood only consists of a few blocks surrounded by acres of open land. Throughout the streets we see that many of the houses are for sale, giving us a sense that this neighborhood is becoming abandoned and deserted.

Like the original film, Charlie lives with his mom (the beautiful Toni Collette), has his girlfriend Amy (Imogen Poots), and his estranged friend Evil Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). The house next door to them has a new neighbor that has been doing a lot of work on the house, dumping a lot of broken concrete chunks in the dumpster out front, leaving Mrs. Brewster wondering what kind of work’s being done inside. Meanwhile, in school, kids have been missing during roll call.

The switch in this 2011 version is that Evil Ed is the one who voices his paranoia about the new neighbor, while Charlie thinks he’s crazy. He explains his suspicion to Charlie, telling him about the news reports of people missing and the kids that haven’t been showing up to school. He tells Charlie right out that he thinks his neighbor is a vampire. Of course, Charlie thinks Ed’s delusional, reading too much “Twilight,” and that the idea is ridiculous. Ed tells Charlie to make sure he doesn’t invite Jerry in the house, that a vampire can’t enter unless invited.

Later, Charlie gets home and is bringing in the garbage when Jerry suddenly shows up, startling him. He tells Charlie that he has a hot blonde coming over and had forgotten to replenish the beer in his fridge, asking if they had any. Charlie’s somewhat taken a back, seeing how insistent Jerry’s acting, and walks to his back door to go into the kitchen. As he’s at the refrigerator and getting a few beers together, he notices Jerry followed him to the back door but would not come inside. Charlie takes note that Jerry makes small talk about how nice the kitchen looks, seemingly wanting to come in to check it out, but doesn’t cross the threshold. Even as he hands the 6-pack of beer to him, he sees that Jerry won’t even let his fingers go past the door jamb.

Later, after Charlie realizes that Ed was right and taking pictures of some items in one of the rooms in Jerry’s house, he seeks out help from a local Las Vegas performer, and self-proclaimed vampire slayer, by the name of Peter Vincent. Charlie poses as a reporter for the local newspaper to get an interview with Vincent and asks him to help him kill Jerry. Of course, it doesn’t go well, as security kicks Charlie out. But he leaves his photos and Vincent finally looks at them later, recognizing a picture of an insignia that he had his own drawing of. He calls Charlie back to explain that he knows Jerry’s a vampire—one that killed his own parents—and tells him how to go about slaying the vampire.

First off, Colin Farrell was great as the smooth, good-looking neighbor, effortlessly winning over Charlie’s mom and his girlfriend. He had that likability to make you believe girls would easily fall for him, yet you can see his immorality lurking underneath his charming façade.

Anton Yelchin is just an incredible young actor and has done magnificent roles over the years. He embodied Michael Biehn’s Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation and definitely stood out as Chekov in 2009’s Star Trek. He has a great future in film and I look forward to seeing him grow further as an actor.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse was basically playing the same character as he did in Superbad and Role Models and Kick-Ass…in other words, he was just being himself.

Toni Collette was wasted as Charlie’s mom, not lending any help to the movie except during one scene where she helps her son out of a confrontation with the vampire. She’s conveniently placed in the hospital for the third act of the movie and makes a little cameo at the end.

Now, the stand out of the movie—but at the same time, the one who didn’t get much screen time—was David Tennant as Peter Vincent. Instead of the late night “creature features” host, which was a popular shtick during the 70s and 80s, but may be lost to younger audiences today, the filmmakers went with a more modern approach and made Peter Vincent a Goth magician in Vegas. Tennant was definitely the life of the movie when he was present, but that was the problem…he wasn't present very often.

Overall, the film was enjoyable with some scares and feeling of dread (like when Charlie broke into Jerry’s house), a lot of lighthearted moments, and just an interesting flick to sit through.

My final “bit” on Fright Night? The story was more or less the same one we’d gotten 26 years ago with some modern spins on it and not too much added after that. As a fan of the original, I didn’t feel that there were many surprises and that it played out as it ended the way I thought it would. Aside from that, it was well acted by all, the dialogue and conversations between the characters were believable, never over-the-top. I opted for the 12:45 pm 3D showing in my town which left me by myself in the theater to watch this flick completely alone. Not much was added to make the 3D viewing worthwhile, so I’d advise you all to just go with the less expensive 2D option. I can’t say it enough that 3D is a gimmick and it really has over-stayed its welcome. Like Harold said in the A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas trailer, it has already jumped the shark. But, anyway, Fright Night is worth a look and I think most of today’s younger audience will enjoy this.

Enjoy!

The Blob (1988)

In my opinion, every horror movie needs four things to make it memorable as well as give it a cult status:

One, the story should always be set in the fall, between the months of September and November. That way, it gives it the feel that it’s set on or near Halloween, especially when you see the characters wearing clothing adequate for the fall.
Two, around 75% of the film should contain scenes at night. The dark is always foreboding and spooky, so to have settings filmed during the day is just a way to take the audience out of the movie, as well as the scare out of it. Everyone, at some level, is afraid of the dark.

Three, the setting must be a small town where everybody knows each other. It always helps when the fictional town features local farmers or cowboy types, or any type of character who’d seem to be not from the big city. Throw in a bunch of kids with letterman jackets and you have yourself a great start.

And four, there must be a well-known main character—someone who’s either very well-liked or looked down upon like some dreg of society. The latter character always makes for a better and entertaining part of the story.

With those points made, I’ve got to say that 1988’s The Blob has all those details I’ve noted: it’s mentioned during the film that it’s October; most of the movie was filmed at night; it’s an obvious small town; and everybody knows the main bad boy character.

The Blob was one of the 80s’ more quiet and lesser-known horror movies, which was a remake of 1958’s film of the same name. The original had a clean-cut Steve McQueen (as Steven McQueen in the credits) and was a pretty cool flick of the 50s’ creature features.

Here, in the 1988 version, it opens with the local high school football game, introducing us to the football star, Paul Taylor (Donovan Leitch), and the popular cheerleader, Meg Penny (Shawnee Smith). Paul gets tackled at the refreshment table and Meg runs over to see if he’s okay. Right before he passes out, he asks Meg out on a date that night.

We’re then introduced to bad boy, Brian Flagg (played by Kevin Dillon—Matt’s younger brother), as he has some motorcycle trouble while trying to jump a ruined bridge in the nearby woods. It’s clear from the start, as he ventures into town to borrow some tools to fix his bike, that he’s not very well-liked within the town, especially by the law.

The story follows the same path as the 1958 version as a homeless man who lives in the woods witnesses a meteorite that falls to Earth that night. He goes to investigate, finding the meteorite as some substance moves around inside of it, grabs a stick and pokes at the goop. It sticks to the end of it but the slime suddenly moves and covers the old man’s hand, leaving him screaming in pain.

The way these characters come together is that the man runs into Flagg in the woods, trying to cut his hand off with a hatchet, but Flagg stops him from doing further damage. The man runs off as Flagg gives chase, trying to help him. Cut to Paul and Meg driving on their date, the old man runs into the road, getting hit by the car. Paul helps him into the car to take him to the hospital and demands Flagg to come with. From there, that’s when all hell breaks loose as they inadvertently bring the blob into town.

Like I mentioned, this film, as minutely known as it was back then, has the necessary canon needed for a great horror movie. Seeing that this was filmed during the 80s—and it shows—makes it very nostalgic for me to watch. There’s even a touch of Hitchcock’s Psycho in the story as a character you expect to be a hero throughout the film dies within the first act.

As much as I’m against remakes nowadays, I feel that this one was justified, as the first one was made 30 years prior. But, really, when thought about, the film is just about the same as the 1958 version, just modernized and given a twist toward the end that I found rather interesting. Still, I have a love for the horror movies of the 1980s that I really can’t explain. So watching this movie the other day brought back great memories of going to the local video rental store to rent VHS tapes to bring home.

If you can get over Kevin Dillon’s super-mullet and Shawnee Smith’s densely hair sprayed ‘do, then you’ll love this flick. For a B-movie, the acting is pretty good and believable, minus the kids who sneak out to watch the latest slasher movie and the dude that sits behind them, but everybody else moves the story along well enough.

The special effects were good for its time, seemingly using miniatures and rear projection quite a bit. Quite a few kill scenes were scary and suspenseful, never giving you the feeling that it was goofy or implausible. Two scenes that stood out were the hospital scene and the phone booth scene—those were fantastic and cringing.

The pace of the movie was great with no down time. We get to know the main characters, the blob comes down in the meteor, and the shit hits the fan.

One thing to note, and without giving away the ending, it was plain to see that the filmmakers’ intention was to set up a sequel for this film. The end is purposely left open for a sequel, there’s no doubt about it. I’m guessing the less-than-stellar box office returns and the critical panning at the time quashed that idea. Too bad, though, because there could’ve been some potential stories writers might’ve come up with.

I don’t know if this will ever get a Blu-Ray release, but the DVD I own looks pretty good and it is in widescreen. But it’d be nice if we could get a behind-the-scenes featurette or some interviews, maybe a commentary track.

My final “bit” about The Blob is that you should go look for this DVD in your local rental shop or Netflix and rent it. Better yet, if you’re a fan of 1980s’ horror films, this is a must to own.