Movie Review- The Town That Dreaded Sundown

The Town That Dreaded Sundown has been an elusive movie for many years. It was never released on DVD and only recently received a Blu-Ray release. Has it been worth the wait? Not really.

The film is more of a true crime police procedural story than a horror film. There are elements of a horror film in Town, but on the whole the film falls more in line with America's Most Wanted than anything that could be considered scary. The film even includes narration throughout, intermittently popping in to give us backstories for characters. It's kind of jarring; opening narration is not uncommon in movies, but to have it pop in during the middle feels out of place. Due to the low budget and the true crime approach, the film feels more like a TV movie that managed to get a theatrical release. 

I'm not against the idea of making a police procedural/horror hybrid. It worked well for the Hannibal TV show. Unfortunately, the focus is almost entirely on the police force going through banal routine police activities. Perhaps taking a page from The Last House on the Left's redneck cops, the filmmakers decided to have a comic relief character named Sparkplug. This Barney Fife wannabe lopes around, doing zany things such as dumping out a drawer full of things in search of car keys, or driving a police car into a lake. He is an irritating character that detracts from any dramatic weight the movie may have had. 

When the movie remembers that it also features a masked madman and not just wacky cops, it goes into horror mode. The horror-centric scenes are par for the course if you have ever seen a slasher movie. Teens in cars on lover's lane are subjected to such cliches as "Wait, I think I heard something" and worn-out jump-scares. Granted, this movie predates the slasher subgenre, but the cliches were still overused even then. Speaking of slasher movies, the killer is a man wearing a sack as a mask, which Friday the 13th Part 2 clearly ripped off for Jason's appearance in the film. There's nothing particularly frightening or even intimidating about the villain, so the horror scenes feel dull and seem to drag. Strangely, the killer uses a pistol. For all the variety of weaponry used in horror movies, this is the only film I have seen where the killer brandishes a gun. Even stranger, the one time the killer decides to not use his gun, he creates an impromptu trombone-knife. The scene is truly bizarre. One of his victims is a trombone player returning home from a school dance. The killer finds his victim's trombone, tests it to see if it works, ties his knife to it, and then tests it again before stabbing them. I don't know how the filmmakers expected anyone to be horrified or repulsed by this scene. It's by far the only thing memorable about the film, it's so absurd.

The film's ending is also disappointingly anticlimactic. In the film's only truly exciting moment, the police finally catch up to the killer and have a shootout. The chase leads the police into the outskirts of a swamp. The killer is shot in the leg, but manages to escape when a train comes down the track and impedes the police from following him. And then the movie ends. The film is loosely based on a true story, and the killer really did escape in real life, never to be found. But the movie didn't seem to care about factual accuracy at any other point in the movie, so they could have at least fudged the facts and made a more interesting ending. 

The Town That Dreaded Sundown is an unfortunate dud. The idea of a police procedural/horror combo is promising, but the movie fails to deliver in either department. The policework is boring, and the horror scenes aren't creepy or thrilling. The characters are one-dimensional and boring, and the visuals aren't interesting either. It's a dull affair all the way through, save for that bizarre trombone-knife scene. If you are a die-hard horror fan interested in seeing a proto-slasher of sorts, be forewarned, this is a dull watch. Everyone else, don't even bother.

Movie Review- Kung-Pow: Enter the Fist

Kung-Pow: Enter the Fist is a neat idea for a movie that fails in its execution. It's a re-dubbed and re-edited kung-fu movie. The film's writer/director/star Steve Oedekerk is then digitally inserted into the footage in place of the original actor, sort of like they did in Forrest Gump. In a way the film is ahead of its time, predicting the remix culture of YouTube, as well as the obnoxious and juvenile humor most remix videos employ. And much like YouTube remix videos, Kung-Pow seems to have been created by an immature middle schooler.

For every funny joke in Kung-Pow, there are 25 stupid ones rushing in to crush any enjoyment the viewer may be experiencing. At its best, the film recontextualizes the old footage into jokes. For example, in the original film a character goes into a coughing fit due to his failing health. The filmmakers digitally inserted a bug into the film, which then flies into the man's mouth, making it appear as if that was the trigger of his cough. But clever manipulations of the material are few and far between. Most of the jokes consist of "what if I made this character have a silly sounding voice?"" or "what if I made this character say something really stupid in a silly sounding voice?". When the jokes aren't being immature, they're just obvious potshots. There's a extended sequence in which Oedekerk fights a poorly-animated CG cow in a cheap parody of The Matrix. The film's climax is a stupid joke about the French. The list goes on.

Steve Oedekerk, writer of the Nutty Professor remake, Ace Ventura 2, and Bruce Almighty is no stranger to stupid and juvenile humor. Despite their lowbrow jokes, at least those movies were competently made. Kung-Pow feels like a collection of all the jokes Oedekerk cut from his other movies for being too stupid. The movie barely even clocks in at 75 minutes long, and the last few minutes are actually a fake trailer for the movie's sequel. For a movie that is largely the passion project of one man, he sure did get lazy putting it all together.

I have seen criticisms against Kung-Pow suggesting that the film may have worked better as a short skit as opposed to a feature-length film. I feel that a movie like this could actually work if more thought was put into the jokes, and less time was spent playing fart noises over old footage.  I really like the concept of this film, so it really disappoints me that the execution was so shoddy. There are enough jokes that actually work that have me convinced the idea could be pulled off if given to the right creative team. If the idea of the film interests you, it's worth looking in to because it's the only one of its kind, but don't expect much from it.

Movie Review- Mad Max: Fury Road

I am not a fan of the Mad Max movies, and their enduring cult status is somewhat baffling to me. I had no interest watching Mad Max: Fury Road, but critical and fan reception of the film was so overwhelmingly positive, I felt compelled to see it for fear of missing out. Before watching the series' fourth installment, I decided to revisit the original trilogy to see if perhaps I would find some value in the series that I had previously missed. In doing so I was only reminded of why I disliked the films to begin with.

The first two films are too ambitious for their tiny budgets, and as such fail to deliver on the promise of grand car chases through post-apocalyptic desert landscapes. The third film, Beyond Thunderdome benefits greatly from a higher budget, finally portraying an engaging and visually-pleasing desert locale in the market settlement of Bartertown. Unfortunately the plot derails after the first act and returns to the series' biggest problem: boring stories and uninteresting characters. Thoroughly discouraged at this point, I trudged ahead into Fury Road. Shock of all shocks, I still don't like this series.

I am mystified as to this series' appeal. There aren't many good post-apocalyptic films out there, so perhaps fans of that genre are content to settle with what the Mad Max movies have to offer. Perhaps the series is appealing in the same way that some people find monster truck rallies appealing. I am generally not a fan of watching cars go fast and smash things, unless I have reason to be involved in what's going on. The Mad Max movies fail to engage me on a level that I can stay interested in repetitive vehicular carnage.

As previously mentioned, the first two Mad Max are very low-budget and thus the extent of the vehicle stunts are little more than watching a NASCAR accident. Beyond Thunderdome was a slight improvement with a train chase scene that at least looked expensive, even if it left me feeling empty. Fury Road has been pumped up with a bloated Hollywood blockbuster budget, which is finally enough money to give this series the scope and scale director George Miller has been trying to accomplish. Unfortunately that doesn't fix the boring characters, threadbare plot, and uninteresting action scenes.

Mad Max himself barely participates in the movie; his role feels tacked on as an afterthought, and Tom Hardy seemed to be half-asleep during his scenes (I don't doubt that he was added in to secure a larger budget because of the franchise appeal). The film is more about Imperator Furiosa, played with varying degrees of disinterest by Charlize Theron.We're supposed to care about her character because she nobly decides to rescue a group of sex slaves, but she doesn't exhibit any likable traits or do anything else of interest. Despite being more of a main character than Max, Furiosa does almost nothing other than drive throughout the film. At least Max has the decency to actually participate in the 3rd act fight scene.

The film's villains are basically recycled from the previous three films. An army of zany-looking guys in souped-up cars that huff spray paint. Yawn. There's an attempt at depth with the villains at least. Apparently they're all cancer-ridden child soldiers, but the movie doesn't spend enough time developing this idea to make it truly interesting. The big baddie, the stupidly-named Immortan Joe, has a cool looking breathing apparatus, at least.

The Mad Max series has always been light on plot, and Fury Road is no exception. The film is more or less an extended chase scene punctuated with the occasional shootout or fistfight. That's not inherently a problem. Plenty of action movies, such as The Raid: Redemption or most Shaw Brothers productions have been able to get by on little more than clunky exposition to link the fight scenes together. The problem is that Fury Road''s action scenes lack the finesse or intensity of a kung-fu movie, or even the over-the-top machismo of Schwarzenegger-type action movies.

American action films are in a sad state. They are choppy, shaky messes full of boring choreography. I feel that too many critics give Fury Road too much slack because we are in an era of action movies that can't be bothered to actually create action. Fury Road at least attempts to make competent action scenes, but still falls into the same trappings of modern action movies. The editing at times in the movie is an atrocious eyesore. During the movie's chase scenes, the frame rate will suddenly drop to a jittery mess. Apparently this is Miller's homage to silent films. Put your homages somewhere more appropriate, please. In an action movie it's distracting and disorienting. There's still a lot of shaky-cam used in the action scenes, which when compounded with the frame rate drops, leaves me reaching for a bottle of Tylenol.

I'll give the film credit; despite the uninteresting plot and characters, at least the designs are interesting this time around. All that money has been put to good use. The cars are all neat to look at, and the army of Quan Chi lookalikes are pretty unique as far as movie villains go. The desert locales are gorgeously shot, too. There are lot of swooping, spectacular wide shots that help to convey the epic grandeur that George Miller has spent three films trying to capture. Fury Road is boring, but at least it's nice to look at.

Perhaps I'm biased. I don't like the Mad Max series, so maybe I'm not the best person to judge the merits of the series' fourth installment. But as a fan of action movies, and just movies in general, I can tell you this movie is not that great. Even compared to its colleagues, Fury Road is only slightly more competent than The Fast and the Furious. I just don't get the hype.

Movie Review- Punisher: War Zone

Punisher: War Zone is one of the few comic book movies to ever do justice to the source material. The movie is campy and overly violent, but in doing so is largely faithful to the spirit of the comics. I have not seen the previous two standalone Punisher films, so I can't speak to their quality, but with the bar set by War Zone, I can't imagine they are very good in comparison.

I feel like superhero movies these days all look the same. Punisher has the benefit of a unique visual style. It looks as gritty as a digital film can possibly look, and the lighting is colorful and stylized. Often the lighting opts for a single color to fill the scene, a look I do not enjoy, but I still appreciate the unique visuals put forth.

In addition to a stylized production design, the movie is filled with extremely stylized action scenes and violence. The biggest criticism I have seen lobbed against War Zone is the excessive violence. I can't deny that the film is extremely violent, nauseatingly so at times. But the action scenes are a cut above the typical superhero fight scene. The opening scene in which the Punisher hangs upside down from a chandelier and unleashes an assault on a mafia dinner party is a particular treat.

The movie is very to-the-point with what it offers. If you are interested in seeing a relatively faithful adaptation of the Punisher comics or enjoy violent action movies, this is worth checking out.

Movie Review: Goosebumps

I'm surprised that they waited so long to make a Goosebumps movie, and equally surprised they made one at all. The franchise is 23 years old, and as far as I'm aware isn't exactly relevant to today's kids before the movie came out. There was already a TV show in the 1990's, which is the better format for the series anyways. Perhaps the movie's purpose was to reinvigorate sales for a new generation or something. They sure didn't make it because anyone actually wanted a Goosebumps movie.

The biggest problem the movie faces before it even begins is how to approach the movie format. Not counting the numerous spinoffs, the original Goosebumps series is 62 books long. Most of them are standalone novels, which further complicates the task of trying to condense the series into one movie. When I heard they were making a Goosebumps movie I figured it would be an anthology movie, in the vein of Twilight Zone: The Movie and Creepshow. Instead, the movie goes with a weird meta plot, in which R.L. Stine is a character in the movie and has to fight off his literary creations with the help of a group of boring teenagers. I respect the creative team's choice to go in an unusual direction with the adaptation, but it ultimately fails in execution. At least the anthology approach would have left the window open for sequels.

Goosebumps appears to be taking from the Smurfs school of nostalgic adaptations. There's nothing there for the adults who grew up the original product, and instead spends its time trying to make itself appealing to an otherwise uninterested modern audience. I would have almost preferred it if the movie tried to pander to millennials with 90's nostalgia. That being said, I realized quickly what I was in for and tried to keep a kid's mindset. If you have kids or siblings or other 8-12 range children that want to see the movie, they'll probably enjoy themselves. It's fine as a mindless diversion for kids, just don't expect to get anything out of it yourself.

Jack Black plays R.L. Stine in the movie, seemingly cast just to secure the film's financing or to coerce parents into seeing the film because of name recognition. Probably both. He doesn't bring anything to the table that he hasn't already done in other films. The teen characters are all decently acted, each getting the occasional moment to be charming in spite of the tepid script. But the kids aren't coming to see this for Jack Black or the teenybopper wish fulfillment inserts, they're coming to see it for all the monsters.

Part of the problem inherent with the approach Goosebumps takes is the lack of actual monsters in the source material. There aren't many Goosebumps books with villains that translate well to screen, a majority of the books feature a ghost or haunted object as the source of scares. But the Goosebumps movie wants to have a highlight reel of CG monsters to chase Jack Black, so they picked a bunch of obscure monsters from the books instead. They also added a bunch of characters not from the series, such as a flying poodle with fangs and the obligatory cliche scary clown. I was surprised that they left out the Horrors from One Day at Horrorland, as I recall them being one of the more iconic villains from the series when I read the books. (I mean come on, the finale takes place in an abandoned theme park, and you leave out the only theme park related villains in the series?)

Slappy the ventriloquist dummy, who is an unofficial mascot for the series, serves as the central antagonist for the movie, but nothing he does makes any sense or has any clear motivation. There are a few undercooked moments where it seems like Slappy has unresolved father/puppet-son relationship issues with Jack Black, but it gets dropped almost immediately for more CG junk flying at the screen. I wasn't exactly expecting any logical sense from the Goosebumps movie, but they tried to give the movie sense and then fell flat on its face. His half-assed daddy issues raise several questions into the logic of the fictional-characters-come-to-life concept, when a simple "He's an evil puppet" would have sufficed.

The Goosebumps books were never exactly good, even by kid-lit standards. I read a majority of them growing up, and while I enjoyed them at the time, even then I knew they were hokey. In that aspect, I guess Goosebumps does actually succeed. It's escapist fluff kids, just like the books. It's the kind of thing, just like the books, that's fun for kids while they're kids and then really dumb and silly when looking back as an adult. The movie doesn't have high ambitions at any point, only trying to be entertaining for children. It doesn't try hard, but at least it's competently (if not mechanically) made. It's strictly kid's stuff. There are better horror-themed kid's movies out there, but as far as kid's movies go in general, this one is passable.