Movie Review: Sharknado 2

"Think of it this way. It's a twister with teeth."

-Al Roker

I am a sucker for B-movies. Hence why I write this blog, which seems to be pretty much just B-movie reviews. I love a good gimmicky movie. Sure, I can appreciate a good plot with talented actors and great art direction as much as any pretentious film critic, but man, put out something with that screams gimmick and I'm there front row and centre. That's this past week, after the kids had gone to bed, my lovely wife and I made some popcorn and chip dip, got out the sodas and planned our indoor date night in front of the television set as Sharknado 2 was on the marquee. Last year, Sharknado became a sensation, grabbing monster ratings for the SyFy network and garnering a loyal following on the internet, so it's no surprise that the sequel was announced not long after the movie aired. I have a feeling that the first movie was a hit due to curiosity over the name. I mean, it's sharks in a tornado for goodness sake, who doesn't want to watch that? Well, just when you thought it was safe to go anywhere, the most famous, unrealistic natural disaster returns. This time, the twister with teeth takes a bite out of the Big Apple. If you read my review of the first movie, you know how I feel about  Sharknado, does part 2 measure up? Let's find out...

Movie Review: Witchouse

 

There are certain movies that I thought, for one reason or another, I was never meant to see. For example, I had spent a lot of time looking for a movie called: The Fear 2: Halloween Night. Never heard of it? Not many have, and for years I went looking for this movie at my local Blockbuster and saw that the case was there, but the movie was always out. There were two possibilities: either this movie was so good (or bad) it kept getting rented out, or someone had rented it and never brought it back. I eventually found out that the latter was the case. I think the same could be said for Full Moon Features' 1999 film Witchouse. As a high school kid with nothing much more to do than rent  movies on a Friday night, I loved the cover of this movie, I mean look at it, a giant witch eating a hot blonde! But alas, the cover was always there, taunting me, but not once did I get a chance to view this sure to be classic film. Over the years, I had seen trailers and thought the movie looked wicked cool, but could never seem to get my hands on it. The problem mainly being that I had forgotten what the movie was actually called. I watched, Witchboard, Withcraft, Witchboard 2, Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost; none of them were what I later found out was actually called Witchouse!  However, thanks to the digital age I was able to find Fullmoonstreaming.com for most of my B-movie needs and low and behold Witchouse was recently added, so I took the time to sit in the Mann Cave and finally see what horrors lie in the house of witch.

Movie Review: Arcade

Some movies have good concepts and not so good execution and when you can appreciate what the film makers are TRYING to accomplish, I think you can enjoy a "bad" movie. Full Moon Pictures' Arcade is a perfect example. Before David Goyer would go on to pen the script for Batman Begins, Man of Steel and the Dark Knight, he wrote a screenplay for a little B-movie about a possessed video game that would consume the souls of it's players. Now, in 1993, the technology seemed ridiculous, but fast forward to 2013, where video games are almost more real than realty and a lot kids are living in that realty. Arcade doesn't seem stupid at all, in fact, it is downright scary.

Movie Review: Atlantic Rim

I love a good mockbuster. For those that don't know, a mockbuster is a rip off movie that comes out, usually direct to video, around the same time as a big Hollywood blockbuster. It'll have a similar plot, same artwork on the box and a lot less money behind it. However, the idea (I guess) is to capitalize on people's craving for more of the same, even if it means a lesser quality of film. The Asylum film studio does this better than anyone, they have made several mockbusters over the years, titles like: Transmorphers, King of the Lost World, and I Am Omega have all graced SyFy Channel movie nights and DVD shelves at Wal Mart. They also seem to be good at it, as I have actually been more entertained by some of Asylum's offerings than their Hollywood counterparts. For example, I enjoyed their Cloverfield rip off Monster more than Cloverfield and their take on Hansel and Gretel was really good (the Hollywood version didn't even appeal to me in the slightest). So when I was scanning through my TV guide and saw that Atlantic Rim was playing on the Space Channel I immediately set my PVR to record.

Movie Review: Sharknado

I first heard of Sharknado through a post on Weird Al Yankovic's Twitter and I said to myself "I have to see this movie." After re-tweeting Al's post, a friend of mine commented that this movie combines two things she is scared of: sharks and tornados. But isn't that the new trend in B-movies these days? Combining two things and making something "scary" out of it. It started with battles: the trailer for MegaShark vs. Giant Octopus was a huge hit on YouTube , this led to many more gigantic monster battles, not unlike what we saw in the golden age of Toho's Godzilla vs. Monster XYZ. However, when that well ran dry we started combining animals. Sharktopus (half shark, half octopus, all killer) was a ratings hit for the SyFy network and then came the storm seen 'round the world: SHARKNADO! Sharktopus may have been a freak of nature, but Sharknado is a FORCE of nature.

Movie Review: Thor the Conqueror

Italian filmmakers of the 1970's and '80's loved to rip-off Hollywood blockbusters. Look no further than when Dawn of the Dead came out and we saw a slew of poorly dubbed zombie movies. Some even credited as sequels to their American counterparts. Well, films like Conan the Barbarian and The Beastmaster were not safe from being exploited and this is how we get Thor the Conqueror (also credited as The Beastmaster 2). Move over Chris Hemsworth, Conrad Nichols is in town!

Movie Review: Hatchet

It's not a remake. It's not a sequel. It's not based on a Japanese one. This is what was on the cover of the DVD I picked up at my local Wal Mart when I saw this movie; available for a reasonable price ($5) and I HAD to pick this up. Now, I have heard of Hatchet but had never seen it, so on Halloween night me and the Mrs. decided to check this one out and what fun we had.